Corn, Arugula & Tomato Salad
From Eating Well.
Corn, Arugula & Tomato Salad
From EatingWell: Summer 2004
Fresh corn and tomatoes make an especially attractive and delicious summer salad. Sweet corn balances the peppery arugula and tart tomatoes.
READER’S COMMENT:
“Great salad! But too much oil (much more than necessary). I used 2 tablespoons and next time will use only 1. “
Ingredients
- 3 tablespoons red-wine vinegar
- 3 tablespoons minced shallots
- 6 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- Freshly ground pepper, to taste
- 6 cups loosely packed arugula, (about 6 ounces)
- 2 cups corn kernels, (about 4 ears)
- 1 1/2 pints cherry tomatoes, halved
Preparation
- Combine vinegar and shallots in a large bowl and let stand at room temperature for 10 minutes.
- Whisk oil into the vinegar mixture until blended. Season with salt and pepper. Add arugula and toss to coat. Arrange the arugula on serving plates. Add corn and tomatoes to the bowl, toss to coat with the dressing that remains, then spoon the mixture over the arugula and serve.
Gravenstein apples — get them before they’re gone
From the Sacramento News & Review.
Gravenstein: A small grenade of apple flavor, ready to explode in your mouth.
Apples might as well be seasonless. Though most varieties ripen in the fall, they are available virtually anywhere, anytime. Apples last for months in cold storage, taste as good as new even in June, and may be the world’s most ubiquitous fruit.
But not the Gravenstein. An early-ripening variety, Gravensteins are only available for several weeks in midsummer, are only grown in Sonoma County and have virtually no commercial shelf life. In effect, the Gravensteins come and then are gone, almost all eaten locally. Now is the time to get them. Area markets carry them only sporadically. Keep your eyes peeled.
The orchards are centered around Sebastopol, west of Santa Rosa, where farmer Paul Kolling grows some 75 acres of Gravensteins under the business name Nana Mae’s Organics. Though nearly every other crop in California has been delayed almost a month by cool weather, not the Gravensteins. According to Kolling, that’s because the orchards are mostly dry-farmed. He says that denying the trees the pleasure of irrigated water stresses them, essentially inducing a state of botanical panic that spurs fast ripening of the fruits.
Dry-farming also produces smaller apples denser in flavor. Processing further condenses flavor, and Kolling, for one, sends 95 percent of his crop to a local processing house to be rendered into applesauce, juice and cider vinegar. These products are sold in jars bearing the Nana Mae’s label and can be found at the Davis Food Co-op. If you never find a fresh Gravenstein this year, don’t fret; some say that jarred sauce is the best way to taste them—essentially a condensed Gravenstein flavor bomb.
Kolling has also considered finding a place at one of the local farmers markets later this year, when Nana Mae’s Jonathan, Rhode Island greening, and Kolling golden apples—the latter of which originated as a seedling on his property 15 years ago—will be in season. By then, though, the fresh Gravensteins will be gone.
Black Peppered Nectarines
Three pounds of nectarines in the CSA box this week! Two were bruised and starting to go bad from that point, so I came up with this simple treatment. I put it in the dehydrator overnight and had it for breakfast, but you could do the dehydrator during the day and have it for dessert instead.
A Raw Right Now original.
Black Peppered Nectarines
Dice two to three nectarines and place in a bowl. Add the juice of half a lemon and a tablespoon or so of honey or your preferred sweetener — if your nectarines are ripe and sweet, you’ll need less; if they’re not so sweet, you’ll need more. Adjust to your taste. Add 1/4 teaspoon of vanilla, several generous grinds of black pepper and a small pinch of salt. Stir to mix, then pour into a dish that will fit into your dehydrator. Cover with plastic wrap and dehydrate at 118 for four to six hours, or until quite juicy. Stir in a tablespoon of Mila or ground chia and return to the dehydrator for another hour to allow the juices to thicken up.
Would be good over a raw tart crust or topped with crunchy soaked-and-dried buckwheat. I just ate it with a spoon.
I also did a variation with Dapple pluots and a combination of Chinese five-spice powder (old, been kicking around the spice cabinet far too long) and cinnamon. Tasty. Gotta get new five-spice, though.
Whether you call them chickpeas or garbanzos, most of us think of them as those crinkly yellow pea-size dried beans found in health-food store bins, or canned. Actually, the garbanzo doesn’t start life as a shriveled, hard, yellow legume, but as a perky little ball, ranging in color from the palest green to a color that resembles the flesh of an avocado. It’s cocooned in a papery shell, two or three beans to the pod, and is one of the easiest beans to shell.
Admittedly, you aren’t likely to find fresh garbanzos next to the green beans and carrots at your neighborhood chain supermarket, but in the last few years, California-grown chickpeas have started to pop up from roughly early May to September at farmers’ markets and in specialty produce stores.… Since the shells are very light, there is very little waste by weight, so while they may be a specialty item, fresh chickpeas are certainly not in the luxury category.
Food historians — Colin Spencer, James Peterson, et al — tell us that wild-growing chickpeas have been documented in the Fertile Crescent, cradle of so many of our grains and legumes, as long as 7,000 years ago. They were widely cultivated in the Middle East and by the Egyptians, Greeks and Romans in classical times.…
Farm-fresh garbanzos are so tender that they can be added raw to salads for an appealing crunch, says Elisabeth Schwarz, executive chef at the Restaurant at Wente Vineyards in Livermore. The German-born chef is passionately devoted to the fresh and local credo and puts chickpea dishes on her menu this time of year.…
However, her devotion to the chickpea may not be quite as ardent as that of ancient Romans, who actually named some important folks after the humble little bean. Its name in classical Rome? Cicero.
via alittlecooked
What’s in Season in the Bay Area: June
From the Chart of Bay Area Seasonal Specialties.
Items newly in season this month are marked in bold; items in their last month are marked in italics; items available year-round are marked with an asterisk (*).
- apricots
- artichokes
- arugula
- asparagus
- avocados
- basil
- beets*
- blackberries
- blueberries
- bok choy*
- broccoli*
- cabbage*
- carrots*
- cauliflower*
- celery
- chard*
- cherries
- collards*
- corn
- cucumber
- eggplant
- figs
- garlic*
- kale*
- leeks*
- lettuces*
- melons
- mushrooms*
- nectarines
- onions*
- peaches
- peas
- plums
- radishes*
- raspberries
- spinach*
- strawberries
- squash, summer
- tomatoes
The calendar says it’s June, but the weather sure doesn’t. *sigh*
Meal planning: what’s supposed to be in the CSA box this week
What’s expected in this week’s CSA box, assuming they don’t run out of something and have to substitute.
Monday 04/11/2011 - Friday 04/15/2011
Service: Valley Box
(Weights are approximate)
1 bu Our Farm White Baby Turnip
1 bu Our Farm Green Kale
1 bu Our Farm Bunched Collard
1 lb Our Farm Assorted Potato
1 cnt Our Farm Baby Bok Choy
1 bu Our Farm Fresh Mint
1 bu Capay Green Garlic
.75 lb Esparto Green Asparagus
.5 lb Sonoma King Trumpet Mushroom
.5 lb Marysville Fresh Kiwi
What’s in season in the Bay Area: April
From the Chart of Bay Area Seasonal Specialties.
Items newly in season this month are marked in bold; items in their last month are marked in italics; items available year-round are marked with an asterisk (*).
- artichokes
- arugula
- asparagus
- avocados
- beets*
- bok choy*
- broccoli*
- cabbage*
- carrots*
- cauliflower*
- celery
- chard*
- collards*
- garlic*
- grapefruit
- kale*
- leeks*
- lemons
- lettuce*
- mushrooms*
- onions*
- oranges
- peas
- potatoes
- radishes*
- spinach*
- strawberries
Gone since last month: apples (the only ones at the market on Saturday were Fujis and Pink Ladies, and clearly not at the peak-of-season prime quality) and brussels sprouts.
Meal planning: what’s supposed to be in the CSA box this week
What’s predicted for Friday’s produce box, assuming they don’t run out of something and substitute something else.
Signs of spring!
Monday 03/28/2011 - Friday 04/01/2011
Service: Valley Box
(Weights are approximate)
2 lb Our Farm Potato German Butterball
1 cnt Our Farm Chard Red
1 cnt Our Farm Radish Red
1 bu Capay Carrot Nantes
.5 lb Sonoma Mushroom Mixed
(Source: info3.farmfreshtoyou.com)
Meal planning: What’s supposed to be in the CSA box this week
What we’re expecting in Friday’s produce box, assuming they don’t run out of something and substitute something else.
Monday 03/14/2011 - Friday 03/18/2011
Service: Valley Box
(Weights are approximate)
1 cnt Our Farm Fennel Bulb
1 cnt Our Farm Cabbage Savoy
1 bu Our Farm Kale Lacinato / Dino
1 lb Capay Leeks Loose
1 bu Capay Spinach Bunched
Yep, still winter.
Apple Characteristics and Ripening Date Summary Chart 
One of the things I’ve been noticing about raw food is that because you don’t get the flavor-concentrating effect that cooking gives (particularly roasting), it’s important to start with the best and most suitable ingredients you can. Apples are one area I’ve noticed this — I found a recipe for an “apple pie smoothie”, but when I tried it I found the apple flavor undetectable. Maybe if I’d been using a different kind of apple, one that’s more flavorful raw, it would have turned out tastier.
Of course, apple season is almost over around here, so exploring the wide world of apples may have to wait until next fall. Something to look forward to…
This is a pretty extensive chart of apple varieties, including general order of ripening (Galas first, Fujis last; varies by location, climate, and weather), what uses they’re suited for (eating, cooking, sauce, pie, juice, or apple butter), how well they store (from “stores very well” to “must refrigerate; even then only keeps for a few weeks”) and how to store them.
Definitely going to be referring back to this one!
via alittlecooked
Based on Random Daze theme by Polaraul
