Tag: local

Ayocote Beans with Chile Sauce & Roasted Cauliflower

19 October 2011 by local kitchen

It’s cold, grey, windy & rainy in New York: an excellent day for a warm & spicy bowl of beans! Despite very liberal applications of chicken soup, I still have a cold and I know I’m cranky, but doesn’t it seem that September and October have been very November-y this year? Cold, damp, grey. It’s getting dark by 4:30pm and we haven’t even hit the end of Daylight Savings time yet. I’m really hoping that November takes an “Indian Summer or […]

Categories: cauliflower, fall, heirloom beans, side dish, vegetarian • Tags: beans, cauliflower, cooking, food, heirloom, local, recipes, vegetarian

Fiery Apple Chile Syrup

16 October 2011 by local kitchen

Back in the heat of August, I was talking chile pepper love with Kat, of Food, Literature, Philosophy, on Twitter. We were talking about our love of the spice and the various ways in which I incorporate chiles into fruit preserves: jam and jelly, syrup and preserves. Kat mentioned that she had been working lately with Jim, the farmer at Rushy Springs Farm near Knoxville, TN, who grows several different varieties of chile peppers, including his own open-pollinated version of a Tennessee Cherry […]

Categories: apples, canning, condiments, fall, hot chile peppers, preserving, winter • Tags: apples, canning, condiments, cooking, fall, food, local, preserving, recipes

Roasted Butternut Squash, Red Pepper & Rosemary

12 October 2011 by local kitchen

I’ve been making this dish for about a million years. Maybe a million and one. Even in the days when I didn’t really cook, living in Manhattan or in my teeny-tiny, 350-square-foot apartment in Boston’s North End, I would whip this up when Fall arrived, as a potluck dinner contribution or for a family Thanksgiving. I’m not quite sure why it’s never made it to these (hallowed) pages: maybe because I’ve been making it so long, it has ceased to […]

Categories: 100% local, bell pepper, cheese, fall, parsley, rosemary, side dish, winter, winter squash • Tags: cooking, food, holiday, local, pumpkin, recipes, sides, squash, strawberries, vegetarian

Pear & Pumpkin Ale Preserves

9 October 2011 by local kitchen

At long last, the infamous pear & pumpkin ale preserves experiment! Pear & pumpkin seem to go together naturally (and not just because of the awesome alliteration): their growing seasons overlap by at least a month; they are both sweet, yet with their own distinct notes, pears more floral and delicate, pumpkins an earthy, rich, root-vegetable sweetness; the classic autumnal spices, cinnamon, allspice, nutmeg & cloves, go nicely with both; even the colors work well together (if my wedding had any kind […]

Categories: canning, fall, pears, preserves, preserving, wine, beer & liquor • Tags: beer, booze, canning, cooking, fall, food, local, pears, preserving, pumpkin, recipes

Apple Bourbon Butter

5 October 2011 by local kitchen

I love apple butter. It’s tasty, of course, but it’s not so much that I love to eat it, as I love to cook with it: I toss it into various muffins & quickbreads, Tai’s granola, the occasional meat glaze or braising sauce. In addition to its usefulness in the kitchen, butter is the easiest way to preserve a whole bunch of apples without a lot of effort: no peeling, no coring, no prep of added ingredients. It’s perfect for […]

Categories: apples, canning, fall, preserving, spreads, wine, beer & liquor, winter • Tags: apples, booze, canning, cooking, fall, food, local, preserving, recipes

Classic Tomato Ketchup

1 October 2011 by local kitchen

Yes, even on the first day of October, tomatoes are still out there: I came home from the farmer’s market today with another five pounds. This is a great time of year to find late-season deals on organic or sustainably-farmed tomatoes, which are especially important when you are cooking them down, down, down (and concentrating any pesticides or toxins present in the fruit) into homemade ketchup. Tomatoes are a fruit, after all, and ketchup is basically a fruit butter. So choose your […]

Categories: canning, condiments, preserving, spreads, tomatoes • Tags: canning, cooking, food, ketchup, local, preserving, recipes, tomatoes

Nectarine Ginger Pie Filling

27 September 2011 by local kitchen

It’s almost October: the leaves are turning, candy corns are crowding the store shelves and pumpkin spiced lattes are all over the Internets. So why am I talking about nectarines? Peaches and nectarines are classically August: shouldn’t I be telling you about the butternut squash risotto I made last week? (Oh, and it was good.) But September is wacky that way: it truly straddles two seasons. You look around the farmer’s market and are spoiled for choice: tomatoes, eggplant and […]

Categories: canning, dessert, peaches, pie, preserving, summer • Tags: canning, cooking, food, local, nectarine, peach, preserving, recipes, summer

Chicken & Sausage Gumbo

24 September 2011 by local kitchen

Hands up, who likes okra? <cricket, cricket> I thought so. Me either. I mean, it looks like something the Star Trek crew would have spray-painted orange and pretended was exotic, alien fruit; it’s skin is hairy and kind of spiky; fresh okra seems to get limp and slimy after 10 minutes in the fridge; and let’s not even talk about the snot that oozes out once we slice it, hmm? Yet, despite my lack of love for the spiky green […]

Categories: bell pepper, celery, fall, main course, parsley, rice, sausage, stew, year round • Tags: cooking, food, gumbo, local, main course, new orleans, recipes

Plum Apple Chutney

20 September 2011 by local kitchen

I am ludricrously far behind in sharing recipes with you: there are at least 40 posts in my draft folder and it seems to grow daily. But, being a seasonal eater with a seasonal blog, it doesn’t make much sense for me to share a pickled garlic scape recipe with you in September, does it? Nor “strawberry jam: 10 tips for a good set.” And you might just have to wait ’til next year to hear about the probably-way-too-spicy-for-anyone-but-me blackberry […]

Categories: 100% local, apples, bell pepper, canning, chutneys, fall, hot chile peppers, plums, preserving, summer • Tags: apples, canning, food, local, plum, preserving, recipes

Smoked Chicken & Corn Soup

15 September 2011 by local kitchen

In the days following Irene, when no one in northern Westchester had any power, my neighbor (and landlord) did the smart thing: he fired up the Big Green Egg, pulled meat from the freezer and put it in to smoke. Lots of meat: two whole chickens, a couple of fat slabs of salmon, a bunch of steaks. And being the kind landlord (and neighbor) that he is, in addition to bringing us ice from the City, he gave us one of […]

Categories: 100% local, chicken, corn, main course, soup, tomatoes • Tags: chicken, cooking, corn, food, local, main course, Mexican, recipes, soup

Corn Cob Stock

12 September 2011 by local kitchen

It was my friend Kelly who first mentioned corn cob stock to me; at the time, I was simultaneously impressed by the brilliance of the idea and skeptical that I would actually like the taste. Don’t get me wrong: I love corn. Corn on the cob: I mean, who doesn’t love it? But corn cobs themselves? Seem like something that people in the South make pipes out of, or what Pa Ingalls made a doll of for Half-Pint. Not stuff that you […]

Categories: 100% local, corn, stock, summer • Tags: cooking, corn, corn on the cob, food, frugal, local, preserving, recipes, stock, vegetarian

Grilled Corn Salsa

9 September 2011 by local kitchen

I know, I know: it’s after Labor Day, kids are back in school, vacations are over. But it is still technically summer for another precious few weeks and summer produce is still at farmer’s markets: peaches, tomatoes and corn. Sweet, sweet corn. As a kid, I loved corn. It was my favorite vegetable, something even my Mom’s cooking couldn’t screw up. In fact, my all-time favorite meal back then was Shake N Bake chicken legs, corn (typically boiled from frozen) […]

Categories: canning, cilantro, corn, preserving, salsa, summer, tomatoes • Tags: canning, cooking, corn, food, local, preserving, quick & easy, recipes, salsa, tomatoes

Plum Hot Jelly

7 September 2011 by local kitchen

A few weeks ago, it was hot. Bright sunshine. High summer. It’s kind of hard to fathom now, just a short time later, as I huddle at my desk in fleece pants and fuzzy slippers, watching the rain drip, drip, drip endlessly from the eaves. Back then, in high summer, I met Miss Julia up in Red Hook for some blackberry picking, carelessly comfortable in flip flops and a tanktop: was it really only last month? As we often do, we traded some goodies: […]

Categories: apples, canning, hot chile peppers, jellies, plums, preserving, summer • Tags: apple, canning, chiles, cooking, food, jelly, local, plums, preserving, recipes

Maple Bourbon Blackberries

4 September 2011 by local kitchen

Are blackberries still available in New York? I don’t know, but it seems doubtful, especially after Irene. What I do know is that nearly a week without internet access didn’t do much for the backlog of preserving recipes I’ve been meaning to share with you. I either need to post every day for a couple of weeks or save some of them for next year. Given the backlog of fruit & vegetables cluttering up my kitchen counters, waiting for their own spot in […]

Categories: berries, canning, preserves, preserving, summer, wine, beer & liquor • Tags: canning, cooking, food, local, preserving, quick & easy, recipes

Irene’s Jam

2 September 2011 by local kitchen

Hands up who lost power during Irene? Yep, me too. In a way, we are lucky: given that the combination of NYSEG and Westchester County = power outages at least once a week during winter, we are well-prepared to lose our electricity. We have a gas stovetop, that just requires lighting with a match during a power outage; a propane fireplace to heat the house in cold weather; candles and flashlights a-plenty; and generally a few gallons of water in […]

Categories: berries, canning, citrus, cranberries, jams, preserving, rhubarb, year round • Tags: berries, canning, cooking, food, hurricane, irene, local, preserving, recipes