There's a Strawberry Festival at My House!

Looking ahead at my schedule for the next few weeks, it actually made sense to drag everyone out of bed at 6:30 this morning to go strawberry picking.  The farm I usually frequent had a notice on their website that because it was so crowded yesterday, they expected to be picked out by mid-morning.  I insisted we leave earlier than originally planned.

And, then, we waited in a line of cars (we were third, but only because the people in front of us lost their place when they decided they could maybe go when the two cars in front of them were waiting.  Hah.) and hurried to the fields, where the picking was...glorious!  We netted 13+ pounds of berries, which is about 9 quarts, in about 25 minutes.  We visited the goats, chickens and rabbits, ate strawberry donuts (which were still warm, mmmm) and drove home.  All before 9 am, and in lovely 70-ish degree weather.

Since then, I have made a batch of strawberry jam (8 half-pints), strawberry margarita jam (8 half-pints), a double batch of strawberry lemonade concentrate (5 quarts), a strawberry rhubarb pie, 2 blueberry tarts with the leftover pie crust, mac and cheese for lunch, and I am soaking rice and marinating meat for dinner. Plus a quart and a bit of berries for eating and another quart washed, sliced, and mixed with sugar for tomorrow, when I make shortcake.  All that, and I had to wait for my husband to get back from the grocery store with more sugar, lemon juice, limes, and other key ingredients.  (He went by bike, and even after putting all the groceries in his panniers, the bread was unscathed.  Maybe I will try to bike in the future.)

In the past, I'd had trouble with the strawberry jam setting up.  I think some of it had to do with jar size and maybe also the type of pectin I use.  Today I tried the powdered pectin rather than the liquid, just for this batch.  It did set up, so that is reassuring.  The strawberry margarita jam isn't setting as quickly, but I think the alcohol in it slows things down.  It did work last year....

Huh.  For a day that was supposed to be the day we did nothing, we sure are doing a lot!

The Season of Good Salads

The farm is back!  Today was the first pick up day for the CSA and I have been so excited waiting for it.  Since I started getting a farm share, I've gotten so picky about vegetables that we almost never have salad any other time of the year.

Today's share was:  1 bowl of arugula, 1 bunch of Hakurei turnips, 20 garlic scapes, 1 pint of strawberries and bunches of herbs.  (For that last one, I picked a bunch of cilantro.  The other options were dill and oregano and I didn't see myself using any of them in the near future.)  As an added bonus, we (the 10 year old and I) found mallow peas lurking at the end of the row of cilantro.  We picked as many of those as we could find.  Even with spending a lot of time picking strawberries, buying honey and honey sticks, and wandering all over trying to find the herbs, we managed to get out of there just as the thunder started to sound.

Generally, in the beginning of the season, we get through most of the share in one meal; today was no exception.  We had a salad of arugula, turnips, mallow peas, cilantro, strawberries, and goat cheese, drizzled with balsamic vinegar:

 The rest of the arugula was blanched and used in a risotto, which incorporated the last of the goat cheese (instead of the mascarpone the recipe calls for) and some parmesan in addition to 2 pints of vegetable stock.  I also used garlic scapes instead of shallots.  Served with a steak and some red wine, it was simple and wonderful.

I love the farm.

Experiments

There are a lot of really great blogs out there, with some incredible recipes.  I was inspired by Hunter Angler Gardener Cook to make a panna cotta and fruit compote for it.  I was also interested in trying to recreate a coconut milk based seafood stew I had in a restaurant, and found this recipe, which I altered slightly and came up with a really terrific dinner.  Here's what I did:

For the panna cotta, I made half the recipe since I only had four ramekins.  This set up in the fridge while I prepped for dinner.  [2 cups heavy cream, 1/4 cup sugar, heated in the microwave until very warm.  Add 1 tsp. vanilla.  Mix 1 packet unflavored gelatin with 3 T. cold water, pour the hot cream over it and stir.  Chill in oiled ramekins for at least 2 hours.]  The compote was blackberries and blueberries mixed with 4 T. lime juice, 1/3 cup of sugar, and simmered for 15 minutes (based on Hank Shaw's mulberry key lime compote).  Then I added the cornstarch and cooked it 5 minutes more and let it cool.

To make the stew, I started with the chowder recipe but changed the fish and added rice noodles.  Before I ran a few errands I chopped 1 red pepper, 1 green pepper, 3 carrots, 1 onion, and some garlic, and set it aside.  I had bought half a pound each of swordfish, scallops and squid and a pound of little necks.  I cut the scallops in half, chopped the squid and swordfish and cleaned the little necks and set everything aside.  To the sauteed vegetables and spices I added 1 pint of lobster stock, 1 pint of light cream, and 1 can of coconut milk.  I did not add the tomato paste because the lobster stock had been made with a tomato base.  Once I got everything simmering, I added all the seafood except the little necks and simmered for 5 minutes.  Then I added the little necks and a package of rice noodles and simmered for 12 minutes until the little necks opened.  It tasted amazing and, because the noodles absorbed a lot of liquid, became more of a stew than a chowder.  Garnished with parsley and cilantro, it was a very filling meal.

 Getting the panna cotta out of the ramekins was a little challenging but I finally got the hang of it.  A little compote spooned around it and some garnish, and voila!  Perfection.

Obsessions

In a previous life, if there are such things, I'm quite certain I was a butterfly collector.

I have discovered that I pursue unusual foods for canning with the same zeal, nay, obsession, that I imagine nineteenth century entomologists expressed for their quarries.  Once I discover that it is possible to can something, to preserve it in some way, then I must procure it.  It was this way with the paw paws.  The violets and lilacs.  Foraging for a wider variety of foods.  Each time, the internet is my enabler.  I read something on a blog, describing a food I haven't yet tried, or canned, or even considered a food, and off I go.  Obsessed, really.  So is it any surprise that I've been driving around looking for black locust trees, after I found this jelly recipe?

Nope, no surprise to me.  Nor to my husband.  I think he's used to my "quirks."

Mallow peas.  Aren't they cute?

Yesterday I thought I caught a glimpse of some, with reachable blooms, near the house.  Today I walked out to it and, yes, it was a black locust tree.  It was actually four of them, in a row, with just enough blooms within reach for me to make that jelly.  I also stopped by the one and only mallow plant I'd managed to find in all my foraging and grabbed the first few mallow peas.  Those went into a beef stew tonight in an attempt to thicken it.  (We ended up adding flour to thicken it further, as a tablespoon of mallow peas just aren't enough!)

After steeping the locust flowers in boiling water, I drained them and used the liquid to make the jelly.  Repeating it here because then I'll have it in one place:  4 cups flowers, steeped in 3 cups boiling water for at least 8 hours, then drained.  To the liquid add 4 T. strained lemon juice, one box of powdered pectin, and boil.  Add 4 cups sugar, return to a rolling boil for 1 minute and then process in jars for 10 minutes.  I used 4 ounce jars so I can give these as gifts and it made 10 jars and a little extra.

Now that that's out of my system, I wonder what's next?

Root Beer Syrup with a Twist

I went for a walk in the woods today, keeping my eye out for foragy-type things.  I have it in my head right now to find locust tree flowers, but I am always looking for morels after a friend found some in his backyard recently.  (Talk about envy...)  What I came away with is sassafras root.

Using Hank Shaw's recipe for root beer syrup, I made a batch.  I did not have any burdock root, and I'm still a little shaky on what burdock is, so I figured I'd proceed without it.  In his cookbook he says that's fine.  However, at the last minute I discovered I don't actually have peppermint extract in the house.  If I'd saved the wintergreen berries I'd found last weekend I could have popped those in but, no.  So I used a peppermint candy.  Close enough.  A little extra sugar won't hurt, right?

The other change is that I'm attempting to can it, like other syrups, rather than just store it in the fridge.  So I put the syrup in pint jars (4) and processed it for 10 minutes in the boiling water canner and let it rest for 5 before removing it.

We had an opportunity to use the syrup: 4 T. with seltzer was just right.

I also brought home a few leaves so will try drying them in the oven overnight to make file powder.  Not that I've ever used file powder, but it might come in handy someday.

Licking the pot suggested that it tastes pretty much like root beer soda, and that is a good thing.

Nettle Ravioli, Revisited

Remember how last year I made nettle ravioli?  With rye pasta, and nettles on the inside?  Well, I'm in the mood to mix things up a bit.  This time, the nettles are on the outside!

I made half a batch of pasta dough: half a pound of flour, 2 eggs, 1 T. olive oil and 39 g frozen nettles.

The nettles were thawed then pureed with the oil and the eggs, mixed with the flour and the dough was allowed to rest for about 15 minutes.  After that, I rolled it out.  Initially I was just going to make fettucini, but then I changed my mind and mixed up a quick filling of grated parmesan, grated mixed italian cheese, cream cheese, and 2 eggs.  Instead of using the ravioli press, I used the cutter I got for Christmas.  The shapes are all a little wonky, but that is OK.  They won't win any beauty contests, but I think they will taste fabulous!

Now, what to serve them with?  Any suggestions?

Update:  Clam sauce!  And it was AWESOME!  The 7 year old ate it all up, with just butter and cheese, and declared it the best ravioli ever (and that's saying something, isn't it?).

To make the sauce: half a pound of chopped clams, 1/4 cup butter, spoonful of minced garlic, plus pepper, oregano and basil, simmered until the clams were cooked.  Super, super easy!

Anxiety and Pretty Flowers

The other day I took the kids out to the nearby meadow for a little foraging.  Well, for them it was rock scrambling and playing.  For me it was digging up wild carrots (more on that later), some field garlic, and finding a treasure trove of violets!  The kids joined me on the violet hunt and I soon had enough to finish that batch of jelly I'd hoped for.  After steeping the violets overnight, today I have 9 half-cup jars of violet jelly to start this year's gift stash.

As far as the wild carrots go - I think I may have lost my nerve!  I know what they look like, what they smell like, and what they taste like.  But, after getting a few home, I was struck with anxiety that I might have messed up.  Gotten poison hemlock instead (which we did see, by the way).  I waited several hours, sure I was going to die a horrible, paralytic death.  My toes tingled, and I quietly worried.  Swore I would do no more "extreme foraging."

Well, as you can see, I am still alive, but that doesn't make me feel any better.  What if one of the carrots, one of the ones I didn't taste, isn't a carrot?  Death could be lurking in the fridge for me.  I think maybe, as with the mushrooms, I will be a less enthusiastic forager....