50 mile breakfast! - Latkes, herbed goat cheese, ruby relish.

I was telling my Gramma the other day what I've been doing for work lately. Since, you know, not-for-profit work in CLT is incredibly difficult to come by these days. "Yeah, I've been cooking food for people." I told her. "Vegan and vegetarian stuff with a local focus."

She found this totally amusing - turns out my great grandpa was big into cooking to, which was news to me. There really aren't a ton of "happy" cooks in my close fam - my aunt, me, and.... yeah, that's it. "He made amazing latkes." She said, kinda wistfully.

Basically, I've had a tater pancake craving ever since. Ze time to satisfy is at hand!


Bjinte Potato Latkes 

Everyone's got their little secrets when making latkes. Mine is kind of a wimp out.

Cook the potatoes first.

None of this soaking business (adds too much liquid). None of this raw, crunchy mistake stuff (if you just go to it with freshly grated 'taters, you could end up with uncooked shreds at the center of your cake). Make it easy. Parboil!

5 medium potatoes such as Bjinte or a good, sturdy baking potato
1 medium onion
2 cloves garlic, minced
1.5 tsp salt
Black pepper, freshly ground
2 eggs
Dash milk or cream
A fistful of flour
1 tsp baking soda
2 tablespoons oil
2 tablespoons butter

Boil a pot of water, add your unpeeled taters, and cook 10 minutes. Set them in a colander under cold running water for a couple of minutes to cool. Peel 'em with a vegetable peeler.

In a large bowl, grate your potatoes, then onion. Add garlic, salt, pepper, mix well with your hands. Add your eggs, beat them where they land a little, and mix it all together.

Add your flour and baking soda and mix, then add a dash of milk. You want a coating on each shred of potato, but no pooling batter, like in the photo above. Add flour then milk, little bit by little bit, until the consistency looks good.

Heat 1 tablespoon of oil and 1 tablespoon butter in a heavy skillet until the foam subsides. Reduce heat to medium, and using a slotted spoon, spoon about a tablespoon of batter into the skillet. Repeat 3-4 times, depending on the size of your pan.

See how it's holding its shape? Yay.

Cook 2-3 minutes a side. You'll smell their toastiness and know it's time to flip:

Cook until browned on both sides. Drain on paper towels.

And on the side, we have...

Herbed Goat Cheese

5 oz fresh goat cheese
Dash cream
Large handful chives, chopped

Mix it all together, with a fork. Set aside.

Ruby Relish

1 pear, sliced thin
1/8 red cabbage, sliced thin
1/2 red onion, sliced thin
Splash sherry or bourbon
1 tablespoon honey
1 tsp Salt
2 tablespoons butter

Melt your butter in a small saucepan and add onions and cabbage. Over medium-high heat, get a little browning happening. Add your sliced pears, cook 2-3 minutes. Add your bourbon, honey, salt, and a splash of water. Lower heat to low and simmer 20 minutes, adding water as needed to prevent sticking.

Once everything is nicely softened, throw it in your blender and pulse 6-8 times, until things are uniformly small. Return to saucepan and heat to serve.

Best way to go at these babies is with a schmear of both goat cheese and relish on each bite, but to preserve crispness, serve your sauces on the side and let your pals do their own.

50 mile meal, take 10! French Onion/Mushroom Stew, Open-faced Croque Madame

I discovered this cheese maker a couple of weeks back, and had a hunk of the Appalachian Tomme in my cheese drawer. It was gradually getting whittled down by late-night wine-snacking, so I figured I needed to get it in a dish, fast. And since fall's coming... and French Onion Soup is totally my "welcome, autumn!!" meal, and Nova's makes a great french loaf, well, the stars aligned, and we ate them all.

Yeah, I left the lightbox up since last I shot. Lazy, fo sho.

French Mushroom Soup with Sammich

For the stew:

1/2 pound wild mushrooms, or 1 large portabello cap, thinly sliced
1 medium sweet onion, sliced into thin rings
1/4 small head red cabbage, sliced thin
3 tablespoons butter
6 cloves garlic
1 tablespoon honey
2 springs fresh Tarragon
1/2 cup bourbon
3 cups good quality vegetable stock or water
Salt to taste

Melt your butter in a deep saucepan or dutch oven over medium heat. Turn heat to low and add onions and cabbage, and garlic. Toss to coat with butter, cover, and simmer over low heat, stirring occasionally, until veggies are super soft and have tiny brown bits.

Add your mushrooms, toss to coat again, simmer another 10 minutes.

Turn heat to high, add your bourbon, toss veggies, and simmer until the alcohol has burned off. Add your stock, tarragon, honey, turn heat to low, simmer another 30 minutes.

Taste for salt and adjust. Set aside.

For ze Croque Madame:

1 thick slice french bread, smeared with butter or mayonaisse
2 slices homemade seitan, quick-seared in smoked paprika and oil, or a couple slabs of tempeh bacon, pan-fried
1 large farmstead egg
2 tablespoons butter
1/2 cup coarsely-grated Appalachian Tomme or Gruyere cheese

Fry your egg in the butter until set on the bottom and somewhat set on top. Put your bread on a pizza pan or baking pan. On top of the bread, place bacon, egg, then sprinkle the entire 1/2 cup of cheese over the top, letting some fall over the sides. Broil 5 minutes until cheese is bubbling and starting to brown.

With a ladle, spoon 3 spoonfuls of stew onto a plate, spreading the stew to the edges with the back of the ladle. With a spatula, carefully lift your sammich, including melty-cheese, and place it in the middle of the stew.

We munched this 50-miler with a simple salad: spicy salad greens, 1/2 peach thinly sliced, 1/2 cup toasted pecans, and some sliced cukes. A pal had passed along a small jar of his homemade honey mustard dressing. Perfect!

Hard cheeses are hard to find in our state because the milk laws are rather restrictive. This cheese was really complex, very earthy. Contrasted well with the smokiness of the bourbon and mushrooms. Ya!

Grits, Greens, and Mushroom, fancy-schmancy-ized.

Just gonna put this out there - this ranks in my top 5 meals, for taste and texture. Come with me, I show you secrets.

Yes, I have a lightbox. Yes, I like it. It cost 10 bucks in materials to construct - here's a how-to.

So if you remember the farmer's market porn I put up last weekend, you'll remember the behemoth mushroom I claimed mugged me. Last night it finally got eaten, atop some crispy, awesome grit cakes and a muscadine gravy. Good stuff. Bright but woodsy, textures ranging from silken (gravy) to meaty (mushroom) to crunchy (cakes). This is by far the most successful grit cake recipe I've ever attempted - and no wonder, sine it comes from the Anson Mills recipe page (heretofor referred to as the Grit Mafia). I'm going to break it all down. Here we go!

Goat Cheese Grit Cakes
altered from the Anson Mills recipe
makes 6 large or 8 medium cakes

1 cup quick-cooking white grits, washed twice (to remove the bran and increase creaminess)
1 small round smoked goat cheese (you can use regular goat cheese if you must, but if you can get your hands on a smoked cheese, dooo eeeeet)
3 cups good quality vegetable stock, plus a little water as needed
6 tablespoons butter
1/2 cup flour, for dredging

Cook your grits in a small pot. Just put the broth and grits in there and simmer, covered, stirring occasionally, for about half an hour.

Line a 10 x 6 inch baking pan with parchment paper.

When grits are smooth and creamy (aka, "done") pour them into your baking pan. Smooth with a spatula or spoon and put them in the freezer for 30 minutes, until they're cooled and firm to the touch.

Grab a circular cookie cutter. Mine measures about 2.5 inches in diameter. Cut your 6 circles and remove them to a plate.

Heat half the butter in a heavy iron skillet until frothy. Take the pan off the heat and skim the froth from the butter with a spoon and discard. Return pan to heat, heat to medium-high.

In a shallow container, spread your flour. Press each cake into the flour and flip, pressing the other side as well. Gently shake extra flour off, and place in the skillet. Do only two at a time, so you can keep track of their delicious browning process.

Cook for 5-6 minutes a side - seriously - until a brown crust has formed on each. Remove to a baking sheet and keep warm in a 250f oven as you finish the rest.

*A note on clarifying your butter - Don't skip this step! The crunchy crust held up to saucing and the liquid from the mushrooms perfectly, and if I had to guess (which I do) I'd attribute that to the milk solids being removed first, preventing them from "melting" into the flour, almost like a cheese would do. Thus, you get crunchy, rather than chewy.

Quick Seared, then Braised, Chicken Mushroom

Hand sized chunk of Chicken Mushroom, sliced into 4-5 pieces
1/2 good quality vegetable stock
2 tablespoons butter
1 tablespoon minced garlic
Fresh black pepper to taste

When I bought this sick-delish chunk of 'shroom, the glowing seller gave me some advice on preparing it: "I like a high-heat sear with butter and salt.". So while this incorporates one additional step, it starts with a sear.

But first, some science photos:

How awesome is that little planty. A closer look:

Make sure to carefully clean any cool planty inclusions before proceding. Also make sure to notice how amazing your future dinner is.

Melt your butter in your iron skillet over high heat. Add your mushrooms and toss with the butter. Press down and let sizzle, 2 minutes on each side, until some char has formed.


Add your stock and garlic and immediately cover your pan. Turn the heat to medium and let the mushrooms steam a bit, to cook all the way through. If you need to add a little more liquid, make it water, and go through the process again, until the mushroom is slightly translucent all the way through. The whole process should take less than 8 minutes.


Green Muscadine Gravy

Muscadines have a super-distinctive, tart, sweet taste, so I wanted to "water that down" a bit without losing any color. Using some green beans, green pepper, green zebra tomatoes and chives (all from either my garden, my nabe's garden, or ze market), I kept that olive-y look while keeping the flavors savory. Worked wonderfully (if I do say so myself) with the smokiness of the goat cheese. Like a fruited tomato sauce. Onward!

10 large muscadine grapes, hulled and seeded, sliced in half
Handful fresh green beans, cleaned and trimmed, chopped
1 medium onion, chopped
1 small green pepper, seeded, chopped
1 large green tomato, chopped
1 tablespoon honey
Good splash bourbon or muscadine wine
2 tablespoons butter
1/2 cup good quality vegetable stock
Salt to taste

Melt your butter in a dutch oven or saucepan. Add onions, peppers, green beans, and saute over medium heat until softened (about 8 minutes). Deglaze with the bourbon (or wine) and saute a bit more, until alcohol has evaporated.

Add your tomato and grapes, saute for another 4 minutes, until they start falling apart. Add stock, honey, mix well, remove from heat.

Throw it all in a blender and puree for a couple of minutes. Strain it through a fine mesh sieve, pressing on solids. Rinse your dutch oven and return sauce to pan. Taste and add salt as needed to balance the flavor right on the cusp of sweetness/savory. Tada!

Put it all together! You'll need some freshly minced chives.

Ladle a spoonful or two of gravy into the middle of your plate, pushing toward the edges with the back of the ladle. Place two grit cakes in the center of the plate, and half your braised mushrooms on top of those. Sprinkle chives around the cakes, using whatever long pieces remain as a "sprout" from your mushrooms. Eat. Quickly.

50 mile meal - take 8

What to do with a bag of pineapple tomatillos (aka, ground cherries).

Most people make them into a fruit jam/compote/pie. Since I'm most definitely NOT a sweets hound, these options did not stoke my culinary flame. The 12 farm fresh eggs basking in the fridge eventually convinced me to do something I'd been wanting to try for a while - custard.

This recipe seemed flawless - simple ingredients, simple process, gorgeous texture. My ratios are a tad different, since these tiny, yellow and green orbs are nowhere near as full of liquid as ripe tomatoes. If you make this dish using standard 'maters, I'd recommend following the recipe linked to above. If you're lucky enough to have baby tomatillos in your midst, continue!

Tomatillo Custard

1/2 pound fresh pineapple tomatillos, husked, washed, 1/2 cup reserved
1/2 pound hoop cheddar, grated, a handful reserved
6 regular eggs
1/2 cup milk or cream
Tsp honey
 2 heads roasted garlic (optional)

Preheat your oven to 350f.

Put it all in a blender, and blend, on liquify setting, for 2 minutes.

Grab a large bowl and fine strainer. Pour the mixture through, using your fingers to push liquid out of the stuff left in the strainer. If you have a LOT of ruffage left, puree the batch again. You'll only end up with about 1/2 cup of skins/seeds if you've gotten the mix smooth enough.

Butter an 8 inch pie plate or cake pan. Pour the mix in. Set the filled pan in a larger (roasting works) pan filled with about a half-inch of hot water. Bake for 20 minutes.

Once the custard has set a bit (about 20 minutes in) take it out and cover it with the remaining cheddar. Try to get a uniform, fully covered surface. Slice the remaining half cup tomatillos in half and place them on top of the cheese in a cute pattern. Return to oven for about 10 minutes, or until the cheese has melted and started to bubble a bit.

I made some AMAZING cornbread to sit this delicious egg cake on top. It came from the back of the cornmeal bag, and seriously, is the best I've ever made:

Simple Cornbread

1 cup all purpose flour
1 cup fine cornmeal
1/3 cup sugar
1 tablespoon salt
1 tablespoon baking powder
2 egss
1/3 cup oil
3 tablespoons butter, melted, plus more for the pan
1 1/2 cup milk

Put all your dry ingredients into large bowl and mix together. Make a well in the center, add the liquids while whisking. Whisk until just mixed. Pour into a quiche or pie pan (cast iron skillet'll work as well) and throw 'er in the oven with your custard. They'll be done about the same time (30 minutes at 350f). Finished looks like pure, tasty gold. Pull it out a little early if you like a cake-ier cornbread.

To serve, I simply sauteed whatever was left in the produce drawer from the market run on Saturday - bunch spinach (a little less than a pound), several large shitake caps, sliced thin, two cloves or heirloom garlic, and one uber-ripe 'mater. Toss it all in a skillet with two tablespoons oil or butter and saute until mushrooms have released some liquid.

Make a delicious pile of spinach in the middle of your plate. Using a 2.5 inch cookie cutter, cut a circle of cornbread and a circle of custard. My cornbread was not flat on ze top - so I carefully sliced the top crust off, and served it alongside the stack. Press your veggie pile down, place the cornbread on top, then carefully place the custard on top. Serve with fresh herbs and hot sauce.

50 mile meal - take 7

Why was I craving lasagna during Charlotte's worst heat wave since the dawn of time? Dunno. But I was.

Lasagna's so user friendly. Relatively easy to prepare, buy produce for, reheat, freeze, take to potlucks, etc. Since this is a local lasagna, there are some twists to my standard recipe. I'm going to list the fillings I used, but only provide recipes for the interesting layers.

Arugula Custard
makes enough for one layer of a 6-8 serving lasagna

1/2 pound arugula
2 eggs, scrambled
pepper
1 tsp salt
3 tablespoons milk or cream
1 tablespoon all purpose flour

Wash your 'rugula. Blanch it, rinse under cold water, squeeze some water out, set aside.

In a blender, put cream, flour, salt and pepper, and run until smooth. Add arugula. Pulse until it looks like pesto. Remove to bowl, stir in eggs. Set aside until ready to use.

Goat Cheese Bechamel

If you're using garden fresh 'maters in your lasagna then tomato sauce might seem a tad superfluous. Try this almost-Alfredo style sauce instead. Use a highly flavorful, local goat cheese if you can - check out the beauty below, from OakMoon Creamery:

1 pint cream or milk (if using cream, you'll need to use a tad more goat cheese than is called for here)
3 tablespoons butter
3 tablespoons flour
8oz round of your favorite strongly flavored goat cheese (I removed some of the pepper rind on mine, but not all)
salt to taste
1 small clove garlic, minced
herbs of your choice (chives, freshly minced, used here)

Melt your butter in a saucepan. Add garlic, if using. Grab a whisk. Add your flour and mix to a paste, and stir for 3 minutes, until you start to smell the flour brown. While whisking, pour in your cream. Over medium-high heat, stir the sauce until it thickens, about 5 minutes.

Add your goat cheese and switch to a spoon. Stir until melted and incorporated. Add your herbs, taste, salt as necessary. If you aren't using your bechamel immediately, cover it with cling wrap to avoid a skin.

So! In our super-summery lasagna, the layering went like this, bottom to top (hot tip! when layering lasagna, put your "toughest" veggies on the bottom layers, so when you slice it, the other fillings don't squeeze out all over the friggin' place):

Ladle of bechamel
1 fresh pasta noodle (if you're in Charlotte, go to pasta and provisions NOW and buy some of their organic spelt pasta. It is amazing, and for 6 bucks, you'll have more than you need. No boil lasagna noodles'll work fine here to).
Roasted new potatoes
Ladle of bechamel
Noodle
Roasted summer squash
Ladle of bechamel
Noodle
Roasted red pepper and vidalia onion saute
Ladle of bechamel
Noodle
2 thick sliced fresh tomatoes, peeled, salted, tossed with  1 tablespoon fresh garlic
Ladle of bechamel
Noodle
Arugula custard, recipe above
Noodle
Pour the rest of the bechamel over the top. If you're using no-boil noodles, cover with foil. Bake in a 375f oven for 40-45 minutes, until the top begins to brown. Let rest 10 minutes before digging in.

50 mile meal - Gumbo Pastelitos

If you've been keeping up with my 50 mile meal shenanigans, then you know one of the biggest struggles is cooking sans-flour.

Since we don't really do a lot of wheat farming in NC, I've been experimenting with corn meal as a substitute - for some things, it's perfect, for others, a stretch. This week I really wanted to try for a pastry texture but wasn't sure how to accomplish it without the use of high-gluten stuffs, the like of which isn't locally available. So when I did some perusing and saw this pastelito recipe, I got super stoked, since sweet taters are HERE!

The basic idea is to take finely ground corn meal (like the stuff I used here) and grind it even more finely using a blender (not a food processor! gravity is your pal here). Make sure your blender is very clean and bone dry, or you'll have caking issues.

The filling is really up to you. I had some gumbo leftovers from work yesterday, so I reduced them a bit and chilled them - while a little fiesty to work with here (liquid can be a pastelito's worst enemy) it worked out fine. I also have been using locally made hoop cheddar in a lot of the 50 mile meals, and had a hunk, so a tsp or two of that, finely shredded, went on top of the gumbo before the packet got all folded up. Lots of flavor here, kids!

I'm becoming more and more of a fan of this little produce stand. They've been doing some farming of their own, and had all sorts of organic peppers, cherry tomatoes, squash, and some new corn available yesterday, so I don't just head there for local eggs, butter, and the aforementioned hoop cheddar anymore (which are also reasonably priced and tasty). Strange surroundings, tho - in between two car dealerships. Such is Independence Blvd, amirite?

Grub Time!!

Gumbo Pastelitos
makes 5-6 pastries

1 large sweet potato, unpeeled
1 egg yolk
1.5 - 2 cups finely ground corn meal
2 tablespoons butter
Salt to taste
Oil for frying

1.5 cups filling of your choice (my gumbo recipe is based off of this epicurious post, with a fair number of substitutions, and using farm fresh tomatoes, of course. A more traditional filling can be found here). I promise, I'll put up my gumbo recipe this week :)

First things first - pierce your tater several times with a fork and drop it into a pot of boiling water. Cover and cook 40-45 minutes, until cooked all the way through. Rinse, chop, and puree it in your blender or food processor. Remove to large bowl.

Mix in butter, egg yolk, and salt. Now, add your corn flour (that you already ground to a fine flour earlier, remember?) gradually, and using your hands or a wooden spoon, incorporate everything until it resembles loose biscuit dough. Ball it up and wrap it in saran wrap, stick it in the freezer for about an hour, or until it firms up a bit. If you haven't made a filling yet, you can use this time to do so! Make sure to check out the tips at the bottom of this post before continuing.

Lay some parchment paper down, and tear another sheet to the same size. Use your rolling pin on top of the second paper layer to get the dough nice and thin (1/4 inch or thinner) then cut rounds out of it about 3 inches wide (I used a large cookie cutter, but a small bowl or large glass will do in a pinch). This "pastry" is cranky - you must use parchment paper. Also, if you have trouble moving the cut rounds to another surface to fill, use a small spatula to peel them away and place them elsewhere.

Put about 1 tsp shredded cheddar in the center of one round. Spoon a tablespoon of filling over the cheese. Carefully lay another circle atop your filling and gently press down and around the edges. Using a fork, pattern the edges all the way around. Set aside while you make the rest.

Heat an inch of oil in a heavy skillet to about 350f. Test the oil's heat by putting a small piece of leftover dough in and if it sizzles and bubbles, you're good. Fry, two at a time, for 1-2 minutes on a side, or until crisp and Browned. Drain on paper towels.

A note about this "pastry" we're using here. Cranky, cranky cranky. Crumbly. Breaks easily. A bit thick to be a true pastry. But gluten free, full of flavor, and crunchy due to all the corn included. Think of it as thin cornbread. Or an almost-arepa. If it gets sticky, no harm is wetting your hands a teeny bit - it isn't as sensitive to water as flour-based pastries are. And the colder, the better. Good luck!

50 mile meal - take 5

Spoonbread. So soft! So Franco-Southern! So awesome.

I've only made it a handful of times, but by try two, I had a formula I liked. Lots of milk (whole, local), sharp cheddar (hoop, local), and chives make for a bit of a deviation, but a tasty one. I hear there are mammy's in Kentucky that would frown on such alterations, but hey, I'm anti-establishment. Oh yeah - you know that old superstition about opening the oven door whilst your souffle is baking? It'll collapse on ya if it's spoonbread too. So beware.

I don't use whole kernel corn in my 'bread - weighs it down. You want the cloud effect, so whole, hard, heavy veggies is a no go. Leave those for the stew or ragu you'll be making in accompaniment.

Mini Spoonbreads with Garden Stew and Chive Poached Eggs

For the spoonbread, you'll need:


1 cup corn meal, stone ground, fine
3 cups water
1 cup grated cheddar
1 tsp salt
1 tbl sugar
2 tablespoons chopped chives
4 large eggs, divided
4 tablespoons butter, plus more for pan prep


For the stew, you'll need:


1 cup of whatever you have on hand from the garden - I used 1/2 cup fresh butter beans and 1/2 green beans
 Two large heirloom tomatoes, peeled, seeded and roasted (see procedure here)
1/2 cup whiskey (local)
2 tablespoons butter
1 tablespoon honey (local)
4 cloves heirloom garlic
1 small vidalia onion, chopped
2 cups water
2 tablespoons (or more) herbs from your garden - more chives, tarragon, and a teeny bit of sage used here
Salt to taste

For the eggs, you'll need:


6 large farmstead eggs
2 tablespoons chives
2 tablespoons melted butter or oil
6 squares of saran wrap
6 3 inch lengths of butcher's twine


Let's do this.

Melt yer butter in a dutch oven or small stew pot. Toss in your onions, garlic, and any tough veggie you're using (like green beans). Saute until onions are translucent. Add your whiskey, cook for 3-4 minutes, until it's reduced a bit. Add herbs, honey, water, and your chopped, roasted tomatoes. Add beans. Cover and simmer while you prepare your 'bread.


Preheat yer oven to 350f.


You're going to want to use the finest, freshest corn meal you can get your hands on, like this stuff:

Heat your milk in a saucepan over medium heat until it starts to bubble around the edges. Whisk in your corn meal, stirring constantly, and cook until the consistency is thick and creamy (about 10 minutes). Remove from heat, stir in your cheese and butter, and add your egg yolks. Stir until just combined. Set aside.

Prepare a muffin tin by buttering each depression generously.


Beat your egg whites in a small bowl until they form stiff peaks. Fold 1/2 of the whites into the corn meal mix, then fold in the rest. Carefully ladle the mix into each muffin tin, filling each to the top. Garnish with chopped herbs, if you so desire. Put in the oven and bake for 30 minutes, or until the tops are just browning. Leave that oven door closed!


To make the eggs:

I saw this neat trick on Chow. They're calling it Egg Sous Vide, I'm going with Easy Poaching. Using a small ramekin for egg-holding, brush each piece of plastic with a little melted butter or oil and scatter about 1/2 tsp of chives over the center. Put the plastic in the ramekin, letting the sides hang over, and crack an egg into the plastic. Gather sides carefully, and tie, tightly, with your butcher's twine. Bring a shallow pot of water to boil, carefully put your packaged eggs in, and boil for 4 minutes, until just set. You can remove the eggs (still wrapped) to a bowl of warm water to wait while you plate the rest of the food.


To serve, ladle some stew into the center of each plate. Spoon three spoonbreads atop the pile, breaking them open a bit. Ladle a little more stew on top, carefully unwrap two - three eggs per plate, and place them atop the spoonbreads. Yum!

 

50 mile meal - take 4

I'm having a ridiculous amount of fun with these uber-local meals, have ya noticed?

So it's corn season, the beans are rolling in, tomatoes are looking GOOD, and peppers are here! Obviously, chili needed to happen, but I wanted to do something more playful. And we have...

Baked Chili-stuffed Peppers with Mexican Rice Pilaf

Mmm-hmm. Made possible by discovering that Reid's stocks rice grown locally (that link isn't to their store but to an Anson Mill's page where you can buy the same product) and that awesome lady that sold me a pound of freshly hulled brown beans at last week's Farmer's Mkt. Hifive sista.

For the Chili, you'll need:

1 pound of fresh beans, any kind of medium bean will do, rinsed thoroughly
4 large tomatoes, seeded, peeled, chopped
4 scallions, chopped
1 medium vidalia onion, chopped
1 head garlic, heirloom if possible, minced
As much summer squash as you can stand (we have a ton, so a ton went into the pot - 1 large would be more normal) diced
1/2 cup cilantro, chopped
2 tablespoons butter or fat (I used butter to be uber-local)
3-4 small carrots, peeled and chopped
Salt and chili powder to taste (I used a chipotle hot sauce produced locally - a little heat, a little sweet)
1 tablespoon honey

Melt your butter or heat your oil in a large pot over medium high. Add your carrots, garlic, and onion and saute until the onions are translucent and the carrots are beginning to soften. Add your squash and continue cooking until the edges of the squash begin turning translucent. Add 3 cups water, your chopped 'maters, the fresh beans, chili powder and salt to taste, stir and lower heat to medium. Cover. Simmer, stirring occasionally, for an hour, or until your beans are soft-ish. If you prefer a firmer squash in your chili, don't saute them - add them about 20 minutes into the simmer process. When your beans have cooked, add the cilantro and scallions. Stir and cover, but remove from heat.

For the rice, you'll need:

2 cups long grain rice, local is best!
1 cup fresh corn kernels
1/2 cup cilantro
1 tsp salt
3 scallions, minced

Diced tomato (optional)

Boil 2 liters of water in a large stock pot, add rice, and continue to boil for 30 minutes, covered. Drain in a colander for 10 seconds, them return to the hot pot, adding corn, cilantro, salt and scallions (and tomato, if you so desire). Cover and let sit 15 minutes to steam.

To assemble, you'll need:

Fresh chopped cilantro, 2 tablespoons
1 cup shredded cheese (I used a hoop cheddar from Hillbilly Produce Mart - but any cheddar or jack cheese will do)

Preheat your oven to 375f. Oil a large baking dish. Place the pepper halves in the dish, close to one another is fine, interior up. Using a soup spoon or any smallish spoon, fill the cavities with as much chili as you can fit (mounding a bit is fine). Generously sprinkle each filled pepper with shredded cheese. Bake for 20 minutes, or until you see the peppers start to soften and absorb some of the chili's color. Sprinkle with chopped cilantro. Yum!

I had extra chili, so we ate some (with that tasty rice) for dinner, stew-style. I usually make more complicated chili's (ancho, chipotle, chocolate, beer, sometimes everything at once, hehe) but the freshness of the beans and 'maters really stood out here. Simple. Satisfying.

50 mile meal - take 3

It's so awesome that there's not one but TWO mushroom sellers at the Yorkmont Farmer's Market. The guy I refer to as "The Mushroom Dude" usually has shitakes, but lo-and-behold, last week I spotted a table full of huge, gorgeous Oyster 'shrooms. I bought a wad.

And, it sat in the fridge for a while as I pondered what to do with a pound of ghostly, foresty fungus.

And then it struck me. Po' boys!

Fried Oyster (mushroom) Po' Boys

The reason this works as a 50 mile meal is that Cajun fried oysters are typically made with a mixture of corn meal and corn flour, both of which are locally available. In this case, I used some of the grits I featured in last week's 50 mile meal, and using a mortar and pestle, ground about a cup of grits into a flour-like texture. Not as much work as you'd think.

You'll need:

1 pound of fresh oyster mushrooms, cleaned, and cut into 2-3 pieces (depending on the size of the 'shroom - you want bite-sized morsels)
1 cup grits or corn meal
1 cup corn flour
1 cup water or soymilk
(non-local caveat - this works with both a water bath, and a soymilk/egg replacer wash, although with the water bath you're going to lose more corn meal to your frying oil)
Vegetable oil for frying

2 rolls - bolillos, hoagie rolls, or french bread work best (Las Delicias strikes again! Bolillos are traditionally made without eggs, but any locally made, vegan roll will do)
4 leaves lettuce, romaine works best
1 large pickle, sliced thin (homemade FTW!!)
1 large tomato, sliced thin (mmm, Cherokee tomatoes, I love you)

4 tablespoons or so of "Po Boy Sauce" - I used a locally-produced Hot Dog "relish" bought from the Bradford Store, but here's a quick recipe so you can make your own:

4 tablespoons mayo or nayonnaise
1 tablespoon sweet relish
1 tablespoon mustard
1 - 2 tsp hot sauce (a la Franks)

Mix your corn flour and meal in one bowl and put your water (or soymilk) in another.

Heat your veggie oil in a large pot or wok until it's hot, but not smoking, about 365f. You're going to fry your mushrooms in three batches, so as not to overflow your fryer (which is super dangerous, as I'm sure you know. Oil fires are no joke). Grab a handful of chopped shrooms, toss them in the water or soymilk, squeeze them out gently, and toss them in your corn flour mix. Press to adhere the flour to the mushrooms. Grab them again and dust the pile off a bit, then gently lay them in the hot oil. Using a slotted spoon, turn them now and again, until they crisp up and turn a golden brown (about 2 minutes), then remove them to a paper towel covered plate or pizza pan and drain them. Repeat with batch two and three.

Cut a slit in your roll, not all the way through, and remove some of the bread to make room for your delicious mushrooms. Spread a tablespoon of sauce (or more) on each side of the bread. Lay two lettuce leaves on the bottom, then your sliced tomato, then sliced pickles, then shove as many fried "oysters" as you can into the sammich, until it's all but bursting. If you'd like a less messy eating experience, let the sub sit a minute, then slice in half.

We ate ours with (also vegan and local) seitan gumbo, which was an awesome, if filling, meal. Stay tuned, I'll be putting that recipe up soon!

50 Mile Meal - take 2

This time, I wanted to highlight the amazing goat cheese coming out of this dairy farm in Climax, NC. Technically, it falls outside of our 50 mile requirement, but oh well. It may well be good enough to increase our mileage requirement. The cheese is good. You must try the cheese.

I used two types in this recipe - their Crottin, and the Smoked Round. The Crottin is almost brie-like in texture and flavor, with very earthy, animal overtones. The smoked round - as expected - tart, salty, smoky. Both delicious. Both can be found at this cheese counter.

Ever wonder why something as nutritionless as Grits are so ubiquitous in the south? (Hey, I love them too, but I'm gonna quote my Gramma here - "Grits are a vehicle for butter and salt." And don't forget cheese.) It grows easily, happily here. We can't grow wheat that's hard enough to mill into bread flour (which requires harsh winters), or very many other grains either, so corn it is. According to awesome bread guy I met at the Atherton Mills Farmer's Market last week, we can grow wheat appropriate for pastry flour. When I find someone selling it locally, I'll put it up.

Onto the grub!

Farmstead Eggs Poached in Roasted Tomato and Arugula Ragu with Zucchini Flower Fritters and Cheese Grits.

It's a mouthful, to say and to eat! Serves 2 with lovely leftover grits for the next day.

For the Ragu:
1 cup Arugula, sliced to ribbons
2 large heirloom tomatoes, peeled and seeded, sliced into sixths
1/2 cup brown ale (we used our homemade brew - OMB's Copper Ale would work just fine)
4 scapes, trimmed and finely minced
1 large vidalia onion, sliced into rings
1 tablespoon honey
2 tablespoons butter
4 large eggs


For the Fritters:
1 round crottin
6 large zucchini flowers, cleaned (see below)
1/2 cup flour
1 egg
1/3 cup oil
1/3 cup water
1 tsp each salt and pepper

For the Grits:
1 1/3 cup grits (we used grits from here)
4 cups water
4 tablespoons butter, divided
1 round smoked goat cheese

Preheat your oven to 350. Oil a roasting pan and put your 'maters and garlic in the pan, don't cover, and stick them in the oven for about half an hour.

While they're roasting, make your broth. Put the butter in a small pot or dutch oven and melt. Add your onions and scapes and over medium-low heat, caramelize them. This should take about 20 minutes. When they've just started to brown, add 2 cups of water. Simmer another 10 minutes. Strain your broth, discard the onion, and return stock to the pot.

Add your honey, beer, (and what should be at this point) roasted garlic (run it through a garlic press) to your broth. Boil, then reduce to a simmer. Cook 10 minutes.

Roughly chop your (now roasted) tomatoes, reserving as much juice as possible. Add your arugula first, then your tomatoes, and simmer 5 minutes. Turn off the heat, test for salt (if you used salted butter, you won't need to add any), cover, and set aside.

Wash your grits, twice, skimming the bran off the top and draining them as well as you can. Add your water and two tablespoons of butter, cover, and bring to a boil. When boil is achieved, reduce heat to low and simmer for about 30 minutes.

If your garden is pesticide free, chances are you're going to have ants hiding in your squash flowers. So, carefully open them up and wash the interior, gently, until you're sure they're gone (or just eat 'em - added protein!). Set in a colander to dry.

Mix your flour, water, oil, egg, salt and pepper in a large bowl (dry in the bowl, wet in a measuring cup, then pour liquid all at once into your dry bowl, whisking the whole time). You may need to add a teeny bit more water to achieve the thick, souplike batter you're looking for. Slice your crottin into 6 triangular pieces and push onc piece into the base of each flower. Twist the petals, gently, to close.

Heat 3 tablespoons of vegetable or corn oil in an iron skillet until hot. Test with a small dollop of batter.

When your oil is ready, grab the stuffed flowers by the stem and petal ends and slowly turn them in the batter until they're coated. Place them in the oil, attempting to keep them from touching. Fry on one side about 3 minutes, until golden. Using a spoon and fork, carefully turn them over and fry the other side until golden as well. Drain them on paper towels and put in a 200 degree oven to keep warm.

Reheat your ragu until it's almost boiling, then add your eggs (I use a non-stick ladle, crack an egg into it, and lower it into the liquid, one at a time). Cook for 2 minutes, then cover and remove from heat.

At this point, your grits should be nearing completion. Open the pot and take a peek. If there's still a lot of water on top, stir it in and turn the heat up to medium. If they look good and thick, take the pot off the heat, stir in your smoked goat cheese and two tablespoons of butter. Stir well.

To serve, ladle a large spoonful of grits onto the center of each plate, using the back of the spoon to spread the grits into a circle. Using a different spoon, ladle two eggs and additional ragu into the middle of the grit pile, letting the stock run to the edges. Place three fritters on top of the eggs and ragu. Sprinkle with additional arugula, if you so desire.

50 Mile Meal - take 1

We ate many things last weekend while visiting pals in NYC (including twice at Papacito's in Greenpoint, if tacos at 3 am counts as a meal) but the one nosh that is sticking with me was a simple plate of cannelinis, kale, and fried eggs from Eat Cafe (also in Greenpoint). 10 bucks for the cleanest, greenest breakfast (I warned you I was obsessed!) I've had in a long, long while.

Enthusiasm for local food has been growing steadily in Charlotte (as behind as we are about some things, people are very cool about this!). I mean, even the difference between last year's growing season and this is marked, as local growers go a little further out on a limb, growing more exotic produce. So, since I have some customers that are super-interested in eating as locally as possible, I'm going to try constructing a meal, weekly, of ingredients sourced within a 50 mile radius of CLT. And this first go... duh duh duh... Huge Pile of Mac N Cheese Topped with Seared Kale and Roasted Tomatoes, Accented by Apple Butter Chipotle Hot Sauce. There has GOT to be a more eloquent name for this thing. Caveat: this macaroni is ostensibly local, but since the only info on the package was about Harris Teeter's distribution address, one can't be sure. Next time, it'll have to be fresh.

I'm not going to go into serious detail about every element of this ungodly pile of totally-un-vegan deliciousness, but will do some highlights, instead. Two of the more interesting tastes involved were the Seared Kale and 'Maters, and the Apple Butter/Hot Sauce. So let's do that. Since the poached eggs were the tie-together for this dish, it was important to me to get 'hold of the best I could (from New Terra Farm, who has a stand at the Atherton Farmer's Market every Tues and Sat), and then barely poach them - allowing them to be sauce or condiment more than anything else. Ya!

Seared Kale with Oven Roasted Tomatoes

1 large tomato
1 1/2 pound kale
8 cloves garlic, minced
4 tablespoons olive oil
Salt and pepper, to taste
Pine nuts, slightly toasted
Fried shallots, to finish
1/2 cube mild flavored veggie boullion cube (or enough for 1 cup of broth)

So, yes, you can slow roast tomatoes for 9 hours in a 200 degree oven, or you can actually eat dinner at some point tonite and just peel them, quarter them, sprinkle with salt and pepper and a tablespoon or two of olive oil, and put them in a 350 degree oven for about an hour. Turn once, to get both cut edges caramelizing.

Working with one bowl of cleaning water, one dry for holding pieces, clean the kale by soaking, rinsing, and tearing handfuls two times each. Shake the water off of the larger pieces before tearing, and put torn pieces in a dry bowl lined with paper towels. Heat the remaining 2 tablespoons of oil in a large wok over medium-low heat, and add minced garlic - saute slowly, letting the garlic cook until golden, about 6 minutes. Up the temp to high, and add your kale in 2 batches - cook the first down a bit to make room for the 2nd, continuously stirring. Add the bouillion cube, stir again, reduce heat to medium, and cover, letting the greens steam. Stir every 3-5 minutes after that, until the kale has softened, but not lost its shape completely. Should take about 10 minutes to cook until its al dente. While that's happening, roughly chop your roasted tomatoes, keeping as much liquid as possible. Toss pine nuts and tomatoes into the wok, stir, and set aside until ready to serve.

Apple Butter Chipotle Sauce

1/2 cup apple butter
2 tbs chipotle hot sauce, or 1 large chipotle chili in adobo, minced fine
1 tsp apple cider vinegar
1/2 tsp salt

Puree everything in a blender, then scrape contents into a small saucepan. Add a tablespoon or two of water, mix, then simmer for about 5 minutes, until flavors have blended. You want to keep a thick soup-like consistency, so add water as needed to achieve this.

As far as mac 'n cheese goes, everyone has their favorite recipe. With the fresh kale and strong apple butter flavors, a sharper cheese works best - think 5 year cheddar, fontina, or even a blue. I used hoop cheddar from a nearby dairy farm and lots of mustard, and STILL could have used more kick.