EatLocal365 » pumpkin

Building Community Through Food

Lindsay — Sun, 30 Mar 2014 00:21:01 +0000

This week, I stumbled into two great examples of how food brings people together. First, we scored some local grains (for free!) from a poster on a Yahoo listserve for local parents. Super! After a short trip and a nice conversation, we are the proud owners of two quarts of local oats and some helpful info on CSAs in the area. Not quite sure what we’re going to do with the oats, but I’m excited to experiment and look into a couple of new sources for local food.

The second happened through a fantastic Facebook group of the most supportive, humble, self-deprecating, other-cheering, hilarious, and generous community of women. For the last couple of months, I have been talking to some women about breastfeeding and our little ones’ reactions to food we eat. Finley seems to have had mild reactions to dairy and soy in my diet, so I’ve cut those out for the time being. One of the other women, however, has had to eliminate practically everything delicious and convenient. Boo! But hurray to her for soldiering on! She had a particularly tough week, so I offered to bake a treat that she could actually eat. No easy task, but fun for this food nerd. No eggs or dairy – not a big deal, since there’s a lot of info out there on modifying existing recipes for vegans. The biggest issue was avoiding corn. “Whatever, just don’t make corn bread,” you say. Ha! Did you know there’s corn in baking powder?? I didn’t. Luckily, the internet exists. Baking soda + cream of tartar = corn-free baking powder.

We had a lovely chat when I dropped off the bread and agreed to get together for a walking date later on. Yay for new friends!

I didn’t have any of the bread (which is based on another Joy the Baker recipe), because wheat and I aren’t getting along at the moment, but my mommy friend says it was delicious. It makes two loaves, so wrap one well and freeze it or give it away and make a new friend yourself.

Allergy-Sensitive Butternut Squash Bread

Makes 2 loaves

Amount	Ingredient	Preparation	Notes
3-3/4 cups	All purpose flour		Bulk
2 cups	Sugar		Bulk
2-1/4 tsp	Baking soda
1/2 tsp	Cream of tartar
1 tsp	Sea salt
1 tsp	Ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp	Ground cloves
1 pint	Butternut squash puree	Substitute 15-ounce can of pumpkin puree	Homemade from Red Fire Farm CSA
1 cup	Canola oil
1/3 cup	Maple syrup		Hollis Hills Farm
2 TBsp	Molasses	Blackstrap or regular

Directions

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Prepare two loaf pans (8 x 4 x 3 inches) by lining with parchment paper – cut two strips of parchment paper about 8 inches wide and long enough to hang over the edges of the pans; crease into the corners of each pan to create a sling to lift out the baked bread. If you’re not concerned about allergens, you could grease and flour the pans instead (making sure to knock out the extra flour).

Whisk together the dry ingredients (including sugar, which is usually considered wet).

Whisk together the wet ingredients (add about 1/4 cup of water if you use commercial canned pumpkin).

Pour the wet ingredients onto the dry and mix just until combined. If you mix like crazy, you’ll develop the gluten in the flour and end up with tough bread.

Divide the batter equally between the prepared loaf pans and bake for about 1 hour (until a toothpick inserted in the center of each loaf comes out clean).

Cool in the pans for 10 minutes (20 if you didn’t use parchment paper). Remove from the pans and cool completely on a wire rack.

How to Make a Winter Smoothie with Local Ingredients

Lindsay — Mon, 04 Mar 2013 15:46:41 +0000

In the winter, I usually crave hot breakfasts. Oatmeal with applesauce and peanut butter, eggs of all sorts, or pancakes. Recently, I haven’t been eating particularly well, so I’ve been trying to get a little “insurance” at breakfast to make up for the Pad Thai at lunch and burger, fries, and a shake at dinner. Yep. That was yesterday.

Smoothies are an easy way to cram more veggies into your day. A little fruit covers up the healthy taste and if the green color bothers you, just avert your eyes. This has become my go-to recipe, but you can make some tweaks if it’s not sweet enough for you. Add a tablespoon of maple syrup or use a whole peach/banana instead of half.

We don’t have a fancy blender…although I really really really want one, I can’t justify the crazy price. There’s an easy technique for making a good smoothie with a normal blender. Check out this video from Good Eats – the technique info starts at about 4:22.

My blender has four speeds. I run it on the first until the vortex starts, then each higher speed for one minute. If a bubble forms, I turn off the blender, give it a little shake to encourage the “burp”, then turn the speed back up. It takes about 4 minutes of blending, but that’s enough time to put away the ingredients and make a cup of tea.

If you want to get crazy, add half an avocado to the mix. We ordered a box of them from California Avocados Direct, a responsible family farm, and were blown away.

Local Winter Smoothie

Makes 1 large smoothie

Amount	Ingredient	Preparation	Notes
1/4 cup	Rolled oats		Bulk section or local, if we can get them
1/4 cup	Yogurt		Homemade
1/2 medium	Frozen peach	Substitute half a canned peach or half a frozen banana	Red Fire Farm
1 Tbsp	Chia seeds or ground flax seeds	Chia seeds will make it thicker; flax seeds will give it a nutty taste.
1/2 tsp	Ground cinnamon	Other spices, like cardamom, are nice, too.
1 cup	Water	Substitute juice or milk (dairy or non-dairy), if you want
1-2 handfuls	Spinach or kale	Well washed, so that you don’t have a gritty smoothie.	NorthStar Farm
1/2 cup	Cooked squash or pumpkin	Pureed or roasted (make a big batch and refrigerate or freeze)	Red Fire Farm
1-2 handfuls	Ice cubes

Directions

If you are organized and want to be like Alton Brown, prep your smoothie the night before. Put everything except the ice cubes into the blender (in order) and stash it in the fridge. In the morning, add the ice and blend, following the directions above. Make sure all the spinach/kale blends in. Sometimes a leaf or two will stick to the side. This is a great way to have a nice smoothie even on a busy morning.

If you, like me, are usually not that with it at bedtime, make your smoothie when you’re ready to eat it. Add all the ingredients to the blender (in order) and blend, following the directions above. It might take a little longer for the vortex to form, because the fruit is still frozen, but you can get it going by stopping the blender and smushing the spinach/kale down toward the blades. When you start up the blender again, the smoothie should start moving. It might take a couple of tries. If it’s really giving you trouble, add a little more water/juice/milk. It’ll thin out your smoothie, but usually does the trick.

Is this the best kale salad ever?

Lindsay — Tue, 13 Dec 2011 23:03:58 +0000

It’s a bold statement. I’m not shy about it. It could be the best salad salad ever. I’ll leave it up to you, dear reader, to decide for yourself.

There’s a great restaurant near where we used to live in NYC called Northern Spy. Definitely give it a try if you’re in the area – it was one of our favorites. They make a kale salad for dinner that’s really simple, but almost perfect. For brunch, they add a poached egg and make it perfect. Yum yum yum. Erik and I have been eating a lot of kale salads with poached eggs lately. It sounds kind of strange, but give it a shot. It makes a quick, filling, and nutrious meal any time of day. Two nights ago, I was HANGRY (so hungry I was angry) and Erik soothed me with one. Before I had time to protest, BAM! it was on the table and calming me down.

Perfect Kale Salad

Makes 4 servings

Amount	Ingredient	Preparation	Where we bought it
1 small	Squash		Red Fire Farm CSA (Honey Nut Squash)
1/4 cup	Slivered almonds
1 1/2 TBsp	Lemon juice
1 1/2 TBsp	Olive or sunflower oil
To taste	Salt and black pepper
1 bunch	Kale	Red Russian and Lacinato are great for salads.	Red Fire Farm CSA
4 to 8	Eggs		Red Fire Farm CSA
1/4 cup	Cheddar	Cut into small cubes or crumbled	Narragansett Creamery (Atwell’s Gold)

Directions

Preheat your oven to 400 degrees.

Cut the squash in half and place, cut side down, in a small baking dish. Bake the squash until soft, about an hour, depending on the size of your squash. Remove from the oven and let cool.

Lower the oven temperature to 350 degrees.

Spread the almonds on a baking sheet (or pizza pan) and bake for about 15 minutes or until browned. Watch them carefully, because they’ll go from nicely browned to burnt very quickly. You can do all these steps a few days ahead, if you want.

Once the squash is cooled, remove the skin and chop into bite-sized, but small pieces. Reserve about 1 cup for the salad. Refrigerate the rest for a quick side dish another time.

Start a pot of water boiling to poach the eggs.

Pour the lemon juice into a large salad bowl. While whisking, add the olive oil in a thin stream to help it emulsify. Whisk in the salt and pepper.

Prep the kale, following these instructions, but slicing the ribbons only about 1/4 inch wide. As you finish the kale, toss it into the bowl with the dressing.

Toss the kale in the dressing, making sure to coat all the leaves. I usually just use my (clean) hands, because I seem to be unable to keep salad in a bowl any other way. It also gives me a chance to give the kale a little tenderizing massage.

Once the water is at a rolling boil and the kale is dressed, poach the eggs. Only make as many as you want to eat that meal. This salad keeps well in the refrigerator, so you can make a quick meal of the leftover tossed salad and a newly poached egg. We use nifty egg poachers, like these, and cook our eggs for two and a half to three minutes for a cooked, but runny, egg. You could also just crack them gently into the boiling water and then fish them out with a slotted spoon. It takes a little practice, but works.

Put a pile of kale on each plate. Top with the squash, cheddar, almonds, and a poached egg (or 2).

Dark Days: Crostini with Butternut Squash and Ricotta

Lindsay — Sat, 01 Jan 2011 17:23:25 +0000

Pulled this one out just in time!! Thanks to the chaos caused by Snowmageddon 2010, my travel plans were up in the air for days. Luckily, the folks at Continental were kind enough to get me home on Thursday. Woo hoo! As much as I love my family, it was awfully nice to sleep in my own bed again. It’s also great to be back in my own kitchen!

Erik and I ate at ABC Kitchen right before Christmas and had an amazing crostini with squash, apple cider vinegar, and ricotta that we just had to try to make at home. Even if this isn’t exactly like ABC’s version, it’s still delicious! It was the perfect light dinner before heading out for New Year’s Eve.

When I experimented with this at my parents’ in Minnesota, I used drained cottage cheese instead of the ricotta. You could use any mild, spreadable cheese. You could also use pumpkin or another squash instead of the butternut.

Crostini with Butternut Squash and Ricotta

Ingredients:

Amount	Ingredient	Preparation	Where we bought it (* Union Square Greenmarket)
1 (~2 pound)	Butternut squash	Peeled, seeded, and chopped (see this post for directions)	Caradonna Farms *
2 TBsp	Sunflower oil (or olive oil)	Divided into 1 TBsp and 1 TBsp	Stolor Organics (sold by Cayuga Organics)*
1/2 lb	Shallots	Peeled	Paffenroth Farms *
1 TBsp	Butter (plus some additional for toasting the bread)		Ronnybrook Farm Dairy *
1 TBsp	Sugar
3 TBsp	Apple cider vinegar
6 ounces	Ricotta (you could substitute drained cottage cheese or another mild, spreadable cheese)		Tonjes Farm Dairy
4-8 thick slices	Bread (the number of slices depends on the size of the loaf)		Homemade with flour from Cayuga Organics (recipe to come)
To taste	Salt and freshly ground black pepper

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.
Peel, seed, and chop the butternut squash into 1/2 to 1 inch cubes (see this post for directions).
Put the butternut squash cubes in a rimmed sheet pan and toss them in 1 tablespoon of the sunflower oil and a good sprinkling of salt and pepper. Roast in the oven at 375 degrees. Set a timer for 45 minutes and begin on the next steps.
Melt the butter and the remaining 1 tablespoon of sunflower oil over medium heat in a non-non-stick skillet. To repeat, you do not want to use a non-stick skillet. You want bits to stick to the bottom for flavor.
Once the butter has melted, add the peeled shallots and the sugar to the skillet. Saute for about 10 minutes until the shallots are light brown.
Pull the butternut squash out of the oven (they won’t be done yet – leave the clock ticking) and scrape the shallots and oil/butter into the sheet pan. Set the sheet pan aside for a moment (be sure to use a trivet!).
Add the apple cider vinegar to the skillet. Heat it to boiling while scraping the bottom of the pan to get all the tasty bits. (This is called deglazing.) The vinegar should be darker now. Pour it from the skillet into the sheet pan and toss everything together.
Put the sheet pan (which now contains everything) back into the oven and continue to roast for the remainder of the 45 minute time until the squash is really soft. If it’s not done after the initial 45 minutes, keep it in the oven but check on it every 10 minutes until done.
Once the squash is done, transfer everything to a heat-resistant bowl (i.e., not plastic).
Take the ricotta out of the fridge so that it can warm to room temperature.
Lightly butter one side of each piece of bread. Place all of the slices on the sheet pan butter side up (don’t bother to clean the pan). You don’t need to butter the bottom side because the sheet pan is already oily from the squash. Move the oven rack to the top of the oven (be careful!). Toast the bread for 5 minutes on each side in your 375 degree oven.
While the bread is toasting, squish the squash mixture with a fork, pastry blender, or potato masher. Leave a few lumps in for texture. The shallots will break up, but won’t completely disappear.
Once the bread is toasted, spread each piece with a thin layer of ricotta and a thick layer of the squash mixture. Cut each piece into 3 or 4 strips (for easy biting) and dig in.

Happy New Year, everyone! I hope 2011 is exciting and joyful for you all!

Dark Days: Pumpkin Bisque

Lindsay — Mon, 13 Dec 2010 02:55:04 +0000

We spent the week in sunny Texas, but got home yesterday to dreary drizzle. Blech. Luckily, we had fun brunch plans and all the ingredients for a steamy soup ready for today. There’s really nothing better, in my opinion, than a warm bowl between your hands on a dark winter night. Even better if the contents of that bowl are sprinkled with bacon.

This recipe comes from a great book called Art of the Slow Cooker, which we use pretty often. I substituted a few ingredients to stay within the Dark Days SOLE requirements and made a few other modifications to make my life easier. It is deliciously creamy and satisfying, but pretty healthy and quick to make.

My slow cookerwas indispensible for this soup. I used it to make the vegetable stock a few weeks ago, which I froze, to cook the pumpkin overnight last night, and to make the soup this afternoon. If you don’t have a slow cooker, you could make the stock and soup in a heavy pot on the stove and follow the oven roasting method for cooking the pumpkin.

Ingredients:

Amount	Ingredient	Preparation	Where we bought it (* Union Square Greenmarket)
1 TBsp	butter		Ronnybrook Farm *
1 large (8-12 ounces)	yellow onion	chopped	S&SO *
3 cloves	garlic	chopped	Keith’s Farm *
4-5 cups	pumpkin flesh (from a 5-6 pound pumpkin)	cooked, but no need to puree or drain	Oak Grove Plantation *
2 quarts	vegetable broth		Various *
1/8 tsp	ground nutmeg
1 tsp	kosher salt
1/2 tsp	pepper	freshly ground
1/2 cup	half & half		Milk Thistle Farm *
1/2 cup	cheese, such as Parmigiano-Reggiano or something smoked	grated	Cato Corner Farm (We used their Aged Bloomsbury) *
2 TBsp	fresh Italian (flat-leaf) parsley (optional garnish)	chopped	Keith’s Farm *
2-3 strips	bacon (optional garnish)	sliced into short strips and cooked until crispy	Oak Grove Plantation *
1/2 cup	nuts (optional garnish)	toasted and chopped

Directions:

Melt the butter in a heavy-bottomed pot or Dutch oven.
Add the onion and saute over medium heat until the onion is soft and translucent, about 3 minutes. Add the garlic and cook briefly.

Note: The onion is dark in the photo above because we crisped the bacon first and then used the same pot for the onion to add a little exta bacon-y flavor. This is a good method if you want to garnish with bacon, but it’s not necessary.
Stir in the pumpkin, broth, nutmeg, salt, and pepper and bring to a boil.
Transfer to a 5- to 6-quart slow cooker and cook on low for about 8 hours (or high for about 4).

Be careful when pouring the soup into the crock. It splashes!
Just before eating, add the half and half and cheese and use an immersion blenderto puree the soup. If you don’t have an immersion blender, you can use a blender, but be very careful. Blending hot liquid can lead to an explosion, so please let it cool down for some time before you blend.
Ladle the soup into bowls and garnish with the parsley and bacon or toasted nuts, if desired.

Any leftovers can be frozen. We served this with homemade crackers.

If you do one thing in December to eat locally…

Lindsay — Thu, 02 Dec 2010 17:40:07 +0000

…make a pie with local apples or pumpkins instead of buying Chilean apples, pumpkin in a can, or a whole pre-made pie.

Who’s with me?

100% Pumpkin Sunday Breakfast

Lindsay — Tue, 30 Nov 2010 02:12:55 +0000

For breakfast on Sunday, we went pumpkin crazy. We started with homemade pumpkin spice lattes. Well, I guess they were really pumpkin spice cafe au laits, but you could make lattes if you happen to have an espresso maker. As much as I like the Starbucks version, it contains lots of sugar and (in my view) unnecessary additives, which can be a problem if you’re gluten-intolerant or have other food allergies.

Pumpkin Spice Cafe Au Lait
Makes 2 big servings

Ingredients and Directions for Pumpkin Spice Mix:

1/2 cup pumpkin puree (fresh, if possible, but canned is fine)
1 teaspoon cinnamon
3/4 teaspoons ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Mix thoroughly and use immediately or store in the refrigerator for up to a week or so.

Ingredients and Directions for Cafe Au Laits:

In a saucepan, whisk 2 heaping tablespoons of Pumpkin Spice Mix with 2 cups milk (dairy or non-dairy) and 2 cups of strong coffee. Cook on low for about 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. Try to keep the mixture from boiling too vigorously, so the milk doesn’t burn.

To serve, strain through a fine sieve to remove the solids and pour into mugs. Straining is optional, but it’s nice not to get a mouthful of pumpkin pulp at the end.

Note: We’re not fans of sweet coffee, but maple syrup would be a great addition if you enjoy your coffee on the sweeter side. You can alter the milk/coffee ratio if you want it stronger or weaker.

Once we had our coffee and were awake and thinking clearly, we realized the pumpkin mixture could be used for French toast! Double pumpkin!

Pumpkin Spice French Toast
Makes 2-4 servings (depending on how hungry and/or indulgent you’re feeling)

Ingredients:

8-12 1-inch thick slices of a day-old baguette
Double batch of Pumpkin Spice Mix
1 1/2 cups milk (dairy or non-dairy)
2 tablespoons cornstarch
1 tablespoon butter

Directions:

Arrange the bread in a rimmed baking sheet so that all the bread lays flat. Use a pan that fits the bread, but without too much extra space, so that the bread sits in a deep bath of the milk mixture.
Whisk the milk and cornstarch into the Pumpkin Spice Mix. Pour the milk mixture over the bread and then flip each slice so that both sides are covered.
Let the bread sit on the counter for 20 minutes, then flip the slices and let it sit for another 10 minutes.
Preheat the oven to 375.
Drain the bread for 1 to 2 minutes on a wire cooling rackset on another rimmed baking sheet.
Melt the butter in a non-stick skillet over medium-low heat.
Working two slices at a time, cook the French toast in the skillet for 2 to 3 minutes on each slide.
Put the browned toast into the oven (directly on the middle rack) for 5 more minutes.
Repeat for all slices. Devour.

This technique, from His Majesty Alton Brown, creates French toast with a perfectly brown crust and a creamy, custardy middle. It does take a little more time than the usual method, but it’s definitely worth it. The extra soaking time is worthwhile, too, since the flavors really get absorbed. Just use the waiting time to take a shower and dry your hair!

I wanted to finish it off with pumpkin pie for dessert, but Erik talked me down and convinced me I might turn orange. You can never have too much pumpkin in my opinion!