Month: November 2018

I shopped The Collingswood Farmers’ Market and came home with a PILE of broccoli.  It was so green and lovely everywhere I looked that I couldn’t resist buying it from multiple farmers.

The only answer this week to the question of what to do with all that broccoli was soup.

Broccoli soup looks simple but there can be some pitfalls.  Overcooking the broccoli so it is a smelly mush.  Using too much fat and thus losing the taste and health benefit of this beautiful vegetable.

What follows is a quick to make and very tasty soup.

Ingredients:
3 Tablespoons unsalted butter
1 leek, finely diced (or small onion)
2 stalks celery, finely diced
1/8 to 1/4 teaspoon granulated roasted garlic or 1 clove of garlic minced
3 Tablespoons flour
2 cups milk
2 cups stock (chicken or vegetable)
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
8 cups broccoli florets, stalks, stems cut into small pieces
1/4 cup grated Parmagiano-Reggiano cheese
juice from one lemon
salt and pepper to taste

Directions:
1.  Melt butter in a large Dutch oven or soup pot over medium heat.  Add the leek, celery, and garlic.  Cook, stirring, until the vegetables are softened, but not browned (about 5 minutes).
2.  Add the flour.  Cook, stirring constantly until all the flour is absorbed (about 30 seconds).
3.  Slowly pour in the milk.  Next slowly pour in the stock.
4.  Stir in the baking soda.
5.  Add the broccoli.
6. Bring the pot to a boil and then lower the heat to maintain a simmer.  Cover.  Stir occasionally until the broccoli is tender and an olive green color (about 20 minutes).

7.  Using an immersion blender (you can do it in batches in a regular blender but the immersion blender is so convenient and easier to control) blend the soup.  Add more stock for a thinner soup.

8.  Add the parmesan cheese, lemon juice, salt, pepper.  Stir.  Keep warm to serve.

Delicious!

And leftovers too!

Broccoli is lovely, plentiful,  easy to cook, and good for you.

” ‘Without pain, how could we know joy?’ This is an old argument in the field of thinking about suffering and its stupidity and lack of sophistication and could be plumbed for centuries but suffice it to say that the existence of broccoli does not, in any way, affect the taste of chocolate”.  (John Green, author)

 

Ingredients purchased from farmers at The Collingswood Farmers’ Market.
-butter from Hillacres Pride
-leek from Fruitwood Farm, Formisano Farm, Flaim Farm
-celery from Flaim Farm, Formisano Farm
-garlic from Savoie Organic Farm
-broccoli from Fruitwood Farm (by the bag!), Muth Organic Farm, Springdale Farm,

My daughter likes to bake.  She has recently set herself the task of learning to bake a nice scone.

While I was experimenting with other foods to make with all that winter squash, she decided to use winter squash as the flavoring for her pocket scones.

Scone ingredients:

3 cups flour, sifted
1 1/2 Tablespoons baking powder
3/8 teaspoons baking soda
1 Tablespoon sugar
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1 teaspoon powdered ginger
a pinch of Kosher salt
9 Tablespoons cold, unsalted butter, cut into cubes
1 cup whole milk
1 egg beaten

Filling ingredients:

1/2 cup whole milk ricotta cheese
1/4 cup winter squash puree
1/2 cup mascarpone cheese
3 Tablespoons sugar
a pinch of Kosher salt

Directions:

1.  Whisk all the scone’s dry ingredients together in one of the mixing bowls.  Add the butter and gently cut it in with a pastry cutter or fork.  Continue until the flour and butter is the consistency of large breadcrumbs.

2.  Pour in the milk and stir with a fork to make the mixture into a shaggy dough.  Be careful not to overmix.  Chill the dough in the refrigerator while you make the filling.

3. Put all the filling ingredients into a mixing bowel and whip with a hand or stand mixer until all the ingredients are well blended and have a fluffy texture.  Chill the finished filling in the refrigerator.

4.  Empty the scone dough onto a floured surface.  Dust the top with flour and roll it into a 1/2 inch thick rectangle.  Cut the rectangle into six pieces.

5.  Spoon 1 1/2 Tablespoons of the filling onto each dough portion.  Then carefully fold over into a triangle and pinch gently to seal the edges.  (My daughter’s triangles did not meet her expectations so she made them into square pockets instead).  Place the formed scone onto a parchment lined baking sheet and chill them in the freezer for at least an hour.

6.  While the scones are in the freezer, preheat the oven to 445 degrees Fahrenheit.  Take the paper and scones off the baking sheet.  Put a fresh sheet of parchment on the baking sheet and spray it with cooking spray.

7.  Place the scones on the parchment on the tray.   Space them at least an inch apart. Brush each scone pocket with beaten egg using a pastry brush, dust the top with granulated sugar.  

8.  Bake for 15 minutes.

9.  Allow scones to cool 5 – 10 minutes before serving. 

Perhaps, instead of going shopping the morning after Thanksgiving, use the leftover squash to make a lovely and special breakfast.  Make a pot of tea (instead of only a cup). Put on your robe and slippers and watch the local news to see the crazy crowds of holiday shoppers.