CSA Share #9

This drought must be heavily affecting Free Bird Farm. Supposed to get a ton of rain this weekend though. Good for them, bad for me, especially since I have no clue where I put my umbrellas as I was moving to my new apartment.

Anyways, this week's share:
- 2 japanese eggplant
- 2 light green bell peppers
- thai basil
- carrot and carrot tops
- 3 leeks
- swiss chard

CWTC: leeks! I'm thinking about making leek soup this weekend. om nom nom.
TAV: Carrot tops. Must find a new use for them, as I would very much prefer not to repeat last week's toasted grass experiment.
WTF: Thai basil. What to do with MORE thai basil???

I've actually managed to do pretty significant damage to this week's share already. Down to the eggplants, one bell pepper, the leeks, and some thai basil. But before I get ahead of myself, I must admit that it's probably just because the drought is reducing the sheer volume of our shares.

Since my update is a bit delayed, I already made a few things with this week's share, with varying degrees of success.

Bell pepper and carrot sticks make for lovely office snacks, especially with a bit of 된장 or hummus.

Carrot top tea is...interesting. I couldn't stomach (haha) the thought of eating more woody, chewy, bitter stems, so I decided to try carrot top tea. Besides, I fucking love tea. Apparently, carrot top tea is chock full of vitamins and minerals, and detoxes your kidneys. I probably need a liver detoxifier more than anything else, but any kind of detox is probably a good idea for me. Pretty straightforward stuff.

1. Wash and trim carrot tops.
2. Boil a pot of water.
3. Drop carrot tops into the pot and wait one minute.
4. Reduce the heat and let simmer for 10-15 minutes.
5. Remove from heat and let cool.
6. Strain out carrot tops.
7. Refrigerate and enjoy.

The carrot top tea was a pale olive green color and tasted pretty nasty when still warm. Much better after being chilled in the fridge overnight, but it was a struggle to finish the entire glass. I would probably only make two or three cups of tea and call it a night. I don't think I'm capable of drinking more than that in one week. Definitely interesting though!

Sauteed swiss chard with garlic and wilted thai basil
Yum. This was probably the crowning glory of my culinary experiments with my CSA shares this season. I blanched the chard and sauteed it with some aromatics. It's pretty simple, but it's more like a real recipe than anything else I've done so far, so I'll document it as such. Really delicious stuff. Even my coworker thought it tasted good. It probably can't compete with anything from the food trucks or midtown eateries, but hey, one step at a time right? #turtlewinstherace

Ingredients:
- Handful of thai basil
- 7-8 large leaves of swiss chard
- 5 cloves garlic (or to taste)
- olive oil
- salt

1. Wash chard and basil thoroughly.
2. Bring a pot of water to a boil.
3. Drop the swiss chard in the pot of water for about 30 seconds to a minute.
4. Drain and refill pot (with swiss chard still in there!) with cold water. Repeat until water drains cold.
5. Squeeze the water out of the swiss chard, chop into ribbons, and set aside.
6. Slice garlic.
7. Heat a bit of olive oil in a pan (medium-low heat). When a drop of water "spits" back at you, add the sliced garlic. Stir occasionally until the garlic just begins to brown.
8. Add chopped swiss chard to the pan.
9. Sprinkle some salt over the pan.
10. Add the handful of thai basil leaves (stripped from their stems).
11. Stir gently until the thai basil is wilted.
12. Remove from heat and serve!

 Yum yum. This weekend will be eggplants and leek soup. We'll see if I can top the swiss chard dish...

Success! oh SNAP!

YES! Snap food truck successfully raised its goal of $10,000 on March 12. I think it's really touching that the final donation came from another small food business owner who just wanted to pay it forward. This is why communities are amazing things. You can go it alone, but it's nice to have company.

Now I just have to wait for my coworker to pop up again and announce that Snap is right around the corner and would I like to join the expedition...

Nice work Liz and Zeph. Can't wait for a summer with Chicago dogs.

Full story here:
Snap Truck Success!

Chicago in NY: Snap Food Truck

My group at work loves food trucks. Loves. I was a bit wary at first. After all, who knows where that street meat's been? Or how long it's been there? Or where it's even from...? I wasn't so squeamish when I was younger and traveling around in places like rural Mexico (tacos de menudo) or the streets of Korea (boshintang), but now that I'm older, I know better. I know exactly why my food from a cart is so cheap: it's using cheap cuts of meat and cutting corners for the uneducated or simply indifferent consumer.

I resisted at first, but 8 months later, I have to admit I'm a convert. Food trucks are effing amazing! From Korilla to Luke's Lobster Rolls to grasshopper tacos and Coolhaus, there's no shortage of fun foods I want to try*. Still trying to save $$$ so I can do something cool later in my life, so my food truck expeditions are limited, but every now and then, a super cool truck comes along and I simply can't say no...

Earlier this week, one of my most die-hard food truck enthusiast coworkers yelled at me across the desk rows, "HEY! There's a truck with Chicago style hot dogs!"

Now, as you all know, I spent four years in the beautiful Windy City. Famous for all sorts of gut-busting noms like deep dish pizza, Chicago-style dogs, and steaks.

Sadly, deep dish pizza never quite did it for me. In my defense, I tried, I really did. I dutifully took all my out-of-towners to Uno's, Lou Malnati's and Giordano's. I always felt like I had an unpleasant cheese baby kicking its way through my stomach. No thanks - I'll take L'Asso over Giordano's any day.

However, Portillo's hot dogs are something else. Chicago-style dogs with the works (hold the onions)are so good, I wouldn't care if they were made with questionable meat cuts (which is good, since they probably are).

So when my coworker popped up gopher-style from behind her computer announcing Chicago-style dogs, my ears perked up right away.

Snap Food Truck. Coming soon to a city block near me. !!!



Interestingly, the owners (a married couple) are working to fuel their truck with biofuel (aka leftover french fry oil). Very cool. They haven't quite gotten off the ground yet, but when they do, I'll be the first in line.

Even more interesting - they source locally. Can't be easy. I admire their dedication and I can't wait to see and taste the end result.

For those of you who are curious, Snap is partnering with Dickson's Farmstand Meats and Karl Ehmer in Brooklyn for their grass-fed beef and all-beef hot dogs. (Yay! now I know where the mystery meat is coming from! +5 points for this alone). As for their pickles and cheese? The Bedford Cheese Shop in Brooklyn and artisanal pickles from Rick's Picks. Mmm.



I really hope Snap tastes as good as the picture above looks. Bonus points for cucumbers. If there's ketchup, I will smack someone on the head. You wouldn't put ketchup on your drunk chicken'n'rice would you!? So why the F would you put it on your perfectly good Chicago dog?! Yeah. What I thought. Omg...I'm getting hungry. Go support Snap on Kickstarter so they can launch their truck and drive it to a street corner nearby. I want my food!!!

Fueled by Fries: Kickstarter page for Snap

*Also helps a lot that some of my favorite NY restaurants get reviews from yelpers like "roaches in rice!" Still eat there, so can't really be elitist and snobby about food trucks anymore. Especially since the trucks look a lot cleaner. I also belatedly recalled that my favorite taco shop in Tucson had roach and rat issues too. Maybe roaches secrete MSG and we just didn't realize it yet? ERUGH.