Well, The CSA Ended For The Season And I'm Bummed!

The CSA ended the week of Thanksgiving. It happened to be one of the best pick-ups all season. We got baby sweet potatoes that were the sweetest things ever. I roasted them with some parsnips we also received, then drizzled on some honey and sesame seeds. This is a traditional Japanese street food called "University Potatoes."

Roasted Sweet Potatoes with Honey and Sesame Seeds, Typical Japanese Street Food

I made a seriously amazing Asian Slaw with almost all CSA ingredients, and some stuff from my garden. I used the napa, the bok choy, garlic, cilantro, scallions, jalapeno, mint, then added ginger, rice wine vinegar and olive oil.

Seriously Awesome Asian Slaw

We did get a lot of cabbage at then end, so there was another slaw I made last night from the last of my white cabbage. It was shredded cabbage, a diced apple, diced red onion. The dressing was 2 TBSP of mayo, 1 tsp of dijon, zest of 1 lime, juice of 1 lime, olive oil, salt and pepper. Then garnished with mint I still had.

Last Head of Cabbage With Mint and Lime

With the celeriac, I made a classic French remoulade. The kind that appears on every lunch plate in France. Basically shredded celeriac, and a dijon mustard dressing. My kids wouldn't touch this, oh well. Rob and I loved it! The hardest part was peeling the celery root!

Celery Root Remoulade

And then I made a wonderful salad with the turnips. Melissa Clark, one of my favorite food writers who cooks seasonally from her local farmer's market, and writes about it in the NY Times, recently had an article on turnips. Usually they're roasted. Well she decided to shave them thin on a mandoline and eat them raw atop some arrugula. Since I had 2 turnips, I tried this and they were wonderful raw!

Thinly Shaved Turnips with Arrugula Salad

All I have left is some napa and I'm going to make kimchi, again, of course!. The 2 jars I made are almost gone and the stuff keeps for 6 months if kept in a Ball jar. I'm counting the days until the CSA starts again, but in the meantime, I still have herbs in my herb garden. Arielle came home from school with some string beans in a pot. I put the plant in a sunny window and it's about to flower! We'll see what we get. My parents gave me 5 old windows and I was going to make a cold frame, but it never happened. I plan to do it in the Spring and start early!! I was thinking of trying it now and putting that string bean plant under it, but now with snow predicted for overnight, we'll wait til Spring.

About 4 Weeks Left of the CSA

So it's winding down. About 4 more weeks of fresh farm produce. So glad I canned some veggies this year for the winter!

We received some yummy eggplants the past 2 weeks and I've been doing all sorts of things with them. I made a sort of deconstructed eggplant parmesan. I followed one of my favorite food writers (Melissa Clark), from the NY Times recipe, loosely.

Peeled, sliced and salted the eggplant, let drain in a colander for 20 minutes. Then patted dry. Placed in a baking dish, covered the eggplant with a dollop of ricotta, then some homemade sauce, then some panko crumbs I had browned in butter. Drizzle with olive oil and cover with mozzarella, then bake.

Today I made a quick pasta sauce with eggplant and tomatoes, some garlic and basil all thrown over whole grain pasta, which has become the norm now in my house. No more plain pasta if I can help it. I don't get the whole wheat, I get the Barilla PLUS. It's got all sorts of grains in there and a ton of protein.

I sauteed the cubed eggplant, added garlic and chopped plum tomatoes, some capers and basil.

This is the yummy Barilla whole grain pasta

This was dinner tonight along with a kale salad. I got a handful of dinosaur kale, also called Tuscan kale or lacinato kale in my CSA share. You could make this with regular kale or collards, I'd just make it early in the day instead. With the Tuscan kale, you can make it and eat it right away.

I chopped the kale and put it in a bowl. I literally had enough kale for a 1 person salad, which is fine because my husband took the kids to his mother's and I'm solo for dinner.  So then dressed it with this yummy dressing. Finely chopped 6 dates, put in a smallish bowl. Chopped 4 anchovies. DON'T be afraid of anchovies! They have this amazing flavor, not fishy and totally have a unami thing about them! Put the anchovies in the bowl, zest one orange and 1 lemon into bowl. Use a rasp zester, it's the only way. Then grate in 1 garlic clove with the zester, watch your fingers! Add about a tbsp of red wine vinegar and about 2 tbsp of olive oil. pour over kale and seaon with salt and pepper. AMAZING!!

salty, sweet, citrusy, tangy

I've been trying to come up with all of these creative salads since we've been getting loads and loads of lettuce. A few weeks ago there was an article in the Times about chicken skin. They were calling it Jewish bacon. So I thought I'd make some and crumble it over a salad, like you would with bacon bits. I took the skin off of some chicken parts and lined them on a grate over a cookie sheet, salted them and baked until it was crispy. It was so yummy! I'm never buying skinless chicken again!

Chopped lettuce with tomatoes and chicken skin, with a vinaigrette dressing. Kids loved it!

Another Melissa Clark recipe I made was a salad with clementines (totally in season, but not from the CSA). This had a melted butter dressing instead of olive oil. It was velvety smooth and complimented the buttery lettuce and sweetness from the clementines.

A few weeks ago we got some lovely broccoli. we sauteed the florets and they were delicious. But I also saved the stems and made a broccoli stem kugel. It was more of a crustless quiche I guess. I steamed the stems, then put them in the food processor with eggs, cream, cheese, garlic, scallions (because I had toms), salt, pepper. Then baked it in a baking dish for about an hour.

broccoli stem crustless quiche/kugel

One thing I have to comment on is the white cabbage I got last week. I couldn't believe how fresh it was. When I cut into it, it made this sound, this squeak, like I was just picked and I'm so fresh and yummy. That night I made a chicken broccoli stir fry, and then I made an Asian slaw with the cabbage. Simply shredded the cabbage, added a dressing of rice vinegar, a bit of sugar, toasted sesame oil and some grated ginger. I then sprinkled on some furikake. If you don't know what that is, it's a Japanese condiment that is typically sprinkled over rice. There are so many different kinds. I have one that the kids love from Mrs. Greens and it's just toasted sesame seeds, seaweed and salt. I think the brand is Eden Farms or something. I also have some from Japanese groceries that have dried fish eggs in them. If you go to a Japanese grocery store, like Daido, in White Plains, they have an entire section of just furikake. It's fancy salt!

All I have left from last week now is some lettuce, the green tomato which has turned orange, but I think I'll still cook it rather than eat it raw. They tend to be mushy this late in the season. I also have tons of scallions and I've been dying to make a scallion kimchi. I hope I have a chance this week before they go bad. I did use a bunch of scallions in some chicken broth I made on Friday. And Arielle loved smashing garlic for that. But seriously, I've used up all of my garlic and there was tons of it! Oh well, keeping those vampires away.

I've been absent, but still cooking tons!

I feel like Hurricane Irene, the end of summer, the start of school, etc, threw me for a loop. I have cooked so many things from the CSA my garden, local farms, other people's CSA's... It's time to catch up here!



One amazing thing I've made 3 times now is an apple tart. So simple. Just defrost a sheet of puff pastry, peel, core and slice thing 2-3 apples, place over pastry in 3 rows. Make sure pastry in on a parchment lined cookie sheet. spread a few TBSP of sugar over apples and dot with butter. Bake at 400 for 30 minutes, maybe less, until apples are browning. Melt a few TBSP of jam, preserves, whatever flavor, raspberry, apricot, in a small saucepan with a little bit of water. When it's all melted and smooth, brush over tar and let cool. Easiest dessert!!!

Apple tarte

Today I used the squash, apples and the garlic to make a delicious baked dish. Simply roasted the ingredients with olive oil, salt, pepper and some brown sugar.

baked squash & apples

I just realized the last time I posted was before the hurricane when I made mint ice cream. The ice cream sadly didn't make it through the great thaw of Irene. Nothing did. My fridge, freezer, extra fridge and freezer in the garage are always packed to the brim. I had to toss everything It was such a sight to see all the emptyness in my house! I had to document it.

empty freezer

Freezer! Never been this empty since the day it arrived!

I made this awesome tabbouleh salad. It's offbeat. I got the recipe from the NY Times last Wednesday. It involved parsley, pomegranate, smoked paprika, honey, red onion. It was great and unusual. And when telling a friend about the recipe, she told me a key way to peel and de-seed a pomegranate. Basically, underwater in a bowl. The white pith stuff floats to the top. And I'm so thankful!! No more bloody mess!

awesome salad!

With the overabundance of potatoes from the CSA, I made potato kugel, so traditional for almost any Jewish holiday. BUT, my friend Leslie told me about a different technique that made the kugel light, airy, crispy on the outside, just totally different than any kugel I've ever had. It involved sprinkling potato starch over the top, then pouring in boiling water. I was convinced this would be a failure. It was such a hit, I made it again tonight, a smaller version for Shabbat dinner.

Kugel to the MAX!

A few weeks ago we got some eggplant and I found that with ingredients so fresh from the farm, it was so great to keep it simple. I just sauteed the slices in olive oil, salt, pepper, garlic. INCREDIBLE. And it went great with the lasagna!

The season is winding dow. My garden is totally done. I picked the last of the jalapeno peppers today. I don't even have any green tomatoes to fry this year. The rain killed everything off. I still have plenty of herbs and plan on making some pesto to freeze this week. I still haven't tasted my pickles. I can't wait. And I have 3 jars of kimchi in my fridge from all the people that gave me their napa cabbage 2 weeks ago. I gave away a jar to my brother, who told me it kicked ass. That coming from my brother is major. He's trained at Le Cordon Bleu in Paris, and is an Asian aficionado, like myself, but he lives in the city with his wife and kids, so he still gets to eat at great ethnic restaurants. I guess that's why I make kimchi so much. The closest Korean place is White Plains. So sad, and no Vietnamese places. I'd kill for a Bahn Mi right now! After all the brisket and kugel, I need my Asian fix!

Pickles and Mint Chocolate Chip Ice Cream. No, I'm Not Pregnant!

I've been canning this week. I have been putting food by. That's the name of the book I took out from the library on canning, and I love the title! Putting Food By. It's a science and a bit scary because you can make big mistakes like BOTULISM. Anyhow, I've canned garlic dill pickles, sour pickles, dill pickle chips, and diced heirloom tomatoes so far.

Canning! 

And then I ran into my friend Jen, who told me she made mint chocolate chip ice cream from the mint in her garden. I said, in my head, game on. I have so much mint, it's outrun almost everything except the chives in the herb garden. So I found this recipe online and we started in today. The custard has to cool overnight before I run it in the machine. But it tasted amazing.

Mint infusing with the milk, cream and sugar

What else did I do? Last night I made bronzino that I marinated with the garlic and basil from the CSA. Baked it in a 400 degree oven with some tomatoes. I stuffed the fish with the basil, smeared olive oil, salt, pepper, garlic all over. It was great. I was going to grill it wrapped in grape leaves from the garden, but then I just didn't feel up to grilling.

Before roasted

Last week I had so many tomatoes that I think we had them at every meal. I made sauce, then braised squash in the sauce. I made panzanilla salad, that was awesome. That's toasted good bread, tomatoes, garlic, basil, olive oil, salt, capers if you like, more salt. So good!

Panzanilla salad. Cukes, tomatoes, bread, olive oil, salt, basil.

These are the squash I'm growing. I eat then raw (so fresh), but one time I stewed them in sauce I made from tomatoes, garlic, basil and olive oil. I forced the kids to try them, and they loved it. Jack usually won't touch squash, but now he's a believer!

Coleslaw revisited. There was a recipe in the NY Times yesterday for a coleslaw that I made. It was a new twist. Called for cabbage, peppers, tomatoes, scallions, mayo, a touch of mustard, horseradish, cayenne pepper. It was not shredded, but diced. It was very good.

Coleslaw with tomatoes and scallions

Last week I simply grilled some chicken kabobs with chunked up onion. We got six onions last week in a share. So I had to use some! I alternated the onion cubes with chicken thigh meat that I had marinated in soy sauce, ketchup, lemon, and olive oil. 

Chicken on the grill

And then tonight I made a Thai curry with the eggplant, onion, tomatoes, jalapeno and squash from my garden. Sauteed it all, added lemongrass, keffir lime leaves, coconut milk, fish sauce, soy sauce, lime. Ate it over rice and it was wonderful. Arielle tried it, Jack wouldn't touch it, but they ate the brown rice and corn that were sides.

A bit soupy, but perfect over rice

I can't wait to see what comes in the next few weeks until the CSA ends. My garden is almost done. It's been a plentiful garden summer! And I almost never had to water except in the beginning.

It's all about the cucumbers (and cabbage)

Forget the CSA. My garden is crazy with cukes. CRAZY! I pick like 10 a day. So I've pickled them, for real. The first time I actually bought canning stuff at the hardware store. Today I made kimchi stuffed cucumbers. I sadly, which is crazy because this never happens, had no fresh ginger. I can't really imagine kimchi without ginger, but the recipe didn't even call for it, so we'll see.

cukes stuffed with carrot, onion, scallions, red pepper flakes, fish sauce. yum.

Okay, that celery we got was, hello, celery to the nth degree. It was like celery from the grocery store on steroids, as far as flavor, right? A lot of it was too woody, but the edible pieces were great dipped in cream cheese.

The cabbage was great too. I have the best coleslaw recipe ever.

Heat 1/2 cup of red wine vinegar in a saucepan until it reduces to half, let it cool 5 minutes, add 2 tablespoons honey. mix to dissolve.

Shred a head of cabbage. I use half a head of red and half a head of green if I can. Add a half a red onion, sliced really thin. And one grated carrot.

Pour vinegar mix over. Then add about 1/2 cup mayo, some salt and pepper to taste, cayenne pepper, chives an parsley, if you have.

I have a photo, but it doesn't do it justice. I'm just not a photographer, and my Blackberry, well...

the best coleslaw you ever had!

I also sauteed the swiss chard in olive oil and rolled it inside a pounded, flattened chicken breast. Baked it for 20 minutes. It was awesome. No photos.

Then I baked a challah with my kids. Just for fun, we used half whole wheat flour, walnuts and raisins.

challah!

Fried Pepper Tapas & Baked Green Tomatoes

My biggest desire with this CSA is to get my kids to eat the stuff. Sometimes there are just, by no means possible, like the hot peppers today. So I sauteed them at a real high heat in olive oil, splashed on kosher salt, threw in the tomatillas (I've never liked them an there was no way I was making salsa - if I was going to eat them, it had to be cooked), it was great, like a perfect tapa for me and Rob. I think I had this dish at Boqueria in the city. I did!

fried peppers & tomatillas with splash of kosher salt

breaded tomatoes on baking sheet

And so last week I made baked green tomatoes. They taste no different than fried ones, much less mess too. They are seriously addictive and awesomely delish. I sliced them, salted them, dipped in flour, dipped in egg, dipped in breadcrumbs. Coated a baking sheet with olive oil. Placed the tomatoes on top, and baked for 30 minutes.

Baked Green Tomatoes

I also made this awesome corn salad. It used many CSA ingredients. The recipe is from Susan Goin of Lucques in LA. I had the pleasure of eating there last time I was in LA and it was one of the best meals. She's a tiny little waif. Who knew waifs could cook?

Corn salad with edamame, sauteed summer squash, red onion, basil, tomatoes,
watercress, lemon & shallots

I'm having an overabundance of tomatoes in my garden, and eating a tomato salad every night sounds wonderful if it was winter, but we're kind of getting sick of them. So as a variation, I made a tomato pie. I think this was originally a Paula Dean recipe, but I changed it.

Assembling the pie. Those green tomatoes are ripe green zebras.
The best and sweetest!

Tomato decadent!

The recipe calls for a pie shell. I save all the heels of bread from loaves to make croutons, so I used 4 of them instead of a pie shell for this square baking dish. Then I covered the bread in tomato slices. Sprinkled with salt. Then I shredded cheddar cheese and gouda, it's what I had, into a bowl. Mixed it with mayo. I happened to have some homemade on hand from the weekend (I make it like once every 2 years, and it happened to be last weekend). Then to the mayo cheese mix, I added some finely diced onion. Spread this over the top of the tomatoes and baked it in the oven until it was bubbly, about 30 minutes. It was so good. And I had the leftover piece for breakfast this morning.

My kids ate all the peaches already, and most of the sungold tomatoes. The lemon verbena is sitting in a little vase on my windowsill. Most likely to be unused. It smells wonderful, but I fear it tastes like citronella, and I just don't want to eat something that tastes like bug spray from Whole Foods.

So much lettuce this week. How many salads can I make? I remember Mark Bittman had some recipes at some point with cooked lettuce. I need to Google those!

Oh, fun thing (NOT). One of my ears of corn had a huge wiggly worm tunneling between the nice rows of kernels. Thank God it was at the tip and I cut the top off. That was some sweet corn today. I actually ended up nuking it for 2 minutes because I thought it was too fresh to boil. It was sweeeeet!

Wild spinach? That was, um, lambsquarters, an um, garden weed!

We got a huge bag of "wild spinach" from the CSA yesterday. When I peered inside, I recognized it as the weed lambsquarters. I'm constantly yanking this from my garden. But, I thought I'd try it. My kids love sauteed spinach. Spinach is my last name in Polish (Spinak=Szpinack-the real spelling, pronounced shpeeen-ahk). IT WAS DELISH!! It was so good, and better than spinach. Sometimes my son gets a numbing in his lips from sauteed spinach. This "wild spinach" didn't do that and he and my daughter had 2nd helpings. I simply sauteed it with some diced onion in olive oil. Added a splash of soy sauce and a sprinkle of salt. No photos, sorry.

I haven't updated in a while because I was working a lot and had zero time. Let me see what else I've made...

I was getting sick of arugula. I'm actually not a huge fan of it. I used to love it, but it doesn't hold up well to dressings and tends to get slimy and stringy. So, I made a fava bean and arugula spread. It was great on crackers and toasts. I got the recipe at epicurious.com.

Fava bean and arugula spread

I also made a kimchee pickle from the summer squash. Kimchee is an acquired taste. I love it. I eat it for breakfast on toast, on everything, with dinner, on sandwiches. The ingredients are ginger, garlic, anchovy sauce (fish sauce - it's like a fishy soy sauce), salt, and Korean red pepper powder. All the ingredients can be found at Kisco Farms on South Moger. You can even buy homemade kimchee there, but it's so much cheaper to make it yourself!

Kimchee squash. Mmmmmm

Since the kale last time wasn't enough for a proper kale salad, I made kale chips. Rip the leaves off the center stalk. Spread the washed and dried kale on a baking sheet. Spray with pam. Bake at350 for a few minutes. Watch so it doesn't burn. It takes like 5 minutes. Take out and sprinkle with salt.

Kale Chips. I burnt these a bit. They really turn from done to burnt in seconds

Tonight I'm making baked green tomatoes. It's the same recipe you'd use for fried green tomatoes, but bake them instead. I swear, they are just as good. And if you've never had fried green tomatoes, they are amazing. I first made them last summer with all the tomatoes in my garden that didn't ripen. I tried them fried and baked. They tasted the same.

I'm also making this corn, squash salad. I've made it before. It uses many things we got from the CSA yesterday. I'm making it this weekend, so I'll try to find the time to post the recipe and some photos. It uses red onion, squash, corn, tomatoes and other yummy things.

I'm probably going to make kimchee from my radishes, use some in a salad tonight. And by the way, I used a few leaves of the pursulane in a salad and tossed the rest. I just didn't like it at all. Sorry, I tried. 

My garden is getting out of control. I barely need to buy any produce now with the CSA and my backyard. Even the plumb tree is ripening. Although Jack bit into a plumb last night and it had a worm in it. He thought it was funny. I was completely sick. It was a small white worm, so gross. Oh well, that's what ya get when you don't use pesticides I guess.

Yesterday's bounty. Small white turnips, red radish, Japanese cucumber, 2 tone summer squash. I also picked a bunch of cherry tomatoes and wormy plumbs. Today I see a bunch of green zebra tomatoes are ripe. They're the best tomato ever. Perfect eaten sliced, sprinkled with salt.

Thank you Mario Batali!!

First of all, I had seen the recipe for the ricotta zucchini fritters in my issue of Food and Wine. SO it was funny that they had it on the CSA newsletter too. Had to make em. And it was a good thing! The only change I made was adding less lemon zest. I love lemon zest, but I knew 2 teaspoons would be too much for the kids. A four year old and a six year old don't yet appreciate lemon zest. Oh, also, instead of the scallions, I used 2 red spring onions that we got yesterday.

Zucchini Ricotta Fritters

Last week I stuffed the zucchini with the inside of the zucchini chopped, some onions, mushrooms and bread crumbs that I had sauteed. Then I baked the whole thing for about 20 minutes.

Stuffed

I also made the squash frittata from the CSA newsletter. I grated the zucchini instead of chopping it. I thought it would go over better with the kids.

Zucchini Fittata

With the arrugula last week, I made a pesto and spooned it over red snapper fillets, wrapped it in foil and grilled it for 15 minutes.

Arrugula pesto over red snapper fillets

I made the pesto using all the arrugula, toasted walnuts, a spring onion a little parmesan, salt and olive oil. I was thinking of mot using the parm at all, it sounded weird to go on fish, but I ended up using about a large tablespoon full. My usual pesto has around a half a cup.

Today for lunch, I boiled 2 of the new potatoes, sliced up some radishes, sliced some red spring onion, picked a cucumber from my backyard. Then I washed some of the lettuces, dressed it in a vinaigrette. Topped it with all the other stuff, and had a really nice salad. I cannot believe how Excellent that new potato was. I imagine it's probably the newest potato I've ever had. I assume the other potatoes we've been getting are not new, just baby potatoes that had been stored. You could tell these potatoes were fresh dug. Excellent!

Lunch salad composed of all things from the CSA plus my backyard cuke

I really want to make the ricotta-zucchini fritters again. I think next time I'll make them with a tzatziki dip. I have so much mint and cucumbers growing in my backyard, I need to use them up, or I'll have to start my own cucumber & mint CSA.