Tag organic produce

Parties That Cook’s Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Potluck Recipe: Butter Lettuce Salad with Berries, Lardons and Tarragon Crème Fraiche Dressing

0 comments By The Kitchen Whisperer Filed in Menus & Recipes Tagged with , , , , , , , , , , September 29th, 2011 @ 5:51 pm

This weekend is BIG. In San Francisco, there’s Hardly Strictly Bluegrass, which brings dozens of musicians to San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park for three days of free performances. In Seattle, Parties That Cook is hosting a public Cooking Farm to Table Class at Willie Green’s Organic Farm! How are they related, you ask? There will be food trucks at Hardly Strictly Bluegrass, but what puts this music festival over the top is Coach B’s Healthy Potluck. Guidelines request organic food, the freshest ingredients, and seasonal dishes. This recipe for a delicious Butter Lettuce Salad with Blackberries, Lardons and Tarragon Crème Fraiche Dressing will be featured at this weekend’s Seattle Cooking Farm-to-Table, and fits those guidelines to a tee!

Butter Lettuce Salad with Blackberries, Lardons and Tarragon Crème Fraiche Dressing

Ingredients:
Dressing:
1/2 cup crème fraiche
1/4 cup Greek-style yogurt
2 Tablespoons fresh tarragon coarsely chopped
2 teaspoon minced garlic
1 teaspoon lemon zest
2 teaspoons lemon juice
3/4 teaspoon kosher salt
1/8 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 to 2 Tablespoons water (if needed)

Salad:
6 ounces thick-cut bacon, cut into 1-inch-wide pieces (to form lardons)
1 cup fresh blackberries or raspberries
2 heads butter lettuce (about 8 oz. total)

Methods/Steps:
Dressing: In a medium bowl, whisk together the crème fraîche, yogurt, chopped tarragon, garlic, lemon zest, juice, salt and pepper. If the dressing is a bit stiff, stir in water to thin the mixture to a creamy salad-dressing consistency.

Lardons: Cook bacon in a 12-inch heavy skillet over moderate heat, stirring occasionally, until browned and crisp, about 12 minutes. Pour off the fat as you go to help the browning. Transfer to a paper towel to absorb some of the grease.

Assemble Salad: Prepare blackberries. Wash and dry lettuce and break it into bite-size pieces. Toss the lettuce lightly with half the dressing. If salad looks dry, add more dressing. Put salad on plates and garnish with berries and lardons. Serve immediately.

Serves 8

Recipe created by Parties That Cook® | www.PartiesThatCook.com

Do You Know Where Your Food Comes From?

0 comments By The Kitchen Whisperer Filed in Go Green Tagged with , , , , , April 6th, 2010 @ 3:37 pm

Where do you get your produce? Or rather, how far does it travel to get to you? Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) is becoming more and more popular as consumers become more aware of these questions.  CSAs provide high quality, organic, locally farmed produce to consumers, support local farms, and reduce costs for both farmers and consumers by cutting out the middle man.

A friend in San Francisco raved about Farm Fresh To You (FFTY) and how they delivered a wonderful mix of seasonal fruits and vegetables to her door every week.  I instantly fell in love with the idea.  I had become busy with work and did not have enough time to go to the market.  At the same time, I had become more obsessed with food and wanted to work with what was in season.  But whenever I walked into a supermarket, I always ended up with the same veggies and fruits, and I stayed away from the organic produce because it was more expensive.  Once I signed up for FFTY, however, I’d get whatever was in season — all organic — and it became a great way to force myself to start working with more unfamiliar produce.  I still remember the day I pulled leeks out of the box and thought to myself — What am I supposed to do with these?

That’s why some CSA’s like FFTY make sure to include a weekly newsletter with recipes for some of the items in the delivered box.  Harvest Moon Farms, servicing Chicago, takes it one step further and provides not only recipes by a professional chef, but cocktail recipes and pairings as well as wine pairings by LUSH Wine and Spirits.

If you wanted to get even more local, Seattle MicroFarm brings the farm to your back yard.  They create, maintain, and cultivate a MicroFarm for you, visiting weekly to harvest your crops for you.

Whether it’s the convenience of delivery, fun cocktail pairings, or urban microfarming that ultimately draws you in, take comfort in knowing you are helping to create a sustainable food system that reduces carbon emissions from trucking and flying in food from large distances.