THE SYLVIA CENTER'S 14TH ANNUAL SUMMER CELEBRATION AT KATCHKIE FARM

By Great Performances

Each year, we’re honored to plan and cater The Sylvia Center’s summer benefit at Katchkie Farm. Over the years, the event has evolved, most recently becoming a farm-to-picnic-table (or blanket!) celebration in the Learning Garden at the farm. This year, 250 people attended and were able to enjoy the beauty of our farm from the fields full of summer vegetables and sunflowers to the Learning Garden framed by the rolling Catskills on one side and woods on the other.

With a menu curated by Chef Georgette Farkas and featuring ingredients sourced directly from the fields, it was a delicious event that highlighted the best of summer flavors. Read on to learn more about the experience. To donate to The Sylvia Center and learn more about future events, visit their website by clicking here.

It was a beautifully warm, sunny day in July, and one could feel the anticipation and excitement as guests walked along the path (or rode in one of the golf carts!) flanked by fields of sunflowers. As guests registered for the event and bought raffle tickets, happy chatter turned to exclamations and warm hugs as familiar faces were spotted and friends reunited. The Sylvia Center Executive Director Jonathan Cetnarski was on hand along with CEO and Founder of Great Performances, Liz Neumark, to meet guests and towards the registration table Guests were greeted at the registration table by The Sylvia Center team, including Executive Director Jonathan Cetnarski, and by Liz Neumark, CEO and Founder of Great Performances. After registering and joining the raffle, they proceeded to the food tent where they picked up their picnic bags and headed to the Learning Garden where there was plenty of space to spread out and enjoy their feast. Drinks were served under the shade of the Pavilion, which also hosts the pizza oven we used last year. This year, Rafi Bildner brought his Hilltown Hot Pies pizza truck and served his pizzas – always a fan favorite!

 

Delicious food highlighting the best that summer in New York has to offer was packed in cooler bags that guests picked up on their way to their tables. The menu included fresh, flavorful foods like NY Collection of Cheese & Charcuterie, Dried Apricots, Assorted Flatbreads; Gazpacho; Parker House Rolls (cultured local butter); Sweet Pepper Roast Chicken (cippolini onions, smoked paprika aioli); Corn and Cherry Tomato Succotash (edamame, swiss chard, feta cheese, roasted sunflower seeds, lemon-basil miso vinaigrette); Roasted Sweet Yellow Peppers (cherry tomatoes, black olives, capers, anchovy, yellow raisins, basil); Watermelon & Radish Salad – featuring both watermelon and watermelon radishes – (kale, cucumber, black beans, ginger lime vinaigrette); Lemon Grilled Baby Zucchini (whole wheat apricot couscous); our fan favorite Eggplant Chermoula; and Peach – Blackberry Crumble Bars.

As a special thank you to our guests, Farmer Jon picked cherry tomatoes fresh from the fields and we paired them with a savory basil parmesan pesto.

Rafi Bildner debuted his Hilltown Hot Pies pizza truck and served made-to-order Neapolitan style pizza with his own artisanal, wild-yeasted dough featuring produce picked from the farm and local cheeses and meats.

COOK LIKE A CHEF: KATCHKIE FARM'S CSA WITH CHRIS HARKNESS

By Chris Harkness

One of the benefits of working at Great Performances is access to farm fresh produce from our own farm. Our weekly delivery of our farm share from Katchkie Farm, our own organic farm in Upstate New York, has been a great source of inspiration and helps me feel more connected to the planet and grounded. One of the best things we can do as chefs is bring out the natural flavors of the produce and find ways to entice the eye and the appetite. Check out what I’ve done with last week’s farm share below.

In this week’s share, I received carrots, Swiss chard, cucumber, cherry  tomatoes, zucchini, yellow squash, and eggplant.

I also harvested some produce from my own personal garden: rosemary, cucumbers (I needed more cucumbers as I was feeding three people!), basil, and peppers.

As I looked over my offerings, a dish I love, ratatouille, immediately came to mind. I also had a free range chicken, so I thought I’d roast them together. It’s a great way to add flavor to both the chicken and the squash. I added some small Italian canned tomatoes for more acidity and some rosemary to flavor the chicken.

I also had some great fennel on hand, so I decided to caramelize them for the swiss chard.

The rest of the ingredients felt like a wonderful salad. I kept it pretty rustic, peeling the carrots and slicing them into long wedges, halving the cherry tomatoes, thinly slicing the radishes, and chopping up the peppers. I decided to present the cucumber as long ribbons – this adds visual interest and are just fun to eat that way. I dressed the salad with lemon juice and olive oil and finished with sea salt and basil. 

Everything came out beautifully and highlighted the fresh flavors of the season.

CELEBRATING SUMMER WITH THE SYLVIA CENTER

One of the things we look forward to the most each year is our Farm to Table Event with The Sylvia Center, a nonprofit dedicated to educating youth and their families on the connection between food and health. We support The Sylvia Center and host them at Katchkie Farm, helping their students learn about where food comes from and how to prepare various ingredients to create delicious, health supportive meals. From planting vegetables, to tending crops, and ultimately harvesting and cooking them, they get hands on experience with the full lifecycle of produce.

Each summer, we host The Sylvia Center’s Farm to Table Event at Katchkie Farm, our organic farm in upstate New York, to help them raise funds for their programs that run in under-resourced communities throughout Columbia County and New York City. Their programs are helping to develop the next generation of healthy eaters, cooks and advocates that can fundamentally change the future of food.

Georgette Farkas, our culinary ambassador, has created the menu for this year’s event. We promise an informal evening of dining al fresco in the fields on a farm inspired menu.

Event details: Saturday July 24, from 5 to 8pm, at Katchkie Farm in Kinderhook, NY

Purchase tickets here: https://donate.sylviacenter.org/event/the-farm-event-2021/e335176

If you can’t make it but would like to help support The Sylvia Center, you can donate at the link here: https://donate.sylviacenter.org/give/335176/#!/donation/checkout

Check out some images from last year’s event!

COOK LIKE A CHEF: KATCHKIE FARM'S CSA WITH GEORGETTE

By Georgette Farkas

How many jobs come with a local farm CSA attached? Despite a lifelong culinary career, this is the first time I’ve had the privilege of taking home a weekly haul of Hudson Valley vegetables – during the local growing season, of course. Great Performances is the proud owner of Katchkie Farm in Kinderhook, NY. While most of Katchkie’s produce goes into our catering menus and educational programs for the Sylvia Center, some is also set aside as a very welcome perk for the GP culinary team. As a result, every Thursday, when I receive my vegetable stash, I feel I’m taking part in my very own private edition of “Chopped” or “Top Chef”. I’ve challenged myself to use everything in the “mystery basket”, although usually in several different dishes. This week, I confess I did gift some of my red beets to a dinner guest who was eying them jealously. Although I did keep the picture-perfect beet greens for myself to compose a sort of chimichurri to dress my grilled zucchini. I can’t help but ask what the judges would think. Read on for a taste of this week’s Katchkie Farm vegetables.

Chilled Swiss Chard & Garlic Scape Soup

This is a twist on the classic French “soupe de laitue”. Greens, onion and just a little bit of potato are sautéed, then simmered with stock or water and then puréed to a silky-smooth consistency. It’s also a cousin to vichyssoise, only made here with approximately three parts greens and only one part potato. I finished the soup with nonfat yogurt. The ratio I like is about two parts vegetable mixture to one part yogurt. While I haven’t tried them myself, you could experiment with a non-dairy nut or oat-based yogurt, if you prefer a vegan soup. On the opposite end of the spectrum, a final dollop of crème fraiche makes for a decadent accent.

 

Swiss Chard & Thai Chili Summer Rolls
cucumber, carrot, rice noodles, ginger-sesame dipping sauce

This is my farm inspired version of the classic Vietnamese summer roll. I used blanched Swiss chard leaves (stems removed) in place of traditional rice paper wraps. My filling includes tamari-marinated carrot and cucumber, as well as rice noodles blanched and tossed in sesame oil, plus some of the Thai chili dipping sauce spread on the chard before wrapping,

Some of the CSA beets (steamed and shredded) would have been a fine addition to the rolls, but I gifted them to my beet loving dinner guest!

Learn from my mistake! I thought I could get away with not peeling the cucumber and imagined the skin would add extra crunch appeal. Bad idea! The bitterness in the cucumber skin is a deal breaker. 

 

Grilled Zucchini & Whole Wheat Couscous Tagine
apricot, beet greens, toasted pistachio

The success of this dish calls for boldness. Start by getting a really good char on the zucchini, using a stove top grill pan if you’re cooking indoors. Once grilled on both sides, douse zucchini generously with plenty of lemon juice. For the couscous, sauté spices such as cumin, coriander, fennel and ginger in olive oil. Add the amount of boiling water required for the couscous and then pour it over the grain, along with some chopped dried apricot, and cover. However much seasoning you think is enough – double it! I finished the dish a lemony beet greens dressing, because I had beet greens! First blanch the leaves and toss with plenty of lemon and olive oil. Alternately, fresh coriander and/or parsley will do just fine. 

Pro tip: I really never use store bought spice blends, but happily make an exception for the ones made by my friend Chef Lior Sercarz at La Boite. Here, I used his Marrakesh No. 6

 

 

Nothing says summer quite like a BBQ, whether it’s in a backyard, on a rooftop or in a park. Embrace Wellness is here to help you reach your health goals while also enjoying summer celebrations. Socializing with friends and family is an important part of practicing wellness. Here are some wellness tips for summer BBQs:

  • Reject social pressure around food. Focus on internal cues such as hunger when assembling and eating your meal, rather than external cues. If another guest is directly pressuring you to make a certain food choice, respond with a simple “no, thank you.” Only you should decide what and how much you eat.
  • Balance your plate with veggies. Seasonal veggies deserve a place on the BBQ buffet because of their disease-fighting phytochemicals and fiber. If you’re a guest, offer to bring a side dish. Fresh ideas include Crunchy Cucumber Salad, Green Salad with Miso Ginger Dressing and Katchkie Farm Cucumber, Melon & Arugula Salad.
  • Plan an active game. While mingling and eating is usually the main event at a BBQ, games allow partygoers of all ages to have fun and move their bodies. Activities include cornhole, spikeball, badminton, wiffle ball and ring toss. Or try wheelbarrow races and capture the flag, which do not require any special equipment.

Don’t forget to hydrate (perhaps with infused water), wear sunscreen and practice grilling and food safety.

Learn more at gpembrace.com.

 

About Great Performances

Founded in 1980 as an event waitress service for women in the arts who wanted a flexible way to supplement their income, GP has grown into one of the country’s leading catering and events companies In addition to working with partners like the Plaza Hotel, Jazz at Lincoln Center, the Brooklyn Academy of Music, the Brooklyn Museum, the Apollo Theater, and Wave Hill, Great Performances promotes sustainable food practices through its organic farm in Upstate New York and offers emerging artist scholarships to service staff.

In 2019, Great Performances moved to The Bronx. Six months later, Covid-19 hit New York and the entire city shut down. GP transformed its kitchens, almost overnight, to begin providing meals for those most in need: senior citizens, the food insecure, and hospital and healthcare workers on the front lines of the pandemic.

As New York is reopening, Great Performances opened the doors to its new kitchens in Mott Haven where it creates delicious food for a wide variety of events. Click here to see some sample menus.

GP is actively looking for new people to join their team. If you’re looking or know someone who is, check out our most recent listings or contact HR.

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The Dish Blog
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Carina Hayek

Cooking Up a Storm

Great Performances in the Kitchen (and on the Ground) When the storm rolled in, something else started bubbling up across Great Performances: pots of soup,

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SHERRY VINEGAR VINAIGRETTE

by Georgette Farkas

During week 3 of our Culinary Egg-venture cooking series, we made a delicious Eggs en Cocotte Forstière–and a couple variations. As usual, I prepared a salad to accompany the meal using some of the beautiful spinach and other greens I’d found.

I keep a variety of vinegars in my pantry at home and this week I thought I’d feature sherry vinegar with its nutty, caramelly flavors balancing the sharp acidity typical of a vinegar. This Spanish cousin to balsamic vinegar is made from sherry wine which is naturally fermented and then aged for six months in barrels. If you don’t already have a bottle in your pantry, I recommend this addition.

Ingredients

  • 1/2 tsp salt

  • 1/4 teaspoon pepper

  • 1/3 cup sherry vinegar

  • 1 tbs shallots finely minced

  • 1 tbs Dijon mustard

  • 1 cup olive oil

Procedure

In a small mixing bowl combine salt, pepper and sherry vinegar until salt dissolves. Whisk in Dijon mustard and shallots. Slowly whisk in olive oil. Adjust seasoning to taste.

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ZESTY ANCHOVY VINAIGRETTE

by Georgette Farkas

During week 2 of our Culinary Egg-venture cooking series, I shared an updated version of one of my favorite dishes from my childhood: Eggs Piperade. This Basque Country cousin of the Shakshuka features fennel, both the bulb and the seeds, along with bell peppers, and tomatoes creating an incredibly flavorful, delicious sauce in which we baked eggs and then topped with crispy chorizo bits. Big, bold flavors like this call for a side salad with bold, zesty flavors, so I paired it with an arugula salad  dressed with my zesty anchovy vinaigrette.

The anchovy vinaigrette stands up to the Piperade without overpowering it. This is also one of the few dishes in which I’ll use raw garlic, which can be too potent in many dishes, but plays beautifully with the anchovy here.

Peppery arugula or bitter dandelion greens make the perfect accompaniment. Try this recipe and let me know what you think!

Ingredients

  • 2 oz anchovy, finely chopped (if using anchovies canned in oil, do not discard oil)
  • 1 clove garlic, peeled and finely chopped
  • 1 tsp Dijon mustard
  • ¼ cup red wine vinegar
  • 1 cup olive oil
  • Salt and ground black pepper to taste

Procedure

In a small mixing bowl whisk together chopped anchovy, garlic and mustard. Whisk in red wine vinegar and a pinch of ground black pepper. In a slow stream, whisk in olive oil. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

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EASY LEMON VINAIGRETTE

by Georgette Farkas

I recently taught a series of cooking classes called “A Culinary Egg-Venture”. Our first class, Green Tortilla Espanola, included lemon juice and lemon zest to enhance the flavors of the vegetables.  And even though this would have been perfect as a meal on its own, I think it pairs beautifully with a salad dressed with a lemon vinaigrette using the leftover lemon juice and zest.

This lemon vinaigrette makes use of the lemon juice and the lemon zest, which gives the dressing a beautifully bright, refreshing flavor that pairs well with almost any lettuces you wish to add.

I always recommend making extra as it will keep well in the fridge for a few days and can even be used as a marinade. Let me know how you end up using this recipe!

Easy Lemon Vinaigrette

Ingredients

  • 2 tsp lemon zest, finely grated
  • 1/4 cup fresh lemon juice.
  • 1/4 cup chives, minced
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 1/4 tsp ground black pepper
  • 1/3 cup olive oil

Procedure

  1. In a small mixing bowl combine lemon zest and juice, chives salt and pepper. Slowly whisk in olive oil. Adjust seasoning to taste.
  2. Note, in addition to or even in place of chives, feel free to add chopped fresh parsley and/or tarragon.

A RECIPE FOR SUSTAINABILITY: PICKLED SWISS CHARD STEMS

by Georgette Farkas

I recently taught a series of cooking classes called “A Culinary Egg-Venture”. Our first class, Green Tortilla Espanola, featured Swiss chard leaves. In the first step of preparing the dish, we stripped the leaves from the stems and set aside the stems. But I encouraged the class to reserve the stems – they are wonderful pickled and tossed into a
salad.

Below is a quick and easy recipe for pickling the stems. Although here we’ve kept them as long stalks to fill the mason jar, they would also make a stunning confetti if you cut them brunoise style before pickling them. Although, you could do that after pickling, which would give you plenty of options for how you use them in a dish!

 

Pickled Swiss Chard Stems

Ingredients

  • 1 bunch chard stems
  • 1 cup apple cider vinegar
  • 2 tbs  sugar
  • 1 tsp  kosher salt
  • 1 sprig fresh thyme

Procedure

  1. Prepare the pickling brine by combining vinegar with sugar, salt and spring of thyme. This may be done directly in the jar you will use to pickle your chard stems. Scale quantities to adapt to quantity of stems and container you are using.
  2. Leave stems whole or cut them in a variety of shapes to suit the ways in which you may eventually use them. For example, slice thin, cut in small cubes or simply cut stems to fit your jar. Shape and size may also depend upon your pickling container. We recommend a glass jar with tight fitting lid.
  3.  Place stems in a jar, pour brine over, cover with lid and refrigerate. Brine at least eight hours.

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