Week 12: Final Spring CSA Week

This is the last week of the my Spring CSA share. Next week is the first week of summer shares. I was so happy to see tomatoes! Even though they are greenhouse-grown, they are leaps and bounds beyond whatever is in the grocery stores right now. This week also included kale, parsley, cilantro, 2 bags of spinach, two bags of lettuce and a bag of joi choi with nasturtiums. I originally had some tatsoi but I traded it for an extra bag of lettuce in the swap box.  One bag isn't enough for my family for a week!
We had our usual Taco Salad, so as of now, we're one bag of lettuce, one tomato down and the cilantro is gone. I'm thinking of spring rolls on Friday with the joi choi, carrots, and some shrimp. The kale is going to be in a chicken, kale and carrot soup. The spinach will be a dip or spanakopita. I'll still have enough extra to make a great salad and the parsley will probably end up in a compound butter.

I'm so glad we signed up for the spring share, and I'm looking forward to my third bountiful summer share.

Purple Loaded Mashed Potatoes and Mixed Grill

When I picked up my CSA share a few weeks ago, I did notice the potatoes looked dark, but I just thought they were a little wet. It rained heavily on our pick up day and I set them in a colander on the counter to dry. They were put in a bag for another day. So when I was planning a meal for a dinner guest, I decided that potatoes would make a nice side but it wasn't until the actual meal prep that I noticed: The potatoes were purple! I have had fingerling purple potatoes but I couldn't remember if they retained their color when boiled. I told our guest I had a surprise for him when he arrived. They were beautiful to look at and tasted great, really no different from a white potato at all. Had I been paying closer attention I would have thought more about it, but I love little unexpected changes from the usual.

The meal includes marinaded steak tips, chicken and Italian sausage with Cilantro-Parsley Pesto (also used for the chicken marinade) and Loaded Mashed Potatoes. It included cilantro, potatoes, peppers, and chives from my share.

Loaded Mashed Potatoes:
10-12 medium potatoes, peeled and quartered
2 sticks butter
1 bunch chives, chopped
1 cup bacon, chopped
2 cups shredded cheese (cheddar, or a favorite blend)
1/2 c sour cream
salt
pepper

Boil potatoes until they are easily pierced by fork. Drain. Add butter, and partially mash. Add rest of ingredients, seasoning with salt and pepper to taste. Continue to mash to desired consistency. Allow to stand about 3-5 minutes, to melt cheese and butter completely. Stir to finish mixing and serve.

Cilantro Parsley Pesto:
1 bunch flat leaf parsley
1 bunch cilantro
2 cloves garlic
1 bunch green onions
3-4 cherry peppers, seeded
1/2 cup olive oil
juice from 1 lime
salt
pepper

In a food processor, process parsley, cilantro, garlic and peppers. I had to do the parsley alone, first to make room. Add green onions, and pulse to a fine grind, adding olive oil and lime juice slowly through the pouring hole in the lid. Season with salt and pepper to taste and blend again.

Can be used as a condiment or a marinade for chicken. We really liked it on the chicken.

Steak Marinade #3:
3 tbsp honey
1 inch piece of ginger, peeled and sliced
1/4 cup tamari
1/4 c olive oil
salt
pepper

Mix all ingredients together well and marinate steak overnight. Tamari can be salty, I added a little more salt in proportion to the amount of meat, so salt carefully.

Spring CSA Week 7

 Herbs are never a bad thing. I was so happy when I opened my box this week to find cilantro, chives, and basil. I even traded my joi choi for more cilantro. We go through cilantro pretty fast these days. Tonight, we're having taco salad again and I was thinking about making more chimichurri sauce for a mixed grill dinner that we're having on Wednesday. It makes a great marinade, too. I'm hoping to use the basil in a sauce, possibly for eggplant on Thursday. It looks like I have plenty of carrots and greens for salads and braising. The cucumber always goes great in salad but it isn't bad for dressings and appetizers, either. I'll probably end up freezing the chives for another day and I'm not sure if the what the greens are in the share, they look like arugula, but they might be from a root vegetable or a mustard green.

Steak Tips with Chimichurri, Radish Greens, and Salad

The good thing about this dinner was it used up a lot of our share for the week. The bad thing is that using up the CSA vegetables early in the week means we have to work down our winter stock of frozen (non-CSA and comparatively bland) vegetables. I'll be glad when they are gone!

This menu consists of steak tips, seasoned with salt and pepper, left to rest at room temperature for about an hour, and then grilled, topped with my Cilantro, Lime, and Cherry Pepper Chimichurri. It also included a "salad bar" so that everyone in the family could build their own from the radishes, toasted nuts, carrots, cucumbers, cranberries, lettuce and goat cheese that I laid out. I made a Citrus-Balsamic dressing based on this, but I also added the juice of about 1/2 of a Meyer Lemon. I didn't think I would like it once I tasted it, and the acidity was definitely off, probably the fault of the orange, which is why I had to add lemon juice. Actually, once it was on the salad with the cranberries and the goat cheese it was quite good. The other item on the plate was sauteed radish greens. Finally. I know I've been talking about doing this for weeks! Everyone but me liked them, I found the flavor fine, but they were slightly tough for my tastes. I think kale is tough too, just to be fair.

Sauteed Radish Greens:
greens and stalks of two bunches of young radishes (I'd cut closer to the leaves for older bunches)
1 clove garlic, sliced thin
2 green onions, sliced
salt
pepper
olive oil
1 tbsp water

Heat olive oil in skillet, add garlic and sautee for 2-3 minutes over medium heat. Add greens, salt, and pepper. If the greens seem tough, add a small amount of water to lightly steam. When the leaves are wilted, removed from heat and serve.

Cilantro, Lime, and Cherry Pepper Chimichurri

What do you do when you have a lot of cilantro but no plans? You can make a wonderful condiment for grilled steak or chicken. This is a relatively small portion (2-3 people) but it was more than enough for our dinner.

Cilantro, Lime, and Cherry Pepper Chimichurri:

1 bunch, about cups cilantro
1 clove garlic
1 hot cherry pepper, seeded
juice of 1/2 lime
1/3 c olive oil
salt
pepper

Add first four ingredients to a food processor, pulse and scrape down the sides, repeating until finely chopped. Through the lid, slowly add oil, it will be a slightly oil sauce, you may need to use more or less oil depending on the amount of cilantro used. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

Spring CSA Week 5

It is a challenge to get new things in a weekly CSA share from week to week. I also enjoy the challenge that comes from those weeks with little variation. Staying out of a rut and trying new things requires a lot of creativity.

This week we have another salad green mix, a cucumber, joi choi (it's getting bigger, too), cilantro, storage carrots, storage potatoes and radishes. I actually had dill but I traded it for more radishes.

Tonight we're having a salad bar with citrus-balsamic dressing, steak tips, cilantro chimichurri, and sauteed radish greens. I used carrots and cucumbers from my share for the salad as well. As I write this, this week's share is halfway gone. I have plans for the carrots in a braised dish later this week, the joi choi will be something Asian, lettuce wraps, soup, or maybe spring rolls, and as for the potatoes, no idea yet. I have some bacon ends that would make a nice potato soup but maybe I want gnocchi. Either way, I'm glad that potatoes are so versatile and they store so well!

Cilantro, Greens, and Chicken Noodle Bowls

This is another quick dinner. Soup or salad is a perfect way to use greenhouse greens. I also added other vegetables that I had in the fridge. You can use a rotisserie chicken and boxed broth or you can make your own stock and shred the chicken, reserving whatever stock you don't need for another day.

Cilantro, Greens, and Chicken Noodle Bowls
1 whole chicken, de-boned and roughly, shredded
1 gallon stock or broth
1/2 cup carrots, sliced
1 tbsp diced ginger or 1/2 tsp ginger powder
2 cups joi choi
1 cup tatsoi
1 bunch cilantro, chopped
3-4 large mushrooms sliced
1/4 tsp crushed red pepper
3-5 tbsp tamari
1 lime
2 bunches green onion, sliced
1 clove garlic, sliced thin
2 packages ramen noodles, seasonings thrown in trash

Everything, except lime, tamari, noodles and green onions goes into a large pot until greens are wilted. Season with tamari and lime to taste. Once pot is just to a boil, add noodles and green onions. Turn off heat, serve when noodles are soft.

I love Sriracha--others in my family, not so much, so I add it at the table.