It's getting cold in Michigan, we're likely to have our first frost soon... and it's been an incredibly abundant harvest season. As I've been woefully inadequate as a blogger much of this year, I'll attempt to catch up with a couple harvest-related topics tonight. Our main farmers market is on Saturday mornings--and it's HUGE (yes, we're spoiled with probably 80 or more vendors, plus at least 2 other weekly markets that we can and often do attend). But this season has been especially warm, and a decent amount of rain--which means GREAT tomatoes, and lots of 'em. I've been eating Heirlooms sliced with mozzarella cheese, cherry tomatoes in my salads, fried green tomatoes (the one way my wife likes them), and ht elist goes on... but as the Roma's have been coming in, it can only be sauce-making time. We've been buying them by the half bushel or more (that's a LOT of tomatoes) and I've been cooking them down into a wonderful sauce--seasoned with basil, garlic, onions, carrots, and cooked for hours low and slow, then run through a food mill. Then we divvy it up, and freeze it for the winter. Now, it's not hard, but it is fairly time-consuming, and as anyone who has made this stuff knows--it's messy, as it spatters a lot. But I did the math--it comes out to about $0.55/cup--about 1/2 the cost of grocery store bottled stuff. And it tastes SO much better, and I know exactly what went in it, and I've supported a local farmer (or two or three) in the process.
That success led me to try an experiment--homemade ketchup. Similar process, except add vinegar, brown sugar, and tons of spices--cinnamon, cloves, ginger and the like... I hadn't had homemade ketchup since we made it when I was a little kid with our extra garden tomatoes. What a fun and tasty experience. I can't say it's cheaper than Heinz, and although it tastes pretty different from Heinz, I don't even know if it's better, per se--after all, what IS ketchup SUPPOSED to taste like? But fun, and a nice thing to share with friends at a party or two.
Next up... soup--from zucchini to minestrone, from goose to vichysoisse.
Showing posts with label farmers market. Show all posts
Showing posts with label farmers market. Show all posts
Monday, September 27, 2010
Thursday, May 28, 2009
Spaghetti
Tonight was a late night, so I cooked simply--spaghetti with red sauce. But it wasn't ragu in a bottle. I browned up some hot Italian sausage, deglazed with some red wine, and added in some of my frozen home-made tomato sauce. At the end of last fall's tomato season, we bought probably 50-100 lbs of "seconds" tomatoes, and cooked them down into a sauce. We froze it up in our deep freeze, and have been enjoying it throughout the winter. The up-shot is two-fold. First, the taste is so much better than the jarred stuff. I get to decide what is in it, what it tastes like, how salty it is, and so on. That's huge. Second, it's actually cheaper to do that, by quite a bit, than to buy even moderate quality bottled sauce.
I chose to make it a very basic sauce that I could then add flavors to as I saw fit per individual container. That means I can use the same sauce for a garlic sauce, another with basil, a third with cheese, and so on. That's another big bonus. I'm not restricted to whatever the producer throws in the sauce. Finally, I'm just plain thrilled to be supporting local producers, even if I'm buying tomatoes at a dirt cheap price. They're unloading product that is not necessarily beautiful, but tasty and useful.
I chose to make it a very basic sauce that I could then add flavors to as I saw fit per individual container. That means I can use the same sauce for a garlic sauce, another with basil, a third with cheese, and so on. That's another big bonus. I'm not restricted to whatever the producer throws in the sauce. Finally, I'm just plain thrilled to be supporting local producers, even if I'm buying tomatoes at a dirt cheap price. They're unloading product that is not necessarily beautiful, but tasty and useful.
Tuesday, May 26, 2009
Rack of Lamb, Cairanne
To celebrate Memorial Day, the completion of hauling out our plants for the summer (no small feat), and the publication of one of my papers in Science, we decided to celebrate with a rather nice meal on Monday night. I roasted up a (half) rack of lamb, paired with orzo and sauted spinach. Now, I love lamb almost any way you can get it. But a rack of rib chops is something for a real special occasion. First, I trimmed it down--cutting off some of the extra fat, and "frenching" the chops--that is, cutting off the fat between the boney part of the chop. I rubbed the cut down with a mix of rosemary, garlic, salt, pepper and olive oil, and roasted it for a short time in a very hot oven, just to a nice medium rare. The flavor was great, and the fat crisped nicely. The meat came from Hanewaald lamb, our farmers market lamb specialist--and it was just spectacular. It was from a young (or small) critter, so was both tender and mild flavored. My cooking did justice to the cut, if I may ignore false modesty. And the goat yogurt sauce with garlic (from the farmers market again) was a great, earthy, acidic pairing. The orzo was nice, and the spinach, sauteed in olive oil with a bit of garlic for about 30 seconds was nice and still a bit "al dente".
But the meal was really brought to fruition by the wine--a Domaine de Boisson Cairanne cotes-du-rhone Villages. I may have mentioned this wine--tasted as part of our Wednesday group--a few weeks back. It's a real southern Rhone beauty. We loved it so much (OK-I loved it) at the tasting that we split a case with a friend-getting it at a per bottle under $15. Now, I am a big fan of the "biggies" of the southern Rhone--notably, Chateauneuf du Papes. These are immense, earthy wines with a great blend of elegance and rusticity. To be truly appreciated, they need years, even decades, of bottle aging. Many also require a small fortune to purchase--top estates sell bottles well into 3 figures. This Cairanne has a lot of those same notes--not surprising, since the region is only a few miles from CdP. It's got a ton of minerality--hot rocks, slate--and a good fruit up front. But it also has the tarry, herbal, tobacco, garrigue-y notes that give southern Rhones so much complexity. By itself, this is a wonderful wine, though, as Julie reminds me, it is definitely better with food--as is virtually any well-made wine.
But, for me, the real beauty was the combination of food, wine, and of course, the reason for celebration. The fruit brought out the sweetness of the lamb, the tannins cut the fat, and the herb rub combined exquisitely with the herbal, garrigue notes in the wine. In short, this was a match made in heaven, or at least in the southern Rhone. The entirety of the meal was so much more than the sum of its parts, thanks to that wonderful synergy. It is not that hard to come up with decent, even good, wine and food pairings. Every so often, you bring together that magical combination of food and wine that is just transcendental. And, when you do, you'll never forget the experience.
But the meal was really brought to fruition by the wine--a Domaine de Boisson Cairanne cotes-du-rhone Villages. I may have mentioned this wine--tasted as part of our Wednesday group--a few weeks back. It's a real southern Rhone beauty. We loved it so much (OK-I loved it) at the tasting that we split a case with a friend-getting it at a per bottle under $15. Now, I am a big fan of the "biggies" of the southern Rhone--notably, Chateauneuf du Papes. These are immense, earthy wines with a great blend of elegance and rusticity. To be truly appreciated, they need years, even decades, of bottle aging. Many also require a small fortune to purchase--top estates sell bottles well into 3 figures. This Cairanne has a lot of those same notes--not surprising, since the region is only a few miles from CdP. It's got a ton of minerality--hot rocks, slate--and a good fruit up front. But it also has the tarry, herbal, tobacco, garrigue-y notes that give southern Rhones so much complexity. By itself, this is a wonderful wine, though, as Julie reminds me, it is definitely better with food--as is virtually any well-made wine.
But, for me, the real beauty was the combination of food, wine, and of course, the reason for celebration. The fruit brought out the sweetness of the lamb, the tannins cut the fat, and the herb rub combined exquisitely with the herbal, garrigue notes in the wine. In short, this was a match made in heaven, or at least in the southern Rhone. The entirety of the meal was so much more than the sum of its parts, thanks to that wonderful synergy. It is not that hard to come up with decent, even good, wine and food pairings. Every so often, you bring together that magical combination of food and wine that is just transcendental. And, when you do, you'll never forget the experience.
Catching up again; Asparagus is here
It's been too long since I've blogged. Way, way too long. Last few weeks have been very busy in the garden as well as at work. So, first of all, there hasn't been as much time to write, or for that matter, to cook a lot. So, we've eaten a lot of takeout. But I've also cooked a fair bit, and have neglected to tell you a bit about it.
The last few weeks, asparagus has been in season at the farmer's market. I think we've eaten asparagus in every imagineable form, many times. Cream of asparagus soup (twice), asparagus risotto, steamed, boiled asparagus, grilled asparagus, roasted asparagus. As a side, as an appetizer, as a main in bigger dishes. And, I'm still hungry for more. Now, if all you've ever eaten is supermarket bundled asparagus imported from California or South America or some other distant place, or, worse, from a can or freezer bag, you probably don't get what I'm saying. In season, locally grown, fresh picked asparagus is simply the most flavorful, tender-textured, beautiful thing you can imagine. Not much in the way of tough, fibrous woody pieces. No dried out, wilted looking spears. Of course, they're also not all the exact same size or shape.
So far, the only approach that I wasn't hugely enamored with was grilled--with steaks and potatoes on the grill. And that was my fault--I slightly overcooked it, and the flare up from the steaks created a bit more burn than desired. Ah, well, those that were good were very concentrated, so I'll try that again if I can.
Now, wine and asparagus are a notorious challenge, so you might think I'd be in trouble. But no, not so much. Sauvignon blanc is arguably the grape that pairs most beautifully with asparagus. I'm personally partial to sancerre, which produces these wonderfully minerally, gooseberry, chive and sometimes bell-pepper flavored wines (from the sauvignon blanc grape). This appellation within the Loire Valley of France is just amazing. Another decent pairing was chablis--a region of Burgundy that produces steely, minerally unoaked chardonnay. For me, that was a bit less lovely, still nice, but not great, with asparagus.
More soon on some food and wine encounters.
The last few weeks, asparagus has been in season at the farmer's market. I think we've eaten asparagus in every imagineable form, many times. Cream of asparagus soup (twice), asparagus risotto, steamed, boiled asparagus, grilled asparagus, roasted asparagus. As a side, as an appetizer, as a main in bigger dishes. And, I'm still hungry for more. Now, if all you've ever eaten is supermarket bundled asparagus imported from California or South America or some other distant place, or, worse, from a can or freezer bag, you probably don't get what I'm saying. In season, locally grown, fresh picked asparagus is simply the most flavorful, tender-textured, beautiful thing you can imagine. Not much in the way of tough, fibrous woody pieces. No dried out, wilted looking spears. Of course, they're also not all the exact same size or shape.
So far, the only approach that I wasn't hugely enamored with was grilled--with steaks and potatoes on the grill. And that was my fault--I slightly overcooked it, and the flare up from the steaks created a bit more burn than desired. Ah, well, those that were good were very concentrated, so I'll try that again if I can.
Now, wine and asparagus are a notorious challenge, so you might think I'd be in trouble. But no, not so much. Sauvignon blanc is arguably the grape that pairs most beautifully with asparagus. I'm personally partial to sancerre, which produces these wonderfully minerally, gooseberry, chive and sometimes bell-pepper flavored wines (from the sauvignon blanc grape). This appellation within the Loire Valley of France is just amazing. Another decent pairing was chablis--a region of Burgundy that produces steely, minerally unoaked chardonnay. For me, that was a bit less lovely, still nice, but not great, with asparagus.
More soon on some food and wine encounters.
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