Archive for June, 2009
June Salad with Buttermilk Dressing
It’s about time for some health food around here. The past several posts have all be scrumptious sugary goodness…and now my teeth are starting to hurt just a little bit and the thighs have really taken advantage of the “situation”. Good thing I’m working up a serious sweat every day in my gardening gig. My garden is growing gold these days. I’m harvesting beets, carrots, lettuce, all sorts of herbs, broccoli, swiss chard, and young mustard greens. But my two favorites have to be the kohlrabi and sugar snap peas.
I had a friend recently tell me he’d never even seen a kohlrabi before, let alone eaten it. Of course I made him try it offered him one to eat as soon as they came into season (about a month ago). But before he would take a bite, he wanted to know what it tasted like. I always have such a tough time with that question. Kohlrabi tastes like…um, well, sorta like broccoli. Yep. And sorta like a mild radish. Okay. And maybe even a little like an apple. What?? Well, that’s just my take on it anyway. It’s definitely very crunchy and when it’s peeled, it looks like the white crisp flesh of an apple. There is a mild sweetness to mine, but I’ve had other people tell me that’s not always the case with kohlrabi. Another friend who overheard me trying to describe this to my kohlrabi-virgin friend declared it was just like eating a giant broccoli stem. Hmmm, perhaps, though I like to give this alien-looking vegetable more credit than that.
I do believe my friend liked the kohlrabi, by the way. And I know for sure he and everyone else who’s visited my garden as of late loved these sugar snap peas. I can only tell you that if you’ve never had a sugar snap pea plucked straight off the vine and popped directly into your mouth, pod and all, then you’ve been denied one of life’s most delicious experiences. Don’t even kid yourself if you are thinking right now, “Well, maybe I haven’t been there to pick them myself, but I’ve surely had the same great taste from the fresh peas I buy at the farmers market”. Peas are the one vegetable everyone should try to grow themselves as they are never quite as good as they are those few precious minutes after they’ve been picked. Really, mine rarely make it into the kitchen as I inevitably eat them standing before the vine, dirt in the crack of my hands to boot, about mid-way through my evening of gardening when my tummy reminds me I never made it into the house to have some dinner. Obviously I made an exception to make this salad. Talk about practicing self-control!
Rhubarb Lavender Jam
This is it, folks. This is the last recipe in the official Rhubarb Fest here on SFTF. Won’t you miss that glaring shade of pink font? There may be a few stragglers to come, but both my kitchen and my garden have moved on from the ephemeral spring beauty of rhubarb to the boisterous abundance of early summer. Now that my harvest basket is brimming daily with sugar snap peas, kohlrabi, beets, lettuces, radishes, broccoli and more, it’s tough to stay focused on one exclusive ingredient. Can you blame me?
But celebrating rhubarb has been fun, hasn’t it? I discovered several new and delicious recipes, all of which astonishingly excluded strawberries, rhubarb’s bestest buddy ever! Of course I saved the best for last. This batch of Rhubarb Lavender Jam combines so many of my favorite flavors: sassy rhubarb, floral lavender, and wildflower honey, all of which came out of my garden in one way or another. I also love that this jam does not require any pectin. It’s not that I mind pectin in my jam. I just mind the inevitable realization that I used up the last of my stash and never remembered to replace it (pectin’s tough to find in bulk here in the city so I buy mine at the little local store by my parents’ farm when I’m visiting).
If you’re not a master jam maker – and I certainly don’t consider myself to be one like Tigress in a Jam, the creator of this recipe – this is an easy beginners batch. The ingredients take minimal processing and you can’t really mess it up as you can keep cooking it if you aren’t sure that its ready to set up. Rhubarb takes a licking and keeps on ticking like that. And this jam does indeed set up beautifully.
Cinnamon Rhubarb Muffins
Who doesn’t love a tasty tender muffin that’s not too-too sweet for breakfast? I certainly adore such muffins myself though I rarely remember to make them except when I’m expecting company and want to have something a little more unique than the standard bagel and cream cheese fare. Thankfully, Rhubarb Fest is marching onward here at SFTF so I was prompted to search for a good recipe that would both use up some fading stalks and not require a second trip to the store in one day. This batch of Cinnamon Rhubarb Muffins had a wonderfully subtle spicy tart flavor, putting them squarely at the top of my list for the next time I want to impress overnight guests.
While I was spooning the batter for these muffins into the tins, I got to wondering what the defining difference is between a muffin and a cupcake. Is it just the presence or absence of icing that divides the two? I mean, could I very well slap a cream cheese frosting on these diminutive rhubarb cake-like desserts and declare them “cupcakes!”, should I be so inclined? Of course this required a little follow-up on my part, the perfect entertainment for me while the muffins baked. Here are the definitions from Dictionary.com.
Muffin: an individual cup-shaped quick bread made with wheat flour, cornmeal, or the like, and baked in a pan (muffin pan) containing a series of cuplike forms.
Cupcake: a small cake, the size of an individual portion, baked in a cup-shaped mold.
Hmmm… no where do they mention the icing. Okay. So, the only thing I can see that sets them apart are the terms “quick bread” and “cake”.
Time to look up more definitions….
Strawberry Vanilla Ice Cream
Time for a change of pace, my friendly readers. We’re still in the midst of the Rhubarb Fest in the SFTF kitchen, but I seem to have misplaced the cord I need to download the latest pictures from my camera (eek!) so we’ll dive into the drafts I was holding onto until after the pink-tinged wave of recipes had subsided. Don’t worry. We aren’t going to stray far from the theme of seasonal sweet treats using red-hued local produce. Indeed, Strawberry Vanilla Ice Cream is a perfect companion for just about any rhubarb concoction.
I can think of very few things that are more delicious than the combination of juicy just-picked strawberries and cold rich cream. There’s something just downright luscious about it. Every year when strawberry season rolls around again, I hunt down a pick-your-own place and go a little crazy. It’s typically proven to be a rather expensive splurge, but it’s worth it. This year I planted dozens of alpine strawberry plants (Fragaria vesca ‘Semperflorens’) in my garden and in containers around my deck. They haven’t yet produced any fruit this year, though they do have plenty of flowers and buds presently. The glory of the smaller and sweeter alpine strawberry is that it fruits all summer long, not just in June like the more robust and common commercial strawberry (Fragaria x ananassa).
While I await the arrival of my first baby berry, I was happy to chunk up these local strawberries from the farmers market, freezing them with some thick and frothy raw cow’s milk that I brought back with me from my family’s dairy farm. I know that you all probably think of supporting your local farmers all the time by buying your vegetables and fruit from them. I would encourage you (even nearly beg you) to not forget to do the same with dairy farmers who are selling milk and cheese and even occasionally ice cream. Right now the small-to-mid-size family-run dairy farms of our nation are suffering horribly from a crippling price slump in the milk market. My brother, who is trying very hard to keep the farm that’s been in our family for five generations operating, tells me just the basic daily operations of farming are causing him to pretty much hemorrhage money. The only apparent salvation is to sell our farm’s milk (and maybe cheese too) to the public directly and hope that they are willing to buy from us instead of the supermarket. So, please, remember your local dairy farmers too when you’re making your purchases.
Angel Food Cake & Rhubarb Fool
We’ve hit the jackpot again, folks! Another recipe that, should I ever have the good fortune to open a restaurant or become a caterer, would surely be a signature dish and have folks lining up at the door, whispering in reverent tones that they’ve come for the Rhubarb Fool Over Old-Fashioned Angel Food Cake. That and the Roasted Rosemary Potato Leek Soup and the Georgia Peanut Soup and the Honey-Ginger Carrot Parsnip Latkes and the Roasted Root and Ricotta Pizza and the Roasted Sweet Potato and Cauliflower Mash and the Fresh Fig Compote and the Parsnip Spiced Cupcakes with Ginger Cream Cheese Frosting and the…. well, you get the idea. I kind of have this all planned out, ya know.
But today’s post is all about this slightly messy and tremendously rich and tasty glass full of goodness. Within it nestles angel food cake made with gorgeous farm fresh eggs from my friend E’s chickens layered with freshly whipped cream and stewed rhubarb that still has its tangy bite to balance the almondy sweetness of the airy cake cubes. It’s the whipped cream and stewed rhubarb that make up the “rhubarb fool”, a term that is decidedly British. If you’re feeling foolish for not knowing what a fruit fool is, stop on over at Joy of Baking and get the details.
Now, I have to tell you a story. Pull up a chair and get comfy if you haven’t already. You see, I really wanted to name this dish “Rhubarb Slop”, but I figured it wouldn’t sell to the masses nearly as well. But in my mind, this style of dessert will always be “slop”. Huh?!?
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