9 October 2008

Eggplant, Garlic, Leeks, Lettuce, Mustard greens, Peppers, Kennebec potatoes, Hot peppers, Rosemary, Tatsoi, Tomatoes

It is time again for my once a year stint as a caterer for the local land trust’s landscape exhibit preview party.  Consequently, instead of writing a normal newsletter tonight, I need instead to make venison pate, cook down some onions, roast tomatoes, make a spicy marinade for pork cubes and possibly start on some puff pastry.

I am afraid I cannot invite you to the preview party, at least not unless you express a sincere and credible desire to make a major donation to the land trust or to purchase a few pieces of art (those wishing to express either desire should get in touch with me as soon as possible).  I can, however, invite you to the opening party the next day, and you are free to attend (and attend for free) without giving or buying anything—though I would encourage you to do either or both.  Your donation and a portion of the price of your art would support the work of the Agricultural Stewardship Association, which works (successfully) to protect farmland and ensure the viability of farming in Washington and Rensslaer counties.  ASA holds a conservation easement on a portion of our farm (including the fields where some of you weeded carrots, peppers, eggplants and onions), meaning that nobody can ever build on that land.  Everybody in the region benefits from such easements, which help a vital part of the economy, encourage the local production of food, protect natural resources and preserve a beautiful landscape. 

If you want to know more about the art exhibit or ASA, go to agstewardship.org.  I strongly encourage you to come to the show and to take a look around the area.  I would encourage you to drop in at the farm too, but I won’t be there.  I won’t be at the art show either.  Greg and Andrea, who worked here in 2006 and 2007 are getting married on Saturday so we will be at their wedding. 

Before returning to my cooking tasks I offer a few notes about the vegetables in your bag.  Your eggplant is, I know, rather small.  Consider it a final adieu to summer.  We stripped down the plants just before the first frost.  Fortunately the tatsoi (the head of dark green spoon shaped leaves) could care less about frost.  In fact, it may taste better after one.  It definitely tastes better after you steam if and top with soy sauce, vinegar, garlic and hot sauce (though it is tasty raw).  You can have the mustard greens (in the bag) raw or cooked.  I like to put some in a salad (or have a purely mustard salad).  At this point in the season, the tomatoes might taste better cooked.  The weakening sun has lost much of its power to produce sugar in fruits.  The potatoes definitely taste better cooked than raw.  The real question with potato varieties is which cooking method suits them best. I am told Kennebecs make fine baked potatoes, but they are considered general purpose spuds so you can do with them what you want, such as making a leek and potato soup with rosemary or a garlic-infused gratin.

16 October 2008

Arugula, Carrots, Garlic, Kohlrabi, Lemon grass, Lettuce, Onions, Peppers, Anaheim peppers, Potatoes, Radishes (red) or turnips (white), Shallots, Winter squash

I thought I would write about presidential debates, about how with their array of highly stylized tradition costumes, scripts, gestures and intonations they remind me not so much of keen intellectual combat as of Javanese shadow puppet theater.  Except that we sit and listen raptly to these often tedious political theatrics, while the Javanese understand that such shows only require intermittent and often half-hearted attention because surely they will occur again in much the same form the next time you go to pick up some fish.   

            But then I got a cold and my brain turned to mush, precluding any possibility of extended, grumpy comparative ethnographic commentary.  Though come to think of it the mushy brain syndrome could have set in when in a moment of weakness I turned on the debate and caught a couple of minutes of the two candidates arguing over which one of them is less faithful to his party’s principles, such unpredictability apparently being considered an asset.  I should have stuck to baseball.

            Whatever the cause, at present my brain can barely distinguish between a radish and a turnip.  Those of you better equipped to do so my be interested to note that to some extent it does not matter if you mix them since you can eat both raw or cooked and both have edible greens.  Madhur Jaffrey has a recipe from Uttar Pradesh for radishes cooked with their leaves in A Taste of India (and I would guess you could substitute turnips for radishes and end up with much the same dish).

            You may be thinking, depending on what is in your bag, that I have had similar trouble telling the difference between a winter squash and a pumpkin.  In fact, however, there is not really any difference.  The various sorts of winter squash and pumpkins all belong to a small number of Cucurbita species.  As it happens, pie pumpkins and Acorn squash are both Cucurbita Pepos and thus more closely related to one another then they are to, say, a Butternut (cucurbita moschata).  In any event, you cook them in exactly the same ways, my preferred method being to place the whole squash in the oven and bake it until it goes soft, then scoop out the flesh and puree it with a little cream and butter, a bit of nutmeg, a dash of paprika and perhaps a little sherry.  You can use the puree to make soup, eat it just like that, or mix in an egg and bake it until it sets slightly.

            Many of you, finding a couple of grassy stalks in the bag, may have come to the reasonable conclusion that I have also failed to tell the difference between weeds and edible crops.  As it happens, those are grassy stalks, they are not edible and we put them in your bag on purpose.  No, we are not getting a little punchy at the end of the season.  While you would not want to eat lemon grass, you would want to use it in soup for its excellent flavor (one of the basic flavors of Thai cooking).  Snip it into smaller pieces and throw it in some stock with a fair amount of garlic, simmer for a while, add onion, carrots, pepper (sweet and of Anaheim), perhaps some potato cubes, maybe even a couple of radishes or turnips.  When the vegetables have cooked, add thinly sliced beef, fried shallots, some lime juice, fish sauce and perhaps some arugula and serve.