The Northern Heartland Kitchen

2011
Author:

Beth Dooley

More than two hundred recipes to satisfy seasonal appetites

Beth Dooley’s The Northern Heartland Kitchen presents delicious and practical solutions to the challenge of eating locally in the upper Midwest. Celebrating the region’s chefs, farmers, ranchers, gardeners, and home cooks, this essential guide presents delicious recipes alongside the stories and compelling research that illustrate how eating well and eating locally are truly one and the same.

With this book Beth Dooley has squelched that old, out-of-touch snobbery that claimed, ‘There's no Food there.’ Food is alive and thriving here in the upper Midwest in more ways than most of us can count, and Beth has captured it all on these pages. So if you want to revel in the seasons and in the ingenuity and brilliance of local artisanship, sit back and start reading—then head for the kitchen.

Lynne Rossetto Kasper, host of public radio's national food show The Splendid Table® from American Public Media

The Northern Heartland is governed by the seasons. The long and cold winter, bright and warm summer, and crisp and refreshing spring and fall shape our physical and emotional landscape. Shouldn’t the seasons and their harvests also shape the way we eat?

Beth Dooley’s The Northern Heartland Kitchen presents delicious and practical solutions to the challenge of eating locally in the upper Midwest. Celebrating the region’s chefs, farmers, ranchers, gardeners, and home cooks, this is the essential guide to eating with the year’s local rhythms. Recipes are organized by season: fall and winter inspire Chestnut Soup and Venison Medallions with Juniper and Gin, while summer harvests contribute the ingredients for Watermelon Gazpacho and Grilled Trout with Warm Tomato Vinaigrette. Other chapters provide instructions on pickling and preserving food, as well as tips on growing your own food and getting the most out of your CSA or farmers’ market. There are also profiles of local farmers, butchers, and chefs who are using new technologies—as well as rediscovering heritage practices—to enrich regional selections.

Dooley shows that far from being a sacrifice, eating in season and locally is a tribute to the year’s changing riches—encouraging an appreciation for the unmatched flavor of a juicy July tomato or a crisp October apple with garden salads, soups and stews, free-range meats and poultry, fish and game, farmstead cheeses, wholesome breads, pastries and fruit pies. The Northern Heartland Kitchen presents delicious recipes alongside the stories and compelling research that illustrate how eating well and eating locally are truly one and the same.

Beth Dooley has covered the local food scene in the Northern Heartland for twenty-five years: she is the restaurant critic for Mpls.St. Paul Magazine, writes for the Taste section of the Minneapolis and St. Paul Star Tribune, and appears regularly on KARE 11 (NBC) television in the Twin Cities area. She is coauthor with Lucia Watson of Savoring the Seasons of the Northern Heartland (Minnesota, 2004) and teaches cooking classes at the University of Minnesota Landscape Arboretum. She lives in Minneapolis with her husband and three sons.

With this book Beth Dooley has squelched that old, out-of-touch snobbery that claimed, ‘There's no Food there.’ Food is alive and thriving here in the upper Midwest in more ways than most of us can count, and Beth has captured it all on these pages. So if you want to revel in the seasons and in the ingenuity and brilliance of local artisanship, sit back and start reading—then head for the kitchen.

Lynne Rossetto Kasper, host of public radio's national food show The Splendid Table® from American Public Media

The Northern Heartland Kitchen is a truly impressive book—thorough, smart, and enticing on so many levels. Beth Dooley has convinced me that there is indeed a delicious regional cuisine in the Northern Heartland, one informed by those farmers and crafters who fuel the new culinary world everywhere.

Deborah Madison, author of Local Flavors: Cooking and Eating from America's Farmers’ Markets

Beth Dooley just wrote the book I wish I had written. The Northern Heartland Kitchen is more than just a cookbook. It is a food literacy manual that guides the reader through the diversity of the seasons with well chosen and easy to follow recipes that draw on the very best our region has to offer. While doing so, she also educates us in many of today’s most vital issues as they relate to food, nutrition, the environment, the economy and our future as omnivores in a shrinking world dominated by industrial agriculture. This book doesn’t just reflect the deep seated pride of place that all of us in the Northern Heartland feel; it revels in it.

Lenny Russo, Executive Chef, Heartland

Happily, what Northern Heartland Kitchen does best is provide many tasty answers to the question, What to do with all these vegetables—or as winter would have it—the lack thereof? Organized by the seasons, the book takes locavores from autumn’s cabbage, apples, and greens to winter’s hearty squash and potatoes, spring’s bright sorrel and herbs, and finally, as Dooley says, summer’s ‘conspiracy of ripeness.’ Along the way, it makes ample use of local meat and dairy and replaces imported olive oil and other ingredients with goods produced closer to home.

The Heavy Table

Her recipes are well-written and easy to follow.

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Fast food? Definitely. Affordable? Absolutely. Delicious? Of course.

Star Tribune

Dooley proves that good food comes in seasonal packages, in a book organized by the rhythms of the year, with recipes that broaden the sense of what is traditionally meant by ‘Midwestern.’

Inforum

With the holidays soon upon us, and many of us short on time, Dooley has more great tips to help us breeze through the season.

The Mix

This has proven to be a very useful cookbook for a whole range of food lovers, whether you want to learn a bit, find some inspiration, or dive in and cook.

Simple, Good and Tasty

The recipes in this book feel good; they made me want to cook more. Whether I’ll ever have a meal on my table that looks just like one prepared by Beth Dooley or not, her cookbook has a place in my kitchen.

Emily Pearson Ryan, Twin Cities Daily Planet

It's a smart tribute to a part of the country that's often overlooked and undercooked.

St. Paul Pioneer Press

You can truly bring fine dining with fresh ingredients of the season onto your own dinner table- with all the upper Midwest ingredients...There’s something for every chef.

South-West Review

Dooley weaves in useful and intriguing information about the foods and their makers. These tidbits add heart to the cookbook, reflecting Dooley’s passion and commitment to local food and farmers.

Redoux Home

Contents

Introduction: Seasonal Appetites
Ten Good Reasons to Eat Seasonal and Local
The Local Kitchen
Buying a Piece of the Farm: Community Supported Agriculture

Autumn
Five Fall Dishes in Five Minutes or Less
Roast Mushroom, Red Pepper, and Sage Pizza
Smoked Trout, Apple, and Fennel Salad in Cider Vinaigrette
Smoked Fish on the North Shore
Fresh Chestnut Soup
American Chestnuts
Wild Rice and Wild Mushroom Soup
Chanterelles
Curried Vegetable Soup
Asian Chicken Noodle Soup
Simple Chicken Stock
Ginger Squash and Apple Soup
University of Minnesota Apples
Prosciutto-Wrapped Tilapia with Sage
Farm-Raised Fish
Beer-Braised Pork Chops with Pears
Seasonal Beers
Venison Medallions with Juniper and Gin
Hanger Steak with Fresh Horseradish Sauce
Sure Fire Roast Duck
Au Bon Canard, Caledonia, Minnesota
Duck Confit
Pheasant with Hard Cider, Apples, and Chestnuts
Rabbit with Pancetta and Fennel
Quick Roast Herb Chicken
Thanksgiving Bird—Fast!
Turkey Talk
Turkey or Chicken Pot Pie with Cheddar Chive Cobbler Crust
Harvest Stuffed Squash
Picking Pumpkins
Heartland Polenta with Mushroom Ragout
Heartland Polenta
Barley Pilaf with Chickpeas and Autumn Vegetables
New Grain Exchange
Spicy Savoy Coleslaw
Silky Chard
No Fail Kale
Horseradish and Honey-Glazed Root Vegetables
Caramelized Brussels Sprouts
Roast Broccoli or Cauliflower with Garlic and Hot Pepper
Thanksgiving Mashed Potatoes
Wild Rice Cranberry Pilaf
Wild Rice
Basic Sage Stuffing
Savory Cranberry Compote
Oven-Dried Pears
Scandinavian Brown Beans with a Kick
Cranberry Sorbet
Ruby Fields: The Cranberry Harvest
Honey Pumpkin Ginger Pie
Honey, Oh Honey
Autumn Squash or Pumpkin Bars with Cranberry Glaze
Oatmeal Chocolate Chip and Craisin Cookies
Mom’s Fall Fruit Crisp
Applesauce and Apple Butter, Savory and Sweet
Upsetting the Apple Cart
Rich Applesauce Cake
Cranberry Cordial
Autumn’s Bounty: Harvest Meals

Winter
Five Winter Dishes in Five Minutes or Less
Roast Root Salad with Honey Mustard Vinaigrette
Potato, Prosciutto, and Rosemary Pizza
Prosciutto Americano
Carrot¬ Cashew Bisque
Sweetest Carrots
Squash Soup with Thai Spices
Caramelized Onion Soup
Hungarian Steak and Mushroom Soup
Classic Beef Stock
Winter Vegetable Tagine
Squash Lasagna with Walnuts and Kale
Spicy Bean and Hominy Stew
Heartland Dried Beans and Native Harvest Hominy
Cornmeal-Dusted Panfish
Carnitas
Hello, Goat!
Sausage with Apples and Onions
Chicken Braised with Mexican Spices
The New Breed
Bison Steaks with Blue Cheese Butter
Wild Idea Buffalo
Heartland Blues
Oxtails with Stout and Onions
Braising—A Key Technique for Winter
Lamb Shanks with Garlic and Rosemary
Porketta with Oregano and Fennel
Marinated Beef Pot Roast
We Don’t Farm with Headlights
Carrot and Parsley Salad
Parsnip and Chestnut Puree
Sweet Potato and Walnut Salad
Sweet Spuds in the Heartland
Braised Red or Green Cabbage
Caramelized Brussels Sprouts
Roasted Salsify
Braised Root Vegetables in Mustard Sauce
Sweet Potatoes with a World of Toppings
Simple Potato Gratin
When Are Potatoes in Season?
Linzer Cookies
Hazelnuts and Hickories
Hazelnut and Dried Cherry Biscotti
Cranberry Tartlets in a Sweet Cornmeal Crust
Ginger Stout Cake
Sorghum
Favorite Carrot Cupcakes
Old Fashioned Bread and Butter Pudding
White Winter Winery Mead
Spiked Chocolate Truffles
The Cheese Board
Winter’s Pleasures: Warm and Cozy Suppers

Spring
Five Spring Dishes in Five Minutes or Less
Watercress Salad with a French Twist
Pizza with Arugula and Feta
Minted Pea Soup
Heartland Peas
Spring Spinach and Nettle Soup
Grasp the Nettle
Light and Lemony Asparagus Soup
Easiest Vegetable Stock Ever
Hot and Sour Vegetable Soup with Tofu
Spring Vegetable Curry
Ramps
Turkey Cutlets with Spring Vegetables and Tangy Pan Sauces
Pork Tenderloin with Lemon and Herbs
Pigs at Play
Pan-Roasted Lamb Chops with Fresh Mint–Cilantro Chutney
Crispy Fried Fish
Smelt Run on the North Shore
Walleye Meunière
Walleye, Sole of the North
Oven-Fried Chicken with Tangy Honey Sauce
Potato and Sorrel Gratin
Upland Cheese’s Pleasant Ridge Reserve (and Extra Aged Reserve)
Showy Spinach Soufflé
Vegetable Frittata with Goat Cheese
Duck Eggs
Spring Greens and Strawberry Salad with Rhubarb Vinaigrette
Wild Watercress
New Potato, Fiddlehead Ferns, and Arugula Salad
Fiddlehead Ferns
Seed Saver’s Exchange
Pan-Roasted Radishes
Grilled Asparagus with Chive Vinaigrette
Morels and Sunchokes with Toasted Hazelnuts
Morel Madness
Sunchoke Chips
Sunchokes
Simple Spring Sauté
Cracked Wheat Tabouli with Herbs
Chocolate Mousse with Maple Cream
Maple Syrup: The Sweet Taste of Spring!
Maple Sugar Shortbread
Pound Cake with Rhubarb-Strawberry Sauce
Once a Year Rhubarb Pie
Strawberry Sorbet
Rhubarb Lemonade
Herbal Elixirs
Spring Things: Fresh Fare

Summer
Five Summer Dishes in Five Minutes or Less
Spiced Beet Caviar
Panzanella Picnic Salad
Tomato, Tomato, and Tomato Tart
Good Tomatoes, Worth the Wait
Watermelon Gazpacho
Sour Cherry Riesling Soup
Summer Wines
Fresh Tomato Soup with Basil Ice Cream
Farmstand Corn Chowder
CORN!
Fresh Tomato Sauce for Pasta
Fourth of July Brats
Grilled Tofu with Spirited Marinade
Heartland Tofu
Classic Tarragon Chicken Salad
Whole Grilled Whitefish or Trout with Warm Tomato Vinaigrette
Wisconsin Sturgeon
Carp-ing. Can’t Beat Them? Eat Them!
Planked Whitefish
Great Lakes Fishing
Tomato, Eggplant, Zucchini, and Potato Bake
Beer Can Chicken
Dave’s BrewFarm
Barbecue Ribs with Honey Jalapeño BBQ Sauce
Pork Ribs
Pesto, Presto Trio
Cool Cucumber Yogurt and Mint Salad
Fennel Kohlrabi Slaw
Melon, Feta, and Arugula Salad
Growing Power
Zucchini, Summer Squash, and Lemon Salad
Great Zukes!
Grilled Sweet Corn with Thyme Butter
Grilled Cauliflower Steaks
Curried Eggplant
Considering Eggplant
Green Bean, Corn, and Fennel Sauté
Stuffed Zucchini Blossoms
Gardens of Eagan
Slow-Roasted Tomatoes
Garlic—a Rose by Any Other Name
Fried Green Tomatoes
Victory Garden
Yogurt and Crème Fraiche
Minted Yogurt Cream for Summer Fruit
Kiwi Fruit?
Meringue Tart
Upside Down Summer Berry Crisp
Wild Berry Love
Fresh Berry Ice Cream
Organic Milk
Melon Ice
Death’s Door Spirits
Zucchini Spice Cakes
Concord Grape Tart
Raspberry Cordial
Summer’s Splendors: Sunshine and Moonlight

The Northern Heartland Hearth
Many Muffins—One Recipe
Muesli
Buttermilk Scones, Sweet or Savory
Mary Laidlaw Makes Real Scones
Real Cornbread
Rich Brown Soda Bread
Daily Bread—Cress Spring Bakery
A Daily Loaf
Fresh Flour
Whole Wheat Bread
Baking Real Bread with Brett
Forgotten Bread
Pizza Dough
Simply Granola
Rolled Grains, 101
Comfort Lodge Buttermilk Pancakes
Flaky Butter Crust
Pie Crust Primer
Rich Tart Crust
Sweet Cornmeal Crust

Stocking the Cupboard: Vinaigrettes, Dressings, and Sauces
Honey Mustard Vinaigrette
Vinegary
The Real Buttermilk Ranch Dressing
Apostle Island Dressing
Brown Butter Vinaigrette
Juniper–Gin Marinade
Rosemary-Mint Marinade
Honey Jalapeño BBQ Sauce
Maple Mustard Basting Sauce
Raspberry Vinegar (Fruit Vinegar)
Herb Vinegar
Furious Mustard
Roasted Tomato Vodka Sauce
Sweet Bell Pepper Sauce
Best Butter
Compound Butters

Heartland Preserves and Condiments
Pickle This
Yes We Can
Extending the Seasons
Pickled Cherry Peppers
Pickled Carrots
Dilly Beans
Spiced Pickled Beets
Pickled Eggs with Horseradish and Beets
Roasted Tomato–Chipotle Salsa
Fresh Corn Relish
Real Ketchup
Watermelon Rind Pickles
Rhubarb Chutney
Green Tomato Marmalade
Cranberry Ginger Salsa
Apple Jelly, Savory and Sweet
Grandmother’s Strawberry Jam
Backyard Grape Jelly


Sources
Index

BETHDOOLEY.ORG

 

VIDEO

Edina Art Center: Author's Studio.

BLOG

UMP blog - Beth Dooley: Holiday recipe spectacular (sweet potato and walnut salad and cranberry snack cake, the former of which appears in this cookbook)

UMP blog - Thanksgiving odds and ends: It's all about the leftovers. Er, "make-overs."

As much as I love Thanksgiving dinner with our family’s traditions, from touch football in the park to the must-have creamed onions in my grandmother’s serving dish, the truth is, it’s the leftovers I relish. For a busy cook, there’s nothing like having ingredients that are prepped and ready to go. The only real trick is in transforming them into a completely different meal. No fun in reheating and eating the same thing again and again.

Read the full article.

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UMP blog - Bring on the fall harvest!

Every cook needs a strategy to decide what to enjoy now, what can keep, and what to put up for a snowy day. In a mad rush to catch the last of the good weather, our hungers seem to surge as the shadows lengthen and we realize that the temperatures will soon start to dip. To eat locally means paying attention to light, temperature and the land’s bounty. It means understanding how to be thrifty, of course, but also how to celebrate the year’s bounty. When our appetites follow the arc of the sun, we bring balance to our plates.

So here are several ideas for FAST fall dishes ready in five minutes followed by a simple recipe for classic corn relish to make now and then enjoy on a snow-covered day.

Read more ...