I thoroughly enjoy writing about farm operations. I love spending time researching on topics like soil health, successional planting, and plant varieties. It is a great way to focus on everything I am learning during this apprenticeship. I do have another passion that compliments my love of farming, and that is cooking! I thought I'd use this newsletter to write about some resources I use when cooking.
A Book for Culinary Creativity
I recently came across this book called The Flavor Bible and I thought it had some interesting ideas that might help with some creativity cooking up your farm food in the kitchen! The book is not a cookbook, but rather a flavor matchmaking book. It consists of charts of any food you could imagine. It has cheese, fish, spices, meats, oils and of course vegetables. Below each food is a list of other foods or flavors that compliment the highlighted food. For example, the highlighted food might be collard greens. It lists common preparation techniques such as boil, braise, steam and stir-fry. Then it lists flavors and foods such as bacon, black-eyed peas, brown butter, Parmesean, garlic, ham hocks, mustard seeds, yellow onions, oregano, red pepper flakes, tomatoes, and cider vinegar. This makes it easy to cook without a recipe. All you have to do is cook the collards using the preparation techniques, with any of the suggested flavors.
Food Blogs and Other Websites
The internet seems to be the easiest way to gather recipes and new ideas. The web is also a great resource for cooking some of the more foreign vegetables that we provide in our shares, like kohlrabi. Here are some of my go to websites.
www.tastespotting.com I really like this website because of its visual appeal. After a long day at work, I like to go to this website and browse through the pretty pictures till I come across a dish that I'm craving. It also condenses lots of food blog posts onto one site. Many of these recipes come from all over the world.
www.foodily.com This is a website that Ryan showed me. It's like google for cooking. You can search through its database of recipes by any keyword you need. It also has the nutrition information attached to each recipe.
www.joythebaker.com This website is more of a baking blog than anything else. However, Joy does cook seasonally and has many dishes that use vegetables from our CSA. I can't wait to try her edamame avocado salad.
Traditional Cookbooks
When I first started cooking, I don't know what I would have done without my mom's cookbooks. I love cookbooks so much that in college, I'd procrastinate by hiding out in the 3rd floor stacks of the library where they kept all the cookbooks! Now I keep a few for reference that I use often.
Simply in Season by Mary Beth Lind and Cathleen Hockman-Wert
This cookbook is all about cooking with the seasons. It is organized by season as well as the main vegetables that are in each recipe. The recipes are usually simple and straightforward. The beginning of the book has handy storage information about most vegetables.
The Joy of Cooking by Irma Rombauer, Marion Rombauer Becker and Ethan Becker
This cookbook is the staple guide for American cuisine. It was originally published in 1931 and has since gone through revisions. The 2006 edition is much healthier than the original. I like it for its food preservation section. It explains how to can and freeze produce.
The Moosewood Cookbook by Mollie Katzen
This cookbook includes simple, easy to follow vegetarian recipes. Most of the meals are light, healthy and a more natural approach to cooking. I also enjoy her book The Vegetable Dishes I Can't Live Without