A Produce Plus Weekend: Sweet Peppers, Edamames, and Cucumbers

We spent the better part of our weekend in the kitchen. But, as I've written before, spending time in the kitchen with a large glass of wine and some good tunes with the one I love is a beautiful thing. So, what did we make? Well...

On Friday, Andy brought home a large pail of cucumbers from his colleague. What a generous lady! We decided to make those in the crock like we did earlier this year. The recipe for that is here. Our first batch is in the fridge, and the pickles are wonderfully crunchy. So, we figured why veer away from a good recipe? (Well, other than the fact that our fridge is very near capacity...we really need a second one to store all of this live food we've been creating.)

On Saturday morning, we picked up 5 pounds of mini sweet peppers and 10 pounds of edamame from the Harmony Valley Farm stand at the Farmers' Market. Juan happily handed us our boxes in return for our check. We love produce plus opportunities ~ they always lend themselves to weekends in the kitchen, preserving up food for the winter, but we are relishing the day when our gardening skills are so fierce that we won't even be tempted to order and pay for produce plus. We look forward to the day when we're swimming in tons of tomatoes and crowded out of the house by piles of edamames and peppers. But until then, produce plus is a perfect way to support a local, sustainable grower, while making an effort to eat  both seasonally and locally.

Funny thing about this week's produce plus pepper purchase is that we had no idea what we'd do with the sweet peppers once we got them. When we received the email that for the first time ever, these mini bursts of goodness were for sale in huge increments, we leaped at the chance. We began receiving these in our box about two years ago, and since then, they're one item we can't seem to tire of. As the summer winds down, at least there are mini-sweet peppers!. Honestly, they are mouth-poppingly delicious. Andy and I both eat them raw, plain or stuffed with cheese. So, what to do with 5 lbs of them? We tossed around roasting and freezing some, just freezing others, pickling them, making them into jelly, or even candying them. But then, this week's CSA newsletter featured mini sweets and provided a recipe for sweet pepper marmalade, and we were sold on that idea. The cans of red, yellow, and orange sweetness are gorgeous, and we're looking forward to sharing some over the holidays. The newsletter suggested serving with pretzels or crackers and cream cheese or goat cheese. Don't those ideas sound absolutely delicious?

...oh...and about that gardening goal, we saved a ton of sweet pepper seeds.

And, as for the ten pounds of edamame, simple! We blanched them (in shells) for three minutes, put them in a water bath, divided them up into freezer bags (2 cups per bag) and froze them. How great will an edamame salad be in the middle of a Wisconsin winter? So good. I'm already planning out my day of "summer eating" on a negative degree day: frozen watermelon juice-vodka drinks, edamame salad, and grilled veggie burgers perhaps?  I think I need to start getting bikini-ready for that fun day inside the confines of my cozy home now.

Here is the recipe we used (courtesy of Harmony Valley Farm) for the pepper marmalade:

1 cup sweet peppers, small dice
1 cup onion, small dice
1 cup sugar
1/3 cup white distilled vinegar
1/3 cup apple cider vinegar
1/4-1/2 tsp chili flake

Combine all ingredients in a medium saute pan.

Simmer over medium heat for 5 minutes. Reduce heat and simmer another 20 minutes or until liquid is syrupy. You can store in the fridge for several weeks or can and process 10 minutes in a hot water bath.
 


Our weekend totals are:
1 crock full of pickles
approx. 6 pints of sweet pepper marmalade (1/2 quart for the fridge)
17 frozen cups of edamame

Homemade Hot Sauce!

Cayanne, Seranno, Joe's Round (missing jalapeno)

We're addicted to hot sauce. We like hot sauce on our eggs. We like hot sauce on our potatoes. We like hot sauce on our burgers/veggie burgers.We like hot sauce on our popcorn. Aside from desserts, we like hot sauce on just about everything. So, as you can imagine, making our own has come to mind.

A few years ago, we made a sort of buffalo-type hot sauce. Of course, that was before this blog, so we can't remember how we managed that at all. I do remember that it was fabulous over some oven-baked potatoes, sprinkled with blue cheese.

This year, we're trying the old-fashioned pepper fermentation method. Included are a lot of Cayenne peppers (thanks to Andy's colleague!), Joe's rounds (super hot!), jalapenos, and Serrano peppers. They're mashed up and fermenting as we speak. In fact, they've been fermenting since Saturday.

To do this, we simply (and with gloves on!):

1. removed the stems.
2. put all of the peppers in the Cuisinart

3. added salt (1.5 teaspoon per cup of mashed peppers)

4. put the mash in a Ball jar (though you could use a crock or a food-safe plastic container)

5. weighed down the mash with another jar, and

6. covered the whole operation with a towel

...and now we'll wait for a month or more for the flavor to develop. Throughout this process, we have to make sure that the liquid covers the mash; it's a crucial part of the fermentation process. If there is not enough liquid to cover the mash, we'll add salted water.

Soon, we'll be left with hot sauce to put into a bottle or two and store in the fridge.

I can't wait! I'm sure whatever I make for dinner the day it's ready will be a perfect meal for hot sauce.

Roasted Red Pepper Hummus

We dug into the freezer for roasted red peppers for the first time this year today. We have plenty of fresh vegetables (carrots, radishes, broccoli, baby turnips, and cauliflower) that need to be eaten ASAP. The perfect fix? A yummy bowl of roasted red pepper hummus!
     I got the basis for this recipe from a cookbook that I bought in Ireland a few years back entitled The Irish Farmers' Market Cookbook. Ireland and hummus? Yes! The book is written by Clodagh McKenna, who lives by and cooks with a locavore philosophy. I'm smitten with the book's colorful photos, with its recipes' usage of local Irish ingredients (most of which are plentiful here in WISCO as well), and with its occasional difference in food vocabulary (croquettes for cucumbers, for example).

My version of this recipe:
2 roasted red peppers
25 oz. of garbanzo beans (I used canned this time.)
4 fl. oz. of olive oil
1 Tbs of tahini (optional)
4 garlic cloves
4 Tbs. of lemon juice
salt and pepper to taste

1. Put the garlic cloves and the roasted red peppers in your food processor. Process until finely chopped.
2. Add the chickpeas. Process until well-blended.
3. Add the lemon juice and tahini.
4. Add the olive oil, a little at a time, until desired consistency.
5. Add salt and freshly ground pepper to taste.

Serve with fresh veggies, pita chips, crackers, or bread.

Happy Harvest Weekend!

Andy and I took a break from our own Backyard Market to venture to Viroqua. The inspiration for our weekend-get-away was Harmony Valley Farm's annual CSA member Harvest Party on Sunday.  With  a quaint Farmer's Market, a bountiful food co-op, an eclectic coffee shop, and a Mexican restaurant serving amazing food, Viroqua has become a favorite spot for us to take a little break from life.

Saturday morning, we spent time at the Farmer's Market, which had a wide variety of vendors. We bought a bird feeder made by a local artisan, two jars of fruit preserves for my parents (they were our chicken-sitters this weekend), and a bag of garlic to be planted in our garden this fall. There were several furniture vendors which tempted my checkbook and loads of Amish baked goods that tempted my stomach, too!

We ventured to the Vernon Winery that afternoon. I've discovered that eating fresh Concord grapes from the vine is one of my new favorite activities! I can't wait to grow some in our yard next year!

Saturday evening we ate at a new restaurant called Optimo, serving only local food. Andy had a wonderful squash ravioli with collard greens. 

Sunday morning, we had our second breakfast at the Viroqua Co-op. Something about the atmosphere of that place invites dreaming, planning, and high hopes. Andy and I planned out the next twenty years of our yard over a few cups of coffee and some delicious food. With the pictures below, there's no need for me to give a further explanation.

The next day, we made our way out to the Harmony Valley Harvest Party, our favorite CSA event of the year. The colors are so beautiful, the hayride is so educational, the pickings are always good, and the potluck is always more than amazing.

This year, we visited the pepper and raspberry fields. We grabbed an insane amount of mini-sweet peppers for eating and for harvesting seed, guajillo and poblano peppers for drying, and UW roaster peppers for roasting and freezing.

Next stop, turnip, radish, and cauliflower fields.

The collard greens and kale field was beautiful. Notice how high the tops of the purple kale are. A sign of a good harvest!

Then, the kids' favorite part of the day: the pumpkin harvest.

After that highlight, the wagons all made their way back to the farm for the pig roast and potluck. This year, the crew prepared pork barbacoa with guajillo salsa and cabbage, mango, and jalapeno pico de gallo. The farm's hard-working Mexican crew put together a permanent underground oven for events such as this. The corn tortillas were moist and wonderful. Of course, all of the members brought delicious dishes, and we all ate too much. Being around such like-minded people for a day is so refreshing.

Wow! Stuffed Peppers=Amazing!

Dinner tonight was, in one word, amazing. Andy stopped at the co-op on the way home tonight to get Smart Ground Original, a meat substitute. While I fully embrace the vegetarian lifestyle and philosophy, another alternative is to buy local and as-humanely-as-possible-reared-and-slaughtered meat. It's hard for me to put the words "humane" and "slaughtered" in the same sentence, but I realize that there are benefits to a non-veg, local carnivorous meal: supporting local farmers, less gas mileage for the product, and more local food, in general.So...my point is that this meal can be veg or non-veg...and both can be ethical in their own ways.

Here's the ingredients and instructions for this truly delectable dinner. Try it! It's so yummy!

Ingredients: (Spanish rice)
2 TBS olive oil
1 1/2 long grain rice
1 quart canned tomato halves with juice
vegetable broth (enough that when combined with tomato juice equals 3 cups)
1 medium onion, chopped
1 large garlic clove, minced
1 jalapeno pepper, diced
Mexican seasoning (cumin, chili powder, achiote, anything that feels/tastes right)

Ingredients: (soy/beef crumbles)
1 LB soy crumbles or ground beef
1 small onion diced
1 Jalapeno pepper
Mexican seasoning (cumin, chili powder, achiote, anything that feels/tastes right)
water (3-4 TBS)

Cheese

To make rice:
Heat oil in a deep sauce pan. Add onion, garlic, pepper, and rice. Stir and cook until onions are translucent and rice is a little bit browned.  Add seasoning, tomatoes and all liquids.  Bring to a boil, and then reduce to a simmer.  Once at a simmer, reduce heat to low and cover.  Cook approximately 30 minutes or until majority of liquid is absorbed.

To make soy/beef:
Heat oil in shallow sauce pan.  Add onion and pepper; cook until pepper is almost translucent.  Add soy/beef and cook until browned (soy: approx 3-5 minutes). Add seasoning and water.  Cook until water is absorbed.
Add soy/beef to the rice and mix until combined.

To make stuffed peppers:
Preheat oven to 400 degrees.  Cut tops off of peppers and take seeds out.  Drizzle the inside of the peppers with olive oil and salt.  Stuff peppers with rice and soy mixture.  Arrange stuffed peppers in a shallow baking dish.  Cook in over for 10 minutes.  After 10 minutes, remove from oven and add cheese to the tops of all the peppers.  Return peppers to oven and cook for an additional 10 minutes or until cheese is browned or to your personal liking.

YUM! YUMMY! OUT OF THIS WORLD! SPLENDID! HOLY COW!

Fettuccine Alfredo with a Summer Twist

A few summers ago, when we had an abundance of fresh veggies and were particularly into grilling them, Andy concocted this Roasted Red Pepper Fettuccine Alfredo recipe. It has become a late summer favorite, which we look forward to all year long! We serve it with another of Andy's creations, Butter-Parsley Bread.

Roasted Red Pepper Fettuccine Alfredo
Sauce:
3 cloves of garlic, minced
2 Tbs. butter
1-2 Tbs. flour
4 cups of 2% or whole milk
4-6 oz. cream cheese
1/2 c. shredded Romano cheese
1/2 c. shredded Parmesan cheese
2 red bell peppers

Other Ingredients:
-various in-season veggies, such as cherry tomatoes, zucchini, broccoli, carrots, etc.
-fresh fettuccine noodles, if possible (We enjoy Madison's RP's Pasta's.)

• To roast the red peppers, grill over an open fire until pepper skins are black. Put the peppers in a paper bag for 10 minutes. Remove peppers from bag and remove skins. Running them under cold water can aid in this process. Puree roasted red peppers and set aside.

• Melt butter in saute pan. Add garlic, and saute for about one minute. Add flour. Cook until golden. This is called a roux.
  
• Slowly mix in the milk. Heat on medium-high heat until milk begins to boil. Reduce heat. Add cream cheese in cubes. Continue stirring until cream cheese is combined thoroughly. Gradually reduce the heat as you add in the Parmesan and Romano cheese. Once the sauce is of desired thickness, add pureed red pepper.
• Cover and keep warm while you prepare noodles and roasted veggies.
  
• To roast veggies, use a grill pan over an open fire. Shake and drizzle with olive oil. Alternately, saute on stove in a saute pan.
• To serve, put noodles on plates, followed by sauce, and then top with roasted veggies. Sprinkle parsley and/or Parmesan cheese, if desired.

Butter-Parsley Bread
a loaf of sourdough bread
1 c. parsley (approximate)
1/2 c. shredded Parmesan or Romano
4 Tbs. butter (or more, depending on size of loaf)
3 cloves of garlic (minimum)

• Cut the bread down the middle, but do not cut all the way through. Then, cut cross ways, making cuts every 1-2 inches.
• Fill the crevices with butter, garlic, shredded cheese, and parsley.
  
• Wrap in foil and bake at 350 until cheese is melted and bread is golden-brown (approximately 30 minutes).