Beltway Scramblings

One year later, I'm back - 2010 Summer - Week #1

2010-06-13T11:44:00.007-04:00

I'm back for 2010. I'm going to try a lot harder in 2010 (than I did in 2009) to detail the summer farm share from Potomac Vegetable Farms. This is the third year I've taken part in their CSA, and for anyone looking to try a food-share arrangement, I've had nothing but good things to say about the quality of the product. We've been lucky enough to have a number of people from our office sign up, so we've actually arranged for a drop off at our office rather than having to pick up the weekly drop from a pre-arranged location. Pretty sure all the farm shares are sold out for summer 2010, but if you could get in on 2011 or visit them at some of the local DC/VA farmer's markets, I'd highly recommend...

The first drop was on Wednesday June 9th. In the mini share, we got: garlic scapes, broccoli raab, Swiss chard, a head of lettuce, lettuce mix, dill, and basil.

Here's my thoughts: with the chard - a refrigerator pie with cheese and mushrooms; the basil and scapes - scape/basil pesto (there's a recipe I've used from the weekly CSA literature); a pasta with the broccoli raab; with the dill, three things - cheddar dill beer bread, a play on a recipe I saw online for a shrimp w/ creamy dill dressing, and oyster crackers with dill and ranch seasoning. For the mixed lettuces - I'll just use it for salads, garnishes, etc. I'll be back with updates as I get through them...

Week Two (Summer 2009)

2009-06-11T00:40:00.003-04:00

Week two has arrived.

Week One, Part Two...

2009-06-10T22:24:00.013-04:00

With the rest of week one's selection, I went with mostly salads, given the massive amount of salad greens. I actually made a nice salad of mixed greens with a truffle vinagrette for serving with slices of pate (from The Italian Store - highly recommend), but for some reason, the pictures did not capture. In retrospect, the dressing came out a bit more acidic than I would have liked, but in a way, that, combined with the bitterness of the chicory endive, was actually pretty good up against the richness of the pate.

The other thing I did with the produce was to slowly cook - almost steep - the garlic scapes in olive oil over low heat until the roughly-sliced scapes were tender (almost the consistency of a well-cooked green bean). I cooled them and stored them in the oil, which I thought might be useful when flavored of garlic.

My sister and her partner were in for the weekend, so I ultimately wound up using them as part of the filling for more refrigerator pie - a great fallback recipe courtesy of Alton Brown. Super-fast, super-easy quiche is basically what we're talking. In this case, the filling is the scapes, a package of baby portabella mushrooms, shredded cheese (goat and ultra-aged Gouda), and some more of the chives. I roasted the mushrooms in the oil with the scapes, so the filling picked up a really nice flavor of garlic without being too overbearing.

The rest of the weekend, while not CSA-related, was fun in that I got to cook up some goodies for a Saturday night Wolf Trap concert out on the lawn. It wound up being a really good show (David Byrne of Talking Heads fame and DeVotchka) and a beautiful night.

I basically made two bean-based dips. One was fava beans (two cups when cooked from dried beans), olive oil, and ricotta salata, with a touch of garlic, lemon, and mint. The second was a dip made from black-eyed peas, whipped together much like hummus, with lime juice, hot chili and sesame oil, a touch of the garlic scape oil, salt, and white pepper.

I think they turned out pretty well, but the food highlight of the day was probably our stop at the Wine Kitchen in Leesburg. I'd been before, but this time I got to take Meghann and Chad, and I think all of us were pretty impressed by both the wine and the food (let's not forget the desert). They emphasize serving the wines in organized flights of three - each wine comes with a notecard containing a detailed description at a reasonable price for one or all three...

Needless to say, I got the special. Which was fabulous. And I got the macaroni and cheese - which was solid if not just a bit light on the salt. Other items included a portabella panini, polenta with mushrooms, frisee and a poached egg, and the desert - two small ultra rich and moist chocolate and mint cakes with mint cream and, to top it off, a mint-perfumed salt...

I also had the pleasure of talking with the manager Michael Mercer, who was incredibly kind and corteous. After learning we were headed to Wolf Trap for the evening, he recommended a bottle of 2007 Domaine Felines Jourdan Picpoul De Pinet that we might like.

Needless to say, we left with two bottles. One for the show, and one for DE consumption. A great thing about the wine selection at the Wine Kitchen is you get $10 off the list price if you get wine to go. The rest of the evening was great - a beautiful night (just about the only one that week), wonderful sound, great set-lists, and even easy traffic in and out of Wolf Trap and back onto 267 for the return ride back to Arlington.

It's Back!!!

2009-06-02T22:55:00.008-04:00

Today, the first week's share of the 2009 Summer CSA from Potomac Vegetable Farms arrived...

In case anybody is new here - the primary purpose of this blog, when I first started, was to detail the weekly shipments of vegetables I'm getting from Potomac Vegetable Farms, and what they become... It's not entirely that anymore, but it's a pretty big part.

That said - the first week of the 2009 Summer CSA includes: garlic scapes (4), a head of chicory endive, a head of green lettuce, mixed salad lettuce, a healthy amount of green chard (rear part of the picture), a small head of cabbage (a variety named "arrowhead") and chives...

I think it's going to be a lot of salads for this first week - the only thing I'm locked into is a saute of the chard with some shitake mushrooms over some brown rice - something that could be eaten at room temperature.

Brown Rice Salad w/ Green Chard and Shitake Mushrooms

I sauteed half a large white onion (thinly sliced) in olive oil with some crushed red pepper flakes. After a few minutes, I added 2 cloves of thinly sliced garlic, followed by a 3.5 oz package of sliced shitake mushrooms.

After the mushrooms had softened and the onions browned slightly, I added a handful of raisins, pine nuts, and finally, the chard (washed, drained, and roughly chopped).

After the chard had cooked down and wilted thoroughly, I added half the juice of a lemon (and some of the zest), tossed in a splash of balsamic vinegar, seasoned with salt and pepper, and then combined with cooked browned rice (roughly two cups), and heated through.

The last thing I did was to add in some diced chives (along with the chard, the two contributions from the farm share)...

April/May Eats...

2009-05-11T19:58:00.011-04:00

I know, I've been pretty terrible about posting up, so here's a bit of a spurt. With the weather getting better and the market selection picking up, I've actually been braving the horrendous parking around the DuPont market, and have found some really nice vegetables coming in (ramps, asparagus). Not to mention some great cheeses - Everona Dairy and Firefly Farms come to mind right away...

Anyways - first up was something I threw together after picking up some really nice green beans, some baby red potatoes, and some mid-sized tomatoes. I'd picked up some Spanish chorizo from the Italian Market in Philly, so I diced that up with some slab bacon, sweated them out, and did a slow stew of some onions, the parboiled potatoes, the green beans, and finally the tomatoes.

I kept the seasonings mostly Spanish-style: paprika, garlic, some sherry vinegar, and finished it off with some parsley and toasted pine nuts... It's lunch this week with some brown rice or by itself.

Next up was a bit of an old stand-by, but when I stopped off at GrandMart after volunteering with Max, the Belgian Malinois Mix with Lost Dog over in Seven Corners on Saturday, I picked up some supplies to make a "salsa verde" with roasted tomatillos, onions, peppers, and cilantro. The recipe was in an earlier post, but it's quick, versatile, and is great for packing and storing away hen you're not quite sure what you're going to cook up.

And finally - another idea inspired by GrandMart... They sell pork picnic roasts (shoulders) for a pretty good price, but frankly, it's a lot of food for one person, and it's just not something I can justify if there's not a cookout or get-together involved.

However, they have started carrying half and quarter roasts, cut down the length of the shoulder - which are much more reasonable and manageable when cooking for one... Or two even.

They still come with the skin and fat attached, so I tried seasoning the roast by first scoring the skin, cutting a pocket between the layer of fat and the meat, and then seasoning it very aggressively with three different types of peppers: green peppercorns, black peppercorns (both crushed), and Alleppo pepper.

I mixed these with some salt, sugar, and some garlic powder, and then went to town on the pork roast, covering all sides liberally. I started roasting the pork at 350 degrees, but backed it down to 250 or so after the pork started browning and some of the fat rendered out.

Towards the end of the cooking time, I basted the roast with a mixture of mirin and black Chinese vinegar - then sliced it after pulling it from the oven and giving it some time to rest. You can see the pork in the bottom three pictures - a decent amount for sandwiches or even stir-fry...

I had actually gotten some udon noodles and some nice looking enoki mushrooms from GrandMart, so I was planning on using the pork in some sort of noodle soup for a dinner this week. Will update if it turns out okay.

Immolation by Canoe and Toxic Cheese...

2009-03-29T10:23:00.008-04:00

There are times when I really do love the unique and kind of random things that transpire in and around Washington DC... For example - a flaming canoe, and toxic cheeses. Let me explain.

On Wednesday, a canoe blew up by the Key Bridge on the Potomac. Nothing sinister, and honestly, a bit of a letdown after all of the build-up and hype, but seriously - how often do you see a canoe/kayak on fire?

The explosion was part of the filming for an upcoming CBS television pilot, "Washington Field," about the Washington Field Office of the FBI. We'd actually received advance warning through my work because our floor-to-ceiling window view directly overlooks the Key Bridge and the Georgetown waterfront. They made it sound like a 20 to 30-foot fireball of apocalyptic proportions, so needless to say, we were pretty jacked.

It wasn't really all that, but was still pretty cool to see. I've posted a few more pics on my Flickr site (http://www.flickr.com/photos/southbound_07/sets/72157615984922709/), but here are a few of the close-ups (I didn't get the moment of detonation, but it had been delayed quite a bit so I couldn't really sit there, camera in hand, for the entire afternoon - much as I might have liked).

And then - on Thursday, the Koshland Science Museum held an event titled: "Say Cheese! Understanding the Living Foods We Eat" - where we listened to Dr. Catherine Donnelley, Co-director of the Vermont Institute for Artisan Cheeses, as she described the microbial world of cheese. Dr. Donnelly's presentation was paired with a tasting of six artisan cheeses.

All in all, a very interesting and informative lecture, although I do have to say, it was a bit surreal (not to mention slightly disconcerting) learning about the role that mold and bacteria play in the formation and production of cheese - then following that with a discussion of cheese-borne illness and the ways in which it could kill you - and then being invited to tuck into a plate of cheese samples, no matter how delicious...

And I must say, my blue cheese definitely had the "nose of ammonia" that was mentioned. Although I am not sure I picked up the "animal" flavors that the Comte apparently is known for (seriously people, "stable"?)...

In Praise of the Tomatillo...

2009-03-24T23:04:00.014-04:00

One of the really easy "tricks" I fall back on quite a bit, especially in the summer, is to roast up and process some onion, tomatillos, and jalapeno and/or serrano peppers.

Tomatillos can sometime be a bit difficult with their papery husks and the sticky residue underneath, but GrandMart out near 7 Corners sells them husked and shrink-wrapped in foam trays - all you pretty much have to do is give them a rinse and rough chop them in thirds or fourths.

To about a pound of tomatillos, add a rough chop of a medium-to-large white onion, and jalapenos, seeded and cored to taste. Toss them with some olive or vegetable oil to coat, salt and pepper, and broil on a cookie sheet until charred and dark. Cool and dump into a food processor along with a chopped clove of garlic (I wouldn't recommend broiling the garlic with the other vegetables, as it is so easy to burn and leave really bitter), the juice of a lime, and a handful (call it a 1/2 bunch) of cilantro.

Puree until smooth, add a touch of cumin, and you have a really tangy and tart salsa verde. It will thicken up on standing in the fridge, so you may have to add some more lime juice/tequila. This sauce also makes a great base (along with some stock) for chili (I'll add some pictures of a pork chili verde I made a little bit ago for a chili cook-off), pozole (same), rice, or even a pasta salad.

LII...

2009-03-19T17:14:00.001-04:00

Yes, those are Whole Foods reusable grocery bags...

Yes, there are 52 of them...

No, I'm not responsible...

My ex-roommate, apparently unaware of the theory behind these items, bought 2-3 anew every time he walked up to Whole Foods for groceries. Every time. I knew he was sticking them in the closet, but I assumed he was re-using them each time he went.

Silly me. I think my current roommate was a little frightened... And I can't say I blame him.

I Shall Return... (with Red Pepper Hummus)

2009-03-18T23:44:00.001-04:00

Alright - I apologize - the original idea of this blog was to make it through a season's worth of a CSA share from Potomac Vegetable Farms, detailing what was provided, and what I made out of it... Loosely. Mostly about food though. I made it through the most of the 2008 summer and fall share, but I tuckered out towards the end. With work taking up so much time, a lot of stuff seemed to get away from me.

Well, that was 2008. I have tried desperately to avoid any resolutions for 2009, but I'm going to go right ahead and promise more frequent posts for 2009 - I have once again subscribed for a summer mini-share from PVF, but I am going to try and post more often and step away from food-related posts exclusively...

Anyways, I wanted to start with a recipe that I finally think I nailed down - hummus, but a bit lighter (and presumably a bit healthier) than most recipes that lean hard on the tahini and olive oil. I've found that if you can add something that will blend/puree down (roasted peppers, garlic, or eggplant for example) with the garbonzos, you can cut back on a lot of the oil without suffering for flavor.

Red Pepper Hummus

2 15.5 oz. cans of garbonzo beans
2 roasted and peeled red peppers (pictured)
1 clove garlic
1/4 medium onion or 1/2 small onion
1/2 t. salt, pepper to taste
1T tahini
2T lemon juice (1-2 lemons depending on size)
1T olive oil

Basically, toss all of the above in a food processor and process until smooth. Can't get much easier. I'd just make sure to mince or grate (with a microplane) the garlic to avoid any rough patches of chunked garlic. You could use jarred red peppers, but make sure to rinse and drain/blot dry the peppers as much as possible - it's pretty easy to get too much liquid into the recipe, and then you're talking soup, not a puree. I like to roast the fresh peppers under a broiler and then dump them into a plastic-ware container for a while - the skin comes off pretty easy then... Just make sure to remove the seeds.

One thing I did notice, which surprised me - I had two cans of garbonzo beans - one from Trader Joe's and the other from Goya. The Trader Joe's brand was noticeably smaller, harder, and drier than the can of Goya-brand beans, which were larger and much more moist. I don't think the hummus suffered mixing them together, but I think I would have to keep an eye on the TJ brand beans - they might make a chalkier hummus...

Spicy Peruvian Veggie Stew...

2008-10-29T23:54:00.000-04:00

Week Nineteen (Fall Share)...

2008-10-29T23:53:00.000-04:00

Sweet & Sour Noodles...

2008-10-29T23:07:00.001-04:00

Return of the Refrigerator Pie - Chard and 'Shrooms...

2008-10-29T22:38:00.004-04:00

It's all about Alton. And his egg pie. Actually, better know as Refrigerator Pie. Seriously, this may be the single easiest/handiest recipe I lean on when entertaining guests or trying to impress people with a substantial breakfast.

You can check out the recipe here - on this page, he lists out a number of different topping/filling combinations... I've tried both meat and meat-free variations, and all have turned out well - swiss cheese and softer cheese such as provolone seem to work the best. Cheddar is also good if not a little oily. Even goat cheese tastes good with some sun-dried tomatoes and/or spinach, but actually comes out a little bit chalky I have found.

If anybody has any ideas and/or suggestions on how to get that to work, I'd love to hear them.

Turkey and Black Bean Chili...

2008-10-29T22:37:00.000-04:00

Week Eighteen (Fall Share)

2008-10-29T22:36:00.000-04:00

Afghan Carrots and Sweet Potatoes...

2008-10-29T22:35:00.001-04:00

Red Bean Masa Boats...

2008-10-29T21:22:00.000-04:00

Mixed Italian-Style Salad w/ White Beans

2008-10-29T21:14:00.000-04:00

In order to use up as much of the CSA share as possible, I decided to make a salad of sorts to serve with some grilled chicken breasts I picked up on sale... Pretty much the only thing I added outside of the CSA material was a can of white beans. The additional ingredients were the parsley, basil, diced tomatoes and onions, and the two red peppers that were roasted under the broiler and peeled...

The dressing, as it were, was quite simple - extra virgin olive oil, some sherry vinegar, a bit of minced garlic, sugar, salt and pepper.

Week Seventeen (Fall Share)...

2008-09-24T12:12:00.000-04:00

Week 17 was the first week of our fall share, but I am not sure if the produce really screams out "fall" yet - I'm sure that will happen in weeks to come. In week #17, we have carrots, raspberries, two green bell peppers, another "salsa" kit (tomatoes, onions, peppers), basil, and a head of arugula.

Kamut and Quinoa Pasta in Basil Sauce...

2008-09-24T12:10:00.000-04:00

Trader Joe had this interesting-looking (and presumably healthy) fusili pasta made out of kamut and quinoa, so I thought I would grab a package and throw it together with some of the vegetables. Specifically, I wanted to get ahead of the basil going bad, so I pureed it with some olive oil, parsley, a touch of lemon juice, and some salt in order to make a sauce...

The vegetables I used were onions and some of the red peppers (both from the CSA) and some shitake mushrooms and sugar snap peas. I roasted the peppers and peeled/diced them (pictured behind the sauce), and then decided to roast the shitakes as well. Shitakes, and mushrooms in general, can soak up a fair amount of oil, so seeing as there was already a fair amount in the sauce, I decided to roast them off in the oven to try and save some additional oil/fat...

The assembly was pretty straight-forward - I sauteed the vegetables (the snow peas were slightly blanched first) along with a bit of garlic in my cast-iron pan with some olive oil, tossed in the cooked pasta, and then stirred in a few ladles of the sauce, adding in some salt, pepper and a bit of the pasta cooking water. The noodles held up quite well - I would definitely buy them again.

Additional Goodies...

2008-09-24T12:07:00.000-04:00

XXX

Southwest Vegetable "Stew"...

2008-09-24T12:05:00.000-04:00

XXX

Week Sixteen...

2008-09-24T11:59:00.000-04:00

The final summer share from Potomac Vegetable Farm...

But never fear. I'm a sucker. I can't resist, and thus - I'll soon be detailing PVF's fall share program. It sounds like there will eventually be a shift in focus away from the traditional leafy vegetables and summer fare (tomatoes, corn) to root vegetables and more hearty greens.

So - on to this week's share. Tomatoes, peppers (red), raspberries, escarole, parsley, basil, potatoes, onions, and two small eggplants. I'm thinking stew of some sort - one big freaking pot of something, because my week's a bit cramped. Stay tuned...

Away on Vacation - Summer Vegetable Soup

2008-09-22T11:19:00.000-04:00

Part 3:3 - Gwenne's final creation...

Summer Vegetable Soup

Sauteed chopped garlic, lg. shallot and baby spinach in olive oil.
Added reserved sauces from chick peas/chard and simmered a few minutes.
Cut corn off cob (CSA), chopped zucchini (CSA), pole beans (CSA), several hot house tomatoes chopped, handful of CSA parsley and about 4 peeled carrots.
Added fresh veggies to sauteed mixture, poured over about 4 C veggie broth and added an additional cup of tomato chipotle pepper broth.
Added fresh ground black pepper, sea salt.
Served with shredded Parmigiano.

Away on Vacation - Stir Fry

2008-09-22T11:14:00.000-04:00

Part 2:3 - Gwenne's second creation...

Stir Fry

Sauteed up chopped onions, jalapeno pepper, fresh garlic, yellow zucchini, handful of chard (CSA), mushrooms and spicy "chicken" (from GrandMart).
Added in the sauce you gave me (black bean garlic sauce with some sweet chili condiment, some sesame oil, and some mirin), plus 2 heaping spoonfuls of chili garlic sauce and a bit of soy sauce.

Away on Vacation - Armenian Roasted Chickpeas

2008-09-22T11:02:00.000-04:00

Sorry for the delay - I went home to Chicago on vacation, and good friend Gwenne stepped up to fire away and take pictures of week 15 creations... Part 1:3 -

Armenian Roasted Chickpeas

Combined chopped garlic (CSA), 1 lg sliced shallot, can of chickpeas (drained), fresh chopped tomatoes and a purple pepper (from courthouse market-though you can't tell it's purple in the pics...it was fairly small), fresh ground black pepper, some sea salt and some dried fennel in glass baking dish. Poured over 3/4 C olive oil, covered w/foil and roasted in oven at 350 deg. for about 45 minutes.
Drained chickpeas after cooling ("juices" from tomatoes, oil, and peppers saved for soup).
Sauteed several lg. cloves of garlic & 2 lg. shallots until tender.
Added in remaining CSA chard plus several handfuls baby spinach.
Sauteed until chard & spinach were wilted then poured about 1 C veggie broth over mixture, covered and simmered about 10 min.
Drained chard/spinach mixture (saved broth to add to veggie soup) and tossed together with chick pea mixture and some more olive oil - just until warmed through.

(no pics-but served with whole wheat couscous)

Week Fifteen...

2008-09-10T03:27:00.001-04:00

Sadly, I'll be passing this week's share on to friends, as I am on the road to Chicago for an extended weekend of PTO/vacation time. Well, most of it, anyways (I had to eat some of the melon and the raspberries). Week fifteen included: two ears of corn, a handful of pole beans, two yellow squash, a head of parsley, more tomatoes, a head of garlic, and the cutest little watermelon. If any of the recipients take pictures, I'll look to post them upon my return...

Asian Greens...

2008-09-10T03:25:00.001-04:00

I keep coming back to it, but we have gotten a lot of chard from this year's CSA, and it really stands up to just about anything, especially stir-fry. I thought I would mix things up a little bit by adding some Vietnamese-style sausage (I was already going to use oyster sauce, so I figured why not)...

Another difference - I decided to mix up the choice of noodles - GrandMart (where I also found the sausage) sold these refrigerated packages of these noodle cakes or "whole-wheat ovalettes" - they have a nice chew to them, but I have to say, they were a bit unwieldy in that they threw out a whole lot of flour/paste into the boiling water, and made the cooking liquid practically chewy, it was so thick... Even trying to rinse and drain the noodles wasn't helping much - they thickened up the sauce so much as soon as they were added, there was no need at all for corn starch or any other thickener.

Other than that, everything else was pretty standard. The sausage had to be steamed first, then I sliced it into rounds, and stir-fried it with some chard, onions, and some aromatics. The sauce was a combination of oyster sauce, chili sauce, sesame oil and mirin.

Mexican Tortilla Casserole

2008-09-10T03:18:00.001-04:00

XXX

More Pasta Caprese...

2008-09-10T03:03:00.000-04:00

This is a bit of a re-run from an earlier week, but the recipe turned out pretty well... That, and I still had a ton of tomatoes.

I'm pasting in from a previous post - flip back a page or two for further details: I had a variety of fresh/heirloom tomatoes and rough-chopped them, tossed them with some olive oil and some salt, and broiled them briefly. I then tossed a pound of linguini with tomatoes (call it a pound and a half to two pounds), diced mozzarella, and a dressing of sorts that is heavy on the basil, a bit of garlic, a dash of sugar, and some lemon juice...

I froze the mozzarella, but seeing as how I was taking it to work for a lot of lunches, I found that as long as you only warmed up the pasta and did not heat it through on full-blast, the cheese did not get too gummy. I also added parsley from the CSA, some green onions, and the onions (diced) from the CSA. When broiled, the tomatoes let off a lot of juice - this basically becomes the sauce.

Week Fourteen...

2008-09-10T02:55:00.000-04:00

In week fourteen, we got two heads of chard, one pint of blackberries, a couple of ripe red tomatoes, one bell pepper (the rust-colored object nestled into the middle there), some small onions, two ears of corn, and a small eggplant.

Full disclosure - I had to junk one of the ears of corn. Upon peeling back the husk, the end of one ear had gone south, and a little creepy-looking worm had been setting up shop. It spooked me out.

Fresh Corn and Jalapeno Tortillas...

2008-09-01T23:56:00.000-04:00

Not entirely successful. But still fun...

I followed the directions on the back of a bag of masa harina for tortillas - basically water and cornmeal. I added a touch of vegetable oil and, to pull in the CSA theme, some shredded jalapeno peppers and one ear of corn (run through the food processor). I rolled out 2 oz. balls of dough, sandwiched them between waxed paper, and rolled them out as much as possible.

I cooked them all off on a cast iron pan - no oil was needed. They turned out okay, tasty even, but they were definitely not pliable, and a little "firm"... I might try some baking powder next time, which was listed as an ingredient in some other recipes I found online. Because I doubt that these could be folded without breaking, I think tacos are no longer an option, and may have to do something along the lines of a tostada/casserole...

"Stewed" Green Beans...

2008-09-01T23:50:00.001-04:00

Lynne Rossetto Kasper had been talking up her favorite way of cooking green beans on the Splendid Table recently - going against the idea as cooking a vegetable briefly to retain the crispness and "greenness" of the vegetable...

The idea was to basically cook the living cr*p out of green beans with olive oil until they pretty much steam down and almost start to "melt" and caramelize on their own. I didn't go quite that far, but I pretty much just tossed a pound or so of green beans (trimmed and washed) with a fair amount of olive oil and salt until they really started to cook down and wrinkle up (stirring as I went). After 35-40 minutes, I added a package of baby brown pearl mushrooms, a diced shallot, a minced clove of garlic, a diced medium tomato, and a splash of vermouth.

After all of this started to cook down further, I added some diced rosemary, some additional olive oil, some salt and pepper, and let it stew - covered - over low heat for about another 40-45 minutes until the tomatoes became a light but thickened sauce. At the end, I tossed in some parsley and a bit of lemon juice.

Red Curry...

2008-09-01T23:48:00.000-04:00

Green beans... Potatoes... Peppers and Onions... I also had a jar of diced pineapple taking up space in the pantry, so I thought I would do up some red curry. I sliced up two small/medium onions, and sauteed them in some vegetable oil with the sliced green beans (probably about a half pound or so), some ginger, and some diced peppers (one red, and some jalapenos).

After these started to soften, I added a good heaping spoon of red curry paste, and stirred it in with the vegetables along with the jar of diced pineapples, three diced tomatoes, and a can of light coconut milk (Trader Joe's makes a good, affordable one). Once this was all combined, I added about a pound of diced yellow potatoes (to quicken up the process, I microwaved the diced potatoes first for 4-5 minutes) covered it, and cooked it over low-medium heat for about 40-45 minutes.

To finish, I added some ripped Thai basil... One note - cooked as long as they were, the skin on the peppers peeled off and curled up. It's still edible, put I picked a lot of the curled up skins out before packing it up for lunches (along with some added sliced chicken for the meat-eaters)...

A Gift of Rosemary...

2008-09-01T23:16:00.000-04:00

I was lucky enough to get a bunch of fresh rosemary, straight from the garden... My neighbor Jennifer L. visited a friend (Shana) who is setting up to open a restaurant/wine bar/cheese store/cafe in Harrisburg, PA, and she was generous enough to send back some rosemary my way.

I decided to make some focaccia with rosemary (both diced/mixed in with the dough, and part of the topping) and some sauteed/carmelized onions. The only problem was (and I am guessing) that the yeast seemed to be inactive, old, or something, as it really didn't rise. Or maybe the recipe I pulled off the web was off. I don't bake a lot, but something was off. It was more rosemary flatbread than rosemary focaccia - maybe still tasty, but pretty dense...

Anyways - thank you Shana, and best of luck!

Week Thirteen...

2008-08-27T02:56:00.001-04:00

Week thirteen comes with a head of lettuce, some more blackberries, a bag of green beans, two ears of corn, a green pepper, some tomatoes, a head of garlic, and a little "salsa kit" of tomatoes, garlic, a tomatillo or two, and a poblano pepper...

Return of the Garbonzo...

2008-08-25T02:15:00.000-04:00

I was looking to use up the potatoes, onions, and garlic that have been accumulating from the recent CSA shares... I also had a bag of dried garbonzo beans, so garbonzo stew it was.

After soaking the beans overnight, I diced up some chorizo, and sauteed two small to medium yellow onions, and then added some cubed baby yellow potatoes and a bit of garlic. The chorizo had a ton of paprika in it, but I added some additional paprika, thyme, salt and pepper. After letting the potatoes saute a little bit, I added some tomato paste, a splash of vermouth, and about a cup and a half or so of water along with a vegetarian bouillon cube.

After it cooked through and thickened, I added some diced green onion and some parsley, a bit of lemon juice, and some extra virgin olive oil...

Pasta Caprese

2008-08-25T02:13:00.000-04:00

In the July/August 2007 issue of Cook's Illustrated, they had a recipe for "Pasta Caprese" - which, in essence was looking at a way of translating the traditional Caprese salad into a pasta dish. The problem that they looked to solve for was how to keep the fresh mozzarella from "gumming up" when heated up in the mix of pasta and fresh tomatoes. Their solution - dice the mozzarella and freeze it first.

Well, what I decided to do below was a little different - I had a variety of fresh/heirloom tomatoes from the CSA and some farmer's markets, and in order to "even out" the quality of those tomatoes, I rough-chopped them, tossed them with some olive oil and some salt, and broiled them briefly. I hesitate to link the recipe because the site archives are pay-for (worth it, btw), but you basically toss a pound of linguini with tomatoes (call it a pound and a half to two pounds), diced mozzarella, and a dressing of sorts that is heavy on the basil, a bit of garlic, a dash of sugar, and some lemon juice...

I still froze the mozzarella, but seeing as how I was taking it to work for a lot of lunches, I found that as long as you only warmed up the pasta and did not heat it through on full-blast, the cheese did not get too gummy. I also added the parsley from the CSA, some green onions, and the onions (diced) from the CSA. When broiled, the tomatoes let off a lot of juice - this basically becomes the sauce (picture of the concoction in the metal mixing bowl).

Definitely a winner - most likely will look to do this again shortly.

Week Twelve...

2008-08-25T02:10:00.000-04:00

Week twelve contained: one red pepper, several tomatoes, two ears of corn, some small new potatoes, two onions, a head of lettuce, basil, parsley, and one package of blackberries. Those sure didn't last long...

White Bean Gazpacho

2008-08-25T02:02:00.000-04:00

I'd been thinking gazpacho, and wound up going with it - I used up the tomatoes I'd received in week 11's CSA as well as the onions, peppers, and herbs, not to mention several containers of golden cherry and beautiful red heirloom tomatoes from our local farmer's market at Courthouse (Saturday mornings). I picked up some cucumbers from GrandMart, and followed a pretty traditional recipe, just adding in some cans of (rinsed) white beans, and some minced serrano peppers... I also found that the soup kept particularly well, and I think the tomatoes and acid in the lemon juice/sherry vinegar really helped keep the herbs (basil and parsley) fresh and bright green. The lettuce, I used in lunch salads, and the corn I ate boiled with some butter... Pretty plain, but the corn was incredibly fresh.

Week Eleven...

2008-08-13T03:05:00.000-04:00

This week's share includes a LOT of tomatoes - some yellow (not all of them survived the ride home), 4-5 red tomatoes, cherry tomatoes, two peppers, some onions, a head of garlic, three ears of corn, a bunch of basil, and a head of leaf lettuce...

I'm thinking a huge honking batch of gazpacho (or something like it) to use as much of this as I can...

Screen on the Green Goodies...

2008-08-12T08:05:00.000-04:00

Tomorrow night is the final "Screen on the Green" down on the mall - and they're showing the original Superman... A lot more people are interested in going to this than most of the other movies, so there's a lot of food and drink coming along with tomorrow.

With that in mind, I wanted to whip up some goodies, and even though these aren't really CSA-related, I still wanted to take some pictures. I made two things - a skillet cornbread concoction and a fava-bean puree (think hummus) with mint and salty cheese...

More Noodles...

2008-08-10T19:09:00.000-04:00

I want to give a bit of a shout out to Grandmart (VII?) out in Seven Corners - after my volunteer work with Lost Dog (http://www.lostdogrescue.org/) at the PetSmart out there, I went out for some supplemental grocery shopping. The place is great - amazing range of produce with an Asian bent (half the stuff I have to google when I get home), and for the most part, quite affordable.

I was looking for some supplemental produce and some ideas as to how to use up the bunch of chard... So, looking at an Asian market, I suppose it's not much surprise that I decided to go with noodles again. They have (among other things) refrigerated udon noodles - under $2 for a one-pound bag... So, it was pretty much same technique as before - heat the h*ll out of a cast iron pan, and sautee up onion, red peppper, squash and mushrooms in some vegetable and sesame oil. Eventually, add some ginger, garlic, hot peppers and the greens (second picture), and stir-fry until the greens wilt. Add the cooked off noodles (drained), and toss in a sauce (picture #3). Heat through and garnish with some bean sprouts, green onions, and some herbs (basil, mint)...

In this case, the sauce is a spicy peanut sauce (vegetarian). Peanut butter (chunky), soy sauce, sesame oil, lime juice, sriracha, garlic, shallots, and brown sugar - whisked smooth, and folded in. This sauce would also be good as a dressing, over kababs, even perhaps over fruit...

Curry It Is...

2008-08-07T02:20:00.000-04:00

I made curry - red curry... And used up a great deal of the CSA share to boot. I used up all the small new potatoes, the two ears of corn (cut into rounds), an onion, diced tomatoes, and the basil. I also added some chicken thighs, green onions, some thin sliced jalapenos for heat, some carrot strips, and garbonzo beans...

Super easy to prepare - layer the onions, chicken thighs (skin removed) and new potatoes in a dutch oven, add a can of coconut milk and a scoop or two of red curry paste, and cook on medium/medium-low heat until the chicken is almost cooked through and the potatoes are approaching tender. At this time, I added in the sliced green onion, carrots, and a can of garbonzo beans, adjusting for liquid and salt. I sliced in some basil and green onions at the end and containered it up with some brown rice for lunches...

Week Ten...

2008-08-06T01:42:00.001-04:00

This week's vegetables include: two sweet onions (red), two ears of sweet corn, a handful of baby new potatoes, one green pepper, some tomatoes, basil, chives, and some leafy green - perhaps a chard of some kind?

Again, due to the long hours at work, I'm likely going to be leaning towards the conservative
"one-pot" fits all ideas - thinking maybe a curry?

Marinara...

2008-08-04T00:38:00.000-04:00

Here are some pictures of the marinara sauce I threw together to use up all or most of the vegetables I mentioned in the week nine CSA share. I cubed, salted, and drained the eggplant, and sliced thin the carrots and the squash (a pattypan left over from the prior CSA). I cheated a little bit on the carrots - they went bad much sooner than I expected, so I had to replace the carrots. I also bought a package of roma tomatoes from our local farmer's market to augment the tomatoes I'd received on Tuesday.

Since they weren't incredibly ripe, I decided to roast the tomatoes in an attempt to boost the flavor somewhat. You can see the pictures of this. While the tomatoes roasted in the oven at 450 degrees, I bbasically did a slow sautee on everything else. I started with the carrots, then the squash, eggplant, garlic, shallots, some hot eppers, diced green peppers, and the green beans cut into one-inch slices... I added some vermouth, a shot of tomato paste, the roasted tomatoes after they were run through a food processor, some lemon juice and some thin-sliced basil at the very end. When this was done, I tossed it with some fresh linguini (purchased at the Italian Market in Philadelphia) and packed it up for some lunches...

Week Nine...

2008-07-30T02:37:00.001-04:00

This week's CSA share consisted of tomatoes, green beans, some carrots, a medium eggplant, two ears of corn, garlic, and basil.

I know it's boring, but seeing as how I know this is going to be a very busy work week, I'm thinking of something pretty simple to use up as much of the vergetables as possible in one fell swoop - a vegetable sauce for pasta - kind of a souped-up marinara sauce (I'll probably have to hit up a local farmer's market to pick up enough tomatoes to make a sufficient amount of sauce)...

The bottom picture is a salad I made - from the CSA share, there are roasted onions and squash, garlic, and basil - the rest is local or store-bought... It's a salad of roasted vegetables (oven-roasted corn, pictured), cherry tomatoes, kidney beans, roasted poblano peppers, basil, a little lime juice, and oil with salt and pepper. Kind of a southwest-style salad, with basil in place of what might have been cilantro and/or scallions. I did learn one thing though - I bought some nice-looking poblano peppers, but they were a bit burled and buckled. Instead of roasting them whole to remove the skins, I cut them first and flattened them out to make them broil a bit easier. It may have been a good idea in theory, but it winds up burning the peppers on the edges, and causes you to waste a lot of the flesh of the peppers.

Bubble and Squeak...

2008-07-24T01:50:00.000-04:00

This delicious-looking (sarcasm intended) concoction to the right (and trust me, the color of the plates didn't matter with this one) is a play off a dish called "bubble and squeak" - or colcannon. It's basically a mash of potatoes, root vegetables, maybe cabbage, and well, pretty much whatever is on hand.

Given the vegetables I used, it is probably closer to colcannon (the Irish version) than "bubble" - from Wikipedia: "...it is similar to the modern version of the English dish, bubble and squeak. In Atlantic Canada (especially Nova Scotia and Newfoundland), a local version of the dish is popular among those raised in rural communities. Brought to the provinces by Irish and Scottish settlers, the recipe consists of potatoes, milk, butter, diced carrots and turnip mashed together. This gives it a distinct orange and white color (as opposed to the green of the Irish version).

I used the 4 medium potatoes and one carrot, and boiled them until soft enough to mash. In a separate pot, I boiled the cabbage (sliced thin) in salted water with a splash of vinegar. I drained them both, and then mashed up the root vegetables with a roux made with a little over a half cup of half & half and seasoned with some garlic, salt and nutmeg. I then stirred in the cabbage, adjusted the seasoning, and added some minced parsley... It tastes pretty darned good, but I understand now why green cabbage is generally used - it looks like a bag of confetti got sick and threw up.

Week Eight...

2008-07-23T02:53:00.000-04:00

This week's CSA was quite substantial - potatoes (4), two sweet red onions, two tomatoes, three squash (two small summer squash and one pattypan), a purple head of cabbage, a bunch of salad lettuce, and basil/parsley... I'm going to have to think about what I want to do with all those...

The second picture is of a salad I put together with last week's vegetables - namely beets, green beans, and squash...

"Lasagna" Redux...

2008-07-19T17:24:00.000-04:00

On Friday night, the polish casserole made its way from the refrigerator to the oven. I baked it at 350 for an hour, then pulled the tinfoil off, raised the heat to 375 degrees, sprinkled the top with panko-style bread crumbs, and baked it uncovered for another 30 minutes until browned and crispy on top (pictured).

In the meantime, I wanted to use the Swiss chard and one of the onions, so I decided to make some fried rice with chard because I had some leftover cooked brown rice, some mushrooms, and some thin-sliced beef round I could use. I prefer to use pork for this sort of thing, but Safeway was a little bit lacking in a lot of things this week...

To add a little bit of flavor, I decided to pseudo-smoke the slices of beef first. I seasoned them with some soy sauce, garlic powder and a touch of sesame oil and let them sit for a few minutes while I rigged up the smoker. I have a cheap old wok - really thin metal that isn't much use for anything, especially over electric burners - but it works pretty good for quick smoking items like fish, vegetables, and thin cuts of meat. I line the wok with some heavy-duty foil, and throw in a handful of brown rice, sugar, loose black tea, and some hickory wood shavings. I mist all of the kindling with some water to get it a little damp, and then turn the heat on medium. I rigged a mesh-style pizza screen to fit into the wok above the kindling, and waited until the rice and sugar started to smoke. When this happened, I dried off the meat as much as posisble (dripping fat/liquid would inhibit the smoldering), placed it on the mesh grid, and covered the whole thing tightly with foil.

While this was going on, I sliced one sweet white onion, rough-chopped about 4 ounces of white mushrooms, washed, dried, and cross cut the head of Swiss chard, minced some ginger and a large clove of garlic, and whisked up two eggs. When the meat was done smoking, I cooled and cubed it, and heated up some vegetable oil and a touch of sesame oil in a cast-iron pan that was brought to as much heat as possible.

I sauteed up the onion and the mushroom with a touch of salt. After a while, I tossed in the beef, adding oil as needed. At this point, I added in the garlic and ginger, a touch of crushed red pepper, and the chard with a touch of soy sauce. When this wilted down, I added two cups of cooked brown rice, and stir-fried until heated through. At this point, I pushed everything to one side of the pan, added a touch more oil, and added the eggs, letting them firm up before scrambling. While this was done, I added in some oyster sauce and some sweet chili sauce and tossed everything together. I tossed in some of the green onion tops and some of the sliced basil to garnish before serving/packing...

Week Seven...

2008-07-16T02:17:00.000-04:00

In this week's batch of vegetables, we again got two sweet onions, one white, one red, some beautiful Swiss chard, beets (and greens), basil, one summer squash, some green beans, and a bag of mixed salad lettuce.

Polish "Lasagna"...

2008-07-14T02:01:00.001-04:00

Okay - as I mentioned in the last posting, I was thinking of doing something "Polish-style" - mostly to use up the cabbage from this week's CSA. My first thought was cabbage rolls - golabki - which are typically stuffed with beef/pork and rice and cooked in tomato sauce.

However, I looked at the head of cabbage, and although it looked great, did not seem big enough to warrant baking off a lot of cabbage rolls. So, instead I thought I would wing it and make a casserole - a "lasagna" along those lines - with the cabbage standing in for noodles, but maybe a little healthier (turkey instead of beef) across the board. Plus, I figured I could make use of a lot of the CSA veggies in one fell swoop.

So - to start, I cooked up the cabbage and made a sauce (top picture). The sauce was a little sweet & sour - simply one can of crushed tomatoes, 1/2T of butter, 1/4 cup of Worcestershire sauce, 1T of tomato paste, 1/2T sugar, some thyme and dill.

The cabbage - well, for doing the golabki, a lot of recipes said to simmer the head of cabbage, and remove the leaves from the outside in when they appeared sufficiently wilted to roll (after removing them, you were instructed to throw in an ice bath to cool, and then drain/dry thoroughly). I did it this way, and it worked fine, but it was time-consuming, and got hot water all over the place. I'm assuming you could probably remove the raw leaves carefully and simmer them all at once in a wider pan of salted water, but the leaves would be a bit tough to remove...

Anyways, at the same time, I cooked up two diced sweet onions (one red, one white) in butter and some olive oil until they were starting to brown. I then chunked up all of the baby squash (two pattypan and one small summer squash) and threw them in along with two cloves of smashed garlic. I wanted to wait a bit longer until they browned further, but to be honest, it was getting late, and I was dead tired. After these started to cook down, I pushed them off to one side, raised the heat, and added a package of ground turkey (maybe 1.25 pounds) to brown with some more salt and a touch of dark soy to get some color. For seasoning, I added a dash of sugar, some salt and pepper to taste, and some additional thyme and dill (dried). When this cooked through (draining as appropriate), I let it cool, added a cup of pre-cooked brown rice and two eggs.

To assemble everything, I pretty much ran it through just as you would a lasagna (I think it was an 8" square Pyrex glass casserole dish). Tomato sauce on the bottom to start, cabbage leaves, filling, a sprinkle of diced chives, repeating as you go until you get to the top, where I dotted it with a tablespoon of butter. I covered it and put it in the fridge, where I hope to bake it off on Thursday, probably sprinkling some breadcrumb on top during the last of the cooking for crunch. Stay tuned...

Week Six...

2008-07-10T02:39:00.000-04:00

This week's vegetables include: one head of endive (lower right-hand corner), basil, chives, two sweet onions (one red and one white), a small head of cabbage, and some squash (one summer squash and two pattypan squashes).

I'm headed out of town again this weekend (to Pittsburgh), so I might have to wait until the weekend to make use of the CSA share. I'm thinking of doing something with the cabbage along the lines of stuffed cabbage rolls, and seeing how much of the produce I can sneak in...

Upstaged?

2008-07-09T11:34:00.000-04:00

As I mentioned in the last posting, I traveled to and from Atlanta over the weekend - given that and the incredibly busy week at work, I had to hand off the Swiss chard, parsley and salad lettuce to a neighbor... I wasn't sure she believed me when I said I wanted a picture of anything she made, but last night, I received one in the mail.

And I have to say, I'm wondering if that may not have been my best idea - Donna's dish looks delicious, and if nothing else, her serving dishes are infinitely cooler looking than mine...

Pasta e Ceci with Swiss Chard - I google searched for a recipe - not sure how close it comes to approximating what Donna made, but it should help: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=6505320

Sad News...

2008-07-04T01:06:00.000-04:00

I'm posting from the road (Atlanta) - unfortunately, between the crazy-busy end of half turn at work and the road trip to see Tom Waits in Atlanta, I didn't have a lot of time to make do with the week five food items... As such, I dropped off the salad lettuce, herbs, and Swiss chard with a neighbor instead of taking the chance the stuff might have gone south over the weekend...

I told her that I want to know if she makes anything interesting/exciting with them over the weekend, and that photos would be appreciated. I'm not sure if she believed me... Happy 4th, everyone.

Week Five...

2008-07-02T02:17:00.001-04:00

Week Four, Continued...

2008-06-30T01:45:00.000-04:00

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...

2008-06-28T21:34:00.000-04:00

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...

2008-06-25T02:28:00.000-04:00

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...

2008-06-23T03:02:00.000-04:00

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...

2008-06-18T01:44:00.000-04:00

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...

2008-06-15T22:58:00.000-04:00

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?

2008-06-12T23:35:00.000-04:00

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...

2008-06-11T19:57:00.001-04:00

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...

2008-06-08T11:33:00.000-04:00

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...

2008-06-07T01:10:00.000-04:00

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...

2008-06-05T11:16:00.000-04:00

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...

2008-06-04T17:37:00.000-04:00

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...

2008-06-03T19:45:00.001-04:00

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/)