Far Away Flavors, Local Food

One of my favorite things about eating locally and gardening is that it forces you to experiment with your cooking.  I'm sure that a few years ago, I never would have dreamed of making ratatouille considering the fact that I had never eaten it before.  Maybe for kids in France this is a normal part of summer.  For me, its hot dogs, ice cream and slush puppies.  But with a CSA box overflowing and a tiny garden doing the same, you have to branch out from the hots dogs and find some new foods to associate with each season.

Branching out for me often means incorporating spices and flavors not traditionally found in "local" food.  It took me a long time to embrace new foods (I had never even tried hummus until I was in college!) but now it's my favorite part of cooking.  For the most part, recipes are easily adapted to local produce.  There are obvious exceptions - I'm sure I will never find local avocado.  But most vegetables and meats can be grown right here just as they are grown far across the world.  Or, many recipes from far off lands do fine when you swap in your own favorite, local vegetables.

The first "foreign" dish that I tried this year was a Thai curry, based on one that I LOVE from our local Thai restaurant.  Now, to be fair, this was largely NOT local when I cooked it (a few weeks ago).  However by now, most of the veggies I used are in season, maybe with the help of a greenhouse or some other clever farming techniques.  I had this dish in mind when I chose my peas - I love the snap peas in the pod that they use in their mango curry.  Add other seasonable vegetables like summer squash, cherry or grape tomatoes, zucchini, and bell pepper and you've got yourself a fairly local meal.  The coconut curry sauce, mango and the rice will never be local, of course, but that's a small price to pay, in my opinion. 

And one last disclaimer:  I totally cheated and used the canned curry paste.  I know I could make my own but I'm still new to this cooking from scratch thing so one step at a time.

"Local" Thai Curry

Small can of curry paste (I prefer the yellow)
2 cups Coconut milk
1 mango, diced (optional - but DELICIOUS!)
1/2 cup snap peas
1 red bell pepper, cut into strips
1 yellow summer squash, cut into strips
10-12 cherry or grape tomatoes
1/2 - 1lb meat/chicken (cut in pieces) or shrimp (optional)

Add curry paste, coconut milk and mango (if using it) to deep pan, bring to a boil and then simmer.
Add meat/chicken (if using it) and veggies.  If using shrimp, add later as shrimp cooks faster than veggies.
Simmer until vegetables are tender and meat/chicken/shrimp is cooked through.  Serve over brown jasmine rice.

For those of you who also love Thai curry, what are you favorite veggies to add?

Savory Summer Salsa

As I mentioned below, from a 'farm to table' perspective, this is my favorite time of year. And there's no better way to enjoy the bounty of the season than in a fresh summer salsa. So when I saw the recipe of the week in our CSA newsletter from Holiday Brook Farm was for none other than Summer Salsa I knew I had to try it.

My husband, who doesn't normally like fresh tomatoes (I know, it's sinful) can't get enough of this stuff! This one's a keeper; I'll be putting some up for winter consumption so we can enjoy this savory salsa throughout the depths of winter here in the northeast.

So without further adieu, here is the recipe - courtesy of Eden Glen Farm by way of Ed & Ellen Bond, shareholders.

Ingredients -

1/2 red sweet bell pepper

1/2 purple sweet pepper

1 green bell pepper

2 jalapeno peppers

1 Hungarian Hot Wax pepper

5 large tomatoes (many varieties)

2 large cloves of garlic

2-4 Tablespoons each of fresh cilantro and basil

1 ear of corn, cut off cob

1 large onion, any kind

4 Tablespoons cider vinegar

4 Tablespoons olive oil

1/2 - 1 can black beans

2-4 Tablespoons tomato paste to sweeten and thicken (if needed)

Ground Cayenne to taste (optional)

Directions: Dice all vegetables and mix with the vinegar and olive oil. Add beans, optional tomato paste and cayenne.

I highly recommend a top shelf margarita on the side.

Bon Appetit!

Channeling Provence: A New England Ratatouille

As the weeks go by and summer becomes late summer (and soon to be fall - yikes!), our CSA shares change with the harvest. For the first time this past week, we got eggplant in our shares. Naturally, being raised in a suburban wonderland where all pizza places bread, fry and dump marinara sauce on their eggplant, I thought of eggplant parmigiana.

I pulled out Joy of Cooking, found the eggplant section and flipped to the page for eggplant parmigiana. And right next to that recipe was the recipe for ratatouille provencale. I must admit that I did not know that ratatouille had eggplant in it. I've seen the movie but I guess I wasn't paying very close attention. I decided I should try something new and give the recipe a try. Sorry, eggplant parm.

Looking it over, it's easy to see why this is such a classic French summer dish. In addition to the eggplant, it incorporates zucchini, bell pepper, tomatoes, garlic, onions and herbs. New England seems to have this in common with Provence because I was able to find almost all the ingredients I needed at the farmer's market. This dish may be French in conception but can be wonderfully local here in Massachusetts.

There are so many versions of this recipe and as long as you respect the basic concept (layering of the summer garden flavors), you will be pleased with the results. I broke with tradition and added some soft, creamy, crumbled chevre on top. Again, more French inspiration, locally sourced!

Bon Apetit!

-Nicole