Category: Recipes

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Adventures in Eating

This week our farmstand is well stocked with beautiful produce! We have heirloom tomatoes, 5 varieties of summer squash, 3 varieties of cucumbers, onions, green beans, cabbage, leeks, kale, basil, potatoes, and eggplant.

Thursday we returned from the Snohomish Farmers Market with some unsold produce (basil, tomatoes, eggplant) and a beautiful loaf of Sea-Salt Focaccia bread from The Cottage Bakery. We made a simple basil pesto (with just basil, olive oil and Parmasan cheese). We sliced the focaccia, smeared it with pesto, topped it with sliced tomato, grilled eggplant slices and fresh mozzarella. Honestly, it was the most delicious sandwich we have ever eaten!

And for one of the best and simplest soups you will ever taste – try our leek and potato soup recipe.

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Viscaina (Biscayne) sauce

The choricero pepper is the essential ingredient of Basque (Spanish) chorizo, and of the red mother sauce of Basque cooking, salsa viscaina. The sauce can be made from fresh peppers, or dried peppers rehydrated in hot water.

Use it as a sauce for grilled fish, or baked potatoes.

Ingredients

  • 2 onions (preferably red) thinly sliced
  • 6 choricero peppers, thinly sliced
  • 1 garlic clove, smashed and diced
  • 3 tbsp olive oil
  • 1 slice of dry bread
  • 2 cups of stock (vegetable, chicken, or fish stock)
  • 1 tsp salt

Procedure

  • Saute onions and garlic in olive oil until translucent.
  • Add sliced peppers and continue to saute (about 5 minutes)
  • Add stock and salt, simmer 30 minutes
  • Add bread slice and pcuree with immersion blender, blender, or food processor.

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Sorrel Soup

Springtime = sorrel soup time.

Here is a terrific and easy recipe for sorrel soup.

Ingredients

  • 2 sticks butter
  • 2 large yellow onions, sliced thinly
  • 4 garlic cloves
  • 10 cups packed sorrel leaves, stems removed
  • 4 cups chicken stock
  • 1/2 cup flat-leaf parsley
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 1 tsp ground black pepper
  • 2 tsp freshly grated nutmeg
  • pinch cayenne pepper
  • sour cream and fresh chives for garnish

Procedure

  • melt butter in large pot. Saute onions and garlic until translucent.
  • Add sorrel, cover, and cook until fully wilted (about 5 minutes)
  • Add stock, parsley, salt, pepper, nutmeg and cayenne and simmer 45 minutes,
  • Puree with immersion blender, blender, or food processor.
  • Adjust seasoning and serve, garnished with drops of sour cream and sprinkled chives.
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Plum Torte

Rejoice. Italian plums are in season.

  • In mixer, cream 1 stick (1/2 cup) unsalted butter and 3/4 cup sugar.
  • Add 2 eggs,  1 cup flour, 1 tsp baking powder, and beat until smooth.
  • Spoon into 9 inch springform pan.
  • Halve and pit 12 plums, and press halves skin side up, into batter.
  • Bake 50 minutes at 350 degrees F.
torte
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Salmorejo

We spent late June in Spain. We visited Bilbao, Salamanca, and Madrid. In each city we ate Salmorejo. Each recipe was subtly different, but all were amazing. Comparisons to gazpacho are unavoidable, but Salmorejo is, hands down, the best cold soup on earth. It is simplicity itself as the only ingredients are tomatoes, bread, olive oil, and a touch of vinegar, along with toppings, which may vary.  The key to success is that the ingredients, especially the tomatoes and olive oil, must be of superb quality. The hard boiled egg topping in this recipe is not entirely typical, but some version of the Serrano ham is entirely typical. I have tried replacing the Serrano ham with crisply fried smoked bacon. That works fabulously well.

 

Ingredients

  • 8 medium tomatoes
  • 1 medium baguette
  • 1 cup extra virgin olive oil
  • 1 Clove of Garlic
  • Splash of sherry or red wine vinegar
  • Pinch of salt
  • 2 hard boiled eggs
  • Sliced Serrano ham or crisp bacon

Instructions

  1. Scald the tomatoes: Drop tomatoes into boiling water. After 30 seconds transfer into cold water bath then peel off skin.
  2. Remove the cores of the tomatoes and add all the rest to a blender. Blend at high-speed for about 30 seconds.
  3. Cut the crust off a baguette and add 2 cups of bread chunks to the blended tomatoes. Let the bread soak in the tomato juice for about 5 minutes.
  4. Add the splash of vinegar, salt, and garlic and blend until the soup is an even texture.
  5. With blender running, slowly add the olive oil as you are blending at a moderate speed.
  6. Add 1 hardboiled egg and blend until incorporated. Taste and adjust levels of salt and vinegar.
  7. Serve topped with diced hardboiled egg and sliced ham or fried bacon. Serve cold!
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Cocktails by the pond on a summer evening

20160625_175039

Our custom for summer weekends is to finish the day sipping a cocktail on the bank of our pond. Yesterday we enjoyed a version of the classic Jockey Club Cocktail, which replaced the usual Amaretto with a homemade version, created by steeping vodka with cherry pits for two weeks.  I recall this fondly as I sit, bleary-eyed over coffee, on a Monday morning, before departing for work.
Here is the recipe for the down on the farm version of the Jockey Club Cocktail.

Jockey Club Cocktail a la High & Dry Farm

  • Two parts gin
  • 2/3 parts lemon juice
  • 2/3 parts cherry pit infusion
  • 1/3 part triple sec
  • dash angostura bitters

Shake with crushed ice, garnish with a twist of orange peel and a tart cherry, serve with ice.

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Home-made Amaretto

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This year we had a bumper crop of pie cherries. I saved the pits and covered them with vodka. Two weeks later, the vodka infusion was decanted and filtered. The result is amazing. The liquor has a strong Amaretto-like almond flavor with a touch of tartness and complex underlying cherry notes.

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Cocktails by the pond on a summer evening

 

20160625_175039

Our custom for summer weekends is to finish the day sipping a cocktail on the bank of our pond. Yesterday we enjoyed a version of the classic Jockey Club Cocktail, which replaced the usual Amaretto with a homemade version, created by steeping vodka with cherry pits for two weeks. I recall this fondly as I sit, bleary-eyed over coffee, on a Monday morning, before departing for work.

Here is the recipe for the down on the farm version of the Jockey Club Cocktail.

Jockey Club Cocktail a la High & Dry Farm

Print
Two parts gin
2/3 parts lemon juice
2/3 parts cherry pit infusion
1/3 part triple sec
dash angostura bitters
Shake with crushed ice, garnish with a twist of orange peel and a tart cherry, serve with ice.