At EVOO, we always had big buckets full of dill pickles. At lunch, we served them as a side on our sandwich plates; we also used them in whatever recipes called for dill pickles, such as roasted pepper-pickle relish, which we sometimes served with grilled meats. I also remember an olive-pickle compote that paired very well with grilled striped bass. Another favorite is potato-pickle salad, which I still make regularly. Of course, we would use these delicious dills in tartar sauce. We would also serve them as an accompaniment to many of our homemade charcuterie items, such as smoked bluefish pate, country pate, and liver mousse.
I miss these pickles.
That’s why I decided it was about time to make them at home.
I figured if I bought about 8 lbs, that would be sufficient to get me through until next year’s harvest.
Once again, I headed off to my local farmers’ market; the Arlington Market is my go-to on Wednesdays. I picked through the bin of pickling cucumbers; I favor the small to medium-sized firm cucumbers. In my opinion, they make the best pickles. If they’re too big, they tend to be soft and seedy. I like to pick cucumbers all around the same size, so that they all pickle evenly.
The first thing that I did was to trim the blossom end off of the cucumbers. There are some enzymes in the blossom end that will soften the pickles; I like firm, crisp pickles.
Be sure to rinse the cucumbers thoroughly under cold water.
All the ingredients are divided into 2 each 8 quart containers. Well, almost all the ingredients are in there; I still need to add a couple of grape leaves to each container. The grape leaves are tannic and will also help keep the pickles crisp and firm.
The Pickles are all set to be placed in the back of my refrigerator for at least a month before I give them a try; this I am looking forward to.
An added bonus to this recipe is that the onions and garlic are delicious pickles in their own right. At EVOO, we often batter and fry the pickled onion rings. I also recall making pickled garlic aioli that we used on several different dishes, including on a few versions of our “Burger of the Week” as well as an accompaniment to fried seafood. The pickled garlic is also great sliced thin and put on salads; the pickling takes the hot bite out of the garlic, leaving a nice crisp, flavorful garlic pickle.
Go to your local farmers’ market. Do it this week before it’s too late; the season will be over before you know it. Make it happen, grab several ears of corn, and process them. It’s just too easy not to do it. A little bit of effort provides you with delicious local corn throughout the year.
Corn from my local farmers’ market.
Here’s what I do: I shuck the corn, discard the husks, and wipe away the silk. Then, using a large, sharp knife, I cut the kernels off the cobs, making sure to cut as close to the cob as possible without cutting too deep; you don’t want hard bits of cob in with the kernels.
Shucked.
You could stop there, bag and freeze the kernels, and be done. However, I add a couple more steps to preserve even more corn flavor.
Corn cobs and kernels separated.
First, using the back side of the same large knife, I scrape the cobs, releasing the germ and some corn pulp that I will add to soup or risotto for a deeper corn flavor.
Scraped cobs for that little bit extra.
The other thing that I do is bag and freeze the cobs; I will use them to make the corn stock that I will use for soup and risotto.
The scraping do add up.
Another thing that I have done in the past is dry the cobs and use them in my smoker, adding a nice sweet smoke flavor to whatever I am smoking; this works best with fish and pork.
Cobs, kernels and scrapings bagged and ready for the freezer.
At EVOO, we did this every summer to smoke bluefish for our very popular Cob Smoked Bluefish Fillet with Corn Risotto, Grilled Zucchini, Tomato-Basil Relish and Spiced Popcorn.
EVOO’s bluefish with corn 3 ways.
Keep in mind that when the local corn season ends, Za’s very popular Corn Za will also be done until sometime next July. Get it while you can!
I love poblanos! Their mild earthy bitter pepper flavor is something I look forward to every summer. Every so often you may find one that is quite spicy, however that is not the norm.
For many years, at the height of the season, late summer, I have bought several pounds of poblanos to process them for use throughout the year.
Red and green poblanos on the grill.
Here’s what I do: on my outdoor gas grill set to high heat, I char the peppers, blistering the skins, which loosens the skin so that I can peel them, as well as cooks the peppers. After charring them, I let them sit covered, at room temperature, this step steams them a bit, which also helps loosen the skin for easier peeling. I then peel, de-stem and de-seed the peppers. From there I separate them onto small ziplock bags and freeze them for later use.
Separated into small bags and frozen poblanos
They are quite versatile, and I use them in several ways; this year, I have already made a batch of corn-poblano chowder. Throughout the year, I will use them in salsas, on salads, as a topping for baked potatoes, in enchiladas, and in chili. I also pick the nicest, most intact ones to use for making rellenos; for this dish I leave the peppers whole, making a slit from the stem to the tip, so that I can remove the seeds. I then stuff the pepper with whatever filling I choose at the time; chicken, beef, roasted butternut squash, and cheese are some of my favorites.
A blast from the past, a dish that was on EVOO’s autumn menu back in 2021: Poblano Chili Relleno with creamed corn and fresh tomato salsa.
With not too much effort, poblanos can be a year round staple in your local kitchen too.
Once again, it’s that time of year; where did the summer go? It’s time to preserve the summer’s local bounty, starting with canning tomatoes.
Here is a pictorial of how I canned more than 2 cases, about 50 pounds of local tomatoes. 40 pounds came from Verrill Farm in Concord, MA; the remaining 10 pounds were from my backyard garden.
First, using a small sharp knife, I cut the core out and put a shallow X, just through the skin on the opposite side of each tomato. I then blanched the tomatoes, in several batches, in simmering water for not more than 30 seconds, then I placed them in an ice bath before removing and discarding the skins.A bucket full of peeled tomatoes.I then cut all the tomatoes in half along the equatorial line.I then gently squeezed out the seeds, reserving and straining them, pouring some of the strained liquid into the pot with the peeled and seeded tomatoes. I wanted to have some liquid in the pot for when I started to cook the tomatoes; this will cut down on the possibility of burning the tomatoes before they break down from the heat in the pan.50 pounds is a lot of tomatoes! This 4-gallon pot is almost full and all set to be cooked.The tomatoes are on the heat and are starting to break down.After about 45 minutes on medium-high heat, the tomatoes were fully cooked and mostly mushy. At this point, I ran them through the coarse die of a food mill.Hot milled tomatoes are ready to be placed in mason jars.All jarred up, in a simmering water bath for 15 minutes.50 pounds of tomatoes worked down to 13 quart jars.Jars are dated only with the year. I won’t be doing more tomatoes this year, so the year is the only date that I need.Put-up in the cellar for use throughout the following year.
This recipe is not my best, nor my favorite, it’s not even a recipe that I have ever used at any restaurant that I’ve owned or worked in.
It’s my #1 because it’s the one that I have made and still make the most, almost every week, sometimes twice a week. There is never a long period of time in which I go without making this recipe and I eat at least 80% of it myself. My daughter tells me that I am addicted, I am not denying her.
This recipe is based on a recipe that I got from my good friend and brother-in-law Dan. I have adapted it into my own, trying different variations, liking most of them. However, I have settled on the variation I like best.
Dan found this recipe online about 25 years ago, it is called “Restaurant Style Salsa”. It is very simple to make, as is my version, really just chop a bunch of ingredients in a food processer for less than a minute and your done.
A photo of the “Restaurant Style Salsa” recipe that Dan passed along to me.
I’ve tried substituting canned fire roasted tomatoes for the canned whole peeled tomatoes, which totally changed the salsa, giving it a strong roasted somewhat smoky flavor, which is nice for a change. I’ve even done half fire roasted and half not, also good.
Another time or two I have substituted chipotle pepper (canned in adobo sauce) for the jalapeno; the chipotles added some nice leathery smoke. If used in a batch that also contained the fire roasted tomatoes the chipotles brought the salsa to another level; very good, but still not my favorite variation.
In addition to those substitutions, I have, at times tried adding grilled/roasted peppers, roasted garlic and/or grilled/caramelized onions to this recipe and it’s top-notch. However, the recipe goes from whirling some stuff in a food processor to having to grill, roast and caramelize. Which can be time consuming endeavors. However, if I were to have one or more of these ingredients ready to go in my fridge, I’d add some, though I probably wouldn’t prep them specifically for this salsa recipe.
The brand of tomatoes also makes a difference, be sure not to use tomatoes packed with basil or San Marzano tomatoes; some brands are packed with heavy puree, don’t use these either, the results are too tomatoey and too thick. One of my favorite brands, especially because it’s local, is Pastene, I don’t use it for my salsa though, it falls under the too tomatoey and too thick category. I do, however, use Pastene for Italian style tomato sauces. I’ve found that the cheap store brands of whole peeled tomatoes, organic or not, are usually best for this recipe.
For me I want to be able to make, and clean up after making this recipe in less than 10 minutes. This is more than doable, I’ve done it in less than 7, and yes I have timed myself.
My “go to” version of this recipe is the recipe that Dan gave me all pumped up. I double the amount of onion and garlic called for in the original recipe. I’ve also at least quadrupled the amounts of all of the spices. And I’ve also added a few ingredients to my version including a very generous amount of freshly ground black pepper, some finely grated carrot, which I love in this recipe, it adds color, texture, sweetness and earthy carrot-ness. On top of that I’ve also added smoked paprika, this adds some deep background smokiness without overpowering the other ingredients.
My pumped-up salsa recipe.
Whether you follow Dan’s “Restaurant Style” or my pumped-up version, the end result will be far superior to any store bought national brand salsa. I find most of them to be too sweet, too cooked, too starchy, too mushy, too cloying and lacking in texture as well as depth of flavor. Overall I think they kind of suck.
Don’t limit your taste enjoyment of this salsa to just a dip for corn chips. It also is great baked with flakey white fish such as cod, haddock, hake or pollack. All you have to do is generously slather the fish with the salsa and bake in a 375 degree oven until the fish is cooked through; depending on the thickness of the fish it could be as quick as 5 minutes or as long as 15 minutes.
It’s also great as a sauce for grilled chicken or pork; I have been known to spoon on top of cooked white rice. It’s a delicious, easy to make addition to anyone’s culinary repertoire.
Polenta Croquette with Braised Spinach, Stracciatella, Parmigiano-Reggiano, Parsley, Last Summer’s Tomato Sauce and Pine Nut Crunch
I have written in the past about my approach to vegetarian dishes, you can check out my previous post here.
This dish came about when I was thinking about what should we do with all of the plum tomatoes that we put up in Mason jars this past summer. To me that’s the coolest thing about this dish; we are using local tomatoes in the middle of January. Sure they’re not fresh tomatoes. However, they were bought from local farms (Drumlin Farm in Lincoln, MA and Kimball Fruit Farm in Pepperell, MA) during the height of the local season. So.. we are still supporting the local community and best of all- they’re freaking delicious!
To go with the tomatoes-we made polenta croquettes with Four Star Farm’s (Northfield, MA) cornmeal. We braised The Food Project’s (Roxbury, MA) spinach and topped the croquette with stracciatella from The Mozzarella House (Peabody, MA).
This one of the many vegetarian dishes that we have produced where you don’t have to be a vegetarian to enjoy.
One of the added benefits from all of the preserving we do at EVOO is we have these great locally sourced in-house-made flavor bombs that we can add to our cocktails. Our specialty drinks are often flavored with things like apple butter, peach butter, berry jams, preserved cherries and pickles, which we use to flavor a multitude of our specialty drinks. The most popular of these drinks is our Jalapeno Margarita, made simply with just the finest ingredients: Jalapeno Tequila, fresh squeezed lime juice, agave nectar and EVOO’s sweet pickled jalapenos all shaken together with some ice and then strained into a salted rimmed cocktail glass.
EVOO’s Jalapeno Margarita:
2.5 ounces Tanteo Jalapeno Tequila
1.5 ounces fresh squeezed Lime Juice
.5 ounces Light Agave Nectar
4 each slices of EVOO’s sweet Pickled Jalapenos, plus 1/2 ts of the Jalapeno Pickle Brine
Shake well with ice, strain into a salted rim cocktail glass, garnish with a few additional slices of jalapenos.
note: most likely you won’t have a jar of EVOO’s jalapenos in your cupboard. You can substitute your favorite brand; most brands are not sweet, just add an extra squirt of agave nectar if desired.
Okay so it’s late January and nothing is growing in the fields of New England. What does a restaurant that prides itself on really being farm-to-table do to maintain a menu that is true to their ideals during a long cold winter?
Local cellared roots
Well, fortunately for us more and more local farms either have, and are now using or they have installed root cellars. These farms are able to supply us with all the root vegetables, winter squashes and cabbages we need. Great local carrots, beets, turnips, parsnips, radishes, kohlrabi and potatoes are easy to come by. Many farms also have have heated greenhouses that provide us with lettuce, arugula, spinach, pea greens and even some herbs. Getting local sustainable livestock is not a problem, all of the land-based proteins used at EVOO year round are from independent small family-owned farms.
A greenhouse at Red Fire farm in Granby, Ma
However, the most important thing we do is plan for it. Throughout the local growing season starting in the late spring and finishing well after the hard frost we pickle, can, preserve, dehydrate and freeze. This is a lot of work and it comes at great expense to us. But, we made a commitment to ourselves and our community, to be as local and sustainable as possible.
Some of the items we pickled this year include: asparagus, rhubarb, fiddlehead ferns, garlic scapes, cucumbers, onions, garlic, okra, beets, green beans, peppers, jalapenos, cauliflower and green tomatoes. Some of the pickles are sweet, some are dill and some are fermented. Many pickles are canned in glass mason jars, while others are in big buckets finding their way to the inner depths of our walk-in refrigerators.
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We make gallons upon gallons of apple butter, which we use in our apple crisp at EVOO, on a winter squash pizza at Za and whatever other way(s) we can come up with. Big vats of jalapeno and habanero hot sauces are made, processed and put-up. Many flats of local berries and grapes, at the peak of their ripeness are made into jellies and jams, and we canned more cherries than anyone would ever want to pit.
a stash of local goodies
pickles stored in our dining room
Some backroom storage
Pickles and Jam
Bread ‘n’ Butter Pickles and Pickled Cauliflower
We oven-dry and vacuum seal cases of plum tomatoes, so that in the dead of winter we are still able to have local tomatoes on our menu.
Plum tomatoes starting to dry
The finished product, vacuum sealed with EVOO
We shuck, vacuum seal and freeze bushels of corn. We had local corn salsa on our menu last week with a pastured MA beef empanada.
Kohlrabi Kimchi
We also make buckets of kimchi, some using the traditional napa cabbage, while others are made with kohlrabi and still others are with zucchini or butternut squash.
Dried mint and basil from our Rooftop garden
Dried chives from our Rooftop Garden
Our rooftop garden often provides us with more herbs than we can use, so we dry them for use in the winter months.
Aleppo style peppers before they are dried
Dried cayenne peppers
We dry and grind locally grown chile peppers, using them wherever a little bit of heat is needed.
Running a sustainable restaurant in Massachusetts has its challenges and we have been taking them head-on for years. During our 20 year tenure it has gotten a whole lot easier, the local movement has helped us immensely. Farmers who used to look at winter as a time for a short break and planning for the upcoming season are now figuring out ways to grow, store and sell more to restaurants and at winter farmers markets. We have also learned how to plan better for the winter, making sure we take the time to preserve our short growing season’s bounty for use throughout the whole year.
If you’re into root vegetables, pickles, preserves and greenhouse greens, come on in and see how we are serving them, at the same time you will be supporting us and your local farming community.
During the local growing season we fill a great quantity of Mason jars. In an effort to prolong the local growing season, we pickle, can and preserve a variety of local ingredients; keeping us stocked-up with locally grown produce through New England’s long winter. We make sweet pickles, dill pickles, pickled cauliflower, pickled peppers, pickled onions, pickled garlic, pickled okra, pickled rhubarb, pickled fiddlehead ferns, pickled ramps and pickled scapes. In addition to all of the pickles we make a variety fruit jams, this year we made grape jelly, raspberry jam, strawberry jam and plum jam. We also canned cherries soaked in spiced red wine, and we finish our canning season with many jars of apple butter. Having all of these pickles and preserves available to us allows us to add locally grown sweet, spicy, acidic and interesting flavors to our menu. Making all of the pickles and preserves is no small feat, many man (or woman) hours are used every week to stock up our inventory.
Bread ‘n’ Butter Pickles and Pickled Cauliflower
Concord Grape Jelly
Pickles and Jam
At the end of September when habanero pepper season is in full swing, and carrots, onions, garlic and tomatoes are all still readily available, we make enough hot sauce to last us the entire year; this year we made 15 gallons. We use the hot sauce in our habanero coleslaw, it often finds it’s way into hollandaise, tartar sauce and wherever we need to add some heat.
Habanero Hot Sauce
Our most popular and most utilized Mason jar fodder is jalapenos. We fill more than 200 quart sized Mason jars with our sweet – spicy pickled jalapenos. During the local growing season, which runs from July through first frost, Kimball Fruit Farm in Pepperell, MA, supplies us with a bushel or two each week. Fredy, our prep cook extraordinaire slices the peppers, rinses them with cold water to remove excess seeds; which contributes to the spicy heat, and then he prepares the brine. He sterilizes the jars, fills them with the rinsed peppers and hot brine and finally he processes them in a hot water bath. We set them up in hopes that we have produced enough for the full year, until we can make more. I don’t want to run out of these peppers they are too popular. At every family or friend gathering I get hounded for these peppers. I make sure a bring several jars with me to keep everyone from twitching. I get it, I personally go through three to four Mason Jar quarts a year. They are really that good.
Fredy pickling jalapenos
Filling the jars with hot brine before processing them.
The finished product
At EVOO we always have our pickled jalapenos on our lunch menu, served on our chicken sausage sandwich. At Za our sister we use them as a pizza topping and in as an ingredient in our avocado salad. Any recipe that I write that calls for jalapenos we use our home made pickles. Just like any of the other pickles you find on our menu they are all made in house, with recipes that we have spent a long time perfecting. We never use store bought pickles.
Chicken Sausage Sandwich with Pickled Jalapenos, VT Cheddar and Knee Slapping Good Barbecue Sauce
One of Za’s Pizza’s topped with our pickled jalapenos.
