Category Archives: Garden and Orchard

  • Cauliflower and Broccoli Salad With Hazelnuts and Pecorino

    December 7, 2012

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    romescoromesco14While we sometimes bitch and moan whine about winter vegetables this time of year, we do enjoy them quite a bit. It just takes a little more work to get the best out of them, and being as lazy as the next guy, we prefer more flavor and less work. In summer we put most fresh veggies on a plate with some olive oil and salt, or give them a quick sauté and voilà! Perfection (well, at least a good dish). In winter, we break out our thinking caps and some cookbooks and get to work. So when Carolyn brought home some purple broccoli and broccoflower (or romanesco, depending on appearance), we got off our butts motivated and made this salad. And it turned out well enough to make the blog, and become a regular dish here at the farm.

    romesco2romesco3This salad combines blanched cauliflower and broccoli with sharp pecorino cheese, crisp apples, hazelnuts and bacon (optional) with a classic vinaigrette. Our goal was to build a dish that covers multiple flavors and textures but still highlights the inherent sweetness and crunch of the vegetables. The broccoli and cauliflower still lead, but the cheese and bacon add salt and umami, the apples acidity and crunch and the hazelnuts add nutty and slightly bitter undertones. The vinaigrette brings it all together. It is a very pleasant bite and will even get kids to eat their broccoli (we tested it, it worked).

    romesco4romesco5And the cool thing about this salad is that you can interchange almost any variety of broccoli or cauliflower. So if you have purple broccoli, broccoflower, romanesco or orange cauliflower, they will all work. And if you just want either broccoli or cauliflower, that works too, but we do suggest a combination as they play well together. If you get lucky at the market you can make this salad with a full range of colors, it will be beautiful and a good dish for entertaining. And all you need to do is chop and boil water, so it is an easy dish.

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  • Amazing Persimmon Bread

    December 6, 2012

    48 Comments

    bread8While we love cooking with the season, winter can be a bit tough, even in California. Lots of produce is available, but some of it has moderate appeal (we love kale, turnips and broccoli, but not every day) and some is just confounding. We love our pomegranates, but they are hard to eat and you can only sprinkle the seeds on so many salads. The citrus is a bright spot, but somehow tends to end up in desserts and cocktails, and after lemon chicken how many savory dishes are there?. And then we have Persimmons. These bright orange, beautiful fruits light up the farmers market, but what do you do with them?

    bread2bread3For Fuyu persimmons, the round ones, the answer is easy. Treat them like apples and place raw slices into salads or serve with cheese or charcuterie. But what about the heart-shaped Hachiya persimmons, what to do with them? It turns out you need to let them ripen almost to the point of rot over-ripeness and then scoop out the pulp. The pulp will be very sweet with pumpkin and citrus notes. One of the more popular uses of Hachiya pulp is to freeze it and serve it like sorbet, but the other primary use is in baking. And this is where we get to this amazing sweet bread. And we don’t mean “amazing way to get rid of persimmons” we simply mean “amazing”. This bread is one of the best surprises we’ve had here at Putney Farm.

    bread4bread5In some ways, we shouldn’t be surprised. The recipe comes from David Lebovitz, one of the best pasty chefs and food writers in the world, and is adapted from a James Beard recipe. Yep, James Beard. The original recipe comes for his book “Beard on Bread“. So we are working from some very solid source materials. Ironically, the recipe itself is a bit “squishy”. You are encouraged to add or subtract sugar to your taste, add some booze and play with different dried fruit and nut combinations. We even use some white whole wheat flour with good results. But the unifying factor is the Hachiya persimmon pulp. It gives a bright pumpkin note and keeps this bread incredibly sweet and moist. With the fruit, nuts and spice this bread has lovely texture and flavor. You can eat it at breakfast, or as a daytime snack or even dessert.

    bread6bread7And making the bread is a straightforward operation. First you must buy and then ripen some Hachiya persimmons. Leave them out and wait. They are ripe when they feel like overripe tomatoes about to burst (Lebovitz describes it as “water balloon about to burst”). You may also see discoloration on the skin, but that is OK. When the persimmons are ripe, spoon out the pulp and purée in a blender, food processor of food mill. Then you are ready to go. And making the rest of the bread is easy. Chop some nuts and dried fruit, we use pecans and dried cranberries, but walnuts, raisins, apricots or dates will work. Then make a standard sweet bread. Combine the dry ingredients, then add the wet ingredients, make a batter. Butter some loaf plans, then pour in the batter. Bake for an hour at 350 (the kitchen will smell great), cool and serve. And enjoy, this is the good stuff. So when winter produce gets you down, buy a few Hachiya persimmons, let them ripen and make this bread. It will be a bright spot in winter.

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