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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Artichokes

Olive oil

Lemon juice

Salt & pepper

Trim the artichokes down to the heart. Start by peeling off all of the tough green petals. Then peel a few more. Less is more. Now trim the stem to 1 inch and peel the tough skin from it. Next, cut the top third of the artichoke off and slice it in half lengthwise. If the choke part is hairy, scrape it out with a spoon. Put the trimmed artichokes in a bath of acidulated water to retard the browning caused by oxidation.

Blanch the artichokes in boiling water for 5 minutes. Drain and toss with olive oil and lemon juice. Spread them out on a baking sheet, drizzle with some more oil, coarse sea salt and pepper, and broil until slightly charred. 

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(Pictured in top of frame)

These days I am really loving vegetable dishes that are part-salad and part-pickle. Salads made with sturdy vegetables like cabbage or cucumbers (unlike lettuce or field greens) actually improve by marinating in the fridge for a day or two. So if you don’t feel like eating it all right away it doesn’t go to waste. 

½ head of Tendersweet cabbage, very thinly sliced, preferably on a mandoline slicer

1 tsp salt

1 tsp sugar

Powdered red chile to taste (I like to use about 1 Tbsp Korean hot pepper powder. It is made from seeded red chili peppers and is intensely flavored without being too hot. It also gives a nice red color. Hungarian hot paprika would make a good substitute.) 

Juice of 1 lime

1 tsp white, rice or sugar cane vinegar, or more to taste

Silce the cabbage into a large bowl. Add salt and sugar and massage into the cabbage with your hand. Add the rest of the ingredients, mix and serve. It is best to wait at least 30 minutes for the cabbage to go fully limp and absorb the flavors. It can also be made a few days in advance also. Feel free to add any other ingredients you want like cilantro, onion, garlic, scallion, fresh chiles, etc. 

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I love tacos. There's nothing quite like that combination of fresh corn tortillas, crispy, fatty meat, pickled vegetables and cilantro. Before tomatoes are in season I like to make this spring version of pico de gallo using baby root vegetables, spring garlic or scapes, green onions and the first of the homegrown cilantro. 

I served this at my Wednesday lunch this week along with my goat meat tacos made with an amazing piece of goat shoulder from Wild Mountain Farm at our Tuesday Springfield market. FYI, I made the goat meat according to this method for making carnitas. I also made some cilantro cream to drizzle on top, which was truly a revelation. I took cilantro, garlic scapes and the juice of a lime and whizzed it with the stick blender with a pint of sour cream. It's like Mexican tzatziki.

Caroline just picked me up a new bag of pickling lime from the Greenfield Farmers Coop so I can make another fresh batch of masa for tortillas with the corn from last year. I'm so excited.

1 bunch baby carrots

1 bunch radishes or Japanese turnips

1/2 bunch spring garlic or a handful of scapes

1 bunch scallions or spring onions

fresh or frozen chili peppers to taste (I used 3 Thai chilies from the big bag in my freezer) 

1/2 bunch cilantro

juice of 1 lime

1 tsp salt

1 Tbsp vinegar

1 Tbsp sugar

Dice the vegetables and herbs into small cubes. Add, salt, lime juice, vinegar, sugar and stir. Good the next day, too.

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Last week the New York Times printed a recipe in their food section for a spring vegetable-inspired version of puttanesca. While the recipe sounded pretty good to me, the fresh, seasonal ingredients seemed an insult to the character of puttanesca. 

Puttanesca, named for the Neapolitan prostitutes who supposedly made pasta this way, is traditionally spaghetti with a sauce of tomatoes, chilies, anchovies, capers and olives. Its beauty lies in the fact that it can be made from what you already have in the pantry. Apparently, the prostitutes worked at night and slept too late to get to the market before the produce stalls had been packed up. But that didn’t stop their creativity in the kitchen.

So why put all those fresh flavors of spring in there, straight from the farmers’ market? 

Why not put them into a carbonara? After all, carbonara (named for charcoal makers who work in the winter and early spring in the forests) is an egg emulsion. And egg emulsions are classically employed to dress up springtime delicacies. 

Asparagus and hollandaise anyone? How about some spinach on those Eggs Benedict? So why not spring garlic (or spinach or asparagus, for that matter) in your carbonara? I love spring garlic with eggs! 

And it seems to me that if those Apennine wood cutters found a way to keep some pigs and chickens around, they most certainly would have planted themselves a little patch of garlic, too. 

A quick perusal of the internet turned up this recipe for a garlic scape-based carbonara from the very nice Italian cooking blog Sarah’s Cucina Bella:

Garlic Scape Carbonara

• 1/2 lb campanella pasta, or shape of your choosing
• 4 slices bacon (about 3 1/4 ounces), chopped
• 1/4 cup chopped garlic scapes (or spring garlic)
• 2 large eggs
• 1/4 tsp kosher salt
• 1/4 tsp red pepper flakes
• 1/2 cup freshly grated Romano cheese

Set a pot of water to boiling on the stove and cook the campanella pasta (or desired shape).

While it’s cooking, cook the bacon over medium heat until browned. Remove the bacon pieces with a slotted spoon and add the garlic scapes. Cook until soft (2-3 minutes). Remove from the pan with a slotted spoon. (Drain both the bacon and the garlic scapes on a paper towel).

Whisk together the eggs, salt and red pepper flakes.

When the pasta is done, quickly remove it from the stove and set a different burner to low heat. Drain the pasta and add it back to the pot, on the burner set to low. Stir in the garlic scapes and bacon. Add the egg mixture and stir feverishly for 3-4 minutes until sauce is thick and creamy. Don’t let it overcook or it will be gloppy. Sprinkle the romano cheese in, a little at a time, and stir to combine. Don’t add it all at once or it won’t mix throughout the pasta as well (since it will clump).

Serve immediately.

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I have been making good use of this recent stretch of summer-like weather to do some serious grilling on my little hibachi. I’ve been making real wood fires and supplementing with natural hardwood charcoal. (Oliver likes to help.) I use regular cordwood to make the fire, splitting it with my boy scout axe into small sticks. You can make a pretty amazing grilling fire with a single chunk of wood. 

In the past year I have also learned to use my freezer as an important tool to stockpile fresh foods at their peak of seasonality and enjoy them whenever I want throughout the year. It’s awesome. You take something that’s only available once a year and turn it into convenience food. And it’s so easy. Everyone should do it. A chest freezer costs like $200. (Much, much more to come on this subject.)

For this recipe I combined our freshly picked green shallots with locally grown ginger from Casey and Missy of Old Friends Farm in Amherst that I bought in November of last year and Maine shrimp that I bought in quantity when they were on sale in January. It took all of 10 minutes to prepare (apart from the enjoyment I got out of stretching out the grilling process and knocking back a few cold ones).  Here’s the recipe (with a nod to David Chang).

½ lb raw shrimp

4 scallions, finely chopped

1 Tbsp fresh ginger, finely grated

1 Tbsp vegetable oil

1 ½ tsp vinegar of your choice

1 ½ tsp soy sauce

Peel shrimp and thread them onto skewers. (It helps to soak the skewers in water so they don’t ignite on the grill.) Set aside. Mix the remaining ingredients together in a small bowl. Brush the shrimp with oil (or spray ‘em with Pam) and grill them over a hot fire until just cooked through, 3-5 minutes tops. Take them off, pour the sauce over them, and consume them immediately. This makes a nice little snack before you break out the serious meat. 

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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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Photo by Candace Hope

In the first apartment I ever had, when I was 18 years old, a vegetarian, and new to cooking, I made this at least twice a week. The recipe has evolved somewhat since then, but the basic concept is the same: noodles, peanut sauce, fried tofu, and vegetables. It’s also my favorite thing to order at two of my favorite local restaurants: The People’s Pint and The Lady Killigrew. Always fills you up. Never lets you down. 

1 lb pasta: whole wheat spaghetti, buckwheat soba, or udon noodles

Peanut sauce: 2/3 cup natural peanut butter
¼ cup tahini sesame paste
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 hot chilies, minced, or 1 tsp cayenne
3 Tbsp soy sauce or 2 Tbsp soy and a heaping spoonful of miso paste
2 Tbsp sugar
2 Tbsp sesame oil 1/2 -1 cup water, to thin the sauce

Garnishes:
Fried tofu slices Blanched broccoli florets
Shredded cabbage
Shredded carrots
Sliced radishes
Sliced cucumber
Chopped scallions
Chopped cilantro 

Method:
Boil the pasta until al dente, drain and rinse in cold water to stop the cooking. Toss with a little  sesame oil and set aside.

Prepare the sauce by mixing together all the ingredients and diluting it with lukewarm water to the desired consistency. It should be moderately thick: thin enough to coat the pasta without clumping but not at all runny.

For the fried tofu, cut a block of firm or extra firm tofu into thin (3/16”) slices. Dip the slices in soy sauce and fry them in hot canola oil until crispy, turning once, like you would fry bacon. Drain on paper towels and chop coarsely into bite sized pieces. Put in a serving dish on the table.

Toss the sauce with the noodles and serve each person clump in a large bowl. Prepare the rest of the vegetables and herbs and arrange artfully on the table for the diners to serve themselves. 

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Potatoes and peppers are a really amazing combination. When I was working on an olive farm in Italy, the grandmother would heat up a big pot of their oil (the best and freshest I've ever had) and fry potatoes in it. Then she would fry whole peppers in the same oil and when they were cooked, slip the skins off. Then she would put everything in a pan together and let it bubble away on the stove so the flavors melded together. This version is a simpler preparation that gives similar delicious results.

• 2 lbs potatoes
• 2 lbs sweet peppers
• 1 lb or less plum tomatoes
• 1-3 heads garlic
• ½ cup Olive oil
• Salt & Pepper

This dish takes advantage of all the flavors of summer.  Cut potatoes into bite sized wedges for roasting.  Cut the peppers into quarters or wide strips (you want them in fairly large pieces).  Cut the tomatoes into halves or quarters.  Peel the garlic cloves and leave whole.  Put everything into a large mixing bowl and start pouring on the olive oil, salt and pepper.  Mix well and spread it all out in a single layer of a baking sheet or two.  Bake in a very hot 450° oven for 45 minutes to an hour, scraping and turning every so often, until the potatoes are golden and tender and the peppers and tomatoes have dissolved into a concentrated, smoky tasting sauce and everything is floating in oil.  You could add some fresh rosemary to this dish if you wanted, to no ill effect.

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2 lbs summer squash, cut into the shape of french fries
1 cup flour, more or less
1 lager beer
1 tsp salt
canola oil for frying

Mix the flour, beer, and salt together to form a thin batter.  Heat about ¼ inch of oil in your favorite skillet. Coat the squash sticks in batter and add to the oil in batches, flipping as necessary to crisp all sides. Drain on a paper towel and sprinkle with salt. Serve as an appetizer with drinks.

Greek-Style Spicy Marinara
3 Tbsp olive oil
2-3 cloves garlic, minced
1 hot chili pepper, chopped into small pieces
1 pint tomato puree
1 Tbsp lemon juice
1 tsp dried oregano
1 tsp salt

Heat the oil in the pan you use for tomato sauce. Saute the garlic briskly until it just starts to brown, add the chilies and stir briefly without inhaling. Add the puree, lemon, oregano and salt and bring to a simmer. Cook it 5-10 minutes until it thickens slightly.

Cheater’s version: Combine 1 pint tomato puree in a bowl with 2 Tbsp chunky Sriracha chili-garlic sauce (the one with the green screw top), lemon juice, oregano and salt and serve directly. This is how we made it last Wednesday at farm crew lunch and it was thoroughly enjoyed by all. We had some leftover batter so we decided to make onion rings as well with our sweet tropea onions. Wow were those ever good.  

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