EatLocal365 » Dark Days Challenge

Dark Days Challenge: Breakfast

Lindsay — Wed, 04 Apr 2012 16:31:33 +0000

The final week of the Dark Days Challenge is focused on breakfast. We’ve done a bunch of breakfast posts, so we were a bit stumped.

I wanted to do another baked good, but didn’t want to split two dozen muffins or a whole coffee cake with Erik over the next two days.

Yogurt and granola parfait with strawberries? I just couldn’t decide. So then I forgot all about it…

….until this morning. I was out for a run in the beautiful almost-spring weather and remembered. Dang it! So here’s what I had for breakfast – two poached eggs on leftover mixed green salad with sunflower thyme pesto. Completely local, but maybe not breakfast-y enough for some people. It totally hit the spot for me, though. Maybe I’ll have a muffin for lunch to even things out.

Food Justice Community Challenge #1

Lindsay — Sat, 21 Jan 2012 20:09:21 +0000

Emily at Finicky Farmer issued a call to those of us involved in the Dark Days Challenge to find ways to help improve food justice in our locals. It’s easy for many of us to forget how privileged we are to be able to eat this way. Today, for example, it was snowing. Undeterred, Erik and I got in the car and drove to the (indoor) farmers’ market. It doesn’t sound like a big deal, but we were lucky to have:

A working car
No other obligations (like a job) on Saturday morning
No kids or the ability to pay for childcare, if we did have kids
A nearby year round farmers’ market
Cash – although many farmers’ markets take food stamps now, few of them take credit cards, making it difficult for those living on credit to afford to shop there
The knowledge to cook the sometimes “weird” food found at a farmers’ market, like parsnips and rutabagas, and to minimize meat and dairy, which tend to be pricey

I don’t automatically appreciate my situation yet, but it’s something I’m working toward. Emily gave several ideas of how we might go about this (here) and suggested all interested parties pick one to work on for a two week stretch. Wanting to find out more about our new area, Erik and I signed up to “identify one awesome group that enables equitable food access.”

After a little internet searching, we decided on Community Servings. Community Servings is a multifaceted organization providing:

Meal delivery to families and individuals with critical and chronic illnesses. Each meal is respectful of special dietary needs and cultural situations and is designed to promote healing
Nutrition care and education
Food service job training for those who face obstacles to entering the workforce
Culturally appropriate and nutritious meals to schools and other nonprofits that serve vulnerable populations (sold through their social enterprise to subsidize free services)
Access to local food to its neighbors through CSAs, local fish shares, a farmers’ market, and on-site herb garden.

Whew! That’s a lot! So, does it meet the criteria of the challenge? Yes! Is it “awesome”? Undoubtedly. Does it enable equitable food access? Certainly!

I’m really excited about this organization, so I think I’ll “work as an ally (i.e., supporting member) with that awesome group I identified” in the next round of the Community Challenge. Leave a comment if you’re interested in joining me!

Dark Days Challenge Week 8: Pasta with Sauerkraut and Bacon

Lindsay — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 01:23:56 +0000

Our CSA switched over from fall to winter this week, which means that, in addition to produce and eggs from Red Fire Farm, we get some fun extras from other local producers. This week’s pick-up included sauerkraut from Real Pickles and cheddar from Chase Hill Farm. Now, I know that I may be in the minority, but I love sauerkraut. I’ve got some fermenting on the floor of the kitchen right now, but it’s not quite ready, so I was thrilled to get a jar from the CSA. I could seriously just eat it straight (and sometimes do), but that’s not a very fun post for the Dark Days Challenge this week. Instead, we dug through the freezer and found some pasta dough and bacon. That sounds like a meal to me!

The recipe comes from Eugenia Bone‘s excellent small-batch preserving book, Well-Preserved. Unlike other books, which have tons of recipes for preserves, but no help on what to do with them, Well-Preserved has only a dozen or so preserving recipes, but then 3 or 4 ways to use each. The fish and pickled asparagus dinner we made a few weeks ago was a riff on a recipe in that book. It might not be the first book on the subject you buy, but I’d definitely recommend adding it to your library eventually.

Pasta with Sauerkraut and Bacon

Makes 3-4 servings

Amount	Ingredient	Preparation	Where we bought it
0.5 lb	Fresh pasta		Homemade
6 slices	Bacon		High Hope Hogs
1 pint	Sauerkraut		Real Pickles
0.5 cup	Cheese (Parmesan or Cheddar)	Grated	Chase Hill Farm
0.25 cup	Flat leaf parsley
To taste	Kosher salt
To taste	Black pepper	Freshly ground

Directions

You can make or use any pasta that you like. We used leftover pasta dough that we had in the freezer. We let it thaw and then rolled it out into a sheet. Lucky for us for Dark Days, this pasta was made using only local ingredients, including the flour. We’ll save the pasta recipe for another time, but here is a picture of the rolling process:
We tried to shape it like penne by cutting it into diagonal pieces and shaping it around a chopstick. However, in the end, this all completely fell apart in the water. We actually really liked the end results, though. So much so that we’d actually recommend making or using wide noodles. It worked really well with the sauerkraut. Anyway, here are some photos of the attempt:
While the water is boiling for your pasta, fry up some bacon, very crispy. It works best (especially for this recipe) in a cast iron skillet. When it’s done, place it between two paper towels to drain. Pour off almost all the fat from the pan.
Add the sauerkraut to the skillet and cook it over medium-low in the remaining bacon fat for five minutes. Add the pasta, salt, and pepper. Crumble in the bacon, and add the cheese and parsley. Toss to mix, and serve.

Dark Days Challenge Week 6: Embracing Curly Kale

Lindsay — Sun, 08 Jan 2012 15:18:54 +0000

In our sixth week of the Dark Days Challenge, we learned to appreciate curly kale. We love love love lacinato/Tuscan/dinosaur/black and Red Russian varieties, but for some reason we (*cough* Erik *cough*) discriminate against the standard curly variety. Like most biases, we just had to meet an individual curly kale recipe in “person” to let go of our stereotypes. Oh, also, the chorizo helps.

We loved it so much, we didn’t take a single photo. [Update: oops, we did. I just wasn't on top of things - Erik ]

Smoky Kale and Chorizo

Serves 2

Amount	Ingredient	Preparation	Where we bought it
1 bunch	Curly kale	A little less than a pound, if you buy it loose	Somerville Winter Farmers Market, but I forget exactly which farmer.
2 1/2 tsp	Salt	Divided
1 link (4-5 ounces)	Chorizo	Diced or crumbled	Stillman’s Turkey Farm
2 cloves	Garlic	Chopped	Keith’s Farm
1/4 tsp	Smoked paprika
1/4 tsp	Ground cumin
1/8 tsp	Ground cinnamon
2 tsp	Honey		Northshire Farm
1 tsp	Sherry vinegar

Directions

Bring a large pot of water to a boil with 2 teaspoons of the salt.

While the water is coming to a boil, rinse the kale, remove the stems, and tear the leaves into large pieces.

Once the water is boiling, add the kale and let it cook for 5 minutes. After 5 minutes, taste a leaf to make sure it’s not rubbery. If it is, cook for another minute or so. Once it’s done, drain the kale in a colander – pressing to remove as much water as possible.

Meanwhile, heat large cast iron skillet over medium heat. Once it’s warm, add the chorizo and cook for 4 to 5 minutes until it just starts to brown.

While the chorizo is cooking, measure the spices and remaining 1/2 teaspoon of salt into a small bowl.

Once the chorizo has cooked for 4 to 5 minutes, add the garlic and cook, stirring, for about 30 seconds.

Push the chorizo and garlic to one side and dump the spice mixture directly onto the pan. Stir the spices around for a few seconds to toast them. Once you can smell the spices, mix them into the chorizo.

Add the kale to the skillet and stir for a minute to combine and reheat the kale a little.

Turn off the heat and add the honey and sherry vinegar, stirring to combine.

How to Navigate the Bulk Foods Section to Survive the Dark Days

Lindsay — Mon, 26 Dec 2011 22:17:44 +0000

Let me just get this out of my system. If you haven’t explored your supermarket’s bulk food section, you are missing out! It’s a smorgasboard of tasty bits and pieces. You can get a HUGE sack of oats for oatmeal or a tiny nibble of chocolate-covered raisins right in the same place!

Besides the excitement, which I think stems from Mom occasionally buying bulk yogurt pretzels when I was a kid, here are the rational, adult reasons for loving the bulk foods section:

There is very little packaging, so you cut down on waste. You can even bring your own containers.
It’s almost always cheaper than other options, especially since you can buy exactly the amount you want.
It allows you to have more variety in your pantry, since you can buy smaller amounts of more things, rather than getting a gigantic bag of black beans or settling for just raisins in your oatmeal for two weeks.
You can try new things without the committment.

I like to think of all choices as a hierarchy. If not this, then this, etc. My food hierarchy goes something like this: I prefer to buy food from a local farmer I’ve talked to, so I know how he or she runs the farm. If I can’t get what I need that way, I’ll buy food from Joe Schmo local farmer either at the farmers’ market or a grocery store. If I still can’t get what I need, then I probably don’t really need it. But, if I do really need/want it, I’ll buy organic produce from the US (since at least it hasn’t traveled as far as, say, Chilean strawberries) and almost everything else from the bulk foods section. In the Dark Days, we get down to the last level pretty often.

Our supermarket carries several different types of rice, grains, beans, nuts, and dried fruit. It also has a few flours and varieties of granola and trail mix. We can get some beans, flours, and grains locally, but we get all our dried fruit and nuts there.

Here’s how it works:

There’s often a roll of thin plastic bags nearby. Grab one or pull out your own container. If you bring your own, make sure it’s pretty lightweight. Some supermarkets will tare (zero out the weight of your container), but others won’t. If the store tares, remember to do it before you fill the container.

Find what you want. This can be the confusing part, since the aisle might not be organized in a logical way, so ask an employee if you can’t find something. They usually know exactly where everything is. Even though we go every other week or so, I feel like the section is constantly rearranged!

Fill up your bag or container. Sometimes there’s a scoop and sometimes the food comes out of a shoot that you open with a lever. Go slowly if it’s the lever kind, so you don’t take too much.

Take a look at the bin and find the product number. This is usually pretty conspicuous, but ask someone if you’re unsure. Some stores let you weigh your own and print a label with the amount and product number. Some just want you to record the number on the fastener, so that they can weight and price it when you check out. If you don’t see a fancy scale where people are printing labels, assume it’s the latter.

That’s it. Now go to the grocery store and try something new!

Dark Days Challenge Week 4: How to Cut Up a Whole Chicken

Lindsay — Thu, 22 Dec 2011 19:33:21 +0000

Our Dark Days meal for the week was something that we have already posted, so we decided to post a strategy instead. Eating locally sometimes means having limited options and learning how to deal with what you can get. In our case, we can’t find (or afford when we find it!) user-friendly, pre-wrapped packages of local chicken breasts. So, we buy a whole chicken and do some work ourselves.

Yep, it’s kind of gross. But I think it’s important to acknowledge that you’re eating an animal, not just “meat”. I sort of feel like this is the respectful way to eat chicken. Is that overly crunchy and “we are the world”? Probably. But it’s also waaaay cheaper and not all that bad. To combat the ick factor, keep a pair of tongs and a towel nearby. When I feel the willies coming on, I just clean my hands on the towel, grab the tongs, take a deep breath, and remind myself that if I’m going to eat it, I should be able to touch it. A few minutes with the tongs and I’m back to my bare hands.

This is probably not the “official” way to cut up a chicken, but it works for me. The model for our photo shoot was a delicious 3-and-a-half pound chicken from Stillman’s. She had a little cosmetic issue with the skin on her breasts, so imagine that it was intact. Sorry for the blurry photos…the day went something like this…

Erik: Hold still so I can take the photo.
Lindsay: I’M HOLDING A CHICKEN SPINE. IT’S GOOD ENOUGH!!

Directions

Get all your tools ready. Once your hands are chicken-y, you won’t want to dig around. You’ll need:
- Cutting board
- Sharp knife
- Kitchen scissors
- Plate to hold the finished pieces
- Zip-top bag or something similar to hold the pieces that will go in the freezer for stock later
- Tongs
- Towel for drying your hands when things get icky or slippery
Take a look inside the bird. Is there a little bag? These are the giblets – the organs. Some people cook them up; some people toss ‘em. Your choice, but take them out of the cavity either way.

Put your chicken, breast side down, on the cutting board. Use the scissors to cut down one side of the spine and then the other to remove it. You might have to use two hands. I save the spine for chicken stock, so it goes in my zip-top bag.

If there’s anything floating around inside, get rid of it. My chicken had a couple of things that I assume were organs. That called for tongs and a deep breath. I got through it, though, and so will you.

Flip the chicken over. Legs are up first. This is mostly about dislocating the joint, rather than cutting through the bone. Lift up the chicken by a leg to see how it moves. This will help you figure out where the joint is. Cut through the skin and meat on all sides of the joint until you can see it. Bend the leg back and forth to try to pop it. Sometimes I’m lucky and it comes apart easily. If that doesn’t work, stick the tip of your knife in the joint and push down to break it. Repeat with the other leg.

If you want, you can also separate the drumstick from the thigh. Follow the same steps as for separating the leg from the body – find the joint, cut through the skin and meat, and pop/cut the joint.

Now for the wings. I usually stick these in my stock bag along with the spine, but you can certainly cook them if you’d like. Again, just use the same steps as for the leg to remove both wings.

Once the wings are off, you’ll have a very familiar piece of chicken staring at you. The breasts. With the neck-end facing you, stick the tip of your knife in the bone at the top-middle of the breasts. Push the blade of the knife down to the cutting board to split the bone in half. One half of the breast should come away pretty easily at this point. You’ll have to use your fingers to separate the meat from the center bone, leaving you with ribs and meat. You can leave the second breast as is or remove the wedge-shaped breastbone by working the meat away from it with your fingers and a knife. There are probably nicer ways to split the breasts, but this works for me.

There. Done. Not so bad, right? Cook however you’d like.

Dark Days Challenge Week 3: Cranberry-Carrot Muffins

Lindsay — Sun, 18 Dec 2011 23:09:00 +0000

Happy Sunday to you all! My parents are visiting for the weekend, so we had a lazy morning. After a huge feast last night of braised chicken and parsnips, a riff on this macaroni and cheese, and a kale salad with toasted almonds and dried cherries, we only needed a nibble for breakfast. Muffins!

About two weeks ago, we ordered a five-pound box of fresh cranberries from Cape Cod Select. Take a look at that great box!

We used most of them for canning – whole berry sauce, relish with oranges and walnuts (no mint), and pickled cranberries…

… but had about 2 cups sitting in the refrigerator. We also had a TON of carrots. Why? I don’t know. I probably planned to use them in some grand scheme, so bought some at the farmers’ market, and then got some more from the CSA, and it just got out of control.

For a random muffin based loosely on a Mark Bittman recipe, these turned out really really well. Just sweet enough, but with a tart bite every now and then. The texture is great, too. I don’t usually like coffee shop muffins, because they’re too dense, but these are moist without being heavy. If I do say so myself…

Cranberry-Carrot Muffins

Makes 12 muffins

Amount	Ingredient	Preparation	Where we bought it
2 cups	All-purpose flour		Cayuga Pure Organics
1 1/2 tsp	Baking powder
1/2 tsp	Baking soda
1 tsp	Salt
1/2 tsp	Cinnamon
4 TBsp	Butter	Cut into 1/2-inch cubes or smaller	Kate’s Homemade
1 cup	Maple syrup		Cooks Farm and Bakery
1	Egg		Red Fire Farm
1 cup	Fresh cranberries		Cape Cod Select
1 cup	Carrot	Grated and lightly packed	Red Fire Farm

Directions

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees and spray a 12-cup muffin tin with nonstick spray.

Whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon.

Add the butter pieces to the dry ingredients and use your fingers to rub the butter through the flour mixture. Keep smooshing until the butter is pretty evenly dispersed and all the chunks are pea-sized or smaller.

Whisk together the maple syrup and egg.

Add the wet ingredients to the flour/butter mixture and whisk until just barely combined.

Gently fold in the cranberries and grated carrot. You’ll probably have to switch from the whisk to a spoon or spatula, but use as few strokes as possible to avoid developing gluten, the protein that makes bread nice and chewy, but muffins tough.

Fill each muffin cup with a scant (i.e. not quite full) 1/4 cup of batter. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes or until a thin knife or skewer inserted in the middle comes out clean.

Dark Days Challenge Week 1: How to Make Potato Gnocchi

Erik — Tue, 06 Dec 2011 14:25:06 +0000

To motivate ourselves through the winter, we have joined the Dark Days Challenge, which asks that we cook one meal a week focused on SOLE ingredients (sustainable, organic, local, and ethical). Right up our alley! Each blogger gets to set their own parameters within these guidelines. We’ll be sticking to the following rules for our Dark Days recipes:

Our primary sources for ingredients will be our CSA through Red Fire Farm, the Somerville Winter Farmers Market, and our canned/dried/frozen stores from the summer.
If we need to supplement, we’ll use ingredients from within 150 miles of home or those that we get from the NYC Greenmarket system while visiting friends and family there.
Salt, dried herbs and spices, baking soda/powder, and vinegar are fair game, but we’ll try to find local sources.

I sort of feel like relying on the Greenmarket is cheating, but we’re still figuring things out here and will be spending a time in NYC for holidays, so I’m giving us a pass. On to the recipe!

This is actually two recipes, one for the gnocchi and another for the sauce. Both are variations on recipes from Lidia’s Family Table, which is a phenomenal resource.

Potato Gnocchi

Makes 4 servings

Amount	Ingredient	Preparation	Where we bought it
1.5 lbs	Potatoes		Red Fire Farm CSA
1	Egg	Beaten	Red Fire Farm CSA
2 cups	All purpose flour		Cayuga Pure Organics (NYC Greenmarket)
0.75 TBsp	Salt

Directions

Clean the whole potatoes and place them in a large pot. Fill with enough water to cover the potatoes plus a little headroom. Place on high heat, cover, and allow to boil for about 45 minutes, or until they are tender when poked with a fork but not yet falling apart. Drain the potatoes and let them cool enough to handle.

Rice the potatoes. This can be done either by peeling them and using a potato ricer, or by using a food mill (which will automatically remove and separate the skins). We used the attachment to our Kitchenaid stand mixer, which is actually two attachments, both the food mill attachmentand parts from the meat grinder attachment. It’s kind of complicated to put together, but it’s a real labor and time-saver. I wish we had taken pictures of the milling process (and construction), but we had just gotten back from Thanksgiving and were cooking for company coming over, so we were in a bit of a time pinch. Next time!

Rice / mill the potatoes on a sheet pan. Using a rubber spatula, mush and spread them out over the pan. Sprinkle the salt over the layer of potato. Let it cool and dry for lat least 20 minutes (up to however long you feel like it!).

Pour the beaten egg over the potato and then layer on the flour. [At this point in our timeline I finished the unpacking and cleaning up and made it to the kitchen to help, with the camera!] Start with about 1 cup of flour.
Using the rubber spatula, fold the bottom layer of the potato over the top around the edges. Repeat (gently) a few times until it begins to resemble a loose dough. Gradually add more flour until you have a kneadable dough. If you don’t add enough flough, the gnocchi will fall apart when cooked…but they’ll still be tasty!
Using your hands, finish the kneading process by making the dough slightly more consistent. Sprinkle on more flour if necessary and knead it in. It should feel more like a dough than mashed potatoes. Shape it into a ball and cut it into quarters.
Clean and lightly flour a work surface. (Up until now you could do it all on the sheet pan.) Roll out each quarter of the dough in an 18 inch rope. Cut each rope in half to make them easier to work with.
Cut each portion into pieces between 2/3 of an inch to 1 inch. Have a floury sheet pan nearby to start collecting the shaped gnocchi.
To give the gnocchi its classic shape, hold a fork so that the tines are facing downwards and push each piece onto the fork near where the tines join. The tines will make an impression on the one side and your finger will create a slight indentation on the other side. Then, roll the gnocchi off the end of the fork to make it more cylindrical and to create the tine impressions all around. Rumor is that eventually you can do this in one motion. I’m not there yet.
Once all of the gnocchi are shaped and on the sheet pan, toss lightly in the flour to avoid sticking and cover them with a towel. They should be boiled immediately at this point or frozen. They don’t sit around well in this form. Bring a large pot of water to boil (get this started in advance if you remember).

Using a kitchen skimmer / spider or slotted spoon, drop 5 or 6 gnocchi in the boiling water at a time. This is important because the water needs to be at the boiling temperature to form the “skin” that will hold the gnocchi together. The more gnocchi pieces are added to the water at one time, the more the temperature will drop and the longer it will take to recover. Limiting the number of pieces is annoying but in the end it will be easier and you will get better results.

Leave each batch in the water for 2 – 3 minutes, until they plump up a bit a float to the surface. Fish them out with your skimmer, but be gentle with them! Cooking for too long will lead to mush, so don’t be afraid to pull them out a few at a time as they float.

Simple Tomato Sauce

Makes a lot

Amount	Ingredient	Preparation	Where we bought it
2 quarts	San Marzano / plum tomatoes	Previously canned (2 quart jars)	Cherry Lane Farms
1	Large onion	Diced (about 1.5 – 2 cups)	Red Fire Farm CSA
1	Medium celeriac	Diced (about 1.5 – 2 cups)	Enterprise Farm (Somerville Winter Farmers Market)
3 TBsp	Olive oil
2 cups	Water
2	Dried bay leaves
1	Dried chile	Crumbled (substitute 1-2 tsp red pepper flakes)	Northshire Farm chiles dried last summer
1 tsp	Kosher salt

Directions

Place the oil in a Dutch oven or large pot over medium-high heat. Once it’s heated, add the diced onion and celeriac (or you can substitute carrot, celery, etc.). Cook, stirring frequently, for 3-4 mintes. You want them to soften but not brown. [Note: we made this sauce using our own canned tomotoes. You can use store-bought canned San Marzanos, if you must.]
Add the tomatoes, salt, bay leaves, and red pepper flakes. Swish the water around the tomato jar or can to get out the last bits and dump it into the pot. Turn up the heat, cover, and bring the sauce to a boil. Check on it and stir frequently.

Once it boils, turn the heat down to medium / medium-high to maintain a bubbling simmer. Cover and cook for 45 minutes, stirring occasionally. At this point you can continue simmering and cooking down for as long as you like, up to an hour. When the sauce is as thick as you want, remove the bay leaves, blend with a hand mixer to your desired consistency, and add salt to taste

We served our gnocchi and sauce with another round of our arugula, beet, and peach salad. We quenched our thirst with some delicious cider from Eve’s Cidery and capped it off with little parfaits of home-canned cherries in wine and whipped cream. Yum! Nothing better than an impromptu Sunday dinner with good friends.

How to Make Fully-loaded Potato Soup

Erik — Sat, 12 Mar 2011 04:27:58 +0000

This recipe is our first foray into the new cookbook Slow Cooker Revolution from America’s Test Kitchen. If you like learning about what works in cooking and why, you will love America’s Test Kitchen (on PBS). It’s like Alton Brown but without the goofy theatrics (don’t take that as a knock, Alton). Their research into this book is essentially a reinvention of how to use a slow cooker to make easy but awesome meals. We’re excited for it.

That being said, this recipe isn’t what I would consider a hands-down winner. The end result was very good; that’s not the issue. The problem is that the preparation, while not difficult, completely tosses aside the usual advantages of the slow cooker. Usually there is only a little prep (which you can do in the morning) and it cooks for 8+ hours in the slow cooker, so you can go to work and come home again to a finished dish.

This recipe takes more than 1.5 hours of work before walking away from the slow cooker, and then it only cooks for 4-6 hours. Although it can be a meal unto itself, this soup is not a weekday dish. Given that fact and the general effort involved, there are other recipes that I would put in the queue ahead of it.

What this meal did do was give us something interesting and new to try during Dark Days, which are almost over soon (we’re ready for them to be!).

Slow Cooker Fully-loaded Potato Soup

Makes 4-6 servings

Ingredients:

Amount	Ingredient	Preparation	Where we bought it (* Union Sq. Greenmarket)
3 lbs	Russet potatoes or similar	Peeled and cubed into 1/2 inch pieces	Berried Treasures Farm *
8 oz	Bacon (about 8 strips)	Chopped into 1/2 inch pieces	Flying Pigs Farm *
1	Yellow onions	Finely chopped	Paffenroth Gardens *
2 cloves	Garlic	Minced	Keith’s Farm *
1.5 tsp	Dried thyme
2 TBsp	All-purpose flour		Cayuga Pure Organics *
4 cups	Vegetable broth	Or chicken stock; separated into 1 cup and 3 cups	Homemade *
2 cups	Cheddar cheese	Shredded	Cato Corner Farm *
0.5 cup	Half-and-half	Or heavy cream	Milk Thistle Farm *
To taste	Kosher salt
To taste	Black pepper	Freshly ground
To taste	Scallions	Thinly sliced (optional, for garnish)

Directions:

Peel the potatoes. Cube them into 1/2 inch pieces. Don’t underestimate this step. Look at the pictures. It’s a lot of potatoes!
Peel and dice the onion into small pieces. Mince the garlic, and put it and the onion aside in a dish with the thyme. Chop the uncooked bacon into 1/2 inch pieces. I chopped ours straight out of the freezer, so it was easy. Heat a large cast iron skillet over medium heat and cook the bacon until it is crisp (5 – 10 minutes).
Preferably using tongs, remove the bacon from the pan and put it aside on a plate lined with paper towel. Refrigerate it for use at the end. Pour most of the bacon grease out of the pan, except for about 2 Tablespoons worth.
I actually measure two TBsp of water into a bowl so that I could eyeball it. Remember to use oven mitts because the cast iron will be hot! Put the pan back on the heat and add the onion, garlic, and thyme.
Cook the aromatics (that’s the fancy name for what’s in the pan right now) for about 10 minutes, until the onions brown lightly, stir occasionally so they don’t burn. Add the flour, thoroughly stirring it in, and cook for 1 minute.
Add 1 cup of the broth/stock. Deglaze the pan by scraping all the bits off the bottom and into the cooking liquid. Stir everything together thoroughly. Once the mixture has become a gravy-like base (after a minute or two), transfer it to the slow cooker. Add in the remaining 3 cups of broth and stir to combine. Add the potatoes and stir to distribute everything evenly. Cover and set to cook on low. Let it cook for 4-6 hours.
When the 4-6 hour period is nearly over, shred the cheese. This is one case where using a food processes may come in handy. Because it will be melted in, the texture doesn’t matter. Sometimes hand-grating is preferable, but in this case it isn’t. Shred or grate a little additional cheese for garnish on top of the soup.
Once the long cook is complete, fish out about 2 cups of potato cubes, which should be relatively soft by now, and transfer them to a bowl. Mash them until smooth.
Add the mashed potatoes back into the slow cooker. Stir in the cheese until it’s evenly melted. Then stir in the half-and-half or cream. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Let the soup heat for an additional 5 minutes.
In the meantime, reheat the bacon bits in the microwave on the paper towel-lined plate, for about 30 seconds. Plate the soup and on the top of each bowl of soup add a small portion of bacon, additional cheese, and, if you are using them, scallions.
Note: I cooked the soup for 6 hours, and the potatoes were just mushy enough by the end, although the hear of your slow-cooker may vary. That being said, my soup was a little dry. You can see from the picture below how lumpy it is. It should be a bit smoother than that.
If necessary, add additional water or broth into the slow cooker before serving, a little bit at a time, and stir. Repeat until you get to a smooth consistency. If necessary when reheating, you can do the same on a per-serving basis. I’m usually timid with such things for fear of making a watery mess, but ith this recipe, you don’t need to be scared of adding additional liquid to thin it out. It will re-absorb it nicely.

Dark Days: Attacking Food Storage Clutter

Lindsay — Wed, 16 Feb 2011 01:00:02 +0000

Our food storage situation was getting out of control. Half a duck fell out of the freezer and landed on my shoe-less toes. Random bags of grains leftover from this fall made getting the breakfast granola a daily battle. And somehow we had a whole shopping bag full of mushrooms in the refrigerator. Time to take charge!!

We sautéed two chopped onions (Paffenroth Gardens) with some garlic (Keith’s Farm) in sunflower oil (Stolor Organics). To that, we added a mountain of sliced mushrooms (Bulich Mushroom Farm) and sautéed them until soft with a little salt and pepper and a splash of Riesling (Chateau Renaissance). Then poured everything into the slow cooker.

We trimmed any excess fat and skin off of the duck parts (Hudson Valley Duck Farm) and used the same pan to brown them for a few minutes on each side (just until the duck released easily from the pan). Into the slow cooker it went, topped off by small handfull of farro (Cayuga Pure Organics), a few red sunchokes and a couple of handfulls of little potatoes (Berried Treasures) and covered in water.

We let it cook on high for six hours. We then removed the bones, shredded the meat, and returned it to the slow cooker for another two hours on low.

Served up with some (failed and very flat, but tasty) sourdough bread (flour from Cayuga Pure Organics, yeast from the Manhattan air) it was a very satisfying improvisation.