 |
 Autumn brings a delectable array of fruits and vegetables that are colorful, tasty and even awe-inspiring in the right dishes. From earthy mushrooms and hearty Swiss chard and winter squash to sweet-tart pomegranates, persimmons and Concord grapes, there are a near infinite number of mouthwatering fall meals to make. Here are a few recipes featuring fall’s bounty of flavorful produce.
Autumn Salad
Serves 4
Persimmons aren’t just for cookies! These tender brilliant orange fruit can be added to salads, chopped up for salsa or relish, and used as garnish to brighten up any dish. Opt for soft, ripe persimmons for this recipe. And if you really love pomegranate, be sure to try this Persian-Style Chicken with Pomegranate Sauce.
Ingredients:
4 cups leafy green salad mix
1/4 small red onion, very thinly sliced
Honey mustard dressing
4 Fuyu persimmons, peeled, sliced
2/3 cup pomegranate seeds
1/2 cup toasted or candied walnut halves
Wedge of Parmesan cheese
Freshly ground black pepper
Directions:
1. Place salad mix and red onion in a large bowl. Drizzle with 1 tablespoon of the dressing and toss to lightly coat. Mound salad on four salad plates.
2. Artfully arrange slices of persimmon around or on greens. Scatter salads with pomegranate seeds and walnuts.
3. Use a vegetable peeler to cut 3 to 4 paper-thin slices of Parmesan per salad. Season with pepper and drizzle with dressing to taste.
Harvest Lasagna
Serves 8 to 10
Sweet butternut squash and bitter chard add a nice balance of flavors in this hearty seasonal lasagna. Another bonus is that this recipe calls for uncooked noodles, meaning it saves you the time needed to boil them.
Ingredients:
1 (2-pound) butternut squash
Salt and pepper to taste
1-1/2 tablespoons olive oil
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 shallot, minced
8 ounces baby spinach leaves, washed, patted dry but still damp
1 (16-ounce) container cottage cheese or ricotta cheese
1 tablespoon finely chopped fresh oregano or 1 teaspoon dried oregano
1/4 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1-1/2 pounds red or Swiss chard, stems removed, roughly chopped
1 (28-ounce) jar spicy marinara sauce
8 ounces uncooked whole wheat lasagna noodles (12 to 16 noodles)
1 cup shredded fontina cheese
Directions:
1. Poke holes or small slits all over squash and place on a microwave-safe dish. Microwave on HIGH for 5 to 6 minutes or until a knife inserts easily into the skin. Let squash cool slightly (or use oven mitts) and cut squash in half lengthwise. Use a spoon to scoop out seeds. Use a sharp knife to remove peel. Cut flesh into very thin slices. Season with salt and pepper and set aside.
2. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. and generously spray a 13×9-inch baking dish with nonstick cooking spray. In a large saucepan, heat 1 tablespoon oil over medium-high heat. Cook garlic and shallot, stirring frequently, until soft. Add spinach and cook, stirring, until wilted. Transfer spinach and any liquid to a medium-sized bowl and let cool slightly. Stir in cottage cheese, oregano, nutmeg and cinnamon. Set aside.
3. In the same saucepan, heat 1/2 tablespoon oil over medium-high heat and add chard. Season with salt and pepper and cook, stirring, until chard is wilted. Add a tablespoon or so of water if pan dries out. Set aside.
4. Pour 1/2 cup marinara on the bottom of the baking dish and use a spoon to evenly spread. Lay 3 or 4 noodles in sauce. Spread half of the cottage cheese mixture on noodles. Layer with slices of squash. Lay 3 or 4 noodles on squash and cover with sauce, using the back of a spoon to evenly spread. Cover with chard and remaining cottage cheese mixture. Top with 3 or 4 noodles and remaining sauce.
5. Sprinkle cheese over the top of lasagna. Spray a large piece of foil with nonstick cooking spray and tightly cover lasagna (cooking spray coated side down). Bake 50 to 60 minutes or until lasagna is bubbly, noodles are tender, and cheese is melted. Remove foil and cook for 5 to 10 minutes or until cheese is lightly browned. Remove from oven and let stand for 15 minutes before slicing and serving.
Recipe adapted from The Fitness Kitchen: Recipes for a fad-free lifestyle by Shelly Sinton, MS
Cazuela Pie
Serves 8
Pumpkins (canned pumpkin included) and pecans are in season and ready to be featured in a unique version of pumpkin pie. This Latin-inspired recipe combines sweet potatoes, pumpkin, coconut milk and warm spices for a yummy change from the usual pumpkin desserts.
Ingredients:
1 pound sweet potatoes, peeled, diced large
1 whole cinnamon stick, broken
2 whole cloves
1 inch fresh ginger, peeled, minced
2 cups sugar pumpkin puree*
2 eggs
2 tablespoons butter, melted
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup dark brown sugar, packed
2 tablespoons all purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
3/4 cup canned coconut milk
1 unbaked 10-inch whole wheat pie shell (available in the freezer section)
1 cup heavy cream, chilled
2 tablespoons sugar
1 cup chopped toasted pecans**
Direction:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Fill the bottom of a 13×9-inch baking dish with water. Add sweet potato and spread evenly into one layer. Sprinkle with cinnamon, ginger and cloves. Cover with foil and bake for 20 minutes or until sweet potatoes are very soft.
2. Remove cinnamon stick and place sweet potatoes in the bowl of a standup mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Add pumpkin and blend on medium-high speed. Add eggs and butter and blend until well-combined. Set aside but keep mixture in the bowl.
3. In a small bowl, whisk together sugars, flour, cinnamon and salt. Add sugar mixture to pumpkin mixture and blend on medium. Add coconut milk and blend on medium. Pour filling into pie shell and bake for 1 hour. Check pie filling - if it is firm and cooked through (insert a knife in the center to see if it pulls out clean), remove from oven and let cool. If pie filling is not set and still jiggly, cook for 10 to 15 minutes longer or until cooked through.
4. Meanwhile, in a large bowl, beat heavy cream hand mixer on high speed until soft peaks form. Add sugar a little at a time and continue to beat until firm peaks form. Serve pie warm with a dollop of whipped cream and a scatter of pecans.
*Slice a sugar pumpkin in half, remove the seeds, wrap with aluminum foil and bake in the oven at 400 degrees or until tender. Scrape out 2 cups of the flesh for this recipe. Or you can use 1 (15-ounce) can pure pumpkin.
**Pecans are now available in the shell and their fresh harvested flavor soars when toasted. Crack shells, removing pecan halves, and toast nuts on a baking sheet in the oven at 350 degrees, for 5 minutes, shaking baking sheet occasionally, or until pecans are fragrant. Rough chop and use as garnish for slices of pie.
Other seasonal links
Cooking with canned pumpkin
Marvelous mushroom recipes
A primer on apples
 It’s apple season here in the northeast, and a it’s a great season. A combination of weather factors have brought us a bumper crop of apples in the local orchards.
Get to know your apples
Local annual traditions dictate we must make a family trip to a pick-your-own orchard, we must take a hayride, we must drink fresh apple cider (cold and warm, mulled), we must seek out fresh apple cider doughnuts, and we must make pie. Hey, I don’t make the rules here - they are just things we must do in autumn in New England.
Over the next few weeks I’ll be writing several pieces on apples. They are so versatile! From appetizers and snacking to main dishes and side dishes to, of course, dessert, there’s an apple recipe for every occasion. But first, a discussion on different types of apples.
The many types of apples
There are so many different kinds of apples - hundreds of varieties, really. Whether you pick them, purchase them in your local mega-mart, or cultivate them in your front yard (if you are like my husband) - it’s hard to know where to begin. Some apples are spectacular eating apples, but if you bake them or cook them, they lose some of their appeal. Likewise, some apples do great in baking and cooking applications, but are less wonderful when eating. Some do double duty and are excellent fresh or cooked. There are apple varieties that we all know and interesting heirloom varieties that are worth seeking out.
Apples for eating
We buy at least a dozen apples a week at the market, all through the year. My husband likes to take an apple with him to work for munching on the way home. It stems the really ravenous hunger he often feels at the end of a long, intense day and prevents more “sinister” snacking in the form of candy or chips. The kids like sliced apples and peanut butter for lunch.
Most of the year, I buy Fuji or Gala apples for general consumption. When Honeycrisps are in, I often splurge on them a couple of times. I admit I avoid red and golden delicious apples- just not a fan of the texture.
Other great apples for out-of-hand snacking (or using fresh/uncooked in some way) include:
- Ginger Gold
- Pink Lady
- Braeburn
- Crispin
Apples are also regional - and a great way to eat locally. What is available in your area of the country differs from other areas.
Apples for cooking and baking
The flavor of apples ranges from tart to sweet, and the texture ranges from very firm and crisp to softer flesh varieties, and the texture can change with baking. When making pies, I like to use a combination of apples - one more tart variety with one more sweet variety.
When baking or cooking, I look for these varieties:
- Cortland
- Granny Smith
- Rome
- Balwin
- Gravenstein
Apples for cultivating
Small-scale cultivation of apples is becoming more and more popular. Just around town there are seven or eight yards with groupings of apple trees. We have six apple trees in the yard, and the varieties range from early to late season so they can pollinate properly. In addition, we’ve grafted branches of heirloom varieties onto more common trees.
Consult a nursery if you are interested in growing your own apples. Adams County Nursery (ACN), for example, carries numerous varieties (and not just apples) and provides good information for establishing your own orchard. I even gave three apple trees to my sister for Christmas one year - a gift that keeps on giving, literally - and ACN helped me choose the right varieties for her region.
Heirloom apples
There are nurseries and botanical gardens around the country that work to preserve heirloom varieties. We like to visit one botanic garden in particular every year to walk through their orchards and sample their heirloom varieties (only sample - this is essentially an apple museum). At this botanic garden we learned about a couple of varieties that we really, really like and have sought out for our yard. In fact, this garden sells apple scions for grafting. I’m thrilled that the Winter Banana graft is doing well - but the Ribston and Rhode Island Greening grafts are still in question. One day I hope to get a graft - or even a whole tree! - of Pomme Grise, my favorite apple of all.
If you do get into heirloom and non-commercial varieties, be open to different shapes and sizes - and less than perfect skin. A blemish here or there is fine. The fruit is just as wonderful (and I think we as a society get too hung up on outward appearance anyway).
Other interesting heirloom varieties include:
- Roxbury Russett
- Spitzenburg
- Blue Permain
To hold you over until the next apple article (appetizers), try this delicious afternoon snack.
Apples with cream cheese and caramel dip
Several good eating apples, washed, cored and sliced (but not peeled)
Juice of one lemon
8 ounces cream cheese, softened and whipped to as light a texture as possible
Caramel
Chopped peanuts
Toss the sliced apples in a bowl with the lemon juice. This is to help reduce browning.
On a nice serving plate, gently mound the whipped cream cheese in the middle, leaving space for the apple slices.. Drizzle the caramel over the cream cheese. I like a fair bit, others like less or more. Sprinkle the chopped peanuts on top. Arrange the apple slices around the cream cheese caramel mound and serve.
 While we were on vacation, I came across a book called, “The Home Creamery.” Glancing through it, I was instantly intrigued. It has recipes for goat cheese, mozzarella, mascarpone and cream cheese. The book claims the cheese making process is straight-forward and simple - and the results delicious. I immediately bought the book and crammed it into our overstuffed car.
Cheesemaking is easy - or is it?
Once home and unpacked, I read the book a little more closely. My first effort was supposed to be goat cheese. I love goat cheese - plus the recipe seemed the simplest of the soft unripened cheeses group and it didn’t have any special order or particularly obscure ingredients - just goat’s milk and cider vinegar. Or so I thought.
One of the most important things about making cheese at home is the ingredients. Well, the most important, really. And more specifically, the milk. You need good milk that is not ultra-pasteurized. Regular pasteurization is fine, UHT (ultra-high temperature) is not. This turned out to be the challenge.
Turns out my local market carries goat’s milk, but only UHT goat’s milk. After some investigation, I found a health food store not too far away that could special order goat’s milk with the right level of pasteurization, and give me a slight discount on it.
Making goat cheese, mozzarella and cream cheese
Finally I was able to do it. I followed the instructions closely, watching temperatures and times, and what came out was….delicious goat cheese. Imagine that! This process really does work! We have fresh goat cheese on salad almost every night now, and use it on pasta, too.
After that, I wanted to try more. I was feeling confident! I found a cheesemaking supply house online and placed a small order of some key ingredients.
Once my supplies arrived, I tried mozzarella. And failed utterly. Truly, it was a mess.
I have no idea what happened to my first batch of mozzarella. None. I was dejected and disheartened. My husband and I tried again, this time following a slightly different recipe from the one in my new book (love the Internet!) and this time it worked! It really did work - and we had some really great mozzarella on our pizza.
Next it was cream cheese. And another success. It’s so much better than store-bought. Yum.
A little bit of practice and stove top chemistry yields superlative results
I think I might be hooked here. Cheesemaking is a bit of chemistry on your kitchen stove that yields delicious results - even if it does take some practice and experimentation. Cheesemaking is not necessarily cost-effective, however - it’s really more for the fun than the cost savings. Kids can get in on the process, too.
My oldest son now wants to move on to ripened cheeses. I don’t know about that - it’s an additional set of supplies and more complexity. For now, I’ll enjoy my very fresh goat cheese and very fresh mozzarella and very fresh cream cheese and maybe a few very fresh others.
 When my husband planted fruit trees in the yard a couple years ago, I was skeptical. But he was determined, and the idea of a yard full of our own fruit was kind of mouthwatering. I got on board. The really hard part would be the waiting, however. It would be years until our tress were of a significant enough size and health to sustain real fruit production.
The many delicious things to do with plums
To our surprise and pleasure, some of the trees bore fruit this year - although the fruits were smaller than they should be. One tree that bore particularly well was the plum tree. When we arrived home from vacation, we had several dozen very small little black plums with the sweetest red flesh I’ve ever tasted.
I would have been perfectly content to eat them all myself in one sitting. But, I decided, instead, to bake something with them. Instantly my mind turned to a favorite and classic fall dessert: plum torte.
This recipe has been around for years. I remember making it for the first time in the early 90s, and it was an established, well-known recipe even then. While the recipe is intended for the small Italian prune plums, my small black plums worked just fine. The dessert was delicious.
Plums are more than just the source fruit for prunes, and they are versatile enough to be more than dessert. You can put them in salsas, salads, main dishes and even cocktails. In the late summer and early fall when plums are at their peak, there are plenty of wonderful things to do with them:
Plum-glazed chicken
1 lb plums, pitted and cut into 1/2-inch pieces
2 tbsp unsalted butter
1 onion, finely chopped
1/3 c brown sugar
1/4 c prepared tomato based chili sauce
2 tbsp soy sauce
1 tsp fresh grated ginger
2 tbsp fresh squeezed lemon juice
2 lb skinless, boneless chicken
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
In a blender or food processor, puree the plums and a bit of water and sugar until smooth. Melt butter in a wide skillet over medium heat. Add onion and cook until soft. Stir in the plum puree, brown sugar, chili sauce, soy sauce, ginger and lemon juice. Cook, uncovered, stirring often until reduced and slightly thickened, about 15 minutes.
Sprinkle the chicken with salt and pepper. Arrange the chicken in a lightly greased baking pan. Bake, uncovered, for 30 minutes, basting with plum sauce every 15 minutes. Turn the chicken over and bake, basting occasionally, for 30 more minutes.
Heat the remaining sauce and pass it at the table.
Newer Posts »
|
|
 |
|
|
