Second Charlestown Farm CSA Pickup

Tuesday, June 09, 2009

Sorry I’m a bit late with this one - camera issues. Last week I brought home two heads of lettuce, 1/2 lb of leaf lettuce, 1/3 lb of arugula, 1/3 lb of mixed Asian greens, one bunch of turnips, and 1 1/2 quarts of u-pick strawberries. I also picked up some mint. Amazingly we managed to eat all of the greens in the week! I know many of us struggle with eating all of the greens that come in most CSA boxes - and we were the same last year.  However, I recently figured out a way to eat them all - and without eating huge salads for breakfast, lunch, and dinner!  My secret - Tabbouleh! This tasty Middle Eastern salad works as well with arugula as it does with parsley.  My recipe is below - you can use any flavorful greens that are edible raw (so arugula, mustard, tat soi, and mizuna are in, but this won’t work well with lettuce or kale). Enjoy!

Mixed Greens Tabbouleh
* = optional ingredients

I prefer my Tabbouleh to have equal amounts of bulgar and greens, feel free to adjust the proportions if you’d like.

Ingredients
2 c bulgar wheat
~2 1.2 c boiling water
2 roasted red peppers* (I used some we have packed in oil from last year, you can use canned if you like)
6 T oil
4 cloves of garlic, chopped
1 T lime juice* (or use lemon)
2 T lemon juice* (or use cider vinegar)
2 T mint, chopped*
3-4 green onions, chopped* (use any allium)
8 kalamata olives, pitted and chopped
salt and pepper
1 lb mixed greens, chopped finely (I use the food processor)

1. Put the bulgar in a boil and cover with the boiling water to reach about 1 inch above the buglar. Let soak up to an hour, until most of the water is absorbed and the bulgar is al dente.
2. Whisk the oil, garlic, lemon, and lime juices together.
3. Mix the olives, mint, onions, red pepper, and greens.
4. Combine the greens mixture, bulgar, and dressing.
5. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Adjust the oil and acid if necessary.

As it gets later in the season you can add tomatoes and cucumbers to this as well.

Rhubarb Chutney

Sunday, May 31, 2009

Although my first thought upon acquiring rhubarb is usually something sweet, like cobbler or pie, rhubarb also makes excellent chutney.  Today’s batch is based on Boxwallah’s chutney; though the recipe says to leave it at least a month before eating, the sample left over after I canned four half-pints is already quite tasty. 

Rhubarb chutney

Combine rhubarb, onion, whole spices, and vinegar in a saucepan and slowly bring to a boil.  Cover and simmer for half an hour, then add the dried fruit, sugar, and ground spices.  Simmer, uncovered, for two hours or until rhubarb has completely disintegrated and the desired thickness is reached.  Transfer to sterile jars and process in a boiling-water bath. 

Pork Ribs for the Summertime

I’m not sure exactly where (though I suspect it was years ago on Molto Mario) I heard that Tuscan cuisine prefers one (or, at most, two) herbs as opposed to more elaborate combinations.  Though Lynne Rossetto Kasper (from whose The Italian Country Table I learned this recipe), writes of this as a dish for winter, I tend to cook it only from late Spring until early Fall.  It’s worlds away from the muted flavors of roasted or braised meats, the dutch-oven specialties of winter.  Here, the emphasis on rosemary is simple and direct - something that I more often associate with the bright, fresh tastes of summer.  Perhaps that’s why I’ve found it to work well with warm-weather staples like grilled asparagus, potato salad, or a salad of tender summer lettuce. Of course, I can rationalize all I want about how the flavors are why I reserve this for warmer weather; the real reason is probably that I feel more at liberty to eat with my fingers when I’m eating outside. 

One final word - it is essential that you do not overcook them.  To that end, I recommend a using a meat thermometer if possible. 

Pork Ribs

4 cloves garlic
2 tablespoons fresh rosemary
1 teaspoon olive oil
1 rack pork ribs
salt and pepper

1.  Mince together the garlic cloves and rosemary; alternately, you could use a mortar and pestle or a food processor.  Combine with the olive oil and rub over the ribs.  Cover and refrigerate anywhere from six hours to overnight (the longer the better, though, obviously).
2.  Preheat the oven to 300.  Lay out the ribs on sheet pan and season with salt and pepper. 
3.  Roast for 30 minutes or until the internal temperature reaches 150.  Meanwhile, preheat the grill.
4.  Brown on a medium-low grill, 5-7 minutes per side. 

Radishes and Radish Greens

Wednesday, May 20, 2009

My CSA is filled with radishes right now. While I don’t dislike them, I just never really eat them or know what to do with them. A bit of searching around on the web found numerous recipes for radish greens soup - the greens! Of course! I made the soup below for a quick and easy dinner. I also had green garlic and baby kale, so I made a sort of very chunky “tapenade” for the top of some crusty Metropolitan bread. Radishes, when cooked (especially in butter) take on a milder, buttery flavor. A great accompaniment to the soup, together using the whole radish!

Radish Greens Soup
serves 4

1 Tbs. butter or Earth Balance
1 Tbs. olive oil
3 medium potatoes, peeled and diced
1 small yellow onion, diced
3 green onions, chopped
2 bulbs of green garlic, chopped
Greens from 2 bunches of radishes
zest of half a lemon
6 cups of vegetable broth
juice of one lemon
salt and pepper
1 cup local or homemade low-fat yogurt

Heat the butter and oil together in a thick sauce pan over medium heat until the butter melts. Add the potatoes, onions and garlic. Cook, stirring often, until the yellow onions become golden in color and the green onions soften. Add the greens, stirring well. Add the lemon zest and vegetable broth. Raise the heat to medium high and cover the pan. Cook the soup at a low boil until the potatoes soften, about 7 minutes. Remove the heat from the pan. Add the lemon juice, salt and pepper. Blend the soup with an immersion blender, or in two batches in a blender. Return soup to the pan and stir in the yogurt until the soup takes on a creamy consistency. Garnish with sliced fresh radish.

Radish and Baby Kale on Toast

1 Tbs. butter or Earth Balance
1 bulb green garlic, diced
6 small radishes, thinly sliced
2 small handfuls of baby kale
1/4 cup vegetable broth

Heat the butter in a large sauce pan until melted. Add the radishes and garlic, cooking over medium heat until the radish softens. Add the baby kale and the vegetable broth and stir well. When the kale wilts and most of the broth evaporates, remove from the heat. Serve over good buttered toast.

Rheally Versatile Rhubarb

Like Garrison Keillor, I grew up on rhubarb pie in the early summer. (It was Wisconsin, so the rhubarb’s not quite ready til then.) Not strawberry rhubarb—just the rhubarb. We also ate sort of a stewed rhubarb like applesauce after dinner, as a snack, or at breakfast, although we didn’t call it “rhubarb sauce”; it was just “rhubarb.” Tonight I tried it in a bundt cake, and it’s pretty good. The recipe I adapted from Savoring the Seasons in the Northern Heartland published by University of Minnesota Press. Instead of sour cream, I used plain Pequea Valley yogurt. And tonight I picked up my Meadow Run Farm buying club order which included a dozen eggs from their pastured hens.

What’s my point? Don’t get freaked out by rhubarb. If you’re not used to it yet, chop it up and treat it like cranberries: tart, red, and good for cooking and baking. Nutritionally, it’s very high in vitamin K, and high in C, potassium, calcium, and manganese.

Dill, and a recipe

Tuesday, May 12, 2009

I am not a fan of mayonnaise potato salads. This year I’m growing dill so that I can make my favorite and really simple potato salad.

Yogurt & Dill Potato Salad

Handful of fresh dill, chopped fine
Cracked black pepper (a couple of full cranks)
Sea salt to taste (a little at first)
Freshly snipped chives
1 garlic clove, crushed (optional)
6 to 8 oz Greek-style yogurt (no less than 2% fat; how much depends on absorption by the potatoes)
1 pound small new potatoes

Mix everything together except potatoes. Boil the potatoes until tender (peeled or skins on, or remove skins after they’ve boiled and are cool enough to handle). Combine. Taste after a couple of hours in the fridge and adjust the salt and add more yogurt if necessary. Keeps well for a 2-3 days.

Grid Magazine: The 100% Local Food Issue

Thursday, May 07, 2009

Just 6 months old, Grid Magazine, a free glossy about creating sustainability in Philadelphia, has put out some great thematic issues on energy, bicycling and gardening. The newest issue, hitting the streets or your internet today, is all about local, sustainable food practices. Alongside recipes from restaurant superstars Pumpkin and Tria and Denise Balcavag of http://www.urbanvegan.net, and interviews with Talulah’s Kitchen luminaries and the Lancaster Farm Fresh Cooperative, There’s also a piece about a West Philly High student making a nutritional difference in her community. Add to that a guide to composting, and an expose on the difficulty of finding fresh produce in North Philly, an outline of how to eat local on the cheap and an interview with farm-loving rockers Hoots and Hellmouth, this issue has it all! Pick up a copy at your local business (or ask them to carry it) or read it paper-free online!

Give me sorrel or give me death

Tuesday, April 28, 2009

This is simultaneously a great time of year and a frustrating time of year for seasonal eaters.  On the positive side, the first asparagus and rhubarb is starting to become available.  Sometimes you can find some Spring greens…but it’s so frustrating because it’s getting warmer and so many of us just want something new on the menu. 

I always have a substantial supply of sorrel in the garden each Spring, something that isn’t exactly the easiest thing to find for sale in markets.  And so even though I would gladly trade my entire garden for a sun-ripened, heirloom variety tomato right now, sorrel really is something different and I’m always looking for new ways to use it.

Last year I searched for some things to do with sorrel and came up with some recipes that I really liked.  This year I found some new ideas:

• A bunch of recipes from Mariquita Farm, including sorrel risotto, penne with mushrooms and sorrel, and leek and sorrel pancakes.
• Dauphine Potatoes with Sorrel
• Onion Sorrel Tart
• Sorrel Tomatillo and Gruyere Panade
• Tabbouleh with Sorrel and Mint
• New Potatoes with Salami and Sorrel

Of course, one of my favorite ways to use sorrel is also the simplest: sorrel mashed potatoes.  I think everyone has their own favorite way to make mashed potatoes, so I won’t bother to describe my own preferred method.  To get the sorrel in there, just grab a handful of sorrel out of the garden and give it a good wash, then cut into chiffonade.  Saute the sorrel in olive oil or butter until it’s slightly wilted and then mix it in with your mashed potatoes.  They are delicious!!

My sorrel mashed potatoes (potatoes from Lancaster Farm Fresh) were served with a chicken (Meadow Run Farm) roasted with sage (right out of the garden!) and the last of last year’s corn (Lancaster Farm Fresh).

Necessity Is The Mother of (Mayo) Genius

A couple of months ago, I wrote a post about how to use egg whites to calm down olive oil mayo. Several of you wrote to me asking about homemade mayo’s longevity. Most people don’t use it everyday and wanted to know how long it would last. Sadly, not long. About a week, maybe a touch more, depending on how much lemon juice you add. How sad: a condiment that can so easily be made at home, without chemical preservatives, suffers from being too much of a good thing. You can’t freeze your mayo and you can’t go any smaller than one egg. Or can you?

Yes! Yes you can. I’ve been infected by the idea of Hope. If the country can elect a transformative president, then I sure as heck can learn how to make smaller portions of homemade mayo. The trick? Your freezer. The method? You only freeze half of the ingredients.

Here goes: mix up the egg, the lemon juice, the mustard, the salt and pepper and the garlic grass (if you so desire). Then take half of that mixture and freeze it. Or a quarter. Or two-thirds. Whatever! The rest of the mix, you whip in the olive oil (or any oil).

Now, for the caveats. First, and this should kinda go without saying, don’t even try it in a large food processors. Use the little guy. They’re nice to have around. I got mine off of eBay (you remember: when eBay sold used items?). And second (and this is the great mystery), it will never make as much. I don’t get it. When I make a full batch, I come out with about a cup-and-a-half of mayo, sometimes almost 2 cups. Divide it? If I divided it in half, each half produces about one-third cup. At first I thought it had something to do with the freezing, but it also affects the fresh egg mixture. But hey, mysteries make life interesting, no?

So now go forth and make mayo! With the little food processor, it’s quick, super-easy and you can make the tiniest of batches at-a-time. So there you have it. Spread the word ‚ I want your grandchildren singing songs about Charlotte Markward, the mayo genius.

Mayo Recipe
- 1 egg (farm fresh, of course)
- 1 egg white (farm fresh, but optional. It makes the resulting mayo less olive oil-y)
- 1ts dijon mustard
- 1ts lemon juice
- salt and pepper to taste
- garlic grass (optional: to make, simply put old garlic —you know, the kind that’s starting to sprout — into a small pot of dirt. Water it occasionally and harvest the “grass” sprouts by trimming. Much like chives)
- olive oil (or any oil)

Combine all ingredients up to garlic grass in food processor until frothy and the mixture turns a lighter shade of yellow. Then split the mix and freeze a portion.
Leave the rest of the mix in the food processor and then slowly add the oil, drizzling SUPER slow (I start by counting 100 drips before I even graduate to a drizzle). Splitting the batch makes the mayo come together much faster than a whole batch.
For the full batch recipe, click here.

Simply in Season

Monday, April 27, 2009

In the “Pinched – Tales from an Economic Downturn” series for Salon, Siobhan Phillips writes an interesting article explore the feasibility of eating SOLE - sustainable, organic, local or ethical – on a budget. She and her husband do their best on the food-stamp minimum in their Connecticut town - $248 for two people. And you know what? They do pretty well. Her secret is effort, some cooking skills, and some great tools. One of these is the cooking