glacier grist

Issue #10 • Thursday, December 04, 2008

HAPPY DECEMBER!

10 December 2008 box contents:
from Alaska’s Glacier Valley Farm and VanderWeele Farm:
Alaskan Yukon Gold potatoes |  Alaskan green cabbage |  Alaskan carrots

from Outside:
certified organic butternut squash |  certified organic celery |  certified organic broccoli |  certified organic Bartlett pears |  certified organic pomegranate |  certified organic Navel oranges |  conventionally-grown Honeycrisp apples

PLEASE RETURN YOUR BOXES!

recipes

for glacier grist Issue #10

Print Recipes

butternut squash soup w/ apple confit

This is one of my very favorite soups, and it’s one of my favorite things to do with squash! It’s based on a recipe in Annie Sommerville’s Fields of Greens.  Make the stock with the vegetable trimmings the day before you make the soup, or just before you make the soup.

The Easy Vegetable Stock

squash seeds and peels
1 large onion
3 large carrots
3 celery ribs
8 garlic cloves, peeled and smashed
4 bay leaves
sea salt or kosher salt

1. Scrub the vegetables and chop them roughly into 1-inch chunks. Toss them in a soup pot with 1 teaspoon salt, and add 2 quarts of water.
2. Bring everything to a boil. Lower the heat and simmer, uncovered for 30 minutes. Strain.

The Soup

4-5 cups easy vegetable stock
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 large or 2 medium onions, thinly sliced
Sea salt or kosher salt
White pepper
¼ cup white wine
4 pounds butternut squash, peeled, seeded, and cut into large cubes
1 tablespoon butter or olive oil
2 sweet red apples, peeled, cored, and sliced
½ cup apple juice

1. Heat the olive oil in a soup pot and add the onion, ½ teaspoon salt and a pinch of pepper. Saute over medium-high heat until the onions are slightly caramelized, about 15 minutes. Deglaze the pan with most of the white wine.
2. Add the squash and 1 teaspoon of salt to the onions. Add just enough stock to barely cover the squash (about 2 cups); the squash breaks down quickly and releases its own liquid as it cooks.  Cover the pot and cook over medium heat for 20 to 30 minutes, until the squash is very soft. Puree the soup in a blender and thin it with stock to reach the desired consistency. Return the pureed soup to the pot, cover, and cook over low heat for 30 more minutes. Taste for salt and pepper.
3. While the soup is cooking, make the apple confit. Melt the butter or warm the olive oil in a medium skillet and add the apples; sauté over medium-high heat, stirring to coat them with the oil. When they are heated through, add the remaining wine and cook for 1 or 2 minutes, until the pan is almost dry. Add the apple juice, cover the pan, and cook over medium heat for 10-15 minutes, until soft; cook uncovered for a bit if you need to reduce the liquid.
4. Stir half the confit into the soup, saving the rest for garnish. Season with salt and pepper as needed, and to serve, top each bowl of soup with a spoonful of apple confit.

cabbage and potatoes with pesto

Inspired by a pasta recipe in Lynn Rosetto Kaspar’s The Italian Country Table, but I don’t even use pasta! Use your own basil pesto, or storebought, or try my parsley pesto (below).

3 medium waxy potatoes, peeled and sliced ¼-inch thick (Yukon Golds are perfect)
1 tablespoon olive oil
6 cloves garlic, peeled and sliced thinly
1 green cabbage, quartered, cored, and cut into ¼-inch slices
sea salt or kosher salt
freshly-ground pepper
about ½ cup basil pesto, or ¾ - 1 cup parsley pesto
Parmesan cheese, freshly grated (optional)

1. Drop the potatoes into boiling, lightly salted water. Cook until tender, 5-7 minutes. Scoop the potatoes out, but reserve some of the cooking water.
2. In a very large skillet (preferably non-stick) saute the garlic for a minute in the olive oil over high heat, then add the cabbage strands. Add ½ teaspoon salt and saute until the cabbage is wilted and just tender. This will take a while, and you may have to add the cabbage in stages, as it cooks down into your skillet. Taste for more salt and add more as needed, plus some pepper. 
3. Scoop most of the pesto into the bottom of a big pasta bowl. (If you use parsley pesto, you’ll need to use more than for the basil pesto—probably more like ¾ cup to start, since it’s less pungent.) Add a little hot potato water to thin the sauce to the consistency of heavy cream. Toss the cabbage with the pesto, then add the potato and toss again. Taste to see if you want to add more pesto. Serve, topped with freshly-ground pepper. Pass the parmesan at the table if you like.

Parsley Pesto
This recipe makes more than you’ll need for the recipe, so freeze the extra in ziplock bags!

2 cloves garlic
½ teaspoon sea salt or kosher salt
4 cups packed parsley leaves
½ cup pine nuts
¾ cup extra virgin olive oil

1. In a food processor, chop the garlic with the salt.
2. Add the parsley leaves and pine nuts, and turn on the motor, beginning to grind the parsley. It’s OK if all the leaves aren’t incorporated yet.
3. While the motor is running, pour in the olive oil gradually. Let the blade run for a while to puree the mixture. It won’t be very smooth, but it’s hard to get the parsley pesto smooth, anyway—the leaves are very tough, and it’s almost impossible to get the blender to get it smooth. 
4. Taste for salt, and add more as needed.
5. Use what you’d like for tonight’s dinner, then scoop the rest into a freezer ziplock bag and freeze flat.

roasted broccoli with garlic

You won’t believe how good this recipe is… just try it and see! So easy, SO YUMMY!

2 pounds broccoli
4 (or more) cloves garlic, coarsely chopped
1 teaspoon sea salt or kosher salt
2 to 3 tablespoons olive oil

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
2. If the skins are tough, peel the broccoli stalks, starting from the bottom, using a paring knife—the thick skin will peel away from the stalk. Then slice the stalks into coins less than ¼” thick. Keep them separate from the florets. Cut the florets into bite-sized pieces.
3. Coat 1 or 2 large baking sheets with non-stick spray or oil. (This makes clean-up a lot easier.)
4. Toss the broccoli stalks with half the oil, garlic and salt in a bowl until evenly coated with oil. Spread the broccoli stalks out into a single layer. Roast until the stalks are tender and beginning to brown, about 20 minutes.
5. Toss the broccoli florets with the remaining oil, garlic and salt, and roast them like the broccoli stalks until tender and beginning to brown. That will take less time—more like 12-15 minutes. Eat immediately! (They are yummy as leftovers, too.)

celery-apple salad with currants & walnuts

This recipe is based on one in Deborah Madison’s The Savory Way. It makes great leftovers! Make sure to use roasted walnut oil (like Loriva brand, available at most grocery stores, or other brands at Summit Spice & Tea Co.), because regular refined walnut oil just doesn’t have much flavor.

½ cup dried currants
1 large head of celery
2 sweet red apples
handful of pale green celery leaves
4 parsley branches
20 walnut halves, toasted for 15 minutes in a 350-degree oven, and then chopped coarsely
1-2 tablespoons roasted walnut oil (or you can substitute good quality extra-virgin olive oil)
lemon juice or champagne vinegar
sea salt or kosher salt
freshly-ground pepper

1. If the currants are hard, cover them with warm water and set them aside to soften while you cut the celery and apples. When they’re soft, after 10 minutes or so, drain them and squeeze out the water.
2. Separate the stalks of celery and peel the tougher outer stalks. Slice the celery into thin pieces, straight across or at an angle. Cut the apples into quarters (or sixths if they’re large) and thinly slice them crosswise. Finely chop the celery leaves and the parsley.
3. Combine the celery, apples, currants, celery leaves, parsley, and walnuts in a bowl. Toss them with just enough walnut oil to coat everything lightly. Add the lemon juice or vinegar to taste, salt lightly, season with pepper, and toss again.

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comments

These are simple and easy to make. They are a nice change from potatoes with olive oil and rosemary. wedding rings My husband and I enjoyed them and since it is made with ingredients I typically have on hand I will be sure to make again. the potatoes have just a little tange from the pesto, a little fresh ground pepper and they were perfect.While this recipe is simple, it’s a bit misleading. I roasted the potatoes, tossing them first in oil and a little salt, at 350 degrees F for about 20 minutes. Then I followed the recipe, substituting my home made pesto. bracelets  In the winter, I would you this brand. Tastes really good.really good, and so easy! I wouldn’t have thought of adding pesto to potatoes, but it works!

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Wedding Favours

Nice effort, very informative, this will help me to complete my task.