PA. Farm Show food recipes

One of the best parts of the Pennsylvania Farm Show, year in and year out, is all of the delicious, mouth-watering, scrumptious food!

Unfortunately, the coronavirus pandemic has forced the show to go virtual this year. However, WGAL’s Matt Barcaro has found a way to help you still get a taste of the Farm Show right at home. He reached out to the makers of some of the most popular treats to get their recipes and many shared them. This week, Matt will be doing cooking segments on WGAL News 8 to show you how to make some of this Farm Show fare. We’ll post each recipe on this page in case you want to try the treats in your kitchen.

Tuesday’s recipe: Smoked Trout Chowder from PennAg Industries

This recipe makes 1 gallon of soup.

Ingredients:

• Extra virgin olive oil
• 8 ounces double smoked bacon, diced small
• 2 large yellow onions finely diced
• 4 stalks celery
• 1 bay leaf
• 1 sprig fresh thyme
• 4 ounces unsalted butter
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 2 1/2 quarts natural clam broth
• 6 large Yukon gold potatoes, scrubbed and cut in a uniform dice
• 1.5 quarts heavy cream, reduced by half
• Tabasco sauce
• 3 or 4 Limestone Springs trout filets, brined, smoked and flaked
• 1 small bunch flat leaf parsley, washed, dried and coarsely chopped
• Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

Directions:

Heat up a large, heavy-bottomed sauce pot and when it is warm, add oil to just cover the bottom of the pan. When the oil is warm, add the bacon and render it in the pot until it just begins to turn crispy. Using a slotted spoon, remove the bacon from the pot and reserve. Add the diced celery and onions to the pot and sweat them over a low flame until they have become very soft and opaque, about 10 to 15 minutes. When the vegetables are cooked, there should be an abundant amount of fat swimming in the pan. Supplement with unsalted butter and melt. Stir well to combine and then sprinkle the vegetables with flour and stir together, slowly adding flour until the fat and vegetables become a paste like peanut butter in consistency. Cook the paste together over a low flame for about ten minutes or so, stirring frequently and allowing the roux to brown very slightly.

While you are cooking the roux, warm the clam broth and add the bay leaf and thyme. Put the roux into a heavy gauge pot, add the warm broth and beat with a whisk to incorporate the roux and the broth. Scrape the bottom of the pot well to make sure to incorporate all the roux into the chowder, and cook together stirring constantly for about twenty minutes or until the floury taste has dissipated. Add the potatoes, stir well to combine, and cook until the potatoes are tender. Add the reduced heavy cream and cook until the chowder comes together. Season with Tabasco and just before serving, add the trout, parsley and bacon.

Stir, taste, add salt and pepper as needed and enjoy!

Monday’s recipe: Farm Show Mushroom Salad from the Mushroom Farmers of Pennsylvania

Ingredients:

• 3 lbs. fresh button mushrooms, quartered and sliced
• 1 c. chopped celery
• 1/2 c grated carrots
• 1/3 c. chopped onions
• 3 to 4 oz. pitted olives chopped
• 1/3 c. olive oil
• 1/4 c. apple cider vinegar
• 2 Tbsp. lemon juice

Directions:

In a 4-quart saucepan, add 2 inches of water, 1 Tbsp. salt and the lemon juice. Bring to a boil, add washed mushrooms, and bring to a boil again. Drain and dry.

In a large bowl, combine the other ingredients. Add the mushrooms and serve.

Farm Show memories

Again, because of the challenges with the show this year, Matt and his photographer Kenny Maryott also put together a Top 10 list of Farm Show memories from recent years. You can watch all of them here.