A big thank you to everyone who shared recipes in December’s Shop Local #4 challenge. This round up has eleven delicious recipes for your viewing pleasure, some of them from new-to-me bloggers; I hope you enjoy them! As usual, there is a linky at the bottom of this post for you to link up your own recipes using locally sourced ingredients. If you are new to this monthly blogging challenge you can read all about it here.
First off the mark is Shaheen over at Allotment 2 Kitchen with a really clever ruby red chard and feta pasta loaf. Shaheen picked up some gorgeous chard at a little Usk Farmer’s Market and included it in a dish vaguely resembling a macaroni cheese pie: a pasta dish baked in a pastry. Shaheen says this dish tastes even better the next day and is excellent served cold on picnics or in lunch boxes.
Anneli over at Delicieux shares her silky veal and prawn pasta with garlic saffron cream sauce. Her recipe is made with veal from Grasspunk, a local farmer to her. She’s becoming quite fond of cooking with veal and she says, “It can work with lots of flavours as it has a gentle taste which is ultimately quite adaptable. And it has such a wonderful meltingly tender texture when cooked well.”. This recipe was created from the memory of a dish she had during her university days.
Chef Mireille over at East-West Realm does much of her shopping for local produce at the Union Square farmer’s market in Manhattan. This month she shares with us three fantastic recipes using produce she’s purchased there, including a very healthy sounding beet-carrot pesto thin crust pizza, a great way to sneak loads of veggies into your children’s favourite dish; Â chickpea garlic pasta, another veggie loaded healthy dish showcasing how fresh and flavoursome vegetables can be and lastly, a roasted fennel and apricot deep dish pizza. This last dish is my favourite of her three entries – the flavour combination sounds intriguing and her photo is mouthwatering!
Choclette over at Chocolate Log Blog brings us some sweet treats this month with a plethora of white chocolate shortbread biscuits made using wholemeal flour ground locally to her. I particularly liked the colour of her matcha and white chocolate shortbread (pictured above) but she also flavoured some shortbread with coffee and another batch with lemon and cardamom. I would certainly like to tuck into any one of these!
The lovely Corin over at ProWare Kitchen shared this gorgeous Spanish Chicken and Brussels Sprout Bake made using fresh Yorkshire-grown sprouts from her local whole foods store in Sheffield, England. In this dish she pan fries both the sprouts and the leaves off her Brussels sprouts stalk and combines them with well-seasoned baked chicken, chorizo sausage, lemon and garlic. The flavour combination sounds superb and I’m looking forward to trying this dish myself next time sprouts arrive in my veg box!
Vic and Diana over at Tythebarn House B&B foraged some damsons from near their home in Cumbria and turned them into glorious and glossy damson cheese. They suggest freezing the damsons first as this makes it easier to stone them, and their recipe made it through to the finals in the Britain’s Best Dish 2011! I’ve not yet had the pleasure of trying a damson, but this is definitely on my list of foods to try at the soonest opportunity!
Alexandra, The Lass in the Apron, hails from Pennsylvania (one of these days I’ll be able to spell that without using spell check, I will!) and this month she shares her recipe for cocoa molasses fudge, made using locally made molasses at her Pennsylvania Dutch market. Alexandra doesn’t particularly care for most fudge recipes, saying they lack in flavour or they are far too sweet, but she says the bitterness of the molasses in this 1916 recipe helps to curb the sweetness of the cocoa, resulting in a “fudge with strong chocolate flavour and a judicial balance of sweetness.” Um, yes please!!
On Selma’s Table this month we’ll find some beautiful sweet and sour courgettes made using courgettes their very generous neighbours grew and shared with them during harvest season. Selma says of the spices in this recipe: “The turmeric gives the courgettes a glowing golden hue and the fennel and the coriander seeds contribute a warm herbal note.” She even provides some uses for the pickle, which is helpful. Sometimes it’s difficult to know what to do with the preserves we make!
Shaheen’s second entry this month is a flavoursome Roasted Squash, Red Pepper and Parsley Pasta Loaf made using squash and parsley picked up at her local Farmer’s market. I’m continually amazed at Shaheen’s creativity with her recipes – her passion for cooking shines through in each and every one of her recipes! She suggests serving this loaf with some sauteed greens, such as cavolo nero aka black kale or even curly kale – her favourite winter green.
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West Voe Sands – Virkie, Sumburgh
A fabulous selection of tasty treats. Thank you for sharing.
Just added mine – using hyper-local (as in homegrown!) rhubarb!
Damson cheese? Genius! Lovely set if recipes xx
In the US, there’s a cocoa/molasses fudge, too, We call it “Smith Fudge”. Very ruch dark flavor, not too sweet – a small piece goes a long way!
RICH, not ruch …
Hi Elizabeth, wonderful round up, such a great variety of recipes! I just received my first veg box of the new year and I’ve got my thinking cap on for a recipe for this month’s challenge.
You are BRILLIANT! I love all these things.
That’s a fine round up with a lovely variety of local dishes. Happy new year.
Some nice entries there. Oh tummy rumbles! I’ll go add it to the diary for you now 🙂
Elizabeth, Thank you for your lovely write-up and for hosting this challenge. I look forward to submitting more often and wish you all the best for 2014!
Thank you Selma, and thank you for contributing! Your photos are beautiful!
Thank you Elizabeth for hosting,
Wishing you a Happy New Year and 2014 too.
p.s. You would be most welcome for dinner 🙂
Thank you for contributing Shaheen, I really do appreciate it! Dinner – I’ll be right there!! 😀
Oh my; I just bookmarked two fabulous-sounding recipes that I KNOW I’ll try! Thanks!
Yay! Job well done then 🙂
This is a great round-up – and a fabulous challenge that I haven’t noticed before 🙂
Thanks Rachel! I do hope you get the chance to join in sometime, that’d be great! 🙂
Always interesting to find out what local produce there is around. The damson cheese looks beautifully glossy. My mother thought she’d planted a damson, but it turns out it was a plum! Thanks for another lovely round-up.
Isn’t it! I love seeing what people create from food grown around them. I’ve never had the privilege yet of trying a damson – I hope to one day!