Talking Turkey at Smith Meadows Farm

Just a few days ago, I spent a wonderful morning with the Pritchard family at Smith Meadows Farm in Berryville, Virginia. The farm has been in the family, and producing, since the early 19^th century. A few years back, Betsy and Forrest made the decision to focus full time on running the farm. It’s a family affair, for sure, with their mother running the B&B (and joining in the farm work between guest stays); and, Forrest’s wife, Nancy, making delectable pasta and sauces.

Driving through an ancient orchard along the driveway, sheep raise their heads to see who is coming. The pigs are having a fantastic time under the trees, finding windfall apples - snarfling and snuffling. I had to stop, open the windows and listen. So tame, they came to the fence, clearly looking for goodies.

At the end of the drive is a Dutch/Federal style Manor House with narrow buildings on either side – dependencies -all fashioned from bricks made on the premises. It's a picture-perfect Virginia farm. Across the 400 acres, there are rolling pastures where cattle, sheep and pigs graze. I head up to a large fenced area that holds all the poultry in a grassy field. When I visited in July, there were ducks, turkeys and chickens. Today, it's just turkeys and chickens. (See my Duck tales.)

I’ve been a customer for several years, but this year, I wanted to know more about the bird on my Thanksgiving table, and that's why I am at the farm.

Betsy and I walked up the hill to the field where the turkeys were grazing on grass behind a small, makeshift fence. The fence is a new addition, moving with the turkeys as they are relocated for fresh grass (they really do a number on the grass in a very short time!) The fence had to be erected recently when coyote and fox started taking young birds. Sadly, one coyote killed nine turkeys, eating only one, leaving behind eight bloody corpses. Serious frustration for the turkey farmer!

Smith Meadows raises two commercial breeds – the broad breasted white and the broad breasted bronze. When asked why no heritage breeds, the answer came down to dollars and sense. Heritage chicks cost more than twice as much as commercial chicks, and they have a higher mortality rate. All I know is Betsy’s got some tasty birds. They’ve graced my holiday table for the last five years.

Betsy says she learned some good lessons this year with her brood of 300. Chicks arrive in the mail in June and July, staggered across a few weeks. In fact, those started in July did better than those started earlier. Better weather, more consistent warmth. The birds are raised to a particular weight, not for particular number of days, aiming for 10-14 lbs. Evidently, with smaller families, the days of the 25# turkey are over. I say, good riddance to dried out turkey - roast two smaller birds instead! Betsy calls and talks to the turkeys as we walk among them. They're definitely interested in us, chattering and preening.

Betsy and Forrest started selling directly to the customer in 1996 through farmers markets around the Washington, DC metro area. They currently raise about 4000 chickens each year, as well as the turkeys. At any time, they might have 200 cows, 125 hogs and 800 laying hens. And lamb. Heaven. Their lamb is some of the best I've ever tasted - I assumed it was due to the rich green pastures, but Betsy explained the efforts she's made to balance the minerals they take in - minerals that are critical to a lamb's health.

We walked down to the processing house where turkeys were meeting their maker. It was quick and humane. That's all I need to say. No screaming. No anxiety.

Once dispatched, the bird is quickly scalded and then put in a gentle tumbling plucking machine. When the feathers are off, the bird is passed back to the stainless steel processing tables. Here, the two farm interns (hard to believe that's the same smiling face I see every Saturday at my market) are cleaning up a nice looking turkey.

I watched as the birds were processed. Great care is taken to clean and prepare the turkey for the customer, all done by hand to limit any bruising or tearing.

Here's Betsy doing the final inspection - getting all the pin feathers and feather pins out.

After watching for awhile (I wondered later if I should have jumped in to help, but...) I walked down the path to visit with Nancy in the kitchen. Smith Meadows has a brisk pasta and sauce market business. I have my favorites (Sweet Potato Ravioli, Apple Cheddar Ravioli, Oat & Winter Wheat Fettucine.)

In this sweet little storefront, Nancy and her two worker-bees were cranking out noodles and pesto, supervised by her Nancy's son, Linus.

There were great heaps of green garlic scapes, nuts, cheese and oil ready for the food processor. And rectangular slabs of freshly made pasta dough ready for the pasta machine. I will admit to pasta-machine-envy.

When we were parting company, I asked Betsy a question that's been on my mind since disassembling the ducks. Do her customers want cut-up chicken? Yes, of course they do. But she encourages them to watch the videos to see how it's done. Here's one I like linked here.

I always buy whole chickens and will admit that I most often roast them whole, but recently, after the duck education, I decided to break down two chickens for various dishes - eight leg quarters for my new favorite go-to dish from food52, Rosy Chicken, breasts for some charcuterie (post to come) and carcasses, necks, wing tips and scraps for stock.

Above all, I think I most appreciate the nose-to-beak benefits of homemade stock.

I keep chicken, duck and other stock in 6 cup measures, in ziplock bags (freeze flat on a sheet pan for best storing!) in the freezer. Six cups is the perfect quantity for one batch of soup.

Chicken (or duck or turkey) Stock, makes about 8 cups

Two chicken carcasses, necks, wing tips and scraps (about two pounds)

3 quarts cold water

2 onions, quartered (onion skin can go in the pot, too, as it helps color the stock)

4 carrots, cut in thirds

2 celery stalks, or the celery leaves from the stalk

1 T peppercorns

6-8 fresh thyme stalks

2 rosemary stalks

1 bay leaf

Cook for at least four hours, covered. Sometimes I cook mine for six hours.

Strain and cook another hour.

Cool quickly in a bowl held over an ice bath to retain the best flavor.

Refrigerate overnight. Skim the fat. Freeze.

Make a batch today. You'll love how the house smells and you will thank me at Thanksgiving.

PS I don't salt my stock so I can control the salt in soups and sauces made from the stock.

Sunday Roast Chicken Dinner

We're still cleaning up around here. The house has been in a complete uproar since the basement was drywalled. Today, with the clocks falling back, rain steadily falling, and no need to go anywhere, we took on the clean up.

First we had breakfast to fortify us. Buttermilk pancakes and Sauteed Spiced Apples. Served up with hot strong coffee and the New York Times. The Obamas were profiled in the magazine. Some seriously good reading.

In order to clean the garage and basement, we had to start upstairs in the bedrooms. Can't quite explain why... There was a lot of carrying big plastic storage boxes from one floor to the other, moving furniture, setting up the second guest room for holiday travelers and organizing all our stored belongings.

It's always confronting to realize how much stuff we've accumulated. And even while confronting some issues, there were pockets of untouched detritus. Some boxes with my mother's things. Those I'm not ready to deal with, so they get moved around and then back to the same spot they've been in for five years.

I had to face up to having a lot of kitchen equipment. And entertaining stuff. We set up one of those big stainless steel shelves in the basement and put all the overflow there. The big Le Creuset pots. The icecream maker. The deep fryer. The huge roasting pans. All the extra plates & flatware. The boxes of wine glasses. It's good to get it organized and I'm committed to using it, or moving it along. I discovered two attachments for the Atlas pasta maker - had forgotten all about those!

Oh, and if you see me at Costco, remind me that I already have three of those large 24-roll toilet paper packs. That's 72 rolls. Way more than two people need, even if we do entertain a lot.

In the end, we had a few things to give away and a few things to sell, and with the help of our neighborhood listserv, everything was claimed in an hour.

We moved things around. Packed and repacked storage boxes. Dusted and washed and scrubbed. Took out the trash. And now the house is all put back together. Very satisfying, I must say.

To reward us, I made one of our favorite Sunday dinners. Roast chicken. Roasted potatoes. Bok choy sauteed with mushrooms, onions and fennel. And for dessert, we'll enjoy the rest of a fantastic pumpkin apple bread from food52.

Our Favorite Roast Chicken, adapted from Thomas Keller's Bouchon

3.5 lb roasting chicken
2 tsp kosher salt
2 tsp black pepper, freshly ground

Brine
1/2 c kosher salt
2.5 qt water
generous sprigs of fresh thyme, parsley & rosemary
1 lemon, zested, then cut in half, squeezed and added to the brine
1/2 head of garlic, about 6 cloves, crushed
1 T black peppercorns
1/4 c maple syrup

Heat in a pot large enough to hold the chicken. Bring to a simmer and stir until salt has dissolved. Cool completely.

Add the chicken to the cooled brine and refrigerate for at least four hours and up to six.

Roast The Chicken

(We use the gas grill to roast, heating it to 500, then reducing the heat to 450 when the chicken is added.)

Preheat oven to 475 or light the grill.

Remove the chicken from the brine, rinse well and pat dry.

Allow to air dry for 30 min. then generously salt and pepper outside and in.

Heat 1 Tbls olive oil in a cast iron pan. When quite hot, add chicken, breast side up.

Place pan on the grill or into the oven and roast the bird for 40 minutes, or until the leg moves freely and a thermometer registers 165-170.

Allow to rest for five minutes or so before carving.


And here is a pic of the 'taters. They're so incredibly good. Nigella Lawson's Feast has all the secrets to perfect roast potatoes.


Back tomorrow with the post I've been polishing for days.

Dinner in a Hurry

It's been busy around the house the last few days. We finally had the basement drywalled and painted, after ten years of talking about it, and everything that was stuffed in that hideous, dark, dusty room is now spread throughout the house and garage. It's going to take the rest of the week to get it all back in there.

All this hullabaloo has made cooking difficult - it was dusty and noisy and all the mess was way too close to my kitchen oasis. The crew worked long days, leaving late, so I got into the kitchen with a hungry husband hovering. I just focused on food that could be made quickly with whatever was in the house.

I reverted to my favorite quick recipes - those that can be thrown together in less than an hour. This is a vegetarian, nothing fancy, but always satisfying, split pea soup. Less than an hour from simmer to dinner.

(Sorry there are no photos - the camera was never handy in the last few days.)

Simply Delicious Split Pea Soup

2 Tbls Olive Oil
2 onions, diced
2 garlic cloves, minced
2 carrots, peeled and cut into discs
2 celery stalks, diced
3 tsp fresh thyme
1 bay leaf
1.5 c split peas, rinsed
6 c vegetable broth (I keep Penzey's Vegetable Broth Starter in my pantry)
4 small yukon gold potatoes, diced
Salt & pepper to taste

Heat the olive oil in a large soup pot.
Add the onions and cook gently for a few minutes, until transparent. Generously season with salt & pepper.
Add the garlic, cook for a minute or two, then add the carrots and celery.
Toss to coat with oil and cook until everything is softened and edges are getting a little brown.
Add the thyme, stir and toss to cook for a minute or two.
Add the split peas, stir and toss to coat with the oil and veggies, then add the broth and bring to a boil.
Stir. Add the potatoes, bring back to a boil, then reduce the heat and simmer for 45 minutes.
Blend half the soup in the blender and add it back to the unblended soup. Or use an immersion blender and blend for a minute or two, leaving it a little chunky. Season with salt & pepper to taste.
Serve with bread or biscuits or even with some croutons floated on top.
If there's a carnivore in the house, you could serve a little country ham on that biscuit.

Four Ducks, Three Days and One Recipe (Charcuterie Part One)

Perhaps I’m late to the table on this one, but in the last month, I’ve been pondering meat consumption in America. Dependence on choice cuts of meat for our dinner table, with a casual disregard for the rest of the animal, has proven to be totally irresponsible.

I switched to the farmers market and grass fed meats about five years ago, after Barbara Kingsolver's Animal, Vegetable, Miracle and Michael Pollan's Omnivore's Dilemna made me face the environmental issues surrounding food. I have reduced my footprint. I am a more thoughtful shopper and cook.

But, it's now time to face the Nose To Tail question, head on. I want to be responsible. I want to use the whole beast. I want to understand food preservation. There is so much to think about, and I won't step up on the soapbox too much. Just sayin', it's time to realize we're eating animals, and do right by the beasts, for heaven's sake. And respect the meat we do put on our table, putting our purchasing dollars in the hands of ethical farmers.

For some excellent reading on the subject, I recommend The Compassionate Carnivore and Fergus Henderson’s marvelous book The Whole Beast: Nose To Tail Eating.

So, with an eye toward responsibility in my carnivorous-ness, I decided to search for ways to use all those supposedly “lesser” cuts of meat. Turns out they’re not lesser at all. They’re more-er. More fat, therefore more flavor, and many, many more ways to use them.

Michael Ruhlman’s Charcuterie provided engaging reading on the subject, and his recipes are somehow approachable, even when daunting. How does he do that? I considered shoulders – lamb, pork, veal – and how they become pates and sausages. Contemplated offal, and how liver changes to terrine. And I thought about all the ancient methods of preserving – confit! proscuitto! I was thoroughly seduced.

In one of those amazing moments of synchronicity, I received an email from L’Academie de Cuisine offering a two-day class in all things charcuterie – rillettes, gravlax, confit, pate, terrine, sausage techniques, as well as accompaniments – better yet, it was a participation class, not demonstration. I signed up instantly.

Chef Bonnie Moore is a wonderful teacher, and in her element when addressing traditional French cookery. There were eight students, all accomplished cooks and serious food lovers. The foods we created under her tutelage were stellar, and the opportunity to figure out how to use that KitchenAid meat grinder under Chef’s watchful eye made the class totally valuable.

One side note, I wouldn’t recommend eating rillette, terrine, pate, confit, gravlax, boudin blanc, and merguez all in one afternoon. But how could I resist? I spent the afternoon on the couch moaning, and ate salad for the next three days.

Knowing I would forget everything if I didn’t repeat it at home, I started shopping. It was important to me that the meats were locally raised, grass fed and finished, and between several of my favorite farmers, located and ordered everything I would need. I called Paul H., a good friend, fellow food-lover, and excellent cook, and planned a day of sausage-making for the end of the month. It is definitely a two-person job. I’ll be posting about that adventure in Charcuterie: Part Two.

In the meantime, I looked around for some ducks.

Saturday morning. Broad Branch Chevy Chase Farmers Market. Four beautiful 3.5# ducks (and two pounds of duck liver!) from Smith Meadows. They were fresh-killed, flash frozen, and needed a day to thaw before I dealt with them. And Farmer Betsy Pritchard told me to enjoy those ducks – she wouldn’t be raising them again! Evidently, raising ducks is more challenging than raising chickens and turkeys - her usual barnyard critters.

I was confronted by these ducks – I was going to have to take the birds apart. While I’ve cut up many a chicken, I haven’t deboned breasts, or done any carving on a RAW bird. Always after the chicken was cooked... never really worried what the parts looked like. This was a whole new story - these duck parts needed to look dinner party pretty.

Sunday morning. In the kitchen with a super sharp knife, four ducks, and my computer. Gotta love YouTube. I have a new boyfriend – his name is Killer. He’s made an incredibly useful video on deconstructing the duck. After watching it FOUR times, I took a deep breath and started slicing. I’m really very pleased with the results. There are more photos on Flickr.

I started an enormous pot of duck stock and made the house smell gorgeous. Already planning, I know it will be perfect to fortify the Thanksgiving gravy. Wrapped and froze the breasts in pairs, ready for dinner parties. Finally, in a big bowl, I readied the confit rubbing the duck leg quarters with salt, pepper, thyme and garlic, and refrigerating for 48 hours.

The stock cooked for four hours, after which I strained it and then cooled it quickly in an icebath. The original 12 quart pot of water and bones now held about 6 quarts of stock. And fat. Glorious duck fat. I chilled the soup overnight to help the stock and fat separate.

I spent awhile picking the duck off the bones. It was fantastic, moist and flavorful. That night, I used it for a quesadilla, and that's the recipe I'm sharing today. Made in an instant after scrounging through the 'fridge, it was an instant hit.

Monday: I skimmed the fat from the soup. I realize this isn’t the official way to render the fat (slowly simmering fat & skin and other scraps from the butchering table until you have clear fat and cracklin’s) but it worked out beautifully. I missed the cracklin’s but my cholesterol didn’t. Skimmed off about 2.5 cups of fat. The stock went into the freezer in 1.5 qt. bags.

Tuesday: Removed the leg quarters from the garlic/herb mixture, rinsed and patted them down with a paper towel. Using my favorite Le Creuset buffet pan, in went the duck legs and fat and it started warming on the stove. I was a little worried that the legs weren't immediately submerged, but more fat rendered off the ducks, so eventually they were under the fat.

Pay attention here… this is the secret to confit success… (thank you Chef Moore!) ADD A LITTLE WATER TO THE FAT. I know, sounds crazy, right? But you don’t want the duck to FRY in the fat, you want them to poach, essentially. And as long as there is water in the fat, and steam releasing, the temperature will stay at 212•, below the frying point. Brilliant.

Confit needs to cook until the meat is falling off the bone and the fat is nice and clear - what amounts to a very long time. After the legs and fat came to a good simmer, I put the pan in a 225• oven, uncovered, for six hours. I checked every hour or so to see if the steam was still releasing, and added a little bit of water (3 Tbls?) a couple of times.

At the six hour mark, the duck looked spectacular. And the fat was clear and golden. That fat is going to make some seriously good roast potatoes.

Packed in a crockery dish, the legs submerged in fat, all of it covered with parchment paper, plastic and foil, and then frozen; this lovely duck confit will be part of a glorious, celebratory Cassoulet at a holiday party.

For now, I’ve been enjoying the shredded duck in quesadillas. I hope you do, too. (I suppose you could substitute chicken breast if you don’t have any shredded duck, but that would be a shame. I recommend cooking a duck breast just for this dish, it’s That Delicious.)

And that's my Nose To Tail tale.

Shredded Duck Quesadilla
Serves 2 for dinner or 4 for appetizers

1 c onion, sliced into thin halfmoons
2 Tbls unsalted butter
1 c shredded, cooked duck
1 tsp. chili powder
2 c micro greens, stir fry greens or baby arugula
1 c queso fresco, crumbled, or jack cheese, grated
½ c chopped fresh cherries, mango, or peach (dried, frozen or home-canned can be substituted)
4 large flour tortillas
Canola oil

Garnish (any or all):
Pickled jalapenos
Chopped scallion
Chopped cilantro
Avocado slices or Guacamole
Salsa
Lime wedges

Heat butter in a skillet and cook onions slowly until they caramelize. Set aside. In the same skillet, heat a little canola oil, toss the duck in, add the chili powder and about 1/2 c. of water. Cook until heated through. Set aside.

Heat a whisper of oil in a large skillet to medium high. I like to use my cast iron pan for quesadilla-making, but any pan will do. Add one of the tortillas and cook briefly, flipping it over a few times. You’ll start to see bubbles forming. Place one quarter of the duck, onions, cheese, fruit and micro greens on top of the tortilla.

Reduce the heat to low and cover the pan. When the cheese is melted, fold the tortilla in half and flip from side to side until it is slightly browned and gooey.

Repeat with the additional three tortillas, keeping each warm until they are all finished. Cut each quesadilla into three or four wedges and serve with the garnishes.

PS Wouldn't these be gorgeous little passed hors d'oeuvres? A 2" tortilla layered with shredded duck, queso, tiny greens, one fat sauteed cherry, a chunk of avocado.

Lemons, Pickles and Ducks

A recipe in pictures or pictures with a couple of recipes.

Limoncello and Lemon Curd. Click here Flickr for the details.

And here's a quick recipe for pickled peppers, with a nod to Michael Ruhlman's Ratio.

When you're at the farmer's market, grab a container of super fresh pretty peppers.
Find a jar that will fit the peppers. Any jar with a lid.
Wash the peppers and stab them with a sharp knife in a couple of places.
Fill the jar with the peppers. Now fill the jar with water.
Pour the water into a measuring cup. Pour half of it out. Replace the water you've poured out with vinegar.
Pour the water/vinegar mixture into a saucepan.
For each quart jar, add to the liquid
1 Tbls. kosher salt
1 tsp. sugar
1 tsp coriander seed
1 tsp black pepper
Bring to a boil. Pour over the peppers.
Put the lid on the jar. Cool, then refrigerate.
They'll be ready to eat in about two weeks. In the meantime, they look really pretty in the 'fridge.
(peppers, left to right - "snacking" sweet peppers, whole jalapenos, jalapeno rings, peachy mamas)

I'll be back soon with a post about my Charcuterie class and a three day encounter with four ducks.

Meet the Farmer: Bending Bridge Farm

It's a beautiful fall day, and I am heading north to Mercersburg, PA and Bending Bridge Farm. I've been buying gorgeous produce from Farmer Audrey Fisher all summer. This visit is what I hope will be the first in a series about the farmers supplying all the lovely, local, sustainable, seasonal foods in my kitchen and on my table.

It was a sensational drive. I passed Federal style brick homes with the most modern farm buildings (silos, barns, etc etc) and fields of corn stalks drying, soybeans, wheat. Fields filled with lazy cows enjoying the sunshine. Many modest farms, tidy and picturesque, with horses, hay fields, and in one instance, a remarkable planting of sunflowers.

Arriving at the house Audrey shares with fiancé Cameron Pederson, the air smells fresh and the trees have just that hint of red and gold. Clearly, a little slice of paradise. Audrey welcomed me in to a lunch (nice!) of farm fresh savoy cabbage and kale tossed with bacon and a drizzle of brightening vinegar (sherry?), hearty Firehook Bakery bread, sharp cheddar, apples and mulled cider. We sat in her sunny kitchen and talked about farming in 2009.

Bending Bridge is in its first year. Audrey and Cameron met while apprenticing at a large organic farm nearby, and after two years, decided to begin by cultivating one acre. They are working on getting organic certification, a rigorous undertaking of recordkeeping. As though farming isn’t rigorous enough, hm?

Audrey and Cameron work with their local farmer’s cooperative – Tuscarora Organic Growers (TOG) – to supplement the produce they bring to market, and to sell the crops they are raising. It all sounds wonderfully idyllic and I have movie-worthy pictures in my head as she describes this relationship. I realize I am romanticizing it all.

As a gardener, I loved the walk down to the planting field, passing the additional three acres that have recently been mechanically tilled, rocks removed, cover crop of winter rye and vetch planted to enrich the soil, readied for next year. All those rocks in a pile were way too reminiscent of my own garden’s soil, and I felt immediate empathy for both of the farmers!

The one acre patch is producing, still. Beautiful curly heads of savoy cabbage. Peppers still ripening. The last of the tomatoes, the ones that survived the late blight, are a particularly wonderful tiny variety called Matt’s Wild Mexican Cherry. It is everything you want in a tomato, in one tiny bite.

Audrey is passionate about what she does, and very thoughtful. Is this The New Farmer? I certainly hope so. To hear her speak about seed sourcing, soil testing, crop rotation – they so readily take on all the challenges. This is not an easy profession. I also heard an impressive idealism, an interest in being truly connected to their work. We both smiled when Ghandi's “ Be the change you wish to see in the world” was spoken, but we both knew full well that Audrey meant it. Hey, I’m a child of the 60’s – this is right up my alley.

Of course, the current near-political interest is in food that is Local-Sustainable-Seasonal. Dennis and I are trying our best to live that way for so many reasons (maybe another post,) but there’s another aspect we may all be missing. Audrey was veering toward poetic when she addressed sustainability, as her perspective also includes sustaining the farmer.

Currently, Cameron works off the farm to make ends meet, and Audrey is managing the crops and the market (although Cameron's there on Sundays.) How they make the transition to self-sustaining will be a juggling act. If they plant four acres next year, they'll need help during planting and harvest, and maybe more, if attending more farmers markets. It's a balancing act in a tough economy with a narrow margin. And they will need retirement plans and health insurance! Our small farmers are struggling. They need us. And we need them.

Sustaining the Farmer. This idea knocked around my brain for the next several hours. Certainly organic certification is the small farmer’s best chance these days, but we can’t undervalue the benefit of an educated, passionate consumer.

from the USDA -- “Between 2002 and 2007, nearly 75 percent of U.S. agriculture was produced by just 5 percent of farms, forcing less profitable small and mid-sized farmers to supplement their agricultural income with other work. In 2007, 65 percent of farmers held off-farm jobs.”

Support your local, small farmer.

Join a CSA, Community Supported Agriculture. This is the best way to support your farmer, as you can provide funding to help them buy seeds, equipment and more during the winter, to prepare for the following year. In Audrey & Cameron’s case, their CSA will fund a new greenhouse. I know I’ll be signing up and encouraging everyone I know to participate. The winter offerings will include beets, cabbage, carrots, mushrooms, onions, parsnips, potatoes, radishes, turnips, kale, greens, lettuce and citrus. Contact Audrey at BendingBridgeFarm@gmail.com for more information.

Buy from your farmers market.

Buy at farm stands

It was a wonderful day at the farm. Thank you, Audrey.

Bending Bridge Farm's exceptional produce can be found at the Bethesda Central Farm Market. The displays are artful and there's a wide range of foods. I have been thrilled, just in the last couple of weeks, to find maroon and orange carrots, dinosaur kale, pea shoots, celery root, fantastic shallots, arugula, chard, fancy little potatoes, winter squashes, and all sorts of greens. The beets are as sweet as candy. The onions are perfect. In fact, all the produce is so pretty, I'm usually seduced well past my shopping list. The market is held Thursday afternoons and Sunday mornings through October, then will continue through the winter on Sunday mornings, only.

Bending Bridge Farm Chili

(adapted from my beloved Gourmet magazine, which closed yesterday)
Serves 6

2 medium dried ancho chiles, wiped clean
1 dried chipotle chile, wiped clean
1 teaspoon cumin
1 teaspoon dried oregano, crumbled
¼ teaspoon cinnamon
1-1/2 tsp salt
4-6 tomatoes, charred in a 425 oven for 10 min. and rough chopped
2 medium onions, chopped
2 tablespoons olive oil
4 garlic cloves, finely chopped
2 small butternut squash, neck only, diced – about 2 cups
1 bunch lacinato kale, stems and ribs discarded, leaves chopped in 1/2" ribbons
1 ounce unsweetened chocolate, finely grated
1-1/4 cups vegetable broth
3 cups pinto beans, drained (I used Rancho Gordo pinto beans I had cooked ahead.)

Open up the chilis, removing the seeds and stem and then toast them in a dry skillet VERY QUICKLY so they do not scorch.

Break up the chilis and toss them in a blender with the other spices and the tomatoes. Whir until pureed.

Saute onions in a large heavy pot until softened. Add the garlic and cook for about a minute, then add the chili-tomato mixture.

Add squash and kale and toss quickly to coat. Cook for 5-7 minutes until everything is bubbling.

Add the broth, chocolate and the drained pinto beans.

Simmer 20 minutes.

Serve with cornbread, sour cream, grated cheese, chopped scallion & cilantro.

Sauerkraut - Because Its Time Has Come

This is a quickie post, while I spend time working on the next one. It's time to get your kraut fermenting, folks! If Oktoberfest is calling your name. If you like to enjoy wintery stews, sausages, charcroute. And especially if you're from Baltimore, and Thanksgiving meant sauerkraut on the table, hon, get chopping! And for you non-believers, having a bit of fermented food in your diet can be really beneficial to the digestion - it's high in antioxidants and vitamin C. Here's an interesting article.

And it tastes great!

Now is the time, the farmers markets are full of the most beautiful green cabbages. About 1.5# each, they're the perfect young cabbage for sauerkraut. The best kraut comes from the freshest cabbage, so get your hands on a bright green, tightly formed cabbage and start fermenting right away.

Find a good crock or big glass jar. If I hit the lottery, I'm going to get one of these crocks, but in the meantime, I've got mine in a cylindrical vase that a flower arrangement came in! Hint: you can almost always find large glass jars at Marshalls for very reasonable prices.

I learned a great trick for weighting it down from Eugenia Bone's excellent book Well Preserved. Fill a ziplock bag with a brine solution made up of one quart of water and 1-1/2 Tablespoons of kosher salt. This provides sufficient weight, and if it were to break, it won't hurt the kraut (just make it watery.) I used to make weird contraptions including old plates and bricks in plastic bags.


So, chop up your sauerkraut. You can use the food processor, a box grater (largest hole) or, do as I do, and quarter and core the cabbage, then slice thinly to make ribbons of cabbage that turn into silky sauerkraut. Rinse the cabbage well and shake the water off using a colander.

Toss the cabbage ribbons with 1 Tbls. of kosher salt for every pound of cabbage. Pack the cabbage into your crock/jar and press down firmly. Top with the ziplock bag filled with brine. Cover with plastic wrap. Put it in a cool spot. Mine sits on the counter, in a place that's pretty dark and stays cool, because I like to see what's going on. Here's a picture from day one.

In about 24 hrs., (second photo) the cabbage will have let off enough juice to cover. If it's not completely submerged in two days, add some brine (1 quart water + 1.5 Tbls. salt) just to cover. If the cabbage is fresh, you shouldn't have to do this. Over the next few days/weeks, you'll see bubbles rising lazily. That's fermentation!

Over time, the kraut will turn from bright green to yellow and the bubbles will stop. It will take about a month to six weeks for the kraut to ferment. Lift the cover and take a sniff. You'll know when it's ready. Pack it in jars. What you do next is up to you.

Some people put the jars through a boiling water bath for 10 minutes to seal them. Others feel this kills the best qualities of fermented food, and just put the jars on the shelf. Others just dip into the jar to help themselves and, when it gets low, just add more cabbage. Giardiniera is an Italian version, adding cauliflower, celery, peppers, carrots, mushrooms and zucchini.

I put the jars on the shelf. They don't last very long. I've already made 12 pints this summer, and gone through seven of them. This batch started with three cabbages (4.5 lbs.) and looks like it will become about 5 pints. I'm going to need more.