Blog: February 2019

Most of these posts were originally posted somewhere else and link to the originals. While this blog is not set up for comments, the original locations generally are, and I welcome comments there. Sorry for the inconvenience.

Stir-fry from the CSA box

I don't have good luck with stir-frying beef, but the quasi-marinade of this recipe made a big difference -- soy sauce, lime juice, a little sugar, and some Thai chili paste (because I didn't have a chile pepper).

I used different vegetables. That's shaved carrots, shaved green-meat radishes, tat soi (that's the greens), shallots, and garlic. Yum!

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Winter CSA, week 7

  • 5 Rome apples
  • 3 celeriac (one small) (late substitute for the beets we were expecting)
  • 4 medium blue potatoes
  • 16 small carrots, generally around 4" long
  • large bunch arugula (that is the one front right, isn't it? it's bigger than past arugula, but the bag back left doesn't look like arugula)
  • bunch tatsoi
  • bag mizuna (this is a new green for me)
  • half gallon apple cider
  • 2 pounds pastry flour
  • small jar green tomato relish ("think of it as a more mature salsa")
  • 6oz piece goat's milk Parmesaanen

The preview email, once again, included a picture not of the cheese but of the goat.

The cornbread recipe that came with the cornmeal in a past box calls for pastry flour, which I didn't have then but do now. Last time I made it with regular flour, so I'll see if I can tell the difference with pastry flour. Meanwhile, this bag of flour comes with a recipe for pancakes. Neither cornbread nor pancakes are pastry in my mind, but I'll assume that the term "pastry flour" is expansive.

(The CSA linked to a short article about the difference between pastry flour and regular flour, but the site goes overboard with annoying in-page ads, so instead of linking to it I'll summarize: pastry flour is lower in protein than normal flour, which means it's lower gluten, which means it makes biscuits, scones, pie crusts, and quick breads lighter and flakier.)

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CSA cooking: tomato-vegetable soup

This is loosely adapted from this recipe suggested by the CSA. I omitted the bacon (of course), decided that they couldn't possibly have meant 3 quarts of broth (along with other liquids, to say nothing of the solids) for "8-10 servings", and used margarine instead of butter so it would be pareve. I also used the veggies I had on hand rather than their specific list.

So, in other words:

  • half stick margarine
  • 2 medium shallots and one medium red onion, chopped small
  • 1 large clove garlic, chopped small
  • several shakes dried basil, a few shakes dried red pepper, black pepper

Cook the above over medium heat until the vegetables are soft (~8 minutes), stirring often.

  • 3 small carrots
  • 1 small parsnip
  • 1 rutabaga
  • 1 small sweet potato
  • 2 medium golden potatoes

Chop all that into reasonable sizes for eating out of a soup bowl, add to pot, cook another 5 minutes, stirring often.

  • 15oz can vegetable broth (I was going to use a quart but didn't know if it'd fit in my pot; future me: it would have just fit in the nice new 3.5-quart pot I used)

Stir, cook on high until simmering.

  • 25oz jar tomato sauce (this was from the farm; it's just tomatoes, apparently pureed; no other ingredients)
  • 0.25 cup apple cider vinegar
  • jar (12oz?) roasted red pepper slices

Add, reduce heat to low, cover (with a vent), cook 30 minutes.

We had it with hearty rye bread fresh and warm from the bread machine.

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Winter CSA, week 6

  • two bunches hydroponic lettuce
  • one bunch Rosie Asian greens
  • six Rome apples
  • three rutabagas (two bigger than my fist)
  • one watermelon radish
  • seven shallots
  • thirteen baby turnips (are these baby scarlet? that seems the least-unlikely among the varieties they list as possibilities)
  • four red potatoes
  • two heads garlic
  • dozen "pastured" eggs
  • jar of, nominally, chopped tomatoes, though it looks more like puree to me
  • 8oz jar Japanese knotweed honey

The eggs came with this note: "since these are washed, you'll want to store in the fridge". This raises two questions. First, washed? Second, when wouldn't I store raw eggs in the fridge? I always do, so this note puzzles me. 1

One of their suggestions for the radish is roasting. I've never roasted radishes, so I might give that a try (though some of it will almost certainly go into salad). The jar of tomato stuff will probably end up in a soup or stew. Most of the roots are good for roasting, though I'll try to broaden my horizons there. (Potatoes aren't the only thing that can be a gratin; turnips work too, I'm told.)

They note that the honey is good for tea. That's handy, as we like tea and, just last night, were noticing that the current jar is nearly empty. (Knotweed?) The hechsher (kosher certification) is one I hadn't seen before, Earth Kosher. ("K" on a globe.)

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