CSA Week 5: Caramelized Beets with Garlic

Another week and another batch of produce. This week, we had quite a large assortment of vegetables--so much so that, I admit, I'm a little stumped as to what to do with it all! So, if you have any suggestions, please feel free to share them. And, with no further ado, the vegetable goodies were: spring onions, fresh garlic, carrots, fava bean pods, beets, field greens and swiss chard. The fruit was very similar to last week, with one minor addition: pink currants, black currants and cherries. All in all, a varied haul. Thus far, I've made a Garden Harvest Cake, using twice as many carrots and ignoring the zucchini; a Carrot, Turnip and Mint Salad with Raisins, finally finishing the turnips from so long ago; and these Caramelized Beets with Garlic, the idea for which I took from this wonderful ode to beets on Farmgirl Fare.

Although beets have gained a bad reputation, we needed no convincing of their deliciousness. However, I'm always looking for new ways to enjoy vegetables and these caramelized beets were so easy that I knew I had to try them. I only wish I had more beets! We enjoyed them with deviled eggs with anchovies and white beer. This was also the first time I made beets forgoing the messy task of peeling them. Enjoy!

Caramelized Beets with Garlic

• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 3 beets, scrubbed well, greens reserved and bottoms trimmed, diced
• 3 cloves garlic
• pinch kosher salt
• 1/8 teaspoon cardamom, ground

Heat olive oil in a heavy skillet over medium-low heat. Add beets and cook, stirring frequently, for 45 minutes. When beets are soft, add garlic, salt and cardamom and cook undisturbed 1 minute. Mix everything together and cook 1 more minute so flavors meld. Serve.
Links to other beets noshes:

• Pickled Beets from Simply Recipes
• Beet Chocolate Brownies from La Tartine Gourmande
• Swedish Pickled Beetroot Salad from A Veggie Venture

CSA Week 4: Lettuce Corn Salad with Pancetta

Well, this week certainly flew by! It's already Wednesday and I realized I'd better write up this week's farm haul before Thursday's upon us and we get a whole new batch of goodies.

Unfortunately, I didn't get to do much interesting cooking. In fact, I only made real dinners Thursday night and Friday night, neither of which got photographed. The tastier dish using farm ingredients was by far the simple salad I made Thursday night, so that's the rough recipe that will follow, but, really--sorry for not offering something more groundbreaking. I'll have to make it up to you next week.

Anyway, on to the CSA! Our vegetables were: 1 lettuce, 2 spring red onions, 1 bulb fennel, 1 napa cabbage, 1 bok choi and greens (kale and swiss chard). Also, our fruit share finally got started, so we also got a small container of black currants and one of cherries.

Lettuce Corn Salad with Pancetta

• 2 heads lettuce
• 1 cup kernels corn (I used frozen kernels but if you have fresh available...)
• 4 slices pancetta
• 1/3 cup green onions, chopped
• 1 tablespoon red wine vinegar
• 1 tablespoon cider vinegar
• 1/2 teaspoon ground mustard
• 1/8 teaspoon herbes de provence
• 1/8 teaspoon sea salt
• 1/2 teaspoon black pepper, freshly ground
• 1/4 cup blood orange olive oil
• 1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil

Remove leaves from lettuce and wash and dry well. Place corn in a small pot covered with about 1/4 inch water and simmer 4-8 minutes, depending on how fresh corn is. Drain and reserve. Fry up pancetta in a pan over medium heat until crispy. Mix lettuce, corn, pancetta and green onions in a large salad bowl.
Combine all other ingredients in a small jar to make the dressing. Shake well and pour over salad. Toss and serve immediately.
Links to other lettuce noshes:

• Lettuce Wraps from Rasa Malaysia
• Asian Lettuce Cups with Spicy Ground Turkey Filling from Kalyn's Kitchen
• Pesto Bacon Lettuce & Tomato Wraps with Smoked Turkey from Karina's Kitchen
• Wanna-Be PF Chang's Lettuce Wraps from Wasabimon!

A final note: welcome to any fellow CSA members! So glad you've stopped by and please feel free to leave comments about what you've been making with all our goodies.

CSA Week 3: Cold Blueberry Garlic Almond Soup

Week 3 of our CSA and another very exciting haul. It's still been extremely rainy here, so no fruit share yet, but we've been promised a double share next week. (Yikes; I mean, yay!) But we have some lovely vegetables again, still more springy than summery, but no complaints here. And things that I can't usually find in Chinatown. So...what did we get? 1 (very small) head of broccoli, 1 head of lettuce, 3 beets (with their beautiful greens still attached), 2 heads of garlic with the thick green stalk still attached, 1 pound swiss chard and 1 bunch mint.

Once I brought everything home and stored it properly to last the week, I began thinking about what to make for dinner. What most excited me about this haul was the garlic. I'm a really big fan of what I call "fresh garlic" since it's the garlic I prefer to eat raw. So it's my garlic of choice for pestos and uncooked sauces (before I discovered garlic scapes, of course). But I've been making lots of sauces lately so I started thinking about a cold soup. Then the Boy and I started discussing whether people eat beets raw so I did some research, decided that they do and garnished my soup with some chopped beet. This soup was inspired by Cold Garlic Almond Soup from Anne's Food.

While very tasty, I never did completely get rid of the almond meal texture. Any suggestions? And the addition of blueberries is the reason for the stupendous color.

Cold Blueberry Garlic Almond Soup

• 3 slices bread (I used whole wheat), crusts removed
• water
• 1/4 bag almond slivers (3-4 ounces)
• 1 cup blueberries (I used frozen)
• 2 cloves fresh garlic
• 1 1/2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
• 1 1/2 tablespoons blood orange olive oil
• 1/4 tablespoon sea salt
• 1/2 teaspoon curry powder
• 1 teaspoon black pepper, freshly ground
• 2 cups water
• 1 tablespoon cream sherry
• 1 tablespoon red wine vinegar
• 2 tablespoons pine nuts, toasted
• 2 tablespoons raisins
• 1/2 beet, peeled and chopped

Tear the bread into about 9 pieces. Submerge in a bowl of cold water and let soak for 30 minutes. Squeeze out as much water as possible and remove bread to bowl of food processor. Add almonds, blueberries and garlic and process until smooth, scraping down the sides as necessary. Add olive oils, salt, curry powder, pepper, water, sherry and vinegar. Process again until as smooth as possible (and perhaps you'll find a way to get rid of the coarse almond texture, perhaps by straining the soup through a cheesecloth-lined strainer?). Transfer to a glass bowl, cover, and chill in the refrigerator until ready to serve (1-2 hours).
Before serving, mix together pine nuts, raisins and beet in a small bowl as garnish. Serve soup and invite diners to sprinkle garnish on top. Enjoy!
Links to other garlic noshes:

• Roasted Garlic from Simply Recipes

Sauteed turnip greens and spinach with pancetta and cannellini beans over tomato fettuccine

One of the many perks of living in Chinatown is that we're right next door to Little Italy. And that means easy access to Italian cured meats and cheeses from Di Palo's (in their beautifully renovated and expanded new store!) and fresh pasta from Piemonte Ravioli, a store we just discovered on Saturday that makes their own delightfully flavored pasta. How could it have taken us so long??

This is a simple (almost) vegetarian meal that really showcases that flavors of good dry beans, fresh turnip greens (from our CSA), fresh pancetta and homemade tomato fettuccine. The spinach I used was frozen (it was all I had on hand) but I'm sure this would be fantastic with fresh spinach as well. It was also my first time making dry beans from scratch. How easy and what a big taste difference! Because I was making so few, I didn't even pre-soak them. Enjoy!

Sauteed turnip greens and spinach with pancetta and cannellini beans over tomato fettuccine

• 1/4 cup dry cannellini beans
• 1/2 cup water
• 1 bunch turnip greens (from about 4 turnips)
• 1 pound spinach, chopped (I used frozen)
• 1 pound fresh fettuccine (I used tomato, but use any flavor you prefer or even plain)
• 2 slices pancetta (mine was thickly cut and shaped like bacon)
• 1/8 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1/4 teaspoon sesame seeds
• 1/2 teaspoon black pepper, freshly ground
• 1/2 cup Chardonnay or white Burgundy
• 1/4 teaspoon cardamom, ground

Place beans in a small saucepan and cover with water. Bring to a boil, then simmer until beans are tender, about 40 minutes. Remove from heat and set aside.

Free turnip greens from the turnips and break in half. Rinse, then spin dry in a salad spinner, along with spinach.

Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil and add fettuccine. Cook until it rises to the top, then drain and set aside until greens are ready.

Halve pancetta slices lengthwise, then roughly chop. Saute in a large skillet over medium-low heat for 5 minutes. Add greens, cover and cook 6 minutes, stopping halfway through to give everything a good stir. Uncover and add beans, salt, sesame seeds and pepper. Cook another 2 minutes. Add wine and cook another 4 minutes, stirring, until it no longer tastes alcoholic. Add cardamom and cook a final 2 minutes. Toss with pasta. Enjoy!

Links to other turnip greens noshes:

• Creamed Turnip Greens from Andrea's Recipes
• Spaghetti Squash with Crispy Bacon and Turnip Greens from Cooking...by the seat of my pants!
• Baby Turnips and Greens in a Moghul-Style Sauce from She Spills the Beans
• Spicy Bok Choy and Turnip Greens with Garlic and Ginger from In My Box
• New Year's Turnip Greens by A Veggie Venture

CSA Week 2: Filets de poulet au sauce de moutarde, menthe et persil

Week 2 of our CSA and we had another exciting haul: 5 more garlic scapes, 4 baby turnips with their greens still attached, 3 more heads of lettuce, 1 bunch swiss chard, parsley, mizuna and field greens. Obviously, salads are in our future, but I'm also trying to come up with some scrumptious cooked dishes as well.

While not cooked, I made this sauce on Thursday night when I came home hot and sweaty with my vegetables. I wanted a tasty, refreshing, light meal that wouldn't require too much work to prepare. After browsing online for a while, I found a recipe for a Mustard-Mint-Parsley Sauce that Alosha served with salmon. The sauce sounded delicious, but I was more interested in having meat than fish. So I searched for a turkey dish that would go nicely with the sauce. I finally settled on Turkey Cutlets from Kalyn's Kitchen. After tweaking both recipes quite a bit (and discovering that there actually are no turkey cutlets to be found in Chinatown), I created my own dish which, served with a simple salad with almonds, turned into a delightful meal.

Chicken fillets with mustard mint and parsley sauce

Sauce:

• 2 tablespoons yogurt
• 1 tablespoon aioli
• 2 teaspoons dijon mustard
• 2 teaspoons chardonnay
• leaves from 1 stalk fresh spearmint, finely chopped
• leaves from 1 stalk fresh Italian parsley, finely chopped
• 1 spring onion, finely chopped

Chicken:

• 1 tablespoon breading mix
• 1 1/2 teaspoons poultry seasoning
• dash kosher salt
• 1/2 teaspoon black pepper, freshly ground
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1 tablespoon unsalted butter
• 1 pound chicken fillets

Begin by making the sauce so the flavors have sufficient time to meld. Simply mix all ingredients in a bowl and stir well. Reserve until ready to use.
Now make the chicken. Mix breading mix, poultry seasoning, salt and pepper together on a plate. Heat olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add butter and melt into olive oil. Dredge each chicken fillet in breading, then add to hot pan. Cook 4 minutes, then flip, lower heat, cover and cook another 4 minutes until fillets are cooked through. Remove from pan and serve accompanied by sauce. Enjoy!
Links to other parsley noshes:

• Parsley Hummus with Whole Wheat Pita Chips from Kalyn's Kitchen
• Basil Mint Parsley "Pesto" Sauce from Karina's Kitchen
• Parsley-Herb Salad from Mark Bittman
• Quinoa Salad with Tomatoes, Feta and Parsley from The Perfect Pantry
• Quinoa, Parsley and Pepper Salad from Just Bento
• Pear Parsley Dressing from Elana's Pantry

CSA Week 1: Cabillaud au pesto de mizuna

Thursday was the first shipment of our CSA and I couldn't be happier. For those of you who don't know, CSA stands for Community Supported Agriculture and basically means that the Boy and I have bought a share in a farm (in this case, Norwich Meadows Farm) and, for the next five months we will be receiving an assortment of freshly-harvested vegetables every Thursday. Not only is this saving us money; it also introduces us to vegetables we don't normally use and ensures that we eat many more vegetables since we certainly don't want to be wasteful. And, it provides us with an opportunity to conveniently get organic vegetables that are not traditional to Chinese cooking. All in all, a very good deal. In a few weeks, we'll also be starting a fruit share with produce from Red Jacket Orchards. Both of these are through a delightful store we discovered purely through our quest for a CSA--Provisions on Beekman. Located right near South Street Seaport, they have local products and fantastic olive oil (I currently have a bottle of their Blood Orange Olive Oil which is absolutely delightful.

So, you ask, what did we get this first week? 4 heads lettuce, 10 garlic scapes, 8 spring onions, 2 lbs. of greens (swiss chard, kale and mizuna) and 4 oz. parsley. I've already used quite a lot of the produce, having made kale, rotelle with swiss chard and garbanzo beans and stir-fried tofu with spring onions, garlic, ginger and soy sauce. But the recipe I'm sharing with you today is one I made on Friday night, when we had my parents over for shabbos dinner.

I was inspired by a recipe I found on serious eats for Cod with Pesto. Wanting to use some of my farm produce, I decided to make a pesto out of mizuna instead of the traditional basil. Spicy and very fresh-tasting, it was a perfect partner to the rich, buttery cod. It also was a perfect opportunity to use my blood orange olive oil. Enjoy!

Cod with Mizuna Pesto

Pesto:

• 1/2 pound mizuna leaves, roughly torn
• 1/8 teaspoon sea salt
• pinch black pepper
• 1 garlic scape, cut into 4 pieces
• 2 tablespoons pine nuts, preferably toasted
• 1/8 cup excellent-quality extra virgin olive oil
• 1/8 cup blood orange olive oil

Cod:

• 2 lbs. cod fillets
• pinch garlic salt
• 1/8 teaspoon black pepper

Begin by preparing the pesto. Add all the ingredients to a food processor and pulse, stopping to scrape down the sides if necessary, until everything is the same texture--that of a liquidy paste. Scoop into a bowl and set aside while you prepare the cod.

Preheat a George Foreman Grill. Rub cod on both sides of each fillet with salt and pepper. Cook in grill for 3 minutes. (Depending on the size of the grill and of your fillets, you may need to do this in batches.)

Serve cod and pesto together, encouraging diners to spoon as much pesto as they like onto the cod. Enjoy!

Links to other mizuna noshes:

• Mizuna and Minced Chicken Stir Fry from Nook & Pantry
• Soba Noodle Salad with Mizuna from Dani Spies
• Wok Sauteed Mizuna and Portobello Mushrooms with Minced Chicken from RecipeGirl.com
• Mizuna Sunchoke Salad with Shiitake Salmon from No Recipes
• Mizuna no Shiraae from Obachan's Kitchen & Balcony Garden

Farfalle margherita

Now I'm sure it comes as no surprise that I do most of the cooking around here. However, there are nights when I come home so exhausted that all I really want for dinner is a bowl of cereal. Unfortunately, that's been happening rather frequently lately (hence the lack of posts) as I've been working nights again. But sometimes, the Boy comes to my rescue, as he did the other night, by making me dinner.

Dinner made by the Boy almost always consists of pasta, and this was no exception--a simple, delicious homemade tomato sauce, sprinkled with fresh basil (from the little plants on our balcony) and le coup de grace--hunks of mozzarella di bufalo, purchased from Trader Joe's. A simple, delicious late-night meal, this will be even better made with fresh tomatoes when they burst into season. A nice alternative might also be to try it with smoked mozzarella! And because the Boy doesn't believe in measuring cups and spoons, these are approximate. Enjoy!

Farfalle margherita

• 1 pound farfalle
• kosher salt
• small glug olive oil
• 2 cloves garlic, sliced
• 1 red onion, chopped
• 1 can diced tomatoes
• 1/2 can crushed tomatoes
• 7 leaves basil, torn roughly
• 2 oz. mozzarella di bufalo, roughly chopped

Bring a pot of water to a boil. Add farfalle and kosher salt and cook farfalle according to package directions.

Meanwhile, in a saucepan, heat olive oil over medium heat. Add garlic and red onion and saute until onion begins to soften. Add both kinds of tomatoes and cook, stirring occasionally, until farfalle is cooked. Remove sauce from heat.

Drain farfalle and toss with tomato sauce. Add basil and mozzarella and toss until mozzarella begins to melt. Serve.

Links to other mozzarella di bufalo noshes:

• Heirloom Tomato Basil Mozzarella Salad from Simply Recipes
• Caprese Bites from Redacted Recipes