More Quick Farm to Table Dishes for Right Now

Farmer's markets are running close to high tide. Colorful arrays of roots, shoots and fruits abound. There's so much to pick, what to do?  Here are a few more suggestions: get yourself cauliflower, parsley, cherry tomatoes, cilantro, spinach and feta or paneer or halloumi cheese, arugula, shiny fresh smallish purple onions, mint and fresh dates. These will be the basis for 4 vivid, tasty and memorable summer offerings--if you are not allergic to peanuts. You can serve them all as a vegetarian feast or as side dishes with grilled meat or fish.

Seared Cauliflower with Chimichurri

Make the chimichurri:

1/2 bunch flat leaf parsley, leaves only coarsely chopped

3 tbsp red wine vinegar

4 large garlic cloves, minced

2 tbsp dried oregano leaves

2 tsp crushed red pepper

Kosher salt and freshly ground pepper

1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil

In a food processor, combine the parsley, vinegar, garlic, oregano and crushed red pepper. Process until smooth; season with salt and pepper. Add olive oil and whiz into a puree. Let stand 20 minutes. 

Cook the cauliflower:

1 large or 2 med heads of cauliflower, trimmed only of the greens

1/4 c corn oil
1/2 tsp sea salt
freshly ground black pepper

Preheat oven to 375º. 
Slice cauliflower into 1/2" thick slabs, like steaks.* Season with salt and pepper.
Heat a large cast iron pan over high flame and when its very hot add the oil.
When oil is hot, add cauliflower slabs and brown 3-4 minutes on each side, until each is getting golden and crispy.
Transfer the pan to the oven and roast the cauliflower 10-12 minutes or until it is tender.
Transfer to a serving platter and spoon the chimichurri over it. 

*No worries if these fall apart into florets. Just keep going the same way. The final dish will still be exciting and delicious.


Nepali Peanut Salad
serves 4-6

1 lb dry roasted peanuts (can be salted, no problem)

2 Serrano chilies, seeded and minced

12 cherry tomatoes, sliced thin

1 small red onion, peeled and diced

½ bunch fresh cilantro, leaves only finely chopped

1 tsp coarse sea salt, less by half if peanuts are already salted

½-1” piece fresh ginger root, peeled and grated

1 med garlic clove, peeled and grated or minced

¼ tsp red pepper flakes

2 limes, juice only

3 tbsp peanut, mustard or corn oil

¼ tsp ajwain seed

pinch dried mint

1/8 tsp anise seed

1/4 tsp cumin seed

 ¼ tsp ground or minced turmeric root

 1/8 tsp ground coriander

 1/8 tsp black Himalayan salt or asafetida if you have one of them

Optional: 1/4 tsp chili powder if you like food very spicy

Combine the peanuts, chilies, tomatoes, onion, cilantro, salt, ginger, garlic, pepper flakes and lime juice in a large bowl. Thoroughly blend.

In a small frying pan, heat the oil over medium/high flame. Add all the spices and sauté one minute until their aroma is released and they are lightly browned. Pour the contents of the pan over the peanuts and stir to blend everything.

Saag Paneer 

serves 4 as a side

1 1/3 lb fresh spinach, well washed

2 tbsp ghee or unsalted butter
½ lb paneer or feta or best halloumi cheese, cubed 

1 small onion, very thinly sliced (a mandolin is helpful)
4 fat garlic cloves, very thinly sliced
1” fresh ginger, peeled and grated
1 fresh small green chili, deseeded and thinly sliced
1 tsp garam masala
½ tsp turmeric
½ tsp salt

Bring a large pot of salted water to the boil. Add spinach, blanch for 10 seconds, then drain and cool in ice water. Squeeze well to dry. Finely chop the stalks and roughly chop the leaves. Squeeze again and again until no more water comes out – it should be as dry as possible.

Heat the ghee/butter in a large heavy frying pan on a medium-high heat and fry the cheese cubes until golden and crusty. Remove with a slotted spoon and drain on paper towels. Sprinkle lightly with sea salt. Heat the remaining ghee/butter until it just starts to smoke.

Add onion, garlic, ginger and chili, then the spices and salt. Fry, stirring vigorously, until everything is browned but not burnt.

Add the chopped, dry spinach and cheese and stir vigorously until everything is hot. Taste for seasoning and serve.

Arugula, Mint and Date Salad plus variation with grilled Halloumi

1 bag fresh arugula,

3 stems fresh mint, leaves only

2 spring purple onions (very small) or 1 smallish fresh purple onion

1/4 c chopped roasted walnuts

3 fresh dates, pitted and chopped

Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper to your taste

Juice of 1/2 large fresh lemon

3 tbsp olive oil

very light pinch of cinnamon

Whisk together the lemon juice. cinnamon and olive oil.

Slice the onion into very thin rings.

Mince the mint leaves.

Remove any long stems from the arugula.

In a medium serving bowl combine arugula, onion rings, chopped mint and dates.

Season with salt and pepper and dress with the lemon juice and olive oil. That's it.

Variation: grill or pan fry slices of halloumi brushed with olive oil until each side is golden brown. Season immediately with dried oregano and sea salt. Serve the salad on individual plates with one slice of hot halloumi on top.

 

Pasta with Peas and Pea shoots
After I finished this post, I cobbled together a quick dinner essentially out of nothing.
I had already shelled fresh peas and, this is vital, boiled the pods in water to make pea broth.
So I sautéed in olive oil a small fresh purple onion minced with a clove of garlic and two handfuls of pea shoots, coarsely chopped. I threw in some feta cheese I happened to have but ricotta or goat cheese would have worked too. Salt, pepper and a few mint leaves all cooked until soft.

while that was going on I boiled the pea broth, added lots of salt and threw in penne plus the fresh peas.  These took about 10 minutes to cook.  I drained them and threw the peas and penne into the pot with the pea shoots. Blended the mess with a spritz of olive oil and sprinkle of sea salt and debated whether or not it needed the crunch of chopped walnuts. Didn't go there and the dish was just yummy comforting fine.

Farm to Table: Just add Friends and Serve

Here's an early summer lunch among friends, served with Prosecco and love for momentous food of the moment: peas, young golden beets, rhubarb, cheery tomatoes, pea shoots and strawberries. 

Put them in differing combinations and you get: roasted beets with baby onion, walnuts and local goat cheese; cherry tomatoes with raw rhubarb marinated in rosewater; watermelon, strawberries, pitted Kalamata olives, mint leaves and grilled Halloumi cheese; fresh pea and mint hummus (recipe posted May 2014) on fresh baguette slices with chopped pea shoots and snippets of smoked salmon (using leftovers); rhubarb date chutney (recipe posted in June) with local cow milk cheeses,  Happy healthy handsome.

The tomato salad for 2-3, with cues from Yotam Ottolenghi, needed 2 thin stalks of fresh rhubarb and about 1 lb of multicolored tomatoes--only cherries available right now where I am--sliced on a platter and seasoned with a good pinch of sea salt.  Before you do this, however, you make a dressing by whisking together 3 tsp rosewater, 1 tbsp best olive oil, 1/2 tsp Dijon mustard, 2 tsp cider vinegar and 1 garlic clove smashed and minced.  Slice the rhubarb on the diagonal into 1" pieces and marinate them in the dressing for 30-60 minutes.  Pour over the tomatoes, add a fat pinch of sea salt and if you have them, fresh oregano leaves. If you don't have them sprinkle some dried oregano and top with chopped fresh flat leaf parsley.


The roasted beet salad started with cleaning the beets, packing them with a sprinkle of olive oil and pinch of salt into a tin foil package and roasting them at 425º for about 35-40 minutes. The size of the beet determines how much time is necessary to get them soft to the core. Smaller beets are more mellow. Once the beets are cooked and cooled, peel and chop them. Put in a serving bowl with a handful of roasted walnuts, 3 scallions or 1 baby onion thinly sliced in rings, crumbled goat cheese and at least 1 tbsp chopped fresh dill. Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper before you dress with vinaigrette.

Jam Session

Strawberry jam seems to be everybody's favorite so you can never make too much. And you don't have to use what you keep just on croissants and scones.  You can slap it on vanilla ice cream, slather it on pancakes or smear it on a cheese or yogurt cake. In fact last week I made a flash batch--less than 15 minutes--of strawberry rhubarb and covered a yogurt cake with it for a very impressive potluck dessert. It was first to disappear.

Unfortunately strawberries are one of the trickier fruits to turn into jam. They don't have as much pectin as raspberries or apricots which jell in five minutes or less.  Strawberries need patience. Twenty minutes on average of stirring and feeling the heat. But later you get to feel the love.

So here's how to go about it.
A quart of fresh strawberries--not the large tasteless watery ones from California--will yield four maybe five half-pints of ruby red jam. With them you will need a lime for all its juice, a pinch or two of cinnamon, a pinch of nutmeg, optionally 2 tsp of rosewater, and 1 heaping cup of sugar. Lately I've been using turbinado instead of plain white. If you are using granulated white, try to mix in a tbsp of light brown as it will add richness.

Now this is MUCH LESS sugar than commercial brands and commercial recipes call for. You cannot eliminate sugar: it is the major preservative here, preventer of an evil bacteria takeover. But lime juice is also a bacteria killer/ preservative so you can use less sugar.  There will be a consequence though: once the jar is opened it will not last indefinitely the way sugar loaded commercial jam does. That's why it's sugar loaded: shelf life. Once opened, the jam must be kept in the refrigerator and eaten within 2-3 weeks. That's why I put it in small jars. ;o)

Get the jars boiling while you make the jam. You make the jam by putting all the ingredients in the tallest pot you have because when it gets hot sparks are gonna fly. You will need a spatter screen and mitts that go up your arm. You also need a long handled spoon, longer the better.

Do you cut up the strawberries? Depends on whether or not you want chunks in your jam. I recommend cutting up the large ones but not the smallest ones. I sometimes split the middle, sometimes not. 

Fire up the burner and stir up the pot.  Stir every minute or less. Eventually as the sugar heats up it will bubble. Stir away the bubbles. When it hits boiling, the whole mixture will rise up; you must stir it down.
If you see any foam on the surface, try to scrape it off: this is excess sugar and you don't want it in the jars. Now just keep stirring until you have thick jam.  How do you know that you do? If you pull up a spoonful and it's not willing to run off the spoon but tends to stick around and drop of in clumps, you've got jam.  If you run a spoon across the bottom of the pot and the jam clears a real path so you see the pot bottom, you've got jam.

You ladle the jam into the hot jars, almost but not quite to the top. Seal the jars and put them back into the boiling water bath. Water must cover them by at least 1 inch. Boil for 10 minutes. Remove and wait to hear the pop! that means they've sealed. Then cool and label and think sweet thoughts about how happy you are going to make everyone you love

Let's Make a Date

For a while now, I've wanted to reveal my great love affair with fresh Medjool dates, which I only met last summer. Since it's now Ramadan, and dates are its core sustenance, this is a good time to admit I have at least one date a day. And they're remarkably easy to find. Just make sure you get fresh ones.

Dates are an amazing storehouse of nutrition: just about everything a body needs. Iron, vitamins, fiber, potassium and natural sweetness that can reduce your desire to overeat. That's why they're such a terrific fast-breaking food. 

You can just pop one in your mouth, beware the pit, and chew away to paradise. You can also pile them around cheese. I've started dressing up a plate of grilled Halloumi on a bed of arugula with a date or two. They sweeten up yogurt and oatmeal, as good partners for fresh walnuts. I also chop them into salads, any excuse for one, but my favorite is bitter arugula with thin red onion rings, fresh pea shoots, toasted walnuts and chopped dates with a hint of fresh mint. If you've got frisee around, chop in too. The person who introduced me to dates, not knowing I had never met fresh ones before, always combines them in salad with citrus: tangerine, orange, mandarin.

Here are some of my favorite recipes, and I do mean favorite thanks to the dates.

Celery Date Salad
This one was under the celery post but here it is again.
erves 6

8 celery stalks, thinly sliced on the diagonal. Chop the leaves too.

6 fresh dates, pitted and coarsely chopped

1/2 c roasted almonds, halve. Whole is okay too.

1/2 sm red onion, diced

2 tsp minced fresh mint leaves

pinch red pepper flakes

Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

2 oz shaved Parmesan cheese 

3 tbsp fresh lemon juice

1/4 c extra good olive oil

Combine celery and leaves, dates, almonds, onion and pepper flakes in a serving bowl. Moisten with the lemon juice. Season with salt and pepper. Add the cheese and olive oil and lastly stir in the mint leaves.

Lamb with Fresh Dates
This has been my new all time company dish.

  Serves 8-10

3 lbs cubed lamb

5 lg garlic cloves, minced

2” fresh ginger, peeled and grated

1 tbsp paprika

2 1/2 tsp ground cumin

3 tbsp butter

1 lg onion, sliced into thin rings (you’ll need about 2 cups)

Pinch saffron

2 tbsp tomato paste

2 cinnamon sticks

2 tsp dried ginger

1/8 tsp ground cayenne (1/4 if you like hotter)

1/2 c chopped fresh dates plus 24 whole Medjool dates (yes, with pits)

1/2 cup raisins (preferably golden) soaked in hot water with 1 tsp rose water

Optionally: 1/2 c pomegranate arils

1/2 c chopped fresh cilantro leaves for garnish

Salt and freshly ground black pepper

Season lamb generously with salt and pepper.

Combine garlic, fresh ginger, paprika and cumin in a small bowl, then smear it all over the lamb. Let the lamb sit in that on the counter for at least an hour or wrap it and leave it overnight in the fridge. Return to room temperature to continue.

In a Dutch oven or large heavy gauge lidded casserole (think Le Creuset), melt butter over medium heat. Add onions and saffron and generous salt. Sauté until onions are soft, about 5 minutes. Stir in tomato paste and continue cooking another minute. Add lamb and sauté until meat and onions are lightly browned.

Heat oven to 400º. To the lamb pot, add cinnamon sticks, dried ginger, chopped dates and enough water to just cover everything. Bring to a simmer, cover the pot tightly with a lid and put in the hot oven. Bake at 400 for 1/2 hr, then reduce heat to 350º. Check liquid and add water if it has fallen below the meat. Continue to bake another hr until the meat is almost falling apart.

Remove from the oven and skim off any obvious surface fat. Add the whole dates, stir, cover the pot and put it on a burner with medium/low heat. Cook about 5 minutes until dates are plump from the sauce. Remove from heat. To serve, pour into a large bowl, top with drained raisins, optional arils and cilantro

  
Anatolian Hot Bulghur with Fresh Dates
another great party dish 

Serves 6-8 (cut in half for 3-4)

2 cups coarse grain bulgur

4 tbsp butter or ghee (divided 3 & 1)

2 med/lg carrots peeled and julienned into matchsticks

¾ cup blanched slivered almonds

3 tbsp pine nuts

3 tbsp pistachio nutmeats (raw or roasted)

1/8 tsp ground cinnamon

¾ lb (12 oz) dates, pitted and coarsely chopped (use soft dates)

¼ lb (4 oz) dried figs, coarsely chopped (bite-size pieces)

1 tsp rose water

1 tsp salt

½ bunch cilantro, leaves only chopped for garnish

8 oz plain thick yogurt for serving

Put the bulgur in a large bowl and pour in enough boiling water to cover it with 1 extra inch. Stir to blend. Cover the bowl and let the bulgur steam for 25 minutes.

In a large heavy skillet or casserole, melt 3 tbsp of butter or ghee over medium heat. Add the carrots, lower heat slightly so they don’t burn, and sauté —stirring from time to time--until they’re soft and buttery, about 10 minutes. 

Add cinnamon and all nuts. Stir to blend; sauté on low heat another minute so the nuts begin to color. Add dates, figs and rose water. Blend everything.

Drain the bulgur and add it to the pot with salt and 1 tbsp butter.  Mix everything until the fruits, nuts and salt are distributed through the bulgur. Turn off the heat. Put a dishtowel across the top of the pot, put a lid on the pot and let the contents steam for at least 5 minutes.

Transfer bulgur to a large serving bowl and stir in chopped cilantro.

Serve the yogurt one of three ways: make a well in the bulgur and pour it in, or make a well in the bulgur and insert a small bowl filled with yogurt, or simply pass the yogurt around on its own. 

 Rhubarb Date Chutney

This recipe was filed in the rhubarb post, not long ago.  It is really yummy with hard cheeses!

Stuffed Dates
There are two ways I like to do this. One is to slit open the date, leaving a hinge on the back end; pop out the pit and stuff the date with soft goat cheese. Seal it back up.  If you are not vegetarian, you can then wrap the filled date in a thin slice of Iberico or Prosciutto.  The other option once you've stuffed it, is to bury it in ground lamb mixed with cumin, smoked paprika, garlic, salt and minced cilantro--making what looks like an oval meatball. You pan fry these "kofta" in olive or corn oil until brown on all sides--about 2 minutes per side, then serve warm on toothpicks or on a meze/tapas/antipasto plate. The date and cheese inside the meat makes a delightful surprise.

The other option is to forgo the more traditional goat cheese for sweeter mascarpone. You can actually half the date, remove the pit and slather each half with mascarpone, then top them with finely minced fresh mint to serve. Or you can seal the two halves together using the mascarpone as the glue. Either way, these are seriously scrumptious before or after the meal.

Berber Date Bars

from Veggiyana, the Dharma of Cooking

Makes about 24, which is never enough!

4 cups pitted dates (about 1 lb)½ cup ghee
Optional: splash of rose water or orange flower water1½ cup whole almonds or walnuts
pinch of ground cinnamon2 tbsp sesame seeds, lightly toasted
Optional: 1 tbsp lightly toasted shredded coconut

Line an 8” x 8” square pan with parchment or waxed paper, bringing it up the sides so you can grab it easily. Very lightly grease the paper with Crisco, corn oil or canola oil. If you are using coconut, sprinkle ½ tbsp around.

Toast the nuts on a baking sheet at 350 degrees for 5 minutes or until you can smell their aroma. While warm, coarsely chop and sprinkle with ground cinnamon. Coarsely chop dates (you can use the pulse button on a food processor). Melt ghee in a large heavy gauge pot over medium heat. Lower heat and add chopped dates and optional fragrant water, stirring to blend. Cover and cook over low heat for 10 minutes or until the dates soften into a thick paste. Put half the date mixture into the square pan. Run cold water on an icing spatula or large spoon and use the cold, damp instrument to spread the hot dates evenly in the pan.

Pour chopped nuts on top. Put the spatula or spoon under cold water again and use it to spread them evenly, and also pushing them down into the dates. Cover the nuts with a layer of the remaining date paste, spreading it evenly with a cold, wet spatula or spoon. Push this layer down into the nut layer. Sprinkle sesame seeds and optional remaining coconut on top and lightly press them down into the dates. Set the pan aside to cool for at least one hour.  Pull the parchment or waxed paper up so the date bars come out of the pan and can be put on a flat cutting surface.  Cut into small bars or squares. 

Kashmiri Compote
from Veggiyana, the Dharma of Cooking 

  Serves 6

2 tbsp ghee or butter 

¼ cup whole almonds 

¼ cup cashews, lightly toasted 

½ cup raisins 

1/3 cup coconut, chopped or shredded 

8 dates, pitted 

10 dried small apricots 

1 tsp whole black peppercorns 

½ cup water 

¼ cup brown sugar 

½ cup granulated or turbinado sugar
½ tsp ground cardamom or 6 crushed pods 

½ tsp saffron threads 

1 tsp fresh orange peel, minced 

1 tbsp fresh lemon juice

optional garnishes: candied ginger, fresh mint leaves, fried cheese.

In a medium saucepan, heat the ghee over medium flame. Add almonds, cashews, raisins, coconut, dates, apricots and peppercorns. Lightly sauté for one minute. Add water, sugars, orange peel, cinnamon and cardamom. Stir until the water boils. Lower heat and cook for five minutes. Soak the saffron in 2 tsp of hot water, crush it and pour into the fruits. Stir in lemon juice and continue cooking another 5 minutes, until the juice has become syrupy. Remove from heat. Fish out the cinnamon stick. Serve warm plain or garnished. (Suggestion: serve over cornmeal pound cake, oatmeal or pancakes.)

COMING SOON: TROUT STUFFED WITH FRESH DATES

haven't tried it yet

 

Oh, celery...comes with strings attached

Celery may be the most humiliated vegetable in America these days. It's common, well known but underestimated and misunderstood. Maybe because it has strings attached, what can be a majestic ingredient is mostly cut into sticks for the kids, or filled with cream cheese flavored one way or another. Or terribly miscast as the crunch in tuna salad. 

The Italians, who know a thing or two about comforting tasty food. rely on celery for its unique flavor, cooking it down from the get-go with the usual onions and garlic. You don't see it in the all-time champion comfort food, pasta e fagioli, that thick Tuscan macaroni and white bean soup, because it's been cooked down to nothing but a delicately bitter sensation that works in counterpoint with the sweetness of the carrots. It's in the starter, soffritto: carrots, onions and celery all chopped and sautéed together.

Same with the French. Celery is paired with onions and carrots to make their most basic flavoring ingredient: mirepoix. For the Germans, it's celery, leeks and carrots: Suppengrün. soup greens thought to give heart to any dish.  Celery is even part of the Cajun Holy Trinity-- celery, bell pepper and onion--that tantalize every dish. Nobody should ever stew a chicken or make chicken soup without it.

The Persians, whose cooking is legendarily voluptuous and scrumptious, anoint celery with saffron and braise it into its own stew that will knock your mocks off. It's hard to find a more elegant companion for, say, a roast chicken or Thanksgiving turkey or grilled lamb chops. I love it so much I included the recipe in Veggiyana, the Dharma of Cooking, and include it in the recipes below.

If it's crunch you want from your celery, spare the tuna. Give it center stage on the salad plate combined with dates, almonds, mint, red onion and salty Parmesan cheese. It's summer perfection with seafood or on an antipasto plate. You can also combine it with summer's other crunchy vegetables--carrots, kohlrabi, radishes, daikon, bell pepper-- into a thick slaw.

So you can learn to love celery. Let me count the ways:

1. Celery, Fennel and White Bean Soup

 serves 6

1 bunch celery stalks, washed

1 large fennel bulb

1 red onion, peeled and coarsely diced or sliced

1 leek, cut into ½” disks and washed

2 lg garlic cloves, minced

1 shallot, peeled and diced

2 cups cooked white beans (Great Northern, Navy, Cannellini—canned is okay)

4 lg Roma tomatoes, diced

1 red bell pepper, diced

4 cups vegetable broth

5 tbsp olive oil

1 tbsp butter

1 tsp dried thyme

1 tsp dried marjoram

1 tsp fennel seed

1 tsp celery seed

1 tsp salt

½ tsp coarsely ground black pepper

½ tsp black olive paste

juice of ½ large lemon

1 bay leaf

Heat 4 tbsp (1/4 cup) of olive oil over medium heat in a stockpot or large casserole. Add the garlic, onions, shallot and leeks. Sauté over medium heat for 10 minutes, or until onions and leeks are soft. Add fennel seed, half the tomatoes and 1cup of broth. Continue to cook over low heat for ten minutes or until everything starts to look mushy.  Remove from heat, stir in one cup of cooked beans and put the pot contents through a food mill or food processor to make a chunky puree. Don’t process to a silky texture.

Cut the leaves off the celery and set them aside. Wash the stalks and split the large ones down the center. Chop the celery into bite-sized pieces. Save the leaves from the heart.

Cut the stems and fringe off the fennel. Strip the fringe and save it.  Quarter the fennel, and slice it into thin strips.

In the same pot, heat the butter and 1 tbsp olive oil over medium heat.  Add the celery, fennel and red pepper and sauté ten minutes or until they start to soften.

Stir in the thyme, marjoram, celery seed, salt and black pepper. Add the remaining tomatoes and cook another five minutes.

Add 3 cups of broth, bay leaf, lemon juice and olive paste. Continue cooking over low heat for 15 minutes or until both the celery and fennel are soft and no longer chewy.

Stir in the coarse puree and the remaining cup of beans. Blend everything, adjust seasonings to your taste, cover and simmer 5-10 minutes. Remove the bay leaf.

Chop the celery leaves and fennel fringe for garnish.

2. Persian celery stew

 Serves 6-8

1½ bunches of celery, stalks apart and cleaned

4 tbsp butter

1 lg red onion, peeled and diced

¼ tsp freshly cracked or ground black pepper

2 bunches flat leaf parsley, cleaned and chopped (at least 3 cups)

¼ tsp saffron

2 cups vegetable broth

2 tbsp dried crushed mint

¼ tsp salt

1 tbsp freshly squeezed lemon juice

Cut celery into 1” pieces, even leaves.

Melt butter in a large saucepan or medium casserole. Sauté onion over medium heat until soft and translucent. Add black pepper and celery and continue to sauté 5 minutes.

Add half the parsley (1½ cups or one bunch), saffron and vegetable broth. Stir to blend. Bring to a boil. Cover and reduce heat to low. Simmer 30 minutes.

Add remainder of parsley except for 1 tbsp. Add mint, salt and lemon juice, stirring to blend. Continue cooking for 10-12 minutes or until celery is soft.

 Adjust for salt and pepper. Garnish with remaining chopped parsley to serve.

3. One from Mark Bittman

Braised and Roasted Chicken With Vegetables

serves 4

2 tablespoons chicken fat, reserved from the chicken-skin croutons (or use olive oil or butter)

2 skinless chicken leg-thigh quarters

Salt and freshly ground black pepper

1 skin-on chicken breast, split to yield 2 halves

3 leeks, trimmed, cleaned and chopped

4 carrots, chopped

6 celery ribs, chopped, leaves reserved for garnish

12 to 16 ounces cremini, shiitake, button or other fresh mushrooms, quartered or sliced

3 to 4 sprigs fresh thyme or rosemary

Chicken-wing meat

  

1. Heat the oven to 350. Put the chicken fat in a roasting pan or Dutch oven over medium heat. Sprinkle the leg quarters with salt and pepper and add them to the pan, flesh side down. Cook, turning and rotating the pieces as necessary, until well browned on both sides, 10 to 12 minutes. Remove, then add the breast halves, skin side down. Brown them well, then flip and cook for just 1 minute or so; remove to a separate plate.

2. Put the leeks, carrots, celery, mushrooms, herbs and chicken-wing meat in the same pan and cook until the vegetables are tender and beginning to brown, 10 to 15 minutes.

3. Nestle the leg quarters among the vegetables, meaty side up. Add enough of the stock to come about halfway up the thighs. (The amount will depend on the breadth of your pan; add a little water if necessary.)

4. Put the pan in the oven and cook, uncovered, for about 1 hour, checking occasionally and stirring the vegetables if they threaten to brown too much. When the thigh meat is tender, raise the heat to 400 and lay the breast halves on the vegetables, skin side up. Continue cooking until they are done, 20 to 30 minutes longer.

5. Transfer the vegetables to a platter. You can serve one of two ways: slice the breasts and shred the leg-and-thigh meat and lay the meat on top of the vegetables; or cut the leg-thigh pieces in half, cut the breasts in half and give each person a little of each. Garnish with reserved chopped celery leaves.

  4. Macedonian Bean Soup

 Serves 6

1 lb dried white beans (Great Northern, Kidney, navy, cannellini)

2 med/lg carrots, peeled and diced

2 stalks celery with leaves, diced

1 lg onion, peeled and diced

1/4 tsp freshly ground or cracked black pepper

1 tsp dried sage

3½ cups vegetable broth

3 red bell peppers, roasted and peeled

2 yellow or orange bell peppers, roasted and peeled

2 tbsp red wine vinegar (Balsamic is too strong)

5-6 tbsp olive oil

18-20 pitted Kalamata olives, slivered

Salt to your taste

1 tbsp freshly squeezed lemon juice

Pick over the beans. Soak in enough water to cover and refrigerate overnight.

Roast the peppers. Remove stems, skin membrane and seeds. Chop into small ¼” cubes.  Combine peppers, vinegar and 1 tbsp olive oil in a glass or ceramic small bowl. Season with salt and pepper. Cover and refrigerate overnight.

Drain the beans. Put in a large pan, cover well with cold water and bring to a boil.

Boil for 5 minutes. Drain well.

In a large, heavy gauge pot, heat enough olive oil 4-5 tbsp to cover the bottom.

Add carrots, celery, onion, black pepper and sage. Sauté on low heat for 2 minutes or until vegetables are soft. Stir in the beans.

Add broth. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat, cover and simmer for 1½ hours until beans are tender.

Drain peppers. Add peppers and olives to the warm soup. Add salt to your taste and finally the lemon juice.Serve immediately.

Great with an arugula salad, crusty bread and soft cheese. 

5. Celery Date Salad

serves 6

8 celery stalks, thinly sliced on the diagonal. Chop the leaves too.

6 fresh dates, pitted and coarsely chopped

1/2 c roasted almonds, halve. Whole is okay too.

1/2 sm red onion, diced

2 tsp minced fresh mint leaves

pinch red pepper flakes

Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

2 oz shaved Parmesan cheese 

3 tbsp fresh lemon juice

1/4 c extra good olive oil

Combine celery and leaves, dates, almonds, onion and pepper flakes in a serving bowl. Moisten with the lemon juice. Season with salt and pepper. Add the cheese and olive oil and lastly stir in the mint leaves.

6. Summer Crunch Salad
serves up to 8

6 celery stalks, cleaned and thinly sliced on the diagonal
2 carrots, cleaned, halved and thinly sliced on the diagonal
1/2 sm kolhrabi, cut into thin strips
1/2 fennel bulb, sliced thinly
4 radishes, thinly sliced
1 sm firm red bell pepper, thinly sliced into strips
1 bunch flat leaf parsley, minced
juice of a lemon
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
1/4 c olive oil

Combine all vegetables and parsley in a serving bowl. Season with salt and pepper.
Dress with lemon juice and olive oil. Serve and enjoy.