Brooklyn Forager

I've been following the Paper Chef challenge for awhile now from afar.  Each month I thought I would give it a shot and wimped out in the end for a variety of reasons.  Not this time.

For those who aren't familiar with the challenge, this is a mini-Iron Chef with a lot more notice and more secret ingredients.  The event takes place the first full weekend of each month.  The winner of the previous month selects three ingredients at random (from a list compiled earlier that week) and then gets to add a fourth item - either a theme or an ingredient.

This month, the ingredients were dill, ricotta and honey. Our host at Prospect: The Pantry added a fourth to reflect spring and new beginnings - eggs.  I could not have been more excited.  And again, I thought about wimping out, but honestly, these are four of my favorite things ever.

I struggled with how to combine them since all of my ideas included three (usually dill in one set of three and honey in the other).  I went, with hope, to Eggs by Michel Roux which frankly should have been my first stop.  There were tons of almost-right recipes that got me dreaming.  It was his "poached egg on onion tartlet" that won the prize. 

My tweaks included using ricotta instead of cream and dill instead of thyme, as you might imagine.  There was no honey in the original recipe either, so that got added in as well.  I also had tons of lovely local onions from Philips Farms just screaming to be caramelized and spread on puff pastry. Et voila! Poached Egg on Dill, Ricotta and Onion Tartlet. 

Poached Egg on Dill, Ricotta and Onion Tartlet (inspired by Michel Roux)

• 1/2 medium onion, thinly sliced
• 1/2 tbsp olive oil
• 1 tbsp butter
• freshly ground black pepper
• sprinkle ground cayenne pepper
• 1 tbsp fresh ricotta cheese
• 1 tsp milk (I used skim, but any will do)
• 1 tsp honey
• puff pastry
• 3 tbsp white wine vinegar
• 1 large organic egg
• 1 sprig fresh dill, roughly chopped

1. Melt butter and oil in pan over low heat.  Add sliced onions and cook until caramelized, about 20 minutes, stirring often. Set aside.
2. Cut 4-inch rounds from puff pastry (I made three since I pulled out extra, but one will suffice).
3. Drizzle olive oil on small baking sheet.  Place puff pastry round(s) on sheet and chill for about 20 minutes.
4. Preheat oven (I used my convection toaster oven since I just made one) to 325F. 
5. Mix ricotta, milk and honey in small bowl and chill.
6. When pastry round(s) are ready, prick each 4-5 times with a fork.  Top with ricotta, then onions.
7. Bake for 25 minutes or until pastry are golden and crispy.
8. Just before pastry is done, heat 4 inches of water in a wide pan along with 3 tbsp vinegar.  Bring to a boil.  Crack egg into separate bowl and pour into water.  Poach for about 1 1/2 - 2 minutes.
9. Top pastry with egg.  Garnish with fresh dill.  Serve immediately.

 

 

 

This week was another hectic week that culminated in a lovely evening with girlfriends in front of the television. I was too crazed to cook, but came up with a spread of hors d'oeuvres that served us well and were about 98% local.

In order to stock up on snacks at the last minute, I explored a new farmers market - the Fulton Stall Market (that will probably be a post on its own coming shortly). I picked up an organic multigrain baguette from Bread Alone, a rainbow of carrots and the first cucumbers of the season (for me), and a locally-produced hummus (as you might expect, the chickpeas were not so local).

I pulled this together with a cheese plate of the local pecorino-style cheese that I tried last week, Yancey's aged cheddar, and a blue cheese spread which family brought down from VT on a visit the previous week. It was local to them, so it counts as local to me!

The piece de resistance (although now getting to be a regular treat on my weekly menus) was a set of crostini featuring the Valley Shepherd fresh ricotta and garlic scapes from the farmers' market sauteed in a bit of olive oil and balsamic vinegar.

The wine we drank was from Portugal, and so I didn't go the full nine yards on this one, but I enjoyed the wine quite a bit and will be looking further into one of the wines in particular (I didn't drink them with reporting back in mind, but the Portuguese red table wine was probably review-worthy and certainly budget-friendly. I will make a point to get it again and see what I can do).

FreshDirect Local: Yancey's Fancy Cheddar
Brooklyn Farmers' Market: garlic scapes, radishes, pecorino cheese
Fulton Stall Farmers' Market: baguette, carrots, cucumbers, hummus
Local gift from out of town: blue cheese spread
Pantry staples: olive oil, black pepper, balsamic

This week: Swiss chard, broccoli, cherries, raspberries, blueberries, garlic scapes, spring garlic from Phillips Farm, tri-colored radishes from Fishkill Farms, spelt from Cayuga Pure Organics and sheep's milk ricotta and a fresh pecorino-style cheese, both from Valley Shepherd Creamery.

In my walks by the farmers market the past week or week and a half, I have noticed new colors and smells, but couldn't stop in to partake. Yesterday, I hauled home an incredible late spring, early summer bounty full of strawberries, greenhouse tomatoes, asparagus, onions, carrots, beautiful green swiss chard, bok choi and a great loaf of harvest grain bread.

I am thinking that this year there is less on offer at my downtown Brooklyn farmers market, or maybe I'm just going more regularly so that the changes are less dramatic for me. I do think there is at least one or two less fruit and vegetable vendors. The sheep's milk ricotta vendor that last summer made me want to throw over family members in order to get one more tub isn't around (although the new cheese guy has some nice wares...just haven't tasted yet).

Between the above realization and the fact that I'm really making a much bigger effort to eat local, I'm embarking on some new adventures in the farmers market world. This week I'm going to check out at the Fulton Street Seaport market which just opened about a week ago. I'll try and check out the Bowling Green farmers market if I can. I know they are not in Brooklyn and so it does slightly violate the whole "Brooklyn Forager" thing, but they are both very much in my immediate foraging area. And I don't have a Saturday for a couple of weeks until I get to try out the Grand Army Plaza market. I have a feeling that one will enter more regularly into my rotation since it's the biggest in Brooklyn and has more meats and grains and varied vendors.

Don't get me wrong, I love my farmers market. But if I'm going to really make a go of this, I'm going to have to broaden my Brooklyn (and neighboring) horizons.

I think spring came a bit later to Brooklyn than to other places, or at least seemed to come later this year than last year. Our farmers' market just got asparagus this past week and has been chiefly showcasing flowers and starter plants along with root vegetables and a handful of the earliest of spring onions.

Our take this week: scallions, leeks, carrots, sweet potatoes, parsley, chives, rosemary, spinach and the first (weekend) showing of asparagus.