Caramelized Leeks

June 8, 2011 in Recipes by Leslie | 1 comment

Prep Time: 20 minutes
Cooking Time: 40 minutes
Serves: 4

Ingredients:
2 medium leeks
½ tbsp soft brown sugar
1 tbsp olive oil
Salt and pepper
1 knob of butter
Chopped parsley

Instructions:

  • Trim off the root and top edges of the leeks, leaving the green part intact. Split lengthwise and wash each layer very thoroughly (leeks can be quite gritty if not thoroughly washed.)
  • Heat the olive oil and butter together over gentle heat; when melted and blended add the leeks and toss well. Cook slowly for about ten minutes or until the leeks start to soften.
  • Sprinkle over the sugar and mix once the sugar starts to melt; continue to cook for about 15-20 minutes, adding a small amount of hot water if the mixture starts to stick.
  • The oriental origin of this recipe makers it ideal to serve with egg noodles. The leeks can be served either over a bed of noodles and garnished with the parsley, or the ingredients can be mixed together.

Source: Riverford Organic Vegetables

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Leek Bread Pudding

June 8, 2011 in Recipes by Leslie

Adapted by the New York Times from “Ad Hoc at Home” by Thomas Keller (Artisan, 2009)

Time: 2 1/2 hours (1 hour for preparation and 1 1/2 hours for baking)

2 cups 1/2-inch-thick slices leeks, white and light green parts only, cleaned and rinsed
Kosher salt
4 tablespoons (2 ounces) unsalted butter
Freshly ground black pepper
12 cups 1-inch-cubed crustless brioche or Pullman loaf
1 tablespoon finely chopped chives
1 teaspoon fresh thyme leaves
3 large eggs
3 cups whole milk
3 cups heavy cream
Freshly grated nutmeg
1 cup shredded Comté or Emmenthaler cheese.

  1. Place a medium sauté pan over medium-high heat, drain excess water from leeks, and add to pan. Season with salt, and sauté until leeks begin to soften, about 5 minutes, then reduce heat to medium-low. Stir in butter. Cover and cook, stirring occasionally, until leeks are very soft, about 30 minutes. Adjust salt and pepper to taste.
  2. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. While leeks are cooking, spread bread cubes on a baking sheet and bake until dry and pale gold, about 20 minutes, turning pan about halfway through. Transfer to a large bowl, leaving the oven on.
  3. Add leeks, chives and thyme to the bowl of bread; toss well. In another large bowl, lightly whisk the eggs, then whisk in milk, cream, a generous pinch of salt, pepper to taste and a pinch of nutmeg.
  4. Sprinkle 1/4 cup shredded cheese in bottom of a 9-by-13-inch baking pan. Spread 1/2 of bread mixture in pan, and sprinkle with another 1/4 cup cheese. Spread remaining bread mixture in pan, and sprinkle with another 1/4 cup cheese. Pour in enough milk mixture to cover bread, and gently press on bread so milk soaks in. Let rest 15 minutes.
  5. Add remaining milk mixture, letting some bread cubes protrude. Sprinkle with salt and remaining cheese. Bake until pudding is set and top is brown and bubbling, about 1 1/2 hours. Serve hot.

Yield: 12 servings as a side dish.

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Subscriber Orientation & First Pickup June 1

May 21, 2011 in CSA, News by Leslie

Wednesday, June 1 5:30-7:30 pm

Hors D’oeuvres • Lots of New Information • Garden Tour • First Produce Pickup

CSA subscribers: You are invited to bring your family and join us for an evening at the farm. See your summer vegetables growing! Taste a leaf of sweet Fennel or sour Sorrel as you stroll the fields. (No dogs please. Our chickens and peacocks are free-ranging) It is quite important that at least one member of each subscriber household attend. After this meeting, our pickups will be on a self-serve basis and must run smoothly for everyone to get his/her share of the just-harvested bounty.

We’ll explain the system at the orientation, as well as sign you up for bread, cheese or egg shares, or other delectable additions to our own farm’s harvest, if you’re interested. Each of these is an add-on to the CSA, a delicious way to support local producers, and an opportunity to collect an even more abundant basket each week.

Your first vegetables of this season will be ready for you to take home. The distribution will come at the end of the evening for new subscribers. Returnees may pay their balance, grab veggies and go if you like. Bring a bag or box to carry your bounty down the driveway. Please park on Midway or in the designated pasture area halfway up the drive. Our parking area at the orientation site is limited, please, to those who cannot make the 100-yard walk up the hill.

Your final payment will be due at the orientation. Most full shares have already paid a $250 deposit—the balance is $400. Split shares sent a $150 deposit and have $350 remaining. Checks should be made payable to Persephone Farm.

Rebecca, Louisa, Bill and our apprentices are very excited to see this program starting for another glorious season. We look forward to meeting all our new subscribers and seeing the familiar faces of friends and neighbors.

PERSEPHONE (Greek Goddess of Spring, Flowers, and Rebirth)

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Chinese Cabbage for Lunch

May 17, 2011 in Recipes by Leslie

Chinese cabbage with black bean sauce

Rinsed Chinese cabbage

Steaming the cabbage

Today I got a small head of Chinese cabbage from the farm. Rebecca says its “Blues” Chinese cabbage from Fedco Seeds. Fedco Seeds is her favorite seed company, both for their products as well as their vision. Fedco is a cooperative and offers a large selection of certified organic cultivars and regional heirloom varieties.

So back to lunch… I’m not a hardcore foodie, if I’m going to cook it’s got to be simple and easy, especially at lunchtime. I’m a fan of prepared condiments and sauces. In this dish I used prepared Chinese black bean sauce, and Sriracha hot chili sauce for a little spice (find both in the Asian section of your grocery store, Central Market in Poulsbo has a good selection.

Easy Chinese Cabbage with black bean sauce

  • Rinse and chop cabbage
  • Heat a small amount of water in a large pan
  • Add the cabbage and steam for a couple of minutes until it wilts and the most of the water cooks away
  • Add a couple of heaping teaspoons of black bean sauce and cook a minute or two more
  • Stir in a drizzle of sesame oil
  • Top with hot chili sauce to taste

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Wild and Fancy Salad Greens – Oh yes!

May 13, 2011 in CSA, News by Leslie

Persephone Farm's Wild & Fancy Salad Greens

Persephone Farm is very proud of their salad greens. Rebecca considers them their “signature product”, the first (and most unique) offering the farm produces. She says…

“We started the mix way back in 1991, before the baby salad green craze was even a notion. One thing I like to say about our Wild and Fancy salad mix is that it was never meant to be merely a platform for dressing (as is the case with so many bland dumbed down salad mixes these days.) We strive to have an exciting mouth feel, a variety of flavors, textures and leaf shapes in every batch. We painstakingly comb the fields for wild crafted ingredients in every picking. Some of these are: chick weed, lambs quarters, wild amaranth, (lemony) sheep sorrel, purslane, wild cress, cheese weed, and dandelion greens. It is my belief that these plants offer us nutritional and medicinal benefits not often found in cultivated crops. They are here in symbiosis with us humans, co-evolving to benefit both plant and animal species. Not to mention that they offer unique and special flavors not found in commercial mass produced greens mixes.”

Oh yes! I can testify, this is very tasty stuff—so many textures and flavors of green goodness. A light dressing of olive oil & lemon juice, a bit of shaved Reggiano Parmesano on top and viola, that’s serious good eats (as Alton Brown would say). Oh, you can try to forage around your own yard (I have), but it’s so much easier to pick some up from Rebecca at the Bainbridge Farmer’s Market or better yet, become a CSA subscriber.

Persephone Farm’s Wild and Fancy salad greens are served at many fine restaurants, among them The Four Swallows, Hitchcock, The New Rose Cafe at Bainbridge Gardens and The Port Gamble General Store. Subscribers often get a bag in their weekly share and can add-on extra salad greens if they choose. Buon appetito!

Fields of greens (wild & fancy)

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Stinging Nettle Pesto

May 6, 2011 in Recipes by Leslie

Spring nettles

Spring nettles, eat, but don't touch

Nettles? Yes, stinging nettles. The Farm is offering them at the Bainbridge Farmers market while they’re still young and tender. Use gloves to handle raw nettles. Once it’s steamed or boiled briefly it looses the sting, use nettles like other spring greens or spinach. Try some nettle pesto…

Famous food forager, Langdon Cook, has a great nettle pesto post here on his Fat of the Land Blog.

Here’s our recipe adapted from ‘Lucid Food: Cooking for an Eco-Conscious Life‘ by Louisa Shafia

1/4 pound stinging nettles
1 clove garlic, minced
1/2 cup pine nuts
1/2 cup olive oil
2 tablespoons lemon juice
1/2 cup grated Parmigiano Reggiano cheese
Salt and freshly ground black pepper

  • Put the nettles in boiling salted water for 1 minute. Drain and let cool.
  • Squeeze out as much of the water as possible and coarsely chop.
  • In a food processor process the nettles with the garlic, pine nuts, oil, and lemon juice until smooth.
  • Transfer to a bowl and fold in the cheese. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

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