Winters Tree Fruit

Mercado Kitchen: Chard Sausage Stuffing

Posted on November 19, 2013 by Mission Community Market in 4505 Meats, Arizmendi Bakery, Blog, Blue House Farm, Far West Fungi, Happy Boy Farms, Mercado Kitchen, Recipes, Winters Tree Fruit | Leave a comment

Stuffing3

This flavorful chard sausage stuffing makes a hearty side dish at your Thanksgiving table. And it’s chock full of amazing ingredients from the market! Like tasty bread from Arizmendi Bakery, sweet and savory chicken apple calvados sausage from 4505 Meats, robust pioppini mushrooms from Far West Fungi, and toasty walnuts from Winters Fruit Tree. Plus look for fresh produce for this dish – swiss chard, leeks, garlic, and herbs – at Blue House Farm and Happy Boy Farms.

_DSC8119

This recipe comes together easily and can even be assembled up to a day in advance to save you prep time on Turkey day. It would also work great to bring to a potluck Thanksgiving. So shop at the market this week (your last chance before Thanksgiving!) and try making a new side dish this year.

Stuffing1

Chard Sausage Stuffing

Adapted from a Sunset Magazine recipe

Ingredients:

1/2 lb crusty bread (we used a sourdough baguette from Arizmendi Bakery)

1 c milk

1 lb sausage (we used 1 package of chicken apple calvados from 4505 Meats)

2 small leeks, thinly sliced

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 c fresh parsley, chopped

2 c mushrooms (we used pioppini from Far West Fungi)

1 bunch Swiss chard, stems trimmed, coarsely chopped

1/2 c grated parmesan cheese

1 t dried basil (or one handful fresh basil, roughly chopped)

1/4 t dried sage (or approximately 10 fresh sage leaves, chopped)

1/2 c walnuts, toasted and roughly chopped

Salt and pepper to taste

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Cut bread into 1/2-in. slices and place in a large bowl with the milk. Mix gently to saturate with milk and let stand about 30 minutes. Stir occasionally.

Slice the sausages into disks and sauté over medium high heat in a large pot, until lightly browned. Add leeks and sauté until slightly wilted. Add garlic, parsley, and mushrooms. Cook, stirring often, until vegetables are lightly browned, 5 to 8 minutes. Add chard and 1/3 cup water and cook, stirring often, until wilted, about 5 minutes.

Squeeze the soaked bread with your hands and break into tiny pieces. Add the cooked meat mixture, parmesan, basil, sage, and walnuts. Stir to combine. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Transfer to an 8×8 inch casserole dish. For moist stuffing, cover with foil. For crusty stuffing, do not cover. Bake until hot (at least 150 degrees in center) or lightly browned, at least 30 minutes.

Tips for making in advance: you can make the stuffing, put in the casserole dish and chill up to 1 day in advance. Allow about 1 hour to bake.

Stuffing photos by Carletta Wong

Mercado Kitchen: Pear Pomegranate Upside Down Cake

Posted on November 12, 2013 by Mission Community Market in Blog, Great Valley Poultry, K&J Orchards, Mercado Kitchen, Recipes, Twin Girls Farm, Winters Tree Fruit | Leave a comment

UpsideDownCake1

This gorgeous and tasty upside down cake is perfect for showcasing fresh, seasonal fruit. Forget any preconceived notions about upside down cakes – they don’t have to be made with canned pineapple and maraschino cherries. This recipe is topped with delicious Yali pears from K&J Orchards and organic pomegranate from Twin Girls Farm. By decorating with fruit, you can serve a beautiful cake without requiring a lot of frosting or fancy decorating techniques.

UpsideDownCake2

Don’t forget to also pick up eggs from Great Valley Poultry and almonds from Winters Fruit Tree to use in this recipe. Happy baking!

YaliPears

Pear Pomegranate Upside Down Cake

Ingredients:

For topping:

1/4 c unsalted butter

1 c packed brown sugar

2-3 pears (such as Yali pears from K&J Orchards)

1 pomegranate (available at the market from Twin Girls Farm)

For cake:

3/4 c unsalted room temperature butter

3/4 c sugar

3 room temperature eggs, beaten (available at the market from Great Valley Poultry)

1.5 c minus 1 T flour (measure 1.5 c and then remove 1 T)

1/2 t baking powder

1 T ground almonds (check out Winters Fruit Tree at the market for almonds)

1 T cocoa powder

3 T milk

Instructions:

Butter bottom and sides of a 9″ cake pan or spray with nonstick cooking spray.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Topping:

Melt butter in a sauce pan. Add brown sugar and whisk until well combined. Spread the mixture evenly over the base of the cake pan. Peel pears, slice in half lengthwise, and remove cores. Slice each half pear lengthwise into approximately 1/8 inch thick slices. Peel the pomegranate and separate the arils. (It’s easiest to slice the skin of the pomegranate and then place in a bowl of water to peel. The arils should sink to the bottom.) Arrange the pear slices in the cake pan on top of the brown sugar topping, around the edge of the pan pointing towards the center. It’s ok to overlap the slices slightly. Fill in the empty circle in the center with pomegranate arils. One pomegranate will be more than enough – reserve extra arils for another use.

Cake:

Cream butter and sugar in a stand mixture with a paddle attachment (or by hand with a wooden spoon) until light and fluffy. Add one tablespoon of flour and mix well. Add the beaten eggs a little at a time, beating between each addition until incorporated. In a separate bowl, combine remaining flour, baking powder, ground almonds, and cocoa powder and whisk to mix. Fold dry ingredient mixture and milk into the mix of sugar, butter and eggs. Mix until there are no streaks of dry ingredients but do not over mix. Spread the cake batter over the pear and pomegranate topping in the cake pan. Bake for 45 minutes. Remove from the oven and allow to cool slightly. Turn out onto a serving plate by placing the plate over the top of the cake pan, flipping over, and removing the cake pan. Serve warm or cold.

Mercado Kitchen: Persimmon Pecan Bread

Posted on October 23, 2013 by Mission Community Market in Blog, Great Valley Poultry, Mercado Kitchen, Recipes, Twin Girls Farm, Winters Tree Fruit | Leave a comment

Persimmons2

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.

Persimmons1

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.

PersimmonBread1

The full recipe is after the jump. Happy baking!

Read more

A Fruit of a Different Color

Posted on September 25, 2013 by Mission Community Market in Arata Farm, Twin Girls Farm, Vendors, Winters Tree Fruit | Leave a comment

Last week we spotted some unique pomegranates at the Winter’s Fruit Tree stand. That’s right–the folks that bring you delicious varieties of nuts every week also have some delicious fruit to share!

While most of us are used to seeing the “Wonderful” variety of pomegranates (deep red in color, delicious and available from Twin Girls Farm and Arata Farm at MCM), Phil Carter of Winter’s tells us that these light-colored poms are coming off 60-year-old trees on his property–trees so old that he isn’t quite sure what variety they are. He says that these fruit (sometimes called “white pomegranates”) are a variety that most likely originated in the Middle East, as it’s much more common to see lighter pomegranates there.

The seeds are light pink in color–somewhat reminiscent of cotton candy–and the flavor is sweeter and more mild than their Wonderful counterparts, without any tartness at all.

This delicious pomegranate didn’t last very long at this taste tester’s house…and we’ll definitely be going back for more next week. And so should you!

 

Mercado Kitchen: 3-Ingredient Pomegranate Pistachio Chocolate

Posted on September 9, 2013 by Mission Community Market in Blog, Mercado Kitchen, Recipes, Twin Girls Farm, Winters Tree Fruit | 1 Comment

This recipe was inspired by the arrival of pomegranates from Twin Girls Farm! Now, if you’re like me you’ve always had a love/hate relationship with pomegranates. They taste amazing but there’s the special challenge of getting at those delicious seeds. The juice gets everywhere, not to mention those funky thin membranes. But I’ve always found that if I just throw on my oldest stains-are-ok shirt and go along with it it pays off, because they’re just so good.

In addition to being delicious, the juice from pomegranates is chock full of health benefits, including high antioxidant power, benefits to cardiovascular health, and there is even some evidence of anti-cancer properties.

Read more

« Previous   1 2 3 4 5   Next »