Saturday, December 8, 2007

CSA subscription - week three

I've got one more recipe for the vegetables from week two that I'll post about tomorrow, but for now it's time to look to the future and the cornucopia that is week three. (Here's what Trina at miami dish did with Week Two if you haven't seen it.)

A whole lot of different things this week and I've got to admit that I'm a bit overwhelmed. Luckily the oranges and salad mix don't need any imagination to deal with. The parsley I'll use if it comes up, but if the extras box was still there when I got to the pick up spot I would have donated it; I'm not a big fan. In the back of the first photo you can barely make out a rather large avocado. It'll probably end up a guacamole. There are only so many avocados you can look at before giving up and taking the easy route out. Anyway, I'm currently stuck in a delicious cycle so I've got an immediate use for guac.

Next up is the mizuna. I'm intrigued by how Trina used her greens last time in a sticky rice so I think I'll try that with my leftover tatsoi and the mizuna. I've never had luck cooking sticky rice in the traditional way, wrapped in a banana leaf, so I'll probably just make the rice in my rice cooker, stir fry the other ingredients, mix them in and compress the results into the proper loaf shape. In fact, I think I'll go do that right now. Hang on a moment...

OK, I'm back and here's the result. The only short grain rice I had in my pantry was risotto rice, but I think it worked fine. I added dark soy sauce and some white pepper to the rice maker. In the rice are plenty of tatsoi and mizuna, some onion and water chestnuts for a bit of crunch and the traditional sticky rice meats: Chinese sausage and shrimp. After taking my first couple bites I realize I'm missing shitake mushrooms. Well, no reason I can't fry some up and mix them in to the leftovers later. I also used garlic, hot pepper and sesame oil. Overall, I'm pretty happy with how it turned out and it was very quick and easy, too.

Let's see, what else have we got...the callaloo and turnip tops are going to make a mess of greens since I've already got the unused ham shanks defrosted from last week. The turnips and the cherry tomatoes will probably end up in salads. The green beans I'll probably just steam. Nothing fancy required.

Of course, my plans last week had little to do with what I actually ended up doing so stay tuned.

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