Mercado Kitchen

Mercado Kitchen: Persimmon Pecan Bread

Posted on by Mission Community Market in Blog, Great Valley Poultry, Mercado Kitchen, Recipes, Twin Girls Farm, Winters Tree Fruit | Leave a comment

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We’re fully into the autumn season, with fall flavors abundant at the market. Persimmons – both the Hachiya and Fuyu varieties – are a fun fall fruit available now at Twin Girls Farm. Hachiya persimmons are best used for baking or preserving. When they aren’t fully ripe they have an unpleasant, tannic flavor. Set them out on the counter to ripen. You’ll know they’re ripe when they feel like a water balloon filled with soft, squishy flesh. Fuyu persimmons are the opposite – meant to be eaten when firm and raw, they are sweet and crunchy and make a delightful addition to salads.

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Be sure to buy Hachiya persimmons for this easy one-bowl quick bread recipe. At Twin Girls Farm they will help you pick out the most ripe and ready fruit. For the cup of persimmon puree called for in this recipe, you’ll need about 3-4 ripe Hachiya persimmons. Cut off the top of each persimmon and slice in half. Use a paring knife to remove the small membranes, then squeeze the flesh out and discard the skins. Depending how smooth the persimmon flesh is, it’s optional to puree in a food processor and strain through a mesh strainer.

This persimmon pecan bread is moist and sweet with a delicious crunch from toasty Winters Fruit Tree pecans and a subtle boozy flavor from the addition of whiskey, making it a perfect snack on a crisp fall day. And don’t forget to pick up organic, free-range eggs from Great Valley Poultry to use in the recipe.

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The full recipe is after the jump. Happy baking!

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Mercado Kitchen: Chiles Rellenos Casserole

Posted on by Mission Community Market in Achadinha Cheese Company, Blog, Blue House Farm, Great Valley Poultry, Happy Boy Farms, Mercado Kitchen, Recipes | Leave a comment

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The abundance of peppers at the market comes in many shapes, sizes, colors, and flavors. Don’t miss out as pepper season winds down! Blue House Farm and Happy Boy Farms tell us there are only about two to three weeks of peppers left.

Wondering what to do with all these wonderful peppers? Chiles rellenos are a traditional Mexican dish that translates as “stuffed chiles” – typically a roasted poblano pepper stuffed with cheese, fried in egg batter, and served over tomato sauce. This casserole is an easier version that’s also healthier because it’s baked instead of fried.

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This casserole features a variety of peppers that can be found at the market – red shishito peppers from Happy Boy Farms and round of Hungary, poblano, and lipstick peppers from Blue House Farm. A layer of tomato sauce made with heirloom tomatoes from Happy Boy Farms and laced with red shishito and round of Hungary peppers is topped with poblano and lipstick peppers stuffed with cotija and monterey jack cheeses. The casserole is then topped with an egg-flour mixture featuring eggs from Great Valley Poultry and baked to perfection. The peppers can be stuffed with cheeses of your choice – for an extra kick try the Hot Hilda fresh cheese curds from Achadinha Cheese Company flavored with cayenne and red chili!

The full recipe is after the jump. ¡Buen provecho!  Read more

Mercado Kitchen: Rustic Plum Tart

Posted on by Mission Community Market in Blog, Mercado Kitchen, Recipes, Twin Girls Farm | Leave a comment

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When you visit the market, it’s hard to miss the crowd of customers tasting and buying a delicious variety of plums, pluots, and other stone fruit from Twin Girls Farm. Now’s a great time to get your plum fix while they are still in season through next month. Enjoy them now, or you’ll have to wait for their return next year in late spring!

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Plums work beautifully in a rustic tart, also known en Francais as a galette. Flaky tart dough wrapped around colorful plums makes a striking dessert sure to get oohs and ahhs from your family and friends. Oh, and it’s also tasty and surprisingly simple to make! While plums are highly recommended, you can substitute almost any fruit in this recipe and customize your galette according to what’s in season.

The full recipe is after the jump. Happy baking!

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Steamed Frijoles de Vara

Posted on by Mission Community Market in Blog, Mercado Kitchen, Recipes, Terra Savia, Yerena Farms | 1 Comment

These Heirloom Beans from Yerena Farms are called “Frijoles de Vara.” This recipe was suggested by Sylvia of Yerena Farms and comes highly recommended by our Executive Director Rosi! If you like edamame, this is a fun way to steam a new kind of bean that makes for a great appetizer or snack!

If you can’t find this specific type of bean, you can substituting other varieties like cranberry beans, but be sure to check with the farmer to find out how much longer you should cook them– you’d probably want to steam for an additional 20 minutes with other varieties.

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Ingredients:

    • Frijoles de Vara from Yerena Farms
    • 1-2 Lemons
    • Salt
    • Pepper
    • Olive Oil from Terra Savia
    • Cayenne Pepper

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The instructions are very simple! Place the beans in a steamer with a few inches of water. Steam for 10-15 minutes. When finished, transfer beans to a bowl and drizzle with lemon juice, olive oil, salt, pepper, and cayenne. It’s that easy!

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You can shell the beans once steamed, but I recommend just eating them out of the shells like edamame. Enjoy the spicy, salty, lemony flavor that accents the delicious natural flavor of these heirloom beans!

Mercado Kitchen: Quince Ratafia Two Ways

Posted on by Mission Community Market in Arata Farm, Blog, Hale Apple Farm, Mercado Kitchen, Recipes | Leave a comment

Ah Quince, you perplexing fruit with a storied past. It looks like an apple or a pear, but don’t you dare take one bite of it raw! Supposedly, 17th Century cookbooks contain more recipes for quince than any other orchard fruit, so I wonder what cooks living hundreds of years ago knew that I don’t! But both Arata Farms and Hale’s Apple Farm have gorgeous quince right now at MCM so I decided to go ahead and give a new recipe a whirl.

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Tired of the usual jam and preserve recipes, I decided to try something that’s not for you teetotalers out there–an old-timey infused liqueur known as “ratafia” which is a name given to cordials made of different fruit, one varietal including quince. The recipe I adapted called for two quinces, but by the time I was finished grating the first one I had almost filled up an entire quart-sized jar. So I I decided to try two slight variations on the same recipe, using one fruit per jar. The main difference is that one recipe contains raw grated quince and the other contains chopped quince that I cooked down slightly. I’ll share the results with you in a few weeks when the infusion process is complete–though I feel confident both will probably be mighty tasty. The ingredients I used were the same for both recipes – these quantities will make you enough ratafia for about one quart-sized jar.  Read more