CSA Week 13 - August 24th - red pepper soup

Another easy and delicious soup to follow last week's. This one has an uncanny creaminess that certainly can't just come from the scant amount of oil used to saute the veggies.

Red Pepper Soup 

Adapted and halved from here (who adapted it from the New York Times 9/21/05)

Ingredients

• 1 tbsp. cooking oil 
• 2 small-to-medium onions, sliced
• 2 cloves garlic, crushed and roughly chopped
• 2 tbsp. dry white wine
• 6 sweet red peppers, cut into 1-inch pieces.I used 3 larger 'Carmen' and 3 smaller 'Lipstick', I believe, stockpiled from the last three shares. 
• 2 cups chicken broth
• 1 tsp. dried thyme
• 1 cayenne pepper, minced (optional)
• Salt, pepper, and sugar
• Sour cream for garnish
• Harissa for garnish (optional - suggestion from an SK commenter) 

Directions

• Put oil in large pot and heat on medium. Add onion when oil is hot, along with a few pinches of salt and sugar. Cook onions until they begin to soften and take on color. Add garlic and peppers and cook another minute. Add wine, stock, thyme, and hot pepper. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Cover and simmer until peppers are tender, about 30 minutes. In food processor, blender, or with an immersion blender (preferred), puree mixture until smooth. Adjust seasonings to taste.
• Serve with sour cream, crusty bread, and, optionally, harissa, which was delicious, but made it too spicy. I would suggest leaving out the cayenne if you want to use harissa.  

Makes 3-4 small servings. 

CSA Week 13

CSA week 13 includes Swiss chard, New Zealand spinach, green beans, beets, carrots, leeks, onions, garlic, artichokes(!), yellow squash, eggplant, zucchini, red peppers, free choice jalapenos and cayennes, free choice tomatoes, and sunflowers. 

p.s. This weekly photo has become especially useful for reminding me what I have in the fridge

p.p.s. Mary is hiding in this photo - see if you can find her. 

CSA Week 11 - August 16th - carrot coconut curry soup

Add this to the ridiculously easy and delicious category.

Carrot Coconut Curry Soup 
Adapted from here

Ingredients
2 tbsp. butter and 2 tbsp. oil
2 lbs. carrots, peeled and chopped
1 medium onion, chopped
3/4 tsp salt
4 cups chicken broth
1 (13.5 oz) can unsweetened coconut milk
2 tbsp. Sriracha (or up to 4 tbsp. if you like it HOT!)
1 tbsp. lime juice
1 tbsp. Thai red curry paste
Fresh cilantro, chopped

Directions
Heat the butter and oil in a large pot over medium-high heat. Add the carrots and onion and cook, stirring often, until the carrots are softened, 15-20 minutes. Stir in the broth, coconut milk, Sriracha, curry paste, and salt. Bring to a simmer and cook, stirring occasionally, until the vegetables are very soft and the liquid is slightly reduced, about 45 minutes. Puree in a blender or with an immersion blender until very smooth. Stir in the lime juice. Check for seasoning and add more salt and Sriracha if needed. Top with cilantro.

CSA Week 12 - August 17th - freezing tomatoes: it doesn't get any easier than this

For those who couldn't pass up the all the beautiful tomatoes in this week's CSA, but for whom this week is amenable to neither sauce-making, nor canning, nor any other time-consuming and labor-intensive tomato preservation project, may I suggest Lynne Rossetto Kasper's method for the "laziest kind of freezing". Simply wash, core, and store the tomatoes. The end.

CSA Week 12

I was out of town last week so Kelly took my CSA. I did make a few things last night with some leftovers from previous weeks that I will put on here when I get a chance.

CSA week 12 includes leeks, eggplant, lipstick peppers, summer squash, zucchini, onions, garlic, Swiss chard, celery, New Zealand spinach, carrots, cut flowers, free choice jalapenos, free choice cayennes, and FREE CHOICE TOMATOES (of many varieties).

CSA Week 10 - August 4th - strozzapreti/ gnocchi verdi/ ravioli gnudi/ priest stranglers

What a fun recipe! These Italian dumplings (see variety of names above) combine blanched greens, ricotta, Parmesan, and eggs with a small amount of bread crumbs, nutmeg, salt, and pepper.

I used all the week 10 Lacinato and summer spinach, which, by weight, was slightly less than the recipe calls for. 

I heard about these when Jenn Louis was on The Splendid Table last Sunday and couldn't get them out of my head. The segment also inspired me to try more Italian dumplings with CSA vegetables and perhaps to pick up Louis's book, Pasta By Hand.

After boiling the gnudi (I like this name best) for a few minutes, I topped them with melted butter, finely grated Parmesan, and black pepper. As Jonathan said, it was the ultimate comfort food. 

Louis's recipe is solid, but I will note some tips (mostly shortcuts).

1) To coat the gnudi in flour I placed some flour in one hand, scooped some dough with a spoon into that hand, then placed flour on top and tossed the dumpling back and forth between my hands to coat. This helped them attain a uniform disk shape. As a bonus, this also provided a very rustic, satisfying, tactile experience

2) I made 10 gnudi, but probably should have made at least 11 or 12 (they fall apart easily).

3) I cooked them in the green blanching water (!).

4) Some gnudi fell apart during cooking. I strained out the remnants in the pot to salvage them.

5) Serving them on a plate instead of a bowl would prevent them from all sticking together, yielding a more dumpling-like experience.

Finally, use something larger than a 3 cup food processor...

CSA Week 10 - August 3rd - tomato bruschetta

Bruschetta is a classic summer dish around here, the epitome of seasonality. 

Generous amounts of garlic, allowed to meld for a decent amount of time before eating, are a must. 

And the addition of balsamic vinegar really takes it to the next level. 

This is the foundation for my recipe, which is below.

Bruschetta 
Adapted from here

Ingredients
2 large slicing tomatoes (more or less is okay) - the original recipe calls for 6 romas (plum tomatoes), chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 clove garlic cut in half
3 tbsp. extra virgin olive oil
1 tbsp. balsamic vinegar
1/4 cup fresh basil, chopped
1/4 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. ground black pepper
1 baguette
Shredded Parmesan cheese

Directions
Combine the tomatoes, garlic, olive oil, vinegar, basil, salt and pepper. Allow to sit, covered, in the fridge for at least 15 minutes, ideally more.

Slice the baguette and arrange slices on a baking sheet. Rub slice with a cut clove of garlic, then brush them lightly with cooking oil and top them with some grated Parmesan. Broil for about 2 minutes, until the bread is crispy and the cheese is melted.

Top the bread with the tomato mixture.

CSA Week 10

CSA Week 10 includes leeks, three large tomatoes, free choice small (cherry and saladette) tomatoes, carrots, head lettuce, beets, summer spinach, garlic, beans, 'Lipstick' and 'Carmen' peppers, celery, onions, eggplant, zucchini, summer squash, Lacinato kale, cilantro, and free choice cayennes. There were also free choice jalapenos and baking squash available, of which I did not partake, tempted as I am to make schug for the 5th week in a row. We are leaving for a week of vacation in Madison on Friday so I need to take it easy. 

CSA Week 9 - August 2nd - zucchini latkes

My modifications to this recipe are below! 

Zucchini Latkes 

Adapted slightly from http://www.tasteofhome.com/recipes/zucchini-latkes

Ingredients

• 3 medium zucchini or squash, shredded (about 4-1/2 cups)

• 1 teaspoon salt, divided

• 2 eggs, beaten

• 1 small onion, grated

• 1/4 cup matzo meal or dry bread crumbs

• 1/8 teaspoon pepper

• Oil for frying

• Sour cream and applesauce, optional

Directions

• 1 In a large bowl, toss zucchini and 1/2 teaspoon salt; let stand for 10 minutes. Squeeze zucchini in a dish towel to remove water and return to bowl. Also squeeze the onion and place in bowl. Stir in the eggs, matzo meal, pepper and remaining salt.

• 2 In a large skillet (I had success with both non-stick and cast iron), heat oil (enough to coat the pan) over medium heat. Drop batter by tablespoonfuls into oil; press lightly to flatten. Fry for 2 minutes on each side or until golden brown. Transfer to a baking sheet in a 250 F oven for about 10 minutes or more. Serve with sour cream and applesauce if desired. Yield: 16 latkes.
• This was especially delicious with this garlic lemon cream. 

CSA Week 9 - July 30th - green beans with almond pesto

I didn't quite know what to expect from this super easy Smitten Kitchen recipe for green beans with almond pesto, but it's totally a winner. The flavor of the almond pesto balances the flavor of the beans so well. It doesn't hurt that the pesto is delicious on its own by the spoonful. 

The only modification I made to Deb's recipe was to reduce the amount of white wine vinegar to 1 tsp., but if you have high-quality vinegar you may not need to. 

I will note that the pesto didn't really coat the beans, so eating the dish involved scooping up some beans and some pesto separately. Not a problem, really.

CSA Week 9 - July 29th - ratatouille

 

What a beautiful thing it was to use so many CSA vegetables in one dish.

This recipe came courtesy of Anne and is originally from The Hungry Student Cookbook (I think the link is for the correct one). My slight adaptation using CSA offerings is below. I encourage further adaptations; this was just my first crack at it.

It reminded me ever so slightly of goulash. The peppers tasted like roasted red peppers (because they were) and the whole dish was fragrant, rich, and satisfying.

We, of course, had to follow this meal by watching the movie, Ratatouille.

Ratatouille

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup olive oil (not extra virgin) or cooking oil (canola, safflower, peanut, etc.). I wonder about going a little easier on the oil, though it does help to make it delicious. Update 9/23/15: I trimmed down the amount of oil by about 1/3 successfully, using about 3 tbsp. to roast the veggies and about 2 tbsp. with the onion.
• 2+ Oriental eggplants (I only had one-and-a-half, but I think more would be good), cut into 1/2" slices
• 2-3 zucchini or summer squash, cut into 1/2" slices. Fat portions of summer squash will need to be halved or quartered lengthwise)
• 3 sweet red peppers (I used 1 large "Carmen" and 2 smaller "Lipstick"), cored, seeded, and cut into squares
• 2 large onions, thinly sliced
• 3 large garlic cloves, minced
• 1 large slicing tomato plus more if you like (I also used 4 saladette tomatoes), chopped
• About 12 basil leaves, chopped. Update 9/23/15: I successfully used about 2 tsp. dried basil in place of fresh. 
• 1 tsp. dried marjoram leaf, ground (1 tbsp. fresh)
• 1/2 tsp. dried thyme leaf, ground (1 tsp. fresh)
• 1 tbsp. paprika
• 3 tbsp. finely chopped parsley, divided (1 tbsp. dried) 
• 1 tsp. salt
• 1/4 tsp. (?) sugar

Directions

Preheat oven to 425 F. Heat half the oil in a roasting pan or baking sheet in the oven. Add the eggplants, squashes, and peppers, and toss in the hot oil. Return to the oven and roast for about 20 minutes, or until tender.

Update 9/23/15: If you're using dried herbs grind them all together in a mortar and pestle to release their flavors before adding them to the ratatouille. You can add the salt and sugar with the herbs to help grind them up.

Meanwhile, heat the remaining oil in a deep saucepan, add the onions, and cook over medium heat for 3-5 minutes, just until softened. Add the garlic and cook until fragrant, but not browned. Add the tomatoes, herbs (reserving 1 tbsp. parsley), paprika, salt, and sugar. Stir to combine, then cook for 10-15 minutes, or until the mixture is thick and syrupy. 

Transfer the vegetables to the onion/tomato mixture. Gently stir to combine and heat through. Update 9/23/15: Allow the mixture to cook on low heat for 10 minutes or so for the flavors to meld with the roasted veggies. Adjust seasonings if necessary. Garnish with remaining parsley. Serve with crusty bread.