Fresh Cabbage Salad

I learned this recipe from a friend during my first farming apprenticeship. It's an excellent way to use some storage cabbage and to have a seasonal (light) green salad in the middle of winter. Cabbage is chock full of vitamin C and other good nutrients, and is extremely tasty when prepared well. Hope this recipe will help convince the cabbage skeptics in your house!

Ingredients
A medium-sized cabbage (about 2.5 lbs - OR, 2.5 lbs of a larger cabbage)
Parmesan cheese, about 1 cup grated
Salt, to taste
Olive oil, to taste

That's it!

Recipe
1. Grate 2.5 lbs of cabbage (it will make about 4-5 cups of shredded cabbage). You can also shred it in a food processor.
2. Grate Parmesan cheese and mix into grated cabbage. Add cheese to taste - 1 cup grated is about how much I use to for 4 cups of shredded cabbage.
3. Drizzle with a few tablespoons of olive oil.
4. Mix well, and add salt, more olive or more cheese to taste.
5. Enjoy!

Whatley’s Carrot-Cumin Soup for a Crowd

Based on Alice Waters’ “Carrot Soup” in Soup for Syria (2015).

Ingredients
4 Tablespoons butter
1 Tablespoons olive oil
3 medium or 2 large onions, diced
2 sprigs fresh thyme, or 1 Tablespoon dried
1 Tablespoon whole cumin seeds
3 pounds carrots, peeled and sliced
8 cups chicken, turkey, or vegetable stock
½ cup yogurt (optional)
Fresh ground pepper, Sea salt
Handful chopped fresh parsley

Recipe

1. Gently heat the butter and olive oil in a large heavy pot (do not let the olive oil smoke). Add the chopped onions and whole springs of thyme. Saute until the onions are tender and translucent, about 10 minutes.

2. Add the peeled and sliced carrots, cumin seeds, and some salt. Cook for 5 minutes or so.

3. Add the stock and bring to a boil before lowering the heat. Simmer until the carrots are tender, about half an hour.

4. Remove from heat and puree the soup with an immersion blender, if you want. Season with salt and fresh ground pepper. Add the yoghurt and blend it in.

5. Top with fresh parsley, chopped fine.

Garlic Scape Pesto

Garlic scapes are one of the best heralds of summer. Up here in Maine, we plant garlic cloves in the fall, letting them grow some roots before the winter freeze. Then we weed and and feed them painstakingly in the spring. Garlic, like many other alliums, is day-length sensitive. It will only put on vegetative growth until the summer solstice. Then, it will start to form a bulb and mature. We try to get as much vegetative growth as we can, because a bigger plant essentially means bigger garlic!

Garlic scapes are the flower stalk of the garlic plant. Hardneck garlic varieties produce scapes, whereas softneck varieties have been bred to produce as few scapes as possible so the plant sends all its energy to the bulb. We grow mostly hardneck varieties (Phillips, German Extra Hardy, Georgian Fire, a strain of Music from NY and a strain of Music improved on in Bowdoinham) and one softneck (Inchelium Red). 

When we pick garlic scapes, we not only get a delicious vegetable, we also cause the garlic plant to send its energy back into bulb forming. So by growing lots of hardnecks, we don't get as great a percentage of energy going to the bulb as with soft necks, but we'll take the garlic scapes instead. So will you, too, if you try this pesto!

Ingredients: 
2 cups garlic scapes (about 20 scapes, and no need to be super exact)
1 cup olive oil
1 tsp salt

Chop the garlic scapes into pieces about an inch or smaller. You can see from the picture above that I am not very scientific about it. Put a quarter of the scapes, the salt, and a big splash of the olive into a food processor and blend until it starts to smooth out. Add the rest of the scapes and olive in batches until the whole thing is as smooth as you want it. 

Note: At this stage, you can also add nuts (2 tablespoons of pine nuts, sunflower seeds, or chopped walnuts), cheese (2 tablespoons of parmesan), lemon juice (2 tablespoons), or anything else you fancy in your pesto (a 50-50 garlic scape/basil blend is very nice).

Serve on toast, pasta, grilled veggies, you name it! Alternatively, you can freeze it in any freezer container and get it out in the depths of winter when you need to remember summer.

Enjoy!

Savory Dutch Baby with Spring Greens

This yummy treat is also known as Finnish pancake. I wouldn't be surprised if it had other names also. It's simple and delicious. You can make a sweet version (I'll explain in the Notes), but I love the savory kind. I can eat it for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. 

I have adapted this recipe from The Cast Iron Skillet Cookbook, by Sharon Kramis & Julie Kramis Hearn. This recipe is indeed perfectly suited to a cast iron skillet or a small Dutch Oven. It serves 4.

Dutch Baby in the Dutch Oven. Who knows how these things get named.

Savory Dutch Baby

3 tablespoons butter
8 extra-large eggs*
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup milk
2 cups filling - for example:
       1 cup grated cheese and 1 cup wilted spinach
       1 cup wilted nettles and 1 cup caramelized onions
       1 3/4 cup wilted sorrel and 1/4 cup chopped chives
 

Preheat the oven to 425°F.

Prepare the fillings first. This is a very forgiving recipe, so you don't have to be exact. To wilt the greens, heat a pan (I usually use a cast iron skillet) on medium-high heat with a splash of oil or butter. When the pan is hot, toss in the greens and immediately pour about 1/4 cup of water (or lemon juice or vinegar if you like tangy) over the greens. They will steam and curl up quickly. Stir them around to steam them evenly. When they are thoroughly limp but still brightish in color, remove the greens from the pan to a bowl, draining them and discarding extra liquid in the pan. You can also blanch the nettles in salted, boiling water for a few minutes (and then drain them) instead of wilting them - as always, with nettles, remember to wear gloves or use tongs!

Melt the 3 tablespoons butter in the skillet. While it is melting, whisk together the eight eggs, flour, and milk. You can also blitz them in a blender or food processor if you want a really smooth texture. 

Fold the fillings you are using into the batter, and pour the mixture into the skillet. Place the skillet in the oven and bake about 20-25 minutes, until the top is golden brown and puffy. 

As soon as it is done, slice it up and serve!

Notes

*You can substitute eggs of any size, but you want to have about the same volume of eggs. Eight extra-large chicken eggs is usually around 2 cups - see this article in the Portland Press Herald's Source for more info about cooking with varied egg sizes.

To make a sweet version, omit the fillings. Mix up the batter and bake as directed. Serve with your favorite pancake topper - maple syrup, blueberry sauce, lemon juice and powdered sugar...! 

Sausage and kale calzones

Laura found this recipe from the StarTribune (thank you, google search!).

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Sausage and Kale Calzones 

Adapted from Meredith Deeds' recipe on www.startribune.com.

Makes 8.

• 1 tsp. olive oil
• 1 lb. sausage, casings removed (we used our pork garlic sausage, but you can substitute whatever kind of sausage you like - or tempeh for a vegetarian version!)
• 1 c. chopped onion
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 6 c. chopped kale (about 2 small bunches)
• 1/2 tsp. freshly ground black pepper
• 1/4 tsp. salt
• 3/4 c. (3 oz.) shredded mozzarella cheese
• 1 c. ricotta
• 2 tbsp. grated fresh Parmesan cheese
• 1/4 tsp. crushed red pepper
• Basic Pizza Dough (recipe follows)
• Marinara sauce (store-bought or homemade), optional

You can use any pizza crust recipe you like.

I use the one from Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes a Day.

The recipe is: combine 3 cups warm water, 1.5 tablespoons salt, 1.5 tablespoons yeast, and 6-6.5 cups flour. Mix well, let rise for 2 hours.

It's ready to be used then, or you can refrigerate it until you need it - make sure to let it warm up before using if you have refrigerated it.

This recipe makes enough for 4 medium pizzas or 8 small calzones.

Calzone crust rolled out on a pizza peel.

Directions

Preheat oven to 450 degrees.

The cooked filling for the calzones.

To prepare filling: Heat olive oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add the sausage and cook, breaking up lumps with the back of a wooden spoon, for 5 minutes or until no longer pink. Add onion; sauté 4 minutes or until softened. Add garlic; sauté 2 minutes. Add kale; sauté 8 minutes or until kale is tender. Stir in pepper and salt. Remove from heat; cool slightly. Add the mozzarella, ricotta, Parmesan and red pepper to the sausage mixture; stir well.

To assemble: Divide the pizza dough into 8 equal portions. Roll each portion into a 6-inch circle on a lightly floured surface. Spoon about 1/2 cup sausage and kale mixture onto half of each circle, leaving a 1/2-inch border. Fold dough over filling. Press edges together to seal. Beginning at one end and working toward the other, stretch sealed edge outward, pinching and rolling edge to form a rope. Transfer to baking sheet.

Place calzones on 2 large baking sheets lined with parchment paper. Pierce the tops of the dough once with a fork. Lightly coat the calzones with olive oil. Bake for 14 minutes or until browned. Remove from oven. Serve warm with marinara sauce on the side for dipping, if desired.

Enjoy your delicious calzones!