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mardi 31 janvier 2012

A Salsa for every Season: Winter

Staying seasonal can be limiting when it comes to some of our favorite foods. For example, in the Summer I love to make batches of fresh salsa using sun soaked tomatoes and balcony-grown peppers, but these mason jars of Summer salsa seem to be devoured in a matter of seconds. They never last longer than the tomato season itself and I always end up facing the colder months destined to remain salsa-less.

But necessity, or gluttony in my case, does in fact give birth to invention and I decided that, instead of buying airport-food quality tomatoes from God knows where during the off season, I would attmpt to make seasonal salsas using what I could find at local markets.

My first attempt in this venture resulted in Fallsa, a blend of end-of-the-season green tomatoes and hearty helpings of cilantro. Fallsa was a fairly simple compromise between the end of Summer and the beginning of the Fall- that lovely autumnal area when the sun still lingers and therefore so do the courgettes, bell peppers, and tomatoes.

The Winter months make seasonal salsa a daunting task, with no hope of local tomatoes and the last of my cayenne withering on its weather-beaten plant, I figured I'd just have to forgo homemade salsa until the spring. But then inspiration found me in the form of a panier bio from bio c'bon.

Our first bio bag included a lovely little pumpkin that I would've just roasted and made into soup if it hadn't been for those poor cayenne peppers, which would perish if I didn't find an immediate use for them.

Thus the idea for Winter Salsa was born, with pumpkin standing in for my tomatoes I set to put a cold weather spin on a Summer classic.

Below is the recipe, note that I did include canned corn, but otherwise all ingredients can be found fresh and locally (except for the the cayenne if you didn't grow that in advance!)

Winter Salsa

Ingredients:

1 small pumpkin or other squash

- cut the squash in half, remove seeds, and place it, flesh side up, in a oven-safe dish that is 1/3 full of water. Place the squash in an oven preheated to 400° F / 205° C for 35-45 mins (35 if you want a chunk salsa, 45 if you want a creamy one)

1 small can of corn kernels

1 bunch of parsley

1 red onion

1 dried pepper, like cayenne

2-3 cloves of garlic

hot sauce and salt, to taste

1/2 diced cucumber (optional- it adds crunch to a creamy salsa)

Step 1: After letting your squash cool, remove the rough skin and cut the flesh into cubes. If you've let the squash roast for the full 45 minutes, the cubes will become creamy when mixed in with the other ingredients. Under-cooked squash should hold up for a chunky salsa even after the other ingredients are added.

Step 2: Slice and dice up all your other ingredients, throw in the corn kernels and slowly add in the peppers, garlic, hot sauce, and salt. Mix together with a large spoon and adjust to taste.

Step 3: Enjoy!

You can serve this right away with tortilla chips or as an addition to your burritos. Get it while the getting is good- because no matter what the season, salsa never stays around for long!

Libellés : Bio c'bon, food rituals, recipes, seasonal

vendredi 10 juin 2011

Sprouting and Branching Out: A Balcony Update.

It has been a long time since my last post, but I don't want to end up on this website so instead of becoming a blogger cliché I'll just get to writing...

While my presence on the cyber page has been scarce as of late, I've still been keeping up with my paris paysanne habitudes in unpublished activities.

Summer is setting in, with a nice mix of salsa inspiring sunshine and sprouting seedlings awakened by scattered showers. My balcony is in bloom, with two cherry tomato plants I bought at Marché Batignolles doubling in size each day. Our grape vine is back with its beautiful green leaves but no grape bunches yet. We've also been dining weekly on my little salad harvests, they provide nice greenery for our ritual pizza parties.

Our window box herb garden has expanded to include not only basil but mint, thyme, rosemary, and chives. And, in probably my most exciting addition, this week brought with it the first sprouts of cucumber plants that are from seeds that lovely Solange brought back from Ireland for me! I hope that my cukes will be healthy and fruitful because I'm planning on using them for both this great cucumber kimchi recipe that Céline sent me as well as combine them with my grapevine and brine to make some delicious dill pickles.

Like my tomato plants, I have also branched out and become an "amie" of the Jardins du Ruisseau, which is the community garden in my neighborhood that inhabits the abandoned railroad tracks near St. Ouen. I just signed up today, but I can't wait to see what this new membership will bring into my life and am looking forward to sharing my experiences on the blog!

This little balcony and blog status update has allowed me to look back on some fun projects of the past and look forward to tons of new DIY adventures. I'd love to arrange to some collaborations in the future as well, so if any of you have ideas for posts or want to guest blog, please get in touch!

Otherwise I'm looking forward to writing about my experience working with community gardens, finding new marchés du mois, and producteurs to profile, as well as posting about my DIY projects for me and monsieur's wedding in August 2012!

Let me know if you're out there, paysannes de Paris, then I'll send a personal note apologizing for my absence next time! Until then, stay biodynamique!

Libellés : Community Gardens, fermentation, food rituals, Paris Paysanne

jeudi 3 mars 2011

Food Rituals: Pizza Party

Every Wednesday, me and Clément hold a pizza party for two in our little apartment. Pizza Night is the one night of the week that I consistently look forward to. On Wednesday morning, Clément gets up early to make the dough and let it rise all day, and in the evening, I pick out a bottle of wine and come up with ideas for toppings on my way home.

Pizza Night became a weekly ritual when my mom sent us home from California this Summer with a pizza-sized baking dish and me and Clem decided to try to recreate Pizza My Heart's menu.

We quickly worked through all of their veggie options and then moved on to our own creations, including Winter Pesto pizza and pizza topped with home-marinated artichoke hearts!

Pizza night is our food ritual, in all the time that we've practiced Pizza Night, I think we've only rescheduled once or twice. Like any one who works from home or has a busy life knows, it's important to organize and prioritize your time, allowing yourself to say no to anything that might conflict with what precious time you have to spend with the important people in your life. Every week, we prioritize pizza and in doing so we also value the time we get to spend together.

This is the first time I've ever kept up a food ritual for so long, but I know it isn't anything new- it occurred to me that a lot of my readers probably have their own food rituals that they share with their families, friends, or themselves on a weekly, monthly, or even yearly basis.

If you have a food ritual, please share it with us. How did you come up with it and why do you keep up the ritual? If you don't have a food ritual, I challenge you to give it a try. It's something nice to look forward to during the week and a lovely thing to come home to at the end of the day!

And of course, ideas for new pizza recipes are always welcome!!

Libellés : food rituals, pizza party

This Page

Paris Paysanne: The Blog

mardi 31 janvier 2012

A Salsa for every Season: Winter

vendredi 10 juin 2011

Sprouting and Branching Out: A Balcony Update.

jeudi 3 mars 2011

Food Rituals: Pizza Party

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