Summer Vegetable CSA Week 3

Week three brought us more sugar snap peas, kousa and summer squash, beets, swiss chard, chives, lettuce, radishes, scapes and broccoli rabe. My favorite thing to do with the sugar snap peas is to put them in salads but I also love to just wash them and take them with us as a portable snack. The squash was roasted and along with the broccoli rabe, it made a great lasagna. The scapes were made into pesto and the chives packed away for another day. It really amazes me how quickly everything goes. I never have a lot of kitchen waste but I think this has been my best year yet.

Four Allium Risotto

If you've ever received garlic scapes in your CSA share, or bought any at the farmer's market, you know that they can be made into a lovely pesto. A risotto is a delicious way to use your pesto, but I thought it would be even more fun to use some of the other members of the same genus, Allium.

Four Allium Risotto:
1 small-medium sweet onion, about 1 cup, medium chop
2 shallots, diced
3 tbsp. butter
1 1/2 c. Arborio rice
4-5 cups chicken stock
1/3 c garlic scape pesto*
1 12 oz. can diced tomatoes
1 cup grated Parmesan
1/4 c. heavy cream
1 tablespoon chives, chopped fine
salt
pepper
crushed red pepper

In a large skillet over medium high heat, melt butter, add onions and shallot, cook until browning begins. Add rice and cook until translucent. Adding 1 cup stock at a time, reduce to a simmer and stir constantly, until rice is nearly cooked, add tomatoes and scape pesto. The rice will be somewhat translucent with a milky white part in the middle, but not crunchy, when properly cooked. Add Parmesan and season. Stir in heavy cream, allow to cook on low 5-10 minutes. Adjust seasonings if needed and add chives.

*Recipe coming soon, I promise!

CSA Pickup Week Chicken Soup

I started the day thinking I would just be making my normal chicken soup with carrots and barley or pasta. I had and still have a good supply of carrots but then I thought it didn't make much sense to have all these other wonderful vegetables on hand and just use carrots. When I make soup, I don't mess around. I usually make a soup big enough for those who like stuff and those who like broth to have dinner and leftovers for lunch.

For the broth:
In a stock pot, cover with water: a whole chicken, a peeled onion or two, 3 big peeled carrots, the center of your celery (you know the leafy part in the middle that you aren't going to eat) or 2-3 ribs with leaves, 2 big cloves peeled garlic, 10 peppercorns, 3-4 bay leaves, a tbsp salt, and a Parmesan rind, if you have one.

Start it on low, and gradually turn it up over the first hour to a simmer. Simmer for 2-3 hours or until your chicken is almost falling apart. Remove chicken and strain, discarding all the broth flavorings. Set aside the chicken for de-boning.

Soup:
You can add any vegetables you like, you can even sautee them in a little butter first, but be sure to add them incrementally according to how fast they cook. Carrots, potatoes, root vegetables, first. They usually take 20-30 minutes longer than other vegetables to cook.

Here is my soup in order of things added, everything cut into a medium dice: Carrots, Swiss chard, including stems--cooked 25 minutes, 2 summer squash, a can of diced tomatoes, a medium onion sauteed in butter along with 2 cloves of garlic (minced), and in the last ten minutes I added some frozen green beans that I had on hand, some dried thyme from my share, 1/2 cup Israeli cous-cous and the deboned meat from the chicken. I adjusted my seasonings with salt, pepper, and some balsamic vinegar at the very end.

Pound Cake with Strawberries and Whipped Cream

We picked a major load of strawberries at Rogers Spring Hill. Immediately, I spent the entire evening dreaming of wonderful thing  to make, as I stuffed every other strawberry into my mouth.
My husband suggested a pound cake with strawberries and I thought that sounded pretty good, so I looked up a recipe and decided to make a quick run to the store for a bundt cake pan. If I had to do it all again, I would have bought a different one. I've been baking a long time, I've never had a cake stick until now, even with cooking in an inexpensive pan.

For the cake, I use Elvis Presley's Favorite Pound Cake Recipe. I didn't have a chance to verify the truth of this claim and I was worried about some of the reviews saying it was bland. It wasn't bland, it was moist and tasted like a pound cake. I was a little worried about overflowing the cake pan so filled my pan about 3/4 of an inch from the top and put the remaining batter into a small loaf pan. The cake baked for me at for about 55 minutes and the small loaf was done at about 45, starting with a cold oven on 350.

I made the whipped cream in my stand mixer and garnished with berries. You don't have to buy whipping cream, heavy cream will do. In a mixer, add 2 cups whipped cream, 1/4 c powdered sugar and a teaspoon of vanilla. Whip it with a whisk attachment until it is fluffy. Make sure to watch it so that you don't accidentally make butter instead. I never measure, so this is approximate, feel free to omit the sugar, increase, or reduce it.

Summer Vegetable CSA Week 2

Week 2: Two bunches each broccoli rabe and rainbow chard, a bag of spinach, a bag of snow peas, two tomatoes, a head of romaine lettuce as well as Boston lettuce, two bunches of chives, two summer squash, and garlic scapes. I loaded all into my vegetable ark and brought it home in the pouring rain.

Now that my oven is again working, I'm hoping to have a productive week in the kitchen. Whenever we get romaine, I know we're going to have salad. I do have a few odd-ball type recipes on deck that use cooked romaine but I'm waiting for a week where I'm swimming in lettuce. I love using Boston lettuce in place of bread, so I will keep it on hand as long as possible to use as a wrap or a taco shell. if not, there is always salad. The squash, spinach, and chard are all in just the right amount for a side dish. As usual, I will chop and freeze the chives. For the broccoli rabe, I am thinking about a ricotta cheese sauce with sausage meatballs or a white lasagna. As for the scapes and the peas, I just don't know, they are both great in salads. For this week, scapes are definitely my wild card. I will either make a pesto or incorporate them into a meal in place of garlic. I'd say the biggest challenge will be using the peas before they go bad, I may have to review my notes from last year and give myself a refresher course on peas.

I'll put this question to both of my readers: What should I do with the peas? If I make your recipe, I'll post a photo and give you credit! How amazing would that be?! Almost on par with a Kitchen Aid Stand Mixer giveaway, right?

Vegetable CSA Week 1

This was the first day of a twenty week vegetable CSA. This has probably been my favorite first week out of the last three years. 2 bunches of thyme, oregano, garlic chives, 2 bunches broccoli rabe, a cucumber, 2 bags of spinach, beets, 1 bunch kale, a head of Boston lettuce and a tomato that is not pictured because it is in protective custody.

Thankfully, beets will keep a long time in the fridge because I have a repairman coming sometime this week. I cannot make beet chips until he looks at my oven. That's a pretty major setback so I'm planning on doing most things on grill or stove top. The thyme will be hung and dried for another day and the oregano will be frozen in an ice cube. I'm not sure about the garlic chives yet, whether I want to make a compound butter, a pesto, or just freeze them. The lettuce will make a great bread substitute or will go for a salad, while the spinach will end up as a pesto or dip. I'm not sure about the broccoli rabe, maybe a pasta or sausage dish. We often use the cucumbers as a substitute for crackers or chips, our 4 year old loves them this way. As for the kale, I'm still not certain. I wish I could find one go-to recipe that I like for kale but until then, it continues to defeat me week after week. Kale is my biggest nemesis.

Braised Goat Chops

Last time I went to my favorite butcher, Blood Farm in Groton, MA, I saw these in the case and picked them up. I'm not an exotic food fanatic, but I am tired of chickenbeefchickenporkchicken, well I'm not really tired of beef. Cows are my favorite animals. Yes, I know about bacon, but I also know about oxtail, brisket, beef ribs and short ribs. I also know about goat. Very little before the other day, but I decided I had to learn. So picked up a package of goat shoulder chops and kept them in my freezer until I had a day to experiment. If I know one thing about meat it is that braising nearly always works when you have no clue, so that was my plan.

Braised Goat Chops:
2 chops
1 tsp garam masla
1/2 tsbp Chinese five spice powder
3-4 large carrots, peeled and sliced
1 small onion sliced
2 cloves garlic, sliced
1 cup kale
1 can diced tomatoes
salt
pepper

Pre-heat oven to 325. Heat a cast iron skillet on high. Season chops with garam masala, five spice powder, salt and pepper. Add to skillet browning on each side. Remove from skillet and set aside. Add carrots, onions an garlic to skillet. Cook 3-5 minutes on medium-high, careful not to burn the garlic. Add the can of diced tomatoes to skillet and cook 2-3 minutes. Add kale and chops to an oven-safe dish, pour contents of pan over the chops and bake on 325 for about 1 hour 30 minutes or until tender. Serve with cous cous.