Kitchen manager:   http://annarbor.craigslist.org/fbh/3809094856.html

Kitchen team members: http://annarbor.craigslist.org/fbh/3821406532.html

For the salad:

16 oz frozen cauliflower florets, completely thawed

1 hard-cooked egg

2 stems of green garlic *or* 2 scallions, including an inch of the greens, thinly sliced

1 cup diced celery with leaves

½ or whole bag frozen sweet pepper strips, mostly thawed

1 small cucumber, chopped

12 pimiento-stuffed Spanish green olives, halved

1 tablespoon capers, rinsed

1/2 cup parsley leaves

Completely thaw the cauliflower florets ahead of time; chop or separate them into small pieces.  Chop the pepper strips into bite-sized pieces if desired.  Separate the hard-boiled egg yolk and set it aside for the vinaigrette.  Dice the egg white and toss it with the vegetables, olives, capers, and parsley.  Add the vinaigrette (below) and toss again.  Looking pretty….

Sherry Vinaigrette:

1 or 2 garlic cloves, coarsely chopped

salt and freshly milled pepper

1 1/2 tablespoons sherry vinegar or aged red wine vinegar

1 teaspoon Dijon mustard

6 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

Pound the garlic with 1/4 teaspoon salt in a mortar until it breaks down into a puree. Smash in the hard-cooked egg yolk.  Combine the garlic mixture with vinegar, and mustard in a small bowl, then whisk in the oil and season with pepper. Taste and adjust to your liking.

Fully dressed:

When I stumbled upon this recipe, I also learned something new – “pistou”.  Pistou is a simple sauce of crushed garlic, olive oil, and basil, which can include tomatoes and/or cheese.  It differs from pesto in its lack of pine nuts.  Pistou can be served cold as a condiment, or with pasta, or swirled into soup just before serving.

Although the traditional Provencal dish, Soupe au Pistou, is made exclusively with summer vegetables, and a simple pistou, I preferred this recipe which incorporated some of the heartier winter veggies like leeks and potato.  The Locavorious frozen whole tomatoes ended up being a perfect pistou ingredient.  Since it’s winter, and I had no frozen basil, I used parsley and some arugula.  Not traditional, but mighty good flavor in this vegetable soup au pistou.

1 large or 2 small leeks, white parts only

1 large potato, peeled

1 small onion

2 stalks celery

16 oz frozen summer squash medley

Handful of frozen green beans or sugar snap peas

2 medium carrots, peeled

6 tablespoons olive oil

1 quart vegetable soup stock, plus 2 more cups water or stock

16 oz frozen whole tomatoes

4 medium garlic cloves

1 cup or more parsley and/or arugula leaves, washed and dried

Salt

1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

A few drops of Tabasco sauce

Cut the leeks, potato, onion, celery and carrots into 1/4 inch diced cubes.

In a 6-quart stockpot, heat 3 tablespoons of the olive oil.  Add the cubed vegetables, the frozen squash and frozen green beans, and 2 tablespoons of water.  Cook over medium-low heat, stirring occasionally until all the water evaporates. Do not brown the vegetables.  Add the stock to the pot and bring to a boil.  Reduce to a simmer and cook for 30 minutes.

Meanwhile, make the pistou.  Rinse the frozen whole tomatoes under warm water and peel.  Place tomatoes in a microwave-safe bowl, and microwave for 1 minute, or until mostly thawed.  Put the tomatoes, tomato-water, parsley, garlic, and remaining 3 tablespoons of olive oil into a food processor.  Pulse until puréed.

Stir the purée into the cooked soup. Do not let the soup return to a boil.  Season, to taste, with salt, pepper, and a few dashes of Tabasco.

A great price, delicious options, customizable, and convenient!  Take advantage of this offer soon, as when we are out of what we have… it’s gone until next winter.   Sign up here for your spring share.  Your custom share will be available for pick up at the Ann Arbor Farmers Market and at Morgan & York.

This winter Locavorious is extraordinary lucky to have in the storage freezer certified organic tart cherries from North Star Organics in Frankfort, MI.  As much as I love simple cherry pie, I’ve been trying to ration out these frozen beauties until we know what this harvest will bring.   I’ve also had a couple of storage apples nearing the end of reasonable consumption….so voilà, a hoarded fruit marriage pie is born.  Of course the internet was already full of examples of folks combining these two classic pie fruits.  I based my locally grown, glorious pie on this blogger’s lovely recipe.

Pie crust: make your favorite, buy one, or use my mother-in-law’s top secret recipe (2/3 cup unsalted cold butter, 1 cup flour, 1/2 tsp salt, 2 1/2 T ice water…food processor.)   Prepare pie crust.  Preheat oven to 400 F.

Take the cherries out of the freezer to defrost a bit.   Can rinse off any ice crystals if desired.

For the filling, combine:
2 1/2 cups apple chunks
12 oz frozen tart cherries
1 T rum
1/2 c sugar
2 or 3 T flour  (use 2 T flour if your cherries are defrosted; use 3 if still pretty frozen)
1 heaping teaspoon ground cinnamon
pinch ground nutmeg
pinch ground cloves

Stir it up in a big bowl and let it sit while you make the crumble topping.

To make a nice crumble topping, combine by chopping with two knives (or a couple pulses in the food processor would work too):
1/4 c flour
1/4 c oatmeal
2 T brown sugar, and
1-2 T cold butter

Fill pie crust with the cherries n apples.  Top with the  crumbly stuff.  Bake for about 35 minutes at 400 F, then remove pie and cover with foil to prevent crust from burning.  Reduce oven temperature to 350 F and bake for another 25-30 minutes.   Let cool for about 1 hour before enjoying.