Harvest Monday May 21, 2012

This week marks the first harvest of the season! Though we've harvested a few chives, a bit of sage, and one horseradish root already it was all harvested while we were in the process of cleaning and planting for this season so this weekend was our first harvest from what we've planted this season, as well as chives - the gift that keeps on giving! 

Saturday we arrived at the garden ready to plant our warm weather crops and some more herbs, but first we had a little bit of harvesting and thinning to take care of.

Our first harvest of the season

Thought it wasn't a huge harvest it was a tangible one. We took home:
Radish 5.25 oz
Chives 6 oz
Arugula 12 oz
Total harvest this week: 23.25 oz / 1.453 lbs
Total harvest this season: 34.65 oz / 2.166 lbs
It's been a hectic few weeks which has kept us away from the garden for the most part, so it was nice to  have something delicious to bring home when we finally did make it there!
Hopefully this harvest will be the first of many!!
If you want to see what others are harvesting or share in your own bounty, stop by Daphne's Dandelions the home of Harvest Monday.

Formaggio Kitchen Food Community programs

So excited when both of these confirmations landed in my inbox

Greater Boston area fans of cheese, charcuterie, and delicious prepared foods are surely no strangers to Formaggio Kitchen. For 30 years Formaggio's flagship Cambridge location (and more recently their South End and New York City branches) have sold an impressive array of cheese, meats, prepared foods, and gourmet goods to a dedicated food appreciating customer-base.

A few weeks ago I saw that Formaggio had started the Formaggio Food Community program, dubbed at the time the Local Cheese and In-House Charcuterie CSAs. Formaggio prides itself on working with and supporting farms and cheese makers who uphold traditional production methods and put real food first. In this vein they have started the Formaggio Food Community program which has both Local Cheese and In-House Charcuterie options.

After reading the Food Community page and seeing what each option entailed I was sold!! After talking it over with Gail we decided to sign up for 6 month small shares of both the Local Cheese and In-House Charcuterie options. Gail and I both love cheese and think this is a great way to support New England cheese producers as well as expand our knowledge of some of the great cheese's this area has to offer. As for the In-House Charcuterie option- this one is pretty much all me as Gail is only starting to eat meat and I don't expect her to be on board with all the salty, smoked, and preserved stuff! Fine by me, Charcuterie is one of my favorite food items - so much so that if a restaurant has a charcuterie board on their menu there is a 90% chance I will order it.

We signed up for a small share of each as the Formaggio site said it would be appropriate for 1-2 people. 

For the Local Cheese program with each monthly pickup we can expect four varieties of cheese (1/4 to 1/3 pound of each) from different New England producers. Each month the pickup will have one example of the following: Strong cheese, soft cheese, and firm cheese.

For the In-House Charcuterie share it will be more of a surprise as the site only provided an example of what we can expect, but reading the example had me drooling:

You'll find four examples of Julie's handiwork in each installment. The list below is an example of what you'll receive. The contents may vary slightly depending on the offerings of our network of local farms, as well as Julie's creativity and inspiration.

Small Share: 2 fresh sausage links (lamb, pork, or chicken), 1/4 pound of pâté or rillettes, 1/4 pound of cured meat (bacon, pancetta, guanciale, etc.), 1/4 - 1/3 pound of a seasonally appropriate "surprise"

I'm extremely excited to see and taste all the delicious cheeses and charcuterie Gail and I have coming to us between June and November and cannot wait to share all of our goodies! Pickups will be the first weekend of each month. I will try and post a recap with pictures of each pickup, so stay tuned!

The Gallows!

The last few weeks have seen me eating out much more than usual, and nearly everything I've been eating has been fantastic. Great burgers at Grassfed, suckling pig at Citizen Public House, great bites at Redd's in Rozzie, and a really awesome and incredibly satisfying trip to The Gallows. The Gallows, in Boston's South End touts itself as a loud and fun place to have a cocktail and some food. The menu changes frequently and sharing items is encouraged. Our party of 6 split a selection of appetizers and small plates including a creamy buffalo chicken dip, scotch egg, 'early spring' poutine (vegetarian), house made pickle plate, and brown sugar cauliflower.  For our main's we had a 'brontosaurus' spare rib, a few burgers, a ploughman's board, and a plate of duel sides (the incredible carrot & Brussels sprout gratin with horseradish & roasted asparagus with kimchi & topped with fried egg).  We also sampled a few of their cocktails. The Empress Josephine (cucumber, rose gin, lemon) being voted crowd favorite. 

Since it opened almost a year ago The Gallows has been met with nothing but praise, and after our meal there I would say rightfully so as everything we had tasted great and we left full and happy. 

The food was so delicious that snapping some pictures was no easy task but I did manage to get a few:

The scotch egg (above features a soft boiled egg, a crispy sausage outside and fresh chives. Though I prefer the egg to be hard boiled, this was tasty and the crispy sausage wasn't too greasy. 

The early spring poutine was AMAZEBALLS! Perfectly crispy (and not at all greasy) fries, asparagus, ramps, chives and a creamy cheese sauce. This was promptly devoured by most of the table.

I picked the Ploughman as my entree because I am a sucker for a charcuterie board. This one did not disappoint. Top row: veal tartare, house pickled carrot & radish, Cabot Clothbound cheddar, bread
Bottom row: crisp lamb belly rillettes, green tomato chutney, mustard, chicken liver pate.

This was great. First, the amount of bread they provided was enough for most of my board, which was nice. Second, they provided a nice wedge of cheese to go along with my cured meats which was great. Third, their house made pickles and chutney were very good, and finally, the meat itself was awesome! I'm not a huge tartar fan but the veal tartare was flavorful and not overpowering. The crisp lamb rillettes were out of this world good - something I'd love to attempt on my own.

Overall the meal was really great. Boston has an exciting restaurant scene full of many options, making it hard to go back to a restaurant multiple times, even a good one, but I look forward to coming back to The Gallows as often as I can get down there!

Fresh Asparagus!

Nothing of great substance for this post. A few weeks ago Gail and I were at the final SoWa Winter Farmer's Market of the season standing at the Silverbrook Farm table, we were in love... with Asparagus.

This was absolutely fresh, first of the season, ready to take home asparagus. We were helpless to it's call. We ended up taking 3 pounds home with us and enjoying it throughout the week. Just a small taste of what's to come this season.

What fresh produce are you looking forward to this spring??

Roast Suckling Pig from Citizen Public House & Oyster Bar

WARNING: This post has a few photos of a whole roasted suckling pig and a roasted pig's head. If you aren't into that sort of thing you have been warned.

Last week a group of former co-workers and I visited The Citizen Public House and Oyster Bar for a family style slow roasted suckling pig.The pig itself was stuffed with bread pudding and collard greens, was presented to us whole before they served it up on platters. We were served a dizzying amount of sides alongside the pig - blue cheese bread pudding, roasted leeks & cauliflower, spicy peas in the pod, salad, and warm bread. Along with all the food there were the 100+ whiskey's to choose from as well!

All in all it was a memorable dining experience. I've included a few pictures below (whole pig, pig head and meat, and deconstructed pig head) have a look:

Before they served us the pig they brought it out for us to look at (and take pictures of!). As you can see from the above, the suckling pig spent the day slowly roasting.

The first platter they placed in front of me was the above, pig head, shoulder, and assorted meat. As the pig was so young there was not a lot of meat however the meat that clung to the incredibly crispy skin was absolutely delicious, sweet, and tender.

Towards the end of dinner they removed the head from the first platter, and came back out with the above, deconstructed head platter. In the foreground is the jaw with brain on top, next to it our the 'oysters' from the jowls and behind the ocular cavity, jowls, crispy pigs ears, eyes, neck meat, salt & pepper, and lemon wedges. The platter was served with crostini for the brain.
Not everyone was willing to try the various parts of the head, but I am willing to try most things at least once. The brain spread on crostini reminded me of a creamy liver pate and was slightly pepper, it was cut well with lemon. I found the 'oysters' and jowl to be incredibly tasty and some of the best bites I enjoyed all evening.
It's not often one has the opportunity to eat such a meal and I was glad that I signed up for it. It was good to sit with old co-workers and catch up while we all enjoyed a truly unique and memorable dining experience.

Garden Update & New Plants

After a few busy weeks of life with little to write about I'm back with a quick garden update and a few new seedlings.

In the garden the garlic is looking really amazing! The shortest plants come to about my knee and a few of the taller ones reach up to mid-thigh level. The radish, arugula, and kale we planted are looking really healthy while  the leeks, red bunching onion, and butter head lettuce aren't growing at all. Oh well, that is why I over plan!! If something doesn't work I will try and squeeze something else in when the time is right!

Speaking of planning... Saturday Gail and I visited Russell's Garden Center to pick up some marigolds, our pepper and tomato seedlings and a few impulse buys: shiso, parsley, and eggplant. When we got back to our apartment and set them all down our table looked like a small jungle of marigolds and veggie plants:

The shiso and parsley were planted in the garden yesterday along with most of the marigolds. I will give the peppers and tomatoes some time indoors while it warms up. For tomatoes this year we went with:
1 Matt's Wild Cherry
1 Black Krim
2 Caspian Pink
2 San Marzano Redorta
For peppers aside from 1 Jalapeno plant I went with some new varieties:
1 Jalapeno
1 Corno Di Toro
1 Cherry Bomb
1 Thai Dragon
1 Valencia
2 Carmen
The eggplant was Gail's request and is a Fairy Tale, which look like purple monster fingers! We've never grown eggplant, and I'm excited to see how it goes.

How's your garden growing?? Are you growing anything new this year??

Grow Grow Grow!

The garlic seems to have done very well with our mild Boston winter. I am keeping my fingers crossed for a great garlic harvest later this summer!!
The garden is off and running, nearly 3 weeks ahead of  when I have been able to get things going the last few years. Gail and I have made a few trips down there and have been hard at work weeding, digging and tidying up. We've also managed to plant a few seeds here and there - Leeks, Kale, Peas, Arugula, Radish, Spinach, and a Thyme plant with much more to come in the coming weeks and months.
Hopefully the on again-off again threat of rain will actually come to fruition- while Gail and I were weeding and digging we noticed the soil was incredibly dry. The water should be turned on at the Garden by now, I just haven't had the chance to make it down there to check.
Stay tuned for more growing updates!

Красный Хрен - Red Horseradish

Though the first few nights of passover have passed, I wanted to share my recipe for Красный Хрен (red horseradish), a traditional condiment for gefilte fish and a staple for many passover meals.
I opened up the garden last weekend and my one harvest so far has been an over wintered horseradish root that was dug up for the express purpose of making a few jars of this tasty condiment.
Красный Хрен - Red Horseradish
1 horseradish root, washed, peeled and diced (or grated)
2 medium beets, peeled and boiled or roasted and diced (or grated)
4-6 oz white vinegar (enough to be absorbed in the mixture but not so much that it is swimming in it)
2-3 tsp sugar
salt & pepper to taste (if desired)
Directions:
Using a food processor or hand grater finely grate or dice the horseradish. Add the grated beets to the horseradish (to ensure there is a good amount of heat let the horseradish sit in a covered container for a few minutes before the beets are added). Mix thoroughly and add a few teaspoons of sugar. Taste and adjust to desired heat or sweetness.  Add enough vinegar to absorb into the mixture, and mix very well. Transfer to jars, cover tightly, and store in the refrigerator until needed.
That is it. I wouldn't make this too far in advance as the horseradish will lose it's heat and intensity over time. For a more intense flavor use more horseradish and less of everything else! The lack of exact measurements in this recipe should serve as a general guide. The key to a good horseradish (red or white)  is to bring out the intensity of the horseradish without drowning it in vinegar. The recipe here yielded about 2 1/2 cups of red horseradish goodness.

Be sure to also check out my directions for making a traditional (white) horseradish.

Somerville Winter Market 4/7

Though winter is over, some of the winter farmers markets are still in full swing which helps bridge the gap until the spring/summer markets start back up. Gail and I took a trip to the Somerville Winter Market on Saturday to see what was available and pick up some goodies!

There was a really great variety of produce, meats, prepared goods, and specialty items available at the Market. We took home onions, dry beans, and dry cranberries from NorthStar Farm. A bag of cut swiss chard from Heron Pond Farm. Absolutely delicious falafel and tahini sauce from Seta's Mediterranean Foods. A pork butt from Austin Brothers Valley Farm. A thyme, and a pair of oregano plants (one italian and one 'hot and spicy') from Stillman's Farm. A bag of spice mix and some sort of sticky rice cake (the green and white thing behind the thyme plant in the above photo) from Kueh and a cup of Concord Grape Kombucha from the Culinary Cruiser a pedal powered kombucha on-tap cart offering a few different flavors.
A nice variety and a great trip to Somerville!

2012 In Progress (April)

reading:

One Thousand and One Nights

Rebel with a Cause: Foodie Elitism

viewing:

Mad Men Season 4

Game of Thrones Season 1

listening to:

This American Life -Take the Money and Run for Office

Girl on Guy 41 - Chef David Myers

coffee: As our coffee consumption has gone down a little we are still working on the Bard Coffee - El Salvador Cup of Excellence Lot # 13. We should be finished with it by the end of next week and on to something new!

No. 9 Park - Tasting Menu

Gail and I, along with my family recently had the pleasure of enjoying the Chef's tasting menu at No. 9 Park.  I will not give a breakdown of every dish on the menu, but at our table we had a vegetarian tasting, a seafood free tasting, and their usual tasting menu for the week. Everything was cooked well and the presentation was absolutely beautiful. By look and taste there were a few dishes that definitely stood out in our party:
Peekytoe Crab Salad - asparagus, tangerine, Marcona almonds. I am allergic to seafood and did not eat this dish, but it looked stunning and everyone at the table who did eat it was very pleased.
Moral Mushroom Tartlet - petite salade, herbed chevre, truffle vinaigrette vegetarian menu. Very creative dish and it tasted fantastic. A nice blend of flavors that was presented beautifully.
Saffron Couscous - merguez, fava beans, Greek yogurt. The merguez was very flavorful, but the saffron couscous was the star of this dish, and was also featured in a later dish on the vegetarian menu.
Potato & Ramp Tortellini -  fava beans, sauce Americaine vegetarian menu These tortellini tasted as if they were born of fall and spring. Great combination.
Prune Stuffed Gnocchi- foie gras, almonds, Vin Santo. A No. 9 Park signature dish. The vegetarian option was served without foie gras. Either way it is many complex flavors delicately balanced in one bight.
Chocolate Cookie & Homemade Marshmellow. Not really a dessert course, but when the check was put on the table it came on a plate arranged with small homemade marshmellows and delicate chocolate cookies. A nice conclusion to a memorable meal that left everyone thoroughly impressed with the structure of the dishes, presentation of the food, and overall attention to detail.

Dark Days Challenge - A look back and my favorite meals

Last week I wrote about our 17th and final meal for this years Dark Days Challenge. From November 30 - March 30 I shared one meal per week that Gail and I were enjoying using SOLE (sustainable, organic, local, and ethical) ingredients that we purchased and prepared throughout the winter.
Looking back at all of the Dark Days posts I am not surprised that pasta dishes were featured in 7 of  the 17 meals! Gail and I both love pasta and ravioli and we manged to can 18 1/2 quarts of sauce using a combination of farmers market seconds and our tomatoes. Looking now we are down to about 5 quarts - pasta and sauce with maybe a sausage or additional vegetables is a staple of our weekly food routine!
My favorite dishes for the challenge were Week 11: Red Pepper/Goat Cheese Ravioli, Sauce, & Spicy Beef Sausage and Week 16: Braised Pork Rib, Roasted Potato, and Relishes. Both are very simple and incredibly satisfying dishes. We are lucky to have a few great pasta and ravioli vendors as well as an abundance of great locally made sausages to compliment our homemade sauces. The pork rib was the first 'country style' rib I had ever prepared and both Gail and I were so satisfied with the end result! Again it was a case of great farmers market items (meat, potato, pickled carrots) to pair with our own homemade relishes.
I found that sourcing items for this years challenge was incredibly easy. Evey weekend from before Thanksgiving through late April there is at least 1 winter market open within a drive able distance. Gail and I visited the markets in Wayland, Somerville, and the South End regularly as well as a one-off Brookline market this winter and continue to do so now. These markets had an amazing variety of produce, meats, eggs, milk, cheeses, honey, apples, coffee, prepared and specialty goods! Some weeks we would go with a long list of ingredients for a few specific meals and other weeks we would pick and choose on a whim and figure out what we wanted to eat for a local meal that way. There was no shortage of local goods throughout this overly warm winter. It is amazing to see the explosive growth of winter markets just in the last few years.
I love participating in this challenge as it gets me thinking about my food even when I am not in the garden or enjoying  fresh fruit and vegetables at the height of summer. I also was able to continue to make great connection to the people who raise, grow, produce, and make much of what Gail and I eat, giving us a genuine appreciation for our food and the hard work that goes into producing it.

Opening Day & First Harvest

I couldn't take it any longer! After an unreasonably warm winter I was finally ready to get back to the Garden. This past Sunday morning I brought most of my tools to the plot and opened up for the season! I saw at least 8 or 10 other gardeners, most of them knew members of the Fenway Victor Gardens, hard at work!
I cleared up some straw I insulated some of the garden with. The garlic looks fantastic I counted 48 garlic plants about 3-4 inches tall each! I can't wait to harvest all that garlic later this summer. We planted a few walking onions and it looks as if 1 of about a dozen managed to grow. I am hoping some of the rest will emerge soon. Much to my delight I found a volunteer leek growing under a pile of straw in the back corner of the garden. I managed to put some additional Leek as well as some Kale seeds in the ground before the afternoon was up!
I even managed a small harvest, with a big effort! I left one horseradish plant to overwinter, and it was time to dig it up as Passover is this coming weekendand homemade horseradish is in great demand!! After some serious grunting and digging I managed to uproot 7.35 oz of Horseradish! Not bad at all.

Still a lot of tidying and additional work to do, but it felt great to be outside and see some real signs of spring! Next trip down to the plot I will bring a camera to show off some of the great looking garlic!

Much more to come...we're just getting started!

2012 In Progress (March)

reading:

Mycelium Running - Paul Stammets

One Thousand and One Nights

Lexicon of Sustainability: Food Miles

Amazon buys army of Robots - CNN

viewing:

Why we're storing billions of seeds - Ted 

Tenacious D - To Be The Best - New album announcement from Tenacious D!

listening to:

FEaB # 1

The Benson Interruption # 13 

coffee: 

Working our way through the wonderful Bard Coffee - El Salvador Cup of Excellence Lot # 13. I am still singing the praises of this slightly sweet and balanced cup, absolutely love it! 

Dark Days Meal #17: Broccoli and Fontina Ravioli, Homemade Sauce, & Maple Sausage

The Dark Days Challenge is on! Running until March 31, 2012 over 100 participants will be doing our best to cook and blog about one meal per week featuring SOLE (sustainable, organic, local, ethical) ingredients. Recaps will be hosted by the blog collective Not Dabbling in Normal where you can follow along with all of the other participants.

This is it. Our final Dark Days Meal for this challenge. Sadly no good pictures came out, but how exciting is another shot of ravioli, homemade sauce and sausage? Not very exciting but it tasted damn good!!
For this our 17th and final Dark Days Challenge meal we enjoyed a broccoli and fontina ravioli with homemade sauce and maple pork sausage.
The Broccoli and Fontina Ravioli is courtesy of Valicenti Organico, the sauce from our pantry, and the Maple Sausage from the farmers at West River Creamery. The sweetness of the sausage was a great balance to the richness of the fontina. 

I will be wrapping up and reflecting on this season's Dark Days Challenge next week.

re:char & The Black Revolution

There are a number of food related Kickstarter campaign's out there from Wood-Fired Pizza Carts to Urban Farms and dozens of other projects in between. One such project I recently stumbled upon is more garden related, but the end outcome is greater vegetable production so it falls into the food category. I decided to support Jason Aramburu's Black Revolution Biochar project!
Jason Aramburu is a Princeton graduate who is interested in soil science and Biochar. Biochar is a charcoal produced at very high temperatures from plant waste and was used by farmers in the Amazon Basin as early as 3,000 years ago to help increase the fertility of croplands. Many believe products like biochar can be used to reduce carbon emission because once plant waste is turned into biochar it doesn't decompose into CO2. See what Jason has to say in the below kickstarter campaign video:

From the Black Revolution Kickstarter page they are looking to test biochar with a variety of growers (a few potted plants all the way up to small farmers) and skill levels. Backing the campaign gives you the opportunity to be part of the US trial of Black Revolution as they will "ask backers to measure the height and yield of their plants at multiple points for publication into a comprehensive study. We will also determine how much carbon we have all offset through the use of Black Revolution. All backers will receive results of the study upon completion..." 
I pledged $35 and had the honor of being the donor to bring the project over it's fundraising goal and guarantee it will be funded. For my pledge I will be receiving a small bag of Black Revolution (enough for 4-5 potted plants).
I look forward to receiving the Biochar and sharing the results with the re:char team as well as here on the blog!

SoWa Winter Market 3/25

Gail visited the SoWa Winter Market yesterday for what is definitely one of our smallest trips of the season. We have a refrigerator full of leftovers and weren't in need of much but decided to make the trip anyway to see some of our favorite vendors and get out of our apartment for a few hours.
We got 3 apples and a red onion from Silverbrook Farm. Green Peppercorn Pappardelle & Broccoli and Fontina Ravioli from Valicenti Organico. 2 gorgeous looking rib steaks from John Crow Farm, and a pair of Chocolate Sea Salt Biscotti from Joanna's New World Biscotti.
Not picture was the 1 additional item we picked up, a 6" tall rosemary plant from The Herb Lyceum.
The rosemary will have a temporary home on our windowsill until it is time to bring it to the garden, which will hopefully be very soon!

2012 In Progress (March)

reading:
Mycelium Running - Paul Stamets
Seeking a Sustainable Path for Coffee, and Coffe Farmers, in Haiti   New York Times Dot Earth 

viewing:
Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race- The Big Picture
Impermanent Sand Paintings- Andres Amador
Rangers & Celtic (5 Parts)- vice.com

listening:
Nerdist - Neal Patrick Harris
Freakanomics - Show & Yell

coffee:
This week we starting drinking Bard Coffee - El Salvador Cup of Excellence Lot # 13. This is a sweet and balanced cup, with a hint of vanilla. It is makes the ideal cup at home. Probably the best coffee we've had this year and I really look forward to welcoming spring with this great brew.

Dark Days Meal # 16: Braised Pork Rib, Roasted Potato & Relishes

The Dark Days Challenge is on! Running until March 31, 2012 over 100 participants will be doing our best to cook and blog about one meal per week featuring SOLE (sustainable, organic, local, ethical) ingredients. Recaps will be hosted by the blog collective Not Dabbling in Normal where you can follow along with all of the other participants.

In an effort to enjoy some of the meat we have in our freezer I decided to make a country style pork rib for Gail and I to share. I braised the pork rib with beer (Harpoon 100 Barrel Series Catamount Maple Wheat) and an onion. I finished the pork with a reduction of apple cider and a hint of maple syrup. I roasted up some garlic and butter potatoes with a hint of dill and added some relishes and pickled goods on the side. An easy meal that used a variety of items we had on hand!

Country Style Pork Rib from Pete & Jen's Backyard Birds, cooked in Harpoon Beer (brewed in Boston, MA & Windsor, VT) with Red Fire Farm onions and garlic. Charlton Orchards cider and Cook's Farm maple syrup for the finishing sauce. Pickled carrots and grapes from Grillo's Pickles and the corn relish is from our own stash. The Potatoes are also courtesy of red fire farm as was the garlic they were tossed with, and the butter was Kate's Homemade.

Next week looks to be the last week of the challenge. Just in time for this blog to transition from less eating to more gardening, though I will try and keep a balance. Look for 1 more Dark Days Meal next week and a wrap up/recap following that.

New Kitchen Utensils

Gail and I picked up some handmade kitchen tools this past weekend at the Paradise City Arts Festival. Gail had previously bought a butter dish and spreader from Jonathan's Wild Cherry Spoons and was excited for us to check out their full selection at Paradise City.
We ended up with a bundle of assorted utensils and made plans to purchase even more in the future as we both really like Jonathan's work. Here is a look at the spoons that made it home with us:

The Spice Spoon & Honey Stick. Given my honey obsession
I am sure to get some miles out of that one. 

A pair of slightly curved cooking spoons and a fancy tasting
spoon that we picked out of the irregulars box.

Marmalade Spoon & Pickle Fork round out
the utensil shopping spree.

We were definitely in need of a few more basic wooden spoons like those in the 2nd picture but others, like the Honey Stick and Pickle Fork were impulse buys that I was happy to make. The spoons, along with the butter dish and spreaders and the cutting board set I previously gifted to Gail have started us off with a nice collection of handmade wooden kitchen items that I am sure will grow bigger over time.