Local farmers

Okay, this is not a post about me cooking anything local. In fact, when I recently had a chance to bring a dish to a potluck baby shower for a friend who is a farmer, what did I bring? Store-bought hummus and pita. Busy Labor Day weekend.

But I did want to mention that said farmer friend was featured on Serious Eats' "Meet Your Farmers" series. Check it out!

(By the way, much of the produce at the baby shower was from my friend's Frog Bottom Farm. And it was delicious.)

A simple local meal

Okay, it's been a busy couple of weeks for me, and I haven't had much time to cook, much less post.

But I was inspired by my friend Brianne. She just traveled all over the U.S. and Europe and blogged about what she did and, most importantly, what she ate.

Some of the meals she ate in Europe were so simple yet sounded so delicious, featuring local produce, cheeses, breads, etc. Very Alice Waters—local ingredients at their peak prepared simply.

So I made a very simple lunch of Russian banana potatoes (which I had to buy just based on the name), a freshly hard-boiled egg (still warm!), a sliced heirloom tomato with salt and pepper, some blackberries, and a few pieces of cheese. The potatoes were boiled and then tossed with some local butter, salt, pepper, and garlic chives.

The meal was delicious. If only I had eaten it in Paris.

Two-day refried beans

Okay, the refried beans don't really take two days to make. But as usual, I under-estimated the amount of time it would take to cook the beans from dried, so by the time they were ready I had long since cooked and eaten some spaghetti for dinner. I was hungry.

But I finished the refried beans tonight, and they were delicious. A little dry, to be sure—I think I didn't use enough oil. But good.

I used Mark Bittman's recipe from How to Cook Everything Vegetarian. I'm feeling a little lazy, so I won't post the full recipe here. But essentially I sauteed some chopped onions in a neutral oil (I used sunflower), added a tablespoon of cumin, added three cups of cooked kidney beans, plus some diced pickled jalapenos and crushed garlic, and mashed them until my back hurt. Since it has been hurting since Friday, I think I probably quit a little too soon. Mark (yes, we are on a first-name basis) says some lumps are okay, but as you can see in the picture, my refried beans are quite chunky. But still, it was a very tasty dinner, seasoned with salt, pepper, and cayenne pepper; topped with a fried egg (look at that nice runny yolk!); and served with a large salad.

As I mentioned yesterday, although many of the ingredients were local (lettuce, cherry tomatoes, egg, onions, garlic...) enough were from afar that I am not considering this a One Local Summer entry. But still, I think it shows how often you can use local ingredients in recipes every day without much thought or effort.

A healthy local salad for lunch

On Saturday I had plans to go to a Korean barbecue for dinner. Though I wouldn't be partaking in the giant piles of pork and beef that are sliced thin and cooked on a tabletop grill, I still knew I would be eating a ton of food. So, I decided to have a light, easy lunch.

My salad was composed of baby lettuces from Truck Patch Farms topped by halved cherry tomatoes and sliced apricots. And sunflower seeds (my salad weakness) from Connecticut, so not too far away. I also used a seasoning blend called Salad Elegant from Penzey's—it includes paprika, parmesan cheese, poppy seeds, sesame seeds, etc.

On the side I had the last two slices of focaccia with some chipotle goat cheese from Cherry Glen. Unfortunately the focaccia was a bit too far past its prime—a little too dried out for my taste. So I ended up sort of working the goat cheese into the salad.

This was such a boring (though tasty) lunch that I hope it will not become my One Local Summer entry this week, but I am going to the beach this weekend, so my cooking opportunities will be limited.

Today I am "wasting" a potential cooking day by making some beans for Mark Bittman's vegetarian refried beans recipe (from his excellent book, How to Cook Everything Vegetarian. Making beans from scratch takes a while but it doesn't involve much hands-on work, and the payoff is great.

Plus, dried beans are so cheap. I am using about half a bag of kidney beans that cost me $2 from the Indian market. That and some chopped onion, a little bit of oil, salt and pepper, cayenne and cumin, and some diced jalapeno, and I have my refried beans. Top that with a fried egg and some cheddar cheese, with a salad on the side, and I have dinner. And actually everything I am using is local except for the beans themselves (and the oil and spices, of course). Not bad.

Eggplant caponata... sort of

This week at the Crystal City farmers market, I could not resist picking up a few small light purple globe eggplants. Last summer one of my favorite meals was grilled eggplant with caponata salsa, a la smitten kitchen. So I decided to put my adorable eggplants to use in a modified version of that recipe that does not include so many non-local items (olives, capers, etc).

Plus, I wanted to add cheese. I found this recipe for grilled eggplant with tomato goat cheese relish that got me closer to what I was envisioning. In the end, I just improvised.

I've never actually tried to write out a recipe, but here is basically what I did, with guesses at the measurements. This is enough for about three people, assuming you are serving other dishes as well.

Ingredients:

3 small globe eggplants (or you could use the long slim Japanese eggplants, which is what I usually do because I find them less bitter)
Olive oil (to brush on the eggplant)
Salt and pepper to taste

1 pint of cherry tomatoes (preferably a mix of colors—I used red and yellow), halved lengthwise (I cut some of the larger tomatoes in quarters)
1 large clove of garlic, crushed
1 jalapeno, diced
1/2 red onion, chopped fairly finely
Olive oil
Vinegar (I used the ramp vinegar I am so excited by, but I think red wine or balsamic would also work. Or even just lemon juice.)
Basil (I used a little bit of dried but fresh would be better)
Salt and pepper to taste
Goat cheese or another soft-ish cheese (maybe two ounces)

I would make the salsa first to allow for some flavor-mingling time. Combine all of the vegetables and mix well. If the proportions don't look quite right, feel free to add more tomatoes, more onion, etc. Add two parts olive oil to one part vinegar. I just guessed at this and ended up adding too much. Don't forget, like I did, that the tomatoes will give off a lot of juice. Start small—you can always add more if you need it.

Then add the basil (or other herbs—smitten kitchen uses fresh oregano but I am not a big fan) and the salt and pepper to taste. I'm sure there are many other things you could add to this salsa—some chopped bell pepper, maybe? Or you could go in a fruity direction and add peaches, which go well with tomatoes.

Set that aside and slice the eggplant evenly into half-inch slices. Brush with olive oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Grill the eggplant on a grill pan (or, I suppose, an actual grill), or just pan fry if you don't have a grill pan, as I do not right now.

Divide the slices evenly among the number of people you are serving (in my case, it was three people, three slices of eggplant each) and top with salsa and some crumbled goat cheese (or chopped cheese if you couldn't find goat cheese, as was the case for me. I used a really delicious cave-aged cheese called Chappelle from Chapel's Country Creamery in Maryland.

To round out the meal, I served focaccia from Quail Creek Farm with butter from Blue Ridge Dairy, and some totally non-local whole-wheat spaghetti with a light tomato sauce. I did make the sauce myself but the only local ingredient in it was the garlic. So we'll pretend that wasn't part of the meal for the purposes of this challenge. :)

Dinner tonight: Eggs in the 10th Circle of Hell

Tonight I had a (mostly) local dinner. My salad featured greens from Tree and Leaf Farm in Virginia, along with cherry tomatoes from Richfield Farm in Maryland, currants from Quaker Valley Farm in—you guessed it—Pennsylvania, and sunflower seeds from, well, Giant. What can I say—I really love sunflower seeds in salads. And hey, I just checked, and turns out they are from Connecticut!

I also made Eggs in Purgatory for the second time in a couple of weeks. Last time I was very lazy and used bottled sauce (Rao's Homemade Arrabiata, which I think is quite good) and a Thomas' English muffin. This time I made the sauce from scratch using this really simple recipe from smitten kitchen.

Everything I used was local, except for the crushed tomatoes themselves and the glug of red wine I poured in, which was accidentally quite generous. And, of course, the spices and oil. I used leftover Atwater's bread from brunch on Saturday, eggs from Groff's Content Farm, and garlic from Tree and Leaf. I am so glad garlic is back at the farmers markets. All winter I was so distressed by the sad state of garlic at both Harris Teeter and Whole Foods, and I could not wait until the summer when I could purchase decent garlic.

Cooking tip of the day: When you crack the eggs into your nicely reduced sauce, don't wander away and start catching up on blogs. You will overcook your eggs, which is exactly what I did last time I made Eggs in Purgatory too. This is why I have upgraded them to the 10th Circle of Hell, better known as the hell of hard, chalky yolks instead of nice, runny yolks. Still, it was a good meal, and very quick to throw together on a weeknight.

One local brunch

This weekend I invited two good friends over for a (mostly) local brunch. On the menu:

Mexican-style scrambled eggs. The recipe was from the Cherry Glen Goat Cheese Company, and is intended to use their chipotle goat cheese. However, they weren't at the Mt. Pleasant market this week (according to the weekly market email they are moving into a new ripening room), so I substituted Dragon's Breath cheese from Keswick Creamery—an equally spicy, though not as melty, cheese. All the ingredients I used in this were local except the tortilla chips and, of course, the salt and pepper. No red bell peppers at the market this week, so I used purple.

Home fries. Continuing the purple theme, I made home fries with purple potatoes, onion, garlic, cayenne pepper, smoked paprika, and canola oil. Colorful and delicious, even if they did take forever to cook. The spices are from Penzey's, a great source for fresh, inexpensive spices. (If you are in the DC area, there are locations in Falls Church and Rockville.)

Salad, with red currants from Quaker Valley Farm and sunflower seeds (not local). Despite my earlier taste test, I have decided I prefer the red currants to the pink. The flavor of the pink currants is too subtle (and they get soft and mushy sooner than a procrastinator like me would like). Speaking of currants, here is a recent article from the New York Times about the resurgence of these berries, particularly the black ones, which I have yet to see at the market. (Thanks, Marianne!)

Slow-roasted red and yellow cherry tomatoes from Richfield Farm with olive oil, salt, and pepper.

Melon. I wish I could remember what it was called. It had a yellow, smooth skin and a light green flesh. Anyone know? I believe it was also from Quaker Valley Farm.

Peasant wheat toast from Atwater's Bakery served with raspberry jam from Country Pleasures Farm, and butter (sadly, not local—I wasn't able to stop by Penn Quarter on Thursday to replenish my butter supply from Blue Ridge Dairy).

Mimosas. Well, it was brunch...