Savoring Kentucky » Kentucky Food

Step Up for a Bleu Plate Tour of Downtown Lexington Food Spots

Rona — Fri, 30 Jul 2010 20:11:36 +0000

The Bluegrass becomes more and more a food and agriculture destination – which is a fine fit with our abundant natural assets. Now Lexington will join the ranks of cities that boast downtown food tours. Bleu Plate Tours offers a downtown walking and tasting tour of seven of Lexington’s iconic food places – restaurants and food stores — on Saturdays at 10 AM, starting in August, 2010.

The tours sound like fun, and they will be good for the participating businesses. Savoring Kentucky wishes Bleu Plate Tours big success with this new food adventure.

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The world is coming to visit central Kentucky this year for the Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games. To help our visitors know more about Kentucky’s food and food ways, Savoring Kentucky is rolling out 116 Savory Kentucky Bites, one for each of the 100 days before WEG begins, and 16 for the days during WEG, September 25 – October 10. Today’s Savory Bite is number 45.

Sheltowee Farm Oyster Mushrooms: Colorful, Delicious

Rona — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 13:31:04 +0000

Until Blue Moon Farm began offering oyster mushrooms at the Lexington Farmers Market — an era that may have already ended — I had no idea these fungi could be coral or lemon yellow. These Kentucky-grown mushrooms glow enough to be faintly scary — but I am bigger than they are, and I have subdued them rather easily with a sharp knife, hot butter, and a bit of time.

Actually, quite a bit of time. Since their flavor is mild, especially compared to Morels or Shiitakes, these fungi respond best to a slow, low, buttery sizzle in a heavy skillet, eventually yielding some lovely caramel sides and edges, along with sweetened flavor. Just before munching, I add a light sprinkle of large crystal salt like the Celtic gray available in bulk at Good Foods Market. Sweet-earthy-browned butter- salty-chewy-crunchy — I eat the mushrooms just like that. They could also add mild flavor to soups, pasta, sauces, and stews.

These mushrooms grow in the Daniel Boone National Forest near Salt Lick, Kentucky, in Bath County. The growers, Sheltowee Farm Gourmet Mushrooms, began their business in 2002. The Farm grows oyster and organic shiitake mushrooms year-round. Read about Sheltowee’s oyster mushroom production process here. And be amazed at the array of oyster mushroom colors — well beyond yellow and “pink.”

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Perfect Blackberry Pie: Summer’s Dark Glory

Rona — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 14:38:56 +0000

Sometimes what we want, and what we need, is a perfect recipe that produces food that tastes just the way it should. One essential in my house is a blackberry pie recipe that does magic with a slightly caramelized/sugary/buttery crust and the dark/sweet/hidden essential bitterness of the cooked blackberry.

Here you go: this Lattice-Top Blackberry Pie from the July, 2000 (late, lamented) Gourmet Magazine tastes like the wild blackberry pies my mother and aunts made without recipes. The linked Pastry Dough recipe for the crust works, too, although it makes YOU work, so use your own tried-and-true recipe if you wish.

I have not tried this recipe with the huge cultivated blackberry fruits for sale at Lexington Farmers Market right now. Based on what cooks say in the 37 unusually positive online reviews of this recipe, juiciness is a big variable. Juiciness varies based on whether the berries are wild or cultivated, whether the year is dry or wet, whether you are using fresh or frozen fruit. Cultivated, wet year, and frozen berries all are likely to hold extra juice.

With this year’s Kentucky berries, both wild and cultivated, seem particularly fat and juicy. With this year’s fruit, especially if you are using cultivated berries, you may want to take several cooks’ advice and add one extra tablespoon tapioca.

But! Let’s say you get a really, really juicy blackberry pie – aaaaaah. Serve it in bowls, use spoons, slurp the sublime stuff. The juice is the elixir. Juicy pies, like “failed” fallen cakes with a sublime moist core, stand out in the memory as special, wonderful to the tastebuds in spite of not conforming to a cookbook ideal.

Similarly, if your pastry gives you trouble and the lattice-making seems like work instead of food sculpture/play, either use a full top crust (cut at least 8 steam vents in it) or just roll out some pastry pieces and lay them on top of the berries. The taste will be amazing, and the look will say proudly homemade.

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Ground Round With Elmwood Stock Farm Integrity (Plus Amazing Flavor)

Rona — Mon, 26 Jul 2010 22:24:27 +0000

Eventually in this post we’ll celebrate Ground Round, the flavor-rich, certified organic, Black Angus Elmwood Stock Farm ingredient that makes our wonderful burgers in summer and our outstanding meatloaves and spaghetti sauces in winter. First, a little photographic appreciation of Elmwood, with apologies (for the nine photos) to anyone with a slow internet connection.

Elmwood is comprehensive. The farm produces many first rate vegetables, fruits, flowers, beef, turkeys, chickens and eggs.

Elmwood is green. Anything that can be grown organically is grown organically, and the organic list grows each year.

Elmwood evolves. Heritage vegetables and time-tested farming practices mix with new products and new ways of growing and handling food sustainably.

Elmwood invests. Turkeys have to be fed morning and night, in the coldest and the hottest weather, while planting/picking/watering/weeding/bundling/washing/cultivating/transplanting and hundreds of other tasks also must be completed at a high level of reliability and responsibility. Of course it isn’t just the turkeys that need long months of steady care, but they represent the types of challenging and valued food production that distinguish Elmwood from many other farms.

Elmwood follows through. The farm’s stewardship goes beyond a planting-tending-harvesting-marketing cycle to include pasture and soil development, seed and plant selection and cultivation, harvest and post-harvest methods, and customer care, including Elmwood Stock Report, their marvelous blog aimed at Elmwood CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) shareholders, but happily available to all of us, too. The recipes on the blog reflect unusual savvy about fresh, delicious tastes, while avoiding burdensome preparation.

Elmwood shines. Let’s be honest: How many of us can run a complex farm, get up before 4 AM, manage one of Lexington Farmers Market’s busiest stands, and still do justice to dotted Swiss?

Elmwood knows and shares. Ambi and Mac Stone have generously and patiently taught me most of what I know about nutritive values in real foods. They often suggest a great recipe, excellent book, useful conference, or helpful website.

Elmwood pleases. Ground Round may seem an unlikely way to make this point, but Elmwood’s beautifully produced, richly flavored, healthy, dry-aged, organic, pastured Black Angus meat has seen us through lean times (ahem) and flush ones. Although we probably eat at least a pound of Elmwood Ground Round each week, every year, no carnivore in our household has ever said anything but “YES!” to the suggestion that we have something made with Elmwood Ground Round for dinner.

To learn three reasons why Elmwood’s Ground Round pleases hungry people so much, read the Farm’s detailed description of its breeding and cattle-raising practices. Integrity and flavor fuse in Elmwood’s meats. Its no-waste Ground Round keeps fine beef affordable and available in central Kentucky.

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Good Foods Market Thrives and Satisfies

Rona — Sun, 25 Jul 2010 18:55:39 +0000

How good it is, Good Foods Market & Café, aka “the Coop,” and how good that it thrives and grows and evolves with our community. What began in 1972 as a wise way for a few families to buy healthy foods — mostly grains as I recall, and some cheeses — today serves thousands in our region in hundreds of ways.

Recently our family celebrated a sizable, happy wedding. More than 100 people came from out of town.

Looking back, I realized how central the Coop had been in making people happy and comfortable. Some portions of the wedding party ate meals there. Snacks for the bride and groom’s long wedding day and weekend came from Good Foods. New reusable bags of fresh fruit and Kentucky goodies greeted some out-of-town guests. An array of Good Foods’ cold teas, juices, and lemonades refreshed family members waiting for the ceremony to begin. Special Good Foods items like avocados and fresh cilantro boosted large family dinners to celebration status.

Reflecting on my household’s deep reliance on the Coop over more than 30 years gives me an opportunity to notice all I take for granted:

Readily available special foods for specific diets: vegan, low-carb, low sodium, raw, vegetarian, macrobiotic, and more
Supplements that offer healing and relief for a multitude of conditions, and wise staff members who help without giving inappropriate advice
Kentucky-grown premium meats and some seafoods, eggs, cheeses, vegetables, fruits, canned goods, books, greeting cards, and even a few body care products
Extensive organic stock, including some fabric items and, I just learned, organic root beer
A busy café that makes it easy to eat more vegetables and fruits, and offers ways to experiment with foods few of us try at home, like wheat grass juice and vegan pastries
A long-term commitment to education, including a steady catalogue of classes and an intriguing recent film series. Coming up next: Dirt, on July 27 at the Downtown Public Library
An elected board that works both smart and hard for the organization’s long term stability and future, and has invested heavily and consistently in improving its own effectiveness
A permanent commitment to cooperative principles and democratic decision-making

That’s a weighty list. The thing that draws me to the Coop several times a month, though, is likely to be a longing for something on the shelves: Kenny’s Farmhouse Aged Cheddar, or some of the signature lightly sautéed kale on the hot buffet.

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Another Thing To Love About Kentucky Summers: Grapes!

Rona — Sun, 25 Jul 2010 01:31:15 +0000

Like everything else this hot summer, grapes have ripened early in Kentucky. Boyd Orchard in Woodford County grew these beauties. They are resting on my grandmother Rona’s grape plate.

These are seedless champagne grapes, deliciously tart-sweet. Their skins pop just a little when I eat them.

Never mind the champagne. Here’s your recipe:

Buy.
Wash.
Drain.
Chill. (Optional)
Savor.

You want cheap thrills?

After step 3, put the grapes on a small cookie sheet.
Freeze.
Savor.

You want blissful excess?

After step 4, pick grapes off the stems into a small bowl.
Add 1 tablespoon creme fraiche, sour cream, full fat Greek yogurt, or Mascarpone cheese.
Add two teaspoons excellent Sherry.
Stir carefully, thoroughly.
Savor.

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Tour Farms and Eat Farm Food in the City

Rona — Fri, 23 Jul 2010 11:29:53 +0000

I’ll miss the Lexington Farmers Market Farm Tour and first ever farm dinner downtown in the Pavilion on Saturday, July 31, so I hope you’ll go and enjoy both these events for me. Ticket sales for the Taste of the Farm in the City dinner END on Monday, July 26. You can buy tickets for the tour up to the day it happens.

Each farm visit I’ve made during two previous farm tours has given me new insights and new appreciation for what farmers do, and how they do it. Among the lessons:

A row of lilies can soothe a weary heart.
A breed of chickens exists called Ameraucanas, different from Araucanas, although both breeds lay exquisite blue eggs.
Bottle-feeding baby goats makes milking them easy later on.
A suburban backyard can produce a farm’s worth of heirloom tomatoes — beautifully.

I appreciate that the farmers add in welcoming visitors to all the other ways they provide for us.

Here is information taken from the Lexington Farmers Market July 7 e-newsletter:

Do you ever wonder where your food comes from? Can you tell the difference between tomato plants and pepper plants, or do you know what pigs eat when they are raised on pasture? Have your kids ever been to a real farm, or would your parents or grandparents like to visit one? The third annual Lexington Farmers’ Market Farm Tour will take place Saturday, July 31^st from 9am-2pm in conjunction with our 35^thanniversary! This self-guided tour allows you to choose between 7 of our vendors’ farms and visit the ones that interest you the most (maybe all of them)! We’ve received rave reviews from previous attendees, so don’t miss out!

In addition to the Farm Tour, we’re also celebrating all the great food the Lexington Farmers’ Market has to offer with the A Taste of the Farm in the City dinner that evening. This special event will showcase recipes from Central Baptist’s new cookbook, Beyond the Fence: A Culinary View of Historic Lexington prepared with ingredients from Lexington Farmers’ Market members. We hope you’ll join us for an evening celebrating the 35^th anniversary of the Lexington Farmers’ Market and the taste of Kentucky.

Tickets for the tour are only $10 for adults and $2 for children under 12. Dinner tickets are $20 for adults and $10 for children and are limited. You can buy your tickets at any of the markets starting this Saturday, or online at www.lexingtonfarmersmarket.com.

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Thank You, Sam Barnes

Rona — Thu, 22 Jul 2010 19:25:41 +0000

I am among the thousands of central Kentuckians who did not know Sam Barnes personally, yet have experienced benefits from his work to make our community great. I am grateful for his life, and for his habit of saying “Yes” to ideas and projects that improve life in our place.

Tuesday evening, just before I learned of Mr. Barnes’s untimely death, I went to take photos of some energetic volunteers making soup from fresh garden produce in a church basement. I had difficulty finding good light and good photos in the basement setting, difficulty finding ways to show the beauty of the people and the food. I wondered why food preparation in many of our institutions is so often relegated to dark, cramped underground spaces.

By contrast, I thought with gratitude of the way the new Fifth Third Bank Pavilion at Cheapside Park elevates Kentucky’s exquisite food and its growers and producers at the Saturday Lexington Farmers Market. Sam Barnes’s leadership in championing and raising significant funding for the Pavilion makes us love our own place more, and in doing so, affects the lives and livelihoods of the Lexington Farmers Market farmers, vendors, and patrons.

People love being in the Pavilion. It raises spirits and uplifts the healthy commerce taking place within its light shelter. I can even imagine that the pleasures of this space will have a positive impact on the hundreds of children who come to the Saturday Market, fostering an unbreakable connection in their minds between delight and real, sustainable, locally grown food and farmers.

Sam Barnes used his position and capacity to give our community fine gifts in many categories. With the Fifth Third Bank Pavilion, which has many other uses in addition to the Saturday Market, Mr. Barnes leaves a legacy of empowering us to see ourselves and our activities literally in a different light, a light of promise and plenty.

I honor this legacy, and send heartfelt sympathy to Mr. Barnes’s loved ones.

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Cold Tomato Soups: Chill Thrills

Rona — Tue, 20 Jul 2010 21:31:36 +0000

Nope – not gazpacho. That’s a scary summer soup. When others serve it, I sometimes have to strengthen my resolve and simply eat some of whatever happened in their kitchens. Gazpachos are often too something. Too raw onion-y, too peppery, too acrid, too raw-tasting, too texturally icky.

The 2010 Tomato Avalanche may threaten to bury us all, but put a cool finger on your blender and prepare to reduce some tomatoes to a pulp while keeping full control over how the resulting soups taste and feel.

The good options begin with a soup a friend described as we baked in the waiting area before marching in Lexington’s July 4 parade. I couldn’t help but wish some of the kind people coming around with plastic bottles of water would say instead, “Chilled Marinated Heirloom Tomato Soup for you, ma’am?”

My friend sent me the recipe and source. (Thank you, DC.) I’ll share those with you, and follow with a few links to more cool tomato soups.

Marinated Heirloom Tomato Soup

from Vegetable Harvest: Vegetables at the Center of the Plate

by Patricia Wells

1-1/2 pounds ripe tomatoes, cored and quartered (do not peel)

1/2 cup tomato paste

1 tablespoon celery salt

1 teaspoon ground piment d’Espelette or dried Anaheim chili

(or ground mild chili pepper)

2 tablespoons best-quality sherry-wine vinegar

(red wine vinegar works)

3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

20 fresh basil leaves

Combine all the ingredients with 1-2/3 cups water in a food processor or a blender and purée to a smooth liquid. Taste for seasoning. The soup can be served immediately, but the flavors will benefit from ripening for 3 to 24 hours, refrigerated. At serving time, reblend the soup. Serve in chilled soup bowls. Serves 4 (large bowls) or 8 (small cups).

Rona’s note: I tried this delicious, thick (!) soup as recommended, with the tomato skins and seeds included, but reduced to a finer texture by the blender. I also tried forcing some of the soup through a medium sieve to remove some of the seeds and fibers. I liked it sieved best, but not enough to do the relatively hard work required for a regular meal. Perhaps if I were cooking for friends, I might sieve-and-serve.

A neighbor told me recently she finds the whole notion of cold soups…chilling. Just flat wrong. She said perhaps a new label is needed, something like “cooler,” something more likely to be drunk from a glass than eaten with a spoon. That’s the notion behind this Spiced Tomato Cooler, intended to be served in a glass and sipped.

A friend told me about The Wednesday Chef, Luisa Weiss’s blog devoted to descriptions of dishes she prepares from recipes she clipped from the New York Times and the Los Angeles Times across more than a decade. (Thank you, JS.)

Weiss lives in Berlin, which had its own heat wave recently, so Weiss gave a thought to cooking a 1991 Barbara Kakfa recipe for chilled Moroccan Tomato Soup. Being an excellent, experienced home cook of the “use what’s available” persuasion, Weiss made a somewhat different soup, which also sounds delicious. More than that, she makes the point I also like to make: ”Some days, a recipe is just there for inspiration.”

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Hillside Heritage Farm Brings New Bacon from Old Breeds to Our Kentucky Homes

Rona — Mon, 19 Jul 2010 19:44:06 +0000

The talk among customers clustering around the Hillside Heritage Farm stand at the Lexington Farmers Market often seems to be about flavor. People plaintively tell John or Clay Contini that they long for “pork that tastes like it used to.” I have made slow-cooked barbeques from Heritage Hill Boston Butt roasts and uncured hams. These cuts of (mostly) pastured, heritage pork taste better than most pork I have ever eaten.

I particularly like Hillside Heritage Canadian bacon and bratwurst. These are two types of pork for which few of us Kentuckians have childhood taste memories — at least not of locally grown and processed versions. So, really, I have no idea whether these delicious cuts taste like pork used to. To me, they taste exceptional.

Hillside Heritage is a family farm in Lancaster, Kentucky. The family members who come to the Lexington Farmers Market credit their pork’s quality to the Tamworth-Berkshire heritage breeding, the land, and the literal care and feeding the animals receive.

Our family eats lots of Stonecross Farm pork, also sold at the Lexington Farmers Market, at the Blue Moon Farm stand. In fact, we now depend on Stonecross knockwurst for a high flavor meal every two weeks or so. We grill these plump sausages, which seem to us like the world’s best hot dogs, and spend part of each meal rhapsodizing — well, at least talking with a lot of excitement and appreciation — about the taste and the texture of the gloriously crunchy crisp, dark skin.

It is exciting for us customers to have Kentucky-raised pork options expand. It is particularly sweet to have the pork be carefully raised and ultra-delicious.

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