Ms. Glaze's Pommes d'Amour

Padron Pepper Appetizer

I love October in California, it's the inbetween month. Summer's bounty is still waving a final farewell with dry farmed tomatoes, sweet late season corn, and heirloom peppers while Winter squashes are tempting us closer to the hearth. 

 These little peppers are almost out of season. In fact they should be totally out of season but this summer has come and gone a little late on the West coast. At Echo Valley we love padron peppers and put them in everything: sliced in salads and on pizzas, grilled with sausages or shrimp, and braised in stews.

Our favorite way to eat these sweet mildly spicy peppers is simple. And it has become the go to appetizer after an exhausting day of selling at the Farmer's markets. We like to get a skillet hot with a small splash of cooking oil (sometimes toasted sesame oil, but be careful it has a low smoke point) and throw the peppers in stems and all quickly tossing them around until they are blistered. 

We plate them in a pile, top with crunchy Maldon salt, and dip them in whatever we feel appropriate. Sometimes Kate makes her famous Echo Valley Farm ranch dressing or I make a little ponzu sauce. Sometimes we just eat them plain! 

Pork Sesame Broth from Homemade Pork Stock

This soup is only as good as the broth. (You know where I'm going with this don't you?) Despite the somewhat rustic start to making this broth, the finish is surprisingly light and feminine in flavor with lemongrass, ginger, and cilantro. 

Carne Adobada: Out of Body

Adobada I think means 'marinade' in Spanish but I'm not exactly sure because my online translation tells me that 'marinade' is 'escabeche' which I know for a fact is more like 'pickling'. Sorry, my French is excellent thanks to Parisian chefs drilling it into my head under extremely stressful circumstances, my Spanish is inexcusably lame. 

Language barrier be damned! This smoky-sweet-vinegary Mexican marinade that my cooking team has nicknamed "Out-of Body" for "Adobada" is serious. Get out the grill. This is gonna put your neighbor's tri-tip to shame. Gaujillo and pasilla chiles (dried) are what give this sauce it's fruity, mildly spicy kick.

Part I: Farm to Table Lunch, the Cooking Team

The Puente organization asks me to do a farm to table Thank You luncheon at Echo Valley Farm.

How can I say anything but yes! to a nonprofit that provides vital services for families living in the rural San Mateo South Coast communities of Pescadero, La Honda, Loma Mar, and San Gregorio? 

Fresh Pressed Apple Cider

Here's the best recipe for apple cider. And this is a raw food. In other words, it is chock full of all the good stuff! No pasteurization.

 Apple cider is not easy to make. It takes a small army to do this right. One would think there was nothing to it. Ha!