Zucchini Bisque & Chicken Panne

After trips to local markets we have just made a couple of our favorite dishes: zucchini bisque and chicken panne. Both of these are adaptations of James Beard recipes. The soup from a Cuisinart cookbook written by James Beard in the early 1970's and the chicken from a course my mother took at Buffalo's Albright-Knox Art Gallery in the late 1950's.

Zucchini Bisque my way:
1 medium onion, chopped
1.5 pounds zucchini, shredded
1 quart chicken broth
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
8 leaves fresh basil, about 1 Tablespoon chopped
1 teaspoon salt
a few grinds of pepper

Saute the onion in about a tablespoon of butter and/or olive oil until limp, but not brown.
Add the shredded zucchini and chicken stock, enough just to cover the zucchini.
Simmer for 15 minutes.
Puree in a blender or food processor with nutmeg, basil, salt and pepper.

This can be served hot or cold. If serving cold, garnish with a dollop of sour cream.

Make this in July, August and September when the zucchini at the farmers' markets is fresh. Choose firm, medium sized zucchini. Don't use the older ones. They are pithy and have very little flavor. Make extra and freeze it for a taste of summer next winter. I freeze it in a pyrex bowl. Once it is frozen, I dunk the bottom of the bowl in hot water to release the frozen chuck of soup and then put it in a freezer bag and back into the freezer after labeling the bag with contents and date.


Another favorite is Chicken Panne.
This serves 4 people.

2 large boneless, skinless chicken breast halves trimmed and pounded very flat.
Dip into beaten egg and then into bread crumbs seasoned with salt and pepper.
(I make my bread crumbs by grinding old bread in my food processor.)
Place chicken pieces between layers of waxed paper and refrigerate until ready to cook. Melt butter to cover the bottom of a heavy iron pan over high heat. Heat until the butter is bubbling. Brown the chicken quickly on both sides. The pieces will be cooked through, as they are very thin. Add 3 tablespoons of warmed brandy and light it while pouring it over the chicken. If you have had the fan on, turn it off for this part to prevent a fire in the duct. Also back away from the stove. I have heard of some people who have burned off the hair on their arms at this stage of the process. Remove the chicken to a platter and keep warm in an oven set to 200 degrees. Remove the pan from the stove.


Blend 2 egg yolks with 1 cup of cream, half & half or milk (depending upon your caloric desires). Add it to the pan just used to cook the chicken. Stir constantly over low heat until the sauce has thickened. Make sure it doesn't boil or scrambled eggs will result. Add salt and pepper to taste. Pour it over the chicken. Serve with green and/or yellow beans, maybe some beets and some little potatoes.

Eggs, lamb and why we think cheese should be yellow

One day last week our daughter took the day off and joined Walter and me as we shared with her the local sources we had discovered on the Canadian side of the border and as we searched for more.
We started at the Port Colborne Farmers’ Market where the skies opened and drenched all. Holly and I huddled under a melon seller’s tent while the hooded Walter ran back to the car for an umbrella. While chatting with the melon purveyor we tried and bought some amazing melons: sweet cantaloupe, pink and yellow watermelon, which tasted quite different from one another. They were not your normal grocery store melons. It was quite a pleasant surprise.
We bought heirloom tomatoes, probably the last of this year’s cherries, corn to eat and cut off and freeze, raspberries to eat and some blueberries to eat and freeze. We also got some yellow zucchini, although I think I prefer the green variety.
The rain had subsided and we lugged all of our goods back to the car. We traveled north on the Niagara Peninsula. Walter wanted to take a different route. We usually try new routes whenever possible. That is the way we make new discoveries. We drove along the south side of the Welland River, which was a good thing as we came upon a field of sheep and a sign:



We knocked on the door and met Rosemarie Meier of Zeta Farms. She, her husband Hans and their three children moved here from Germany 8 years ago. They raise organic vegetables, sheep, goats and chickens. We bought a dozen eggs and put a down payment on a lamb that would be sent to Hommer’s Meats on the Point Abino Road in Ridgeway for slaughter and butchering in a few days. That was quite a commitment and a wonderful, unexpected find. We were making some headway with new discoveries.
It was time for lunch and we were off to Zest in Font Hill (http://www.zestfonthill.com), a favorite lunch and dinner spot for us. We dried out while eating their wonderful vegetable soup with crisp vegetables in it. This was welcome warmth on this damp, chilly day. While at lunch the sun actually came out! This made our next stop much more enjoyable than it might have been.

We went to Bow-Ridge Herb Farm (http://www.itcanada.com/~bowman) down a dirt road which is closed in the winter and we could see why. It seems that there is a road coming in from the other direction that the Bowmans use. I bought some Lady’s Bedstraw to plant in my garden. It was used to stuff mattresses, as you might guess from its name. It also has been used to coagulate milk for cheese and as an orange dye. When animal rennet was not available (when a suckling calf’s stomach was not available) to use to coagulate milk, lady’s bedstraw was used. It not only coagulated the milk, but dyed the cheese orange. This is why some of us think that cheese should be orange. These days the orange dye is often from carrots.

We went back to the Morningstar Mill (http://www.morningstarmill.ca/)and found that they will be milling wheat Saturday, August 18th, and will be milling corn Sunday, August 19th. We will go for some more flour and some corn for corn bread.

We needed to show Holly Upper Canada Cheese Company (http://www.uppercanadacheese.com/Welcome.html)in Jordan Station. Dave, the cheese maker was there and willing to chat. A return trip when he is making his cheese might be in the works. There cheeses are wonderful. We were at the Inn on the Twenty (http://www.innonthetwenty.com/ott_restaurant.htm) in Jordan recently and one of the salads had roasted Upper Canada Cheese Company's Ricotta on top of beets in a salad. It was delightful. There are many Niagara Peninsula restaurants, many associated with wineries, that specialize in serving local fare.

We also went looking for nuts at Grimo Nut Nursery in Niagara-on-the-Lake, but no one was there to help us. We will go back to buy some of their great looking nuts.

The eggs from Hans and Rosemarie Meier's Zeta Farm are wonderful. The yolks are much darker yellow/orange than our usual store-bought eggs.
Also, the yolks stood up rather than spreading out in the pan. The flavor was much fuller than we are used to. What a treat. I will continue to buy fresh free-range eggs and will buy Zeta Farm eggs when I can.



One of Zeta Farm's free range chickens in her roost with the eggs of many a chicken.