The Co-op Food Stores of New Hampshire and Vermont

added 12/21/09

Book Review by Rosemary Fifield

There’s no doubt about it: this is a beautiful cookbook. The photos draw you in immediately. Every dish looks succulent, satisfying, and delicious. The visual layout is appealing, with blocks of rich earth colors pulling you into the “Harvest Hints” and the “Notes From Richard” or “Notes from Diane” that tell you more about the ingredients or why farms, the environment, and local economies are important.

At the same time, the recipes themselves are clearly and cleanly arranged with plenty of white space to keep them readable and easy to follow.

All of which is wonderful, if your purpose is to satisfy the eye, but a cookbook needs to contain practical, tasty, and appealing recipes, and this book does not disappoint.

Diane Imrie is director of nutrition services at Fletcher Allen Health Care in Burlington, Vermont. Vermont chef Richard Jarmusz is an award-winning graduate of the Culinary Institute of America. Their original recipes span all four seasons while featuring locally produced cheeses, fruits, vegetables, meats, grains, sweeteners, and more.

The recipes are divided into categories such as soups, salads, side dishes, meat-based entrees, pizzas, preserves, and desserts and then, within each category, into each of the four seasons. This is my only complaint about the book—I found its organization inconvenient when looking for recipes specific to one season. There was no quick and easy way to simply browse all of the winter recipes, for instance.

The straight-forward elegance of the recipes themselves, however, make up for any organizational inconvenience. The addition of fresh garlic and caramelized onions gives even more richness to the full-flavored Cheddar Scalloped Potatoes with Horseradish. Spinach Salad with Pumpkin Seed Crusted Goat Cheese combines local and seasonal ingredients in a texturally satisfying mixture of savory smoothness and crunch.

The recipe for Sweet Purple Slaw with Apples and Walnuts takes advantage of fresh Vermont cranberries, beautiful red cabbage, and Honeycrisp apples, and includes maple syrup as a sweetener for the dressing. True to its regional roots, Cooking Close to Home features maple syrup or honey in many dishes, from pizza to pork tenderloin as well as desserts. Apple cider syrup—a reduction of apple cider—is another favored sweetener.

The local aspects of some ingredients may be a stretch, such as kiwis raised in the northeast, which we are told is possible but likely to be in short supply. And for many of the winter recipes, one needs to have canned, frozen, or otherwise preserved fruits and vegetables from other seasons.

But you can’t argue with Butterflied Pork Tenderloin with Maple Blackberry Barbecue Sauce or Oatmeal Crusted Trout with Pecans and Leeks. There’s even a recipe for Quebec Tortière—French-Canadian meat pie made with beef, venison, and buffalo and served with Bread and Butter Pickles and Pickled Summer Vegetables, for which recipes are included. Finish the meal with Currant Carrot Cake with Maple Whip (the cake recipe uses applesauce in place of oil), and you’ve experienced the best of local while enjoying inspired dishes truly meant to nurture and delight.

Sample Recipes from Cooking Close to Home

Savory Cheddar Apple Turnovers
Makes twelve turnovers

1/3 cup chopped onion
1 tsp. olive oil
1 cup chopped fresh Macintosh apple
½ cup shredded sharp cheddar cheese
1 carrot, peeled and minced in a
food processor (enough to make
½ cup minced)
1 tsp. dried parsley
1 Tbs. Homegrown Horseradish
(see recipe below)
1/8 tsp. salt
1/8 tsp. fresh ground black pepper
8 sheets Phyllo dough, thawed
Olive oil for dough

Preheat the oven to 425 ºF. Heat a small sauté pan over medium heat. Add the olive oil and onion and cook for 7 minutes or until slightly browned.

In a medium bowl combine the apple, cheese, carrots, parsley, horseradish, salt, and pepper and mix well. While working with the phyllo dough, keep it covered with plastic wrap and a damp dish cloth. Remove one sheet of dough and lay it on a clean surface. Brush lightly with olive oil. Layer another sheet on top and brush lightly again with olive oil. Using a pizza cutter cut the dough into thirds width-wise. Add 1 heaping tablespoon of the mixture to the corner of one strip and fold into a triangle. Continue folding until the end of the strip. Repeat. Place on a cookie sheet.

Bake for 10 minutes and serve immediately. If making ahead, wrap tightly and bake just before serving.

Homegrown Horseradish
Makes approximately four half-pint jars

6 ounces peeled horseradish
(about 10 ounces unpeeled)
¼ cup water
½ tsp. salt
½ cup white vinegar
1 Tbs. sugar

Chop horseradish into half-inch pieces. In a food processor, combine the horseradish, water, salt, and sugar, and process until smooth. Add the vinegar and process until thoroughly mixed. Spoon into half-pint jars and refrigerate for up to 3 weeks. Freeze the horseradish if you won’t use all of it within this time.

Note from Diane
Horseradish can be an acquired taste, as it is bitter and strong tasting. My father says that horseradish is only good if you can feel it in your sinuses, and really good if it makes you cry! The edible portion of horseradish is the root, which must be peeled before use. Be careful if you are planning to add horseradish plants to your garden; although they are low maintenance, they also spread quickly.

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