THE SEASONAL TABLE - Thrifty Good Food

THE SEASONAL TABLE

            Late October, almost November!  As I savor the last tomatoes from my garden slowly turning from green to red on my kitchen counter, I reminisce about the variety of local summer bounty and am forced to consider our seasonal table with its varied flavors.  For a household in Maine (or the Northeast USA in general) preferably “cooking from scratch” for a healthy diet and favoring local ingredients, this can be a seasonal challenge with the approach of winter.

            And yet, such challenges tend to bring out the inventor and experimenter in a cook.  When Alice Waters set out to use local produce in her creations, she had the fresh variety and plenty of California at her fingertips in the local markets at all times. Although I’m likely to think of her with envy in February in Maine, the seasonal demands can make us more creative about our daily menus, if for no other reason than boredom with routine.  We are greatly aided by the abundance and availability of regional and international recipes as well as food that can be stored in a preserved or frozen state.  And I will admit to not being a purist locovore to the extent of banning an occasional banana, as Barbara Kingsolver did in her admirable experiment described in “Animal Vegetable Miracle”.  Rather, I like to think of seasonal foods providing us the basis for a variety of taste experiences and possibly even a variety in nutritional requirements/benefits throughout the year.

            The taste experiences I like to write about generally originate from my own kitchen and hence require at most modest shopping expense and cooking expertise. These would be meals served to family and friends. Some recipes, I confess originate from an unexpected overabundance in my garden.  Since growing a garden requires investment of personal time and labor, it would be unseemly to simply discard such bounty.  Hence, the requirement for new and sometimes creative uses of it.

            A recent case in point was brought up by my fall digging up of a row of beets. These were Chioga and yellow beets, two mild varieties that were destined to be served sliced and buttered as part of a main course for a local progressive dinner. However, the inner beet greens looked fresh and attractive on their own and certainly too good to discard in the compost pile. Thus evolved my Barley-Beet Green soup.

                                    Barley – Beet Green Soup

Cook ½ cup thoroughly rinsed barley in 3 cups of water with ½ tsp. salt for 30 minutes on medium heat. Meanwhile, in a 3 quart pot sauté 1 chopped onion for 5 minutes, add 1 minced clove of garlic and sauté for an additional minute. Add 2 cups water, 3 cups chicken or vegetable broth and bring to boil. In the meantime wash beet greens, trim leaves and discard stems. Cut leaves coarsely (4-5 cups) and drop in boiling broth, bring to boil again, lower heat and continue boiling covered for 8 minutes. Drain the barley and add to cooking greens and continue to cook for another 5 minutes. Stir in 2 Tblsp. rice vinegar, adjust flavor with salt and pepper. Serve with a spoon of reduced fat sour cream or yoghurt for a satisfying, slightly tangy low calorie soup.

                                    Buttered Chioga and Yellow Beets

            Scrub the beets and trim stems but not the root, leaving ½ inch stems attached. Cover beets with cold water in a pot, bring to boil and cook for 30 minutes or less, depending on size.  When cooled to touch, peel and slice in a bowl. Top with butter, sprinkle with a little salt, reheat and serve. These will taste milder than roasted red beets.

            Beets are a seasonal fall vegetable and can be also served as part of salads and soups. Pickled beets will keep as a colorful addition to winter meals, and I will likely remember to make some Barley-Beet Green soup next spring, when the new crop of beets needs to be thinned in the garden.

((I. Winicov Harrington lives in Waldoboro and is the author of “How to Eat Healthy and Well for Less than $5.00 a Day: the Smart-Frugal Food Plan”; website: www.winicov-harrington.com)

Fall Pleasures-Column Published in The Lincoln County News-

Fall Pleasures

            This week saw the passage of the Vernal Equinox and hence we are officially in the fall season.  Even those who ignore the fine print in the calendar can tell.  The midweek traffic on Route 1, always a reliable harbinger of the change in seasons, tells us that summer is over!

            This means that we can once again re-connect with our neighbors for more than just a quick “hello” at the post office or grocery store. With visiting family and summer house guests gone, there is actually time to have a pleasurable mid-week simple supper with neighbors to catch up with their lives and compare notes on past summer events.

            We spent one such evening recently and found that, with the abundant garden harvest of this year, it was quite simple to assemble a meal that was both easy on time and effort: some appetizers, a hearty soup with popovers and simple desert.

            To liven up the ubiquitous cheese and crackers, appetizers included a plate of cucumber slices topped with blue cheese and small rounds of salami topped with a slice of new dill pickles. The main course was my harvest meatball soup, which is more like a vegetable stew and allows you to serve everything in a single soup bowl, with contents only limited by your imagination.

            Harvest Meatball Soup.

            It may be easier to start with the meatballs, since they need to be added when the soup is finished cooking. Start with ¼ cup dry bread crumbs soaked in 3-4 Tblsp. milk. For gluten free meatballs you need to use gluten free bread crumbs. Once the crumbs have absorbed the milk, stir in 2 Tblsp. chopped onion, 1Tblsp. Worcestershire sauce, 1 egg, salt and pepper and 1 pound lean ground beef.  Thoroughly mix the crumb mixture in the meat.  Make the meatballs rolling them in the palm of your hand, using a full Tblsp. of the meat mixture for each.  Set the meatballs, not touching, on a larger cookie pan with sides and bake in 400 degree oven for 20 minutes. Remove from pan, drain on paper towels and cover until ready to add to the soup. Makes 24 meatballs.  

While the meatballs are baking, in a 4 quart pot sauté a large coarsely chopped onion in 2 Tblsp. olive oil for 5 minutes.  Add 2 chopped stalks of celery (with leaves), 2 chopped cloves of garlic and continue to sauté for an additional 5 minutes. Add: 4-5 cut-up cored-unpeeled tomatoes (or a 14 oz can of diced tomatoes with liquid), 3 cups water and 26 oz. beef cooking stock. Bring to boil and add the following vegetables cut to bite size: 3 peeled carrots, 2 peeled medium potatoes, 2 small yellow squash, 1 cup fresh string beans. Season with ½ tsp. thyme, 2 Tblsp. chopped fresh parsley, 2 Tblsp. chopped fresh basil (optional) salt and pepper. After the vegetables reach boiling, lower the temperature to low and continue cooking for 45 minutes. Add a 14 oz. can of drained rinsed garbanzo or white beans, 1 cup of frozen or canned corn and the prepared meatballs. Heat to boiling and serve with grated Parmesan cheese.  It makes for a thick and colorful plate that is as tasty as it is filling.

Never having forgotten the popovers I first encountered at Jordan Pond so many years ago, I love to make them for breakfast or to go with soup.  Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Grease popover pan thoroughly and place in the oven for about 3 minutes. In the meantime in a large bowl beat together 3 eggs, 1 ¼ cups milk, 1 Tblsp. melted butter and combine with 1 ¼ cups flour and ¼ tsp. salt. Remove the hot pan from the oven carefully and quickly divide egg mixture between the 6 cups. Return pan to the oven and bake for 15 minutes. Reduce the temperature to 350 degrees and continue baking for another 15 to 17 minutes.  Remove from oven and serve immediately.

Having written about gluten free popovers in one of my previous columns, here is the gluten free version. The recipe is the same except instead of flour use 1 cup of my gluten free mix (bulk preparation: 2 cups brown rice flour, 2/3 cup potato starch, 1/3 cup tapioca flour) and ½ tsp. baking powder. The gluten free popovers won’t pop as high, but will still be tasty and look like popovers.

A neighborly supper, capped off with good companionable conversation and a simple desert, such as my Maine Peach Melba (poached peaches, topped with ice cream and blueberry jam), is bound to please every time.

(I. Winicov Harrington lives in Waldoboro and is the author of “How to Eat Healthy and Well for Less than $5.00 a Day: the Smart-Frugal Food Plan”; website: www.winicov-harrington.com)