Cooking Local

Vermillion author Marilou Suszko has a second cookbook on the shelves. The Locavore’s Kitchen: A Cook’s Guide to Seasonal Eating and Preserving was released earlier this year by Ohio University Press. It’s a nice follow-up to her first cookbook Farms & Foods of Ohio.

Suszko is my friend, and we’re collaborating on a book about the West Side Market, to be published next year. She even included a recipe from me, potato pancakes, in The Locavore’s Kitchen and titled it with my name. So, of course, I’m inclined to review her latest work. And I was really hoping I’d have a favorable opinion, otherwise things could be … well … awkward, to say the least. Luckily, I do.

This is a fine collection of appealing, doable recipes plus useful insight and tips from someone who really knows her way around the kitchen. Suszko’s ideas about what it takes to produce great dishes and memorable meals are inspiring. I often refer to her as a domestic goddess. Because although I pride myself on cooking from scratch, she’s way “scratchier.” It’s not uncommon for this very busy writer to find time to make her own butter, ricotta, crème fraiche and sauerkraut. One day she tried to convince me how easy it is to produce your own ginger ale. So in this book, she provides instructions for turning vegetables into pickles, milk into yogurt, fruit into jam and herbs into pesto. She gets you excited about infusing vinegars, drying chiles to grind into powder and coiling up some cider syrup. Suszko is also a good writer, adept at explaining the intricacies of how to achieve the perfect pie crust or cook grass-fed beef for optimum flavor.

She says the book is meant for beginners and not necessarily people like me with years of stove time under my belt and a longstanding practice of buying local ingredients. And it definitely meets the challenge of equipping novices with a wealth of valuable information about how to choose, store, use and preserve what our farmers provide. Even so, I learned many things flipping through the pages, from the subtle differences in flavor and texture of 11 varieties of squash to the definition of a slump (not the kind that often hits around 4 in the afternoon, but a sort of puddingy cobbler prepared on the stovetop with a steamed top that’s sort of like a dumpling).

Right now the only thing left in my garden is kale. And now that the nights have gotten cold, it should be sweeter than it was a month ago. So I’m excited about bringing it for Suszko’s kale and sausage sauté soon. I also have three red cabbages I harvested last week that are destined to be braised, as per her instructions, with apples, red wine vinegar, brown sugar and baking spices. And busy as I am working on that new manuscript, if I find some sugar pumpkins (the kind you puree not carve) at the farmers market this weekend, I feel like I must try her recipe for spicy pumpkin ketchup. The woman just makes you want to start chopping and stirring. I can’t think of a better recommendation for a cookbook.

Tomato Time

Most grocery stores sell just three or four kinds of tomatoes. Few people have any idea that that there are thousands of varieties grown around the world. Joe Clutz, a part-time farmer in Newberry, grows 97 distinctive types of tomatoes, and a few years back I had the chance to spend an afternoon sampling some of them with him. The husband documented the event, and then ate the subjects along with me. There were rounds, ovals and heart shapes; one that looked like a red chile pepper; and another that showed a starburst center when halved. The names were as colorful as the fruits. We had Snow Whites, Sun Golds, Rainbows, Ukranian Pears, Banana Legs, scallop-edged Ponderosa Reds, grassy flavored Black Plums, tart Cherokee Purples sugary Ground Cherries, herbally Green Zebras, striped Hillbillies, and Yellow Stuffers that looked exactly like bell peppers. We were both wowed by the differences in appearance, texture and taste.

photo by Barney Taxel, Taxel Image Group

You have two opportunities for the same kind of experience. Countryside Farmers' Market at Howe Meadow holds an annual tomato tasting. This year it's happening Aug. 27 from from 9 a.m. until closing at noon. Market manager Beth Stropki Knorr tells me that more than 130 varieties are represented at the market throughout the season, and she expects more than 30 will be available that day. Drop by anytime to pop pieces in your mouth. Individual growers will also be offering bites of their best and will have plenty on hand to sell by the pound. At 9 a.m., food writer Marilou Suszko is your guide through a flight of tomato juices at the cooking demo tent; 30 minutes later staff from The Greenhouse Tavern start slicing and dicing for a “friendly” recipe competition called The Salsa Smackdown. Audience members sample the results, choose the winner and then get to enjoy what’s left of the main ingredient.

September is typically a good month for tomatoes in Northeast Ohio, and Na Olson is hoping the weather gods don’t let her down this year. If there’s enough rain, but not too much and not all at once, and temperatures hold steady, she and husband Cory will have plenty of ripe and ready fruit for their 2011 Tomato Tasting on Sept. 10. It’s held from 3-6 p.m. at The Little Red Truck Farm, in Norwalk, where they grow more than 100 heirloom varieties from seed. “We usually have quite a spread,” she says, and most are types people have never even heard of let alone tried.” She ticks off a list of intriguing names: Mortgage Lifter, Kellogg Breakfast, Golden Monarch, Aunt Ruby’s Germen Green, Zogola, Japanese Black Trifele and Cosmonaut Volkov.

photo by Na Olson

Visitors can taste whatever was picked that morning, but the Olsons do want something in return: your opinion. They ask everyone to complete a rating sheet for each tomato, ranking varieties for sweetness, texture, acidity and overall “tomatoeness.” This helps them decide what to grow, and what not to, in the future. If they have enough of a harvest, tomatoes will be for sale along with other things raised on the property, which you’re invited to explore. The event is open to public and free but donations are appreciated. This year the money raised will go to Heifer International, a nonprofit that provides animals for food and breeding to needy communities around the world as a way to combat hunger. Na’s instructions are to park in the field, walk through the garden (ignore the weeds, or if you’re so inclined, pull a few). I’d add: Bring all your tomato questions. She’s a veritable walking Wikipedia of information and has great stories about some of those names.

New Kid on the Cyber Block

There’s a terrific new website for those who are passionate about cooking and eating local food. The person behind the stories, recipes, and tips is my friend and fellow writer Marilou Suszko . She’s also the author of a delightful cookbook that celebrates the state’s bounty: Farms & Foods Of Ohio: From Garden Gate to Dinner Plate. She first met many of the growers and producers she writes about during the year she did her research for that project. I like the way she talks about these people and her relationship with food. Her style is warm, personal and welcoming. You get to know her too.

Marilou’s an experienced culinary teacher and the kitchen expertise she shares is really helpful. I followed her advice for how to grill corn on the cob and it turned out great- in fact the best I’ve ever done. (The secret’s in the soak- it takes a lot more time than I thought).

A gang of urban deer that have claimed my Cleveland Heights ‘hood as their turf, have left few tomatoes on the vines in my garden. If those remaining fail to ripen – a possibility that seems more and more likely thanks to too many cool summer nights- then I will definitely try the intriguing recipe she’s put up for Green Tomato Cake .