October 25th, 2008 Newsletter
Bardstown Road Farmers’ Market
Sarah’s Corner
From our friend Sarah Fritschner
As the weather turns colder, it’s more difficult for me to conceptualize eating locally, especially when I think of doing it without my freezer, which I’m sure makes a less than tidy carbon footprint.
I have frozen a gallon or two of plain tomato sauce, and a couple of dozen stuffed bell peppers, spaghetti sauce, whole bulbs of garlic and a few other things. A product of suburban Louisville, I never systematically learned how to put food in jars, how to pickle, how to salt food for long keeping.
On the 100-mile diet Website (http://100milediet.org/why-eat-local), one of the 13 benefits of eating locally grown food is to “Get in touch with the seasons.”
“Even in winter, comfort foods like squash soup and pancakes just make sense–a lot more sense than flavorless cherries from the other side of the world,” they say.
I certainly agree with the remark about cherries, and most winters load up on American-grown oranges and other citrus, which are, technically, seasonal fruits if not local ones. Apples and pears provide local options.
For now, salad greens have returned, and heartier greens will survive a light frost or two. I’ve been buying a hard-shelled squash or two every week, and several bulbs of garlic, hoping they’ll last until spring. Potatoes will last nearly that long. And come to think of it, I really don’t need an excuse for trying to survive on goat cheese.
Chicken with roast garlic sauce
To make a delicious lemon chicken, add the juice of 1 lemon to the chicken broth when you add it to the skillet.
2 to 3 tablespoons flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon (freshly ground) pepper
4 chicken thighs or chicken breast halves (bone in)
2 tablespoons olive oil or vegetable oil
4 to 6 large cloves roast garlic (or 2 tablespoons puree)
1 cup reduced-sodium (or homemade) chicken broth
¼ cup cream or sour cream, optional
Combine flour, salt, and pepper and sprinkle over chicken to coat it completely (discard excess flour). Heat olive oil in a deep, wide, heavy skillet over medium-high heat. Place chicken in the skillet skin side down and cook it to brown it well. Turn the chicken over and brown well, then turn it on it sides to brown it all over, cooking for about 20 minutes. Put a top on the pan and cook 15 to 20 minutes, or until the pieces are cooked through (large pieces and dark meat take longer).
Remove to a platter (place in a 350-degree oven to keep warm, if desired). Pour off any accumulated grease in the pan but don’t scrape. Squeeze garlic puree into the skillet and stir to break it up, then add chicken broth. Increase heat to high and allow the chicken broth to boil until it reduces to ¼ cup more or less. Spoon over chicken before serving. Serves 4.
If using cream: Add cream and allow it to boil a minute or two to allow it to thicken. If using sour cream, remove from heat and stir it into the chicken broth. If it boils, it will curdle.
Sinfully easy slow-cooker beef
You can make this with short ribs but to feed 8 you’ll need at least 4 pounds of ribs. Apricot nectar comes canned in the juice aisle at the supermarket.
2 pounds beef chuck, shoulder or blade
¾ to 1 cup apricot nectar
1/4 cup soy sauce
1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 teaspoon Chinese chili paste or ½ minced Serrano pepper, or to taste
Trim visible fat from beef and discard. Cut the meat into 3-inch pieces as you do. Put the beef in a 3 ½ quart slow cooker and add nectar, soy sauce, pepper and chili paste or chile pepper. Turn heat to low, cover and cook 8 hours or more, until tender.
If you’d like to thicken and concentrate the sauce (it makes the dish taste better), remove the meat and pour the sauce in a small skillet. Let it boil until it thickens to desired consistency, about 20 minutes. Serve dish with sweet potatoes and kale. The sauce tastes good poured over all of them. Serves 8. Leftovers freeze well.