CSA Week 3 - June 23rd, 2016

CSA Week 3 includes kohlrabi, celtuce, salad turnips, specialty radishes, beets, green beans, peas, dill, basil, parsley, lettuce (Salanova), arugula, kale, green onions, cabbage, and radicchio.

Ideas include kale Caesar salad (which I did last night and will re-post about soon), saag, alternative pizza crusts (with the radishes, turnips, and/or kohlrabi), which I have been enjoying plain with good marinara sauce instead of as pizzas, arugula salad, green beans with almond pesto, celtuce stir fry, radicchio with sausage, and grilled radicchio (which I have yet to try and will post about if successful).

Celtuce stir fry

And now! The moment we've all been waiting for! What to do with celtuce!

This one has a bit of a story:

Akshay assisted me with Farm-to-Table camp on Thursday of last week, when the campers were making a PF Chang's copycat lettuce wrap recipe with ground turkey, mushrooms, onions, and water chestnuts. He suggested using celtuce in the veggie mix, which I offered as an option to the campers. Most used at least some and I realized when tasting their creations how adaptable this mild-flavored vegetable is with other strong flavors (like the delicious sauce that goes on the wraps).

I adapted the recipe further at home this week, eliminating the water chestnuts, onions, and meat and using only celtuce, green onions, and mushrooms as the vegetable filling. Jonathan, who spent most of the time I was cooking intentionally ignoring what was going into dinner, deemed it "quite acceptable," which, if it's not clear, was high praise. We ate it over rice, but I think you could just as easily enjoy it as a lettuce wrap for the PF Chang's experience.

By the way, children can be very astute when it comes to flavor and texture; one camper called the celtuce "Peanut Butter Celery" for its nuttiness and crunchiness.

Celtuce stir fry 
Adapted from here, by way of my work here.
Ingredients

• 1 tbsp. cooking oil (e.g. canola)
• 2 celtuce(s?), peeled and chopped small
• 1/2 lb. mushrooms (about 7 medium-sized mushrooms), chopped small
• 5-6 large green onions, white and most of green parts, chopped
• 1 large clove garlic (2 small cloves), minced
•  Stir Fry Sauce
• 2 tbsp. soy sauce
• 2 tbsp. brown sugar
• 1/2 tsp. rice vinegar
• Special sauce (see below)

Directions

• Make the stir fry sauce by whisking the soy sauce, brown sugar, and rice vinegar in a small bowl.
• Heat 1 tbsp. oil in the skillet over medium-high-to-high heat.
• Add the celtuce and stir fry for a few minutes, stirring constantly.
• Add the garlic and stir fry for 30 seconds, stirring constantly.Add the mushrooms and stir fry for about two minutes, stirring constantly.
• Add the green onions and stir fry sauce. Stir to combine and heat through.
• Remove from heat and place filling in a bowl.
• Place filling over rice, in lettuce leaves, or over lettuce (as a salad). 

Special sauce 
Ingredients

• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1/4 cup water
• 2 tbsp. soy sauce
• 2 tbsp. rice vinegar
• 2 tbsp. ketchup
• 1 tbsp. lemon juice
• 1/8 tsp. sesame oil
• 1 tsp. garlic and red chili sauce 
• 1 tsp. Chinese hot mustard, or 1 tsp. of a mixture of mustard powder mixed with hot water until loosely pasty

Directions

• In a small bowl or jar mix the sugar with the water.
• Add the soy sauce, vinegar, ketchup, lemon juice, sesame oil, and garlic and red chili paste. Mix well.
• Add 1/2 tsp. mustard to the sauce and mix.
• Taste and add more mustard to taste.
• Taste add more garlic and red chili sauce to taste (it’s spicy).
• Adjust any other ingredients.
• Refrigerate until ready to serve.

Radicchio with caramelized onions and sausage

I adapted this dish from a recipe Peggy provided with the week 1 CSA. My version used the 'Sugarloaf' radicchio, the one that looks sort of like Romaine lettuce and that I'm not sure is really a radicchio (I think it's just a chicory). As we've discussed before, radicchio is bitter, it's supposed to be, but this dish really balances that bitterness with the sweetness of well-caramelized onions and the savoriness of sausage. The lingering crunchy texture of the radicchio is particularly satisfying against the textures of the onion and sausage. I suspect there might not be as much crunch if you're using the more delicate 'Bel Fiore' radicchio.

Radicchio with caramelized onions and sausage

Adapted from here.
Ingredients

• 1 tbsp. butter
• 2 tsp. oil, divided
• 2 medium onions, red or yellow, halved and thinly sliced
• A few pinches of salt
• A few pinches of sugar
• 1 large head radicchio, cored, thinly sliced
• 2 tbsp. balsamic vinegar (this is what I'm currently using, available at Jungle Jim's) 
• 3 chicken sausages, casing removed and cooked (I used two Greenacres Tomato Basil and 1 Greenacres Sweet Italian, just because that's what I happened to have in the freezer)

Directions

Melt butter with 1 tsp. oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add onions plus a few pinches of salt and sugar and cook until caramelized (soft and brown), stirring often, about 25 minutes. Add the radicchio and saute until wilted, a few minutes. Add the balsamic vinegar and cook over medium-high heat until the liquid is mostly absorbed (but be sure the radicchio retains some texture!). Season to taste with salt and pepper.

Meanwhile, remove the casings from the sausages and cook them in 1 tsp. oil in a skillet, breaking up the meat until no pink remains. 

Mix the cooked sausage into the radicchio/onions and serve. 

Fiesta salad

I have been making the original (taco) version of this dish for longer than just about any other recipe in my portfolio. Though I have always been a fan of dinner salads, I have more recently discovered how much more I enjoy some dishes as salads. For one, it stretches out the eating experience, unlike eating something like a taco that's gone a few bites. It also stretches out the ingredients. Obviously, it's healthier. And, in a way, I think it allows you to taste the flavors more since they are less concentrated. It sounds unappetizing, but the best way I can describe this phenomenon is that the lettuce is diluting the other ingredients in the best way possible. I think it's similar to mixing strong coffee or alcohol with water in order to discern the individual flavors more, an idea I picked up from this great book.

Packing leftovers for lunch is the only challenge, since components need to stay pretty separate for storage.

Fiesta Salad
Adapted from here.
Ingredients

• 1 tbsp. cooking oil
• 1 medium onion, red or yellow, chopped
• 1/2 tsp. ground cumin
• 1/2 tsp. dried oregano 
• 1/2 tsp paprika
• 1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon
• 1 pound ground turkey or beef
• ~1 cup tomato salsa (whatever you like, I have enjoyed this one lately
• 1 avocado
• Hard shell corn tacos
• Grated cheddar or pepper jack cheese
• Sour cream
• Lime wedges
• Lettuce

Directions

Preheat the oven to 350 F. Bake the taco shells for 3-5 minutes, until crispy and delicious, but not browned. 

Heat oil in a skillet over medium-high heat. Add onion and saute until translucent. Add all the spices and stir to blend. Add meat and stir, breaking up the chunks, until fully cooked. Add salsa to the pan and stir to combine. 

Top lettuce with meat mixture, avocado, broken up taco shells, cheese, sour cream, and lime.

I have also eaten this salad with just the meat mixture and rice. Also very good. 

Some notes on storage

While talking to Jonathan earlier this week I realized that CSA storage might be a topic of interest to some. I think I've developed some pretty solid systems to maximize freshness for as long as possible. I will list my tactics in my perceived order of importance below.

1) Get the vegetables into the fridge as soon as possible (with the exception of onions, garlic, under-ripe tomatoes, and a few other items we'll be seeing, but in the case of week 1, everything should go in the fridge).

2) Seal EVERYTHING (greens, roots, peppers, eggplant, squash, etc.) in air tight plastic bags. I found some hefty 2.5-gallon bags for larger items like kale.

3) Cut the greens off things like radishes, carrots, turnips, kohlrabi and beets (see photo above). Store the greens separately if they are good-quality and you are going to cook with them. Not only do greens make fitting the roots in bags difficult, they can transpire and make the roots lose moisture.

4) Washing loose leafy greens in cold water and spinning them dry before sealing them up can help extend their storage life in my experience, especially if they are a little wilted.

Italian Salad

I posted about this salad a year ago, but I really think it warrants another mention since this week's CSA included both radicchio and iceberg. Plus, I didn't include the recipe in the original post and I have made a few key modifications. Also! It's amazing!

This recipe is adapted from Smitten Kitchen, my most reliable source of great recipes and ideas. It's a salad that works great as a meal since it includes meat, cheese, chickpeas, and other hearty components, but I also serve it for dinner parties alongside other dishes.

Iceberg really shines here, providing the necessary mild flavor, crunch, and juiciness (due to its water content) to balance out the strong textures and flavors throughout the rest of the dish.

The radicchio from the CSA is so incredibly beautiful, as you can see in the first photo. It's a loose head with a green and white base and beautiful purple flecks. Radicchio is supposed to be bitter, but I appreciate that this radicchio is somewhat less bitter from what I have experienced elsewhere. It has a somewhat lighter texture, too. All in all, it makes for a very balanced salad.

Italian Salad
Adapted from here

Ingredients
Dressing
4 cloves garlic
1 scant tbsp. dried oregano
1 1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. ground black pepper
2 tbsp. lemon juice
1/4 cup red wine vinegar
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
Salad
1 (15-oz) can chickpeas, drained
1 small (or 1/2 medium or 1/4 large) red onion, peeled and sliced into paper-thin rings
1/2 pound provolone, sliced 1/8-inch thick and cut into 1/4-inch ribbons (I used pre-sliced for convenience)
1/2 pound salami, peeled, sliced 1/8-inch thick and then cut into 1/4-inch ribbons (again, I use pre-sliced)
4 medium or 8 small pickled pepperoncini, sliced into rings
1 1/2 pounds cherry or grape tomatoes, cut in halves in quarters
1/2 tsp. salt
1 head iceberg lettuce, cored and cut into 1/2-inch ribbons
1 head radicchio, cored and cut into 1/2-inch ribbons

Directions
Roughly chop the garlic, then mash in a mortar and pestle with the oregano, salt, and pepper. Mix the oregano paste with the lemon juice and vinegar in a jar (my preference so I don't have to toss the whole salad right away since this makes a lot) or in your salad bowl. Add the oil and shake/mix until combined.

Mix the tomatoes with the 1/2 tsp. salt and set aside.

Gently fold the dressing (leaving some out if your heads of lettuce or radicchio are small) into the the chickpeas, red onion, provolone salami, and pepperoncini.

When ready to serve, add the tomatoes, lettuce, and radicchio to the salad bowl and toss to combine. Taste and add additional dressing if needed (if you set some aside). As you can see above, I added the tomatoes last, but there's no need to.

Note: As I alluded to above, I like to set aside half the dressing, greens, tomatoes, and chickpea/meat/cheese mixture for leftovers since this salad gets soggy in the fridge and it makes a ton. I would say it makes enough for at least 5 meal-sized salads.

CSA Week 1 - June 9th, 2016

Here we go again! The 2016 Greenacres CSA started for me today and I chose to do a bi-weekly share this year instead of a full share. I love this idea since it is logistically easier for both the producers and the CSA customers compared to a split share. The produce is so high-quality and fresh that much of it will last through the two weeks and beyond (unlike grocery store produce). It's time to shift the way we plan our meals and get ready for a summer of new culinary adventures.

I plan to continue this blog, though my posts will probably be less frequent. I'll do my best to make them worth your while, though. I'll also provide links to recipes and ideas already on this site that might be helpful for the week's share.

With that out of the way, CSA week 1 includes leaf lettuce, iceberg lettuce, radicchio, celtuce, green onions, garlic scapes, kohlrabi, red specialty radishes, round red radishes, salad turnips, and kale.

Some ideas include kale Caesar salad, garlic scape pesto, kohlrabi pizza, mashed kohlrabi and co., the incredible Italian chopped salad that uses both radicchio and iceberg (!!), and saag paneer (with kale and the the kohlrabi, turnip, and radish leaves)

p.s. I feel I should admit that I still have some leftovers from last year's CSA in the freezer and dried in the pantry. These leftovers include frozen scapes, frozen kale basil pesto, dried parsley, and dried celery leaves.