In astronomy, when a new telescope is opened to the skies it is known as “First Light”. This week we have “Tomato – First Light” I wil be teaching this recipe in class this week.
- Saturday’s Kitchen
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June19th
No CommentsTOMATO – FIRST LIGHT
Posted in: Daily Bread, Food, How To Cook, Saturday's Kitchen
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June15th
No CommentsCOOKING, COOKING & MORE COOKING
Posted in: Food, How To Cook, Saturday's Kitchen
I have been cooking up a storm.
Gardens are in full riot now and I have been cooking as much as I ever have. My schedule is pretty busy. Every other week I am out at FULL SUN FARM, cooking “on the fly” for the crew. I help a little in the garden, then harvest whatever is best and head into Vanessa and Alexs’ kitchen to feed crew and family. The process is my experimental think tank of what to do with what is fresh and best. It is how I used to cook when I first stared cooking, the difference is now I have 40 years of experience to apply to the task.
This is the Full Sun menu from last week: Beet Soup with carrots, onions, fennel, collard greens with cider vinegar and sour cream. Beans & Greens: pressure cooked black-eyed peas, onion, yokatta-na, mizspoona, purple mustard, beet greens and arugula pesto. Green Salad with peas, kohl rabi, lettuces with toasted sesame oil, rice wine vinegar, soy with toasted sesame seeds. Green Fried Tomatoes.
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April7th
No CommentsDaily Bread
Posted in: Daily Bread, Food, Life, Saturday's Kitchen, Uncategorized
A Book of Verses underneath the Bough,
A Jug of Wine, a Loaf of Bread-and Thou
Beside me singing in the Wilderness-
O, Wilderness were Paradise enow!…Omar KhayyamI have been a chef for 38 years. Nothing I have done is more difficult than making a great loaf of bread!
Such a simple food – bread. Four ingredients, flour, water, salt and yeast. Yet, the variations of these simple, ancient and essential ingredients produces endless results. When handled with a masterly hand nothing is more satisfying. Even though I made bread everyday for 38 years, I confess, it was never great. Now, without other concerns, I can focus attention to perfecting that craft, it might take, perhaps, another 38 years to master. Hopefully not. Read More | Comments
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April6th
4 CommentsTRECCE DI GIULIETTA (the braids of Juliet) WITH ARUGULA PESTO ** PEASHOOT & ARUGULA SALAD WITH MEYER’S LEMON DRESSING ** CHICKEN STUFFED WITH ROASTED LEEKS & TURNIPS
Saturday’s class featured four ingredients – arugula, pea shoots, baby turnips and leeks. (If you were to visit Italy this month, on every local menu you would find: arugula salad, pasta with arugula or arugula stuffed seafood. No tomatoes!) The intelligence, of course, is to use what is fresh and seasonal. For class this week, with the exception of a lemon, all the produce was grown by Missy Huger and Chris Sawyer at Jake’s Farm located in Candler. They are a certified organic farm, with whom I have been doing business for many years. (Note on your calendar, tailgate markets open April 17.)
The theme of SATURDAY’S KITCHEN – go to market, come home and prepare the basics for the remainder of the week. In 3 hours, we prepared the “foundation” for all the recipes featured this week. My approach is not to teach “recipes” – instead it is to demonstrate techniques and provide a road map of how to get from a starting point (buying at market) to some destination (a meal or menu). I think I even said “recipes are crutches!” Ouch. Demonstrated in a few hours of concentrated work is how to provide many easy, delicious meals for the entire week. To eat well, you must cook, a little mess in unavoidable, however, do it all at once, the rest is easy.Here are recipes featuring the first of Spring’s seasonal ingredients. Later this week, I will post up the cooking “logic” of turning basic ideas into many dishes. Read More | Comments
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April2nd
4 CommentsSATURDAY’S KITCHEN – APRIL 3
Posted in: Food, How To Cook, Saturday's Kitchen
WHAT’S HAPPENING ON SATURDAY – April 3
Tailgates are not yet open, but this week we are cooking primarily with ingredients form Jake’s Farm, which is here in Asheville. The first young and tender things are coming in from the greenhouse/cold frame. Finally, the end of the winter food doldrums.In about 2 hours of class time, we will organize and produce the basics preparations for the week’s menu posted below. The recipes from the class and photographs will be posted next week.
-Mark
SEASONAL MATERIALS
- Toscano Kale
- Pea Shoots
- Arugula
- Leeks, Scallions
- Baby Turnips
- Vietnamese Coriander
- Italian Parsley
KITCHEN ESSENTIALS
- Stocks – chicken stock & dashi
- Hard cheese – Reggiano-Parmigiano
- Flour, yeast
- Salt
- Fats – olive oils Read More | Comments
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February25th
No CommentsWHAT DO I DO WITH THESE DARN SQUASH? RECIPES!
Posted in: Food, How To Cook, Paint Pots, Saturday's Kitchen
Winter Squashes Or Sweet Potatoes, Carrots? Why not.
SATURDAY’S KITCHEN. Ubiquitous in the garden, there are more than 150 varieties of the hard skinned winter variety of squashes. Few make their presence known in the kitchen, which is a shame, as there are few vegetables that when properly cooked blend an inherent creamy texture with an earthy and often sweet flavor. The color of the flavor reflected in the color of the flesh – deep rust; a rich and lingering earthy taste that haunts the palate, especially when highlighted by a curry spice or one based on clove. Bright orange – zesty and sweet, when blended with citrus zest and butter makes a wonderful base for simmering mild fleshed birds – turkey, chicken, even game birds.
How to make it. This preparation is one of my “Paint Pots” – that is, it is something in my basic cooking palette, especially for Fall and early Winter.Use any combination of the following: acorn squash, butternut squash, kombucha squash or other winter squash. Include sweet potatoes, carrots, or other orange root vegetables. Preheat you oven to a moderate temperature, like 300F. Cut the squashes into quarters, scoop out the seeds. Peel the sweet potatoes or carrots if you are using them. Place a piece of foil on a baking sheet and oil it, or use a silicone baking pad. Put the vegetables on the sheet and place in the oven. Roast until tender. Check the vegetables every 30 minutes (set a timer if this helps). Using a small knife or a fork, pierce the flesh, feeling how easily it yields to moderate pressure. The softer the flesh, the more it is done. Each squash or sweet potato cooks differently, as they become soft, remove them from the oven and put them in a bowl. Continue cooking them the remainder until they are all soft. Allow to cool. Read More | Comments
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February25th
2 CommentsAnd what to do with them
- Sweet Potatoes – Sweet Potato ‘Fries’, Sweet Potato Pumpkin Carrot Ginger Soup, Sweet Potato & Cider Gratin Read More | Comments
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February20th
8 CommentsSaturday’s Kitchen – “Dancin’ in the Kitchen”
Posted in: Food, How To Cook, Mountain Alchemy, Saturday's Kitchen
It is a given that cooking requires time and makes a mess. But what meaningful thing doesn’t?
This challenge is not new. In the 20th Century literature there are at least 3 major author/cooks that address the issue of cooking/table/time. M.F.K. Fisher wrote a book during World War II, How to Cook a Wolf – “in the earnest hope that you are being a good provider, try this simple plan: Balance the day, not each meal in the day.” Dinner Against the Clock by Madeleine Kamman is a collection of “quick, sumptuous meals with the look and taste of infinite leisure”. Finally, back in 1930, Edouard de Pomaine published French Cooking in Ten Minutes (Adapting to the Rhythm of Modern Life), a delightful guide that was also a weekly radio broadcast. Gourmet magazine was also in this mix, publishing a monthly column Gastronomy Sans Argent that featured great recipes that cost little.
As a believer and practitioner of The Table, these four pieces have been stuck in the back of my head for sometime. I always imagined that at some point, I would attempt to bring the concept of “cooking with little time” forward to this century. (I admit, not a modest claim). Standing on the shoulders of these culinary giants (Madeleine Kamman was one of my mentors), afforded the ease of a digital global network, I will rush forward with an uncertain plan into Saturday’s Kitchen. It is a year’s journey, at least. Read More | Comments
