Connecticut's Go-To Food by Ruth Paget

Connecticut’s Go-To Dishes by Ruth Paget 

Lovers of French cuisine and American classics alike can find delicious recipes to make in The Connecticut Farm Table Cookbook: 150 Home-Grown Recipes from the Nutmeg State by Tracey Medeiros and Christy Colasurdo. 

Connecticut citizens highly value and support organic produce, artisanal cheese from Vermont, free-range meat production, and using wild fish from rivers and the ocean in its cuisine, which is very French by choice, but solidly American at the same time. 

I would like to focus on the highly nutritious and relatively inexpensive American dishes in The Connecticut Farm table Cookbook, because it has become easier to obtain organic ingredients at farmers’ markets and supermarkets. 

One of the first go-to recipes for value in this cookbook is red flannel hash. Cubed potatoes and beets are baked in this recipe with rosemary and olive oil. Then, onions are sautéed along with the vegetables. Finally, goat cheese goes into this mix to be melted, adding a tart taste to the sweet beets. Another dish that plays off different flavors and textures against each other is the arugula and endive salad with apples, celeriac (celery root), caramelized walnuts, and cider vinaigrette. That long title does not include the blue cheese in the salad, which adds a tart finish to the peppery arugula, bitter endive, sweet apples, crunchy celeriac, bitter-sweet walnuts, and acetic vinaigrette. This salad is very filling thanks to the medley of flavors and textures. 

Other salads in this cookbook are simpler, but pleasing such as:  

-kale salad with sour cherry vinaigrette -beet and carrot slaw with raspberry vinaigrette 

-salt-roasted beets with blood oranges, pistachios, and goat cheese salad 

A puréed cauliflower soup in the cookbook is enriched with cream cheese and milk in addition to broth. 

Other puréed soups could be made this way notably broccoli and cabbage. Some notable vegetable main dishes include: 

-fennel-Parmesan fritters with greens in buttermilk-bacon dressing 

-sautéed Swiss chard with fresh ricotta cheese 

The Connecticut Farm Table Cookbook provides recipes for several elegant dishes that you can make for weekend lunches: 

-pan-roasted New England pheasant breast with shallot-cranberry purée, braised red cabbage, and Madeira sauce 

-chicken and blue oyster mushrooms with sherry cream sauce 

-Atlantic cod with wild rice and corn griddle cakes and garlicky kale 

-Connecticut River shad with sorrel sauce 

Finally, high-calorie dishes like these merit a dessert like lavender cookies for dessert. There are many dessert recipes, but I think lavender cookies and tea are appropriate for a New England finish to any of these meals.

Cooks who enjoy contrasting flavor combinations will find a lot to like in The Connecticut Farm Table Cookbook: 150 Home-Grown Recipes from the Nutmeg State by Tracey Medeiros and Christy Colascurdo. 

By Ruth Paget, author Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France

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Vermont's Edenesque Cuisine by Ruth Paget

Vermont’s Edenesque Cuisine by Ruth Paget 

Vermont is justly famous for its artisanal cheese, but the state’s contribution to American cuisine also comes from using French cooking techniques with organic produce. 

These French cooking techniques are part of Vermont’s culture as it shares a border with Canada’s French province of Quebec in the north. Gratins, puréeing vegetable soups to thicken them without other thickeners like flour, quiches, and ground nut cakes can all be found in Vermont’s cuisine as in French cuisine. 

Using French techniques to make dishes is not as difficult as you would think when you read through the cookbook Dishing Up Vermont: 145 Authentic Recipes from the Green Mountain State by Tracey Medeiros. 

The following recipes give a sample of dishes that really shine when you use organic produce: 

-grated celeriac and green apple salad 

-cream of garlic soup 

-butternut squash bisque 

-creamy Vermont winter pumpkin soup 

-roasted summer vegetables 

-cheddar mashed potatoes 

-squash casserole 

-apple-butternut squash soup 

-strawberry soup 

-cheese scones 

-cheddar cheese quiche 

-root vegetable chowder 

-winter squash gratin 

-Normandy chicken with apples and cream 

-cranberry

-almond squares 

-maple-walnut cake 

As a former sub-zero weather resident of Detroit (Michigan), I know that many of these recipes can be made during the fall harvest when prices are low and frozen to be eaten during the winter months to save money. (The French do this, too.)  For that reason alone, I would recommend purchasing Dishing Up Vermont: 145 Authentic Recipes from the Green Mountain State by Tracey Medeiros. 

By Ruth Paget, author of Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France

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