September Cookbook Review: Serving Up The Harvest

I love the gamble of gardening.  Throwing the dice and hoping that you will get what you planted, the thrill of seeing your seedlings struggle to the surface and then thrive, yielding up so many meals through the season.  A farming friend encourages me to have more “faith in a seed” and to be less surprised when my garden actually delivers according to plan. 

This year was not an easy one for our garden, after years of success we were probably due for a less than productive year.  Our CSA was full of incredible bounty, however, and we turned to embrace that weekly canvas bag of delights and decided to take a year off from gardening our own vegetables.  Neighbors and friends brought over baskets of largesse and our fridge was stuffed with greenery and deliciousness all season long.

How fortunate we were to be reviewing Andrea Chesman’s Serving Up The Harvest over this summer.  You could pick almost any vegetable and somewhere inside this cookbook you would find a way to happily serve it up.

The book is divided into seasons: Spring into Summer, Early to Mid-Summer, Mid- to Late Summer and Fall into Winter.  Within each is a profile of recipes using vegetables typical to that season, and a few master recipes such as pizza dough and pie crust as well. 

Many of the recipes are vegetarian, but there are some exceptions – one of the master recipes, Basic Stir Fry, has a chicken option, and there is a Chicken Breast Nicoise, to name just a few.

The Summer Vegetable Bread Pudding was a beautiful dish, a golden browned mound rising out of the spring-form pan, bright flecks of carrot and red pepper scattered throughout, so fragrant in the kitchen and delicious too.

I’ve been a fan of chocolate zucchini cake since I was a little kid and my mother had to slip the green stuff past me in disguise.  I knew the zucchini was there all along, but the chocolate just made it go down so much easier.  Chesman’s Dark Chocolate-Zucchini Bundt Cake is exactly what I remember, and we even successfully experimented with making mini-bundts for the freezer.

The Red-Cooked Cabbage is one of those cabbage dishes that I have trouble stopping myself from eating.  With a distinctly Asian (and addictive) flavor profile, I came to my senses halfway through and realized with a start how much I had consumed.  But, it’s good for me, right?  It’s cabbage, after all.

So go ahead, pick a vegetable, any vegetable, and with Andrea Chesman’s cookbook, odds are good your gamble will be rewarded. 

“Serving Up TheHarvest: Celebrating the Goodness of Fresh Vegetables” by Andrea Chesman. Illustrationsby Margaret Chosdos-Irvine.  Publishedby Storey Publishing, 2007. Previously published as “The Garden-Fresh Vegetable Cookbook” in ahardcover edition, 2005.  501 pages.

July Cookbook Review: Out of Vermont Kitchens

I have such fond memories of cooking with my grandmother.  She was an accomplished cook, whether on a grand scale at the holidays or just the two of us baking together.  I can still see her slim fingers, with her wedding ring worn thin from the years, leveling a cup of flour, scraping the white mound off the top with a knife.  She made the tallest angel food cakes I have ever known, bar none.  She was a canner, a freezer, a comfort cooker and an accomplished hostess. 

After my grandmother died, we found a box of calendars going back to the 1960’s, each dinner party meticulously chronicled with details such as who attended, where they sat and what was served for each course.  She was a new bride during the Depression, saving every tiny scrap and using it for another purpose.  I have habits I learned from her that I cannot shake - saving plastic bags, cooking every chicken carcass into stock and freezing egg whites in ice cube trays.

When I first encountered the humble, plastic spiral bound book, Out of Vermont Kitchens, compiled by the Women of St. Paul’s Cathedral in Burlington, printed locally by Queen City Printers, I was enchanted by the simple ink drawings that accompany the recipes.  That was at first glance, but I quickly became fascinated with the recipes inside and the history they convey.

This cookbook is in its 20^th printing – originally produced in 1939.  All of the recipes are handwritten, in ballpoint and in fountain pen.  The differences in handwriting are disconcerting at first, some flowery and elegant, the writer probably already an older woman when the book was first printed, others blocky and more modern in style.  Each recipe is signed by the contributor, but many of the women have omitted their own first names in favor of the formal use of their husband’s names preceded by a “Mrs.”.  

There are plenty of recipes in the book that are products of their time in history – a can of condensed mushroom soup here and a canned ham or gelatin salad there.  But many of them are the real deal, right down to the lack of standardized measurement – one calls for “Butter the size of an egg” to be melted into a white sauce. 

I experimented with several of these recipes, the Cheese Dreams crab canapés that asked for a half package of Velveeta (How big was the original package?  Can I just use cheddar instead?), the Brown Bread wanting sour milk (How sour?), and the skeptically sounding but ultimately rewarding Carrot Pie using raw finely grated carrots.

The Noodle Ring and the Salmon Loaf were interesting, and I’m glad I tried them, but I’d prefer to enjoy the elegant Beef in Red Wine or the simple luncheon of the Cheese Layer Bake.  Real old fashioned Doughnuts and an Apple Pie evoke grandmotherly kitchens everywhere.  But the Streusel-Filled Coffee Cake was the one that gave me a sweet pang of memory, for my grandmother’s had tasted exactly the same.

“Out of Vermont Kitchens since 1939…” compiled by the Women of St. Paul’s Cathedral. Pen and ink drawings by various artists.  Published by Queen City Printers, Inc., 2007 (20th Printing). 360 pages.

April Book Review: All About Roasting

There has been some great press lately about this book – and deservedly so!  Based on my transcendent experience with All About Braising, I pre-ordered my copy of All About Roasting, Molly Stevens’ latest cookbook, and waited breathlessly for it to arrive at my door.  Patience is not one of my great virtues, I’m afraid. 

One of the many reasons that I love Molly Stevens is that she includes so much educational information in her books.  The recipes are fantastic, to be sure, but significant value is added to the experience of this book by fully reading the Introduction: The Principles of Roasting, before you start cooking.  This section covers a history of roasting, how roasting relates to baking, a description of the Maillard reaction, to presalt or not, the importance of resting, and an overview of the various types of pans and racks that can be used to roast.  The Introduction is thick, but don’t skip over it – there is a lot of important information to savor and digest inside.

In the body of the book, recipes are divided into sections based on the variety of meats or vegetables and fruits to be roasted.  We enjoyed beef dishes such as the Peppered Tri-Tip Roast and the Straight-Up Roast Beef.  We loved the Roasted Rack of Lamb with Crunchy Mustard-Herb Crust especially.  The pork dishes we tried included delicious Spice-Crusted Pork Roast Tenderloin and Char Siu. 

Not surprisingly, the Basic Roast Chicken and a Green Salad with a Vinaigrette Made From Pan Drippings was so perfectly simple but so meltingly elegant, as was the Skillet Roasted Chicken with Shredded Cabbage Slaw.  I’ve always been fond of pan drippings, but both of these recipes helped to strengthen that love even more.

We roasted up some Quick-Roasted Mushrooms with Pine Nuts and Parmesan, some Chile-Roasted “Candy” Corn, and multiple batches of Blasted Broccoli, with great pleasure.  Our meals were finished off with roasted fruits, such as the Brown-Sugar Roasted Pineapple, which was slurpingly good.

But the best recipes are the roasted shrimp dishes.  Surprisingly, shrimp tastes so much better roasted that I think we are spoiled now, and can only cook shrimp in this manner ever going forward.  The Herb-Roasted Shrimp with Pancetta and the Garlic Roasted Shrimp with Tomatoes, Capers and Feta are the two specific recipes we loved the most.  All you need to round out these dishes into a meal is some good bread and company. 

As the kitchen fills with good smells and the oven maintains its glow, we find ourselves counting the minutes of the rest and waiting, our appetites whetted with anticipation, for what we know will be another delicious meal.  Timing is everything and good things really do come to those who wait.

“All About Roasting: A New Approach to a Classic Art” by Molly Stevens. Color Photographs by Quentin Bacon.  Wine Pairings by Tim Gaiser.  Published by W.W. Norton & Company, 2011. 573 pages.

January Book Review: The King Arthur Flour Baker's Companion

True confessions for the New Year – I am a baked goods junkie. I prefer to choose baked goods over fruit, over candy, over even ice cream. It’s a hard cold world out there, and I feel bolstered and encouraged by a little something-something on a regular basis. Even the bliss of a simple slice of bread and butter will suffice in a pinch.

Specifically, I have had a long love affair with King Arthur Flour, that familiar red and white bag, filled with such promise and optimism. I love that it is made in Vermont. When it appears from the cupboard to sit proudly on our counter, my family starts to orbit around the kitchen, “What are we making, Mom?” or “So, honey, whatcha up to?”

The King Arthur Flour Baker’s Companion, while packed with recipes, also includes a section on how to measure flour correctly, a table of measurement conversion, a section on high altitude baking, and a nearly 100 page section on other ingredients and tools. I find myself using this volume as an encyclopedia or reference manual as much as I do a collection of recipes. A true companion, indeed.

My husband dared me to make the Classic Puff Pastry from scratch some time ago, with success thanks to the informative descriptions and illustrations. The section on sourdough bread is also well frequented in our book, with a basic education in the creation, care and feeding of a starter preceding the recipes. After that, the Cookies and Bars section, particularly the Meringues recipe, which actually doesn’t contain any flour, surprisingly. I thought that I knew this book well enough that we wouldn’t have too many new surprises from it. Not so, not so.

I soon discovered the section on Breakfast, and was delighted by the variety of pancakes, waffles, crepes, in particular the Classic Buttermilk Waffles, soon to become a standby in our house.

The Quick Bread section serves up muffins, scones and biscuits, including the Herbed Cream Cheese Biscuits, which we served along with some sausage gravy one brunch and spent much of the day recovering from the delight.

In the Yeast Breads there are Beautiful Burger Buns, Soft Dinner Rolls and Challah so good and reliable that you may find yourself choosing to make your own rather than buy them from the bakery. I also love the Sandwich Rye Bread, which asks for a hit of dill pickle juice to get that deli style tang.

The Cake and Pies sections are well endowed with delicious recipes, including the classics like a Dark Chocolate Cream Pie, and a luscious Pumpkin Cheesecake, as well as a selection of savory pies and quiches. We enjoyed the Church Supper Chicken Pie and the Tourtiere very much this holiday season.

Our copy of this cookbook is loved, battered and worn. The spine has become a little weakened and warrants repair, but the book falls open naturally and reliably to our favorite recipes, with all the little smudges and stains in the margins. We’re ready to roll up our sleeves again!

“The King Arthur Flour Baker’s Companion” by King Arthur Flour. Color Photographs by H/O Photographers, Inc. Instructional Illustrations by Laura Hartman Maestro. Published by The Countryman Press, 2003. 620 pages.

Plumpest Peach Presents!

Have you heard about our partnership with the Plumpest Peach? Owner, Jessica Bongard creates inspired slow food menus to satisfy nearly any palate. She sources all her ingredients locally, and when the situation calls for it, she includes specialty ingredients as well. We are lucky to have her exercise her creative menu crafting for the Slow Food audience, with extremely fun and inspired theme classes. So far this year we have had several classes, with themes ranging from wine and cheese to milk and honey to raw food to heirloom tomatoes to ginger. All the themes are unique and all taught in Jessica's certified home kitchen in Jericho, VT. She is a teacher with a hearty wit, always ready to share her knowledge and seasoned opinions on how one should do a technique, but open to sharing the collective knowledge of the class attendees, which really sets her classes apart from a traditional cooking class. Jessica calls her classes "glorified dinner parties", and the feel is exactly that. You enter her spacious kitchen/dining area greeted with a theme cocktail, where all attendees get to know each other while Jessica shares the agenda for the class - presented in a nicely printed packet of recipes, ingredient sources and photos. The class begins casually, as the first recipe is prepped. Some attendees are eager to help, others are eager to watch, and the recipe is made under Jess' watchful eye - she allows ample time for socializing while being mindful of timings, temperatures and cooling, so that we end with a perfect result for each recipe. Finally, when all the recipes are complete, we sit at her large Basque-style farmhouse table and dig in. I can hardly wait until her next class, the last for 2011, Vine Intervention - all things grape. This is going to be a fabulous one - right after Thanksgiving, when you are all cooked-out; come to a class where you can participate or not, learn a lot, meet fabulous people, and share an incredible meal in a convivial setting!

DETAILS for: Vine Intervention

• Sunday, November 27th
• 5:00-8:30
• $25 per person
• RSVP HERE
  
• You only need to bring yourself, no special equipment needed

Recipes for Vine Intervention:

A selection of three wines, one to be paired with each recipe:

Vine Leaf Mozzarella Parcels. Served with grilled grapes in a herby dressing. (You have no idea.)

Agrodolce Grape Tart. Goat's feta, pancetta, crispy sage leaves, on a rustic puff pastry. (Hello, friend.)

Grape & Moscato Jelly. This dessert is served with Moscato ice cream. (Gorgeous.)

Want a few sneak peaks of the dishes before class? Yeah you do. Check out Plumpest Peach's Facebook page for updates and see what recipes were featured in previous classes.

** Photo Credits: Jessica Bongard **

November Book Review: Pane E Salute

I love to travel. I love everything about traveling, from researching the destination to that familiar fluttery anticipation as I lock the door of the house behind me and set out. It doesn’t matter if it is a weekend road trip or an overseas adventure, I love to step out of my ordinary life and experience a new place, with new light, new language, new customs and most especially, new food.

There are many locations famous for the beauty of their lands, for the fascinating histories of their peoples, or for the impact of their food on world cuisine. Of all of these destinations, Italy could arguably be considered one of the top favorites, certainly for food.

Deirdre Meekin and Caleb Barber are the authors of Pane E Salute: Food and Love in Italy and Vermont, and owners of the eponymous restaurant located in Woodstock, Vermont. This cookbook, which also contains a series of essays on food and travel, is an homage to both destinations. In reviewing it this fall, we were indeed transported.

Essays that evoke the warmth and hospitality of Italy are interspersed with recipes organized by season. Within each season, the recipes are organized by course: antipasti, primi, secundi, contorni and dolci. A note from the authors encourages a sort of “mix and match” within these selections so that a cook may create a balanced four course meal from the offerings within each season.

While we never actually made four courses in a single meal, we did enjoy pairings of the recipes together, such as the Risotto al Limone and the Tuscan-Style Roasted Chicken, a delicious spring celebration of lemons in both dishes.

Samplings from the summer menu included Piemontese Fresh Egg Pasta with Green Zucchini Sauce followed by luscious Panna Cotta with Fresh Berries. Overall, the pasta recipes we tried were fantastically simple and fantastically delicious, varied and versatile. The Pasta with Leeks and Parmigiano was a stand-out favorite.

Autumn found us savoring the Cabbage Salad with Anchovy Dressing, the Sausages with Black Grapes and Valeria’s Crumb Cake, which was less like a cake than a nutty shortbread treat, perfect for a sweet dessert wine or with coffee.

Salmon with Green Peppercorns perked up the winter menu with the Oven Roasted Potatoes, but the favorite for us was the Beef Braised in Red Wine, so fragrant and so belly-warming.

I have never been to Italy, although it has been a long-lived dream to go. Pane E Salute has helped to bring so many Italian flavors into my own kitchen, but I realize it is only a sampling of the possibilities I could encounter in my travels. Maybe for now, I can get a close second by packing up my bag and heading over to Woodstock for dinner instead.

“Pane E Salute: Food and Love in Italy and Vermont” by Deirdre Heekin and Caleb Barber. Published by Invisible Cities Press, 2002. 278 pages.

Peru comes to Vermont!

The concept for our collaboration with the Vermont International Film Festival started just a few months ago, but the preparation for the dishes my mother and I prepared goes back to culinary knowledge built over more than 500 years. Peruvian cuisine is a mixture of cultures (Indigenous, European, African and Asian), influences and recipes that have marinated over time to create a distinct cuisine with very specific flavors and distinct dishes.

photo by Jessica Bongard

There is no Afro-Peruvian or Chinese-Peruvian cuisine; everything is simply just Peruvian. Dishes have multiple layers of history, beginning with an indigenous root at its base and with foreign ingredients or techniques that have been introduced over time. In other situations, the recipes were imported to the country, and then were reworked with new ingredients and flavors only available in Peru. Over time the various recipes and ingredients blended into a national cuisine.

photo by Jessica Bongard

With all this culinary history that rests on the shoulders of Peruvians, you can imagine the responsibility my mother and I felt to provide an accurate depiction of some of our most iconic dishes. In preparing this tasting we decided to focus on three ingredients that really define Peruvian cooking: yellow Peruvian peppers, Aji Panca (red Peruvian chili peppers), and purple maize. These three ingredients serve as the base for three iconic dishes known to every Peruvian home cook. In addition to their distinct smell and taste, these ingredients have vibrant colors; deep purples, rich reds and sunny yellows. To me these colors represent Peru – its landscape, its people, and its rich history.

photo by Jessica Bongard

My mother and I were so honored to introduce Vermonters to our culinary history through the tasting, especially at a film – “Cooking Up Dreams” – that is about Peruvians spreading their culinary traditions across the world. To Peruvians our food is the thing that we are most proud of as a people. That is why it was so gratifying to see the response to people eating our food. The expressions on people’s faces after having tasted our purple maize dessert for the first time or the distinct spice of our Huancayo sauce confirmed our belief that Peruvian food has the ability to transcend cultural differences.

Given the requests we had for the recipes we decided to share our family recipes with you. We hope that you will make them a part of your repertoire and that your interest will be piqued to try out more Peruvian food or to visit the country.

Recipes from Slow Food Vermont & Vermont International Film Festival Tasting for Cooking Up Dreams

photo by Jessica Bongard

- Appetizer- Papas a la Huancaína (Potatoes in a Spicy Huancayo Sauce)

This dish originates from the City of Huancayo located in the Peruvian highlands, where potatoes were domesticated more than 8,000 years ago. The Quechua people in the Andes pay reverence to the potato and cultivate thousands of varieties to this day.

Total Time: 30 minutes

Ingredients

• 4 medium potatoes (Russett or similar)

• 8 ounces queso fresco (feta cheese or ricotta can be substituted) crumbled (about 2 cups)

• 1 can cup evaporated milk

• ¼ cup vegetable oil

• 1 tablespoon seeded and chopped Aji amarillo peppers (available at Spanish markets such as C-Town or online: http://www.mamatinas.com/)

• 6-8 Saltine Crackers

• 1 garlic clove finely minced

• Salt

• 4 large lettuce leaves (such as Bibb or romaine)

• 3 hard-boiled eggs, peeled and sliced

• 10 black olives pitted and sliced (Kalamata or Botija Peruvian olives)

• 2 tablespoons freshly chopped flat-leaf parsley

1) Boil the potatoes in a large pot with water until the potatoes are sliceable. Drain the potatoes and let them cool slightly. Peel the potato skins and slice the potatoes into 1/2-inch rounds and set aside.

2) Combine the cheese, evaporated milk, oil, garlic, saltine crackers in a blender and puree until smooth. The sauce should be creamy and pourable, not watery. If sauce is too spicy add more milk and crackers until desired spice is achieved.

3) Arrange the lettuce leaves on a platter and top with the sliced potatoes. Pour the sauce over the potatoes. Garnish with slices of hard-boiled egg and olives. Garnish with chopped parsley. Serve chilled or at room temperature.

photo by Jessica Bongard

- ENTRÉE - Escabeche de Pescado (Fish pickled in vinegar)

Total Time: 1.5 hours

Ingredients

• 2 lbs white fish (tilapia or similar)

• 1 Jar of Aji panca (Peruvian pepper available at Spanish markets such as C-Town or online: http://www.mamatinas.com/)

• 2 cloves of garlic

• 4-5 red onions

• Canola or Vegetable Oil

• Pepper & Salt

• Yucca

• Boiled Eggs

• Head of lettuce

1. Fry the fish in hot oil, until golden, brown on both sides. Set aside to cool on a plate.

2. Boil water in a small pot and add two tablespoons of vinegar to the water. Cut the onions into thin wedges from stem-end to root-end, for long even slices. Throw the onions in the water & vinegar mixture as the water boils for about 5 minutes. Empty the water and set aside onions.

3. In a pan filled with hot oil (medium temperature) fry a half a jar of Aji Panca with the garlic (minced), vinegar, pepper and a tablespoon of vinegar. Add a cup of water once the ingredients have mixed to form an earthy reddish mixture. Cook at a lower heat for about 15-20 minutes.

4. In a separate container (Pyrex baking dish) lay the fish down, and pour the Escabeche mixture over the fish. Best served slightly cooled.

5. Garnish with yucca or potatoes and some lettuce, olives and boiled eggs sliced.

- DESSERT - Mazamorra Morada (Purple Corn Pudding)

A light, comforting dessert primarily served at festivities (birthdays) and during the month of October to celebrate the Patron Saint of Lima. This dessert is mixture of the Old World and New World, the purple maize and yam flour are indigenous to Peru, while the cinnamon, cloves, apples, membrillo, apricots, plums and sugar all arrived in the New World with the Spaniards, who in turn were influenced by the Moorish occupation of Spain.

Total Time: 1.5 hours

Ingredients

• 1(15 oz) bag of Purple maize (available at Spanish markets such as C-Town or online: http://www.mamatinas.com/)

• 6-8 cloves

• 1 stick of Cinnamon

• Pineapple Peel and diced cubes of pineapple

• 2-3 Quinces chopped in large pieces (can substitute apples)

• 2 Quince chopped in small cubes

• 2 Green apples chopped in large pieces

• Dried fruit (apricots, plums)

• 200 grams Yam Flour (available at Spanish markets such as C-Town or online: http://www.mamatinas.com/)

• 1 ½ cup of Sugar

1) Boil the purple maize in a large pot of water (about 2 liters of water) with chopped quince, apples, the peel of a pineapple, cloves and a stick of cinnamon. Boil for an hour or until the kernels of the corn open.

2) Strain the fruit from the pot. Pour some of the purple colored water into a small bowl. Pour the rest of the water back into a large pot and add the sugar, diced pineapple, dried fruit, diced quince, and put it on a low flame for another 30 minutes.

3) Cool of the water in the smaller bowl and stir the yam flour until it dissolves (water should turn a light purple color). Pour the smaller bowl slowly into the large pot and stir for 10 minutes or until the water becomes a slightly thick, gelatinous consistency.

4) Serve the pudding in a cup with some cinnamon powder sprinkled on top (see image above).

Buen provecho!

Interested in learning about Culinary Tours in Peru, contact me at ugolara@gmail.com