Awesome Home Fries and Eggs

What can make humble home fries and eggs awesome... and fill you home with a wonderful aroma at the same time?  Check this out - 

Ingredients:

4 tablespoons (1/2 stick) unsalted butter

4 medium russet potatoes, peeled, cut into 1 inch chunks and parboiled in salted water until just done but still firm

1/2 sweet onion cut into strips

1 teaspoon sumac * (or sub with garam masala)

1/2 teaspoon paprika

1/4 teaspoon turmeric

1 teaspoon lime juice

Kosher salt

1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

1 tablespoon vegetable oil

1 Fresno chile, chopped or thinly sliced

1/4 cup coarsely chopped mixed herbs - an equal combination of cilantro and parsley

4 large eggs

* Sumac is a widely used, essential spice in Middle Eastern and Mediterranean cooking. It has a tangy lemony flavor, although more balanced and less tart than lemon juice. It's used in everything from dry rubs, marinades, and dressing. But its best use is sprinkled over food before serving. It's great over vegetables, grilled lamb, chicken and fish. Not readily available in supermarkets, but it is available easily on line and worth having some in your spice cabinet. When mixed with thyme and sesame seeds, it is called za'atar.

For the Home Fries: 

Heat the butter in a large cast-iron skillet over medium-high heat until it begins to shimmer. Add onion and cook until soft, about 5 minutes.

Add the potatoes, garam masala, paprika, turmeric and a very generous amount of salt and toss to coat the potatoes and onions. 

Use a spatula to press and crush the potatoes against the bottom of the pan. Cook until golden brown and crisp on the bottom, about 5 - 7 minutes. 

Turn over in large chunks and press again to crisp the other side. 

Cook until browned on the bottom, another 5 - 7 minutes.

Taste and add salt as needed.

While the potatoes crisp, heat the vegetable oil in a non-stick skillet over medium heat. Add the chiles and cook, stirring, until warmed and very slightly softened, about 1 minute. Add the herbs.

Spoon the chile herb mixture over the potatoes and drizzle with the lime juice. 

Serve straight from the pan. Leave a little of the oil and herbs in the pan.

For the eggs: 

Cook the eggs as you like in the pan you made the herb chili sauce.

Stuffed Acorn Squash

It's the first day of Fall and locally grown summer vegetables are played out, but seasonal fall/winter produce has started arriving in grocery stores.This includes a variety of hard squash like acorn, kabocha, sweet dumpling, delicata, carnival and pie pumpkins. 

Here is a link to a guide to fall/winter hard squash from Epicurious:

Visual Guide to Winter Squash

We like to make roasted acorn squash brushed inside with brown sugar butter and filled with chickpeas, couscous, onion, carrot, celery and dried fruit. It is perfect served alongside chicken or pork, or all by itself. The filling without the squash is a good side dish on it's own.

Serves 4 as a side dish or 2 as a main
Ingredients

2 large acorn squash, halved and seeded

2 tablespoons brown sugar

1 tablespoon butter, melted

2 tablespoons olive oil

2 cloves garlic, minced

2 stalks celery, sliced on the bias

2 carrots, chopped

1/2 large sweet onion chopped

1 cup garbanzo beans, drained

1/2 cup golden raisins, chopped dried apricots or other dried fruit bits

1 1/2 tablespoons ground cumin

1 (14 ounce) can chicken broth

1 cup uncooked couscous

salt and pepper to taste

Directions

Preheat oven to 350.

Cut the squash in half lenthwise and remove the seeds.

Arrange squash halves cut side down on a baking sheet. Bake 30 minutes, or until tender. 

Dissolve the brown sugar in the melted butter. Brush the inside of the squash with the butter mixture, and keep warm while preparing the stuffing.

Heat the olive oil in a skillet over medium heat. Stir in the garlic, celery, and carrots, and cook 5 minutes. Mix in the garbanzo beans and raisins. Season with cumin, salt, and pepper, and continue to cook and stir until vegetables are tender.

Pour the chicken broth into the skillet, and mix in the couscous. Cover skillet, and turn off heat. 

Allow couscous to absorb liquid for 5 minutes. Stuff squash halves with the skillet mixture. 

Roots in the Boot

This blog post is a little departure from food and gardening but I wanted to give you all a little background. Vazzano, Italy is our family's ancestral home. It is a small rural agricultural village of about 1,100 in Calabria, the southernmost region of Italy, the "toe" of the boot. The town dates back to the Roman Empire when it was called Subsicium. My great grandfather, Bruno Fuscà, came over in 1895 with his brother and two friends. He worked on the Pennsylvania railroad doing grunt labor for the next three years and saved his money. In 1898 he sent for the rest of the family - my great grandmother Marianna Nicolina DePalma,and my grandfather Domenico Antonio and his two brothers,Giuseppe and Francesco. They settled in Pittsburgh where Bruno bought a building which he converted into a combination grocery store and home. The store was on the ground floor and the family lived upstairs. At some point early on, due to an error in some important paperwork, our last name was mistranscribed from from Fuscà to Fusia. They decided to keep the new American name.

 

Vazzano, Italy

Panoramic video of the olive tree filled countryside around Vazzano

Out on a walk around Vazzano by Micuccio Caloiero

Just in case, some day, someone might want to visit Vazzano by flying to Naples and driving to Vazzano, here is a link to the directions - 
                                           

Driving Directions from Naples to Vazzano

Liquore di Fichi d'India - Cactus Pear Liqueur

Southern Italians use the fruit of the prickly pear cactus in sweets and desserts where they are called fichi d'india - literally, India figs. They also make (typically at home) a liqueur with them by infusing the fruit in alcohol, similar to how limoncello is made. In Calabria it is called liquore di fichi d'india. The original home of the prickly pear cactus, by the way, is the desert states of the United States and Mexico! They were brought to Italy by the Spanish explorers in the New World and found a perfect new home in southern Italy which, at the time, was ruled by Spain. The explorers also brought tomatoes and peppers and potatoes. 
Mille grazie, Cristoforo Colombo!!!

Liquore di fichi d'india recipe

15 ripe cactus pears
4 cups 151 proof grain alcohol 
2 cups sugar syrup

Use the amounts above as a base. They can be adjusted for different quantities of cactus pears.

Procedure -  

Peel cactus pears and cut in half. I wear rubber gloves when doing this because sometimes there are hair-like almost invisible thorns left on the surface of the pear that can get into the skin on your fingers and drive you crazy with itching. 

Let the cut fruit steep in the grain alcohol in a large sealable glass container for 10 days. The solution will turn a dark orange to red color. 

After 10 days, remove fruit and add sugar syrup. Age for 20 days.

For the sugar syrup

2 cups water
2 cups sugar

Bring the water to a boil in a pot and add the sugar. Stir to dissolve the sugar and take off the heat to let cool. Pour into the glass container with the liqueur and reseal.

After 20 days, pour the liqueur into sanitized bottles through a fine mesh sieve and funnel to remove any remaining bits of fruit. Seal or cork. Keep in the freezer or in the refrigerator. Enjoy!

My family's ancestral home, the town of  Vazzano, in Calabria, Italy, holds an annual Fichi D'India Festival. Here are some videos of the event.  

Mediterranean Chicken with Tagliatelle

"Beautifully juicy chicken basted in a thyme and basil oil and layered over fresh pasta in a roasted tomato and garlic sauce. Simple ingredients that are bursting with flavor", is how Jamie Oliver describes this wonderful dish. I watched his video below and knew at once we had to make it and share with you all. The video may sound a little complicated at first look, but after thinking it through and watching it again, it's not that difficult and I'll give you some tips that will make this easier without affecting the end result and I will list out the ingredients and amounts. This is so worth making. 

Tip #1 - It would be great if you can find cherry tomatoes on the vine, but don't worry about that. If you can't get them/find them, use off the vine cherry tomatoes. 

Tip # 2 - If you don't have the time or inclination to make homemade pasta, use a good brand of dried - DeCecco brand is very good and you can use their linguine or fettucine.

Tip #3 - Use fresh herbs, just like in in video. Don't use dried herbs. We are fortunate in that we grow a lot of different cooking herbs in our garden. 

Getting The Most Out Of A Humble Backyard Vineyard - 2015

Our little vineyard - 2015

In February of 2012 we planted four one year old Norton wine grape vines. They grew well but didn't produce any grapes that year, we didn't expect any. 

2013 produced enough grapes for us to be able to make almost a gallon of wine. 

The 2014 vintage gave us 2 gallons - a good rich red and a rose'. The rose' was a second wine or a second run wine made by reusing the grape must - the left over grape skins and pulp from the first pressing.

This year, 2015, the vines produced a bumper crop of grapes but they ripened inconsistently - some grape bunches were ripe enough to crush but others still green. So we divided things up and made Norton grape marmalade and grape liqueur with the early ripeners and later when they were ready,made wine with the late ripeners. Maybe we'll get just a gallon, but having fun and it's damn rewarding.

Norton Grape Marmalade 

Norton Grape Liqueur

Norton Grape Wine

Herbed Cherry Tomatoes Roasted in a Cast Iron Skillet

How can you not want to make these roasted cherry tomatoes after seeing how cool they look, how easy they are to make, how versatile they are and especially how delicious they are. Roasting these tomatoes low and slow concentrates their flavor and marries the herb seasonings to them. Plus you will fill your house with a wonderful aroma.

You can play around with the herbs substituting rosemary or thyme for the herbs de Provence, adding some lemon zest or some basil when the tomatoes are done baking.

Ingredients:

2 pints cherry tomatoes

1/4 cup olive oil

1/2 tsp. herbs de Provence 

1/2 tsp. ground (or 1 tsp whole) fennel seeds 

1 tsp. minced garlic

1/2 tsp. kosher salt

1/2 tsp. crushed red pepper flakes

Instructions:

Line a large cast-iron skillet with parchment paper

Add cherry tomatoes and drizzle with olive oil; sprinkle with herbs de Provence, garlic, salt, and red pepper flakes

Bake at 275 for 2 to 3 hours, stirring occasionally

What can you do with them - 

One way, we sliced some leftover strip steak, put them over arugula, squeezed a little lemon juice, added these wonderful olive oily herby tomatoes, some blue cheese crumbles and toasted bread crumbs. YES!!!!  This was so good!

Or......

Use them in a pasta sauce or as a pasta sauce

Use on pizza t

Use on grilled bread as a bruschetta topping

Spoon over grilled fish or chicken or a steak

Put in a sandwich

As a side to scrambled eggs

As part of an antipasto plate

Eat out of hand

Making Grape Marmalade and Grape Liqueur

We grow three different types of grapes - Norton wine grapes and red and white Concord grapes. Our Nortons have ripened in a very odd way this season. They have produced more grapes than in past years but some berry clusters have ripened early and others are still very green. So, sadly, since we have only four vines and not enough are ripening at the same time to harvest enough of them to make a decent amount of wine, we are going to try something a little different this year and make grape marmalade and grape liqueur with them. 

For information on Norton wine grapes and their interesting back story - 

The Fascinating History Behind America's Oldest Native Wine Grape 

Born in the USA - America's Norton Grape 

Here is how we made the marmalade. It has a delicious earthy sweet berry tartness and rich deep dark red maroon color - just like a good Norton wine! We used Norton grapes because we grow them but you can use Concord grapes which are more available and are a slip skin grape.

Procedure - for 3 cups of skinned grapes

Step 1 - Grow some grapes

Step 2 - Harvest the grapes - we cut what was ripe enough to use, without knowing what the end amount would be. It came to a little over 3 cups of skinned grapes. 

Step 3 - Wash the grapes while still attached in clusters.

Step 4 - Pull the grapes off their stems and discard any unripe or problem grapes. Place the rest in a colander.

Step 5 - Nortons are a slip skin type grape, as are concords, so skins are easily removed by pinching one side of the grape and gently squeezing, the inside with the seeds will pop out the opposite side. Place the skinned grapes in a skillet or pot. Put the skins in a bowl.

Skins on the left, nude grapes on the right

Step 6 - Put the grape skins in a food processor with a little water and process until they form a smooth slush.

Step 7 - Meanwhile add 1/2 cup of  water to the skinned grapes in the skillet. Bring to a boil for 5 minutes. Remove from the heat and let cool.

Step 8 - Pour the cooled grapes into a mesh sieve over a bowl and press down mashing with a spoon so the juice separates from the seeds. Discard the seeds.

Grape seeds to be discarded

Step 8 - Combine the skins and the grape juice in the skillet with 1/2 cup of water. Bring to a boil and stir in a packet of Sure Jell. Add 3 cups of sugar (1 to 1 ratio of sugar to skinned grapes) stir continuously for one minute. Take off heat and let cool for 10 minutes

Step 9 - Ladle into sanitized canning jars and add lids and rings

Step 10 - Place them in a large pot with enough water to cover by an inch and boil for 10 minutes.  Remove and let cool.

Step 11 - Enjoy

____________________________________________

Making Norton Grape Liqueur

General instructions - 

3 lb. fresh ripe grapes
9 cups 80-proof vodka (or 4.5 cups pure grain alcohol + 4.5 cups water)
Granulated sugar

Rinse the grapes.

Pull each grape off its stem cluster, pinching each grape as you do so, just enough to split the skin. This will allow the color and taste to infuse better into the alcohol. 
Put them into a container that can be weighed easily. An inexpensive food scale works well here.

Dump the grapes into a sanitized glass container, we used a screw top gallon jug.

Add the vodka.

Cap and store in a cool, dark place, stir once a week for 2 - 4 weeks.

Strain through mesh sieve into a new container and note the amount.

In this ratio - for each 3 cups of unsweetened liqueur add 1 1/4 cup granulated sugar.

Let age for at least three months.

Carefully pour the clear liqueur through cheese cloth into individual smaller bottles and cap. Taste and add more sugar if necessary.

Note: Save and freeze the grapes spent to make the liqueur. They can be used in desserts. Mix with sugar and use with ice-cream or on top of pound cake, etc.

Our process - 

We harvested all the Norton grapes that looked ripe enough to use. Our grapes cleaned, came to 3 1/2 pounds. 

Pinch each berry open as you pull them off their stems. Then weigh them. We have a simple food scale we use. Each cupful came to 8 oz. It is important to get the exact weight so you can determine the correct amount of alcohol and sugar to add later.

Put the grapes in a sanitized glass jug.

We used 100 proof vodka, added 7 cups plus a little water.

Day 1 - Kind of a murky gray.... Not very appetizing.

Day 2 - After just one day, the color has changed to a nice red maroon. The grapes are turning pale as the color bleeds out into the alcohol. The color should get richer over time.