Lisa and Andrea Sockabasin have been harvesting fiddleheads since they were little girls, a springtime tradition in Wabanaki culture, and one that has been passed down across thousands of years of generations. On a chilly spring day in Maine, with the trees bursting with baby green leaves and those infamous black flies out in full force, Lisa (accompanied by her son) and Andrea (accompanied by her daughter) included us in one of their fiddlehead treks, starting with a traditional offering of tobbaco to give thanks to the land before beginning the harvest.

As Andrea and Lisa explain in this episode, this ritual of offering thanks to the land in reciprocity for the gifts that the earth bestows upon us, is at the heart of Indigenous values. There is so much wisdom contained in this ritual, and so much to be learned about how to relate to the earth in a way that is grounded in respect and reciprocity. In an era where so much of our food is polluted, whether it be with microplastics, with pesticides, with PFAS, or other toxic pollutants, it’s clear that what we do to the earth, comes right back to us through the air we breathe, the food we eat, and the water we drink.

In this episode, Lisa and Andrea share how they harvest and prepare fiddleheads. They emphasized how important it is, as with all wild plants, not to take more than you need, and to always leave a few unpicked fiddleheads for every plant you harvest from so that the plant survives and renews itself year after year. If you’ve never heard of it, a fiddlehead is made up of the tightly coiled fronds of the Ostrich fern, right before the fern unfurls into its full leafy glory. They are prized and special because they come around only once a year, usually around the end of April to end of May in the northeast. As Lisa described, they taste kind of like a cross between asparagus and Swiss chard, green and earthy. Fiddleheads, like so many wild plants, are incredibly healthy. They’re rich in potassium, iron, antioxidants, folate, and omega-3 fatty acids. But they also contain a toxin that can make you sick if you don’t cook them properly (as I woefully experienced the very first time I cooked them as a teenager!). So it’s important to first boil them for at least 10 to 15 minutes to release the toxins, as Lisa and Andrea demonstrate in the video.

Lisa and Andrea are co-workers at Wabanaki Public Health and Wellness which provides community-driven, culturally centered public health and social services to all Wabanaki communities and people while honoring Wabanaki cultural knowledge, cultivating innovation, and fostering collaboration. Much of their work centers around food sovereignty and growing and sharing food as a tool for healing. The Wabanaki (“People of the First Light (or Dawnland)”) include the Mi’kmaq, Maliseet, Passamaquoddy, and Penobscot nations and their traditional territories span from Newfoundland in the north, to mid-Maine in the south, and parts of Quebec in the west. As Europeans captured and declared ownership of Wabanaki lands over the years, Wabanaki People were pushed into more isolated parts of Maine. Today, Wabanaki People primarily live in Aroostook and Washington counties in Maine.

Have you ever foraged for fiddleheads? How do you like to prepare them? Tell us in the comments below, and try Lisa and Andrea’s delicious method for preparing them. And of course, as with any wild foraged plants, be sure to accurately identify the species to avoid potentially poisonous plant relatives.

Lisa and Andrea’s Sautéed Fiddleheads

Ingredients

• 1 pound fiddleheads
• 2 Tbsp olive oil
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• Salt and pepper, to taste

Directions

1. Rinse the fiddleheads thoroughly under running water, removing the papery brown husks and trimming the ends.
2. Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Transfer the fiddleheads into the boiling water and boil them for 15 minutes (*please note this step is very important because undercooked fiddleheads contain a toxin that can cause foodborne illness*).
3. Drain and rinse, then place the fiddleheads in an ice water bath to cool and stop the cooking process. Drain and arrange on a kitchen towel to pat them dry.
4. Over medium heat, sautée the garlic in the olive oil for just a minute until fragrant, then add the drained fiddleheads. Sautée until their edges just start to brown, around 4 to 5 minutes. Add salt and pepper to taste. Serve warm and enjoy!

Yield: 4 servings

Aube Giroux is a food writer, a James Beard award-winning documentary filmmaker and a passionate organic gardener and home cook, who shares her love of cooking on her farm-to-table blog, Kitchen Vignettes.

The post Lisa and Andrea’s Sautéed Fiddleheads appeared first on PBS Food.

The bright star of this summer was having my nephews stay with me for two delicious weeks. It was their first time visiting me on their own, without mom or dad, and I went into full Auntie Aubie mode. We spent our time swimming at the lake, exploring for interesting insects (their favorite activity), reading stories, canoeing, digging potatoes to make homemade French fries, and of course picked tons of berries in the garden, everyday. Gathering eggs from the chickens became a thrilling hourly activity, rather than my usual once-daily task. We made blueberry cobbler, and strawberry popsicles, banana muffins, but the recipe that stole their hearts was raspberry clafoutis. It had never occurred to me that clafoutis is the perfect recipe for a kid to learn how to make. It’s incredibly easy, with few ingredients, and the method is simple.

Clafoutis is a classic French dessert, falling somewhere between a thick crepe and a sweet quiche. Basically, a baked custard with a little more structure than the classic custard. Or as my nephews insisted… it’s just like pizza!! But with raspberries!! Instead of pepperoni!! Haha. It is nothing like pizza. But their enthusiasm was convincing. We made it three times. They couldn’t get enough. And seeing as we are blessed with four different varieties and colors of raspberries, wild blackberries galore, and always more eggs than I know what to do with, it turned out to be a great way to use what was abundantly available to us.

Halfway through our second clafoutis, it suddenly dawned on me that I’ve never featured kids in an episode. Well except for this adorable cameo of Dax, the oldest of my two nephews, when he was just a newborn! So I approached it just like when I film with farmers and gardeners, and did a little sit-down interview with them that yielded some hilariously spontaneous answers from them (“clafoutis looks like pizza but it doesn’t taste like pizza”) and a fun tongue-twisting clafoutis chant at the end. I laughed so much while editing this episode, missing them dearly after they had gone home to my sister.

Clafoutis is traditionally made with cherries, but it works well with most berries and fruit. We call our clafoutis “any berry clafoutis” because we tried all kinds of different berries and everyone of them was great! We even used my homegrown, frozen strawberries although I had read you should thaw out and drain frozen berries before using them. But we just threw the frozen berries right in, and even that turned out fine. There are all kinds of expert tips for making clafoutis: warming up your clafoutis dish ahead of pouring in the batter, letting the batter rest 30 minutes before pouring into the pie plate, putting the batter through the blender to avoid lumps. We did none of those things. We didn’t fuss, it came together so easily each time and was devoured in minutes. If our clafoutis were not worthy of the finest French restaurants, we certainly didn’t know, nor did we care!

The recipe is adaptable. You can make a gluten-free clafoutis by using gluten-free flour, and you can use plant-based milk instead of dairy. Clafoutis is delicious warm or cold. Be sure to sprinkle a little powdered sugar on top for the full fancy dessert effect and to cover up any cracks or imperfections. And don’t forget a nice dollop of vanilla ice cream on top. Enjoy!

Dax and Gavin’s Any Berry Clafoutis

Clafoutis is a classic French dessert, falling somewhere between a thick crepe and a sweet quiche.

Ingredients

• 1 Tbsp room temperature butter
• 3 eggs
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1/8 tsp salt
• 1 cup flour
• 1 1/4 cup milk
• 2 cups berries
• Powdered sugar for dusting (optional)

Directions

1. Heat the oven 350 F. Grease a 9-inch pie plate with the soft butter. Place the pie plate on a rimmed baking sheet.
2. In a large bowl, whisk eggs, sugar, vanilla, and salt until smooth and pale. Add the flour and half the milk and whisk until smooth, but do not overmix.
3. Add the remaining milk and whisk until combined. Rest the batter for 20 minutes or so.
4. Pour the batter into the greased pie plate. Scatter the berries on top. Place the baking sheet with the clafoutis on it in the oven and bake for about 40 to 50 minutes. The edges should be golden, the clafoutis will have puffed and should be firm but still have a slight jiggle if you shake the pie plate.
5. Let the clafoutis cool in the pie dish for about 30 minutes. Dust with powdered sugar, slice and serve warm or cold.

Yield: 6-8 servings

Aube Giroux is a food writer, a James Beard award-winning documentary filmmaker and a passionate organic gardener and home cook, who shares her love of cooking on her farm-to-table blog, Kitchen Vignettes.

The post Dax and Gavin’s Any Berry Clafoutis appeared first on PBS Food.

The first time I saw a photo of one of John Forti’s epic heirloom salads, I knew we had to make an episode about them. John’s salads are works of art and they have blown up and expanded my previously limited notions of what a garden salad can be. It’s like a salad big bang! His salads encourage us all to tune in, and look around our yards and gardens for leaves, flowers, seeds, and plants that we may not have previously thought of as salad material.

John Forti is a nationally recognized lecturer, garden historian, ethnobotanist and garden writer. He is also the Executive Director of Bedrock Gardens in Lee, NH where this episode was filmed. His recently published book is titled The Heirloom Gardener: Traditional Plants and Skills for the Modern World.

John believes that gardens should be a source of empowerment and biodiversity. We live in a world where it sometimes feels like we can’t make much of a difference. But by what we grow in our yard, with a small handful of seeds, we can create more biodiverse, healthy, flavorful and fresh local meals. For his heirloom salads, John draws on the historical idea of a compound salad which assembles a little bit of everything from the garden. Maybe some plants need to be thinned. Maybe you want to stop your basil from going to seed so you use the flower tips in your salad. Beyond lettuce, there is a whole universe of leaves, petals, seeds, and berries that can bring so much vibrant energy and biodiversity to a salad that it becomes incredibly nourishing. As for the flavors, these salads are so packed with complex aromas that they barely need a dressing. A splash of vinegar and oil and you’re good to go. Keeping the dressing simple allows you to really taste all the flavors that nature is providing for you.

For this salad, John collected lettuce, kale, sorrel, purslane, baby beet greens, lambsquarters, sweet cicely, salad burnet, naturtium leaves and flowers, borage flowers, basil and lemonbalm flowers, dill seeds and flowers, calendula, daylilies, violets, roses, and currants. For the dressing he used his homemade chive blossom vinegar and a splash of sesame oil.

As John says, gardening is a superpower, and it’s a wonderful way that we can make a difference. When we think of the Victory Gardens that were planted during wartime to ensure an adequate food supply, it’s a reminder of the power we all have to be food producers. Since the pandemic, many more people have taken up gardening. This salad is a colorful expression of the biodiversity that we tend in our gardens and on our plates, and a reminder that growing food is not only fun, but it can make a difference in the world.

John Forti’s Heirloom Salad

Find a big bowl or a harvesting basket. Walk around your yard, garden, or local wilderness area and find every edible leaf, flower, seed, or berry you can find.

Ingredients

• Lettuce, kale, arugula, beet greens or any other greens
• Sorrel
• Purslane
• Baby beet greens
• Lambsquarters
• Sweet Cicely
• Salad Burnett
• Naturtium leaves and flowers
• Borage flowers, violets, daylilies, beebalm, calendula, or any edible flower
• Basil, lemonbalm, chives, and other herbs for their flowers or their leaves
• Dill seeds, nigella seeds, poppy seeds
• Currants or any fruit or berry in season

Directions

1. Carefully wash and spin dry all the ingredients. Tear up larger leaves and petals and leave smallers ones whole. Carefully assemble your salad, starting with leaves, and moving on to flowers, seeds, and fruit.
2. Splash with some good quality vinegar and oil and toss gently. Serve right away.

Aube Giroux is a food writer, a James Beard award-winning documentary filmmaker and a passionate organic gardener and home cook, who shares her love of cooking on her farm-to-table blog, Kitchen Vignettes.

The post John Forti’s Heirloom Salad appeared first on PBS Food.

One challenge when you’re blessed with access to plenty of fresh local vegetables is what to do with them all. How do you prepare them in a way that brings out their flavors and makes everyone want to eat them? Vegetable farmer John Yanga has spent a lot of time pondering this very question.

He loves to not only grow vegetables, but also to come up with creative ways to prepare them. He is truly a vegetable whisperer, expertly transforming every imaginable vegetable from his farm into exquisite dishes. As one of his fellow church-goers says at the end of this episode, he turns even the often shunned kale into something appetizing!

John was born in South Sudan and studied theology in Egypt before fleeing the war in his homeland with his mother and his wife. He moved to the United States as a refugee in 2000 and soon began working and training with Cultivating Community, an organization based in Portland, Maine whose work is rooted in the belief that everyone has the right to good food. The organization empowers New Americans by teaching them sustainable farming practices and connecting them to the community through its food hub. John is a graduate of Cultivating Community’s farmer training program, the New American Sustainable Agriculture Project, and now has his own farm plot where he grows a gorgeous assortment of mixed vegetables, including many African varieties that can be hard to find in Maine. John and his wife sell their organic vegetables at one of Portland’s busy farmers markets. Over the years, John has also spearheaded many marketing innovations, such as a Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) food share for the Sudanese community.

In this episode, John shares one of his favorite ways to prepare vegetables, as a mixed veggie platter with roasted chicken thighs. He first cooks up a fragrant chicken broth and uses the stock to cook the many vegetables he harvested, which he sautés separately. For instance he does African eggplants in one pan, Italian eggplant in another (because they require different cooking times), summer squash and carrots together, and then all the greens together. In the video, he also made some roasted winter squashes and green peppers stuffed with sautéed veggies (though this is not officially part of the recipe provided below). He then assembles all this onto trays that are kept warm in the oven. The chicken used to make the broth is also roasted on top of potatoes wedges.

John uses fresh herbs and spices generously, which, combined with the chicken broth creates a nourishing feast that is bursting with flavor and which he loves to share with his church community.

As John says in the video, he loves showing people how vegetables can be the centerpiece of a meal. And while not everyone gets excited about vegetables, it’s often because they have not had them prepared in an appetizing way. Sometimes it’s also because they’ve lost their splendor due to being shipped from halfway around the world and then sitting on a grocery shelf too long. Spinach for instance can lose up to 90 percent of its nutrients within just 24 hours of being harvested! Sourcing vegetables locally, whether at a farmers market, farm stand, pick-your-own, or perhaps even from your own garden makes a huge difference not only in terms of freshness and taste, but also nutrient content. Even in cold winter climates, farmers markets usually have plenty of locally-grown storage vegetables like cabbage, winter radishes, celeriac, beets, carrots, winter squashes. Some have year-round greens even in cold climates. As John says in the video, locally-grown, organic vegetables just taste different from the ones you’d buy at the grocery store. So it’s worth seeking them out in your local community, not just for the flavor and nutrient content but to support farmers like John who work so hard to grow delicious nutritious food for their communities.

John Yanga’s Mixed Veggie Platter with Chicken

John’s recipe leaves room for adjustments based on whatever vegetables are in season in your area. For instance, if you don’t have African eggplant or cabbage, feel free to substitute with what you have on hand. Serves 8 to 12 people.

Learn more about John on the Kitchen Vignettes blog.

Ingredients

• Chicken Stock Ingredients:
• 8 cups water
• 6 chicken thighs
• 1 onion, cut into large chunks
• 3 garlic cloves, peeled & whole
• 2 chicken bouillon cubes
• 2 small green peppers (if available)
• 1 handful chives and other fresh herbs (if available)
• Other veggies odds & ends to give flavor (John used the ends of summer squash and carrots.)
• Sautéed Cabbage & Kale
• 1 small head of green cabbage, roughly chopped
• 1 handful chives, minced
• 1 large bunch of greens, chopped (can be a mix of kale, Swiss chard, spinach)
• 2 Tbsp olive oil
• Sautéed African Eggplant
• 2 African eggplants, trimmed and diced (John used a variety from Mali but you can substitute with what is available to you)
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 2 Tbsp olive oil
• Salt & pepper to taste
• Spices to your taste (John likes to use Tajin spice mix, which includes lime, chili & salt)
• Sautéed Italian Eggplant
• 2 Italian eggplants
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 2 Tbsp olive oil
• Salt & pepper to taste
• Spice mix
• Sautéed Summer Squash and Carrots
• 3 small summer squashes / zucchini, sliced
• 1 small bunch of carrots, sliced
• 1 onion, chopped
• 3 cloves garlic
• 2 Tbsp olive oil
• Salt & pepper to taste
• Fresh chopped herbs to taste
• Roasted Chicken Ingredients:
• Chicken thighs that have been simmering in the stock pot
• 2 sliced onions
• 2 small sliced green peppers (if available)
• 4 large potatoes, cut into large wedges
• Fresh chopped herbs: basil, rosemary, chives, or mint (if available)
• Salt, pepper, and spice mix to taste
• Olive oil

Directions

1. Make the chicken stock:
   In a large pot, on medium-high heat, bring all the ingredients to a boil and then lower heat to simmer everything together for about 30 minutes. Remove the chicken for roasting and if you wish, strain the broth.
   
   
2. Prepare mixed veggie platter:
   
   Sautéed Cabbage & Kale
   Heat the oil in a skillet or pot on medium-low heat. Add cabbage and chives and cook for about 5 minutes. Add the chopped greens and cook for another few minutes. If you wish, add a few ladles of the chicken broth to give flavor and cook for another few minutes. Don’t cook any long than needed so the greens preserve some of their vibrant color.
   
   Sautéed African Eggplant
   Warm 2 tbsp oil in a medium saucepan. Add the garlic, eggplant, salt, pepper, and spices. Cook from 5-10 minutes on medium-low heat. Add a ladle of chicken stock halfway through. (African eggplant doesn’t have to be cooked as long as Italian-style eggplants so remove from the heat when it still has some crunch).
   
   Sautéed Italian Eggplant
   Warm 2 tbsp oil in a medium saucepan. Add the garlic, eggplant, and salt, pepper, and spices. Cook from 10 to 15 minutes on medium-low heat. Add a ladle of chicken stock halfway through. The eggplant should be very soft and browned when done.
   
   Sautéed Summer Squash and Carrots
   Warm 2 tbsp oil in a medium saucepan. Add the onion and cook on medium heat for 4 to 5 minutes until translucent. Add the slice carrots and garlic and cook until carrots are soft, about 7 minutes. Add a ladle full of chicken stock halfway through. Add the sliced squash and cook for another 4 to 5 minutes until the squash is tender. Add the chopped fresh herbs, salt and pepper to taste. Remove from heat.
   
   
3. Roast the chicken legs:
   Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Oil 2 large baking sheet pans. Lay down onion slices, green peppers, potato wedges, and herbs. Place the chicken thighs on top of the vegetables. Sprinkle lightly with salt, pepper and spice mix. Roast for around 20-30 minutes until chicken is golden on top and meat falls off the bone.
   
   
4. Arrange the platters:
   On one or two large platters, arrange your cooked vegetables into four strips, the cabbage/kale mix, the African eggplant, the Italian eggplant, and the sautéed carrots and summer squash. Remove the chicken from the oven and allow it to cool a few minutes. Serve everything together and enjoy! (You can also prepare some rice using the remainder of the chicken broth if you’d like to add a grain to the meal).

Aube Giroux is a food writer, a James Beard award-winning documentary filmmaker and a passionate organic gardener and home cook, who shares her love of cooking on her farm-to-table blog, Kitchen Vignettes.

The post John Yanga’s Mixed Veggie Platter with Chicken appeared first on PBS Food.

The first time I heard of fire cider, I knew I would like it even before tasting it. It has all the fiery flavors I love including hot peppers, horseradish, garlic, and ginger, to name a few. Add the sweetness of honey and the tangy bite of apple cider vinegar and I was sold! I like to keep a bottle in my cupboard during the winter months and I take little swigs from time to time, usually when it’s really cold outside and I need my insides warmed and my body energized.

Fire Cider is made up of apple cider vinegar and honey that has been infused with chopped vegetables and herbs. It’s a traditional home remedy that was created and popularized by acclaimed herbalist Rosemary Gladstar in the 1970s. It contains many ingredients that have been studied for their antibacterial and health enhancing properties and it is said to help with digestion, boost the immune and circulatory systems, and clear the sinuses. It’s also delicious to use in recipes that call for vinegar and could benefit from a bit of spicy zest.

I’ve always wanted to make my own fire cider but for some reason I was intimidated by the process. I imagined it to be a lot more complicated and time consuming than it is. That’s why I was so grateful to get my hands on Kathi Langelier’s gorgeous book, Herbal Revolution: 65+ Recipes for Teas, Elixirs, Tinctures, Syrups, Foods + Body Products That Heal.

Kathi is a Maine-based herbalist and organic farmer and what she does with herbs is exquisite. Two of my favorite products she makes are her Chaga Chai Tea and her “Attitude Adjustment Elixir” (and boy have I ever needed that one lately!) Her book continues to teach me so much about how to preserve and use the herbs I grow in my garden, some of which I never really knew how to use. It also finally got me over my fear of making fire cider and made me realize how easy it is to prepare it at home. I was excited to put together my first batch this year, almost entirely from ingredients grown in my garden. I especially love how Kathi encourages people to customize the recipe. There’s the basic recipe but then you can add different ingredients based on your personal taste. And I love Kathi’s many uses for fire cider including deglazing a pan or making salad dressing with it!

When I first heard of Kathi and her fellow herbalists’ lengthy legal battle to bring fire cider back into the public domain after a company attempted to trademark the term, I felt that their incredible story really needed to be made into a film. I never got a chance to make that film, but I’m glad that through this Kitchen Vignettes episode, a tiny piece of Kathi’s epic story can be shared along with her conviction that traditional plant medicine is meant to be shared widely and generously.

Kathi Langelier’s Fire Cider

This recipe is courtesy Kath Langelier, from her book Herbal Revolution.

Ingredients

• ½ cup (72 g) grated fresh horseradish
• ⅓ cup (36 g) grated fresh ginger
• 1 large red or yellow onion
• 5–10 cloves garlic, smashed
• 1–3 fresh hot peppers, such as jalapeños, cayenne or habanero
• 2–4 tbsp (40–80 g) honey, or more to taste
• 4 cups (960 ml) raw organic apple cider vinegar
• Optional Additions:
• Oranges and/or lemons
• Turmeric
• Elderberries
• Hyssop
• Bee Balm
• Rosemary and/or Thyme

Directions

1. Grate the horseradish and ginger using a box grater, or run them through the grater on a food processor. Be aware, the fumes from grating horseradish can be intense and can burn—think wasabi.
2. Place the horseradish and ginger in a 1-quart jar. Chop the onion, garlic and hot peppers or run them through the food processor with the shredding attachment, then place in the jar.
3. Add whichever extra ingredients you would like as well as the honey. Fill the jar completely with the raw apple cider vinegar, label the jar, then cover and allow it to infuse. If you’re using a metal lid, you may want to place a piece of parchment paper or plastic wrap under the lid so the vinegar does not corrode the metal. For best results, you’ll want to let your fire cider sit for at least 4 to 6 weeks. Store it in a place where you’ll see it and shake it every week. After 4 to 6 weeks, strain the liquid into a clean labeled quart jar or bottles and enjoy! (Tip from Kathi: you save the ingredients that get strained out and chop them up to use as a chutney or garnish on dishes that need a little flavor punch).
4. Fire cider can be consumed in small quantities on its own. Some people like to dilute it in water since it is very strong. But as Kathi suggests, you can also cook with it. She adds it to salad dressings, in place of regular vinegar. She puts it in soups or roasted veggies, and makes it into drinks such as Bloody Marys or the Rise & Shine Tonic from her cookbook. So don’t be shy about getting creative with it!

Yield: 4 cups

Aube Giroux is a food writer, a James Beard award-winning documentary filmmaker and a passionate organic gardener and home cook, who shares her love of cooking on her farm-to-table blog, Kitchen Vignettes.

The post Kathi Langelier’s Fire Cider appeared first on PBS Food.

I often get requests for recipes that are less reliant on butter & eggs, and that are gluten-free, so I wanted to come up with a fun plant-based recipe that would be refreshing for these sweltering heat waves we’ve been having, and also gluten-free. (And not require an ice cream maker since I don’t have one!)

On hot days, I find myself reflecting more than ever on the connection between what we put on our plates and the climate crisis we find ourselves in. There’s no question that agriculture and the transportation of food across long distances are major contributors to climate change. But finding solutions and sustainable ways of eating can be complicated. For instance, if I forgo my beloved local grass-fed butter in these brownies, but use an avocado that was shipped from Mexico, or olive oil that was shipped from Italy, which of all those three has the lesser carbon footprint? I don’t have the answer to that. But I do know that my diet has a hefty carbon footprint (even as someone who eats largely from my own garden) and I am committed to finding ways to lessen that footprint. And while no one has all the definitive answers, reflecting on the complexity of these issues is important. One thing I know for sure, you can’t really go wrong by striving to eat more locally-grown foods, whether it’s by supporting local sustainable farmers in your area, or having a garden. Shopping at farmers’ markets where there is much fewer plastic packaging and food hasn’t traveled very far is is a win-win because it also supports your local economy and agricultural community. And of course, probably the biggest impact we could all have would be to replace our consumption of factory-farmed meat with either vegetarian options, or locally-produced grassfed and organic meat and dairy. Despite my questions about whether a vegan brownie is really better for the planet than a non-vegan one, I must say I thoroughly enjoy developing plant-based recipes. Not only do they force you to be creative with your ingredients but they’re truly delicious!

For this recipe, I wanted a plant-based brownie that wasn’t overly sweet. I love desserts and chocolate but I cannot stomach an overly sweet brownie and I find most recipes have way too much sugar. I was intrigued by an avocado brownie recipe I found on Spruce Eats, but I felt it needed some adjustments to give it the rich and chewy brownie texture I was looking for. So I fiddled around with the recipe until I arrived at a delicious gluten-free brownie that has become a standard go-to in my kitchen. It’s great on its own, but made even more exciting sandwiched with creamy raspberry “ice cream” (which is really more like a sorbet, but “sorbet sandwich” doesn’t have quite the same ring to it). Now this raspberry sorbet is really something. First, it has only 2 ingredients! Raspberries and sweetened condensed coconut milk (which you can find at any health food store). You could also make it with dairy-based condensed milk if that’s what you have on hand. Also, no ice cream maker is needed (though you’ll need a high speed blender). It’s so creamy and so refreshing and you’re mostly just eating berries, so good for you!

This recipe is a great way to make use of raspberries, and I am blessed with a raspberry patch of both red and yellow raspberries. Yes! Yellow raspberries are a thing! They taste like a cross between apricots and raspberries and they’re my absolute favorite. This variety is called “Anne”. And no, you certainly don’t need to use yellow raspberries, I just threw some in there because I had them.

The nice thing about this recipe is you can make the raspberry sorbet and just enjoy it on its own. Same with the brownies. They don’t need each other, but they sure do enhance one another and make a lovely marriage of flavors and textures.

Enjoy!

Vegan Raspberry Brownie Ice Cream Bars

A perfect treat for a warm day! The nice thing about this recipe is you can make the raspberry sorbet and just enjoy it on its own. Same with the brownies. They don’t need each other, but they sure do enhance one another and make a lovely marriage of flavors and textures.

Ingredients

• For the brownies:
• 1 cup oat flour (or regular all-purpose)
• 1/2 cup cocoa powder
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 3/4 cup cane sugar
• 1/2 cup mashed avocado
• 1/3 cup soy milk
• 1/4 cup olive oil (or any vegetable oil)
• 1 tsp vanilla
• For the raspberry ice cream / sorbet:
• 4 cups frozen raspberries
• 1/2 cup sweetened condensed coconut milk (or dairy-based condensed milk if you prefer)

Directions

1. To make the brownies:
   In a blender, puree the avocado, sugar, soy milk, olive oil, and vanilla. In a bowl whisk together the oat flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, and salt. Pour the wet mixture into the dry mixture and mix well until smooth. Pour half the mixture into a parchment paper-lined 9 x 5 loaf pan. Bake at 350F for about 15 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean or with just a few crumbs (start checking at 10 minutes though because these can cook really fast). Remove and cool the brownie on a rack. Repeat with the rest of the batter so you end up with 2 thin brownies.
2. To make the sorbet:
   In a high speed blender (ideally one with a plunger as it is will make your job a LOT easier), pour in the frozen raspberries and the sweetened condensed coconut milk. Blend slowly at first, stirring with the plunger and gradually increasing the speed. This will take some time to get to a smooth puree, be patient. If you don’t have a plunger with your blender, you’ll have to pause often to stir and push the raspberries down between blending, until you get a smooth raspberry sorbet.
3. Using the same loaf pan you baked the brownies in, put down one of the two brownies. Pour the raspberry sorbet on top of it, smoothing it out. Place the second brownie on top of the raspberry sorbet and push down a tiny bit to ensure good contact between the sorbet and the brownies. Place in the freezer for at least 4 hours. When ready to serve, remove from the freezer and slice into bars. You can also slice into bars and return them to the freezer in a covered container and keep them there until ready to eat. Letting the bars sit out for a few minutes before eating helps soften them a bit. Enjoy!

Yield: 10 bars

Aube Giroux is a food writer, a James Beard award-winning documentary filmmaker and a passionate organic gardener and home cook, who shares her love of cooking on her farm-to-table blog, Kitchen Vignettes.

The post Vegan Raspberry Brownie Ice Cream Bars appeared first on PBS Food.

When I bite into a strawberry cream puff, I am instantly transported to summers at my grandmother’s house in Nova Scotia. Everything about Beatrice Collins (aka “Grammie,” “Mum,” “Queen Bea”) was elegant yet practical and simple. Nothing was fancy or fussy, but everything she touched felt magical. She was a woman who knew how to enjoy life and her love of food was central to everything she did. Here she is with my mom, canning beans from her garden:

Summer visits at Grammie’s house were always graced by her classic strawberry shortcake, which we adored. But every so often, she would pull out all the stops and make strawberry cream puffs: pillowy French choux puffs filled with vanilla custard, whipping cream and freshly sliced berries. It just doesn’t get any better. It’s a recipe I especially love because it’s rich but doesn’t feel heavy, and there’s not much sugar in it yet it feels incredibly decadent. (At just over 1/4 cup sugar spread out among 8 cream puffs, that’s about 1/2 Tbsp of sugar per cream puff!)

When my grandfather was alive, the strawberries for the shortcakes and cream puffs proudly came from his garden. Strawberries were a sacred summer joy and we never really ate them at any other time of year though Grammie did make strawberry freezer jam to enjoy year round. After my grandmother died, my mom and I would take turns making the cream puffs during strawberry season. They have always felt to me like they straight up deliver my grandmother’s joie de vivre.

For my eleventh birthday, my grandmother gifted me a cookbook that she had meticulously hand written, with all her favorite recipes, family classics treasured by the family. I can’t imagine how long it must have taken her and although the cookbook now has lost its cover, and its pages bear some stains from years of usage, it is one of my most prized possessions. And one which I refer to again and again.

Choux pastry (what cream puffs are made of) is a French pastry simply made up of butter, water, eggs, and flour. It’s unusual in that the dough is cooked while you make it. It’s very similar to American popovers, and it’s the same dough used for making éclairs. Choux pastry is known to be a little tricky but really it’s not that complicated. I made it as a teenager with no problem and although my puffs were occasionally on the flat side, they were always enjoyed by everyone. Even a “failed” choux puff that didn’t quite rise enough in the baking is still delicious and beautiful once assembled with cream and berries. The dough should preferably be slightly more stiff than what was shown in the video though those turned out ok. Just follow my recipe instructions to the letter, approach it with confidence, and you should have no problem. If however you find yourself struggling with it, there are many great in-depth articles that have been written online about mastering choux pastry and they may help you troubleshoot. Main problems usually stem from an inaccurate oven temperature (use a thermometer to know your actual oven temperature) or not measuring out the flour accurately (ideally, you should weigh your flour).

A word about strawberries. Growing strawberries is hard work, but infinitely rewarding. I’m so grateful to be having a bumper crop and so far this summer, I’ve managed to put away over 50 pounds of strawberries in my freezer for year-round use. If you don’t have access to homegrown, try to find a strawberry “pick-your-own” or a farmers market near you. Local and seasonal strawberries taste so much better! And if you can, look for organic or unsprayed berries since strawberries are sadly one of the fruits most heavily contaminated with pesticide residues which do not wash off. They can contain up to 22 different pesticide residues, and are at the top of the Environmental Working Group’s Dirty Dozen list.

I hope you enjoy this recipe, please let me know in the comments below. Happy strawberry season!

My Grandmother’s Strawberry
Cream Puffs

These strawberry cream puffs are the type of comfort food that transport you to your happy place.

Ingredients

• For the choux pastry:
• 1 cup water
• 1 stick (1/2 cup) unsalted butter cut into cubes
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 4 1/2 ounces (1 cup) all-purpose flour, sifted
• 4 eggs
• For the custard:
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1 1/2 Tbsp cornstarch
• 1 1/2 cup whole milk or half & half cream
• 3 egg yolks
• 1 tsp vanilla
• For the filling:
• 1 1/2 cup whipping cream, whipped
• 2 to 3 cups fresh sliced organic strawberries + 1 Tbsp sugar
• Powdered sugar and whole strawberries for garnish

Directions

1. To make the cream puffs, combine water and cubed butter in a heavy saucepan over high heat and bring to a boil. As soon as the butter is melted, remove from heat and add in the sifted flour and salt all at once, stirring vigorously with a wooden spoon until flour is incorporated. If your flour is not sifted, make sure you squash any flour lumps. Return the saucepan to medium heat and cook, stirring constantly until the dough pulls together into a smooth mass (about 3 to 4 minutes) and there is a thin starchy film coating the bottom of the saucepan. The dough should be firm enough to hold a wooden spoon upright (or register about 175F on an instant thermometer). Remove the saucepan from heat.
2. Allow the dough to cool down slightly, about 5 to 10 minutes (or until it reads about 145F on an instant thermometer). Once the dough is no longer piping hot, mix in the eggs one at a time. Be sure to mix very vigorously and incorporate each egg fully before adding the next one. This can be done with a stand mixer or a wooden spoon. Once the dough is smooth and shiny, place it in the fridge for about 20 minutes. Then drop the dough into 8 mounds onto a lightly greased baking sheet. Traditionally, the dough is piped onto the baking sheet and you can use a piping bag fitted with a large tip if you have one. My grandmother always just spooned the dough onto the baking sheet, mounding it high in the centers, and that’s how I’ve always made them as well. You do want some height to your cream puffs so that they puff UP. If you need to fiddle with the dough on the baking sheet, you can use the back of a spoon dipped in water (or water-dipped hands).
3. Bake in a preheated 425F oven for 15 minutes. After 15 minutes, lower the temperature to 350F and bake for an additional 25 to 30 minutes. Do NOT open the oven door until after the first 30 minutes of baking. About 5 minutes before they’re done, open the door and insert a toothpick into the side of each puff, making a little hole. This will help it maintain its shape. The cream puff are done when they are puffed up and golden. Turn off the oven and jam a wooden spoon in the oven door to keep it open. Let the cream puffs cool in the open-doored oven for about 30 minutes before removing.
4. To prepare the custard filling, mix the sugar and cornstarch together in a heavy saucepan. Whisk in milk and egg yolks, cooking over medium heat and stirring constantly until thickened. Remove from heat and stir in vanilla. Pour into a bowl and place a piece of waxed paper directly on top of the custard. Refrigerate until cold.
5. To assemble, whip the cream. Slice the strawberries, place them in a bowl and stir in 1 Tbsp sugar (more or less to taste). Cut a thin slice from the top of each fully cooled cream puff, removing any moist bits of dough in the center to make a hollow space. Place a dollop of cold custard into the bottoms, then an even larger dollop of whipping cream. Then carefully spoon the sliced strawberries on top of that. Top each cream puff with its little “lid”. Sprinkle powdered sugar all over the tops of the assembled cream puffs and add a few whole strawberries for garnish. They’re ready to serve!

Tips/Techniques

Ideally make cream puffs the same day you’re going to use them so they stay fresh. But if needed they can be stored in an air-tight container for a day or so.

Yield: 8 cream puffs

Aube Giroux is a food writer, a James Beard award-winning documentary filmmaker and a passionate organic gardener and home cook, who shares her love of cooking on her farm-to-table blog, Kitchen Vignettes.

The post My Grandmother’s Strawberry Cream Puffs appeared first on PBS Food.

For many gardeners in the northeast, the months preceding July are a period of eager anticipation for zucchinis, tomatoes, eggplants, corn and all the other veggies, berries, and fruit that summer brings. In my cool climate in central New York, it can take quite a while for the garden to get established and unless you have a greenhouse, the wait for fresh, local veggies can feel long. But in the meantime, there’s greens… so many greens!

There’s spinach, chard, and kale. There’s also plentiful wild greens (aka “weeds”) that are nutritious and grow everywhere such as dandelion greens, garlic mustard, and lambsquarters. There’s herbs like mint, chives, parsley, dill, and oregano. This hearty pie makes use of them all! It’s the quintessential spring / early summer salad and a great way to sneak more greens into your diet. And it will keep you happy while you await all the delicious vegetables summer will soon be offering up.

This dish is inspired by Mediterranean green pies like Spanakopita, Hortokopita, and Torta Pasqualina. My version is adaptable to whichever greens are available to you. If you’ve got tons of spinach, use that. If you only have wild greens, that’s fine. Each pie I make is a little different from the last, depending on what’s available to me. In fact, I never measure the ingredients when I make this pie (though I finally had to so I could share it with you below!). It’s a very forgiving and versatile pie. One thing to note though, you’ll see I used some baby kale in the video version, I find that a little bit of baby kale is ok but that kale is generally not ideal in this pie, it’s a bit too tough. Greens like chard, spinach, lambsquarters are ideal because they’re so tender when cooked, they really melt in your mouth.

In terms of the crust, you can really use pretty much any recipe you like. Store-bought puff pastry would be lovely if you’re short on time. Phillo is always great. I initially used my favorite all-butter basic pie crust recipe, but over time, I’ve found that I prefer an olive oil-based crust for this recipe, it has an appealing texture, almost crisp on the top, and the bottom cooks better. (The greens can hold a lot of moisture and make a standard pie crust a tiny bit soggy if you don’t wring their water out really well). In fact, many of the Italian and Greek recipes call for an olive oil-based crust so it also feels more true to tradition.

It takes a bit of time and effort to prepare this pie, but it’s well worth it. It makes a hearty summer meal, and will serve a good eight or so people. If you’re feeding fewer people, it will provide leftover meals for days to come. And in my opinion, the flavor only gets better as the days go by. I sometimes reheat the leftover pie, but I also love to eat it cold. I find it delicious that way, especially when I’m in need of a quick lunch and have no time to cook.

Oh and yes, frozen spinach is totally fine to use in this recipe!

I hope you enjoy this pie and make it your own, let me know in the comments below.

Greens and Feta Pie

This dish is inspired by Mediterranean green pies like Spanakopita, Hortokopita, and Torta Pasqualina. The recipe is adaptable to whichever greens are available to you.

Ingredients

• Filling:
• 1 1/4 pounds of any assortment of fresh greens such as spinach, Swiss chard, nettles, dandelion greens, sorrel, lambsquarters, ramps, garlic mustard. If using frozen, use 3 cups of frozen greens.
• 2 to 3 cups finely chopped fresh herbs (can include a mix of chives, basil, parsley, dill, or mint - you can use oregano or thyme but in smaller amounts)
• 6 to 7 eggs, beaten
• 12 oz crumbled feta
• 1 large chopped onion
• 1 chopped leek (optional)
• 3 Tbsp olive oil
• Grated zest from one organic lemon
• Salt & pepper to taste (keep in mind the feta already makes the filling salty)
• Pie Crust:
• 1 cup whole wheat flour
• 2 cups white flour
• 2 tsp. Baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 cup olive oil
• 1/2 cup yoghurt
• A few tablespoons of water, if needed
• 1 egg for brushing the top crust

Directions

1. To make the pie crust, mix the flours, baking powder, and salt together in a large bowl. Add the olive oil and mix in until crumbly. Stir in the yoghurt and if needed, add a little bit of water, one tablespoonful at a time (I used about one tablespoon of water). Don’t overmix the dough. Once it comes together easily and is not too wet or too dry, shape it into 2 balls, one slightly smaller than the other, flatten them slightly, wrap them in a bit of wax paper, and place in the fridge for about 30 to 45 minutes.
2. To make the filling, rinse the greens and steam them for about 5 minutes (I simply steam them in a large pot with about 1/2 inch of water at the bottom). Once the greens are cooked but still hold a nice shade of green, drain them and let them cool a bit. (Save the green water for your next soup or water your plants with it, it’s very nutritious). Once the greens are cool enough to handle, squeeze them using your hands to remove as much water as possible. Chop the cooked greens and place them in a large bowl.
3. Sauté the chopped onion and leek in the olive oil on medium heat until softened and translucent. Let them cool.
4. Add to the greens the beaten eggs, chopped herbs, crumbled feta, cooled onion and leek, lemon zest, and salt and pepper to taste (keeping in mind the feta already makes the mixture salty). Mix all the filling ingredients together.
5. Assemble the dough and filling in a deep pie dish or an 8 by 11 inch casserole baking dish. Roll out the larger piece of chilled dough into a rectangle, quite thin, about 1/8 inch thick. Place the large piece down into the bottom of your pie dish. Brush a little olive oil all over the dough. Add the filling, spreading it out evenly. Fold the overhanging edges of the bottom dough over the filling (you may wish to trim them a bit as I did in the video). Brush a little water around the edge of the folded down dough. Then place the smaller piece of dough, also thinly rolled out, on top to cover the filling. Pinch the dough edges together so they are well sealed. Brush the beaten egg over the top of the pastry. Cut a few vent holes in your top layer of dough to let the steam out. Decorate with leftover greens and edible flowers, if you wish. I used pansies, violets, chives, garlic mustard, and mint to decorate.
6. Bake for 45 to 55 minutes in a 350 oven, or until the crust is nicely golden and looks done. Allow the pie to settle and cool for 20 minutes or so before slicing and serving. You can make it ahead and reheat it.

Yield: 8 servings

Aube Giroux is a food writer, a James Beard award-winning documentary filmmaker and a passionate organic gardener and home cook, who shares her love of cooking on her farm-to-table blog, Kitchen Vignettes.

The post Greens and Feta Pie appeared first on PBS Food.

I first met Sylvia Davatz at a grain growing workshop she was offering at the Northeast Organic Farmers Association’s annual conference. Her enthusiasm for growing grains on a small-scale was contagious and at the end of the workshop, she invited all the participants to make their way to a table at the front of the room.

The table was packed with meticulously labeled jars of rare varieties of heirloom wheats, emmers, sorghum, barley, spelt, and so much more. The beautiful diversity of grain seeds was a sight to behold and everyone buzzed around the table, excitedly accepting Sylvia’s generous invitation to take home some of the seeds she had so lovingly grown. I ceremoniously transferred small amounts of the seeds that most appealed to me from their jars into tiny seed envelopes. Everyone left feeling like they’d won the lottery, with their samples of rare and otherwise nearly impossible to find seeds. We were also filled with a newfound understanding that growing grains in your garden is a wonderful way to diversify the food crops you’re growing, even if only on a small-scale, and that the miracle of seeds means that in just one season, we could multiply those handfuls of seeds many times over, with not only more than enough to replant again the following year, but perhaps also to share with others and eventually add to our pantry for baking and eating.

We often think of the world of fruits and vegetables as richly biodiverse, and many of us have made it a priority to source fresh and locally-produced vegetables, meat, and eggs. Yet when it comes to grains, we often find ourselves limited to the standard bag of white flour or rice sitting on a store shelf, rarely giving much thought to how and where the grains were grown, how fresh they might be, and what varieties they may be. But just as there are thousands of different varieties of potatoes or apples or tomatoes, the same diversity exists for wheat, barley, oats, rice or any other grains. And whereas many regions used to be self-reliant with their own thriving locally-grown grain supply, the “get big or get out” farming policies of the past century drove many small farmers out of business. As wheat production and flour milling became increasingly centralized in the Great Plains, wheat breeding became primarily focussed on developing high-yielding varieties destined for large-scale monoculture, and many of the older heirloom grain varieties began to disappear. Globally there are around 30,000 wheat varieties, but many are at risk of going extinct. China for instance has already lost more than 90 percent of its native wheat varieties, and Mexico has lost more than 80 percent of the corn varieties once grown there.

The loss of agricultural biodiversity and narrowing of our agricultural gene pool has profound ramifications on the resilience of our food system and farming practices, as well as the flavors and nutrient content of what ends up on our plates. While big supermarkets offer us an illusion of diversity, the reality is that our seeds and crops have become increasingly standardized over the past century. Around the world, food is becoming more alike and less diverse. Cultures that used to thrive on diets of locally-grown millet, sorghum, teff, and other highly nutritious grains are increasingly eating white bread and cheap fast food imports, and diet-based diseases are as a result on the rise globally. Traditional seeds and foods around the world are disappearing. This is why the work of growing out endangered crop varieties and sharing their seeds is such incredibly vital work. As Sylvia says in the video, “it is of the utmost urgency” to ensure these older plant varieties do not go extinct. They are part of our heritage and, “once they are gone, they are gone forever.” I think this is why people like Sylvia are sometimes referred to as seed saving heroes, the work they do in preserving our biodiversity is truly heroic.

To visit Sylvia’s garden in Vermont is to be swept away into a magical world of incredible beauty and abundance. There are berries intermingled with flowers and vegetables, beds of wheat and rice, and aromatic herbs. It is clear that Sylvia has found her life calling and there’s a special energy that emanates from people who are doing what they love. Visiting Sylvia and her garden gave me a little window into the source of inspiration and the enthusiasm that she transmits to people in her workshops and I felt incredibly lucky to get to spend time with her in her garden and kitchen.

Sylvia is part of an extensive global network of seed savers and I was fascinated to hear that she has been able to provide grain farmers with rare wheat seeds that had been nearing extinction and are now being grown on a large-scale again, and used for bread baking. I have heard similar stories from seed savers and wheat growers who have brought back varieties on the brink of extinction in Eastern Canada, where I’m from. It’s a profound thing when you bite into a flavorful loaf of bread, knowing the type of wheat used to make it almost disappeared forever but was brought back in the nick of time.

Sylvia’s wheat berry salad is a flavorful and nourishing expression of her belief in the importance of self-sufficiency and thinking of gardening as more than just a source of summer vegetables, but also a source of pantry staple grains and crops that can sustain us through our long winter months. It’s also a celebration of the joyful challenge of sourcing food locally. As she explains in the video, most ingredients come from her garden and are complemented with crops grown by friends (the hazelnuts) and neighboring farms (the feta cheese). The best thing is that the recipe is adaptable to whatever is in season in your area. So feel free to make it your own!

Sylvia Davatz’s Wheat Berry Salad

Sylvia’s wheat berry salad is a flavorful and nourishing expression of her belief in the importance of self-sufficiency and thinking of gardening as more than just a source of summer vegetables, but also a source of pantry staple grains and crops that can sustain us through our long winter months. Read more about this recipe in this Kitchen Vignettes post.

Ingredients

• 1 cup hard wheat berries
• 1/2 cup toasted hazelnuts (or walnuts)
• 3 oz. feta, cubed
• 2 scallions thinly sliced
• 1 Tbsp. minced fresh dill
• 2 Tbsp. minced fresh parsley
• 2 Tbsp. olive oil
• 2 Tbsp. lemon juice
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp black pepper

Directions

1. Soak the wheat berries overnight in water (this step is optional but will allow the grains to cook more quickly and make their nutrients more digestible). The next day, drain and then cook the berries in a pot of boiling water, exactly as you would cook pasta. The cooking time can vary so at the 30-minute mark, begin to taste the grains every 5 or 10 minutes. The grains are ready when they are soft, with a nice chew but no crunch (usually after 30 to 45 minutes of cooking). Remove from heat, drain, and give a quick rinse with cold water. Let them drain and cool fully before transferring to a salad bowl. (This is the same process for farro, spelt, einkorn, whole oat, barley, and rye berries so once you’ve made this wheat berry salad, you can experiment with other grains too. Just keep in mind some cook more quickly than others.)
2. Add all the remaining ingredients and toss the salad well to mix everything together. Taste and if needed, add more salt, pepper, or lemon juice to suit your taste. Allow the salad to sit for 30 minutes or so before serving, so the flavors intermingle. Enjoy!

Yield: 3-4 servings

Aube Giroux is a food writer, a James Beard award-winning documentary filmmaker and a passionate organic gardener and home cook, who shares her love of cooking on her farm-to-table blog, Kitchen Vignettes.

The post Sylvia Davatz’s Wheat Berry Salad appeared first on PBS Food.

Who doesn’t love a good upside-down cake? It took me a while to hone and tweak this one to perfection. I wanted a cake that wasn’t overly sweet, in other words something I wouldn’t feel guilty eating for breakfast. Or as a friend pointed out when she taste-tested it, more of a “tea cake” then a “cake cake”.

I also wanted an extra moist cake that could be made with whole wheat flour and still produce a very tender texture. Well it turns out one of the best-kept secrets for an ultra-moist and tender cake is…. oil! Yes, using oil instead of butter makes for a cake that’s reliably moist. And since it won’t dry out as quickly as a butter-based cake, this cake keeps well for days (if you can keep it from being devoured for that long). I chose olive oil for this cake, for its fruity aroma. I simply use our standard kitchen olive oil, an organic extra virgin type with a fairly robust taste. It lends a beautiful depth of flavor that is surprisingly subtle and delicate, despite the whole cup called for in the recipe. You can really use any oil you have at home, so long as it’s not too intensely flavored.

Cardamom and rose water felt like the perfect aromas to complement the tartness of the rhubarb and the three together are truly a match made in heaven. However, if you’re not a fan of those flavors, you could substitute with some orange zest and vanilla.

Yes, I did get all fancy pantsy with the rhubarb pattern on that cake. In all honesty, it was a bit fiddly and time consuming to get the geometry right, kind of like making a puzzle. A fun challenge but you need a bit of time of your hands. Rest assured that simply laying down rhubarb pieces side by side will also result in a perfectly exquisite upside-down cake. One thing that’s key for this cake’s good looks though is to get your hands on some bright red rhubarb if you can. A little green rhubarb is fine, and in fact it’s ideal as having both red and green pieces will allow you to play with fun color patterns. An all-green rhubarb cake on the other hand just doesn’t look quite as nice, in my opinion. Still every bit as delicious though!

At this time last year, my own rhubarb patch was hopelessly devoid of red and I thought I was doing something wrong. But after a little research, I learned that there are all kinds of different rhubarb varieties. Some varieties just don’t turn very red. Who knew? I always kind of thought of rhubarb as just, well, rhubarb. So at my local garden store last spring, I asked if they had a red stalked rhubarb variety and did they ever. I came home with two pots of scraggly-looking but bright hot pink rhubarb shoots called “Canada Red”. As a Canadian living in the US, it seemed fitting for me to grow a Canadian variety as a little ode to my country. I immediately found a spot in my garden for the new plants and crossed my fingers and toes it would be happy there and survive our cold New York winters.

Lo and behold, this spring, some bright red stalks came popping out of the ground with great vigor! My brain immediately got to work on ways to showcase their vibrant color. First thing I made were some drinks. Strawberry rhubarb kombucha turned out to be the best drink I’ve ever made with such a pretty pink sparkle. But this cake. Oh this cake! I’m quite proud of it. It’s one I’ll definitely be making for years to come and I hope you’ll enjoy it as much as I do.

Rhubarb Cardamom Rose
Upside-Down Cake

Ingredients

• For the bottom:
• 4 tbsp butter, melted
• Around 1 1/2 pound of fresh rhubarb stalks (preferably bright red)
• 1/2 cup cane sugar
• For the batter:
• 2 cups whole wheat flour (or 1 cup all-purpose + 1 cup whole wheat for a lighter cake)
• 1 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 cup cane sugar
• 1 cup extra-virgin olive oil
• 1 cup milk (can be plant-based)
• 3 large beaten eggs
• 2 tsp. ground cardamom
• 1/4 cup orange juice
• 2 tbsp rose water

Directions

1. Preheat your oven to 350F. Line bottom of a round 8 inch baking pan (3 inches deep) with parchment paper.
2. Cut your rhubarb stalks to fit snugly at the bottom of the pan in an attractive arrangement, flat side down. (If you wish to make the geometric pattern I show in the video, you’ll need to cut the stalks on an angle with the cut side as close to the same length as the uncut side as possible. (Using rhubarb stalks that are uniform in width will make this easier).
3. Once your rhubarb pieces are all snuggly packed like sardines at the bottom of the pan, sprinkle 1/2 cup of sugar on top of the rhubarb, aiming for even distribution. Pour 4 tbsp. melted butter all over, as evenly spread out as you can. With a spatula, gently nudge the sugar and butter around to try to ensure coverage of all the rhubarb, but don’t worry, it doesn’t need to be perfect since it will all melt into a caramel in the oven.
4. In a bowl, whisk together the flour, cardamom, salt, baking soda and baking powder. In another bowl or stand mixer, beat together the olive oil, sugar, beaten eggs, milk, orange juice and rose water. Once the liquid mixture is silky and uniform, add the dry ingredients and mix everything together until just combined (small lumps are ok but try to avoid large lumps). As with any cake batter, don’t overmix it.
5. Pour the batter into the prepared pan, to cover the rhubarb. Bake for about 50 to 60 minutes, or until the top is golden and a cake tester comes out clean. Transfer the cake to a rack and let it cool in the pan for about 30 minutes. Run a knife around the edge of the pan, invert the cake onto the rack, carefully peel away the parchment paper, and let the cake cool, about 2 hours. (If the cake has risen and domed out a lot while baking, you may want to slice off the top rounded part before inverting it, so the cake sits on a flat base - it’s also a great way to get a sneak taste of the cake and no one will ever know! ;)

Tips/Techniques

Disclaimer: Rhubarb leaves are toxic, be sure to remove them and discard them safely, keeping them away from pets and children.

Yield: 8 servings

Aube Giroux is a food writer, a James Beard award-winning documentary filmmaker and a passionate organic gardener and home cook, who shares her love of cooking on her farm-to-table blog, Kitchen Vignettes.

The post Rhubarb Cardamom Rose Upside-Down Cake appeared first on PBS Food.

When I first saw one of Niki Jabbour’s winter gardening Instagram videos, I was completely awed and inspired. All her videos are fabulous but the specific one I’m referring to shows her in the middle of a snowstorm, lifting up the cover to one of her cold frames to reveal a vibrant bed of gorgeous salad greens, the bright colors almost shocking against the snowy white background. As someone who tries to grow my own food, buy local, and avoid plastic packaging, I have frequent grocery store battles with my salad-loving partner about whether or not to buy those plastic tubs of California greens in the winter. It can be challenging to find locally-grown greens in our snowy climate so seeing that it’s possible to grow certain vegetables through the winter months was an inspiring Ah-Ha moment for me.

Niki has truly perfected the art of not only motivating people to grow their own food, but also of teaching crucial information and tips to achieve gardening success. She is the author of four books on gardening, including her latest book which just came out and is all about growing under cover and extending the season.

On the day I went to Niki’s to film, she had just received the first shipment of the new books and I was thrilled to receive the very first signed copy! In addition to writing, Niki is a frequent speaker at garden shows and hosts a popular radio show about gardening. She also runs the website Savvy Gardening which provides all kinds of tips and musings on growing food. I’ve only just started dabbling in winter gardening with my first overwintered carrots this year. Mulched under straw, they’ve already provided us with many meals and we haven’t had to buy carrots yet this winter! In “Growing Under Cover”, Niki shares all kinds of season extension methods, from mulching to fabric covers, from DIY cloches to cold frames and hoop houses. I cannot wait to put some of these techniques to use in my garden next year.

I absolutely love Niki’s French Carrot Salad because it’s one of those incredibly easy recipes to make and you can customize it to suit your taste. As Niki says, you can add to it with other root vegetables such as grated parsnip, beets, or celeriac. You can use different herbs. You can add protein such as chick peas, a hard-boiled egg, or some feta cheese. I’ve always loved making this kind of grated root salad in the winter months when local greens are harder to find. Whereas in the summer, my salads are big giant bowls of fluffy greens, in the winter my salads tend to be denser, based around root vegetables, greens like kale, or shredded storage veggies like cabbage.

It’s so exciting to push the boundaries of what we think is possible, in this case, growing food through snow and cold. Not only is it an act of self-sufficiency but as Niki says, a garden in the winter time is a magical place, connecting us with winter birds and plants that are still active, albeit differently than in warmer months. Most years I struggle a bit with the winter blues and this year, the simple act of digging up carrots from under the snow and straw in my garden has been an immeasurable source of joy. It’s a reminder that even though the land lies dormant and cold, life is still thriving beneath that snow and spring is just around the corner, waiting to burst forth and bring joy and color into our lives.

Niki Jabbour’s French Carrot Salad

Winter gardening can provide a much-needed way to bring joy and color into our lives. This carrot salad is a perfect example. Read more about this recipe in this Kitchen Vignettes post.

Ingredients

• Salad Ingredients:
• 1 pound carrots (about 4 cups grated)
• 1/3 cup chopped fresh parsley
• Dressing Ingredients:
• 3 Tbsp. olive oil
• 1 1/2 Tbsp. lemon juice
• 1 tsp sugar (or honey)
• 1/4 tsp. salt
• 1/8 tsp. pepper

Directions

1. Peel and wash the carrots. Grate them using the large holes of a box grater or use a food processor to grate. Wash, dry, and chop the fresh parsley. In a medium bowl, toss the grated carrots and chopped parsley together. Mix all the dressing ingredients together and pour over the salad. Toss together well. Taste and add more salt or pepper if needed.
2. Optional add-ons: This is a very adaptable salad. You could swap a different herb for the parsley. You could add grated parsnip or beet to the carrot to make it a rainbow salad. You could add some protein such as chick peas or feta cheese. Make it your own!

Yield: 4 servings

Aube Giroux is a food writer, a James Beard award-winning documentary filmmaker and a passionate organic gardener and home cook, who shares her love of cooking on her farm-to-table blog, Kitchen Vignettes.

The post Niki Jabbour’s French Carrot Salad appeared first on PBS Food.

I arrived at Frith Farm on a crisp and sunny October morning, the land all sparkling and misty following a much-needed day of rain. I immediately noticed the long beautifully aligned beds, covered in lush green vegetation, some of them vegetables, some of them a vibrant mix of rye grasses and other cover crops. At Frith Farm, growing cover crops to feed the soil takes on as much importance as growing vegetables to feed the humans. Both are given equal care and attention.

Stepping between the beds as I film farm owner Daniel Mays harvesting the ingredients for his roasted root vegetable recipe, I notice I’m almost bouncing from the soft squishiness of the soil underfoot. And when we get to the carrot beds, instead of using a digging fork to first loosen the soil as is usually done, Daniel simply grabs a handful of carrot tops, gives a light tug, and plump carrots slip effortlessly out of the ground. When you practice no-till farming, he explains, over time the soil becomes so deep and fluffy that a digging fork is no longer necessary to harvest certain crops. Soil health, you see, is the very heart and essence of Daniel’s work. It’s also a central topic in his new book, The No-Till Organic Vegetable Farm.

Daniel founded Frith Farm in 2010 just outside the town of Scarborough in Southern Maine. Armed with a graduate degree in environmental engineering and some farm work experience, he dove into his own farming venture headfirst. He describes his first years as being “filled with experimentation, countless mistakes, and the many joys of learning by doing.” Now, ten years later, the farm is the picture of abundance, efficiency, and beauty, feeding over a hundred local families and providing meaningful employment to a dedicated team of farm workers.

Frith Farm’s mission it to build soil, increase biodiversity, and strengthen community through the growing of wholesome food. Daniel’s farming practices are not only certified organic, but also guided by the principles of no-till farming, an agricultural technique for growing crops that avoids disturbing the soil through tillage, and fosters soils that are teeming with life. In order to achieve this, permanent beds are established and then disturbed as minimally as possible. At Frith Farm, use of farm machinery is kept to a bare minimum and almost everything is done by hand. Tractors are never driven over the beds and as in nature, the soil is almost never left bare, covered at all times by either living or dead plant matter.

According to the farm’s website, the benefits of this no-till system include:

• Less dependance on expensive machinery
• Less pollution from tractors and runoff caused by tillage
• Improved soil structure and reduced compaction
• More soil life and natural resistance to pests and disease
• Increased water holding capacity and resistance to drought
• More workers employed and a higher human to land ratio

No-till farming and regenerative agriculture has been gaining a lot of attention lately as a potential way to mitigate climate change (including in the new film Kiss The Ground.) This type of farming not only keeps carbon in the ground by avoiding tillage, but also draws existing carbon from the air and sequesters it into the ground through plant photosynthesis.

Daniel is quick to point out that although there is a lot of buzz around regenerative agriculture, we shouldn’t forget that this is a type of farming that has been practiced for thousands of year by Indigenous Peoples. In fact, many of the principles of regenerative agriculture have their origins in Indigenous agricultural methods. It’s not a new invention.

Daniel’s farm uses human labor rather than relying heavily on machinery. In other words, his farm prioritizes the creation of meaningful employment rather than buying a lot of expensive farm equipment. He explains that if he could push agriculture in one direction, it would be to increase the number of small farms, putting into application Gandhi’s words of ‘production by the masses’ instead of ‘mass production.’ As we know from the past 40 years, agricultural policy has done exactly the opposite as millions of small family farms have been driven out of business by policies that forced farms to “get big or get out.” I couldn’t agree more that what our food system needs is a small farm revolution, where small farms are fully valued for their role not only as food producers and job creators in our communities, but also for their environmental stewardship.

Daniel’s recipe for roasted root vegetables is simple: start with good quality organic root vegetables grown as locally as you can find them. You can use carrots, potatoes, turnip, rutabaga, parsnip, radishes, beets, celeriac, sweet potato. Chop them all up to similar size. Coat them with olive oil, salt, and pepper. Roast for 30 minutes at 425F. At the 30 minute mark, take them out, stir them around, add chopped herbs and garlic, and return to the oven for another 15 minutes or so, until they are nicely roasted and the garlic is fragrant and a little crispy but not burned.

I loved that Daniel served his roasted roots with deer meat burgers (from a deer that had been grazing in one of their fields) and a salad of just-harvested greens from the farm. As he says: “I really appreciate being able to eat from the land where I am, and become one with the eco-system. It’s such a connection to this place.”

I came home from my trip to Frith Farm feeling inspired. I pre-ordered Daniel’s book, planned for a whole lot more cover cropping in my garden next spring, and prepared a giant pan of roasted root vegetables, which I’ll be making again and again all winter long.

Daniel Mays’ Roasted Root Vegetable Medley

No-till farmer Daniel Mays prepares his Roasted Root Vegetable Medley, a delicious fall comfort dish that's easy to make and nutritious. Read more about this recipe in this Kitchen Vignettes post.

Ingredients

• Approximately 5 pounds of root vegetables (choose from an assortment of carrots, potatoes, turnip, rutabaga, parsnip, radishes, beets, celeriac, sweet potato)
• 2 onions (optional) peeled and chopped into medium pieces
• About 1/4 cup olive oil
• 8 cloves garlic, finely chopped
• 1/4 cup chopped fresh herbs such as a mix of thyme, sage, rosemary, or parsley (or 2 tbsp dried herbs)

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 425 F.
2. Wash the vegetables.
3. Chop them all to roughly the same size. Denser vegetables can be chopped a little smaller as they take longer to cook.
4. Toss them with the olive oil, add salt and pepper to taste, and mix well to ensure the vegetable pieces are all coated with a bit of the oil. Add an extra glug of oil as needed.
5. Arrange the vegetables in one or two large roasting pans, being careful not to layer the chopped vegetables on top of each other in the pan (otherwise they will steam and won’t get those nice crispy edges that roasting provides).
6. Roast the vegetables for about 30 minutes.
7. Remove and add the chopped garlic and fresh chopped herbs.
8. Stir well.
9. Return to the oven for another 15 minutes.
10. Enjoy!

Cook Time: 45 Minutes

Yield: 4 servings

Aube Giroux is a food writer, a James Beard award-winning documentary filmmaker and a passionate organic gardener and home cook, who shares her love of cooking on her farm-to-table blog, Kitchen Vignettes.

The post Daniel Mays’ Roasted Root Vegetable Medley appeared first on PBS Food.