Category: Local Food and Seasonal Ingredients

A collection of local food and seasonal ingredients, recipes, food and culinary exploration within New York and around the world.  With a focus on using local, seasonal ingredients or cultural specialties, Full Access is excited to highlight some of our favorite dishes for you.

Local Food and Seasonal ingredients include ramps, fiddlehead ferns and asparagus in the spring.  Summer is filled with stuffed squash blossoms and the transition into fall brings venison and slightly heavier fare.  Our winter recipes are filled with stews, soups and filling risottos.

Additionally, our category will highlight growing your own food in local community gardens, baking your own bread and getting a taste of the city.

Winterbor Kale and Ambercup Squash Crock Pot Soup

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A hearty fall soup that is quick to make and perfect for busy NYC residents.

Roasted Mini Pumpkins with Wild Rice Stuffing

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Fall is in the air with Halloween and Thanksgiving right around the corner.  Most bodegas in the city sell pumpkins (in addition to the many grocery stores and farmers markets.)  You can also head out to the Queens County Farm which is a real working farm in the borough and pick out a few which is a nice weekend date or activity with friends.

I bought a few pumpkins and put together a little appetizer that would be perfect before Thanksgiving dinner.

3 Squash Soup: Calabaza, Amber Cup and Kabocha

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There are so many varieties of squash in season right now.  I am most familiar with a handful such as Butternut, Acorn and Delicata.  However, there are many other’s I always look at but then walk right past.  I decided to make a squash soup using different squash I don’t normally buy and the end result was great.

These three squash; Kabocha, Calabaza and Amber cup work really well together. There is a natural mild sweetness in this soup which I really enjoyed.

Beer Battered Delicata Squash Chips

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Fall squash are some of my favorite ingredients to work with.  Spanning from soups to stew, roasted to mashed, there is no shortage of preparations.  So one afternoon, I was looking at a few delicata squash on my counter and asked a very simple question.  Why not fried?

My general philosophy (one of many) in life is: fried = good and beer battered + fried = better.

Brioche Doughnuts at Mah Ze Dahr in the West Village

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Sunday morning and I am lazily scrolling through facebook from my bed.  I come across a soaring review of Mah Ze Dahr in Gothamist and immediately jump up.  15 minutes later, I am dressed and on the A train heading downtown.

New to the village, Mah Ze Dahr should very quickly be placed on your bakery radar.  With a variety of both sweet and savory pastries, I opted to try one from each side of the spectrum.

An Exercise in Making Apartment Sourdough Pretzels

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So what if you wanted to move your pretzel experience to the comfort of your own home?  It’s actually quite easy with one annoying exception.  The recipe called for 1/4 cup of powdered milk.  Did you know you can only buy powdered milk in increments of 5 pounds?  I do now.  So $13 later and with the newest addition to the back of my cupboard, I was ready to bake.

Pork and Spinach Salad with Fresh Blueberries and Grilled Pineapple

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The pineapple is one of those perfect ingredients (alongside avocados and mangos.)  So why mess with perfection?  I would say it is more about taking a different approach to something you are familiar with than a detraction.  The heat concentrates and enhances the natural sweetness of the fruit and the caramelization on the outside is just delicious.

I originally put this together for my paleo friends.  Aside from that, I wanted to play around with temperature and texture.  The raw and cooked ingredients play well off each other.  This is also a really simple salad and you can put it together in about 20 minutes.

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