Favorite Things #3

I can't believe that almost a year has passed since I last posted a collection of my favorite things.  Each post I write is actually a favorite thing.  In between the main posts I'm cooking up something that's tasty but doesn't seem to contain enough information to stand on its own.  Or maybe it does - I seem to like to crowd up the posts with lots information. Have you noticed?  It's kind of the way my house is too - full of lots of stuff.  I keep throwing things away, having yards sales, and giving it away - but it just keeps growing.  It's like this stuff has spores. 
Sometimes the inside of my refrigerator  starts to look like my bedroom - a jumble of things that I forgot that I have.  The reason that I purchased the products in the first place, is, well, because they are favorite things.  If I'm lucky I'll get to that head of cauliflower before it needs to be tossed.  
The easiest and tastiest dish that I make with the cauliflower is Roasted Fragrant and Spicy Cauliflower:  

Heat the oven to 350 degrees F; separate the head into florets; spread them out on a parchment paper-lined baking sheet, sprinkle some fennel seeds, red pepper flakes , sea salt flakes, and olive oil over them and toss to thoroughly coat; roast, turning from time to time until deep gold - 30 - 40 minutes - depending on your oven.  If you have the capability to use a convection setting - you may not even have to toss them, and they cook more quickly.   Serve the roasted cauliflower as a side to anything.  I ate about half the head with a piece of Adirondack cheddar cheese and found it to be a most satisfying meal.

One of my Christmas presents from my sister, Laura were two winter squashes from her fabled garden.  I call them pumpkins - because that's what they look like - but she reminded me that we're not in England or Italy where they're are called pumpkins.  Oy.  A squash by any other name.  However, they were in fact an Australian Butter squash and a Speckled Hound squash.   They both have very hard skin and I think are quick dangerous to peel as you risk seriously slashing your hand if the knife slips from the skin.  Which it's sure to happen when the skin is so hard.  I baked the Australian Butter squash in order to remove its flesh and continue with my recipe - Seychelloise Pumpkin (!) Chutney:

Heat the oven to 350 degrees F;  remove the stem end from the squash; stab it in several spots all around (to keep it from exploding in the oven!); place it on a parchment-paper lined baking sheet; bake until a tester easily passes through the skin and the flesh seems to be tender - 45 minutes to an hour; meanwhile, caramelize two thinly sliced red onions in canola oil; remove the cooked squash from oven and let cool to the touch;  cut it into quarters and use a soup spoon to remove the seeds- if you're ambitious you could rinse the seeds, let them dry out then roast them with a bit of salt - then remove the flesh from the skin and place it in a bowl; add the caramelized onions, the juice of a very juicy lime, hot pepper flakes and salt.  Stir to combine.  Serve at room temperature as a side dish to anything.

I've extolled the pleasure of Sunday lunch with friends, and was pleased to be able to recently share  another with the same friends I wrote about in that post.  This time it was at their house where Bert cooked a plant based meal that started with a  colorful, and emphatically-flavored beet and orange salad on radicchio leaves (for my salad, Bert added some shards of ricotta salata).   The main dish was a super-savory mushroom farrotto.  Farrotto is made with same method as you use for risotto - just a different grain, farro instead of rice.  Bert used mushrooms two ways to achieve deep, layered flavors in his dish.   He hydrated dried porcini mushrooms in warm water, and in the meantime sauteed - no, more like pan-fried little cremini mushrooms in olive oil until they were crispy and deep brown.   The farrotto was started by sauteing chopped red onions and the hydrated mushrooms in olive oil, in a large saucepan, until translucent.  He added farro to the pan and let it dry out for about a minute.   He used the water in which the porcini had hydrated as the liquid to cook the farro.  Basically, add the liquid a few cupsful at a time and cook until evaporated, and then add more until the farro is cooked.  Bert added more water to the mushroom water in order to finish the dish.  The fresh mushrooms were added to the pan just as it finished cooking. As the photo shows - the finished dish is wet - what the Venetians call, all'onda - like a wave.  Now, if this weren't a strictly plant-based dish you might want to use chicken broth in combination with the mushroom water and finish the dish with a shower of grated Parmesan cheese.   Either way, it's the perfect dish for a chilly winter's day.

Even Allegra was treated to a warm lunch.  Lucky dog.

SUSANSIMONSAYS:   Starting this Friday, February 22nd, my weekly column in The Register Star, Hudson's daily paper, and The Daily Mail, Catskill's daily paper will begin.  If you don't have access to a real paper you can find it at www.registerstar.com  .   It's called SUSAN SIMON SAYS - FOOD FOR THOUGHT   Should be easy enough to remember??**!!!  Yes, the information for the column will be different from the blog.

A Plant-based Meal

My friend, Chris started a plant-based diet on January 1st for reasons she'll have to explain.  I can only say that she's sticking to it.  While being a vegetarian is somewhat challenging - plant-based only is downright demanding.   It's not just fish and meat that must be eliminated from your diet - but also anything that is produced by an animal.  That means honey is out too.   However,  I like a bit of a culinary puzzle.  I invited Chris and her husband, Bert to come over for Sunday lunch.  Now, may I say, parenthetically, that Sunday lunch is a tradition that needs to be revived.  I mean, Sunday at about 3pm so that you have all the rest of the day to digest and really don't have to eat an evening meal.  Except for a little snack while watching  Downton Abbey - for example.

I cheated a bit while putting together the meal - with Chris' permission, of course.  I included the butternut squash spread  (which contains the slightest bit of sheep's milk yogurt); a version of the New Year's Eve salad - this time with - beets and celery root very thinly sliced on a mandolin then finely julienned, tossed together with fresh lemon juice, pomegranate seeds, extra virgin olive oil and salt.  The salad was served, garnished with thinly sliced fried shallots - which get very crispy and flavor-filled, and chopped fresh mint; and blood orange and rosemary focaccia.   I subscribe to a food newsletter that recently included a recipe for Meyer lemon focaccia.  However that recipe included sugar sprinkled on top and I wanted a savory flat bread.  So, I did a riff on the recipe and used my dough recipe and in-season blood oranges  for which I have a particular passion.  One of my madeleines is Sicily.  In February, the whole island is dizzily fragrant with orange blossoms most of which will become blood oranges.

BLOOD ORANGE FOCACCIA
I made the dough for this batch with organic all-purpose flour from Wild Hive Farm.  It was the first time I used their flour for this application.  I used my standard focaccia/schiacciata (very thin focaccia) recipe but found the dough to be very sticky and wet so I added some all-purpose white flour to pull it together.

Makes 4 focaccie

For the dough
one 1 1/4- ounce package active dry yeast
1/2 teaspoon sugar
1 cup warm water
3 cups organic all-purpose whole wheat flour
1/2 cup organic all-purpose white flour
2 teaspoons salt
1/3 cup extra-virgin olive oil
For the topping
4 blood oranges, thinly sliced
3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
3 teaspoons flaky sea salt such as Maldon
4 tablespoons chopped fresh rosemary

1.   Make the dough:  Combine the yeast, sugar, and water (I use a 2-cup Pyrex measuring cup).  Let stand until foamy, about 15 minutes.  Combine the flour and salt in a large bowl.  Add the olive oil to the yeast mixture, then add the yeast mixture to the flour.  Mix well.  Turn out onto a floured surface.  Knead until soft and elastic, 3 to 4 minutes.
2.   Swish a few tablespoons of the olive oil in a large bowl and place the dough in it.  Turn the dough so it's thoroughly covered in oil.  Cover and place in a warm draft-free environment to rise.   It should double in size in 45 minutes to 1 hour.  Punch down.  Cut into 4 pieces and return to the bowl.  Re-cover.
3.   Heat the oven to 450 - 500 degrees F. ( you know what your oven can do - it needs to be very hot) Have ready 2 baking sheets or jelly roll pans.   Stretch each piece of dough into a log that measures about 3 inches by 12 inches.  Pat down in place on the sheets or pans.   Place the orange slices over the dough.  Drizzle with the olive oil, sprinkle the salt and rosemary over each schiacciata.  Bake until the crust is golden - 12 - 15 minutes.   { this was the first time that I used my oven for schiacciata and they over-cooked a tad - still very tasty}.  Slice and serve immediately - or even at room temperature.     It would be spectacular with gorgonzola - when you go off the plant-based only diet!

The main course was polenta - moistened with garlic and a tiny bit of hot pepper sauteed in olive oil instead of butter and cheese.  It worked.  The polenta was topped with a stew made with chick peas - soaked overnight and cooked with a piece of onion and bay leaf drained -  added to tomato sauce made with last summer's paste tomatoes that had been frozen and thawed for just an occasion like this one, chard leaves and  ribs separately chopped, and thinly sliced fennel that was first sauteed 'til deep gold in fennel seed-scented olive oil.

The meal was was bright and tasty, flying right in the face of the notion that winter food is dull and monochromatic.   To ensure that our Sunday lunch would be a true respite from the grey, gelid, upstate New York day I set the table with spring colors, and picked up a tussie mussie made with  sweetly fragrant, little yellow puffballs on a stem =  mimosa (another madeleine - February in Genoa), shocking pink tea roses and tulips at Lick the Market ( subscribe to their newsletter - info@lickhudson.com ) where I purchased just about everything else that I used to make the meal.

The food was delicious and very digestible and none of us noticed the absence of meat or dairy.  Can I make a strictly plant-based diet a way of life?  I don't think so.  I like to believe, as Thomas Jefferson did, that meat should be a condiment to your vegetables.  Yes, and a little cheese too!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY  245th ROBBIE BURNS.   Scotland's cherished poet and lyricist - Auld Lang Syne  
It's a tradition among many of his fans, Scots and admirers of everything Scottish to celebrate his birthday with a "Burns Supper"  which has its own particular parameters.   I was fortunate to be an included guest at a Burns supper for his January 25th birthday.   The hostess loosely followed the Supper script.  She served haggis - the loved or hated savory pudding that is traditionally made with minced sheep's heart, liver and lungs, oatmeal, onion, suet and spices stuffed into sheep's lung but NOT made exactly that way in the USA where sheeps' lung is not permitted - stuffed into a chicken breast then wrapped in prosciutto and baked, neeps (mashed turnips), tatties (mashed potatoes) and potatoes Dauphinois in recognition of Mary Queen of Scots', very short-lived  marriage to the Dauphin, the king of France.  Dessert was a chocolate Guiness cake.  If  the Scottish Burns could ever have  tasted the dense, damp, kind of smoky chocolate cake made with Irish (!) stout I'm sure he would have approved.  The cake was iced with a frosting made with cream cheese, confectioners' sugar and heavy cream whipped and applied to the cake so it resembled the head on a pint of Guiness.  All of this meal, which started with Scottish smoked salmon and was accompanied by single malt whisky - a downright genius addition- throughout was delicious and festive, and the company was exactly the same.   Compliments to Morag and Michael.

SUSANSIMONSAYS:   HOT OFF THE PRESS -  a little cookbook that I just made to accompany the goods at LICK the Market.   The more I shopped there the more I realized that I could get just about everything I needed to put meals together.  So, with Michael's  (the proprietor of LICK) OK I put together some recipes using ingredients from LICK's shelves.     You can pick up a copy of  "Cooking from the Market: make good food with ingredients from LICK the market"  at the 253 Warren Street shop.

 

Hello 2013

I took a trip even further upstate (than my hometown of Hudson, NY) to celebrate the arrival of the new year.  I went to visit my friends who live in the northern Catskills.  I drove up route 23 two days after a rather big snowstorm that blew in from the Midwest and swept through the northeast .  Fortunately the main routes were clear but the landscape was covered with shimmering snow.  My ears always pop as I climb up higher and higher. This time, driving west into the setting sun, popping ears, and the incandescent light made me feel almost light-headed as I seemed to be at the top of the world.

I arrived to cozy house filled with already arrived guests and the welcoming smell of caldo verde, the great Portuguese kale and sausage soup.  Oh, what a felicitous start of things to come.

I came with an offering for our last meal of 2012 -  Root vegetable slaw with labneh.  The recipe  for the slaw comes from my favorite new cookbook Jerusalem by Yotam Ottolenghi and Sami Tamimi.   Ottolenghi is the author of last year's favorite cookbook, Plenty - and the owner of a group of eponymous restaurants in London with Tamimi.   I'm absolutely crazy about the combination of ingredients that these two use to create their delectable dishes.   They are both from Jerusalem - Ottolenghi is an Israeli of an Italian father and German mother, and Tamimi is Palestinian.  They came to London, from their divided native city, independently of each other - met in the food world and have been cooking their own mixed, and shared cultural foods together ever since.   If I could, I would fly to London tomorrow just to eat at their establishments which get rave reviews from everyone I know who has eaten in one of them.   Barring a trip to the UK, I've been cooking, with great success from their most recent book.

Here's what they say about the vegetable slaw:
We make this slaw in the winter or early spring, before any of the summer crops are around.  It is incredibly fresh, ideal for starting a hearty meal.  It is also great served alongside grilled oily fish.  The labneh can be substituted with Greek yogurt, well seasoned with some olive oil, crushed garlic, and salt and pepper.  It can also be left out altogether, if you prefer to keep it light and simple.   this recipe was inspired by a dish from Manta Ray, a great restaurant on the beach in Tel Aviv.

I was lucky to find almost all the ingredients that I needed to make this salad from local sources - all gathered together at Lick the Market.  I couldn't find kohlrabi so I just added more of the other ingredients to make up for it.  I used sheep's milk Greek yogurt  instead of labneh - which is quite easy to make as it's basically drained whole milk yogurt -  from Lick as a garnish plopped in the center of the salad.

3 medium beets - 1 pound in total
2 medium carrots - about 1/2 pound
1/2 celery root - about 3/4 pound total
1 medium kohlrabi - about 1/2 pound total
4 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice
4 tablespoons olive oil
3 tablespoons sherry vinegar
2 teaspoons superfine sugar 
3/4 cup cilantro leaves, coarsely chopped
3/4 cup mint leaves coarsely shredded
2/3 cup flat-leaf parsley, chopped
1/2 tablespoon grated lemon zest
1 cup labneh or Greek yogurt
salt and freshly ground black pepper

Peel all the  vegetables and slice them thinly, about 1/16th inch thick.  Stack a few slices at a time on top of one another and cut them into matchsticklike strips.  Alternatively, use a mandoline or a food processor with the appropriate attachment.  Place all the strips in a large bowl and cover with cold water.  Set aside while you make the dressing.
Place the lemon juice, olive oil, vinegar, sugar, and 1 teaspoon salt in a small saucepan.  Bring to a gentle simmer and stir until the sugar and the salt have dissolved.  Remove from the heat.
Drain the vegetables strips and transfer to a paper towel to dry well.  Dry the bowl and replace the vegetables.  Pour the hot dressing over the vegetables, mix well, and leave to cool.  Place in the fridge for at least 45 minutes.
When ready to serve add the herbs, lemon zest and 1 teaspoon black pepper to the salad.  toss well, taste, and add more salt if needed (yes, needed - I added more).  Serve with labneh - or yogurt - on the side or on top.

The salad was a bright accompaniment to a grand selection of other things - a meal that began with blini and assorted caviars consumed with Prosecco and single malt Scotch around a blazing fire.  And; baked ham glazed with mustard-pineapple sauce - ah, but the ham came from the East Village (NYC) Polish butcher and was filled with real flavor, puree of very local (backyard) potatoes and rutabaga, roasted - backyard too - Brussels sprouts and winter squashes, chutneys, a green salad with currants and shaved Parmesan, etc.

Filled with good food and the bonhomie that comes from being the company of simpatico  people, I believe that I fell asleep before the clock slipped away from 2012 into 2013.  Well, hello 2013, I expect more good food and friends.

The penultimate day of the year was feted at a stunning open house at the Haldeman-Aguiar's mid-century, Ringtop Ranch in Kingston, NY with more friends, good food and drink.

I made Jerusalem's  Cod cakes in tomato sauce for Sunday lunch with a friend.  I used very reasonably priced fresh pollack in the recipe (Lick the Market) and it was very tasty.  The recipe is another keeper.

SUSANSIMONSAYS:   My new kitchen is shaping up into a very comfortable place to cook - and just be in, in the afternoon when the sun is setting over the Catskills streaming favorable light to the room.  Page is open in Jerusalem's recipe for Roasted chicken with clementines and arak (anise liqueur).  Report coming up.

Farm to Table times Two

Friends from Washington DC arrived on Friday afternoon to spend the weekend with me in my new hometown, Hudson, NY.   The choice of things to do in the area, in the summertime, is just about overwhelming. Not ever to be excluded from the great variety of Hudson Valley events are meals made with locally sourced ingredients - whether it's a home-cooked meal or one eaten at a restaurant.  The meals are right up there with a trip down to Bard College to see a play (part of their Summerscape series) or one over the Hudson River via the Rip Van Winkle bridge to Catskill, NY and a docent-guided tour of Thomas Cole's home and studio.
Friday night was an easy choice - The Red Barn - a Friday night trip out to the Red Barn has become a habit of mine.  I like to peruse - and shop - at the mini farmer's market that's set up there.  Actually, I buy heavier things there on Friday nights because I have my car and it's easy to take the everything home. I save lighter weight things for the Saturday morning Hudson Farmers' Market where I can walk and then carry stuff home over my shoulder.  I digress.  My friends,  Tom (from all the way back to 8th grade - and I can't tell you how long ago that was) and Sidney were luckily as charmed by the Barn as I am.  It's just a good time to sit at one of tables - have a drink (they do have a liquor license), chat with each other and the people at nearby tables too, and then think about ordering some perfectly sinful and delicious dishes from their "roadside" menu - a lobster roll, a fish taco, a fried clam or oyster roll, a cheeseburger....

Saturday breakfast included white peaches and blackberries (tossed with rapadura sugar and fresh lemon juice) from Loveapple Farm, Maple Hill Creamery's dreamy, creamy yogurt, house-made - this house - granola, etc.

  I had reserved seats for us to see Moliere's classic comedy, "The Imaginary Invalid" at Bard.  Dinner?   Hmmm.  I knew nothing would be open after the performance - that meant we needed to eat before it.  And just like that, Laura Pensiero, who signed copies of her book, "Hudson Valley Mediterranean" at the Farmers' Market Book Tent the previous week, reminded me that her
 Gigi Market, in Upper Red Hook, had initiated a new, weekend only, dinnertime menu at the market and named it agriturismo, a reference to the Italian traditional meals (and lodging) served on the farms where all the ingredients for the dishes are grown.  Perfect - and just 5 minutes from Bard.

The meal is served family-style.  Platters and bowls of food are brought to the table for everyone to share.   The fixed-price meal - the menu (which duly notes the farm of each ingredient's origin) includes a huge basket of Gigi's bread, a dish of olive oil, a bean and garlic spread; an antipasti loaded with lavender-scented cheese, cured sausage, blueberries, pickled daikon radish, steamed carrots with poblano peppers, and beet "carpaccio" - thinly sliced Chioggia beets (the striped ones) topped with olive oil; a choice of entree, vegetarian or meat - we chose two orders of vegetarian pasta, bucatini with greens and cherry tomatoes and other things, and one order of grilled poussin and sausage; dessert was still warm-from-the-oven blueberry cobbler topped with a dollop of whipped cream.  Without asking, the excellent staff packed up the leftovers for our future enjoyment.  Let me tell you, this place is a find.  The food is molto buono, you can rest assured the ingredients have a tiny carbon footprint, and the price is so reasonable that you will be very happy. The menu changes every weekend - check the site for updates.
I would be remiss if I neglected to mention that the production of "The Imaginary Invalid" at Bard was superb.  Yes, superb.  Well directed, good set design, wonderful costumes, hammy actors, and funny - funny, I thought that I would get so hysterical that I wouldn't be able to stop.  btw - I found the theatre very comfortable as did my 6'1" companions.  (I had read criticism that the theatre was small and cramped).

Okay, by Sunday the only meals that I had offered my guests were breakfasts - good ones - complete with a brunch that added on cheesy scrambled eggs and bacon to the the previously mentioned offerings. However, I needed to do a little cooking.   After we returned from Catskill I went into action and prepared some simple things with my market booty.  Because the weather has been so dry this summer there haven't been many mosquitoes around so we were able to dine outside.  Have I spoken too soon?

We had some Camembert from The Amazing Real Live Food Co. and some R &G goat milk yogurt, labane-style with sweet-as-can-be cherry tomatoes from Blue Star Farm with drinks - white wine, Negronis and  Campari with grapefruit soda.    Dinner included simply grilled, flatiron steaks - which I thinly sliced to serve.

A market salad made with roasted corn, steamed orange and purple carrots, baked red and golden beets,  steamed fingerling potatoes and lots of chopped dilled.  The dressing was made with Dijon mustard, creme fraiche, rice wine vinegar, salt and extra virgin olive oil - you can add freshly ground pepper too - I don't because it gets stuck in my throat.

I grilled pieces of olive oil-smeared Loaf baguette  to serve as a vessel for a soupy, fresh tomato salsa made simply with chopped tomatoes, chopped fresh (uncured) garlic, a chiffonade of fresh basil, salt, red wine vinegar and extra virgin olive oil.

I wanted to make a fruit something dessert but it was getting late and really hot in the kitchen.  I couldn't stand it, so I got out and asked Tom if he would go over to Lick and get a pint of ice cream.  I asked for the raspberry chip that I had so enjoyed on Friday eve - but they were out of it - they cycle through flavors at demon speed.  Resourceful Tom made an executive decision and came home with a pint of beet ice cream.  Yes beet, a perfect coda to our beet-full weekend.  I served the ice cream with the blueberry sauce that I make every week during blueberry season, just to have for emergencies like this one! (the hot weather melted the ice cream before I could take a proper photo - realism)

BLUEBERRY SAUCE

I double or triple this recipe as it freezes very well.  It will be a delight to pull it out of the freezer when the ground is covered with snow to use to remind you of summer days.  In the meantime, use it with plain yogurt, as a topping for ice cream, as part of a short cake or as a sauce with fresh cut up fruit and berries.

1 pound fresh blueberries, rinsed and picked over
2 tablespoons pure honey
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
 In a non-reactive saucepan over medium heat, combine the blueberries, honey and lemon juice.  Cook over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until the berries release their juice, about 3 minutes.  Remove from heat and let cool.

SUSANSIMONSAYS:  Come meet Mindy Fox at the Hudson Farmers' Market on Saturday, July 28th and let her sign a copy of her new book, or two or three - remember how everyone enjoys the gift of a cookbook for their birthday or on a holiday - "salads: beyond the bowl".  She'll be at the market a bit  past 10am until 12:30 pm.

Ladies' Lunch

I've lived in Hudson, NY for about 7 months and have been lucky to have made a few nice friends.  It's all about those 6 degrees of separation that's really more like 2 degrees that allows one person to lead to another.  Among these friends - lady friends - are a group who work freelance.  I, who've always worked more or less in a freelance way, have noticed that lunchtime seems to be the most convenient time to pull off a meal.  After lunch  (which for me is the real start of the day) you can go back to your work and thoughts without worrying about stopping for a rendez-vous.   Bearing in mind those particular habits I invited a few friends for lunch.  Lucky for us it was a cool, dry summer day here in the Hudson Valley and not only was I able cook in comfort but our group sat at the table for hours without once complaining about how hot we were. 
I had, of course, provisioned aplenty at my favorite Hudson Farmers' Market.   For awhile I've had a hankering for an Armenian yogurt-barley soup called Tanabour.  When I opened my take-out/catering business - decades ago in the East Village- my first employee was a young woman of Armenian descent.  She generously shared many of her family's favorite recipes.  Tanabour, among several other recipes, has proved to be a real winner.  We would make it by the gallons then sell it by the quart to very gratful customers.   I made it for the first time in several years for our lunch with Maple Hill Creamery's plain yogurt and let me tell you - maybe because I hadn't tasted the soup in awhile - but this batch was sensational.  I credit the super-creamy yogurt.  You can find this yogurt many places - and most obviously from Cheese! at The Red Barn's Friday evening market, and Hudson's Saturday morning market.

TANABOUR  (for Margot & Garth - they know why)

The soup is wonderful summer fare chilled or at room temperature.  But it's good hot on a cool day.

Serves 6 - 8
4 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 teaspoon olive oil
1 large yellow onion, finely chopped
3/4 cup barley, soaked over night in 1 quart water
5 cups chicken stock (or vegetable broth)
3 cups plain whole milk yogurt (or low-fat NOT non-fat)
1 large egg
3/4 cup finely-chopped fresh, flat-leaf parsley
1/2 cup finely-chopped fresh mint
salt

1.   In a large, heavy, nonreactive  saucepan, melt 3 tablespoons of the butter in the olive oil over moderate heat.  Add the onion and cook until very soft, about 7 minutes.
2.   Drain the barley, then rinse and drain again.   Add to the saucepan with 4 cups of the stock.   Bring to a simmer and cook over low heat until the barley is tender, about 50 minutes.
3.   In a medium bowl, whisk the yogurt with the egg until smooth.  Stir it into the soup.  Cook over low heat for 10 minutes.  Do not boil.  Add more stock if the soup is too thick (I added more stock - that yogurt!).
4.   Meanwhile, in a small skillet, melt the remaining tablespoon butter over moderate heat.  Add the parsley and mint and cook until wilted, about 1 minute.  Stir the herbs into the soup and simmer for 2 minutes to blend the flavor.  Season with salt as desired.
5.   Serve with a fresh mint leaf garnish in each bowl.

We ate the soup as a first course.   I served a few salads as our main.   I made the sugar snap, radish and feta cheese salad to which I added a sliced cucumber (first one this season).  I also made a plate of labane with  goat milk yogurt (also from Cheese!), extra virgin olive oil and za'atar

There was a beet salad made with candy-sweet red, and golden beets from Blue Star Farms.   I roasted the beets.  Peeled, sliced and piled them on a serving plate.  I drizzled a tiny bit of pomegranate molasses over them.  I toasted some chopped pistachios in a bit of grapeseed oil (for its neutral, non-invasive flavor), then just as the nuts were smelling toasted I added some chopped scallions and sauteed for another 30 seconds or so just until they wilted. Then immediately poured them over the the beets.  I sprinkled some pink Hawaiian salt over it all and served the salad just like that.

 I made some flatbread which was baked topped with extra virgin olive oil and some za'atar.  Cut it into little triangles to make it perfect for scooping up all the offerings.

Dessert was a combination of some favorite things: blueberries, lemon curd and creme fraiche.  Cooled, slightly cooked fruit is my go-to summertime dessert.  Bluberries, peaches, nectarines, plums separately or together.  I cook them with a bit of rapadura sugar and some creme de cassis liqueuer or vincotto.  The fruit becomes an intense version of itself.  Luscious and deeply flavored.  Serve with anything creamy and some cookies, biscuits or plain cake.  I served the blueberries with lemon curd - another hankering - and creme fraiche - and the always on hand, amaretti cookies, which I showed my guests how to crush and and add as a topping to the fruit.  They did not follow my lead.  They were right.  It was a gratuitous addition.
LEMON CURD
I love to make this in the vintage Pyrex double boiler that I recently inherited from my aunt.
Good as a fruit compote topping, as a pie filling or spread on toast.
Makes about 2 1/2 cups

3 whole eggs
3 egg yolks
1 1/4 cups sugar
grated zest and juice of 2 lemons
1/2 cup unsalted butter cut into bits

In the top of a double boiler over low heat, beat the whole eggs.  Beat in the egg yolks.  Add the sugar, lemon zest and juice, whisking continuously until the mixture coats the back of a spoon.  Remove from the heat and beat in the butter.  Strain and bring to room temperature.  Chill until ready for use.  Will last for weeks refrigerated.

SUSANSIMONSAYS:

This Week (2nd weekend of June 2012) at the Farmer's Market

I gathered all my favorite late spring crops  from both the Friday night market at The Red Barn and the Saturday morning Hudson Farmer's Market;  strawberries, beets, shelling peas, and radishes and
turned them into food for various occasions - not to mention breakfast, lunch and dinner.
As you know from reading my last entry I've been concerned that my favorite strawberries are going to run out before I can get my fill.  To wit I froze some last week and this week I made what I call "refrigerator jam".  The jam is not processed to preserve.  I just put it in a jar and it should last for weeks, perhaps months in the refrigerator- but it won't.  Probably won't last 'til the 4th of July.  It's that tasty, and its applications are numerous.  I like it on toasted, and almond buttered quinoa bread from Loaf, with plain yogurt, and as you will see as I write on, with beets.
I add whole berries - if they're really huge, cut in half - to a non-reactive saucepan with fresh lemon juice and pure, unrefined cane sugar, like rapadura, and cook on low heat until the berries are soft and seemingly spreadable, about 30 - 40 minutes.  Remove the berries  with a slotted spoon to a glass or ceramic bowl and reserve.  Reduce the remaining syrup until it's as dense as grade B maple syrup. 
Pack the cooled strawberry jam in a glass jar and cover with some of the strawberry syrup.  Refrigerate it, and the syrup in a separate container.  The syrup itself will serve you well on ice cream or mixed with Prosecco to make a Tiepolo ,or with vodka to make a delightfully colored, and tasty warm weather cocktail.   NB - the jam, sweetened with unrefined sugar , will turn deep burgundy in color.  If you must have bright red jam use refined sugar - just not as good - to my palate.

Sweet, shelling peas have a fleeting season as well.   I like nothing better than a dish of risi e bisi - the Venetian classic pea and rice dish.  Technically this dish is not risotto.  But it tastes like it could be.  I cooked the shelled peas in salted water for about 15 minutes.   If I had been paying attention I would have discarded the few over-ripe peas before cooking because they're too mealy and are annoying - in a way.  I cooked the rice separately and used vialone nano - a short, chubby grain used for risotto - which gives the dish its risotto-like texture.   When the rice was tender I drained and added it back into the pot with a knob of best quality unsalted butter, a fistful of grated Parmigiano, and the cooked peas.   I stirred to combine all the ingredients.   If you like the flavor of peas and mint - as I did and swirl  some fresh mint sprigs through the still hot rice and then discard the sprigs. You want to add a soft scent of mint to the dish.  Mint leaves turn black when added to heat and would be most unattractive in an otherwise pristine dish.

I was invited to a party down in Red Hook and asked to bring a dish - What's needed, I asked.  Oh, something to nibble on before the main course.   Hmmmm, radishes, radishes, RADISHES.  Not just radishes, but radishes with butter. The sweet, creamy butter softens and tames the feisty radishes.  Finely chop up radishes, tightly wrap them in paper towels and let them sweat for 1/2 hour or so then add them to room-temperature-softened, highest quality, unsalted butter along with chopped chives, chopped flat leaf parsley and some flaky sea salt.  Serve with garlic toasts or as I did with black sesame crackers.  Because, wow, what a contrast.

Beets - be still my Russian heart.  I love their sweet, earthy flavor, and I love their vibrant color that turns to the most stunning shade of shocking pink when combined with sour cream or yogurt, or  anything white.   First remove the beetroots from their leaves - and reserve the leaves (later).  Rinse them and pat them dry, and salt them - I used pink Hawaiian salt for pure visual pleasure - and wrap them up in parchment paper and bake at 300 degrees F. until a tester easily, very easily passes through them 1 - 2 hours (depending on their size).   The skin comes off the cooled beets as simply as removing a glove from your hand.  Start the process at the root end with the tip of a paring knife.     You can make a tangy Russian-style salad by marinating chunks of peeled beet with whole cloves of smashed garlic, apple cider vinegar and pure honey.  Marinate for at least a few hours and up to overnight.   Drain and remove the garlic.  Add a blob of sour cream and chopped flat leaf parsley. Eat with hard cooked eggs for a simple meal or use as a side dish with any grilled meat or fish.  Would be sublime with caviar.   Keep the beets around to add, chopped into a green salad.  Or, eat, as I just did with plain yogurt and some of that aforementioned strawberry syrup.   Weird?  Maybe.  But the combination of flavor and color were hard to beat.  Pun absolutely intended.
NO NEED TO ADD SALT to anything where the beets are an ingredient.  The cooking salt has adequately salted them.

Remove the beet leaves from their stems and saute in olive olive and garlic as you would do with spinach or chard.  A wonderful cooked green with an ever-so-slight beet flavor.

And sweet cherries - just into the market for the first time this week.   I like to eat them until my stomach hurts.  They are divine.

SUSANSIMONSAYS:    SATURDAY, JUNE 16th - YARD SALE  at 112 Union Street in Hudson, NY - 9am - 3pm - NO earlybirds, please.  Collectibles and lots of interesting household items.  Buy them here first before they wind up in a shop on Warren Street