How to Plant Shallots

Jennna was planting shallots today. Unlike garlic, where you want to pick the biggest cloves. It is Okay to plant the smaller shallots, so by this time of the year that is what we mostly have left.

Here is how you plant.

Shallots Caramelized with Maple Syrup

Caramelized shallots with maple syrup go extremely well with chicken breast, on fish, or on a simple hamburger.

Here is the recipe.

Shallot & Carrot Cake

This is a great carrot cake recipe from the Penzey Spices catalog. The shallot add a subtle sweet flavor.

Ingredients:

• 2 cups flour
• 2 cups sugar
• 2 tsp baking soda
• 2 tsp. baking powder
• 2 tsp Penzeys cinnamon
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 1/2 cups vegetable oil
• 4 large eggs
• 3 cups finely grated candy carrots (about a pound)
• 1/2 cup chopped walnuts
• 1/2 pound shallots
• 2 tablespoons butter

Frosting:

• 8 oz light cream cheese, softened\
• 1/2 cup butter (1 stick)
• 1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract
• 1 pound powdered sugar
• 1/2 cup chopped pecans

Directions:

• Preheat oven to 350F. Grease and flour 2 9-inch round pans and set aside.
• Saute shallots in 2 tablespoons of butter and cool to room temperature
• In a large bowl , sift together the flour, sugar, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon, and salt.  Add the oil and stir until blended.  Add the eggs, carrots, shallots, and walnuts and mix well. Divide the batter between the two pans and bake at 350F for 45 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. If you use a 9x13 pan, bake for 60 minutes. Let cool completely before frosting.
• In a mixing bowl, cream together the cream chees butter until fluffy. Add the vanilla and sugar gradually, and beat until thoroughly blended.  Fold in the pecans. Spread over the cooled cake.

Serves: 12-15

Shallots in a Quick Greek Pasta Salad

A healthy salad seasoned with shallots that will spice up your taste buds. You can add optional rib eye steak or chicken breast to make it a meal. When I made this I used what I had on hand and added red bell peppers and fresh tomatoes at the very end so they didn't get mushy.

Ingredients:

• 8 onces whole wheat penne pasta
• 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
• 2 tablespoons butter
• 1 tablespoon minced garlic
• 1/2 pound shopped shallots (Petersens)
• 1 tablespoon soy sauce
• 1/2 cup sun-dried tomatoes diced (Petersens)
• 1/2 cup sliced black olives (optional)
• 1 cup chopped fresh spinach (Petersens)
• 1 cup chopped red bell pepper (Petersens)
• 1 teaspoon basil pesto (I made extra and froze some from this summer)
• 1 tablespoon chopped parsley
• 1/2 cup crumbled feta cheese
• 1/4 cup pine nuts or sun flower seeds
• Optional: Rib Eye Steak or Free Range Chicken Breast

Directions:

• Bring a large pot of lightly salted water to a boil. Add pasta and cook for 8-10 minutes until al dente. Drain and toss with olive oil, keep warm.
• Melt 1 tablespoon butter in a skillet over medium heat. Saute shallots and garlic. Stir in soy sauce, and cook a few seconds longer.
• Remove the skillet from the heat and stir in the sun-dried tomatoes, olives, spinach, basil, feta cheese, and pine nuts. Toss with pasta in a large bowl and serve.
• Add optional rib eye steak or free range chicken breast.

Shallot, Carrot, and Parmesan Fritters

Shallot, carrot and parmesan fritters are a delightful start to any meal. They are smaller more bite sized, but remind me a lot of apple fritters, with a deliciously different flavor. The extra egg and tablespoon of baking powder make a very light fritter. Shallots and carrots are in good supply at our farmers market booth year around.

Ingredients:

• 1/4 - 1/2 lb shallots, diced
• 1 cup grated carrots, use our candy carrots for a sweeter fritter
• 1 1/2 cup flour, this does not have to be a wheat flour
• 2 tbsp butter
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 1/2 tsp fresh chopped thyme
• 2 tbsp baking powder
• 2 large free range eggs, beaten
• 3/4 cup milk
• 3/4 cup parmesan cheese, grated
• 1/4 tsp black pepper, fresh ground
• coconut oil for frying

Instructions:

• Saute shallots with butter over medium heat until golden and sweet, that should take about 6 minutes. Remove from the heat, then cool to room temperature. Combine dry ingredients and wisk in the egg and milk and mix until smooth. Stir in the shallot mixture, cheese and pepper. Adjust flour to a thick consistency.
• Heat oil to 350F. Scoop the batter in tablespoon quantities into the hot oil and cook until golden, about 1-2 minutes. Drain to paper towels and keep warm while you cook the remiaing batter. Season and serve.

Optional Dipping Sauces:

• Combine 1/4 cup of raspberry jam with 2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar and 1 teaspoon dark sesame oil. Mix together.
• Combine 1/4 cup of jalapeno jam with 2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar, and 1 teaspoon olive oil. Mix together.
• Combine 1/4 cup poblano relish, 1/4 cup raspberry jam and Greek yogurt.  Mix together. This was my favorite and what I used when I made fritters.
• The fritters would also be great with a sugar glaze or powdered sugar.

What is a Shallot and How to Select a Good One?

Welcome to shallot week. This week on the blog we will describe shallots and their uses.

Shallots are a member of the allium family. The allium family contains some very popular root crops like onions, garlic and leeks. Shallots are often seen as a small mild onion, but they are really their own species.

They are started early in the spring from shallots saved from the previous year.

Shallot History

They originate in the mediterranean area. Botanically they are named Allium ascalonicum, this name comes from the city of Ascalon in Palestine, where they originated. Historians think the De Soto brought shallots to the new world during is exploration of the Louisiana territories. The shallot is popular in French cooking.

How to Select Shallots.

Shallots have golden brown scales that cover the light purple layers of firm crunchy flesh. Select shallots that are firm, large, and heavy for their size. Avoid shallots that are sprouting as they are  more bitter.

How to Store Shallots

Shallots keep extremely well and we often sell the last of our shallots almost a year after they are harvested. Many of the shallots have two lobes surrounded by a common wrap of scales. These are often large and easy to peel and use. They are the preferred selection in the fall and winter. The single lobe shallots keep longer however and though smaller are the ones that we save to plant in the spring.

What Do Shallots Taste Like

Shallots have less of a sulfer and bitter taste than onions. They have a onion taste with a hint of garlic. As cooked, they are sweeter and have a great flavor.

When to Use Shallots

Because they are milder, shallots are often used when they are going to be used raw. Shallots are also great with vegetables that are mild in themselves and can benefit from the seasoning effect of an allium but might be too strong if garlic is used. When cooked slowly shallots have a melt in your mouth sweetness. Because of this sweetness shallots are the darling of chefs and gourmet cooks at home.

Remember to remove the papery scales from the outside of the shallot before cooking.

We will have shallots and onions from fall to spring this year,

10 Reasons I Like Fall

My farmer dad says that fall is his favorite season. I think he said that because he finally got to harvest all the stuff he worked so hard to grow that year.

1) Salsa Freak - Tomatoes, Peppers and Onions (see our simple recipe)
2) Candy Carrots - The adage is frost on the pumpkins, but we like frost on the carrots.
3) Leeks, Onions and Shallots "Oh My"
4) Heirloom Tomatoes for BLT's
5) Watermelon - 15 varieties
6) Winter Squash
7) Winter Luxury Pie Pumpkins
8) Cool Weather
9) Planting Garlic
10) Fall Broccoli

Baby Patty Pan, Zucchini and Kale White Sauce

I made a delightful white sauce with very small Patty Pan and Zucchini squash, Baby Kale and Sweet Onions last weekend. We will have all of these at our market stand this week. I used Ricotta cheese as the base for the sauce. You can get hand made pasta at the Farmer's Market, or use any pasta you wish. I used bow tie pasta as I had that on hand.

It was very good, give it a whirl.

Ingredients:

1 box of patty pan squash (Petersen's)
1 box of baby zucchini squash, tips and stems remove and sliced into bite sized pieces (Petersen's)
Large bag of baby kale (Petersen's)
Large Sweet Onion, diced (Petersen's)
8 oz of Low Fat Ricotta Cheese
1 cups of low fat milk
white pepper to taste
salt to taste
pinch of cayenne or chipotle pepper
1 clove of garlic, minced (Petersen's)
1 tsp of arrow root starch or corn starch dissolved in a small amount of cold water
1 tablespoon olive oil
1/2 pound pasta of your choice (bow tie, spiral, penne)

Directions:

Prepare pasta of choice and drain while finishing sauce (most pastas take 8-10 minutes to cook)

Saute onion with olive oil and garlic. When on)ion is starting to soften add patty pan and zucchini. Cook about 2 minutes (don't over cook squash). Stir in Ricotta cheese and milk, salt, pepper and cayenne. Warm up to where it just starts to bubble, add arrow root starch to thicken. Bring back to a simmer and add kale. Wilt kale and gentle stir into the sauce. Serve over pasta.

Kick It Up:

Serve Over Potatoes (Petersen's)
Serve Over Saffron Rice
Serve Over Seafood like scallops or shrimp
Add a little more cayenne.
Add some fresh Rosemary (Petersen's)
Add some fresh Basil instead of Kale, price is the same at our stall (Petersen's)
Add some fresh Thyme (Petersen's)
Add more garlic or several shallots. (Petersen's)

Shallots: the Jewel of the Allium Family

If garlic is the rose and onions are the pearl, then shallots are the jewel of the Allium family. We picked a few shallots for market this week, they are getting close to full maturity. They are beautiful big shallots. We typically plant in a double row like we do onions and we used lots of organic fertilizer. One of the rows was planted to a single row and had the benefit of enough fertilizer for two, so the shallots are really jumbo in that row.

Shallots have the delicate garlic flavor that the gourmet chefs love to use to give dishes that light fresh taste so unique to shallots. They don't yield as well as onions so they are a little more expensive but they are well worth it. Fresh shallots are amazing.

Starting this week we will have new crop shallots. We just finished the last of the shallots from 2012 so they keep amazingly well. Very few sprout at normal conditions, unlike onions, that often sprout if the conditions aren't just perfect. Yet they know when to grow very quickly when planted in the soil in the spring.

We keep our own shallots for seed from year to year. I got the original seed from Peaceful Valley Farm Supply, in Grass Valley, CA about 10 years ago. They are French shallots. Unlike garlic where you want to plant the biggest cloves possible, small shallots can grow several large shallots the next year if given excellent conditions.

I see in the seed catalogs you can start shallots from seed but I have never tried it. Seems like they'd not have enough time to size up. But I can't speak from experience. When you grow shallots from shallots you keep from the previous year that is called a set, just like it is for onions; which make them identical.

Shallots are a green leafy plant that likes extra nitrogen for the first 1/3 of the growing season. Then when we hit the long days near the end of June the shallots become storage machines and really start putting on the pounds. We back off on the fertilizer and watch the amazing transformation. They need an inch of water a week until the last two weeks before harvest, when they need to dry down and cure.

I'll include some recipes using shallots in future blogs.

Shallots

We planted about 30 lbs of shallots this year. We use the same double row method that we do for onions and leeks. Shallots keep phenomenally well compared to onions. We have very little sprouting even through the end of July. We need to get the shallots planted by the end of May or they won't have time to size up properly before fall. We use a good amount of organic fertilizer in the rows as shallot
are essentially a green top plant before the bulbs start to enlarge.

We sort out the jumbo shallots and offer them at  the market through July.  By marketing them through the summer we have shallot coverage through nearly the whole season. This is pretty amazing when you think about it. They store at nominal conditions for nearly 10 months. Wow that is pretty amazing.

We planted some single file rows with a little extra fertilizer to get a few extra jumbo shallots.

Shallots don't compete with weeds very well so we weed them diligently all season long.

We start harvesting around labor day. Let them dry and cure in a shady place. Then sort them into baskets or apple boxes. They keep well in a cool dry place such as a shelf in the garage or basement.

That brings us full circle to the next year. Plant, weed, harvest and repeat.

I bought the shallot seed we are currently using over 10 years ago. The variety does well in our climate and has held up well from year to year. Shallots are a clone of the parent material similar to potatoes. So there are no population requirements to maintain the genetic diversity.

If we get a rain in the next week or so they will start to root and sprout. Somehow they know they are in the soil and not in storage. They will be up in 7 to 10 days.

Cilantro Recipes - Cilantro Skillet Potatoes

Wow cilantro from the garden already, it will only be a few weeks before we will have those beautiful red potatoes. The two together are dynamite.

Ingredients:

- Fresh cilantro leaves, 1 bag (Petersen's)
- 1 garlic clove or garlic powder or on shallot (Petersen's)
- 1/4 cup olive oil or 1/2 stick of butter
- 2 lbs,Baby Red potatoes washed and cubed (Yukon Gold is OK too) (Petersen's)
- salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

In a large cast iron skillet, cook the potatoes and oil until tender and lightly brown about 20 minutes. Add cilantro and garlic and stir for another 5 minutes. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Serves 4.