Thyme-Infused Strawberry Lemonade Cocktail

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strawberry-thyme lemonade

A super simple, summery drink to ring in the solstice this weekend! And slightly dangerous. Doesn’t taste alcoholic at all.

To make one:

  • Two tablespoons strawberry puree, or to taste
  • 2 oz thyme-infused vodka
  • 10 ounces lemonade

To make the strawberry puree, macerate a pint of clean, sliced fresh strawberries in the juice of a lemon and a sprinkle of sugar, to bring out their natural juices. Let it sit for a few minutes, then puree in a blender. You can freeze any leftover, or store in the fridge for a few days or a week.

To make the thyme vodka, simply grab your favorite vodka and pour into a mason jar with a few sprigs of thyme. Leave it on the counter with a kitchen towel and rubber band as the seal. I let mine infuse for three days before removing the thyme sprigs, but you could play around with it and do less, depending on the effect you’re going for. Store back in the bottle or in a jar, and thoroughly enjoy reaching for it when you need to bring something to a party, but don’t have any time to run to the store or pull something together.

If you’re feeling ambitious, you could certainly make your own fresh lemonade. I just used Newman’s Own, and it turned out quite yummy. Shake all ingredients with some ice, pour and garnish with a lemon slice and thyme sprig.

This drink would be very good with infused gin as well. Play around with it and have fun! I think I might start a mean collection of infused liqueurs this summer with my herb garden. Enjoy!

strawberry-thyme lemonade

Roasted Chicken with Arugula Pesto, Trumpets, and Turnips

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roasted chicken with arugula pesto

Oh, how I love pesto. It used to be my go-to kitchen pleaser, but then it fell by the wayside as I got distracted by a growing collection of cookbooks. After remembering my pesto love during a day cooking with Chive, it has made a happy comeback in my kitchen. A super simple sauce that I want to smother on everything.

Simply arugula, lots of good olive oil, green garlic, pecorino (you could also use parmesan), sea salt, and a bit of pepper. Pesto is one of those things that you really should make to taste, playing with the quantities of each ingredient until it tastes just right, goldilocks style. One bunch of arugula may be spicier than the last, perhaps the garlic you’re using doesn’t have quite the kick you’re looking for, etc.

roasted oyster & mini king trumpet mushrooms

In a nutshell, combine all the ingredients in a food processor until well-blended. Be careful not to over-process, but add plenty of olive oil.

  • Two bunches of arugula
  • 3 stalks green garlic finely chopped (bulbs and a bit of the green part)
  • Lots of olive oil to make that gushgush sounds in the food processor
  • Keep on adding that sea salt, that pecorino, a dash of pepper
  • Keep on tasting

Store in an airtight container, with a drizzle of fresh olive oil on top to prevent discoloring.

Smother it on chicken, fish, burgers, eggs, grilled cheese, pizza, pasta…really, almost anything savory could use a little pesto love! I seared then roasted Tendercrop chicken breast, roasted oyster and mini king trumpet mushrooms from the NH Mushroom Company in the fat from the chicken with green garlic (Middle Earth Farm), and sautéed turnips and their greens in a cast iron, super fresh from Plough in the Stars Farm.  Roasted salad (or haruki) turnips are incredibly good. While I love them raw, roasting them gives them a tender juiciness that is just so good.

roasted chicken & arugula pesto

So very nice to have this fresh, fresh food available.

A Salad Grown by Friends

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Oh, how I love this time of year. I can drive down the street and pick up super fresh produce that my friends nurtured and grew, knowing they put so much love and care into it each step of the way. I can step into my yard and pick herbs and greens to add to dishes. My homegrown purple basil, pluto basil, and mint in my morning yogurt with honey from Essex and native strawberries. I mean really, what a treat! Winters in New England can be quite hard on those of us who try to stick to local produce, which can sometimes be a losing game in the dead of winter. I have been so lucky to live in two cities that provide winter farmer’s markets, which do offer a lovely variety considering the harsh conditions, but MAN when we finally transition to light, fresh greens, oh it is just something else. Salad and I become just great pals, and I am so excited to eat tender greens again. Greens that were just harvested, just lovingly plucked from their homes by people who are part of a growing community on the North Shore to feed each other real food.

My friends Allison and Bart at Canaan Farm are doing such a lovely job feeding that community. Their greenhouses have been open for a few weeks, which I recently checked out while picking up some happy seedlings. So so cool to see people just going for it — switching up their lives to pursue an exciting, scary, difficult yet fulfilling passion. Because that passion, and that care for community, is really what it all comes down to. Today I picked up some incredible arugula from Canaan – just the right bite to it – and some red leaf lettuce they had from a neighboring farm. Made a salad for my visiting parents and brother: thinly sliced radishes (also Canaan, both purple and red); salad or haruki turnips from Alprilla Farm in Essex; nasturtiums, basil, and tatsoi from my garden; and Valley View Farm chèvre from Topsfield. A simple vinaigrette with champagne vinegar, olive oil, shallots, and salt and pepper. What a wonderful blessing to have all these resources in my backyard, something I just cannot not take for granted.

What’s your favorite salad to celebrate the bounty of summer?

Braised Tendercrop Pork, Mustard Greens, and Radishes

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My lovely coworkers from my previous job incredibly generously gave me a gift certificate to Tendercrop Farm, among many other super thoughtful gifts, as a warm sendoff to my new chapter. Knowing that I love to cook and often frequent Tendercrop, and that moving is always more expensive than you want it to be, I am so. so. so. grateful. So generous and so on key. I’ve been running around the past two weeks since moving in, and have hardly cooked anything other than the occasional egg. Not to mention, there aren’t many places in Beverly open at this point in the season that offer fresh, local produce. So I was over the moon to make the drive to Tendercrop yesterday, and seriously stock up on some yummies to christen my new kitchen. If anyone from NOAA is reading this, THANK YOU! As promised, I did not buy any chicken legs. Pork butt, yum yum.

This is a super simple meal to create. A pound and a half pork butt, seasoned with Maldon salt, seared in ghee in a cast iron pan on high while the oven preheats at 325F. I seared both sides, poured in some water and a bit of home-infused thyme vodka for an herbaceous kick, and threw in a couple sprigs of marjoram for good measure. Something I’m growing at home for the first time. Sage would also do, but you don’t want to overpower it with herbs. Nice and light, a splash of champagne vinegar. Cooked at 325F for roughly 2 hours — could have likely given it a little less than that, but regardless it came out very tender and yummy.

After the first hour, I threw in some mustard greens, put the oven on a timer, and napped. Hell yes. The oven turned off automatically when the time was up — wow, technology can be amazing sometimes — and I continued to nap. Threw in some kale, popped it back in the still slightly warm, but off, oven, and ran an errand. Returned and sliced radishes, fried sage in ghee, garnished with sage and chive blossoms. I mean, this was pretty delicious, pretty lazy cooking. Just what I needed.

Yum.

P.S. Oh, I stinkin’ love goats. Met two baby goats at Apple Street Farm recently — only three days old! Time for a Valley View visit soon, for a serious goat love fix.

P.P.S. And if you at all love retreating to the woods, you have to visit Cabin Porn. Yep. Forget whose blog I found it on recently, but amazing. I want to be in all of those places, all at once.

Summer Starts at The Market

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The Market Restaurant in Gloucester is officially open for the season! I’ll be spending my time here, and will be constantly swooning over this amazing location, incredible food, and happy people. What a great way to spend the summer. I’ll be backwaiting, organizing reservations a couple times a week, and starting in July, learning in the kitchen once a week. I’m incredibly excited – so much so that I spent a solid three hours last night, a night off, sitting at the bar and enjoying dish after amazing dish. So, while I’m settling into my new place and starting new jobs, I haven’t been cooking like I want to be. But that will change soon. In the meantime, heed my recommendation and eat at The Market. Seriously. It is worth the drive.

A super quick introduction if you haven’t heard about it: an amazing little restaurant tucked away in Annisquam, owned by Nico and Amelia Monday, incredibly talented chefs and just a stinking cute couple. The two of them met while working at Chez Panisse, Alice Waters’ mecca of local, super fresh, super delicious food out in Berkeley, California. Moved out here and opened a restaurant in Amelia’s hometown, with a daily-changing menu based on what is fresh and delicious from local farms and fishermen. And I think we’re all thankful for that.

So, in my marathon meal last night (I mean, I’m studying, right?), I enjoyed ALL of the following. A glass of The Market Restaurant rosé, made exclusively for the restaurant, a beautiful, dry pinot noir that’s perfect for this hot hot weather. Beacon Street Farm lettuces with Valley View Farm chèvre, pickled shallots, and turnips. Too hungry to capture this one. Halibut carpaccio with shaved asparagus, radishes, and ginger vinaigrette. Fried soft shell crab with citrus, avocado, and aioli. I honestly just stared at this beautiful plate for a few minutes before beginning to eat it, it’s just that pretty. And that tasty. A glass of crisp cassis. Incredibly refreshing. Seared scallops with beets, marinated potatoes, and champagne beurre blanc. Cue staring for another few minutes. So delicious, done JUST right with a beautiful sear and tender meat inside. Homemade lemon curd ice cream with shortbread cookies. Sigh. You need that ice cream on a hot day. Damn, I can eat a lot of food, and oh was it good. Clean plate club through and through.

I’ll christen my new kitchen soon – and can’t wait to do so. Pots and pans, I promise I haven’t forgotten about you. But you can understand why I’ve been temporarily preoccupied.

Nettle Soup with Oyster Mushrooms

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I’ve been curious about cooking with nettles for some time now. They’re reputed to have really great health benefits: vitamins A and C, carotene, calcium, iron, magnesium, and potassium, as well as being able to help with arthritis, allergies, and digestion. A traditional form of medicine, but one that you need to be careful with. Nettles, which grow wild, need to be very carefully handled with strong gloves, since they’ll give you a nasty sting (hence the name stinging nettles). Something I’ve never experienced, and I’d rather not. My farmer’s market had full bags of cleaned nettles; the lovely farmers at Middle Earth Farm did all the work to clean the nettles, protecting themselves and their customers from the notorious sting. Once fully cooked, they won’t sting you.

This is one of the most basic soups — I boiled 5 cups of water, since I didn’t have any stock on hand, and emptied the bag of nettles into the pot without touching them (roughly 300g nettle tops, fairly even water to nettle ratio, you just don’t want it to be too thin and can always add more water later if needed). Kind of nice to just taste the nettles for what they are anyway. I let it cook for 10-15 minutes, blended the soup, and seasoned to taste. Sauteed some oyster mushrooms from the New Hampshire Mushroom Company in a cast iron pan with ghee, salt, pepper, and coriander. Garnished the soup with the mushrooms and some chive blossoms, and a little nub of ghee for flavor and good fat. Simple, healthful, and delicious. Of course, it would have more depth if cooked with a stock, but it was straightforward and simple this way. Easy peasy.

Chard & Saffron Cakes with Goat’s Milk Feta, and Things This Week

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What a week! I left my job of 2 1/2 years, which really was like my baby. (I was tasked with creating a new fisheries outreach program for NOAA Office of Law Enforcement for the Northeast Division — Maine to Virginia.) I initially had little idea what direction to take the program in; starting 6 months after graduation, it’s fair to say I was a bit overwhelmed in the beginning (fisheries management is a language unto itself), but I’m really happy with where we were able to take the program. Looking forward to seeing the direction it continues in, and to starting a new chapter!

In other news, I have to say I’m so happy to spend my days fully absorbed in my love of great, local food now. Work at Short & Main is in full, delicious swing, The Market Restaurant is opening next week (!!!), and it’s been a blast helping in the kitchen at Chive events. Moving this weekend. Cooking, gardening, photography and yoga in my mornings, working at night. Loving it.

Also took a trip to Brimfield last week with my mom. Holy antique heaven! I got so many good finds, and people were lowering the prices before I even had a chance to haggle. Can’t wait to share the amazing things I found once I unpack everything…amber glasses, vintage silverware, copper tea kettle, beautiful coffee sack from Panama. It goes on and on, and I think I might be forming an addiction to this whole flea market thing. Maybe, just maybe I stopped at Todd Farm this weekend too…

Chard & Saffron Cakes with Goat’s Milk Feta

I might be a little obsessed with these tasty cakes of goodness. When I tell people I like to cook, I’m almost always asked what my favorite thing to cook is, what my go-to recipe is. Thing is, I still don’t really have one, since I tend to always want to try a new recipe. This can be a problem when entertaining — probably not the best time to try a new recipe. So I’m thrilled to have found something I will come back to time and time again. These chard & saffron cakes are perfect for lunch, but also great to make mini and serve as an appetizer with friends. It’s about time I found something like this!

The recipe (towards the end of this post) is adapted from Deborah Madison’s Vegetable Literacy, a fascinating book that is broken up into chapters focusing on specific vegetable families, to give home cooks a better understanding of both gardening and cooking. It smartly is set up to teach cooks what vegetables are great substitutes for others that may be unavailable, and if this recipe is any indication, the food seems just incredible.

The vintage silverware I bought was $1 – $2 apiece. So THERE, some of you overpriced vendors!

So nice to take my time in the morning now, and have breakfasts like this. Poached eggs, Tendercrop Farm asparagus, sliced radishes, parsley, butter & champagne vinegar.

There were beautiful glass pieces all over the show, some incredibly overpriced, and others were much more reasonable. The reasonable ones were typically at stands that didn’t specialize in glass, and were more concerned with just getting rid of items.

Chard & Saffron Cakes with Goat’s Milk Feta

Adapted from Vegetable Literacy by Deborah Madison

  • 10-12 cups trimmed chard leaves (beet greens also work well. she notes if you use spinach, you’ll need at least 2 pounds)
  • 2 pinches saffron threads
  • 1 cup white whole wheat pastry flour
  • 1 teaspoon sea salt
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
  • 1 cup quark or ricotta cheese (I used quark since that was available at my farmer’s market. It is a tasty spreadable cheese like boursin, and produced a similar effect as ricotta)
  • 1/2 cup or more grated salty cheese (the book recommends Parmesan. I used goat’s milk feta and LOVED it)
  • 3/4 cup milk
  • 2 eggs
  • 3 tablespoons olive oil or ghee, plus more for frying (I recommend ghee, or clarified butter, if available to you)
  • Thick yogurt or sour cream, to finish
  • Microgreens or herbs to finish: I used chives and chive blossoms. Basil would also be great.

Wash the chard and drain in a salad spinner. With a bit of the water still clinging to the leaves, put the chard in a heated pot. Cover and cook on high for a few minutes until wilted, stirring every now and then to make sure it doesn’t overcook or stick to the pot. Add a little splash of water if needed, and cook the greens to taste. Place the chard in a colander to cool and drain when done cooking.

Cover the saffron threads with 2 tablespoons of boiling water, setting aside to use later. Saffron is pretty expensive, so if you don’t want to use it, play around with different spices. Maybe a bit of coriander would be good instead, or a dash of cayenne if you want some heat. If you skip the saffron, you may still need to add two tablespoons of water to your batter, to make sure you get the right consistency.

Combine the flour, salt, and baking powder in a bowl. In a larger bowl, mix the cheeses, milk, and eggs until blended. Add the ghee or olive oil and saffron, liquid included, then whisk in the flour mixture. Using a rag (lovely to not throw out a million paper towels), squeeze out the excess water from the chard – really give it a good squeeze – and finely chop before mixing into the batter.

Heat a few tablespoons of ghee in a cast iron pan over medium heat. Dropping by the spoonful, cook the batter for a good few minutes until the bottom is golden brown. You’ll only want to flip it once, and when you do, be careful not to smoosh it down with the spatula. Give them a couple more minutes on this side until golden brown on both sides. These could be made large or small, depending on what you’re using them for. Teeny tiny ones would be great for hors d’ouvres!

When finished, give each cake a little spoonful of thick yogurt, some diced chives and chive blossoms, or whatever herbs you plan to use. A few diced, roasted mushrooms would also be tasty on top of the yogurt. Enjoy!!