ReMARKable Palate Video #14

ReMARKable Palate Video #14: Beckmann's Bakery

There's nothing like Strawberry Shortcake! I run into some enterprising young men at the San Rafael Farmer's market in Marin County, CA.

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Music: "Go Fish" by Big Money Grip, from the Podsafe Music Network. music.podshow.com

The ReMARKable Palate Podcast is a production of The Culinary Podcast Network. www.culinarypodcastnetwork.com



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food, food podcast, Beckmann's, San Rafael, Chef Mark, video podcast, ReMARKable Palate, Culinary Podcast Network, Gilded Fork

Farm-Style Braised Kale

Farm-Style Braised Kale
From Greene on Greens (4 servings)

2 strips bacon
1 Tablespoon unsalted butter
1 small onion, finely chopped
1 pound kale, stems removed, roughly chopped
Salt and freshly ground pepper
Pinch of ground allspice
1 Tablespoon red wine vinegar
1 lemon, sliced thin

Sauté the bacon strips in a large skillet until crisp. Drain on paper towels. Crumble and reserve.

Add the butter to the bacon drippings in the skillet. Cook the onion over medium-low hear until golden, about 5 minutes.

Meanwhile, rinse the kale in cold water.

Add the kale to the skillet, with just the water that clings to the leaves. Cooked, covered, stirring occasionally, until tender, 15 to 20 minutes. Add salt and pepper to taste, the allspice, and the vinegar. Sprinkle with the reserved bacon and garnish with lemon slices.

food, food podcast, cooking, recipe, CSA, ReMARKable Palate, Culinary Podcast Network, Gilded Fork

What's your 100 miles?

If you've been listening to my Podcast, you've heard me mention the "100 mile diet" a few times. Well, it's an idea that's really starting to get momentum. More and more people are focusing on eating locally, seasonably, and sustainably, choosing not to consume foods out of the natural season for their area, or foods that have to be transported over great distances, adding to the cost and the environmental impact.

Well, there's now a way that you can do the 100-mile diet and not have to cook for yourself or dry your own beans, can your own tomatoes, or slaughter your own meat. My friend Mia Andrews, head of the Canadian Personal Chef Association, the sister organization of our very own USPCA, is sponsoring 100MileMeals.net to help customers find personal chefs in their areas who can help them eat this 100 mile diet. For now, it's just getting started, but you can check it out to learn more about the diet, and find some chefs in Ontario. Soon there will be more chefs listed, including yours truly in NYC.

Here's a link to a useful tool from www.100milediet.org to help you find just what areas are within 100 miles of your home, or to help you decide which areas will work for you. There are no hard and fast rules about this diet...the idea is mainly that you take charge of your eating habits and think carefully about what you buy, and what path it took to get to you.

I'm blessed to be in New York City, where my 100 miles includes all of Long Island, all of New Jersey, The Hudson Valley all the way up to the Catskills, a good portion of Connecticut, and parts of Northeastern Pennsylvania. WOW!

food, food podcast, cooking, recipe, food, ReMARKable Palate, Culinary Podcast Network, Gilded Fork

ReMARKable Palate Podcast #98

ReMARKable Palate #98: Rogowski Farm, Part 2

I visited Jennifer up in the Hudson Valley this week, so we headed up to the famous Black Dirt region to visit Cheryl Rogowski, proprietor of Rogowski Farm in Pine Island, NY.

This is part 2 of our tour of the farm with Cheryl. You can hear Part 1 on Food Philosophy #54. We recorded with binaural microphones, so be sure to wear your headphones for this podcast. Cheryl has some great ideas about local eating and sustainable agriculture, and does a great deal to support the local economy.

Sponsor: www.godaddy.comUse these codes for special discounts at checkout:

palate1 for 10% off any order
palate2 for $5 off any order of $30 or more
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Music: "Go Fish" by Big Money Grip, from the Podsafe Music Network. music.podshow.com

The ReMARKable Palate Podcast is a production of The Culinary Podcast Network. www.culinarypodcastnetwork.com



food, food podcast, ReMARKable Palate, Culinary Podcast Network, Gilded Fork, Chef Mark, PodShow, farm, sustainable agriculture, Hudson Valley, New York, Black Dirt region

Covered in Black Dirt

Jennifer and I spent some time at Rogowski Farm speaking with proprietor Cheryl Rogowski, and I'm covered in black dirt! But it was SOOO worth it to be able to pick my own dinner. Cheryl was an accountant in corporate America before returning to her family's 120 acre farm to grow over 150 varieties of vegetables. Now she tends the famous black dirt of this Hudson Valley region with her loyal Border Collie Bella, and is a leader in the community, bringing wonderful naturally grown (soon to be certified organic) produce, and providing for local CSAs. Listen for our 2 part interview with Cheryl starting on Food Philosophy #54, and continuing on ReMARKable Palate #98.

Meanwhile, back at Jennifer's house, I had fun inventing dishes to use up the fabulous produce we picked at Rogowski. We had 3 different varieties of beets: Bulls Blood, Albina Verdura, and Red Ace, which I roasted in the oven with just a splash of Extra Virgin olive oil and a little salt and pepper. I made a tri-color couscous with vegetable broth and garlic scapes we picked up at Cheryl's. Then, for the main course, I made a reduction of fresh black currant juice she sells at her farm stand, and used it to sauce a sliced pork tenderloin which I had seared in a cast iron skillet, then finished in the oven.

Check out Jennifer's black feet on her Food Philosophy page!

food, food podcast, cooking, recipe, farmer's market, Rogowski Farm, ReMARKable Palate, Culinary Podcast Network, Gilded Fork

Honey-Peppered Turnips

Honey-Peppered Turnips

A translation of a recipe from De Re Coquinaria, the ancient Roman cookbook, this dish is from Bert Greene’s classic Greene on Greens. (4-6 servings)

1 Tablespoon unsalted butter
2 Tablespoons honey
1 pound turnips, peeled, cut into
¼-inch dice
½ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
Kosher salt
Chopped fresh parsley

Melt the butter with the honey in a medium saucepan over medium-low heat. Stir in the turnips and pepper. Cook, covered, until tender, about 12 minutes. Add salt to taste and sprinkle with parsley.

food, food podcast, cooking, recipe, CSA, ReMARKable Palate, Culinary Podcast Network, Gilded Fork

Farmer's Market Saturday 6-30

This week's Farmer's Market entry is the happy confluence of several food experiences from the past week. At the market today, I got 1 dozen oysters from the new fishmonger for only $9! Well, I couldn't wait to tear into them with my shucking knife when I got home, and decided to use up several of the other things that were just lying around from the week. I had some extra champagne onions from last night's client dinner (I served them in an amuse bouche of cucumber cups with caviar - I'll post the menu here next). So they would make the perfect sweet yet slightly piquant addition to the fresh briny-ness of the oysters. I made a quick mignonette with more of the champagne onions and some seasoned rice vinegar, served them on a bed of lettuce leaves from this week's CSA delievery, and enjoyed them with a glass of Prosecco remaining from my tastings at the Vino in Villa celebration this week. What a way to use such delightful "leftovers", and it only cost me $9!!!

food, food podcast, cooking, recipe, oysters, ReMARKable Palate, Culinary Podcast Network, Gilded Fork

Zucchini Passata

One of the recipes I've shared with my CSA group in the weekly newsletter. I'll be including them here on the blog so you know what to do with the abundance of summer veggies you're sure to be getting too!

From Diana Shaw’s The Essential Vegetarian Cookbook
(4 servings)

2 Tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1 leek, white part only, washed and thinly sliced
2 large zucchini, peeled
2 Tablespoons water
2 cups nonfat buttermilk
1 Tablespoon corn starch
1 large egg yolk
Salt and pepper, to taste

Heat the oil in a large saucepan over medium heat. When it’s hot, add the leek. Reduce the heat to medium and sauté, stirring often, until the leek is soft and limp, about 7 minutes. Meanwhile, slice the zucchini, then quarter the slices. Add them to the leeks, along with the water. Continue to cook over medium heat until the zucchini slices are tender al the way through, about 10 minutes. Remove from the heat. Purée the zucchini with an immersion blender or in a food processor. If you use a food processor, return the soup to the pan.

Stir 1 2/3 cups of the buttermilk into the purée. In a mixing bowl, whisk together the remaining 1/3 cup buttermilk, cornstarch, and egg yolk. Whisk the mixture into the saucepan and heat gently over medium-low, stirring often, until the soup is thickened and warm, about 10 minutes. Don’t let the soup boil, or it will curdle. Season with salt and pepper, to taste.

food, food podcast, cooking, recipe, CSA, ReMARKable Palate, Culinary Podcast Network, Gilded Fork

Going for the Green!

Well, it's another Thursday, and we're starting to get a real abundance of vegetables from the Hawthorne Valley Farm CSA. This week, we had more rainbow chard, Japanese turnips, lettuce, and sugar snap peas.

I sat in the park speaking with some of the lovely members of my CSA, letting our dogs play together. What a bunch of great folks who love food and know to treat themselves well with good biodynamically farmed produce! Throughout the season, we'll have more from the great people involved, and what they're making with their shares. If you're reading the blog having seen my recipes in the weekly CSA newsletter, welcome! (and feel free to leave comments)

This week, we started to see the real signs of the summer: Squash! We got both zucchini, and a bi-colored summer squash, perfect for my classic calabacitas recipe. We also got purple scallions. I think I'll use these to make a batch of champagne braised red onions for an amuse bouche for a client dinner I'm doing tomorrow night: Cucumber cups with caviar and champagne onions. Just dice them finely and get 'em drunk on bubbly!

And of course, in my fruit share, i got a quart of strawberries! I'm going to miss these as the season progresses, and there's nothing like sitting on the grass eating strawberries straight out of the carton and sharing them with my neighbors (and occasionally Stiva).

food, food podcast, cooking, recipe, CSA, ReMARKable Palate, Culinary Podcast Network, Gilded Fork

More CSA meals

I feel so healthy! I've been eating so many green leafy veggies this week. I made some of the rainbow chard with garlic scapes, and yet another quinoa concoction.



food, food podcast, cooking, recipe, CSA, ReMARKable Palate, Culinary Podcast Network, Gilded Fork

Farmer's Market/CSA Saturday

This week's CSA delivery brought organic red leaf and green leaf lettuce, kale, arugula, rainbow chard, sugar snap peas, garlic scapes and strawberries. This week, I got 2 quarts of strawberries, not just 1!

So for lunch on this beautiful Saturday, I had a simple impromptu salad of arugula, lettuce and strawberries with a lemon vincotto vinaigrette and a sprinkling of garlic scapes and crushed pistachios. YUM!

I'm going to braise the kale along with the rainbow chard for a side dish for later in the week, and shell the sugar snap peas and make a fresh minted pea puree for a side for lamb chops, and save the rest for some canapes.

food, food podcast, cooking, recipe, farmer's market, recipe, CSA, ReMARKable Palate, Culinary Podcast Network, Gilded Fork

ReMARKable Palate Podcast #91

ReMARKable Palate #91: San Rafael Farmer's Market

When we traveled to the Bay area recently, Jennifer and I visited the San Rafael Farmer’s Market in Marin County with our friend and wine correspondent Rosina Tinari Wilson. Her Welcome to Wine Country Podcast is coming soon to the Culinary Podcast Network, and we’ll certainly hear more from her about the great foods of California. For today, it’s our intro to some great farmers and purveyors doing business in the Bay Area.

Sponsor: www.GoDaddy.com Use these codes for special discounts at checkout:

palate1 for 10% off any order
palate2 for $5 off any order of $30 or more
palate3 to get a .COM domain name for just $6.95 a year

Music: "Go Fish" by Big Money Grip, from the Podsafe Music Network. music.podshow.com

The ReMARKable Palate Podcast is a production of The Culinary Podcast Network. www.culinarypodcastnetwork.com



www.culinarypodcastnetwork.com
food, food podcast, farmer's market, San Rafael, ReMARKable Palate, Culinary Podcast Network, Gilded Fork

Farmer's Market Saturday

A crsip and sunny Fall day today, as we spent some time in the Dog Run prior to doing our weekly shopping run at the market. Since we're celebrating cheese as this month's indulgence at The Gilded Fork, I stopped by the Valley Shepherd Creamery and picked up some caraway seed cheese as well as some truffled sheep's milk cheese. Valley Shepherd is made right on the farm in Morris County, NJ.


Next, I stopped by Captain Rick's Pura Vida Fishery booth and picked up a mackerel fillet for my quick lunch, and a dozen oysters (for only $10!) He also had some more of the lovely pink swordfish I had last week. This was really great. I seasoned it with salt and pepper and a little fennel seed with dried lemon peel, and broiled it for a few minutes, then lay it atop a crusty crouton in a bowl of gazpacho. It was a quick lunch and a great way to use leftovers!


food, food podcast, cooking, cheese, fish, ReMARKable Palate, Culinary Podcast Network, Gilded Fork

Farmer's Market Saturday: First day of Fall

The first full day of fall is here, and the light rain fell this morning, leaving a cool mist on all the grass here in Inwood. The greenmarket was abuzz with shoppers wanting to get at all the great stuff on offer. We're experiencing the changeover from Summer to Fall with the remaining summer fruits and vegetables, and a few of the great variety of fall apples and root vegetables.

Samascott Orchards always has a wonderful variety of fruits on hand, like these precious little prune plums. Look at that great price!


They also had these tiny little seckle pears, which are like "mini-me" pears. As the sign said, they are "sweet and crisp, both hard and soft", and only $1.50 per pound. Because they are great hard, you can dice them up into a fine brunoise, toss them with a splash of sherry vinegar and use them as a last garnish for a salad.

Who doesn't love a nice red radish? You can slice these babies up thin and use as a garnish for an hors d'oeuvre, or just enjoy them quartered in a salad.


Finally, there was a BRISK trade going on at the booth of Heartland Creamery Farms! These people couldn't wait to get at that great artisanal farm-made cheese.


Speaking of cheese, we're exploring the cheese board as our indulgence this month at The Gilded Fork. We'll be bringing you articles about creating a cheese course for your meal, and featuring several recipes we've accumulated over the past couple of years featuring cheese.

food, food podcast, cooking, recipe, farmer's market, ReMARKable Palate, Culinary Podcast Network, Gilded Fork

Farmer's Market Saturday

Most people may already be in Fall mode, with the return to school and work that is brought on by Labor Day, but it's still late summer around here, and after the prodigious rain we've had in New York over the past couple of weeks, there is an abundance of late summer produce on the stands

With these huge carrots, you could make our great Gilded Fork Carrot and Ginger Soup recipe.

These fresh strawberries would make the perfect Champagne Sabayon with Roasted Strawberries and Honey Pecan Twists



food, food podcast, cooking, recipe, food, ReMARKable Palate, Culinary Podcast Network, Gilded Fork

Farmer's Market Saturday

It looks like Ernesto brought us some rain and wind all the way up here in NYC! The farmer's market was pretty miserable today, so no pictures. Many of the vendors were not able to make it in the heavy rain. And it's a good thing, because when I got there, the few that held out were trying to keep their tents from flying away!

So I picked up some lovely white peaches from Samoscott Farms and some organic yogurt from Hawthorne Valley Biodynamic Farm and made an indulgent dessert tonight. I simply sliced up the peaches and mixed with the yogurt, and topped with a sprinkle of Sweet Simplicity Sweetener. It was the perfect Sweet Indulgence on a rainy day!

food, farmer's market, peaches, yogurt, Sweet Simplicity, sweet indulgence, ReMARKable Palate, Culinary Podcast Network, Gilded Fork

Farmer's Market Saturday

Heirlooms and peppers and tomatillos, oh my!

This week, despite the rain, we have a veritable EXPLOSION of heirloom tomatoes, peppers, and even purple tomatillos at the Inwood Farmer's Market!



As I mentioned a couple of weeks ago, there is a new farm bringing their produce to market here in Inwood called Nolasco Farms, from Yorktown, NY. (A very historic town from the Revolutionary period)



They specialize in peppers and chiles, as well as other vegetables. This week, they had serranos, poblanos, cherry jalapenos, Italian pepperoncini, and these GORGEOUS habaneros!



The best discovery for me this week was the purple tomatillos they had today. I don't know what it is about purple hued varieties of my favorite foods, but the Inwood Farmer's Market never fails to satisfy me. We have had purple cauliflower, purple kohlrabi, purple bell peppers, and now these beautiful little husked fruits. Tomatillos are a different family from tomatoes, although they appear similar.



I couldn't resist picking up a few of these little amethyst gems, and after a stop at Captain Rick's Pura Vida Fishery, I came up with the following dish: Cornmeal crusted fluke with purple tomatillo and fresh pressed apple cider reduction.


food, food podcast, cooking, recipe, farmer's market, ReMARKable Palate, Culinary Podcast Network, Gilded Fork

Farmer's Market Saturday

St. Louis Edition!

I missed the normal market here in New York last week, but managed to make it to the Clayton Farmer's Market. There were plenty of local organic farms represented.



These "Torpedo" onions are descended from a Spanish breed of red onion and are rich and sweet. I interviewed the grower and will have the audio in a future podcast.



This was the most ingenious thing I've seen in a long time: Hydroponically grown salad mix in a bag! The seeds are mixed and grown hydroponically in bags, and pulled together so that you can have a fresh bouquet of salad!



food, food podcast, cooking, recipe, farmer's market, ReMARKable Palate, Culinary Podcast Network, Gilded Fork

Farmer's Market Saturday

Despite the extreme heat, which seemed to wilt all the available produce, these lovely squash blossoms were holding their own.



This great recipe from ThaiTable.com is a great and simple way to enjoy these seasonal delights.

Crunchy Squash Blossoms - Dok Fugtong Tod

2 Servings

10 squash blossoms
1/3 cup all purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder

Wash squash blossoms gently and get rid of the excess water. Mix all purpose flour and baking soda in a large bowl. Dust the blossoms with the flour mixture lightly. The tiny amount of water left on the blossom will hold just enough flour. Pan fry the blossoms over medium heat until golden brown.

Serve hot with chili fish sauce and rice.

You can make these Italian style by stuffing with an herbed ricotta mixture, and battering, then deep frying!



When you are lucky enough to see squash blossoms, then plump, colorful summer squash can't be far behind. Here's a great New Mexico style Calabacitas recipe I posted here last year.

food, food podcast, cooking, recipe, squash, squash blossom, personal chef, ReMARKable Palate, Culinary Podcast Network, Gilded Fork

Farmer's Market Saturday

An Abundance of Summer Color!

It seems all this rain we've been having in the Northeast has filled the farm stands with bright color! This week, I couldn't decide which I liked better, the fruits or the vegetables, so here are a few of each.

Samoscott Orchards never fails to impress me with their selection of fresh fruits. This week, the sour cherries flanked by fresh blueberries made for a great contrast.



A new merchant has arrived on teh scene in Inwood Market, Nolasco Farms, and they had some great tomatilos today, as well as some really brightly colored purple beans. What is it with the purple colored veggies? They're great! Last season, I photographed some gorgeous purple peppers, and acouple of weeks ago, we had that purple kohlrabi, and now the purple beans. What's next, purple heirloom tomotoes? I'll let you know.


I got these shots just before the heavens opened up and dumped another load of rain on us. More to come in another post...

food, food podcast, cooking, farmer's market, personal chef, ReMARKable Palate, Culinary Podcast Network, Gilded Fork