Kitchen Garden Journal

Corn chowder is quite possibly the world’s perfect soup. It’s sublime in its simplicity and infinite in its variability. I’ll give you the basic principles and a few ideas for jazzing it up, but I leave the rest to you. 

2 Tbsp cooking oil

1 medium yellow onion, diced

3 large potatoes (russets, yellows, reds, doesn’t matter), cut in ½ inch cubes

½ cup white wine  

4 ears fresh sweet corn, scraped off the cob (about 2-3 cups), cobs reserved if using fresh

6-8 cups water or stock

Salt & Pepper

1 cup heavy cream, optional

Parsley or cilantro, minced, for garnish

Working over a shallow bowl, cut the corn kernels off the cob. Put the cobs in a small saucepan (break them in half if necessary), and cover with water. Bring to a boil and cook for 5-10 minutes, then strain off the liquid and reserve. This gives you a nice, simple base for the soup and captures all the flavor from the corn that might have been wasted.

In a soup pot, heat the oil and gently sauté the onion over medium heat until just beginning to brown and stick. Add the potato cubes and continue to sauté for about a minute. Add the wine and allow it to cook off, scraping the residues from the bottom of the pot to dissolve them.  Add reserved corn liquid and half the kernels and simmer until the potatoes are cooked, about 15 minutes.

At this point you have a couple of options: you can either puree it (using an immersion or stick blender is best), not puree it, or partially puree it. For me, it depends on the type of potato I’m using. If I’m using russets, I like to peel them first and then just blend them into oblivion because they create just the silkiest textured soup imaginable. With reds and to some extent yellows, it can be nice not to peel them. Some people just like a chunky soup, but I think chowder should be creamy, so I give it a partial puree. Just stick the blender in a corner of the pan and go half way. Best of both worlds. Nice and creamy but with little chunks of tender potato to grab onto. 

Hint: please make sure the potatoes are actually cooked before pureeing. Chowder with crunchy potatoes is disgusting.

Okay, now it’s time to finish the soup. Add the remaining corn and simmer for 5 minutes until al dente. Reduce heat to low and add the cream, if using, and heat until just simmering. Season to taste and serve, garnished with a little cilantro or parsley or chives.

Variations:

Nothing goes quite so well with corn (or chowder) than fresh seafood, and my favorite way to make this soup is to add shrimp, specifically Maine shrimp. You’ll have to wait until January for them to come into season, so you’d better freeze your corn now. For this version, use the shrimp peels to make the stock, and add the peeled tiny shrimp about 2 minutes into the final five minutes of cooking. 

Many types of seafood can be used in this soup to great effect. Let your imagination run wild. Maybe add some diced red bell pepper, Old Bay seasoning and a container of crab meat for a Marylandish version. Or some chunks of cod or haddock, a personal favorite of mine (don’t fully puree the base for this one, and don’t forget the bacon). Squeeze some lemon on there. Or simmer it in some Narragansett, I really don’t care.

Corn also begs to be dressed up in Mexican flavors. Instead of cream, make a puree of lime juice, garlic, cilantro and sour cream and drizzle that in at the end and garnish with hot sauce. Or use some roasted poblano peppers or green chilies and throw some cheddar cheese in there.  

I mean, this would also be great with red curry paste and coconut milk. Simmer it with a stalk of lemongrass and garnish with Thai basil. The shrimp would be awesome in there as well.

So yes, my friends, this is a soup that really wants to please you, whatever mood you happen to be in. All you need is corn, onions and potatoes and a little bit of imagination.

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Why is it that the moment for canning and preserving always falls on really really hot days? Everyone with childhood memories of canning remembers two things: the smell and the heat. For many, sadly, the trauma of the heat curtails nostalgic longing for the intoxicating aromas of jam and tomatoes.

Lately, the humidity has been awful and, of course, I seized my opportunity for canning on a particularly disgusting evening. I set out to repeat the most delicious product of last year’s repeated bouts of sweaty, tomato-vapored kitchen delirium: sugo.

Sugo means “sauce” in Italian. Jars of pre-made tomato sauce like Prego are called sugo pronto, ready sauce. My sugo isn’t really a heat-and-serve thing that you just dump on boiled spaghetti, but it does save a lot of time later when making richly flavored sauces.

Sugo is basically tomato puree that also includes onions, carrots, red peppers, celery and herbs.  It’s like tomato puree and vegetable stock all rolled into one. I usually add it to meat sauces for pasta, but it’s great for other things like vegetable soups, dried beans, beef stew, and Spanish rice. It has a distinct sweetness from the onions and peppers and aromatic depth from the carrots and celery. You can feel all the warmth of summer on those cold winter nights.

And, most importantly perhaps, it’s a great way to use up some of the piles of partially rotting but perfectly usable tomatoes, onions and peppers that inevitably accumulate around the farm this time of year.

The method is very similar to my recipe for tomato puree. Basically, what you do is coarsely chunk up all the tomatoes and toss them in a big pot and bring it to a boil. Then, toss in coarsely chopped pieces of all the other vegetables and stew them in the tomato liquid until they’re soft. I also threw in a big bundle of basil and celery leaves that I took out before pureeing . (I also removed the celery so it wouldn’t make the sauce a yucky color: never puree red and green together, it looks like puke. If you have very light colored celery hearts, go ahead and puree them, too.)

So, for Christmas I asked for a mechanized solution to making this and here’s the verdict: the Kitchen Aid food mill attachment is really messy. I have never made such a mess of my clothes while canning; it even shot hot tomato water in my eye. (WTF!) Will I go back to the hand crank method? Hard to say. It was quicker and less physically exhausting, but not by much.

Anyway, if you want to make this—and I encourage you to do so—you can follow the procedure for tomato puree. You’ll find all the little tips and tricks I’ve learned in that post from last year. 

So happy canning, and please, take a shower.

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Wow. I had never cooked okra this way until recently, despite the fact that for years some of our most dedicated okra customers have been Greek, and this is the way they make it. Most people associate okra with food from the Southern US (fried okra, gumbo, etc.), but it is a very popular food in most of the world other than Northern Europe and the northern US. It is widely consumed in Africa (where it originated), South-Eastern Europe, the Middle East, India, Southeast Asia and Japan.

¼ cup olive oil

2 large onions, finely sliced

1 pint tomato puree, plus a little water, if necessary

Scant pinch each of cumin, coriander and cinnamon (optional) 

1 generous pound of okra, stem removed but left whole

Salt & pepper

Heat the oil in a tall-shouldered wide skillet with a lid.  (I used a straight-sided 14” skillet). It’s a lot of oil, but don’t skimp. You want it to be swimming in oil by the end.

Add the onions and saute gently over medium heat until very soft and beginning to caramelize, about 10-15 minutes. Add the tomato puree, spices and okra and mix well. The okra should be packed into the pan and the liquid should not quite cover the okra. Add a little extra water if necessary. Bring to a simmer, cover and stew over low heat for 20 to 30 minutes. Adjust seasoning to taste. Serve warm, with rice, or at room temperature with bread as part of a spread of meze. It’s also great cold, just fished out of the leftover container and eaten with the fingers.

Is it slimy? Yeah, but in the best way possible.

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The heat wave brought some intense hot and dry weather to the valley last week. While it certainly stressed out a lot of plants and farmers alike, it was the perfect opportunity to get our garlic and a lot of our onions out of the field.

Due to the cold, wet spring we had—which seems like a distant memory now—the garlic harvest started a week later than usual, around the second week of July. The hot, dry conditions that ensued were perfect for harvesting garlic. If it’s wet and rainy during the harvest, the garlic might not dry properly. That was definitely not the case this year, and after a couple of weeks hanging in the loft, the garlic is good and dry and we’re now bringing cured garlic to markets. Check out last year's garlic harvest post for some arty work shots.

After we missed the promised rain last Monday, I saw my chance to field-cure some onions and shallots. So we started windrowing them on Tuesday (where we lay them out in the sun in rows) and by the end of the week they were ready to bring inside. We got to use the onion boxes that we made back in March, which are copies of boxes used on this and many other Valley farms back in the old days. (The one that Alissa & Brian are modeling in this photo is an original one that we found in the barn here. The new ones are visible behind.)

Now the barn is filling up: garlic in all the rafters and onions all over the floor in the loft. Now we just need to sell some and quick, so we can stop worrying about the loft collapsing! Although we hopefully will still have some to sell during the winter time.

Some of our favorite garlic and onion recipes can be found in The Vegetable Pages, like spaghetti with aglio, olio and pepperoncino, Greek salad, and green beans with red onion & vinaigrette. We'll be demonstrating how to make french fries with aioli at this year's Garlic & Arts Festival, Saturday, October 1 in Orange, MA.

The heat  is also pushing along our summer crops and we’re excited to start harvesting some new things. Tiny Padron peppers are a popular snack in Spain just tossed with olive oil and pan roasted or grilled. Once in a while you get a hot one, so watch out! (Martha likes them.)

We’re also psyched about our artichokes coming in. They look great and the flavor is so amazing. So different from the week-old ones we get from California. Here's a link to how to trim an artichoke for cooking. Now we need to get our own page on artichokes up!

And tomatoes are really starting to come in now so stay tuned….   

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Ingredients:

Cooking Oil (olive or other)

Mushrooms

Garlic or shallots or cipollini onions, usually not more than one of those

Ham, bacon or pancetta, optional

White wine, sherry, Port or Madeira, optional

Butter

Salt 

Parsley

Cream, optional

Heat the oil and mushrooms in a wide, heavy skillet over medium high heat. The mushrooms should all fit in the pan in a single layer with a bit of breathing room between them. (Otherwise, when the mushrooms start to heat up and release moisture, they will steam each other rather than brown.  If you have a lot of mushrooms to do, work in batches.) Sometimes I add some bacon as well (like 2 slices, max, diced pretty small), for that extra umami kick. Keep it moving but refrain from stirring constantly.

When the mushrooms have taken on some color and are about halfway through cooking, it’s time to add the garlic or shallot or onion and a nice knob of butter. I also usually salt and pepper them at this point. Keep sautéing them until the alliums are golden and caramelized and starting to stick to the pan. (If you had added the butter and garlic in the beginning, they would be too burned by the end.)

Now it’s time to add the wine. Stir until completely evaporated. Your pan will look greasy again like it did before. 

Just before turning off the heat add the minced parsley, not too much. If you want to turn this into a cream sauce, add the cream now, bring to a simmer and cook about 5 minutes longer. 

Now you can serve it with the starch of your choice. I like toasted white artisan style bread or fresh egg pasta like homemade tagliatelle. (I use the packaged Bionaturae brand pappardelle when I feel lazy.)

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Since the hurricane blew over there has been a sharp chill in the air and it’s got us thinking about soup. And eating a lot of it, too.

There are so many wonderful soups that one can create so simply from the colorful palette of autumn vegetables.  We love soups with beans. They are incredibly easy, and there are few better ways to enjoy the coarser greens like kale and escarole than tossing them into a rich bean soup. Just throw some onion and garlic in a pan, sauté for a bit and add some tomato puree and the soaked beans. Cover with water, bring to a boil, and away you go. No need to use stock because the beans make their own broth. Add the greens in the last 20 minutes so they don’t overcook.

Recently we’ve “discovered” a whole class of pureed soups that are based on water, sautéed onion, and potato. Add any vegetable you like to these three ingredients and you’ve got a simple soup that brings out its very essence. All you need is a few ingredients and an immersion blender and you can whip up an incredible variety of these soups in about a half an hour.

Perhaps the simplest of these is potato-leek soup. Just sauté the onion and leeks together, add cubes of peeled potato and water to cover, simmer until cooked, blend and finish with cream. Sprinkle a little chives or parsley and voila! Done.

Take this soup and substitute carrots for the leeks. Add a few slices of ginger if you like. Cauliflower makes the silkiest cream soup of them all. So easy. What about broccoli? Throw in some grated cheddar cheese after pureeing for the best cheddar-broccoli soup ever. Spinach? You bet. Go out and grab the last of the season’s sweet corn and use that, too. You can add some bacon at the beginning and leave it chunky if you like for delicious corn chowder.

Once you get the basic concept, it’s like a whole world is open to you.

It reminds me a lot of the recent Häagen-Dazs ice cream ad campaign. They have this new product line called “5” of ice creams made with just 5 ingredient s: milk, cream, sugar, eggs and fill in the blank. It’s a great concept. Less is more. Purity, simplicity, and variety.

For those of you who prefer written out recipes to descriptive ones, here’s a link to a classic Moosewood carrot soup with lots of variations.

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Napa Cabbage is great in stir fries of any kind. I love to make these curry flavored stir-fried rice noodles at home almost as much as I like ordering them in Chinese restaurants.

Recipe adapted from Rasa Malaysia

Ingredients:
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 tablespoon minced ginger
8 dried or fresh shiitake mushrooms
12 ounces of fine dry rice vermicelli (Wai Wai brand recommended)
2 stalks celery, sliced thin
2 cups napa cabbage, cut into fine ribbons
1 medium yellow onion, sliced thin
1 cup bean sprouts, rinsed and drained
8 green onions, root end trimmed, cut into 2-inch pieces
1 pound shrimp, peeled and deveined, or
1 pound char siu (Chinese barbecued pork), cut into matchsticks
4 tablespoons vegetable oil

For sauce:
3 tablespoons Madras (hot) curry powder
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 tablespoon minced ginger
1 cup chicken broth
4 tablespoons soy sauce
4 teaspoons granulated sugar
2 teaspoons hot chili paste
2 tablespoons vegetable oil

Method:
1) If using dried shiitake mushrooms, soak them in hot water for half an hour. Drain, then cut off the stems. Slice the mushrooms thinly.
2) Put the rice vermicelli in a large bowl and soak in enough hot water to cover, until the noodles are soft (about 8 to 10 minutes). Drain noodles and set aside.
3) Start by heating up 2 tablespoons of oil in a small pan over medium heat. Add the curry powder, the ginger, and the minced garlic, and saute until fragrant. Add the chicken broth, soy sauce, sugar, and chili paste. Stir to combine and then cover and cook for 5 minutes. Remove pan from heat and set aside.
4) Heat 2 tablespoons of oil in a large wok over high heat. Add in the remaining garlic and ginger, and stir-fry until the garlic starts to become golden. Add in the celery, onion, pepper, cabbage, sprouts, green onions, and mushrooms. Stir-fry for 3 minutes, until the vegetables start to soften. Set the vegetables aside in a bowl.
5) Heat the last 2 tablespoons of oil in the wok over high heat. Add in the shrimp and stir-fry until they start to turn pink on both sides. Or simply add the char siu and toss to combine.
6) Add in the noodles and the vegetables. Mix the ingredients thoroughly to coat all the noodles and incorporate all the vegetables.
7) Serve hot.

Note: you can buy an acceptable pre-cooked version of the Chinese pork at Trader Joe’s.

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• 2 tbsp. butter
• 1 tbsp. cooking oil
• 2 lbs. lean lamb shoulder (cut in 2-3 inch pieces, dusted with flour)
• 1 tbsp. sugar
• 1 large onion, peeled and chopped
• 3 cloves garlic, peeled and finely chopped
• 2 tbsp. flour
• 1 cup dry white wine
• 4 tomatoes, peeled and chopped
• 2 tbsp. tomato paste
• 2 cups chicken broth
• salt and pepper, to taste
• bouquet garni (2 sprigs thyme, 3 sprigs parsley, and 1 bay leaf—tied together)
• 8 small new potatoes, peeled
• 8 baby carrots, peeled
• 8 small turnips, peeled and halved
• 8 cipollini onions (peeled) and cut into bite-sized pieces
• 2 cups frozen peas

Preheat the oven to 350F. Heat oil and butter in a skillet over medium-high heat and brown the lamb. Sprinkle with the sugar on both sides and let brown for 2 minutes longer (that will give a nice caramelized touch). Transfer the lamb to a large oven-proof casserole dish. Reduce the heat to low and add the chopped onion and garlic and cook gently for about 8 minutes. Stir in the flour and cook until lightly colored (stir constantly). Add the wine and tomatoes. Cook for a few minutes, stirring constantly). Add the chicken broth and stir in the tomato purée. Season with salt and pepper. Bring to a boil and then pour over the meat in the casserole. Add the bouquet garni.

Cover with aluminum foil and bake for 45 minutes. Remove from the oven and add the all the vegetables except the peas. Cover and return to oven and bake for 30 minutes. Add the peas and cook for an additional 15 minutes. Discard the bouquet garni and serve straight from the casserole with a loaf of crusty French bread.

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“Toasting” the ingredients either on a grill, hot dry skillet (comal) or under the broiler until the skin chars gives this salsa its special character. Raw, it’s great for dipping tortilla chips; cooked, it becomes the red sauce found in the red or green squeeze bottles at a California burrito bar, great for squirting on just about anything.

Ingredients:
2 lb tomatoes
1 lb smallish onions (extra surface area)
1 large head garlic
3-4 chilies
1 bunch cilantro
lime juice (1-2 limes)
1 Tbsp sugar
1 Tbsp vinegar
1 tsp salt

Method:
Toast the ingredients on a hot surface until the skins are blackened: tomatoes and chilies are left whole; onions are quartered; garlic is left unpeeled as individual cloves. After toasting, “sweat” the tomatoes and chilies in a covered bowl or container so the skins loosen. Leave until cool, then peel and discard the skins. Peel the onions and garlic and scrape off any excess char.

Squeeze as much liquid out of the peeled tomatoes as possible. Blend or puree tomatoes, onions, garlic and chilies together in a blender or food processor. Add lime juice, vinegar, sugar and salt. Taste and adjust seasonings so that it tastes good to you. Personally I think the secret to a delicious salsa is the added sugar and vinegar. It really heightens the sweet-sour flavor of the tomatoes. Remember, this is a condiment, after all.

When making a red salsa, it is important to use only red, orange or yellow colored chilies. If you use green chilies, they will turn your salsa an unappealing puce color if blended with red tomatoes. If all you have is green chilies, chop them by hand and add to the rest of the pureed ingredients. Same goes for the cilantro: always hand-chop it rather than blending it. It makes for a much nicer appearance.

At this point the raw salsa is done. If you wish to make cooked salsa, heat a few tablespoons of cooking oil in your tomato sauce pan and add the sauce. Simmer until reduced by about 1/3 and thickened. It becomes a completely different sauce when cooked, turning and orangey red and having the pronounced sweetness of cooked onions.

Keep it for winter:
You can make a huge batch of this and can it, as I’m doing today, raw or cooked. Sterilize your pint jars, bring the salsa to a slight simmer and hot-pack the jars. Process in a boiling water bath for 15 minutes. The high acid and sugar content of this salsa makes it pretty foolproof and easy to can.

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Ingredients: tomatoes, cucumbers, onions. Method: cut them into small pieces, add oil and vinegar, serve immediately.

All around the world, and especially the Mediterranean, there is a class of lettuce-less salads based on tomatoes, cucumbers and onions that varies only slightly from place to place.

These salads just scream summer to me, and I wait all year for the moment to arrive when these three vegetables simultaneously come into season. Nothing could be easier to prepare than these simple chopped salads, and nothing could be more refreshing on a hot summer night than panzanella, horiatiki, or Israeli salad served alongside grilled zucchini, fish or skewered meats. Follow those links to recipes from some of our favorite food blogs. (Our recipes for these salads can be found on The Vegetable Pages.)  

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