Mara Jernigan

Cherry Clafoutis

Clafoutis is a French country dessert from the Limousin region. Traditionally it was made with the first sweet cherries of the season and the cherries were left unpitted so the kernels could release their delicate almond flavor as they baked. This version uses blueberries. Small, thin skinned plums (pitted) are also delicious, as are grapes. Add spices if you wish.

2

2 cups cherries, pitted if you wish, washed and dried

1/2 cup slivered almonds(optional)

3/4 cup flour

4 eggs, lightly beaten

2 tablespoons butter, melted

Use 2 tablespoons butter to grease an ovenproof ceramic flan dish or a shallow 10-inch leakproof springform pan.

Sprinkle 2 tablespoons sugar all over the butter.

Cover the bottom of the dish or pan with a single layer of blueberries, and sprinkle the almonds over them.

Mix the flour in the bowl with the 2/3

Place the flan in the oven and bake for 1 hour or until done (the batter should be soft but set and pale golden brown on top). Serve warm!

Tags: Ingredients, Recipes by Mara
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At this time of year I am usually finishing up the last of the winter vegetables and am ready for something fresh and green. One of the very first things to appear in the spring is stinging nettles. Nettles are a strong spring tonic, good for people, plants and animals.

The first time I really became aware of nettles was living on the farm in Austriaa. We had a big patch growing beside an old barn, where they are often found. At that point I wasn’t eating them and of course had an unforgettable experience learning about their sting by running into them. I think it may have been Giordano Venturi www.venturischulze.com who got me curious about trying them when we were their neighbours. Italians love wild greens of all kinds and picking them is an Easter ritual from north to south. I harvest and wash nettles using tongs and scissors but you can also wear gloves to avoid their persistent sting. Once nettles are cooked for 3 to 5 minutes they loose their sting, and can be used as a substitute for spinach in almost any recipe. I started by making nettle and potato soup, then quiches with both pureed and whole cooked nettles. When we moved to Fairburn Farm I had to get used to much later frosts and was not able to grow salad greens 11 months of the year as I had at Engeler Farm. So nettles became even more important as I was trying to cook for my guests, sometimes from sunny California, using only local products in March and April! Each year I try to think of something new to do with nettles. We make ravioli stuffed with nettles and ricotta, gnocchi, sauces for fish and timbales.

In 2006 I expanded my pre-occupation with nettles and held a Festival for the Stinging Nettle and Other Spontaneous Greens of Spring, a bi-annual tradition I will continue this weekend for my last year at Fairburn Farm.

We’ll have a Stinging Nettle Cafe with tarts, soup, and pizza from our wood burning brick oven with a nettle pesto. Biodynamic farmers John and Katy Erlich of Alderlea Farm www.alderleafarm.com will give a talk on the benefits of nettle and their use in biodynamic farming, and I’ll be doing a cooking demo and giving away recipes for an easy to make nettle spanikopita. The festival is Sunday April 18th from 11 to 3 at Fairburn Farm. Admission is $5. for Slow Food members and $10. for non members.

Stinging Nettle Tart

Here is a recipe for the nettle tarts pictures above. If you like you can puree the cooked nettles into the cream and egg mixture to make a custard that is brilliant green.

1 pie crust, blind baked

1 cup of cooked nettles

2 finely chopped shallots

2 Tbsp. of butter

1 cup of milk

1 cup of whipping cream

6 whole eggs

1 egg yolk

Salt and Pepper to taste

In a bowl, whisk the eggs until well beaten and then add the cream and milk, season with a little salt and pepper

Remove the shallots and nettles from the heat, allow to cool for a few minutes.

Line the par baked tart molds with the nettle and shallot and fill with the custard mixture.

Bake approximately 35 minutes on the middle rack of the oven or until the tarts souffle and a knife inserted in the center comes out clean.

Tags: Farm Life, Ingredients by Mara
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Sometimes the dark days of winter spook me. Unpredicatable weather and power outages. Cash flow challenges.  A lack of sunlight and fresh local produce means I depend more on the grocery store, and personally, I just feel more vulnerable. I lost both of my parents in the winter and my ram, hungry and cranky on a cold snowy day,  broke my leg in the winter. With the long daylight hours of summer I feel strong and alive, practically invincible. But in the winter I am not so bold and I retreat to the indoors, sleeping more and going out only for the bare necessities. Those around me have heard me refer to this as the time to stay home and eat lentils. Not only is it a comforting and affordable food to eat in winter, it just seems a lot less dangerous.

Lentils have long been known as a staple protein for vegetarians, and beacuase of that, perhaps they suffer a hippy stigma. But from India to Italy, the humble lentil offers a versitile source of daily protien which adapts well to a multitude of spices and cooking methods. Unlike other pulses, it’s small size means it can be cooked quickly.

Canada is actually the largest producer of lentils, with 28% of the world’s production grown on the Canadian praries in the provinces of Saskatchewan, Manitoba and Alberta. But some of the finest lentils come from regions such as Puy in France, or the Sicilian island of Ustica.

In Italy, traditionally, lentils are the first thing you eat for the New Year, as their small size and shape symbolize money and prosperity. On New Year’s eve they are often served with slices of smimmered fatty pork sausage such as Cotechino or Zampone, a stuffed pork trotter.

On a recent trip to Sicliy I tried the lentils from the Island of Ustica, which are one of 32 of Sicily’s Slow Food Presidia items. The Ustica lentils are the smallest I’ve seen, and cook quickly without pre-soaking.The classic preperation is a soup of pasta e lenticchie, with broken spagetti cooked on the side and added to the soup before serving. Here is a recipe inspired by a humble bowl of soup made with Ustica lentils which I was offered during the staff meal at La Lucerna restaurant in Porto Palo, near Menfi, in Sicily. Served with a generous swirl of freshly pressed, spicy Sicilian olive oil on top, it was the best lentil soup I have ever eaten.

Pasta e Lenticchie

 Rinse 2 cups of dried lentils several times. If you are using large lentils, let them soak for an hour or so. Chop a “sofritto”, a fine dice consiting of 1 Cup of onion, 1/2 a Cup of celery and 1/2 a Cup of carrot. Finely mince a large clove of garlic. In a soup pot, saute the sofritto and garlic in 2 Tbsp of olive oil, adding a pinch of salt, a little freshly milled black pepper and a bayleaf. Cook until the onions are soft and translucent. Add the lentils and 6 cups of water. Cook for between 45 minutes and 1 1/2 hours, depending on the size of the lentils, tasting them for doneness from time to time. Bring a seperate pot full of water to a boil.

Fill a one cup measure with spagetti broken into 3/4 inch pieces. (This is a good job for a kid) Salt the water and cook as per the package instructions. Taste the soup and add salt and pepper as needed, stir in the cooked spagetti and serve drizzled with the best quality olive oil you have in the house.

Tags: Ingredients, Recipes by Mara
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