Cilantro is a member of the carrot family and closely related to parsley. It is actually the leaves and stems of the coriander plant. It has a dark green leaf and distinctive aroma.

Cilantro can be used in a wide variety of Mexican and Asian dishes but my favorite use is to chop up several cups and add diced tomatoes, chili peppers and a bit of garlic and salt to make a simple and delicious salsa. Bring on the chips!

Cilantro is primarily used for flavor and is not a significant source of vitamins or minerals with the single exception of vitamin K, where 1/4 cup provides almost 20% of your daily need.

Cilantro begins to appear in our farmers’ markets in June and then you can find it all summer long. You don’t need to worry about storage, just buy it fresh as you need it.

Of course, in the fall, you can dry some to have through the winter. Like most herbs, you can simply hang the stems until dry and crumble the leaves into a glass jar for storage.

Cilantro is one of those herbs that you’ll find more and more uses for, once you begin enjoying its unique flavor.

Ken

All names for one of our favorite beans. Green beans are now arriving from local farms, fresh and ready to eat.

Green beans are a very low calorie vegetable with high nutritional value. They are a great source of vitamins K, C, A and manganese but they also contain a ton of other vitamins and minerals in lesser amounts.

Green beans can be found both fresh and frozen year round in your grocery, but nothing compares to the flavor found in freshly picked local varieties. Sweet and crispy, green beans can be added to salads, soups or casseroles. They are a great side dish on their own and are complimented well by the addition of a small amount of almonds or mushrooms. Steamed green beans can be added to potatoes and tuna for a delicious Salad Nicoise, a perfect summertime dinner.

Salad Nicoise:

14 oz canned light meat tuna in olive oil—drained and broken into chunks

3 eggs—hard-boiled, peeled and quartered

16 green beans—ends trimmed and halved    

2 small potatoes—peeled and cubed

4 cups lettuce leaves—washed and dried

2 tomatoes—cut into wedges

16 black olives

Dressing:

3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

1 clove garlic—minced (crushed)

2 tablespoons red or white wine vinegar

½ teaspoon Dijon mustard

½ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

½ teaspoon salt

STEAM the potatoes until tender (around 8-10 minutes), adding the beans for the last 5 minutes of cooking. Set aside to cool. ARRANGE the lettuce, potatoes, beans, tuna, tomatoes, eggs and olives on a serving platter. PLACE the remaining ingredients in a small jar with a screw-top lid and shake to combine. POUR the dressing evenly over the salad to serve.

Stop by your local farmers’ market and pick up some fresh green beans today. They’ll be delicious.

Ken

Strawberry jam. It was the beginning. Each lazy summer of my childhood, the litany of preserving the season’s bounty began with strawberry jam. I was reminded by my mother in early June that strawberries would certainly be ripe for my grandfather’s birthday (June 15^th) and that we would be heading out to a nearby farm to pick as soon as they were ready. Strawberries were soon followed by sweet cherries, sour cherries, raspberries, plums, currants, apricots, pears, peaches, and apples. In the middle, of course, came cucumbers for sweet, dill, and bread and butter pickles. And later, canned tomatoes, chutney, corn relish, even sauerkraut. Our basement cellar shelves, filled with empty glass canning jars by spring, soon gleamed again with the reds and yellows and greens of the preserved harvest.

My mother did most of the work, so for me, it was fun picking, pitting, stirring, licking the spoon. For many years after I married and moved away, much of Mother’s summer labor found its way into my pantry. But at some point I realized that I needed to learn how to make the preserves my family had come to love. It began with strawberry jam.

For several years after moving to Cleveland, I would time one of my visits to my mother in Michigan so that I could bring back a lug of ripe strawberries from the farmers’ market to make my jam. It slowly began to dawn on me that driving from Cleveland to Ann Arbor for sweet, ripe strawberries was crazy. And so it was that my involvement in the startup of the North Union Farmers Market began with strawberry jam.

Mother made three completely different kinds of strawberry jam, including one that “baked” in the sun for about a week until the juice was a thick, deep sangria red and the berries were firm and intense with strawberry sweetness. But our favorite, and the easiest to make is the simple cooked jam found inside the box of any commercial pectin. For one batch, here’s what you need:

Start with about 3 quarts of fresh, ripe strawberries (strawberries do not ripen after they have been picked so be sure you get ripe berries to begin with either by picking them yourself or buying them from a farmer.)

7 C of cane sugar (I know it’s a lot, but that’s jam for you)

You will need eight (8) ½ pt jelly jars with lids and screw tops

I put my jelly jars in the dishwasher and wash them when I start the jamming process.

Gather round your helpers to begin hulling the berries. Cut off the green caps (called calyxes) and crush with a knife or potato masher. (I have an ancient aluminum measuring cup that cuts through the berries nicely.)

Measure 5 cups of crushed berries into an 8 qt heavy enamel cookpot and begin to heat to a boil. You may add ¼ C of lemon juice, if you like the flavor. I do not add lemon juice.

Gradually stir in the pectin and continue cooking to bring the mixture to a full rolling boil. You can add a bit of butter to reduce the foam.

At this point, you should have a shallow saucepan slowing boiling in which to sterilize the lids and soften the rubber on the seal. Put the lids into the boiling water.

After the berries and pectin have come to a full boil, add the sugar and stir constantly until the mixture returns to a full rolling boil again and boil for 1 minute.

Remove the jam from the heat and retrieve the hot jars from the dishwasher. Spoon the hot jam into the jars, leaving about ¼ inch of space at the top. Wipe the top of the jar clean and dry of any slopped jam. Use a tongs to take the hot lid out of the boiling water to set it onto the jar of jam and screw down the lid. Repeat the process until you have filled the jam jars. Any left over jam can be eaten immediately or saved for toast in the morning. When your jars are filled and cooling on the counter, listen for the gentle “pop” as the cooling jam creates a vacuum in the top of the jar. Jam can be stored in the pantry until next strawberry season, if it lasts that long.

I love the unique flavor of rhubarb, which I associate with the coming of spring.  I make rhubarb sauce for a tangy breakfast treat.  For every cup of cubed rhubard I use about 1/4 cup of sugar and enough water to cover.  Simmer until the rhubarb is soft and add more sugar if needed to suit your taste.

I discovered that when rhubarb is baked, it turns a deep, lucious red color.  I use rhubarb instead of apples in my favorite apple crisp recipe and double the sugar (using brown sugar).  Take four cups of diced rhubarb and add 1/2 cup of white sugar and 1/2 cup of brown sugar, 1/4 t ground cloves, 1/2 t cinnamon and mix.

Butter a 11/2 quart casserole and add the rhubarb mixture.  Create a topping of 1/2 cup white sugar, 3/4 cup flour, pinch of salt, and 6 tablespoons of butter using a pastry knife to mix until crumbly.  Cover the top of the rhubarb with the topping.  You may add nuts if you like.  Bake at 350 degrees until the fruit is soft when pierced with a fork and the topping is brown.  The rhubarb will bake to a beautiful deep red color.  Serve with vanilla ice cream or frozen yogurt.  Awesome!

SIX SIMPLE STEPS TO A SAUCY SUPPER

Grilled Red Pepper Sauce Is Versatile All Year Long

By Diane Schwartz

When the outdoor grill is fired up it’s a perfect time to roast over charcoal or wood the main ingredient to a sauce that is a mainstay at our house.  Grilled red pepper sauce is also the base for a delightful soup you can serve hot or cold.  The sauce is thick enough for pasta, pizza, fish and seafood dishes, risotto and vegetable creations.  It can be frozen in large amounts or even as ice cubes to pop into stews or winter dishes.

1.  Simply place the red peppers (about 8 large) on a hot grill to blacken all around the outside. Remove when black and soft.  Allow the peppers to cool.

2.  Pull off the blackened outer skin, open the peppers, deseed the insides and cut into large pieces.

3.  In a heavy large pot warm 4 Tablespoons of good quality olive oil.  Add two medium purple onions which have been coarsely chopped plus four cloves of garlic, the skins removed.  While the onions and garlic are sautéed in the oil, liberally season them with coarse sea salt.

4.  Coarsely chop three medium tomatoes and add them to the onion mixture when the onions have become soft.  Let the tomatoes cook for five minutes at medium flame.

5.  Turn the flame down to low and add the red pepper pieces.  Stir.  Cover the pot and cook for 25 minutes until all the ingredients are softened.

6.  Place the cooled mixture into a Cuisinart or kitchen blender to produce a chunky textured sauce.  It is a good idea to blend in batches.

The sauce can be thinned to desired consistency with chicken stock to become a soup. For a creamy version of the soup, add milk or cream as well.  If you end the summer with several batches for the freezer, this soup will give you wonderful summer memories in the dark of winter.

Diane Schwartz is a home cook and photographer living just a few blocks from her favorite farmers’ market, the North Union Shaker Square Market.  She and her husband Lew delight in cooking from their own garden and the market’s bounty, eating al fresco on summer nights using the red pepper sauce two to three times per week.