Blue Moon Farm

A treat from PLENTY’s ‘Mighty Eggplant’ chapter (Get this book!)

Lentils with broiled eggplant

• 2 medium eggplants
• 2 tbs red wine vinegar
• Salt and pepper
• 1 cup small dark lentils (or the small green french ones from the co-op work great)
• 3 carrots
• 2 celery stalks (I substituted chard)
• 1 bay leaf
• 3 sprigs thyme
• small white or half onion
• 3 Tbs olive oil
• 12 cherry tomatoes
• 1/3 tsp brown sugar
• 1 Tbs each of chopped parsley and cilantro and dill
• 2 Tbs crème fraiche or yogurt (or Prairie Friuit Farm cheve!)

Cook eggplant on gas grill or stove top on foil directly on burners. Turn frequently to roast 15 min, until flesh is very soft and skin is entirely burnt. If you don’t have gas burners you can bake in an electric stove under a broiler after poking them with a knife. Scoop out the flesh and set in a colander to drain for 15 minutes. Then add salt, pepper and a half tsp of vinegar.

Make the lentils while the eggplant cooks by cooking in saucepan with water. Add 1 coarse cut carrot and celery/kale stalks, bay leaf, onion and bring to boil. Simmer on low heat until soft – skim if needed. Drain, discard carrot and bayleaf before adding the rest of the vinegar, 2 Tbs oil, and salt and pepper. Then dice the rest of the carrot and celery or chard leaves, halve tomatoes, and combine with oil, sugar, and salt before cooking in an ovenproof dish at 275 degrees for 20 min.

Finally, combine the veggies with lentils, herbs and then place this on a plate, top with eggplant and the crème fraiche or cheese. The next step is obvious.. eat!

Make Pickeled Scapes

First trim flower bud off scapes, cut into 3-4 inch pieces. Pack scapes lengthwise into clean jars, leaving 1/4” headspace.  Add 1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper, 1 clove garlic, and 1 head dill to each jar.

Next prepare the juice. I used the Dilly Beans recipe (found that suggestion on the internet).  One can take liberties.
2 pounds scapes (hand fulls)
1/4 cup canning salt
2-1/2 cups vinegar
2-1/2 cups water
1 teaspoon cayenne pepper, divided
4 cloves garlic, divided
4 heads dill, divided
Combine salt, vinegar and water in a large saucepot. Bring juice to a boil or heat in the microwave.  Use microwave safe glass- heat about 4 minutes.

Then pour hot liquid over beans, leaving ¼” headspace Remove air bubbles.  You could can these the usual way- 10 minutes in a boiling-water canner or, be lazy like me, and use a microwave. If using the microwave, use a piece of plastic wrap to loosely cover the jar then microwave for 3 minutes. Place the cap on the jar, leave the plastic wrap on. Cool to room temperature and place in refrigerator.  Eat them when they are cool.

We don’t grow rhubarb (I’ll get organized some day.. maybe) but Bob Bracket does!

1. ¾ cup sugar1/2 cup red wine vinegar
2. 2 pieces of cinnamon stick
3. 2 tablespoons fresh grated ginger
4. 1 teaspoon grated lemon peel
5. ½ teaspoon ground cardamom
6. 4 1/3 cups chopped rhubarb (some folks use food processor)
7. ½ cup dried cherries (currants or raisins)
8. 1 cup chopped chives

Combine the first six ingredients in a heavy pot, bring to boil while stirring, add cherries, and return to boil.  Remove from heat and stir in chives before allowing to cool.  You can keep nicely in the fridge for several days.

Wash them, dry them and freeze them for use in winter

Whether or not you call it Dinosaur kale, Black kale, Lacinato kale, or Tuscan

kale you are going to want to try this recipe  from bonappetit magazine:

Crust: (Tart Dough recipe from “The Greens Cook Book” by Deborah Madison)

1. 1 cup white flour
2. 3/8 tsp salt
3. 4 Tbs cold unsalted butter cut in cubes
4. 1.5 Tbs solid vegetable shortening (I am going to try substituting cream cheese)
5. 2.5  to 3 Tbs ice water

Make this first so that it can prebake while you prepare the  filling.  Combine 1 & 2 then add 2 and 4, mix well with hands or in the food processor.  Add ice water by feel if mixing by hand, until the dough just starts to become mealy.  Flatten into a disc and cover with wax paper.  She suggests you let it rest for 30 minutes in fridge and then roll out after warming but I just go for it, rolling between sheets of wax paper after dusting the surface with flour.  Place in buttered baking dish, and prebake at 425.  If you want a perfect crust, line the bottom with buttered foil and pie weights.  Poke the crust if it swells as a result of steam.

Filling:

1. 3-4 carrots
2. 3 medium potatoes
3. 6-8 turnips
4. 1 large onion
5. 1 large pepper
6. 1/4-1/2 cabbage
7. oregano
8. 1/4-1/2 cup veggie broth or water and a veggie bouillon plus a dash of noodle soup base.
9. * if you want this to be moister double the amount of broth and add to this 1 tsp of corn starch

*You can add broccoli too- chop and add with the cabbage

Clean and coarsely chop 1, 2 & 3.  I microwave the carrots and potatoes for 6 minutes to hurry things along.  Dice 4 & 5 and saute in a large pan, add herbs and spices to taste.  Add in 1/4 cup veggie broth and chopped cabbage, cover to steam the cabbage.  Combine all ingredients in a large bowl before placing into the baked pie shell.   Cover with foil to retain moisture and prevent the shell from getting too dark.  Bake at 350 for 20 (if you precooked 1 & 2) or 60 min.

This was modified from the ‘Sopa de Lima’ recipe that is in “Sundays at Moosewood Restaurant” in the section written  by Lisa Wichman of the Moosewood Collective.  This cookbook is great and was published by Simon and Schuster 1990.

1 – 2 onions chopped
4 large cloves garlic (3 if hard neck garlic)
3 Tbs olive oil
½ tsp oregano
1 tsp cumin
A ¾ gallon bag of cleaned peppers (often these are frozen in soup ready bags); mix typically includes the following:

• 1-2 cubed Habaneros
• 1-2 cubed Jalapeno
• 1-2 cubed Seranno
• 2-3 cubed Pablanno
• 2-3 cubed Anahiem
• 2-3 cubed Sweet red (Gypsy or Carmen)
• 2-3 cubed Green, Red, or Yellow Bell Pepper

3-4 cups chopped fresh tomatoes
3 cups vegetable stalk.  I just add two veggie bouillon cubes and a table spoon of tamari to water.
1/3 cup fresh lime juice
Salt to taste

Saute onions and garlic in oil, add herbs add peppers followed by the stock.  Add chopped tomatoes to this. Cover and heat for 15-20 minutes, stirring occasionally.  Once the tastes have merged, add lime. Season with salt and black pepper to taste.

To make a heartier soup I add a can of white hominy

Top with

• Grated cheese
• Tortilla strips: cut tortillas into strips and fry in 1 inch deep hot oil then drain on paper towel
• Chopped cilantro.

To prepare peppers for freezing wash well, remove tops, split and seed them.  Slide halves into a freezer bag and combine the varieties in a mix of heat and color that suits your tastes.   The frozen peppers are easy to chop.  I remove from the freezer, rinse, chop and throw these straight into the oil.

• 1 cabbage- chopped thin
• 1/2 red onion sliced very thin or white onion, soak in water and discard the water to remove heat
• 1/4 cup to half cup of cilantro chopped -

combine

• coat with olive oil
• add white balsamic vinegar to taste
• salt (sea salt coarse is nice) and pepper

*I am not sure, but suspect this is my variant of Alice Waters’ receipt (Chez Panisse Vegetables) which uses white wine vinegar, less cilantro and additions lime juice and jalapeno peppers.

*Use the white balsamic if you can get it!