Rhubarb: why the misunderstood vegetable makes the best margarita, coulis, pie, and BBQ sauce

LOCAVORE’S DELIGHT: The Series #29. Follow us as we explore the bounty of our region’s farms.

Rhubarb is one of the most misunderstood ingredients on menus. You’ll see it at the grocery store, but it’s difficult to find at the Farmer’s Market (both Cary and Greensboro Farmer’s Markets say it’ll be a few more weeks before we see any). It’s a perennial, but not grown everywhere. It’s a vegetable, but used like a fruit.

The oxalic acid content of rhubarb makes the leaves poisonous, and the stem, delicious. While rhubarb is grown in some cold pockets in North Carolina, good rhubarb needs the ground to freeze, and grows best in Michigan and Oregon.

Try the Lattice-Crust Rhubarb Pie with Homeland Creamery vanilla ice cream available now at Lucky 32 Southern Kitchen on the Spring’s Eternal Menu, now until May 14.

It’s a vegetable. In some places, a spring perennial. And is a key component of a delicious margarita, also adding to the confusion:

• It’s naturally sour, which is not the most preferred taste sensation in America – only slightly more popular than bitter. The sour comes from its oxalic acid content.
• It’s odd-looking. It’s a stalk. People don’t celebrate celery, or cardoons (another stalk that is an artichoke relative in thistle family) like they do cute fruits, like apples, blackberries and tomatoes.

What makes rhubarb a vegetable? Sugar content? 

Rhubarb is a vegetable despite its prescient use in fruit pies, jams, and coulis.

Fruit is something a plant produces to nourish its the seeds.. When you pick an apple you don’t kill an apple tree, but you do have to kill the plant to eat a vegetable. For example, if you pick an onion or a beet, you’re taking the whole plant with you. When harvesting rhubarb, you pull the entire stalk from the ground, and only harvest two at a time, leaving at least five stalks for the next season’s crop.

Why is it always appearing  with strawberries?

Spring is the most difficult time of year to eat fresh produce. Most plants have just begun to grow, and they are weeks from bearing edible fruit.

Rhubarb is one of the first edibles available in the spring. Its peak coincides with strawberries, so most people encounter rhubarb in one of three ways:

• Strawberry-rhubarb pie
• Stewed with an ice cream or custard
• In a jam or chutney

Strawberry-Rhubarb Pie? Not so much.

In a strawberry-rhubarb pie, we think the rhubarb plays second fiddle. Strawberries are celebrated. They’re super sweet and need contrast. You almost never see a strawberry pie on its own. There’s no complexity. It’s like a sugar bomb.

Rhubarb, when mixed with strawberries, gives you that sourness to balance the sweetness and the complexity.

We prefer to go all the way in the other direction and make rhubarb pie. No strawberry.

We make it with a lattice crust for two reasons: One, it’s cute. Two, it vents the pie so the filling can thicken up and the steam can escape.

A sour sweet

Whether you eat sour dishes to aid in digestion or you just prefer to end your meal with something less sweet, a dessert like rhubarb pie is always a welcome sight, with its delightful balance of sweet and sour.

We do a couple of things here with rhubarb that you can start doing at home, too. Recipes posted below. 

• Rhubarb margarita
• Rhubarbecue sauce tastes like a sauce from down east and we put it on our grilled shrimp
• Stewed rhubarb — chop it up, sauté, deglaze with a little bit of water, dry white wine or sweet white wine. Sprinkle with sugar. Reduce and serve it with ice cream.

RECIPES

Rhubarb Margarita

• 1 fl oz Rhubarb Syrup (see recipe)
• 2 fl oz Tequila
• ¾ fl oz Cointreau
• juice from 1 wedge of lime
• ½ fl oz sour mix
• 1 wheel of lime

Salt rim of a martini glass. Add all ingredients (except lime wheel) to a cocktail shaker with ice. Shake vigorously and strain into a martini glass. Garnish with lime wheel.

Makes – 1

Rhubarb Syrup

• ½ pound rhubarb
• ¼ cup water
• 1 cup granulated sugar

Wash and dice rhubarb to ¼ inch. In a sauce pot combine rhubarb and water. Simmer for 10 minutes or until tender. Puree in food processor and strain through fine chinois, discard solids. In a sauce pot combine pureed rhubarb and sugar. Simmer until dime sized bubbles appear. Remove from heat and cool.

Makes – 1 ½ cups

Rhubarbecue Sauce

• 1 2/3 pounds rhubarb
• 2 cups apple cider vinegar
• 2/3 cup water
• 3 1/3 cups light brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon allspice
• ¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper

Clean and chop rhubarb. Combine all ingredients in a sauce pot and simmer for 30-45 minutes or until rhubarb is completely soft. Puree in blender and strain through a medium-hole strainer. Discard pulp. Place puree in a sauce pot and simmer until dime size bubbles appear. Cool.

Makes – 1 quart

For more about our seasonal recipes, see our current menu at Lucky 32 Southern Kitchen and our Blog Recipe Index:http://lucky32southernkitchen.com/recipes/

 

Shaking down persimmon recipes: pie, glaze, and Southern Comfort hard sauce

LOCAVORE’S DELIGHT: The Series #25. Follow us as we explore the bounty of our region’s farms.

There’s a story about persimmons in the new Louvin brothers book. A young Ira couldn’t shake a persimmon off a tree, so he convinced his brother Charlie to get an ax, chop it down, and snag the fruit. Together they ate all the persimmons and tried to prop up the tree again, like nothing happened. Their father’s punishment for chopping that tree down was notoriously severe, but so was the persimmon revenge: the boys got sick.

Around mid October, it’s not uncommon to see tarps and straw beds under persimmon trees, and folks (musicians or not) trying to shake them down. Chef says you don’t pick persimmons, you pick them up off the straw. And local musician Scott Manring says “anything bigger than your thumb with fur on it” will eat a persimmon. He once watched a deer stand on its hind legs to eat persimmons off his tree. Scott himself will climb to the tree tops, shake down a bag’s worth, and bring them to Lucky 32 Southern Kitchen.

The Native American persimmon

The indigenous Native American persimmon is a kind of muted, autumn peach. The fruit is tear-dropped shaped and grows in wonderful, beautiful trees. It’s also so intolerably astringent if it’s under ripe that it will ruin anything you make.

Cooking: The Native American persimmon needs to fully ripen on the tree. The fruit will be soft and mushy and most persimmon recipes require cooking, such as persimmon pudding.

Fuyu persimmon

The fuyu persimmon can be eaten unripe, just like a tomato. Its flavor is sort of a peachy-tomato cross. At the grocery store, look for the persimmon with a flat bottom, that’s a fuyu. The redder it gets, the sweeter it is. There are some wonderful salads with poached shrimp and under ripe fuyu persimmons that are sublime.

Cooking: Slice it thin, or wedge it, and add it to a salad. Or, add to your purée.

Hachiya persimmon

Needs to fully ripen on the tree before being eaten, should be treated just like and indigenous persimmon, yet has a much higher flesh to seed ratio.

In the kitchen: Persimmon BBQ sauce and Persimmon Pudding

The traditional dish for persimmons is persimmon pudding — a very humble mixture of persimmon puree, flour, eggs, and sugar. Most persimmons come our way because people bring them to us. When the fall menu is over, we freeze them and use them for sauces and pudding on New Year’s Eve.

We’ve decided to make teriyaki sauce and fold persimmon purée into it and use it for a quail glaze. It’s a sweet purée and we use it like we would a peach BBQ sauce.

It’s also an integral component of the hard sauce that is served with our bread pudding (with the peach flavor of Southern Comfort to amplify the subtle taste of persimmons).

I don’t know of anyone farming persimmons, but many farms have a persimmon tree, and bring their persimmons to us.

• Bradd’s Family Farm
• Schicker’s Acre
• Scott Manring, one of the featured musician’s at Lucky 32 Southern Kitchen’s “Songs in a Southern Kitchen” series

We recently visited Scott’s persimmon trees in Pleasant Garden to get a few persimmon “pick-up” tips.

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• Persimmon tree wood is among the strongest and used to make the highest quality heads of golf clubs known as the “wood.”
• Hard, unripe persimmons will fall to the ground, and taste terrible, “like putting a piece of cotton in your mouth.”
• Scott puts tarps on the ground, instead of straw. It’s easier to roll persimmons up in a tarp and bag them.
• The tree is getting too thick to shake, so Scott either climbs the tree to shake persimmons down, or uses a rope to pull on it.
• After a hard frost the color of the persimmon gets grapey-looking.
• A ripe persimmon is ooey-gooey, and usually splits a little when it hits the ground.
• Bob Reeves, a local musician and piedmont renaissance man, puts a sweet potato and a little orange zest in his persimmon pie. He uses an old pulp mill to separate the persimmons from dirt and twigs.

Lucky 32 Southern Kitchen Recipes

Lucky 32 Southern Kitchen Persimmon Glaze

• 1 tbsp canola oil
• 1 ½  tbspginger puree
• 2 cups unsweetened pineapple juice
• 1 pound light brown sugar
• ¼ cup apple cider vinegar
• 1 cup Tamari
• ¼ cup chopped green onions
• 2 ½ cups chopped fresh persimmons, hulls removed

Heat oil in a pot over medium heat and sweat ginger. Add remaining ingredients and simmer until thickened, about 35 minutes. Puree with an immersion blender and strain through a fine strainer.

*Quality Identifiers: sauce should be free of skins and seeds and should coat the back of a spoon.

Makes 5 cups

Lucky 32 Southern Comfort Persimmon Hard Sauce

• ¾ cup fresh persimmon pulp
• 2/3 lb butter – room temperature
• 3 ¾ cup confectioners sugar 10X (add more for thicker sauce)
• 5 each egg yolks
• 7 fl ounces Southern Comfort (or your favorite)

Heat persimmons over medium-high heat. Add butter and begin to melt. Add sugar. Cream butter and sugar, and stir until all of the butter is absorbed and a smooth consistency is achieved. Remove from heat. Stir in one egg yolk at a time until all yolks have been incorporated. Gradually pour in Southern Comfort while stirring constantly. Sauce will thicken as it cools.

Makes – 3 ½ cups

Lucky 32 Southern Kitchen Persimmon Pudding

• 2 cups all purpose flour
• ½ tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp salt
• ½ tsp ground cinnamon
• ½ tsp ground nutmeg
• 3 fresh eggs
• 1 ½ cups sugar
• 2 cups pureed fresh persimmon with hull removed
• 1 ½ cups Scuppernong wine
• ¼ cup buttermilk
• 2 ½ tbsp melted unsalted butter
• 1 tsp vanilla extract

Sift together flour, baking soda, salt and spices. Set aside. In a separate bowl, mix eggs and sugar until well combined. Add pureed persimmon, wine and buttermilk and mix to combine. Stir in butter and vanilla. Grease a baking pan with pan spray. Add liquid mixture to flour mixture and combine well by hand. Transfer mixture to greased pan. Bake at 300 degrees for 30-45 minutes or until center is set and sides begin to pull away from pan. Allow to cool completely before slicing.

Makes – 6 portions

For more about our seasonal recipes, see our current menu at Lucky 32 Southern Kitchen and our Blog Recipe Index:http://lucky32southernkitchen.com/recipes/

 

Butternut Squash and the Three Sisters approach to succotash

LOCAVORE’S DELIGHT: The Series #24. Follow us as we explore the bounty of our region’s farms.

In Native American lore, three crops were always planted together: squash, corn, and beans. Legumes would wind their way up the corn and use the stalk as a trellis, and the squash would grow between the rows, under the shade of the corn.

Much of what we do here at Lucky 32 Southern Kitchen is recover traditions that are in danger of being lost. While different people have different opinions about succotash and its contents, we base our recipe on the Ancient Three Sisters  model — and at the heart of our succotash is butternut squash.

This time of year, it’s not uncommon to see a harvested field with the corn stalks cut and butternut squash still curing on the vine. Our fall menu features the nutty-flavored winter cucurbit in the butternut squash soup. You can also find them in the Farmer’s Cart at the restaurant.

Fall for Something New! features Lucky 32 Southern Kitchen’s Butternut Squash soup, October 3–November 13, 2012. Click here to see the new fall menu. 

One tough vegetable

We often joke that only three things are not allowed in this kitchen: Monkfish (we can’t cook it properly), mustard greens, and acorn squash.

Acorn squash doesn’t give you any more flavor than butternut squash, and it’s much harder to clean with its thick ridges. Butternut squash gives you a better meat-to-skin ratio and has a wonderful nutty flavor, and it’s easy to work with.

The cure: Conversations with farmers will teach you things 

Tobacco gets cured. Sweet potatoes get cured, and we’ve known both of those things, but we didn’t know that winter squash gets cured, too.

Curing is a heating process, to encourage the starch to sugar conversion. The process prevents spoilage and allows for longer storage.

The way we’ve heard it it told is that butternut squash needs to be planted at the same time as summer squash. Farmers leave it in the field and the sun heats up the squash. After a certain number of days in the field the vegetable is cured and you can put them in the cellar for the winter.

Take it home: Lucky 32 Southern Kitchen’s Butternut Squash Bisque recipe in Savor NC.

The most popular winter squash

• Acorn
• Butternut
• Pumpkin

Some less popular, but even more tasty 

• Kuri
• Kabocha
• Cushaw

Easy ways to prepare butternut squash:

Roast and finish with butter and cinnamon

• Pick one squash, about two lbs.
• Split the squash from north to south, through the stem; scoop out the seeds.
• Lay it out cut side down on a greased baking tray.
• Roast until it’s tender to a finger poke (at 350 degrees for for 35 minutes-ish).
• Remove the squash from the oven.
• Flip it over.
• If the squash is small enough, put a little butter and cinnamon in the hole and take a scoop and drag it through the hole and eat it.

Braise with a little butter

• Clean and peel entire squash with a vegetable peeler.
• Cut the bell part out of the base.
• Scoop the seeds out.
• Cube it.
• Sauté it with butter and braise with a little water, to steam.

Do you puree?

Once it’s roasted and flipped, scrape all the flesh out of the skin, and puree with butter, sorghum, and call it a day.

Squash the bread 

Substitute butternut squash to change up your favorite sweet potato recipe. Or, substitute equal amount of roasted butternut squash for the main vegetable in any one of your favorite bread or muffin recipes.

• Zucchini
• Banana
• Pumpkin

Pick the perfect squash

Pick up a few butternut squashes and compare the weight. The one that feels heavier for its size is going to have a smaller cavity, fewer seeds and more dense fruit, and generally has a higher sugar content.

• Heavy for its size
• Unblemished skin

A word to the unripe

If you go to peel your squash and it has some green undertones to its skin, then it hasn’t been cured long enough. At this point, it won’t get more ripe. It won’t be as sweet and will taste more like a vegetable.

Give it a try: Lucky 32 Southern Kitchen Autumn Succotash. Tweet this recipe.

Sauté the butternut squash as recommended above. And you can also replace the peanuts with crowder peas or black eyed peas.

Makes 4 cups

• ¼ cup butter
• 1 lb. butternut squash, washed, peeled, and diced
• ½ lb. boiled peanuts
• ½ lb. sweet corn ears, kernels cut from cobs
• ¼ cup water
• ½ tsp. dried thyme
• Salt and pepper to taste

Melt butter in a skillet over medium-high heat. Add butternut squash, and sauté 3 to 4 minutes. Add boiled peanuts, and cook 3 to 4 minutes. Add corn kernels and remaining ingredients. Cook until corn, peanuts, and squash are tender. Cover and cook 6-8 minutes (or until squash is tender).

For more about our seasonal recipes, see our current menu at Lucky 32 Southern Kitchen and our Blog Recipe Index:http://lucky32southernkitchen.com/recipes/

Family Gatherings: Dan Valley Community Center Brunswick Stew

LOCAVORE’S DELIGHT: The Series # 23. Follow us as we explore the bounty of our region’s farms.

Most cultures have a tradition of a humble, community-driven one-pot meal. In the South of France it could be Bouillabaisse. In Spain it’s Paella. In South Louisiana it’s Gumbo or Jambalaya. In Kentucky and Appalachia it’s known as Burgoo, and in the lowcountry, down near Charleston, South Carolina, they make Hopping John or Purloo. In the Piedmont of North Carolina, and similar areas in Georgia, Virginia, and South Carolina, that dish takes the form of Brunswick Stew.

This one-pot community-cooked dish was traditionally tended over an open fire through the night by a gathering of menfolk who regaled each other and the next generation with stories of how their ancestors past did the same thing.

The coming of cooler nights and the changing color of the leaves signals the onset of Brunswick Stew season here in the Piedmont. Soon we’ll start to see signs popping up on roadsides advertising fundraisers at firehouses, churches and schools that have a Brunswick Stew event. They’ll make a big pot of the stew and sell quarts and pints to raise money.

Enjoy this Brunswick Stew recipe at Lucky 32 Southern Kitchen on the new “Fall for Something New!” menu that runs through November 13, 2012.

Opinions vary

People in Brunswick, Va, and Brunswick, Ga, argue about the stew’s origin. Opinions also vary as to whether Brunswick Stew should be cooked long enough so that it’s constituent parts are indiscernible, or if everything should be cooked until you can still tell the difference between a lima bean and a hunk of pork.

Here at the restaurant, we prepare the recipe from the Dan Valley Community Center. It has a bit of a pedigree and came here by way of Joan King, a noted local cook, and mother to Nancy Quaintance, who has been instrumental in creating a food profile for this restaurant.

Our preference is to cook the stew until everything is tender and turn it off and let it sit. It’s even better as leftovers. If you put it away in the refrigerator, it has time overnight to sit and the ingredients meld their flavors, and then you’ll understand the adage, “greater than the sum of its parts.”

Brunswick stew is the Piedmont version of chili

And the Piedmontese will say that chili is the East Texas version of Brunswick Stew. Use it like you would chili:

• use it on nachos
• top a hamburger
• sprinkle with it with cheese
• pour over elbow macaroni

The sum of its parts

• Chicken, pork and beef (it’s not uncommon to find squirrel or venison)
• corn, tomatoes, potatoes, onions and beans, usually lima beans
• generous amount of black pepper

Family Memories

Lucky 32 Southern Kitchen uses the recipe from the Dan Community Center. Below, Nancy King Quaintance’s mother and sister share their memories of the annual community gatherings.

Joan King, Nancy King Quaintance’s mother

“Traditionally we used all canned veggies and I guess you still have to use canned tomatoes, but the corn and limas are much better frozen. The taste is brighter. The men did indeed discuss the meats to go in the stew, but it was as a joke. The only two meats are always beef and chicken.”

Virginia Phelps, Nancy King Quaintance’s sister

“Old Frank Lauten always appeared to put his two-cents into the recipe, to make sure it was going right and then leave as abruptly as he appeared (he didn’t like children and always mumbled the like under his breath). But it was the women who prepared the vegetables and meats for what seemed like days prior to ‘official’ cook day in the Community Center kitchen that really made the stew special.

“There were always large coffee pots steaming, sweet tea, shared canned veggies and pickles and the famous ‘Martha Lauten’ pies that appeared on the many folding tables to give energy to those helping.

“The kitchen was fashioned with many grey folding metal chairs around a large center table where the women would sit well into the night preparing potatoes and crying from cutting onions, and talking about the crops from summer; what had been canned and if there was enough rain that season; the daily report of the textile industry and the like. The faces and voices of rural south, there all the same.'”

Dan Valley Community Center Brunswick Stew

• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 1 ¼ pounds chicken breasts – diced
• 1 ¼ pounds stew beef – diced
• ¼ pound pork loin – diced
• ½ pound yellow onions – diced
• 3 cups frozen yellow corn – thawed
• 1 ½ cups frozen white corn – thawed
• 2 cups frozen lima beans – thawed
• 2 ¼ cups V-8 juice
• 1 quart water
• 2 ¼ tsp Tabasco sauce
• 1 1/8 tsp white pepper
• 1 ½ tsp salt
• 1 each chicken bouillon cube
• 1 each beef bouillon cube
• 2 cups potatoes – peeled and diced
• 1 ½ tsp cracked black pepper
• 4 ¾ cups canned diced tomatoes

In a large stock pot or kettle heat oil. Sauté chicken, beef and pork in hot oil until browned. Add onions and continue to sauté until onions are translucent. Add remaining ingredients and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer until mixture becomes a thick mush. Stir mixture constantly from the bottom of the pot to prevent scorching. Stew may be frozen.

Makes: 1 gallon

For more about our seasonal recipes, see our current menu at Lucky 32 Southern Kitchen and our Blog Recipe Index: http://lucky32southernkitchen.com/recipes/

 

Relish the last of summer vegetables: Granny’s good manners, chowchow, and pickling recipes

LOCAVORE’S DELIGHT: The Series # 22. Follow us all summer long as we explore the bounty of our region’s farms.

In days gone by, when unexpected company popped in or supper was not quite at hand, assorted preserved foods could be pulled out to nourish, sustain, appetize or entertain. The idea was to sample a few preparations, share with friends, and whet the appetite for the meal that lay ahead.

Here at Lucky 32 Southern Kitchen, we’ve embraced the resurgence of this culture of pickling. We make our own pepper vinegar for collard greens; preserve a rare bounty of wild ramps from an earlier spring foraging adventure, and make our own pickled cucumbers that are then fried for an appetizer.

Not only does pickling go well with the food we serve, it delivers the message that we’re rediscovering something our ancestors have already figured out: ways to extend seasonal foods, to balance rich and creamy southern foods with a zesty counterpoint, and to transform the taste of seasonal vegetables.

Sample Granny’s Relish Tray on our Endless Summer Menu (now through Oct 2.) The appetizer features tomato aspic — an heirloom tomato puree, flavored with celery seed, cayenne and green onion, that is set with gelatin and served cold (a Southern tradition you just don’t see anymore); Goat Lady Dairy Crottin; butterbean pate; zucchini pickles; and Nabisco Premium Saltines.

Extend the season

Before kitchen freezers, Interstate transportation and commercial agriculture, the only way you could enjoy okra in the winter was if it were preserved with one of three traditional preservation methods: salting, drying, and pickling.

The advantage pickling brings is that it adds depth of flavor. Pickling discourages bacteria while the natural juices of the vegetable undergo lactic fermentation and become sour.

 

A zesty counterpoint to rich and creamy foods

Our European ancestors pickled foods to balance the palate. In cooler climates like Northern and Eastern Europe, you find more vegetable pickling. In warmer climates, people cut rich foods with acidic wines or citrus fruit.

In addition to being a beneficial part of a macrobiotic diet, which introduces enzymes to improve digestion, pickled foods cleanse the palate and balance the rich, creamy dishes of the south.

Try it at home: Transform your favorites

The great thing about chowchow is that you throw in everything from the garden at the end of summer: unripened tomatoes, bell peppers, onions, cabbage – chop finely, season well and cook away. Scroll down for the recipe below. 

• Chowchow is a wonderful addition to anything that needs a little zing. Use it with anything bound with mayonnaise such as egg salad, chicken salad, or tuna salad.

• Put chowchow in the food processor for your deviled eggs.

• Spicy chow chow or pickles are good chopped finely and folded into pimento cheese. Or bread and butter pickles can be served atop pimento cheese.

Simple salads

One of our favorite suppers at home — if we don’t feel like cooking — is lettuce, tomato, cucumbers, hard boiled eggs, some sort of grated cheese, and whatever we have pickled in the refrigerator: pickled cucumbers, sunchokes, turnips, or chow chow.

Make your own Relish Tray

Don’t contaminate the reagent jar. Don’t use your hands to pull pickles out of the jar, bacteria on your hands will spoil the pickles.

The key to building a relish tray is contrast. Use a variety of pickles, not just sweet pickles: use sweet pickles, sour, and spicy (tell your guests which are which).

Pick a homemade potted meat. Choose devilled ham or pate’.

Pick a creamy side. Deviled eggs, pimento cheese, hummus, or butterbean pate’.

A thick, creamy cheese. A slice of Brie, or Goat Lady Dairy Crottin, a surface-ripened chevre that has begun to mellow.

Barbecue is always a good addition.

Serve with crackers. Nabisco Premium Saltines are my favorite.

For more information, read “Wild Fermentation” by Sandor Ellix Katz. Several of our pickle processes are adapted from his book. The zucchini pickles on the tray are from Judy Rodgers’ book, “The Zuni Cafe Cookbook.”

Lucky 32 Southern Kitchen’s Green Tomato Chowchow

• 1½ cups green tomatoes, seeded and rough chopped
• ½ cup green bell pepper, rough chopped
• ¼ cup red bell pepper, rough chopped
• ½ cup yellow onion, rough chopped
• ¾ tsp mustard seed
• ½ tsp celery seed
• ½ tsp chopped garlic
• ½ tsp turmeric
• ⅓ cup apple cider vinegar
• ⅓ cup sugar
• 1 tsp crushed red pepper

In a food processor, pulse tomatoes until finely chopped, but not pureed. Pulse peppers and onion until finely chopped. Combine all ingredients in a saucepan and simmer on medium heat for 20-30 minutes. Cool and store in a properly labeled container with lid.

Makes – 2 ½ cups

Lucky 32 Southern Kitchen’s Watermelon Rind Pickles
The restaurant uses watermelons from Schicker’s Acre and Guilford College Farms.

• 8 pounds watermelon
• 2 tbsp salt
• 4 cups water
• 1 cup lemon juice
• 1 cup water
• 2 cups granulated sugar
• 2 tbsp ginger puree
• 1 each yellow peel only from one lemon
• 2 tbsp Allspice
• 2 tbsp whole cloves

Remove rind from watermelon and reserve the red part to enjoy at your leisure. Using a vegetable peeler, remove green skin from the rind; discard skin. Cut rind into ½ inch x ½ inch pieces; the yield should be about 8 cups.

In a large bowl combine 2 tablespoons salt and 4 cups of water and allow rind to soak in brine for one hour, then drain.

In a large pot, combine lemon juice, 1 cup water, sugar, ginger puree, lemon peel and spices. Add rind, cover and bring to at boil over high heat. Reduce heat to low and simmer covered over medium low for 40 minutes or until rind is translucent.

Transfer rind with slotted spoon to a plastic container. Strain liquid and pour over rind.

Makes 4 cups

For more about our seasonal recipes, see our current menu at Lucky 32 Southern Kitchen and our Blog Recipe Index: http://lucky32southernkitchen.com/recipes/

 

The locavore’s guide to this season’s apple shortage

LOCAVORE’S DELIGHT: The Series # 21. Follow us all summer long as we explore the bounty of our region’s farms.

On the morning of April 24 of this year, as we were readying for a trip to dig ramps at Foggy Ridge Cider in Dugspur, VA, the temperature in much of the apple-growing part of North Carolina dropped low enough to freeze the nascent apple blooms that were early, as a result of the preceding mild winter.

These irreparably damaged blooms never turned into apples. Because cold air is heavier than warm air, the chill settled in valleys and actually spared orchards at higher elevations. As a result, some in the industry estimate that as much as 80% of the apple harvest in North Carolina was lost that day.

Now that apple harvesting season is upon us, we are feeling the effects of that disastrous day. Each of the varieties that we’ve come to expect at the farmer’s market are present, but in tremendously small quantities. Honeycrisps and Empires seem to be already done, Buckinghams and Galas are going fast.

Because our menu is literally created by local foods and what’s in season, our late summer menu is a little different this year. This menu usually has the apple turnover and bourbon-smothered apples on grilled porkchops. Not this year.

So what did we do instead? More importantly, what do you do instead?

Hold your locavore ground

Mother Nature teaches us moderation. Sometimes we splurge because our tomato bushes were overly prolific, and sometimes we moderate because of a heat wave or a freeze. In boom times, we preserve. In lean times we manage. It’s all part of the challenge of shopping in Mother Nature’s stores. Being a locavore, to me, means celebrating what’s in season. When strawberries are in: celebrate. When apples are in: celebrate.

If you have a bumper crop–like this summer’s tomatoes and squash–pay attention to it. Ask farmers about the season’s boom or bust and make a creative plan of action.

Right now, we’re serving Applesauce, and Apple Cake served with slice pears, because Apple Cake uses fewer apples and we had a good pear crop.

A word about apples
All apples are divided into 2 categories: eating and cooking.

 Apples for eating out of your hand
Favorite eating apple: Honeycrisp

• sweet
• juicy
• no aftertaste
• Honeycrisp, Gala, York, Fuji, Pink Lady

Cooking Apples
Favorite cooking apple: Arkansas black. Its lower moisture content means it doesn’t make great applesauce, but it makes wonderful apple pies and dumplings. This apple is also featured on the side of the Farm to Fork London Taxicab you see us driving around town.

• sour
• starchier
• firmer, holds its shape in the oven
• Fugee, Heirloom. Buckingham, Newton Pippin, Rusty Coat, Limbertwig, Arkansas Black

At the farmer’s market

• The best way to tell the difference between a cooking apple and an eating apple is to ask your vendor or farmer. Courtlands, Jonathans, and Buckinghams are all in the market right now. You’re much better off talking to someone who is buying or selling or growing NC apples. When you buy things in season from local growers you get occasional brilliance.
• Get the farmer’s side of the story. Ask him or her about this this year’s apple harvest. If they’re not aware of a cold snap or an apple shortage, you might not be talking with someone who is as passionate as you are about your apples. Keep in mind, that farmers higher in the mountain regions didn’t lose much this year.
• Ask the farmer’s where the apples came from. We’ll be crossing North Carolina state lines into Virginia to make up for the apple loss. But the closer the apple is to the home and the tree it came from, the better.

At the grocery store

• Check the label. If you go to the grocery store, the apple will have a sticker on it indicating its country of origin. It’s not uncommon for people to make a mistake: to accidentally fill the bin with the wrong apple because of a short supply. Double check: if it says, “locally grown,” check the apple’s sticker.
• Find out how far it has travelled to get to you. If an apple is picked in, say, New Zealand, it’s picked underripe and treated with a gaseous compound (1-MCP) so it can be shipped halfway around the world and arrive ready for stores. The apple never gets an opportunity to develop all those nutrients on the tree. It’s literally in suspended animation.

 Storage tips

• Apples reach their peak of maturity when you store them at room temperature.
• If you go to a Pick Your Own orchard and bring home several apples to store, refrigerate them.

Featured recipes

Lucky 32 Southern Kitchen Apple Sauce

• 5 pounds apples
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 1 cup apple cider
• ¼ tsp nutmeg

Wash and core apples, then slice into wedges leaving skin on. Preheat skillet and add apples, sugar and ½ cup apple cider. Cook on low while cover until apples are tender. Remove from heat and process in food processor. Stir in remaining apple cider and nutmeg.

Makes – 6 cups

Lucky 32 Southern Kitchen’s Apple Filling

• 2 1/2 pound apples – peeled, cored and sliced
• ¼ cup apple cider
• 1 1/2 tsp cornstarch
• ½ stick butter (1/8 pound)
• ¼ cup light brown sugar
• ⅛ cup granulated sugar
• 1 pinch ground cinnamon

Peel, core and slice apples. Dissolve cornstarch in apple cider. Melt butter in skillet. Add apples and sauté until coated in butter. Add sugars and cinnamon and cook until syrup is thick. Add cornstarch-cider mixture and simmer for 5 minutes.

Makes – 5 cups

For more about our seasonal recipes, see our current menu at Lucky 32 Southern Kitchen and our Blog Recipe Index: http://lucky32southernkitchen.com/recipes/

 

Late August recipes: Braised Smothered Okra and Eggplant

LOCAVORE’S DELIGHT: The Series # 20. Follow us all summer long as we explore the bounty of our region’s farms.

by MOLLY McGINN

Late August brings okra and eggplant, and with your summer tomatoes either juiced and in the can or too soft to slice, rediscover a little smothered eggplant, which features the oblong vegetable at its best: playing a supporting role.

Watch us make Lucky 32 Southern Kitchen’s Ratatouille recipe, featuring eggplant from Guilford Farm and Schicker’s Acre.

At the farmer’s market

Common eggplant varieties are Japanese and Italian eggplant. The fundamental difference between the two varieties is shape and how they’re used.

Japanese eggplant is smaller than the Italian variety with fewer seeds. Prep can be tasty and quick. Slice an eggplant longways, grill it on both sides, chop it up, and season with salt and pepper and a little bit of vinaigrette.

Italian eggplant takes a different tack. It has a toothsome, meaty quality when it’s cooked right. Undercooked, it’s less pleasant and spongy.

Melon-ology: The not-so-scientific guide to picking watermelons

LOCAVORE’S DELIGHT: The Series # 19. Follow us all summer long as we explore the bounty of our region’s farms.

There are many types of melons in the market this time of year, and the first thing that folks want to know is how to pick out one that is ripe. Regardless of how much conviction someone has when they explain their system for selecting the perfect melon, nothing is fool-proof.

Here are some pointers to keep in mind:

• Visit the farm to buy your melon.
• Barring that option, visit the farmer at a farmers’ market and choose a melon that is heavy for its size.
• If you are inspecting melons outside at a farmers’ market, there should be a delicate aroma.
• Korey Erb of Guilford College likes the Crimson Sweet and the Sangria varieties, and we agree that we like the size to be just a touch larger than a basketball.
• Inspect the belly for some yellowing, as opposed to fish-belly white.
• If none of the melons instill confidence in you of their ripeness, ask the vendor, they’ve usually got an inkling of how the melons have been trending.

A word about a Cantaloupes

Cantaloupes require inspecting the skin beneath the netting to look for more yellow than green, and skin that seems to yield to the pressure of your squeeze. Folks around these parts tend to prefer the Athena variety, but if you come across a Charentais or a Turbeville from the Danville area, scoop them up.

Once you get the melon home, what do you do with it?

• Store it at room temperature for a day or so, to help insure that sweet succulence that you are hoping for. The melon will continue to ripen, if stored outside of the refrigerator.
• Don’t be tricked into eating or serving ice-cold watermelon; you can’t taste it. The frigid temperature numbs your taste buds and is a ploy to get you to accept less flavor in your melon, just like American Lager advertisers attempting to convince you to drink your beer ice-cold; the only thing that achieves is preventing you from tasting it.
• Cut up your melon and taste it. If you’d prefer it a sweeter, try adding a pinch of salt and/or a drizzle of honey.
• If the rind of the watermelon is nice and thick, make some pickles (we’ll post a recipe next month).
• If you’d like something a tad bit different, wrap the melon slices in tissue-thin ham and grill.
• If you want to leave the decisions to us, stop in and order our Whimsical Watermelon appetizer, it might just knock you out of your chair.

Whimsical Watermelon and Backroads Bibb Salad both feature Watermelon in the new Endless Summer Menu, August 22 – October 2 at Lucky 32 Southern Kitchen.

Watch us make Lucky 32 Southern Kitchen’s Whimsical Watermelon on WFMY News Channel 2, and follow the recipe below. 

A southern antipasto–this dish puts a southern spin on the Italian tradition of serving fresh cut cantaloupe with prosciutto. 

• 2 cups diced watermelon
• 1 tsp balsamic vinegar
• 1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
• 2 tsp fresh mint chiffonade
• 1 oz country ham chiffonade
• 1 oz ricotta cheese

Cut watermelon pulp into 1 inch cubes. To a bowl, add watermelon, vinegar, oil and 1 teaspoon mint; mix well. Transfer to a chilled soup bowl. Top with ham, cheese and remaining mint.

Makes – 1 serving

For more about our seasonal recipes, see our current menu at Lucky 32 Southern Kitchen and our Blog Recipe Index:http://lucky32southernkitchen.com/recipes/

 

Happy as a Hog: The harmony farming and libertarian philosophy of Mike Jones, MAE Farm Meats

LOCAVORE’S DELIGHT: The Series # 18. Follow us all summer long as we explore the bounty of our region’s farms.

by MOLLY McGINN

CARY, NC — Most Fridays around 3 or 4 pm, the former champion sword fighter grabs a late lunch at Lucky 32 Southern Kitchen in Cary.

Join him. He’d love to bend your ear.

Ask Mike Jones about farming in harmony. Ask him about that “Knight in Shining Armor” thing. Ask him which came first: his intolerance for confinement pig farming, or his libertarian approach to farming.

“I’m not a pacifist. And I’m not a war monger,” Jones says. “If people misbehave, or things are harming you, then you need to deal with it. But for the most part, life is too short to put too much stress on others.”

Mike has been Lucky’s main pork supplier in Cary since 2010 when Lucky 32 met him at the Farm to Fork picnic. Neither had a partner for the farmer/chef event and the two paired up. This summer the restaurant started serving Mike’s vegetables off the farmer’s cart and in the restaurant.

Named after his children, MAE Farm Meats is also known as the center for “ethical and humane livestock production.” Mike’s sustainable, humane approach to hog farming and the quality of his food makes Mike a great match for the restaurant.

Learn more about sustainable farming at MAE Farms on the CFSA Farm Tour September 17 & 18 from 1 until 5pm, presented by the Carolina Farm Stewards. MAE is open and available at any time for a tour, call 252-430-1988.

Farming in Harmony

“The bulk of my experience is pork-production, and the other things that I do work in in harmony with the pork production: raise cattle, sheep, and vegetables. I’ll take the pigs out of the pen, and this time of year, in about a month, grasses and … weeds grow behind it. The cows graze the pig pastures from the nutrient-rich soil that the pigs put in the pen. Then I use the cattle to eat that grass up, and I sell the beef so I can recycle the nutrients. The chickens go along and clean up behind the pigs and cows. And I also produce vegetables on the pig pastures – there again, a lot of nutrients left on that soil. Pigs are still the main purpose, the other things just utilize the excess nutrients in the soil.”

Which came first: Your humane approach to farming from a personal philosophy, or your experience in hog farming and how a more organic approach produces a better product?

“I never wanted to farm the confinement way. I always wanted to farm — since I was 4-years-old — to bring the animals outdoors and to give them a nice life. When I was a child my dad raised pigs. Grandparents raised pigs, so I knew about that. I studied agriculture in high school and I took a job working for a confinement operation when I was in high school. Then, when I went to college, studied agriculture.”

Confinement Farms

“When I graduated from college I worked for a confinement operation (Confined, or Concentrated Animal Feed Operation) because that was presented as the wave of the future. But as any young person does, you always go with the trend. Everybody’s got a cell phone now, or a smart phone, or something, all the young people have them. So when I was a young person, just did what was supposed to be the cutting edge thing. But I never liked it. And eventually, I just quit.”

From concrete to the classroom

“North Carolina A&T University hired me to work on a grant-funded project that they had, helping small scale and limited resource tobacco farmers transition into outdoor niche market pork production. And that position lasted for 7 years. And during that time … I bought my own farm. When my position ended at NC A&T, I became a full-time farmer and I’ve been farming full-time for 3 years now.”

Libertarian philosophy

“It’s just the way I am. I have a Libertarian philosophy in that I would like for everyone to be able to express their natural behaviors within the limits of not hurting other people, and that’s how I regard my animals. They belong to me, but we have more a partnership. I try to give them a good place to live, and in return, they provide with me with what I need: food to eat and food to sell. A lot of times, for my farming practice — for me — it’s not over managing or micromanaging. Sometimes I see things that aren’t going the way that I want them to go, and the instinct is to do something about it. But I’ve learned a lot of times, you just stay out of the situation and back off, and lower the stress levels, things will right themselves. Sort of like if you’re in a boat: the way to get the boat to stop rocking is just to sit still.”

Mike Jones makes his Lucky 32 Southern Kitchen deliveries on Friday afternoons. Maybe you can catch him then. He usually orders “something made of pork,” he says. “Sometimes, fried chicken.”

Taste the difference yourself in the Parmesean-Crusted Pork Cutlet in Cary on the special NC Locavore’s Delight Menu.This special menu ends August 21.

The featured photo of Mike Jones was taken Jeremy M. Lange for story on Mike by Sidney Cruze in Indy Week.

For more about our seasonal recipes, see our current menu at Lucky 32 Southern Kitchen and our Blog Recipe Index:http://lucky32southernkitchen.com/recipes/

 

It gets chile around here in August

LOCAVORE’S DELIGHT: The Series # 17. Follow us all summer long as we explore the bounty of our region’s farms.

by MOLLY McGINN

Water won’t cool down a hot chile in your mouth. Go for the milk. There’s nothing quite that hot cooking in Lucky 32 Southern Kitchen, but you never know. A Habanero Hot Paper Lantern could literally walk into the kitchen. Any day.

Chiles start popping in late August and won’t stop until the first frost. And with the 5th Annual Pittsboro Pepper Festival coming up Sunday, October 15th, Lucky 32 has chiles on the mind. We served the Local Lengua with Pittsboro Pepper Chowchow and a vegetarian option there the last three years. This year, expect the same dish, and something a little different, he says.

To celebrate the chile this month, we asked Lucky 32 Southern Kitchen’s favorite chile farmers – server and farmer Mark Schicker and Guilford College’s Korey Erb – to share a few tasty tidbits about these hot pungent pods.

Meantime, scoop up plenty of red, green, and Jalapeno peppers this weekend at the farmer’s market (we’ve got our Pepper Jelly recipe below), grab a glass of milk and toast the season’s hottest vegetable: the chile.

Chiles at Lucky 32 Southern Kitchen

A southern staple, the chile is a member of the nightshade family and kin to tobacco. Lucky 32’s pimento cheese, hot pepper jelly on lambastic sliders and the house-pickled pepper vinegar all feature locally grown chiles. Fans of the Chef’s Choice at Lucky 32 Southern Kitchen will notice we use a lot of pepper jellies.

Mark Schicker, Schicker’s Acre in Pleasant Garden, NC

Getting chile peppers started takes some work, but the beauty of peppers is that they’ll keep going and going until the first frost, says Schicker.

“I start my seeds in mid-March and you don’t have to put the plants in the ground until May 1,” says Schicker. “This winter was so warm that I put mine in the 18th. We had a frost in late April and it killed the plants. So don’t put your plants in the ground until May 1. That’s what I learned this year.”

• Schicker supplies the restaurant with Cayenne Peppers and Hungarian Hot Wax Peppers for the pepper vinegar.

• If blossom end rot is a problem, he plants the seeds with crushed egg shells.

• Ever wonder why red peppers are more expensive at the grocery store? Red peppers start growing green and turn red the longer they stay on the vine. Extra time on the vine exposes peppers to more bugs and diseases, making the red pepper a delicate commodity.

• The Scoville Scale measures a chile’s spiciness. The bell pepper is 0 and one of the hottest chiles — the Trinidad Moruga Scorpion — rates 1.5 to 2 million units (same as law enforcement grade pepper spray).

Korey Erb, Guilford College Sustainable Farms, Greensboro, NC

Chiles make up a small part of Korey Erb’s sustainable farm at Guilford College. He grows food for the school’s cafeteria and CSA program. He doesn’t necessarily need chiles for the food or resale value (the school uses some on pizzas and the like). He grows chiles on the farm for the same reason he grows flowers — he just likes them.

But every once and again Erb says, he gets lucky enough to find someone who wants to use one of the more unusual varieties in a unique way.

On Erb’s farm you’ll find:

• Anchos, Tiburon variety
• Four different types of Habanero
• Two different types of Jalapeno – Canchos (larger and sweeter) and El Jefe (a bit hotter)
• Cayenne, the Joe’s Long variety, a very long, really spicy chile; and Andy, not as spicy, and a really light and “flourescenty” color, Erb says, and a little bit sweeter.
• New this year is the Hot Paper Lantern, like a Habanero with a waxy finish

Why so many chile varieties? It comes from trying to develop a vegetable that’s disease resistant, Erb says.

“There is a lot fungal, viral pressure on these little suckers. Some variety has been created to make it more resistant to these pressures. And you can have a lot of variety within one pepper. When it’s green, it’s super hot, and when it starts to turn red it sweetens up. The same pepper can taste very different, depending on when you harvest it. If the weather’s drier, it’ll be hotter.”

Lucky 32 Southern Kitchen’s Pepper Jelly

• 1 cup red bell pepper
• 1 cup green bell peppers
• 1 cup Jalapeno peppers
• 3 fl oz white vinegar
• 1/3 cup sugar
• 1 tsp kosher salt
• 1 box Sure Jell – 2/3 cup pectin

Wash peppers well and then chop. In a food processor, pulse peppers and 2 tablespoons vinegar three times for 2 seconds each. Do not liquefy. Transfer peppers to a sauce pot. Add remaining vinegar, sugar and salt. Bring to a boil, lower heat and simmer for 5 minutes. Stir in Sure Jell and simmer 1 minute. Pour into a labeled container and cool before using.

Keep refrigerated.
Makes: 1 pint

For more about our seasonal recipes, see our current menu at Lucky 32 Southern Kitchen and our Blog Recipe Index: http://lucky32southernkitchen.com/recipes/