Grilled Ham Steaks with Corn-Tomato Relish

“Eat Local.”

It’s a brilliant concept, but much harder to execute than most realize. Unless you’re living in the year-round salad-bowl that is Central California, it can be incredibly difficult to find a large enough variety of all local foods to satisfy even the most one-dimensional of palates.

Summer makes it much easier. There’s a bounty of produce and goodies available in almost every corner of the country. But it can still be pretty hard to find stuff that you actually want to eat.

I recently moved a little bit farther west in Maryland, about halfway between the District and Baltimore (Which is offering much more in the way of interest than I ever thought possible – urban foraging classes, anyone? Yes, please.). Here I’ve found local farms galore. The farmer’s markets are a little few and far between, but what they do offer is enough to keep me going.

I stumbled across Copper Penny Farm on Local Harvest about two weeks ago. I went out to meet the owners, Nancy and Chuck, and was positively delighted at the operation they’ve got going. It’s a small venture, but I look forward to supporting them as much as my little family of two possible can in the coming years. That gorgeous ham-steak in the picture above is compliments of one of their Large Blacks.

They sent me out to the Briggs-Chaney farmers market in Silver Spring. It’s small, but it has just about everything one needs from a farmers market. If they were to add a bread stand and an eggs/dairy stand I wouldn’t even need to go to the grocery store but for commodity goods. I found Knopp’s Farm from Severn, MD there – and they produce some of the most divine corn one could imagine.

So we sat down to dinner tonight and ate an almost entirely local meal. Ham from Copper Penny Farm, corn and tomatoes from Knopp’s Farm, whole grain mustard from a Mennonite community in Southern Pennsylvania – the only store-bought ingredient was the rice vinegar.

And it was amazing.

Eating local might take a bit more effort, but once you taste the difference and feel the pride of supporting local business you’ll probably never go back.

Go check out Local Harvest to see how you can get started in your own community.

Grilled Ham Steak with Corn-Tomato Relish

2 Ham Steaks

1 ear of fresh sweet corn, cut from the cob

Handful of cherry tomatoes, sliced in half

1 tablespoon rice vinegar

1 tablespoon whole grain mustard

Grill the ham steaks, either on a grill or in a heavy-bottomed pan like cast iron. Meanwhile, toss the corn, tomatoes, rice vinegar, and mustard together in a bowl. Top the grilled steaks with the relish.

tomato soup

Basic, chunky tomato soup – no frills. Goes well with grilled cheese and a glass of milk.

Remember that when making vegetable soups you’re always going to need more salt than you think. Our tongues are accustomed to a high amount of sodium when it comes to soups – but don’t fret too much, no matter how much salt you put in at home it will likely still be far less than your average canned soup.

Tomato Soup

2 carrots, chopped

3 celery stalks, chopped

1 onion, chopped

2 cloves garlic, minced

28 oz crushed tomatoes

28 oz diced tomatoes

2 ½ cups vegetable stock

1 cup buttermilk

Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper

Sweat the vegetables in a heavy bottomed soup pot over medium heat with a little olive oil. When partially softened add the garlic and cook until fragrant. Stir in the crushed tomatoes, diced tomatoes, and vegetable stock. Bring to a simmer. Remove from heat, stir in the buttermilk. Season to taste with kosher salt and black pepper. Puree if desired.



phyllo pizza with smoked mozzarella and roasted cherry tomatoes

One of the golden rules of entertaining is to never use your dinner guests as guinea pigs. Use recipes that you've made at least once before to avoid any surprises or flops. The last thing one needs at an already stressful time is to find out that hey, that should have been a teaspoon of baking powder not baking soda, or perhaps that fritter didn't need the extra egg. Save yourself some headaches and just try it out before hand.

Of course, since I'm saying this it should be patently obvious that I disregarded all of those things.

Nor did I follow the recipe.

Thankfully, it was more delicious than I could have ever expected it to be. It was probably one of the easiest, tastiest recipes I've tried in the last year.

I can hear you right now, though. "Phyllo pizza? You want me to use those paper-thin sheets of pastry surely sent straight from Hades to make us pull out all of our hair? It tears at nary a glance, let alone picking it up or brushing it with butter! Wars have surely been started over this temperamental devil-food!"

Have no fear, my dears. If thawed properly phyllo dough is a breeze to handle. And by thawed I don't mean using the recommended directions of letting it sit overnight in the refrigerator. That's going to give you a cold, gummy mess that will make you feel like tearing your hair out. And let's leave that pretty coif alone.

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mexican rice

I've always been a big fan of traditional mexican cuisine. I also tend to find that whenever I visit a Mexican restaurant my two favorite foods on the menu are the rice and beans. Too often I'll order a large platter and when the server returns to collect it the main course is largely untouched - but save a few straggling grains the rice and beans are long gone.

After struggling to find a recipe that replicated that fluffy, flavorful rice I've finally settled on this version. It isn't gummy like many of the recipes I've tried and because the majority of the cooking takes place in the oven it's one of the easiest side dishes one can make.

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smoky three-bean chili

This is probably one of the better chilies I’ve had recently. I’m sure that it will never please a chili purist, but a chili purist I am not. I think chili can have beans and meat, either or both. It can be flavored and cooked in a myriad of ways. The only thing that should matter in the end is how it tastes – and this tasted damn good.

The smokiness of the chipotle in adobo and the smoked paprika were a pleasant diversion from the standard peppers and chili powder flavors of most chilies. It has a lot of heat – if you’re not one for spiciness I’d highly recommend substituting green bell peppers for the Anaheims and maybe omitting a chipotle pepper. I personally love the contrast of the smoky, spicy chili with the coolness of the sour cream and the richness of the avocado on top.

This recipe does call for a bottled jar of sauce. This isn’t something I usually do for recipes, but I had it on hand for a different recipe that required its use for a contest. I never ended up making that specific recipe, nor did I gain entry into the contest, so there it stood, staring at me from the counter. I didn’t feel like going to the store to grab diced tomatoes and tomato paste, so I used the bottled sauce. I have to admit, it was delicious and I’ll probably use it again in the future. That being said, if you are anti-processed food (and who can blame you after the monstrosity that is Sandra Lee) feel free to compensate by using diced tomatoes, a couple tablespoons of tomato paste plus some oregano and red chili flakes.

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