Heirloom Bean Gratin

Lonesome Whistle Farm at the Fairmount Neighborhood Farmers Market features heirloom dry beans such as these creamy white Arikara. If you are a real bean enthusiastic, you can sign up for the farm's Heirloom Dry Bean CSA and receive all of their 8 featured varieties through the winter. Read more here about efforts to increase production of beans and grains in the Willamette Valley.

These Arikaras, along with farm's delicious looking tomatoes and onions, were the basis for a cassoulet-inspired bean gratin. 

It's a good idea to soak the beans overnight to plump them up. I sauteed onions and garlic in olive oil until they began to caramelize. Then I added hot vegetable broth in which I'd soaked some sun-dried tomatoes, and the soaked beans. The softened dried tomatoes I diced and added to the pot. I let these simmer uncovered in a low temperature over for a good hour, until the beans were tender and the broth absorbed. 

Meanwhile I mixed together a topping of panko (dried bread crumbs), diced cherry tomatoes, basil, chives, and grated pecorino romano cheese.

I sprinkled this over the beans and cooked the pot under the broiler until the bread crumbs were browned and fragrant. The fresh tomato and basil bread crust was a nice contrast to the creamy, sun-dried tomato flavored beans.  These made a hearty dinner, accompanied by a big green salad and nice loaf of bread.

Arikara bean and tomato gratin

For the beans

1 lb Arikara dried beans or some other variety of white beans

3 small red onions, diced

1 large clove garlic, minced

2 Tbsp olive oil

6 halves sun-dried tomatoes (dried, not packed in oil)

4 cups vegetable broth

1/4 tsp red pepper flakes

generous amount of salt

For the topping
1/2 cup panko or bread crumbs
1/4 cup grated pecorino romano cheese
6 cherry tomatoes, chopped
6 basil leaves, chopped
6 chives, chopped
1 Tbsp olive oil

1. Soak the beans overnight in plenty of water.


2. Preheat the oven to 300 degrees. Heat vegetable broth and add sun-dried tomatoes to soak. When tomatoes are soft (after about 20 minutes), dice them.

3. In a deep, oven proof pan, saute onions, garlic, and red pepper flakes in olive oil until the onions are very soft and have started to caramelize. 


4. Add broth and sun-dried tomatoes to the pot. Drain the beans and add these to the pot. When they come up to a simmer, transfer the pot, uncovered, to the oven.  Cook for about an hour, checking occasionally to test the beans for tenderness and to make sure that there is still enough liquid in the pot.


5. When the beans are desired tenderness, check for seasoning and add salt and more pepper to taste. Mix together the bread crumb topping and sprinkle over the beans. Place the pot under the broiler and cook for about 5 minutes longer until the topping is golden brown.

Celebratory Salmon Dinner

This Sunday, Linda Castleman from the Salmon People was grilling fresh salmon at the Fairmount Neighborhood Farmers Market. A fresh salmon filet was just what I was looking for to prepare a belated anniversary dinner. Due to poor planning, my husband and I spent our wedding anniversary this year on a seven hour cross-country plane trip with two cranky kids. We were due for something a little more celebratory and romantic. And easy. I didn't feel like lighting up a whole grill, so I thought I'd try a salmon preparation I read about where you sear the salmon on both sides in a hot skillet and then finish it in a low temperature oven. I love fish with fennel, so I decided to use both fennel seeds for the searing and some fennel fronds for the oven cooking.

I sprinkled the filet generously with fennel seeds, cracked black pepper, and salt.

Just one minute per side in a hot cast iron skillet was enough to give the fish a nice crust.

In a 300 degree oven for 20 minutes, it soaked up some fennel and lemon flavor, until it was just pink in the center (~110 degrees with an instant read thermometer).

This salmon is so fresh that it tastes delicious anyway you prepare it, but the searing followed by low heat in the oven gave it an especially nice crust with a moist interior. We enjoyed it with SLO Farm fingerling potatoes and a refreshing salad of Lonesome Whistle Farm golden Poona Khera cucumber in yogurt. 

Seared Salmon with Fennel

1 salmon filet

1 tsp fennel seeds

generous sprinkle of fresh cracked pepper

pinch of salt

1 Tbsp olive oil

1 lemon, sliced

A few fennel fronds

1. Preheat oven to 300 degrees.

2. Heat an oven-safe skillet on the stovetop until it is very hot.

3. Sprinkle salmon filet with fennel seeds, pepper, and salt. 

4. Heat olive oil in skillet. Sear salmon, skin side up for one minute. Flip and sear for one more minute. Cover filet with fennel fronds and lemon slices and transfer to oven.

5. Cook for about 20 minutes until the middle is still pink (about 110 degrees on an instant read thermometer).

Serves two.

Carrot Salad with a Kick

SLO Farm had some delicious carrots on sale, and I had been wanting to try a carrot salad recipe from the blog Smitten Kitchen that has been receiving rave reviews. There were only two impediments to my plan. First, the carrots were so tasty that my 2 year old consumed almost half the bunch on the walk home from the market. Second, the recipe called for harissa, a North African chili paste, which proved to be impossible to find in Eugene (if anyone knows of a source, please pass it on).  Homemade harissa looked pretty involved, but I thought I could approximate the flavors with a mixture of different spices.  Unfortunately I didn't have any caraway seeds, which seemed to be a key ingredient, but I used a combination of cumin, smoked paprika, chipotle chili, and cayenne.

These were cooked briefly with garlic and sugar in olive oil, mixed with lemon juice, and poured over grated carrots. Then I added chopped mint and parsley and feta cheese.  The salad was quite spicy and had a wonderfully exotic taste.  I'd love to try it with harissa when I can get my hands on some, but in the meantime, this would be well worth making again, perhaps with some ground caraway seeds and a bit of tomato paste.

The salad was a delicious accompaniment to lamb burgers and pita bread, with lettuce, tomatoes, and a yogurt and cucumber relish (tomatoes and cucumbers from the Fairmount Market, of course).

Spicy Carrot Salad with Mint and Feta

adapted from Smitten Kitchen

1 bunch of carrots

handful of parsley

handful of mint

1 lemon

100 gram feta

1 garlic clove

4 Tbsp olive oil

1 Tbsp cumin

1/2 Tbsp smoked paprika

1/4 tsp chipotle chili powder

1/4 tsp cayenne chili powder

1/2 tsp sugar

salt to taste

1. Peel and grate carrots.

2. Mince garlic clove and heat with olive oil.  Add the spices and stir for a few minutes until fragrant.  Add juice of one lemon and salt to taste, and pour over the carrots.

3.  Mix in chopped mint and parsley.  Mix in chopped feta cheese (I used about half of a package).

Enjoy. 

Apple and Radish Salad

The apples from the SLO Farm stand at the Fairmount Neighborhood Farmers Market were so tempting that my son couldn't keep his hands out of the picture. The farm had two varieties on sale. The ones on the right are Red Gravensteins. Biting into one immediately brought back for me childhood memories of New England autumns. These apples are tart and firm, and would be good for baking. The ones on the left are a Japanese variety called Akanes, and were new to me. They are very crisp and juicy and quite sweet. Their rosy crunch reminded me of the sensation of biting into a radish, but with an explosion of sweetness rather than sharpness, and it occurred to me that the two might pair well together in a salad. Since I'd also purchased some delicate radishes at the SLO Farm stand as well, I was all set to try out this idea. I mixed up a mustardy dressing which I tossed with lettuce, topped this with diced apples and sliced radishes, and some sliced carrots for extra color and crunch, and sprinkled on some dried pomegranate seeds (which I'd picked up at Trader Joe's, but dried cranberries or raisins would work as well). It was a refreshing and fun salad.

Apple and Radish Salad

dressing
1 tsp mustard
1 Tbsp white wine vinegar
2 Tbsp olive oil
salt and pepper to taste


salad
half a head of lettuce, rinsed and torn into small pieces
1 Akane apple, cored and chopped
2 carrots, sliced
~6 radishes, sliced
handful of dried pomegranate seeds or other dried fruit


Toss the lettuce with the dressing.  Add remaining ingredients and toss again.

Favorite Sunday Lunch: Smoked Salmon and Cucumber Sandwich

As the Fairmount Neighborhood Market has become a integral part of our Sundays, we've developed a favorite Sunday lunch: smoked salmon from the Salmon People on fresh Eugene City Bakery Bread (Multigrain or Pane Antico with pumpkin seeds are delicious).  This Sunday, The Lonesome Whistle Farm had some gorgeous golden cucumbers (a variety from India) and sweet cherry tomatoes.  These made the perfect accoutrements for our Sunday sandwiches.  

Linda Castleman from the Salmon People shared with me a bit about how she and her husband got into the salmon fishing business.  For my family, tricycling down the steep part 19th Street constitutes an adventure, so I am truly impressed to hear about her family's summers in Alaska.


From Linda Castleman:
My husband Mel and I lived and raised our children in Alaska for almost 20 years. We got involved in the fishing industry in the early 80's and purchased our own commercial salmon set net permits in 1989.  Every summer we would pack up the kids and and head to the Kenai peninsula live in our rustic fish camp on the edge of the Cook Inlet in our plywood shacks. we carried our water, and used propane for cooking. Our children grew up exploring the beach and spending evenings around the campfire.  Not a lot has changed. I feel our experience in Alaska and the fish site has been a wonderful and unique experience for our family and taught our children a strong work ethic, and life skills, and a love of adventure. Our son  and his wife continue to fish with us today. The Farmers Market on 19th and Agate is a new endeavor for us.  We wanted to offer our premium product locally at a price people could afford.  Since we are a small operation we can ice and bleed our fish, which makes for a fresher tasting product.  It then goes to the processor, is flash frozen into portioned fillets that are convenient to store in a freezer  or prepare.  We are offering it for $11.99 a pound and smoked at $13.99.  The response and feed back has been really great.  If folks want to place an order they can call 541-747-2748. Our season up north has just finish, I'll be at the market until we sell out. 

Fresh Tomatoes and Fresh Pasta

The juxtaposition of plump red tomatoes and shiny green pasilla peppers at the SLO Farm stand last Sunday was the inspiration for a simple sauce to go with homemade pasta.  I love fresh, uncooked tomatoes on pasta, but they need a little something else, and it occurred to me that roasted pasillas and garlic would be just the thing to give the sauce some complexity.

I recently gave my husband a pasta machine (more a present for myself, I must admit), but the real present to both of us was that our 7 year old daughter quickly became an accomplished pasta chef.  All I have to do is whip up the dough in the food processor (eggs and flour and a small drizzle of water until the dough just starts to come together).

Then she rolls it out

and cuts it, and presto: fresh pasta.

For the sauce, I broiled halved pasilla peppers and whole garlic cloves in the toaster oven, then peeled off the blistered skins from the peppers, chopped them together with the soft insides of the garlic cloves, and soaked them in olive oil.

While the peppers were roasting, I diced up tomatoes, and added chopped parsley and salt.

When the pasta was done, I tossed it with the tomatoes and poured over the garlicy, roasted pepper oil.  The dish had just the right balance of freshness and spicy smokiness.

Fresh Pasta with Fresh Tomatoes and Roasted Pasillas

For the pasta

2 eggs

2 cups flour

<1/4 cup water

1. Combine the eggs and flour in food processor and while it's running drizzle in just enough water for the dough to come together.

2. Roll out the dough with a pasta machine, cut, and cook in boiling water for 2 minutes.

For the sauce

4 tomatoes

2 pasilla peppers

generous handful of flat leaf parsley

6 cloves garlic

1/2 cup olive oil

salt

1. Roast the pasilla peppers and garlic.  You can do this under the broiler of a toasting oven if you don't feel like turning on your oven.  Remove the blistered skin of the peppers and dice finely.  Peel the garlic cloves and mash in with the peppers.  Cover with olive and let stand.

2.  Core and dice the tomatoes and put in your serving bowl.  Add chopped parsley and salt to taste.  Toss in the cooked pasta and pour over the roasted garlic and pepper oil.

Serves 2 adults and 2 small eaters

Baking with Blueberries: Blueberry Cobbler

With blueberries at the height of their season and a 7 year old eager for more baking projects, I decided to try out the blueberry cobbler from Cory Schreiber and Julie Richardson Rustic Fruit Desserts. The cobbler called for 6 1/2 cups of blueberries that were tossed in sugar. cornstarch, and a squeeze of lemon juice.

For the biscuit, I used a cuisanart to pulse cubes of butter with flour, cornmeal, sugar, and baking powder.  Then I mixed in a cup of buttermilk (the recipe calls for cream, but I had buttermilk in the house from the buckle baking).  We divided the dough into 9 biscuits that we arranged over the fruit and sprinkled with a generous 1/4 tsp of raw sugar.   

The crumbled came out of the over after 45 minutes golden brown and bubbling, and was delicious with a scoop of vanilla ice cream.

Blueberry Cobbler with Cornmeal Biscuit

Adapted from "Rustic Fruit Desserts " by Cory Schreiber and Julie Richardson

Fruit filling

3/4 cup granulated sugar

3 tablespoons cornstarch

1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt

3 pints (6 1/2 cups or 2 pounds) blueberries, fresh or frozen

2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice

Biscuit dough

1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 cup fine cornmeal

2 tablespoons granulated sugar

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt

1/2 cup cold unsalted butter, cut into small cubes

1 cup cold heavy cream or buttermilk

turbinado (raw) sugar

1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Butter a 2-quart baking dish.

2. To make the fruit filling, rub the sugar, cornstarch and salt together in a large bowl. Add the blueberries and toss to combine, then gently stir in the lemon juice. Spoon the fruit mixture into the prepared pan, being sure to scrape the bowl well.

3. To make the biscuit dough, whisk the flour, cornmeal, sugar, baking powder and salt together in a bowl. Add the butter and toss until evenly coated. Using your fingertips or a pastry blender, cut in the butter until the size of peas. Pour in the cream and stir just until mixture comes together.

4. Divide the dough into 9 pieces and pat each piece into a 3-inch biscuit. Evenly distribute the biscuits atop the fruit filling, then sprinkle ~1/4 teaspoon of the turbinado sugar on each biscuit.

5. Bake for about 45 minutes, or until the biscuits are golden and the filling is bubbling in the middle. Serve warm. 

Cabbage Comforts

SLO Farm has had some lovely cabbages for sale over the past few weeks.  Being partly of German heritage, their cabbage displays always make my mouth water for braised cabbage with pork.  But who wants to braise cabbage on a hot summer day?  Then I remembered that I'd made some delicious braised red cabbage (Rotkohl auf Deutsch) in my slow cooker, which is a convenient way to make slowly simmered comfort food without over-heating your kitchen.

I make my braised red cabbage with some sweet red onion and a tart granny smith apple. I add some mustard seed for some punch, and then  braise in red wine and vinegar.

My slow cooker is convenient in that it can go from the stove top to the heating element. First I sauteed the onions and apple with the mustard seed. Then I added the chopped red cabbage and cooked it a few minutes.

Then I added the red wine and vinegar and left it to cook overnight. Waking up to the smell of cooked cabbage may not be for everyone, but I was almost tempted to have some for breakfast.  I held off until the evening and served it with delicious SLO Farm fingerling potatoes, tender green beans, and boneless breaded pork chops (my version of weiner schnitzle).

Braised red cabbage

1 head red cabbage, core removed and chopped
1 red onion, chopped
1 granny smith apple, cored and chopped
2 Tbsp olive oil
1 Tbsp mustard seeds
1/3 cup brown sugar
1 cup red wine
1/4 cup cider vinegar
salt to taste

1. Saute onion, apple, and mustard seeds until soft.

2. Add brown sugar and cabbage, stir, and cook for a few minutes.

3. Add wine and vinegar and cook at a medium setting on a slow cooker for around 6 hours or simmer on the stove top for about an hour until the cabbage is very soft and the flavors have melded.

Music at the Market

This past week at the Fairmount Neighborhood Farmers Market there was a special treat of a musical performance by Zambuko Marimba, who perform high-energy marimba music from Zimbabwe. The group generously donated their time and effort to help support the neighborhood market.

Customers could enjoy the music at the corner of 19th and Agate, while selecting from delicious produce from SLO Farm,

and beautiful flowers from a new vender at the market, Lonesome Whistle Farm, who specialize in heirloom and rare varieties of flowers, vegetables, and dried beans.

Smoked Salmon Smorgasbord

This week the Fairmount Neighborhood had a new vender, the Salmon People, who offer fresh-frozen and smoked Alaskan salmon.  The smoked salmon, a loaf of Eugene City Bakery multigrain bread, and a couple of salads made with fresh produce from SLO Farms, came together in a delicious Smorgasbord.  My husband's heritage is Swedish, and from him I've acquired a taste for smoke fish paired with pickled salads.  The SO Farm this week offered majestic beans in shades from burgundy to deep purple.  They looked magnificent next to the dark red of the cherry plums.  

I had recently been thinking about pickled plums used in Japanese cuisine, which inspired me to try pairing the beans and plums with a hot vinegar dressing, then layering them on to a bed of SLO Farm lettuce.  

 

The beans lost some of their purple color during cooking, but the plums flavored and colored the vinegar dressing, adding an interesting layer of sweetness to the sour, lightly pickled beans.

I also used some delicate SLO Farm fingerling potatoes to prepare my new favorite potato salad made with yogurt and horseradish, inspired by the food blog, the Wednesday chef.  This salad is creamy and rich, without an overwhelming dose of mayonnaise, and a faintly indulgent taste resemblance to baked potato with sour cream.

The sweet and sour beans and plums with the creamy and spicy potatoes were the perfect pairing for salty and smoky salmon on hearty multigrain bread.

Pickled Bean and Plum Salad

For the vinaigrette

1/4 cup rice wine vinegar

2 Tbsp water

1 Tbsp sugar

1/2 tsp salt

pinch of red pepper flakes

1/2 lb green or purple beans, cooked until just tender

About 10 small plums, halved or quartered, with pits removed

Lettuce leaves

Heat the vinaigrette ingredients in a small sauce pan until the sugar is dissolved.  Pour hot vinaigrette over cooked beans, then mix in plums, and let sit for at least 10 minutes. Layer over lettuce and serve. 

Potato Salad with Yogurt and Horseradish

For the dressing

3 Tbsp plain yogurt

1 Tbsp olive oil

1 tsp horseradish (or more if you like it very spicy)

chopped chives

1/2 lb fingerling potatoes

Boil potatoes until just cooked.  Drain and cut into bite sized pieces.

Mix together dressing ingredients and pour over hot potatoes and stir to coat.

Baking with Blueberries: Blueberry Buckle

The SLO farm stand at the Fairmount Neighborhood Farmers Market offers succulent, plump blueberries. We eat blueberries by the bushel in our household, sprinkled on pancakes or cereal for breakfast, submerged in yogurt for snacks, and on vanilla ice cream with a sprinkle of chocolate shakings for dessert. Recently I've been inspired by the cookbook Rustic Fruit Desserts to try baking with blueberries. This cookbook by the Portland chef Cory Schreiber and Portland baker Julie Richardson, is full of recipes for all sorts of baked delights that I'd never head of such as buckles, betties, pandowdies, and grunts. Here is a recipe for a blueberry buckle, which is apparently a cake looking for an excuse to be a fruit crisp.

The lemon-flavored cake batter for the buckle was quite simple to prepare, with half the blueberries mixed in and half layered on top.

The crumble involved mixing together butter, sugar and flour, which I did with a pastry knife.

This got layered on top and baked for 50 minutes.

The final step was to drizzle a lemon syrup over the baked buckle when it came out of the oven.  The final cake was delicious with a nice balance of tart blueberries in a lemon scented cake with a crunchy, sugary crust on top.

Lemon Blueberry Buckle

Adapted from "Rustic Fruit Desserts" by Cory Schreiber and Julie Richardson

Crumb topping

1/2 cup flour

1/3 cup sugar

1/8 teaspoon salt

1/4 cup (1/2 stick) butter, cubed, at room temperature

Cake

6 tablespoons butter, at room temperature

1 1/2 cups plus 2 tablespoons flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

3/4 cup sugar

Zest of 1 lemon

2 eggs

1/2 cup buttermilk

2 cups blueberries, fresh or frozen

Lemon syrup

Juice of 2 lemons (about 6 tablespoons)

1/3 cup sugar

1. Heat the oven to 350 degrees. Lightly grease a 9-inch baking pan.

2. To make the crumb topping, ix together the flour, sugar, and salt. Add the butter, using a fork, pastry knife, or your fingers to cut in the butter until it is reduced to the size of peas. Loosely cover the bowl, and place it in the freezer while you mix the cake batter.

3. For the cake, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.

4. In the bowl of a stand mixer or cuisanart, or in a large bowl with a hand mixer, cream together the butter, three-fourths cup sugar and lemon zest until light and fluffy. Add the eggs, one at a time, scraping down the sides of the bowl after each addition.

5. Stir the flour mixture into the bowl, a third at a time, alternating with the buttermilk, until both the flour mixture and buttermilk are evenly incorporated into the batter. Gently fold 1 cup of the blueberries into the batter.

6. Spread the batter into the prepared pan and distribute the remaining blueberries evenly over the top of the batter. Remove the crumb topping from the freezer and sprinkle it over the berries.

7. Bake the cake until it is lightly golden and firm on top, and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, 45 to 50 minutes. Rotate the pan halfway through for even baking.

8. While the cake is baking, make a lemon syrup: In a small saucepan, combine the remaining one-third cup sugar with the lemon juice and whisk until blended. Heat the pan over medium-low heat and cook, stirring occasionally, until the liquid thickens to a syrupy consistency, 6 to 8 minutes. (The glaze will bubble while cooking and may need to be removed from the heat to check that it is the proper consistency.) Remove from heat and set aside in a warm place.

9. Remove the cake from the oven and drizzle the warm glaze over. Cool to room temperature.