Join us in a cooking conversation... Mimi and I (Terrie) want to welcome you to join us in a kitchen conversation. We love it when the conversation goes both ways. We all have cultural knowledge; wisdom passed down through our families and societies from many different traditions. Over the last couple of generations, we have too often outsourced that conversation leaving many of us with a strong desire to jump back in and re-establish our own food pathways. That rope of knowledge has been frayed and sometimes broken. Our kitchen conversation is about reweaving that rope, from knowledge about caring for our soils, supporting our farmers to storing food and preparing meals all toward the end of increased conviviality and vitality.
None of the information in these videos is proffered to form a rote, step by step, highly focused "how-to", but is there instead to provide templates for how to use different foods in different combinations, with a variety of methods. Our goal is to give you increased degrees of freedom to vary from a specified recipe until recipes, per se, are generally not required. That said, there will be little morsels of understanding hidden all throughout these videos that will hopefully work toward that end whether or not you're interested in making any one particular recipe.
Join us in the conversation.
Week One
Triage
- Introduction to the season
- Storage and cleaning methods for this week's crops
- General instructions for cleaning, storing and use so the vegetables don't die in the back of the fridge.
Week One
- A very tasty sauce that will use a boat load of Kale and keeps for a long while in a squeeze bottle to use on sandwiches, salads and pasta.
- This week we use it over Avgolemono Rice--a rich, thick version of the soup; like Greek, lemony risotto.
Week Two
If you're not accustomed to braising a couple of bunches of greens each week, the practice will be transformative to your menus and diet. The Pacific Northwest is wonderfully rich with Greens, especially in the Spring and Early Summer.
Week Three
- Ever had mushy potato salad?
Remedy at 1:40, 3:26, 8:50, 15:01, 21:14
- How to peel a farm fresh hard boiled egg. (without tearing off most of the white with the shell)
See 9:00, 10:42, 13:30, 16:22
- How do I get rid of that brown color on my hard boiled egg yolk? see above
- Use all your bits and pieces of different vegetables in a mince with lots of applications.
Week Four
If you're new to a Northwest Farm Diet
It's easy to think "there are just too many greens". Push past that initial reaction as an indicator of potential change and quickly find that you'll never have too many greens. They find their way into every nook and cranny of your diet bringing health-changing nutrition along with great new flavors.
Week Five
- Phyllo Pie with Mimi 1:57
- How to Braise Greens
- Introduction to Week Five Box 11:38
- Grilling Zucchini 14:52
- Asian Noodle Stir Fry 16:00
- Versatile Cabbage Slaw 24:20, 26:23, 29:27
Week Six
Making a creamy garlic cauliflower sauce without cream. The base sauce, in classical cooking, is called a Velouté but that may make it seem unnecessarily unapproachable. Velouté just means "velvety" so don't be intimidated.
The Velouté section begins at 8:11.
Week Seven
- An overview of the week's vegetables with ideas for preparation and storage and potential recipes starts at 1:00
- An overview of Pickles, and Pickled/Marinated Salads at 5:37
- Veggie Pancakes start at 10:41
Week Eight
An overview of the week's vegetables, ideas for preparation/storage and recipe ideas, starts at 1:00
Terrie demonstrates three methods of "pushing food forward":
- Frenching, steaming and freezing green beans,
- Using up lots of zucchini; condensing all the fiber and nutrients while bringing forward sugars and an umami useful in a wide variety of dishes.
- Sauerkraut: a Primer in Fermentation. Make sure you have some nice bratwurst on hand when this kraut matures.
As well as a lovely dinner of a rich mustard sauce over steamed potatoes and broccoli.
Week Nine
This weeks take full advantage of the wonderful, rich flavor of celery grown in active, organic soils with a multi-layered Celery Salad. Your kitchen will come alive with the mouth-watering aromas of what you will swear is a visitation by the archetype of celeries. Best to let this one marinate for at least a half day.
Another idea for including Zucchini in your meals and A simple, yet terribly tasty, Basil Infusion to spoon over all those fresh, heritage tomatoes. My, oh my, it's a wonderful time of year.
Week Ten
This week Terrie and Mimi are demonstrating a baked vegetable Gyoza and a boiled WonTon. The WonTon is part of an Asian broth (Dashi) made with Bonito flakes, a dried and fermented fish that imparts a deep, rich flavor to this WonTon soup.
Make a number of different dipping sauces for the gyoza. As easy as adding a bit of Asian chili oil to some rice vinegar to ones that, like the Savory Plum Sauce, require a bit more advance notice. Gyoza with dipping sauces for a "first course" followed by the highly satisfying Dashi with boiled Wonton, soft boiled eggs and multiple vegetables. You can use up a lot of disparate bits and pieces with this meal and have it all work together seamlessly.
Week Eleven
- Risotto can be a highly veggie-centric dish. The addition of our Whole Lemon Dressing on a number of vegetable "salads" is the perfect, bright complement to the rich flavor of Risotto.
- You can't make too much risotto because the fried risotto cakes that grow out of the leftovers become most prized.
- Try the "feather cut" zucchini with our Whole Lemon Dressing, or just eat them with lemon juice and a drizzle of olive oil.
- If you've made a "bloody" mess peeling beets, we have a very simple method of beet peeling we're sure you'll like. We show it at the end of this video.
Week Twelve
This week in your box you have a trifecta of the three vegetables required to make the Domino-stacked Veggie Casserole. Don't miss out.
If you're getting overwhelmed with greens, which the Northwest region grows famously, put them in a pot with a ham hock and put away tasty meals for later in the winter. Don't let them go to waste.
Week Thirteen
Sweet corn so fresh off the stalk is a wonder to behold. It's hard to imagine it can get better...but it does. Try this glorious Sweet Corn and Roasted Pepper Chowder.
Some folks call them LEFTOVERS. Some folks won't even deign to EAT them. We don't even CALL them leftovers. They're the halfway prepared beginnings to a brand new meal. So it is with Sopes. Mimi will show you how to whip up some "arepa flour" dough and dry fry the foundations to this tasty meal that everyone can individualize to their own punctilious particularities with Meal Starters you discovered in your fridge.
Week Fourteen
This Cabbage Gratin is basically a fancy Mac and Cheese with cabbage instead of noodles. This requires making a Bechamel Sauce and seasoned bread crumbs. Infusing the milk with sage adds an extra depth of flavor. This comes to us via Saskatchewan, a late 1800s oceanic voyage from Romania and the love of an adventurous young couple striking out to find their own path. This dish is filled with goodness as well as a compact history of Mimi's family.
With all of these fresh, vibrant vegetables on our plates it's easy to forget that winter is on the way along with a diet laden with meat, potatoes and noodles. Terrie's Zingy Eggplant and Tomato Relish will put away the fresh flavors of summer and enliven your palate come the depths of winter. It just stores in a jar in the fridge and will last many weeks.
Week Fifteen
These meat buns are great to make ahead and keep in the freezer. They don't have a lot of meat in them but lots of meat flavor infused throughout the vegetables. Use your favorite bread dough or use the KidsCook Whole Wheat Roll recipe. If you haven't made bread before, it's not a big deal, especially since you're not worrying about getting a nice rise or cooking all the way through a loaf without drying it out....bread maker's worries like that don't apply here since we just use a thin layer of dough around the filling. They're yummy and the kids can help put these together. They'll be proud of their efforts and enjoy eating them even more!
Just a minor introduction to Pork Confit in the video but the recipe has a good step-by-step that will be easy to follow.
Terrie also has instructions on how to clean a leek, if you haven't had experience with the prized vegetable before.
There's also an encouragement to dry greens, kale, collards, for use later in the year when our bodies will be craving green.
Week Sixteen
- Veggie Croquettes Like "tater tots", only better. (8:09)
- Sausage Gravy (15:39) Tips on making a roux.
- Veggie Croquette Casserole
Week Seventeen
- A Northwest Mezze Platter (7:01) as a wonderful appetizer with guests or a meal by itself.
- Roasting the veggies for the platter (7:01)
- Roasting the eggplant for the Baba Ghanouj(14:40)
- Mimi's Tahini Dressing for drizzling over veggies and pita bread.
- Comments on Arugula (0:34) Use with Apple Curry Sauce and goat cheese for a tasty salad.
Week Eighteen
- This is when we make the Spicy Pepper Squash Soup (7:30)that we serve at the farm during the October Fall Harvest Festival.
- Tips on preparing Raddichio at 1:55
- Northwest version of "Mess O Greens" (20:35)
- Celeriac and Shallot puree (13:40)
- Diakon and Carrots (28:00)
Week Nineteen
We changed up our Pumpkin Apple waffles we like to make in the fall. Making them with sourdough and an overnight proof adds a bit of complexity but the result is superb; a light, airy interior with a thin, crunchy crust. Double the recipe and put a bunch in the freezer. A single recipe makes about 12-15 6" round waffles.
Ladle this buttery hot fruit compote over the top.
The Red Cabbage and Apples makes a perfect compliment for some Bratwurst--with or without a bun.
Week Twenty
- Some tips about how to approach a pumpkin.
- Roasted Carrots, Brussel Sprouts and Beets
- After that, how to turn the pumpkin into enchiladas...a bit of a Cinderella story!
- A fond farewell. We're choosing to be optimistic and planning to see you all in the barn come next June. Until then, feel free to contact us with any questions, stories of successes, even more fun--stories of dramatic failures. Those are the best teachers and they're fun stories to tell! You can reach Terrie at [email protected].