CSA Week 5

What did I get in my week five CSA?

4 ears of corn, a head of lettuce, a bunch of fresh basil, 3 pattypan squash, green beans, shallots, and the treats of the week: raspberries and a jar of brown mustard. The package of yellow shoots on the right is the farm's own 'Micro Popcorn'. I bought a package after I was given a sample to taste. They are baby sweet corn shoots that when chewed, overwhelm you with the taste of fresh corn on the cob and a deep sweetness - very unique. The basket on the left has some green apples and golden plums I bought at the farmer's market from Noquochoke Orchards. They made great snacks.

I roasted the corn in the oven to make my new old favorite, elote (see recipe sidebar). I served it with a green salad using the lettuce and shallots, plus tomatoes, jalapenos, avocado and lime juice.

The rest of the lettuce, more shallots and the mustard made great dressings for veggie burgers, which we whipped up throughout the week when we were feeling lazy.

I used the basil and more of the shallots to make a Thai-style fish stir fry. I marinated tilapia in soy sauce, oyster sauce and fish sauce, and stir fried it with garlic, shallots, hot chilis, red pepper and carrots. I stirred in the fresh basil at the end, and served it over brown rice. It was very satisfying!

 On a sunny Saturday, GP and I finally broke out my new Hot Pot BBQ from Black and Blum. 

As you can see, this amazing feat of design is a combination terracotta flower pot and a charcoal grill. When it's not in use, it looks like a regular flower/herb pot. But the top easily lifts off and you have a charcoal grill ready to go for outdoor cooking. I received one this past Christmas and have been waiting to use it for summer grilling. I've kept stumbling upon recipes for panzanella - a salad made of roasted or grilled bread cubes and vegetables, and making it gave me an excuse to finally break out the BBQ.

The BBQ worked great, though GP and I are unsure how frequently we will use it moving forward, only because we really have no outdoor space with our apartment, so we stood in the neighbor's driveway with the pot on the ground, and we're also worried about smoke bothering the neighbors. Also, how do we put the charcoal out when we're done grilling? The grill has no cover to extinguish it, save for the terracotta flower pot, and you are advised not to use that piece, as it will burn. But we also can't stand outside in the driveway watching the pot for hours until the coals burn out. We poured water on the coals once we were done this time, but we'll have to find better places and methods in the future. I also need to plant something in the top!

Regardless, the salad was spectacular. The grill char added a great summer element to it. I based the recipe of off one from Epicurious, using the pattypan squash and shallots, with ciabatta bread, bell peppers and tomatoes. I dressed everything with olive oil, red wine vinegar, lemon juice, thyme and rosemary. 

Lastly, I used the green beans to make a veggie frittata.

That's all for now. I got enough food in week six to feed me for two weeks! Updates to come.

CSA Week 4

Here's the bounty of my 4th CSA week:

Zucchini and summer squash, small kohlrabi (!), shallots, three types of shelled peas, green beans and the treats of the week: a container of blueberries and a jar of strawberry jam. The dozen eggs I bought separately, but they're also from the farm!

So I suppose I should get this out of the way first. I know I mentioned in a previous post that I don't eat blueberries. I really don't, but if push comes to shove (aka if I'm given blueberries in my CSA), there is one form I can eat them in that doesn't bother me too much. Muffins. So, I made a dozen lemony blueberry muffins.

 Speaking of baking, the large zucchini was turned into two baked treats. Zucchini bread:

...and zucchini chips. Honestly, the best replacement for potato chips you'll ever find.

The smaller squashes were sliced and lightly sauteed, (as recommended by Smitten Kitchen), and went on top of pasta and homemade tomato sauce.

I found a great recipe for roasted kohlrabi and potatoes here, and served it with a green salad that incorporated the green beans. I am seriously in love with kohlrabi.

The rest of the green beans, plus the shallots and some eggs went into nicoise salad. This is one of my go-to entree salads, and I base it off of this recipe from The Kitchn. 

Last but not least, I shelled all of the peas and put them into Chinese pea soup with dumplings. As mentioned, Silverbrook Farm sends out recipe ideas via email each week that incorporate the produce everyone gets in their shares. With all of the peas they've been giving out, they recommended people visit Peas.org, an adorable website sponsored by the British Growers Association that encourages people to eat more peas! It is chock-full of recipes, and that's where I found this one. Admittedly, I bought the dumplings and the scallion pancakes I served it with at the Chinese restaurant on my street (I've made dumplings several times before, and it is no small task), but the soup was delicious! I can't attest to the authenticity of it's 'Chinese-iness' (about null I'd say), but I'm eager to make it again.

That's all for now. Will update with week 5 recipes soon!

CSA all the way

So it appears that I'm only making new posts every four months. I apologize for my delinquent blogging, but I've begun something that will hopefully give me enough to write about each week. This year I'm participating in a CSA - community supported agriculture - with a share purchased from Silverbrook Farm in Dartmouth, MA. CSAs are a way for farms to earn a profit by pre-selling shares of their annual harvest directly to consumers. Typically, consumers can purchase CSA shares directly from farm websites, indicating what size share they want (family-sized, half-sized), and how they'd like to receive the shares - picking up at the farm, or at a nearby farmer's market. The consumer pays a set price for the year's harvest (usually June through October) up front, and then picks up their portion of produce, eggs, flowers, etc. from the farm staff each week.

I've picked up my share each Monday for three weeks so far at the Boston City Hall farmer's market, where Silverbrook runs a stand. Each week's bounty is different, based on what is being harvested at the farm, and the farm sends me an email a few days in advance to let me know what to expect, along with recipe ideas. Silverbrook has teamed up with other farms and local food producers in southern Mass to put together their shares, so I may get flowers, artisan cheeses and other treats each week. I figured this blog would be a good place to share what I receive each week, and how I cook it. So, without further ado:

Week 1:

Red lettuce, a bag of mixed greens and bok choy, kale, spinach, kohlrabi, scallions, and the treats of the week: strawberries and eggs.

I was most excited about the kohlrabi. I had never really looked at or eaten one before. I found this great recipe on the NY Times website for kohlrabi risotto and it was delicious! The kohlrabi root was a cross between a turnip and a pear, and the greens were subtly spicy.

The spinach went into one of my favorite hot weather standby recipes: Lemony pesto pasta with edamame and almonds from The Kitchn. 

 The kale went into a number of fresh fruit/veggie juices I made using the new juicer GP got me for my birthday :)

The red lettuce was perfect for pulled pork and kimchi lettuce wraps. I occasionally break my ovo-pesco-vegan diet for certain pork and cheese products, and this is one of them. GP and I saw these advertised once and figured that we could easily make them on our own. It's simple: all you need is lettuce, a jar of cabbage kimchi, and a package of pre-made pulled pork, marinated in a BBQ or soy-based sauce (whatever you'd like. I buy the Trader Joe's BBQ pork and mix in their soyaki sauce). Separate, wash and dry the lettuce leaves, and spoon on portions of kimchi and pork. Roll up and eat!

 The bok choy was stir-fried with shiitake mushrooms, and paired with mugwort soba noodles in a miso-butter sauce (taken from this recipe) mixed with the chopped scallions.

The remainder of the greens went into a giant chopped salad with Thai flavors, a favorite from Mark Bittman's Food Matters Cookbook.

The strawberries I ate for breakfast one day, and the eggs were fried up for weekend breakfasts.

Week 2:

A head of pak choi, a giant head of green lettuce, a head of Napa cabbage, Russian red kale, shelling peas, pea tendrils, radishes and the treat of the week: classic French Hannahbells cheese from Shy Brother's Farm in Westport, MA.

 The kale continued to go into fresh juices. My personal favorite, 'The Green Goddess': a green apple, a few stalks of kale, a few sprigs of mint, and half a lime.

 The radishes went into a radish and turnip salad with chives, which I paired with soy-glazed tilapia.

I recently bought The Complete Curry Cookbook, along with several bags of Indian spices to try and explore more Indian curry cuisine. I used up my peas in the cookbook's curried cauliflower recipe, and paired it with garlic sauteed pea tendrils.

 I had some extra kale, and used it in this great recipe for roasted kale and eggplant tapenade.

The pak choi went into a batch of cold soba noodles with wilted bok choy, the napa cabbage I stir-fried, we ate the Hannahbell's cheese by itself and spread on bread, and I made a massive salad with the lettuce for a dinner party.

Week 3:

A bunch of mixed kale, a head of Napa cabbage, a small head of lettuce, leeks, two bunches of sweet peas and one bunch of shelling peas, and the treat of the week: Cloumage cheese curd from Shy Brother's Farm. I also bought some garlic and a jar of Silverbrook's Gingered Pear Jam. (Cat not included.)

 I was in a bit of a pinch to use up this week's food, as I was traveling to Montreal on Tuesday night and wouldn't be back until Saturday. But I managed to use up nearly everything in three dishes that I left for GP while I was gone.

The first I invented myself and dubbed a 'Silverbrook tart', as I used almost exclusively ingredients from my CSA. I baked a puffed pastry sheet half-way, then spread on a thick layer of Cloumage cheese, and topped it with garlic sauteed leeks and cooked peas. I baked the tart until done and sprinkled with black pepper and chopped chives. It was quite delicious, I'm proud of myself!

 All of the kale became a large batch of kale chips. Yumm!

The cabbage, lettuce and leftover pea pods became another massive chopped salad with Thai flavors.

That's everything I've received and made so far, and I'm picking up another portion tomorrow. I'm really enjoying the CSA. It's forcing me to be more creative with my cooking, having to find/make recipes based on what I receive, rather than starting with recipe ideas then buying all ingredients at the store. I'm also saving a lot of money. I paid the cost of my share up front, which I calculated to be less than I would spend on produce from the store for the duration of the CSA, June through October, and each week I only buy about 8-10 extra items to make a week of meals. 

To end, I'd like to share my appreciation for a unique regional dish. As I mentioned, I traveled to Montreal and just got back. While there, I had one gastronomic goal: eat poutine. Poutine is an (in)famous Quebecoise dish of greasy french fries topped with gravy and cheese curds. I first heard about it on an earlier trip to Quebec province, but I wrote it off as disgusting and never tried it. I have since had my first taste at the Saus restaurant in Boston, and I really enjoyed it. It's salty and hot, heavy of course, but not the mess of flavors I assumed it would be. So, in Montreal, my friends and I made our way to La Banquise, Montreal's best and most famous poutine restaurant. 

We got an order of classic poutine and an order of 'La Taquise' - fries with gravy, cheese curds. tomatoes, guacamole and sour cream. They were wonderful, obscene belly bombs and a real taste of local flavor. I recommend that everyone at least try poutine, preferably with a cold beer and an empty stomach!

Until my next CSA pick up!

Aaand we're back

So after a four month hiatus, I've finally found the time and motivation to start blogging again! I've been busy most of the winter studying for the LSATs, but at long last the test has been taken (results pending) and I have some leisure time. I have a few ideas for new posts, but I figured I'd start with a roundup of some of the yummier and more photogenic things I've cooked since October. Recipes found online are, as always, linked in the panel on the right.

Roasted stuffed pumpkin on Halloween. My own recipe which came out quite well: a simple mix of roasted veggies (onion, carrot, celery, fennel, sweet potato, parsnip) and wild rice inside a small pumpkin roasted with olive oil and salt.

Savory miso soup with rice and a poached egg, seasoned as you wish with sesame oil, sriracha and soy sauce, from The Kitchn.

A great post-holiday meal, Egg Nests from how2heroes. It looks fancy but it's simple: press leftover stuffing into cup shapes in a muffin pan, then crack an egg into each and bake. It's suggested as a breakfast recipe, but it made a great dinner with coriander and almond green beans.

Mushroom bourguignon from Smitten Kitchen, an outstanding veg/vegan adaptation of Julie Child's famous boeuf bourguignon. Silky, hearty, devastatingly delicious I could barely wait while it simmered. 

For Christmas I decided to give homemade food gifts to friends and family. Everyone got a combo of the different jars I made. They are, left to right, vodka that I infused (all by myself!) with cranberries, cinnamon and pear, cranberry cocoa bread with walnuts, cranberry pistachio biscotti, wild rice and mushroom soup, and a southwestern spice mix. The vodka infusion I dreamed up, and the jar recipes came from a little $5 book I saw in a grocery store checkout line that had 50+ ideas for gifting food jars. They were a hit!

Another winner from The Kitchn, orzo with caramelized fall vegetables. I went through a week long craze for sweet potato and swiss chard, and this fit the bill perfectly. Sweet, soft, and full of earthy heartiness. FYI The Kitchn also has a recipe for orzo with summer vegetables, a cold pasta salad with tomatoes, zucchini and greens, which is also fabulous!

Curried smashed potatoes courtesy of White on Rice Couple, with naan and some minted peas. Creamy, sweet and delicious. If only my photos could be as gorgeous as theirs!

For Christmas GP and I tried something new and made Amazon wishlists that we sent to our families when asked the inevitable "what do you want for Christmas?" Our mothers were very appreciative of how easy this made their shopping, and I'm advocating for everyone to make and maintain a wishlist of their own! Perhaps needless to say, but my list was full of cooking accoutrement: a food processor, a mandoline (squee!), mortar and pestle, and a slew of books by Mark Bittman, namely: How to Cook Everything, How to Cook Everything Vegetarian, Food Matters, and The Food Matters Cookbook. Santa was very generous and I received a stack of all the books, so I've been on a Bittman binge since the new year, trying out at least one of his recipes each week. His How to Cook Everything cookbooks are a great resource for the dishes that I've heard of and want to try but don't know where to learn the basic recipe. Ratatouille was one of those recipes (I've wanted to make it ever since I saw the adorable and wonderful Pixar movie), and sure enough, Mark had a recipe for a basic, oven-baked version. I know in the film, one of the chefs calls ratatouille "a peasant's dish", and from the ingredients I think I understand: no meat, nothing complicated, just a mountain of fresh vegetables and herbs roasted until soft and sweet.

(the mandoline was a godsend here, my new favorite toy!)

Paired with a good red wine and rustic bread, c'est magnifique!

Guilty Kitchen's portobello burgers again, on ciabatta bread with plenty of avocado and spinach and a side of Trader Joe's sweet potato fries.

My new favorite things for breakfast! A simple and scrumptious recipe from The Kitchn for a fried egg on toast, topped with lemon-garlic wilted kale. I've been making this every weekend morning for a month - I'm addicted. I've also gone nuts for blood oranges and have been eating them daily for a couple of weeks (I might turn purple). 

Bibimbap. Isn't that the best word? I've only had this dish a couple of times when I discovered it on Korean restaurant menus, and thanks to The Kitchn I now know how to make it at home! Basically, bibimbap is a skillet dish of rice, sizzling at the bottom until slightly crunchy, topped with a mix of soft and crisp fresh vegetables, an egg and seasonings of sesame oil and red pepper paste. I worked off The Kitchn's recipe but made a few modifications. I replaced the tofu with stir-fried shiitake mushroom slices, fried the egg and made a makeshift version of gochujang (suggested in the comments) with sriracha and soy sauce. GP and I inhaled this and fought over the leftovers. We'll definitely make it again soon.

And last but not least, a recent dinner of sweet potato and black bean chili with a side of cranberry almond cornbread. The chili was my variation of this recipe; I took out the carrots and bell pepper, and added a diced jalapeno, lime juice and chipotles in adobo sauce to make it very sweet and spicy. For the cornbread, I used a basic recipe without sugar, and just stirred in dried cranberries and sliced almonds.

So that's a bit of a recap. Like I said, I've got some ideas for themed posts, so I should post again soon!

All treats, no tricks

Okay, so it's been two weeks. GP has been working late recently, which typically means I capitalize on leftovers, but I've captured my dinners for the past two weeks to share a sampling of my ovo-pesco-vegan diet. (As a side note, please forgive the poor quality of the photos. I unfortunately don't own a fancy camera and the flourescent light in my kitchen makes everything an ugly yellow.)

To start off, a big batch of chana masala via Smitten Kitchen. GP and I both love Indian food and chickpeas, so when I realized that such a thing as chickpea curry existed, I knew I had to make it. I will say that this receipe left the chickpeas a little dry, so I'd add some more water, but otherwise it was tangy and delicious. I ate it with some jasmine rice and Trader Joe's garlic naan.

With some extra rice, GP and I made this crab fried rice from a little book of Chinese recipes I was given. It was very light and fragrant, with bean sprouts, leeks, crab, egg and lime juice.

This is one of my new favorite recipes, pumpkin rotini from Hipster Food's Chickpea magazine. Though the blog's name is cringe-worthy, Hipster Food is a good resource for tasty vegan fare. This pumpkin rotini is, in my opinion, the perfect vegan substitute for mac 'n cheese. The sauce is a seasoned mixture of pumpkin puree and rice milk, and has all the ooey-gooey creaminess and warmth of a bowl of classic Kraft.

Sauteed mushrooms and kale over polenta. I found this recipe at Epicurious, used Trader Joe's pre-made polenta, nixed the pancetta and cheese and swapped vegetable broth for chicken broth. Maybe it was all of the modifications, but this dish was pretty bland and boring, and still required me to use 3 pots and pans! All it was was kale and mushrooms, seasoned and cooked down in broth, over warm polenta. I could probably find ways to improve upon the recipe, but overall the end result isn't worth all the cleanup.

Fall is here and I'm thrilled to take advantage of seasonal vegetables and get into the harvest/Halloween spirit. With extra pumpkin puree from the rotini, I made these pumpkin spice cookies working off of a recipe at Group Recipes. They turned out moist and tasty and I made sure to share them with co-workers, lest I eat three dozen by myself.

GP likes to pick on my general lack of knowledge when it comes to seafood. His father is an accomplished member of the industry, so he grew up eating and learning about a lot of aquatic creatures. I've never really liked seafood or fish in any form, but I've forced myself to open up and eat new and different kinds of seafood with more frequency, in order to take advantage of the excellent health benefits. However, as GP points out, I tend to pick the most complicated, exotic types of seafood that end up making me frustrated and nervous. Instead of trying a simple, versatile whitefish like cod or mahi mahi, I buy shell-on prawns and oysters. This past summer I excitedly made paella and was introduced to mussels. While they did make me a little nervous (How do I keep them alive in the fridge? What if I eat a bad one?) they were tasty and fun to cook and eat. Now that seafood is a main source of protein for me, I'm trying to make it the centerpiece of 2-3 meals each week. So I tried mussels again, and worked off of a recipe in the Good Housekeeping Cookbook, cooking them with wine, herbs and alliums and serving them with crusty bread (and more wine). The meal was light and felt oh-so fancy.

As I said, fall is here, and I'm trying to work in a lot of seasonal vegetables. Food bloggers the internet over seem to be squealing about brussel sprouts. I'll be honest, I had never had brussel sprouts before, but I was eager to try them. I made several meals out of two recipes. One was roasted potatoes and brussel sprouts from The Kitchn (nix the bacon) with a side of Trader Joe's Harvest Grains Blend (I love this stuff). The other I found at the fabulous blog The Bitten Word, which was for sauteed brussel sprouts with sriracha and cashews. The sprouts with potatoes and grains is a hearty (albeit starch-heavy) rib-sticker, while the sriracha and cashew stir fry is hot, nutty and crunchy. Two thumbs up for both.

Getting a little lazy and cooking for one, I made a couple of omelets, a huge veggie one and a kale and mushroom. With the veggie omelet I re-heated a weekend attempt at sriracha hashbrowns I invented. Shredded potatoes with chopped onions and jalapenos, seasoned with cayenne pepper and sriracha. I thought the idea was pretty good, but even after many attempts, I cannot make crispy, flavorful hash browns. Mine end up soggy and all the flavors are masked by oil. Anyone have some pointers?

Pasta pasta pasta! I tried a new pasta dish called 'Harvest Primavera' from Whole Foods, and turned to an old favorite from The Kitchn, soba noodles with wilted bok choy. I was skeptical about the Whole Foods recipe, as I've had a 50% success rate with their recipes in the past, but this was a winner. Seasonal vegetables mixed with a pound of penne in a tangy, spicy tomato sauce. As you can see, it made enough to feed me for quite a while and I never tired of it. The night on which I made the soba noodles may not have been the best, it was freezing rain outside and this is a cold, slimier dish, but it's easy, light, healthy and delicious.

Of the few types of seafood I did grow up enjoying, scallops were second only to shrimp. I love their delicate, distinct flavor, and the fact that they are visually unintimidating, like the seafood equivalent of a chicken nugget (not to insult the scallop). They are tender, juicy bites of yum. I found this recipe for smoky scallops with fennel at The Kitchn. I love fennel, I love scallops, I also love wine and tomatoes, so this sounded amazing. Unfortunately, it turned out very bland. Both scallops and fennel have very light, delicate flavors which I think were lost in the cooking and the wine base. Everything also lost it's color and looked a bit grey. I omitted the tomatoes as GP doesn't like them very much and served everything on brown rice. I wish this turned out better, but it fell short.

Lastly, the first recipe I've tried by Mark Bittman, practical healthy-eating advocate, author and food writer at The New York Times. He is one of my four 'food heroes' as I call them, Mark, Mike, Jamie and Joel, otherwise known as Mark Bittman, Michael Pollan, Jamie Oliver and Joel Salatin (please Wikipedia as necessary). But more about them later. Bittman has written several compendiums of '101 recipes' for the Times, which are lists of quick, cheap meal ideas following a certain theme - Thanksgiving, summer, salads, etc. This is #4 on his summer recipes, a simple mix of seasoned white beans and shrimp. I added some crusty bread and thoroughly enjoyed this light but savory dinner. The leftovers also made a fantastic lunch.

So there you have it, my dinners (and most lunches) for two weeks. For breakfast I consistently eat either cold cereal with rice milk, or fruit, so that's my ovo-pesco-vegan diet. I'm even more excited about the upcoming meals I have planned. I'm diving headfirst into hearty fall cooking (I think I was forced to, considering it snowed two days ago) and making stuffed pumpkins tonight for a Halloween dinner, followed by Ribollita soup, sweet potato and black bean chili, puttanesca pasta, and a squash and egg skillet.

To close, I'll share this year's jack-o-lanterns: a portrait of my cat, Count Rugen, and Me Gusta.

I've enjoyed carving the annual jack-o-lantern for as long as I can remember. However, I think I was in middle school when I discovered the magic of jack-o-lantern stencils, and every year since I've made at least one detailed carving - everything from Jack Sparrow to Gollum to Barack Obama to Eric Northman. This year I kept my focus more at home, choosing a picture that looked like the real  man in my life, Rugen, and what can I say, Me Gusta was made to be put on a pumpkin.

Happy Halloween!