Tag: <span>zucchini</span>

Tag: zucchini

One Local Summer

One Local Summer 2011 – Week 15

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I managed to miss the farmers markets this week, but I did make it to Kimberton Whole Foods to grab a few things. It’s SO nice to have them nearby since they sell some of my local favorites and a bunch of local produce. I saw golden beets and just had to figure out something to make with them.  I settled upon a modified beet and goat cheese galette.  The crust is 2 cups whole wheat pastry flour and 2/3 cup goat’s milk yogurt.  That’s it!  Then inside are some beets, dehydrated tomatoes, red onion, zucchini and chevre.  I did this one open in a pie plate, but used the other half of the dough to make a classic galette.  All the vegetables have to be cooked before going into the dough, and then cooked together at 400F for about 30 minutes.  It’s really pretty simple – while the dough is chilling in the fridge, the vegetables are being cooked, and then it’s time to roll the dough and throw the whole shebang in the oven.  It turned out DELICIOUS and the beets cooked up perfectly.

Beet & Goat Cheese Galette:
Chevre – Shellbark Hollow Farm
Golden Beets – Lancaster Farm Fresh
Red Onion – Lancaster Farm Fresh
Tomatoes – My Garden
Zucchini – My Garden
Goat’s Milk Yogurt – Shellbark Hollow Farm
Whole Wheat Pastry Flour – Mill at Anselma
Non local – coconut oil

One Local Summer

One Local Summer 2011 – Week 12

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This week’s inspiration came in the form of beets.  I’d seen a few recipes around the interwebs about how to make beet pasta.  Having found beets at the farmer’s market the other week, I decided to give it a go.  The recipe is below, but the basics are to roast the beets, make a puree, and then make pasta as usual, but use 1/4th cup beet puree instead of an egg or water.  Perfect!  The color came out so vibrant, but leeched a little into the water while boiling, so the finished cooked pasta was light pink instead of deep purple.  Still incredibly beautiful and different.  We decided to go with a cheese/alfredo type sauce to top it off (marinara sauce just didn’t seem right), and add some turkey and grilled zucchini to finish off the red, white, and green theme for this plate.  Turned out amazing, and the sauce, while calorie packed full of fancy cheeses, was DELICIOUS.  Just a spoon full is enough!

Beet Pasta with Cheese Sauce, Turkey, and Zucchini:
Turkey Breast – Mountain View Organics
Zucchini – Back Yard Garden
Beets – Charlestown Farm
Whole Wheat Pastry Flour – Mill at Anselma
Onions – Charlestown Farm
Garlic – Charlestown Farm
Equinox Cheese  – Birchrun Hills Farm
Blue Cheese – Birchrun Hills
Goat Cheese (Oregano & Paprika) – Yellow Springs Farm
Smoked Sea Salt – Pureblend Teas
Wine – Chaddsford Winery (Pierreno Grigio)
Non Local  – Olive Oil, Pepper

 

Beet Pasta Print Print
Ingredients
3 average-sized beets
2 tbsp olive oil
1 cup whole wheat pastry flour
Instructions:
  • Preheat oven to 350F.  Wash beets and remove greens.  Wrap in aluminum foil with 1 tbsp olive oil drizzled on top.  Bake for 30-45 minutes or until tender.  Allow to cool and remove skins.  Process into about 1/2 cup puree.
  • Put 1 cup whole wheat pastry flour into bowl, making a well in the middle.
  • Add in 1/4 cup beet puree and 1 tbsp olive oil.
  • Mix together with your hands and kneed until dough is firm and not sticky.  Add water or flour if dough is too dry or wet.
  • Either roll through a Kitchen Aid Pasta roller/cutter or by hand with a rolling pin and knife.
  • Hang pasta and allow to dry or boil right away and enjoy!
One Local Summer

One Local Summer 2011 – Week 10

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We tried out a new type of zucchini this year called the 8 ball squash that grows into a ball shape instead of the normal long and narrow zucchini shape.  They just happen to be absolutely perfect for hollowing out and stuffing with all sorts of vegetables and sausage.  The polenta was an afterthough, but it fit well with the spicy chorizo.  This was a big hit, and I’m so glad we have leftovers!

Stuffed Zucchini with Polenta:
Zucchini – My Garden
Chorizo – Countrytime Farm
Corn – Hoagland Farm
Onion – Hoagland Farm
Cornmeal – Mill at Anselma
Non Local – Butter, olive oil, salt, pepper

One Local Summer

One Local Summer 2011 – Week 7

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Okay, I know I say this every week, but, I REALLY made a good one here.  It’s no secret that I love garlic scapes, the spirally green vegetation that grows above the garlic bulb.  In order to get a proper garlic harvest, the green shoots need to be cut back to allow the garlic bulb to grow and harden.  Those shoots, or scapes, are gently garlicky, and can be cooked up much like scallions.  After a little googling last week to find other uses for garlic scapes, I came to a brilliant conclusion.  Garlic scapes could be steamed and blenderized and then used to make pasta (why no, I haven’t been on a pasta kick either), and then topped with a garlic scape pesto.  That’s exactly what I did.  I steamed the garlic scapes for about 10 minutes.  Then, using a stick blender, added in a little of the water from the steam pot, and blended until I got a thick slurry of garlic scapes.  Made and rolled the pasta using about 1/4th cup of the garlic scape slurry instead of water and allowed that to rest while I cooked up zucchini, diced scapes (yes, ALL THE SCAPES!), spring onions, and some crimini mushrooms along with pork sausage.  The remaining garlic scape slurry was given a boost of smoked sea salt and a little olive oil to make the pesto sauce.  Boiled the pasta, threw some sauce on top, added the sausage and vegetables to the plate, and there was dinner!  A little chunk of cheese on the side of the plate finished off dinner – which, I’ve just finished off dinner as I’ve been sitting here typing this up for you, it was THAT GOOD.

Garlic Scape Pasta with Sausage and Vegetables:
Garlic Scapes – Jack’s Farm & North Star Orchards
Crimini Mushrooms – Oley Valley Mushrooms
Whole Wheat Pastry Flour – Mill at Anselma
Zucchini – North Star Orchards
Spring Onions – Jack’s Farm
Pork Sausage – Countrytime Farm
Smoked Sea Salt – Pureblend Teas
Fat Cat Cheese – Birchrun Hills
Non Local – Olive Oil

One Local Summer

One Local Summer – Week 17

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Sister-in-law Brenda was in town this week and was flipping through the Cook’s Country compilation book for 2008. The husband had bought the book on super-sale at Amazon.com and we haven’t really made any of the recipes so far. So, when Brenda stumbled upon a recipe for Thin-Crust Skillet Pizza (August/September 2008, pg 18), I was more than happy to pull out the cast iron skillet and get cooking! The recipe calls for beer as the liquid in the dough, and we happened to have a homebrewed Hefeweizen on tap in the kegerator. It proved to be a good choice! The dough came out nice and crispy, and we had plenty of vegetables available for the topping. For me, this was easier and quicker than heating up the pizza stone, we didn’t have to wait for the dough to rise (no yeast – just beer and baking powder), and it was a delicious lunch to enjoy out on the patio.

Thin-Crust Skillet Pizza:
Whole Wheat Pastry Flour – Mill at Anselma
Bread Flour – Mill at Anselma
Zucchini – Smith’s Produce
Mushrooms – Oley Valley Mushrooms. Crimini
Tomatoes – My Garden. These are Super Italian Paste Tomatoes
Cheese – Birchrun Hills Farm.  Clipper variety.
Sharp I Chevre – Shellbark Hollow Farm
Basil – My Garden
Onion – North Star Orchard
Non-local – Baking powder, sugar, salt, beer, olive oil

One Local Summer

One Local Summer – Week 16

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I got a little backed up with putting in posts, so here’s the catch-up! This week was a Summer Garden Galette. I pretty much threw in any vegetable I could find that would fit in the crust and wow was it good. There’s a decent amount of prep work involved since everything has to be cooked before it goes in the shell, but all that can be done while waiting for the crust to chill in the fridge. I guess it sounds easier than it is, but if you’ve made a pie crust before, it’s really the same process. The bottom layer is sweet potatoes covered by tomatoes and squash, mushrooms and onions, and then topped off with a heavy dose of goat cheese. YUM!
Summer Garden Galette:
Onion – North Star Orchard
Summer Squash – Smith’s Produce
Zucchini – Smith’s Produce
Sharp I Chevre – Shellbark Hollow Farm
Chocolate Cherry Tomatoes – My Garden
Sage – My Garden
Sweet Potatoes – Brogue Hydroponics
Mushrooms – Oley Valley Mushrooms. Crimini.
Whole Wheat Pastry Flour – Mill at Anselma
Non-local – Butter

One Local Summer

One Local Summer – Week 11

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I’m a little behind on blog posts, but better late than never! This week I fired up the grill and stuffed some chicken breasts. Lettuce, in July, you say? YES! Brogue Hydroponics grows it all year round, and by now, I think the One Local Summer readers know that I love my greens.  So, clockwise, starting on the left, we have grilled squash, in the back is a salad with lettuce, mushrooms, and my first cucumbers from the garden, and in the front chicken stuffed with chevre, mushrooms, and peppers and grilled with a peach slice on top.  Detail of the ingredients follows and this was certainly a delicious and filling meal!

Squash:
Zucchini – Smith’s Produce
Yellow Squash – Smith’s Produce

Salad:
Lettuce – Brogue Hydroponics
Mushrooms – Oley Valley Mushrooms, Crimini variety
Cucumbers – My garden! White Ghost variety
Non-Local – Salad dressing

Chicken:
Chicken breast – Mountain View Organics
Mushrooms – Oley Valley Mushrooms, Crimini variety
Peppers – That same producer at Anselma Mill that I can’t remember the name (still!)
Chevre – Shellbark Hollow Farm. This is their Sharp II Chevre.
Peach – Northstar Orchard

One Local Summer

One Local Summer – Week 10

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I really cannot believe it’s week ten already. I just didn’t feel like getting everything together and seriously cooking this week, but I did manage a meal. This week, I bring you a veggie panini!

Vegetable Panini:
Bread – Saint Peter’s Bakery. This is their wheat bread.
Yellow Squash – Arrgh I can never remember the name of this producer at the Anselma Market
Zucchini – Smith’s Produce
Onion – North Star Orchard
Cherry Tomatoes – Jack’s Farm
Eggplant – Smith’s Produce
Mushrooms – Oley Valley Mushrooms. Crimini Mushrooms.
Colby Dill Cheese – Conabella Farms.  This cheese is absolutely amazing.