Ginger Pear Crumble

Candied ginger is a wonderful foil for many fruits, and pear is one of the best. I made this with Asian pears from our tree, but European pears would work just as well. Be sure to serve this with whipped cream or ice cream - perhaps some Snow's Ginger.

6 cups peeled and cubed pears
1/4 cup finely chopped crystallized ginger
1/2 cup rolled oats
1/2 cup whole wheat pastry flour
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1/8 tsp nutmeg
5 Tbsp butter

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Butter an 8x8-inch baking pan.

Place the cubed pears in the baking pan. Sprinkle the crystallized ginger over the top.

Combine remaining ingredients in a food processor and pulse a few times until nicely crumbly. Carefully spread the topping over the pears.

Bake for 40-50 minutes, until the pears are very soft. Serve warm with whipped cream or ice cream.

Serves about 6.

Ideas for Leftover Turkey

Most people, myself included, don't cook much turkey except at the holidays and thus don't have an army of recipes for the leftovers. Here are some ideas, when you get tired of pot pie and soup.

1. add turkey to a classic Waldorf salad
2. substitute turkey for beef in chili (use shredded turkey); turkey marries surprisingly well with Mexican and Southwestern flavors
3. pasta with cream sauce, turkey, and bacon or mushrooms
4. turkey quesadillas - turkey goes well with sharp cheddar and spice
5. turkey salad (a la chicken salad) with blue cheese and pears

Got some other good ideas? Share them in the comments!

Roasted Fingerlings with Bacon and Dried Pear

Sweet and salty, soft and crunchy...it has probably become apparent by now that these are contrasts I enjoy in my food! And this, I have to say, is delicious. Of course, it's pretty hard to go wrong with roasted fingerling potatoes.

2 lbs fingerlings, in 1-inch chunks
1 medium shallot, roughly minced
3 Tbsp finely chopped dried pear
Salt and pepper to taste
Olive oil
4 strips cooked bacon, finely chopped

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.

Toss the fingerlings, shallot, pear, salt and pepper, and olive oil in a roasting pan (9x13 works well). Cover with foil and roast for 20 minutes. Remove foil and roast another 10 minutes, until potatoes are tender when pierced with a fork. Add bacon. Taste and adjust salt and pepper if needed.

Serves 4-6.

Pear Ginger Muffins

You can use either fresh or dried pears here (or frozen, I suppose, if you have some - though I haven't tried that). They are lovely with ginger, and the whole wheat keeps these in the realm of muffins rather than cake. Soft white winter wheat, which makes whole wheat pastry flour, is available from Four Star Farms - I bought some at Winter Fare, but Green Fields Market also carries it in the bulk section. Upinngil Farm also sells both hard and soft wheat. You can use regular whole wheat flour here, too, but I prefer the texture of the whole wheat pastry flour.

2 cups whole wheat pastry flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp allspice
1 tsp ground ginger
1 egg, beaten
1 tsp vanilla extract (optional)
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup canola oil
1 1/2 cups milk
1 medium pear, peeled, cored, and chopped (or 1/2 cup chopped dried pear)
1/4 cup minced crystallized ginger (optional)

Preheat the over to 400˚. Grease muffin tins to make 12 large muffins or 18 medium-sized ones.

In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, salt, nutmeg, allspice, and ginger.

In a large bowl, combine the egg, vanilla, brown sugar, oil, and milk, and stir until the brown sugar is largely dissolved.

Fold the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients, stirring just enough to combine and get rid of most of the lumps. Fold in the pear pieces. If desired, fold in the crystallized ginger with the pear, or save it to sprinkle on top after filling the muffin cups.

Spoon the batter into the muffin tins.

Bake for 15-20 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into the middle of a muffin comes out clean.

Makes 12 large or 18 medium-sized muffins.

Drying Pears

Yesterday I got my dehydrator out for the first time in several months. On our last run to Clarkdale, we heard from the staff there that they expect to close for the season by the middle of this month - rather earlier than last year. They will be selling fruit and cider at Winter Fare on Saturday and anticipate selling out almost all of their remaining stock. So we bought a whole load of apples for drying and making applesauce. It won't be enough to see us through to the summer, but will get us part of the way there, anyway. I don't know whether Apex Orchards will be remaining open longer or not.

Along with the apples, we bought some pears, which Clarkdale still had a few of. I wanted to try drying them, because we are getting low on dried peaches and I think Nate is going to be distraught when they are gone. The pears dried beautifully with no special treatment. I just peeled them, cut them in half and scooped out the core, then sliced 1/4-inch thick and dried for about 7 hours. Their color held and the flavor is great - sweet and concentrated.

Late Fall Crudite Platter

We usually have veggies and dip on hand as appetizers before Thanksgiving dinner. But what do you serve if you're trying to keep it local in late November? Carrots, of course. But other root vegetables can also be great raw: try radishes, daikon, celeriac, kohlrabi, and turnips (especially smaller ones). For all of these, peel and cut into sticks or slices. Depending on the nature of the dip you are serving, apple and pear slices can also work well.

Pizza with Arugula, Goat Cheese, and Pear

We got some arugula in our CSA box last week. It is one of those cold-tolerant greens that keeps producing happily into late fall and even early winter, especially if in a cold frame or under row covers. Here I combined it with some local goat cheese and pears. The result is a pleasing study in contrasts - soft pear and crisp crust, sweet fruit and salty cheese.

1 14-inch pizza crust
4-6 oz. crumbled goat cheese
2-3 Tbsp olive oil
4-5 cups coarsely chopped arugula
2 cups sliced pear (peeled)
Salt and pepper to taste

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees.

Mash the goat cheese and olive oil together in a small bowl until it reaches a nicely spreadable consistency. Spread this mixture over the pizza crust.

Heat a little olive oil in a skillet and saute the arugula until just wilted - a minute or so. Spread the arugula over the goat cheese, then arrange the sliced pear on top. Sprinkle with salt and pepper.

Bake for 15-18 minutes, until crust is done and cheese and fruit just begin to brown.

Serves 2-3.

Thanksgiving Pie Ideas

Pie for Thanksgiving is a big deal in my family, especially on my husband's side. Not only does there need to be plenty for the big day, with family sticking around all weekend, there needs to be plenty of leftovers! Apple and pumpkin are non-negotiable necessities and not to be messed with, but we always do at least a couple other kinds as well and there is always room for a little creativity. Peach, blueberry, and cherry are all frequent additions to the table. Last year I made a triple cranberry meringue pie (I think I found the recipe on the New York Times website), which was quite tasty but involved too many steps to make again for a holiday where food prep time is at a premium. Here are some other ideas to jazz things up without straying too far from tradition:

1. For apple pie, add a handful of cranberries
2. For pumpkin pie, add minced candied ginger or substitute maple syrup for some or all of the sugar
3. For peach pie, add some minced fresh or candied ginger
4. For peach, cherry, or berry pies, top with streusel topping instead of pastry crust
5. Mix apple and pear in a pie, or apple, pear, and poached quince
6. Mix different berries in one pie (e.g. blueberry, strawberry, and blackberry)
7. For berry, cherry, or peach pie, add a teaspoon of almond or hazelnut extract to the pastry dough
8. Combine peaches with blueberries or blackberries

And, of course, don't forget to have plenty of Snow's or Bart's ice cream on hand for the a la mode part. Vanilla is classic, of course, but we have found that Snow's ginger goes really well with most fruit pies - skeptical relatives have been converted!

Green Salad with Pears and Feta

Tossed green salads can be dressed up remarkably by the addition of fruit and cheese in place of the usual carrots and so forth. This is an especially good option at this time of year, when the salad greens are still going strong but the tomatoes, cucumbers, sweet peppers, and so forth are gone.

For this one, use a mix of salad greens if you can - though just lettuce works, too. Slice about 1 pear for a salad to serve four people. If not serving immediately, toss the slice pear with a little lemon juice to prevent browning. Add crumbled feta (from Chase Hill Farm, perhaps) and, if desired, a few toasted walnuts or pecans. Serve with a vinaigrette of your choice; something a little sweet is good.

Apple Cinnamon Oatmeal

This is what I had for breakfast this morning--a good cool weather start to the day. I like to use steel cut oats, but this works with rolled oats as well. Just don't use the instant kind, because you need the apples to cook for a couple minutes. I like it with the apples just softened a bit, not turned to mush. If you like them softer, add them earlier in the process.

Prepare oatmeal of your choice. A few minutes before it is done, stir in about half an apple per person, diced (peel or not as desired) and a sprinkle of cinnamon. If using particularly tart apples, add a teaspoon or so of brown sugar.

I also like ripe pears on my oatmeal in the fall, but these are better raw.

Autumn Pear Salad

Continuing on the pear theme... Combine sliced ripe pears with crumbled Gorgonzola and a sprinkling of toasted walnuts or pine nuts over a bed of arugula for an easy yet impressive fall salad made with ingredients in season locally. Dress with the vinaigrette of your choice. For more of a tossed salad, add lettuce to the mix. If you're not going to serve it immediately, toss the sliced pears with a little lemon juice to prevent browning. If you don't like or don't have Gorgonzola, try goat cheese--the effect is different but still lovely.

Pear-Almond Galette

We just got our first pears of the season, ripe and juicy and delicious. I had some sliced on my oatmeal this morning, which was very tasty, but it also put me in mind of this recipe. A galette is a bit like a dessert pizza--a flat pastry crust with fruit or whatever on top. I developed this a few years ago and have found that it always gets a welcome reception. The almond extract in the crust really makes it special, and very fragrant. Now I just need a good excuse to make it...

As you'll see below, you can make the dough either by hand or in a food processor. There are lots of steps, but don't be daunted--it's not really that complicated.

Pastry Dough
1 ¼ cups white flour
½ tsp white sugar
½ tsp salt
½ cup unsalted butter (1 stick), very cold
2 Tbsp + 2 tsp ice water, plus more if needed
1 tsp almond extract

Topping
1 large ripe pear, peeled and sliced
3 Tbsp white sugar
1 Tbsp unsalted butter, in pea-sized chunks
1/8 tsp nutmeg
Up to 1/8 tsp cinnamon (optional)

To prepare the pastry dough by hand:
1. Whisk the flour, sugar, and salt together in a large bowl. Sprinkle chunks of butter over it, then cut the butter in using a pastry cutter or two knives.

2. Sprinkle the ice water and almond extract over the flour and butter mixture. Using the blade side of a rubber scraper, cut dough until it starts to form balls. If necessary, add additional ice water one teaspoon at a time to help the dough cohere. Be careful not to add so much water that the dough becomes sticky.

3. Press the dough with your hands to form it into a ball. The texture of the dough should be a bit rough, not smooth. Press it into a round disk, wrap it tightly in plastic, and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes (and not more than 2 days).

To prepare the pastry dough with a food processor:
1. Put the flour, sugar, and salt into the food processor and process for 10 seconds to mix.

2. Add the butter in small chunks, scattered over the flour mixture. Pulse for 1-2 second intervals until nearly all the butter is pea-sized or smaller. You may need to scrape the sides once or twice.

3. Drizzle the ice water and almond extract over the flour and butter mixture. Pulse for 1-2 second intervals until there are no more dry patches in the dough and it starts to form small balls. Do not allow the dough to form a single mass in the food processor. Press the dough together with your fingers. If it does not cohere, sprinkle in an additional teaspoon of ice water and pulse several more times. Repeat if necessary. Be careful not to add so much water that the dough becomes sticky.

4. Remove the dough from the food processor and follow step 3 above.

To prepare the galette:
1. Preheat the oven to 425°.

2. Remove the pastry dough from the refrigerator. If it has been left for longer than 30 minutes, allow it to thaw briefly until it becomes more pliable.

3. Lay out a piece of waxed paper about 14 inches long on a flat surface and sprinkle it with flour. Using a rolling pin, roll the dough out in a circle or oblong shape to a thickness of about 1/8-inch. Transfer the dough to a cookie sheet and peel off the waxed paper.

4. Sprinkle 1 Tbsp of sugar over the crust, leaving about 2 inches bare around the outside. Arrange the sliced pears densely over the crust, again leaving about 2 inches bar around the outside. Sprinkle the butter over the fruit, then sprinkle with the remaining sugar, nutmeg, and cinnamon (if using).

5. Fold the outside edges of the crust up over the fruit. Pinch the corners together to prevent the pear juices from leaking while the galette bakes.

6. Bake for 30-35 minutes, until the crust is golden brown.

7. Allow the galette to cool for at least a few minutes before serving.

Serves 4-6.