Strawberry Vinaigrette Salad Dressing

Strawberry season!  What can I say, strawberries are one of those things that you can get all year in the supermarket, but it's just not worth it.  Nothing compares to in-season, just picked strawberries.  I'm starting to see local strawberries pop up in more and more places.  I picked up a quart of delicious tiny, slightly tart strawberries from Springdell Farm in Littleton yesterday.  Besides just eating them plain, one of my favorite things to do is add them to a salad.  Especially with the slightly tart berries like I got from Springdell.  And that's not a complaint--I love when the berries have that touch of sour to go with the sweet.  It's a great match for a vinegar-y salad dressing.

So here's a recipe for strawberry vinaigrette salad dressing.  I'm not going to give you a "recipe" for salad--just add your favorite salad ingredients.  I will, however, suggest you add some crumbled bleu cheese.  It's a great match with the strawberry flavor.  I picked up some of my favorite local bleu cheese:  Great Hill Blue.  Yum!  And I also like to include some sliced berries in the salad as well.  Delightful!

Ingredients:

1 cup whole strawberries, hulled
1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
1/4 to 1/3 cup red wine vinegar (depends on how tart you like your dressing--I've been known to dress a salad with straight vinegar, so I like mine vinegar-y!)
Fresh thyme (lemon thyme if you have it)--about 1 tablespoon of leaves
Salt and pepper to taste
1 tablespoon sugar (optional--I forgot it this time and didn't miss it, though as I've mentioned, I like a really tart dressing)

Directions:

Add all ingredients to a food processor.  Whiz it around until it's salad dressing.  Drizzle over your favorite salad.

Strawberry Daze

Whew, it's been a long winter. But I find that some of the first things to grow and mature and announce the arrival of spring and early summer are cheery pink, especially rhubarb and strawberries. What better color to wake up our winter-tired eyes and our root-weary tastebuds?


The Boy and The Girl were still in school last week, so I was able to go to my local PYO strawberry farm and power-pick some fruit (read: no visits to feed the animals, no begging for ice cream). The farmer says that strawberry season, due to a confluence of weather-related factors, is running about 10-14 days ahead of schedule this year, so it's already nearly at an end. And blueberries are coming up fast behind them, perhaps as soon as next week. I was able to pick more than 8 pounds of berries quickly, and then it was back home to decide how to dole out the juicy prizes.

I made a batch of jam with most of them (see my jam post from June of last year), and decided to make dessert with the rest. My family loves clafoutis (read Bea's funny treatise on clafoutis at http://www.latartinegourmande.com/) with any kind of fruit, from blueberry to pear, but most recipes I read always say, "Use any kind of fruit EXCEPT strawberries, since they are too wet."

Well, strawberries was what I had, and that's what was going to get clafoutis-ed. I decided to adapt a recipe for pear and chocolate clafoutis that I learned last year at a cooking class in Paris (long story, excellent class!), and I knew that I'd be making six personal-sized desserts in the small, shallow white ramekins I bought just for this purpose.

The oven preheated to 375 while the ramekins got buttered and dusted with sugar. I beat 2 eggs for a minute or two, then added a pinch of salt, 2 tablespoons of sugar, a teaspoon of vanilla, a half-cup of flour, and a cup of thick Greek yogurt (you can also use creme fraiche, like we did in Paris, or even sour cream). I added a half-cup of milk and beat the whole thing till it was smooth. Also into the bowl went a small slug of creme de cassis, which my cooking instructor added to all three courses we cooked with her! (Had to carry a bottle of that good stuff back with me, I'm nearly down to the dregs now, gotta make another trip!) I sliced the berries lengthwise and placed about 10 slices in the bottom of the ramekins, poured the egg-milk-yogurt mix carefully over the berries, and then--with the edge of a paring knife--shaved some bittersweet chocolate shreds over each portion. A little sprinkle of sugar on top and they were ready for 20-30 minutes in the oven. You know they're done when the edges are brown but the center is just set.

Yes, I made a little strawberry fan on top like they do in nice restaurants. Yes, my kids were surprised that I actually "decorated" their food. But they got over it mighty quick when they got to have warm strawberry clafoutis for snack after school.

Strawberry Ice Cream

In honor of my favorite you-pick farm, Parlee Farm, opening for strawberry picking this week, I'm posting a delightful strawberry ice cream recipe. This is egg-free, so it tastes a little lighter than regular ice cream. Not that it's light. At all. But it sure is delicious! Quick, easy, no cooking required--yum!



Ingredients:

1 pint strawberries
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup heavy cream
1 cup whole milk
1 pinch salt
extra strawberries and mint leaves for garnish (optional)

Directions:

Hull strawberries and place in a large bowl. Using a potato masher, mash well. (Hint: mash very well. Big chunks of strawberries become hard frozen blobs).

Mix remaining ingredients into the juicy strawberry mash. Pour into ice cream maker and freeze according to your ice cream maker instructions.

Once it's frozen solid (or kind of solid, like I did, if your kids can't possibly wait any longer), scoop into dishes and garnish with strawberries and mint if desired. This year I'm trying chocolate mint in a container on my porch. I ended up tearing up the leaves and mixing into my ice cream. Soooo good! Next time I might add some chopped mint leaves directly into the ice cream!

Tzatziki with Marinated Souvlaki

When I got the email from our farmer this week telling us what to expect at our pick up, I was a bit disappointed. For the first time, something I really don't like was on the list: cucumbers. I know I'm not the only one who doesn't like them but unfortunately, I also hate pickles. I considered giving them to my neighbor but thought I should at least try to find something to do with them first.

After googling a bit, I came across a recipe for tzatziki, a Greek yogurt and cucumber dip. Duh!! I'm Greek and I can't believe I didn't think of it on my own. Well, this got me all excited, mouth-watering and the menu started coming together in my mind. I had some steak tips in the freezer - I can make steak gyros! Got some tomatoes in my CSA pick up so I can throw those in gyro. And since I'll be grilling the steak tips (aka souvlaki), I may as well grill the garlic scapes I got this week. And no good meal is complete without a side salad, so I could make use of all the lettuce and strawberries I got, too. Yum! All this inspired by the lowly cucumber - this is one of the things I love about eating locally. Seasonal inspiration!

Here is the recipe for the tzatziki, and yogurt marinade:

Tzatziki (from The Joy of Cooking)

1 cup yogurt (I used non-fat Greek yogurt)
1 cucumber, peeled, seeded and finely chopped
1 tbsp dill, finely chopped
1 tbsp mint, finely chopped (I didn't have any so I doubled up on the dill)
1 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp lemon juice
1 clove minced garlic
1/2 tsp salt

Blend all ingredients together - I used a simple blender. Leave in fridge over night to let flavors settle. Serve cold.



Cilantro Cumin Yogurt Marinade (from here) - with some of my changes

1/2 medium onion, grated
1 cup Greek yogurt
2 tbsp cilantro, finely chopped
1 tsp cumin
1/2 tsp ground black pepper

Mix all ingredients together in a large Tupperware. Add meat (in our case, 1.5lbs of steak tips), coat well, and cover. Leave in fridge overnight. Grill and serve hot.

Souvlaki with grilled garlic scapes

CSA lettuce and strawberries with Asian Sesame dressing

And here was our final product: Beef gyros with tzatziki and tomatoes

This was a perfect lunch for dining alfresco - finally we can enjoy some nice summer weather here in New England!

-Nicole

Locavore for a Day

On Wednesday, What a Card wrote about Reduce Footprint's weekly challenge which just happened to jive with we do over here: eating locally! The challenge was to eat only local for one whole day. I'm a newbie on the locavore scene so I knew taking on this challenge would be tough as my cupboards and fridge have only just started their transition to local foods. I picked Sunday as our day so that my husband could join in the fun.

This week, my CSA share included sugar snap peas, strawberries, salad mix, tomatoes and asparagus so I wanted to revolve our meals around those foods - not really hard! Here is what we came up with:

Breakfast: Tomato, basil and chevre omelet (tomato from the CSA; basil and chevre from Winchester Farmer's market; local brown eggs from Whole Foods)

Snack: Stonyfield Yogurt with strawberries

Lunch: Sugar snap peas sauteed in butter and salt, pan-seared asparagus and marinated steak tips (Peas and asparagus from CSA both cooked with local dairy butter; steak from Stillman's, Cilantro Lime Vinaigrette dressing for marinade by Appalachian Naturals)

Dinner: Toasted tomato, basil, mozzarella sandwiches with salad mix (tomato and salad mix from CSA; basil from Winchester Farmer's Market; hand-made mozzarella from Fiore di Nonna Cheese; salad dressing same as for steak marinade; bread from Mamadou Bakery in Winchester, MA)

Dessert: Crescent Ridge Dairy vanilla ice cream

We did cheat a bit by using salt and pepper on the peas, asparagus and steak. Not that you can't get local sea salt (you can!) but I just didn't plan that far ahead. Overall, I would say it was a great learning experience to see how easy and tasty it can be to plan your meals around local, in-season produce. I also realized that when you are eating the freshest produce available, you don't need a lot of other stuff to dress it up. Everything we ate was simply prepared and so good.

Try it out for a day (or more!!) and see how delicious it can be - New England in summer gives us so many wonderful choices! You can't go wrong.

Strawberry Rhubarb Crisp

Before I get to this delicious recipe, allow me introduce myself. My name is Nicole and I was cordially invited by What A Card to share this (and hopefully other!) recipes with everyone. I am new to the whole "local-vore" thing and am so excited to start eating local foods that I haven't yet tried, or even heard of, as the case may be.

Last week was my first CSA pick from Warner Farm and we got strawberries, salad mix, radishes, garlic scapes, and rhubarb. The salad mix was so yummy - I never thought greens could taste so good. As for the rest, I wasn't really sure what to do with it. I know what radishes are but I have never eaten them. I've never heard of garlic scapes and I love strawberry rhubarb pie but I'm a terrible baker. Fortunately, this farm saw me coming and they gave us all some recipes to use with this pick-up. The first one I tried was the strawberry rhubarb crisp. Easy and so delicious! Here is the recipe:

Ingredients:

4 c. rhubarb pieces (about 1 lb.)

2 c. sliced strawberries

1 c. sugar

1 1/3 c. flour, divided

1/2 tsp. cinnamon

1 c. brown sugar

1 c. old fashioned rolled oats

1/4 tsp. nutmeg

1/2 c. butter, melted and cooled

In a large bowl, combine rhubarb, strawberries, sugar, 1/3 cup flour and cinnamon. Transfer to greased 9 x 13 in baking dish.

In another bowl, combine remaining 1 cup of flour with brown sugar, oats and nutmeg. Add butter and blend well to create the streusel. Sprinkle streusel over rhubarb mixture and bake at 350 degrees for 35-40 minutes.

The things I liked best about this recipe is that the ingredients are simple and the recipe itself is very forgiving. I don't have the best stocked pantry, so I love it when I get a recipe and I can just make it without running to the store to get some odd ingredient. Also, I realized I had only half as much rhubarb as it called for but I decided to go for it anyway. And let me tell you, no one missed it! It still tasted great and had the tartness of rhubarb.

I will be getting another batch of strawberries and rhubarb tomorrow and I'd love some other ideas for them. My husband loved this but doesn't love what it could do to his waist line if I keep making it!

Lots of recipes

We started out this CSA week with a big winner: Garlic Scape Pesto. I followed the recipe given there. Well, mostly. Oh, heck, you know I made a few changes:

Ingredients:

7 garlic scapes, chopped into approx. 2" pieces
Fresh parsley (I'd guess about 2 tablespoons chopped, but I didn't chop it since it was just going into the food processor, so I'm really not sure)
3/4 cup olive oil
scant 1 cup Parmesan cheese

Directions:

Put the garlic scapes, parsley, and olive oil into a food processor and process until smooth(ish...it doesn't turn out perfectly smooth).

Stir in Parmesan cheese and serve over pasta. I choose gnocchi since it's a favorite with my twins. The pesto turns out very thick, so it was a good match to a heavy pasta.


A quick note about this picture: the sauce turns out to be a delicate green, and I just couldn't get it to show up on the camera. Either the overhead lights or flash blew-out the color too much, or without extra light, it was too shadowy. I took this picture standing near the window, holding the plate at about a 45 degree angle to catch the right natural lighting. All so you could appreciate the green color! Of course, then I was so worried about my food falling off the plate I ended up not getting a great picture anyway. But the color is pretty, isn't it?

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Served with the pesto, we had Garlic Scape Bread. Basically it was garlic bread where I used minced garlic scapes in place of garlic powder.


Looks pretty, doesn't it? Well, it wasn't garlicy enough for me. I'd add some extra garlic powder in additon to the scapes if I made this again. The delicate garlic scape flavor was wasted on garlic bread. Oh well. I mean, it was slightly garlicy buttery bread, so it was still yummy, but this won't replace my normal garlic bread recipe!

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Here it is, my first big CSA failure. Garlic scape soup. The recipe is all the way at the bottom of the page listed, if anyone wants to waste their garlic scapes on this substandard meal. It was gritty and unfinished tasting. TK and I thought it was a good soup base...it might have been good with some chicken and rice or veggies added. But as it was: uninspired. It doesn't even look good:

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But no worries, things quickly turned back in a positive direction. We went strawberry picking with Snickollet (and her kids and friend), plus both moms and baby of Two Moms and Baby. Taking my inspiration from those delightful strawberries and the latest CSA haul, I threw together this salad:


The salad contained spinach, lettuce, radish, purple scallions, hard boiled eggs, and sliced strawberries. What made it really outstanding was the homemade Strawberry Vinaigrette dressing. I followed the linked recipe, except I subbed about 1/2 teaspoon fresh lemon thyme for the tarragon, and I forgot about the sugar (oops! That was an unintentional oversight, but I didn't miss it...)

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And one last recipe, Roasted Spring Turnips, Snap Peas, and Garlic Scapes.

I found a recipe at a neat blog about eating locally (on the West Coast, but hey, we've got the same stuff here on the East Coast!) and followed the recipe pretty closely. I loved the lemon zest, and I used a lemon pepper herb mix. The garlic scapes were my favorite part as they got a little crispy in some parts and slightly caramelized. Lovely!