No. 256: Improv Recipes, from Roasted Cod with Cilantro-Garlic Scape Pesto to Summer Coconut Curry
Plus: The West Tisbury Farmers' Market, Dairy Queen, Father's Day treats
🔪 The Locally Grown Challenge
There are buckets of yellow kale flowers lined up outside the front door, pea shoots growing on the crowded front porch, freshly cut garlic scapes and newly pulled green garlic in baskets inside. It’s June at Ghost Island Farm, and it’s Friday afternoon. A sunny one, too – windows-down warm and just enough breeze to keep us honest. I am on the hunt – my favorite kind – where I shop for locally grown treasures, cart them home, and figure out something random to cook based on what I’ve found. It’s a grab-bag challenge, Chopped-style, but without the intense pressure!
I’m wondering if you’ll join me this summer in the challenge – to build at least one meal every weekend using as many locally grown (or made) ingredients as you can. Paid subscribers, we’ll hop on the chat and compare notes every week about what we’ve made. With the West Tisbury Farmers’ Market opening for the season on Saturday morning at 9 a.m., those of us on the Island now have Wednesday and Saturday markets to hit all summer long, as well as all the farm stands, fish stores, CSAs, and artisan markets. Not to mention the grocery stores — I got some beautiful North Tabor Farm Japanese turnips at Cronig’s last weekend, too. And if you’re not on the Island, no problem — we’d love to hear what you’re making with your own local finds.
I started doing this kind of challenge in earnest when I was writing the Off the Menu column for the Vineyard Gazette over a few summers — it’s how I wound up with this (now-favorite) recipe for Vineyard Clams Alla Griglia. And the challenge has become a summer ritual, because we eat in a whole lot more than we eat out.
🐟 The House of Fish and An Unfinished Pesto
In the end, my goodies from last Friday wound up in a dinner of Roasted Cod with Three-Ingredient Garlic Scape-Cilantro Pesto (photo at top of post). I picked up beautiful cod loins at The Fish House at the airport, which is looking spiffy after a few tweaks over the winter. They’ve got an expanded ingredient section with a great selection of condiments, and a freezer case that, much to my delight, has frozen Dumpling Daughter dumplings. The takeout menu has expanded, too, and you can order online from their new website: Poke bowls, larb bowls, fried chicken sandwiches, fried clams, chowder, burgers and more.
Before I cooked my cod, I cut it into four pieces, seasoned each well, and lightly coated each with a mixture of mayo and my newly made garlic scape “pesto.” (Pesto is in quotes because this is really just a puree of garlic scapes and cilantro in olive oil. It’s more like an all-purpose flavor booster, though you could add nuts and Parmigiano — and more olive oil — if if you wanted to.)
I made some Quick-Roasted Plum Tomatoes (not local but needed to be moved along) and included a sliver of Ghost Island’s green garlic in each tomato when I seasoned them for cooking.
I cooked the cod at 400 degrees for about 18 minutes and served it over the roasted plum tomatoes with a little more of the “pesto” on top. Very tasty! (P.S. There actually is such a thing as a local tomato right now — Morning Glory is already harvesting some heirlooms from their greenhouses.)
The next night, I tossed some of the pesto into the pan after sautéing the Japanese turnips and their greens. That was a most excellent combo.
🧄 ID: Green Garlic vs. Garlic Scapes
Garlic scapes (right) are the shoots and seedpods of hard neck garlic. The bulb sends the shoot up because it wants to reproduce. But farmers and growers cut the shoots off so that the plant will turn all of its energy back into the bulb.
Green garlic (left) is simply immature garlic, harvested when growers want to thin their crop to allow the remaining bulbs to grow bigger.
You can slice and use green garlic just as you would regular garlic. Scapes, on the other hand, are tough and very pungent, so they are often finely sliced or chopped and/or cooked to make them more digestible! Just two more ways the amazing allium family delivers flavor.
🌱 Garden Cilantro Bulletin!
“Too many cilantro plants!” said no gardener ever. So it’s ironic that I’m having to pull up loads of volunteer cilantro seedlings in my garden to make way for zinnias and tomatoes. Don’t worry, it’s all going to good use. And just a reminder for those of you buying cilantro seedlings at the nurseries right now and planting them – don’t panic when they begin to send up flowers (which they will, automatically and very soon, with the warmer days). You can still eat the fine leaves, and the flowers. If you leave some of the flowers on, you’ll have potent green coriander seeds to add to dressings and rubs. If you don’t harvest the green coriander seeds, they will dry on the plant and you can then harvest them at the end of the season to store and grind. Having your own ground coriander on the spice rack is pretty cool.
🍲 Your Improv Recipe Routine
If we’re going to accept the challenge to cook more with local ingredients – and to cut down on food waste, too, we’ll need to rely on two things: improv recipes and good sense. Good sense just means not running to the grocery store for one item when you could use something you already have. Herbs are a great example: in summer recipes, basil, cilantro, mint, Thai basil and parsley are often interchangeable.
But what are improv recipes? When I was at Fine Cooking magazine, we had a repeating feature we called “Cooking Without A Recipe,” which provided a foundational technique and then offered lots of flavor variations at every step. Here on Cook the Vineyard, I’ve introduced a number of versatile vegetable, grain, egg, taco, salad, and other recipes that can handle substitutions at several different flavor points.
Right about now I’m thinking that both the green garlic and the Japanese turnips could be a nice springboard for an early summer version of Gingery Fried Rice with Shrimp.
Add spring carrots or radishes to those turnips and make an early summer version of Chinese Egg Noodles with Veggies in Lime-Coconut Broth.
Got eggs? Make a Little Kale and Feta Frittata with Chorizo and Mint with virtually any greens you get at the markets and any herb you like.
🍋 Dessert for Sunny Days
That new strawberry dessert recipe from Abby is coming next week – I promise! But this week I think her Tangy Lemon Bars with Lemon-Poppy Seed Crust would be a perfectly portable June dessert if you plan to take supper to the beach – or to the back deck.
Happy Cooking!
— Susie Middleton
🍦 What’s Happening Around the Island
🍔 Grey Barn is offering three special gift packages for Father’s Day: King o’ the Grill, King of the Burger, and King of Charcuterie.
🫛 Morning Glory has kicked off their annual “First Peas to the Table” contest. If you get an early harvest of peas, collect one cup and go straight to the Morning Glory Farm stand Manager. If you’re first, you win a $50 gift card and the right to win the First Peas Crown and Sash.
🌈 In celebration of LGBTQ+ pride weekend, there are two drag brunches happening this weekend. Town Bar & Grill will host theirs at noon on Saturday, June 8. The Red Cat Kitchen has two seatings at 11 a.m. and 2 p.m. for their brunch, which includes a best dressed contest.
That pasta is calling my name. Now to wait for the first cherry tomatoes of the season.