Week Four, Continued...

In addition to the Spanish-stlye beet greens, I threw some things together Sunday night in order to make use of the rest of the produce from week four...

To start, I used the cabbage and braised it with some extra-firm tofu, onions, and celery... Pretty simple preparation - I sliced up one medium yellow onion and 5-6 stalks of celery and layered them in a skillet. I then layered drained slices from an entire brick of extra-form tofu on top, along with some crushed red pepper, minced ginger, and minced garlic. I added some healthy splashes of soy sauce, a crumbled vegetable boullion cube, a splash or two of sesame oil, a bit of honey, and 2-3 cups of water. I then layered some cleaned and sliced cabbage over that, covered, and simmered it up for medium-low heat for 35-40 minutes. When cooked through, I took the lid off, cooked it for another 10-15, and then added in some arrowroot whisked in with water to thicken it up.

The next picture goes back to the earlier weeks of the farm share when we were getting all of those garlic scapes. I'd made a healthy amount of pesto, and simply tossed some of that with some cooked gnocchi, some salt, pepper, and some basil from my garden/balcony. I think that this could make a good base for a room-temperature pasta-type salad with some grilled vegetables or perhaps some flaked/grilled salmon.

The final two pictures really don't have anything to do with the CSA/farm share, but I was pretty psyched about it. Giant had blueberries on sale for $.99/pint over the last week or so, limit two... So, needless to say, I was making multiple trips en masse and eating/freezing them in bulk. I really like the combination of fruit and hot peppers, so I wanted to take one of the pints and make a sauce - primarily for glazing meats - I was thinking of something hot and smoky that would go well with beef or red meat, but I am sure it would be just fine on chicken (wings?) and work really well with a nice Malbec or other wine from Argentina (the peppers I used are dried Aji Panca peppers - native to Peru).

If any ladies are looking to volunteer...

Spanish Styling...

It's been a few days, but I finally got around to using the CSA goodies in something... It's actually a little tough to keep ahead of the weekly deliveries, especially living by yourself - it kills me to throw anything away, but work has been killing me a little bit. It's kind of rough to get yourself worked up to start cooking something at 9PM during the week...

Anyways - as I mentioned before - for one of the dishes, I went with something influenced by some Spanish ingredients - a Spanish-style "stew" of chick peas and beet greens.

• 2oz. Chorizo, diced


• white of one spring onion, roughly sliced (~ 1 medium onion)


• 4 carrots, sliced thinly on the bias


• 2 cloves of garlic, sliced thinly


• 2T pine nuts


• 1 pint of cherry tomatoes, pureed


• 1/2T Alleppo pepper


• 1/2T sweet paprika


• 1/2T tomato paste


• 2 Cups garbonzo beans


• beet (or other) greens

Unfortunately, some of the greens in the middle of the bunch were starting to go south... I think that after I cleaned and washed them, I probably got a cup and a half of loosely packed greens. I started by sauteeing the chorizo in some olive oil, and after a while, added the carrots and onions and cooked them down really slowly with a bit of salt and pepper, till they started to slowly soften and lightly brown. I then added the pine nuts and the garlic, and slightly after, added the pureed cherry tomatoes and a bit of tomato paste.

I probably could have used some canned dice tomatoes - you probably could have gone with one can, either fine dice or crushed. I kept the heat low, added the garbonzos, the greens, added a splash of water and some vermouth, and let it simmer softly on low for 20-25 minutes... When done, I adjusted the salt and pepper, added a splash of sherry vinegar, and added in the diced green part of that spring onion.

In one recipe, I was able to use the spring onion, the beet greens, and last week's carrots. This could probably be eaten at room temperature, or over some brown rice.

Next, I'm thinking of braising that cabbage with tofu, also to serve over some brown rice.

Week Four...

In this week's CSA share, we have one head of cabbage, a sweet onion, lettuce (a head of what look's to be red-leaf lettuce), oregano, beet greens, and an interesting-looking herb named lamb’s quarters - see the lower-right corner of this picture. (http://www.veggiegardeningtips.com/surprising-lambs-quarters/).

I'm not sure what exactly I'm going to do with this batch - I've done noodles (Asian and Italian) with the various greens, and think I may go Spanish-style and start with some chorizo - maybe do a stew of sort with some greens and some garbonzo beans...

Stay tuned.

Risotto...

I decided to pass up noodles for once, and make some risotto with all of the eautiful vegetables in this week's CSA. I used all but three scapes to add to the amount of garlic scape pesto I made last week, and the rest were steeped in vegetable broth before I added the broth to the risotto.
I made the broth by combining: 12 cups of cold water, several (broken and cleaned) stalks of celery, the tops of the CSA carrots, several non-CSA carrots (again, cleaned and broken), one peeled medium yellow onion (diced), several cloves of garlic (smashed), pepper corns, bay leaves, herbs, and vegetable boullion equal to four cups of stock to give it a bit of a kick-start. After simmering this on low for 2-3 hours, I strained it, smashed the juice out of the cooked vegetables, and added the garlic scapes (diced into 3/4" pieces) to let soften as I kept the stock warm. I think in total, I got about 10-11 cups of stock out of everything.

In a separate pan, I sauteed (in some olive oil and butter) the diced carrots, one 10-ounce pack of sliced mushrooms (broken roughly), the stems of the chard (cleaned and washed), and one bell pepper (I used some green and red pepper), seasoning with salt and pepper as I went.
To start the risotto, I again melted some butter in some olive oil and sauteed one medium yellow onion (diced fine) with some minced garlic cloves and some red pepper flakes. After they softened up, I added two cups of arborio rice and sauteed until they became translucent around the edges. I then added a good shot or two of dry Vermouth (a great cooking wine - dry, affordable, and never goes bad), and then started adding in the broth, two or three ladles at a time (including the scapes as I went). When the pan would start to become dry, I'd add some more broth, stirring constantly. I think I used all of the broth, plus maybe one or two more cups of water at the end.

When I started to get towards the end of the broth and the rice was al dente (maybe 3-4 cups to go), I added in all of the vegetables and the leaves from the head of chard (washed and cut into strips). At the very end, I added in a half cup of cream, some grated Parmigiano, and adjusted the salt and pepper.

In addition to the risotto, I made a gremolata out of the parsley and chives we got in week three. Gremolata is a condiment that is traditionally served with osso buco and generally consists of garlic, parsley, and lemon zest (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gremolata). Mine kept with that in spirit, but I added in a bunch of chives to the finely diced parsley, the zest of one lemon, half of that lemon's juice, two cloves of minced garlic, olive oil (1/3 cup or so), and some salt. I really think it would make a nice, light topping for some chicken or fish, but I also would like to try spooning a bit of it into the hot risotto. It would probably lighten it up considerably.

Week Three...

A slightly smaller share this week, which is actually a bit of a relief. I think I need to start looking for people to hand out some of this food to, because it's starting to back up...

This week's suspects: garlic scapes, Swiss chard, Italian parsley, carrots (with the tops still attached), red lettuce, and chives...

According to the Potomac Vegetable Farm's website, this bunch of chard is the Argentata variety (the bunch with the red stems in week 1 were the "rainbow" variety)

http://www.potomacvegetablefarms.com/id/

I have done a lot of noodle-based dishes, so I am thinking of throwing together a risotto with the chard and herbs...

Noodles Redux...

Well, I know I already made noodles back with the first batch of goodies, but I really wasn't sure what I was going to do with a head of bok choi (other than soup, possibly), so yesterday I thought I would go back to a stir-fry with the udon-style noodles.

Instead of oyster sauce, I went with a (fully vegetarian) black bean sauce. Here's the recipe for the sauce I mixed in at the end of the stir-fry with the noodles to heat through:

• 2T black bean garlic sauce
• 1t black Chinese vinegar
• 2t mirin
• 1t dark sesame oil
• 1t honey
• 2t siracha (or other chili sauce)

For the rest of the stir-fry, I cooked up: a 10-oz. package of fresh sliced mushrooms, tofu squares/wedges (I pressed and cooked up some extra-firm tofu - if anyone wants the technique on that, just let me know), one head of bok choi (stems and greens sliced separately), and green onions.

It was pretty much the same technque as before - sauteeing a little garlic, ginger, and pepper flakes with the bok choi stems and mushrooms in some vegetable oil and dark sesame oil. When those softened up, I added the tofu squares and the dark green of the bok choi leaves (make sure those are cleaned through) until they were heated through, and then added the noodles (two 7 oz. packages of udon-style noodles, cooked and drained) and the sauce (combined, see above). Finished with sliced green onions (I used the tops of that sweet onion with the "edible tops").

In addition to the stir-fry, I made a garlic scape pesto - there wee not enough garlic scapes to make a decent amount of pesto in weeks one and two of the CSA, so I bought more from the Courthouse farmer's market. The pesto freezes well, and I was planning on giving a bunch out, so I bought about a pound or so and went to work. You could use pine nuts if you want, but I chose to go with cashews for a bit of a sweeter pesto to hopefully offset some of the fresh garlic "bite".

Garlic Scape Pesto:

• 1lb. garlic scapes (cut into inch-long dice)
• 1/2 Cup cashews (toasted slightly and cooled)
• 1 1/2 Cup parmesean cheese
• 1 1/4 Cup extra virgin olive oil
• Juice of 1/2 lemon
• Salt and pepper

Place scapes, cashews, lemon juice, and cup of olive oil in a food processor, and blend until smooth. Add in the parmesean cheese and add enough oil, drizzling it in, until pesto comes together (should still be thick). Season with salt and pepper to taste.

The third picture is of some cauliflower (one head) I diced up into chunks, tossed with some olive oil and maybe a 1/4 to 1/3 cup of the scape pesto, and then wrapped tight in some tin foil and baked in the oven at 350 degrees for an hour. I then opened the foil and ran the cauliflower under the broiler to brown. You could eat it as is as a side dish, but I decided to toss it with some whole wheat spaghetti. I sauteed up some bacon, onion, green pepper, pine nuts, capers, some of the roasted cauliflower, and a bit more of the pesto until melted through to make a thick "sauce" of sorts.

Lustful Leg-Quarters?

Okay - the mystery herb of CSA week #2 was (with thanks to our Potomac Vegetable Farm contact) identified as winter savory. I know, in a summer farm share, we get winter savory. From wikipedia: "In cooking, winter savory has a reputation for going very well with both beans and meats, very often lighter meats such as chicken or turkey, and can be used in stuffing. It has a strong flavour while uncooked but loses much of its flavour under prolonged cooking. It may also be used medicinally, it is a stimulant, and is also a known aphrodisiac."

Yup, that's right. So of course, I had to use it, immediately. To you know, test this theory... So, I diced the herb, tucked it under the skin of some chicken thighs, started them in the broiler and then cooked them through at a lower heat. I'll take one to work tomorrow to eat with my salad, and see if the ladies can control themselves... Stay tuned.

Oh yeah, I also used the Shunkyo radishes, the sugar snap peas, and that sweet onion with the "huge edible green tops" - I did not want to wait too long to use them, so I pickled them all with a little sliced ginger and pepper flakes. Should be good...

Back for Week Two...

Would have posted this last night, but we lost power. Again. At least this time I didn't lose any food from the refrigerator, but still a bit of a pain...

This week's vegetables include: garlic scapes, Shunkyo radishes, sugar snap peas, sweet onion with huge edible green tops, Mei Qing Choi (a kind of bok choy), lettuce mix, head lettuce, and winter savory (had to look that one up).

I'm doubting there's a lot of fancy stuff I'm gonna pull off with this delivery. Probably some salads, maybe some stir-fry with the bok choy, and maybe pickling the radishes and maybe the sweet onion... I'll keep everybody posted.

Going back to last week - I did have a bit of fun with some of the leftover garlic cream used in the quiche I made on Saturday. I had about 3/4 to a cup of cream leftover, with maybe a 1/2 cup of the wilted chard mixed in. I mixed in two egg yolks, about 2T of flour, and some grated cheddar. In a small cast iron pan, I browned two pieces of diced bacon, removed them, added them to the egg mixture when cooled, and then added the mixture back to the pan (after removing some of the bacon fat). I let it cook (without stirring/scraping) for about 10 minutes on low to medium heat, and then threw it in the oven to finish cooking. It came out kind of like a cross between an omelet and a dense souffle, but it was delicious (if not admittedly extremely unhealthy).

Refrigerator Pie...

Yesterday, I made the quiche with the cream I was steeping the garlic scapes in. As I said before, it is an insanely easy recipe from Alton Brown available on the food network website under "refrigerator pie": (http://www.foodnetwork.com/food/recipes/recipe/0,1977,FOOD_9936_12828,00.html) - it's basically two eggs, a cup of cream, some nutmeg, a 9" pie crust, fillings of your choosing, and 45 minutes at 350 degrees...

I had steeped the garlic scapes in the cream to both cook them into both some semblance of tenderness and to infuse the cream. I went to the local farmers market to see what else I could throw in to the quiche, and came up with some fresh feta and some more Swiss chard (was thinking of some asparagus, but the line to get some was no joke 20-30 deep, and the chard looked gorgeous. I crisped up some diced bacon (two strips), removed it, and in the remaining fat and some olive oil, I sauteed some cleaned and shredded chard with some garlic. After it wilted and cooled, I added the bacon, feta, and chard into the pie shell (not all of the chard), added in the cup of cream/2 eggs mixture and garlic scapes. Baked it for 45 minutes per the recipe, and done.

The pictures show it directly out of the oven and served with the gremolata aioli along with a little salad of olives, tomatoes and marinated onions. Note the super-sweet brunch set-up - green drinks (umbrellas!), berries, donut peaches, and real napkins even... Absent from the picture but still delicious were honey butter biscuits (thanks, Melissa). I think it turned out pretty well - I'd definitely go with the same combination of fillings, but I think I would either up the amount of filling, or be more careful with the choice of pie crust (I had picked up a deep-dish version without noticing).

Friday Night Prep...

I'm planning on making a quiche tomorrow - well, a variation of a quiche - there's a really easy recipe on the Food Network site from Alton Brown for a standard quiche recipe that you can easily customize with ham, cheese(s), vegetables... It's basically cream, eggs, and crust.



So, I thought what I could do is to use the garlic curls (scapes) in the quiche, but they can be a little tough and fibrous if cooked for only a short time. So, I steeped 4 diced scapes in a half pint of heavy cream and a half pint of light cream with a pinch of salt... After about an hour and change over low heat, the cream really tasted like the garlic scapes, and the scapes themselves had a consistency approaching that of a cooked green bean, maybe. I am going to let it cool tonight, and mix up the recipe with the cream (scapes included) tomorrow.



The other CSA item I wanted to get used up was the Italian Parsley. I was thinking that a gremolata (a chopped herb condiment made of garlic, parsley, and lemon peel) would go good with the quiche... I decided that instead of a straight up gremolata, I'd go with a gremolata-flavored aioli. Pretty standard - a small bunch of parsley, 3 cloves, a few leaves of spinach (for color), the zest and juice of one lemon, two yolks, and oil (olive oil and regular vegetable).

I'll check back in tomorrow with more...

Powerless...

Well, any brilliant bits of cooking-related inspiration are probably going to have to wait, as the storms that rolled through here yesterday knocked out power to my apartment complex, and according to another tenant, we may not get the power back until 10 AM tomorrow (Friday).

So, I'll do my best to keep the greens in good shape, and keep my fingers crossed that the contents of my refrigerator can be spared...

UPDATE - We actually got the power back much earlier than expected (around 6PM), so I took my first swipe at actually making something out of the CSA goodies:

Asian Noodles with Swiss Chard and Oyster Sauce...

This was pretty easy - I just cooked some packaged Asian-style noodles, wilted the greens with some aromatics and tossed them with the noodles and sauce - didn't take but a few minutes.

• 7-oz package of udon-style noodles
• Head of Swiss chard
• 2 cloves garlic
• Small chunk of fresh ginger
• Red pepper flakes
• 1T oyster sauce
• Juice of 1/2 lime
• 1t tamarind chile sauce
• 1/2t honey
• 1t dark soy sauce
• Salt to taste

Cook noodles per instruction (boil 2-3 minutes) and toss out the seasoning packet. While cooking noodles, wash chard, trim stems, then slice stems into chunks and tear leaves in strips. Heat wok or heavy pan (I use my cast iron pan for this - it gets hotter than a metal wok ever will on electric burners). Dice/grate garlic and peeled ginger (try a microplane for this - works great). Heat vegetable oil and a shot of sesame oil in pan and saute pepper flakes, garlic, ginger, and chard stems. After a minute or two, add leaves and toss/wilt. When wilted, add drained and rinsed noodles and sauce (combine all other ingredients). Heat through and serve.

This one turned out pretty well - not sure if I would add anything else - maybe some type of Chinese sausage and/or shrimp might work here though...

The Day After...

The first week's worth of produce was all greens and herbs. Didn't do anything fancy to start, just cleaned off some lettuce and the curly endive to use for a salad with some cherry tomatoes, fresh mozzarella, and herbs (basil, chives). Which was good. The endive was not too bitter, so any thoughts I had about cooking/wilting them in any way to cut the bitterness are probably not going to happen...

I am thinking of doing a stir-fry with the chard for tomorrow night, and the garlic ramps are probably going to be used in something over the weekend. I love them, but they can be kind of tough and fibrous, so I think I am going to cook them slow and see if I can find others at a local market to make a batch of pesto.

Week One - Welcome to the Goody Bag...

Potomac Vegetable Farms (June 3, 2008)

My inaugral mini share consists of: garlic curls (scapes), endive, Italian parsley, Swiss chard, chives, and lettuce. I'm pretty impressed so far - not to mention that it comes with a "name your greens" guide for those less botanically inclined... It's my goal to comment on the produce I receive across the run of this farm share/CSA, how I prepare it, and the food I make with it.

(http://www.potomacvegetablefarms.com/)