Good Eats Newsletter - August 3rd, 2011

This Week's Vegetable Share Contains:

Mesclun; Red Norland Potatoes; Colorful Carrots; Sweet Peppers; Pearl Onions; Zucchini; Parsley; Kale; Eggplant; plus..

Tomatoes!


Localvore Offerings Include:

On the Rise Pizza Dough Pa Pa Doodles Farm Eggs Maplebrook Fresh Mozzarella Pesto

*Laughing Moon Waterbury, Laughing Moon Stowe, Shelburne and Concept2 will get the Knoll Farm blueberries they missed last week.

Meat Share Members
This is a Meat Share Week!

Looking for Help at the Montpelier Farmers Market

We are looking for a Montpelier resident to help with the set-up and break down of our stall at the Capital City Farmer's Market in Montpelier on Saturdays. Set up would be from 7:30 to 9:30ish and break down would be from 1:00 to 2:00. The job would involve heavy lifting of veggie crates, climbing up and down from the truck and being quick on your toes. We would love to offer a mix of veggies from our market display in exchange for labor. A discounted Fall/Winter CSA share is a possibility as well. If interested please contact Melissa@petesgreens.com.

Pete's Greens is Hiring a Delivery Driver/Equipment Operator

Ben will be leaving the farm in several weeks, sadly, so we are looking to fill his shoes. A short job listing is below, a longer one will be posted on our website.

Our delivery driver is responsible for delivering products to both wholesale customers and to our CSA member pick-up sites in Northern VT. The ideal candidate will represent the farm well, communicating with our customers in a friendly and professional manner, while adhering to our published delivery schedule. Our equipment operator joins the rest of our highly motivated, energetic farm team in carrying out tasks related to farming, harvest and construction projects on the farm. Experience with a range of farm and construction equipment preferred.

The ideal candidate will have experience driving a 26 ft straight truck and operating various farm and construction equipment (tractors, forklifts, backhoes, etc) and will possess adequate knowledge of equipment maintenance and repair. Candidate must be able to repeatedly lift 50 lbs crates of food. Candidate must enjoy working as part of a team and be capable of communicating clearly both verbally and via email to others on the Pete’s Greens team.

This is a year-round full time position. Candidate must have some weekend availability.

Please send resume and cover letter to Pete.

Changes to Your Delivery?
If you will be away some upcoming week, and need to make changes to your share delivery, let me know at least 1 week before the change. You can have your share donated to the Food Pantry, or I can stop your share delivery and you will retain a credit on your account toward the purchase of your next share.

Localvore Lore The localvore share is rich again this week! It is a challange to work within the confines of the value of the localvore share each week and you will find that some weeks the value is high and some weeks less. The goal is to balance it all out over the weeks of the share.

It's a pizza week! You'll be receiving pizza dough from Ben and Rachel, owners of On the Rise Bakery this week. They make this version of their dough especially for Good Eats with VT sunflower oil, Milanaise unbleached white flour, Ben Gleason's whole wheat flour, local honey and sea salt. The pizza dough will come to you frozen. Put it right back into your freezer if you don't plan to use it Wednesday night. When you do use it, thaw it, and don't wait for it to rise. When it is thawed it is ready to stretch and top and bake. As pizza dough sits, thawed, either on the counter or in the fridge, the live yeast in the dough continues to work away and the dough will lose elasticity steadily. If you haven't used it 48 hrs later, the risk is not that the dough will go bad, it's that it will lose elasticity, and become more difficult to work with, it will tear more easily. In this case, you may be better off using your rolling pin to roll out the dough rather than trying to get away with stretching or spinning pizza doughs above your head. Ben posted the instructions on line along with some instructional videos that you can watch for technique and inspiration.




To go along with the dough , we have some Maplebrook Farm's Fresh Mozzarella for you. In Bennington, Maplebrook makes their cheese with fresh Vermont milk. This cheese freezes very well, so if pizza isn't in the plan for this evening, you can save it for another day (or another week!).


We made pesto! On Sunday, Pete, Deb and I assembled for the first round of pesto making for Good Eats. It felt great to begin a small stockpile of items that we'll freeze for Good Eats shares this winter. When we lost the barn in January we lost thousands of items that we had frozen for shares - pesto, squash puree, spinach, frozen peppers etc. Finally the time has come to begin the process of building up our stores again.



We made the pesto with our basil, with Stateline Farm's sunflower oil, and with garlic, salt and a bit of lemon juice. We left out the nuts and cheese to accommodate as many diets as possible. We will be making a lot more in the weeks to come and would love your feedback on this batch so we can improve those ahead. I'll be sending an on line survey to you all in a few days and I hope you will take time to share your thoughts. If you like nuts and cheese in your pesto, there's no reason you can't add them. 1/4 to 1/3 cup aged cheese with a similar amount of toasted and chopped pine nuts, walnuts, or sunflower seeds would be delicious.

More eggs this week from Pa Pa Doodles farm. I had a member comment recently about eggs in her carton being small... Deb has a mixed flock and some of the girls are new pullets right now, which means they have just matured enough to begin laying eggs. When hens begin to lay, they start out laying small pullet eggs. This lasts for only a short time, the eggs size right up in a few weeks. So if you have bneen wondering why the small eggs, that's the story.

A few sites who missed blueberries last week will get them this week (Laughing Moon sites, Shelburne, and Concept 2). The blueberries come from Knoll Farm, a small family farm in the Waitsfield, Vermont.

Meat Share

This week's meat share brings you Pete's Country Style Ribs. To do the ribs justice I wanted to give everyone enough to work with so you are all getting 2 packages of ribs with which you can have a small feast. Other items include a small Pete's Pastured Chicken and Maplewind Farm Sandwich Steak or Stew Beef. Sandwich steak you say? This is a new cut for Maplewind Farm, but one that owner Beth Whiting's butcher has been raving about. It's a thinly cut piece of sirloin, and is the cut that Philly cheese steaks are made from. Not all of you will receive sandwich steak though, she did not have enough to go around. This week half the sites will get sandwich steak and the other half Maplewind stew beef. The goal is to switch it up in September, giving the other half of sites who get stew beef now sandwich steak then, and vice versa.

Recipes

I just got the news from the farm a minute ago that they were going to add tomatoes. With that last addition, it hardly seems necessary to write any recipes! Let's see you have options of:

Pizza with tomatoes, pesto, fresh mozz
Pizza with tomatoes, italian sausage, fresh mozz, and eggplant
Pizza with potatoes, onions, pesto
Eggplant parm with fresh tomatoes, pesto and fresh mozz Steak sanwiches with grilled peppers and onions, fresh tomatoes, pesto, and fresh mozz
Endless pasta dishes made possible and delicious with combinations of peppers, tomatoes, onions, parsley, zucchini, eggplant and kale Beautiful new Norland potatoes that you could prepare with butter or olive oil and fresh chopped parsley

The list goes on and on... 


Fresh Mozz, Pesto, and Tomato Pizza

This is the quickest pizza ever. You could make it more zesty by adding some minced garlic aloing with the pesto. You could dress it up by topping it with some mesclun greens dressed in a simple vinaigrette. Or saute some zucchini or eggplant and peppers and onions in a pan for a while and add those too. You can't go wrong, there's just too many good things to put on top!


Olive oil

Pesto

a couple fresh tomatoes

torn fresh mozzarella

a little salt and pepper

Optional - fresh garlic, minced



Brush your crust with the oil for the flavor. Place thin slices of tomatoes on the crust, and place dabs of pesto all about the crust on top of and around the tomatoes here and there. I like to take the seeds out of my tomatoed so there's less tomato juice on the pizza. Then top with thin slices of the fresh mozz, toen and scattered about. I like a bit of salt and pepper on mine and sometimes I drizzle on a bit of really good balsamic. Bake until the cheese is bubbling and the crust is done. Simple and delicious.

Eggplant Parmesan
A modification of a classic from the NY Times.

1 eggplant

sea salt

2 cups whole peeled tomatoes

1 clove garlic, peeled and minced

Olive oil

Freshly ground black pepper

1/4 cup all-purpose flour

1/4 cup fine dry breadcrumbs

2 large eggs, beaten

12 oz of fresh mozzarella cheese, sliced into 1/4 inch rounds

1/2 cup grated high quality Parmesan cheese

1/2 packed cup fresh basil leaves or several TB of pesto



Cut eggplants lengthwise into 1/4 inch slices. Arrange one layer in the bottom of a large colander and sprinkle evenly with salt. Repeat with remaining eggplant, salting, until all eggplant is in the colander. Weigh down the slices with a couple of plates and let drain for 2 hours. The purpose of this step is to have the eggplant release some of its moisture before cooking.


While the eggplant is draining, prepare tomato sauce. Combine tomatoes, garlic and 1/3 cup olive oil in a food processor. Season with salt and pepper to taste and set aside.


When eggplant has drained, press down on it to remove excess water, wipe off the excess salt, and lay the slices out on paper towels to remove all the moisture. In a wide, shallow bowl, combine flour and breadcrumbs. Mix well. Pour beaten eggs into another wide shallow bowl. Place a large, deep skillet over medium heat, and pour in a a half inch of olive oil. When oil is shimmering, dredge the eggplant slices first in the flour mixture, then in the beaten egg. Working in batches, slide coated eggplant into hot oil and fry until golden brown on both sides, turning once. Drain on paper towels.


Preheat the oven to 350°F. In the bottom of a 10x15 inch glass baking dish, spread 1 cup of tomato sauce. Top with one third of the eggplant slices. Top eggplant with half of the mozzarella slices. Sprinkle with one third of the Parmesan and half of the basil leaves (or a tb of pesto dabbed around). Make a second layer of eggplant slices, topped by 1 cup of sauce, remaining mozzarella, half the remaining Parmesan, and all of the remaining basil (or pesto). Add remaining eggplant, and top with the remaining tomato sauce and Parmesan.


Bake until cheese has melted and the top is slightly brown, about 30 minutes. Allow to rest at room temperature for about 10 minutes before serving.

BBQ Country Style Ribs

Country style ribs require long slow cooking and deserve to be cooked to the meat is nearly falling from the bone. You can do this in a slow cooker in about 6-8 hours, or you can go the oven route and get there in a shorter amount of time. Either way, the results should be delicious. This recipe was reviewed by over 200 users of allrecipes.com, most giving it 5 stars. Not surprising as the method is perfect for this cut of meat and the lemon slices on top help tenderize the meat while it cooks. You could use any BBQ sauce for this, or just serve the ribs plain if you have picky kids in the house. They'll be yummy regardless. Some reviewers covered the ribs with foil for the first 2 hours to keep the more moist. 



10 country style pork ribs

2 teaspoons minced garlic

1 lemon, thinly sliced

1 (18 ounce) bottle barbeque sauce



Preheat oven to 250 degrees F (120 degrees C).

In a shallow baking pan or roaster, place ribs in a single layer; salt if desired. Spread the garlic on the ribs, then place the lemon slices on top. Bake in a preheated oven for 2 hours - the ribs should be tender. Drain any grease and liquid. Pour BBQ sauce over the ribs. Return to oven and bake one more hour at 200 to 250 degrees F.

Simplest Steak Sandwich
Lots of variations possibly with this simple sandwich. Saute griilled onions or peppers, and toss those on. Or skip the dijon and add to the basic sandwich tomato, pesto and fresh mozz or another melted cheese. 



1 ciabatta loaf or baguette

sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

sandwich steak

2 sprigs of fresh rosemary, leaves picked (or thyme, or parsley)

olive oil or sunflower oil

juice of 1 lemon

1 -2 tablespoons Dijon mustard

thinly sliced onions

1 handful of mesclun



Place your ciabatta just to warm in the oven for a few minutes at 100C/225F/gas 1/4.



Season your steak and then sprinkle it with herbs. If any of the slices are thick, place them in a plastic bag and then bash the bag with a kitchen mallet or cleaver or back side of a heavy pot to thin the meat to 1cm thick or less. Rub with a little olive oil, place on a very hot griddle or frying pan and sear each side for a minute. This will cook the meat pink, but you can cook it less or more to your liking. Remove to a plate, squeeze over the lemon juice and allow to rest.



Cut your ciabatta in half lengthways and drizzle the cut sides with a little e.v. olive oil. Smear a massive dollop of Dijon mustard over the bread, put your steak and onions and mesclun on top, then drizzle over any juice from the meat. Squeeze together and eat!

Oven Ratatouille

This recipe looks long. But really, it's just a lot of instruction about properly roasting the various vegetables in this dish. The roasting sweetens and concentrates the flavors of them all. This is a very healthy, very tasty dish. From Mollie Katzen's Vegetable Dishes I Can't Live Without.



3 to 4 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

1 large globe eggplant (about 1 pound), cut into ¾-inch cubes (peeling unnecessary if the skin is tight and smooth)

2 pounds ripe plum tomatoes (or 1 smallish heirloom or beefsteak)

6 medium-sized garlic cloves, unpeeled

2 large bell peppers (red, yellow, or orange)

2 cups coarsely chopped onion

1 medium zucchini (7 to 8 inches long), cut into 1-inch cubes

1½ teaspoons dried basil

1 teaspoon dried marjoram or oregano

½ teaspoon each crumbled dried thyme and rosemary

Salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste



Optional:
Small amounts of fresh herbs (basil, marjoram or oregano, rosemary, thyme, and/or parsley)
Pitted chopped olives

Arrange an oven rack in the topmost position, and another in the middle of the oven. Preheat the oven to 425°F. Line 1 small and 2 large baking trays with foil, and coast the foil generously with the olive oil.



Place the eggplant on one of the large trays, and toss to coat with oil. Then push it to one side, keeping it in a single layer. Arrange the tomatoes on the other half of the tray, rolling them around so they get coated with oil. Wrap the garlic cloves (still in their skins) and a half teaspoon of water tightly in a piece of foil, and place this on the corner of the same tray.



Place the whole bell peppers on the small tray.



Spread the onions and the zucchini pieces on opposite ends of the remaining large tray, and toss to coat with the oil.



Place the eggplant tray on the middle shelf of the oven, and put the small sheet with the peppers on the upper rack. After 10 minutes, use tongs to turn everything over. Repeat this turning process after another 10 minutes or so. Gently squeeze the garlic to see if it is soft. If it is, remove it from the oven; if not, continue roasting.



Place the onion-zucchini tray on the middle shelf next to the one with the eggplant, and continue roasting all for another 10 minutes. Turn the peppers and tomatoes one more time, and toss the eggplant, onions, and zucchini to help them brown evenly. Sprinkle the eggplant, onions, and zucchini evenly with the dried herbs. Once again, squeeze the garlic to see if it is soft. If so, remove it from the oven; if not, continue roasting. Roast a final 10 minutes, or until the vegetables become deep golden brown and very tender.



Transfer the eggplant, onion, and zucchini to a large bowl. Let the peppers, tomatoes, and garlic sit for a few minutes, or until comfortable to handle. Peel the peppers, then chop the tomatoes and peeled peppers roughly into 1-inch pieces and add to the eggplant mixture. Slip the roasted garlic cloves from their skins, mash with a fork, and add to the eggplant mixture.



Toss until well combined. Season to taste with salt and freshly ground black pepper. Serve warm, at room temperature, or chilled – plain or topped with a sprinkling of freshly chopped herbs and/or olives.