Sunday, July 6, 2014

All Heller's, all day!


This does not usually happen.  All the fresh produce in the post are from Hellers!  I love the play of sweet strawberries against the acidity of cherry tomatos.  And, thankfully right now both are in abundance.

I was able to pick up marinated goat cheese bells from Painted Goat, they will appear later in the week as will Leslie's wonderful baguette, and radicchio from Berry Brook.  Check infrequently follow the blog to see everything through the week. 

Here is what it made:


Here is what I used from the market:

1 lb cherry tomatos, slice in half, stems removed
1b strawberries, hulled and sliced in half
1 small Sherman onion, small dice
1/3 of a medium cucumber, small dice

Stirto combine.

Here is what I used from my pantry:

Vinegrette and fresh herbs.

To dress, normally I would drizzle with one of my favorite balsamic vinegars and a little oil oil.  I decided to do a vinegrette, because I also have some salad green for later this week.

I posted my favorite vinegrette a few blogs ago.  Instead of the apple cider vinegar, I used a combination of strawberry and dark chocolate balsamic vinegars, removed the lemon reduced the honey to a couple of tablespoons.

After I gently dressed the salad I stirred in fresh basil, mint, and parsley.

I let this sit so the flavors from the vinegrette have time merge with the flavors of the fruit and veggies.

Happy eating!


Wednesday, July 2, 2014

Fennel!!!

I love fennel.  I eat it raw, sautéed, roasted, even grilled.  I picked up two bulbs at the Cooperstown Farmers' Market this week from Berry Brook Farm.  This time of the year I usually slice it thin, throw in some thinly sliced jicama and red cabbage.  I decided that was too boring.

I love pickles.  I pickle many different things.  Bazinga!  Pickled fennel.  But it needed somebody to hang out with to cut the seriously licorice flavor fennel has.  I had purchased some Sherman onions from Hellers.  I find them to be more mild than regular white onions but not as sweet as Vidalia's.  Lucky for me I still have some (little bit now, have to buy more) of Nectar Hills apple cider vinegar. Here's how I did it:

1 cup white vinegar
1/2 cup apple cider vinegar
1/2 cup of water
1/4 cup honey (Nectar Hills, of course)
2 Tbs mustard seeds
1 Tbs fenugreek 
1 Tbs peppercorns
1 tsp red pepper flakes
3 small cloves of garlic, peeled and slightly crushed

Bring fluids to a boil, drop in honey and turn off the heat.  Then I toss in the spices and let sit to cool to room temp.  In the meantime, clean and slice fennel and onion.  When the vinegar mixture has cooled, pour over the veggies, cover, and put in the fridge for at least 24 hours.  The longer it sits in the fridge the more the favors marry.

Here's what you get:


Yummy!