I like oatmeal?

Many of the foods I thought I didn't like (for example, sun-dried tomatoes), I have found I do like them once I try them from the farmers market, made from scratch, not full of chemicals and/or refined unto death.  We have forgotten what food tastes like and we've allowed ourselves to be convinced by trillions of dollars in advertising that the latest concoction in a brightly colored package is something we should put in our bodies for nourishment.

I never liked "oatmeal" (I use the term loosely here) before last week because I never ate real oatmeal until last week.  Oatmeal is easy, fast, hearty, wholesome, warm ...and you can add so many different things to it to suit your tastes.

1&1/3 cup water
2/3 cup oats
pinch of sea salt

Stir ingredients together in a small pot, heat to a boil, bring the heat down to a simmer, cover and cook about 5 minutes. Done!  Enough for you and a loved one.

Variations
Try other grains (cook times & amount of water will vary): barley or quinoa flakes, millet...
Sweeten it up: honey, maple syrup, rapadura, jam...
Spice it up: cinnamon, vanilla, cardamom, chai...
Add chopped nuts or seeds: almonds, pecans, walnuts, chia, hemp...
Thin it out with more water, milk, cream, buttermilk, hemp milk, apple juice, fruit puree, winter squash puree, kefir...
Add fresh seasonal fruit (right now, chopped apples or persimmon)
Add dried fruit: blueberries, coconut, peach, cherries...

Flavor Combos to Try

apple + cinnamon + milk + almonds + rapadura sugar

berries + coconut milk + chia + honey

pumpkin puree + cranberry + pie spices + pecans + maple syrup

Winter Root Vegetable Stew with Cobbler Dumplings

If the weather forecast can be believed, we've got some cold days and colder nights headed our way, which makes me think of making this recipe. It's Thursday so I'm headed to the North Park farmers market to hit up Suzie's Farm, J.R. Organics, Smit's, and Spring Hill Cheese.

2 tablespoons oil (I like olive) or butter
2 cups (about ½ pound) leeks (or onions), julienned
1 fennel bulb, chopped (about 1½ cups)
3 cloves garlic, peeled & minced
¼ pound fresh mushrooms, roughly chopped (I like cremini)
1 ½ pounds (3-4 cups) root vegetables, chopped (I like Yukon potatoes, carrots, parsnips, and maybe a turnip or rutabaga)
4-5 cups vegetable stock
1 tsp fresh parsley, stemmed & minced
1 tsp fresh thyme, stemmed & minced
sea salt & fresh ground black pepper to taste

1. Prep the veggies: trim dark green parts (keep for stock) from the leeks, score leeks lengthwise, then cut the leeks into pieces about 1 inch in length; wash thoroughly and drain. Chop fennel & veggies into about ¼-½ inch cubes (keep roots end, fennel fronds and stalks for stock). Roughly chop mushrooms (save stems for stock).

2. Make the stock.
1 small onion, peeled and chopped
2 garlic cloves, peeled and chopped
1 carrot, chopped
any vegetable scraps
1 bay leaf
3 fresh sage leaves
2 springs fresh parsley
2 springs fresh thyme

In a large pot, heat 1 tablespoon oil on high heat, add the onion, garlic, carrot, and vegetable scraps (tops, peels, stems, ugly or tough parts. Nothing rotten or dirty. No onion skin, garlic skin, nor stinky veggies such as turnips or rutabagas), stirring occasionally until you see some caramelization. Cover completely with water, about 6 cups, add herbs and bring to a boil, add ½ tsp sea salt and simmer for 30 minutes.  Strain out the vegetable pieces.

3. Make the cobbler dough:
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
½ tsp sea salt
8 tablespoons butter, cut into small pieces (6 if you add cheese)
1 cup milk
½ cup grated cheese (cheddar, gruyere, parmesan…), optional
1 tablespoon fresh herbs, chopped (chives, parsley, thyme, sage…)

In a medium bowl, mix the flours, baking powder, and salt.  Work the butter into the flour mixture with your finger tips, until the texture is crumbly.  Stir in the milk until well combined, then mix in the cheese and herbs.  Set aside.

4. Make the stew: in a deep, wide skillet, melt butter or heat oil on high, add leeks, fennel, mushroom, thyme, and garlic, stirring frequently, and cook until the mushrooms give up their liquid and start to brown, about 5 minutes. Add the chopped winter veggies; cover completely with stock and season with a bit of salt. Bring to a boil and stir in the parsley.  Drop large spoonfuls of the cobbler dough on top of the stew; reduce heat, cover and simmer for 20 minutes. Season with salt & pepper after portioning stew and cobbler into bowls for serving.

Serves 6

Variations

• Instead of or in addition to roots, use other vegetables as the season provides: winter or summer squash, Brussels sprouts, sugar snap peas...
• Make a gluten-free version by eliminating the cobbler topping or adapt this recipe for shepard's pie

Pumpkin Bundt Cake

I'll be heading to the Little Italy farmer's market tomorrow for Suzie's Farm pumpkins so I can make this cake for a Halloween party...
                                                           ½ recipe in a loaf pan
3 cups whole wheat pastry flour        1½
2 teaspoons baking soda                    1
2 teaspoons baking powder               1
1½ teaspoons ground cinnamon        ¾      
1½ teaspoons ground ginger              ¾
1 teaspoon ground clove                    ½
½ teaspoon sea salt                            1/4
4 eggs, beaten                                    2
2 cups rapadura sugar                        1
¾ cup oil                                            6 T
2½ cups cooked, pureed pumpkin    1 1/4

Sift flour, baking soda, baking powder spices and salt together; set aside.  In a separate bowl, beat eggs and sugar together; mix in oil and pumpkin, then blend in flour mixture just until combined. Bake in well greased, well floured bundt pan at 350° for an hour (in my convection oven, I bake at 335 for 50 minutes). Let cool in pan for 10 minutes, then turn out onto cooling rack.

Maple Neufchatel Glaze
2 tablespoons maple syrup
2 tablespoons rapadura sugar
zest of half of an orange
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 tablespoons milk
4 ounces neufchatel cheese, at room temp
a pinch of sea salt
1/4 cup red walnuts from Terra Bella Farms, chopped (for garnish)

Mix syrup, sugar, milk, zest, and vanilla until sugar dissolves. Combine and beat all ingredients until smooth. Drizzle over cooled cake and garnish with walnuts

DIY Vegetable Stock

Making your own vegetable stock is pretty easy, it really doesn't take too long, and can make a huge difference in the quality of your soup. If you're planning ahead or if you hate to throw anything away until its fully used (even before it hits the compost!), hang on to your clean vegetable scraps (tops, peels, stems, seeds, ugly or tough parts) whenever you're cooking. You can freeze the scraps until you're ready to make stock. If you're about to make soup, prep all your veggies first, save your scraps and use them to make your stock.

This method works best if your making soup with lots of scraps (corn cobs or squash skins & seeds) or if you've squirreled away veggie scraps in your freezer. If your scraps are meager, add an onion, a few carrots, a few celery ribs and a few crushed cloves of garlic for a very basic stock. Rough chop veggies before adding them to the pot.

I start with a little olive oil in the pot (on medium-high heat, stirring occasionally) and caramelize the veggie scraps before adding water for a rich vegetable stock. Once you've got a nice fond (but do not burn!) in the pot, add your herbs (such as a bay leaf, a few springs of fresh parsley and thyme, a few fresh sage leafs) and give a stir while it cooks a couple minutes. Then add enough water to cover your veggies (if you've saved bean broth from cooking beans from scratch or a parmesan cheese rind, you can add that now, too), a bit of sea salt and bring to a boil. Cover and simmer for 30 minutes. Strain out the veggies and your stock can go straight into the soup (or freeze it for later).

What if the stock is weak?
The easiest fix is to boil the stock down to concentrate the flavors. Or you can add "cheater" ingredients to richen the flavor: veggie bouillon cubes or powder (this is the cheater ingredient I keep on hand), sprinkle in a bit of nutritional yeast, or liquid amino acids.

What doesn't go in the stock? 
Never use rotting vegetables; send those straight to the compost bin (the quality of your food can only be as good as the ingredients that go into it). It is also a good idea to avoid using veggies that get stinky when overcooked (like broccoli, cabbage, kale, turnips, etc). I also avoid onion and garlic skins and pepper because I think they make the stock bitter when boiled for a long time. Don't use strong tasting (or strong colored) veggies or herbs (fennel, beets, basil, rosemary...) in the stock unless they are also used in the soup.

Winter Squash Soup

Folks love this simple soup and always ask me for the recipe. I made it for the Art of Agriculture event at Wild Willow Farm last year and I'll be making again at the Farm for a fundraiser for Seeds @ City Urban Farm.

My very favorite squash is butternut and I also love pumpkin (so many varieties!), kabocha, honeybear acorn, delicata and tahitian, but use your favorite winter squash or a mix...

1 tablespoon olive oil or butter
2 cups onion, coarsely chopped
5 cups butternut or your favorite winter squash, peeled, seeded & chopped (keep the skin, seeds and scrapings for your stock)
5-6 cups vegetable stock
1 teaspoon fresh thyme, chopped
2 teaspoons fresh sage, chopped
2 teaspoon fresh parsley, chopped
sea salt
freshly ground black pepper

Sauté the onion and squash in oil in a large pot on high heat stirring frequently until lightly caramelized, about 10 minutes. Add herbs and broth, bring to a boil, and simmer covered until the squash is soft, about 20 minutes. Puree and season to taste.

Makes about 8 cups

Garnish with sage puree, fried sage leaves, chopped parsley, diced and cooked root vegetables or roasted veggies, sprouts or micro greens, and/or buttered croutons.

Variation
Try roasting the squash before cooking the soup.

Sage Puree
10 sage leaves, blanched
¼ cups extra virgin olive oil

In a blender or with an immersion blender, blend sage and olive oil until very smooth.

Buttered Croutons
Melt a tablespoon (or so) of butter in a skillet over medium heat, toss in cubed bread (just enough to make a single layer in the skillet), salt and pepper to taste and sauté until golden brown.

Another Tomatillo Salsa

Back in my college days, I worked in Fruitvale and there was this great Mexican restaurant we'd sometimes eat lunch at and they had a wonderful, smooth, avocado-tomatillo salsa. After picking up Farmers Market ingredients from Schaner Farm and Suzie's Farm, here's my attempt at recreating it:

4 large tomatillos, husk removed, rinsed well, quartered
1 medium avocado (or half of a Reed - my favorite variety)
1 jalepeño
4 large garlic cloves, peeled
1 tablespoon lime juice or to taste
sea salt to taste
1/2 bunch cilantro, chopped fine, leaves & stems

In a food processor, buzz all ingredients except cilantro until very smooth. Stir in cilantro.

Very simple. I served this at a party recently and it went over big!

Iced Teas & Herbal Tisanes

Technically, if it's herbal it's not called tea, it's called tisane.  But nobody really uses that word so I just call it herbal iced tea even if I'm just steep herbs and no actual tea is involved.  Whatever you call it, herbs are grown locally and tea isn't so I often steep herbs, on their own or with fruit and sometimes tea, to make lovely, refreshing drinks.

Here's some general guidelines:

• I use water just below a boil to steep tea/herbs/fruit
• I use about 2-3 bunches of fresh herbs or 1-2 ounces of dried herbs/tea per gallon of water.
• I steep herbs or fruit generally for about 20 minutes, tasting along the way for strength.
• I steep tea any where from 3-12 minutes, depending on the tea.  I like strong tea but I want to pull the leaves out before it gets bitter. If I'm using the same tea leaves multiple times the 1st steep is shorter and I'll add a couple minutes to each progressive steep (e.g. 3 minutes the 1st steep, 5 minutes the 2nd steep)
• I only use the highest quality tea and herbs I can find.  Tea can get super expensive but a little goes a long way.

I recently made a lavender-mint-lemon verbena tisane for an event at Suzie's Farm (using all ingredients grown at Suzie's, of course), which was also very popular when I made it for the farmers markets. Steep the leaves only on the verbena, strip them from the stems.  I think the stems are bitter.  But the lavender flower and leaves give good flavor, and most other fresh herbs you can steep the whole bunch. Here's a few more I love:

• fresh chocolate mint
• white peony tea & dried orange peel
• oolong & lemongrass
• black tea with dried orange peel, fresh ginger & honey
• dried hibiscus flower (think jamaica), plain or with citrus
• virgin "sangria": hibiscus, rosehips, raspberry leaf with fresh fruit & agave.

Pour over ice and add sweetener as desired.  I also love to cut lemonade with iced tea/tisane.