It’s back to school time in the city, and it’s my favorite season for eating. Pumpkins and other winter squashes are fattening on the vine while heirloom tomatoes and outdoor barbecues are still going strong. It’s no wonder Just Food has chosen this time of year to hold its annual fundraiser feast, Let Us Eat Local. This year’s party is on September 16th, and it’ll be outside, at the South Street Seaport Water Taxi Beach. And it’s truly going to be the biggest, best, most delicious and inspiring one so far. I’d love for you to see in person. So once again, I’m holding a recipe contest where one food blogger will win a ticket, and more!

Last year, I called on bloggers to make a recipe focused on seasonal ingredients in order to win. This time, you’ll have a choice of which seasonal ingredient to use. Choose one veggie from the list to focus your recipe on (it can have other ingredients, too). Make it fresh and different, totally your own. And blog about it, sometime between now and September 10th. Be sure to take photos so that the judges can imagine eating the dish. Email me with the subject line “veggie tipsheets contest” to make sure that I know it’s up in the blogosphere, and I’ll pass it on to our judges (more on them below). If your recipe wins, you’ll get a general admission ticket to the Let Us Eat Local tasting event (a $175 value, tax-refundable), plus, your recipe will be included in Just Food’s upcoming Veggie Tipsheets book.

Just Food been working hard to provide home cooks like us with recipes and tips on how to use all the veggies you’ll see in season, or that’ll show up from your CSA. We realize there can be a mystery element to every batch. So they’re compiling them in a comprehensive book. Maybe you have a real flair for cooking eggplant, but are confused when it comes to okra. Pooling our ideas, we should be able to hit every ingredient in all sorts of delicious ways. The cookbook is looking for more recipes for the following fruits and veggies, so please choose one of the following to base your recipe on as your contest submission:

Plums
Blueberries
Currants
Nectarines
Elderberries
Harukei turnip (aka Japanese salad turnips)
Komatsuna
Lettuce
Orengo
Yukina savoy

There are your secret ingredients! Now, here are your honorable judges:

Jacquie Berger, Executive Director, Just Food: Jacquie is just the best. For a title with the word “executive” in it, she makes every part of her job look fun. And every member of the small staff at Just Food does every job all the time, so it won’t be a surprise to see her sitting table at a food fair or stuffing envelopes over homemade snacks at an office party.

Gabrielle Langholtz, Editor-in-Chief, Edible Manhattan & Edible Brooklyn: Gabrielle has been writing about and working for food in this city for decades. A former director for the Greenmarket and current editor of an even smaller organization than Just Food (the Edible magazines), she is a total hardworking hero. Good cook, too.

Rachel Wharton, Deputy Editor, Edible Manhattan & Edible Brooklyn: Fresh from winning a James Beard award for her “Back of the House” features in the magazine, Rachel is the spokeswoman for food in this town. She would also like to bike to Coney Island, drink vodka on the boardwalk and eat Russian food tonight.

Ben Sargent, Brooklyn Chowder Surfer & Lobster Roll Guy: Ben has been on a roll lately, with food gigs and more fun stuff in the works based on his wildly successful underground lobster roll-making circuit this past winter. He’s also the host of Heritage Radio Network’s Catch It, Cook It, Eat It, and a surfer. I’ve been a longtime fan of his adventures by land and sea.

So without further delay, let’s get blogging! Remember, the deadline to post your recipe is September 10th, and don’t forget to email me at cathy[at]noteatingoutinny.com, too. I’ll post a recap of every entry soon afterward with the winner announced.

If you’re not a blogger or simply can’t make it to the Let Us Eat Local event in NYC on the 16th, you can still partake in the good food celebration. We’ll be announcing a lineup of incredible prizes for the silent auction that will take place before, and during the fundraiser party. These will be posted to the Just Food site, and your money for winning any auction item will be donated straight to Just Food. Check out more about the festivities, and participating restaurants and sponsors here. Inside tip: Sixpoint will be brewing a beer made with Red Jacket Orchards‘ plums just for the event!

I was at a backyard party in Brooklyn a few weeks ago hosted by my friend June. I’d been to her paella party at about this time of year last summer, and so I knew what kind of yumminess to expect from this event. I got there a little late, again. June was just adding the shellfish to a paella pan, plunking clams and mussels hinge side down into the rice. The wide, cast-iron pan was placed on top of a blazing hibachi grill on a small space of concrete. On top of another grill, there were sliced zucchini just going down, the smell of blackened shisito peppers was in the air, and trays full of grilled sausages, browned chicken, rabbit meat and beans flocking the station all told me that June had been laboring over open fire for some time now. My cocktail, served up by a guest/friend behind a makeshift bar, must have gone straight to my sun-weary head. I stood before the barbecue, transfixed, and watched the mussels and clams slowly open in the pan and continue to gape wide, as if they were all preparing to sing the Hallelujah chorus.

Since then, I can’t get paella off the brain, so I had to bug June for her tips and pry her tried-and-true recipe (below!). The detailed procedure she provides in it was eye-opening to me in many ways, and I can’t wait to give it a try. Good ingredients are key: June sagely froze peas from this spring to sprinkle on at the end, while her lima beans were just in-season and fresh. (Beans are a traditional addition often forgotten today, from the dish’s peasant roots.) June is actually a very talented cook of all kinds of food, not just paella. And when not cooking, entertaining or putting up foods for the winter, she is advocating for and visiting regional farms as the farm inspector at GrowNYC. GrowNYC is the non-profit that makes the Greenmarkets happen, and they recently changed its name to that from CENYC, the acronym for Council for the Environment of New York City. And are they ever growing — there are more Greenmarkets, more farms selling at them and more variety amongst them than ever. Have you noticed it this summer, too?

June Russell before her handiwork

As mentioned, the expert’s recipe is below, and I hope you’ll try making it outdoors before the summer’s done. Here are a few more questions I put to Inspector June, in case you had burning questions about the dish, too.

So, you must be Spanish, a true Valencian, correct?

JR: Laughter! A lot of people think that. Must be my mid-western accent, it’s often mistaken for Valencian.

What made you decide to bring paella to Brooklyn?

JR: About six years ago, this woman hired me to cook for her husband’s 50^th birthday. He was a volunteer fire fighter, and had just built a fire pit he was really proud of and wanted to use for his party. So I did paella for him and bought a large paella pan to do the job. I had also just moved to Brooklyn with my girlfriend, into a garden apartment with space to grill and entertain. I did my first party with friends that same summer. Everybody brought an ingredient, it was a blast.

How did you learn how to make this dish?

JR: I worked in the kitchen at Zingerman’s in the 90’s, and made vegetarian paella almost every day during Spanish Food month. They would, and still do, an authentic paella out on the patio, so I watched and learned. I have learned a few other tricks over the years though, like making the sofrito ahead of time to really build some flavor from the base, and saving broth and drippings from the sausages and meats I prepare ahead of time.

Does it really need to be cooked outdoors over an open flame?

JR: No, you can cook a paella stovetop as long as your pan fits the burner, but it is traditionally an outdoor production. I have two different sized pans now, and the large one fits perfectly on my grill. I can get a more even heat on the grill then I could from a burner, and the rice cooks better that way. La Tienda has paella burners that use propane but I haven’t bought one yet. Paella is a great high summer dish to make, when everything is bountiful at the market and you just want to be cooking outside.

hot coals heat a bubbling paella pan

What makes paella a great dish to serve up at a party?

JR: People don’t get to see paella being made very often, so it is fun to see people’s reactions to watching it all come together, especially when the shellfish start to open. There’s lots of oohs and ahhs. It’s also a great way to feed a lot of people. I was in France a few years ago during the Tour de France, and these guys were making a ginormous paella to feed the crowd that was there to cheer on the riders. It seemed like their version of street fair food.

Rachel Wharton watches the shells open, too

What’s the best part about paella, in your opinion?

JR: As a cook, you can’t help but get obsessed with the crust or the socarrat. When you get the heat and the timing right, the rice forms a crust on the bottom that adds a great texture to the dish that is coveted by paella lovers. When I worked with Dominican and Puerto Rican kids on the Lower East Side we made arroz con gandules and they would always let the rice burn a little and make a crust. The kids said that the elders always love the “con-con.” I love that image, and think a lot about what that means. And I’m just smitten with how beautiful it is when it’s all done.

What is your official title at GrowNYC?

JR: My coworker warned against titles which contain an “and” but I manage Farm Inspections AND strategic development and regulations. My role has expanded in the last year, and has not settled into a tidy moniker yet.

How long have you been with the organization?

JR: I have been with Greenmarket for over six years. I started by managing neighborhood markets and doing cooking demos at Union Square. I LOVE neighborhood markets, People don’t realize how great they are, or what an incredible network we have. People fixate on Union Square, which is great, but there is a lot more.

So does being an inspector mean you’re like a cop?

JR: I am really (don’t tell anyone) primarily an advocate. I spend a lot of time at markets and on farms, mostly learning the issues, ebbs, flows, and products that our farmers and region produces. Sometimes you come across someone who is pushing the line and we address that when it happens. But because I spend so much time out in the region, I have become a pretty good scout, looking for ways to tie Greenmarket into a larger, viable food system. That work has become really exciting for us, and has lead to projects such as facilitating the renewal of grain production in the Northeast, and we are now working to connect farmers with processors and processing initiatives in the city.

So maybe some short-grain rice for paella can be found at the Greenmarket soon? Check back in a few weeks to see, and in the meantime, here’s that recipe!

June Russell’s Summer Party-Perfect Paella
(for a 22-inch paella pan)
serves 15-18 people

3-4 medium onions
4-6 cloves garlic
3 (total) red & yellow bell peppers
1 quart canned tomatoes, preferably put up from last year
1 lb Merguez sausages (Dancing Ewe Farm)
1 lb pork sausages (Arcadian Pastures)
1 whole rabbit (2.5-3lbs)
12-18 clams
12-18 mussels
4 cups short-grain rice
1 tsp saffron, toasted and minced
2 tsps paprika
2-3 bay leaves
2 cups lima beans
2 cups fresh peas
9 cups liquid*

*Barnyard stock (stock made from all the bones saved in the freezer until there is enough to make stock with) and water. I use a 1:1 ratio of stock to water, plus all the drippings (see below) so there is lots of flavor, but it’s not too rich.

Day before:

I do the sofrito the day before so that it cooks down slow and gentle.

Dice the onions and peppers to a quarter inch and sweat on a low heat until soft and sweet. (Add the garlic after the onions and peppers have been cooking down for about 10 minutes.) This can take a while, like 45 minutes or more.

Add tomatoes and simmer on low until the mixture gets thick. Let cool and refrigerate.

Day of prep:

Cook the sausages.

And the rabbit; break the rabbit down into pieces, salt, brown in a skillet and finish in a hot oven.

Save all the juice and drippings from everything to add to the liquid*.

Clean shellfish: wash the clams well, and de-beard the mussels.

Prep the mis en place; get everything you need ready to go at your grill station.

To cook the paella:

Light a charcoal fire, with enough briquettes to make a double layer of coals around the grill bed. I use charcoal briquettes because they generate a lot of strong, even heat and last a long time.

Tip: While the grill is hot, I use a comale to cook off shisitso peppers, and some haloumi cheese for starters.

When the coals burn down to an even medium-high heat, place the paella pan on the grill, and let it heat up. Add the sofrito and let it get hot, stirring constantly. Add the paella rice and saffron and stir the rice into the sofrito, like a pilaf, letting all of the rice kernels get coated with the sofrito and turn slightly translucent.

Add the combined liquid, paprika and bay leaves. Stir well, getting the rice evenly distributed around the pan. Add the meats, placing evenly around the pan. Leave it alone.

When half of the liquid has cooked into the rice, place the shellfish, hinge side down, into the paella, evenly distributed around the pan. Add the lima beans. When there is just a little liquid left, and the shellfish have opened, add the peas. Let it cook until it appears all the liquid has cooked into the rice. Remove from the heat and let it finish cooking for another 5-7 minutes.

(Cost Calculator, Health Factor and Green Factor respectfully omitted for guest recipes.)

We’ve gotten our first whiff of fall in New York City this week. This morning, I actually put on socks. But now that summer is beginning to fade (and soon, too, will my flip-flop foot tan), it’s officially okay to start thinking about baking, specifically pies. There is so much good fruit around.

Fresh, tree-ripe peaches, plums and apricots make a superior pie, and this is the only time of year to get them. I can’t tell you how sad it is to try a canned peach-filled pie after trying one made with the ripest fruit, fresh. Another great reason to make pies from these fruits — as tempting as they are to just gobble up fresh — is that it’s a great way to use up fruits that have gotten a little bruised, or are soft and overripe, just like turning them into jam.

multi-colored plums from Red Jacket Orchards

So that’s what happened with a bunch of apricots and plums recently, for me. Though I’ve been eating plums incessantly ever since I signed up for Red Jacket Orchard’s fruit CSA, I can’t seem to down enough of them before they get a little soft and squishy. I prefer eating plums that are slightly firm, when the skin’s tight across its ruby flesh and super tart. A couple of pints of apricots, too, went the way of soft and slightly shriveled, as if they were on their way to drying themselves out in the sun on their own. Not even the brewers at Sixpoint could finish all the fresh fruits that I had stocked the fridge with. So one day, for a post-lunch dessert, I made this pie.

making a quick pie pastry from butter, flour and water

It was the quickest pie-making mission I think I’ve ever done. I didn’t try to get creative with the flavors in the filling, like adding herbs or browned butter or nuts. Just this good fruit would be sensational enough, I figured. Since there was a hoard of plums and apricots, I went with those for my theme, and left the skins on as I pitted and cut them all into wedges.

fresh (overripe) apricots and plums tossed with sugar form the filling

The good thing about this mix, plums and apricots, is that apricots are a little on the dry side, and plums can be way too mushy when baked. Combined, they make not only a great flavor, but a nice consistency in your pie. Just be sure to add a little touch of cornstarch (or flour) to the fruit mixture, so that the runny plum juices thicken up a bit into a delicious sauce.

the top crust is assembled (and I forgot to poke holes for ventilation!)

an egg wash is prepared (from one of Beaker’s miniature eggs)

and brushed on, followed by a sprinkle of sugar

Something about cooked apricots and plums, too, is just delicious in a way that completely differs from how they taste fresh. You don’t need to add lemon juice to this pie filling, either — it’s tangy and very intense in flavor alone. I don’t know why people invented candy sometimes.

If you find yourself in a predicament of too much fruit, too, or just want to try out this combo for a ride, please do so before stone fruit season’s over. It might just warm you up to colder weather soon to come.

Plum & Apricot Pie
(makes one 9-inch pie)

for the filling
6 cups plums and apricots, pitted and cut to wedges
1/2 cup sugar
2 teaspoons cornstarch

for the crust
1 1/2 sticks cold unsalted butter, cubed
2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
2-3 tablespoons cold water
optional: 1 egg and sugar to brush on top before baking

Make the crust: Combine the flour and salt. Using a pastry blender, your fingers or a food processor, cut the butter into the flour. If using the food processor, pulse several few times until the pieces of butter are no larger than a pea. The mixture should resemble coarse crumbs. Add water one tablespoon at a time and stop when the dough is malleable enough to form a ball. (If using food processor, slowly add water one tablespoon at a time to the mixture while pulsing it just until a ball is formed). Break into two balls. Cover them with plastic wrap and chill at least 30 minutes. (Crust can be made several hours beforehand.)

In a large bowl, combine the fruit with the sugar and cornstarch and mix well. Roll one pastry ball out and transfer to the bottom of a 9-inch pie pan. Fill with the fruit. Roll out top crust on a sheet of waxed or parchment paper, and carefully transfer peel off on top of the pie. Crimp edges to seal the pie shut, and poke holes throughout the top with a fork to ventilate the filling. Brush top of pie with the beaten egg mixed with a little water, and sprinkle the top of the pie with sugar. Bake at 375 degrees for about 40 minutes, or until lightly browned on top.

Cost Calculator
(for 1 9-inch pie, or about 8 servings)

6 cups apricots and plums (from a CSA half-share at $13 per week of lots of fruit): $5.00
1 1/2 sticks butter (at $3.50/8 oz.): $2.63
2 1/4 cups flour: $1.50
1/2 cup sugar: $0.25
1 teaspoon salt, 2 teaspoons cornstarch, sugar for sprinkling, egg for eggwash from rooftop chicken): $0.25

Total: $9.63

Health Factor

Seven brownie points: A rich pie pastry filled with sugared, cooked fruit is what it is, no matter how fresh and full of vitamins the fruit is to begin with. Still, they retain a good share of Vitamin C, telling by the pie’s tartness, and by keeping the skins of the fruit on you’re keeping more flavor as well as nutrition, so don’t go through the hassle of peeling! One piece of this treat is a good way to reconcile with an overload of fruit, but whenever you can, eating them fresh is the best way to go for your health.

Green Factor

Eight maple leaves: Know thy farmer, they say, and it’s been a great pleasure getting to know the farmers and staff at Red Jacket Orchards, which doesn’t spray chemicals on their Finger Lakes-based orchard and is fond of cultivating rare varieties of fruits to keep them alive. The butter, from Ronnybrook, is also created with care by the upstate dairy. I’ll just need to join a grain CSA next in order to benefit from all the great flour made in this region.

a warm and fuzzy peach

It worked. And it occurred to me this was something like lassi. A popular yogurt drink from India, a lassi is pure refreshment from a cow. It’s essentially yogurt, blended with spices, sweeteners, and/or fresh fruit. Like mango, or in this case, a juicy summer peach.

non-fat plain yogurt from Ronnybrook

You’ll want to use plain yogurt, and kefir or drinkable yogurt works great. Depending on how fleshy your fruit is, you may want to splash in some milk with this — peach puree can be a little thick. The resulting drink should be slightly thick and smooth, with no icy particles, and if your blender’s good enough, not a conspicuous trace of skin and/or fuzz. It’s highly drinkable, with a velvetiness to the tongue. Thick yogurts like Greek or cream-top are best saved for a more fitting use. For this, I was happy to drain off some of the liquids that had built up in my quart of non-fat plain yogurt from Ronnybrook Farm, right into the blender along with a good scoop.

lassi-making steps are easy: one, two, and sipping is three

You certainly don’t have to add a dash of cinnamon to the mixture, too, but it lends a little complexity and lurking note of cooler days and nights to come. There should be no need for lemon to add extra tang — that’s in the yogurt, naturally. So pucker up and gulp it down, summer’s only here once a year.

Peach Lassi with a hint of cinnamon
(makes 1 drink)

1 medium-sized ripe peach, cored and chopped
1/2 cup plain yogurt (or kefir)
dash of cinnamon (optional)

Combine in a blender and blend well, until smooth. If desired, add a splash of milk for a thinner consistency.

Cost Calculator
(for 1 drink)

1 peach (from my Red Jacket Orchards CSA share): $0.35
1/2 cup yogurt (at $4/quart from Ronnybrook): $0.50
dash of cinnamon: $0.05

Total: $0.90 (try finding that price at a smoothie shop!)

Health Factor

Three brownie points: How delightful when something that’s supposed to be a “treat” turns out to be just that for your health as well? And unfortunately, how rare. Well, keep on making these all summer, with all kinds of fresh fruit — berries, apricots and plums. Peaches have Vitamin C, Vitamin A and potassium, and if you’re a fan of nonfat yogurt, you’ve got very few calories combined in this drink. Yogurt, as long as it’s natural, should contain live cultures that are probiotic, good for digestion and much more.

Green Factor

Nine maple leaves: Only thing not locally produced and sold was that flourish at the end — a sprinkle of freshly grated cinnamon. The peaches (and apricots, plums, nectarines and fruit juice) were in the first share of a new CSA I’ve become a member of, provided by upstate farm Red Jacket Orchards. And the yogurt was produced on the farm at Ronnybrook, close to home, too. I should mention that Ronnybrook makes a peach yogurt drink, along with other fruit flavors, that taste quite similar to this, if sweetened a bit more. So this should be a good way to kill your craving for those, as I have often — but you didn’t hear it from me!

In a good way, of course. I came across a bag of fregula among the many interestingly shaped imported pastas at Bklyn Larder, a small cheese and charcuterie shop in Prospect Heights. Intrigued because the pieces seemed to have varying shades of toasty tan, I picked up the bag and bought it on a whim. Now, how to cook it? Thankfully, there was a recipe on the bag.

It called for chopped onions, a few ripe tomatoes, olive oil and basil, and it sounded more or less like making a warm pilaf or a risotto that didn’t need to be cooked quite as long. In shape and size, fregula resembles Israeli couscous, but once I tasted a grain after boiling it, breadcrumbs came to mind. It’s merely dried semolina pasta that’s been toasted in an oven, for a little complexity of flavor. I’m assuming the darker the piece, the more it was toasted, hence the range of tones and flavors.

Peas, freshly shucked from the pod, were added to this mixture toward the end of cooking. I picked these up a couple weeks back in the Catskills on a ‘lil weekend trip, and it was probably the last of the harvest for even that far up north (but no less tender and sweet). Instead of a couple tomatoes that the recipe called for, I swapped in two red plums that I had on hand. (The tomatoes the recipe called for had the word “plum” in it, anyway… ) It was the last of my stash of one vegetable — peas — and the first of what looks to be many for another — plums. Fresh basil from the windowsill plant went in for the final toss. Combined, it was delicious: savory, and sweet.

I’ll probably be seeing many more plums and stone fruit, and by way of this blog, so will you, probably, too, because I’ve just signed up for a fruit CSA here. It’s the first stand-alone fruit CSA in New York City, and Red Jacket Orchards is the farm supplying it. Members will receive a weekly allotment of fruit and juices in season from the orchard, and I can’t wait to see what I’ll get. Since I like to have fruit at home at all times — apples throughout the dull winter and spring — it’s an economical decision for me. The juices they’ll throw in to each share is a luxurious plus, though.

That’s my first effort at cooking fregula, and now that I now how familiar and easily the procedure is, I hope to try more stuff out with it soon. I actually can’t wait for when it gets colder and a hearty pasta with Bolognese sauce or meatballs would seem more fitting.

Fregula with Peas and Plums
(makes 3-4 servings)

1 1/2 cups dried fregula
3 cups water
2 large red or black plums (or, substitute plum tomatoes as with tradition), chopped
1 onion, chopped
1 clove garlic, minced
1 cup fresh peas, shelled
1/4 cup olive oil
2-3 tablespoons grated Parmiggiano-Reggiano or Pecorino
salt and pepper to taste
handful fresh basil, torn (or substitute chopped fresh parsley)

Heat about half of the olive oil over medium heat in a large, covered saucepan. Cook the onions until translucent, stirring frequently, about 6-8 minutes. Add the garlic and plums and cook, stirring, another 2-3 minutes. Add the fregula and the water. Increase heat to medium-high and bring to a boil. Cook, stirring occasionally, 8-10 minutes or until liquid is almost thoroughly absorbed. Add the peas and cook another 2 minutes. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Finally, add the grated cheese, basil or parsley, and the remaining olive oil to taste.

Cost Calculator
(for 3-4 servings)

1 1/2 cups fregula (at $8/18 oz. bag): $5.00
1 cup shelled peas (at $2/lb in the pod): $1.50
1 onion: $0.25
1 clove garlic: $0.05
2 plums: $1.00
1/4 cup olive oil: $0.40
2 tablespoons grated Parmiggiano-Reggiano: $0.50
salt, pepper, home basil plant: $0.15

Total: $8.85

Health Factor

Six brownie points: With peas and fresh fruit, this dish transcends a side or background to a meat entree into a light meal on its own. Green peas are a very good source of protein and fiber, and also provide heaps of Vitamin K, so use plenty if you have them. The red plums — the stand-in for tomatoes — also have adequate Vitamin C, though they’re a little higher in sugars. Don’t be deceived (as I was?) by the different colors of fregula, thinking their darker hues might mean whole-grain. They are, after all, semolina, made from durum wheat, which is naturally yellowish in color (and turns brownish when toasted, apparently). So no brownie points to eating whole grains here.

Green Factor

Seven brownie points: The fregula here was a vehicle for using some fresh, local produce I’d garnered over the weeks. There can never be too many of these. But while the produce was from local farms that I’d actually visited, the starch here was imported from across the pond, in Italy. As was the olive oil and cheese, too. Such is life.

The Sixth Annual Great Hot Dog Cook-Off took place last Saturday, and what a competition we had! The little cook-off that began in Kara Masi’s backyard has blossomed into a full-blown block party in front of Kelso Brewery in Clinton Hill, Brooklyn. As always, this event was a charity fundraiser for City Harvest, who received all of the proceeds from the 300 ticket sales. Kelso has been sponsoring the cook-off since the very first year, and last year held it inside (and on the streets outside) the brewery. This year, a deejay, announcer, ice cream sponsor (Adirondack) and hot dog (Hummel) sponsor were added. And there were twenty wildly different hot dogs on display from the contestants — including mine, a green curry mayo-slathered cucumber dog.

cookoff hosts Kara Masi and Kelly Taylor

I thought that a crisp, cold cucumber would be the perfect vessel for a hot, greasy cucumber in the middle of summer. They’re also abundantly in season right about now, and as it turned out, Eagle Street Rooftop Farm had a bumper crop of cukes at the very same time the cookoff was to take place. Not having any idea of my plans, Annie Novak asked if I needed cucumbers for anything: “I have too many!”

hollowed-out cukes for “hot dog buns”

It was serendipitous, and I couldn’t have guessed before receiving a whole crate full of fifty of them that the field cucumbers she’d grown were so sweet and juicy, and once halved and scooped of their seeds, would fit a grilled hot dog perfectly. I’ve never used a seeded cucumber half for stuffing anything with before, but now that I’ve tried this, I can’t see why anything else wouldn’t go well inside that pale green bowl. On top of the hot dog, I squirted a squiggle of Thai green curry-infused mayonnaise , sprinkled some crushed peanuts, and added a sprig of cilantro. A squirt of fresh lime juice, and it was served. So how did my hot dog do against everyone else’s? Let’s take a look at some of the others:

Nichelle Stephens made an “English Breakfast Dog” with bangers and bacon.

Karol Lu and teammate David Roderick made a Fried Pickle to the Slaw-ter Dog with coleslaw and a cornmeal-crusted fried pickle for garnish.

Ben Stein and Arin Kramer stuffed the insides of their hot dogs and called it a Tur-Dog-En.

Noah Berland made plum ice cream and served it on a homemade pain au chocolate (that’s a flaky, buttery chocolate croissant) “bun.” It had no hot dog to speak of!

Laena McCarthy made the Farm Dog with produce from Brooklyn Grange rooftop farm, and her own jam

Erik Michelson (not pictured) made a Swahili Dog inspired by his recent charity mission in East Africa, with spicy pickled lime sauce and homemade flatbread.

Two-time winner Eugene Kim made something excellent that was all gobbled up by the time I got to it.

Lots of people made hot dogs involving guacamole this year. I think about five folks had this idea!

brave contestants before a hungry line

the judges (six people chosen at random at the beginning of the event) taste and deliberate

That was a very quick run-through of the other dogs, as I was too steeped in my own grilling/cucumber assembly operations to get a full survey. As with previous years, contestants grill their hot dogs on location, and garnish them up and cut into bite-size pieces on the spot. Each entry is made before the attendant’s eyes, creating a fun spectacle, and lots of sweat. There are two rounds of this, with ten contestants in each one, so never a dull moment at the event. I had the misfortune of inheriting the same station that Noah and teammate Shunya had used in the first round, which was utterly trashed with melted ice cream and chocolate. Thanks to the many kind volunteers who cleaned up all this crap befrore I got started.

In the end, my cucumber dog didn’t receive honors from the judges, as did any of my friends’ dogs, except…

Karol and David, who won the grand prize for best dog in show! Congrats to the winners of the other categories, too — I couldn’t hear the explanations behind these awards too well above the crowd, but here they are:

BEST IN SHOW: Karol Lu & David Roderick

BETA DOG: Tailgate Joe

BEST WORKING DOG: Eric Friedman & Emily Rubenstein

BEST TOY DOG: Annie Conway

A three-year veteran of this cook-off, Karol finally got her revenge. This is one of the hot dogs that I actually got to taste, and Karol’s vinegary red cabbage coleslaw is just killer. The Southern-style fried pickle is totally David’s latest obsession. Combined, a perfect pairing, and a winning team. Congrats, guys. And let’s host another Food Obstructions soon — one of the five rules: must have a hot dog?

In the meantime, here’s my recipe for that cuke dog. Go crazy with it!

Green Curry Cucumber Dog
(makes 6 hot dogs)

6 hot dogs (preferably pork and beef blend)
6 6-inch cucumbers (or the length of your hot dogs)
1/3 cup mayonnaise
1 tablespoon Thai green curry paste (can be found at most Asian markets)
6 long sprigs fresh cilantro
1 tablespoon crushed salted peanuts
juice of 1 lime

Halve the cucumbers lengthwise. Using a spoon, scoop out the seed pocket completely. Chill until use.

Combine the mayonnaise and green curry paste and about half the juice of the lime.

Assemble dog: place hot dog inside the cucumber. Squeeze the cury mayo on top as you would ketchup or mustard. Sprinkle with crushed peanuts, add the cilantro sprig, and squeeze a squirt of the lime. Enjoy!

Cost Calculator
(for 6 hot dogs)

6 cucumbers (at $1.80/lb from Eagle Street Rooftop Farm): $3.25
6 hot dogs (donated free at this event, but guesstimating): $5.00
1 tablespoon green curry paste (from a can for $2.99): $1.00
6 cilantro sprigs (at $1.29/bunch): $0.25
1 tablespoon crushed peanuts: $0.20
1 lime: $0.33

Total: $10.03

Health Factor

Five brownie points: The lone vegetarian in the crowd that I knew of was looking around asking, where’s the veggie dogs? Who made a veggie dog? No one at the cook-off did. But there was an ice cream dog, and there was mine, which certainly had a vegetable. You could say this is also a low-carb hot dog, since there’s no starchy bun to speak of. I just thought it was yummy.

Green Factor

Five maple leaves: Half and half. I used Annie Novak’s Brooklyn rooftop-grown cucumbers for this, which are pesticide-free as well as grown with love. She even delivered them to my door while making other errands. The hot dogs were donated by Hummel, and we can’t thank them enough for their generosity. But they were conventional hot dogs.

From the archives: Previous’ years hot dog creations and recaps

The Baked Brie Dog
The Maki Dog
The 2008 Great Hot Dog Cook-Off
The 2009 Great Hot Dog Cook-Off/The Hapa Dog

I don’t know anything that doesn’t taste good with a slice of a fresh, juicy and tree-ripened summer peach. It doesn’t need anything to accompany it, but it sure can give other ingredients a boost. For example, ricotta or goat cheese with a peach slice on crostini. A bowl of vanilla ice cream with peaches. Grilled peaches on shishkabob sticks, in salsa and gazpacho, on a pizza instead of tomato slices, peanut butter and peach sandwiches. I’m eating buckwheat pancakes with peaches on them right now. Life is peachy. So I decided to do as I’ve done before with citrus fruit wedges, and toss them along with some roasted beets.
Unlike other prized fruits of the summer, like cherries and strawberries, the window for peaches in season is comparably long. This year, thanks to the intense heat and dryness — which peaches like — Jersey peaches made their first appearance at the Greenmarket remarkably early, about a month ago. And I hope they continue to fill the stands for the rest of the summer, perfuming the crowded streets with their sweet, peachy smell.

a fuzzy peach

a bunch of beets loose their greens (for another use)

I also scored beets at the Greenmarket last week. Young, crisp and colorful, these had a full head of greens that were happily gobbled up after sauteeing with onion and olive oil. In the past few years, I’ve gone from beet disbeliever to a regular aficionado of the root. There was a period of maybe six months when I ate a roasted beet — as a snack, as a side — almost every day. Some foods are bad for you eaten in excess; conventional wisdom would say excessive anything is not something to be wary of. But I’d disagree about beets. Though they’re a deep, dark red that stains everything they meet, the flavor of the beet is pretty benign, and the texture, agreeably unremarkable, too. It didn’t feel like I was eating much of anything with each one, but the sensation was somehow satisfying. It felt sort of like taking a daily vitamin.

And it is. Like their intense color would suggest, beets are big on antioxidants, and have cancer and heart disease-fighting properties, as well as a host of vitamins and minerals. All told, I don’t see why eating beets should be a rarity, a “special” on a menu, or a once-in-a-blue-moon soup. They’re cheap; they store well; and they’re available all-year. Especially in summer, when they’re just-dug and new.

For this salad, you’ll want to roast and cool your beets first. I find wrapping them in foil and throwing them in an oven for a while the easiest, cleanest, hands-off way of to do that, and roasting intensifies their flavor, too. Here’s a more detailed how-to on that. And once they’re all cooked and de-skinned, try holding the beet in your hand as you carefully cut wedges. Because a cutting board and any surface it touches can easily get stained.

For a little crunch, I chopped a sweet pepper and onion finely, and did the same with the leftover, juicy beet green stems. This mixture was tossed with lemon juice, olive oil and salt until fresh, crisp and tasty enough to eat up alone. Since my peaches and beets were almost the same size and shape, I cut them into wedges of about the same size. If your peach clings to the stone, as mine did, just try cutting the wedge into the peach while holding it up, too, and seeing if you can’t yank just that wedge away from the stone at a time.

Maybe this salad is just a way of combining two of my favorite things, but it sure makes a striking bowl to bring to a barbecue. I brought this one to a birthday picnic in Central Park, and it was cut short when an unexpected thunderstorm showered on us. It didn’t stop for the whole day, and this bowl of salad — left out — got a good deal of water to wash it down. I grabbed my things and ran, waterlogged bowl of salad and all. When I got home, I took another look at the leftover beets and peaches sitting in a small pool of water, shrugged, and gobbled them up. Case in point, you don’t really need a dressing, or any seasoning to spice up two ingredients if you like them that much. But here’s a good way of gussying up a peach and beet salad, if you’re shy of either one.

Peach and Roasted Beet Salad
(makes 4-6 servings)

4 beets
2 medium-sized peaches
1 shallot or 1/2 small onion, finely chopped
about 1/4 cup sweet bell or cubano pepper, finely chopped
about 1/4 cup the beet stems, finely chopped (only use if crisp)
2-3 tablespoons olive oil
juice of 1 lemon
salt and pepper to taste
handful fresh basil leaves

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Wash each beet and remove any long strands. Wrap individually in foil and place on an oven-safe tray. Roast approximately 30-40 minutes (depending on the size of your beets). Remove from oven, unwrap foil, and let cool completely. Once cool enough to handle, peel the skins off (they should slip off easily). Cut into quarter or eighth wedges.

In a large bowl, toss the onion, pepper and beet stems with the olive oil, lemon juice and salt and pepper to taste. Carefully cut peaches into wedges and discard the pits. Gently toss in the beet and peach wedges, and add the basil leaves for garnish just before serving.

Cost Calculator
(for 4-6 side servings)

1 bunch beets (from Phillips Farm at the Greenmarket): $2.75
2 peaches (at $2.50/lb also from Phillips Farm): $2.00
1/4 cup pepper (at $2/lb): $0.35
1/2 onion (at $2.50/bunch of 4): $0.30
1 lemon: $0.50
olive oil, salt, pepper, leaves from home basil plant: $0.50

Total: $6.40

Health Factor

Three brownie points: This is a fabulously healthy summer side. Somewhere in between sweet and savory, it has its share of natural sugars from the peaches as well as beets, but they come along with Vitamins A and C aplenty, as well as folate, fiber and potassium. The peppers, basil and lemon juice add color as well as extra doses of those, too. Hardly any fat is used, nor really needs to be used, for something like this, so I went easy on the olive oil, adding maybe two tablespoons total. The more you use, the richer, and it will help marry the flavors. Olive oil is a heart-healthy fat anyway, so it won’t hurt much.

Green Factor

Eight brownie points: I think everything int his came from local markets with the exception of the lemon, olive oil and salt and pepper. That’s not such a huge feat given it’s the middle of the summer, but anyway, here’s to using the summer’s bounty in every which way!

Stuffed with what, it really matters little. Do a crab dip type thing, spinach, bacon or pancetta, or this: lots of herbs with breadcrumbs, onion, and the scooped-out squash sauteed first. Sprinkle cheese on top before roasting, or not. Or stuff it with “surprise,” what happened to that fun tradition? The object is using the summer squash — particularly the rounder species, like these lovely eight-ball varieties just in season — in ways we haven’t before.

At least, that was my impetus for stuffing some fresh, colorful squashes. I was marooned in a cabin in the wilderness recently for about a week. It was completely intentional, of course — vacation. But I brought to eat only what I’d managed to forage from the Greenmarket the morning I left, and some other pantry goods. Lots and lots of squashes were there, such vibrant and eye-catching, so I grabbed green and yellow globe-shaped (or “eight-ball”) squash along with speckled green pear-shaped ones, too. It’s so much fun to gear up when you’re going away for a while.

The first night, I chopped up some of these squashes into wedges, and browned them briskly with olive oil, sea salt, and a small clove of garlic. The next morning, I did more or less the same, and served them inside an omelet. Don’t get me wrong, the seared, carmelized edge of a summer squash is pretty hard to beat, but roasting them held some fun potentialities, too.

So I halved some of these squashes and zucchini, and scooped out the seeds and most of the flesh to about half an inch around its skin. Chopped up, this went into a skillet where they were quickly sauteed along with some onion and garlic. Fresh breadcrumbs (from a stale baguette) and simple seasonings later, it was a bonafide “stuffing” for something.

squash seeds and flesh are scraped out of the centers, and sauteed with onion, herbs and breadcrumbs

So if you’re also looking for something new to do with all the beautiful zucchini and summer squash around, this is just a fun idea that can lead to endless variation. Chopped olives or capers, tossed into the mix? Why not? Meat, like minced or ground pork, instead of breadcrumbs and veggies altogether? Meatball in a squash, sounds good to me. Sundried tomatoes, goat cheese, roasted red peppers, nuts, parsley and butter… it’s all good. But in theory, it’s a good way to use up scraps of whatever’s leftover and around, like bread. Have fun with it, and here’s the recipe for what I had around, and used.

Stuffed Summer Squash
(makes about 4 appetizer-sized servings (or 1 half-squash per serving)

2 summer squashes (preferably ones with rounder shapes so as to stuff more easily)
1 garlic clove, minced
1 small-medium onion, chopped
about 1/2 cup fresh breadcrumbs
herbs such as parsley, thyme or sage, chopped
about 1/4 cup grated Swiss or Gruyere cheese (optional, and substitute any cheese — I used Manchego because it was handy)
salt and pepper
2 tablespoons olive oil

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Slice squashes in half. Using a spoon, scoop out the seed pockets and the flesh so that the remaining flesh is about 1/2 to 1 inch thick from the skin. Dice the scooped-out seed and squash mixture.

Heat about 1 tablespoon of the oil in a heavy-bottomed skiller. Cook the onions, stirring occasionally, over medium-low heat about 4 minutes or until translucent. Add the garlic, chopped squash and seed mixture and salt and pepper to taste. Cook over medium-high heat about 4-6 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add the breadcrumbs and herbs and toss to combine.

Coat the inside and outside of the scooped-out squash halves with salt, pepper and olive oil. Stuff a handful of the stuffing mixture into the concaves of each squash, pressing it in with your hands. Sprinkle the optional grated cheese over each of the mounds of stuffing. Place spread apart on a baking sheet and bake about 20-25 minutes or until golden brown on top. Let cool a few minutes before serving.

Cost Calculator
(for about 4 appetizer-sized servings)

2 squashes (at $1.80/lb): $1.50
1/2 cup homemade fresh breadcrumbs: $0.25
1 onion: $0.30
herbs (rooftop-grown parlsey, sage and thyme): $0.25
optional 1/4 cup Manchego cheese (at $15/lb): $1.00
olive oil, 1 clove garlic, salt and pepper to taste: $0.40

Total: $3.80

Health Factor

Four brownie points: Just because it’s savory, baked and golden doesn’t mean that it has to be so bad for you. Yes, this application for cooking summer squash (and zucchini) is probably heavier than many common ways of preparing it may be. But you could elevate it to a whole meal this way. With the squashes already providing lots of potassium, fiber and vitamins you’ve covered a decent amount of bases, nutrition-wise, already.

Green Factor

Seven maple leaves: This recipe was a solution to a locavore diet, very much in the moment and craving more summer produce than just zucchinis and squashes. Add anything else from your region in season to it.

]]> http://noteatingoutinny.com/2010/07/23/stuffed-summer-squash/feed/ 9 http://noteatingoutinny.com/2010/07/20/saru-gazpacho-and-a-food-obstructions-iv-recap/ http://noteatingoutinny.com/2010/07/20/saru-gazpacho-and-a-food-obstructions-iv-recap/#comments Wed, 21 Jul 2010 02:58:35 +0000 cathy http://noteatingoutinny.com/?p=5557

We have a new champ of the Food Obstructions, and a winning recipe that I hope everyone cooks up real soon. But first, a big, fat thank-you from Karol, David and myself to everyone who came, ate, and cooked. Together, we raised almost $600 for Just Food, the nonprofit promoting access to fresh, good food for all residents of NYC. It seems that definitely includes us, because what was even more impressive about Sunday was the smorgasbord of delicious, summery treats prepared by our new friends and neighbors. And all of them followed these rules: 1) Must be vegetarian; 2) Must contain locally-sourced honey; 3) Must contain a locally-grown vegetable; 4) Must have an ingredient that’s spherical in shape; 5) Must have a crunchy garnish.

Those were the five obstructions to the cook-off this time around. And here are the dishes contestants cooked within these constraints:

Spencer Beggs’ blueberry gelato, raspberry-rhubarb syrup and pistachio sundae

Noah Berland’s honey currant truffle with salty beet chips

Megan Spence’s scones with coddled cream and currant preserves

Emily Hanhan’s glazed carrot cupcakes with currants, walnuts and carrot-vanilla frosting

Mike Caprio’s blueberry buckle

It was a bit of a battle between the savory and the sweet, as about half the contests went for a dessert (honey was one of the must-have ingredients, after all). As you can tell, blueberries and currants made a big splash, and as overheard from some of the contestants, it was because they were the only spherical things to be found at the Greenmarket this past Saturday. I didn’t snag a photo of one entry, which was a colorful carrot cake drizzled with syrup and strewn with nuts made by Gelseigh Karl and Dima Kislovsky — apologies, and it was great! And here are the rest:

Shana Wright’s spinach and chickpea dumplings with cashew-lime sauce

Meredith Bethune’s cucumber honeydew gazpacho

Dave Klopfenstein’s sweet pea suppli (fried risotto balls) with honey-olive oil sauce

Christina and Alix’s Indian-spiced quinoa with lots of veggies and peanuts

Among the savory entries, peas, peanuts and chickpeas all made appearances as the spheres, but aside from that, everyone went in pretty different directions. I should note that I learned a lot from the contestants: thanks to Dave for explaining that the proper name for deep-fried balls of leftover risotto is suppli to Italians; and Mike, I’m ashamed I never knew before the Southern term for something similar to a cobbler or crisp, “buckle.” Keep ‘em coming, folks.

Gelseigh helps an attendee fill up a plate

Spencer (left) and Megan prepare their bite-sized tastes

Mike shows how a blueberry buckle is done

The other food discovery of the day for me — and the one that took home first prize — was saru. It’s an Indian tomato and lentil soup, a humble-sounding dish that Chitra Agrawal turned on its head first by serving it chilled, like a gazpacho, and second, third and fourth by adding chunks of creamy avocado to it, topping it with cotija cheese, and sprinkling crisp balls of chickpea flour called boondi for garnish. And a whole lot more, as evidenced in the recipe below (the photo of this dish is at top). Served hot, I’m sure that this soup would have been yummy. But chilled and pleasantly thick from the pureed lentils, and bright with spices and lime, it was the perfect slurp for the hot summer day.

A lot of other voters agreed. As usual, everyone who attended the Food Obstructions was given a scorecard on which to rank their top five favorite entries. After adding up all the favorites and calculating the average, we came up with the five ultimate winners of the day. Here they are:

5th Place: Honey Currant Truffle by Noah Berland
4th Place: Scones with Currant Preserves and Coddled Cream by Megan Spence
3th Place: Sweet Pea Suppli by Dave Klopfenstein
2nd Place: Spinach Chickpea Dumpling (the official name on the ballot was actually, “You Want A What? A Dumpling!”) by Shana Wright
1st Place: Saru Gazpacho by Chitra Agrawal

Honorable Mention: Indian Quinoa by Christina and Alix

left to right: Chitra Agrawal, Shana Wright and Noah Berland

It looks like the audience voted they wanted their savory meal first, desserts second. I’m just glad there was both to go around. It was hard to see so many good entries walk away without an official mention, but our hope is that everyone just had a good time above all. Each contestant came away with a gift certificate for a freebie egg cream at the newly opened Brooklyn Farmacy and Soda Shoppe (owned by our good friend Petey). Many thanks to the other local businesses who donated generous prizes, too: The Brooklyn Kitchen with a $50 gift certificate to the 2nd place winner; Radish restaurant and food shop with a gift certificate for the 3rd place; Anarchy in a Jar jams and My Friend’s Mustard; and Analon for providing the big kahuna prize, a ten-piece Ultra Clad cookware set. We’ll sure Chitra will put it to good use.

Finally, here’s Chitra’s winning recipe for the chilled soup that sunk them all. Cold, spicy, sour, sweet, rich and filling, I really can’t say enough good stuff about it. Oh yes — cheap and healthy! This dish happened to win by a landslide, more than thirty points, so I’ll shut my mouth and just let that speak for itself. Was it your favorite out of them, too?

Chitra Agrawal’s “Saru Gazpacho”
(makes 3 quarts)

I was in Putnam County, New York last week, on the border of Vermont, and hit up some farmers’ markets in the area. It seemed to be spring still up north a little way’s: sugarsnap peas and leafy greens littered the stalls, while the former have come and gone in these parts and peaches and corn have been here for weeks. But at one table, I spotted this bunch of colorful carrots, from a farm that clearly took pride in their heirloom array. I left with some purple broccoli and an oversized, off-white pattypan squash along the way, as I snagged the last bunch of their carrots for the day.

Most of the carrots were about the width of a Sharpie pen, with long, sinewy tapers. I thought they’d be great for slitting in half lengthwise and grilling. But they also came with a full head of feathery, frond-like greens. Carrot greens may not be the most desirable leafy green to eat, but they’re a real superfood, dense with Vitamin A just like its roots as well as tons of K and C. There was simply too much good stuff to just lose.

carrot greens are separated and broken down to a simple pesto with garlic and olive oil

I’ve made “pesto” with fresh kale before, and other unlikely leafy greens. So the deep-green carrot tops didn’t seem too much of a stretch. Because these leaves are fairly tough and stringy, I blanched them first in salted water, and tried to remove any long pieces of stem. Even though they boiled for about a minute, so much bright green seeped into the water, a sign of their potency. I also made the most bare-boned version of pesto, with just salt, pepper, olive oil and a raw clove of garlic — no nuts and no grated cheese this time (although those ingredients are listed as optional below). Carrot greens have an exceptionally sweet, grassy taste, and it certainly comes out in this pesto. When slathered on something else, you might assume it’s just basil pesto at first bite, but the unique flavor will creep up on you pretty soon.

carrots are halved lengthwise and tossed on a grill

I like leaving a little stub of the (edible) stem on the carrot while snipping the rest off. These can be used as a handle while you crunch away at the rest of the root, even more convenient when there’s a sauce to dip it in like this pesto. That’s how it was handled when I served them to a friend, though I ended up eating his leftover stubs (maybe just for that efficiency, waste-not logic).

If you can still find really fresh carrots at this time, here’s a real fun way to cook them. Oh, and the pesto can be used for hoards of other dishes once the carrots are gone, too. I made about a pint in total from the greens of just one bunch.

Grilled Carrots with Carrot Greens Pesto
(makes 4-6 appetizer-sized servings)

1 bunch carrots (as fresh as you can find, and preferably thin)
greens from that bunch of carrots
1 large clove garlic
about 1/2 cup and 1-2 tablespoons good extra-virgin olive oil
salt and pepper to taste
optional, for the pesto: nuts such as pine nuts, walnuts, pecans, almonds, etc., and parmiggiano-reggiano

Snip the carrots from the greens leaving about 1/2-1 inch of the stem on the root. Set carrots aside. Remove any long stems and wilted leaves from the leafy greens. Bring a pot of salted water to a boil and boil the greens for about 1 minute. Drain well for at least 5 minutes. Coarsely chop the garlic clove and the greens, and transfer to a food processor as well as salt, pepper, the 1/2 cup of olive oil and optional pesto ingredients. Pulse for a few seconds, stopping to scrape down mixture with a spatula as needed, until well blended. Taste for seasoning, adding salt and pepper as desired.

Cut carrots lengthwise so that they’re about equal in size and thickness (you may want to halve skinnier carrots lengthwise, or quarter them). Drizzle with olive oil just to coat and season with salt and pepper. Get a grill hot (note: or substitute heating a cast-iron or heavy-bottomed pan) and place carrots cut side-down. Let cook for 1-2 minutes, or until charred marks form on the underside, and flip. Cook another 2-3 minutes, turning occasionally, until each side is slightly charred and remove from heat. Serve with the pesto.

Cost Calculator
(for 4-6 appetizer-sized servings)

1 bunch carrots: $3.00
1/2 cup and 2 tablespoons olive oil: $1.00
1 clove garlic, salt, pepper: $0.10

Total: $4.20

Health Factor

Three brownie points: We know that carrots are good for eyesight from all their Vitamin A, but they’re also very high in fiber, and low in calories. The latter was especially surprising given how sweet they taste, and certainly become once caramelized a little to bring out their sugars (it smelled a lot like roasting marshmallows while grilling them). The greens have Vitamin K which is lacking in the roots. Eat it all up, I say, and since it’s so flavor-packed, no need to go heavy on the accoutrements.

Green Factor

Eight maple leaves: The great thing about getting out of the city during the summer is getting to visit the places that make a lot of the food that’s brought to it. I had the pleasure of passing through farms where so much produce for NYC consumption is grown, and buying it right there. Even the garlic, used in this pesto, was from the same farm. When in Rome…