Category Archives: non-local luxuries

Cherry Walnut Conserve

10 July 2009 by local kitchen

The sweet cherry recipes just keep rolling off the presses here at Local Kitchen. This jam is tangy, even a bit sour, from the addition of oranges and lemons, but it is sweet on the finish with a subtle hint of amaretto and a nice crunch from the walnuts. Nicely complex on toast and I’ll bet it will make an excellent quick marinade for chicken, pork or duck. So what is “conserve” anyway? Near as I can tell, it is […]

Categories: canning, cherries, citrus, jams, nuts, preserving, summer, wine, beer & liquor • Tags: canning, cherries, cooking, food, local, preserving, recipes

Cherry Vanilla Preserves

2 July 2009 by local kitchen

Rollin, rollin, rollin, keep them cherries rollin, Rawhide! I’ve spent the week preserving cherries for all I’m worth; frozen cherries, dried cherries, cherry rhubarb pie filling, drunken cherries, cherry chutney, lemon cherry muffins and cherry vanilla preserves. I feel like a cherry-pitting machine. I’m whipping up cherry recipes so fast that I don’t have time to post them. It’s just the teeniest bit possible that 40 lbs of cherries was a wee bit ambitious. Shut up, you did not tell me so. […]

Categories: apples, breakfast, canning, cherries, citrus, dessert, jams, preserving, summer • Tags: canning, cherries, cooking, food, local, preserving, recipes

Fresh Strawberry Tart

25 June 2009 by local kitchen

My Mom has been visiting for the last couple of days, in the midst of her annual summer roadtrip from her home in Asheville, NC, up to our hometown of Gloucester, MA. Since I still had about a pound of berries left from last week’s big strawbery haul, I decided to make us a fresh strawberry tart for dessert. This tart came together quite easily as I used frozen pastry dough scraps, strawberry syrup garnered from the frozen/juiced/dried strawberries, and […]

Categories: 100% local, baking, berries, citrus, dessert, fruit, pastry, pie, spring, summer • Tags: cooking, dessert, food, local, recipes, strawberries

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Rose’s Strawberry Puree

19 June 2009 by local kitchen

Rose Levy Beranbaum developed a method for berry puree that involves extracting the juice, concentrating it down to one-fifth it’s original volume, pureeing the berry flesh and then adding back in the juice/syrup. This gives the puree maximum berry flavor without cooking the pulp, which tends to lead to a caramelized, sugary flavor rather than a pure berry flavor. While you could just puree fresh berries and call it a day, berries, and strawberries especially, contain so much water that the […]

Categories: 100% local, berries, canning, citrus, dessert, preserving, sauces, spring, summer, year round • Tags: cooking, food, local, recipes, strawberries

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

Wild Blueberry & Grapefruit Scones

9 June 2009 by local kitchen

I still have some wild blueberries in the freezer, picked last August up in Minnewaska State Park. I also had a couple of pink grapefruits sitting in the fruit drawer, needing to be eaten soon. As my friend Melissa is coming up for a visit tomorrow, I thought it would be nice to have some yummy nibbles on hand, and scones are such a versatile nibble; perfect for breakfast, an afternoon snack with tea, or a meal-on-the-go in the car. […]

Categories: baking, berries, breakfast, citrus, dessert, whole wheat flour, year round • Tags: baking, cooking, food, local, recipes

Rhubarb Rosemary Two-fer

16 May 2009 by local kitchen

I tried out the Rhubarb Rosemary Jelly recipe from Gourmet (via VanillaGarlic). Of course I had to get all fancy-pants and macerate the rhubarb overnight in sugar (to release more juice), and then decide to use pectin instead of gelatin, for a firmer set and the ability to store at room temperature, and then realize that I couldn’t use pectin, because you need to add the pectin before you add sugar to the juice, and then dig frantically around in the […]

Categories: citrus, condiments, jellies, rhubarb, rosemary, spring • Tags: cooking, food, local, preserving, recipes, rhubarb

Cranberry Roasted Turkey Breast

20 April 2009 by local kitchen

Easiest. Dinner. Ever. Seriously, this meal is a stand-by at our house and truly could not be easier (unless you’re calling for take-out, of course). Cranberries and turkey go naturally together and make everyone think of Fall; but cranberries are excellent for much more than just cranberry sauce, just as turkey should not be relegated only to Thanksgiving. Cranberries are naturally acidic, and in addition to tasting fabulous with turkey, will work to tenderize the flesh and makes the most […]

Categories: 100% local, citrus, cranberries, roasting, sauces, turkey, year round • Tags: cooking, food, local, recipes

Sunday Spring Cleaning: Olive Tapenade with Arugula & Sun-dried Tomato

19 April 2009 by local kitchen

I’m not really a big olive fan. I don’t mind black olives, sliced on pizza or sprinkled on the top of nachos or an enchilada, but you’ll never catch me munching on one of those monster Spanish olives, stuffed with pimentos. I think it’s a combination of texture and taste – I’m not fond of pickled things in general, but I do like olive tapenade, in moderation; something about chopping up the olives with a little garlic & oil makes them […]

Categories: condiments, non-local luxuries, olives, spreads, spring, vegetarian, year round • Tags: condiments, cooking, food, local, recipes, vegetarian

Sunday Spring Cleaning: Trifle

14 April 2009 by local kitchen

OK, so I know it’s Tuesday, not Sunday. But I was away visiting friends for the weekend, and anyway, last week was rough in my kitchen. No cooking other than lots and lots of cake… (Also, I apologize for the lack of pretty pictures, but I still don’t have my camera back from Kami’s birthday party). Trifle is another of those things for which about a billion recipes exist. There are many good things about trifle: it’s truly quick & […]

Categories: berries, citrus, dessert, fruit, jams, jellies, peaches, spring, summer, year round • Tags: cooking, dessert, food, local, recipes

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Homemade Granola

7 April 2009 by local kitchen

Tai had this for breakfast this morning and hasn’t stopped talking about how wonderful it was. I don’t even like granola, and I never eat cereal, but on tasting this, I was tempted to have a bowl; it is that good. And really simple to make – I don’t know why I didn’t do this ages ago. I’m always trying to get Tai to cut down on the boxed cereal he loves, because it contains so much sugar (not to mention the […]

Categories: breakfast, cherries, cranberries, fruit, nuts, oats, raisins, vegetarian, year round • Tags: breakfast, cooking, food, granola, homemade, local, recipes, vegetarian

Pistachio Recall

1 April 2009 by local kitchen

UPDATE: Dan Laiosa of Tierra Farm emailed me to say that their supply of pistachios is not being recalled and are safe to eat. So, if you simply must have your pistachio fix, check out Tierra Farm! Just when you thought it was safe to eat trail mix again…Pistachio Recalls have been issued for Salmonella contamination; see the full list of affected products at the FDA’s pistachio recall page. The list is being updated coninuously; FDA are recommending that consumers avoid all pistachio […]

Categories: non-local luxuries, nuts • Tags: food, local, pistachios

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Spring Stir-Fry: Chicken, Radish & Green Garlic

30 March 2009 by local kitchen

I’m always on the lookout for interesting radish recipes. Radishes are one of the first things to show up in the farmer’s market in spring that is not a leek, squash, potato or leafy green, hence, I always pick some up (look! they’re pink! crisp! new!) and then, after about three fresh salads with sliced raw radishes, wonder what I’m going to do with the other dozen pink wonders. I was a bit suspicious of stir-fried radish, but this dish was […]

Categories: chicken, cilantro, citrus, garlic, hot chile peppers, main course, quick & easy, radish, spring • Tags: chicken, cooking, food, garlic, green garlic, local, main course, quick & easy, radish, recipes, stir-fry

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Mini Zucchini Quick Breads

25 March 2009 by local kitchen

Ah, zucchini. The magical summer squash that proliferates in every amateur green thumb’s garden each August, resulting in gigundo green monsters, bigger than your head, and the inevitable question, “What the hell am I going to do with all this zucchini?” So why am I torturing you with thoughts of zucchini, when asparagus and sugar snap peas are still weeks away and summer squash is a mere pipe dream? Maybe I am just reminiscing on the long, lazy days of summer, […]

Categories: baking, breads, citrus, eggs, fall, summer, vegetarian, winter • Tags: cooking, food, local, recipes, whole grain breads

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Rosemary Lemon Drop Biscuits

22 March 2009 by local kitchen

A truly quick-n-easy biscuit recipe that produces light and fluffy free-form biscuits that are crunchy on the outside, melting and tender on the inside. Fresh lemon zest and rosemary make them sing, especially in the heart of winter. In the snowy Northeast, rosemary over-winters quite well in a sunny window indoors. It doesn’t thrive, but holds a sort of status quo until you can put it back outside in the spring. Worth it to have access to fresh herbs at […]

Categories: baking, breads, citrus, rosemary, vegetarian, whole wheat flour, winter, year round • Tags: baking, cooking, food, local, recipes, whole grain breads