CSA Week 6 - July 11th - SCHUG!!!, spinach salad, summer squash and potato torte, roasted beets, and carrots

Yesterday we hosted a handful of friends at our house, which I, of course, took as a prime opportunity to pawn off CSA vegetables.

As part of the evening's offerings I made one of the most exciting things I have made in a very long time (perhaps since I first discovered this).

Schug (maybe more commonly zhug, but not according to the recipe I used) is a Yemenite Jewish dish of peppers, cilantro, and spices, that I can most closely liken to a chutney or relish. I believe it is traditionally used as a condiment. Andy makes it from time to time and brought some into work last fall to eat with bagels (he prefers it for breakfast), where I first tasted it. It was fresh and biting with a somewhat Indian flavor profile. Really delicious.

After I got it in my head to make schug there was no going back. I could taste it and I WANTED IT. I had only picked up 4 jalapenos on Monday so I got a bunch more from the "employee produce" bin and some from the farmers' market (more produce, I know).

Securing the recipe (my adaptation is below) was the next hurdle. On Friday I showed Andy one I had found online, but he told me that his was quite different and I definitely wanted my schug to taste like his. So he texted me the recipe first thing Saturday morning. For the final hurdle, Kroger was also COMPLETELY out of cilantro on Friday night when we went shopping so I had to run out first thing Saturday morning to get some. I was seriously not going to be deterred.

Oh, and how glad I am that I persevered. I want to check with Andy before I post the full recipe, but I will outline the techniques and ingredients I used. First, avec gloves, I de-seeded and de-membraned an ungodly amount of jalapenos. Then I stripped a frighteningly large amount of cilantro. I mixed the peppers, cilantro, and a ton of garlic in the food processor. In a coffee grinder, I combined whole coriander, cumin, peppercorns, cardamom, cloves, and salt. I mixed the spices into the green stuff and covered it with a thin layer of oil before refrigerating it. I decided to make some homemade French bread, which is pretty dense, though not as chewy as a bagel, to go with it.

That night, we destroyed it. It wasn't quite as spicy as Andy's, which meant we could eat huge slathers of it on bread or by the spoonful or whatever.

For the meal I made a close adaptation of Smitten Kitchen spinach salad (recipe below) with the "summer spinach" from the CSA (I think it's New Zealand spinach, but the leaves seem so big, I need to check with Dave to confirm it's leaf beat/perpetual spinach). This spinach is more succulent and tastes like it has more oxalic acid than traditional spinach. In my opinion, it needs other strong flavors to balance it out, which this salad has.

I actually picked up an extra bag of spinach on Friday and quadrupled Deb's recipe. Basically, the salad (recipe below) is dressed with a combination of bacon fat, vinegar, honey, and Dijon mustard and topped with egg, bacon, mushrooms, and red onion.

I made an herbed summer squash and potato torte (recipe below), also adapted from Smitten Kitchen.

This included layers of potatoes and summer squash baked with Parmesan, fresh thyme, and green onions for flavor. I didn't use all the squash and potatoes pictured in the lead photo (which included some leftover squash from work), though I did use more than the original recipe called for.

I roasted up the beets from this week. Similar to previous incarnations, I coated them with oil, salt, and pepper and roasted at 400 F for 40 minutes.

I sliced up all the carrots (bottom of photo), plus some extra ones from work (top of photo), and put those out as crudités with hummus, schug and whatever else was on the table. 

Jonathan grilled Greenacres chicken breast, Leah brought broccoli (and flowers!), Chris and Barbara brought homemade hummus, pita, cucumbers, and cornbread, and Molly brought homemade strawberry shortcake.


Schug
Adapted from the Ball Blue Book of Canning?

Ingredients
9 cloves garlic, peeled and lightly smashed
1 bunch cilantro (I know this isn't a great measurement, but I mean a grocery store bunch, which is a lot), de-stemmed
3/4 lb (in this case 18) jalapenos, de-seeded and membranes removed per your tolerance for heat
1/2 tbsp. whole coriander seed
1 tsp. whole cumin seed
1 tsp. whole black peppercorns
1/2 tsp. cardamom pods (about 4), hulls removed
1/2 tsp. whole cloves
3/4 tbsp. salt.
Some olive oil, just to cover

Directions
Finely chop the jalapenos, garlic, and cilantro in a food processor.
Grind all the spices in a coffee grinder or spice mill and sift out any large pieces/hulls.
Stir the spices and salt into the jalapeno mixture.
Cover with a thin coating of oil and refrigerate.
Serve with bagels or bread or some more traditional way.


Spinach Salad with Bacon Vinaigrette
Adapted from here.

Ingredients
1 pound spinach, torn, chopped, or baby
4 eggs, hard boiled and chopped
8 ounces mushrooms, sliced
1/4 red onion, finely sliced or chopped
10-ish slices bacon, chopped
3 tbsp. red wine vinegar
3 tsp. honey
2 tsp. Dijon mustard
Salt and pepper to taste

Directions

• Prepare the bacon by baking it on a rimmed baking sheet at 400 F. After 10 minutes, toss it, then bake for about 10 minutes more, or until it's crisp. You can fry it, but I prefer this method. Drain the bacon and reserve the fat.
• Sauté the mushrooms, preferably with some bacon fat. 
• Prepare the dressing by mixing 6 tbsp. bacon fat with the vinegar, honey, Dijon, and salt and pepper to taste and warming it all in a small saucepan (or skillet if you fried the bacon).
• Toss the spinach with the dressing, then top with the mushrooms, onion, egg, and bacon. 

Herbed Summer Squash and Potato Torte

Adapted from here

Ingredients
1 bunch green onions, thinly sliced, divided
1 cup grated Parmesan cheese, plus extra for the top
2 tbsp. all-purpose flour
1 tbsp. chopped fresh thyme leaves
1 scant tsp. salt
3/4 tsp. ground black pepper
2 pounds (or a bit more) Yukon Gold potatoes, peeled, cut into 1/8-inch-thick rounds
12 ounces (or a bit more) summer squash, cut into 1/8-inch thick rounds
6 tsp. oil

Directions

• Preheat oven to 375 F. Butter a 13" x 9" pan. Set aside 1/4 cup sliced green onion. Toss remaining green onions, 1 cup cheese, flour, thyme, salt, and pepper in a bowl.
• Layer about 1/3 potatoes in bottom of pan, overlapping slightly. Cover with about 1/2 squash, overlapping slightly. Drizzle with 2 tsp. oil. Sprinkle 1/3 cheese mixture. Repeat with 1/3 potatoes, 1/2 squash, 2 tsp. oil, and 1/3 cheese mixture. Cover this with remaining potatoes, 2 tsp. oil, and remaining cheese mixture plus extra cheese. 
• (Note: instead of evenly dividing my potatoes and squash between layers I made my first layers completely cover the pan to form a solid base. Therefore, my last layers did not completely cover the pan, which may have been because my slices were a bit thick or because I just needed to use more potatoes and squash. If you do increase the squash and potatoes you may want in increase the cheese/green onions/thyme/oil, too). 
• Cover dish with foil and bake, covered, until potatoes are tender, 50-60 minutes. Remove foil and bake an additional 10-20 minutes, until nicely browned. Sprinkle with reserved green onions.