Week 11: Farm Share Contents

Lettuce- in salads and on hamburgers

Green Garlic-

Roma Beans- boiled and tossed with cilantro-lime sauce (leftover from fajitas)

Cucumbers- in salads

Squash- sliced, broiled, layered in casserole with tomato sauce, mozzarella, Parmesan & basil

Beets- diced and roasted with red wine vinegar

Farmers Choice- Basil- added to BLT sandwich, topping for macaroni and cheese, topping for squash casserole, and topping for next week's Caprese salad

Roasted Turnips, Scallion, Celery, and Garlic with Rosemary, Thyme, and a Chiffonade of Turnip Greens

The recipe posted below is the same one I posted on June 12, 2010. It's now my turn-to recipe for turnips, however, I should start making these on the grill since it's no fun to fire up the oven on a 90 degree day.

I made the following changes this time around:

• added chopped celery during the second set of 15 minutes
• added minced fresh thyme along with the rosemary
• added sliced scallions and minced garlic during the third set of 15 minutes
• garnished with sliced scallion green parts and a chiffonade of turnip greens at the very end

*I skipped the roasted garlic part and just added minced garlic toward the end of the cooking process.

ROASTED TURNIPS, SHALLOTS, AND GARLIC WITH ROSEMARY

Serves 4. Published January 1, 1994 by Cooks Illustrated

Ingredients:

1 medium head garlic

1 ½ pounds turnips or rutabagas, peeled and cut into 1 ¼ inch pieces

4 shallots, peeled

2 tablespoons unsalted butter melted, or vegetable or olive oil, or a combination

1 teaspoon dried rosemary (crumbled), or 1 teaspoon dried thyme, or 2 teaspoons fresh rosemary or thyme

table salt

ground black pepper

Instructions:

1. Heat oven to 375 degrees. If roasting garlic cloves in skins simply break head into individual cloves. If you wish to roast cloves out of skins put whole, unpeeled head in a small saucepan with water to cover. Bring to a boil, then simmer to soften cloves and loosen skins, about 10 minutes. Drain and refresh garlic head under cold water. Separate cloves and peel.

2. Put vegetables (excluding garlic) into a roasting pan large enough to hold them without crowding. Toss vegetables with butter and/ or oil, rosemary or thyme and sprinkle with salt. Roast, stirring or shaking vegetables every 15 minutes for 30 minutes. Add garlic. Raise heat to 425 degrees and continue roasting until tender and evenly browned, 15 to 20 minutes. Sprinkle with pepper; taste and adjust seasonings. Serve hot or at room temperature.

Japanese Cucumber Salad with Vinegar

This quick recipe makes a cool and refreshing summer side dish. I didn't have bonito flakes on hand, but I plan to buy some and then try the recipe again.

Other than bonito flakes, which are optional, all you need are:

• Sherry vinegar or rice vinegar (I used rice vinegar)
• dark soy sauce (I used regular soy sauce)
• 4 cucumbers
• sugar
• salt

Week 10: Share Contents & Usage Summary

Snow Peas-

Squash- sliced, broiled in toaster oven, sprinkled with parmesan

Lettuce- salad

Scallions- added to chicken salad recipe in place of red onion

Roma Beans

Cucumbers- added to chicken salad recipe, added to guacamle

Turnips- roasted with celery, scallion, garlic and herbs

Kohlrabi or Beets- my share didn't contain these wonderful items :(

Kohlrabi:

This vegetable is a member of the turnip family and, for that reason, is also called cabbage turnip. Like the turnip, both its purple-tinged, white bulblike stem and its greens are edible. The kohlrabi bulb tastes like a mild, sweet turnip. It's available from midspring to midfall. Those under 3 inches in diameter are the most tender. Choose a kohlrabi that is heavy for its size with firm, deeply colored green leaves. Avoid any with soft spots on the bulb or signs of yellowing on leaf tips. Store tightly wrapped up to 4 days in the refrigerator. Kohlrabi's best steamed, but can also be added to soups and stews as well as used in stir-fries. It's rich in potassium and vitamin C.
http://www.epicurious.com/tools/fooddictionary/

Week 9: Farm Share Contents & Usage Summary

Snow Peas- sauteed in garlic and olive oil.

Squash- broiled until spotted brown, sprinkled with parmesan; pan-seared with olive oil and garlic;

Basil- in cabbage slaw (see below)

Lettuce- salads

Roma Beans- sauteed in olive oil and garlic

Cabbage- slaw (I subbed cucumber and basil for bell pepper, carrots, yellow onion and parsley)

Cucumbers- in slaw, in salads

Farmers choice item: snow peas- sauteed in garlic and olive oil

*For my salads I tried a new vinaigrette this week and I love it. Curry powder distinguishes it from the French/ Mediterranean dressings I usually make.

Frittata with Chorizo and Basil & Cabbage Slaw

My two friends who I've known forever came over for an impromptu brunch on Sunday. I was able to pull together this light meal based mainly on farm share ingredients.

Slaw: I subbed cucumber and basil for bell pepper, carrots, yellow onion and parsley

Frittata:

scallion, diced

garlic, minced

Wellshire Farms chorizo, diced

basil, chiffonade

6 eggs

Heat the oven to 425 degrees. Cook scallion with garlic in 12-inch skillet with a little olive oil over medium heat. Add the chorizo. After all the ingredients are fully heated, add the basil and eggs. Cook until set on the sides and then transfer the pan to the oven. Continue to cook for a few minutes until the frittata is completely set. Remove from oven, flip frittata onto a plate, slice.

Big Platter of Sauteed Vegetables

One evening I became healthfully ambitious and decided to make a big platter of stir-fried vegetables.

cabbage, stems separated

roma beans

snow peas

yellow squash

I seasoned all the vegetables with Essence and then stir-fried them separately in a little bit of olive oil and garlic. This platter lasted me a couple days. I even had some of the vegetables for breakfast one day.

Week 8 Share Contents & Usage Summary

Snow Peas- sauteed with scallions, served over couscous with squash

Squash- pan seared, served over couscous with snowpeas

Scallions- in salads, sauteed with snowpeas, in flank steak marinade

Lettuce- salads

Chinese Cabbage- as a bed for pan-fried ravioli

Arugula / Endive mix- in salads

Turnips- roasted with onions, garlic and rosemary

Cucumbers- in salads

And, as always, eggs.

I just had to document the color of this farm share egg's yolk. The photo does not show how incredibly red it was. Below is the resulting omelet with applewood smoked uncured bacon and tossed Graceland Farm greens.

Above is a salad that I'm into lately: Whole Foods ground beef seasoned with Essence (I cook it the way Ortega says to cook taco meat, which is probably the first cooking technique I ever mastered) over dressed salad greens, served with cucumbers, shredded cheddar, and tortilla chips. I think the ideal lettuce for this salad is crunch romaine.

As for normal tossed salads, instead of roasted pepitas, I'm currently topping them with toasted shaved almonds. Change is good.

Really good turnips!

If you know someone who is wary of turnips, I'm pretty sure you could win them over with this recipe by Cooks Illustrated (they test recipes "30, 40, sometimes as many as 70 times").

Of the options offered, I chose the combination of olive oil and butter (b/c I really wanted to like this dish) along with fresh rosemary. Instead of roasting garlic, I cooked minced garlic in olive oil in a sauce pan for about 30 seconds and added it to the roasting pan in the oven during the last few minutes of cooking. I also subbed yellow onion in large chunks instead of shallots. I garnished the dish with a chiffonade of the turnip leaves. These leaves are strong, but in such small doses they brighten the dish. A sprinkle of sea salt is the perfect finishing touch.

ROASTED TURNIPS, SHALLOTS, AND GARLIC WITH ROSEMARY

Serves 4. Published January 1, 1994 by Cooks Illustrated

Ingredients:

1 medium head garlic

1 ½ pounds turnips or rutabagas, peeled and cut into 1 ¼ inch pieces

4 shallots, peeled

2 tablespoons unsalted butter melted, or vegetable or olive oil, or a combination

1 teaspoon dried rosemary (crumbled), or 1 teaspoon dried thyme, or 2 teaspoons fresh rosemary or thyme

table salt

ground black pepper

Instructions:

1. Heat oven to 375 degrees. If roasting garlic cloves in skins simply break head into individual cloves. If you wish to roast cloves out of skins put whole, unpeeled head in a small saucepan with water to cover. Bring to a boil, then simmer to soften cloves and loosen skins, about 10 minutes. Drain and refresh garlic head under cold water. Separate cloves and peel.

2. Put vegetables (excluding garlic) into a roasting pan large enough to hold them without crowding. Toss vegetables with butter and/ or oil, rosemary or thyme and sprinkle with salt. Roast, stirring or shaking vegetables every 15 minutes for 30 minutes. Add garlic. Raise heat to 425 degrees and continue roasting until tender and evenly browned, 15 to 20 minutes. Sprinkle with pepper; taste and adjust seasonings. Serve hot or at room temperature.

Week 7 Share Contents and Usage Summary

Here's a summary of last week's farm share and how I used it:

Snow peas- sauteed with red scallion and garlic scapes and served over *couscous

Red scallions - sauteed with snowpeas, minced in tossed salads

Broccoli- oven roasted with only salt, pepper, and olive oil

Siberian kale- served wilted, as a bed for ricotta gnocchi

Lettuce- many salads

Garlic scapes- chopped in salads, sauteed with red scallion and served over couscous

Arugula- tossed in salads

Farmers’ choice item- Cucumber- served chopped in salads

*Couscous is my all-time favorite quick meal ingredient. What could be easier than bringing water to a boil, pouring it over the couscous in a bowl, letting it sit covered for a few minutes and then fluffing it?

Below: broccoli, snow peas, and garlic scapes:

Above: pan-seared zucchini with sauteed snow peas, scallions and garlic scapes over couscous

Now that I've become busy balancing my personal chef business and my documentary film freelance work (along with a household that includes a husband and a 2-year old, and dreams to fit in a long run on cool days like today), I'm finding less time every day to prepare a thoughtful meal.

Ever since I went to culinary school I learned a depressing life lesson: the more I cook for other people, the less I cook for myself (and my family). However, just today it dawned on me how complementary and helpful the CSA farm share really is to my hectic life, and for that I'm really thankful. Given my line of work, I often find myself at the grocery store, so it's easy for me to pick up some sort of protein for dinner. I love that I don't have to worry about the rest of the meal since I can figure something out from the bag of produce, and like most people, I keep a stock of starches in the pantry, like pasta and couscous.

Not having to think about and inspect vegetables in the grocery store saves me a lot of time. I haven't even had time to harvest the lettuce and sugarsnap peas out of my garden, let alone weed it.

I posted those quick meal ideas last week with the hope of demonstrating how a decent meal made with farm produce really can come together in minutes. I don't see myself gaining more free-time in the near future, if anything I hope it's the opposite, so I foresee that I'll continue to post similar quick meal ideas. I long to create some really cool stuff to impress you, but at least I can report that I'm still using up all the delicious produce and I'm not resorting to take-out (for the most part).

Please know that it bugs me when I'm not able to snap a photo of the food I write about. If I don't include a photo it's because we ate dinner at our usual time, which is around 8:00 pm when it's too dark to take a photo outside (and I need the natural light!)

20 Minute Gnocchi Over Wilted Bok Choy

The other day I happened to miss breakfast, so I opted for a heavy and early lunch. I was determined to make something quick out of the farm share produce. You may not have frozen, homemade gnocchi on hand, so a good alternative would be frozen tortellini or ravioli. I think the wilted greens nicely balance a rich main like gnocchi or stuffed pasta.

Check out my 5.16.10 posting for the gnocchi recipe. I made it with ricotta.

Gnocchi over wilted bok choy (and sauteed bok choy stems)

bok choy or other greens

minced garlic

frozen homemade gnocchi (or store-bought tortellini or ravioli)

1.) Bring a saucepan of water to a boil. Add salt.

2.) Heat a skillet with 1 tbsp of olive oil over medium-high heat.

3.) Prepare, wash, and spin the bok choy. Dice the stems.

4.) Sautee the bok choy stems (sprinkle on salt and pepper) until slightly softened.

5.) Add the gnocchi to the boiling, salted water.

6.) Place the cooked stems in a bowl. Add the greens to the hot skillet (sprinkle on salt and pepper) and toss until wilted. Add minced garlic and cook until aromatic. Place the greens in the bowl with the stems.

7.) Add another tbsp of olive to the pan and add the boiled gnocchi. Pan-fry the gnocchi until golden.

8.) Place the greens and stems onto a plate. Add the gnocchi on top. Finish with a little salt, pepper and olive oil.

Below: If you made this dish with Costco ravioli and chinese cabbage, this is what it might look like.

20 Minute Salmon Meal After a Long Day

After a ten-hour workday the other day, I came home and prepared the following meal within 20 minutes. There's nothing fancy about the meal, but it's a very easy and practical meal that allows top quality ingredients to shine.

Pan-seared Salmon Fillet over Delicate Greens with Broiled Baguette Slices

6oz salmon fillet

green leaf lettuce

homemade vinaigrette

French baguette

olive oil

salt

pepper

1.) Heat 1 tbsp olive oil in non-stick skillet over medium-high heat. Heat toaster oven broiler.

2.) Rinse greens and spin

3.) Sprinkle salmon with salt and pepper, place in skillet flesh-side down when it reaches smoking point. Cook for a few minutes until salmon is nicely golden colored.

4.) Slice baguette, brush with olive oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Place in broiler until golden.

5.) Flip the salmon, cook on the skin side until fillet is at desired level of doneness (is that a word?)

6.) Place the greens in a big bowl, spoon on a homemade vinaigrette, sprinkle with salt and pepper, toss. Place the dressed greens on a plate, add the finished salmon and baguette slices.

Bbq-worthy pasta salad

I was able to throw together this pasta salad for Memorial Day without having to go to the grocery store. Thank you to the CSA for keeping me stocked full of a variety of produce, and to a friend who went on vacation and gave me her vegetables that would have otherwise gone bad.

All I did was toss together the following ingredients:

bow-tie pasta, cooked

fresh broccoli, mini florets

scallions, both the green and white parts, sliced thinly

lemon zest

lemon juice

spinach or arugula leaves

fresh basil, chiffonade

homemade Red Wine Vinaigrette ("Italian")

I used a red wine vinaigrette, but here is a similar recipe that includes fresh herbs of your choice. I used mini bow-tie pasta just because it's more kid-friendly. I like to tear/ cut the broccoli into very small florets since they are more manageable that way. They don't appear so small in the photo since the pink bowl is very tiny.

Herb Vinaigrette (courtesy of Cooks Illustrated)

*Makes about 1/4 cup, enough to dress 8-10 cups lightly packed greens.

1 tbsp wine vinegar

1 1/2 tsp very finely minced shallot

1/2 tsp regular or light mayonnaise

1/2 tsp Dijon mustard

1/8 tsp table salt

Ground black pepper

3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

1 tbsp fresh minced parsley or chives

1/2 tsp minced fresh thyme, tarragon, marjoram, or oregano

1.) Combine vinegar, shallot, mayonnaise, mustard, salt, and pepper to taste in small nonreactive bowl. Whisk until mixture is milky in appearance and no lumps of mayonnaise remain.

2.) Place oil in small measuring cup so that it is easy to pour. Whisking constantly, very slowly drizzle oil into vinegar mixture. If pools of oil are gathering on surface as you whisk, stop addition of oil and whisk mixture well to combine, then resume whisking in oil in slow stream. Vinaigrette should be glossy and lightly thickened, with no pools of oil on its surface. Add herbs just before use.

Chicken breast over salad greens: pan-seared or breaded?

Southwestern Pan-Seared Chicken Cutlet

chicken breast, sliced in half horizontally

1 recipe Emeril's Creole Seasoning (called Essence)

Sprinkle both sides of the chicken cutlet with salt, freshly ground pepper and Essence. Heat 1 tablespoon of olive oil in a skillet (preferably cast-iron) over medium-high heat until just smoking. Cook the chicken for a minute or so until nicely colored and then flip the chicken and then cook on the other side until the cutlet is fully cooked. The cooking process should not take long since the cutlets are thin. Slice and place over salad greens. Make a few extra cutlets for a quick meal in the future.

*I omit the salt when I make Essence so I can have more control over how much salt I add later on when it comes time to cook the chicken. I always have a jar of homemade Essence in my cupboard. I sprinkle it on fish, quesadillas, and nachos.

Breaded Chicken Cutlet with Fresh Basil

chicken breast, sliced in half horizontally

flour

eggs, beaten (about 1 per every two chicken breasts/ 4 cutlets)

breadcrumbs

fresh basil, minced

Sprinkle both sides of the chicken cutlets with salt and freshly ground black pepper. Place the flour, eggs, and breadcrumbs/basil each in a separate shallow bowl. Dust the cutlets with flour and let the excess fall off. Dip the cutlets into the egg and then cover them with breadcrumbs. Spray each breaded with a coating of olive oil. Heat 2 tablespoons of olive oil in a skillet over medium heat until smoking. Add the cutlets and cook on one side until golden in color. Flip the cutlets and continue cooking them until golden on the other side. You can finish the cooking on the stovetop or transfer the cutlets to a 350 degree oven for 3 minutes or so (it won't take long since the cutlets are thin). Slice the cutlets, place them on salad greens and serve with lemon wedges.

*If you have grated parmesan on hand you can add it to the breadcrumbs. I also added Penzey's Tuscan Sunset blend (such good stuff!) of Italian herbs to the breadcrumbs.

Cabbage salad with radishes, cucumbers, scallions & citrus vinaigrette

This salad comes together quickly and it is a great way to use up your cabbage. Like turnips, cabbage is a cruciferous vegetable, which means that it may provide protection against some cancers. And, it contains vitamin C and vitamin A.

Chinese cabbage- julienned

cucumber, chopped

radishes, julienned

scallions, julienned

citrus vinaigrette

Toss the cabbage and vegetables together and dress with the vinaigrette.