Saturday, July 18, 2009

Carrots




Almost always present in our iceboxes, but often overlooked as an item to be utilized alone, the carrot is now is season at area farm stands and farmers’ markets. At this moment, they are young and sweet, crisp and crunchy when consumed raw, and full of good nutritional elements. It’s true that carrots have beneficial properties relative to your vision, as they are full of beta-carotene, which is metabolized into vitamin A when consumed by humans. Poor vision can be restored by including vitamin A in the diet.

Daucus carota var. sativa is a taproot vegetable consumed by mankind for centuries after the wild carrot was domesticated. It seems to have originated in Afghanistan before traveling westward in an Arab migration to the eastern Mediterranean somewhere in the 8th to 10th century AD. Reportedly when carrots were introduced to America, the otherwise honest natives, who had no flavorful taproots, used to raid the settlers’ gardens for these tasty treats.

While it is a biennial plant, we grow and harvest in its first year when the taproot grows large and stores up sugars for the second season flowering stage. While the common carrot is yellow to orange in color, many varieties today range from red to purple to a pale yellow, almost white carrot, and they can be short and stubby, or long and tapered, or conical or cylindrical, depending on the cultivar.

The first new carrots, usually displayed and sold with their leafy green tops still attached, are tender and full of flavor. They should be enjoyed as a separate dinner item to accompany any roast, steaks, chops or seafood. Be sure to remove the carrot tops promptly or the leaves will draw the carrots’ moisture into themselves, leaving you with limp carrots, which aren’t much good, except for the stockpot. We enjoy them simmered in butter with a little stock, and glazed with a glug of maple syrup and a light dusting of Parmesan cheese.

Later in the season, when the carrots are larger, they lend themselves to roasting in a hot oven, which concentrates their sweetness and carrot flavor. I include finely diced or grated carrots in my Marinara sauce as their sugars counterbalance the tartness of the tomatoes. Carrots should not be scraped or peeled as most of their nutrient value lies in the skin. If you purchase carrots in the supermarket, I do suggest peeling them, as pesticide residues from conventional farming may not be able to be just washed off. If purchased from a local organic farmer, unpeeled, but washed with a stiff vegetable brush, is OK. Late season carrots may have a tough core, so it’s not a bad idea to cut them lengthwise to remove it before proceeding.

A pound of carrots will feed 3 to 4 people and will yield about 3 ½ cups when sliced, diced or quartered. They make a delicious soup, are always added to stews and braised dishes, are essential for stocks, casseroles and sauces, and are part of the triumvirate of basic French vegetable cookery combination miropoix, which also includes diced onion and celery.

In America we love our carrot cake, and ribbons of carrot, made with a vegetable peeler, make a nice impromptu salad when combined with vinaigrette and chopped chervil or parsley. Many add it to their coleslaw, and cabbages are coming into season right now, too.

Saturday, July 11, 2009

Artichokes



Artichokes are not usually thought of as a New England vegetable as California, due to its temperate climate, is the largest producer of these plants, which are related to the thistle family. However, more and more vegetable farms in Vermont and New Hampshire are producing these tasty little globes, which consist of the flower of the artichoke plant picked before it ripens.

The Globe Artichoke, a member of the Cynara cardunculus family, is a perennial thistle, which came from the Mediterranean area, although it is not clear if it developed in Northern Africa or Sicily first. It is also a biennial plant, which is now grown as an annual by northern growers as it is not frost tolerant, and must be replanted each year. Northern growers trick the plant into thinking it is in its second season by subjecting the young plants to a period of cold temperatures when they are about 6 weeks old. First year plants only make leaves, but when convinced it is in its second season, the plant puts forth its buds.

Artichokes do require a little work to prepare for eating. I usually cut off about 1/3 of the top of the artichoke, removing the thorns that emanate from the leaves. You have to rub the cut surfaces with lemon to prevent discoloration of the leaves, which will quickly oxidize and turn brown if not treated. When preparing a bunch of artichokes, I acidulate a bowl of water with lemon juice and place each prepared artichoke in the water while I’m prepping the rest.

I remove the outer leaves of the choke until I reach the light green inner leaves. If one chooses to, one can take only the first row of outer leaves off and then simmer the entire choke in salted water until tender. Break off each leaf, known as a bract, dip in melted butter, vinaigrette, aioli or mayonnaise and gnaw off the edible base of the leaf. When all the leaves have been eaten, remove the hairy choke, and the base and upper stem of the artichoke are delicious.

Artichoke hearts are used as the base for other vegetable preparations, and constitute a part of the Arabic diet, which favors stuffed vegetables. Filled with baby peas and onions in a light cream sauce they make an appealing side dish to most any meal.

In Italy, where you see them growing in many yards, the artichoke is deep fried to produce the golden Carciofi alla Romano, a dish we make at our house, and in France they are prepared in an infinite variety of ways including Stuffed Artichokes, where they are par cooked, then stuffed with sausage, onion and parsley, wrapped in bacon, and braised in white wine and veal stock with onions and carrots.

Artichoke hearts, sold prepared in grocery stores, are often added to salads or can top a pizza. They make a tea from artichokes in Viet Nam, and it Italy the liqueur Cynar is primarily flavored with artichoke.

So take a little culinary adventure, pick up a few artichokes from the farmers’ market or farm stand and try some Mediterranean cuisine with locally grown artichokes. They’re fun!

The pictures above include artichokes growing in our garden in Fairlee, Vermont, as well as a seasonal dish we concocted on the evening we harvested 3 artichokes. Here's the recipe.

Artichokes with Garlic & Peas

3 small artichokes, trimmed of their outer leaves, cut in half
3 heads of green garlic
6 scallions, red and/or white
1 1/2 cups fresh shelled peas
2 Tbl butter
1/2 cup chicken stock
salt & pepper
1 Tbl fresh mint, minced
1 Tbl fresh flat leaf parsley, minced

The small local artichokes we used did not have a developed choke, so we trimmed off the top of each artichoke, rubbing the cut surfaces with lemon juice, and removed the outer leaves until we reached the yellow-green inner leaves. We peeled the outside of the artichoke heart and stem, and placed the prepped artichokes in a bath of acidulated water to prevent browning.

We prepped the green garlic by removing its light husk and trimming the root end, leaving the heads whole. The green onions were trimmed to just their bulbs.

We sauted the green onions and green garlic in 1 tablespoon of butter for a couple of minutes before adding the artichokes, which we bisected through the stem, and the chicken stock. After simmering for 3 minutes we added the shelled peas, and allowed to simmer 3 minutes. We raised the heat to high to cook off some of the stock, hit it with another pat of butter, and the minced herbs. Season with a little salt and pepper. Delicious.


Friday, July 3, 2009

Beets




Over the past few weeks I’ve had the pleasure of shopping at farmers’ markets in Bradford, St. Johnsbury, Montpelier and Norwich. The quality and variety of the produce, proteins like chicken, pork, beef and elk, maple and honey products, cheeses, crafts, and prepared foods is wonderful to behold. It’s time to eat the season and enjoy our local bounty brought to us by dedicated stewards of the land who honor their husbandry traditions.

We have been enjoying some fabulous beets, both red and golden, from Your Farm in Fairlee (www.yourfarmonline.com). They grow three varieties, a traditional red beet, a golden one, and Chioggia or candy-strip beet.

The garden beet is a member of the beetroot family, Beta Vulgaris, which includes other vegetables like chard and spinach beet, grown for their leaves and midriffs, sugar beet, a tuber from which sucrose is derived, and mangle-wurzel, a tuber grown as a fodder crop.

Beets have been cultivated for thousands of years, at least since the second millennium BC, and were probably domesticated around the Mediterranean before spreading through Babylonia to China in 850 BC. Originally the beetroot was a long taper, similar to a carrot, and the plant was grown for its leafy greens. The Vuglaris variety with its red, fleshy tubers became popular after the rise of spinach supplanted the beet green as the cooking green of choice. My Larousse Gastronomique claims that some “long-rooted varieties…have more flavour and are sweeter than round varieties…” but I’ve never seem any beets like that around here.

Beets have a lot of health benefits from their consumption and have a long tradition in folk medicine. They have been used as a laxative to treat constipation, as an aphrodisiac, for illnesses related to digestion and the blood. It’s high in antioxidants, boron and oxalic acid, and has been used in cancer treatments, mostly in Europe. Drinking beet juice lowers blood pressure and the pigment molecule betanin seems to provide protective benefits against cancer.

Beets can be cooked in boiling water, roasted in the oven, or grated and eaten raw in salads. I like to roast my beets, unpeeled, with about an inch or so of the beet top still attached. I put them on a sheet of aluminum foil with a couple cloves of crushed garlic, a spring of thyme, a swirl of olive oil, and a sprinkling of salt and pepper. Wrap them up and put in a hot (400-425 degrees) oven for 45 minutes or so, depending on the size of the beets. When a fork pierces them easily, remove and allow to cool somewhat. When you can handle them, peel them and go on with your recipe. Roasting concentrates their flavour more than merely boiling, and I’ve seen older recipes which recommended placing boiled beets in the oven for an hour or more to accomplish the same effect.

Pickled beets are popular with many as a condiment, and borscht is a rightly famous cold soup, indigenous to Eastern Europe.

Here's a recipe for pickled beets that takes a couple of days, but is well worth it. Try it and enjoy.

Pickled Beets

1 cup cider vinegar
1/2 cup water
1/2 cup sugar
1/8 teaspoon pickling spice
1/4 teaspoon mustard seeds
1/4 onion, halved
1 small bay leaf (not California)
3/4 teaspoon whole black peppercorns
1/4 bunch fresh dill
3 beets (1 pound without tops)

Bring all ingredients except beets to a boil in a 2- to 3-quart saucepan, stirring until sugar is dissolved. Cover and simmer 30 minutes.

Cool marinade, then chill, covered, 1 day to allow flavors to develop. Pour through a fine sieve into a bowl.

Cook beets in a saucepan of boiling salted water until tender, 1 to 1 1/4 hours. Drain and cool. Slip off skins and cut into 1/2-inch pieces.

Stir together beets and marinade, then marinate, covered and chilled, 1 day.

Beet Salad with Almond Butter and Gorgonzola Bombolini

For almond butter:
1/2 cup toasted Marcona almonds
1/2 garlic clove, chopped
Pinch of cayenne
1/2 to 1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil

For beet salad:
1 1/2 pounds small (2-inch) beets without greens (2 pounds with greens)
2 tablespoons Sherry vinegar
1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
3 tablespoons finely chopped shallot
3 tablespoons finely chopped chives

Accompaniments: Gorgonzola bomboloni (recipe follows) ; coarse sea salt such as Maldon or fleur de sel

preparation

Make almond butter:
Grind almonds to a paste with garlic, 1/4 teaspoon salt, and cayenne in a food processor. With motor running, add just enough oil to make a silky paste. Season with salt.

Make beet salad:
Simmer beets in 3 inches of water in a large saucepan, covered, until tender, about 30 minutes. Cool in liquid, uncovered, about 30 minutes, then peel and cut into 1/2-inch wedges.

Whisk together vinegar and 1/2 teaspoon salt in a bowl, then whisk in oil. Add shallot and chives and toss with beets.

Divide almond butter among 6 plates and top with beet salad. Put a bombolone on each salad and sprinkle lightly with sea salt. Serve remaining bomboloni on the side.

Gorgonzola Bombolini

1 teaspoon active dry yeast (from a 1/4-ounce package)
Scant 1/2 cup warm whole milk (105-115°F)
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour, divided
1 large egg
2 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
2 tablespoons sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 pound chilled Gorgonzola, rind discarded and cheese cut into 16 (3/4-inch) cubes
About 4 cups vegetable oil

Equipment:
a stand mixer fitted with paddle attachment; a deep-fat thermometer

preparation

Stir together yeast and milk in bowl of mixer and let stand until foamy, about 5 minutes. (If mixture doesn't foam, start over with new yeast.) Mix in 3/4 cup flour. Cover bowl with plastic wrap and a kitchen towel and let dough rise in a draft-free place at warm room temperature until doubled and bubbly, about 1 hour.

Mix in egg, butter, sugar, salt, and remaining 1/2 cup flour at low speed until combined. Increase speed to medium and beat dough until satiny and elastic, 5 to 7 minutes. Scrape dough into center of bowl and dust lightly with flour. Cover bowl with plastic wrap and a kitchen towel and let dough rise at warm room temperature until doubled, about 1 hour.

Line a baking sheet with wax paper and lightly sprinkle with flour. Punch down dough and turn out onto a lightly floured surface. Cut into 16 equal pieces. With lightly floured hands, flatten 1 piece of dough and put a cheese cube in center. Pinch closed, then roll into a ball and transfer to baking sheet. Make 15 more balls, arranging 1 inch apart.

Heat 2 inches oil in a 2-quart heavy saucepan over medium heat to 350°F. Fry bomboloni, 4 at a time, turning frequently, until puffed and golden, about 2 minutes per batch. Transfer with a slotted spoon to paper towels to drain. Return oil to 350°F between batches. Serve hot.