Farm Fridays: Black Bean and Corn Salsa

Last week I was very sad to see the bottom of the last jar of salsa that we put up last fall. I absolutely adore our homemade salsa and I've been savoring it all winter long. I was saving that last jar for a rainy day, almost afraid to use it, knowing that tomato season was so far off.

(In case you haven't caught on yet, I'm a bit dramatic about food. Obviously, salsa can be purchased at the grocery store in all seasons - but that's not the salsa I crave. I have a small fear of running out of the food I like best. This same fear carries over to traveling - I rarely leave the house without some snacks, in case . . . all the stores and restaurants are closed? I don't know. Suffice to say, breaking the seal on the last remaining salsa jar was a stressful moment for me. Delicious, but stressful.)

Anyway, even though tomato season is just barely kicking off around here, I realized this week that fresh salsa season has totally begun. I got a huge bunch of cilantro from the farm last week and it got me thinking about salsa making. The black beans in my pantry started calling to me. I had never made my own black bean salsa before, but I've had it a few times and really enjoyed it, so I cracked open an old cookbook and found a recipe. This particular recipe didn't require me to go out and buy anything - I had a giant heirloom tomato (the first of this year's harvest!) and some corn from the farm this week, half a red onion in my crisper drawer, and a jalapeno and some bell pepper strips in the freezer from last fall. (The bell pepper strips are really past their flavor prime, but I hate wasting anything, so I decided to use them - this salsa will only be that much better when fresh peppers are in season!)

Salsa is always simple to make - just toss some stuff in a bowl, stir, and set aside while the flavors get to know one another. This particular salsa took a bit more of my time than usual because it makes a TON - the recipe says seven cups, but I think I used more beans than it called for. I was actually a little concerned as I made it, wondering how we were going to use so much salsa. After I tried some, though, all those thoughts went away. I've actually been eating this salsa all afternoon. I've been hard pressed to keep myself away from it. It's totally delicious, pretty as a picture, and makes an excellent healthy snack. Someone just needs to invite me to a barbecue so I have an excuse to make another giant batch!

Black Bean and Corn Salsa
Adapted from Southern Living: Secrets of the South's Best Barbecue cookbook. 

3 ears corn
1/3 c lime juice (fresh is preferable, but I used bottled juice for this one because all the limes in my refrigerator were already spoken for)
1/4 c olive oil
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp ground cumin
1/4 tsp red pepper flakes
1/3 c cilantro, chopped
~3 c black beans (I cooked 1 c dried beans and used them all)
1/4 red onion, chopped
1 giant tomato, chopped (about 1-1 1/2 c)
1 c bell pepper, chopped (I used frozen strips of red and green peppers)
1 jalapeño, seeded and finely chopped

Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Salt well, add the corn and cook 3 minutes. Remove to an ice bath to stop the cooking process.

In a large bowl, whisk together the lime juice, oil, salt, cumin and red pepper flakes. Stir in chopped cilantro.

Slice the corn kernels off of their cobs and add to the bowl along with the beans, onion, tomato, peppers, and jalapeño. Stir well to combine, tossing with dressing.

Refrigerate for 4-8 hours to allow the flavors to meld. Enjoy!

Toasted Garlic, Tomato and Arugula Orecchiette

Tomato season is just about ready to get started around here. Are you ready?

By the end of the summer, we always have piles of tomatoes from the farm sitting around, so I start putting ad hoc tomato sauces on everything. But this dish isn't your run-of-the-mill pasta-and-sauce combo. It's just as easy (if not easier!) than the cherry tomato sauces I usually make, but the flavors are more focused. Toasting the garlic in the oil at the beginning lends a deep garlic flavor to the whole dish. A huge pile of ripe cherry tomatoes makes for a delightfully sweet sauce. Stirring in plenty of arugula at the end adds a peppery zing that makes this dish stand out.

Arugula season may be on the way out (most of mine has bolted by now), but I think this dish would work well with other greens, too. While spinach and chard lack the pepperiness of arugula, they would lend a lovely earthy note to the sweet tomatoes. And you can always add a little zingy black pepper at the end.

Toasted Garlic, Tomato and Arugula Orecchiette
Adapted from Lemon Fire Brigade. 

1/4 c olive oil
6-7 cloves garlic, thinly sliced
1/2 tsp red pepper flakes
3 c grape tomatoes, halved
3/4 lb orecchiette pasta
1/2 c reserved pasta water
3/4 c Parmesan cheese, shredded
8 c arugula
zest of 1/2 lemon
salt and pepper

Bring a large pot of well-salted water to a boil. Cook pasta according to package directions, reserving 1/2 c pasta water.

In a large saute pan, heat the oil over medium heat. Add the garlic slices and cook, stirring, until the edges begin to get golden and toasted. 

Add the tomatoes to the pan and stir well, coating the them in the garlicky oil. Add the red pepper flakes and simmer on low for about 5 minutes, until it takes on a loose saucy consistency.

Add the pasta to the pan and stir to coat with the sauce. Add some of the reserved pasta water, if necessary, to loosen the sauce up (I often find that enough water is still clinging to the pasta that I don't need my reserved water at all). Grate Parmesan over the top and stir to combine. Taste and season with salt and pepper, if necessary.

Remove from the heat and stir in the lemon zest and arugula (my skillet wasn't big enough, so I transferred the whole mixture to a mixing bowl for this part). Enjoy!

Farm Fridays: Zucchini and Garlic Scape Latkes with Creamy Basil Sauce

I'm getting the impression that this is going to be a great year for cucumbers and summer squash. I have two enormous yellow squash plants in my garden (not producing yet, but huge and vigorous) and my cucumber vines have already started churning out some big ones. We've been getting large quantities of cucumbers and squash from the farm as well.

My favorite way to eat any summer squash is to grill it (just cut it into long planks, rub with oil and season with salt and pepper). Unfortunately, the weather hasn't been very cooperative for grilling lately. It seems like every time we so much as lift a corner of the grill cover, the skies open up.  I chose this recipe as an alternative to grilling my crisper drawer full of zucchini.

I was a little trepidatious because, while Jeff and I have made latkes several times, we never seem to get it right: either they're soggy or falling apart or more egg than potato. Yet I still persist in trying new recipes, hoping we'll figure it out eventually. Jeff raised his eyebrows when I proposed this recipe, but gamely went along with it. Good thing, too, because these are probably the most successful latkes we've ever made. Perhaps our problem is with starchy potatoes, because these zucchini latkes came together like a dream. I think our success came from squeezing a ton of water out of the zucchini (one of the pictures below shows how dry we were able to get it) before we mixed the batter. That ensured the latkes weren't soggy. While they didn't crisp up like potato latkes do (when done correctly, by people other than us, that is), the flavors and textures were delicious. The basil was a stand-out flavor in both the latkes and the sauce, complementing the zucchini and garlic beautifully. Isn't it great how seasonal flavors work so well together?

Zucchini and Garlic Scape Latkes with Creamy Basil Sauce
Adapted from Sassy Radish. 

1 1/2 lbs zucchini
1 1/2 tsp kosher salt
scant 2/3 c flour
1/4 c basil, slivered
2 eggs, lightly beaten (the local eggs we used were very large and our latkes turned out just slightly too eggy - try not to overdo it on the egg)
2 garlic scapes, thinly sliced (about 3-4 tbsp)
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp black pepper
olive oil

1 c Greek yogurt
1/4 c basil, slivered
zest of 1 lemon
juice of 1/2 lemon
kosher salt and black pepper to taste

Trim one end off of each zucchini then shred using a box grater (don't cut off the other end - use it as a handle and add it to the stock bag when you're done!). Transfer to a large colander and toss with salt. Position the colander over a large bowl and let sit 15 minutes.

 

Meanwhile, make the creamy basil sauce. Add the yogurt, basil, lemon zest and lemon juice to a small bowl and stir well to combine. Add salt and pepper to taste, stirring to combine once more. Set aside to let the flavors meld.

After 15 minutes, transfer the shredded zucchini to a clean cheesecloth or kitchen towel. Twist and squeeze well to remove as much water as possible. 

Pour enough oil into a cast iron skillet (or other large, heavy pan) to cover the bottom completely. Heat over medium-high, until shimmering.

Meanwhile, add the zucchini to a medium bowl and combine with flour, basil, eggs, garlic scapes, baking powder and pepper. Mix to form a batter.

Reduce heat to medium and drop 1/4 cupfuls of batter into the skillet, arranging them into firm patties with a fork (we fit three large latkes at a time in our 9" skillet). Gently flatten the tops and tuck in any straggly bits on the sides.

Cook 3-4 minutes, then flip gently with a spatula and cook another 3-4 minutes until golden brown and cooked through. Remove to a paper bag or paper towel-lined plate to drain while the next batches cook (this recipe made three batches for us - nine latkes in all).

Serve nice and hot with creamy basil sauce on the side!

Roasted Cherry Brownies

Yeah, I stole one before I took the picture. I had to make sure these were good before I blogged about them!

I had some trouble with these brownies. Specifically, I forgot to set a timer so I have no idea how long they baked for. Clearly, I was doing too many things in the kitchen at once. Normally, I have enough of a sense of time to be able to guess, but when I realized there was no timer running for these I truly had no clue how long it had been. When I examined them, I thought they might be nearly done, so I started setting the oven timer for 5-7 minutes at a time, checking them, and popping them back in the oven. After twenty plus minute of this, after they finally puffed up, I remembered what brownies look like when they're done and decided they were close. A few minutes later, I finally removed them out of sheer exhaustion. The bad news? They're a bit underdone. The good news? They're a bit underdone.

These brownies are deliciously fudgey and moist. The added moisture from the incomplete baking process is not a problem in my book. The cherries add a wonderful richness - the flavor manages to permeate most of the brownie (perhaps from the extra juice from roasting?). I take some credit here because out of the eight varieties of cherries we picked last week, I chose the richest ones for this recipe. The result is a moist, extremely chocolatey but richly fruity treat. Definitely a winner. I'm really sad I have to pack these into the freezer, since we're suffering (wink wink nudge nudge) from a surfeit of cherry-laden treats right now.

Roasted Cherry Brownies
Slightly adapted from Tracey's Culinary Adventures. 

2 c fresh cherries
1 1/4 c + 2 tbsp sugar, divided
5 oz bittersweet chocolate (I used my preferred chocolate chips - Ghirardelli 60% cacao)
2 oz unsweetened chocolate (I used some Scharffen Berger that I've been trying to get rid of - it's not my favorite chocolate because it has a strange fruity aftertaste, but I (correctly) assumed it would work well with actual fruit)
1/2 c butter, cut into 8 pieces
3 tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder (I used Ghirardelli)
3 eggs
2 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 tsp salt
1 c flour

Preheat oven to 450° F. Line a small baking dish with foil. 

Halve and pit the cherries, then toss with 2 tbsp sugar. Spread inside the foil-lined baking dish.

Roast the cherries 9-10 minutes until they are softened and juicy. Set aside to cool. Reduce the oven temperature to 350° F.

Meanwhile, finely chop your chocolate (chocolate chip-sized pieces are fine) and combine with the butter in a heatproof bowl set over a pot of simmering water (I prefer to bring the water to a boil first, turn off the heat, and melt the butter and chocolate with the remaining steam). Stir with a rubber spatula until the butter and chocolate have melted and are well combined. Whisk in the cocoa powder, then set aside to cool slightly.

In a large bowl, whisk together sugar, eggs, vanilla and salt. Slowly whisk in the cooled chocolate mixture until well combined. Fold in the flour with a rubber spatula, then carefully fold in cherries.

Transfer the batter to an 8 x 8" baking dish lined with foil (make sure the foil overhangs the edges for easy removal later). Bake 35-45 minutes, until tester comes out relatively clean (or leave a little underbaked, like me, and have super-fudgey brownies!). Remove to a wire rack and completely cool before cutting.

Cherry Walnut Relish

Oops. I seem to have missed Farm Fridays this week. Yesterday turned out to be quite a busy day when my usual Friday errands turned into an all-out shopping spree. I spent money on a level that I've never reached before (at least, not in a single day!). Slipping into Sur La Table at the mall for a new tea kettle (I sorta melted the top of the old one) meant getting sucked into several stores having awesome sales and dropping into Sephora to replenish my foundation led me into a long conversation with a saleswoman who evaluated my skin and recommended several products that I really should have been using already (somehow in all these years I never learned about primer). And after months of mostly vain searching for shoes that I can wear with my bulky orthopedic inserts, I hit the jackpot, coming home with five new pairs. The gist of all this is that I spent far more time shopping than originally planned, which didn't get me home in time to make all the dinner recipes I'd had planned. And the stuff we did manage was done before I thought to grab my camera.

But I thought I'd make it up to you with a few of the cherry recipes we worked on last week. Last Saturday Terhune Orchards opened for cherry picking! You may remember that I went last year and blogged about how much fun I had. This year Jeff was available to come along and help, so we planned a big day of cherry picking and canning. Cherry picking is so easy, and cherries are so delicious and tempting, that we picked far more than we'd intended - we brought home thirteen pounds of cherries (see the above picture of our dining room table laden with cleaned and sorted fruit). And by the end of the weekend, most of them had been dispatched in a variety of tasty recipes.

We made this cherry-walnut relish, cherry preserves and almond and sweet cherry galette on Saturday and on Sunday, after I'd realized how much we still had (and fearing we wouldn't get through them before they started to go bad), I obsessively searched through my files and the internet to find more possibilities: brandied cherries, individual cherry crisps and roasted cherry brownies (don't worry - those are the subject of my next post!). The crisps and the brownies were frozen for future consumption, so we will be enjoying cherries for several weeks to come.

This cherry walnut relish was the first project that came to mind when we decided to go cherry picking. When I got my copy of Put 'Em Up a few years ago and prepared to start canning, it was one of the first recipes that caught my eye. I jumped at the chance to do it this year. I chose the most luscious and velvety of the cherry varieties we had (while I divided them all into bags and pint boxes to keep the varieties separate, I of course failed to remember the names of the cherries we'd picked) to go with the richness of the spices and nuts. While cherries are a summer fruit, I thought this sounded like a winter treat, to top pork roasts or a turkey sandwich (I have my heart set on a roasted turkey panini with this relish and some Gruyere some time this fall). I was absolutely right -the tang of the vinegar lends complexity to the rich sweetness of the cherries. Even though the walnuts were added all the way at the end, their flavor manages to permeate the relish as well and the bigger pieces add a nice crunchy texture. I look forward to putting this on many winter sandwiches!

Cherry Walnut Relish
From Put 'Em Up by Sherri Brooks Vinton. 

4 c sweet cherries, stems and pits removed
1 c sugar
1 c cider vinegar
1 onion, diced
1 cinnamon stick
1/2 c crushed walnuts

Add the cherries, sugar and a splash of water to a large, nonreactive pot (I prefer my enameled Dutch oven for all canning activities) and bring it to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer for about 5 minutes, stirring and crushing the cherries with a potato masher to help them release their juices.

Add the vinegar, onion and cinnamon stick, stir to combine, and return the mixture to a simmer. Cook until thickened (but not dry), about 20 minutes

Add the walnuts and return to a boil for 5 minutes. Remove from heat and take out the cinnamon stick.

Spoon into half-pint canning jars, covering the solids with 1/4" of liquid and leaving 1/4" headspace. Process for 15 minutes in a boiling-water canner. 

Rosemary and Garlic Roasted Potatoes

A few weeks ago, when it was still the height of asparagus season (which is not relevant except that this dish was served with some asparagus), we made a bold decision. We decided to make steak for dinner.

I honestly can't remember the last time we made steak. And I'm not talking flank steak tacos or an Asian stir fry - we bought two sirloin steaks to grill and eat. It has literally been years since this happened. Definitely not since we moved into our house in 2009.

Back when we lived in our apartment, when I didn't know I had a cholesterol problem to deal with, when I didn't really know how to cook many things, when I had no conception of what a reasonable portion of meat looked like . . . back then we ate steak a lot. When it came time to plan dinner (often after Jeff got home from work), the question would be "chicken or steak?" ("Chicken," by the way, meant an entire chicken breast for each of us. We were clueless back then.)

I'm actually not a big fan of steak itself - I like the things that get put on steak. I like steak sauce and tasty marinades and rubs. Those are the reasons to have steak, in my opinion. A large hunk of meat without any adornment doesn't really do it for me.

Except this time. I was actually craving steak, and had been through much of our meatless Lent. I have no idea why. Maybe my body needed more protein or something. Whatever the reason, I spent a lot of time drooling over a recipe for steak with red wine sauce from April's Cooking Light. When we finally did it, it was awesome. Just as delicious as it sounded to my meat-deprived imagination.

So why am I telling you about this steak in a post about potatoes? When I decided on a steak dinner, a side of potatoes was an absolute must. And tender asparagus tossed in a vinaigrette. But potatoes came to mind first. We made this unassuming sounding dish from the same Cooking Light - rosemary and garlic roasted potatoes. It was blissfully simple - sprigs of rosemary and thyme tossed with halved fingerling potatoes and unpeeled garlic and roasted in the oven. It made for a gorgeously rustic dish. I loved squeezing the roasted garlic cloves from their skins onto the golden-brown potatoes before I popped them in my mouth.

After eating this meal, my steak craving was satisfied. I haven't had any since and I haven't really thought about it. But I still crave these potatoes. I could eat trays of them on my own. While the steak recipe will languish in my recipe card file, these potatoes are going to become a workhorse in my kitchen, accompanying everything from elegant chicken dishes to vegetarian casseroles and stir fries. And maybe even, after a few more years, another steak.  

Rosemary and Garlic Roasted Potatoes
Slightly adapted from Cooking Light April 2013.

1 head garlic, papery covering removed and cloves separated but not peeled
2 tbsp olive oil
20 oz fingerling potatoes
3 sprigs thyme
3 sprigs rosemary
1/2 tsp kosher salt
1/2 tsp black pepper
2 tbsp parsley, chopped

Preheat oven to 450. Toss garlic, oil, potatoes, thyme, rosemary, salt and pepper together in a large bowl, making sure everything is well coated in the oil. Transfer to a foil-lined baking sheet. Bake for about 25 minutes, stirring once halfway through. Remove from the oven when the potatoes have softened and have turned golden brown.

June Garden Update

It's about time for another garden update. Things are . . . patchy. Performance in some areas is far better than expected, but other areas are severely underperforming. We'll see what happens.

The biggest change is that our front landscaping finally got done! The towering butterfly bushes of destruction (translation: the branches fall on my car and scratch it up) are gone - instead, we have miniature butterfly bushes and an assortment of other easy-to-care-for flowering shrubs. But at the end of that lovely flagstone cul-de-sac, my friends, is the best part: my new herb garden. Now with full sun.

The herbs have been in their new home for about two weeks now and they're doing beautifully. My thyme is actually beginning to flower, which it never did in its three years in the back. And I'm really enjoying striding out my front door in my apron and waving to the neighbors as I pick herbs for dinner.

In the raised bed in the back, things are looking really great, too. This is surprising, since this is the area I've taken to calling my shade garden. Yet, this year, everything seems to be thriving, especially my tomatoes and cucumbers. If everything finishes as well as it has started, we'll have more cucumbers than we know what to do with. I've had some pest problems in this back bed. I used organic pesticide (mostly rosemary oil) to fend off an invasion of whiteflies on my collard greens and killed two separate waves of caterpillars munching holes through them. The greens looked pretty awful after this treatment, but have since developed new leaves and begun to flourish again. There was also a burgeoning potato aphid infestation on the tomatoes, but some baby praying mantises seem to have taken care of it for me. Go beneficial insects!

The squash patch next to the raised bed is looking great. The two big pumpkin vines had some trouble with mildew, but they seem to have recovered. The yellow summer squash plants are huge and I can't wait until they start producing! I've also acquired two mystery squash plants - they came up on their own at the edge of the patch and I just let them be. By the size and shape, I'm guessing they're acorn or carnival squash.

The mobile raised bed in the driveway has been the biggest disappointment. My peppers refuse to grow (there are seventeen pepper plants in this bed - trust me). I replaced some of my seedlings with Italian frying peppers from the farmer's market, but they're not doing well either. I'm not sure what's up. I'm going to have to test the soil. I'm also planning on planting new things (like carrots) in between the peppers (which I refuse to give up on) to make better use of the space. So far, though, this has been a big bummer.

None of the driveway plants are doing particularly well (except, perhaps, the potatoes in the bucket - they seem to be chugging forward as planned). My best explanation is that they were stunted in that post-Mother's Day frost we had, but I would have expected them to recover by now. Most surprising is that the squash in the GrowBox look absolutely pathetic - they're not dead, but that's all that can be said. It's designed to wick water up from the bottom section to provide plants with even moisture, and yet it has the same problem the rest of the pots do. I'm just scratching my head. At least the middle tomato plant seems to have made some progress recently.

The driveway greens are also a mystery. I planted the same greens in the same pots last year, except they were on the deck. Last year, the spinach did nearly nothing and the chard looked great (although stayed rather small). This year, the chard has barely sprouted and the spinach was small but productive (until it bolted the other day). I've moved the chard pots up to the deck to see if a change in location will help them out a bit.

The peas behind the lilacs are also doing poorly. When I planted them, before all those other plants got big, the spot seemed to get a good amount of sun. Now, not so much. The few peas that have gotten big enough to peek out above that iris are starting to produce, but it will be to hot for them soon. I think that one's going to be filed under the crop failure category.

I'm not sure anything can really be distinguished in this picture: there's a row of carrots at the bottom, some radishes (which refused to develop roots) behind them, and two tomato plants in cages on either side of that post. Those tomato plants look ok - they just need to get a little bigger to escape the crush of other leaves and they will be fine. This has proved to be a great (albeit crowded) spot for tomatoes in the past, so I have high hopes. The front row of carrots also looks promising - no roots yet, but very healthy greens.

The last tomato plant, hiding among the daisies, will also do well as soon as it can outgrow its competitors. The strawberries that are hidden among these did really well this year. The raspberry bush on the other side of this patch is also flourishing. The blackberries, despite having a million blossoms, may not do as well as I thought - the berries are developing really unevenly, so I'm not sure how many we'll really get.

Overall, I've been a bit disappointed but I never lose hope. I'll be testing my soil sometime soon to see if the ph is balanced and I'll be replanting some disappointing areas with fall-bearing crops. I've been heartened by some of the things I've learned, like that arugula does nicely in the shady raised bed and how to effectively deal with several pest infestations. This accumulation of knowledge has to pay off some time, right?