Compost Soup. And a great hash of potatoes, fresh garlic, spring onion, oregano and thyme. Plus dolmas.

All winter long I was making what I call compost soup. On Friday I would take out all the near rotting vegetables and peels and scraps I had saved over the week, throw them in a soup pot with some salt and pepper, sometimes a chicken leg or two, whatever. Then when the stock was done, I'd freeze it. I'd ladel 2 cups into freezer bags and store them for later use. I haven't done it in a while. So I decided to start this again with all the scraps leftover from the CSA, like the spring onion stalks, the garlic stalk & scape, the herbs I haven't used up yet that are begging to deteriorate. So tomorrow, it's compost soup time!

I made a great potato hash tonight with the potatoes, fresh garlic, spring onion, oregano and thyme.

Early in the day (when the house was cool) I roasted the potatoes:
Oven at 400 degrees.
Placed all my small potatoes and added 2 yukon golds (cut up) in a roasting pan, drizzled 2 TBSP olive oil, a tsp of kosher salt and the garlic. I didn't peel the cloves, but broke up the head into unpeeled cloves. Covered with foil and roasted for 45 minutes.

getting ready

Then I squeezed the garlic out of the skins and put in a bowl with the oil left in the pan. Then let it all cool for later in the day.

Letting it all cool

Then when it was getting close to dinner time, I crushed the potatoes by hand, just crumbled them. Then I heated a frying pan, added 2 Tbsp olive oil and the potatoes. Left it undisturbed for about 8 minutes. It got all crusty. Flipped it, let it cook until that side browned. Then I added 1 chopped spring onion and the garlic paste. Lowered heat to a simmer and cooked until the spring onion was translucent. Added a touch more salt. Voila!

So good!

The baby bok choy

I sauteed/steamed this in a little water, and then made a miso butter glaze. My kids loved it! After it was done cooking, I took it out of the sautee pan and added butter (2 tsp), white miso (1/2 tsp) and a bit of water, like 3 tbsp. I let it simmer over low and poured it over the bok choy. Excellent!

I actually basically steamed it in a tiny bit of water 

Finished. It was glazed in the miso butter

OK, then I did something crazy. I made dolmas from grape leaves off my grape vine.

I was perusing the Blooming Hill website on Tuesday, before we got our e-mail about what our share will contain. I was looking at the produce list of the possibilities. I saw grape leaves was on there. Then I though, huh, I have a grape vine. It's leaves are so thick and it's shading part of my vegetable garden. So I googled how to use fresh grape leaves for dolmas. I have a great dolma recipe which includes brown rice, raisins, pine nuts, tomatoes, olive oil, lemon, allspice and onion. I hadn't made it in years. But now I was faced with this challenge. I know the leaves were not from my CSA, but it was inspired by the CSA. So I made them today and they are out of this world. So much better than any I've ever had.

all packed away in tupperware for the July 4th weekend

Tomorrow I'll be using the yummy looking arugula and squash. Already looking forward to next Wednesday!

Conquered the Mess O Greens and Garlic Scapes!

This week was a really great week for the CSA! Those blueberries were amazing. My kids ate them and the shell peas as a snack while I made dinner last night. I have shell peas in my garden too, so I supplemented and they had a whole bowlful.

The Mess O Greens this week looked more kale and collards, chard too, and less dandelion. I just don't like dandelion. So I made Kale salad. The recipe I use I adapted from Dan Barber. You know, the executive-chef and co-owner of Blue Hill at Stone Barns http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dan_Barber

It's really best to make the night before. So I had it for lunch today and it was amazingly yummy!

This is the recipe I made last night. I doctor it a bit different every time.


Kale Salad    Adapted from Dan Barber
Ingredients:
2 tablespoons raisins-I actually used one of those little snack boxes (I use golden)
1 tablespoon unseasoned rice vinegar (or any vinegar for that matter, but I love rice vinegar)
1 tablespoon honey
3 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt, if using table salt, then 1/4 tsp
1 bunches mess o greens (collards, kale mix)
3 tablespoons pine nuts, lightly toasted, or used slivered almonds
Parmesan cheese shavings (I used 1/2 cup shredded Parmesan)

Preparation:
Wash and wash again, and again, the mess o greens, or kale or collards. Cut out tough center stalk and toss. I put the greens in the food processor and pulse a few times to get them cut up. If you don't have a food processor handy, cut up into small pieces. Like 1/4 in squared at most.

Toast nuts, let cool. Place greens in a bowl, add raisins and nuts.

Make dressing: whisk all ingredients for dressing in a small bowl (oil, vinegar, honey, salt). Pour dressing over greens, add parmesan cheese. Please use shredded parm, either grate yourself or buy the grated kind. Don't use the powder kind! Put in tupperware in fridge and eat for lunch the next day!

mess o greens salad

The scapes were delicious too! I had saved up 2 weeks. I cut them into 1" lengths, then I braised them in some water, adding a teaspoon of salt and sugar. Once the water evaporated I added olive oil and some cut up broccoli, cauliflower and soy sauce.

scapes with broccoli and cauliflower

Tonight I simply sauteed the squash. I added spring onion at the end.

squash sauteed in olive oil

I really love and look forward to Wednesday CSA day. It's the total food day. The NY Times Dining section, Top Chef and CSA are all on Wednesday! Awesome.

We got summer squash and strawberries!!

It's amazing how dirty the food comes when it comes from a farm, and not the grocery store, or even the farmers market. Maybe dirty isn't the right word. It's very soily??

Treat for the week was some fresh strawberries, which taste so sweet and amazing straight from the farm. I have some in my garden too, so we'll be eating loads of them tonight for a before bed snack.

I made a great salad with the lettuces, snap peas & summer squash. It's a salad I've made a zillion times with just squash. But since I only got one in my CSA share, I supplemented the lettuces.

I used baby lettuce and spinach. Then I shaved the squash using a vegetable peeler. Toasted some slivered almonds. De-strung the snap peas and rough chopped them into like 3 pieces. I added some fresh regular peas from my garden too. I tossed this all, dressed it with a vinaigrette made from fresh lemon juice, red wine vinegar, dijon mustard, salt, pepper and olive oil. Tossed this all together then topped with shaved parmesan that I shaved using the vegetable peeler. It was delicious!!

salad with shaved squash, toasted almonds, snap peas, shaved parmesan

I finally used the rhubarb yesterday. I basically sauteed it in butter, adding sugar and cardamon powder, which is so delicious. It can be found in a Middle Eastern store, or maybe the Korean vegetable store in Mt. Kisco (Mt. Kisco Farms). If you don't have, use cinnamon, but cardamon powder is really something! I sprinkled on sugar, tossed in a few sliced strawberries. and sauteed more. Then it was so good, I just ate it plain. I was trying to save it for yogurt the next morning, but it didn't make it. My general thought is that you can saute almost anything in butter with sugar and it pretty much has to taste great!

No Wild Card this Week!

Well, I did give the bag, Mess O Greens to my babysitter. I just had too many greens because I'm growing a mess of them in my garden as well.

Tonight I made a lovely dish of carmelized spring onions with garlic scapes and turnips. It was fantastic! Jack loved the scapes, but he's had them before. Arielle wouldn't try them. Oh well.

carmelized spring onions with garlic scapes and turnips

The kids ate the snap peas raw as a snack while I cooked dinner. And I stuffed the 2 branzinos I grilled with the thyme. It was such a great dinner tonight!

Tip: Seriously, only use the bulb of the spring onions. Save the rest for soup stock, it's just too woody.

I pickled the burdock root

I tried to do the burdock root in the style of gobo from a Japanese restaurant. It actually tasted fine after 2 days of pickling, but it smelled like an ash tray in my fridge. So sorry. I tossed it. Then my garbage smelled like an ash tray until I brought it to the garage. I hope you all had better luck with the burdock.

But...My kids still love the nettle pesto, and I'm serving it at a kid party on Wednesday.

So Exciting!

So, the Bet Torah CSA just started, this was the second week. I love being faced with the challenge of cooking and preparing things that I wouldn't have necessarily bought (or could even find) in the grocery store. Then there's the wild card. Last week it was burdock root, this week, stinging nettles. I still haven't used the burdock, but I plan on pickling it, like they do at Japanese restaurants. I made a great pesto from the nettles and my kids loved it too. Today I made polenta with the cornmeal. I still have to figure out what I'm going to do with the rhubarb. Probably make some kind of compote, jam think to pour over ice cream.

I plan on posting recipes and photos, if I can figure this out. I've never done a blog.

These are the things I've made so far from last week and this week:
•  roasted sunchokes
•  polenta with spring onions
•  nettle pesto
•  many salads
•  mint iced tea
•  popcorn

I'll post recipes for the polenta and pesto later!

Stinging Nettle Pesto. Boil the nettles first!!

Grilling the polenta cakes