I did not plan this salad. It just sort of came to be through improvisation; I like to cook in this way. Recipes are great, don’t get me wrong, and I enjoy using them, but it’s also nice to take what you have and come up with something delicious, which this most certainly is. Or, was – I ate it all within a 24 hour period. It was that good.
First, though – what is farro? Farro is an ancient whole wheat grain also known as Emmer; it’s also related to spelt. It looks like large barley or even a bit like freekeh, and is medium brown in color. It has a toothsome texture and mild, nutty flavor. It has slightly less protein than quinoa, but has almost twice the fiber. You cook it like most grains – soak then simmer in a pot til the water (or stock) absorbs. My farro comes from Cayuga Organics via my CSA.
So, Tuesday morning I decided I wanted to cook some grains. I looked in the pantry and the first grain I spied was the farro. So, I brought it down, put it in my soaking bowl, added water and raw vinegar and let it soak while I was at work.
That night I picked up my CSA shares – the veggie share was full of summer vegetables, and I knew their robust flavors would go well with the farro.
I took what I had – red peppers, leeks, zucchini, tomatoes – and mixed it with the cooked farro, along with some feta and lemon juice. The salad was so delicious! It was hearty and satisfying without weighing me down. The flavors were sharp and clear and they all mixed together to make an excellent dish. It was wonderfully savory.
I would make this again… in fact, I probably will make it again next week! It was fantastic the next day, too – the flavors had married and tasted a bit deeper. Definitely a good dish to bring as leftovers to work.
Farro and Summer Vegetable Salad
1 cup dry farro
soaking water and an acid (I used raw apple cider vinegar; lemon juice would work, too)
juice and zest of 1 lemon
kosher salt
1 leek, finely chopped
1 small red, orange, or yellow bell pepper, chopped
1 small zucchini, julienned, then the matchsticks cut in half to the length of an inch or so
1/4 cup feta cheese (Bulgarian feta is my favorite), crumbled
2 tablespoons pine nuts (raw or toasted)
1-2 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil
1/2 pint cherry tomatoes, each cut in half
Put the cup of dry farro in a bowl, cover with water and a splash of acid, and let soak for 8-10 hours. When the soaking time is up, drain the farro and put in a saucepan with 1 cup of water. Bring it to a boil, then let it simmer until almost all the water has been absorbed, about 20-25 minutes. Rinse and drain and set aside.
While the farro is cooking, cut up the leeks. The way I do this is that I cut off the top fibrous green leaves, leaving the tender white parts. Then cut off the root end. Slice the leek in half from root to tip, and rinse the leeks in a way to be sure there is no dirt stuck between the layers. Put the cut side down and slice thin half moons. You’ll have a pile of cute skinny half moon leeks – then chop them until they meet your standard for finely chopped.
Add the bell pepper and zucchini. Add the lemon zest and squeeze the lemon onto the mixture of leeks, pepper, and zucchini, sprinkle with salt (I used about 1/4 tsp) and let that macerate until the farro is ready to be added.
Add the farro and mix with the vegetable lemon combination. Crumble your feta and add the pine nuts. Pour the olive oil over it all. Last, add the sliced-in-half tomatoes. Mix it all together. Adjust seasonings as you like.
Serves 4-6, or two servings for some very hungry people.
I neglected to post about last week’s CSA share, so I’m including it here. Last week was a bust, in part to being sick on and off and feeling great fatigue. I am feeling better, though, after sleeping a lot. Sometimes the body just wants to rest more than at other times. These 90 degrees + weather doesn’t help, either. Anyway, the shares!
Week Twelve:
Pictured, left to right, top to bottom: green beans, plums, cubanelle peppers, cucumbers, yellow paste tomatoes, nectarines, basil, summer squash, green bell peppers, apples, tomatoes.
So many yummy things. The tomatoes were fantastic, I must say – nothing beats an August tomato. I made a tomato mozzarella salad with them.
We got an interesting pepper, the cubanelle, which is sweet. The basil was fabulous. Cucumbers and summer squash, all very good. I made zucchini fritters which turned out great; however I didn’t take a picture. Next time.
The fruit is almost all gone, except for the plums, of which we got a lot. I think it was 2 pounds of little baby plums! So cute, and so many.
Week Thirteen:
Pictured, left to right, top to bottom: prunes, nectarines, peppers, leeks, yellow wax beans, cherry tomatoes, apples, summer squash, eggplant.
Last night I used the peppers, leeks, zucchini, and tomatoes in a farro salad (recipe to come). It was marvelous! Some of the tomatoes were a little overripe, but it didn’t matter with the salad. Didn’t matter when I popped them on their own in my mouth, either! So sweet and delicious.
I’ll roast the eggplant this week, and probably parboil and freeze the beans. I don’t know what I’ll do with all the prunes I received – 2.5 pounds, which is plenty. Must search for a recipe. The apples got rave reviews at my home, and I expect we’ll finish those and the nectarines by next week.
These summer fruits and vegetables are so amazing, I almost can’t stand it! I am so very, very fortunate to have access to such excellent local produce.
Back in June I wrote that I had joined a wild-caught salmon CSA, run by the Iliamna Fish Company. This weekend, I picked up my fish!
Pickup was at The Brooklyn Kitchen, right by the front door. I hadn’t been to TBK since they’d moved to their new space on Frost Street, so I was also very curious to see the place. Wow, it is awesome! Lots of space, connection to The Meat Hook (a wonderful butcher that stocks local meat), and plenty of drool-worthy products. I plan to buy my Harsch crock there this fall.
I must say, it smells amazing there. They make a variety of sausages, and they smell delicious.
The Iliamna representative – one of the family members – met me at the front of the store, keeping watch over a giant chest freezer. It was probably 6 feet long, and full of vacuum packed, frozen fish. My share was all wrapped up in two layers of butcher paper, and fit perfectly in my Hellgate CSA tote bag. There was no risk of the fish defrosting, the way it was insulated.
Inside the package were 8 fillets.
I was able to fit them all in my freezer, thank goodness! I was a little concerned that they’d be too big, but they fit just fine.
I put a couple of the fillets in the fridge to defrost, as friends were coming over to check out the salmon. I thought that each fillet might feed three people – boy was I wrong. One fillet fed 5 of us, with fish to spare! So, I have a whole fillet ready to cook, which I’ll do tonight. I plan to make salmon burgers with the cooked fish and freeze them for a later date.
This salmon is really gorgeous.
I cooked it very simply – olive oil, fleur de sel, and lemon juice to season it. Baked in parchment at 350 degrees. Parchment is my favorite way to cook fish, apart from grilling. It took about 20 minutes to cook the entire fillet, though I would be happy with cooking it for 15 minutes.
The fish had amazing flavor – very clean and salmony. I loved it, as did my guests. I’m really happy I have this fish. I look forward to eating it throughout the fall and winter, too!
So, what’s new:
As you can see from the picture above, my yellow pear tomatoes have started to ripen! They are a little funny looking, kind of like bowling pins, and they are very tasty. My plant keeps producing them, even as most of my other tomato plants are on their way out.
My paste tomatoes suffered from a lot of blossom end rot, but not nearly as bad as the Prudens Purple. The mystery volunteer tomato did fine, as did the Silver Fir. Both of those plants produced small to medium sized fruit. Larger tomatoes just had problems this year.
I had a bumper crop of lemon cucumbers, too. I will definitely grow those again next year.
Soon, it will be time to pull up the tomato plants and consider what to grow for the fall. I like the idea of carrots especially, and some more tatsoi.
Apart from the garden, I’ve done a lot of canning. I made 6 half pints of fig-orange-honey preserves, which turned out great, and keeps getting better as it ages. The figs came from the backyard trees – can’t get more local than that!
I’ve also canned tomatoes and made salsa – 9 pints of crushed tomatoes, and 4 pints of salsa, 3 of which are lacto-fermented salsa. The tomatoes came from my CSA in the form of a 20 pound tomato share, and were fabulous – really healthy, firm, and meaty. Not to mention tasty.
I have a lot of nectarines and peaches, so I may make preserves out of that as well.
My social life ramped up for a little while, and that meant dinners out, and less cooking at home. I’ve also been sick, so little appetite. This will all change soon.
This weekend I pick up my salmon share! Very exciting!!
More soon!
