Category Archives: meat & dairy

100% Local: Pumpkin Gnocchi

12 November 2010 by local kitchen

These, my friends, are good. I might go so far as to say damn good. I’ve made gnocchi in the past and it’s always been tasty, but it has been rare to achieve a perfect texture. These are not a traditional dense potato gnocchi, which I do enjoy (although I consider them more a vehicle for a fantastic, chunky sauce than a delight all by themselves); these are the fluffy little pillows that are the pinnacle of gnocchi love: a curious combination of al dente and airy that […]

Categories: 100% local, appetizer, cheese, fall, main course, pasta, vegetarian, whole wheat flour, winter, winter squash • Tags: cooking, fall, food, local, pasta, pumpkin, recipes, vegetarian, whole grain, whole wheat

Use it or Lose it! Roasted Turkey with Plum Preserves

4 November 2010 by local kitchen

Like many of my fellow canning bloggers, I’ve had a lot of requests for recipes that fall into the “What to do with all of that jam?!” category. For me, this is a bit of a conundrum, because I’m not really sure how I use it up: I don’t eat a whole lot of jam on toast (mostly preferring peanut butter); the obvious classics, like a jam tart or thumbprint cookies, aren’t things that I make often; and despite giving some of it away, […]

Categories: 100% local, fall, main course, plums, roasting, sage, turkey, Use it or Lose it!, winter, year round • Tags: cooking, fall, food, main course, plums, preserves, quick & easy, recipes, roasting, turkey, winter

Oven-Braised Barbecue Chicken

28 October 2010 by local kitchen

This was my lunch on Tuesday, such a glorious, warm, sunny day that I was compelled, despite a crazy-busy week and a looming analysis deadline, to enjoy it out on the back deck. Because basking in the sun, watching the leaves drift down, and reveling in sticky, messy, moist & delicious, finger-looking good barbecue chicken is soon going away, not to be seen again around these parts for many moons. If I were a Brit, I’d call this recipe “cheap […]

Categories: 100% local, braising, chicken, fall, meat & dairy, sauces, winter, year round • Tags: chicken, cooking, food, local, quick & easy, recipes

Crock-Pot African Chicken

10 October 2010 by local kitchen

My friend Nadine very generously gave me a Crock-Pot for my birthday, and while I’ve never really lusted after one (I didn’t know they were so sleek and modern now; I remember too well my Mom’s enormous brown crockery Crock-Pot that weighed about 30 pounds and sat unused in the cabinet over the stove), I’m getting excited about the possibility of Crock-Pot apple butter, or pumpkin butter, maybe even ketchup before tomatoes disappear for the season. But as a test run, […]

Categories: chicken, crock-pot, tools & gear, year round • Tags: chicken, cooking, local, recipes

Herbed Bacon Cheddar Quiche

10 September 2010 by local kitchen

I’ve made quiche a couple of times in recents weeks, having been gifted with some of Julia’s delicious backyard eggs, and wanting to do something a little more special with them than scrambling (although I’m here to report that Julia’s backyard eggs scrambled with my backdeck chives = heaven). I’ve been surprised by how easy quiche is: I’ve always thought of it as a bit fussy, a bit fancy. In reality, quiche is simply an omelet baked in a pie crust, as fancy or […]

Categories: 100% local, basil, breakfast, cheese, chives, main course, pork, whole wheat flour, year round • Tags: cooking, food, local, recipes

Wild Purple Scones

29 August 2010 by local kitchen

Because woman cannot live on jam alone: wild & crazy purple scones for your Sunday morning. Made with wild black raspberries from my backyard, these delicious scones get their wild purple color (and flavor!) from slightly smushed black raspberries in the dough. Much like many of the area farms, we’ve had a terrible wild berry crop this year; I only saw a few black raspberries on the bushes, the wineberries came and went in a flash, and I haven’t harvested […]

Categories: baking, berries, breads, breakfast, citrus, milk, whole wheat flour, wild foods, year round • Tags: baking, berries, cooking, food, local, quick & easy, recipes, whole grain breads

Cultured Butter

2 August 2010 by local kitchen

In the midst of all the peak-of-season preserving, I haven’t forgotten my mission to review The Lost Art of Real Cooking, by Ken Albala and Rosanna Nafziger (A Perigee Book, published by the Penguin Group). You may remember my experiment with Swazi Sauce; I was more than a little frustrated with the lack of detail in the recipe, but since then, author Ken Albala not only stopped by to offer a comment on the post, but made the original recipe again and discussed […]

Categories: 100% local, condiments, fermenting, milk, preserving, techniques, year round • Tags: cooking, food, homesteading, local, preserving, recipes

Chipotle Bacon Caramels

29 July 2010 by local kitchen

With all these zucchini, eggplant, scallions and cukes to deal with, it seems more than a little ludricrous to be making candy right now. Not to mention that standing over a pot of boiling sugar in the height of summer is not what everyone would choose to do. Then again, I’m known for my less-than-conventional decisions, not to mention my ludicrousness (ludicrosity?). And sometimes a girl just needs bacon. And candy. Or bacon candy. I know what you’re thinking; bacon […]

Categories: candy, dessert, pork, year round • Tags: bacon, caramel, chipotle, cooking, dessert, food, homemade candy, local, pork, recipes

Zucchini Fritters

18 July 2010 by local kitchen

We take a break from the non-stop stream of jams & preserves to serve up another abundant feature of summer’s bounty: zucchini! As Ruhlman says, “when in doubt, fry.” These were tasty, easy and relatively quick. The recipe is eminently adaptable to what you have on hand and what suits your palate. Whip some up today and tackle at least one of those monster zucchinis, mocking you from the bottom shelf of the fridge. Adapted from Zucchini Fritters with Feta & […]

Categories: appetizer, cheese, mint, parsley, scallions, summer, vegetarian, zucchini • Tags: cooking, food, local, recipes, vegetarian

Swazi Sauce

10 July 2010 by local kitchen

Like my fellow foodie bloggers, I was delighted to return from South Africa to an email in my in-box inviting me to review The Lost Art of Real Cooking: Rediscovering the Pleasures of Traditional Food One Recipe at a Time, by Ken Albala and Rosanna Nafziger (A Perigee Book, published by the Penguin Group). A full review will follow, but first, I felt that I couldn’t in good faith review a cookbook, even a memoir-type cookbook, without attempting at least some […]

Categories: chicken, grill, main course, sauces, wine, beer & liquor, year round • Tags: chicken, cooking, food, grilling, local, recipes

Cranberry Forsythia Scones

15 June 2010 by local kitchen

A basic cranberry scone recipe with a twist: Forsythia Syrup! I’m on the other side of the country now, on South Africa’s southwest coast, in Cape Town. And while I don’t think cranberries even grow in Africa, and I’m not sure that forsythia does either, I am wishing I had some of these scones to take with me on a hike of Table Mountain. Could you guys bake some up and drop them in FedEx for me? Thanks bunches, or as we say down […]

Categories: baking, breads, breakfast, cranberries, fall, milk, spring, whole wheat flour, wild foods, year round • Tags: baking, bread, breakfast, cooking, food, local, recipes, whole grain breads

Orange Mousseline Buttercream

12 June 2010 by local kitchen

Because once you have filled your chocolate cake with Valencia Curd, you need something to frost it with – I give you Orange Mousseline Buttercream. Deliciously light and silky, flecked with orange zest and a gorgeous pale apricot color, this buttercream frosting is a show-stopper on any cake. Like many of Rose’s recipes, this particular frosting recipe is finicky: butter temperature is critical, the simple syrup must be added in just the right way, and the whole time you are holding […]

Categories: cake, citrus, dessert, eggs, wine, beer & liquor, year round • Tags: baking, cake, cooking, dessert, food, local, recipes

Valencia Curd

10 June 2010 by local kitchen

Here I am in South Africa and while citrus season is long past back home in the States, it’s just beginning down here south of the equator. So what better way to celebrate the season than with a tangy, brilliantly orange dessert curd? In this curd recipe, you do not strain out the zest, in order to maximize the orange flavor, and while it does not produce the silky smooth texture of other curds, that is more than made up […]

Categories: citrus, dessert, eggs, winter, year round • Tags: cooking, dessert, food, recipes

Traditional Pork Chile Verde

4 June 2010 by local kitchen

Summer is in full swing here in New York and while it doesn’t seem like you would want a pot bubbling on the stovetop for hours, Chile Verde always strikes me as a quintessential summer dish: bought at a roadside stand in some dusty, hot, Mexican town on the way from one surf spot to another, ladeled into piping hot, homemade tortillas and liberally sprinkled with fresh cilantro. Heaven. This version is nearly as good (although the lack of surfing-inspired appetite may […]

Categories: 100% local, cilantro, pork, stew, summer, tomatillos, year round • Tags: cooking, food, local, pork, recipes

Chicken Braised in White Wine & Ramps

1 June 2010 by local kitchen

Three years later, this dish hasn’t changed: it’s still wonderful, and apparently still being made with chickens that needed using up yesterday. Luckily for us all, my photography has changed for the better. Yes, I know ramp season has officially passed us by, what with the overabundance of lush, leafy green that is dressing the Northeast woods right now. However, I still had an (albeit fairly limp) bunch of ramps in the fridge that were just begging to be used, […]

Categories: braising, chicken, leek, main course, spring, wild foods, wine, beer & liquor, year round • Tags: chicken, cooking, food, local, main course, ramps, recipes, wild foods