More Quick, Easy and Tasty Fixes for Farm Food

A few more simple, elegant and extravagantly yummy recipes for the end of August and start of what feels like autumn. Some will help you preserve the bounty into the chill of winter. Coming next: zucchini and its summer cousins.


 Zesty Corn and Chili Pepper Chowder with chorizo
 A quick, tasty and very comforting soup that's all about the end of summer. Serves 4-5

3 lg ears corn, shucked clean
4 sm/med (2") new potatoes, scrubbed and chopped into bite-size pieces
2 tbsp butter
1" piece of chorizo, coarsely chopped
1 sm red onion, minced
1 lg celery stalk, finely chopped
1/2 sm poblano pepper, diced
1 sm green chili pepper, seeded and finely diced
1 tbsp chopped red pepper or pimentos (roasted red peppers)
pinch red pepper flakes
1 tsp dried oregano
1/2 tsp dried sage
salt to your taste
2 c vegetable broth or corncob water
12 oz can evaporated milk unsweetened
handful chopped fresh cilantro leaves

Cut the corn off the cob and save in a bowl. Put the cobs in a pot, cover them with 2 cups water and bring it to a boil. Lower heat and cook 5 minutes while you proceed with the soup. This will give you flavored corn water for the soup if you don't have broth.

In a medium/large heavy gauge pot, melt the butter. Add the chorizo, onion, celery, poblano and chili and red peppers. Sauté on medium heat until the veggies start to soften, 3-4 minutes. Add the seasonings and potatoes. Stir to blend. Add the corn kernels and blend. Pour in the broth or corncob water, bring to a boil, lower heat to med/low, cover the pot and cook until potatoes are soft, 8-10 minutes. Stir in the evaporated milk. Leave on the heat just long enough to warm it in the soup, don't boil. Remove from the heat, add the fresh cilantro and serve immediately. It also tastes good the next day because the flavors really mingle.

Armenian Vegetable Roast
I'm reprising this because it's always so appropriate. Carrots, celery, fennel, cauliflower, cabbage, purple onion, yellow squash and red peppers roasted til they char and release their sugars, topped with tomatoes, roasted, then topped with fresh dill and mint. Colorful, picturesque, very tasty nourishment. Great beside whatever you grill.

1 sm cabbage, sliced into 3 wedges (keep the core in – it’s the best bit)
1 med/lg carrot,  peeled and thickly sliced
1 zucchini thickly sliced
2 lg celery sticks thickly sliced crosswise
1 med red onion peeled and quartered
1 sm cauliflower stalks and florets, chopped
1 med red pepper  cored, deseeded and roughly chopped in strips
3 tbsp olive oil

pinch of ground cinnamon
1 beefsteak or other large firm tomato thickly sliced
1 tbsp fresh dill chopped
sea salt flakes and freshly ground black pepper to your taste

Preheat the oven to 425º. Place all the vegetables except the tomato in a large roasting pan. Pour over the oil and season well with salt and pepper and pinch of cinnamon--just a hint. Mix everything together with your hands and bake for 30 minutes until the edges of the vegetables start to char.

Arrange the tomato slices on top, season with salt and pepper and continue to bake another 15 minutes. Sprinkle over the chopped dill and serve.

Peach Pecan Chutney

This sweet and sour recipe is for a small batch of 3-4 4oz canning jars. Double it if you'd like or have a pile of peaches to preserve.
7-8 small local peaches, pitted and chopped
1/3 c chopped pecans, roasted
1/4 c raisins, preferably white but dark will work too
1 tbsp grated fresh ginger
pinch ground cloves
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
pinch of ground cinnamon
1/4 c apple cider vinegar
1/4 c raspberry vinegar (if you don't have use balsamic and throw in a few raspberries or blueberries)
1/2 c brown or raw sugar
Put everything in a stainless or ceramic pot, bring to a boil and boil away until it starts to thicken. Seal in sterilized jars.  Enjoy all winter with roasted turkey or chicken or beside a grilled cheese sandwich.

Tomato Pie
This is a recipe from Italy.

(Serves 8)

Oil or butter, for greasing

1 packet chilled short crust pastry (or make your own)

Flour, for dusting

4 tbsp wholegrain mustard

8 large tomatoes (about 2 lbs), thinly sliced

2 tbsp grated gruyere cheese

2 tbsp olive oil

Salt and pepper

Preheat the oven to 350º placing an oven rack in the lower part of it. Grease a 9” detachablebottom tart pan. Roll out the pastry on a lightly floured work surface until it is large enough to line your tart pan. Spread the mustard on the bottom of the pastry case. Place some sliced tomatoes around the edge of the case, making sure they overlap, then fill in the middle.

Sprinkle the cheese over the tomatoes, season with salt and pepper, then drizzle with the oil.

Place the tart on a baking sheet and bake on a low oven rack 40 minutes. Take the tart out of the oven and carefully slip off the outer ring, leaving the tart sitting on the base. Return to the oven on the baking sheet for another 5–10 minutes so the sides get really crisp.

Wild blueberry muffins

These are the best ever blueberry muffins because they're packed to the gills with fresh wild blueberries. Recipe makes 10-12.

2 c wild blueberries (these are the small ones)
1 stick butter plus 1 tbsp to grease muffin tins, cut into pieces
2/3 c sugar (a pinch of brown adds zip)
2 extra lg eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
optional: 1/2 tsp orange flower water
2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
pinch salt
2 c unbleached white flour
1/2 c plus 1 tbsp milk
1 tbsp white sugar mixed with a pinch of ground cinnamon for topping

Using butter, heavily grease 12 regular muffin tins (that's 2 tins of 6 muffins). Preheat oven to 375º.
In a mixer or mixing bowl, beat the butter til it's fluffy. How fluffy determines how high your muffins rise.
Beat in the sugar and keep beating to keep it all very fluffy and light in color. Beat in the eggs one at a time. Beat in the vanilla, optional flower water, baking powder and nutmeg. Make sure everything is combined. Very slowly beat in 1/2 c flour. Then get out a spatula and hand fold in another 1/2 c. Add the milk and fold it in with the spatula. Add the remaining flour and carefully fold it into make dough. Fold in the blueberries.  Using an icecream scoop, fill the muffin tins about 1/4" below the top. sprinkle the cinnamon sugar on top of each muffin. Bake at 375º 25 minutes or until a cake tester comes out clean. Cool in the tins 10 minutes, then remove the muffins from the tin.  These can be frozen wrapped in tin foil and then put into freezer bags. 

Roasted Eggplant salad

I've made this up as a combo of Romanian eggplant and traditional baba ganoush. It needs a small bulbous eggplant, maybe 4-5". Serve with fresh pita or flatbread or spread on deli rye. It should delight up to 6 people.

1 sm Italian eggplant (the bulbous kind)
1/2 sm red onion
1/4 tsp ground Aleppo pepper or a pinch of red pepper flakes
1 tbsp tahini
2 garlic coves
a 1/4" wide, 4" long strip of green bell pepper
1/2 tsp sea salt
plenty of freshly ground black pepper
2 tbsp top quality olive oil

If you have a grill char the eggplant slightly. I use the gas burner of my stove on medium for 5 minutes, turning the eggplant with tongs once or twice.  Roast the eggplant in an oven at 450º til soft: about 20 minutes. Cool. Remove the skin. Put the eggplant in a food processor and add everything else. Process into a paste, not a drooling puree. Adjust seasonings to your taste and enjoy.