Sunday, December 19, 2010

CSA week three wrap-up, week four start-up

I hope nobody was too disappointed not to find this post up yesterday; I wanted to give my sorbet post another day on the top of the blog before it got buried and never looked at again.

That sorbet and the pasta thing I made used up the bulk of last week's share. I did pickle the cucumbers with the dill as I said I might. The cukes turned out to be rather firmer than I expected and well suited to pickling. It's early days yet, but I think they'll turn out well in a few weeks.


On to week four...


Starting on the left, we've got turnips with some very nice greens attached. I'm going to save the turnips since we've got a couple weeks off and they'll keep for a while. I wasn't happy with the texture of the mashed turnip I made with the last turnips we got, so I'll probably slice these up for a gratin or the like. The tops I've already cooked in a Thai-inflected stir fry that also used up the last of the eggplant and some poorly conceived Thai-spiced sausage.

I snacked on the radishes all day yesterday, but there's so many that I've still got a half pound or so left. I'm thinking of making chips out of them as they're quite nice when browned. The tops aren't in nearly as good shape as the turnip tops so I'll probably end up tossing them, but they may end up in the gratin or in a pasta sauce.

The oranges here add to the two I haven't used yet from last week. There's enough now that I could get a reasonable amount of juice out of them or I might just eat them out of hand. The clementines I'd like to use for a stir fry. When I did that last year it turned out really bitter, but I think I know what I did wrong so I'd like to give it another shot.

I'm not sure what to do with the mizuna. I haven't had much luck with it in it's previous appearances. It wilts down to nothing very quickly when cooked and, while it's good in salads it's better complementing other greens than by itself. The mizuna pesto I made last year turned out OK, but I'm not a huge pesto fan and this sizable bunch will make quite a bit of it. This requires more thought.

The sprouts, I've been enjoying in sandwiches as they have a watercress-y flavor to them. It's not using them up very rapidly, though, so I may have to go buy some lettuce to add them and the mizuna to for a salad.

And that leaves the mushrooms. I usually cook them with beef and/or eggs, but they're good raw too. Maybe they'll go into the hypothetical salad I've been constructing.

You know, hypothetical salad would be a pretty good name for a band.

6 comments:

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billjac said...

While I appreciate the compliment, I'd rather you didn't repost my material on your blog. A link would be OK, though.

LaDivaCucina said...

Hi Bill, just wanted to pop by and say Happy Holidays and all the best for a prosperous and food filled New Year!

(Maybe this is the year I'll tackle ice cream?)

billjac said...

I wish you a happy holidays as well. I think you should try making ice cream; the technique is straightforward so there's a rewarding amount of freedom to experiment with flavors.

LaDivaCucina said...

Thanks! I have to say, I made ice cream once and tried to make it low fat and it came out like ice milk, the texture was all wrong. I want to try to get the texture right hopefully without it being as fattening as the premium ice creams. I have no room in my freezer, which has been the big inhibitor also!

billjac said...

There's no imitating the unctuous mouthfeel of premium ice cream. Fat is pretty basic and our bodies know it when we see it and know it when we don't. The cornstarch and cream cheese in the Jeni Britton method simulate the texture of a high fat ice cream and it gets close. That's your best bet if you want to keep your ice cream relatively low fat.

On the other hand, if you want a healthy desert, maybe you're better off having a piece of fruit.