Gardening Clinic at St Susanna Church, March 4

Slow Food Cincinnati board member Brigitte Cordier will be talking about Slow Food and presenting two 25 minute "cooking with herbs" demos at 7:30 and 8:30 PM. Sessions on "composting", "container gardening", and "worm bins" will also be presented between 7 and 9 PM.

For questions, contact miriam at m.jackobs@gmail.com

Location:
St Susanna Church Undercroft,

616 Reading Road in Mason

As promised here are the recipes from our 2010 kickoff meeting:

Curried Parsnips:

• 1.5 lbs parsnips, peeled and chopped
• 2-3 tbsp butter or canola oil
• 1 onion, thinly sliced
• 2 apples, peeled, cored and thinly sliced
• 1 tsp curry powder (but I used at least twice this much)
• 1/4 cup yogurt
• 2 tbsp chopped cilantro
• salt and pepper
• Steam parsnips until barely tender, about 7 minutes. Melt butter in a medium skillet and saute onion and apple with the curry powder over medium heat, stirring frequently, for about 10 minutes. Add the parsnips and season with salt and pepper and cook for 5 minutes more. Turn off heat and add yogurt, chutney and cilantro and serve with Dried Fruit Chutney.

Dried Fruit Chutney:

• 1.5 cups whole dried apricots, chopped
• 1/2 cup golden raisins
• 1/4 cup currents
• 1/4 cup dried cherries or cranberries
• 3.5 cup apple juice or water
• 1/2 cup apple cider vinegar
• 2 tbsp minced fresh ginger
• 1/2 tsp fennel or anise seeds (I ground all spices, but you could also add whole)
• 1/2 tsp black peppercorns
• 1/2 tsp coriander seeds
• 1/4 tsp red pepper flakes
• pinch salt
• balsamic vinegar to taste
• Put everything but the balsamic vinegar in a heavy saucepan and bring to a boil. Lower the heat and simmer until the fruit is soft but not mushy and the liquid is reduced to a syrup, about 45 minutes. Stir in 1/2 tsp or so balsamic vinegar to taste. Can store in the refrigerator for many weeks.

Chard, Shiitake Mushroom, and Brown Rice Salad

• 4 heads of Chard, stems removed, 1/2 inch julienned
• 1 pound Shiitake Mushrooms
• 4 cups of cooked brown rice
• 1 1/2 cups sesame seeds
• 1/4 cup sesame oil
• 1/4 cup pure olive oil
• 1/2 cup honey
• 1/2 cup shoyu soy sauce
• 1/2 cup rice wine vinegar
• 1 T freshly grated ginger
• 1 T chopped garlic
• 3/4 cup sliced scallions
• red pepper flakes tt
• salt tt
• black pepper tt

-In mixture pure olive oil and sesame oil, saute shiitake mushroom, sesame seeds, ginger, garlic, red pepper flakes, season lightly with salt, and pepper tt
-Toss cooked mushrooms in with chard and scallions. Add the cooked brown rice
-Season to taste with soy sauce, honey, rice wine vinegar. Add more sesame oil, pepper flakes, sesame seeds, etc. if needed. Enjoy!

Parmesan Crackers
by Mark Bittman

• 1 cup all-purpose flour, more as needed
  
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
  
• 1/2 cup finely grated fresh Parmesan cheese
  
• 4 tablespoons unsalted butter
  
• 1/4 cup cream or half-and-half, more as needed
  
• Coarse salt, pepper, sesame or poppy seeds or whatever you like for sprinkling (optional).

Heat oven to 400°F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or lightly dust with flour. Put flour, salt, cheese and butter in bowl of a food processor. Pulse until flour and butter are combined. Add about 1/4 cup cream or half-and-half and let machine run for a bit until a dough forms. If it doesn't come together, add teaspoon of cream at a time until it comes together. Make sure it isn't too wet or sticky.

Roll out dough on a lightly floured surface until 1/2-inch thick or even thinner, adding flour as needed. Cut the crackers at preferred size; I cut mine to 1 inch squares with a pairing knife, docked each cracker with fork, sprinkled ground pepper and bake them 1 inch apart on the prepared baking sheet.

Bake until browned, 10- 12 minutes. Cool on a rack; serve warm or at room temperature. Crackers can be stored in a tin for few days.



Local Food Sources:
Fab Ferments: Kombucha and Kraut
Blue Jacket Dairy: Silverlake Chevre and Arrowhead herbed goat cheese
Claddagh Farms (at Findlay Market): Blackberry Jalapeno preserves (was together with the cheese)
Snowville Creamery: for the cream in the parmesan crackers
Backyard Orchard: Apples for applesauce
Turner Farms: Parsnips
Dojo Gelato: Custom 5 spice gelato with orange zest