Hello again! We’ve finally emerged from our early spring slump. Our CSA ends in March and our farmers’ market closes for the season in mid-April, so we enter this confusing 6-week period where we have to shop at the regular grocery store to supplement what we can get at our neighborhood’s small local foods market. It’s very uninspiring.

We still aren’t quite into the summer harvest season, but Erik picked up some delicious . . . → Read More: Quick Asparagus and Hazelnut Pasta]]>

Hello again! We’ve finally emerged from our early spring slump. Our CSA ends in March and our farmers’ market closes for the season in mid-April, so we enter this confusing 6-week period where we have to shop at the regular grocery store to supplement what we can get at our neighborhood’s small local foods market. It’s very uninspiring.

We still aren’t quite into the summer harvest season, but Erik picked up some delicious local greens and asparagus this week that motivated me to get moving in the kitchen again. It was also 80 degrees yesterday! Crazy! The combo of perky veggies and a warm breeze have shaken me out of my funk enough to dig up an old favorite recipe. I’ve got a file folder full of recipe clippings, so I’m not sure where this one came from, but it was probably Real Simple or Whole Living. On a side note, it’s weird how you get to know a magazine’s font and layout after a while, isn’t it? Useless knowledge, but it sticks in my brain somehow. Anyway…I changed up the recipe to serve two and use more veggies and a leeeetle bit less pasta. The pasta adjustment is mostly because we have a FANTASTIC Italian grocery store nearby that sells dirt cheap, high quality, super delicious fresh pasta and I feel silly asking for 9 ounces of pasta, so I just get half a pound (which is 8). We’ve stopped making our own pasta, because this place is so great!

Besides being yummy, this is a very quick meal. If you start the water heating and the hazelnuts toasting before you slice the asparagus, you can have dinner ready in just about the time it takes to boil a pot of water. If, like me, you forget to start the water until you’re done prepping the asparagus, it’s still pretty fast.

Pasta with Asparagus and Hazelnuts

Makes 2 hearty or 3 smaller servings

Directions

1. Start heating a large pot of water on high heat. Give it a good pinch of kosher salt, if you’d like.
2. Heat the oven to 350. Put the hazelnuts on a small baking sheet and toast them for 10-15 minutes or until fragrant and the skins are starting to darken. Once they’re toasted, give them a rough chop and set aside.
3. While the water is heating and the hazelnuts are toasting, slice the asparagus as thinly as you can stand, lengthwise. You can use a vegetable peeler for this, if you want. I usually cut each spear in half lengthwise, then, placing the cut edge flat on the cutting board, cut each half into 3-5 long strips. The texture is best with thinner strips, but it’ll still be tasty if you lose patience.
4. Once the water comes to a strong boil, add the asparagus and set a timer for 2 1/2 minutes.
5. After the asparagus has cooked for a minute (1 1/2 minutes left on the timer), add the pasta to the same pot. Give the whole thing a stir so that the pasta doesn’t clump up.
6. Once the pasta and asparagus are done, drain them and put back in the pot. Add the chopped hazelnuts, oil, salt, and pepper. Stir gently to distribute evenly. I normally use tongs, because they help to integrate the asparagus into the pasta.
7. Put the pasta on two or three plates and grate or crumble the cheese on top. I like to use a vegetable peeler to carve nice long ribbons of Parmesan. Eat up!

Thing #1 = jars of food in the basement. Before the 2011 canning season started, I promised myself (and Erik) that I would do a better job of preserving useful things than I did last year. Those fancy jams just call to me, but two responsible adults can only eat or give away so much. So, I did that. But now we . . . → Read More: Dark Days Challenge Week 5: Fish and Pickled Asparagus]]> There are two ingredients that I’ve been meaning to use more of.

Thing #1 = jars of food in the basement. Before the 2011 canning season started, I promised myself (and Erik) that I would do a better job of preserving useful things than I did last year. Those fancy jams just call to me, but two responsible adults can only eat or give away so much. So, I did that. But now we have to use it all.

Thing #2 = fish. We have great access to locally-caught seafood, but for some reason, I rarely include it in our weekly meal plan. I think part of it is because getting fish from the market in the heat of summer kind of grosses me out. I’m sure it’s fine, because it’s on piles and piles of ice, but it just doesn’t appeal to me. Then I forget about it when cooler weather rolls around.

This was the week to knock out both goals. Well, actually, last week was the week to do that. Sorry…we’ve been busy. This is barely a recipe, so go crazy. If you don’t have spicy pickled asparagus, use dilly beans, fresh beans/asparagus, or tomatoes. Maybe even pickled beets. Add in some olives or herbs. Use a different type of white-fleshed fish or even shrimp. Just dig around in the refrigerator or stash of jars and use what you find.

We ate this on a pile of wheatberries from Cayuga Pure Organics to soak up the juices. Very satisfying for very little work!

Fish and Spicy Pickled Asparagus Packets

Serves 2

Directions

1. Preheat your oven to 400 degrees.
2. Cut two long pieces of foil (about 2 arm-lengths each). Fold each in half, so that you have two shorter pieces. Lay one on your counter and pour about half the sunflower oil (1 1/2 teaspoons) in the middle.
3. Cut the fish into two roughly equal halves. Put one half on the foil and flip it over to coat both sides in the sunflower oil. Sprinkle with a pinch of salt, a few grinds of pepper, and half of the garlic.
4. If you’re using pickled vegetables, drain off the brine. Cut the vegetables into small pieces – about the size of your pinky finger. Toss them on top of the fish.
5. Gather the long sides of the foil up to the middle and crimp them. Roll up the short sides tightly. You want to trap steam, but not smother the poor fish, so try to keep some space around the fish itself.

   

6. Put the packet on a baking sheet and repeat with the other piece of fish.
7. Put the baking sheet in the oven and bake for 15 minutes or until the thickest part of the fish reaches 145 degrees and is flaky and opaque. If you’re using thin fillets, start checking after about 10 minutes; thicker ones might need 20.

   

This was a delicious salad and it’s easy to do most of the work in advance (through step 6). You can hard boil the eggs whenever. You can poach the asparagus and scallions the night before and store the chopped pieces in the refrigerator overnight. Then add the sorrel and dressing when you serve.

The sorrel that we got from our friends and Northshire was great in this salad. It’s a leafy green that . . . → Read More: Asparagus and Scallion Salad]]>

This was a delicious salad and it’s easy to do most of the work in advance (through step 6). You can hard boil the eggs whenever. You can poach the asparagus and scallions the night before and store the chopped pieces in the refrigerator overnight. Then add the sorrel and dressing when you serve.

The sorrel that we got from our friends and Northshire was great in this salad. It’s a leafy green that has a lemony kick. If you don’t have it, you can substitute it with another green or leave it out.

Asparagus and Scallion Salad
Makes 2-4 servings

Directions

1. Prepare the 3 hard boiled eggs ahead of time. We’re not going over that here, but here are the google results.
2. Fill a deep skillet or pot with 3-4 inches of water and put it on high heat to bring it to a rolling boil.
3. In the meantime, trim the bottom inch off the asparagus stalks. Trim the bulb end off of the scallions, leaving only a little white. Also trim off any wilted green ends. Peel the outer layer off of the scallions, which unless they are absolutely fresh is always slightly wilted and sticky. You should be left with complete firm, bright, and bold scallions.
4. When the water is at a boil, add the asparagus and scallions. If necessary, cut large pieces of asparagus or scallions in half so they will fit comfortably in the pot. Leave the heat on high and let them poach for about 5 minutes. To test done-ness, pick out an asparagus spear by its end with a tong, hold it horizontally, and shake it gently. It should wiggle but not droop or flap wildly around.
5. When done, either remove the vegetables to a pot of very cold water or dump them into a colander and run very cold water over them. The point is to not only remove them from the heat but to quickly cool them down to halt internal cooking.
6. Spread the vegetables on a kitchen towel or paper towel and pat dry and sprinkle evenly with 0.5 tsp of salt.
7. Slice the asparagus and scallions into one inch pieces and place them into a large bowl along with the sorrel.
8. Drizzle with the oil and vinegar. Sprinkle with the remaining salt and add pepper to taste. Toss, but not so hard that you break apart the poached vegetables.
9. Slice the eggs into wedges and add to the plated salad.

This is our new favorite recipe, while supplies (of asparagus) last. We’ve made it twice this week, once for dinner (with some Flying Pigs Farm sausage, pictured above), and once for a light lunch. It’s fast, easy, and tastes much richer than it actually is.

Braised Asparagus with Dijon and Thyme Makes 2 servings

The weather was nice yesterday, so I was able to bring my camera to the market. It is definitely spring now!

Ramps have been in for a few weeks but are still going strong. I read the article in the NY Times about how ramps are being over-harvested. I asked our sources at the market about it. They said that some ramps are cultivated by farmers, and those are sustainable. Others are harvested in . . . → Read More: Market Day]]>

The weather was nice yesterday, so I was able to bring my camera to the market. It is definitely spring now!

Ramps have been in for a few weeks but are still going strong. I read the article in the NY Times about how ramps are being over-harvested. I asked our sources at the market about it. They said that some ramps are cultivated by farmers, and those are sustainable. Others are harvested in the wild by foragers, and ramps have become such a hot commodity in April each year that more and more people are doing just that. Some of those sources are being depleted. The bottom line is: if you’re going to buy ramps, ask where they came from and try to support the farmers.

This was the first big week for asparagus, and it was everywhere!

Ramps and asparagus:

Broccoli Raab has been around for a week or two but Migliorelli farm is still selling piles and piles of it. Supposedly the raab will be gone soon; it only has a short window.

Broccoli Raab:

And here are some other pictures that I took while I was waiting my turn for some Cato Corner Farm cheese. Roaming Acres has the stand next door to Cato. They sell only ostrich products (eggs, meat, jerky). My friend Brian bough some ostrich steaks there the other week and said they were delicious.

Ostrich eggs and ostrich jerky:

And here is the Cato Corner cheese. A small chunk of the aged Bloomsday wrapped in a raw ramp leaf is delicious!

Cheese: