Join Tamara Reynolds for Farm Fresh Dinners

I'm excited to share some fun news from Astoria's very own food celebrity, Tamara Reynolds and the very awesome rooftop farm, The Brooklyn Grange.  As many of you know, this fabulous lady is not only the gracious host of the Sunday Night Dinner supper club, in recent years she's also added the titles of cookbook author and The Cooking Channel Unique Eats contributor. 

And now another something new from Tamara, as she introduces her Thursday night dinners in partnership with The Brooklyn Grange, featured on the rooftop of this innovative LIC urban farm.

This dinner series commences next Thursday, June 23rd at 6:30 p.m. where you can feast your eyes and your senses on a gorgeous meal, made from farm fresh veggies picked that day! 

Tamara also hinted to the fact that they're building a special communal farm table just for these events.  What better way to hang with old friends and make plenty of new ones that share your food interests.

Here's the menu and all the pertinent deets.  If you're interested, make sure to buy your tickets and reserve your seats here. 

Brooklyn Grange Rooftop Farm Dinner Hosted by Tamara Reynolds

Thursday, June 23rd at 6:30 p.m.

The Brooklyn Grange Rooftop Farm
37-18 Northern Blvd

LIC, NY 11101

Here's the luscious menu!

Kuku Szabzi (Farm Egg Frittata with Herbs and Rose Petals)

Farmer Ben’s Baby Lettuces with Barely Pickled Shallots & Minted Buttermilk Dressing
Wilted Kale and Mustard Greens with Garlic, Anchovy & Aleppo Pepper
Turnips & Their Tops with Miso Sherry Butter
Grilled Leg of Lamb with Pomegranate Molasses & Salsa Verde
Cardamom Cinnamon Rice
Garlic Lemon Greek Yogurt
Spicy Ginger Pickled Cherry Tomatoes

Farm-tastic Dessert

Wine, Water & Iced Tea Included

$75 per person.  Reserve your spot here. 

If you'd like to attend these dinners but this particular one doesn't work for you, there will be others on July 28th and September 8th.  Enjoy and eat up!

Image Credit: The Brooklyn Grange

bobo + Brooklyn Grange Rooftop Dinner

If you need a reason for going to an outdoor dinner party featuring local produce, we’ve got a few for you

1) It’s getting cold outside (even though this week hasn’t really proven that)
2) You can’t beat a sunset overlooking the city skyline
3) Tomato season is ending soon :(

But really, who needs a reason to dine al fresco as fall settles into our fair city? Since it’s just a matter of picking your location, how about the Brooklyn Grange Rooftop Farm? This coming Tuesday and Wednesday, they’re pairing with bobo Restaurant for a sunset dinner featuring 5-6 courses of vegetables straight from the farm, paired with meat, seafood, and cheeses from bobo chef Patrick Connolly’s favorite farms.

Vegetables from the surrounding roof will likely include sweet heirloom tomatoes, eggplant, sweet peppers, swiss chard, collard greens, radishes, carrots, spinach, green tomatoes, and herbs. Yum!

Space is limited so make your reservations soon!

Where: Brooklyn Grange Rooftop Farm, 37-18 Northern Blvd. Long Island City.
Trains: R/M to 36th St stop.
When: Tuesday September 28th and Wednesday the 29th, 6:30 - 10:00PM.Tickets: $75 + tax
To order tickets click on the link or call bobo restaurant at 212 488-2626.

UPDATE: Next week's dinners are sold out, but they'll have another October 9!

Kale Chips are Better Than Potato Chips

You might recall a couple of weeks back when I talked about my experiments with kale, a veggie that I often get in my weekly CSA supply.  I've prepared it sauteed, with garlic and shallots, but through the suggestion of one my readers (thanks Ali!), I decided to make my next batch into crunchy, salty kale chips.

The recipe for kale chips couldn't be simpler, but the trick to keep those babies crispy is to dry the kale really well (basically making sure that there's not even a small droplet of water on it).  If you do a good job at drying your kale and then tossing it in some olive oil (and maybe even cider vinegar, as One Hungry Mama suggests), you'll get really yummy, crunchy, delectable leaves.  They smell wonderfully earthy and are super addicting!  While I'll be honest in saying that you have to love bitter foods to enjoy kale chips, adding a bit of cider vinegar can lighten the bitterness.  Here's the recipe from Steamy Kitchen - try it and get ready to crunch, crunch, crunch without the gilt, gilt, gilt.

Crunchy Kale Chip Recipe

More CSA Veggie Goodness from the Brooklyn Grange

As I mentioned a couple of weeks back, I'm part of the recently-formed Brooklyn Grange/Vesta CSA that provides me with fresh, locally grown veggies each week. I always look forward to the weekend when I get a bag full of beautiful produce--although some of it looks quite different than what you'd find in the supermarket.  This, as I try to explain to Dan is a good thing because it means that the veggies are au naturale and not genetically mutated such as the crop we see in big chain supermarkets.

Anywho...I wanted to show you some of the ways I've been using my CSA goods.  I really enjoy figuring out how to prepare them and like to research recipes from some of my most trusted culinary sources.  My mom does the same although she takes a more grassroots approach and keeps things simple, as she improvises a lot.  Smart woman!  The below are some of the ways we've both been using our fresh crop. I think my mom wins this one - just look at the gorgeous colors on her plate.  To die for! And it tasted even better than it looked.

Sauteed Kale with Garlic and Shallots - I've been receiving fresh kale each week, and sadly have been wasteful with these large (and somewhat intimidating) leaves.  Well no more! I just couldn't stand them to go to waste, so I took a look at a few recipes and found this simple one on Bon Appetit, which took about 20 minutes to prepare and used very basic ingredients.  I omitted the capers that the recipe called for because I think they're too salty.  The end result was a smoky, slightly crunchy and earthy side dish that went well with the ground chicken and rice patties that I made with leftover stuffing  from my stuffed peppers.  Here's the recipe for the kale. 

Haricot Verts with My Signature Dressing - It was so nice to see these land in my CSA bounty and they came in three colors - green, purple and a pale yellow.  I prepared them simply by blanching them and then coating them in my signature, lemon juice, honey, dijon mustard and olive oil dressing.  I blanched the beans for 3 minutes in boiling water.  The only disappointment was when the colorful ones all turned green. What gives?

My Mom's Steamed Veggie Medley - As I already hinted, my mom kept things simple in terms of preparation, steaming a variety of veggies including beets, carrots, peppers, onions and zucchini.  She steamed them for 3- 5 minutes, allowing the beets to stay in longer since they take a little while to soften up.  Then she peeled the beets, which was an easy task (she says) and dressed the whole thing with good quality olive oil and a touch of salt.

But the true beauty in this dish is the way that she expertly arranged everything to make it look so appetizing.  I think that's one of my mom's strengths, as she really takes her time to think about presentation and to arrange food in a very mouth-watering fashion. It's a gift that some people are born with and others have to work harder at. 

There you have it - 3 simple recipes and ideas to spice up your veggies, whether local or not (but local are suggested).  Dig in and eat up!

If you'd like to enjoy the Brooklyn Grange's fresh veggies, but you aren't a part of their CSA, check out their farm stand at Vesta every Saturday from 11:00 a.m. - 3:00 p.m. or the on-site farm stand in LIC, every Tuesday and Thursday from 3:00 p.m. - 7:00 p.m.. 

Vesta Trattoria - 21-02 30th Avenue, Astoria NY 11102.  718.545.5550
The Brooklyn Grange - 37-18 Northern Blvd, LIC NY 11101.  718.707.9707

Relishing in Fresh Veggies from the Brooklyn Grange

A couple of weeks back, I mentioned a new CSA that was coming to Astoria, which is a collaboration between Vesta and The Brooklyn Grange Farm.  The offer sounded so enticing, that I decided to join so I can enjoy the fruits (or should I say veggies) of the farm's labor.  

I went over to Vesta on Saturday during lunch-time, as the CSA pick-up hours are between 11 a.m. - 3 p.m.  It was exciting to see that a colorful vegetable stand took over the outside of the restaurant, where you could not only pick up your CSA veggies, but also buy them on the spot if you're not a CSA member. 

They had several varieties of fresh, seasonal produce such as gorgeous purple radishes, little bulbous carrots that were perfect for a single bite, deep-crimson beets, zucchini blossoms (awesome for stuffing and/or frying), fresh lettuce, kale and so much more.  Farmer Ben Flanner was on-hand to help out and answer any questions from customers.  He's extremely knowledgeable about produce, as he oversees the entire Brooklyn Grange operation along with his partners.

The farm-stand was quite busy throughout the day, and as I received my leafy, colorful goods, I couldn't wait to get home and make a fresh salad. I went right to it and this is what I came up with:

Foodista's Brooklyn Grange Salad:

Ingredients (serves 2)
2 very generous handfuls of mixed lettuce leaves
2 bulbous carrots, chopped into 1/2 inch pieces
2 heirloom tomatoes, chopped into 1/2 inch sections
2 large purple radishes, chopped into 1/2 inch pieces
A small bunch of basil, chopped (or ripped)
3 pieces of Milanese salami, rolled up and julienned into 1 inch pieces (optional)

Directions:
Toss all ingredients gently in a large salad bowl.  Dress with my signature dressing.

I can't wait to see what the next CSA delivery brings - I'll surely report back with more tales of veggies and a recipe too. 

Check out the Brooklyn Grange farm stand at Vesta on Saturdays from 11 a.m. - 3 p.m.

Vesta - 21-02 30th Avenue, Astoria NY 11102
718.545.5550
N/W Train to 30th Avenue
www.vestavino.com

Vesta and the Brooklyn Grange Join Forces

Image by The Brooklyn Grange

Vesta, one of the Astorian restaurants I love is teaming up with a new rooftop farm in LIC called the Brooklyn Grange to offer a new CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) in the neighborhood.  Headed by a local group of farmers and entrepreneurs, the Brooklyn Grange is an acre long rooftop farm located at 37-18 Northern Blvd in Long Island City, producing locally-grown produce that's distributed to local businesses and individuals.

You'll now have the opportunity to sign up for a 15-week seasonal produce share for $280 - that's less than $20 a week worth of locally grown, organic produce.  You can sign up anytime between now and July 16th. Check out all the other important deets below:

Share Duration: July 17th - October
Pick-Up: Every Saturday from 11:00 a.m. - 3:00 p.m.
Pick-Up Location: Vesta - 21-02 30th Avenue, Astoria.  718.545.5550
Contact: brooklyngrangefarm@gmail.com - Specify that you are signing up for the Brooklyn Grange CSA in Astoria
Payment: By cash or check only
The Share: You will get a 7-10 lb bag of vegetables, per week.  The bag will consist of mixed vegetables, including seasonal goodies.

I have to say, this offer sounds quite tempting, especially since there's a waiting list on the currently established Astoria and LIC CSAs. 

Contact the Brooklyn Grange or Vesta for any questions. Happy vegging!