Enjoy the fruits of Niagara Frontier’s bountiful harvest season

Grand Island Dispatch, August 31, 2007

It’s the very best season in the Western New York year, next to strawberry and cherry season, or maybe the season for those Chippewa potatoes or the continuing of the growing season in Erie and Niagara counties.

It is really difficult to say that one fresh quart of any one thing is better than another. As each segment of the growing season unfolds, we experience that week’s finest, don’t we?

Bob and I aren’t the big eaters that we were a few years ago. So when the markets offer three ears of corn for one dollar, we buy. At best, we each eat one. Do I throw out the left-over lonely one ear? Of course not. I cook it with the other two, then wrap it in plastic wrap and put it in the ’fridge for the next day’s dinner.

You say that one ear of corn is hardly sufficient for two and you are right. This is how I use it.

Succotash for Two

Ingredients:

•1 ear of corn, cooked
•1 and 1/4 cups frozen Ford hook lima beans
•1 to 2 tablespoons margarine or butter
•A pinch of chopped onion (optional)
•Salt and pepper to taste

Multiply the amounts to make enough for two times or four times the eaters.

In an appropriately sized saucepan, bring 1/4 cup of water to a boil. Add the lima beans. Bring back to a boil and (for us) cook about seven minutes over a medium heat.

Drain. Season with a dash of pepper, as small an amount of salt as is tasteful to you, and add one to two tablespoons of margarine or butter.

Set the cooked ear of corn on end and cut off the kernels on both ends. Add to the beans. Reheat the beans and the corn just enough to heat through.

Succotash prepared this way is rich in fiber without the traditional bacon fat and calories. Onion may be added, in moderation, for a different flavor, but we like it plain, thank you.

The Niagara County Peach Festival, also known as the Lewiston Kiwanis Peach Festival, is just around the corner. And in Niagara County, the Havens are in – the Red Havens, first. It’s a peach, of course. It is a rather small, freestone peach. It was available after the first week in August.

Along with these juicy fruits, the cantaloupes are also ripe. There may be a few less, this year, as the lack of rain was a factor in this crop’s production.

We went through six Red Havens in three days. The cantaloupe is lasting a little longer. (I know, I know – this is a cooking column – please don’t cook the cantaloupes. We can cook peaches.)

Here you are:

Peach Melba Supreme

Ingredients, base:

•1/4 cup sugar
•1 and 1/2 tablespoons cornstarch
•1 teaspoon finely chopped, preserved ginger
•1/4 cup margarine or butter
•4 or 5 fresh peaches or 10 ounces of frozen peaches, drained (reserve the syrup)
•1/2 to one full pint raspberries, crushed

Note: If using all fresh peaches and raspberries, use one cup sugar and 1/2 cup water.

Ingredients, topping:

•1 cup flour
•1/4 cup sugar
•2 teaspoons baking powder
•Dash of salt
•1/2 cup margarine or butter
•1/2 cup buttermilk (or a “scant” 1/2 cup of 2 percent milk)

In a medium saucepan, combine sugar, cornstarch, ginger and the butter (or margarine), then water. Cook over a medium heat, stirring constantly until thickened. Stir in peaches and raspberries.

Pour into a two-quart baking dish, sprayed with non-stick cooking spray. Set oven temperature at 375 degrees.

In a medium bowl, combine flour, sugar, baking powder and salt. With a pastry blender, cut in margarine until particles are fine. Add buttermilk (or milk) and stir until just blended.

Drop spoonfuls of topping onto fruit mixture. Bake at 375 degrees for 35 to 40 minutes, or until topping is golden. Serve with vanilla ice cream, if you’d like. Spectacular!

This next recipe is a treat from the recipe files of Grand Islander Nancy Maras. Her husband, Ron, says the family looks forward to this one all year. My thanks to her for sharing it.

Custard Peach Pie

Ingredients, filling and crust:

•1/2 teaspoon salt
•1 and 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
•1/3 cup shortening
•4 medium-sized peaches (about 1 and 1/4 pounds)
•One 8-ounce container sour cream
•1 teaspoon vanilla extract
•3 large egg yolks
•1 cup sugar
•2 to 3 tablespoons cold water

Ingredients streusel, topping:

•4 tablespoons margarine or butter (1/2 stick)
•1/2 cup flour
•1/4 cup sugar

Begin preparations about three hours before serving – or early in the day.

In medium bowl, stir salt and one cup of flour. With pastry blender or two knives used scissor-fashion, cut in shortening until mixture resembles course crumbs.

Sprinkle two to three tablespoons cold water, one tablespoon at a time, into mixture, mixing lightly with a fork after each addition, until pastry is just moist enough to hold together.

Shape pastry into a ball. On lightly floured surface, with floured rolling pin, roll pastry into a round about 2 inches larger all around than a 9-inch pie plate; use to line pie plate. Trim pastry edge, leaving 1-inch overhang. Fold overhang under to make stand-up edge; flute.

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Peel peaches. Cut into 1/4-inch-thick slices; arrange in pie plate.

In medium bowl, with wire whisk or fork, beat sour cream, vanilla extract, egg yolks, one cup sugar and 1/4 cup flour, just until blended. Pour over peaches in pie plate. Bake pie 30 minutes.

Meanwhile, prepare streusel topping. In a small bowl, by hand, combine margarine or butter, 1/2 cup flour and 1/4 cup sugar until mixture resembles course crumbs.

After pie has baked 30 minutes, carefully sprinkle streusel topping over peaches.

Bake 15 minutes longer, or until streusel is golden and a knife inserted in center of pie comes out clean. If crust browns too rapidly, cover loosely with foil. Cool pie on wire rack for one hour. Serve warm, or, cool completely to serve later.

Last in line for today is a favorite harvest-time treat. You’ll fool the whole gang if you ask each one for an answer to this question: What is the ingredient in the filling. They’ll say apple, but the answer is … zucchini.

Zucchini Bars

Ingredients, filling:

•2/3 cup of lemon juice or lemon juice concentrate
•6 to 8 cups zucchini (about two extra large or 3 just plain large), peeled (de-seeded only if the seeds are dark and ripe) and sliced into chunks
•1 cup sugar
•1 teaspoon cinnamon
•1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
Ingredients, crust and topping
•4 cups flour
•1 cup sugar
•3 sticks margarine

In a large saucepan, cook zucchini and lemon juice until quite tender. Mash well. Add sugar, cinnamon and nutmeg. Cool.

For the crust and topping, blend flour, sugar and margarine until in fine particles. In an 11-by-16-by-2-inch pan, pat firmly one half of the crust/topping mix. Bake 10 minutes at 375 degrees.

Take out and pour in the zucchini mix. Top with the reserved crust/topping mix. Spread as evenly as possible. Bake another 30 or 40 minutes, or until top is golden brown. When cooled, cut into squares.

Try at least one of these end-of-summer recipes and taste the special goodness of our bountiful harvest.