Eat this! First baby squash summer of the season

We bought these beautiful baby summer squash from the California Street Lattin Farm booth this morning.  They're perfect for a recipe we got out of the new Eating Local cookbook mentioned earlier...Summer Squash Carpaccio with Arugula, Pecorino, and Almonds.  We've served it twice and everyone raved!

Really tasty simple recipe for that grass-finished rump roast!

To all my colleagues who were drawn to the break room yesterday by the aroma of pot roast....here's the recipe for my lunch that day.

It's hard to find contemporary rump roast recipes...it's just not a sexy cut and gets no love in newer cookbooks.  Thank goodness Epicurious includes older recipes.  This one was published the year I was born! We made this basic pot roast a couple of days ago and it was fantastic! Didn't fiddle with it this time but will the next time around.

Slow Food Reno September 14, 2009

We went to the fourth Slow Food Reno get-together on Monday, September 14th. This event was hosted by The Cheese Board, which as it turns out, is the very first restaurant I knew about that served local food. Here are the high points:

What are we going to do with all those green tomatoes!

My yard will experience below freezing temperatures sometime late this week so I’ll have lots of green tomatoes this year. I’ve been told that if you uproot your tomato plants and hang them in a room or garage the tomatoes will continue to ripen. We’re going to try this method with our Brandywines, which have just now started ripening en masse. Even with this I’m pretty sure we’re going to have plenty of green tomatoes to use in other dishes. We made this recipe, Green Tomato Dip, earlier this year and we thought it was great; friends tell us the same. It’s good on sandwiches, mixed with egg salad, spread on crostini, and used in any number of other ways we haven’t even thought of yet.

Happy eating!

Two recipes

For all those who came to Being a Nevada Locavore at Moana yesterday, here are the two recipes I promised.

Strawberry Sundried Jam

Zuni Cafe Zucchini Pickles

Happy eating!

Looking for something to do with those fresh strawberries?

Great! You purchased fresh, organic strawberries either through your Northern Nevada CSA subscription or from the farmer's market. You know you have about 12-24 hours to do something with them before they get icky and become worm food. Here's one of my favorite ways to turn those strawberries into something that will last, and it only takes about 20 minutes. That's right....Strawberry Sun Dried Jam.

This recipe comes from one of the cookbooks, named Chez Panisse Fruit, that I purchased a couple of years ago when I was trying to find ways to eat fruit in more creative ways than out-of-hand. I've also used the fruit variety information to find non-commercial fruit varieties to grow in my garden. Many of the recipes are easy and flexible, and this recipe is particularly yummy. Great book all around!

I don't bother to water-bath the jars because, really, it doesn't stay in the house long enough to make in necessary. It can be stored in the fridge for about a month but it rarely lasts that long in our house. We eat it on toast, mix it with yogurt, blend it up and make it into strawberry ice cream, or pour it over vanilla ice cream. The possibilities are endless.

Enjoy!

Recipes for your Nevada-grown local beef - pt. 2

My mom emailed me yesterday about the grillades recipe linked from the last email. Essentially she questioned using veal in a beef recipe sent out to people who are intentionally buying beef outside the conventional system so they can get, among other good things, humanely raised beef. Good point! I should have mentioned that we substituted more beef for the veal. I’ll make a note of that in the recipe. Thanks mom!

Recipes for your Nevada-grown local beef

We held our second annual grass-finished-beef distribution get together last week. Ten families went in on the purchase of a whole beef and met at our house to divide it up and mingle a bit.

The beef comes in various cuts, as you would expect when purchasing the entire animal. Last year we learned that we’d wanted less ground beef and more stew meat, fajita meat, etc. in the 2008 order, so asked for some modifications from the butcher. We got what we asked for and now embark on another year of learning. Here’s some information I hope will help those who are just starting to cook with all types of beef cuts.


Over the last year we’ve met an increasing group of people who want to know where their food comes from and how it is produced. As the local food community continues to expand, access and convenience are increasing so more families are including local food in their routine and learning about food in a whole new way.

This brings me to my real point. When we started eating locally we’d reach in the freezer and pull out a beef-cut we’d never cooked before. Naturally this sent us searching for recipes and techniques. We’ve saved the recipes we liked and want to put them here for others to try.

Pot au Feu for cross shanks, knuckle bones, etc. (Intense recipe but oh-so-worth-it)

Marinated flank steak with horseradish sauce – flank steak or tri-tip

Meatball sliders – these are heavenly! The recipe calls for ground beef, and also ground pork and veal (try UNR Meats for these). Make the rolls yourself or call House of Bread and ask them to make you an order of slider rolls. We make a double batch and freeze the leftovers into meal sized portions.

Hunter-style grillades – for round (or any other large cut suited for braising) and veal. Again, this recipe calls for a second kind of meat so may require a bit more than “reach into the freezer” but the meal is seriously yummy!

Happy eating!

A fantastic recipe for round steak!

Yes! It’s January and we’re still eating local meat and veggies. True, we are supplementing with supermarket veggies and staples, but not much. And bonus…it’s been especially nice to make fewer trips to the store in this bone-chilling weather. With meat and veggies in the freezer and root veggies in the garage we were able to stay inside and eat hot food.

We’re down to the last of the 2007 grass-finished beef (2008 is in process) so last week when it was time to think about putting together a dinner plan I opened the freezer only to find that my best option was a cut I’d been avoiding. The label said Swiss Steak, which I know zero about so naturally I was intimidated. After a little research I determined that it was probably actually round steak. And then I found this recipe…Hunter-Style Grillades. This made one of the best meals we’ve had all winter. We made it for a family-and-friends dinner, over boiled potatoes that night and then over rice for lunch a couple of days later. The ingredient list is long but most are staples. What we didn’t have we substituted with something else. Enjoy!

Chestnuts - how to get to the good stuff!

Chestnuts started showing up at the farmers' market last week and I am happy! I love these rare treats and eat them whenever I can in Creamy Chestnut Risotto, or raviolis, or simply out of hand like other nuts. Today I learned a lot about how to avoid some of the challenges I've experienced with this precious foodstuff.


Before I get started though, take a look at this picture with some of the nuts still in the protective armor they wear while still on the tree. You have to wonder how hungry the first chestnut-eater must have been to even think about eating one of these. Notice the resemblance to the handful of baby porcupines? Ouch!

Last week I saw the first chestnuts at the Amber Oaks Raspberries stall, run by Timothy Boughton. Timothy and his wife, Rhonda, grow all kinds of interesting produce on their farm including berries, fruits, and nuts. You can also find "happy" cheese and handmade tortillas at their stall, with Timothy enthusiastically and professionally passing out tons of information about how his stuff is grown and used. He's been farming for twelve years but has been a farmer in his heart all his life, hybridizing his first raspberry when he was eight years old. Today it dawned on me...Ah ha! This is the guy to ask about my ongoing chestnut challenges.

Chestnuts are deliciously creamy, nutty, and slightly sweet but it can take a bit of work to get to the good stuff. Timothy tells me he can shell about a pound of nuts per minute -- here's his technique. Take a sharp knife and cut off the light-colored broad end of the shell; boil the nuts in water for two minutes then put them in the oven to roast at about 425 degrees until the shells are practically black. After they've cooled squeeze the nuts from the pointed end and the meat will pop right out, leaving that pesky papery skin behind and your fingernails intact.

Most of my experiences with eating chestnuts at home have been disappointing. I'd put significant time into getting the nuts ready to peel while daydreaming about the yummy dish we'd soon be eating, only to finally get the shells open to find the meat had gone moldy...yuck! Today I learned why this happens. Even though chestnuts seem to want to be stored like a nut they should actually be stored like a fruit, that is, kept moist and cool in the refrigerator. Chestnuts that are not kept at sufficiently cool temperatures will quickly develop mold. If you want to store them for a couple of months put them in a plastic bag along with a paper towel and put it in the refrigerator. If you want to keep them for a really long time put them in a ziplock bag, cover the nuts with water, close up the bag and put it in the freeze. When it's time just defrost them and roast as usual. The next time you see a pile of chestnuts and are tempted to buy them ask yourself how likely it is they were picked yesterday, or if it is likely they were picked a few weeks ago and stored properly. If you have doubts, move along. It's not worth it.

CSA - the veggies are coming in now!

All along we've been warned that CSAs start off slow in June, with lettuces and the few other Spring-friendly vegetables, then explode in abundance around August. They weren't kidding. I'll keep this entry short because we have veggies to eat. Here are a few of the dishes we'll be making with the produce we received in the last CSA and the beef we purchased from Home Grown Nevada.

Eggplant sandwiches from the Too Many Chefs blog; warm zucchini salad, again from Too Many Chefs; Warm beef salad; Melon gelato from Chez Panisse Fruit.

Summer squash - two standouts from Home Grown Nevada

It's squash season and time to enjoy the wonderful varieties you'll never see at the supermarket. I've said it before but I'll say it again...I've never really been a summer squash person. I've eaten it in restaurants because it was the veggie of the day which included the typical zucchini and some other yellow squash that I couldn't identify either by taste or by appearance. Though the squash was certainly edible it wasn't anything I'd take the effort to cook at home. Then we started getting summer squash in our CSA baskets. OMG!

We've been eating or freezing all the squash that comes in our basket. However two of the varieties are so good we've been picking up extra from the Home Grown Nevada stall at the California Street farmers' market (Saturdays from 8:00-1:00):

Tromboccino Rampacante zucchini and Starship.

Not only are they wildly different in appearance they each have their own distinct taste. Summer squash is surprisingly versatile so the meal possibilities are endless. We ate our last batch in Summer Squash and Corn Pasta (from Chez Panisse Vegetables) while we watched The Fellowship of the Ring with our dogs (they love that movie).

Now that we can get a huge, delicious variety at the farmers' markets summer squash is back on the menu! Woo hoo!

Peaches and Arugula!

As usual, I went to the Saturday farmers' market to pick up a couple of things. Specifically, any tasty fruit to make a crostata for a friend's baby shower, and anything else that looked good. As it turned out blueberries were available and luscious...so blueberry crostata was on the menu. I conducted my usual produce inventory then stopped by the Home Grown Nevada stall to say good morning to Tina and Ann. Tina's garden has taken off and the stall was full of Nevada grown beef, vegetables, and melons. And she had arugula....I love arugula! This made me remember a recipe I'd seen in the Aug 07 Bon Appetit--Peach and Arugula Salad with Creamy Chive Dressing. I didn't remember all the other ingredients that were necessary to make this dish but figured if I had the best parts, how bad could it be? So I picked up some of Tina's arugula and wandered across the pathway to K & J Orchards to take a look at peaches. They had a small yellow cling-free variety, firm but wonderfully fragrant and, I later discovered, bursting with peach flavor. Nummy! As it turned out the recipe required only a few more ingredients: I had most of them at home and improvised with the others. It was stupendous! Easy and impressive if you're having company. Easy and decadent if it's just you, a loved one, and dinner on the patio in your pajamas.