Kitchen Garden Journal

• 1 pint Edamame
• 3/4 lb Bok Choy
• 2 lbs Tomatoes
• 1/2 pint Sungold or Mixed Cherry Tomatoes
• 1 1/2 lb Eggplant (Town Farm)
• 1 lb Peppers & a few Hot Chilies
• 1/2 lb Baby Mixed Greens
• 1 bunch Thai Basil 
• 2 lbs White & Yellow Nectarines (Bashista Orchards)

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Edamame represents the coming together of two of our favorite things: vegetables and salty snacks. I'm not sure I remember the first time I tried edamame in a Japanese restaurant, but I do remember that it was a revelation. It was like noshing on peanuts, but green and even healthy-seeming.

Edamame are soybeans. Millions of acres in this country are devoted to the cultivation of the soya bean, and this massive harvest is processed into everything from hog feed to Fakin' Bacon. But edamame are a little different. They were bred by Japanese farmers over many centuries to be extremely tender in their green state, designed to be eaten fresh with minimal cooking.

Just boil or steam them in their pods for 3 to 5 minutes, then drain and toss with coarse salt. Next, open a cold, crisp beer, and dive in. They're fun to snap open or squeeze out with your teeth; a steaming treat, nutty and beany and sweet and salty and delicious.

Edamame can also be pre-shelled and added to stir-fries or fried rice. The Whole Foods salad bar features an inspired salad of shelled edamame, hijiki seaweed and shredded carrots in a sesame-soy dressing. 

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Summer came and went in about 2 weeks this year. If it hadn't been so dreadfully humid, we might not have even noticed.

At the end of summer, you can tell what summer was like by looking at the heat-loving crops. This year, it's enough to make you go into a deep back-to-school depression.  The tomatoes are done for. The peppers are weak and diseased. The eggplant is virtually non-existent. And the poor okra--it never really got a chance and it's barely hanging on.

Looking at the devastation, it's not hard to tell that we had an abysmal summer, weather-wise. It never warmed up, we got dumped on all season, diseases went rampant. We made the best of it, and we still managed to eat well. But our summer yields were a fraction of what we'd reasonably hope for in a normal year, if such a thing exists anymore.  All the more reason to grasp for the last sweet handfuls of the summer fruits, while we still can.  

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Eggplant was introduced to Europe by the Moors and became a favorite vegetable in the places that they took over, like Sicily. The Moorish taste for sweet and sour also comes through in this dish.

• Lots and lots of olive oil
• 1 cup chopped onion
• 1 head garlic, chopped
• 1/2 tsp chili flakes or fresh hot peppers, to taste
• 1 pound peppers, cut into large chunks
• 1 pound eggplant, cut into large chunks
• 1 or 2 ripe plum tomatoes, chopped
• salt & pepper
• 1 Tbsp sugar
• 1 Tbsp red wine vinegar
• 1 Tbsp capers
• 3 Tbsp chopped Kalamata olives
• Few sprigs chopped basil and parsley

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Heat about 4 Tbsp olive oil in a heavy pot or Dutch oven with a lid that can go in the oven. Sauté the onion and garlic until soft.  Add the pepper flakes and peppers and sauté over medium heat 5-10 minutes.  Add eggplant and sauté another several minutes. You may want to add more oil to make sure everything is generously anointed.  Add the tomatoes.  Cover the pot and put it in the oven to bake for 20-30 minutes.  Everything should be very, very soft.  Season with salt, pepper and the other seasonings.  Adjust sweetness, salt and acidity to taste.  Serve it warm on fresh crusty bread or at room temperature the next day.  Makes a great pasta sauce, too. Freeze in quarts for a taste of summer in December.

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• 1 lb. eggplant
• 1-2 lbs. tomatoes, chopped
• 1 head garlic
• canola oil for frying
• olive oil
• a few sprigs fresh basil
• salt & pepper 

Slice the eggplant into 1/2-inch rounds and fry them over medium high in a wide skillet with 1/4-inch of canola or other frying oil. When things get going, the eggplant slices will absorb the oil and you will gradually see it penetrate through to the top.  Make sure that they don’t get too brown on the bottom before this happens.  If the eggplant slices absorb all the oil and still don’t look wet, you must add more—but don’t worry, because they will release much of it as they cook.  When they look like they have absorbed enough oil and they start to get nice and brown on the bottom, flip them over and brown them on the other side.  If the pan is dry at this point, don’t add more oil because the slices have absorbed enough to fry themselves.  When they’re done, drain the slices on paper towels and sprinkle them liberally with salt.  Don’t neglect to taste a few slices now, as eggplant properly fried and meltingly sweet is one of the real delights of summer.  Continue with another batch until all the eggplant is fried.

In the meantime, boil some water for the pasta (penne or rigatoni) and salt it well.  Cook the pasta al dente.  Prepare a simple tomato sauce by sautéing some garlic in olive oil until it just begins to get sticky.  Before it browns, add the chopped tomatoes and cook over high heat about 15 minutes or until the liquid is cooked out.  Salt & pepper to taste and remove from the heat.  Stir in the basil, tearing the leaves right over the pan.  Cut up the mozzarella into cubes.  When the pasta is cooked, add everything to a large bowl and mix well.  Buon appetito!

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• 1 lb eggplant, cut into ½-inch slices
• 4-5 cloves garlic
• 1-2 medium sized fresh red or green chilies (or sweet bell pepper for the meek)
• 1 Tbsp light soy sauce or tamari
• 2 Tbsp dark soy sauce
• 2 Tbsp palm sugar or dark brown sugar
• 1 bunch Thai basil

Coat a large fry pan with about ¼ inch of oil and carefully fry the eggplant in batches, following the procedure described in Pasta alla Norma, above.  Meanwhile, cut the garlic into slices and the chilies into diagonal rings.  When the eggplant is ready, remove it and add 2 Tbsp of fresh oil to the pan, add the garlic and half the chilies, and stir-fry until the garlic is golden.  Add the soy sauces and sugar, stir for about 30 seconds until the sugar starts to bubble, and return the eggplant to the pan.  Add torn basil leaves, stir and serve, garnished with the rest of the chilies (if you dare!)

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• 1 head Butterhead Lettuce
• 1 head Radicchio
• 1 quart Mixed Fingerling Potatoes
• 2 lbs Tomatoes
• 1 lb Cipollini Onions
• 1 bunch Parsley
• 1 1/2 lbs Summer Squash
• 1 bunch Collard Greens
• 1 lb Peaches (Clarkdale Fruit farms)
• 5 ears Silver King Corn (Ciesluk Farmstand)*

*Note: Silver King Corn is an unbelievably sweet variety with white kernels and a short season. We love it on the grill.

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Regular readers of this blog will have noticed the strong slant in the recipes we provide toward Italian and specifically pasta dishes.  Our experiences living, working and eating in Italy were a major factor inspiring us to take up farming, and our time there shaped our palates. But that doesn't fully account for the Italian emphasis: it was the food itself that initially inspired us to go there, get involved and have those experiences.

Italian country cooking is simply the best food. This cuisine uses high quality raw materials and makes minimal additions during the cooking process. Vegetables and herbs are used to bring interest and delight to bread, pasta and grains, which are the center of the diet. The combinations are simple and precise.  Olive oil, garlic, salt, pepper, basta. That is enough. The vegetables do the rest.

The mission of our farm is to grow the freshest, tastiest vegetables we can and get them into the hands of people who will cook with them. What cuisine could better serve these purposes? This is simple food. It's not daunting or complicated. Rather, it is an invitation to the kitchen, accessible to all.

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One of the best things to do with fully ripe tomatoes at the height of the season is to oven-roast them.  The resulting concentrated flavor is similar to that of sun-dried tomatoes. Choose firm fleshed varieties, cut them into halves or wedges (depending on size), arrange them on a baking sheet and drizzle with olive oil, salt & pepper. Bake in a medium oven (375 degrees) until slightly shrivelled and starting to brown. Use these roasted tomatoes in numerous ways, including this pasta.

• 2 lbs small ripe tomatoes, roasted as above
• 1-3 cloves garlic, minced
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 1/2 cup plain breadcrumbs
• 2 Tbsp Italian parsley, cut into fine ribbons
• 1 lb capellini (angel hair) pasta

Roast the tomatoes as described above and set aside. Heat half the oil in a wide skillet and saute half the garlic until just beginning to brown. Add the tomatoes. Sautee briefly to heat through and set aside. This mixture should be fairly dry and not soupy. Saute the remaining oil and garlic, add the breadcrumbs*, and toast over medium heat 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add parsley and stir briefly to mix. Remove from the heat. Meanwhile, bring a large pot of salted water to boil. Boil the capellini until al dente.
To serve: Mix the pasta thoughouly with the garlic-tomato mixture. Serve in bowls and top with breadcrumbs and grated parmesan.
*If you are in the habit of buying artisan breads and not always finishing them before they go stale, slice the unused ends and save them in a paper bag for making your own breadcrumbs.  Simply grate the stale bread on a box grater or smash it into smaller pieces and pulse them in the food processor.  Of course, this time of year all of this is pretty much impossible due to the extreme humidity. The stale bread molds and becomes too moist to properly form crumbs. An alternative is to use oven-made dry toasts.  Simply toast bread (baguette works nicely) in the oven at 250 degrees for 30 minutes, until completely dry.   

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This is an unusual recipe for pasta sauce but PLEASE, don't be dissuaded. It is a traditional recipe from northeastern Italy where I did my radicchio research. The combination of onion and anchovy is simply sublime, and this is the simplest dish I know that expresses this particular flavor. (The pissaladiere flatbread of southern France is essentially a pizza with this sauce on top. Onion tarts flavored with anchovy, olives and tomatoes are also a fixture of Provencal cooking.) Cipollini onions are the best ones to use for this recipe because they have such rich flavor when cooked.

• 1 lb Thick Spaghetti or Whole Wheat Spaghetti
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 2 medium cooking onions or 1 pound of cipollini onions, roughly chopped
• 2 Tbsp dry white wine
• 1 tin flat fillets of anchovies, drained and finely chopped
• 2 Tbsp Italian parsley, cut into fine ribbons

Heat the oil in a skillet and saute the onions over medium-low heat for about 10-20 minutes, until very soft and glistening but not browing. Add the white wine and stir until evaporated. (The acidity in the wine offsets the sweetness of the onions and the deep primordial saltiness of the anchovies). Add the anchovies and continue to cook over low heat until they disappear into the onions, about 5 minutes more.  Add the parsley and turn off the heat.  Meanwhile, bring a large pot of salted water to boil and cook the pasta al dente.  Drain and mix the cooked pasta with the onions before serving. Though not traditionally served with grated cheese, we think a little parmigiano never hurts. 

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