Farm Fridays: Scallion, Chard and Corn Pizza

Man, has it been HOT around here! I normally enjoy hot summer weather, but a heat index of 102 is outside my comfort zone. When I went to the farm, I was relieved that there wasn't much available in the pick-your-own fields. I was dripping with sweat just from picking a few dozen flowers. I feel for all the farm workers who had to be out in this weather all week. Farm work is hard on a good day - this week must have been brutal for them!

I first made this recipe a few weeks ago when Jeff was out of town, so I had it all to myself. I appreciated getting to eat it all (not in one sitting, of course), but I was also sad that I didn't get to share the wonderfulness that is awesome food. So I was happy to be able to make this again when Jeff was actually at home, so we could enjoy it together.

I also kicked things up a notch (not that any Smitten Kitchen recipe really needs alteration - but I felt like making it more of my own). I changed up the crust to a whole wheat dough with some dried basil and made it more of a pizza than a flatbread. I switched up the leeks for the scallions I picked up at the farm and added a final sprinkle of paprika over the top of the pie. The result was a really lovely summer vegetable pizza. I didn't even miss the sauce!

Be aware that this recipe makes enough dough for two pizzas - one for now and one for later!

Scallion, Chard and Corn Pizza
dough:
1 c bread flour
1 c whole wheat flour
1 1/2 tbsp dried basil
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp sugar
1/4 oz instant yeast (sometimes labeled "bread machine" yeast)
3/4 c warm water (ideally 115-125° F)
1 tbsp olive oil

topping:
1 tbsp olive oil
3 large scallions (about 1 1/2 c), sliced
6 oz chard, sliced into 1/2" ribbons
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp black pepper
1 ear corn, kernels sliced from cob
1/4-1/2 tsp paprika
2-3 oz goat cheese

Add the flours, basil, salt, sugar and yeast to a large bowl and whisk well to combine. Add the olive oil to the water and pour into the bowl, mixing until all dry ingredients are moistened. Knead dough for 5-8 minutes, until it forms a smooth, flexible ball (you can use a stand mixer here, but I always find the dough stays too sticky and I end up hand kneading it for a while anyway).

Cover dough and put in a warm place to rise until doubled, about 45 minutes. Meanwhile, get your pizza stone in the oven and preheat to 500° F (yes, now - when the stone preheats in the oven for a long time it gets hot enough to deliver a quick-cooked pizza with a nice crispy crust).

Shortly before the dough is fully risen, chop your vegetables. Preheat a large skillet over medium heat. Add the oil. Add the scallions to the heated oil and saute 5-6 minutes, until softened.

Add the chard and cook 2-3 minutes, until wilted, then add the corn for about a minute. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

Remove your dough from its bowl, punch down slightly and divide in half. Reserve one half of the dough for a future use (I put it in a ziplock bag and toss it in the freezer - the next pizza's a lot less work!).

Take the other half of the dough and roll and stretch it into a circle as large as your pizza stone (mine was slightly larger so the edges hung off a bit - if this happens to you, you can roll the edges slightly to create a more emphatically raised crust). 

Transfer the crust to the pizza stone (if it's nice and hot, you don't need cornmeal or oil underneath - it will cook very quickly and just slide off when it's done). Spread the topping evenly over the surface of the pizza, leaving an inch or so around the edges. Sprinkle the pizza with paprika, then crumble the goat cheese over the top.

Bake 8-9 minutes, until crust is crispy and cheese turns slightly golden. Slice and enjoy!

Roasted Corn and Cream Cheese Baked Potstickers

When Hurricane Irene first got on my personal radar, I knew it meant no grilling outside this weekend. (Seriously, that was my first thought - only later did I realize that this storm was going to be more than just a rainy day or two.) Instead, I pulled out some of the awesome indoor recipes I've been meaning to try.

There are quite a few delicious summer recipes in my stockpile that require me to be inside at the stove. But since I generally think it's a waste not to take advantage of the grill on beautiful summer evenings, most of these recipes just gather dust. In fact, most of the time I've spent at the stove this summer has been making sauce with my bounteous harvest of tomatoes (some from the backyard, the rest from the CSA). But with lingering rain and high winds all through Sunday afternoon, it was the perfect time to delve into my neglected recipe files!

These potstickers were awesome. Roasting the corn brings out a delicious, super-concentrated flavor that melded well with the tangy Parmesan. Fresh rosemary adds an aromatic element and the smooth cream cheese binds it all together. What a delicious combo! And to make it better, since we had just finished making a pork tenderloin on the stove, we brushed the potstickers with rendered pork fat rather than olive oil, to add an extra level of flavor (and to recycle!). I have to warn you, though, that despite being baked, these are not a low-calorie treat. I put this recipe into the calorie-counting website I use and the four potstickers that I ate (a quarter of the recipe) came out over 500 calories. Yikes! But a month of record rainfall plus a destructive hurricane should count as a special occasion, right?


Roasted Corn and Cream Cheese Baked Potstickers
Slightly adapted from Naturally Ella. 

12-16 wonton wrappers (we got 16 out of them)

1/2 tbsp olive oil

2 ears corn, sliced off the cob

1/2 c green onions, diced

2 oz cream cheese (1/4 package)

1/2 tbsp rosemary, chopped (to release the oils)

1/2 c Parmesan

salt and pepper

water for sealing

olive oil for brushing (or whatever fat or drippings you might have on hand!)

Preheat oven to 400° F. Toss the olive oil, corn and green onions together in a bowl. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Arrange the corn mixture in a single layer on it, then roast for 15-20 minutes (corn kernels are small - be careful not to let them burn!). Let cool slightly. Turn the oven down to 350° F.

In a food processor, combine the cream cheese, rosemary, Parmesan, salt and pepper. Pulse until combined. Once the corn mixture has cooled a bit, add that and pulse a few times to mix. (I made the mistake of tossing everything in at once, so my corn is a bit more chopped up than it ought to be.)

Get your wonton wrappers and sealing-water ready. Spoon about 1 tbsp filling into a wrapper. With the tip of your finger, wet the edges of the wrapper, then fold to seal. My method was to bring two sides together to a peak, then fold the remaining two sides in to fill the gaps. (I had never worked with wonton wrappers before, and I didn't know how to seal them properly. And still don't, really. After a few missteps, I came up with this method which worked pretty well. A few had filling oozing out in the oven, but it wasn't a big deal. If I was planning to deep fry them, though, I think I'd have to seal them more effectively.) Repeat with the rest of the wrappers until the filling is gone.

Line up the potstickers on a parchment-lined baking sheet. Brush with olive oil (or pork drippings! You don't have to have as heavy a hand as Jeff did here, but they were delicious!).

Bake for 15-20 minutes, until golden brown (15 was enough to get mine looking like the picture below). Enjoy!

Grilled Vegetable Salad

I'm back! I survived three weeks in London without cooking facilities (the prepared foods section of the local supermarket was my salvation) and am now back and raring to go in my own kitchen. The problem is that I'm still all discombobulated from being out of town and dealing with some family issues, so lately our meals have been patched together from whatever is on hand. Fortunately, it being mid-August, there's plenty on hand!

This recipe is a good way to tap into that bounty. I think grilled vegetables are hard to beat any day, but top them with this dressing and they become something else. And I love the flexibility of this recipe - just use whatever vegetables you have on hand. The dressing will meld them all together into a coherent dish.

I know, the picture doesn't look very impressive. I was starving and in a hurry (also, we didn't watch the grill closely enough so several items were overcooked). But trust me, this is worth a try. Maybe yours will come out looking prettier - either way, it tastes fantastic!

Grilled Vegetable Salad
 My recipe card says I got this from Proud Italian Cook, but I can't find the original recipe on her site. Either way, I've changed it up a bit.

sweet potato, cut into 1/2" thick rounds (this time we used one very large, fat one - the middle one in the above picture)

corn on the cob, husked (we used two ears)

peppers, sliced into 1/2" rings(I used two bell peppers and half a cubanelle)

green onions, trimmed to a reasonable length for your grill

zucchini, sliced into 1/4" thick slabs

(*you could also use plenty of other veggies: I've done asparagus and green beans, and I'm tempted to throw some red onion rings in next time)

1 1/2 tbsp olive oil

1 tbsp red wine vinegar

1 1/2 tsp Dijon mustard

1 clove garlic

1 large stalk fresh oregano (I used Greek oregano)

14 tsp dried parsley (fresh is good, too, but I didn't feel like another trek out into the garden)

juice from half a lemon

salt and pepper

Fire up your grill! 

Toss your veggies with a little olive oil, salt and pepper (be gentle or your peppers will break like mine did - and you will probably need to rub the corn with oil separately, unless you have an enormous bowl). Spread the veggies on the grill and cook, turning once (they will each need different amounts of time, depending on their size and shape - just keep a better eye on them than we did!).

Meanwhile, prepare the dressing. Toss the garlic and herbs into a small food processor and mince. Add the rest of the ingredients and blend. (I prepared this by taste, so these measurements are approximate - I think the vinegar and mustard should be the strongest flavors, but do what tastes best to you).

Remove your vegetables from the grill. Cut the corn kernels off of the cob. Toss the vegetables together with the dressing in a large bowl and serve. (The recipe also suggests garnishing with fresh chives, but I forgot in my hurry to start eating!)

Snap Pea Stir Fry over Parsley Orzo

My CSA finally started last week! The harvest on the East Coast seems to have gotten off to a slow start, but I don't mind because I was away when my vegetables should have started to roll in. Now that I'm home, I don't get to miss out on any bit of it!

I have been in love with the farmer's market for several years now. It's wonderful to go and pick out produce that you know is fresh, in season and local. I like knowing where my food comes from. But the CSA is an even more fulfilling experience: not only do I get vegetables that were picked that very morning (usually), but I get to pick some myself as well. Besides knowing that my produce is as fresh and delicious as it can get, I have seen several other benefits to this arrangement. First of all, I have an increasing respect for farm workers of all sorts. Now, I understand how difficult farming can be - one of my favorite books is Little House on the Prairie - but that intellectual understanding is totally different than the one I have gained by spending an hour in 90 degree heat bent over strawberry plants and snap pea vines. Second, I feel like I have made an investment in something worthwhile. I find it very soul-less to invest in stocks and commodities, making a profit off of companies that I will never see, that will never care about me in the least. This investment comes with a return that I have anticipated for months, and will look forward to week after week until the season ends. And besides that, I feel a sense of pride in walking onto the farm, knowing that I am a part of this effort to coax sustenance from the bare soil.

After spending yet another hour under the blazing sun this afternoon, plucking three pounds of snow and snap peas from their vines, I knew I had to do them justice by using them as soon as possible. These delicate beauties are best right away - storage in the refrigerator converts some of their sugar to starch, taking away from the flavor. I found an appropriate recipe in one of my produce cookbooks that used not only the snap peas, but the first slender zucchini of the season, fresh spring onions, and a handful of parsley from my garden. I wouldn't say this is the best vegetable dish I've ever had - it didn't blow me away - but it does justice to the vegetables by celebrating their individual flavors, which makes it an excellent early summer dish, in my opinion. Now if only the temperature would drop a bit so I could enjoy this outside . .

Snap Pea Stir Fry over Parsley Orzo
From the Rolling Prairie Cookbook. I'm already finding this book indispensable - it was originally done for a CSA, so the recipes are organized by the name of the fruit or vegetable, with two to four recipes each, so when you come home one day up to your ears in bok choy, you can more easily figure out what to do with it.

1 tbsp sesame oil
3 cloves garlic, minced

6 green onions, sliced into 1" pieces (I used some leftover spring onions I had lying around, both whites and stalks)

1/2 tsp red pepper flakes

1 bell pepper, sliced into slivers (red or yellow would be best, for added sweetness)

2 small summer squash (I think the recipe wanted something yellow, for contrast, but I had green zucchini on hand), cut into slices 1/4" thick (I went even thinner, using the food processor, because I'm not a big fan of zucchini and the thinner rounds muted its flavor a bit)

4 c snap peas, ends trimmed

1 tbsp soy sauce

black pepper, to taste

1 c orzo

1 tsp butter

1/4 c parsley, finely chopped

1/4 tsp salt

For the Parsley Orzo:

Bring a medium pot of water to a boil. Cook orzo until just tender, according to package directions (if it has them - mine were not very explicit). Drain well. While still hot, toss with butter. Add parsley and salt and toss until well distributed.

For the Snap Pea Stir Fry:

Heat oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add the garlic, green onions and red pepper flakes and stir fry for 1 minute.

Add bell pepper, squash and snap peas and stir fry for 3-4 more minutes, until vegetables are hot and crisp-tender. Season with soy sauce and black pepper. Serve immediately on a bed of the orzo.