Empanadas & Stewed Chic Peas and Eggplant

The Food Nanny
September 29&30, 2009 Meal 1: Sweet Corn & Butternut Empanadas, Spanish Rice Salad, Refried Beans
· Transfer to a cookie sheet and heat the Empanadas at 350° for 10-15 minutes or until hot and a little more deeply browned.
· Heat the refried beans in a saucepan, thin them out with a little water first though.
· Serve the rice at room temp or quickly heat it in a sauté pan with a little oil. Add a splash or water to steam everything through.
Meal 2: Stewed Chic Peas and Eggplant, Roasted Leek, Chevre,& Red Pepper Fougasse, Mixed Greens
· Heat the stew to a simmer on the stovetop.
· Warm the fougasse at 350° in the oven for about 10 minutes
· Dress the greens and serve beside the entrée.

Vegetable Lasagna & Equinox Stew

The Food Nanny
September 22&23, 2009
Meal 1: Vegetable Lasagna with Tomato-Pesto Sauce, Whole Wheat Baguette, Blue Moon Mixed Greens
· Heat the lasagna by putting the baking dish in the oven at 350 for 15-20 minutes or until just bubbly.
· Warm the bread in the oven too, for about 5 minutes.
· Dress the greens and serve beside the entrée.

Meal 2: Autumnal Equinox Stew, L’Shana Tova Rolls, Apple Crisp
· Heat the stew to a simmer on the stove top.
· Warm the roll. To treat yourself, slice or tear it spread the pieces with butter and a drizzle of honey.
· During dinner warm the crisp at 325° for about 20 minutes

Big Fat Burritos & Curried Eggplant

The Food Nanny
September 15 & 16, 2009
Meal 1: Big Fat Burritos, Cucumber Gazpacho, Blue Moon Mix
· Unwrap the burrito and place in on a sheet tray. Bake at 350° for 10 minutes, or until hot. You can probably nuke these too…
· Dress the salad and serve the soup chilled. Meal 2: Curried Eggplant with Tomato, Grilled Flatbreads, Rice and Lentil Salad
· Warm the breads in the oven or by toasting them in a dry pan.
· Heat the curry in a microwave, on the stovetop, or even by putting the baking dish in the oven at 350° for 10-15 or until just bubbly.
· Serve the rice/lentils at room temp or heat them in a pan with a little oil, and then a dash of water.

Technique: Great Green Goodness
Gazpacho. What exactly is it? Well, if I was a Mexican raider a la "The Magnificent Seven" (btw, I totally recommend skipping this film and going straight to Kurasawa's masterpiece), or even "The Three Amigo's" for that matter, I would like the moniker 'Gazpacho.' Perhaps 'Gazpacho the Gringo' or 'Gazpacho the Green' or simply ' El Gazpacho' if you prefer the whole brevity thing.
Anyway, I see a gazpacho as a chilled soup based on a fruit puree. Yes, tomatoes and cucumbers are fruit. Garden fruit I call them, but fruit, botanically, they are. Also melon makes an alluring gazpacho as I have described before.
The fruit puree is then studded with diced and minced ingredients, seasoned well, and garnished with herbs. It is important to think of complementing flavors and textures as this soup is the perfect stage for both. The soup is silky, so diced crunchy items stand out. For this reason, cucumber is one of my favorite ingredients for a classic tomato gazpacho. In this case I decided to turn the idea on its head and build the soup around the cukes highlighted with sweet red pepper and some yellow heirloom tomato. Two important additions: a little heat from fresh chiles, and fresh herbs. Parsley and cilantro are great together in this soup. I like to not pass over an opportunity to play these flavor cards together.
Finally, the real techniquie I'd like to discuss however is the stock for this soup. In homage to the James Beard quote on this blog we've made a lot of stock from the corn cobs produced by cooking with and putting up the quantities of corn this summer. The sweet stock is good on its own, but to stack some flavor points I brought some to a boil and then plunged in all the cucumber peelings, trim, and scraped seeds created when cleaning them before pureeing.
This was then allowed to steep with no heat for about 1/2 hour, then strained and chilled overnight. I did not simmer the additions because the flavor I sought is delicate, and heat not only destroys some flavors, it brings out/creates some bitter ones, and as we all know, cukes can have a bitter aspect, so I acted with precaution and yielded a useful cucumber liquor for your soup. It is not only this idea that I recommend, but also the philosophy of frugality, utility, and thrift. Don't just cook like a cook. Think like a cook.

Korean Pancakes & Penne Arribiatta

The Food Nanny
September 8 &9, 2009
Meal 1: Korean Pancakes and Assorted Namul, BBQ Tofu, & Soba with Fresh Edamame
· Remove the tofu to an ovenproof dish and bake at 350 until hot.
· Warm pancakes in a dry nonstick pan or in a microwave. Serve the namul chilled and use the pancakes to make little ‘tacos’ with the fillings and tofu.
· Serve the noodle salad chilled.

Meal 2: Penne Arribiatta with Meatballs or Grilled Eggplant, Camembert Breadsticks, Mixed Greens
· Serve the bean salad at room temp but do season with salt as we omitted it to prevent to tomatoes from disintegrating.
· Warm the Penne as well as breadsticks in oven at 350. Cover the penne with some foil and give the 15-20 minutes. Then remove the foil and add the breadsticks for the last 5. The cheese on the breadsticks is from Prairie Fruits goatsmilk.
Local Notes:
Green is my favorite color, and those edamame reset the bar. Check that GREEN out, man! Look out for your own this weekend at the market. Buy more than you expect to use and plunge them into boiling salted waterfor a solid 4 minutes. Check for doneness by picking one out of the seething boullion and popping a bean from its pod and eating it. It should not taste starchy and raw. When they are done plunge them into cold water then drain and freeze. So dig that! - your own locally grown edamame treat full of nutritiuon and umami just sitting at your behest awaiting need or desire.
I also want to encourage you to get some ground pork for the Moore's ( they are in the South West corner of the market.) This is an overlooked item that is very versatile and a quick meal 'solution' type item. The 1# packs thaw quickly in warn running water or thrown in the sink in the AM while dashing out. Just pull it and figure what you'll do with it later. We use ours to make meatballs for pasta and sauce (surprise), chili, taco filling, pizza topping, pan fried noodles, meatloaf, burgers, and best of all: morning sausage patties great with pancakes or in an bagel egg sandwich. Seriously, get a bunch. Buy 10 for a great price break.

Technique:Making Hay
...while the sun is shining is the trick, and right now we are past the apogee of this year's garden fruit harvest. So, if your don't do it now you will miss the opportunity to can, freeze, dry, cure or otherwise preserve the tomatoes, summer squash, egglant, beans, corn, warm season crops etc. of 2009. Yes, this point has arived sooner than is typical. I told you it was a bad year; like grapes.
We here at Food Nanny are getting ready to put up for the season. Our first big Blue Moon Order arrived today. Thanks, and lots of love Jon! In essence we are purchasing, in advance, the food that you and your families are going to be eating this coming Autumn, Winter, and Spring. I am not employing hyperbole. We will likely buy a half ton of food in the next three weeks. Bring on the peppers, eggplant, and tomato! Put up potatoes, turnips, carrots, cabbages, onions, and garlic! Nothing but the best will do! Am I wrong?!?
Investing the coming labor and cost is the best example of what I see as our comittment to you our members and it's how we succeed at supplying you with outstanding local food during those seasons. This act is not only practical from our standpoint, but it is symbolic of our relationship based approach to this business. We invest for you now and ask for a return investment in the viability of our business over the coming seasons. Its a part of why we offer, and I ask more of you to consider the Academic Calendar Comittment Plan. If we know we can count on you, then we can guard the risk we take in spending capitol now to cover menues to come, plus it offers you a discount in exchange for your word, 'cause we know time are tight.
If we didn't do all this advance purchasing one item you would not be seeing this winter is roasted red pepper. Ever see what a jar of these go for ? Well you can can that idea. Here's the best way to preserve red pepper:
1)Buy fresh red peppers at the market.
2)Fire up a grill and cook them on a side untill charred and blistered ( don't get too carried away). Rotate them to a new side until they are cooked evenly in this way.
3)Transfer the ashen phoenexes to a cookie tray. If you layer them divide the layers with freezer paper or similar.
4) When cooked, immerse the whole tray into your freezer overnight.
5) Now transfer the frozed, charred peppers to zipper bags - job done.
When you want to use them simply run tepid water over the frozed pepper and rub the skin right off. Its like magic compared to peeling freshly roasted peppers. Use them on pizza, in salad, as antipasto, for soups, sauces/coulis, in chili....
I think the above is the best 'kitchen tip' I know. Use it well.

Eggplant Stirfry & Sweet Corn and Sheep Milk Crepes

The Food Nanny
September 1&2, 2009
Meal 1: Chinese Eggplant with Ginger-Garlic Sauce, Cucumber Soup, Trio of Rices
· The soup may be warmed or served chilled.
· Warm the rice in the microwave, or in a sauté pan with a little oil. The rices are Basmati, short grain brown and Japanese black rice.
· For the stir fry: Heat some oil in a pan until it is almost smoking hot. Drain off any excess liquid in the veggie container and carefully tip the veggies into the pan. Stir and cook for a minute or two. Shake the sauce vigorously and then pour it into the pan with the veggies and stir to coat. Allow the sauce to simmer and thicken for 1-2 minutes. You may need to add a little water to allow the eggplant the minute or so it needs to braise in the sauce and completely cook.

Meal 2: Sweet Corn and Sheep’s Milk Cheese Crepes, Ratatouille Casserole, Chick Pea Salad
· Serve the bean salad at room temp but do season with salt as we omitted it to prevent to tomatoes from disintegrating.
· Warm the crepes and the ratatouille in the oven for 10 -15 minutes at 350.

Heirloom Tomato Galettes & Two Sisters Soup

The Food Nanny
August 25 & 26, 2009 Meal 1: Heirloom Tomato Galettes, Sicilian Grilled Eggplant, and Cucumber & Fava Bean Salad
· Warm the galettes in the oven at 350° until hot – about 10 minutes.
· Heat the eggplant by toasting it in a dry sauté pan on both sides for a few minutes, or warm them in the oven too. Be careful to not burn them and their delicate seasonings.
· Season the cucumber salad with some salt. We omitted this to prevent wateriness. Serve chilled.

Meal 2: ‘Two Sisters’ Soup, Anaheim Chiles Stuffed with Sweet Corn Masa, and Soybean & Barley Succotash
· Heat the soup on the stovetop or microwave. FYI it is dairy free.
· Remove the chiles carefully from their dish and transfer the succotash to a serving bowl. Season with salt as we omitted it to help prevent the tomato from leaching all its water. Replace the chiles in the dish and heat them in the oven at 350° for 15 to 20 minutes or until hot.

Local Notes

The chiles have arrived in their spicy and green forms with a smattering of reds. Hopefully that shall become a tumble, although this is a notorious year for the warm season crops like chiles, tomato, melon, etc. That being said I just got some gorgeous zucchini from Blue Moon, the eggplants for the Sicilian slices were absolutely perfect, and the tomatoes for the galettes were a sight to behold. I must confess that one of my true delights in being a professional cook is beholding food in quantity: a pile of heirloom tomatoes, logs covered in mushrooms, boxes of red peppers, bushels of corn, bellies of pork. It is one of the privledges of the position; but, mama's, don't let your babies grow up to be line cooks.

P.S. If you haven't treated yourself to one of the Moore's melons you have yet to bite into summer.

Technique

The Two Sisters soup is derived from the Three Sisters Garden of Native American iconography. The two featured sisters are squash ( yellow summer squash) and corn. Sweet corn is one of the great gifts of summertime. We just recently purchased 16 dozens for your Food Nanny shares this winter. Freezing is a great way to preserve this crop and the results are far superior to that of any supermarket variety. Furthermore the task is NOT labor intensive because the corn is so fresh that you do not have to blanch the kernels. All you need to do is this:

1)Husk the corn and cut the kernels from the cob with a chef knife.

2)Tip the kernels into a ziplock bag and freeze.

Thats it. Now get cobbing!

Zucchini Latkes & Hand Made Ravioli

The Food Nanny
August4&5, 2009
Meal 1: Zucchini Latkes, Baby Lima Beans with Sweet Corn, Green Bean Almond Salad
· Move the latkes to a sheet tray if there are more than 3 in your pyrex and oven heat them at 350 for 10 minutes or until hot.
· Serve both salads at room temp.
· The latkes are nice topped with a little yogurt or sour cream if you like.

Meal 2: Chevre and Collard Ravioli, Fresh Tomato Sauce & Mixed Greens
· Empty the sauce from the jar to a sauce pot. Rinse the jar with a little water and add this to the sauce. Bring to a simmer.
· Add the ravioli to the simmering sauce and cook for 3-5 minutes or until the ravs are hot and tender.
· Dress and serve the salad.