| Local cooking and eating in New York's Hudson Valley.

Scallion Hummus

26 July 2010 by local kitchen

I don’t know about you, but ’round these parts we are literally drowning in scallions; we are getting 7 or 8 huge scallions each week in our CSA, and when I say huge, I mean huge. These puppies are close to 3 feet long and the bulbs are the diameter of a quarter. It must be The Summer of the Scallion and nobody told me. In addition to all the scallion love from my own CSA, our neighbors (and landlords) were […]

Categories: appetizer, beans, chickpeas, fall, parsley, quick & easy, scallions, side dish, spring, summer, vegetarian • Tags: cooking, food, local, quick & easy, recipes, vegetarian

Blueberry, Lemon & Chile Jam

25 July 2010 by local kitchen

Run, don’t walk to your nearest blueberry patch and make this jam while blues are still in season. This one is classic Nischan: pure blueberry flavor, accented with the tang of lemon, and just enough sweetness to off-set the surprise heat of jalapeno and habanero peppers. So good that this is my second batch in as many weeks and I’m contemplating a third. Worth firing up the canner on a 90-degree, 99% humidity July Sunday – it’s that good. Adapted […]

Categories: berries, breakfast, canning, cilantro, citrus, hot chile peppers, jams, preserving, summer, year round • Tags: berries, blueberry, canning, chile, cooking, food, lemon, local, preserving, recipes

Can Jam: Pattypan Pickles

23 July 2010 by local kitchen

CanJam July #2: a quick mini-batch of pickles, or an attempt to deal with the metric tons of summer squash currently taking over my refirgerator. Do you know Patty? She’s round & bumpy, bright yellow (or sometimes green), looks like a flying saucer? Yes, that one. She and her entire extended family have moved into my fridge, lock, stock and two smoking 8-balls. When a house guest over stays her welcome, I say, pickle ’em! Brine propotions taken from Marisa’s […]

Categories: Can Jam, canning, pickles, preserving, summer, zucchini • Tags: canning, cooking, food, local, preserving, quick & easy, recipes

CSA-Busting Vegetable Soup

21 July 2010 by local kitchen

It’s Wednesday, which means CSA day for many of you. On Tuesday nights at this time of year, I often get “CSA panic syndrome,” wherein I look in the fridge, see it overflowing with vegetables from the last week or two, and start frantically pulling things out and whipping up a recipe in an effort to make some room for tomorrow’s box. The weather has been good to area farmers this year (so far – knocking on wood!) and despite the lack […]

Categories: 100% local, cabbage, carrot, cilantro, garlic, green beans, main course, parsley, scallions, soup, summer, tomatoes, vegetarian, zucchini • Tags: cooking, CSA, food, local, recipes, soup, vegetarian

Strawberry Syrup

20 July 2010 by local kitchen

I left for South Africa in early June, when strawberries were peaking here but I had six million other things that I needed to do before the trip. Tai spent an afternoon strawberry picking at Jones Family Farms up in Shelton and about all I had time to do was hull them and toss them in the chest freezer. Since I’ve been back I’ve managed to grab a little time, in between heat waves, to thaw a big bag of strawberries, collect the juice, […]

Categories: berries, canning, condiments, dessert, preserving, spring • Tags: berries, canning, cooking, food, local, preserving, 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

Can Jam: Cantaloupe & Blackberry Preserves with Chardonnay

17 July 2010 by local kitchen

CanJammin’ July: it’s the height of summer and Northeast locavore livin’ is easy, right? Well, yes, it is: the berries are rolling off the bushes and vines, stone fruits are bursting out of the trees, and we’re all just waiting for the King of Summertime, the Almighty Tomato. But Gloria comes along and says “Given that we jammed ‘erries last month, this month I’m thinking… cucurbits.” (Gesundheit). Cucurbits are plants in the family cucurbitaceae, or squashes, cucumbers and melons. Gloria ruled out […]

Categories: berries, Can Jam, canning, citrus, melon, preserves, preserving, summer, wine, beer & liquor • Tags: berries, canning, cooking, dessert, food, local, preserving, recipes

100% Local: Apricot & Plum Preserves

15 July 2010 by local kitchen

Refined sugar? Bah. Commerical pectin? No way. California lemons? Not here, bub. This preserve is all local, all the time, down to the homemade white wine vinegar and the Rhode Island sea salt. Apricots and plums were purchased from Madura Farms at the Muscoot Farm market, the clover honey is from Rulison Honey Farms in Amsterdam, NY and the apple pectin stock was put up last winter. I must confess that I am not the biggest apricot fan; although I […]

Categories: 100% local, canning, plums, preserves, preserving, summer • Tags: canning, cooking, food, local, preserving, recipes

Ginger Soy Pickled Radishes

12 July 2010 by local kitchen

I put these little beauties up right before I left for South Africa, since I knew that two big bunches of radishes would do nothing but wither and die in the crisper if they had to rely on my Darling Hubs to eat them. They have been pickling away, down in the relative coolness of the garage, for over a month now, so I figured it was about time for a taste test. First and foremost: I won’t pickle the long, […]

Categories: appetizer, canning, condiments, pickles, preserving, radish, spring • Tags: canning, cooking, food, local, preserving, quick & easy, recipes

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

Sour Cherry & Almond Preserves

8 July 2010 by local kitchen

I got up at 6:30 am on Tuesday morning, when it was a mere 84 degrees outside, in order to make cherry preserves before the thermometer hit triple digits again. Why, you ask, am I making jam during a heat wave? Is it self-reliance or self-flaggelation? Is it a New England Yankee refusal-to-let-adversity-bring-me-down attitude or a belligerent New Yorker screw-you-weather-you’re-not-the-boss-of-me? Is it so that I can don my holier-than-thou, local-organic-sustainable hairshirt and proudly proclaim “I made jam during the Great Heatwave of […]

Categories: breakfast, canning, cherries, dessert, nuts, preserves, preserving, summer • Tags: canning, cherries, cooking, food, local, recipes

Honeydew Melon Jam with Forsythia & Citrus

5 July 2010 by local kitchen

I’ve been Ferbered again. It happened like this; Gloria announced the July Can Jam ingredient of the month: curcubits. (Curcurbits, curcurbits.. it’s just fun to say!) So, I was perusing my various preserving books for recipes using zucchini or summer squash (marrow, to Gloria and the rest of Europe, and South Africa, incidentally), cucumbers or melon. And I bookmarked a few fancy-sounding and lovely melon preserve recipes in Mes Confitures. Coincidentally, I arrived late in the day to my Saturday farmer’s market, […]

Categories: canning, citrus, fruit, melon, preserves, preserving, summer • Tags: canning, cooking, food, local, preserving, recipes

Mopane Worms

1 July 2010 by local kitchen

I’m back from South Africa, safe and (relatively) sound. I apologize for the lack of posts; cell-phone coverage was frustratingly inconsistent and wi-fi almost non-existent. It was nearly impossible to find a strong enough signal to upload a picture, let alone email an entire post. And, well – I was on vacation, on a fairly hectic scheduled dictated by soccer; I’m embarrassed to admit how many days went by in which I consumed nothing but Simbas and Savannah Dry Cider (the latter […]

Categories: 100% local, wild foods • Tags: cooking, food, local, south africa, wild foods

Can Jam: Black Cherry, Rhubarb & Red Wine Preserves

24 June 2010 by local kitchen

You might think I’m stuck in a can-jammin’ rut: last month, strawberry, rhubarb & Amaretto sauce. This month, swap sweet black cherries for the strawberries, red wine for the Amaretto, and Bob’s your uncle, it’s practically the same recipe. Except it’s oh so not. When I think of preserves, this recipe is exactly what comes to mind: chunks of fruit, just barely broken down by a quick-as-you-can boil, suspended in a thick, syrupy glaze that is not stiff enough to […]

Categories: Can Jam, canning, cherries, dessert, jams, preserving, rhubarb, spring, summer, wine, beer & liquor • Tags: canning, cooking, food, preserving, recipes

Fork, Cape Town

18 June 2010 by local kitchen

Fork is a small tapas bar on Long Street, the main drag in downtown Cape Town, South Africa. We spent a brilliant evening there a couple of days ago, watching the Italy vs. Paraguay game in their small and intimate downstairs dining room, chatting with British & Swiss football fans and enjoying some excellent food and wine. Fork only has tapas, which is a style of dinner that I love, especially in a foreign country when you may want to […]

Categories: 100% local, community • Tags: cape town, food, local, south africa, travel