Brooklyn Forager

The October 2009 Daring Cooks' challenge was brought to us by Jaden of the blog Steamy Kitchen.  The recipes are from her new cookbook, The Steamy Kitchen Cookbook.   I can't tell you how excited I was to get started on these recipes.  I love to try recipes from various Asian cultures, but never really tried Vietnamese food on my own.  The trick for this month was to really nail the broth, and the best part is, with a good recipe, it's impossible to fail. 

We were given a short version of Pho Ga (Chicken Pho), but I went with Jaden's longer beef recipe which can be found on her website.  What makes the broth special is attention to detail.  To begin, onions and ginger are broiled very closely to the top of the oven (I used the toaster oven which may not have been ideal, but saved a lot of energy!) until they are nicely charred. This imparts some extra depth of flavor and richness.

 

While the charring is undertaken, whole spices are toasted to add an additional layer of flavor.  The recipe calls for star anise, cinnamon, coriander seeds, fennel seeds and cardamom pods.  I was tempted to add in peppercorns because for me no recipe is a recipe without garlic and black pepper.  I held back in both instances to give the recipe a shot as written.  Also, who am I to judge what a recipe for Pho needs? I've eaten it and enjoyed it, but this was the first time.

Once the spices and aromatics are prepared, they go in the pot with beef bones, fish sauce, sugar and some chunks of meat.  I must say that if I had any idea how good that simmered beef would be, I would have added three times the amount.  I used about half of what Jaden suggested mainly because I didn't get enough when I was at the butcher.  These pieces of meat were some of the best parts of the whole dish. 

I made the broth on a Saturday evening, refrigerated it and then made the Pho on the following day.  I can't say for sure that the broth was even better, but the spices and meatiness really came through once the soup was put together. Most of the work in the broth is waiting and drooling over the simmering pots, so it's silly to say that the broth makes the soup, but it really does.  The extra steps in preparing it from scratch, and preparing it this way were well worth it. 

We used all the traditional (or at least suggested) toppings for the Pho - mint, cilantro, sliced chilis (one Serrano and one Jalapeno from our garden!), bean sprouts and slices of raw skirt steak to cook in the broth.  I took Jaden's advice and made a dipping sauce of chili paste (our Sriracha had turned, so I used sambal olek instead) and hoisin for the freshly cooked pieces of beef.  Delicious. The sauces do also add additional flavor to the soup and once I had a bowl of straight soup, I started mixing a bit in. 

We got 8 good sized meals out of this challenge and easily could have stretched it for more.  I will absolutely be adding this in.  I just wish I had more freezer space to make gallons of the broth to keep around.  Such is the burden of living in Brooklyn.

The next part of the challenge was to make dessert wontons.  Jaden's recipe was for chocolate wontons, but also invited us to get creative.  I made three types of wontons in four shapes.  I made a straight chocolate wonton with 70% dark chocolate, a banana-chocolate combo, and the piece de resistance, a lemon ricotta wonton with blueberry dipping sauce.  These last were inspired by our wedding cupcakes which combined lemon curd, blueberries and lots of buttercream icing.  I struggled to be super creative, but I did enjoy the process of thinking about great combinations to put in the wontons which also turned out to be fascinatingly easy.  I nearly said fool-proof and that's probably dangerous, but as long as you don't over fill the wrappers, you can really put just about anything in them and fry them up.  I can't wait to experiment more in the future.

 

This week, I was hardly able to stop and think, let alone plan and prepare a complex meal for the challenge. So, it became a test of a well-stocked pantry. I made a Chorizo, Onion & Chevre Bread Pudding with some ingredients that have been stored well since my last trip to the farmers market. To complement it and give us some color, I marinated carrots and radishes for a crunchy side salad.

For the bread pudding, I picked up some natural dried chorizo from a local natural grocery. The chorizo was made in Pascoag, RI which is a bit farther than I usually source, but I could get there and back in a day if I needed to, and frankly, that night, I was desperate! The onions and bread were from the farmers market. The bread was organic multi-grain harvest bread from Bread Alone Bakery, a regular at the market. I ended up using about 2/3 of a loaf and probably could have used more.

Once the sausage and onions were sauteed and bread was cubed, I combined 4 local organic free-roaming Nature's Yolk eggs with 2 cups of milk (from Trader Joe's - a big fail, but fortunately I used it up, so I have to work harder next time), sea salt, cumin and paprika. I also crumbled in 6 ounces of Coach Farm Black Pepper Goat Cheese. The best part, in my opinion, was the addition of a medley of chopped rosemary, greek basil, sage and parsley all from my budding herb garden.

I combined the bread mixture and the egg mixture in a casserole and baked it for about 60 minutes at 350F until set and golden brown. The herbs grew nice and fragrant and the chorizo really permeated the custard. I debated doubling the chorizo because it's so good, but these proportions really worked to maximize flavors without anything stealing the show (1 cup chorizo, 1 1/2 cup chopped caramelized onion and about 3/4 cup chopped herbs).

To complete the experience, I opened a bottle of Benmarl Winery Zinfandel. Benmarl is a Hudson Valley winery that I discovered at the Hyde Park farmers market last weekend. They typically grow their own grapes, but since Zin isn't really native to the Hudson Valley, they do source these grapes from California. It's not 100% local, and I do have their Slate Hill White which is a blend of grapes that are sourced locally. The chorizo really called for a big fruit-forward wine, however, and the Zin was ready to play. This Zin has tons of purple fruit on the nose and in the mouth, with a jammy smooth mouth feel. There is a good amount of heat which could be off-putting, but it really complemented the creamy, spicy textures and flavors in the bread pudding.

Farmers Market: onions, bread, carrots, radishes
Homegrown: greek basil, rosemary, parsley, sage
Provisions: Daniele natural chorizo
FreshDirect: Coach Farm Black Pepper Chevre
Pantry Items: olive oil, sea salt
Fail: milk (organic, not local)

So, One Local Summer 2009 is finally here! Just to recap, the goal is to make at least one meal from all local ingredients (exceptions: oil, salt, pepper, spices) and write about it to share with the world over at Farmtophilly.com (collective posts go live tomorrow!) I am traveling and don't have access to my pictures, but I'll post them in the next day or two.

My menu consisted of:

• Farmers' market greenhouse tomatoes with caramelized-onion-infused oil and homegrown basil
  
• Chard and chevre frittata with caramelized onions
  
• Homegrown green salad with farmers market carrots, radishes, scallions and homegrown basil and mint
• Chateau Lafayette Reneau Seyval-Chardonnay NV from the Finger Lakes
  

For my meal, I utilized a couple of local options - mostly the farmers' market and winter CSA leftovers, but also FreshDirect which has a nice selection from a handful of local purveyors including a selection of NY state wines.

I sauteed one large bunch of green swiss chard with caramelized onions that I had made earlier in the week. When I caramelize onions, I cook them up with olive oil, salt, pepper and a good shake of ground cayenne pepper. I then put the onions, oil and all, in a jar in the fridge. I kept aside some of the oil to use as dressing for my tomatoes (which really didn't need dressing at all!) I put these aside while I beat 8 local organic free-roaming eggs and got them started in the same pan where I'd tossed the greens. Once the eggs started to set, I added the chard mixture and dotted the whole pan with about 2 ounces of chevre (I could have easily used all 4 ounces though...next time!) and finished the frittata in the oven.

The sweet caramelized onions with the tangy chevre and the earthy greens made for a wonderful combination of flavors. The tomato salad served as a bridge into summer which was an interesting contrast to the green salad which held the last bastions of our spring haul. I think the lettuces are just about to be done for the season which is sad because we got them in late and they are already on the tough side.

The one aspect that I didn't love was the wine. I selected it chiefly because it was very inexpensive and fit the bill for local. For the price, it was fine, but I thought it was rather thin with a lot of crisp apple flavors and oak competing with each other at first taste and then just disappearing rather abruptly. I will definitely explore the local vino options more as this challenge goes on.

Farmers' market: greenhouse tomatoes, carrots, radishes, scallions
CSA: yellow onions (which I had caramelized earlier in the week)
Homegrown: red and green leaf lettuces, basil, mint
FreshDirect: Nature's Yolk eggs, Coach Farm chevre, Chateau Lafayette Reneau Seyval-Chardonnay NV
Pantry Exceptions: Olive oil from Provisions, sea salt, black pepper, ground cayenne
Non-local: balsamic vinegar

After some heavy eating, I came home hungry for something light. With a crisper full of local vegetables, I chopped up some asparagus, radish, carrots and scallions to cover at least part of the color spectrum. Add a little balsamic vinaigrette with home-grown basil and mint. That part was easy. I'm not the sort of eater who can go without protein lightly. But I'd already had a heavy lunch with flank steak and spinach.

Enter quinoa. Benefits:

• SO easy. Popped it in the rice cooker with 1 part quinoa and 2 parts chicken broth (although water or veg broth would have been just fine)
• All protein! Quinoa has anywhere from 12-18% protein and has a ton of essential amino acids which make it a great light and healthy protein source.
  
• Tasty. If you haven't had it, quinoa has this light nutty taste and a cool grainy texture which make it a really nice change.
  
• Makes for great leftovers. I threw the whole box in the rice cooker and now I have a ton to use for salads, side dishes and even breakfast (heat it slowly with vanilla soy milk and warm spices like cinnamon or nutmeg, drizzle with local honey).
  

Quinoa sounds perfect! Enter the big "but". I realized that my quinoa was only local in that my local Trader Joe's is just down the street. So I did a little hunting and found that my dreams of a local quinoa-filled summer would not come true. On the other hand, I found this great website, Local Fork, which has a guide to locavore resources in NYC. With a little effort and broadening my farmer's market options, it looks like I can try some new grains and keep it local all the while!

Local items: asparagus, radish, carrot, scallion
Home-grown items: basil, mint
Could do better: quinoa
Pantry staples: grapeseed oil, balsamic vinegar, sea salt, pepper

In less than a week, I'm starting the One Local Summer challenge which requires one meal a week that is completely local (oil, salt, pepper and spices are allowed to be non-local). Participants will blog about their entries and share them on the main site over at http://www.farmtophilly.com/, the hosts of the challenge.

I'm in the midst of clearing out my fridge and keeping it chiefly local or organic or some approximation thereof as the farmer's market gets into full swing. Tonight, I grilled up a flank steak (which was not particularly local, but taking up valuable space in the freezer) with a marinade made of garlic, cilantro, salt, pepper and local scallions. I served this with grilled local sweet potato half-moons tossed in sea salt and chili powder. The real centerpiece, however, was an all local/home-grown green salad (although the vinaigrette required transgressions, of course). I used red and green leaf lettuces from our container garden, as well as home-grown basil and mint. I tossed these with farmer's market scallions, radishes and carrots.

It will take some major steps to turn that meal into a One Local Summer-eligible one, but it felt good to be able to throw together a mostly local dinner using what was available to me already in my fridge. That's the ultimate goal - to make these meals so effortless that I won't even consider the take-out option.

Local items: carrots, radishes, scallions, sweet potatoes

Home-grown items: lettuces, basil, mint

Could do better: meat, garlic, cilantro

Non-local staples: olive oil (from local shop that supports local farmers), vinegar, salt, pepper, chili powder