Winning Recipes

Copyright 2005 Reap Food Group
 

Grand Prize Winner
Summer Pea Soup
Deanna Schneider, Madison

From winner Deanna Schneider: "A friend and I do weekly meal swaps with each other and we're constantly challenging each other to do new things with seasonal ingredients. One Saturday we biked up to the farmer's market together and decided that we'd each buy the same ingredients then go home and prepare something from them. We bought shelled peas, basil, and Capri Farm's goat's milk feta. Here's what I whipped together. It's a very simple soup, best served lukewarm. It tastes like summer in a bowl."

If you have a backyard plot, by all means use fresh picked peas (and basil) from your own garden for this recipe. Or, like Deanna and her friend, buy them from the farmer's market. As the season changes in late summer and early fall, you can substitute shelled fresh soybeans, also called edamame, for the peas. (Frozen peas or edamame will also yield good results.)

For richer flavor, Deanna recommends using homemade or low-sodium chicken broth instead of water. For the cheese, she prefers Capri Farm's French or Greek style feta.

1 tablespoon olive oil
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 pound (about 3 cups) fresh, shelled green peas
2 ¼ cups chicken broth or water 
3-5 tablespoons heavy cream or half-and-half
1 tablespoon chopped fresh basil
salt and black pepper to taste
goat's milk feta cheese (for garnish)

Heat olive oil in a two-quart sauce pan over medium-low flame, add garlic and briefly sauté it. Add the broth, raise heat and bring broth to a boil. Reduce heat to medium, add the peas, cover and cook until peas are tender. This will vary depending on the freshness of your peas; check them often and as soon as they're tender, remove pan from the heat. Very fresh peas will need only a few minutes.  

First Place - Vibrant Vegetables
Fruits of Summer Salad
Lynn Welch, Madison 

Winner Lynn Welch tells the story of this recipe: "We had just received our box [of produce] from Tipi Farm CSA, late last summer. [It was] chock full of a variety of wonderful tomatoes. We brought them with us on a trip that weekend to my parents' house in northern Minnesota. For dinner that night, I created a salad of tomatoes that combined them with the small tart raspberries that grow wild in the woods outside their back door. With a snip of some chives from their garden and a basic balsamic dressing made with some of the crushed berries for extra flavor and texture, we had ourselves a summer fruit feast. I've made it several times since, and believe it's one of the best examples of using local, available produce." 

You can enjoy this as a side dish for dinner or main dish at lunch. If desired, serve it over salad greens and top it with crumbled goat's milk or feta cheese. 

2-3 pounds fresh tomatoes: use a variety of types, colors, sizes and shapes
1/2-3/4 cup fresh raspberries (use wild ones, if available), divided
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
1 tablespoon chopped fresh chives 

First Place - Power Proteins
Midwest Hot and Sour Soup
Mary Jo Studenberg, Plain, Wisconsin

From winner Mary Jo Studenberg: "I love Thai-style tom yam soup, but found myself wishing that I could have a hot and sour soup that used local ingredients rather than tropical lemongrass, prawns and citrus fruits. The only local ingredient I couldn't find a substitute for [in this recipe] is nam pla, a fermented, salty fish sauce made in Thailand and Vietnam. (Perhaps some enterprising Midwestern smelt fishery could be convinced to experiment with producing a local version?!)."

If you use canned, salted instead of homemade stock for this recipe, the amount of salt called for may be too much, so adjust accordingly.

8 cups chicken stock
1 1/2 teaspoons salt (or more or less to taste)
4 stalks fresh rhubarb, cut into 1-inch pieces
2 green serrano chilies, minced
1/2 cup wild rice (optional)
1 tablespoon (or more to taste) bottled Thai or Vietnamese fish sauce
1 pound tofu, sliced into bite-size pieces
1 1/2 tablespoons vegetable oil

For garnish:

2 tablespoons coarsely chopped cilantro leaves
3 green onions, coarsely chopped
2 green serrano chilies, minced (optional)

Combine chicken stock, salt, rhubarb and green chilies. Bring to a boil, cover, reduce heat and simmer until rhubarb has disintegrated, about 20 minutes. Strain mixture through a sieve. Return mixture to a saucepan and bring to a boil. If you're using wild rice, add it to the boiling stock, turn heat to medium-low, cover and simmer until rice is tender, about 30 minutes.

While the stock is simmering, heat a frying pan over medium flame. Add half the oil to the hot pan, then add half the tofu and cook until tofu is slightly browned. Transfer tofu to a bowl, heat the remaining oil in the pan and brown the remaining tofu. 

First Place - Endless Pasta-bilities
Sheep's Milk Cheese Gnocchi with Hickory Nuts, Garlic and Sage Butter Sauce
Brian Garthwaite, Madison

From the winner, Brian Garthwaite: "This was something I came up with when I was looking to make fresh pasta for dinner, but didn't have the time to make a batch. I had originally used fresh ricotta, but switched to the brebis when there wasn't any ricotta at the farmers' market one day. The brebis has more flavor, but you can use ricotta or probably a good goat's milk chevre. Whole wheat flour also works [instead of white], though it's tougher to knead and makes a more fragile dumpling.

"A simple butter sauce shows off the gnocchi, but they're also great with a rich tomato sauce, in soups, as a side dish for rich meats, etc. Because they're so simple, they also work well for mixing in herbs and spices to match the dish they're accompanying."

Gnocchi:
1/2 cup fresh sheep's milk brebis cheese
1 egg
1 tablespoon grated Parmesan
pinch of freshly grated nutmeg
pinch of salt
1 cup white or whole wheat flour (or use a combination)

Sauce:
2 tablespoons butter
1/3 cup hickory nuts
1 clove garlic, minced
small handful fresh sage, sliced into very fine ribbons
freshly grated Parmesan
freshly grated black pepper 

To make the gnocchi: Bring a large pot of salted water to boil. Meanwhile, mix brebis, egg, Parmesan, nutmeg, salt in small bowl until smooth. Stir in the flour and mix until combined. Turn mixture out onto a floured surface and knead the mixture until it comes together and there are no more loose pockets of flour. Use your hands to roll out the dough into a series of long, skinny "ropes" that are 1/2 to 3/4 inch in diameter. They should still be fragile enough to break apart at points. Cut into 1-inch lengths. Then, using the back of a fork, flick each piece along the tines and make a divot in the back of each with your thumb.

Cook the gnocchi in the boiling water until they float to the top. Give them another 30 seconds then drain. (You can also freeze the uncooked gnocchi on a baking sheet--far enough apart so they don't touch--then store the frozen gnocchi in a freezer bag. They can be added directly to boiling water from the freezer.) 

To make the sauce: Melt the butter in a large saute pan over medium-high heat.  When it stops bubbling, add the hickory nuts and garlic and cook about 1 minute. Add the gnocchi and allow it to get a little crispy and brown on both sides. Shortly before it's done, sprinkle sage over the top. Serve immediately with freshly grated Parmesan and black pepper. Makes 2 servings.

First Place - Delectable Desserts
Scrumptious Blackberry and Geranium Jam
Marianne O'Riordan, Chicago

From winner Marianne O'Riordan: "I made this jam every September as a child in Ireland. All over the countryside there every year, blackberries grew on the hedgerows. An afternoon of picking would yield the right amount to make the jam that evening. That wonderful aroma of jam would fill not only the kitchen but the whole house!...As a child I would have great fun making jam jar labels with "Marianne's Jam--Keep Off!"

2 pounds cooking apples (such as Jonagold)
5 pounds blackberries
4 pounds sugar
8-10 edible sweet geranium leaves, stalks removed and leaves chopped 

Place a small plate in the freezer; this will be used later to check the thickness of the jam. Wash, peel and slice the apples. Place in a stainless steel saucepan with about 1 1/4 cups water and stew them over medium heat until soft. Beat with a wooden spoon to a pulp. Place blackberries in another saucepan. If they are dry, add some water, up to a scant cup. Cook until soft. 

Meanwhile, heat oven to 350 degrees. Spread sugar in a large baking pan and warm it in the oven for about 10 minutes. Time it so that the sugar is warm and ready for the next step: Combine both fruits in a large, stainless steel pot or preserving pan and place over medium heat. Stir in heated sugar.

First Place - Kids Category
Ice Cream Mini-Muffins with Blueberries and Maple Syrup Dip
Alyssa Ellis, Rhinelander, Wisconsin

Eight-year-old  Alyssa writes, “My muffin recipe is easy and is really good! I used ice cream to make the muffins. I pick wild blueberries. We get maple syrup from my papa’s trees.”

3/4 cup all-purpose flour or whole wheat pastry flour
1 ½ teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup maple nut-flavored ice cream, softened
1 egg, lightly beaten
1 tablespoon canola oil
3/4 cup wild or organically grown blueberries
1 tablespoon light brown sugar
1/8 teaspoon cinnamon 

Dip:
1-2 tablespoons butter
¼-1/2 cup maple syrup
cinnamon

Heat oven to 400 degrees. Use cooking spray to grease 16 mini-cups in nonstick mini-muffin baking pan(s). Combine flour, baking powder and salt in a large bowl; stir until well combined. Add the soft ice cream, egg and oil; stir until blended. Stir in the blueberries. Spoon batter into muffin cups--up to the top of the cups. Combine brown sugar and cinnamon; sprinkle this mixture over tops of muffins. Bake until muffins are golden and tops spring back when touched, about 12-14 minutes. Let cool 5 minutes in the pan. Remove muffins from pan.  

For dip, microwave butter until it melts. Stir in the maple syrup and cinnamon. Dunk warm muffins into dip. You can warm the dip, too! Makes 16 mini-muffins, or 4-8 servings.

All Recipes Copyright 2005 Reap Food Group