Sunday Shopping

We did a very speedy shop this morning at the Hollywood Farmers Market. We didn't eat as much as I expected last week, so we still have some veg from last Sunday's haul.

I realized I have been so busy enjoying fresh red peppers that I've been forgetting to put some up for the upcoming year, so I brought 3 to roast and freeze this week.

Here's the organic produce we came home with:
3 red peppers for the freezer, 12 plum tomatoes and basil for Sunday pasta supper, 5 yellow potatoes, cilantro, shisito peppers, 1 lb khadrawy dates from Bautista Family Organic Date Farm, 2 dozen eggs, red and green grapes, 4 plums, assorted cherry tomatoes, 6 honey tangerines to add to the Sunday o.j., 3 quinces, 1 ambrosia melon, 4 apples, romaine lettuce, 2 ears of corn, 1 cucumber

Rice and vegetables

Having leftover rice in the fridge is like having dinner almost ready.

The other night, I sautéed some onion, green pepper and zucchini. Then I stirred in leftover cooked rice and some frozen peas.

It make a pretty main course that I served with some steamed vegetables for a good dinner.

Fast food is a working person's friend.

Canadian Thanksgiving

Canadian Thanksgiving is a much less stressful affair than the American version. Generally we clean out the garage, tune up the snowblower, close up the cottage — enjoy the fall colors and the fresh air before holing up inside for the long snowy winter.

At the end of the day — Sunday or Monday, there's no set rule — a simple meal of turkey and vegetables is served, maybe with a pumpkin or apple pie to finish. At least, that's how it was at my house.

This year, Larry and I celebrated Thanksgiving on Monday evening with a pumpkin stuffed with mushrooms and barley, the last harvest of green beans from our garden, a salad of crunchy lettuce with pistachios and red grapes, and an apple quince pie for dessert.

As we ate, we thought with gratitude of the organic farmers at the Hollywood Farmers Market who provided us with this bounty.

There are various ways to stuff a pumpkin. Usually I fill it with a grain pilaf and then bake it an hour or so until it is tender.

This year, however, I was late in from the garden, so I scooped out the pumpkin and baked it while I simmered the barley mushroom stuffing on the stove. Unfortunately, I baked it too long so it became soft and lost its shape. No matter, I filled it with the cooked pilaf and it made a lovely, if slightly lopsided, main course.

The mushroom barley pilaf is a delicious fall supper that is great even without the pumpkin.

Mushroom Barley Pilaf
2 tbsp unsalted butter
2 cups chopped onion
1 carrot, chopped
1 stalk celery, sliced
3/4 lb assorted mushrooms (shiitake, oyster, cremini), cleaned and sliced thinly
1 1/2 cups barley
4 sprigs thyme
3/4 tsp salt
4 1/2 cups vegetable stock or water (I used 1 1/2 cups of my strong stock and 3 cups water)

Melt butter in a large skillet over medium heat. Add the onions, carrot, celery and mushrooms. Cook, stirring occasionally, until the mushrooms start to brown.

Add the barley and stir to coat with the pan juices. Then pour in the stock, add the thyme and salt, and a liberal amount of freshly ground pepper.

Cover the skillet and let the pilaf simmer over low heat for about 40 minutes until the barley is tender. Keep an eye on it, and add more water if it gets dry. The barley should hold its shape and be al dente when done — not mushy.

Serves 4

Note: If you are serving vegans, replace the unsalted butter with olive oil. It will still be delicious. I do prefer mushrooms in butter, though.

Sunday Shopping

There was mist in the valleys on the way to the Hollywood Farmers Market this morning. The overcast skies made it feel autumn-y, even though there was no chill in the air.

This is Canadian Thanksgiving weekend, so I bought a beautiful pumpkin at T and D Farms that I will stuff with mushrooms and barley and serve as the main dish at tomorrow's Thanksgiving dinner. I also bought apples for pie and a variety of greens because they were so beautiful.

Here's what we brought home with us this morning:

6 jalapeños, 4 ears of corn, 1 zucchini, 1 red butter lettuce, 8 small sweet-tart apples whose name I don't remember, red grapes, assorted cherry tomatoes, 4 sweeties (a kind of apple), 2 tomatoes, 1 red oak leaf lettuce, rainbow chard, purple mustard greens, 1 pumpkin, 3 onions, ginger root, 3/4 lb assorted mushrooms (shiitake, cremini, oyster), 8 shallots, 2 pears, 2 red peppers, 1 orange pepper, 1 green pepper, 1 liter Verni's olive oil, green beans, 2 plums, 1 eggplant, 2 lb bags of chickpeas and white limas from Suncoast Farms in Lompoc, 10 lbs valencia oranges (these will keep us in juice for a couple of weeks), 1 cantaloupe, a small feta from Achadinha Cheese Co. in Petaluma.

Roast Acorn Squash

The winter squashes call to me when I walk past the stalls at the Hollywood Farmers Market on Sunday mornings. Now I have a cart, I am worried that I will buy more squash than we can eat in a week. And while I love to decoratively pile amazing squash on our hall table and coffee table, we're heading back into 90 degrees, and squash will not last long in that.

So last week I limited myself to two. I used the butternut squash in a bean salad and as a side dish. The acorn squash I sliced and then roasted with cumin and chiles. It was just wonderful. And, after the slicing (with a knife that was well-sharpened by Russ at the Hollywood Farmers Market), it was easy to cook.

I like this squash so much that I take leftover pieces to work and gnaw them down to the skin.

Autumn is great.

Roast Acorn Squash
1 tbsp (or so) olive oil
sprinkle of dried chile flakes
sprinkle of cumin seeds
1 acorn squash

Preheat the toaster oven to 350°F.

Warm the olive oil in a small skillet. Add the chile flakes and cumin and keep warming until fragrant. Remove from the heat.

Meanwhile, wash and dry the acorn squash. Cut it in half lengthwise. (If there's a thick stem, cut it off first.) Scoop out the seeds and guts and discard. Put a half on the board, cut side down, and cut it lengthwise in wedges 1-2 inches wide.

Dip the wedges of squash in the warm oil, rubbing them around to pick up oil and the spices, then put them on a baking sheet.

Bake for 20-30 minutes until a thin knife pierces the skin easily.

Serves 3-4 (and makes great leftovers)

Stuffed Peppers

Leftovers are my favorite dinner. The other night I had leftover beans and rice in the fridge. I stirred them together with a little corn from the freezer, seasoned them well, then stuffed them into halved red peppers, and warmed them in the toaster oven.

When the peppers were tender and the filling was warmed through — about 20 minutes at 350°F — I sprinkled a little pepper jack on top of the peppers and cooked them a little longer while the cheese melted and browned.

We had an awesome dinner that did not look like leftovers.

Kitchen magic!

Morning Fruit

Cantaloupe and red grapes. These fall colors are a beautiful (and delicious) way to start the day.

Vegetable Stock in the Slow Cooker

There is a chill in the air — okay, it's in the 70s — and I'm thinking ahead to a long winter of soups and stews.

The secret to a good vegetarian soup is an excellent stock. While there are many vegetable stocks on the shelves of the grocery store, I prefer to make my own so I can control the ingredients (no bht or msg or "natural flavors"). I make a good strong stock and freeze it in 1 1/2 cup containers. They are so flavorful that one container added to 4 1/2 cups of water makes a really good base for soup.

The vegetables used to make stock impart all their goodness to the liquid, and are pretty much tasteless mush at the end. I happily give them to the compost heap - they are full of fiber and minerals that feed the compost microbes. They turn it into black gold that I then spread on the garden.

The vegetable stock I stash in the freezer is a form of gold too. It will enrich every soup we eat this winter.

The key to a good stock is roasting the vegetables before simmering them. Think of the difference between golden sautéd onions and boiled onions. A few dried mushrooms contribute an almost beef-like richness. Vary the other vegetables, but if you find an organic parsnip make sure to throw it in. (I confess that I have hoarded last year's parsnips in my fridge all summer, pulling them out to make stock as needed. They get a little weird, but after peeling they're still good.)

Also, while a stock is a good place for diverse vegetables, don't add brassicas — they change the flavor and can get metallic-tasting when frozen. Keep to the base of onions, potatoes and carrots and your stock will enhance whatever soup (or risotto) you're making.

(When I buy fresh shiitake mushrooms, I wash and remove the stems, then dry them on a rack in the kitchen. When I add them to the stock, I feel like I'm getting free flavor!)

Here's the recipe for the stock I made this week.

Vegetable Stock
1 large onion
2 large carrots
1 large potato
1 large parsnip
1 stalk celery
3 garlic cloves
1 tbsp olive oil
salt and pepper
4 dried shiitake or porcini mushrooms (or an equal amount of dried stalks)
2 bay leaves
1/2 tsp black peppercorns
1 tbsp tamari

Preheat oven to 450°F. 

Remove the papery peel from the onion and slice it thickly. Scrub the carrots and potatoes and cut in 1" chunks. Peel the parsnip and cut in 1" chunks. Chop the celery in 1" lengths. Place the garlic cloves, unpeeled, on your cutting board and crush with the side of your big knife. 

Place the vegetables in a lightly oiled baking pan. Drizzle with the olive oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Roast until lightly browned, turning once, about 30 minutes total.

Meanwhile, soak the dried mushrooms in 1 cup water until softened. Remove them from the water and check for dirt or grit. Pour the soaking water through a coffee filter, straining out any grit. Reserve mushrooms and soaking water.

Put the roasted vegetables in a 4- to 6-quart slow cooker. Add mushrooms and soaking water, bay leaves, peppercorns, tamari, 1 tsp salt, and 7 cups water. Cover and cook on low for 8 hours.

Let cool slightly, then strain through a fine mesh sieve into a large bowl. Press the vegetables against the side of the sieve with a wooden spoon to get the most liquid possible, although this will make the stock cloudy, so don't do it if you need a clear broth. Discard the vegetables.

Either use the stock right away, refrigerate it for a few days, or freeze for longer storage.

Makes about 8 cups.

Sunday Shopping

It was overcast at the Hollywood Farmers Market this morning. The air was cooler than usual, and the piles of pumpkins emphasized that fall is here.

I was concerned that with our new cart, I would find it way too easy to load up on winter squash. But I managed to restrain myself to two.

Here's a list of the organic produce we brought home with us:
4 early girl tomatoes, 2 potatoes, 1 red onion, 1 butternut squash, 1 bunch mustard greens, 1 acorn squash, 1 green pepper, 1 cucumber, cherry tomatoes, 3 jonagold apples, 2 yellow summer squash, 1 cantaloupe, 2 dozen eggs.

And Russ sharpened a knife while we shopped.