A Jersey Girl in Portland

My CSA: What I got and what I did with it Part 5: Winter salads

Disclaimer: I wrote this a month ago and forgot to post it. In the interest of honesty, I'll not edit the stuff I wrote at that time.

Radishes are my new favorite autumn fun food.  Strong, spicy-hot watermelon radishes. Tangy black-skinned   radishes. French breakfast radishes (yes, French breakfast radishes are the first radishes of spring but they are also the drum major of autumn).

Right now, I want a toothsome salad. No lightly dressed butter leaf, no delicate Miners lettuce.  I want hearty, robust (think: undercooked kale...), crunchy bits that make me glad to have good teeth. 

Right now I love pairing cold, warm and crunchy. Interesting winter salads.

Current favorites are: salted radishes with warm sauteed kale. And nuts.

Wilted kale and cipollini onion combined with julienne radish, almond, toasted delicata, salt and lemon.

Toss roasted delicata squash* into any hearty salad for the Perfect Winter Salad.Toss in roasted delicata squash*. Perfect winter salad.

Back to the CSA. For breakfast I made a chickpea hash topped with sunny side up duck eggs. I made a mish-mash-hash of stuff from the fridge: romanesco, Brussels sprouts, onion made some parsnip chips that I topped chic pea hash.

In fact, I liked it so much I took the idea camping at the start of November.  Look for an upcoming post about potatoes to see some lovely, crispy 'taters.

 

 Live large & wear pajama pants whenever possible.

xoxo Nancy

 

 

Tomato jam IS my jam

We picked up 40 pounds of late-season Roma tomatoes at the farmers market on Saturday.  So far I've canned over a gallon of strained toms, about a gallon of tomato juice (with fennel, beets, mirepoix, reishi), a quart of dried tomatoes and my current fav......

Tomato Jam (preserves)

Adapted from "The Joy of Pickling" by Linda Ziedrich

Yield: about 6 cups

5 # Roma or similar plum tomato (about 33 toms)

5 cups sugar

2 Tbs pickling spice

4 lemons, cut into 1/4 inch slices

2 thumb-size nubs of ginger, peeled and sliced into 1/8"ish slices

One 6 inch square of cheese cloth and string to tie it.

Place an 'X' on the bottom of each tomato. Blanch for 1 minute and shock in ice water.  Peel & quarter the tomatoes, removing seeds and inner core (discard seeds and core*)

 

 

 

 

 

In a large mixing bowl, gently mix the tomato flesh with the sugar. Macerate for 6 hours to 15 hours. 

~later~

Drain the liquid from the tomatoes into a medium sized stainless steel pot.  Make a bouquet garni of the ginger and pickling spices in a small piece of cheese cloth. Tie securely. Bring the liquid and spices to a boil and cook until the temp reaches 230 degrees (F) on your candy thermometer. Don't have a candy thermometer? Me either.  Cook the sugar 'n spice bag until the liquid thickly coats a spoon and a drip from the spoon begins as two drips but becomes one before slipping thickly from said spoon. This can take about 30 minutes.

Discard the bouquet garni.  Add the tomatoes and lemon slices to the mix. Simmer for another 30-40 minutes until the tomato pieces become translucent. Test for jel by chilling a saucer. Put a spoonfull of jam on the saucer. If it's thin, keep cooking. If it moves sluggishly or not at all, the jam has set.

Ladle into sterile jars, interspersing jam with slices of lemon. Top with sterile lids.

Process in a boiling water bath for 20 minutes.

 

So delicious!

Live Large &

Love Big

xoxo

Nancy

 

 

* Or if you are thrifty like me, save the cores & seeds, cook them down and run through a food mill for a lovely pint of tomato juice.