Burgers and Pizza
The long Memorial Day weekend is always filled with the seasons first cook-outs. The Farmette was no exception with a family cook out on Sunday evening. We had such a delicious abundance of homegrown goodies to choose from and we did our best to incorporate as much delicious fresh veggies, fruit, and eggs in our meals this time of year as possible.
My husband and brother-in-law teamed up to create this delicious burger. Here's what is inside: bison burger with bacon, pullet egg (small eggs that new hens lay for the first few months of egg laying), shredded cheddar cheese, mayonnaise, arugula on a toasted brioche bun. The small pullet eggs are perfect size for topping burgers. They are also great size for topping pizza, eggs-in-a-frame or as we call them "camp eggs"*, one slice of French toast, and hard boiled eggs for snacks of lunch boxes.
*More on "camp eggs", although unrelated to the Memorial Day cook out, a good mention for the kick off of summer fun. Here at the Farmette we call these “camp eggs” because we make them in mountain pie irons around the camp fire. Did that just cause a million questions????? Ok folks, an egg in a frame (camp egg) is when you cut a round hole in the middle of a piece of toast then fry the egg right in the toast. Mountain pie iron? That is a bread shaped cast iron skillet that looks like a panini maker that goes in the camp fire🔥. You cook everything from camp eggs to grilled cheese in them and they are essential for bonfires at our house!
On the side, we served a mesclun mix salad. Mesclun is a fancy French word for a mix of salad greens made from a selection of lettuces with other edible leaves. Our Spring mix includes the best of the harvest for the week, last week the mix included lots of baby Asian greens including; mustard greens, an Asian cabbage called "Tokyo Bekana", mizuna (also from the brassica family), two different types of Tatsoi, and edible pansies! For this salad I mixed in some of the arugula as well. An easy and tasty dressing for this salad, that can be made quickly in a mason jar with things you likely already have in your kitchen is Lemon Vinaigrette.
3 TBS olive oil
2TBS fresh lemon 🍋 juice
freshly grated lemon peel
1 tsp sugar
1/2 tsp Dijon mustard
salt and pepper to taste
Combine in a mason jar and shake until emulsified.
My husband makes a simple and excellent guacamole. We used fresh Farmette cilantro that self-seeded in our home garden bed. Cilantro is an excellent herb to have on the Farmette because it can serve a multitude of purposes. First of course, is fresh cilantro which can be used in a variety of Latin and Asian dishes. If you allow the cilantro to flower and go to seed (like you could stop it! If you have ever grown cilantro you know what I mean) its seeds are also have a culinary use as coriander. You can grind them up in a pepper grinder or a coffee grinder. Cilantro can also be used as a winter cover crop and turned in to the soil in the Spring. Such a great herb!
Mark's picnic guacamole
2 avocados, cubed
1/2- 1 medium onion, diced
1 bunch finely chopped cilantro
1 finely diced serrano pepper
juice from 1 lime
lime zest
salt and pepper to taste
dash of olive oil
Next up, Pizza!!! I opened the pantry Monday night and we were out of tomato paste, which is the main ingredient in the simple pizza sauce that I use here at the Farmette, also a tip from my "foodie" brother-in-law. So dough is rising on the counter I had the change it up. Then I remembered the beautiful fresh garlic scapes that I had just cut that morning, perfect! Garlic scape with fresh oregano and Proscuitto white pizza with a fresh green salad! Here come the questions...What is a garlic scape? “Hardneck” varieties of garlic send out scapes in Spring that must be removed for the bulb to form properly. Lucky us! Garlic scapes are delicious fresh and green and can be used in almost any way that you use garlic, they freeze really well too! How did you prepare the “white pizza sauce”?
Finely dice garlic scrapes and finely chop oregano leaves then in a pan with olive oil over medium heat sauté the scapes and oregano until soft.
Drizzle sautéed scapes and oregano over pre-baked pizza crust, then top with cheese and diced prosciutto.
Bake for 5-7 minutes in a 450 degree oven until the cheese is melted and starting to brown in spots.
What’s on top of that pizza? Fairytale’s mesclun mix and arugula! After the pizza comes out of the oven top with a generous handful of arugula or mesclun mix (salad made from lettuces and edible leaves) then drizzle with balsamic vinegar. Yum!
I made an extra crust for later in the week because our little homestead plot of strawberries is overflowing with ripe delicious berries. Check out the Surprising Strawberries blog post from a few weeks ago for another fun pizza recipe, Strawberry, Arugula, Goat cheese Pizza.
The Farmette is making it's change over from Spring treats to Summer and for the first time this week baby beets are available. There will be lots of beautiful butterhead mini lettuces this week in addition to oak leaf baby lettuce. The mesclun will be a tad different (but just as tasty) and include some baby kale, arugula, various lettuces. Please share any amazing dishes that you make with Fairytale eggs, herbs, and produce, I love to add ideas to my own menu and share them on this blog too!