Just tender cooked borlotti beans–often called cranberry beans–are a tasty late summer snack. Use your thumb to pop open the fresh-picked speckled pods, place a few handfuls of beans in a skillet and cover with just an inch of water; add a couple of cloves of garlic, pepper corns, and fresh sage, and simmer…
Winter Recipes
Cubanelle Peppers
The cubanelle sweet pepper is tasty lightly roasted and served on a summer sandwich or green salad. Core and seed three or four of the long tapered cubanelles and place them on the grill or about five inches below the oven broiler element and cook until the skins blister and char on each side,…
Tokyo Turnip: Raw or Steamed
The Tokyo turnip is a diminutive, small radish-sized turnip with a crunchy, juicy bitter- sweet flavor eaten raw. Steamed it is buttery-sweet and delicate. You will find the Tokyo turnip in early spring. You might mistake it for a white radish if you don’t look closely enough. The Tokyo turnip is white through and through….
Steamed Brussels Sprouts
You don’t have to get fancy to enjoy Brussels sprouts. Simply steam or sauté the sprouts and serve them with butter or lemon or sprinkled with Parmesan cheese, like you see here. To steam Brussels sprouts, arrange the sprouts or pieces on a steamer rack. Bring 1 to 2 inches of water to a rapid…
Yellow Potato Side Dish and Soup
Yellow potatoes like ‘Yukon Gold’ and ‘Yellow Finn’ are ideal for boiling and using in salads and gratins or adding raw to stews. They are moist with a dense flesh and low in starch which means they will hold their shape cooked. You can boil yellow potatoes whole and unpeeled or cut and unpeeled or…
Yukon Gold Yellow Potato
Yellow potatoes are well suited for boiling, steaming, mashing, roasting, grilling, and au gratin dishes. ‘Yukon Gold’ is a stand-out yellow potato with a buttery-tasting flesh that you will want to try mashed, steamed, in soups and chowders, or made into potato pancakes. Because the ‘Yukon Gold’ brings its own buttery flavor to the table,…
Artichokes: Steamed and Stuffed
Artichokes are always eaten cooked. Once cooked, they can be served hot, warm or cold. Pull off each leaf; dunk it in the sauce; put it in your mouth and pull, scraping the tender flesh through your teeth. Cut the tender nut-flavored bottom into bite-sized pieces, dunk in sauce and eat. Serve with béchamel, butter,…
Black Bean Soup
The black bean – Phaseolus vulgaris – is kidney shaped and just short of blocky looking with a cream-colored flesh, and, of course, a matt to shiny black skin. Why is the black bean found in so many cuisines? Two reasons: it holds its shape when cooked, and its floury texture absorbs the flavors of…
Oatmeal Date Squares
Hot oatmeal date squares! Yummy! This recipe will make 25 squares. Each square will be topped with sticky chewy dates and bottomed with flaky warm oatmeal. Ingredients 1cup chopped dates ½ cup water ½ cup brown sugar 6 tablespoons butter 1 cup oatmeal ½ cup sugar 2 egg yolks 1 teaspoon…
Oyster Mushroom Sautéed in Garlic
The oyster mushroom gets its name from its cap which, some say, resembles an oyster. The stem of the oyster mushrooms is perhaps more distinct; it unfurls something like one of those old-time paper lady’s fans. The oyster mushroom has been cultivated in Asia for centuries. Today it is very popular in Japanese and Chinese…