It’s hard to call taking photos of flowers “labor”, but it is certainly something we love. Even the kids get into the act and have very strong opinions on the “best” flowers and photos we should share. But truthfully, we love them all. Any flower you have the time to appreciate is a good (sometimes great) flower. Here are some from the Santa Ynez Valley… (Thanks to Sonja And Bill!)
Ratatouille, an easy version.
Sometimes we think ratatouille is French for “quick summer vegetable hash”. (It isn’t, but that pretty much describes it). Typical of rustic French cooking, ratatouille combines a number of somewhat basic ingredients and makes them into more than the sum of their parts. For this dish the “parts” are eggplant, zucchini, peppers, onions, tomatoes, garlic, olives, olive oil and seasoning. And since gardens and farmers markets are brimming with all of those ingredients in late summer, ratatouille is a good way to use up some of the stuff (particularly the less attractive specimens).
Straight from the summer garden…
While the list of ingredients for ratatouille is pretty standard, the method for preparing the dish is anything but standard. Some recipes suggest cooking all the vegetables separately and then combining at the end. Some recipes suggest a layered approach. Some bake, some saute’, some simmer. But since we like “simple” garden recipes, we use an adapted Jacques Pepin recipe (all of his recipes work) that simmers all the veggies together in the same pot and serves the ratatouille over pasta or rice. This is a very quick and tasty version of ratatouille that makes up for slightly less defined textures with ease of cooking.
And this is an easy dish to make. Chop vegetables, mix everything in a pot, simmer for 30 minutes, cool and serve. But there are a few tips and choices that will make the most of the dish. Japanese eggplant will work better, as they are firmer and have fewer seeds. Sweet red peppers round out the flavors more than green peppers. And fresh tomatoes, when in season, with a touch of purée make for brighter flavor than canned tomatoes (but canned are fine). A few briny black olives added at the end balance the sweet flavors. And simple seasoning is often best. We love fresh herbs in our cooking but suggest just a touch of herbs like thyme or marjoram. A little fresh basil at the end adds a lovely aroma. Continue reading
While summer is winding down across much of the country, northern California often has a second or “Indian” summer in September and October. For many of the microclimates in the Bay Area, Indian summer offers better weather than our “real” summer. This time of year, the fog will roll back some, the wind slacken and sometimes go offshore and things will heat up. On the farm this means tomatoes through September, another crop of strawberries and more roses. We don’t know if we will have Indian Summer this year (it was already a good summer, no need to be greedy). But a new bloom of roses is here, so we may as well share.
The bees drinking from the bird bath. A popular spot for the bees and the only place other than near the hive where they get a bit ornery.
Maricela’s Oven-Roasted Tomato Salsa
As we often mention in our blog, the garden dictates much of what we cook this time of year. And since we have sweet tomatoes and spicy Serrano peppers, it’s time to make salsa. But not just any salsa. We asked our friend and awesome Mexican cook (see her Posole recipe here) Maricela join us to share one of her salsa recipes. And while Maricela has a number of tasty salsas, with our tomatoes so ripe and sweet, she chose this version of oven-roasted tomato salsa.
Just a few ingredients. Quality and technique matter.
Roast your tomatoes, peppers and garlic.
The salsa itself has only 6 ingredients; tomatoes, garlic, peppers, onion, salt and a dash of water. But the right in-season ingredients, matched with a few key techniques and a little time, makes for a lovely sweet, bright and slightly hot salsa that you can use on just about any dish (probably not ice cream, but you get the idea). The only “special” equipment you need is a blender or food processor. And as this salsa is briefly cooked, it keeps for a while too.
Remove the peppers and garlic halfway through the roast.
Fully-roasted tomatoes. Note the syrup and caramelized bits- they need to go into the salsa.
Making the salsa is easy, but as we mentioned earlier, a few techniques matter. Firstly, you clean and core your tomatoes and roast in a very hot oven with the garlic and peppers (your kitchen will smell amazing). But a key is to remove the peppers and garlic halfway through the roast so they don’t burn and crate acrid flavors. Also, when the tomatoes are done, remove one tomato and put it in the blender with the peppers and garlic (add a splash of water if too dry)to create a very fine purée before adding the other tomatoes. This ensures that you don’t get rough chunks of garlic or peppers and their flavor is evenly distributed in the salsa. Then you add and purée all the tomatoes, but be sure to scrape all the caramelized liquid and brown bits from the baking sheet into the blender- this is where the extra sweetness comes from. And this extra sweetness is the perfect balance for the heat of the peppers. Finally, add your finely diced onion (see the photos and notes for Maricela’s technique) for extra bright and fresh flavors after you briefly reduce and cool the tomato mixture. None of these steps takes much extra time, but the attention to detail makes a world of difference.
For a fine dice, make multiple top-town cuts in the onion….
…then shave the fine dice from the onion for maximum flavor. Continue reading
Ripe Gravenstein apple.
Ripe Gravensteins in the tree.
Amidst our flurry of activity in the garden from the tomatoes, eggplant, beans, peppers and melons, we suddenly noticed that our Gravenstein apples were ready for harvest. And while we say “ready for harvest” for the Gravensteins, that is a relative term, as the Gravenstein is a “variable harvest” apple. This means, basically, that the apples ripen unevenly, usually over a 2-8 week span. This is good for home use, as we get apples over a month or so, but this is both a blessing and a curse for this excellent variety of apple.
Apple picker, in action.
The apple picker, these are very useful tools.
And the Gravenstein is a very tasty apple, more on the tart side, but certainly sweet enough to eat out of hand, the Gravenstein is an excellent apple for applesauce, cider and pies. In our house we eat them out of hand and primarily make applesauce, the kids (and even the adults) love it. But we will make a few desserts and cocktails with the apples, as well. And none of the apples go to waste, the overripe apples go over the fence to the deer and the any others we don’t use to a nearby horse barn for treats. The horses, apple aficionados that they are, are big fans of the Gravensteins.
Note the variation in color and ripeness. Good for home use, bad for commercial farming.
The Gravenstein apple is a native of Denmark (it’s the “national apple”), but is most associated with Sonoma County in northern California. In the 20th century Sonoma teemed with Gravenstein apple trees, and many American soldiers ate applesauce from those trees. But the delicate (they don’t travel well) and variable nature of the Gravenstein led farmers to move to other varieties of apple, and even more so, grapes. Now the Gravenstein is more of a local symbol than a viable crop and many fear it will disappear from commercial production . There is a great New York Times article on the subject here.
But what makes for a poor commercial crop often makes for good home use, and in a small setting the Gravenstein is an excellent apple. While there are a few days where we will harvest a majority of the apples, many remain on the tree for weeks, ready for picking and eating. In some ways the Gravenstein stores its fruit for you on the tree. And there are few better ways to slow your pulse than to walk up to an apple tree, pick an apple and just take a bite. So while there are limited commercial opportunities for the Gravenstein, we think it will thrive in back yards for as long as people like apples.
Colors that look like they are painted on to the apple.
Gazpacho Andaluz.
More Gazpacho Andaluz.
As we often note in the blog, this time of year the garden dictates much of what we cook. Happily, we have ripe tomatoes, cucumbers and peppers in the garden. And it’s hot, so we don’t want to spend too much time at the stove. So not surprisingly, we make gazpacho, the famous cold vegetable soup of Spain. But what may surprise is that we have mixed feelings on gazpacho. Carolyn loves almost any good gazpacho, but my feelings are sometimes mixed (I think the flavor is sometimes garlicky or muddy and the texture too chunky). But this recipe changes that, we both love this version of gazpacho.
Ingredients straight from the garden.
Our recipe is adapted from Saveur, like most gazpacho recipes it includes ripe tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers, onion, garlic, bread, sherry vinegar, oil, water and salt (we also like a touch of smoked paprika). But unlike most recipes, it focuses on the tomato and cucumber, lightens the garlic and uses the onions and peppers for garnish. The recipe also calls for the gazpacho to be pureed in the food processor and then passed through a coarse sieve. While this is just a bit of extra work, what you get is a light, smooth gazpacho with very clean and bright tomato flavor. As a garnish, the peppers and onions add crunch and bright flavors, but without dominating. We think it looks good, too.
Remove the crust and soak the bread.
Peel, core and chop the cucumbers.
Slice the tomatoes crosswise and squeeze out the seeds.
Coarsely chop the tomatoes.
And when the tomatoes are super-ripe and sweet, this dish really sings. As our friend, chef and Spanish food aficionado Chad says, “gazpacho is great when you need the vinegar to balance the sweetness of the tomatoes, instead of looking for sweetness to offset the vinegar”. We think Chad has it right. And one of the best things about this dish is that you can follow the base recipe and add vinegar, salt and smoked paprika to balance the flavors. And since there is just a touch of garlic in this version of the dish, you can actually enjoy the sweet tomatoes.
Vegetables, bread, oil, vinegar and water into the food processor.
Puree until very smooth. Continue reading
Putney Farm 