News from the Farm
Greatest Scapes
Image credit: Dori Fern
by Dori Fern
I have no idea how ramps became such a fanatically-trendy allium. For my money and tastebuds, I’ll take garlic scapes any day. You should, too. Scapes will last in your fridge forever-ish, they’re heartier and less costly than those precious wild onions (not that it’s a contest) and a few scapes go a long way. Plus, there’s an awful lot of easy and delicious things you can do with them.
These elegant-looking, curly garlic bulb tops have a fresh, herbaceous quality that’s lighter and less earthy than the bulbs, which makes scapes a fine add on to any variety of dishes or pan sauces or soups, imparting them with a bit of texture and zippy garlic flavor. My first piece of advice about using scapes: Get creative. I can’t imagine they’d hurt any savory dish you’d try them in. Some inspiration certainly can’t hurt though.
This was my breakfast yesterday…and the day before that:
Scrambled Eggs with Garlic Scapes, Tomato & Ricotta Salata
Serves 1
Sauté 3 finely-chopped garlic scapes in some butter or olive oil for about a minute, add 1/2 chopped tomato (or don’t), a pinch of paprika (or not), then add 2-3 eggs–depending on your appetite–salt & pepper to taste. Scramble soft then mix in some crumbled ricotta salata or feta or goat cheese…your choice.
Today for lunch I had this Fried Fish over Garlic Scape, Tomato and Baby Arugula Salad:
Fried Fish over Garlic Scape, Tomato and Baby Arugula Salad. Image credit: Dori Fern
Isn’t it pretty?
Sauté 4 chopped garlic scapes with the other 1/2 of the tomato from yesterday’s scrambled eggs. Cook a minute or so, then place over a bed of Ray’s baby arugula, adding salt and pepper to taste, a shpritz of lemon juice and a drizzle of good olive oil. The fried fish tops off the dish.
To make the fish: I used Ling Tail from Gabe the Fish Babe, a meaty, ocean-water fish that tastes like a cross between cod and fresh sardines, sold at the Park Slope Food Coop. Any white fish would do, as would fresh sardines. Dip fish in paprika and black pepper-seasoned flour, shake off the excess flour then pan fry til brown, about two minutes per side. Finish with salt.
The next thing I plan to make is this Garlic Scape with Almond Pesto from Dorie Greenspan (who also recommends adding the raw scapes to tuna or chicken–or, I would add, salmon or egg or, come to think of it, potato–salads).
The possibilities are endless but, alas, the season is not, so visit your nearest Bradley Farm stand this week and fill up a bag. You’ll thank me.
The Wines from Dinner #1
Wines provided by Stone Ridge Wine & Spirits
Wine for mixed charcuterie plate (pork, lardo, and bratwurst)
2011 Kofererhof Riesling – “Gunther Kerschbaumer is one of the most inspired growers in Italy. His wines have incredible focus, precision and, most importantly, tons of personality. In 2011 the wines are richer than normal, as is the case throughout the region. I visited the winery in August of that year, and the heat was already stifling. Still, Kofererhof is one of my go-to wineries in Alto Adige. I highly encourage readers to check out these wines.” 170 cases produced91 points
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Wine for lobster ravioli in tomato consommé and salad with asparagus, beets, goat cheese
2009 Raventos i Blanc Rose Cava – “The outstanding 2009 De Nit (rose) has an almost hypnotic, perfect pale hue that is worth the price alone! A blend of classic Cava varieties with 5% Monastrell, it is sourced from 30- to 40-year-old vines from the estate. The nose is very subtle and very pretty with traces of rosewater, fish scale and Morello cherries, all beautifully defined and drawing you in. The palate is crisp and tense on the entry: a minimalist rose cave that is based on freshness and poise rather than delivering fruit intensity. It is a delicate, very pretty, harmonious Cava rose that is sensual and alluring. Who needs Champagne when Cava can be as good as this? 90 points
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Wine for roasted lamb with mushroom polenta with an olive tapenade and quince
Rua 2009 Merlot-Cabernet Franc (Napa Valley) – A blend of Merlot and Cabernet Franc, this wine is soft, rich and delicious. Although it’s completely dry, it’s enormously sweet in cherries, red currants, dark chocolate, anise and cedar. The tannins are furry and firm, making you wonder if it’s worth cellaring. The best guess is that it’s best now, with decanting, and over the next four years. 400 cases produced 91 points
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Wine for cheese plate
2008 Sfursat Ca’ Rizzieri, Aldo Rainoldi – Aldo Rainoldi makes this wine only in favorable vintages from a selection of Nebbiolo grapes grown in steeply terraced vineyards. The fruit is obtained from terraced vineyards from the Grumello, Valgella and Valtellina Superiore Sub-areas. Rainoldi dries the fruit on mats in a Fruttaio Ca’ Rizzieri. The flavors and tannins concentrate as the water from the grapes evaporates, creating a rich, nuanced wine. The wines age in new Allier French oak barriques for 15 months. After bottling, Rainoldi holds his wines for a year for additional bottle aging. 433 cases produced. 433 cases produced 90 points
Info for Dinner #1 Sunday June 9th
Tips for first time attendees!
1) Get here on time – passed canapes start at 1:30 PM ( directions below). Traffic from the city can be brutal so allow 2+ hours. YOU DO NOT WANT TO MISS PullBrew’s latest and greatest beer, Bradley Bee Barn Ale, made with Ray’s honey!
2) Rain or shine – dinner is served!
3) Dress casually and as if it is 10 degrees hotter than the temperature- shabby chic meets country casual- especially for footwear. No matter what, parts of the farm will be muddy, other parts dusty. It can get steamy under the tent once the food and wine starts to flow.
4) Bring coolers and bags – the farm stand will be open if you want to take home some of Ray’s produce and pork.
5) Feel free to come early and walk the farm.
6) We will wrap up by 5:00 ish for those of you who need to coordinate with babysitters, have to get to a Game of Thrones viewing party etc!
7) Very last call if you still need to purchase your wine pairings!
Directions to the Farm
Take NYS Thruway to Exit 18-New Paltz. Make left at exit, and go through the town of New Paltz (on route 299/Main Street. Continue over a small bridge at the end of the hill, and make first right, following signs to Mohonk. At fork in the road, make another right – it says Springtown Road.
Continue straight to farm – on left side of Springtown, corner of Craigswood. Farm is 3.5 miles from center of town.
lost??? call 845 430 7749
Soulful Swiss Chard
Swiss Chard, Onion & Cheese Frittata from Williams-Sonoma’s Taste blog
by Dori Fern
If kale is today’s leafy green prom queen and spinach is the easy-to-love Everygreen, then think of swiss chard as the verdant, soulful-yet-populist artist type. With its buttery depth of flavor, chard is typically more supple than kale and has a bit more body than spinach.
June is the perfect time to enjoy swiss chard not only cooked, but also raw in salads. It’s a cinch to prep right now, since the stalks–which get bigger and tougher later in the season and are then best baked like this–are tender enough to be chopped up and added to whatever you’re making. Swap in chard for your favorite spinach salad recipe (and don’t forget to add Ray’s slab bacon, cooked into lardons).
Swiss chard, in either the standard or red leafed variety, is my go-to weeknight veggie. Sometimes I’ll just saute it, with onion or a little garlic, but often I add it to make a simple one-dish meal. Think protein (ground or cubed meat, fish or beans), plus grain (pasta, farro, barley, etc, quinoa), plus green leafy vegetable (where the chard comes in) plus any tasty extras (maybe cheese or tomatoes or herbs or additional legume like peas or favas) and that’s dinner. And while it’s a familiar presence in Italian dishes, I often fancy using chard in Indian recipes.
When company’s coming, as a potluck take-along or when I’ve got time to spare on weekends, swiss chard dresses up real nice. Given its round, easy-to-love flavor and good body, chard makes a terrific star for tarts, gratins and frittatas.
Here are some tasty options to try, including this intriguing sweet tart by the inimitable David Lebovitz:
Alice Waters’ Swiss Chard Gratin (Serious Eats)
Goat Cheese, Chard and Herb Pie in a Phyllo Crust (The New York Times)
Swiss Chard Tart: Pasticcio di Bietole al Forno (Food Network)
Swiss Chard, Onion & Cheese Frittata (Williams-Sonoma’s Taste, pictured above)
And when I’m feeling particularly ambitious, I will make my daughter’s very favorite dish of all times, Malfatti a la Al di La. It will take some time and it’s impossible to overstate the need to thoroughly dry the chard, but the results are most rewarding when well done. On the other hand, you could always stick simpler swiss chard recipes at home and let Chef Anna Klinger–a longtime Bradley Farm customer–serve you the fancy stuff at their beloved Park Slope trattoria.
The Magic of Sorrel
Yotam Ottolenghi’s rhubarb, celery and sorrel salad Photograph: Colin Campbell for the Guardian
by Dori Fern
I fell in love with sorrel about a decade or so ago, when I came upon a recipe for Garden Vegetable Soup in a little-known cookbook called French Vegetarian Cooking that happened into my collection. Ray has sold sorrel, which is different from the hibiscus tea of the same name served mainly at Caribbean restaurants, for as long as I can remember. But until I stumbled on this soup recipe, I didn’t know what to do with it.
Sorrel’s distinctive, lemony flavor is wonderful if well-used, overwhelmingly sour if it’s not. The key is to balance sorrel’s built-in acidity with more lush ingredients. Yotam Ottolenghi, author of the wonderful and award-winning cookbook, “Jerusalem,” speaks to this point in “Sour Pour,” the piece — with recipes — he wrote for The Guardian website:
This startlingly sour leaf, if paired with more evenly balanced flavours, can turn even the most frugal of meals into something very special. As with lemon juice, the more sorrel you use, the more it has to be balanced with something sweet, starchy or creamy…
I’ve recently branched out from my one, go-to sorrel soup recipe. Last week I made the most incredible sorrel mayonnaise. Into a food processor I threw a handful of sorrel, a few big dollops of Hellman’s (I was in a rush to make lunch for my hungry son, but as food writer and Ray-regular Melissa Clark has pointed out , I’ve been known to make my own, too), 3-4 cornichons with a splash of their brine, plus a spot of Dijon, pinch of salt and some black pepper. I wasn’t measuring, but play around and taste for yourself. I mixed the mayo with oil-packed tuna, coarsely chopping in a couple more cornichons, then made the most perfect tuna melt, really, ever.
But still, that beloved Garden Vegetable Soup is my personal rite of spring. It’s like a Provençal Schav, the cold soup favored by Russian Jews (see “The Food Maven” and Grand Army Plaza Greenmarket regular Arthur Schwartz’s recipe here). The sourness of this vegetable soup, though, is buffered by spinach and all the greens are stewed to a comforting softness.
The recipe is a fine guide, but don’t let it limit you: any spring green I find at the market may find its way into the mix: beet greens (how anyone could throw away these sweetly tender tops, which I prefer to the beets themselves, is beyond me), garlic chives, spring onions, ramps — if that’s your thing — though they’re probably an overly costly addition to an otherwise humble soup. The one non-negotiable ingredient: sorrel.
Garden Vegetable Soup
Adapted from French Vegetarian Cooking by Paola Gavin
4 tbsp. olive oil
1 medium onion, chopped
2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
3 leeks, thinly sliced
3/4 pound spinach, shredded
1/4 pound sorrel, shredded
4 cups water (or good-quality chicken or vegetable stock)
salt
freshly ground black pepper
2 egg yolks, lightly whisked (optional)
4 slices/wedges good-quality multi-grain bread, toasted (and buttered, if you like)
1/2 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese
Heat the olive oil in a large pot and cook the onion, garlic, leek, and celery over a moderate heat for 5 minutes. Add the spinach, sorrel, water or stock, and season with salt and pepper to taste. Bring to a boil and simmer for 20-25 minutes. If using egg yolks for added creaminess, whisk about a 1/2 cup of the hot broth into the yolks to temper, then return the yolk mixture into the soup.
Add one slice of toasted bread to each bowl, then ladle in the soup. Serve with grated cheese.
Nettle Recipes: What to Cook with this Prickly but Lovable Herb
photo from TheKitchn.com
The sting of raw nettles is definitely worse than its bite. Sure, you’ll want to protect your hands when handling raw nettles, but don’t be afraid of this fleeting, springtime flowering plant. A quick dunk in hot water (or any hot liquid) softens those stingers straightaway. And not only is nettle quite easy to cook (most anything you’d do with cooked spinach–which has a similar taste–can be made with nettle), it’s also incredibly nutritious and delicious in equal measure. Rich in vitamins A, C, iron, potassium, manganese, and calcium, in the peak of the season, nettle also purportedly contains up to 25% protein.* Some use histamine-rich nettle as a remedy for seasonal allergies, but most sources suggest using it in tincture form or freeze dried to get those benefits, which may be lost in the cooking process.
Nettle has long been a popular edible plant in Northern and Eastern Europe and in India. The English, Scottish and Czech even have a long tradition of making nettle beer (see recipe below). Visit Ray’s farm stand in May when he’s rich with the stuff. Here are some tasty nettle recipes to whet your appetite.
Nettle Soup (The Kitchn)
Stinging Nettles: 8 Recipes for Spring Cooking (The Kitchn)
Nettle Pasta (101cookbooks)
Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall’s Favorite Nettle Recipes (The Guardian)
Make your own nettle beer (selfsufficientish.com)
*Source: Wikipedia
2013 Sunday Summer Dinner Series – Reserve Your Seats Now!
Each fabulous Sunday meal will be five courses ($80 all inclusive) featuring Ray’s seasonal produce, wine pairings sold separately. Reception with passed canapes and Pul Brew starts at 1:30 PM, dinner 2-5 PM
Sunday June 9th
Ray is in the kitchen. Tim Sweeney does the wines.
SOLD OUT
Get on the wait list by emailing us at info@raybradleyfarm.com
Sunday July 14th
Celebrate Bastille Day with two Jean Lucs – Chef Jean Luc Kieffer of Picnic and renown wine sommelier Jean Luc Le Du SOLD OUT
Get on the wait list by emailing us at info@raybradleyfarm.com
Sunday August 4th
Chef Eva Pesantez of Brother Jimmy’s is in the house. FARM FAVORITE Kevin Zraly, James Beard 2011 Lifetime Achievement Award winner will do the wine pairings
A FEW SEATS LEFT!
Make your reservations now! We will sell out – only 50 seats per dinner!
All wine pairings now live online for purchase too!
Slab Bacon – Great Recipes to Try
If strip bacon is trendy and ubiquitous, then slab bacon is strip’s heady, lesser-seen, deeper sibling. In his Bacon 25 Ways piece in last October’s NY Times, Mark Bittman calls this meaty cut both more flexible form and (typically) better quality.
We all know that if Ray’s selling bacon, whatever the cut, it’s going to be primo quality. But when he’s selling slab, don’t miss out on the opportunity to take some of this special stuff home to try.
Get inspired with even more recipes to get your culinary juices sizzling:
50 Things to Make With Bacon (FoodNetwork.com) – The following ideas would be our picks for Ray’s bacon, even though they don’t all specifically call for slab: Numbers 11 (Bacon Quiche, pictured above), 22, 28, 30, 31, 33-37, 43
Wilted Mustard Greens Salad With Bacon* – Ray-regular Loa Ortiz tipped us off to this Epicurious recipe she recently discovered: ”I can’t stop making this! Use Ray’s slab bacon [and, when they're in season, his mustard greens] for a really delicious smoky flavor. There’s minimal cooking required, strong flavors that balance each other out, nothing overpowers anything else, and it’s bright, fresh and healthy but still rich and satisfying.”
* Loa’s recipe adaptations and notes:
- In place of the onion: Use 1 large shallot, cut in half-moon slices, not finely chopped.
- If your mustard green is young and tender, no need to remove the ribs.
- Doubling the recipe is highly advisable.
Braised Pork Shoulder with Apple Cider and Ginger Beer
Photo by Anders Overgaard for Bon Appétit
Bradley Farms regular and Ray’s former Greenmarket helper, Loa Ortiz, loves this easy recipe from Bon Appétit for Braised Pork Shoulder with Apple Cider and Ginger Beer, using Ray’s pork, naturally. Some notes from Loa to keep in mind:
I didn’t strain or reduce the braising liquid after it was cooked. We just kept everything in the pot and ate it all. I don’t think I added the chicken broth either. Seemed like plenty of liquid…
This is seriously fool-proof and so good! I had never really had good luck making pork, but this was easy and so delicious. It’s not too sweet, even with the apples and cider. It’s rich, but not overly so, and the flavors are subtle, so the flavor of the pork really shines. Great for company or Sunday dinner and having leftovers all week! Tacos! Sandwiches!
Enough About Ray: Loa Ortiz
If you’re a Grand Army Plaza Greenmarket regular, chances are you’ve run into Loaiza “Loa” Ortiz at Ray’s farm stand, likely with her impish three-year-old daughter, Viola. Loa and her husband moved to Brooklyn from Oakland, California in 2001 and, in the summer of 2007 and 2008, worked for Ray at the market. She’s been a member of the Bradley Farm family ever since. Viola even calls Ray “Grandpa.”
How did you wind up working for Ray?
I met Ray and Hardeep around 2005 when I started going to the market and I would hang out — Hardeep talks to everyone! — and one day, Ray says “You’re a teacher [Loa teaches middle school at The Mary McDowell School] and off for the summers, so come work for me.”
What was it like?
Oh my gosh, it was so much fun, putting up with all of Ray’s antics. There was a lot of teasing and joking — Ray says the most inappropriate things no one else could get away with.
Let’s hear the best and worst parts about working at the market
It was so social and awesome being part of the whole market community. That was the best part.
The worst part is that you can’t go [to the loo] until 10am when the bathroom opens!
What’s the difference between market culture in Brooklyn and California, where you’re from?
The most exciting thing about east coast markets is that, since there are such distinct seasons, you really anticipate the arrival of your favorites. On the west coast you can have good tomatoes all year. Here, you’re so excited for August–the anticipation makes everything taste better.
Loa and her daughter, Viola
Viola, here’s a question for you: What’s your favorite thing about “Grandpa” Ray?
[The toddler's eyes narrow as she squeezes up her face into a mischievous grin, pulls in a breath and -- we know who she takes after here -- shouts...]
NOTHING!
Farm to Table Dinner Series 2013
T-Shirt Contest 2013!