My Favorite Winter Food, and My First Giveaway

Wandering the stalls at the farmers market, I see sturdy, toothsome, bulbous and gnarly veg fill most bins to overflowing. I could be frustrated by the lack of bright & juicy flavors, but rather than knock these quiet players, I admire the the substance they provide to tide me during the pantry days of winter. I hope you will fall in love too, and hurry yourself with your cold-weather layers to get to the market and make a similar, sublime meal.

(for all recipes, scroll to bottom)

Very roasted ruby turnips & chiogga beets

Maple syrup glazed delicata squash rings

Quince jelly, sage, pine nuts, and garlic-stuffed pork tenderloin with roasted vegetables

And, a little bit of fun as I perfected my shot....

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As time has gone on and my blog has grown, a number of wonderful food writers and cookbook authors have sent me copies of their latest musings on food to share with my readers. I am excited to share with you the first in a series of giveaways! 

Renowned raw foods chef, with a masters in Holistic Nutrition (is is the new year, after all, and we all want to eat what's good out there), Mark Reinfeld has put together The 30 Minute Vegan's Taste of Europe, with 150 plant-based delicious recipes. In it includes selections such as Dutch Stamppot, Bread Pudding with Chocolate Sauce, Six-Herb Botanical Juice, Bocadillos, and Buckwheat Galettes with Tarragon Cream. He shares the details on specialty items which help convey the deep flavors meat would otherwise impart, as well as options to include in place of dairy for a rich texture and satisfying flavor. For anyone who seeks to broaden their repertoire of plant-based eating, this is a great find. The recipes are easy to follow, with ingredients that are widely available, and Reinfeld offers wine and beer pairings to boot. 

To win your very own copy of this new book, either: subscribe to my blog and leave a comment on how you would like to eat with greater consciousness at the end of this post; follow me on Twitter - @melinaphotos - and leave a comment there; or, like my Facebook page - Melina Hammer Photography - and leave me a note there! I will put your names into one of my favorite hats and pull one at random. Chances to win this giveaway end at midnight EST, Sunday February 3rd, and is available only to United States participants. I will alert who the winner is shortly after and then get your shipping address to send along the book. Good luck everyone!!! 

Update - February 10th: the winner is "Unknown," from the comments below. Please send me your name and address via email to info@melinaphotos.com so that I may send you your cookbook! 

Winter Food Recipes - 

Very roasted ruby turnips & chiogga beets

a good handful of each turnips and beets - you can substitute other variations of each, if these specified are unavailable in your neighborhood

sea salt and freshly cracked pepper

good olive oil

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees (F). Scrub the turnips and beets and trim any bruised surfaces. Quarter smaller turnips, and cut into similar-sized wedges the larger ones. Slice beets into half-inch thick disks. Place everything onto a baking sheet. Pour some olive oil into a small bowl and brush onto surfaces with basting brush, then scatter sea salt and pepper onto all. 

Roast on bottom rack in oven, turning after 15 minutes or so (once bottom surfaces become golden). Turn again after another 15 minutes, or until sides become browned and lovely. As ovens vary, check the roasting at 15-minute intervals and remove from oven once and for all when a slice/wedge, pierced with a fork, gives way easily. Allow to cool slightly on a wire rack and transfer to a serving platter. Season again with salt and pepper, and enjoy.

Maple syrup glazed delicata squash rings

2 delicata squash, cut into (1/2-inch - 1-inch) thick rings, seeds and stringy bits gently scraped out with a spoon

1/3 cup good maple syrup - I used Crown Maple Syrup 

1/3 cup good olive oil

sea salt & freshly cracked pepper

Preheat oven to 325 degrees (F). Place squash in a single layer on one or two baking sheets as needed. Combine equal parts syrup and oil in a bowl, and using a basting brush paint mixture onto top surfaces of the squash. Sprinkle sea salt and freshly cracked pepper, and place into oven to roast. Check after 20 minutes, using a thin spatula to lift squash from tray surface: the undersides should be somewhat crisp, caramelized, and golden. Replace in oven to roast if squash is not yet done, checking at 5-7 minute intervals until caramelized. Scrape the glazed bits from the pan to add to the delicata rings and transfer to a serving platter. Great as a snack, over pasta, and as a side to accompany roasted meats.

Quince Jelly - from Leda Meredith's Food Preservation

3 large, ripe quince

4 cups water

2 cups cane sugar

Wash quince, scrubbing off any fuzz, and trim the stems. Core the fruit by chopping around the cores. Place the quince in a large saucepan and pour the water over. Bring to a boil over high heat and then reduce heat to a simmer, cooking until fruit is mushy-soft, about an hour. Mash the cooked fruit with a potato masher. If quince is on the dry side, add more water. The ideal consistency is like a soupy applesauce. Place a fine-meshed sieve over a large bowl and ladle the quince mash into the sieve. Leave to drain for 2 hours, saving the remaining mashed quince for compost or to make membrillo.

There should be about 2 cups or so of juice drained into the bowl. If you do not have that amount, stir a little more water into the mash in the sieve and allow to drain through. Sterilize a canning jar in a boiling water bath. Measure the quince juice and pour into a large saucepan. Add just over 3/4 cup sugar per cup of juice. Bring to a boil over high heat, stirring constantly at first, to dissolve the sugar. Stir occasionally after, until the jell point is reached. More on finding the jell point, here.  

Ladle jelly into the jar, leaving a half-inch head space, and after screwing the lid on tightly, process in boiling water for 5 minutes. Remove from the water and allow to cool completely. The jelly will set as it cools and be completely jelly in 2 days. Yummy deliciousness - great aside roasted meats, paired with cheeses, spooned onto rustic crackers, over yogurt, and more.

Quince jelly-sage-pine nut-garlic-stuffed roasted pork tenderloins

4 tbsp quince jelly

12 fresh sage leaves

1/2 cup pine nuts, toasted

4 cloves garlic, chopped

2 pork tenderloins, trimmed and butterflied - if  you have a good butcher, he can do this for you 

sea salt & freshly cracked pepper

good olive oil 

kitchen twine

Slather the inside surface of the butterflied tenderloins with jelly. In a small bowl, combine the sage and garlic with s & p, and enough olive oil to hold the ingredients together. Spoon that mixture along the center, down the length of the tenderloins, and top with a sprinkling of pine nuts. 

Cut a number of lengths of kitchen twine to thread underneath the pork. Wrap left and right sides of meat together, forming a roll, and then tie twine into knots at intervals, securing the stuffing inside. Generously season tenderloins with sea salt and freshly cracked pepper.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees (F). Heat a large cast iron skillet until hot at medium-high heat, pour a good glug of olive oil in and see it shimmer, then sear the tenderloins on all sides until browned, about 3-4 minutes per side. Transfer tenderloin bundles to a baking sheet and roast in oven for 10-15 minutes. The center should be rosy when cut into with a knife. Allow meat to rest on a carving board for 5 minutes, and then cut tenderloins into half-inch thick medallions on a slight diagonal, discarding twine as you go. Place on a serving platter beside roasted veggies, and have extra quince jelly available to spoon on top. 

If your saliva has got going and you find yourself hankering for more, remember this story as you add to the mix.... Hearty, sweet, delicious eating.

Fall, Fairytale Mushrooms, and the 2012 Food & Nutrition Conference Workshop

Wild Mushrooms and Pasta with Gremolata - scroll to bottom for recipe

 

Participants having their chance at the beauties on set...

This is the set photograph. My set-up AND shots done in minus-5 minutes! I need a rematch...

 Roasted Delicata Squash salad - scroll to bottom for recipe

 

Garlic Chive Cream Cheese-Crème Fraîche Spread with Grissini - scroll to bottom for recipe

Highlighting specific tools, their benefits, and ways to make "the familiar"  in food fresh or new

Photo: courtesy Liz Weiss

Photo: courtesy Rebecca Bitzer

Last week, I taught a four-hour workshop to over 80 registered nutritionists and dietitians as a new addition to their annual conference. With time - though not enough! - for everyone to get hands-on experience at three different sets, a slide presentation (about all kinds of goodies), and discussion on cooking and styling tips, tools, and sourcing  ingredients, it was nonstop. I had a wonderful time. Between sharing my wisdom hard-earned over the years, to running around during a ten-minute break to set up food at each of the three sets and pop a few shots to compare later (aaaahhhhh!! plus thirty or so pairs of eyes watching my every move as I worked my "magic"), I was at my most adaptable best. The eagerness and clarity of attention given to me by this group was so heartening. Thank you everyone, for helping make the day such a success. And, a special thanks to Janet, Liz, and Regan for helping create this essential piece in the conference puzzle.

To prepare, I had a blast getting up early to source the above mushrooms from great wild food gatherers Les Hook and Nova Kim, at the lovely New Amsterdam Market. I also felt a certain satisfaction at throwing together the quintessentially autumn salad of delicata squash, celery, toasted hazelnuts, and pomegranate seeds (which nicely held up - for an hour! - as people photographed it). As a surprise at the end of the day, I gave away all of the props laid out on the tables, passing along a piece of my studio to all who came. Fun!

Here are the recipes:

Wild Mushrooms and Pasta with Gremolata 
Adapted from the New York Times recipe, printed last week

A few handfuls of wild mushrooms of any kind that please you - I used Lobster, Matsutake, Red-capped Scabers, and some Slippery Jacks
Zest from 2 lemons
2 garlic cloves, minced
1/2 cup parsley, finely chopped
good extra virgin olive oil
a knob of butter
pasta whose shapes will catch the bits of gremolata mixture - think creases and folds, curls, etc. - I used nodi marini, which translates to "mariner's knot", and which you can find here

Combine the garlic, lemon zest, and parsely. Cover and set aside. Heat a couple glugs of olive oil and the butter in a cast iron skillet over medium heat. Brush clean any debris from the mushrooms and slice thinly, and toss them in. Let the mushrooms sweat, and then stir to brown, about 5-7 minutes. Add more olive oil or butter as necessary, along with s & p to taste. Meanwhile, boil pasta in salted water timed according to package instructions, al dente. Drain, toss into a bowl with gremolata, adding additional olive oil to lubricate the mixture, and stir in mushrooms. Season with s & p to taste. You may add grated pecorino or parmesan, but with mushrooms this good, their rich flavors are so savory that the cheese would lay them to waste. Add a nice black-fruit round red wine, and you are set.

Roasted Delicata Squash Salad
This recipe is less about specific quantities, and more about what you are in the mood for, proportion-wise...

Delicata squash, rinsed, halved and sliced into 1/4-inch thick pieces
1 pomegranate, seeds removed
1 cup hazelnuts, toasted
celery ribs, sliced thinly on a mandoline
good extra virgin olive oil
balsamic vinegar
s & p to taste

Lay the squash half-rings onto a baking sheet. Paint with olive oil and season with s & p. Roast at 325 degrees for a half hour, or until nicely caramelized on one side. Let cool on a wire rack. Toss together the delicata, celery, and pomegranate seeds in a mixing bowl, and transfer to a serving platter. Scatter hazelnuts and drizzle with oil and vinegar. Season with freshly cracked pepper and sea salt, and enjoy.

Garlic Chive-Cream Cheese-Crème Fraîche Spread
...kind of like the best boursin around...

2 8-oz packages cream cheese (buy grass-fed if you can)
2 heaping tbsp crème fraîche (same, here)
2 good tbsp finely chopped garlic chives
s & p to taste

Fold all ingredients together until well combined. Great with grissini, olive bread, tortilla chips, as a veg dip, and with many other foods. Easy-peasy!

I am having so many great experiences. Now that the workshop is behind me, there are many other projects on which to apply the finishing touches, or dive in and create. I will have a story in an internationally produced magazine which you can look forward to in 2013, along with just-completing new branding materials for a lifestyle guru, as well as numerous NYC locations I've scouted and photographed for a website soon-to-launch. There are more great projects coming to fruition....I feel quite grateful at the chance to get creative with all of the wonderful people in each different realm. Wooo-hooo!!!

Bratwurst, Shishito, Panzanella and Pickles - the World on My Plate

I made some food to celebrate the fantastic produce at the farmers market (can I ever get enough?? Noooo!!), and only later did I realize what I had put on a plate together had roots in various nooks around the world. Struck me as funny at the time, and boy was it all delicious.


Panzanella is one of the best - and simplest! - salads around. A great way to make use of old bread (or just bread you feel like frying up, if none old is sitting around) and incredible tomatoes, this recipe originates in Tuscany and has infinite variations. I found inspiration from The Bitten Word when I was pulling mine together, and kept it simple so the star of this show - my tomatoes - could really shine.

While shopping for meat at the Greene Grape - they buy only whole and half animals, as opposed to boxed meat, and butcher the choice cuts themselves - I discovered some delightfully plump rabbit and pork belly bratwurst. I think just hearing that combination made me drool on the spot, and I took home a bunch of sausages to grill. Bratwurst originally comes from a small town in Germany (all the way back in 1313!), but is widely available at butchers and specialty shops these days. Make sure to buy highest quality from small producers, not the run-of-the-mill at a grocery store if at all possible. It will taste better and be a healthier product to feed yourself and your family, and you will have the satisfaction of supporting another family: the small farm that takes pride in what they do.

At the farmers market, the stunning beauty of what's in the stalls pretty much guides my purchasing. Occasionally there's a list to check up on, but it's usually, "what hits me?" To that end, the Japanese-origin Shishito peppers virtually leaped into my arms last week. Their firmness, their sculptural curvy shapes and glossy-green brightness all said "take me!" So I did. From a preparation enjoyed at the Chelsea Basque restaurant Txikito, I simply blistered them in a scorching-hot skillet and seasoned with sea salt. Done, and delicious.

Please let's not forget the humble pickle. Pickles come in all varieties and flavors around the world. Their (sometimes spicy-)salty-sourness stimulate our saliva glands and make for a refreshingly bright crunch, the perfect counterpoint to any food on a plate. Left often as a garnish, but not to be underestimated if done well. Bold and bright, pickles delight.

I hope you will enjoy these flavors served together as much as I did. Recipes to follow - check back once the weekend has passed, once I've gotten more market shopping out of the way. I will be bringing forth a berry dessert to go with all this yumminess.....

In other news, a couple months back I shot a feature for AARP Magazine. It was a treat to work with the photo staff there and the project was a blast. The issue is available on newsstands now. Here is the story, and below, the shot they used -

And, a couple outtakes...

One last bit:

The wonderful Fork Magazine, another sustainable resource, featured my blog as one of their recent favorites (photo from this story). Reading their magazine cover to cover, I need to book a trip to Whales, pronto. Their take on sustainable food is completely speaking-my-language and, they are really nice people, to boot. The fact that I have Welsh blood makes whole thing even more imminent. So let's see what we can cook up. Stay tuned!

Bobolink Dairy Farm

We were just beginning to settle in from the trip back to my hometown (more on that soon, I promise) when
we decided to make use of the rental car still in our possession and take a day-trip someplace. After a little brainstorming, my husband and I landed on a not-too-far-away from the city option, one that we even kind of knew what we were getting ourselves into. Perfect.

Bobolink Dairy Farm is a place I'd already grown quite fond of from my weekly jaunts to the farmers market, buying their delicious wood fired breads and pack-a-punch raw, pastured cheeses. I thought it could only get better - to bask in a little nature and find out exactly how they make their wonderful products and even take some home for myself? Bonus! We *did* have to re-stock the fridge now that we were home, anyway...

 

Nina, who owns the farm with her husband Jonathan, showed us the lay of the land, along with her daughter and two sweet farm dogs. On almost 185 acres, the meadows and semi-wooded hills which comprise the terrain serve as pasture to their herd of hearty, gorgeous cows. They roam and graze on choice clover and grasses, en plein air as it should be. 

It was calving season and we saw numerous young ones, each more curious than the next. I think it was only the noise of my shutter that kept them from coming up to sniff and nuzzle me.

 

 

 Nina allows her cows to nurse their calves for longer than most dairy farmers, so that they in turn can grow stronger and become the resilient creatures they need to be to live a good, long life. There is the brief misery of finaling weaning them (mama and babe calling to each other for about 48 hours), but life does go on. 

The beauty is that at Bobolink, they just let their cows be cows. No physical restriction in feeding, therefore no need to de-horn them (they will become competitive if there is a perceived scarcity/holding); no perversion of diet (i.e. no corn, soy, etc.) so they graze to their hearts' content, as ruminants were born to do. At the milking salon, as it is called, the cows are milked for less than a half-hour a day - done! - to leave them to be the animals they are out on the pasture, with the rest of the herd. This is a model for how raising animals should be (and was, before industrialized food came along). We - of course - want the best we can feed ourselves and our families. Here, the intrinsic nature of these creatures is honored and beautiful food is the result. Seems pretty simple, right?  

And then there was the cheese. Such robust and toothsome cheese! We did not bring home nearly enough, let me just say that. 

Along with ameraucana eggs, some wild turkey pâté, and of course our cheese, we stocked up on a loaf of Bobolink wood-fired cheese bread and a hefty 4lb partial-wheel of their fantastic Medieval Levain Olive Rye. That is how bread should be.

As the day wore on, we were graced with the sunshine. It was enough to make me linger just a little longer, long enough to discover some neighbor chickens and wildly blooming poppies along the house. The blossoms took my breath away...

We had an immensely good time. Connecting to the earth and where our food comes from is one of my greatest joys, and I hope in sharing it with all of you, you're inspired to plan a trip for yourselves. Be sure to stock up on good eating while you're there. ;)