Chief of Staff by Day/Chef by Night

Great GFF friend, Phil Karsting was recently profiled in Politico on his cooking prowess. He is quite a food photographer, too. He recently sent the following recipes and pictures of his preparation of GFF rabbit and turnips (actually, he sent them a month ago and I am just now posting them).

Braised GFF Rabbit with Mustard Greens and Homemade Bacon

Saute lardons of bacon on pretty low heat, and at the same time carmelize onion halves in the same pan. While that's happening cut the rabbit - I had no idea it was basically like taking apart a chicken - piece 'o cake.. rinse, dry, season rabbit parts. Remove lardons and onions from pan and brown rabbit.

Once brown, remove from pan and deglaze with some sweet vermouth....that's the only sweet booze i had handy, though others would work well too.

Then add mustard green, put rabbit on the bed of greens, return onions to pan and throw in some lardons of bacon, if you haven't snacked your way through all of them already.

Add some water and braise in 300 degree oven for a couple hours.

GFF turnip soup

This recipe was in the Washington Post and is very good (and some of my turnips were stored less than perfectly and had gotten a tad limp....didn't matter).

Nothing too unusual: sweat onions in butter, add a bunch of turnips and a small potato, then chicken stock/water. Puree and add some nutmeg. The recipe calls for a little basil as garnish but our end of year basil was looking tough and tasted kind of dodge.

Beautiful!

The Best Thanksgiving Turkey Anywhere

Here is Kate's write-up for how she cooks her Thanksgiving turkey. This year, she cooked her own pasture-raised heritage turkey, which was pretty fantastic.

The turkey is really an amalgamation of Julia Child and my take on it. The best write up she does of turkey is in From Julia Child's Kitchen and NOT in any of the later books where she takes to deboning and reconstructing the whole dang bird, way more work than they require. So here is what I do:

Take the neck and whatever innards you have out and brown in hot but not burning oil until brown. Remove them and add in about 2 cups each of chopped carrots and onions and cooked those in the pan, covered, about 5-10 minutes until tender. Take out half of the vegetables to use to flavor the turkey cavity (put the bones and giblets back in the post with the other half of the veggies, season with a little salt, some sage, a bay leaf, cover with stock and about a cup of white wine, and simmer partially covered for three or so hours, then reduce down to use as a base for your gravy).

For the turkey, make sure it is defrosted thoroughly, rinse and pat really dry, then smear all over with at least one stick of softened butter. Make sure you toss some in the cavity as well. Stuff the cavity with parsley springs, celery tops, dried thyme and sage (about 1/2 tsp each), a little salt and the half of the cooked carrots and onions you took out of the gravy starter. Tie him up (I don't try to do it too fancy, just get the wings secured to the body and the cavity closed up best you can, salt lightly, and place on a rack in a roasting pan breast down. Cook in a preheated 325 oven according to the time table below. Baste every 30 minutes. When it is about 90 minutes before the turkey is done, flip it on its back (make sure you do this no later than an hour before the earliest finish time for your turkey so the breast has time to get done). Cooking it this way ensures that the breast meat is moist and the skin is crispy all round. Do not forget to let the turkey rest before carving; it will fall apart -- much better to be done too early than to late -- you can always tent the turkey in tin foil until you are ready to carve.

Timetable for a moderately chilled, unstuffed turkey:

Pounds: 6-8

Hours roasting at 325: 2 3/4 - 3 1/2

Buffer: 20 min

Rest Before Carving: 20 min

Estimated Safe Total: 4 1/4

Pounds:8-12

Hours roasting at 325: 3 1/4-4

Buffer: 20 min

Rest Before Carving: 20 min

Estimated Safe Total: 4 1/2-4 3/4

Pounds:12-16

Hours roasting at 325: 3 1/2 - 4 1/2

Buffer: 30

Rest Before Carving: 30

Estimated Safe Total: 5 1/2

Pounds: 16-20

Hours roasting at 325: 4-6

Buffer: 30

Rest Before Carving: 30

Estimated Safe Total: 5 1/2 - 7

Pounds: 20-26

Hours roasting at 325: 5 1/2- 7 1/2

Buffer: 30

Rest Before Carving: 30

Estimated Safe Total: 7-8 1/2

Thanksgiving on Green Fence Farm

Reviewing my annual list of things in my life for which I am thankful, Green Fence Farm sits near the top. While I love the farm, this has more to do with our friendly proprietors. Some of us are lucky enough to be born into strong and wonderful families. Some of us aren't. In either case, family is what we make of it. Kate and Nick are builders. They have built this farm, but it is really so much more than a farm. Starting with a strong foundation, they have built a huge extended family; we are blessed to be members.

Don and I have spent all but one of the last fifteen Thanksgivings with Kate and her family (maybe more but I have lost count). This is the third Thanksgiving on the farm and it reminds us of our many blessings. One cannot help but feel fortunate when taking in the beauty of the land and the warmth of the friendship. While my list of blessings is too long for this blog, here are some we might share:

• I am thankful for Kate's health this year and her boundless energy to make this family and farm work.
• I am thankful that Kate and Nick have brought the farm to us in the city, making us healthier and happier (if not a little guilty when I can't figure out what to do with everything in our share).
• I am thankful for the pasture raised turkey. (Rumor has it that many of you could be thankful for this next year. Start your lobbying now, because it is pretty wonderful.)
• I am thankful for fresh brussels sprouts and sweet potatoes, straight from the garden.
• I am thankful for shearing day and the celebration! (your loss if you missed it; it was great.)

I am thankful as well for the three people who have asked Kate, "what has happened to your blog?" I have been a little busy this fall, but I have a few things I will be posting soon. If you are worried, please send your recipes to keep the blog alive.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Aubergine

I love eggplant.

I love the color, the texture, the taste. I especially like the french name for it, aubergine. Much better than the english, yes?

I didn't even know that eggplant existed until I was in my twenties, living in Seattle, and frequenting the Pike Place Market (the ultimate of farmers' markets). It is such an unusual vegetable; or is it?

Did you know that eggplant is actually more similar to a fruit, from the same family as tomatoes?

Did you know that the first person to cultivate eggplant in the United States was Nick's favorite farmer, the great Thomas Jefferson? Word is that he really didn't know what to do with them and that it wasn't until immigrants from southern Europe and the Middle East came to the United States that its popularity increased.

A brief history of eggplant can be found at this Village Voice article from last year.

We have lots of eggplants in our share this week, so please send your favorite eggplant recipes to Kate or to me, to share here. Pictures would be great but not required.

One of my favorite recipes is from the Barefoot Contessa Cookbook (the first one), Roasted Eggplant Spread. This is so simple--cubed eggplant, red bell peppers, red onion, and garlic, tossed in olive oil, salt and paper, and roasted until they are lightly brown and soft. Blended in a food processor, it makes the best spread. It is luscious. This recipe makes a lot, which is pretty great for leftovers (although it doesn't last very long in our house).

Moving to Spanish influence, José Andrés (Jaleo, Zatanyia's, Oyamel) combines similar ingredients into a wonderful tapas dish, Roasted Eggplant, Pepper, Onion, and Tomatoes, Catalan-style. There is also a wonderful looking Rack of Lamb with Honey Allioli on the same page.

In August, I had posted a couple eggplant recipes from Ottolenghi. I tried the marinated eggplant with oregano and tahini but without the tahini and it was really fantastic. A bit spicy but a nice combination of flavors and very easy to prepare.

Tomatoes

What to do with all those tomatoes?

We had neighbors over this evening for a glass of wine and appetizers. It seemed like an opportunity to try out a few things with the our GFF tomatoes. The most important thing about these heirloom tomatoes is to let their flavor take center stage. The ones I have now are showing their age a bit, so I thought something along the bruschetta line made sense.

I used as my starting point a recipe for Cherry Tomato Crostini with Ricotta from my newest cookbook "A Platter of Figs and other recipes" by David Tanis (who could resist a cookbook entitled a platter of figs). However, I did take great liberties with it. Here is my adapted recipe using GFF heirloom tomatoes and local goat cheese:

3 large heirloom tomatoes, seeded, chopped, and drained

1 large shallot, finely minced

2 Tbs red wine vinegar

1/2 cup olive oil

2 garlic cloves, crushed, plus a couple more cloves for rubbing toast

1 loaf ciabatta

1/4 - 1/3 lb fresh goat cheese (I used the chevre from Cherry Glen, Boyds, Md)

basil leaves, chopped

Mix shallot and red wine vinegar together and allow to sit for a few minutes

Heat 1/2 cup olive oil in a small saute pan. Add 2 crushed cloves of garlic and saute for a couple minutes. Remove garlic and add the olive oil to the shallots. Add tomatoes, some salt and pepper to taste. Allow to sit for a few minutes.

Slice the ciabatta into 1/2 inch slices. Arrange on a baking sheet and toast on both sides under broiler until lightly toasted. Rub toast with with peeled garlic clove.

Spread goat cheese on toast and arrange on a platter. Use slotted spoon to put a heaping tablespoon of the tomato mixture on each toast. Sprinkle basil leaves over crostini.

Enjoy!

Send in your tomato recipes to the blog (either to Kate or to me at donb.sarahd@gmail.com and I will post them here).

More CSA E-mails: Shephard's Pie

One CSA member, Selena Rebleto e-mailed Kate a while back with several recipes that are perfect for this past week's CSA. Wondering what to do with those beautiful quail eggs? Selena sent this picture of her deviled quail eggs which, I must say, are just lovely.

She also sent a link to a Shepherd's Pie recipe. This recipe, from Rachel Ray, looks quick and easy and perfect for a week-night dinner. Here is the finished product and it looks great (better than the Rachel Ray picture!). I think that the hamburger and the potatoes from last week's CSA will make this quite something. Selena used fresh shelled peas and carrots with the ground beef for the filling and topped with the potatoes.

An aside, if you haven't tried the beef from Green Fence Farm, you are crazy (unless, of course, you don't eat meat and, then, I will not call you crazy). I made my regular enchilada recipe with the ground beef and, wow, it was fantastic.

Potatoes

My morning routine is to stumble downstairs, make lots of coffee, check my e-mail (yes, I am obsessive), and then go on-line to read the Post and the Times. Don likes to read the paper newspaper. But I like to read the newspaper on-line because I never know where it will take me.

This morning a link from Tom Sietsema's discussion on over-hyped food trends led me to Regina Schrambling's blog on Epicurious. One recent post discusses how to preserve basil (she claims to keep basil a week by putting stems/roots in a jar with water and covering with a grocery bag). Another post discusses her take on Creamy Potato Salad, Light on the Mayo.

So, what are you doing with your potatoes?

Posts from CSA Members

What a great CSA share we got today. I took one of the heirloom tomatoes, seeded, chopped it up (kind of chunky), added some salt, pepper, a little olive oil and sprinkled goat cheese and a few olives over it. It was yummy.

Now I have one less tomato but I still have a huge box of them. So, please let send in what you are doing with all of the ones you got, as well as the other wonderful produce we received today. Send them to me, donb.sarahd@gmail.com, if you want them posted before winter. Kate just sent me your great pictures and ideas from previous shares and they look great. Here are a few.

Alden O'Brien made a salade composée with bed of lettuce, beets, hard boiled eggs, herbs, all from the farm. The one pictured at the right includes some cuke dice from Cemmy Peterson’s farm.

Alden also sent a picture of swiss chard and broccolini. She blanched them and then stir fried them with a little olive oil and those scallion or "whatever flower things and some slices of that stem."

Beautiful, Alden! Thanks for sharing!

CSA member, Lynne Becker, sent an e-mail to Kate on "CSA: This is how I used our beans last night." She linked to a recipe from Gourmet, August 2004, Poached Chicken with Tomatoes, Olives, and Green Beans. This looks ideal for what we got in today's basket. Lynne's comments on the recipe: "I can't imagine liking many recipes without onions and garlic, so I added diced red onion to the tomato mixture and subbed basil for oregano since that's what we've got in the garden."

Ed Zakreski sent some links to Kate for red cabbage and for duck!

"I’m going to use a little bit of my red cabbage to create a sourdough starter. Here’s the link from Michael Ruhlman – one of my favorite food writers - that inspired me: http://blog.ruhlman.com/ruhlmancom/2009/07/simple-sourdough-starter.html

"I’m also sending along the “How To Roast A Duck” link from Amateur Gourmet in case you can use it to inspire more duck purchases. It does show that roasting a duck is not as intimidating as it sounds. http://www.amateurgourmet.com/2009/05/how_to_roast_a.html

Ed also shared a picture of his dinner from GFF produce. Wow! Looks fabulous.

More tomorrow. Remember to send your ideas, recipes, and pictures.

What to Do with This Week's CSA?

Just in time for our CSA delivery this week, chow.com has chosen its August Cookbook of the Month and it is seems perfect for what we are getting this week. "Ottolenghi: The Cookbook," has caused a lot of chatter on the chow website and, from what I can see, the book looks terrific with some very creative recipes. In particular, there appear to be some pretty terrific recipes for this week's CSA.

The book appears a bit hard to get (not available on amazon). But discussion group has provided many, many links to on-line recipes. These include:

Peaches and speck with orange blossom (This looks awesome, pictured above. Speck is a dry-cured smoked Italian ham--if you find it tell me!)

Marinated aubergine with tahini and oregano

Roasted aubergine with saffron yoghurt

French beans and mangetout with hazelnuts and orange (mangetout are snow peas)

There are also some terrific chicken and duck recipes discussed on the site, including roast chicken with sumac, za'atar, and lemon, seared duck breast with blood orange and star anise, and barbecued quail with mograbiah salad.

I can't wait for my Monday delivery!

Week-end on the Farm... continued

Some day, Mike Davis will part with his guidance on the wonderful things to do with the GFF birds (I heard that he was pretty busy in Maine, roasting a pig and grilling a paella over an open fire). When he is back from his culinary adventures and sends me his notes, I will post them right here. Until then, I can only tempt you with pictures of the main courses and the menus from our week-end at Green Fence Farm.

Menu for Friday Night's Dinner

Pan-Roasted Quail with Port Reduction Sauce

Mahogany Rice

Sauteed Haricots Vert with Shallots

Green Salad with Peaches, Blackberries, and Roasted Walnuts

Plum Tarte Tatin

Menu for Saturday's Dinner:

Roast Duck with Plums

Pan-Roasted Partridge with Bacon

Grilled Quail and Chicken

Roasted Beet Salad with Fried Chickpeas and Goat Cheese

Corn on the Cob

Cornmeal Shortcakes with Peaches, Blackberries, and Mint

Plum Sorbet

On Friday, Mike prepared Pan-Roasted Quail in a Port Reduction Sauce. On the side, he served Mahogany Rice, which is a black, flavorful rice (it is unmilled so cooks for 45 to 50 minutes and is very good for you). I did a quick saute of shallots and Kate's thin green beans. I made a green salad, using GFF lettuce, peaches from the nearby orchard, blackberries that we had picked that day, toasted walnuts, and a balsamic vinaigrette.

If you are nervous about the port-reduction sauce, you can try simply grilling the quail, which is what we did on Saturday night, along with grilled chicken. It was a mystery to me what we seasoned the chicken and the quail with--I think that I saw Mike walk out to the herbs and take his pick. He was particularly enamored with the lemon thyme. Here is the thing with the GFF poultry--because it is so good, you don't really need to do much with it. Salt and pepper and grilling works just fine. Add a few herbs of your choice (rosemary under the skin is always good or thyme or whatever you have that is fresh). Just remember for the quail, Because of their size, grilling does not take very long.

Saturday night's dinner was a display of the GFF bounty. In addition to the grilled quail and chicken, Mike prepared a Roast Duck with plums (pictured below) and Pan-Roasted Partridge with Bacon. I can only post the pictures and attest to how wonderful they both were. The Roasted Duck was so delicious that it made Nick admit that they were almost worth all the work that goes into raising them.

I made two vegetable side dishes on Saturday, both of which were based on the Sunday Suppers at Lucques (which I discussed below). One for lunch, first of the season succotash salad, I will post separately. Below is the beet salad.

Roasted Beet Salad with Fried Chickpeas and Goat Cheese

First, if you are ever wondering what to do with the beautiful beets that you get in your CSA, just roast them. They are so sweet and delicious all by themselves. Cut off the tops, clean well, and toss with olive oil and salt (Suzanne Goin uses 2T of extra virgin olive oil and 1 tsp salt for 3 bunches of beets). Place in roasting pan with a bit of water and roast at 400 degrees until tender (around 40 minutes, depending on the size). After cooling, remove the skins and quarter. Look at those beets--aren't they beautiful. We should just stop here.

I loosely followed the rest of the recipe. First of all, the fried chickpeas were okay--I don't think that I cooked them long enough and I don't think that they were completely necessary here since everything else was so great. Just remember, if you are doing this recipe to start the chickpeas first, since they have to cook for quite a while (originally this was going to be a side dish for Thursday, but I didn't start the chickpeas until late).

Using what we had, I made a vinaigrette of 2+ T red wine vinegar, 1 T lemon juice, pinch of cumin, salt, pepper, and 1/2 c (maybe less) of extra virgin olive oil. I used some of the GFF lettuce, tossing it in a bit of vinaigrette, and using it to line the plate. I tossed the beets and 1/4 c thinly sliced shallots in some of the vinaigrette. Added to the plate.

Then, crumbled goat cheese, the fried chickpeas, and flat leaf parsley over the salad to finish it up. As you can see, it was quite a beautiful display and a wonderful tasting salad. The goat cheese combination with the beets was terrific. The recipe calls for roasted cumin seeds and I can see that it would add an additional depth to the salad. Using what we had in the pantry seemed to go well here.

Plum Tarte Tatin with Creme Fraiche

Friday night dessert: Another creation from Suzanne Goin, Plum Tarte Tatin. I did not improvise on this and worked straight from her recipe with a couple of unintentional deviations.

In looking around the internet, I saw that some people had trouble with this dessert. Maybe it was beginner's luck, but I found this very simple. I also think that the plums were just right for this recipe. They were ripe but still firm enough to keep their shape.

Since I have linked the recipe, I won't go into every single detail. Most of the work was halving and pitting 3 pounds of plums. After adding sugar (1/4 c) and letting them sit for 30 minutes, it was time to make the caramel coating. Kate has a great big cast iron skillet which was perfect for making the tarte. Heated the pan over medium heat and added 1 stick of butter. When it foamed, I added 3/4 cup sugar and cooked for 6 minutes until it was a brown caramel color.

While it cooled, I drained the plums. I think that this step is critical, because too much juice result in a pretty soggy tarte. Goin suggests making a cocktail from the sugared-plum juice, but I am not imaginative to think what would go well with it. I am open to suggestions.

When the caramel had cooled for about 20 minutes, I placed the plums, skin side up in the skillet, in lovely, concentric circles.

I put the skillet in the fridge here and missed the step of cooking the plums and caramel on the stove. After refrigerating for a couple hours, I realized my mistake and put the skillet on the stove, cooking the plums--without touching--for 20 minutes over medium-low heat. Then, after cooling the plums and caramel again for about an hour or so, I topped it with store-bought puff pastery (sorry purests, but I like pepperidge farm for this). Brushed with beaten egg (from GFF, of course) and sprinkled with sugar. Baked at 375 degrees for 45 to 55 minutes.

After cooling for 30 minutes, it was time to flip the tarte. This is time when it is nice to have someone strong around, since flipping a cast iron skillet with plate on it is a little challenging. Cutting around the edges helps, but flipping it in one motion seems to be important too. Then, letting it just drop out of the skillet from its own weight.

Served with creme fraiche on the side, we ate this all up and left none for Don who arrived late from DC on Friday night.

Cornmeal Shortcakes with Peaches, Blackberries and Mint accompanied by Plum Sorbet

Here is my suggestion for the plums and peaches in your CSA basket next week. Although this looks like a lot of work, it was surprisingly easy. We had the amazing plums and peaches that Kate and Nick had found for us, blackberries that we picked from at Orchardside Farm, Kate's mint, and from Staunton's farmers' market, honey from the Honey man and fromage blanc from the cheese lady.

The shortcake recipe is based on Suzanne Goin's Cornmeal Shortcakes with Peaches, Mint, and Soured Cream. The shortcakes are very simple and quick. Since I have the link, I won't go into detail on it. But they were so easy and delicious. If you have a food processor, the shortcakes won't take you longer than 30 minutes to make. The challenge is to keep from eating them before finishing the dessert.

I added the freshly picked blackberries to the peaches and followed the recipe for adding the simple sugar syrup (I can imagine a number of combinations working here and look forward to seeing what other fruit Kate and Nick find for us this season). The recipe calls for pureeing a portion of the peaches, which I did before we added the blackberries.

For the soured cream, I brought mascarpone from DC, but not enough. So I added some fromage blanc that we found at the Farmers' Market and added syrup to sweeten and lemon to sour. This worked wonderfully. I can see going more local here and using different combinations of local fresh cheeses. This was a breeze and tasted like summer.

We could have stopped there, but my daughter Josie insisted that we make Plum Sorbet.

We dug out our ice cream maker, which someone gave to Don and I as a wedding present seventeen years ago and which we have never used! Since it made the trip to the farm, it only made sense to give it a try. This recipe is also from the Suzanne Goin, but I think it is the fruit that makes it so wonderful. I took about a pound of the plums, cored and pitted them (Josie was not a great deal of help here). I then added sugar (1/2 cup) and 2T of honey and let it sit for a while. Puree (keeping the skin on makes some wonderful flecks in the sorbet) and add some lemon juice to taste (a tablespoon or so) and leave in the fridge to chill. Then, we dusted off that ice cream maker (ours is a little Donvier) and Josie took charge of freezing. It didn't take long and, well, you can see the results for yourselves. It was pretty fabulous. So dig out those ice cream freezers and give it a whirl.

Week-end on the Farm

Who knows what Kate and Nick were thinking when they agreed to host an invasion from NW DC last week-end. I am certain that I could not work the hours that they work--and as hard as they work--and still be such wonderful hosts to a bunch of city folk. On the other hand, a more enthusiastic group of city folk would be hard to find.

Hi, Green Fence Farm fans. I am Sarah, Kate's old friend (and be nice, I only feel old). Some of you know me as Kate's lobbyist friend or as the NW DC CSA drop-off host or as ... well, just don't tell me. But this week, I am Sarah, Green Fence Farm's guest blogger. This is not because of my writing--no one can write as well as Kate. But I have a high-speed internet connection and she doesn't!

Kate asked me to blog about our visit to the farm last week-end and share what we made from the farm's offerings. This was not a spur of the moment visit. For several months, we planned our farm invasion. The chief instigator was Mike Davis, fabulous cook and premier GFF customer. Mike is passionate about the local farm movement. His wish was to recreate the feel of the french farm kitchen. Our test: how quickly can we get it from the field to the table? The winner was Mike, with child-like glee, grabbling a fresh laid egg, running down the hill, up the stairs, into the kitchen, cooking it in a soft-boil, and eating it right there. That is our Mike Davis.

So, we joined forces to invade the farm and dedicate ourselves to food and the farm: Mike, Kris, Maggie, and Everett, along with my family (my husband, Don Blanchon, our daughter Josie, and my father, John Ducich--minus our older daughter who was at girls lacrosse goalie camp down the road in Salem, VA).

Mike took charge of any course involving poultry--quail, duck, chicken, and partridge. I took the side dishes and, most importantly, the desserts.

Mike is a far more creative cook than I am--he has mastered technique and now works directly with what is available to him. I am waiting for him to give me his descriptions of his pan-roasted quail in port-reduction sauce and roasted duck with plums so that I can post them here.

I am a recipe-driven cook, although my confidence is growing and I am doing more experimenting. This past week-end, I used Suzanne Goin's fabulous "Sunday Suppers at Lucques" as my base and worked with what Kate and Nick and the wonderful Shenandoah Valley provided us.

Over the next few days, I will be posting our creations. I will start backwards, with desserts, since I know those the best (and those are the prettiest pictures). Next post, Cornmeal Shortcakes with Peaches, Blackberries, and Mint, accompanied by Plum Sorbet. Yum!

What did you do with Your July 7th CSA?

Ah yes, I am tres late in posting this question, but maybeI'll get some answers -- and you all better do something with your share soon because another one is just around the corner!

As a reminder -- and an incentive for any readers who mioght want to share recipes but aren't in the cSA -- here's what you got last week and what I said about it then:

· A bag of lettuce – not the really sweet stuff of spring. It is actually a bit late for it to be hanging in there, but we have had a lot of rain and cool nights, so it is here for this last appearance until fall. Unlike earlier greens, which needed the lightest of dressings – you can feel free to slather it on for these tougher leaves. Or just use them as a garnish like bed for your beet salad.
· A bag of spinach – almost the same story as above, though the spinach holds it together a little better (especially the variety I grow, after much experimentation – Bloomsdale Longstanding, really resistant to bolt).
· Swiss chard bundle with a chive blossom (or scape). I love Swiss chard – there is a recipe in the quail egg section of the blog that is my standard Swiss chard fare. You can use quail or chicken or no egg in it. Chard is in the beet family, and the different colors do taste differently – the closer to red the chard is, the more you will know it is a member of the beet family. The stem and the leaves are edible, but you will want to separate them to cook them because the stem takes longer to cook. Do check out the blog recipe for chard with eggs as well as using chard in the stuffed chicken. The shallot scape is an edible flower that you can use as you would an onion. Taste a little before you chop it up and put it in something; it packs a wallop. I added it because it can be used instead of onion in the stuffed chicken recipe.
· An herb bunch – mostly basil, but a small amount of oregano and tarragon included. I added this this week because of that darn chicken recipe. You could use this bunch, chopped, as the herbs called for (I did). If you aren’t succumbing to the immense pressure to make that chicken, you could just leave the bunch sitting around to make things smell like summer (and don’t worry about wasting basil – you are getting a lot more).
· A bunch of beets – they are beautiful this week – you get a selection of yellow, Detroit (dark red) and Chioggia (red and white).
· John’s broccoli. I haven’t seen it yet, but he assures me it is professional. John can grow cabbage and broccoli. When I plant either of these, I get cabbage and broccoli bugs the size of a Toyota. So let’s all just take a minute to thank our lucky stars for John (who is baking your bread as I write this).
· Beans – Fin de Bangol to be exact. John may be able to grow a cabbage, but I am the Queen of Beans. These are the thin French variety. Do not put these in a casserole with mushroom soup. Do not boil them all day with bacon (we may have some beans for that later in the season). Steam or boil them lightly – 2-3 minutes. Then throw them back in a pan with a little butter, maybe some lemon (though I like just butter). Or rinse them in cold water and use them in a salad compose -- dress them lightly in a vinaigrette and top with crumbled bacon (you know I would work it in) and hard boiled egg. Put your beet salad (see the blog for the recipe) next to it.
· 1/2 pint of black raspberries: these are incredible. Just eat them. Do not cook them, do not share them. These are why you are in a CSA – you cannot find them anywhere else.

CSA Chicken Supper

Take a Green Fence Farm Chicken, a couple of our eggs, and, if you are lucky enough to be one of our CSA members, your Swiss chard, beets, herbs, and shallot scape – and you too can have the delicious dinner pictured above (OK, I am no Phil Karsting in my food photography abilities – and you’ll have to make the Olive bread on your own).

The nice thing about this dinner, which consists of chicken stuffed under the skin, garlic greens done in the Jaleo way (see the recipe in an earlier post that Lynn submitted), and beets in sour cream and mustard sauce (which consists of sour cream and some Dijon like mustard – not exactly a Culinary Institute of America level endeavor) is that it can all be done ahead of time – the chicken can be prepared all the way through stuffing, then refrigerated until you are ready to cook; the beets can be cooked and dressed, then refrigerated, anytime; and the spinach can be cooked then just left on the stove until you warm it before dinner. Perfect dinner party fare: Pop the chickens in when your guests arrive (or are supposed to) then 90 minutes later, you have dinner all ready to go, 90 minutes you can sit be out of the kitchen with your guests making sure you get your share of the decent wine they brought or, depending on the quality of your friends, making sure they don’t steal stuff.

To make the chicken you need:
· One 3-4 lb GREEN FENCE FARM chicken (I do not guarantee the results unless you use our chickens. With other, inferior chicken, it could well taste like dried up old chicken McNuggets)
· One finely chopped red onion
· Olive oil to coat your sauté pan
· Two or three largish Swiss Chard leaves, green part removed from stem and used in something else (I just added it to the spinach in the Jaleo Spinach recipe to turn it into a Jaleo Greens recipe), dice the stems.
· 4 cloves of garlic – or garlic and minced shallot scape (flower, for those of you in our CSA lucky enough to be getting one of these this week).
· Whatever fresh herbs you have on hand – though I am partial to oregano and basil (and again, Green Fence Farm CSA members will be receiving a little of each). If you don’t have fresh herbs, just use some dried oregano.
· 1 GREEN FENCE FARM egg and one GREEN FENCE FARM egg yolk.
· 12 oz. cream cheese or cream cheese like goat cheese.
· ½ cup dry cheese, grate (like Parmesan or Asiago)

The steps to making the chicken:

At least two hours before cooking (but actually, you could do this part even 24 hours in advance):

1. Sauté onions in heated olive oil until translucent (about 5 minutes). Add chopped chard stem, garlic, and shallot scape. Continue sautéing over medium high heat, stirring often, until the the stem is soft but not too damp, another five minutes. Turn down the heat, add the fresh herbs and season, sautéing just until the herbs are wilted.
2. In your cuisnart, mix the cream cheese, egg and egg yolk, and dried cheese. Add the sauté mix and pulse 4-5 times – enough to mix and further dice the sauted veggies but not enough to make a bizarrely colored paste. You want to continue to see the dots of color the chard stem adds. Refrigerate for a minimum of one hour.
3. Anytime after the hour is up, prep the chicken. Cut out its backbone and reserve with the neck for stock (and yes, I do have 3000 back and neck bone baggies in my freezer). Turn the chicken on what used to be its back (breast up) and press down with your hand on the breastbone between the wings to break the bone. Loosen the skin by slipping your hand between the skin and breast – be careful not to tear it.
4. Put the refrigerated cream cheese mix in a pastry tube with the biggest tip you can find (or else it will get jammed up with Swiss chard bits and, when you impatiently keep trying to squeeze the tube anyway, even though you know it is jammed, it will blow up in a royal cream cheese, chard disaster. Don’t ask me how I know).Place the point under the skin and pipe the mixture in. You can work it around to go evenly over the breast and into the thighs, even a bit of the leg. Place in a baking or roasting pan skin side up (and though I didn’t make it this way when I was testing this, you could brush butter on the breast to give you an even more golden finished product – I’ll probably do that next time). At this point you can cover the chicken and refrigerate until you are ready to pop it in the oven, Doris Day like, and sashay into your guests who will marvel at how calm you are.
2 hours before dinner:
1. Preheat the oven to 375. Put the chicken in, uncovered, from 75-95 minutes depending on the size. Let sit at least five minutes and cut into quarters for four servings.

To make the beets, boil until fork tender (15-30 minutes depending on size) or roast, and peel. Chop into bite sized pieces if they didn’t already come that way. Mix sour cream or crème fraiche with a teaspoon or two of grainy French mustard and mix that with the beets.

To make the Jaleo greens, follow the Jaleo recipe posted last month, but add your chard and beet greens to the spinach (you may have to remove the beet greens from the stems if the stems are large enough to look chewy).

Beet Greens Beet Salad

I received a question from a CSA member this week about what to do with the various greens atop the various root vegetables you received this week. She also asked me for “my” beet salad recipe, which I am embarrassed to admit is really pretty much everyone’s beet salad recipe and not all that interesting. But in an attempt to get members – or anyone really – to participate in the blog, I’ll answer both questions here.

But first, a plea: send in your ideas for using our basket of vegetables. Ask other people to send in their ideas on how to use our basket of vegetables. Send people from other CSAs to our blog so we can get their ideas (and you can make them jealous with what a cool and caring CSA you belong to – one that is working so hard to see that you use every item to its utmost).

I especially need your help because, though I love to cook and love to try new recipes, at the time we are harvesting these vegetables, I am so busy, and we work so late into the evening (to avoid the 2 million degree heat during the day that I am avoiding right now) that most of the recipes I use sound like the ones below: “Just cook it in some bacon-fat and you’ve got a meal.” Let me know what those of you who have air-conditioning and the occasional summer evening free to cook are doing!

That said, the answer to the question is: Yes you can use beet greens and cook them like you would turnip greens or any of the other tougher greens (kale, collards, older spinach). If you are feeling healthy, cook them in some chicken broth for a really long time. If not, go with the old standby – chicken broth with bacon for a really long time. Or steam them in a little chicken broth (or just water), drain, chop, and sauté in bacon fat rendered when you cook up some bacon pieces. When they are done, sprinkle the bacon pieces back on. For a really nice pairing, throw in some blue cheese crumbles at the last minute (right before the bacon, so they melt a little, but not much). Yum.

As for carrot greens, I’ve never cooked them. Some claim you can; others claim they’re toxic – I’m waiting until the jury gets back in on that one.

And finally the beet salad, which is pictured above on the left in the medley of salads (spinach and filet bean salads being the other two). Twist off the beet greens (they will bleed less if you twist, not chop, them off, though they will still bleed some and stain the white shirt you accidently wore). Boil the beets (or roast them, but you’ll have to look up how to do this yourself) until fork tender (I find beets take about the same amount of time a potato takes to get to fork tender, and that obviously depends on size). Drain and cool (if you are in a hurry, you can run cool water on them to cool them). When you can handle them, slip the skinss off (another prime opportunity to stain hands and clothes) and trim the top and bottom. Cut into a large dice, or if they are small enough, as the ones in the picture are, leave them whole. Dress lightly with your favorite balsamic vinegar recipe – or use 1 part olive oil, 1 part walnut or other nut oil, one part balsamic vinegar, on part soy sauce. Plate atop a bed of salad greens (since you have them anyway) if you want, or leave just beet. Sprinkle with walnut halves and blue cheese crumbles.

June 22 CSA basket: What are you doing with yours?

So, what are you doing with your vegetable share this week? just as a reminder, we had:

• English peas
• Sugar snap peas
• Spinach
• Loose lettuce
• Carrots
• Beets and turnips
• Quail eggs
• I am entering my fourth consecutive week of “a spinach salad a day.” My favorite, pictured on the left, is spinach, onion, blue cheese , and apple with a balsamic vinegar dressing.
  
  I’m also making “Bertha’s Carrot Cake” from the Silver Palate cook books (I almost said from the “new” Silver Palate cookbook, but since I just noticed that “new” book had its 25 year anniversary printing, I guess I better come up with a better name). In any case you can view the recipe on Epicurious here: http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Mother-Bertas-Carrot-Cake-107118

I hope Phil will write in with the recipe for pickled quail eggs with beets. I heard him giving this out to someone at the Capitol Hill pick-up yesterday, but didn’t catch it all.

As we eat through what is definitely our last week of peas (both kinds – and remember, the ones with the green twist ties are ENGLISH and must be shelled and the ones with white or no ties are sugar snaps and must never be shelled) and could be our last week of spinach (until fall), I am reminded how local eating is a series of visits from favorite friends that end too soon (forgive the lapse into Hallmark sentiment). Good-bye sweet peas, hello blueberries. It slays me that I won’t get another handful of that crunchy sweetness until 2010 – but then again, I am looking forward to drowning my sorrow in a big face full of blueberry pie. Eat seasonally and experience (or re-experience) the emotional drama of a junior high girl.

Sarah's Fabulous Grilled Quail

Finally, here's a picture of the gorgeous quail CSA member Sarah Ducich made with Green Fence Farm Quail and our spinach. She writes:

This picture was taken on my blackberry, so it is a little blurry.It is Grilled Quail with Pancetta, Ricotta Pudding and Sicilian Breadcrumbs. The green is GFF spinach-yum! The recipe is from a cookbook Kate gave me for christmas a few years back, "Sunday Suppers at Lucques" by Suzanne Goin.

I found a link to an LA Times story that included this recipe, though I warn you it is full of annoying adds. I have a hard copy from another blog posting, but it is long and I didn't want to put it here, lest it take up all the space and you never get to the quail egg post next. The link is:

http://articles.latimes.com/2005/nov/02/food/fo-goin2

What to do with Quail Eggs

This is soon to become a burning issue for our CSA members, as they are getting quail eggs in their basket this week. The eggs, as you can see from the picture, are about 1/5th the size of a regular chicken egg. They can be used in any way you use a regular chicken egg, but smaller. They are fun simply hard boiled and peeled (and possibly halved) in a salad – I’ve seen them soft boiled on fancy chef salads as well.

[To hard boil: Bring a pan of water to a light boil. Drop the eggs in for four minutes, then drain and transfer immediately to an ice water bath for at least five minutes. Peel when cold. The shell is surprisingly hard, so be ready for that.]

You can also use them in creative mini egg dishes like those pictured here in photos by CSA member and extraordinary chef, Phil Karsting.

One of my favorite quail egg recipes involves the use of the sort of greens we have around in early summer (also CSA staples): Spinach, Swiss chard (baby or not), beet, and turnip greens. This is modified from an egg and Swiss chard recipe from Barbara Kingsolver’s wonderful book, Animal, Vegetable, Miracle (linked above) – this book chronicles novelist Kingsolver’s family’s experiment with eating almost exclusively local for a year (they cheated on coffee, as would I). Since Kingsolver is from southern Virginia, many of the recipes and ideas in the book are perfect for our CSA members as well as anyone in the Mid-Atlantic area trying to eat seasonally and locally.

Quail Eggs in a Green Nest:

• Makes a side dish sized portion
• Count on one quail egg and one heaping handful of greens per person. Use any seasonal greens like Spinach, mizuna mustard, beet or turnip greens, and Swiss chard. In the fall you can substitute kale and collard greens with the same results.
• If you are using Swiss Chard, remove the leafy part from the stem. Do the same if you beet or turnip greens are large enough to have a thick central stem. Throw away the beet and turnip stems, but keep the chard ones. Wash the greens but don’t dry them (the same as in the Jaleo spinach recipe). Place them in a covered large pot over medium heat and let them cook down, stirring occasionally to get them to cook evenly). When fully wilted and cooked, drain and chop.
• While the greens are cooking down, add a tablespoon of olive oil (notice how all recipes call for “good quality olive oil” – well, I am sure this would be better with that, but I used crappy sale brand, and it worked just fine) per serving. Heat over a medium flame then, if you want, add some chopped garlic and/or finely chopped onion. For those of you in the CSA, you may want to chop your shallot flower and use it here. Sauté until the onions are translucent and the garlic smells good but is not crispy.
• If you saved chard stems, chop them now and add to the onions and garlic for about the last 5 minutes of their cooking.
• Add your pre-cooked and drained greens, season to taste, and continue sautéing for just a few minutes until the greens are warmed through and infused with the garlic and onions.
• Divide the green in the skillet into little piles (like nests), one for each serving. Turn the heat up a bit, make a hole in the nest and crack a quail egg in it. Let the egg fry for as long as it takes to get it the way you like fried eggs (we like the yolk runny so it mixes with the greens). Serve each little nest as side to quail, chicken, or any other fine Green Fence Farm meat product.
• [To make a full vegetarian meal out of this recipe, add cooked brown rice at the same time you add the chard stems. Divide into nests, but bigger nests than above. Use a chicken egg or several quail eggs as the center].

Happy 50th Birthday Nick!!

Today Nick finally reaches the age where he can, with some credibility, utter the phrase I hear from him every day on the farm, “I am way too old for this.” And even though he is, there would be no Green Fence Farm without him – he is its vision and the backbone, and it is his hard work and commitment to selling only the best quality products that is making this collection of broken down equipment and difficult to manage, allegedly domesticated animals into a model sustainable farm. He also doesn’t suck as a husband, dad, and friend. And though we love him for his poultry and produce, we mostly love him (or I do) for his loyalty, bombastic embrace of life, booming voice, and huge heart. Happy Birthday!

THE Spinach recipe from Jaleo

CSA member Lynn used her spinach this week to recreate my personal favorite tapas at Jaleos. The recipe is (I hope) linked above. I plan on making this when I get back to the farm tomorrow, but I am not sure about the status of the spinach beds. The farm is currently in the care of Nick and our son, Austin (who many of you know from the Shakespeare Theater). I tried to ask them to go and check out the spinach for me, but they are both very cranky and not taking phone requests. Seems our house roosters -- the ones we let run around the farm to eat bugs (and we "harvest" when they start trying to eat children instead) -- have taken up residence under our cabin, more specifically, under Austin's room. They start crowing at 3:30 AM. I find this very, very funny, which is why no one is checking my spinach for me.

What did you do with your CSA share this week

By the way, here's what your lettuce looked like before it came out of the ground -- the shadow is mine, and just above it, you can see one of my slug beer traps which, as you probably have realized by now, did not work nearly as well as one would have hoped.

This week, June 8th delivery, you got: spinach, loose lettuce, a head of lettuce, green onions, mizuna mustard, baby turnips, and sugar snap peas. Some of you also got Cornish game hens, quail, eggs, and John's bread.

I got most of the same things, and I mostly plan to eat salads (having consumed my share of sugar snap peas while picking -- and I still argue they are best raw, maybe with a little dip of some kind, but since mine never make it in the house, I can't vouch for that last statement). My favorite salad in the world is spinach, green onion, blue cheese, an apple, an avacado and a garlicy vinegrette or Paul Newman's balsamic dressing. When I run out of spinach, I go to the greens and do the same thing. I sure hope some of you have better ideas.

Here's my suggestions for the scary looking turnips and their greens again -- anyone try this?

Peel the turnips best you can and dice into about ½” squares. Chop some bacon and fry it until crisp. Remove the bacon and use the far to fry up the turnip dice. While it is cooking, wash (gotta wash everything from our farm – this will be obvious) the turnip greens and chop the top third or half. Throw these greens in with the turnips and sauté until the greens are tender. Serve warm with the bacon bits mixed back in. This is really good with steak on the barbeque ( a healthy alternative – except the bacon part – to potatoes).


You can also use the turnips and greens as part of a stir fry – replace the bacon with a mix of sesame and vegetable oil. Fry the turnips and greens in the oil as above. Add the mizuna mustard a minute or so after you add the turnip greens. Throw some spinach in if it looks skimpy. Then add whatever cooked meat you want in your stir fry along with a little soy sauce.

And if you got bread and eggs, a great breakfast, one my mom used to make, is called "spit in the eye" (and for those of you who know my mom, this is an odd recipe title for her to have grown fond of -- must have come from my saltier grandmother). Make a one inch or so hole in the middle of a slice of bread (and eat it to tide you over until you are done cooking), melt a slice of butter in a frying pan and heat to egg frying temp. Fry the bread for a bit (personal preference here -- I like the bread soft; Nick likes it crunchier). Break an egg into the hole, fry for a while (again, personal preference -- fry until the yolk is as hard as you like it in a fried egg). Flip the bread over and fry a minute longer.

So what are you doing with your loot? And please, even if you are not a CSA member, feel free to comment on how you used your Green Fence Farm produce, eggs, or meat (I am less interested in what you did with your Safeway purchases from Chile).