Market to Table - September 10, 2009

Well, I seem to be on a roll with the whole dynamic dining thing. Meals have been far from routine for 3 weeks straight now and there's no slowing me down. What can I say, local foods are inspiring me now more than ever. But what's not to love? Let's get right to it...

Pancake with blackberry jam and Watermelon

Having finished off the last of my mostly local granola, I was in the mood for pancakes again. Making my whole wheat vegan pancakes is a breeze. Since I've made so many changes to the recipe I use on-line, I'll just publish my own. Let's see...

SGF's Whole Wheat Vegan Pancakes

1 cup of whole wheat flour (local)

1 heaping tablespoon honey (local)

2 teaspoons baking powder

lots of cinnamon

dash of salt

1 cup rice milk (local)

2 tablespoons vegetable oil

Mix everything up and ladle 1/3 cup at a time over a warm griddle or frying pan. Flip when bubbles start to form on top.

For this batch of pancakes, I decided to splurge and open on of my jars of homemade blackberry jam (made from local berries, of course) to use instead of syrup. Delicious. And you can't beat that Texas watermelon on the side. What a beautiful way to start the day!

Pizza

I ended up making pizza dough twice this week. The first time was to share with a friend and her son on Labor Day. The second was later in the week because, well... because it was so gosh darn good that I wanted to eat it again and I needed to use up the rest of the pasta sauce, right?

I tweaked the dough recipe this time to make a whole wheat version with honey instead of sugar. I'm going to be a recipe queen this week and give you this one too in case you want to give it a shot...

SGF's Whole Wheat Pizza Dough

2 teaspoons active dry yeast

2-1/2 tablespoons honey (local)

1 cup warm water (about 100-110 degrees)

1 to 1-1/2 cups whole wheat flour (local)

1/2 cup wheat gluten

1 tablespoon olive oil (farmers' market)

1/2 tablespoon salt

Activate the yeast for 10 minutes in the warm water and honey. Once activated, add 1 cup of the flour, and all of the wheat gluten, olive oil and salt. Knead (I do this in our mixer), adding any extra flour for proper consistency (until dough clears the sides of the bowl). Continue to knead for 15 minutes or until dough passes the window pane test. Then roll it up and place it in a greased bowl overnight in the fridge.

The next day, a couple hours before you're ready to bake, take the dough out of the fridge (it should have doubled in size). Push down on the dough to get out all the air bubbles, then cut it in half (or for my size personal pizza's - 4ths). Leave what you'll be using on the counter and put the rest back in the fridge for later use (it will keep about a week).

Cover the dough with a towel and allow to sit on the counter for about an hour. Then start to shape your dough as round as you can make it (toss it in the air, roll it out with a rolling pin, whatever works...). You'll need to let the dough rest a few times to get a thiner crust (rolling it out, letting it rest, then rolling it out again, letting it rest, etc). Once you get the thinness you want, place it on a greased cookie sheet and let it rest an additional 30 minutes.

Next, go ahead and pre-heat the oven to 500 degrees and start to prep the pizza. First brush some olive oil on the outside rim. Then add sauce, cheese (if you eat cheese), and any topping you'd like. When the oven is hot, pop the pizza in and bake for 8 minutes. Allow the pizza to cool on the counter few a few minutes before cutting and serving. Mmm. Homemade pizza heaven!

When I made pizza with friends on Labor Day, we each prepped our own pizza (mine of course didn't have cheese, nor did the ones I made later in the week), but I had sauteed green peppers and lambs-quarter from my backyard garden for toppings with my homemade pasta sauce (from my backyard tomatoes). You can't beat that for local!

Bean burger

Last, but certainly not least, I finally got around to finishing up the last of the pinto bean burger patties in the freezer. With a little ketchup and one of my homemade whole wheat rolls (wheat and honey are local), the "burgers" were perfect.

If you'd like to try the bean burger, I have two recipes up:

Black bean burger

Pinto bean burger

They're both a little different and the beans and interchangeable. Just make what you like.

And for the meal pictured here, I also munched away on a sweet (and enormous) carrot from the farmers' market (those of you who frequent the market know who grew this carrot and that there isn't a sweeter carrot anywhere).

What a perfect way to end this week's Market to Table post - that carrot symbolizes all that I love about local food - it's fresh, it's whole, it comes from someone I know and trust, and most importantly it tastes incredible. So what are you waiting for? Fall in love with local food. Go check out your local farmers or maybe even grow your own, but go local. It's just better.

Until next time, Happy (and mindful) eating!