Late night at work
+ vegetables from last week on the verge of rotting that I TOTALLY FORGOT ABOUT (eek)
+ a new share
+ gone for the weekend
= stress
I was a super ninja and triaged the shit out of my fridge and cursed myself for forgetting about the basil and frisee hidden in the back that I forgot about. See, when frisee starts to go bad, it goes bad at the very tips and it goes bad unevenly. At least, mine did. So when I was picking out all the slimy leaves, I literally had to pick through each little tendril and pluck off the slimy bits to salvage what was left. Sure, I could have thrown it out, but I'm stubborn like that (though I do feel a little scared to eat it now after having gotten all up close and personal with the rotting tips). Besides, I felt vaguely guilty about tossing my kale salad and squash from last week. So I plucked. And plucked. And plucked some more.
Same thing with the basil, except basil starts to go bad where the leaves meet the stem, which means plucking each leaf off before stripping out the slimy part. Sigh. Fortunately, the parsley was in good shape. There were no other orphaned leftovers from last week's share to handle and I promised myself to be better about handling my CSA shares going forward.
I have to say, neglectfulness aside, I'm really impressed with myself. In under two hours, I managed to handle everything. In fact, I'm so impressed, I'm going to write down my triaging thought process so I can marvel at my ability to think on my feet later.
- Cabbage and napa cabbage: these keep forever ish. Take two seconds and store those suckers in fridge.
- Onion and fresh garlic: semi-long lived creatures. I lopped off their pretty green tops, rinsed those and tossed them in my "odds and ends" soup bag in the freezer. Tossed the bulbs in the fridge. Done. (Pro-tip: fresh garlic can be stored in the fridge for a week. Cured/dry garlic should NOT be stored in the fridge or in a plastic container, as it will sprout or mold. Store those outside in a dark location, like a paper bag or covered, ventilated basket.)
- Green beans and wax beans: Rinsed, admired their prettiness for a few moments, and stored them in ziploc bags as snack food. No prep, no cook, just rinse and store.
- Cucumbers: Washed, peeled, and sliced them into snackable sticks. No cooking (notice a trend?)
- Frisee and parsley: I debated cooking these together, but was too lazy after all that plucking, so I just googled "parsley frisee" and discovered that the internet says you can eat these together as a salad. Boom, done. I also chopped up a bit of parsley to sprinkle on some leftover hummus. I've discovered that I rather like the taste of fresh parsley on hummus and pasta. Those flecks of green are so surprising when you come across them, unlike their dried counterparts, which bear an uncanny resemblance to green paper.
- Basil and zucchini: arguably the most time consuming part of my evening. I basically followed the recipe for marinated zucchini, but spent a lot of time picking out the edible parts of the basil :/ I left the zucchini to marinate in a ziploc baggie and I made the basil-garlic-lemon dressing in advance. I'll give it a taste tomorrow and see how that went. My fingers are crossed. For once, I'm actually really excited to eat zucchini.
And that's it! My share(s) are packed into bags or containers or are safely in storage, and I am ready to face the rest of my week. Oh, I also got another chicken. I now have three chickens in my freezer and I'm running out of room. I should butcher one or roast one early next week so I have something to feed my brother when he gets here. That boy will eat you out of house and home. One time, I had to go to the grocery store twice IN ONE DAY to feed him. When you live in a five floor walkup, this is no laughing matter.
TL;DR: an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure, avoid cooking like the plague, and google has all the answers.
Side note: I feel like this is a weird thing to admit, but I really like the way zucchini feels when you cut it up with a super sharp knife. It's really soft, almost buttery, in texture and it looks so clean and fresh. And it's so much less messy than chopping up, say, a chicken.
Showing posts with label using up CSA shares. Show all posts
Showing posts with label using up CSA shares. Show all posts
Tuesday, July 23, 2013
Saturday, July 13, 2013
basil mint vodka lemonade, maneul jjong jangachi and chicken soup
A weekend of cooking!
Light Chicken Stock
Straightforward, easy, just takes a little time.
In a pot, saute onions, carrot tops/peelings, and whole garlic cloves (leave skins on!)
Add chicken and cook until meat begins to brown. Add a little salt.
Add water and simmer for a while (20 min?).
Skim foam off the top. Remove chicken pieces and let cool.
Remove chicken meat from bones and return bones to the pot. Reserve meat.
Remove vegetables when the carrots and onions start becoming mushy. Keep whatever looks edible (including garlic!) and snack on them :D.
Add herbs/seasoning of choice (I used a mix of lavender, thyme, fennel, chives).
Simmer the bones for as long as you want (1 hour?).
Salt to taste. Remove bones, discard, and let the soup cool.
Store the soup in little ziploc bags and freeze for later use.
Maneul jjong jangachi update!
Had to adjust seasoning but everything is all complete and looks and tastes yummy :) I think I have enough to last me for a full year now... 밮도독 ㅋㅋㅋ
Basil Mint Vodka Lemonade
Ingredients:
- Fresh basil
- Fresh mint
- 1 lemon
- 2 heaping spoons sugar
- water and ice
Directions:
1. Chop lemon in half and squeeze out the juice. Pick out the seeds and toss them.
2. Add 2-3 spoons sugar. Stir until somewhat dissolved.
3. Add a few sprigs of fresh mint and basil and muddle at the bottom of the glass.
4. Add chilled vodka and ice, stir.
5. Add cold water to taste. Garnish with lemon peel and mint/basil sprigs. Enjoy!
Light Chicken Stock
Straightforward, easy, just takes a little time.
In a pot, saute onions, carrot tops/peelings, and whole garlic cloves (leave skins on!)
Add chicken and cook until meat begins to brown. Add a little salt.
Add water and simmer for a while (20 min?).
Skim foam off the top. Remove chicken pieces and let cool.
Remove chicken meat from bones and return bones to the pot. Reserve meat.
Remove vegetables when the carrots and onions start becoming mushy. Keep whatever looks edible (including garlic!) and snack on them :D.
Add herbs/seasoning of choice (I used a mix of lavender, thyme, fennel, chives).
Simmer the bones for as long as you want (1 hour?).
Salt to taste. Remove bones, discard, and let the soup cool.
Store the soup in little ziploc bags and freeze for later use.
Maneul jjong jangachi update!
Had to adjust seasoning but everything is all complete and looks and tastes yummy :) I think I have enough to last me for a full year now... 밮도독 ㅋㅋㅋ
Basil Mint Vodka Lemonade
Ingredients:
- Fresh basil
- Fresh mint
- 1 lemon
- 2 heaping spoons sugar
- water and ice
Directions:
1. Chop lemon in half and squeeze out the juice. Pick out the seeds and toss them.
2. Add 2-3 spoons sugar. Stir until somewhat dissolved.
3. Add a few sprigs of fresh mint and basil and muddle at the bottom of the glass.
4. Add chilled vodka and ice, stir.
5. Add cold water to taste. Garnish with lemon peel and mint/basil sprigs. Enjoy!
Wednesday, June 26, 2013
radis avec beurre et sel
Who knew? Radishes eaten the French way are surprisingly delicious. Slice them thin, top with butter and a sprinkle of coarse sea salt. Eat.
That's it!
I'm not even a huge fan of butter (I know, but hey, at least I like bacon and chocolate...?) or raw radishes (too peppery in large quantities). But the butter goes a long way in moderating the pepperiness of the radish, while the salt brings out and balances the flavors of both. I've heard this combination makes a great sandwich as well, but I didn't have any bread, so I'll have to try that next time.
That's it!
I'm not even a huge fan of butter (I know, but hey, at least I like bacon and chocolate...?) or raw radishes (too peppery in large quantities). But the butter goes a long way in moderating the pepperiness of the radish, while the salt brings out and balances the flavors of both. I've heard this combination makes a great sandwich as well, but I didn't have any bread, so I'll have to try that next time.
Friday, June 21, 2013
frisee, bacon, and a poached egg
Fact: bacon makes most things ten times better. Undaunted by all the green heads lolling around in my fridge, I set out to find a tasty way to split an entire head of frisee with my bestie. Just like I tossed in some sausage to balance out the escarole*, I decided to use some bacon to provide some richness and satisfying depth of flavor to the frisee. It was...really, really good. Thanks, bacon! Maybe a little salty, but not noticeably so. We paired the frisee with another garden salad (that head of red leaf lettuce just keeps on giving) and a bottle of Moscato that the bestie picked out. The sweet bubbly was a perfect complement to the bacon and eggs. Now that I think about it, I guess what we really had last night was a dinner version of brunch.
* While looking for the frisee, I pulled out one of the plastic bags in the fridge and peeped inside. Imagine my consternation when I looked into one and saw coarse green leaves with thick white stems that looked suspiciously like escarole... I think we cooked the green leaf lettuce with our pasta last night. Oops.
On the bright side, if I'm correct and if the green leaves in my fridge are in fact escarole and not lettuce, then this means I've found a tasteful, tasty way to cook lettuce! Which would be kind of awesome.
As a side note, I'm making good progress with the share! Remaining items: 1/2 head red leaf lettuce, 1 head of either escarole or green leaf lettuce (TBD), two spring onions, and radishes from share #1.
Wilted frisee with bacon and a poached egg (serves 2)
Ingredients:
- 1 head frisee
- 2 spring onions
- Minced garlic
- 5 strips bacon
- Cooking oil
- Salt, pepper
- 2 eggs
Directions:
1. Wash frisee and green onions thoroughly.
2. Heat a large pan over medium high heat. Throw in the bacon strips and let them cook for a bit.
3. Chop frisee into bite size pieces (they will shrink as they cook down though, so make your pieces a little bigger than you want them to be at the end). Chop green onions and set aside.
4. By now the bacon should be done. Remove from heat and extract the bacon from the pan. Wipe down the pan with a paper towel to remove most of the bacon grease.
5. Heat water in a small pan (add as much water as possible without risking a spill).
6. Add some cooking oil to the large pan and reheat. Once the oil is hot, add chopped green onions and garlic plus a dash of salt. Stir and cook until the garlic begins to turn golden brown.
7. Add the frisee to the large pan in big handfuls. Season with a bit of salt and pepper, and cook until wilted about 5 minutes.
8. While the frisee is cooking, check the water in the small pan. When it's boiling, turn the heat down to low. Crack an egg into a small dish and slide it into the water. Repeat and slide another egg into the pan. Poach to desired level of "doneness." (I personally think leaving the yolk all nice and runny makes a wonderful "dressing" for the frisee).
9. Once the frisee is wilted, remove the large pan from heat and set aside. Take the bacon strips and chop into small pieces.
10. Arrange the frisee into a little nest on your plate, gently place a poached egg in the middle, and top the whole dish with half of the bacon bits. Serve and enjoy the goodness that is bacon.
* While looking for the frisee, I pulled out one of the plastic bags in the fridge and peeped inside. Imagine my consternation when I looked into one and saw coarse green leaves with thick white stems that looked suspiciously like escarole... I think we cooked the green leaf lettuce with our pasta last night. Oops.
On the bright side, if I'm correct and if the green leaves in my fridge are in fact escarole and not lettuce, then this means I've found a tasteful, tasty way to cook lettuce! Which would be kind of awesome.
As a side note, I'm making good progress with the share! Remaining items: 1/2 head red leaf lettuce, 1 head of either escarole or green leaf lettuce (TBD), two spring onions, and radishes from share #1.
Wilted frisee with bacon and a poached egg (serves 2)
Ingredients:
- 1 head frisee
- 2 spring onions
- Minced garlic
- 5 strips bacon
- Cooking oil
- Salt, pepper
- 2 eggs
Directions:
1. Wash frisee and green onions thoroughly.
2. Heat a large pan over medium high heat. Throw in the bacon strips and let them cook for a bit.
3. Chop frisee into bite size pieces (they will shrink as they cook down though, so make your pieces a little bigger than you want them to be at the end). Chop green onions and set aside.
4. By now the bacon should be done. Remove from heat and extract the bacon from the pan. Wipe down the pan with a paper towel to remove most of the bacon grease.
5. Heat water in a small pan (add as much water as possible without risking a spill).
6. Add some cooking oil to the large pan and reheat. Once the oil is hot, add chopped green onions and garlic plus a dash of salt. Stir and cook until the garlic begins to turn golden brown.
7. Add the frisee to the large pan in big handfuls. Season with a bit of salt and pepper, and cook until wilted about 5 minutes.
8. While the frisee is cooking, check the water in the small pan. When it's boiling, turn the heat down to low. Crack an egg into a small dish and slide it into the water. Repeat and slide another egg into the pan. Poach to desired level of "doneness." (I personally think leaving the yolk all nice and runny makes a wonderful "dressing" for the frisee).
9. Once the frisee is wilted, remove the large pan from heat and set aside. Take the bacon strips and chop into small pieces.
10. Arrange the frisee into a little nest on your plate, gently place a poached egg in the middle, and top the whole dish with half of the bacon bits. Serve and enjoy the goodness that is bacon.
Thursday, June 20, 2013
summer pasta, wine, and best friend
The bestie is in town and this means eating home cooked meals on the reg with company! Since the theme of this week seems to have been death by lettuce, we dutifully built a mini salad of red leaf lettuce, tomato, and cucumber to accompany dinner. Fairly boring, still tasty. More interesting was the main dish: pasta with escarole and sausage.
I had some leftover sausage in the freezer and the logic was that sausage in all its meaty heartiness (lol) would be our saving grace, balancing the escarole and keep us from feeling like reincarnated rabbits. I deliberately kept everything light and simple though, because it’s summer and it’s hot. A chilled bottle of pinot grigio was a perfect complement to dinner and I wondered what it would be like if me and the bestie lived just a little closer. Wistful thoughts :/
Pasta with Escarole and Sausage
Ingredients:
- 1 head escarole
- 2 sausage links
- Minced garlic
- ½ white onion
- 1 box spaghetti or pasta of choice
- Red pepper flakes
- Salt, pepper
- Olive oil
1. Wash the escarole thoroughly and tear into bite size pieces.
2. Chop onion and set aside.
3. Chop sausage into bite size chunks.
4. Cook pasta for ~10 minutes or until al dente.
5. While pasta is cooking, heat some olive oil in a (very) large pan. Add onion and garlic, stirring frequently to keep from burning and seasoning lightly with salt. When the onion just starts to turn translucent, add sausage chunks. Cook until sausage is lightly browned.
6. Add escarole, one big handful at a time (to keep pan from overflowing). Season with red pepper flakes and salt. When escarole is cooked through (3-5 minutes), remove from heat and set aside.
7. Drain cooked pasta, reserving one cup of pasta water.
8. Add pasta to the pan. Drizzle with olive oil and heat everything together over medium heat. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Add reserved pasta water as necessary.
9. Serve and enjoy!
Tuesday, June 18, 2013
garlic, the smelliest savior, and lazy radish tops
I've been hacking and coughing and generally trying to expel one or both of my lungs out of my chest for the last few weeks, and it's starting to drive me slowly insane. Also, my coworkers are about to quarantine me permanently. Apparently between the pneumonia, common cold, and strep throat going around my office, I caught all three. I kid (I hope).
Anyways, it's been a week since the last share, and I used up pretty much everything except the radishes and radish tops. While radishes keep for a while, the radish tops had faded a bit. If I didn't take care of them soon, I knew they'd be destined for the trash heap.
So even though I got home kind of late, I grabbed the tops out of the fridge, picked out all the older, yellowing, mushy stems and leaves, and washed them about twenty times. I hate dirt in my food more than anything else (hi clams, I'm looking at you), and these babies had some nice sandy buildup in the base of the stems. I was feeling lazy after all that washing, so I went the Korean muchim route and made some banchan to eat with lunch (quick "recipe" below).
As I was peeling garlic cloves, I kept coughing, and a thought niggled the back of my mind as I flitted around the kitchen. I eyed the garlic cloves cautiously, hopped onto google, and confirmed my suspicions. Raw garlic, like honey, lemons, ginger, oranges, and eucalyptus, is supposed to help cure colds and coughs.
I realize raw garlic smells. I realize eating raw garlic makes you smell. I also realized that my coworkers at this point, would probably prefer garlic BO over the walking cloud of germs that I've become. So I popped a garlic clove in my mouth, crunched around for a while (omg I didn't realize raw garlic was so spicy and strong and ugh), and when I couldn't take it anymore, I swallowed it down and chased it with honey. Maybe it's a placebo effect, but I immediately felt better and my coughing subsided a bit.
I went to bed with garlic breath (I brushed my teeth extra long, but to no avail). I woke up with garlic breath. I'm still coughing, but I actually feel much better today than I did last night, so I'm thinking perhaps there's something to this home remedy after all! As an added bonus, I saw a mosquito flying around my room this morning and while I didn't manage to kill it, I don't think I have any bites, which is unusual. Viruses, mosquitos, vampires, begone! lol.
Radish Top Muchim
Ingredients
- Radish tops, thoroughly washed
- Several cloves of garlic, thinly sliced or minced
- Red pepper flakes (gochukaru)
- Soy sauce
- Sesame oil*
1. Bring a pot of water to a rolling boil.
2. Drop in the radish greens and cook briefly (less than a minute).
3. Drain and rinse the radish greens under cold water.
4. Squeeze out the excess water from the greens and chop into bite size pieces. Set aside.
5. In a pan, heat some sesame oil.
6. Add garlic and red pepper flakes.
7. Once the garlic begins to turn golden, add the radish tops and stir.
8. Add a little soy sauce to taste.
9. Remove from heat and enjoy!
Anyways, it's been a week since the last share, and I used up pretty much everything except the radishes and radish tops. While radishes keep for a while, the radish tops had faded a bit. If I didn't take care of them soon, I knew they'd be destined for the trash heap.
So even though I got home kind of late, I grabbed the tops out of the fridge, picked out all the older, yellowing, mushy stems and leaves, and washed them about twenty times. I hate dirt in my food more than anything else (hi clams, I'm looking at you), and these babies had some nice sandy buildup in the base of the stems. I was feeling lazy after all that washing, so I went the Korean muchim route and made some banchan to eat with lunch (quick "recipe" below).
As I was peeling garlic cloves, I kept coughing, and a thought niggled the back of my mind as I flitted around the kitchen. I eyed the garlic cloves cautiously, hopped onto google, and confirmed my suspicions. Raw garlic, like honey, lemons, ginger, oranges, and eucalyptus, is supposed to help cure colds and coughs.
I realize raw garlic smells. I realize eating raw garlic makes you smell. I also realized that my coworkers at this point, would probably prefer garlic BO over the walking cloud of germs that I've become. So I popped a garlic clove in my mouth, crunched around for a while (omg I didn't realize raw garlic was so spicy and strong and ugh), and when I couldn't take it anymore, I swallowed it down and chased it with honey. Maybe it's a placebo effect, but I immediately felt better and my coughing subsided a bit.
I went to bed with garlic breath (I brushed my teeth extra long, but to no avail). I woke up with garlic breath. I'm still coughing, but I actually feel much better today than I did last night, so I'm thinking perhaps there's something to this home remedy after all! As an added bonus, I saw a mosquito flying around my room this morning and while I didn't manage to kill it, I don't think I have any bites, which is unusual. Viruses, mosquitos, vampires, begone! lol.
Radish Top Muchim
Ingredients
- Radish tops, thoroughly washed
- Several cloves of garlic, thinly sliced or minced
- Red pepper flakes (gochukaru)
- Soy sauce
- Sesame oil*
1. Bring a pot of water to a rolling boil.
2. Drop in the radish greens and cook briefly (less than a minute).
3. Drain and rinse the radish greens under cold water.
4. Squeeze out the excess water from the greens and chop into bite size pieces. Set aside.
5. In a pan, heat some sesame oil.
6. Add garlic and red pepper flakes.
7. Once the garlic begins to turn golden, add the radish tops and stir.
8. Add a little soy sauce to taste.
9. Remove from heat and enjoy!
Sunday, June 16, 2013
omg cilantro i have found a use for you
I have never, ever been able to use an entire bunch of cilantro in one go. But thanks to my wonderful, amazing Lebanese summer roommate, I think I have a solution!
First of all, she's awesome because she's really sweet and I got lucky because sometimes Craigslist people are weird. Second of all, she's awesome because she feeds me. But third of all, she's awesome because while she was feeding me, she showed me an incredibly easy way to use cilantro.
Lebanese Potatoes (and Steak)
Ingredients:
- 1 lb waxy potatoes
- 1 bunch cilantro
- 1 spring onion stalk or a quarter of an onion
- Minced garlic
- Cubed steak (optional)
- Olive oil
- Salt and pepper
Recipe:
1. Thoroughly wash potatoes, cilantro, and onions. Defrost meat. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
2. Chop potatoes into cubes (about 1 cubic inch, maybe a little smaller)
3. Toss potatoes with a drizzle of olive oil, minced garlic, salt, and pepper to taste.
4. Roast potatoes for about 45 minutes to 1 hour or until a fork can be inserted easily.
5. While roasting the potatoes, cook the steak as desired. We cooked the steak in a pan with some garlic and salt. Set aside.
6. Finely chop the cilantro and onions.
7. Heat a spoon or two of olive oil in a small pan.
8. Cook the cilantro and onions over medium heat, stirring frequently to ensure they don't burn.
9. When the cilantro and onions are well cooked, remove from heat and set aside.
10. Remove the potatoes from the oven when done, add the steak and drizzle the cilantro-onion mixture over the top. Mix well and slide back into the oven.
11. Broil for about 3-5 minutes.
12. Remove, serve, enjoy!
The sharp taste of the cilantro is muted but it provides a nice richness to the dish that I wouldn't have suspected cilantro to be capable of. Plus, cooking down the cilantro reduces the volume significantly, making it easy to use up a lot of it at once. I approve!
First of all, she's awesome because she's really sweet and I got lucky because sometimes Craigslist people are weird. Second of all, she's awesome because she feeds me. But third of all, she's awesome because while she was feeding me, she showed me an incredibly easy way to use cilantro.
Lebanese Potatoes (and Steak)
Ingredients:
- 1 lb waxy potatoes
- 1 bunch cilantro
- 1 spring onion stalk or a quarter of an onion
- Minced garlic
- Cubed steak (optional)
- Olive oil
- Salt and pepper
Recipe:
1. Thoroughly wash potatoes, cilantro, and onions. Defrost meat. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
2. Chop potatoes into cubes (about 1 cubic inch, maybe a little smaller)
3. Toss potatoes with a drizzle of olive oil, minced garlic, salt, and pepper to taste.
4. Roast potatoes for about 45 minutes to 1 hour or until a fork can be inserted easily.
5. While roasting the potatoes, cook the steak as desired. We cooked the steak in a pan with some garlic and salt. Set aside.
6. Finely chop the cilantro and onions.
7. Heat a spoon or two of olive oil in a small pan.
8. Cook the cilantro and onions over medium heat, stirring frequently to ensure they don't burn.
9. When the cilantro and onions are well cooked, remove from heat and set aside.
10. Remove the potatoes from the oven when done, add the steak and drizzle the cilantro-onion mixture over the top. Mix well and slide back into the oven.
11. Broil for about 3-5 minutes.
12. Remove, serve, enjoy!
The sharp taste of the cilantro is muted but it provides a nice richness to the dish that I wouldn't have suspected cilantro to be capable of. Plus, cooking down the cilantro reduces the volume significantly, making it easy to use up a lot of it at once. I approve!
Thursday, October 11, 2012
CSA Share #18
This has been the week of chicken soup. Sometimes, a small gesture goes a long, long ways. A friend, not even a very close friend, dropped by last night because she was "in the area," to pick up a few books I'd promised to lend her (Atonement by Ian McEwan and If This be Treason by Gregory Rabassa, if anyone was curious). She came by as I was in the middle of sorting out my vegetables, with a warm smile and two bowls of chicken matzo ball soup for me and my sick roommate (who she is also friends with). Plus several lovely, thick slices of challah bread. What an angel.
She lives all the way on the UWS and is incredibly busy with her studies, but somehow she managed to make the time to stop by Kips Bay and drop off chicken soup. By the way, "in the area" was actually Penn Station, which is not even remotely in the area at all. Anyways, I really appreciated it and I hope someday that I can return the favor or pay it forward.
After she left, I went back to the task of de-stemming my giant pile of kale. See, I've been getting sick and tired of sauteed greens, and I was far too time-pressed to make kale chips, so I googled kale and what did I find? Recipes for massaged kale salad. Repulsed at first, I was slowly won over by the descriptions of the kale salad that kept popping up. "Silky," "tender," "luxurious," were all used to describe the compliant kale leaves post-massage. I had a lemon slowly drying away into oblivion in the fridge and of course, I had olive oil on hand. So I figured why not, rolled up my sleeves, and set out to make massaged kale salad. It's quite good! I had a small bite and then left the rest to marinate for a few days in the fridge while I do some damage to the more perishable items. The leftover kale ribs were not discarded either. I tossed them in a baggie and added them to my growing "leftover ends for chicken soup" pile in the freezer. I really must make soup this weekend. Anyways, I'll make a post on the kale salad later. I have a lot of posts to write this winter, it seems.
On to this week's CSA share. Lots of repeat vegetables and a few new ones.
CSA Share #18
- 2 sweet dumpling winter squash
- 1 bunch green onions
- 1 bunch cilantro
- 1 bunch arugula
- 6 ½ ounces salad mix
- 1 head of garlic
- 1 bunch Swiss chard
- 2 eggplants
- 1 bunch red Russian kale
- 3 red bell peppers
Full disclosure: I swapped out the salad for a head of garlic. I just couldn't handle the thought of more salad...
CWTC: Winter dumpling squash! They really are just so adorable. It's perfect that we got these in our share this week, because I've been eyeing all the little displays of decorative mini squash and pumpkins that the corner delis have set out. They're perfect for decoration and they'll keep for a long while. Multi-functional vegetables that last a long time are definitely my favorite.
TAV: Kale. See above for my little ramble on massaged kale salad.
WTF: Cilantro. T______T No matter. I've been on a roll with preserving fresh herbs lately. I set out to dry the cilantro, remembered that dried cilantro tastes like dried paper flakes, and opted to chop and freeze the cilantro instead. I divided the bunch in two, washed each half-bunch, and chopped them finely and coarsely, respectively. Into ziploc baggies they went, along with a little bit of water (to avoid freezer-burn). I laid them flat in the freezer until they were solid and then stored them away next to the flat-packs of frozen chicken soup.
Side note on the fruit share: Once again, I die. This week's fruit share from Maynard Farms included a bowl of beautiful little Seckel pears and a bowl of large, bright, juicy Golden Delicious. Looks like Maynard Farms was spared the weather problems that have decimated most of the Northeast region's apple crop (yields are down 50%!) This is just not a good year for corn or apples, is it? Apparently raspberries have been hit hard as well, but not by weather problems. Spotted wing Drosophila have decided that the raspberry fields make excellent feeding grounds for their larva and have been quite actively laying their eggs in the berries. Gross. I had to look at Drosophila flies, breed them, mutate them, draw them, examine them, and write papers on them for my entire freshman year of college. These days, I prefer they stay unseen, especially in my food.
In any case, I am still dreaming about that heavenly Macoun I had a few weeks back and I really do wish I had signed up for the fruit share this year. Perhaps next year.
Side note on using up CSA shares: I've noticed that as the summer (and fall) have crept by, I've become more adept at what I've come to think of as vegetable triage. I take stock of this week's share and the leftovers still in the fridge, and quickly assess the survival time of each item. Things that can be frozen or dried are taken care of right away (e.g. garlic, herbs, green onions, soup stock vegetables).
Cut lettuce oxidizes very rapidly, so I store it as a whole head and use it up leaf by leaf, rather than slicing it all up at once. Loose, cut leaves go bad first, so I try to eat those or cook those first (e.g. bok choy, salad mix, arugula, beet/radish/turnip greens).
Long-term storage vegetables, which include essentially all the root vegetables, are separated from their bushy green tops and stored away until the more perishable items are used up first (e.g. potatoes, onions, garlic, beets, carrots, turnips). Even if I really want to eat them, I try to hold off until the more perishable items are used up. I actually haven't seen much of these in recent weeks - I assume Free Bird Farm is trying to keep those in the ground as long as possible as insurance against an unexpected frost that might decimate a planned CSA share. Plus, this gives them extra time to grow. At least, I hope that's the case! I'm really looking forward to at least one more haul of onions and garlic. I'm hoping for potatoes too, but I might be asking for too much. I do think there's a crop of peas headed our way too, but that of course, depends on the weather and the bugs. This week's forecast looks chilly but I don't see any real danger of a sudden frost (knock on wood). Then again, there's still four more weeks to go!
She lives all the way on the UWS and is incredibly busy with her studies, but somehow she managed to make the time to stop by Kips Bay and drop off chicken soup. By the way, "in the area" was actually Penn Station, which is not even remotely in the area at all. Anyways, I really appreciated it and I hope someday that I can return the favor or pay it forward.
After she left, I went back to the task of de-stemming my giant pile of kale. See, I've been getting sick and tired of sauteed greens, and I was far too time-pressed to make kale chips, so I googled kale and what did I find? Recipes for massaged kale salad. Repulsed at first, I was slowly won over by the descriptions of the kale salad that kept popping up. "Silky," "tender," "luxurious," were all used to describe the compliant kale leaves post-massage. I had a lemon slowly drying away into oblivion in the fridge and of course, I had olive oil on hand. So I figured why not, rolled up my sleeves, and set out to make massaged kale salad. It's quite good! I had a small bite and then left the rest to marinate for a few days in the fridge while I do some damage to the more perishable items. The leftover kale ribs were not discarded either. I tossed them in a baggie and added them to my growing "leftover ends for chicken soup" pile in the freezer. I really must make soup this weekend. Anyways, I'll make a post on the kale salad later. I have a lot of posts to write this winter, it seems.
On to this week's CSA share. Lots of repeat vegetables and a few new ones.
CSA Share #18
- 2 sweet dumpling winter squash
- 1 bunch green onions
- 1 bunch cilantro
- 1 bunch arugula
- 6 ½ ounces salad mix
- 1 head of garlic
- 1 bunch Swiss chard
- 2 eggplants
- 1 bunch red Russian kale
- 3 red bell peppers
Full disclosure: I swapped out the salad for a head of garlic. I just couldn't handle the thought of more salad...
CWTC: Winter dumpling squash! They really are just so adorable. It's perfect that we got these in our share this week, because I've been eyeing all the little displays of decorative mini squash and pumpkins that the corner delis have set out. They're perfect for decoration and they'll keep for a long while. Multi-functional vegetables that last a long time are definitely my favorite.
TAV: Kale. See above for my little ramble on massaged kale salad.
WTF: Cilantro. T______T No matter. I've been on a roll with preserving fresh herbs lately. I set out to dry the cilantro, remembered that dried cilantro tastes like dried paper flakes, and opted to chop and freeze the cilantro instead. I divided the bunch in two, washed each half-bunch, and chopped them finely and coarsely, respectively. Into ziploc baggies they went, along with a little bit of water (to avoid freezer-burn). I laid them flat in the freezer until they were solid and then stored them away next to the flat-packs of frozen chicken soup.
Side note on the fruit share: Once again, I die. This week's fruit share from Maynard Farms included a bowl of beautiful little Seckel pears and a bowl of large, bright, juicy Golden Delicious. Looks like Maynard Farms was spared the weather problems that have decimated most of the Northeast region's apple crop (yields are down 50%!) This is just not a good year for corn or apples, is it? Apparently raspberries have been hit hard as well, but not by weather problems. Spotted wing Drosophila have decided that the raspberry fields make excellent feeding grounds for their larva and have been quite actively laying their eggs in the berries. Gross. I had to look at Drosophila flies, breed them, mutate them, draw them, examine them, and write papers on them for my entire freshman year of college. These days, I prefer they stay unseen, especially in my food.
In any case, I am still dreaming about that heavenly Macoun I had a few weeks back and I really do wish I had signed up for the fruit share this year. Perhaps next year.
Side note on using up CSA shares: I've noticed that as the summer (and fall) have crept by, I've become more adept at what I've come to think of as vegetable triage. I take stock of this week's share and the leftovers still in the fridge, and quickly assess the survival time of each item. Things that can be frozen or dried are taken care of right away (e.g. garlic, herbs, green onions, soup stock vegetables).
Cut lettuce oxidizes very rapidly, so I store it as a whole head and use it up leaf by leaf, rather than slicing it all up at once. Loose, cut leaves go bad first, so I try to eat those or cook those first (e.g. bok choy, salad mix, arugula, beet/radish/turnip greens).
Long-term storage vegetables, which include essentially all the root vegetables, are separated from their bushy green tops and stored away until the more perishable items are used up first (e.g. potatoes, onions, garlic, beets, carrots, turnips). Even if I really want to eat them, I try to hold off until the more perishable items are used up. I actually haven't seen much of these in recent weeks - I assume Free Bird Farm is trying to keep those in the ground as long as possible as insurance against an unexpected frost that might decimate a planned CSA share. Plus, this gives them extra time to grow. At least, I hope that's the case! I'm really looking forward to at least one more haul of onions and garlic. I'm hoping for potatoes too, but I might be asking for too much. I do think there's a crop of peas headed our way too, but that of course, depends on the weather and the bugs. This week's forecast looks chilly but I don't see any real danger of a sudden frost (knock on wood). Then again, there's still four more weeks to go!
Thursday, October 4, 2012
CSA Share #17
Let us have more lettuce. Sigh.
Oh well. I'm tackling the last of the red oak leaf lettuce from CSA Share 15. Dinner tonight? A colorful salad of crisp lettuce and raw beetroot chips topped with oven-roasted chicken. The sweet crunch of the beets contrasts nicely with the chicken. Both the beets and the chicken are low profile with a delicate flavor. The oak lettuce is light and crisp and manages to provide an unobtrusive background that allows the flavor of the beets and the chicken to shine through. Extremely simple (and perhaps plain, by some standards), but delicious. I always tend to like simpler fare anyways. Yum.
Notice that I said "crisp" and "CSA Share 15." That is not a mistake. I kept the lettuce head in the crisper and used one leaf at a time in an effort to keep it as fresh as possible for as long as possible. Last night, I took inventory of my fridge and realized the eggplant and yellow bell pepper from CSA share 16 were a bit wrinkly and the lettuce was starting to wilt in spite of my heroic preservation efforts. To revive the lettuce, I washed the lettuce and let it sit in a tupperware container overnight with a bit of extra water clinging to the leaves. Voila, re-crisped lettuce.
I did have to throw out a leaf or two though - they were so far gone that extra moisture might have led to rot, not rejuvenation. I also didn't wash the lettuce well enough...I can taste gritty sand specks here and there >.<
Oh well.
I sliced up the yellow bell pepper for a snack and sauteed the eggplant with some gorgeous opal basil, which was, incidentally, the same deep rich aubergine shade as the eggplant. I wasn't sure if it would keep its color during cooking, but it did! I also wilted the arugula with some garlic, as it was starting to yellow a little bit.
Having taken care of the veggies-in-danger, I cleaned up the 17th share and stored it away in my fridge for later use. Resplendent with rich fall-themed colors, this was a beautiful share worth admiring.
CSA Share 17
- 1 bunch beets
- 1 bunch carrots
- 2 bunches curly leaf parsley
- 1 bunch opal basil
- 1 bunch red Russian kale
- 1 bunch bok choy
- 1 head red Romaine lettuce
- 2 red bell peppers
CWTC: This might come as a surprise, but...carrots! More specifically, carrot tops! See the below post for a full explanation. I washed up the carrot tops along with the celery leaves from last week and tossed it all in a ziploc bag to freeze for later. I have a whole chicken from dinner that I'm working my way through, so I should have a nice bag of chicken bones for stock by the end of the week. I'm hoping that freezing the carrot and celery tops for a few days won't damage them too much. These will have to replace the onions that I usually throw in my soup pot, as I've run out of onions. :(
TAV: Red romaine lettuce. Lettuce is lettuce and this is the same as any other...but the color! It's so beautiful,with a dark green heart gradually shading out to deep shades of red masquerading as purple along the edges. I might cook this. I'm so tired of salads.
TAV alternate: Color isn't really adventurous. I just wanted to wax poetic about my lettuce. My vegetable adventure for the week will be another foray into herb-drying. Normally I would look at my parsley, think very hard about how to eat it, and despair. I am not very partial to the strong taste of fresh parsley. I recall feeding some to my pet rabbit years ago, but sadly, I do not have a pet rabbit anymore. I do like sprinkling dried parsley on my pasta and potatoes for a little color though.
Emboldened by my success in air drying my leftover sprigs of dill, I decided to dry my two large bunches of parsley as well. Why not? But I wanted to avoid perfuming the apartment with the smell of drying parsley, so I decided to expedite the process a bit. I washed and dried the parsley and popped them in my warmed oven on a paper-towel lined cookie sheet. I realized I needed to de-stem them halfway through, in order to fully dessicate the parsley but keep the leaves from burning. After I popped them back into the oven, I forgot about them and went to bed. I did turn off the oven before I put the parsley in, so I'm hoping when I get home tonight, that the parsley will have dried nicely instead of burning to a crisp. I hope. We'll see. This is an adventure, right? One cannot expect perfection when being adventurous.
WTF: I have plans. I am prepared. I can tackle what would ordinarily be a WTF contender (carrot tops, parsley). The carrot tops will be turned into a soup stock ingredient and the parsley is being crisped and dried. So...the WTF vegetable of the week will actually be the more mundane bell pepper. Mostly because this week's bell peppers came in a wider variety of sizes than I have ever seen before. I literally picked out one bell pepper the size of my head and another that was smaller than my fist. You could totally make Russian dolls out of these bell peppers. Or a rather plain, red Faberge egg.
Oh well. I'm tackling the last of the red oak leaf lettuce from CSA Share 15. Dinner tonight? A colorful salad of crisp lettuce and raw beetroot chips topped with oven-roasted chicken. The sweet crunch of the beets contrasts nicely with the chicken. Both the beets and the chicken are low profile with a delicate flavor. The oak lettuce is light and crisp and manages to provide an unobtrusive background that allows the flavor of the beets and the chicken to shine through. Extremely simple (and perhaps plain, by some standards), but delicious. I always tend to like simpler fare anyways. Yum.
Notice that I said "crisp" and "CSA Share 15." That is not a mistake. I kept the lettuce head in the crisper and used one leaf at a time in an effort to keep it as fresh as possible for as long as possible. Last night, I took inventory of my fridge and realized the eggplant and yellow bell pepper from CSA share 16 were a bit wrinkly and the lettuce was starting to wilt in spite of my heroic preservation efforts. To revive the lettuce, I washed the lettuce and let it sit in a tupperware container overnight with a bit of extra water clinging to the leaves. Voila, re-crisped lettuce.
I did have to throw out a leaf or two though - they were so far gone that extra moisture might have led to rot, not rejuvenation. I also didn't wash the lettuce well enough...I can taste gritty sand specks here and there >.<
Oh well.
I sliced up the yellow bell pepper for a snack and sauteed the eggplant with some gorgeous opal basil, which was, incidentally, the same deep rich aubergine shade as the eggplant. I wasn't sure if it would keep its color during cooking, but it did! I also wilted the arugula with some garlic, as it was starting to yellow a little bit.
Having taken care of the veggies-in-danger, I cleaned up the 17th share and stored it away in my fridge for later use. Resplendent with rich fall-themed colors, this was a beautiful share worth admiring.
CSA Share 17
- 1 bunch beets
- 1 bunch carrots
- 2 bunches curly leaf parsley
- 1 bunch opal basil
- 1 bunch red Russian kale
- 1 bunch bok choy
- 1 head red Romaine lettuce
- 2 red bell peppers
CWTC: This might come as a surprise, but...carrots! More specifically, carrot tops! See the below post for a full explanation. I washed up the carrot tops along with the celery leaves from last week and tossed it all in a ziploc bag to freeze for later. I have a whole chicken from dinner that I'm working my way through, so I should have a nice bag of chicken bones for stock by the end of the week. I'm hoping that freezing the carrot and celery tops for a few days won't damage them too much. These will have to replace the onions that I usually throw in my soup pot, as I've run out of onions. :(
TAV: Red romaine lettuce. Lettuce is lettuce and this is the same as any other...but the color! It's so beautiful,with a dark green heart gradually shading out to deep shades of red masquerading as purple along the edges. I might cook this. I'm so tired of salads.
TAV alternate: Color isn't really adventurous. I just wanted to wax poetic about my lettuce. My vegetable adventure for the week will be another foray into herb-drying. Normally I would look at my parsley, think very hard about how to eat it, and despair. I am not very partial to the strong taste of fresh parsley. I recall feeding some to my pet rabbit years ago, but sadly, I do not have a pet rabbit anymore. I do like sprinkling dried parsley on my pasta and potatoes for a little color though.
Emboldened by my success in air drying my leftover sprigs of dill, I decided to dry my two large bunches of parsley as well. Why not? But I wanted to avoid perfuming the apartment with the smell of drying parsley, so I decided to expedite the process a bit. I washed and dried the parsley and popped them in my warmed oven on a paper-towel lined cookie sheet. I realized I needed to de-stem them halfway through, in order to fully dessicate the parsley but keep the leaves from burning. After I popped them back into the oven, I forgot about them and went to bed. I did turn off the oven before I put the parsley in, so I'm hoping when I get home tonight, that the parsley will have dried nicely instead of burning to a crisp. I hope. We'll see. This is an adventure, right? One cannot expect perfection when being adventurous.
WTF: I have plans. I am prepared. I can tackle what would ordinarily be a WTF contender (carrot tops, parsley). The carrot tops will be turned into a soup stock ingredient and the parsley is being crisped and dried. So...the WTF vegetable of the week will actually be the more mundane bell pepper. Mostly because this week's bell peppers came in a wider variety of sizes than I have ever seen before. I literally picked out one bell pepper the size of my head and another that was smaller than my fist. You could totally make Russian dolls out of these bell peppers. Or a rather plain, red Faberge egg.
Friday, September 28, 2012
CARROT TOPS!
For the last few weeks, I have been stripping the bushy green carrot tops off of my carrot bunches, admiring their lush greenery, and then sadly relegating them to the trash pile. After my last two ventures into carrot tops (toasted, garlicky green grass and a rather noxious carrot top tea), I had given up altogether on carrot tops, thinking that perhaps there wasn't anything to be done with them. I started brainstorming ways to build a little compost pile on my rooftop...but...
This week was particularly difficult. The purple carrots were so beautiful and the carrot tops were so abundant. I felt remorse and shame as I sliced off the tops and threw them away.
While I was contemplating the sad fate of my carrot tops, I had a suddent guilt-induced flash of insight. Perhaps carrot tops could be used for medicinal purposes? I shuddered a bit, thinking on the carrot top tea/infusion I had tasted earlier, but I figured it was worth a try.
I found a lot of interesting facts about carrots, the history of carrot cultivation, and its various uses through the ages. Did you know the wild carrot is native to Afghanistan, where it was found in its original purple and purple-white hues? There are yellow and black varietals as well, and researchers have managed to create a particularly sweet varietal of purple carrot with an orange core. I wish I could do that for a living - create new varietals of edible plants. Sighhh... if dreams were pennies, I'd be rich.
I found several reports of carrot top and carrot seed infusions (yeck) and extracts being used for detoxification and as a diuretic. Apparently, poultices made from (wild) carrot mash also work as an external antiseptic.
I also stumbled upon a particularly entertaining 2009 NY Times article by Michael Tortorello.
The Toxic Salad (NYT)
Tortorello is more gifted than I. After cooking up some carrot tops, I believe my description of the experience was something along the lines of "garlicky toasted grass" and "interesting." In Tortorello's words, "The immature carrot greens were cheerfully bitter—say, like a $150 million Powerball winner paying his tax bill. If you can’t quite taste that simile on your tongue, here’s another adjective I could use to describe those carrot greens: toxic."
Yeah, basically. Apparently, carrot tops are mildly toxic, given their high alkaloid content. I might be just spreading internet hearsay along, but hey, I believe it. Those things are vile.
I like to read the readers' comments sections sometimes. You get such an interesting view into the lives of the most annoying netizens floating out there. NYT, WSJ, Huff Post all have very different varieties of lurkers, some more obnoxious than others. But there are also a lot of normal people and I will occasionally discover the odd gem here and there. Especially when I read inoffensive niche articles, like this one. After all, no matter how determined the would-be political commentator, it is difficult to connect leftover vegetable tops with the varying obstacles our country faces from the pernicious effects of greedy, no-good (fill in your politician or minority group of choice here - Romney, Obama, bankers, and politicans as a general group seem to be particularly popular choices these days).
I digress. While I was sifting through comments that had been posted and forgotten several years ago, I discovered quite a few interesting and useful things. I felt like a packrat, successfully scavenging scraps that would prove useful someday, perhaps.
- Rhubarb leaves are toxic.
- Parsnip sap and sunlight are a dangerous combination for your skin. The two together can cause serious blisters and rashes. Yikes!
- A nice reminder that tomato plants are toxic, except the fruit. In fact, all parts of the nightshade plants are usually toxic, with a few exceptions.
- Another nice reminder that the carrot/parsnip family is very dangerous for the unaware forager. Deadly water hemlock is all too tragically mistaken for wild parsnip or wild carrot - even a bite is fatally toxic to children (and adults).
- Rabbits like carrot tops, sometimes. So do goats, apparently.
Of course, this being the comments section, even if it is the comments section of a top notch paper with a fairly respectable readership, it is wise to take all these comments with a healthy grain or two of salt.
But anecdotal evidence is sometimes oh-so-helpful in ways that dry facts simply are not. One woman, after reading the article, exclaimed that in France, carrot tops are sold by the bunch in farmers' markets for making an excellent soup stock. Is this true? Who knows? But oh, how brilliant!
I should have thought of this. The lady casually mentions freezing large bunches of carrot greens for winter soup making purposes and I can't help but smack myself over the head for disposing of my poor carrot greens. I knew there was a good use for them.
I prefer eating my carrots raw, most of the time. Occasionally, I might roast them. But I don't like wasting them in soup, since I find the raw version ever so much tastier than the cooked version. I do like the flavor that they infuse into the broth though. And that, exactly, is what carrot tops are useful for. I can make lovely, carrot flavored soup stock without sacrificing my carrot snacking habit. Why, oh why, didn't I think of this before...?
Well, now I know. And fortunately, carrots are not a summer vegetable, like the tomato or the eggplant, so perhaps we'll be getting a few more bunches in the next few CSA shares. Thinking of carrot tops as herbs, like parsley or dill, makes a world of difference. After all, you wouldn't want to cook a dish of sauteed parsley, but you certainly would throw a handful into a soup pot. (At least, I would.) Prepared and armed with my newfound knowledge, I am ready to tackle these carrot tops again.
Please, don't doubt. I know this will work. After all, third time's the charm!
Afterthought: I think I know why every culture has soup in one form or another. And I know why every culture has it's own version of "buddaejjigae," which is essentially a mashup of anything and everything available to Koreans during the civil war (popular ingredients include ramen noodles, sour kimchi, random veggies, cheese, spam, or pasta). All ingredients are optional and can be used in any order.
Soup is just the most forgiving food to make (and one of the most economical and healthy too!)
Leftover vegetables bits (carrot tops, onion and potato peelings), the aesthetically displeasing, the odds and ends of an animal carcass (bones, gristle, tendons, innards, skin, bits of extra meat and fat), the excess herbs - they all make lovely additions to the soup pot and can be added in any whatever quantity is available. Even the strongest herbs, like cilantro or dill, can be thrown by the handful into soup, where their flavors will soften and commingle with the other ingredients, producing a flavorful but not overwhelming soup base.
Soup! How versatile you are!
This is turning into an ode to soup. I'll stop here.
This week was particularly difficult. The purple carrots were so beautiful and the carrot tops were so abundant. I felt remorse and shame as I sliced off the tops and threw them away.
While I was contemplating the sad fate of my carrot tops, I had a suddent guilt-induced flash of insight. Perhaps carrot tops could be used for medicinal purposes? I shuddered a bit, thinking on the carrot top tea/infusion I had tasted earlier, but I figured it was worth a try.
I found a lot of interesting facts about carrots, the history of carrot cultivation, and its various uses through the ages. Did you know the wild carrot is native to Afghanistan, where it was found in its original purple and purple-white hues? There are yellow and black varietals as well, and researchers have managed to create a particularly sweet varietal of purple carrot with an orange core. I wish I could do that for a living - create new varietals of edible plants. Sighhh... if dreams were pennies, I'd be rich.
I found several reports of carrot top and carrot seed infusions (yeck) and extracts being used for detoxification and as a diuretic. Apparently, poultices made from (wild) carrot mash also work as an external antiseptic.
I also stumbled upon a particularly entertaining 2009 NY Times article by Michael Tortorello.
The Toxic Salad (NYT)
Tortorello is more gifted than I. After cooking up some carrot tops, I believe my description of the experience was something along the lines of "garlicky toasted grass" and "interesting." In Tortorello's words, "The immature carrot greens were cheerfully bitter—say, like a $150 million Powerball winner paying his tax bill. If you can’t quite taste that simile on your tongue, here’s another adjective I could use to describe those carrot greens: toxic."
Yeah, basically. Apparently, carrot tops are mildly toxic, given their high alkaloid content. I might be just spreading internet hearsay along, but hey, I believe it. Those things are vile.
I like to read the readers' comments sections sometimes. You get such an interesting view into the lives of the most annoying netizens floating out there. NYT, WSJ, Huff Post all have very different varieties of lurkers, some more obnoxious than others. But there are also a lot of normal people and I will occasionally discover the odd gem here and there. Especially when I read inoffensive niche articles, like this one. After all, no matter how determined the would-be political commentator, it is difficult to connect leftover vegetable tops with the varying obstacles our country faces from the pernicious effects of greedy, no-good (fill in your politician or minority group of choice here - Romney, Obama, bankers, and politicans as a general group seem to be particularly popular choices these days).
I digress. While I was sifting through comments that had been posted and forgotten several years ago, I discovered quite a few interesting and useful things. I felt like a packrat, successfully scavenging scraps that would prove useful someday, perhaps.
- Rhubarb leaves are toxic.
- Parsnip sap and sunlight are a dangerous combination for your skin. The two together can cause serious blisters and rashes. Yikes!
- A nice reminder that tomato plants are toxic, except the fruit. In fact, all parts of the nightshade plants are usually toxic, with a few exceptions.
- Another nice reminder that the carrot/parsnip family is very dangerous for the unaware forager. Deadly water hemlock is all too tragically mistaken for wild parsnip or wild carrot - even a bite is fatally toxic to children (and adults).
- Rabbits like carrot tops, sometimes. So do goats, apparently.
Of course, this being the comments section, even if it is the comments section of a top notch paper with a fairly respectable readership, it is wise to take all these comments with a healthy grain or two of salt.
But anecdotal evidence is sometimes oh-so-helpful in ways that dry facts simply are not. One woman, after reading the article, exclaimed that in France, carrot tops are sold by the bunch in farmers' markets for making an excellent soup stock. Is this true? Who knows? But oh, how brilliant!
I should have thought of this. The lady casually mentions freezing large bunches of carrot greens for winter soup making purposes and I can't help but smack myself over the head for disposing of my poor carrot greens. I knew there was a good use for them.
I prefer eating my carrots raw, most of the time. Occasionally, I might roast them. But I don't like wasting them in soup, since I find the raw version ever so much tastier than the cooked version. I do like the flavor that they infuse into the broth though. And that, exactly, is what carrot tops are useful for. I can make lovely, carrot flavored soup stock without sacrificing my carrot snacking habit. Why, oh why, didn't I think of this before...?
Well, now I know. And fortunately, carrots are not a summer vegetable, like the tomato or the eggplant, so perhaps we'll be getting a few more bunches in the next few CSA shares. Thinking of carrot tops as herbs, like parsley or dill, makes a world of difference. After all, you wouldn't want to cook a dish of sauteed parsley, but you certainly would throw a handful into a soup pot. (At least, I would.) Prepared and armed with my newfound knowledge, I am ready to tackle these carrot tops again.
Please, don't doubt. I know this will work. After all, third time's the charm!
Afterthought: I think I know why every culture has soup in one form or another. And I know why every culture has it's own version of "buddaejjigae," which is essentially a mashup of anything and everything available to Koreans during the civil war (popular ingredients include ramen noodles, sour kimchi, random veggies, cheese, spam, or pasta). All ingredients are optional and can be used in any order.
Soup is just the most forgiving food to make (and one of the most economical and healthy too!)
Leftover vegetables bits (carrot tops, onion and potato peelings), the aesthetically displeasing, the odds and ends of an animal carcass (bones, gristle, tendons, innards, skin, bits of extra meat and fat), the excess herbs - they all make lovely additions to the soup pot and can be added in any whatever quantity is available. Even the strongest herbs, like cilantro or dill, can be thrown by the handful into soup, where their flavors will soften and commingle with the other ingredients, producing a flavorful but not overwhelming soup base.
Soup! How versatile you are!
This is turning into an ode to soup. I'll stop here.
Wednesday, September 19, 2012
CSA Share #15
I just had the best damn apple of my life. Excuse my language. Now I know I haven't been around that long (relatively speaking), but I have eaten more than my fair share of apples in my lifetime. I love apples. Every time I see a new variety, I have to try it. I am very picky about the freshness of my apples, but otherwise, I'm open to trying anything and everything.
This week's fruit share included Macoun apples and as a reward for volunteering at this week's distribution, the coordinator let me poach an apple from the leftover pile. I didn't expect much of it, which made my first delicious bite all the more surprising... Anyways, I'll make a separate post dedicated to the Macoun Apple Experience - yes, it really deserves its own separate post.
In the meantime, this week's share and my sneaky plotting ways to use it up without eating salad all week:
CSA Share 15:
- 1 bunch radishes
- 1 bunch green onions
- 1 bunch dill
- 1 bunch mixed "braising" greens (kale, tatsoi, green and red mustard, hon tsai tsai)
- 2 red bell peppers
- 2 jalapenos
- 2 pounds plum tomatoes
- 2 cucumbers
- 1 head Romaine lettuce
- 1 head red leaf lettuce
CWTC: jalapenos! I've been craving something spicy lately.
TAV: Mixed braising greens. These look incredibly beautiful, with a variety of green and purple stems and gorgeous veining patterns on some of the leaves and bright, tender green leaves poking through. They intrigue me. I have never heard of tatsoi or hon tsai tsai and I have never cooked fresh mustard leaves before. I didn't even know there was a red variety. I love that Free Bird Farm incorporates Asian-style veggies into our shares (e.g. Thai basil, bok choy, hobak). Yay!
WTF: Dill. :( These herbs are killing me. What am I going to do with this much dill?! I still have my cilantro too. FML.
Brainstorm area:
This is me thinking out loud. Welcome to my brain. HA.
I have two lemons in the fridge and some cilantro. The rest of my share has (thankfully, finally) been consumed, with the last sad remnants of the lettuce from last week straggling into my lunch and dinner salads today. No more salads please...
I suppose the lettuce is best in a salad, since I don't have time to grill or cook them this week. I can throw some radishes, cucumbers, and tomatoes together and make a decent lunch and dinner for myself. That leaves the braising greens, bell peppers, jalapenos, green onions, and dill. And radish greens.
The braising greens can become dinner for later in the week. The radish greens can wait in the fridge until next week. The green onions and dill can be mixed into some cream cheese for a nice savory spread.
I can also mix the dill with lemon juice and Greek yogurt for a tasty yogurt dip that I can pile into pita loaves. !!! I am brilliant. I can stuff the pita loaves with yogurt dip, shredded lettuce, cucumber and tomato for a yummy Mediterranean style vegetarian sandwich. I am so genius. That's how I'll use up my leftover veg next week.
The leftover green onions and dill can be tossed into chicken soup for lunch next week. (I still have several Ziploc bags of frozen chicken soup in the freezer, so this is really perfect).
Too bad I don't have potatoes. Then I wouldn't be stuck wondering what to do with all my dill. Ah well, maybe next time.
This week's fruit share included Macoun apples and as a reward for volunteering at this week's distribution, the coordinator let me poach an apple from the leftover pile. I didn't expect much of it, which made my first delicious bite all the more surprising... Anyways, I'll make a separate post dedicated to the Macoun Apple Experience - yes, it really deserves its own separate post.
In the meantime, this week's share and my sneaky plotting ways to use it up without eating salad all week:
CSA Share 15:
- 1 bunch radishes
- 1 bunch green onions
- 1 bunch dill
- 1 bunch mixed "braising" greens (kale, tatsoi, green and red mustard, hon tsai tsai)
- 2 red bell peppers
- 2 jalapenos
- 2 pounds plum tomatoes
- 2 cucumbers
- 1 head Romaine lettuce
- 1 head red leaf lettuce
CWTC: jalapenos! I've been craving something spicy lately.
TAV: Mixed braising greens. These look incredibly beautiful, with a variety of green and purple stems and gorgeous veining patterns on some of the leaves and bright, tender green leaves poking through. They intrigue me. I have never heard of tatsoi or hon tsai tsai and I have never cooked fresh mustard leaves before. I didn't even know there was a red variety. I love that Free Bird Farm incorporates Asian-style veggies into our shares (e.g. Thai basil, bok choy, hobak). Yay!
WTF: Dill. :( These herbs are killing me. What am I going to do with this much dill?! I still have my cilantro too. FML.
Brainstorm area:
This is me thinking out loud. Welcome to my brain. HA.
I have two lemons in the fridge and some cilantro. The rest of my share has (thankfully, finally) been consumed, with the last sad remnants of the lettuce from last week straggling into my lunch and dinner salads today. No more salads please...
I suppose the lettuce is best in a salad, since I don't have time to grill or cook them this week. I can throw some radishes, cucumbers, and tomatoes together and make a decent lunch and dinner for myself. That leaves the braising greens, bell peppers, jalapenos, green onions, and dill. And radish greens.
The braising greens can become dinner for later in the week. The radish greens can wait in the fridge until next week. The green onions and dill can be mixed into some cream cheese for a nice savory spread.
I can also mix the dill with lemon juice and Greek yogurt for a tasty yogurt dip that I can pile into pita loaves. !!! I am brilliant. I can stuff the pita loaves with yogurt dip, shredded lettuce, cucumber and tomato for a yummy Mediterranean style vegetarian sandwich. I am so genius. That's how I'll use up my leftover veg next week.
The leftover green onions and dill can be tossed into chicken soup for lunch next week. (I still have several Ziploc bags of frozen chicken soup in the freezer, so this is really perfect).
Too bad I don't have potatoes. Then I wouldn't be stuck wondering what to do with all my dill. Ah well, maybe next time.
Monday, September 17, 2012
Fresh soybeans and creative uses for CSA vegetables
Remember the soybeans from CSA Share #13?
Well, I cooked them. It was incredibly easy too.
1. Wash soybeans.
2. Place in pot and cover with water.
3. Add salt.
4. Bring to a boil and reduce heat to a low boil. Let the soybeans boil for 5-10 minutes.
5. Test a soybean - if they taste nutty and tender, they're done.
6. Drain and salt, if desired.
I found a random soybean that escaped the pot and I was curious what raw soybeans might taste like. I figured I might not get another chance to try, so I went ahead and took a nibble. They tasted like a larger, rawer version of green beans, if that makes sense. Probably won't try that again, but it was interesting!
Alas, I lost my basil from CSA Share #13 to negligence. I kept thinking I'd use it for something and then it grew moldy. Tears.
But I did manage to use up a bunch of my other vegetables for the week!
Exhibit A: Arugula
I managed to toss a bunch of arugula into some late night shin ramen for late nightt post-drinking munchies. Mostly, I'm really really really impressed with my commitment to my vegetables. After all, drunk people normally don't think about vegetables as a first concern. I even washed the arugula before dumping it in my ramen! For the record, it was really delicious and it totally hit the spot. I demolished an entire pot of ramen singlehandedly. Yeah. Uhhhh....next.
Exhibit B: Cilantro + turnip greens
In my efforts to avoid wasting two weeks of herbs in a row, I thought what the hell why not, and tossed several healthy sprigs of cilantro into my sauteed garlic-turnip greens. This was a very flavorful preparation, as I accidentally peeled more garlic than I thought I could use. Eight cloves of garlic in one sitting. I was a little concerned, but it turned out just fine. This was actually not a bad combination at all! But then, I always did have a soft spot for cilantro.
Exhibit C: Basil
I did manage to use up a bit of my basil. I tossed them on top of a fried egg, which added a nice, herby touch. Unfortunately, I couldn't think of anything else to put the basil on before it went moldy, but better luck next time, I suppose.
Well, I cooked them. It was incredibly easy too.
1. Wash soybeans.
2. Place in pot and cover with water.
3. Add salt.
4. Bring to a boil and reduce heat to a low boil. Let the soybeans boil for 5-10 minutes.
5. Test a soybean - if they taste nutty and tender, they're done.
6. Drain and salt, if desired.
I found a random soybean that escaped the pot and I was curious what raw soybeans might taste like. I figured I might not get another chance to try, so I went ahead and took a nibble. They tasted like a larger, rawer version of green beans, if that makes sense. Probably won't try that again, but it was interesting!
Alas, I lost my basil from CSA Share #13 to negligence. I kept thinking I'd use it for something and then it grew moldy. Tears.
But I did manage to use up a bunch of my other vegetables for the week!
Exhibit A: Arugula
I managed to toss a bunch of arugula into some late night shin ramen for late nightt post-drinking munchies. Mostly, I'm really really really impressed with my commitment to my vegetables. After all, drunk people normally don't think about vegetables as a first concern. I even washed the arugula before dumping it in my ramen! For the record, it was really delicious and it totally hit the spot. I demolished an entire pot of ramen singlehandedly. Yeah. Uhhhh....next.
Exhibit B: Cilantro + turnip greens
In my efforts to avoid wasting two weeks of herbs in a row, I thought what the hell why not, and tossed several healthy sprigs of cilantro into my sauteed garlic-turnip greens. This was a very flavorful preparation, as I accidentally peeled more garlic than I thought I could use. Eight cloves of garlic in one sitting. I was a little concerned, but it turned out just fine. This was actually not a bad combination at all! But then, I always did have a soft spot for cilantro.
Exhibit C: Basil
I did manage to use up a bit of my basil. I tossed them on top of a fried egg, which added a nice, herby touch. Unfortunately, I couldn't think of anything else to put the basil on before it went moldy, but better luck next time, I suppose.
Monday, August 27, 2012
Tomato Sauce from Scratch
This weekend ended up being a little less domestic and a lot more crazy than expected. I need a month long detox. But I did manage to get around to making my tomato sauce!
My roommate, his friend, and yours truly, were bumming around the apartment on Saturday evening with no energy left for going out to eat dinner. We debated ordering takeout, but I really needed to use up my tomatoes, so I told the boys I'd cook pasta. They seemed skeptical, but they took a leap of faith and agreed to eat pasta for dinner. They even offered to help in the kitchen :)
The tomato sauce was sort of improvised, but I was pretty happy with it.
Pasta with Spicy Tomato Sauce
Ingredients:
- 2 jalapeno peppers
- 6 cloves garlic
- 2 onions
- 6 medium tomatoes
- 1 bunch basil
- 1 package pasta
- salt and pepper to taste
- a bit of olive oil
Recipe:
1. Peel and chop onions. Thinly slice the garlic cloves.
2. Heat some olive oil in a large pan over medium heat. Toss in onions and garlic.
3. Wash and chop tomatoes into small chunks.
4. Stir the onions and garlic occasionally until the onions turn slightly translucent.
5. Add tomatoes to the pan.
6. Add salt and pepper to taste. Let the pan simmer, stirring occasionally.
7. Put a pot of water on to boil.
8. When water reaches the boiling point, add pasta.
9. Boil the pasta for 10-12 minutes, or until al dente.
10. Drain pasta and set aside.
11. Chop up the jalapenos and basil leaves. Add to the pan.
12. Stir the tomato sauce and let it simmer until most of the liquid has boiled off. If the sauce is too thick, add water.
13. Ladle sauce over the pasta and serve. Garnish with extra basil leaves if desired.
Note: Be careful with the jalapenos! We were informed by my roommate's friend that the peppers "weren't that hot." Turns out, they were. If you're worried about making the sauce too spicy, remove the seeds and the white pith (this is the spiciest part of the pepper) or just omit the jalapenos altogether.
The boys were impressed, especially since there was no meat in the pasta. We were all happily fueled up for a night out, I used up a lot of my leftover CSA share, and I didn't even have to do the dishes afterwards! I'd say it was a success.
My roommate, his friend, and yours truly, were bumming around the apartment on Saturday evening with no energy left for going out to eat dinner. We debated ordering takeout, but I really needed to use up my tomatoes, so I told the boys I'd cook pasta. They seemed skeptical, but they took a leap of faith and agreed to eat pasta for dinner. They even offered to help in the kitchen :)
The tomato sauce was sort of improvised, but I was pretty happy with it.
Pasta with Spicy Tomato Sauce
Ingredients:
- 2 jalapeno peppers
- 6 cloves garlic
- 2 onions
- 6 medium tomatoes
- 1 bunch basil
- 1 package pasta
- salt and pepper to taste
- a bit of olive oil
Recipe:
1. Peel and chop onions. Thinly slice the garlic cloves.
2. Heat some olive oil in a large pan over medium heat. Toss in onions and garlic.
3. Wash and chop tomatoes into small chunks.
4. Stir the onions and garlic occasionally until the onions turn slightly translucent.
5. Add tomatoes to the pan.
6. Add salt and pepper to taste. Let the pan simmer, stirring occasionally.
7. Put a pot of water on to boil.
8. When water reaches the boiling point, add pasta.
9. Boil the pasta for 10-12 minutes, or until al dente.
10. Drain pasta and set aside.
11. Chop up the jalapenos and basil leaves. Add to the pan.
12. Stir the tomato sauce and let it simmer until most of the liquid has boiled off. If the sauce is too thick, add water.
13. Ladle sauce over the pasta and serve. Garnish with extra basil leaves if desired.
Note: Be careful with the jalapenos! We were informed by my roommate's friend that the peppers "weren't that hot." Turns out, they were. If you're worried about making the sauce too spicy, remove the seeds and the white pith (this is the spiciest part of the pepper) or just omit the jalapenos altogether.
The boys were impressed, especially since there was no meat in the pasta. We were all happily fueled up for a night out, I used up a lot of my leftover CSA share, and I didn't even have to do the dishes afterwards! I'd say it was a success.
Monday, August 20, 2012
Fennel and Red Cabbage Salad
I've been holding on to a small head of red cabbage from CSA share #7 for a few weeks now, so I thought this might be a good time to try and use it up. Red cabbage is a great source of vitamins and minerals, including the antioxidant, Vitamin C. The thing about cabbage is that once it's cut, Vitamin C starts to disappear right away. Plus, it starts to wilt. So it's a good idea to use up the entire head of cabbage when possible, in order to maximize the health (and flavor!) benefits.
I had a bunch of oranges, pineapple, and apples stored in the fridge for sangria-making purposes (yum!), so when I happened upon a recipe for fennel and red cabbage salad with oranges, I decided to sacrifice a few of my sangria oranges for salad. Glad I did, because the salad turned out quite nicely. The original recipe called for things like pepitas, tamari, hemp seeds, and cilantro, none of which I had on hand, so I made a few modifications and tried to use up the random things I had lying around my kitchen. I also like keeping things simple and quick, to save time.
Ladies and gentlemen, behold my dumbed down fennel and red cabbage salad.
Fennel and Red Cabbage Salad
Ingredients:
- 1 small head of red cabbage
- 2 small fennel bulbs
- 2 oranges
- lemon juice
- olive oil
- balsamic vinegar
- salt
Recipe:
1. Wash and trim fennel bulbs. Reserve fronds and stalks for soup stock (stalk stock teehee) and garnish.
2. Wash and core red cabbage. If you're hungry, you could microwave the cores for a minute or two and eat them as a snack. Nom nom.
3. Slice the cabbage and fennel into thin strips, coleslaw style.
4. Drizzle the fennel strips with olive oil, lemon juice (I used the juice from a third of a lemon), and salt.
5. Slice orange segments into bite size pieces and add to the fennel mix.
6. If you're not eating the salad right away, store in the fridge and mix everything together just before serving/eating*. Keep the cabbage separate from the fennel so the red coloring doesn't leach into the fennel slices. Or the oranges. I imagine purple and orange in combination would turn a rather unappetizing shade of brown.
7. Toss the cabbage with the fennel/orange mix and then drizzle a bit of balsamic vinegar on top. Season with salt and pepper.
8. Garnish with a few fennel fronds.
9. Enjoy.
* If you're making lunch for work and you're short on tupperware (like me), you can wrap up the red cabbage in some saran wrap to keep it separate from the rest of the salad and put it on top of the fennel. Don't use foil, as the acid from the lemon juice might do funny things to your lunch :(
I had way too much red cabbage, so I just brought in the extra cabbage to work the next day, microwaved it, and added salt and pepper. Pretty tasty but it smelled pretty strongly of sulfur. Fortunately, my coworkers are accustomed to far more offensive smells, like fish and kimchi (we sit right by the microwave and the Korilla truck stops by every now and then), so I think I'm still on good terms with them. I hope.
CSA Share #11 is coming in tomorrow! I have a crapton of vegetables, but they're pretty storage-friendly, so I'll probably wait and see what I get in tomorrow's share before I cook any of the CSA leftovers. My inventory consists mostly of onions, garlic, jalapenos, and fennel stalks. I have a pint of frozen chicken consomme, so I might make some soup this weekend and freeze portions for later use.
On a somewhat (not really) related note, I had brunch with my friends at Clinton St Bakery down in the LES. Chocolate chunk pancakes with maple butterscotch syrup. I die. Haha. And the icing on the cake? When I walked in the door, I immediately noticed a sign hanging on the wall with a list of local farms that Clinton St. Bakery sources their fresh ingredients from. I excitedly pointed it out to my brunch friends, but I think my enthusiasm was a little one-sided. #foreveralone
I had a bunch of oranges, pineapple, and apples stored in the fridge for sangria-making purposes (yum!), so when I happened upon a recipe for fennel and red cabbage salad with oranges, I decided to sacrifice a few of my sangria oranges for salad. Glad I did, because the salad turned out quite nicely. The original recipe called for things like pepitas, tamari, hemp seeds, and cilantro, none of which I had on hand, so I made a few modifications and tried to use up the random things I had lying around my kitchen. I also like keeping things simple and quick, to save time.
Ladies and gentlemen, behold my dumbed down fennel and red cabbage salad.
Fennel and Red Cabbage Salad
Ingredients:
- 1 small head of red cabbage
- 2 small fennel bulbs
- 2 oranges
- lemon juice
- olive oil
- balsamic vinegar
- salt
Recipe:
1. Wash and trim fennel bulbs. Reserve fronds and stalks for soup stock (stalk stock teehee) and garnish.
2. Wash and core red cabbage. If you're hungry, you could microwave the cores for a minute or two and eat them as a snack. Nom nom.
3. Slice the cabbage and fennel into thin strips, coleslaw style.
4. Drizzle the fennel strips with olive oil, lemon juice (I used the juice from a third of a lemon), and salt.
5. Slice orange segments into bite size pieces and add to the fennel mix.
6. If you're not eating the salad right away, store in the fridge and mix everything together just before serving/eating*. Keep the cabbage separate from the fennel so the red coloring doesn't leach into the fennel slices. Or the oranges. I imagine purple and orange in combination would turn a rather unappetizing shade of brown.
7. Toss the cabbage with the fennel/orange mix and then drizzle a bit of balsamic vinegar on top. Season with salt and pepper.
8. Garnish with a few fennel fronds.
9. Enjoy.
* If you're making lunch for work and you're short on tupperware (like me), you can wrap up the red cabbage in some saran wrap to keep it separate from the rest of the salad and put it on top of the fennel. Don't use foil, as the acid from the lemon juice might do funny things to your lunch :(
I had way too much red cabbage, so I just brought in the extra cabbage to work the next day, microwaved it, and added salt and pepper. Pretty tasty but it smelled pretty strongly of sulfur. Fortunately, my coworkers are accustomed to far more offensive smells, like fish and kimchi (we sit right by the microwave and the Korilla truck stops by every now and then), so I think I'm still on good terms with them. I hope.
CSA Share #11 is coming in tomorrow! I have a crapton of vegetables, but they're pretty storage-friendly, so I'll probably wait and see what I get in tomorrow's share before I cook any of the CSA leftovers. My inventory consists mostly of onions, garlic, jalapenos, and fennel stalks. I have a pint of frozen chicken consomme, so I might make some soup this weekend and freeze portions for later use.
On a somewhat (not really) related note, I had brunch with my friends at Clinton St Bakery down in the LES. Chocolate chunk pancakes with maple butterscotch syrup. I die. Haha. And the icing on the cake? When I walked in the door, I immediately noticed a sign hanging on the wall with a list of local farms that Clinton St. Bakery sources their fresh ingredients from. I excitedly pointed it out to my brunch friends, but I think my enthusiasm was a little one-sided. #foreveralone
Tuesday, August 14, 2012
Leek soup
Feeling terribly lazy and overfull from an indulgent weekend, during which I hosted a mini rebellion and declared a temporary vegetable hiatus. Pork buns and Hakata ramen from Ippudo, 짜장면 and 짬뽕 and fried dumplings at Dong Chun Hong, hot coconut bubble tea at Saints Alp...
There were a few moments when I thought I might pop from overeating.
So when I floated back to earth from my food-induced haze, the only thing that really appealed to me was simple fare. Like, really simple. I made leek soup. I forget who taught me this recipe, but I remember them telling me they read it in a book. I think you're supposed to eat this soup for an entire weekend to detox, but that obviously wasn't happening. Oh well! It's quite tasty though.
Simple Leek Soup
1. Cut off dark green leek tops and roots. Strip off outer layer. You should be left with only the white and very light green parts. You can keep the dark green tops for soup stock.
2. Cut leeks in half lengthwise (split it down the middle hot dog bun style).
3. Rinse leeks very thoroughly under cold running water, fanning out the leaves on each side to remove all the dirt. Not sure how to describe this, but it's almost like flipping through the pages of a book under running water.
4. Drop leek halves in a pot of water.
5. Bring the water to a boil and then reduce to a simmer.
6. Simmer for 20 minutes or so, until leeks become tender and slightly transparent.
7. Separate the leeks from the soup.
8. Drink the soup as is or season with salt and pepper to taste.
9. Drizzle leeks with olive oil and season with salt and pepper to taste. Enjoy!
I also cooked my eggplants, but I haven't had the chance to eat them yet, since I forgot to take them with me to work yesterday. I'll probably have them for dinner today. I cooked them the same way as I cooked the chard (minus the blanching part), meaning I finally managed to use up all my thai basil. Success! We'll see if it tastes good later today... It smelled good though, so I have high hopes.
UPDATE: The eggplant is delicious! Japanese eggplant has a thinner skin and the texture is much more delicate than the normal American varieties. Eggplant has been called bland, tends to absorb oil, and can degenerate into a slimy mess, but I think I managed to avoid most of the pitfalls. I circumvented the blandness by using liberal quantities of garlic and thai basil. And I only used a tablespoon of olive oil (max). All you really need is to infuse the garlic flavor into the oil so that the eggplant gets coated with plenty of flavor while it's cooking. It's a deceptive vegetable, this eggplant, looking dry and sad in the pan, almost begging for more oil. But don't be fooled! Just keep stirring and flipping pieces over and soon enough, the eggplant will become tasty and tender.
There were a few moments when I thought I might pop from overeating.
So when I floated back to earth from my food-induced haze, the only thing that really appealed to me was simple fare. Like, really simple. I made leek soup. I forget who taught me this recipe, but I remember them telling me they read it in a book. I think you're supposed to eat this soup for an entire weekend to detox, but that obviously wasn't happening. Oh well! It's quite tasty though.
Simple Leek Soup
1. Cut off dark green leek tops and roots. Strip off outer layer. You should be left with only the white and very light green parts. You can keep the dark green tops for soup stock.
2. Cut leeks in half lengthwise (split it down the middle hot dog bun style).
3. Rinse leeks very thoroughly under cold running water, fanning out the leaves on each side to remove all the dirt. Not sure how to describe this, but it's almost like flipping through the pages of a book under running water.
4. Drop leek halves in a pot of water.
5. Bring the water to a boil and then reduce to a simmer.
6. Simmer for 20 minutes or so, until leeks become tender and slightly transparent.
7. Separate the leeks from the soup.
8. Drink the soup as is or season with salt and pepper to taste.
9. Drizzle leeks with olive oil and season with salt and pepper to taste. Enjoy!
I also cooked my eggplants, but I haven't had the chance to eat them yet, since I forgot to take them with me to work yesterday. I'll probably have them for dinner today. I cooked them the same way as I cooked the chard (minus the blanching part), meaning I finally managed to use up all my thai basil. Success! We'll see if it tastes good later today... It smelled good though, so I have high hopes.
UPDATE: The eggplant is delicious! Japanese eggplant has a thinner skin and the texture is much more delicate than the normal American varieties. Eggplant has been called bland, tends to absorb oil, and can degenerate into a slimy mess, but I think I managed to avoid most of the pitfalls. I circumvented the blandness by using liberal quantities of garlic and thai basil. And I only used a tablespoon of olive oil (max). All you really need is to infuse the garlic flavor into the oil so that the eggplant gets coated with plenty of flavor while it's cooking. It's a deceptive vegetable, this eggplant, looking dry and sad in the pan, almost begging for more oil. But don't be fooled! Just keep stirring and flipping pieces over and soon enough, the eggplant will become tasty and tender.
Friday, August 10, 2012
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...
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...
Tuesday, August 7, 2012
Housewarming-ish
I am finally getting ahead in my summerlong battle with the vegetables!
The roasted beets, potatoes, and onions were lovely. The roasting kitchen was rather not. I think I'm going to avoid roasting anything in the summertime from now on... On the bright side, I did manage to finally use up (and eat) all the root vegetables I'd been collecting over the last few weeks!
The roasting process itself was quite simple: drizzle with olive oil, wrap in foil packets, bake for 40-60 minutes or until tender when poked with a fork. I'm pretty impatient though. I kept taking my potatoes out every 15 minutes and serving them, hoping they were fully cooked (they were not). I think my poor guests ingested at least one entire undercooked baby potato each. Luckily, I have very patient friends who let me putter around the kitchen, constantly shuttling their dinner back-and-forth from their plates to the oven and back again.
The eggplant sauteed very nicely. I splashed a bit of olive oil in a pan, added some sliced up garlic, and let the garlic crisp and turn a bit golden. When the garlic was on the verge of browning, I dumped in my eggplant cubes, sprinkled some salt on top, and let the whole thing cook for about 10-15 minutes or so, stirring occasionally.
Carrots with 됀장 made for a nice midnight snack (and desk snack).
I tried cooking my carrot tops like I cook 쑥갓, since the taste is pretty similar. I blanched the carrot tops for about 30 seconds to a minute and then sauteed them lightly with garlic and oil and a smidge of fish sauce. While they weren't too bad, I don't think I'm going to try that again. I seriously felt like I was eating garlicky toasted grass.
On a side note: I'm really glad I have so much garlic. At first, I wasn't sure what I was going to do with all of it, but then I realized that it really helps with the vegetables. Especially since I have no spices at the moment (thanks to moving into my new apartment).
I think next time, I'll probably try making carrot top tea instead. Apparently there's a lot of Vitamin K, potassium, and other minerals/vitamins that are quite good for you. Carrot top tea is also supposed to serve as a particularly effective kidney cleanser. Regardless of the health claims, I'm obsessed with tea, so I'll give that a try the next time I get carrot tops in my share.
The roasted beets, potatoes, and onions were lovely. The roasting kitchen was rather not. I think I'm going to avoid roasting anything in the summertime from now on... On the bright side, I did manage to finally use up (and eat) all the root vegetables I'd been collecting over the last few weeks!
The roasting process itself was quite simple: drizzle with olive oil, wrap in foil packets, bake for 40-60 minutes or until tender when poked with a fork. I'm pretty impatient though. I kept taking my potatoes out every 15 minutes and serving them, hoping they were fully cooked (they were not). I think my poor guests ingested at least one entire undercooked baby potato each. Luckily, I have very patient friends who let me putter around the kitchen, constantly shuttling their dinner back-and-forth from their plates to the oven and back again.
The eggplant sauteed very nicely. I splashed a bit of olive oil in a pan, added some sliced up garlic, and let the garlic crisp and turn a bit golden. When the garlic was on the verge of browning, I dumped in my eggplant cubes, sprinkled some salt on top, and let the whole thing cook for about 10-15 minutes or so, stirring occasionally.
Carrots with 됀장 made for a nice midnight snack (and desk snack).
I tried cooking my carrot tops like I cook 쑥갓, since the taste is pretty similar. I blanched the carrot tops for about 30 seconds to a minute and then sauteed them lightly with garlic and oil and a smidge of fish sauce. While they weren't too bad, I don't think I'm going to try that again. I seriously felt like I was eating garlicky toasted grass.
On a side note: I'm really glad I have so much garlic. At first, I wasn't sure what I was going to do with all of it, but then I realized that it really helps with the vegetables. Especially since I have no spices at the moment (thanks to moving into my new apartment).
I think next time, I'll probably try making carrot top tea instead. Apparently there's a lot of Vitamin K, potassium, and other minerals/vitamins that are quite good for you. Carrot top tea is also supposed to serve as a particularly effective kidney cleanser. Regardless of the health claims, I'm obsessed with tea, so I'll give that a try the next time I get carrot tops in my share.
Tuesday, July 31, 2012
CSA Share #8
I love my new apartment! I think a housewarming party this weekend is in good order.
Sangria + CSA produce + friends + summer nights = happy people
In fact, my eighth CSA share seems like it was designed just for a nice summer dinner:
- 1.5 lbs Yukon gold potatoes
- 1 bunch Thai basil
- 1 bunch beets
- 1 Italian eggplant
- 2 heads garlic
- 1 bunch red onions
Extras:
- 1 green bell pepper
- 1 bunch carrots
CWTC: POTATOES! Eek! I love new potatoes and these are as new as they get. They look so lovely and waxy and yummy... My absolute favorite dish to cook when I'm in a hurry but need a crowd-pleasing favorite for potlucks or dinners is roasted new potatoes. This "recipe" is super forgiving. Quantities, temperature, and timing are all approximate and have large margins for error, which is excellent news for challenged cooks like me.
WTF: None. I like all these. And I know what to do with mostly all of these.
TAV: Thai basil. Everything else is pretty garden variety, but I'll admit that I'm less sure of how to use this herb. However, I've eaten it in pho and curry countless times, so I know I definitely like it. Brainstorming ideas for this weekend...my best ideas so far are:
- Thai basil infused lemonade (spiked :D)
- Eggplant stir fry with garlic and thai basil
If I still have leftover basil, I suppose I could always try to freeze it. Nahhh...moar cocktails! :D
Sangria + CSA produce + friends + summer nights = happy people
In fact, my eighth CSA share seems like it was designed just for a nice summer dinner:
- 1.5 lbs Yukon gold potatoes
- 1 bunch Thai basil
- 1 bunch beets
- 1 Italian eggplant
- 2 heads garlic
- 1 bunch red onions
Extras:
- 1 green bell pepper
- 1 bunch carrots
CWTC: POTATOES! Eek! I love new potatoes and these are as new as they get. They look so lovely and waxy and yummy... My absolute favorite dish to cook when I'm in a hurry but need a crowd-pleasing favorite for potlucks or dinners is roasted new potatoes. This "recipe" is super forgiving. Quantities, temperature, and timing are all approximate and have large margins for error, which is excellent news for challenged cooks like me.
- Preheat oven to 350 ish.
- Wash potatoes thoroughly.
- Quarter into bite size chunks. Leave the skin on!
- Drizzle with olive oil.
- Add a dash of salt, rosemary, and pepper. Extra points if you can get coarse sea salt flakes, fresh rosemary, and freshly ground pepper. I just love the texture and taste of the giant salt crystals on the potatoes. In lieu of rosemary, feel free to experiment with dill, parsley, or plain.
- Line a pan with foil for easy cleanup.
- Evenly spread the potatoes in a single layer.
- Pop in the oven and wait a while. Depending on the size of the potato chunks, this could take anywhere from 15-40 minutes. Check the potatoes by poking them with a fork (or chopstick). If the fork slides in easily, the potatoes are cooked. If not, best leave them a bit longer. If I'm in a huge hurry, I'll slice the potatoes smaller so they cook faster.
- Garnish with sprigs of rosemary or other pretty things if desired. ENJOY.
WTF: None. I like all these. And I know what to do with mostly all of these.
TAV: Thai basil. Everything else is pretty garden variety, but I'll admit that I'm less sure of how to use this herb. However, I've eaten it in pho and curry countless times, so I know I definitely like it. Brainstorming ideas for this weekend...my best ideas so far are:
- Thai basil infused lemonade (spiked :D)
- Eggplant stir fry with garlic and thai basil
If I still have leftover basil, I suppose I could always try to freeze it. Nahhh...moar cocktails! :D
Thursday, July 26, 2012
CSA Share #7
Alright, I've resigned myself to perpetual busyness. I'll be moving to a new apartment this week and I'll need to figure out a new routine for bringing my produce home. Seems like I'm not the only one staying busy though - our farm has their hands full trying to combat the record drought and heat.
A few posts back, I touched on last year's season and how the heavy rainfall (and Hurricane Irene) wiped out a lot of farms and CSAs. The idea of rain being a bad thing for crops honestly didn't really cross my mind until I read last year's Free Bird Farm blog posts. However, droughts and excessive heat are nothing new to me (yay Arizona). When our CSA sends out the farmer's updates on how weather is affecting what's ending up in our share boxes, I definitely empathize.
On a related note, corn fields in particular seem to be getting hit pretty hard. From what I remember in my plant genetics lab research days from high school, corn is quite heat-hardy but needs a lot of water. Not only does this mean no sweet corn for me :( but it means less corn for everyone. Including animals. So...we can probably expect higher corn, beef, pork, and chicken prices next year. Ah well. Good thing I don't eat much meat these days anyways. :)
This week's share was pretty good (no more broccoli yay!):
- another bunch of beets
- parsley
- 3/4 lb green beans
- 3 medium red onions
- 1 bunch carrots
- 1 Italian eggplant
- 1 red cabbage
Extras (not included in the original distribution list but available at pickup):
- 2 patty pan squash
- 1 yellow zucchini
Alrighty then. This week's roundup:
CWTC: GREEN BEANS! I love green beans. I rarely manage to cook them - I end up eating them way too fast. I don't even really need dressing or dip for these, as long as they're fresh. Just wash, snap off the tips, and voila. Snacks.
WTF: parsley...
TAV: Eggplant. I love eggplant in Chinese food, but I've never really eaten it on my own. I have no idea how to cook it. Everyone loves to hate on eggplant for some reason, but I'm determined to make this work. Just watch me!
Side note: I love how much purple there is in this share! The onions, cabbage, eggplant, and even the beets are all various lovely shades of red-purple to deep purple-black. Pretty!
Side note of shame: I still have a lot of leftover produce from last week. I'm falling behind...help! I still have the romaine lettuce, zucchini and squash, chard, broccoli (for the last two weeks, actually), and garlic scapes from a while back. I think I should invite my friends over for a housewarming party. Little will they know it's really just a cover for using up all my extra produce. I feel like it's not a good sign when you start viewing your friends asbroccoli vegetable disposals.
A few posts back, I touched on last year's season and how the heavy rainfall (and Hurricane Irene) wiped out a lot of farms and CSAs. The idea of rain being a bad thing for crops honestly didn't really cross my mind until I read last year's Free Bird Farm blog posts. However, droughts and excessive heat are nothing new to me (yay Arizona). When our CSA sends out the farmer's updates on how weather is affecting what's ending up in our share boxes, I definitely empathize.
On a related note, corn fields in particular seem to be getting hit pretty hard. From what I remember in my plant genetics lab research days from high school, corn is quite heat-hardy but needs a lot of water. Not only does this mean no sweet corn for me :( but it means less corn for everyone. Including animals. So...we can probably expect higher corn, beef, pork, and chicken prices next year. Ah well. Good thing I don't eat much meat these days anyways. :)
This week's share was pretty good (no more broccoli yay!):
- another bunch of beets
- parsley
- 3/4 lb green beans
- 3 medium red onions
- 1 bunch carrots
- 1 Italian eggplant
- 1 red cabbage
Extras (not included in the original distribution list but available at pickup):
- 2 patty pan squash
- 1 yellow zucchini
Alrighty then. This week's roundup:
CWTC: GREEN BEANS! I love green beans. I rarely manage to cook them - I end up eating them way too fast. I don't even really need dressing or dip for these, as long as they're fresh. Just wash, snap off the tips, and voila. Snacks.
WTF: parsley...
TAV: Eggplant. I love eggplant in Chinese food, but I've never really eaten it on my own. I have no idea how to cook it. Everyone loves to hate on eggplant for some reason, but I'm determined to make this work. Just watch me!
Side note: I love how much purple there is in this share! The onions, cabbage, eggplant, and even the beets are all various lovely shades of red-purple to deep purple-black. Pretty!
Side note of shame: I still have a lot of leftover produce from last week. I'm falling behind...help! I still have the romaine lettuce, zucchini and squash, chard, broccoli (for the last two weeks, actually), and garlic scapes from a while back. I think I should invite my friends over for a housewarming party. Little will they know it's really just a cover for using up all my extra produce. I feel like it's not a good sign when you start viewing your friends as
Wednesday, July 18, 2012
Kohlrabi
Cooking takes time, so when I'm busy, I usually end up trying to eat my CSA share in the form of raw snack food. Last night, I spent about 10 minutes washing, peeling, and chopping up carrots, cucumbers, and kohlrabi. I sliced them matchstick style for easy snacking. I normally leave the skin on cucumbers, but these were not so pretty cucumbers, so I just peeled them. The carrots were still very young, so I left the skin on and made sure to scrub them very thoroughly. The kohlrabi was very easy to prepare: snap off all the leaves and stems, wash, and peel like a turnip or other root vegetable.
Lunch was leftover bbq chicken from Virgil's and a hefty slice of chocolate chess pie (!), so the vegetable sticks were a welcome way to stave off the impending food coma.
The kohlrabi ended up being surprisingly good, considering my strong aversion to broccoli. I offered a stick to my coworker who bravely took a nibble. Her face was a study in polite aversion, so I don't think she's a huge kohlrabi fan. However, she noted that it tasted like brussel sprouts. I had zoomed in on the texture, which is a cross between radishes and jicama, so I didn't make the brussel sprout connection until she pointed it out to me. It makes sense though, since kohlrabi falls in the Brassica oleracea family, which includes brussel sprouts, cabbage, kale, broccoli, and cauliflower.
I think my issue with broccoli lies mainly with the texture of the vegetable, but fortunately, kohlrabi is much crunchier and crisper than broccoli. I happily snacked my way through the entire bulb. I don't know if I'll bring it back to the office again though. As the kohlrabi sticks warmed up to room temperature, I noticed a distinct boiled-cabbage smell permeating the air around my desk. I suppose that's why the family is falled B. oleracea.
While I was munching on my veggie sticks, I pondered other ways to eat kohlrabi. If I had more than one bulb, I doubt I could eat them all raw. Cruciferous vegetables give me a headache if I eat too much of them raw. Since I am passionately in love with the taste of roasted brussel sprouts though, I'm thinking roasted kohlrabi might be a lovely way to handle extra kohlrabi bulbs. CSA Share #7, bring it on. I am prepared!!!
This is kind of random, but I bet kohlrabi would make a fantastic 무김치 (radish kimchi). It has the right texture and it tastes kind of like daikon radish. I'm so clever! Maybe that would be a fun project to try when I have a bit more time.
----edit----
Never mind. A lot of other people are also clever. I googled "kohlrabi kimchi" and it's definitely been done by adventurous cooks elsewhere. Oh well! At least I'm starting to get creative :)
Lunch was leftover bbq chicken from Virgil's and a hefty slice of chocolate chess pie (!), so the vegetable sticks were a welcome way to stave off the impending food coma.
The kohlrabi ended up being surprisingly good, considering my strong aversion to broccoli. I offered a stick to my coworker who bravely took a nibble. Her face was a study in polite aversion, so I don't think she's a huge kohlrabi fan. However, she noted that it tasted like brussel sprouts. I had zoomed in on the texture, which is a cross between radishes and jicama, so I didn't make the brussel sprout connection until she pointed it out to me. It makes sense though, since kohlrabi falls in the Brassica oleracea family, which includes brussel sprouts, cabbage, kale, broccoli, and cauliflower.
I think my issue with broccoli lies mainly with the texture of the vegetable, but fortunately, kohlrabi is much crunchier and crisper than broccoli. I happily snacked my way through the entire bulb. I don't know if I'll bring it back to the office again though. As the kohlrabi sticks warmed up to room temperature, I noticed a distinct boiled-cabbage smell permeating the air around my desk. I suppose that's why the family is falled B. oleracea.
While I was munching on my veggie sticks, I pondered other ways to eat kohlrabi. If I had more than one bulb, I doubt I could eat them all raw. Cruciferous vegetables give me a headache if I eat too much of them raw. Since I am passionately in love with the taste of roasted brussel sprouts though, I'm thinking roasted kohlrabi might be a lovely way to handle extra kohlrabi bulbs. CSA Share #7, bring it on. I am prepared!!!
This is kind of random, but I bet kohlrabi would make a fantastic 무김치 (radish kimchi). It has the right texture and it tastes kind of like daikon radish. I'm so clever! Maybe that would be a fun project to try when I have a bit more time.
----edit----
Never mind. A lot of other people are also clever. I googled "kohlrabi kimchi" and it's definitely been done by adventurous cooks elsewhere. Oh well! At least I'm starting to get creative :)
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)