Saturday, January 17, 2009

CSA week six wrap-up, week seven start-up

So that's another week down. I haven't used this week's avocado which still isn't quite ripe or the canistels, one of which is finally ripe today and the other untouched by time.

I said last Saturday that I'd probably do a stir fry with the string beans and I did something similar. I did stir fry up onions, peppers and a little bit of chicken, but once I added the string beans it turned into a braise. I used sa cha sauce which is a Taiwanese condiment made of fermented brill fish and shrimp and some spices. Worcestershire sauce is made from anchovies in a similar way and both have deep savory meaty flavors that aren't particularly fishy. Sa cha sauce is traditionally used in vegetable-heavy stir fries and works pretty well with string beans, I thought.

I also made a sorbet that I'll be posting about later today. And I repurposed my failed noodle dough into a loaf of bread which is rising right now. I forgot to take it out of the refrigerator this morning so it got a late start but it still might be ready in time for dinner. I'll let you know how it turns out.

And on to this week's share.
Down at the bottom in the plastic bag is the Asian braising mix. Well, the instructions are right there in the name, aren't they? I think I may add the cilantro that's in the upper right corner and some fish sauce to make it a southeast Asian braise.

There's an eggplant hidden under the cilantro as well as the one you can see. That's enough for me to make something pretty substantial and I'm thinking a casserole of some sort. A lasagna, maybe, but there are plenty of other intriguing southern European variations.

To the left of the eggplant is a sizable bunch of collards. That's another braise right there. I'll have to get a smoked ham hock for that.

The two carambolas are too small to do much with but they're fine for a snack. So are the cherry tomatoes but I'll try to restrain myself so I can use them in a salad or two. You don't get a sense of scale but that's a huge head of lettuce so there's definitely some salad in my future.

In contrast, that's a dainty little bunch of tatsoi. I've got enough leftover rice accumulated to make fried rice so I may use the tatsoi there.

That just leaves the black sapotes (currently green sapotes). Nobody wanted to try my black sapote colada sorbet so maybe I'll bake with these instead. The coffee cake in the newsletter looks pretty good; maybe I'll try that.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I tried the coffee cake in the newsletter and it came out great! Highly recommend! I used whole wheat flour instead and did not use walnuts since I forgot to buy.