Week 4- Kohlrabi and Giagantic Collards

Hi Friends! Sorry for the lack of posting over the past week.  I honestly haven't been cookin' up much of anything.  On Friday I headed home to New Hampshire to visit my folks and do some car shopping. I'm very happy to report that I can now officially retire my 1997 Saab! Wahoooo! I have all but driven that thing into the ground, in fact a dealer told me he'd give me $200 bucks for it...so sad. 

Anyways, I brought home a few goodies from last week's CSA for my parents (romaine and fennel) which we incorporated into a massive salad for lunch on Sunday, but otherwise that's about all the food prep I'd done, until yesterday.

Week 4's share arrived with some fairly standard goods and one new and bizarre vegetable.  We got more romaine, cilantro, broccoli, cucumbers, peas, collard greens, ONE zucchini (which I found odd) and kohlrabi.  We are still getting a lot of green veggies.  I'm really ready to see the bright reds of heirloom tomatoes, the oranges and yellows of sweet peppers, and the purple of eggplant, but I guess we'll just have to wait a little bit longer.

What, you may be asking, is kohlrabi??? Well of the top of my head, I have no idea.  We did not get this particular veg last year.  But here's a little info for you:

KOHLRABI   These little sputnik-shaped vegetables come in green or purple, can be eaten raw or cooked, and taste a lot like broccoli stems. The word kohlrabi is German for cabbage turnip (kohl as in cole-slaw, and rübe for turnip) though kohlrabi is more related to cabbage and cauliflower than to root vegetables. Eat them raw, just peeled, sliced and added to a salad, but they are also delicious cooked!  (simplyrecipes.com)

The Kohlrabi

Denison Farm sent along a couple of recipes for Kohlrabi including Kohlrabi with Honey Butter and Fruity Kohl-Slaw (clever, right?).  I'm going to think on these...

Last night I decided to use up the remainder of a dozen farmer's market eggs and create a quiche of sorts.  It wasn't a real quiche because I didn't make a crust, so perhaps it was more of a frittata or a baked omelette??? Either way it was cheesy, gooey, yumminess.

I started (as always, it seems) by sauteing one onion and two gloves of garlic in olive oil.  I then added half of a zucchini, very thinly sliced, followed by three gigantic collard greens, chopped into large pieces and salt and pepper.

These collards completely covered my cutting board!

Once the collards were wilted down, I turned of the heat and let all the veggies cool.  The last thing you want to do is make scrambled eggs by adding hot veggies to cold eggs.

In a large bowl I whisked 6 jumbo eggs with a couple of tablespoons of milk.  You could use cream here to make this very rich, or just water if you don't have any dairy on hand. 

Seriously jumbo eggs.

I then added an ounce of herbed goat cheese crumbled and about a half of a cup of shredded sharp cheddar cheese and of course salt and pepper.

Once the veggies were cool I added them to a well greased glass pie dish and poured the egg/cheese mixture over the top. I also added some grated Parmesan cheese for good measure on the top.  I put this into a 425 degree oven for about half an hour, until it was puffed and golden brown.

This was very very cheesy and yummy! I enjoyed the collards, but I really like any wilted green with garlic and olive oil.

I ate my "quiche" with roasted beets from last week's share.

If you don't hear from me before the weekend, have a fabulous 4th of July!  I'll be working...booo but I hope you all get some beach, pool, and sun time!

How gorgeous are these hydrangeas. I saw them on my early morning walk with Maggie today.  The rainbow of blues, purples, and pinks is just stunning!

Week Three--The Everything but the Kitchen Sink Pizza!

Oh dear readers, my plans for using up last week's CSA did not go as - ehem - planned.  No pickles, no kale chips, but I did create my version of an Asian Chicken Salad, and I think I may have overdosed on cabbage.  I ate a head of it in one day...yikes!

Despite not making all the recipes I had planned, I did manage to use up pretty much all of last week's share and was in need of a fridge replenishment.  This week's share included the following: romaine, mesclun salad mix, scallions, fennel, beets, sage and lavender.  Casey and I split things pretty much down the middle, but I took the entire bunch of lavender to dry and make into sachets or something.  Here's my half:

Shadowy photo...sorry

Lots of lavender

For dinner last night, I decided that a pizza was in order because I had dough hanging out in my fridge from our recent Trader Joe's excursion.  I may have gone a bit overboard with ingredients but it resulted in something fabulous.

I started by sauteing 1 thinly sliced vidalia onion over medium heat  for about 5 minutes to really bring out the sweetness.  To the pan I added sliced crimini mushrooms and let those brown. 

I then added the rest of the baby zucchini (chopped), some chopped broccolini and the beet greens from this week's share.  I let this all come together for about 5-7 minutes.

During that time I rolled out the dough on a floured surface and transferred it to an oiled pan.  I spread garlic scape pesto, that I still have from two weeks ago, on the dough and topped with half of a 4 oz "log" (so I guess, 2 oz) of herbed goat cheese.  I then spread the sauteed veggie mixture almost to the edges and topped with a sprinkle of Parmesan cheese.

Almost perfect, except for that one wonky corner....

The pizza cooked for about 20 minutes in a 450 degree oven.  Towards the end, I decided to add a few capers for even more flavor.  This was one of the best pizzas I've made.  It was garlicky, sweet, salty, crunchy and creamy.  I'm so looking forward to leftovers for lunch!

Rumor has it that Casey made a beet and fennel salad and sage polenta last night.  Maybe she'll guest blog about her adventures in polenta!??  Hint, hint...

Good friends, good food.

There is nothing like a weekend on the Cape to leave you feeling rested, slightly sunburned and totally stuffed.  I want to take moment to thank my wonderful friend Jenny for hosting a few of us this past weekend.  We had a great time lounging by the pool, eating massive amounts of seafood and singing at the top of our lungs at the Woodshed. 

I'm not sure there is such a thing as eating too much seafood, but we might have gotten close.  We ate fried calamari, oysters, scallops, lobster rolls and fried clams this weekend and it was all delish.  Check out this massive lobster roll.

Jenny also made the most AMAZING grilled corn I have ever had.  It was basted in a mixture of butter, mayo, lime and few other things and then sprinkled with crumbly feta cheese, and man oh man, it was simply divine.  I may attempt to replicate when corn starts arriving in our share, but I have a feeling my version will never compare.

Needless to say, after this past weekend, I've been trying to get my eating back on track by consuming massive amounts of vegetables and whole grains.  Last night, following what seemed like the longest yoga class ever (because I was STARVING), I made my version of Denison Farm's Asian Chicken Salad, using up napa cabbage from last week's share and cilantro from two weeks ago, which was amazingly, still, in really good shape.

I left out the chicken, so I guess this was just an Asian Salad/Slaw.

For the salad I used:
-One small head of napa cabbage, sliced.
-About a cup of pea shoots.
-About a cup of sugar snap peas.
-6-8 sliced baby zucchini.
- 1/2 an avocado.
-1/2 a vidali onion, very thinly sliced.
-Handful of cilantro, chopped.

For the dressing, I combined:
-1/4 cup of olive oil (I keep meaning to buy sesame oil--I would sub that next time)
- 1/4 cup of rice wine vinegar.
- Tablespoon of honey.
- Tablespoon of crunchy, unsalted peanut butter.
- 2 tablespoons of soy sauce.
- 1-2 tablespoons of lime juice.

Please know, all of these measurements are estimates....you know me, I tend to eye ball everything.

They look like regular size zucchini....

but they are mini!

This salad/slaw, while a departure from the original recipe, was very refreshing.  I liked the addition of the avocado, which added a creamy texture to all the crunchy vegetables.  The dressing was sweet, sour, salty and just lightly coated the salad. 

And, I think that pea shoots are my new obsession!

I would equate them with sprouts, but sweeter.  These ones were purchased from Trader Joe's, along with the baby zucchini and sugar snap peas, on our way home from the Cape.  Please, please bring Trader Joe's to the Capital District!  This was Casey's first trip to a TJ's and I had a hard time getting her out of the store ;-).

Week 2

Our second share arrived yesterday, which was just on time because I had used up about everything from my half of last week's share.  The only things I had left were a bit of cilantro, three scallions, half a zucchini and a few leaves of spinach.

This week's share was very green...very leafy green.  It contained more spinach, baby lettuce mix, one head of romaine, one head of napa cabbage, kale, broccoli, basil and cucumbers. 

It's nice to be able to split a share like this because there are only so many leafy greens that one can eat.  Casey and I are heading out of town for the weekend and are planning to bring some veggies with us so things don't wilt and go bad over the weekend, but the game plan for the next week is as follows:

1) Baked Kale Chips from smittenkitchen.com (sound weird but these are a really satisfying substitute for potato chips)

          

2) Asian Chicken Salad with Napa Cabbage.  I made this recipe last year and it makes a MASSIVE salad, but it's great because it uses three ingredients from the CSA--cabbage, scallions and cilantro!

3) Pickles. There weren't very many cucumbers in this week's share so I think this will be a trial run, and perhaps an attempt at canning.  I'll let you know how it goes.

Enjoy the weekend!!!

Also, I wanted to share this cool photo that I took last night of Orcchiette Pasta (which means "ear"--I learned that from watching Giada). 

I combined this pasta with sauteed onions, garlic, zucchini, spinach, canned tomatoes, basil, garlic scape pesto and a bit of feta cheese. 



Lazy Sundays

I love nothing more on lazy Sunday afternoons and evenings than cooking up batches of food for the week.  I tend to do more Sunday cooking during the fall and winter months when I will make large pots of stews, chili or casseroles and freeze some and eat the rest all week long (boring diet, I know), but this Sunday I decided I was going to put my kitchen to work.

This post should probably be titled, "My Amazing Food Processor," because it really did all the work for me this Sunday. 

I first started by using the processor to make a dough for Scallion Pancakes using scallions from our share.  This is the second time I've made Scallion 'cakes.  Last year I used a recipe that was in the Denison Farm newsletter (I can no longer find it on their website, unfortunately).  These pancakes were very much like traditional, Sunday morning pancakes, with a loose but very thick batter, that got poured into the skillet.  I found them to be a bit heavy and doughy so I figured I'd try a new recipe this year.  I found this recipe for Scallion Pancakes with Ginger Dipping Sauce on the Food Network website.  It is a bit more involved, requiring an actual dough, resting time, rolling pins etc, but I figured I'd give it a go. 

I used the processor to bring together the flour and hot water into a ball (easiest dough recipe ever, by the way).  I shaped the dough into a ball, put it in a greased bowl and let it rest, covered by a warm damp towel.
I then cleaned out the processor and got to work making salsa with the cilantro from last week's share.

This recipe was inspired by my friend Ali, who loves to make her own salsa..hey Al!  I used four Roma tomatoes, a vidalia onion, one glove of garlic, a bunch of cilantro, a touch of Tabasco for heat, lime juice and salt and pepper. 

Casey and I both agreed, this was super super yummy salsa.  So refreshing! Slightly sweet from the ripe tomatoes, a bit of heat and a touch of cilantro.  I rarely use or know what to do with large bunches of cilantro and parsley that come in the CSA.  I don't really enjoy the flavor of either that much, but I am not one of those people that thinks cilantro tastes like soap, so I just use it sparingly.

Next, I set out to make my own hummus.  I'm not sure what the price for hummus is at your grocery store but up here it goes for $4-$6 a container, which I think is RIDICULOUS, given that it's JUST chickpeas and a few other things.  In a true cost saving measure, I made this batch out of rehydrated chickpeas.  I think this may be the last time I try to rehydrate chickpeas...for some reason, even though I follow the directions, they are never quite rehydrated and always have a little bit of bite, kind of al dente. This tends to lend an interesting texture to the hummus.  Nothing I can't deal with, but I think I'll stick with canned beans from now on.

For the hummus, I used about two cups of rehydrated chickpeas, half a can of white beans that I had left in my fridge, two tablespoons of tahini, juice of one lemon, one glove of garlic, 1 tablespoon of cumin, olive oil and salt and pepper.  This made a lot of hummus.  It was ok, maybe too much garlic, maybe too much cumin.  All can be adjusted to your own taste, but perhaps this is why people pay good money for perfectly balanced hummus.



Excessive amounts of hummus.


Back to the scallion pancakes...these required the rolling out of the dough on a floured surface...don't forget this step.  This dough is WICKED sticky (yes, I'm from New England). After it's rolled out, the dough gets brushed with oil (I used olive oil-but sesame would be good) and covered with 1/2 cup of chopped scallions.  The dough then gets rolled up like a jelly roll, sliced into four sections and then each of those sections is rolled out into a 4-5" pancake.

Not exactly a rectangle, as per the directions.

The pancakes then get pan fried in a skillet with oil and voila!

At least they look pretty.

These were still kind of thick and doughy...I may have given up on scallion pancakes or next time I will make more pancakes out of the dough and roll them much thinner to ensure proper cooking-- though I'm not sure there will be a next time.   At the end of the day this is just fried dough...so what's not to enjoy. 

The best part of this recipe was the dipping sauce, which I improvised out of a ginger lemon dressing I had in my fridge.  I added soy, more lemon juice and a tad bit of hot sauce (you could use red pepper flakes). 

Oh, you may be wondering what happened to my dear friends, the baby turnips.  They got roasted with some confetti potatoes. 

Tasty, but WEIRD texture.  I think these little guys have a lot of moisture in them and just get kind of spongy.  Casey actually spit hers out.  I didn't mind them that much, but maybe they are just best raw.  I guess I'm still waiting for an amazing turnip recipe to come along.  I may be waiting for a while.

Yeah....it's hot....

It's really really hot here in the Northeast.  Summer is definitely here, as indicated by my hair and the arrival of our first CSA share yesterday!  Our first box contained the following: spinach, romaine, cilantro, baby turnips, zucchini, summer squash, scallions and garlic scapes. Not a bad share for the first week. 

The box felt pretty light, mostly because of all the greens, but as we head into July and August the shares get very heavy with tomatoes, cukes, carrots, eggplants, and corn.

Because the temps were approaching 100 degrees yesterday, I had very little motivation to turn on my stove.  So when I first arrived home, I just washed the greens and split items so that when Casey came to pick up her half it would be all set to go.  I then attempted to install my AC for the second time (nothing like waiting until you are desperate).  The first try was a massive fail, resulting in water pouring into my bedroom from the unit.  I pulled the AC out completely after that, and luckily the evenings have been fairly cool and sleeping wasn't a problem, but I just couldn't deal anymore.  I'm happy to report, the second try was a success! The whole ordeal would have been easier if I asked for help from some burly man, but what can I say, I'm stubborn.

I then made my way back to the kitchen to make garlic scape pesto. Now...what is a scape you ask????  A scape is the shoot that grows out of the ground from the garlic bulb early in the season.  They are very green, very long and very pliable...actually quite beautiful.  If the scape is not trimmed from the garlic bulb it will curtail the growth of the garlic.

First, I started by taking out my food processor, which hasn't seen much action as of late. I firmly believe that my food processor is the BEST utility purchase I have ever made.  It has opened my eyes to how easy it is to make pesto, hummus and pie crusts.  The only kitchen items I continue to lust for are a KitchenAid stand mixer and a Le Cruset Dutch Oven. (my birthday is quickly approaching..hint hint)

I then washed and chopped the scapes into large pieces.  I added about a 1/2 cup of shredded Parmesan cheese, and about a 1/2 cup of olive oil (if you haven't noticed already, I don't do exact measurements very often when cooking). 

This pesto is beautiful but VERY VERY garlicky...you will not be making out with ANYONE after eating this.  The intense flavor could be mitigated by adding in pine nuts or walnuts, which I unfortunately didn't have, but the substantial amount of oil and parm in this batch did cut the raw bite quite a bit.

After splitting the pesto into two containers and cleaning up, I headed outside with Maggie and a beer.  I just recently discovered Wacko by Magic Hat, and it is so yummy.  This will definitely be my go to summer beer.  The Magic Hat website describes it as "A beer with beet juice color.  Wacko is the liquid song of summer. Crisp like the morning, cool like the evening and quenching all day long.  Pop the top and set your summer loose.  Wacko is a delicious summer beer with a big malty aroma, a subdued hop bite and clean, slightly sweet finish."  What's not to like!

Hey Mags....

As often happens on these hot summery days, the thunderclouds started to roll in and the temps dropped  significantly and we headed indoors to await Casey's arrival and start making something for dinner.  I didn't have a whole lot in my cabinets and in an effort to use multiple veggies from the CSA and finish up some things that were going to turn in my fridge, I went to my old stand by..the summer salad!

I had two almost empty boxes of Israeli couscous and a bit of orzo that I decided to use as my "grain."  I have really have fallen in love with Israeli couscous.  I think it's the texture and the beauty of those perfectly round pearls of semolina.  Following the directions on the box, I brought to a boil  1 1/2 cups of water, poured the couscous and orzo in, put the cover on and turned the heat down.

Image from gourmetsleuth.com

I then got to chopping up my veggies.  I used one zucchini, one summer squash, two scallions, and 1/4 of an English cucumber and 10 grape tomatoes that were left in my fridge.  I tore some of the spinach into bite size pieces and added that to the bowl, thinking that the warm couscous/orzo mixture would wilt it slightly. 

After about ten minutes the couscous/orzo had absorbed all the water.  I turned off the heat and added it right to the bowl of veggies.  I mixed in about a 1/4 cup of the garlic scape pesto, some lemon juice, a bit more parm and salt and pepper to taste.

 I ate two serving of this "salad" while it was still slightly warm.  Casey arrived shortly after and helped herself to a couple of servings as well.  Lucky girl spent the afternoon out on the links, while I slaved over a hot stove ;-)

I was able to use most of the ingredients in this week's share in this one recipe.  Last year, I attempted to use at least a few veggies in every meal that I made, but sometimes that just gets difficult.  Now I need to figure out what to do with the baby turnips...any suggestions? I'm toying with just roasting them, but on a hot day, that's not too appealing.  I will definitely saute up the greens with some garlic and olive oil but I must say...I just don't LOVE turnips and am constantly flummoxed by what to create from these little gems.

Counting Down!

I'm so excited I could pee my pants...well not really...but I am very excited because yesterday I received an e-mail from Denison Farm that said our first CSA pickup would be this Wednesday! Yaya!  Having signed up and paid for the CSA in February, this kind of feels like Christmas!

So here's how things work with Denison Farm:  We have chosen to purchase a full veggie share (enough to feed a family of 4, supposedly), which runs for 22 weeks.  That will take us through mid-October, give or take.  Some farms will let you do a half share, or quarter share, but after doing the math, Casey and I just chose to split a full share in an attempt to avoid the supermarket altogether;-).  We also opted in for the 15 week fruit share which starts towards the end of the month and will include everything from cherries, to peaches, to apples.  Denison also grows some strawberries and melons, and last year we got some of these lovelies as part of our regular veg share.  Denison offers a variety of payment methods to try to ensure that shares are available to everyone no matter their income level.  They offer low-income shares, payment in three installations, or you can even work on the farm a couple of days over the summer to get a reduced price on your CSA.  I have thought about working on the farm as a way to really get to know where my food comes from, but I'll be honest, I lack a green thumb.  I have killed two jade plants in the last year, which my mother informs me is VERY hard to do.  So, I'll leave the farming to the professionals.

Last night, Casey and I were discussing how to split the share because, yes, there are some items we can easily split, like tomatoes, cukes, bags of spinach etc, but often there may be just ONE of something...say a large head of napa cabbage.  With items like that, we discussed alternating the weeks that one of us gets a particular veg, and then Casey realistically pointed out that we will likely just be making big meals together a couple of times a week. 

With just a few days until veggies start arriving, we've been doing some research and finding recipes that we just must try, and I've been recollecting some of my favorites from last summer that I cannot wait to make again.  This is the list we've begun to put together:

-  Garlic Scape Pesto from the Denison Farm recipe list.  Garlic scapes were in the first share last year and I had absolutely no idea what to do with them.  If you love garlic, this is a great recipe.

A garlic scape, if you've never seen one.  Image from
http://www.goinglocal-info.com/my_weblog/2008/06/garlic-scapes.html

- Zucchini and Ricotta Galette from SmittenKitchen.com. Made this last year and I could eat it every day!

Image from http://www.smittenkitchen.com/

- Teriyaki Noodles with Edamame and Asparagus from Mark Bitman (yes, we even get edamame!).

- Spicy No Mayo Coleslaw, again from Mark Bitman.  Last year, we got a ton of cabbage and I just can't stomach week after week of traditional mayonnaise covered slaw.

-  Fairy Tale Eggplant, Green Beans and Red Curry Tofu from Denison Farm.  There was one week last summer when a bag of about 40 beautiful, fairy tale eggplants arrived and this was a good way to use up a bunch of them up.

- Lemon Orzo Primavera from Denison Farm.  I would likely serve this cold, as I am a HUGE fan of cold summer salads and often wind up making them a couple of times a week using different veggie and pasta combos.

-  Roasted Beet Salad from Denison Farm.  I am a lover of any recipe that includes roasted beets...however I did attempt to make a roasted beet risotto last July on a day that was about 90 degrees and 100% humidity...not the best idea I've ever had.

Of course, I'll be sharing all our CSA cooking adventures right here, so stay tuned!

Do you have any favorite recipes we should try?  Also, any suggestions on prepping and storing veggies for the "long haul" would be welcome.  Towards the end of last summer I found myself drowning in tomatoes, cukes, zucchini and eggplant..and even gasp...let some of it go to waste...something I would like to avoid this year.

Maggie is ready for summer and the CSA!