Gardens and Drought and Okra

The garden is really coming in now so lots of meals are veggies. The big issue is the drought. We had 1/3" rain yesterday and it was the first rain in almost 50 days. It is incredibly dry; so much so that we are starting to turn off the watering to parts of the garden and vineyard seedlings out of concern for the well!

Earlier in the week, we were running errands and were in the vicinity of Whole Foods and dropped in. There were a numbers of tastings going on. One was compound butters and they were tasting in on rainbow trout. Boy, was it good (the trout) so I bought some. It was farm raised in western, NC and was just delicious. So I came home and cooked it up. With fresh veggies, of course. Corn on the Cob, Oven Fried Okra.
Oven Fried Okra reminds us of pop corn. And it is so much better for you than frying it. It's easy too. Just beat up a couple of eggs, cut your okra into 1/2" rounds into the eggs. Coat well. Put into yellow cornmeal and coat well. Move onto a parchment lined sheetpan (for easy clean-up) and pop into a 400 degree oven. Shake a few times during cooking. Take out when lightly browned and add salt and pepper! Yum!

We've had pasta with pesto, eggplant parmesan, chicken cacciatore, pork chops with okra, onions, tomatoes and corn, and roasted tomato basil soup!

We grow these peas under our corn to keep the weeds in check, the way the Indians used to. They are good for the soil. Last year I didn't even harvest them because I had plenty in the freezer. I ran out so we have been harvesting them like crazy. We wait until they are almost totally dried on the vine (easy in a year when there is no rain). They look like black eye peas but is what is grown locally, called pink eye purple hulls for obvious reasons. We love them!


I am trying to get this complete for Weekend Herb Blogging hosted this week by famous bread-baker Zorra from Kochtopf. I've been too busy to submit or read it!! Be sure you stop by and check it out. I wish we could have a rainy day so I could find the time to catch up!! An okra recipe that is delicious and healthy should add to the array of dishes that get submitted. I can eat okra almost any way. Doesn't that okra, corn and tomato recipe look great!

Sorry for the slow posting rate. As you can see we've been eating well and cooking and canning in addition to working on getting Entrée Vous under construction, ordering, planning, marketing, etc. I'll give an update soon! My newsletter is about to come out! Did I mention we've had more back to back days more than 100 degrees since I can remember?

Be back soon! Check out the website for other great recipes!

Joanne Weir in NC

I signed up for three cooking lessons at A Southern Season earlier in the year after having taken only one there before, as a gift. The three I signed up for was not so much for the lesson, but for exposure to three chef's whose cookbooks I love: Diana Kennedy, Patricia Wells and Joanne Weir. I just finished the last of the three with Joanne Weir. It was great. She is beautiful,
speaks often and speaks well, is vivacious and funny. She is committed to fresh, local ingredients, probably stemming from her Chez Panise background, having worked every job over 5 years.

Our menu:
Fennel Sausage Crostini
Pork Tenderloin Wellington (or Pork Cooked the Tuscan Way)
Grilled Vegetables
Grilled Polenta Cake with fresh fruit

EVERYTHING was wonderful. I was having guests through the next night and had already purchased pork tenderloin so all I had to purchase after that evening was the sausage for the crostini. I made everything but the polenta cake. I am not a big sweets eater and this cake was right up my alley but didn't see the need for it. I got pictures from the dinner here not from the class. This is how it turned out.

Hints on the recipes:

The crostini was spicy Italian sausage with cheese and fennel added, spread on the bread, then baked until brown. It makes me hungry just writing about it.



The pork tenderloin was to die for. She got the recipe from one of the best known butchers in Italy. The meat was seared off, then rolled in herbs (rosemary, sage, fennel, and garlic), placed in a gutted out, half baguette, tied and baked! Yum, yum, yum. The bread turns out crispy and the meat stays juicy. How can you beat that? Well, to be honest, I left out the secret ingredient: it wasn't fennel it was fennel pollen. Of coarse they sold it there. It is so strong that you can smell it through the plastic zip lock bag. With a vineyard and a husband that breeds grapes (working on a seedless muscadine and we could have just planted it/them), we have come to know the intense smell of grape pollen. I wonder now, if you could cook with it, because fennel pollen is incredibly intense and you don't need much of it to flavor a dish. It's available on Amazon or at Zingermans's. I think you should try it!



From the gourmetsleuth.com:

Fennel pollen

Fennel Pollen is collected from wild fennel. Flowers are picked at full bloom, and then dried and screened to assure the sweetest and best flavor possible. Often referred to as the Spice of Angels (I like that), Fennel Pollen makes any ordinary dish extraordinary.

We served it with risotto with fava beans, peas and asparagus.




I am submitting this for this weekend herb blogging hosted this week by Paulchens Foodblog. Please hop over there and read the recap on Monday. You'll be sure to find something interesting to eat, view, try or cook from foodies all around the world. If you're looking for more recipes, go to my website.

Cheers!

Lunch with Patricia Wells

I had lunch with Patricia Wells

Really!

A Southern Season, our wonderful locally owned gourmet store, has a great cooking school and have been getting in some incredible chef's. If I already have their cookbook and love it, it is a must do. I didn't like the format of this class as much as the other two I have taken there. The first two were real demonstrations of cooking by the chef's. This was lunch with whoever you happened to sit at the table with. Fortunate for me, I saw the wife of the huz's partner. I was surprised she was there because she lives in Greensboro. Her husband has a vineyard and grows out some of the wine grape crosses that the huz makes. I later found out that my good friend Pat was there with her husband John. I can not believe we didn't see each other.



Anyway, lunch was made by the staff from Patricia Wells' new book, Vegetable Harvest. She picked out the recipes and discussed them and ate at one table. She signed cook books and answered questions, but I think it would have been better if she had mingled more. Regardless, I purchased the new cookbook and had her sign the two I already had, Bistro Cooking and Simply French.

The menu:

Couscous Salad with Spinach, Parsley and Spring Onions with Creamy Lemon-Chive Dressing
Zucchini Carpaccio with Avocado, Lemon Thyme and Pistachio Oil
Potato Salad with Spring Onions, Capers and Mint
Grenadine, Rhubarb and Raspberries

The wines:
2005 Domaine de L'Idylle Roussette De Savoie Altesse
2004 Chateau Marouine Cotes de Provence

All of the food and wine was good. I came home and made the Zucchini Carpaccio although without the $24 for 8 ounces of pistachio oil. We served it with Sea Scallops on a bed of leeks from the same cookbook.


We are still cooking out of it, last night we had roasted chicken with shallot vinaigrette, which cooked in the oven with a timer while we we were working in the vineyard and it came out perfectly juicy and tender!




From Patricia Wells Vegetable Harvest: Zucchini Carpaccio with Avocado, Lemon Thyme and Pistachio Oil



1 T freshly squeezed lemon juice
1/2 tea fine sea salt
4 T best-quality pistachio oil, almond oil, or olive oil (I used olive oil and it
tasted perfectly fine)
4 fresh, small zucchini (about 4 ounces each) rinsed, dried, trimmed at both ends
1 ripe avocado, peeled and sliced very thin
1/4 cup salted pistachio nuts
4 sprigs fresh lemon thyme (I used regular thyme) with flowers, if possible
zesty lemon salt (zest of one lemon mixed with 1/4 cup fleur de sel)

In a small jar, combine the lemon juice and salt and stir to blend. Add the oil, cover the jar, shake to blend.

With a mandoline or very sharp knife, slice the zucchini lengthwise as thinly as possible. Place the slice on a platter, pour the lemon mixture over the zucchini. Mix well to evenly coat the slices. Cover with plastic wrap and let marinade at least 30 minutes and up to one hour.

At serving time, carefully arrange the slices of marinated zucchini on individual
plates, alternating with the avocado slices, slightly overlapping each slice. Sprinkle with pistachio nuts. Season with salt and thyme.

This is being submitted to Weekend Herb Blogging, hosted this week by Ellie of Kitchen Wench. Be sure to go to her site on Monday and read the round-up from foodies around the world. It is always very good.

Anise Almond Biscotti

Although the weather has warmed up quite a bit, we are still finishing up on wintry foods. This week we had corn and crab chowder and country style steak. Tonight we're converting to summer by grilling some chicken teriyaki and serving it with a salad. Maybe spinach! That's leaping into summer mode. Check out some of our recipes at Swank Catering.

In the meantime, I've been experimenting with Biscotti. I made four different recipes, and I mean really different recipes. One had olive oil, the rest had butter. The consistency of them was very different. I tried making the long ones and had real problems with breakage. So I went back to a medium size, even though I prefer them small. I am making them for a small coffee gelato shop, experimentally.

These are the kinds I made over the last few days.

Almond Anise



Pistachio Cranberry



Chocolate Orange



White Chocolate Macadamia Nut




And the winner is.......well, although the prettiest is the pistachio, my favorite for flavor is Almond Anise. So my ingredient for the week is Anise, also known as anise seed or aniseed, submitted for weekend Herb Blogging, hosted this week by my friend Kate who has a wonderful blog Thyme For Cooking. Go and see what she's cooking and growing, which is consistently incredible; but especially go back late Sunday or Monday for the WHB roundup to see what foodies are cooking around the world. Back to Anise: According to The Food Lover's Companion, anise is known as far back as 1500 B.C. It is an annual plant and member of the parsley family. Both the leaves and the seeds have a distinct, sweet licorice flavor. The greenish brown oval anise seed flavors a variety of sweet and savory dishes. It also flavors drinks: Patis, arrack, annisette and ouzo. Anise seeds have been used as a digestive for centuries, and in India they are chewed after a meal not only as a digestive but to sweeten the breath. I grown quite fond of it and may even try planting it this year.

Michael Chiarella's Tra Vigne’s Biscotti

Makes about 40 cookies

3 1/2 cups all purpose flour

1 1/2 tea baking powder

1 tea salt

1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, at room temperature

2/3 cup turbinado sugar (he calls for crystal sugar, but it's too expensive and hard to find)

1/3 c packed light brown sugar

5 large eggs

6 T anise seeds

1 cup unblanched almonds, toasted

Sift together flour, baking powder and salt. In mixing bowl with paddle attachment, cream butter with both sugars. Add eggs, flour mixture and aniseeds. Beat on low until it just comes together. Add almonds and mix until just distributed. Do not overwork. On a floured surface, shape into a ball, flatten, put in a bowl in the frig to chill about 2 hours.

Preheat oven to 325. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Divide dough into 2 pieces. Roll each into a log about 3" diameter. Roll in more sugar, if desired. I didn't. Place on prepared sheet, flatten slightly. Logs should be several inches apart.

Bake until firm and light brown, about 1 hour. When poked it should feel firm to the touch and not collapse or cave in. Remove from oven and lower temperature to 300.

When cooled completely, move to a cutting board and cut into 1/2" slices with s serrated knife. Cutting on the diagonal is a nice touch. Lay the slices down on a baking sheet and return to the oven for 50 minutes. Depending on your oven, you may need to turn them. Let cool completely and store in an airtight container.

Another quick idea we just uncovered for Anise. Have you seen the April Gourmet Magazine? They have the cutest idea for an "April's Fool" dessert. You basically make a recipe similar to the one above but bake it in a loaf pan. You cut them into slices, so they look like a slice of bread. You take extra large eggs and cut the tops out. You sterilize them in boiling water and try completely and fill first with a light lemon pudding (the whites) then with a lemon curd (the yolks). You serve them out of the shells and it looks like eggs and toast. It is so cute, I have to try it. I'll bet you can go on line and find the pictures and the recipe.

Cheers!