vinegar |

Purple Basil Vinegar

8 October 2010 by local kitchen

Purple basil is a lovely thing: a deep, dark, almost black purple, with that familiar basil flavor & aroma, but just slightly mellower; a little sweeter, a little less grassy, perhaps just a touch more refined. Dare I say regal? Must be the purple. Whenever I get some, I feel I must do something special with it, not just toss it into salads, bruschetta, pasta or pesto like most of the green basil that comes my way. Are you still […]

Categories: 100% local, basil, herbs, preserving, summer, vinegar • Tags: cooking, food, local, preserving, quick & easy, recipes

Blueberry-Basil Vinegar

20 August 2010 by local kitchen

Can you believe that blueberries are still going? Well, they are, for today at least: Jones Family Farms (in Shelton, CT) has announced today is the last day for blueberry picking at the farm. And what better way to preserve your late-season haul than an infused vinegar? (Um… what?) OK, I’ll admit, there are a million lovely things to do with blueberries, including, but not limited to: pancakes, scones, tarts, (a blueberry-peach pie that I am making today for a […]

Categories: 100% local, basil, berries, condiments, preserving, quick & easy, summer, vinegar • Tags: condiments, cooking, food, local, preserving, quick & easy, recipes

Strawberry Balsamic Roasted Turkey

3 February 2010 by local kitchen

Remember summer? Remember bright blue skies, long green grass, hot sun, warm rain and… strawberries? Back in July I made this strawberry jam with the very last of the season’s strawberries: kind of sweet, kind of savory, and a loose set just perfect for turning into a quick and easy marinade on a winter’s Monday night. The smell of strawberry when I popped the top on the jar was incredible and instantly took me back to a hot summer’s day, in […]

Categories: berries, main course, roasting, turkey, Use it or Lose it!, vinegar, winter • Tags: balsamic, cooking, dinner, food, local, main course, recipes, strawberry, turkey

Apple Cider Vinegar

13 October 2009 by local kitchen

If you’re not on your honeymoon in the wilds of Canada, Fall is a great time to begin brewing up a batch of apple cider vinegar. Take advantage of inexpensive, freshly pressed apple cider available at orchards and farmer’s markets all through the Fall, and ferment it to make a delicious cider vinegar to use all year long. Adapted from instructions on the Apple Cider Vinegar Benefits website. Apple Cider Vinegar INGREDIENTS & EQUIPMENT a 1 […]

Categories: 100% local, apples, vinegar • Tags: cooking, food, homesteading, local, preserving, recipes

Radish Quinoa Salad

13 June 2009 by local kitchen

I was in the City last night, meeting the girls for drinks on the Rooftop Garden at the Met (as if the views from the roof weren’t reason enough, the Roxy Paine exhibit is outstanding and worth a visit), followed by a picnic dinner along the Hudson. Since we were picnicing, and I had a big bunch of radishes from this week’s first CSA of the season, I decided to make a quick & easy radish salad. Radishes are one […]

Categories: citrus, fall, parsley, quick & easy, radish, salad, scallions, side dish, spring, vegetarian, vinegar • Tags: cooking, food, local, radish, recipes, vegetarian

Simple Vinaigrette

10 March 2009 by local kitchen

My one my favorite little cookbooks is Julia’s Kitchen Wisdom, a compendium of useful tips & techniques from one of my cooking heroes, Julia Childs. After all, once you’ve been cooking for a while, you basically know what your favorite flavors are and how they go together; we rely on recipes for inspiration or information on how to cook a new ingredient. But Julia’s Kitchen Wisdom contains all those little tidbits that we tend to forget if we didn’t go […]

Categories: herbs, parsley, spring, vegetarian, vinegar, winter, year round • Tags: cooking, food, local, recipes

Homemade Vinegar

10 March 2009 by local kitchen

Vinegar translates from the French as “sour wine” and in fact, if you leave a decent bottle of red wine open for a couple of days, it does start to turn to vinegar. Don’t throw it out! All you need to do to make red wine vinegar is to literally let the wine sit around – preferably in a larger, more open container than the wine bottle, but given enough time, it will turn to vinegar in the bottle as […]

Categories: 100% local, canning, preserving, vinegar, wine, beer & liquor • Tags: cooking, local, recipes