Leeks at the Pearl Farmers Market

Leeks are in season at the farmers markets in the area, but people still don’t know what to  do with this wonderful and versatile vegetable.

Sure, you can sauté them, but don’t stop there. I particularly love them in soups, though they are great in salads and as a side dish. Thomas Keller, considered to be the finest chef in America, uses them in a bread pudding.

Here are links to several leek recipes we’ve run in the past as well as new one for Creamy Leek Soup, which is perfect for those of us trying to cut back on carbs without losing any flavor.

The point is, don’t pass those leeks up the next time you’re at a farmers market. They are very low in saturated fat and cholesterol, according to NutritionData.self.com. “They are also  a good source of dietary fiber, vitamin B6, folate, iron and magnesium, and a very good source of vitamin A, vitamin C, vitamin K and manganese.”

And they taste great, with a sweetness that is comes out when you cook them. Look for smaller leeks. Cut only the white part, then peel back the thick, outer green leaves and cut only the tender part of the green beneath. Soak the cut pieces in water; the dirt will sink to the bottom while the leek stays on top.

• Potato Onion Soup
• Leeks with Cream and Mint
• Silky Leek Salad
• Leek Bread Pudding from Thomas Keller

Cream of Leek Soup

2 cups chicken stock  or vegetable stock
1 cup finely cut leeks
2 tablespoons butter
½ medium sized onion, minced or grated
Salt, to taste
Ground black pepper, to taste
1/4 cup chopped parsley
2 egg yolks
1 cup heavy cream

Cream of Leek Soup

Bring the stock to a boil. Add leeks and simmer. While they are cooking, melt butter in a saucepan with the onion. Then add to the leek-stock mixture. Season with salt and pepper to taste and let cook for about 15 minutes or until the leeks soften and cook. Add chopped parsley. Pour mixture into a blender or food processor and purée.

Set up a double boiler over low heat. Whisk the egg yolks over the warm water. Slowly stir in heavy cream and whisk until fully incorporated. Slowly add the cream to the soup and stir it with a wooden spoon until it thickens. It is done when the mixture coats the spoon with a slight film. DO NOT let the mixture boil and do not overcook.

Makes 2-3 servings.

Adapted from apinchofhealth.com

Cauliflower is versatile.

Cauliflower is in season, and it’s cheap. So, I’ve been eating a lot of it.

I’m almost always surprised, though, at how versatile it is.

When I was growing up, cauliflower was only served two ways: raw with other vegetables or steamed with a little butter or cheese on it. Both are great, but why stop there?

For those of us watching our carbohydrate intake, mashed cauliflower is a great alternative to mashed potatoes, with only 5 grams per serving and 3 grams of dietary fiber. Steam the cauliflower until it’s soft, then add it to a mixer with butter, salt, milk or whatever you like in your mashed potatoes — outside of the potatoes, that is. Don’t forget some roasted garlic or Parmesan cheese for added flavor.

Then there are Cauliflower Steaks that you can flavor how you choose, including your favorite steak seasoning. It’s an excellent vegan main course, if you’re looking to give up meat during a meal or two. All you have to do is cut the head in half, then cut your steaks from the center of each half. Use the rest of the head in a soup or roast it in the oven.

One option for the latter comes from Michael Schwartz’s new cookbook, “Michael’s Genuine Food: Down-to-Earth Cooking for People Who Love to Eat” (Clarkson Potter, $35), written with Joann Cianciulli: Roasted Cauliflower with Parsley Sauce.

Cauliflower Popcorn

“Cauliflower can be a little bland on its own,” Schwartz writes, “but blasting the florets in a hot oven concentrates their natural sweetness and transforms the lily-white vegetable to a crisp caramel-brown. Tossing the roasted cauliflower with emerald green parsley sauce brightens the charred flavor. This is a universal side that goes with everything.”

Cauliflower belongs the vegetable family that includes cabbage, brussels sprouts, broccoli and greens, such as kale and collards. In addition to its lively flavor, cauliflower is also good for you. According to nutritiondata.self.com, a single serving has only 25 calories and is low in saturated fat and cholesterol. “It is also a good source of protein, thiamin, riboflavin, niacin, magnesium and phosphorus, and a very good source of dietary fiber, vitamin C, vitamin K, vitamin B6, folate, pantothenic acid, potassium and manganese.”

By the way, don’t throw away those leaves that enfold themselves about the cauliflower head, like some sort of natural Caesar’s wreath. They can be used in soup stocks.

SavorSA has run several cauliflower recipes in the past, from soup to snacks. Here are two worth cooking up, depending on how you want to use this wonderful vegetable:

• Cream of Roasted Cauliflower and Garlic Soup
• Cauliflower Popcorn

Kohlrabi means "cabbage turnip" and its flavor is a mild version of both.

Kohlrabi is in season, and it’s plentiful at farmers markets these days. If you haven’t tried one before, just peel it, cut it up and take a bite.

“People always ask me what to do with kohlrabi,” says Yotam Ottolenghi in the new cookbook, “Plenty: Vibrant Vegetable Recipes from London’s Ottolenghi.” (Chornicle Books, $35). “It seems too healthful, too weird, too German! In actual fact, this is a wonderful vegetable. When mixed with root vegetables you can use it in gratins, you can shallow-fry it in olive oil and serve with garlic and chives, and you can add it to an Asian stir-fry. But in this salad, I think I have found the absolute best use for a kohlrabi. It is wonderfully fresh-tasting, with a good lemony kick and some sharp sweetness. … Serve the salad alongside rich main courses.”

You might find both green and purple kohlrabi at the market. The color doesn’t matter, because it’s just the peeling.

Cabbage and Kohlrabi Salad

1 medium or 1/2 large kohlrabi
1/2 white cabbage
Large bunch of dill, roughly chopped (6 heaped tablespoons)
1 cup dried whole sour cherries
Grated zest of 1 lemon
6 tablespoons lemon juice
1/4 cup olive oil
1 garlic clove, crushed
Salt, to taste
Pepper, to taste
2 cups alfalfa sprouts

Peel the kohlrabi and cut into thick matchsticks that are about 1/4 inch wide and 2 inches long. Cut the cabbage into 1/4-inch-thick strips.

Put all the ingredients, apart from the alfalfa sprouts, in a large mixing bowl. Use your hands to massage everything together for about a minute so the flavors mix and the lemon can soften the cabbage and cherries. Let the salad sit for about 10 minutes.

Add most of the alfalfa sprouts and mix well again with your hands. Taste and adjust the seasoning; you need a fair amount of salt to counteract the lemon.

Use your hands again to lift the salad out of the mixing bowl and into a serving bowl, leaving most of the juices behind. Garnish with the remaining sprouts and serve at once.

Makes 4 servings.

From “Plenty: Vibrant Vegetable Recipes from London’s Ottolenghi” by Yotam Ottolenghi

Madexalli Cultural Coffee Bar in the Alley has plenty of gift ideas.

While strolling through The Alley on Bitters (formerly known as Artisans Alley), 555 W. Bitters Road, Saturday, I spied a few gift ideas for the food and wine lovers on your shopping list.

Drink mixes at Madexalli make great stocking stuffers.

At Madexalli Cultural Coffee Bar, there were plenty of stocking stuffers, such as hot chocolate mix and gingersnap chai, as well gift baskets to be had. You can get a basket with coffee-related items, of course, but you could also add a bottle or two of wine, which is also sold in the store.

And then enjoy a latte with a jalapeño sausage kolache or a muffin while you’re there. (For more on Madexalli, click here.)

A neighboring shop with an idea on how to put that wine to good use is Painting with a Twist, a shop that lets you exercise your creativity by helping you get starting in the field of painting. You create a canvas using quick-drying acrylics. The “twist” is you can bring your own bottle to enjoy while you’re painting. You can enroll someone in a class or indulge yourself in some fun. (Check out the details at paintingwithatwist.com. There’s a second location on Bandera Road.)

Short-rib taco with kimchee at Bin 555.

Of course, you could always treat them to lunch or dinner at Bin 555. Jason Dady and his sous chef, P.J. Edwards, are cooking up some fine treats there.

Also posted were signs of Bahia Azul coming soon to the complex. The restaurant promises Mexican seafood, also with a “twist.” In this case, that means it will be in the style of Nayarit, which is on the Pacific coast.

For more in The Alley at Bitters, click here.

We plan on running more ideas of places to find unique holiday food gifts. If you are looking for something in particular or you know of an out-of-the-way place with great foodie gifts, email walker@savorsa.com or griffin@savorsa.com.

A few canvases hanging at Painting with a Twist.

Use zucchini instead of cucumbers in this relish.

Still have zucchini, even in the drought? You might want to try this relish recipe, in which zucchini takes the place of cucumber.

“Zucchini relishes are very popular among gardeners who never fail to grow too much of this squash or to let some fruits get monstrously huge, as they seem to do overnight,” writes Linda Ziedrich in the first edition of “The Joy of Pickling” (Harvard Common Press, $17.99). “My zucchini relish is quite sweet, though not nearly as sweet as most, and enhanced with ginger and cinnamon in addition to the usual celery and mustard seeds. Instead of chopping the vegetables, I grind them with an old-fashioned food grinder.”

To modify this recipe and make it even less sweet, use a teaspoon or two of ground cinnamon and ground ginger, to taste. Drop the sugar altogether and sweeten with a tablespoon or so of agave nectar, again to taste. Without the sugar, the relish won’t preserve, so you’ll have to eat it fresh (after letting it settle for a few hours in the refrigerator). That’s actually a plus for those of us who are too impatient to wait three weeks before the canned version is ready to eat.

Zucchini Pickle Relish

4 cups (about 1 3/4 pounds) coarsely ground or chopped zucchini
1 1/2 cups (about 1/2 pound) coarsely ground or chopped onions
1 1/2 cups coarsely ground or chopped red bell peppers or mixed red and green bell peppers (about 2 large or 3 to 4 small peppers)
1 1/2 tablespoons pickling salt
3/4 cup sugar
1 3/4 cups cider vinegar
1 teaspoon celery seed
1 teaspoon yellow mustard seeds
7 thin slices fresh ginger
7 (1-inch) cinnamon sticks

In a bowl, mix the zucchini, onions, peppers and salt. Cover the vegetables with cold water. Let stand 2 hours.

Drain and rinse the vegetables, and drain them again.

In a nonreactive pot, bring to a boil the sugar, vinegar, and celery and mustard seeds, stirring to dissolve the sugar. Add the vegetables, and bring them to a boil. Reduce the heat. Simmer the vegetables 10 minutes.

While the vegetables simmer, divide the ginger and cinnamon among sterile pint or half-pint mason jars, allotting one piece of each for each half-pint. Ladle the hot relish into the jars, allowing 1/4 inch headspace. Can according to directions on the canning lids.

Store in a cool, dark, dry place for at least 3 weeks before eating the relish.

Makes about 3 1/2 pints.

From “The Joy of Pickling” by Linda Ziedrich

Central Market’s Hatch Chile Fest 16 begins. Check out the events, cooking classes and best of all, freshly harvested and roasted Hatch green chiles, from Hatch, NM.

There is also a recipe contest and more. Central Market is at 4821 Broadway. Or, find more information here.

Below are a few green chile recipes from SavorSA files.

Trevino’s Green Chile Burgers

Hatch Green Chiles Stuffed with Chive Cream Cheese 

Compliments to Chili’s Roasted Corn Guacamole

Stacked Green Chile Enchiladas

Sizzling Pork Green Chile

10 Great Ways to Use Green Chiles

How to Pick a Pepper, Roast it Yourself

Spicy, Creamy Avocado Salsa

Flourless Chocolate Cake with Raspberries and Hatch Green Chiles

This is a spicy, flavorful cake that originated as Mario Battali’s Zucchini Olive Oil Cake. We adapted it slightly by substituting half of the zucchini called for in the recipe with grated apples. So, if you like, you could use 2 cups of shredded zucchini. Walnuts will taste great, but if you have pecans left over from last year’s good crop, you could use those, too.

Zucchini and Apple Olive Oil Cake

2 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
2 cups granulated sugar
1 cup extra-virgin olive oil
3 large eggs
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
zest of 1 lemon, finely grated
1 cup of shredded zucchini
1 cup shredded apples
1 cup walnuts, chopped (optional)
Powdered sugar for dusting

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees.

In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, salt and spices. Set aside.

In the bowl of an electric mixer, beat the sugar, eggs and oil until light. Add the vanilla and lemon zest, followed by the dry ingredients, beating thoroughly to combine. Add the zucchini and walnuts.

Pour into a greased 13-inch by 9-inch cake pan.

Bake the cake 35-40 minutes, or until it is golden brown on top and springy to the touch in the center. Dust the top of the cake with powdered sugar and serve.

Adapted from Mario Battali’s recipe, with thanks to www.spoonfulblog.com

Sunflower Shoots from Braune Farms

Julie and Jeffrey Braune of Geronimo, near Seguin, bring their finest and freshest to the Pearl Brewery on Saturdays, while the family has another booth at New Braunfels Farm to Market.

Last Saturday, the lineup included fresh red and white onions, potatoes, tomatoes, pickling cucumbers, peppers and several types of squash, including yellow zucchini while the couple’s daughter, Janae, sells bouquets of zinnias as part of her 4H project. Free-range eggs were another big seller.

One item the Braunes offer year-round is sunflower shoots, which Julie Braune talks about in the accompanying video, which she made during a quick moment between a flood of customers. Find out how to use these great tasting treats by watching Julie Braune’s video.

One taste of the sunflower shoots will convince you why there are lines for Braune’s items every Saturday.

Who can resist a cup of sunshine at New Braunfels Farm to Market?

The following is the second of two parts.

Weeks before the New Braunfels Farm to Market opened last year, its creator, Ron Snider, wasn’t sure any farmers would show up to sell their just-harvested produce. Two weeks ago, the farmers market on South Castell Street boasted 72 vendors, the largest of any market in the region. Everything from fresh-picked peaches and tomatoes to grass-fed beef, artisan cheeses, fresh eggs and various types of garlic could be found.

More than that, it had plenty of customers picking up melons, mushrooms, Indian cucumbers and Indian breads while clearing out all of the offerings that the bakeries, the tamale vendor and several other booths had to offer. The roster of food stuffs for sale went on to include Cowgirl Granola, fresh-squeezed juices, German kettle corn and aguas frescas.

Plus, there were stands with handmade goods, including soaps and lavender goods, as well as henna tattoos and home-grown herbs.

New Braunfels Farm to Market's Ron Snider with his wife, Carol, and their granddaughter, 15-month-old Charlotte Lowe.

But, as large as it is, Farm to Market is only just beginning. Snider owns the art deco building next door to the parking lot where the vendors now set up their booths, and he is in the process of renovating it so the market has plenty of room to grow. Cooks will then have the necessary kitchen equipment as well as cleanup area, while some of the vendors will have better access to electricity to keep their meats, cheeses, dairy products and other items refrigerated.

The building once housed the Herald-Zeitung, New Braunfels’ newspaper, and Snider hopes to return its exterior to its former deco appearance, which was covered through the years by additions and a few too many Alsatian touches. He’s still doing research on the building, which hasn’t been easy.

“Most of the documented history of the old Herald-Zeitung Building was lost when the paper’s location on Landa Street flooded about 10 years ago,” he says. “I have a copy of the original architects’ rendering done by Phelps and Dewees of San Antonio. I’ve contacted family members and our local archives, but I have yet to find the true construction date or an as-built photograph. The only photos I’ve found to date have one or both of the additions.”

Snider began his career in the restaurant business and, after several detours, is glad to be back among food producers, chefs, bakers, butchers and the whole array of vendors who return every Saturday.  Watch him as he stops to talk with vendors and customers alike. “They have good cupcakes,” he says at the Sweet Dreams bakery booth. “They have good everything.”

Braune Farms of Geronimo is one of the vendors at New Braunfels Farm to Market.

He offers similar praise at every booth, whether it’s the sliders from Liberty Bistro or the farm-fresh poultry from Shady Falls Farm in Elmendorf.

“The market crowd for me is enjoyment,” he says. “I enjoy the connection with friendly farmers, ranchers, foodies and artists who are Farm to Market. These self-sufficient people who grow and make things with their hands have a certain satisfaction, pride and continence that you don’t find that often anymore. Gathering them outdoors with family, friends and neighbors makes traditional local markets something much more than a redundant march through another climate-controlled big box run.”

New Braunfels Farm to Market Hours are 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. For more information, click here.

Red peppers

Peppers are with us year-round, but they are at their best when picked fresh. So, look for them first at farmers markets, and give them a try in this versatile dip recipe, featured in the new “From Seed to Skillet” (Chronicle Books, $30) by Jimmy Williams and Susan Heeger.

“When our peppers ripened in mid-summer, we put them in everything from eggs to soup, and we still couldn’t eat them fast enough,” the authors write. This dip is “a snack food and we spread it, slightly warm, on crackers or bread. Sometimes, for dinner, we’d even dip our ribs or chicken in it, we so loved the combination of crispness and sweetness that resulted from cooking half the peppers and leaving half of then raw before blending the two together.”

Sweet Pepper Dip

1/4 cup olive oil or coconut oil
1/4 medium onion, chopped
1 clove garlic, chopped
6 large sweet bell peppers, red and yellow, sliced into strips, divided use
Salt, to taste
Freshly ground pepper, to taste

Warm the oil in a large frying pan and sauté the onion and garlic over medium heat until softened. Add half the sliced peppers and cook until they’re very tender.

Let cool slightly, then scrape the contents of the pan into a blender, add the rest of the peppers, and purée until fully smooth. Season with salt and pepper.

Makes about 2 cups.

“From Seed to Skillet” by Jimmy Williams and Susan Heeger