Don't You (Forget About Me)

This song has been stuck in my head for the last couple of days.  For those of you who also grew up in the 80s, it's pretty easy for that one to be an earworm.

What is it we shouldn't forget?  As spring really gets started, we all start looking forward to fruit.  Very soon we'll all be stuffing our faces full of berries and starting to make jam.  I've been craving strawberry jam for some time now, so believe me I'm looking forward to the berries too.  Shortly thereafter (maybe six weeks from now-ish), we'll be eating... well, let's see if you can guess from this:

 

But let's not get too far ahead of ourselves.  As I see these favorites arrive, I also can't forget that another will be leaving until the fall:  pears.  I love pears.  Remember when we talked about pear desserts? They're also great in salads.  And we're really getting lots of different kinds of lettuces right now, so a beautiful salad would be a great way to say, "see you next time, and I won't forget about you" to those beautiful pears.

Photo via MyRecipes

• Do you have any apples left from last week?  Paired with some of the pears (sorry couldn't resist), this salad comes together with an amazing mix of textures.
• Pears pair well (yes, I'll stop now) with strongly-flavored cheeses, like bleu, stilton, and gorgonzola.  This salad is a great example.
• Radicchio is a bitter lettuce that I've only recently discovered.  I do love the color it brings to dishes.  It also pairs well with fennel, as in this recipe.  I've made this similar one for a while, too, and pears would contrast well with its saltiness.
• If you'd like to go all-out with the lettuce varieties, here you go!

Photo via Whole Foods

 

Pears!!

I love pears.  Seriously love them.  I was overjoyed to see them in the box this week.  We talked about pear butter before, but let's go one step better.  Let's talk... pear desserts!

Poaching

Photo via Fine Cooking

The classic dessert for pears is to poach them.  That means letting them cook in a warm liquid.  If you poach pears, peel them first.  The flavor of the liquid is the key component, and it doesn't penetrate the skin well.  Poaching pears in wine is the most common option.  This recipe uses a white wine and sugar.  Another wonderful option is to use a heavy, sweet red wine, like port, so that you don't have to use the sugar.  (I'd omit the citrus from that recipe if you make that substitution.)  You can also play with the spices in the poaching liquid, such as using cardamom.  A really good vanilla bean ice cream is a fantastic accompaniment.

Photo via Simply Recipes

Baking & Roasting

Dry heat is also a great way to make dessert.  Use the same spice palate as we did in the pear butter, like this recipe does.  Or you can keep it really simple.  Pears make wonderful tarts, too.

And, my favorite...

I've made this for Christmas dessert a couple of times, and it's my absolute favorite.  The arborio rice makes a fantastic consistency for the "rice pudding" component of the dessert.  (That reminds me, I should see if arborio alone makes rice pudding better.)  The fact that I am a big fan of good, dark rums doesn't hurt either.

Enjoy your pears!

The Kind That Doesn't Come From Cows

This time of year is a perfect window of opportunity in the canning world.  The last of the peaches are straggling in, and both apples and pears are starting up.  All three of those make for wonderful fruit butters!  Making your own fruit butter is incredibly easy, as well.

Photo via MyRecipes

The following process works for any fruit (or veggie) that you'd like to turn into butter:

1. Cut up the fruit into small-ish cubes.  Soft, over-ripe or bruised fruit works great in this case; moldy fruit doesn't.  Cut off any suspect-looking spots.  There is no need to peel any fruit, and I use whole apples and pears, meaning seeds, cores and all.  For peaches, you will need to remove the pit.  Add them to a pot that has about half an inch of water on the bottom.
2. Boil, covered, for about 45 minutes.  The fruit should be really soft and have given up a lot of juices by then.
3. Use a potato masher or an immersion blender to turn the fruit into mush.  Be careful with the immersion blender, it's easy to liquify the fruit too much.  This is fruit butter, and it should still have some solid texture.  For apples and pears, you will want to use a food mill to catch the seeds still in the fruit.
4. Measure how much fruit mush you have.  For each cup of mash, add either 1/2 cup of sugar or 1/3 cup of honey.  If you'd like lower sugar content, you can substitute up to half the sugar with Stevia.  You want to add the sugar or honey off heat, and stir really well before you go any further.
5. This is a great trick that I recently learned.  Put the mush/sugar blend into your slow cooker and prop the lid slightly off the surface.  Here, I'm using a wooden spoon and spatula to do so:





6. Let it cook down on low until it's the thick consistency of fruit butter.  This will take a few (or more than a few) hours.  Stir every couple of hours.  If you need to let it sit overnight, close the lid all the way and unplug the slow cooker.  In the morning, just re-start the heating and prop the lid up.
7. Once the fruit butter is the right consistency, it's time to spice it.  Never add any flavoring until it's the right consistency.  (The flavor will concentrate, and you'll have seriously over-done it.)  You can add a variety of spices, and even spirits.  Always do a little at a time, as it's way easier to add more than to take some away.  If using spirits, don't mix it into the large batch of butter.  Put 1/2 to 1 teaspoon in the bottom of each sterilized pint jar, and stir in after filling the jar.  Here are some things I've found that work well:

Fruit	Spices	Spirits
Peach	Cinnamon, nutmeg, cardamom	Bourbon (oh, yeah!), brandy
Pear	Cinnamon, star anise, allspice (those three together ROCK!)	Brandy, red wine, cinnamon schnapps
Apple	Cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, allspice	Brandy, cinnamon schnapps



8. Fill your jars, leaving a quarter inch at the top.  Put the lids on and process in a boiling water bath for 15-20 minutes.  Allow to cool slowly, then test the seals.  Ta da!

Photo via SVkitchen

The above method can work for lots of things not discussed:  plums, winter squash (particularly pumpkin and butternut), apricots...  If you find other spices or spirits that work well, please include them in the comments!

Pear & Spring Onion Salad with a Tarragon Dijon Vinaigrette

Despite yesterday's weather, I'm convincing myself that Spring must really be here because SPRING ONIONS have arrived!  It's almost as awesome as the springtime arrival of asparagus.  Almost.  If this is your first encounter and you've been eyeing those giant sprouty things suspiciously, fear not because you are in for an awesome treat.  It's like a two for one deal with spring onions, because you get the green part which are somewhere between a chive and a leek, and then the bulb which is like, well, an onion.  But a delicate and sweet one.  Plus, the ones in this week's Crop Share are Vidalia spring onions, so that means even more sweetness.  I know for sure I'll be using two of the bundle to make my favourite Chicken In A Spring Onion Cream Sauce (is amazing over meaty fish like salmon or swordfish too!), but I made myself reserve one of the bundle to experiment with.  On Saturday we got a call that afternoon from some friends to come over for dinner, and since you should never show up to a dinner party empty handed, I decided to whip up a salad from among the Crop Share ingredients I just brought home.  And thus the following yummy and crisp salad was born!  So if you're sheepish about the spring onions, let this salad be your gateway drug into spring onion mania!

Pear & Spring Onion Salad with a Tarragon Dijon Vinaigrette

Ingredients:

1/2 cup sliced almonds, unsalted
1 Tbsp local honey
1 head leaf lettuce, chopped
1 Vidalia spring onion, ends trimmed and diced (both green and white parts)
2 pears, cored & thinly sliced
1/2 cup olive oil
1/2 cup white wine vinegar (I used some of the delicious Chardonnay White Wine Vinegar from Virginia Vinegar Works that's available at Nalls)
1 Tbsp Dijon mustard
1/8 tsp Kosher salt
1/8 tsp ground black pepper
1 tsp dried tarragon

In a skillet over medium heat, toss almond slivers with honey to evenly coat and toast almonds until golden brown.  You'll want to keep a close watch and stir fairly often to prevent any almonds from burning.  Remove from heat and set aside to cool.

In a large bowl, toss together lettuce, diced spring onion, pear slices and cooled, honey almonds (you'll likely have to break them apart as when they cool they turn into almond candy).

Then in a medium sized bowl, briskly whisk together oil, vinegar and dijon until you have a smooth, creamy dressing.  Add in salt, pepper and tarragon and whisk to fully incorporate.  Pour as much or as little of the dressing over the salad as desired, toss to coat and serve.

Makes a wonderful side salad with dinner, or add in some grilled chicken, shrimp or salmon to turn this into a complete meal.

Sauteed Cabbage & Potatoes via Tash's Noshes

As promised in the previous post, here's some more from Crop Share member Natasha's healthy food blog, Tash's Noshes.  She did a figure friendly take on cabbage & potatoes with the contents of our St. Patrick's day boxes.  So if you're still staring down that cabbage or have leftover potatoes (on top of the even MORE potatoes we all got this week, hooray!!) give this recipe a nosh!  For all of you runners out there (Lord knows I am NOT one of them, the only thing in my life that runs is my stockings), especially those of you who have done or are planning on running in the Marine Corps Marathon this year, this lovely lady is "fundracing" on behalf of Back On My Feet DC for this year's MCM.    So absolutely run over to BoMF's website to check out the amazing work they do with those in our community transitioning from homelessness, addiction and abuse (even consider getting involved!), and then if you are so led, consider throwing some coinage towards Tash's fundracing efforts on her official fundracing page!  

Sauteed Cabbage & Potatoes via Tash's Noshes

And as a bonus (and a slight teaser on the next recipe I'll be posting), check out how she used up the delicious pears in this protein packed salad, perfect for a Meatless Monday lunch...

Arugula & Pear Salad with Roasted Chickpeas

Spicy Pear Tart

If there's one thing I developed during my time in Ireland, it was a deep and abiding love for tarts.  Most of this thanks can go to Queen of Tarts in Dublin, but seriously, I never met an Irish tart I didn't like.  Wait...that came out wrong.  Pastry, I'm talking about pastry!!  Whether sweet or savory, they were all fantastic.  So naturally, upon returning stateside I had to develop my own penchant for tart making as a trans-Atlantic flight is a bit much to fulfill a craving.

We're getting pears in the Crop Share this week, and thus, a pear tart must happen.  You could go one route and make a pear tart using our handy-dandy, all-purpose, No-Fail Tart Crust Recipe, and instead of almond extract use a heavy hand with some vanilla.  Mmmm!  Or, we can all dip back into the pages of The New Irish Table by Margaret M. Johnson and enjoy her take on a pear tart.  If you're a fan of pineapple upsidedown cake, this will remind you somewhat of that except it remains right-side up.  Pretty sure I'll be giving a gluten and egg free go of this for Monday!

Spicy Pear Tart

Ingredients:

1 cup light brown sugar

1 stick unsalted butter

4 pears, peeled and cored

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1 cup sugar

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp ground ginger

2 tsp ground cinnamon

1/2 tsp Kosher salt

2 eggs

2/3 cup canola oil

Preheat your oven to 300 degrees F.  Wrap a 10 inch springform pan with aluminum foil, to prevent any leaking.

In a small saucepan, combine brown sugar and butter over medium heat, stirring constantly for about 5 minutes, until the butter and sugar have caramelized.  Pour the caramel into the prepared springform pan and set aside.

Take one of the pears and grate it into large shreds.  Slice the remaining pairs to about 1/4" thickness.

In a medium bowl, combine your dry ingredients.  In a separate, larger, bowl, beat the eggs and oil together, then stir in the shredded pear.  Stir in your dry ingredients and mix until well combined.  Pour into pan over top of caramel.  Arrange the sliced pears on top in a fan pattern (see above photo).

Bake for 1 hour and 15 minutes or until the base is bubbly and the pears are soft.  Remove from oven and place on a wire rack to cool slightly before releasing sides of pan and removing the ring.

Slice and serve warm.

Arugula, Glazed Walnut and Apple Salad

Arugula is hands down my favorite green to use in salads. I love it on pizza too. The natural bite it has to it pairs well with fruit and almost all cheeses. This simple salad is a great side, starter or light lunch. 

Ingredients:
5 oz wild arugula
1 apple, pear, or both cored and sliced thinly
1/4 cup store bought glazed walnuts
shaved parmesan or goat cheese crumbles
salt and pepper, to taste

To view the rest of this recipe, please visit: http://jinkzzkitchen.blogspot.com/2012/05/wild-arugula-glazed-walnuts-and-apple.html