Farm Tour Recipes

Last Sunday was the annual Farm Tour.  It was a marvelous summer day, and a great group came, toured and asked questions.  We have had requests for the recipes.  Here we go!

Carrot, Onion and Kale salad.  Dressing: Toast 1 c sunflower or pumpkin seeds in a heavy skillet.  Place in blender or food processor with 1 c stock and umeboshi paste or plums without pits.  Puree and set aside.  Rinse vegetables. Slice carrots, onions and remove kale stems and slice or tear into pieces.  Steam or boil in order:  carrots, 4 min, onions 2 min.  Turn off stove and turn kale into the mixture until it turns bright green - about a minute.  Note carrot and onion cooking time varies with size of pieces.  Shoot for an al dente texture.  Drain cooking water for stock and rinse vegetables in cold water to stop cooking and cool.  Drain and even squeeze.  Add dressing and chill.

Tomato and basil salad.  Make dressing in the serving bowl: balsamic vinegar, olive oil, salt and pepper and thinly sliced sweet summer onions and ribbons of basil leaves.  Cut tomatoes of various colors and textures into wedges.  Carefully turn into the dressing.  Let marinate at room temperature.  Serve with a slotted spoon.

Beets with mustard dressing.  Rinse and cook some beet roots.  Once tender rinse in cold water and slip the skins.  Chill.  Cut into chunks so they are a comfortable bite size.  Dressing: olive oil, lemon juice or mild vinegar, prepared Dijon mustard, salt and pepper and some chopped parsley or dill or arugula (for people who want HEAT add horseradish).  Combine and chill.

Cucumbers with Asian dressing.  Run fork tines length wise down cucumbers or use a vegetable peeler and alternately slice and leave peel lengthwise.  Slice and turn in some salt.  Set aside for at least a half hour. Drain off liquid (if salt is a problem, rinse) and add to dressing.  Dressing: sesame oil, a bit of toasted sesame oil, lemon juice or a mild vinegar like mirin, a bit of honey, a small amount of tamari or miso, toasted sesame seeds and black pepper or powdered cayenne or hot pepper.

Dry cooked green beans.  Rinse beans and snap stem ends, cut into 2" pieces - 4 cups.  Mince 1T garlic and 1 T finely grated ginger root.  In  a heavy cast iron skillet, heat 1T fat or oil that takes heat - sesame, sunflower or peanut.  Before it smokes, add beans, stir and cook until they change color and start to wrinkle - about 4 - 5 min.  Add garlic and ginger.  Cook an additional minute.  Add black pepper and salt or tamari to taste.

Applesauce.  We use yellow transparent apples - a soft,sweet apple that makes a velvety, flavorful applesauce.  If you want pink applesauce add an early red apple - I often use a couple chestnut crab apples.  Rinse, cut out blossom ends, stems, and quarter and remove seeds(leaving core is fine).  Place in large pan add some water to the bottom to avoid scorching and cook a few minutes to soft stage, Run through a food mill.  Add a minimum of organic cane sugar and a pinch or two of cinnamon.  If you are canning place in sterilized jars and place in a hot water bath for 10 min.