It really does feel like the end of summer here in the Sonoma Valley this week. The weather has turned breezy and slightly cooler. At the farm market in the Sonoma town plaza this past Tuesday evening a sweater was in order once the sun dipped below the valley edge. Our growers still have a
Chickpea Chana Masala with rice and roti Chickpeas can be boiled, sauteed, roasted, and baked. They can be added to stews and turned into hummus. Chickpeas can be used in appetizers, mixed salads, and soups. The nutty flavor and creamy texture of the chickpea make it a robust and hearty addition to many dishes. The
Garden cress on scrambled eggs Cress is a common name for more than a dozen sharp, pungent, small-leafed greens that can be added to salads and sandwiches and soups and used as a base for roast beef or chicken. Cress brings a dash of hot and spicy to stir-fries and purées and can be finely
The subtle flavor and meaty texture of eggplant make it especially versatile in cooking. Perhaps that’s why eggplant is found in so many cuisines around the world. One of the strengths of eggplant is its ability to absorb the flavor of whatever it is cooked with and at the same time add a creamy bulkiness
Serve figs sliced and drizzled with milk or cream, perhaps add a dusting of sugar. For a blend of sweet and savory, wrap fig slices in proscuitto, also thinly sliced. Ripe figs are intensely sweet. Some say the fig is the sweetest of all fruit. That’s probably true. Figs were commonly used as a sweetener
Clear October days are great for taking walks and picking up bright fall leaves. If you are headed to the farm market this week, keep in mind that in many regions of the the northern hemisphere the first true frost of autumn is just around the corner. Eggplant and peppers will soon be making their
What would you think of a creamy, custard-like fruit that tastes like a combination of banana, mango, pineapple, melon, and berries? The pawpaw—which is a native North American tree fruit—is just such a fruit. Sounds tropical, but the pawpaw is a temperate—meaning not tropical—tree that is native to the Mississippi Valley, a swath of the
Arugula, young and tender, will have a nutty and slightly peppery flavor. Use arugula as a salad green alone or in combination with other greens. In Italian salads, arugula is often combined with radicchio and paler lettuces. In the mesclun salads of Provence, arugula is one of the zestier greens mixed with baby lettuces and
Pumpkin slices baked in the oven with honey, nuts, cinnamon, seeds, and mint. Pumpkin can be cooked and served as a hot vegetable. pumpkin is a term that can be applied to almost hard-skinned squash. In the United States, the name pumpkin commonly means a large rounded orange squash. Pumpkins can be very large or
Chilies or hot peppers can be eaten raw or they can be roasted, grilled, pan-seared, toasted, or stuffed. Chilies can also be added to other cooked dishes; they contain natural chemicals that enhance the flavor of other foods during cooking. Often small, hot chilies—such as the jalapeño, Serrano, poblano, Anaheim, and banana–are used fresh. But
