The Houndstooth Gourmet

 You know you’re a foodie when you’re sure to bring your own cookware and spices–on your vacation. Well, in NJ, it’s just a shame to pass up a chance to enjoy the amazing produce that you can find at any of the plethora of farm stands which boast corn, tomatos and…….lima beans?

Did you know that West Cape May, NJ was the lima bean capital of the world? Well, it used to be-back in the 1980’s and early 1990’s. Just beyond the sleepy beachside resort town lay acre after acre of farmland, and many a field grew lima beans for Hanover Foods, Inc.. So proud of the lima bean was West Cape May, that they started an annual lima bean festival back in 1985. Despite its largest lima bean producer’s contract cancellation (and thus the loss of the “lima bean capital of the world” moniker), the folks in West Cape May did not wane in their passion for the lowly lima bean and have continued the unique festival. Today, lima beans are still proudly featured at many of West Cape May’s farm stands.

At Ducky’s farm stand, I spied a bucket of larger-than-life lima beans–still in their pods. I couldn’t resist buying a bunch and taking them back to the condo we were staying at. Back there, I had white corn and bell peppers, along with butter and light cream. Are you thinking what I’m thinking?

 Succotash!

If there is any dish that will get you eating your lima beans, it’s succotash. I mean, come on! There’s cream and butter. How could it be bad?

For this recipe you can use frozen or fresh lima beans. I was fortunate to use the quarter-size farm fresh beans that I picked up at Ducky’s. Hard pressed to extole the gustatory experience of a lima bean, I can tell you that fresh beans are deliciously creamy and faintly earthy. Certainly nothing to wrinkle a nose about!

Succotash

Ingredients

• 2 cups lima beans, fresh or frozen
• Kernals from 2 ears of corn
• 1/2 green bell pepper, chopped
• 1/2 red bell pepper, chopped
• 3 tablespoons unsalted butter
• 1/3 cup half and half, light cream or heavy cream (go for it!)
• salt and pepper to taste

Directions 

In a non-stick pan, melt 2 tablespoons of butter over medium heat. Add lima beans, corn and bell peppers to pan. Stir to coat. Sprinkle with a dash of salt and pepper. Simmer, covered, over medium-low heat for 10 minutes. Add cream and stir to incorporate. Simmer, covered for an additional 5 minutes. Add remaining butter and adjust seasoning to taste.

Tags: vegetarian, Recipe by Ramona
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I’m blogging from bed today yesterday. In fact, I’ve been in bed for two three days and aside from a trip to the doctor this yesterday morning, my ass is melding to my mattress.  Right about on Sunday morning,  a head cold went full steam ahead into a phlemy mess in my lungs (oh great–you thought you’d get food photos and here I am regaling you with my mucus moments). Thanks to the good care of Frank, drugs, and the company of my (faithful yet increasingly bored) dogs, I should be on the mend soon. And I do hope so, since we bought a sac-full of produce and fruit from the market that’s just waiting for us. It’s pretty sad when I looked at my precious tomatoes and corn and preferred to eat a can of Progresso Chicken Soup instead. I needed the steam.

Before I got sick, I did manage to make a lovely raspberry sorbet with berries I bought from Cameron Berry Farm,  whose stand is at the NE corner of the fountain’s pool–do check them out for berries, fresh cut herbs, zucchini blossoms, edible nasturtiums and their unique eight ball zucchini, which I’m not sure you should eat or mainline. Cameron’s raspberries were quite robust–looking like they had been picked just before the market (ie: not smushed). My raspberry sorbet would make a wonderful palette-cleansing intermezzo, or a light and summery end to a meal.  I’ll post some pics and a really easy recipe to make it a bit later.

Meanwhile, I’m trying to eat my veggies etc. and fortify myself with as many “super-foods” as I can so I can get well and get to the markets this weekend. So, last night, I was able to make a one dish meal — a pasta primavera with zucchini, squash, peppers, tomatoes, onions and garlic that just needed to be used up. I paired it with Barilla wheat corkscrew pasta and topped it with Fresh Joseph’s homemade mozzarella and grated Parmesan cheese. Fresh Joseph’s is the stand with fresh squeezed OJ that you may have noticed at the Old Town and West End markets.

Until the next At The Market, eat and buy local when you can.

One Dish Whole Wheat Pasta Primavera

Ingredients

• 1 box whole wheat pasta (I used Barilla Rotelli)
• 1 medium onion, chopped
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 2 cloves garlic, crushed
• 1 zucchini, quartered
• 1 yellow squash, quartered
• 1 red bell pepper, diced
• 1 green bell pepper, diced
• 2 tomatoes, diced
• 2 teaspoons dried Italian herbs
• 1 jar of your favorite pasta sauce
• Grated Parmesan
• Fresh mozzarella, sliced

Directions

Fill an all-purpose pot with water and cook pasta according to packge directions (remember to salt the pasta water). Drain pasta when it is al dente and reserve 1 cup of the pasta water. Return the pot to the stove over medium heat.  Add 2 tablespoons of olive oil. Saute onions and garlic for 5 minutes. Do not brown. Add zucchini, squash, peppers, tomatoes, Italian herbs and a pinch of salt and pepper, and continue to cook for 5 minutes, stirring frequently. Add pasta, pasta sauce, pasta water and a large handful of grated Parmesan cheese. Stir to combine. Salt and pepper to taste. Cover and cook for 5 minutes.

Meanwhile, turn on broiler. Top pasta with sliced mozzarella cheese. Place under broiler and allow to melt. Serve immediately with extra Parmesan to pass at the table.

Tags: Alexandria, farmers markets, vegetarian, Recipe, pasta by Ramona
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Bashed neeps is an old beloved term used by the Scottish for mashed turnips, which typically accompanied their haggis. And that’s how the Scot’s referred to a vegetable they liked! Others, like early New Englanders, ate turnips in stews if only to prevent scurvy. Times have changed and turnips are now available at most every market. They are eaten raw in salads and slaws, simply steamed and seasoned, or combined with other vegetables to make gratins and purees.

Yet, turnips are still often overlooked as an enjoyable vegetable. Sure, throw it into a pot of stock to add depth to the flavor, but ask even adults if they like turnips and you probably will get a look of “yuck”. Last Sunday, at the Dupont market, I bought a few turnips as well as turnip greens (which are among the most delicious deep leafy green you will ever find)*. The young woman who rung up my purchase asked how I intended to use them. She explained that she had tried them recently-just steamed and seasoned-and didn’t care much for them.

Now if the vegetable vendor is at a loss, perhaps you are too and I’d like to tell you how to get more turnip into your diet, or the diets of your loved ones both young and old. Now, I’m not going to get all Jessica Seinfeld on y’all and tell you how fabulous turnips are when secreted away in brownies or cookies and how your wunderkind will eat them without a clue. I’m going to tell you how to combine turnips with other more familiar tubers to get a sense of how to use and cook with turnips. Even Goeth said “Turnips are good, but they are best mixed with chestnuts”.

Nutritionally, turnips offer potassium, iron, vitamin C and are a mere 36 calories per cup.

Here’s a highly nutritious recipe which combines turnips with another nutritional powerhouse-yams. Seasoned, roasted and mashed; turnips and yams are easy, loaded with vitamins and phyto-nutrients, and delicious. Calcium from low-fat sour cream adds even more dietary value to this dish. Last, just a little butter is added for extra flavor!

Puree of Roasted Turnips and Yams

serves 6

Ingredients

• 3 turnips (2 lbs.) peeled and cubed into 1 1/2″ pieces
• 1 large yam (1 lb.) peeled and cubed into 1 1/2″ pieces
• 2 Tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
• 1/2 Tablespoon kosher salt (1/2 Tablespoon table salt)
• 1/4 Tablespoon ground pepper
• 2 Tablespoons unsalted butter
• 1/3 cup low-fat sour cream

Directions

Preheat oven to 375 degrees
Place turnips and yams onto a foil- lined, large baking sheet. Pour extra virgin olive oil over vegetables and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Toss to coat. Place pan on middle rack of oven and roast until fork tender, about 45 minutes to 1 hour. Stir and shake pan occasionally for even roasting.

Remove vegetables from pan and transfer to a mixing bowl. Add butter and allow to melt. Add sour cream and mash or puree (I use a hand held immersion blender) until all lumps are gone. Taste and adjust for seasoning.

*Here’s the turnip greens sauteed, and stuffed into a turkey meatloaf. This was extra lean turkey and came out dense and dry-I’m working on a better recipe to post so that all the turnip can be used creatively. If you’ve got any suggestions for a lean yet moist meatloaf-let me know. Thanks!

Tags: turnips, vegetarian, Recipe by Ramona
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I thought I’d end this week’s blogging with a recipe using some of the produce I bought from Dupont Market last week. Tat Soi, deep green and vibrant looked to beautiful too pass by. It can be prepared like any green and the most simple methods are probably the best. I simply sautéed the tat soi in a bit of olive oil and butter, seasoned it with salt and pepper and added a pinch of nutmeg. The tat soi was wonderful right out of the pan but also worked well as a garnish to my soup.

With a couple sprouting yukon potatoes idling away in my cupboard, I decided to use them up along with the 4 kohlrabi bulbs I purchased from Next Step Farm. The method of preparing this soup is very similar to a potato leek soup and is very simple and quite versatile. Raw, kohlrabi is akin to cabbage, radish and turnip. Once cooked, it takes on a nutty artichoke flavor, and blends well into a smooth texture for the soup.

I served the garnished soup with toasted and buttered sourdough bread from Atwater’s Bakery. Lastly, this recipe can be made vegetarian by substituting vegetable stock for the chicken stock.

[Read more →]

Tags: vegetarian, soup, Recipe by Ramona
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First, if Thai Carrot Soup sounds appealing, you can find the recipe over at DC Foodies. It’s very easy to make and has a wonderful peanut taste with a bit of heat from the addition of a jalapeño pepper. Enjoy.

Next…..

This past weekend was sort of busy so unfortunately there is no farmers market update. On Saturday, Frank and I caught the Annie Liebowitz exhibit at the Corcoran Gallery of Art. We had no tickets, but stood in line with the rest of the 10am ticket holders and members. We thought there was a chance that if we joined as members, we could see the show which was otherwise sold out. Our gamble paid off and we joined as members (which we’ve been meaning to do for like-years now) and strolled in.

The exhibit was extraordinary and very inspiring to me. Liebowitz is, at her very best in the natural extemporaneous environment where spontaneous expressions and actions are lauded over posed studio subject matter. It made me imagine a lifetime of capturing moments in time- life and death. I am new to blogging, but not exactly new to photography. I was very interested in taking photographs when I was in high school. I remember my mother buying me a Canon AE-1 for my high school graduation. I took many photos with that camera, most of which are lost in some black hole of the universe-victims of too many moves in too few years. The camera remains however and from time to time I load up a roll of film and snap away, clumsily trying to think beyond the point and shoot era when focal points and depth of field mattered.

More recently with my food blogging, I have become interested in taking photos again-good photos. Digital technology can make anyone look good these days. Paired with PhotoShop and Picasa, I can turn out a decent likeness. But I want to capture the food and scenery as my eye sees it. To that end, my goal is to learn photography in the field and through more real study of books and the works of masters. Which brings me to my Sunday.

With the waning light that accompanies winter, my food photography has been pushed earlier into the day to capture the best light of all; sunlight. But short of eating dinner before 4 pm I decided to pony up some money and buy a light box in order to properly illuminate my subjects-as best as artificial light can do. Doing a google search on “light cubes”, “light boxes” and “studio in a box”, I came across a bunch of posts describing how easy and cheap it is to make your own light box at home. Here is the site which I used to guide me through this easy exercise. Basically you just need a box cutter, a cardboard box suitable for your needs, some poster paper, tissue paper and a light source with full spectrum bulbs (I used GE). The lights (from Home Depot) are cheap clip-on lights used by construction workers to illuminate low-lit places.

Here’s the box:

Here’s some still life shots:

So, if you’re inspired to make your food look as good as it tastes, make one of these light boxes- for around $20 you can do it!

Tags: DC Foodies entry, vegetarian, soup, Recipe by Ramona
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