Category Archives: techniques

How to Roast Garlic

23 March 2009 by local kitchen

Garlic is a wonderous thing. Spicy & flavorful, when roasted garlic becomes sweet & smoky, like candy that’s good for you. Mashed on bread, tossed in pasta, as a pizza topping or tossed into any number of soups or stews, I can always think of a way to use roasted garlic. Since there are only two of us eating in this house (well, outside of the friends who visit often), I don’t often want to roast 6 or 8 heads […]

Categories: 100% local, garlic, roasting, year round • Tags: cooking, food, garlic, local, recipes

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

Raspberry Chiffon

16 March 2009 by local kitchen

What to do when your thawed red raspberries have turned to mush. This intensely flavored chiffon was paired with a deluxe pastry pie crust and glazed blackberry topping; the resulting pie earned rave reviews. Adapted from Strawberry Lover’s Chiffon Pie in The Pie & Pastry Bible by Rose Levy Beranbaum. ————————————————————– Raspberry Chiffon INGREDIENTS 1 lb frozen, unsweeted red raspberries 2 tsp lemon juice 3 tbsp filtered or spring water 2 tsp gelatin 1/2 cup heavy cream 6 tbsp sugar, divided 1 […]

Categories: baking, berries, pastry, pie, vegetarian, year round • Tags: cooking, dessert, food, local, recipes

Glazed Blackberry Tart

11 March 2009 by local kitchen

It’s March and I’ve been cleaning out the freezer of last season’s bounty, preparing for the new season’s bounty that is right around the corner. One of the recipes I’ve been experimenting with is a glazed berry tart, using local berries from my freezer. The first version was a strawberry-black raspberry-wild blueberry pie with concentrated juices from each of these thawed berries; the berries were delicious, and the pastry stayed perfectly crisp, but the glaze was too thin (not enough cornstarch […]

Categories: 100% local, baking, berries, pastry, pie, spring, vegetarian, winter, year round • Tags: cooking, dessert, food, local, recipes

Pink Grapefruit Curd (And Friends)

11 March 2009 by local kitchen

Firstly, let me start by saying that “curd” is a horrible word. Like “moist” and “slacks,” it makes me cringe just to think about it. It’s like someone combined “curse” and “turd” and decided that was a perfect name for a delectable dessert. For such a delicious concoction of eggs, butter, sugar and citrus, there should definitely be a better word: “deevine”, perhaps? (as opposed to “divine,” which might offend some). Pink grapefruit deevine? Sun custard, maybe? Or perhaps we […]

Categories: baking, citrus, dessert, eggs, vegetarian, winter, year round • Tags: cooking, dessert, food, local, quick & easy, 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

Sausage, Herb & Mozzarella Bread

6 March 2009 by local kitchen

It’s been a crazy week. My business tends to be feast or famine; this week has defnitely been a feast, work-wise, but a famine, cooking-wise. I’ve had no time, in between 12-hour days at the computer, to cook a thing and I realized today how much I missed it. Cooking, and most especially baking bread, can be enormously relaxing. There’s a science to measuring and combining the ingredients that is soothing in it’s detail and familiar rhythms; kneading the dough […]

Categories: baking, breads, cheese, fall, pork, sausage, spring, winter, year round • Tags: cheese, cooking, food, local, pork, recipes, whole grain breads

Cider-Braised Pork Shoulder with Caramelized Onion Sauce

28 February 2009 by local kitchen

It’s not hard to get good flavor from a heritage pork shoulder, nicely browned on the outside then braised for hours in a low oven, until the meat is moist, juicy and falling-apart tender. Add some fresh-pressed apple cider to the mix, and a healthy dose of caramelized onion, and you’ve got a sweet-savory mix that is out of this world. This is one of Tai’s favorite dishes and the relative ease of preparation belies the moans & groans of […]

Categories: 100% local, apples, braising, pork, winter, year round • Tags: cooking, dinner, fall, food, local, main course, pork, recipes, winter

Curried Apple Chutney

27 February 2009 by local kitchen

Great on pork chops or pot roast, excellent with goat cheese on crackers, and a nice surprise on a turkey sandwich, this spicy, complex chutney is the first thing to disappear at parties. It even makes unique and flavorful mini-tarts, and when served with real vanilla ice cream, is an unforgettable dessert. I find endless uses for this chutney so I make several batches each Fall. Make up a batch or two now, while apples are still at the farmer’s markets, […]

Categories: apples, canning, chutneys, fall, preserving, vegetarian, winter • Tags: canning, cooking, food, local, recipes

Applesauce

20 February 2009 by local kitchen

10 April 2013: Below is my classic applesauce recipe, the one that I put up specifically for chunky, cinnamon-rich applesauce. When I am feeling lazy, or have a basket of tiny & misshapen wild apples that resist peeling, I will often simply halve the apples, simmer, then run through a food mill and cook down to a saucy consistency. Also, over the course of the preserving season, I often find that I need the pectin boost of fresh apple juice […]

Categories: 100% local, apples, canning, fall, preserving, sauces, vegetarian, winter • Tags: apples, canning, cooking, fall, food, local, preserving, recipes

Cheddar Scallion Scones

19 February 2009 by local kitchen

These cheddar scallion scones serve as my basic savory scone recipe and I’ve made dozens of different versions over the years. I’ve since come to believe that the scones turn out even better with just a little butter in the dough (duh) and so have updated the recipe below to include a small amount (2 tbsp) of butter. I still call these my “cheater” scones, as I don’t work the butter into the flour, just toss in small chunks and let them […]

Categories: 100% local, baking, breads, cheese, quick & easy, scallions, vegetarian, year round • Tags: baking, cooking, food, local, quick & easy, recipes, spring, vegetarian, whole grain breads

Cilantro Pesto

18 February 2009 by local kitchen

Make this in late summer when cilantro is bursting out of the garden, and freeze in ice cube trays for serving-sized portions to use all winter long. Recipe adapted from Cilantro Pesto in The New Basics, Julee Rosso and Sheila Lukins. ————————————————————- Cilantro Pesto INGREDIENTS 2 cups cilantro leaves, washed & spun dry 6 cloves garlic 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice 1/4 cup olive oil 1/2 tsp sea salt 1/2 tsp freshly ground black pepper METHODS Place the cilantro, garlic […]

Categories: cilantro, fall, preserving, sauces, summer, vegetarian • Tags: cooking, food, local, recipes

Canning in a Boiling Water Bath

15 February 2009 by local kitchen

Almost every local eater in the Northeast is going to want to ‘preserve the harvest;’ pack away the bounty of the growing season at it’s peak of freshness and flavor, and store it against the coming winter. Even if you are lucky enough to have a convenient winter farmer’s market near you, homemade preserves break up the monotony of a winter diet and it’s also the most economical way to eat – strawberries, blueberries & tomatoes might be $2/pound in peak season, […]

Categories: canning, preserving • Tags: canning, cooking, food, local

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Whole Milk Ricotta

9 February 2009 by local kitchen

Ricotta cheese is typically made from the whey that is leftover from making ewe’s milk cheese. This whole milk version is similar in technique, yet you can make it from milk that you pick up at the market (or farm) and it has a much higher yield than whey ricotta. Homemade ricotta is ridiculously easy to make, tastes delicious, and you control the texture; rich & creamy or drier with a more intense cheese flavor. The ingredients are exactly as […]

Categories: 100% local, cheese, meat & dairy, milk, preserving, quick & easy, vegetarian, year round • Tags: cooking, food, local, recipes

Cranberry-Orange Scones

6 February 2009 by local kitchen

It’s that time of year again: the dreaded Valentine’s Day looms, like a visit to the DMV or a root canal, just around the corner. It was quite ingenious, I will admit, to invent a holiday that irritates everyone: single, married, or dating, there is just no getting away from V-day. So, what’s a girl to do? I don’t really know, other than avoiding going out to dinner (it’s got to be the worst night of the year for a restaurant […]

Categories: baking, breads, breakfast, citrus, cranberries, vegetarian, whole wheat flour, winter, year round • Tags: baking, berries, cooking, food, local, quick & easy, recipes, whole grain breads, winter