Extraordinary Chicken Salad

I'm sure the tried and true chicken salad recipe has an infinite amount of variations. I developed a recipe that I really like based on the basic recipe and a little curry with a twist.

Read on...

Baby Zucchini Squash with Salmon in Alfredo Rosa

Salmon is our favorite fish. We has some left over from the meal we had the evening before Jenna left for college. We combined the left over fish with Alfredo sauce, heirloom tomatoes and baby yellow zucchini. Add pasta to combionnation.

Market Menu for Saturday, August 23, 2014

Sweeeeeet Corn and Candy Carrots the twin pillars of our summer table. We had a few hundred ears last week that sold out quickly. We had a family that buy 6 dozen ears directly from the farm to do some freezing. The wife said they didn't find a single bug in the whole batch, which is pretty good for corn grown organically with no sprays. We move the corn to a different field every year, which keeps the insects guessing. This coupled with a very severe winter means no bugs, we also had no Colorado potato beetles this year.

Our goal is a bushel of candy carrots every week until spring. We have a double electric fence around all the carrot patches to keep out the deer. It is kinda like guarding Fort Knox. Reed is the e-fence expert. He puts in the fence posts will the i-post driver.

Beautiful heirloom tomatoes are ripening at an accelerating rate. We have all been waiting with great anticipation for the field grown, vine ripened, and delicious gems of August.  We will have about 50 pounds this week and more to come.

Baby Zucchini available throughout the summer. Photo Credit: Reed Petersen

Reed took this colorful picture of our table of baby zucchini this last week. It was a patchwork quilt of green and gold. We will have hundreds of boxes of these delightful baby vegetables every week.

On Friday we carefully remove the squash blossoms from the zucchini. Squash blossoms remain a favorite at our market stand. Brian's post on 10 ways to use squash blossoms is the ultimate guide to this delicate taste of summer. You will never find these in the grocery store because they must be harvested and used fresh.

The basil is really doing well and we have been offering the gallon bags for the same price as lettuce this week.  Here is a post on 10 ways to use fresh basil.

We will have the following items at the Farmers Market for Saturday, August 23, 2014 (New items are in Bold Print)

The Zucchini Paradox

A paradox is a statement which apparently contradicts itself and yet might be true.

For example, consider the circumstance in which a father and son are driving down the highway. The car leaves the road and crashes into a tree and the father is killed. The boy is rushed to the nearest hospital where he is prepared for emergency surgery. On entering the surgery suite, the surgeon says, "I can't operate on this boy. He is my son."  Think about this for a minute and we will come back to the resolution at the end of this post.

One paradox we all know in the garden is the fact that summer squash or zucchini is one of the most productive of the garden plants and just a few plants can produce hundreds of pounds of zucchini in just a few days. Yet we plant several rows 300 feet long, roughly 1000 row feet of zucchini (enough to fill my pick-up several times a week) and we sometimes barely have enough to serve our customers. and this week ran out about half way through the farmers market. That is the paradox.

I will explain the paradox by first telling a story.

What seeds can I plant for a fall garden?

Along about the first of July the garden centers box up all their remaining seeds and send them back to the seed companies. But you know as a educated and well informed gardener that the season is far from over. In fact some of the best vegetables come from the fall garden.

I just got my fall seed order from Johnny's seeds in Maine. Let's talk about what you can plant from seed that will thrive in the fall.  Here is my top 10 list.

10 Ways to Use Fresh Basil

There is nothing better than fresh basil. Even non-Mediterranean Minnesotans are highly attracted to this very healthy food. We sell basil during the main growing season for the same price as lettuce. What a great deal. Like many things that are good for us we love the taste of basil. Here are 10 ways to use basil:

1. Pesto, one of the most popular. See our post on how to make your own fresh pesto.
2. Layer a few leaves on your hamburger as you grill or serve. Also looks great.
3. Pizza sauce. chop finely and add 1/2 cup to your favorite sauce. Also is good with a white sauce.
4. Pasta sauce. Add 1 cup finely chopped to your favorite sauce.

Squash Blossom Salsa

A wonderful combination of flavors and textures from unusual ingredients. We have a good supply of squash blossoms now at the farmers market.

Ingredients:

1/2 cup diced sweet onion
1 cup finely diced zucchini or patty pan squash
1 Roma tomato
1-inch piece of jalapeno (more to taste)
4 tablespoons cilantro leaves
1 clove garlic
4 squash blossoms
juice of half a lime

Directions:

1. Place onion, 1/2 of the squash, the tomato, Jalapeno, cilantro, lime juice, garlic and squash blossoms in a blender and blend until chunky
2. Pour 1 tablespoon of olive oil into a skillet and add remaining diced squash. Saute over medium heat for 3 minutes. Add the puree from the blender or food processor and cook for 3-5 minutes, until the salsa is thickened and any excess liquid had evaporated. Salt to taste and set aside to cool. Chill in refrigerator.

Serve with chips, quesadillas or tacos.

Kick It Up:

1. Add some corn.
2. Add more Jalapeno
3. Add more tomato
4. Make a bigger batch with more blossoms and proportionally more other ingredients.

Squash Blossom Soup (Yum!)

Squash blossom are one of the delightful treats of summer. They can be baked, fried, stuffed and sauteed. This recipe is for soup.

Ingredients:

1. 2 Tablespoons butter
2. 1 large white sweet onions, chopped into small pieces (Petersen's)
3. 3 cups chicken stock
4. 1 small Yukon gold potato, peeled and chopped (Petersen's)
5. 24 large squash blossoms (Petersens, large bag)
6. 2 poblano chilies, roast, peeled, deseeded and chopped finely (Petersen's)
7. 1 cup milk
8. 1 medium zucchini, chopped finely (Petersen's)
9. Kernels from a large ear of corn (Petersen's)
10. 1/2 cup heavy cream
11. kosher salt
12. Flat leaf parsley, chopped finely 

Instructions:

1. Warm butter on low heat until melted, increase heat to medium until butter is bubbling. Add chopped onion, stirring to coat. Cook until the onions are golden, stirring occasionally. Reserve half the onions and set aside.
2. Add chicken stock and chopped potato to the pot and bring mixture to a boil over medium-high heat. When boiling, lower the heat to low and simmer for 20 minutes
3. While simmering, prep squash blossoms. Break off stems, peel off sepals (the small leaves that grown from the base and pluck out the stamen. Discard stems, sepals and stamen. No need to be careful the blossoms will eventually be chopped up.
4. Divide the blossoms into two even piles then slice into 1/4 inch strips (include the blossom base). Add one pile of slices to the simmering stock and cook for 3 minutes. Carefully blend the mixture until smooth. I used my immersion blender. If you don't have one, use a blender, working small batches. Return the mixture back to the pot over medium heat.
5. Add the chopped, roasted poblano, milk and reserved onion to the soup, stirring to incorporate. Simmer for 10 minutes and then add zucchini and corn. Simmer for another 3 minutes, then add the other pile of sliced squash blossoms. Continue simmering for 2 minutes, then take the mixture off of the heat. Stir in cream and season to taste with kosher salt (several pinches).
6. Serve in soup bowls and finish with a sprinkle of chopped flat leaf parsley

Serves 6.

Adapted from recipe by Brandon Matzek.

The Baby Vegetable Farm

A young lady stood in front of our farmers market stand with a quizzical look on her face. Her face turned from puzzlement to a knowing look as she said, "You guys are the baby vegetable farm." She was looking at all the signs that read baby spinach, baby arugula, baby patty pan, baby zucchini, baby beet greens, baby onions, baby carrots, baby cilantro, baby potatoes, baby okra, baby squash blossoms, baby kale, etc.

So why do we harvest everything at the baby size? Because that is the way we like to eat them and we think you will too. We get asked a lot if we plant special designer varieties that are just baby. They say they have never seen vegetables so small that taste so good.

Generally the varieties are regular varieties that are just harvested small. So yes you have seen baby zucchini, you just didn't take the time to pick them small. When you harvest small you need more plants than normal. Like we plant 4 rows of zucchini 300 feet long to get 50 -75 pounds of baby patty pan or zucchini a week. (If you let them get larger, generally one week later, this amount of zucchini would fill my whole pickup.)

I love to harvest greens at the baby stage; they are just perfect for salads without additional prep, catering to the consumer who doesn't have a lot of extra time. The flavor, tenderness and presentation at this stage is truly amazing.

We also like the baby size potatoes, so much so that we crowd our potatoes to keep them small. You don't get the yield you could that way but the percentage of small potatoes is way more and the flavor is still great.

So our very astute and observant customer was on to something. We do have a lot of baby vegetables both by design and through serendipity (the serendipity stories are for another time).

A Minnesota Paella

I first had a paella at Nosh Restaurant in Lake City, Minnesota. It is one of Greg Jaworski's signature dishes and is typically on the menu in any season. Greg is a weekly customer at the Rochester Downtown Farmers Market and buys greens (spinach, spring mix, arugula, ruby sweet, cress, baby kale), patty pan and carrots from our stand during the season. I'd highly recommend Nosh Restaurant and Greg's paella to you.

We had the fresh ingredients on hand so I thought I would make a paella for supper Saturday night after the market last week. The paella is a rice dish that originated in Spain near Valencia. It is very popular and is often considered  to be Spain's national dish. There are many variations. Greg makes his paella with his own house sausage and seafood including clams. A typical paella also includes vegetables, beans, short grain rice, saffron and olive oil. Paella is derived from the Old French word for pan, which comes from the Latin word patella for pan as well (I put that in here because my children have had 6-7 years of Latin in school and I thought they might recognize it.) Traditional paella is cooked over an open fire, fueled by orange and pine branches with pine cones, which produces an aromatic smoke which infuses the paella (I didn't go quite that far for authenticity.)

Ingredients:

1. Saffron rice. (I just bought a Spanish saffron rice and followed the directions. You could also add turmeric to rice to get the golden color.) 2 cups
2. Patty Pan (Petersen's) 1/2 pint
3. Yellow Zucchini Summer Squash (Petersen's) 1/2 pint
4. Sweet Onion -minced (Petersen's) (1 large)
5. French Fillet Beans -cut in half, with stems and tips removed (Petersen's) 1/2 pound
6. Garlic Minced (Petersen's) 2 cloves
7. Italian Sweet Sausage (You can make your own or uses your favorite)
8. Large Shrimp - 1/2 pound
9. Cajun Style Andouille Sausage Links (cut into bit sized pieces)
10. Paprika - tsp
11. Turmeric - tsp
12. Salt - 1/2 tsp (optional)

Directions:

In a large sauce pan prepare the rice according to the directions on the package. Takes 30 minutes.

In a large skillet cook the sausage thoroughly, leave in 1 inch chunks, let caramelize a little on the outside. When the sausage is almost done add the onions, garlic and shrimp. Cook another 5 minutes until shrimp is done. Add the patty pan, zucchini, and green beans. Cook lightly, leaving the vegetables crunchy. Add paprika, turmeric and salt.

In an official paella you have a paella pan and put the rice in the bottom, stir with the vegetables and meat and cook on a open fire or in the oven for 5-10 minutes after combining all ingredients. You want the rice to scorch a little on the bottom. I didn't do that.

I served the rice and meat/vegetables separately in bowls, letting each family member select the quantity of each (I wasn't sure everyone would like everything). Reed really likes shrimp so he took a disproportionate amount of that. 

For this same meal, Jenna made leek fritters with lime and sour cream. That is for another post.

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)

How to Cook Squash Blossoms

We have  1500 row feet of summer squash. In addition to the zucchini and patty pan, we get a large quantity of blossoms. We get asked how to prepare blossoms a lot, so here are some ideas we think your will enjoy.

1. Batter fried - amazing flavor, but adds lots of calories for a low calorie food.
2. Stuffed with a flavored cream cheese
3. Stuffed with a flavored cheese, we like pepper jack
4. Sprinkled with your favorite seasoning or herbs
5. Dipped in egg and butter cracker crumbs
6. Raw
7. Sauteed with your favorite sauce.
8. Stuff with a pesto or aoli

For serving a large quantity efficiently we like to preheat the oven to 350 F and spray a cookie sheet or two with a nonstick coating. Then stuff the blossoms with your favorite concoction and sprinkle them with your best yummy herbs (we like rosemary and thyme). They can be done ahead of time and then popped into the oven on the cookie sheets so they are all done at the same time. Good for a family meal or for serving at a formal party.

We sell a quart bag of blossoms for $3. It can cost $7 at some of the better restaurants for an appetizer of 3-5 blossoms. So you can experiment to your hearts content and it doesn't need to cost very much.