Cabbage Soup

Cold weather is upon us here in Boston, which means soup. I actually made this soup the day before Sandy came to Boston, as I still had quite a bit of cabbage left from my Farmer's box. This cabbage was huge. I wish I had a picture. It was actually half of a head of cabbage, and it weighed in at 5 lb 14 oz, making the entire cabbage ~12 lbs. Craziness. So, with all this cabbage I needed to do something. I called my mom, and she told me to e-mail my aunt for the recipe for my great-grandmother's cabbage soup. Here it is. I'm transcribing it from a handwritten recipe, so I'll try to leave the idiosyncrasies in. I think it was written down by my grandmother, based on the bizarre underlining, but it's legible so I'm not sure.

1 large head cabbage (4 or 5 lbs) (n.b. my pot could only hold 4 lbs)
4 or 5 medium boiling potatoes
1 pint heavy sour cream
3 sour salt chips, which is called sour salt (can only be bought in a Jewish store) (n.b. Despite living in Brookline, which is home to quite a few Jews, I couldn't find sour salt. The internet told me it was citric acid, so I just used a lemon)
6 very large size onions
1 tablespoon or more salt (to taste) (6-8 qt size pot)

Shred cabbage with knife (not fine) and put into large pot with (more than to cover) water

While that is boiling peel potatoes and insert right in pot in quarters

While this is boiling brown onions VERY brown (n.b. this is excessively underlined) with LOTS (n.b. again, very underlined) of butter and when real brown pour in the sour cream (something illegible) and on LOW FLAME (n.b. again, underlined, you don't want to curdle the sour cream) mix all liquid.

These are my onions. They're pretty brown, but I got bored. Getting your onions really brown takes quite a while. I think this was after 30 minutes.

Merge together very well until no liquid in pan.

Pour back into soup. Not a high flame (or cream will curdle), but low simmer. (Scrape all brown from pan and pour into soup). Remove the potatoes and smash and insert in soup.

Add sour salt to taste (one nice size or 2 small ones) just to give it a little tart and cook one hour.

All in all about 2 hours of cooking time.

My soup. I toasted some rye break to go with it.

Pickles

One of the farmers at the BU Farmer's Market does a CSA. I don't get a season share, since I live alone, but I'll do the week-by-week. A while back, I got a bunch of pickling cucumbers. I also have pickling spices, because I'm a weird impulse shopper and I bought them back when I lived in Irvine. I had six cucumbers, which I quartered to make 24 pickles.

I made a sort of dill-half sour combo, which turned out pretty well. This is what I did for the six cucumbers.

6 pickling cucumbers
5 cups water
1/8 cup white vinegar
1/8 cup salt--many recipes call for pickling salt, but regular salt will do. I used salt with no iodine or caking agents, as that can make the brine cloudy.
1/2 tsp pickling spice
4-5 garlic cloves, coarsely chopped
Couple sprigs of dill


Boil water, salt, and vinegar. Quarter cucumbers, place in a jar. I used a storage jar that I had lying around. Pour mixture in jar, add spices, garlic, and dill sprigs. Put in refrigerator and let sit overnight. Eat delicious pickles.

Seriously, this was so easy and they turned out really well. I had no idea it would be this easy.

Brookline Farmer's Market

I'm continuing our series on regional farmer's markets by talking about my local one in Brookline, MA. It's in Coolidge Corner, Thursdays from 1:30 until sunset starting about mid-June and going until mid-October. As my mom mentioned, when I was younger I didn't really like going to the Santa Monica farmer's market, but I must have absorbed something, because I try and make it a regular part of my routine now. As a college student in Claremont, I rarely went, since it was quite small. As a graduate student in Irvine, however, I really started using the farmer's market. Hopefully when I'm home in August I can get something on that.

Living in California spoiled me for fresh produce. The market here is smaller, it's not year-round, and it's more expensive. There also isn't the same variety of product. I also think the quality of produce is much lower. Also, as the school year picks up it gets harder to go to a Thursday market. I have lot to say about the privilege inherent in being able to go to a farmer's market in the middle of a workday and the socioeconomic makeup of the attendees of the Brookline market in particular, but that's a subject for a different blog. The main plus for me is the homemade ice cream stand. It really hits the spot after walking the 1.25 miles from my office to the market in sweltering Boston humidity. The red raspberry chip is fantastic.

I do find that the quality of produce is much higher than the grocery store, and it lasts a lot longer. It's late July, and peaches have just come into season. They're about the same price as in CA; $2.50-$3.00 per pound, and the quality is not bad. I haven't seen any nectarines, though. The blueberries are also delicious, and I think those might be cheaper. They're ~$5.00 for a pint, and make an excellent addition to my morning cereal. The thing that I'm saddest about is the lack of pluots. The pluot lady in Irvine had at least 10 varieties, spanning June until October.

One thing that MA has that CA doesn't do quite as well is apples. Last fall I saw so many types of apples that I had never seen before. I don't normally like apples, because I find them somewhat mealy, but the New England apples have changed my mind. No, there's not a gala or a pink lady in sight, but the macoun is my new favorite apple. It's got a really dark skin, and bright white flesh. I'm looking forward to seeing it come back in season.

The three pictures show you the extent of the entire market. It's small, and I'm not able to use it as my sole produce provider, but it's a good walk and it has delicious ice cream!

Farmers Markets - Santa Monica

There are many kinds of Farmers Markets - those that basically only sell produce that the farmers  bring to the market to ones that have additional stalls selling food made from farm produce, stalls that are preparing food to eat,  handcrafted items for sale and then the "farmers markets"  that have little food and seem more like craft fairs.  I go to Farmers Markets to buy food.  I have been labeled a "peasant woman" with her cart going from stall to stall examining the produce to find the best products to buy.  I find the label a compliment and reference to my Italian roots.  Although I go to the Farmer's Market year round, my favorite time is in the summer.   I overbuy and the end result is that even though it is hot, I spend more time in the kitchen than most people want even in the dead of winter, never mind the heat of summer.

The market I frequent the most is the Wednesday  Farmers Market in Santa Monica, CA.  It is the biggest market in Los Angeles and possibly the biggest in the U.S.  It is four city blocks long.  I have been going for over 25 years.  What I find amazing is that in spite of being so large the first time I went I couldn't find it because the roads were blocked off.   Many of the chefs from the best restaurants in town come to this market.  I have been known to surreptitiously follow them  to see which farmers they frequent.  I was extremely pleased to find out that their favorite stands happened to be my favorites, too.  This is also the market that is featured on Good Food, a favorite radio program.

When my daughter was little I would try to get her to come with me.  I think it's a great way to introduce children to fresh produce and the great tastes. You let them pick out what they want and ideally get them involved in turning their choices into meals. The colors of the food are great and the farmers will always let you taste what they have.  Unfortunately, my daughter did not consider it a quality way of spending time.  Yet now as an adult she makes a point of going to Farmers Markets in the cities where she lives.  So clearly it is something worthwhile doing.

At these markets I have been introduced to foods that I have never seen and ideas on how to cook them. I remember years ago buying green almonds before they formed shells. Another shopper asked me what I was going to do with them.  I told her I had no idea.  She asked me why, then, did I buy them?  I said for one dollar it was worth experimenting. (http://www.latimes.com/features/food/la-fo-marketwatch-20110415,0,4732448.story)   I have found foods that I have loved that I would never have tried (persimmons, japanese cucumbers, a large variety of eggplants)and I have reaffirmed that their are certain foods that are still not my favorites but I do eat them (brussel sprouts, cabbage, fava beans).

One of the other things that I love about this market are the friendliness of the farmers.  Over the years I have gotten to know a number of them by name and what is even more amazing, they remember my name!  They have given me recipes and taught me many things about farming that I never knew.  Their produce has also convinced me that anything I can grow, they can grow better, and my best cooking is always better when I cook what I bought from them that day.

                                     BBQ FRUIT

Take stone fruit (peaches, plums apricots, nectarines, pluots, etc) and cut them in half.   Remove pits.

Brush with butter and put on grill for approx one minute (or put on hot frying pan) until surface of fruit is caramelized.

Take about 1/2 cup of honey.  Heat with 2-3 sprigs of lavender.  Pour over fruit.  Can serve plain, or with whipped cream or ice cream.