CSA farm subscription - week eleven

Hey, no lettuce and no scallions! Sure we got mizuna and spring onions which are close variations, but they're not close enough to get me down.

First up we've got the shiitake mushrooms I was coveting in the whole shares last week. My first impulse is mushroom risotto. Fresh shiitakes and creminis along with dried porcini, all of which I've got on hand, are the ideal combination for the dish. I've got risotto rice in the larder, but I might do a faux-risotto with Israeli couscous instead.

Next is the mizuna. I learned my lesson the last time we got these when I stir fried them and ended up with a bowlful of stems. No, it's raw in a salad or lightly steamed at most for these.

I looked through all of the half shares at my drop off location looking for French breakfast radishes as I really liked them last time, but we only got the round ones. I might still have these raw with bread, salt and butter. I think my scallion bread would be particularly good with them. If they're not good that way, they'll do nicely baked. The tops will work well with pasta of some sort. Last week's greens, the chard, were good with cold sesame noodles so an Italian olive oil sauce isn't the only option here.

The squash I have an urge to stuff. Some sort of harvest dish with bulgar wheat maybe. That would taste better a thousand miles north of here, though. I wonder if I can do a fusion thing with coconut milk and curry spices in the stuffing.

The grape tomatoes are a good incentive to use last week's lettuce in salads if I don't eat them all out of hand first.

This is the first spring onion I've encountered so I don't know what to do with the tops. Mine were not in good shape but some of it still seems edible. The bottom is just an onion, right?

That leaves the citrus, mostly tangerines I think, and the honey. I don't think I'll do anything fancy with the fruit. The honey might go into a honey ice cream. I haven't made any ice cream in a while and it's about time I got back into it. I'll have to think about what flavors would compliment the honey, though.

CSA week ten - stone crab slaw

At the Slow Food stone crab picnic two weeks ago two things occurred to me. First, it was a bit of a shame to waste that crab juice that got all over everything as it was actually rather tasty and second, I wished I had some vegetables to dip in the sauce that the Judy the Stone Crab Lady made for the crabs as it was pretty good on its own. So when I returned to the Coral Gables farmer's market this week and bought some crabs I figured there was room to try something there.

So I cracked my crab carefully over a bowl to collect the run off. I ended up with maybe a quarter cup from a pound of crab. I also set aside the meat from a couple claws for incorporating with the dish. I neglected to document this but click on this photo from two weeks ago and you'll see the juice all over the inside of that bag.

For the vegetables I looked at what I had left from CSA week ten. Most of cabbage, half of the red pepper and still plenty of scallions. There are different philosophies on preparing cabbage for use in slaw. I think the folks from Whisk who made slaw for the picnic just chopped it up and tossed it in, but others soak it or salt it first. Personally, I'm in the salting camp. Like the deep frying of the green beans in the stir fry I posted about a few days ago, it pulls some of the water out of the vegetables so when you introduce a tastier source of moisture it'll stick. I sliced up 3/4 lb. of cabbage (about half the head from my share. Yours may vary.), tossed it with a tablespoon of kosher salt and let it drain in a colander for a couple hours and then rinsed and salad-spun it. This leaves the cabbage pre-seasoned and crisp, but not stiff like fresh cabbage can be. It's a congenial texture for mixing with a dressing and lifting on a fork which is a good secondary benefit.

In addition I chopped up a couple scallions and a quarter of the red pepper. It's possible I should have taken pictures of all this, but it didn't occur to me at the time. It's unlikely to be so tricky that anyone needs visual aids, anyway. [Addendum: the next day I added a handful of halved grape tomatoes and a quarter cup of chopped sweet onion along with all the crab I had left and, apparently, about half a pound of tiny bits of crab-shell. Other than the shell, all good additions.]

Normally for a cole slaw dressing, at least of one sort, you'd mix mayonnaise with some vinegar, salt, pepper and some flavoring. The Crab Lady's dipping sauce follows the same recipe with the flavoring in this case being horseradish. It's, luckily, a bit too thick so when I thinned it out with the crab juice the texture was just right.

The end result has a nice mix of textures with the soft pieces of crab and the chewiness of the cabbage. The flavor benefits from creamy mildly bitter sauce and the sweetness of the crab balancing the saltiness of the cabbage.

It's very much a side dish, though so I have to decide what to serve it with tomorrow (cole slaw improves in the refrigerator overnight). It might work well with beer battered fish.

CSA week ten - almost no-knead potato scallion bread

A cup of scallions here, a cup of scallions there, sooner or later I will finally use up all of these things. Actually, I think a bread recipe is a little better served by onions or leeks which brown more nicely, but scallions aren't a bad choice.

This is the first major modification I've made on the no-knead recipe but plenty of others have gone before me so I was fairly confident this would work out. My strategy was to substitute half a cup of flour with boiled potato at the start and then mix in a cup of butter-sautéed scallions for the second rise (that's a cup of scallions measured before wilting them down). I used my modification of the no-knead recipe (that I posted back here) including a couple tablespoons of rye flour and a half cup of dough from last week's loaf.

The one mistake I made was not reducing the water to compensate for the moisture in the potato. It hadn't had time to leach out into the flour during the initial mixing so while the dough looked and felt about right, after the first rise the dough was a sloppy wet mess. I added a good bit of flour as I gave it it's minimal kneading, but it didn't make a big difference. Perhaps the moisture from the scallions and the butter offset it. The dough was too loose to let rise on a cutting board so I lined a bowl with parchment paper and poured the dough into it. That not only contained the rising dough but let me airlift it over to the cooking vessel without breaking a lot of bubbles.

The dough didn't rise much during baking; I think that's because the dough was too loose to keep a slit on the top for the steam to escape and boy was there a heck of a lot of steam. Since both were caused by all the water in the dough there wasn't much to be done about it but make a note for next time.

Still, doughs that don't rise much can be dense in a few different ways and I think this managed to do it in a good way with a rich chewiness that compliments the scallion, potato, butter and rye flavors. Next time I do a flavored loaf, I'm going to try an herb and cheese combination, but I can easily see coming back to this recipe with little modification.

CSA week ten - Szechuan green beans with ground pork

If you look at my first attempt at Szechuan green beans with ground pork way back in CSA week three, you'll see that it didn't turn out so hot. So before taking a second shot at it, I gave the reasons a bit of thought.

The first problem was that I used the wrong recipe. Of the variations out there some use hoisin sauce, some use hot bean paste and the one I found used neither. And then I complained that the result was dull. What was I thinking? Really, all other things being equal, use the recipe that calls for hot bean paste. As it happens I don't have any on hand, but I do have not-hot bean paste and hot chili oil so I can make my own easily enough.

The second problem was that I used ground turkey. This is a recipe where the meat has equal billing with the main vegetable so it needs to have some character and ground turkey isn't going to cut it. I generally only keep it around for tacos where it's substituting for ground beef and the ground beef is substituting for ground mystery meat. It's completely drowned in chilies and spice because Mexican chefs like to retain the mystery. So using it in this dish was a lapse of judgment.

This time I went with the more appropriate pork and I ground it myself. The best cut to use for this is actually the packages the supermarkets sell as meat for stew. These are scraps of lots of different cuts of meat and since they're of such varying quality and size they're not really very good for stew. For stew you want to cut your own pieces out of pork butt or chuck eye roast. But the mix of different cuts is just what you want for ground meat. Just put the meat in the freezer for an hour to firm it up, put the pieces in your food processor and give it around ten pulses. Much better quality than pre-ground, quick and easy. Unless, of course, you forgot that your food processor crapped out last night while you were making lettuce soup and you have to run out and buy a new one. But what are the chances of that happening?

The recipe I used this time around was this one with, as usual, some modifications. Mainly, I kept the heat up on high and did a proper stir-fry instead of wimping out and doing most of the cooking on medium high as BarbryT who originally posted the recipe did. I had to adjust the cooking times on most of the steps down from a few minutes to under one minute. I did turn down the heat after adding the liquids for a bit of a steam, though. I also added red pepper as I thought it would add a bit of interesting flavor and look pretty against the green and brown. And I used rice wine instead of sherry but that's no big deal.

One thing I didn't change was the initial deep frying of the green beans to dry them out a little. I didn't take any pictures when I did this the first time but you can see it here. If you do it right (that is keeping the heat up) the beans are releasing steam the entire time they're in the oil so they can't absorb any fat. Most that sticks to the outside can be wicked away by a paper towel so the process should add very little fat to the dish.

Another difference between this recipe and the one I first used is that, after the original deep fry this recipe only adds the beans back at the very end, reducing the sauce beforehand. That works well; the extra minute or two of cooking in the original recipe make the beans a bit limp.

One final interesting point is the cider vinegar and sesame oil BarbryT adds just before serving the dish. The sesame oil is a nice touch, but the vinegar adds a sweet and sour touch that wasn't quite what I was looking for. It's not bad, mind you, but a bit more chili oil instead is better for my tastes. Yours may differ. But that's a minor quibble; it turned out quite nicely on the whole.

CSA week ten - lettuce soup

I decided I really wasn't up for a cream soup this evening so of the two recipes I mentioned on Saturday I decided to go with this one with some modifications.

First off, I lightened it up a little by substituting in a tablespoon of olive oil for some of the butter. Of the three onion-esque choices it offered I, of course, went for scallions as I have plenty on hand. In retrospect, a tear-wateringly pungent onion would have added some welcome punch to the recipe. I also boosted the garlic and added a third cup or so of red pepper. Some of the lettuce soup recipes mentioned that red lettuce gives a nice dark green color to the soup and, as I was going to stick mainly to romaine, I thought the peppers might substitute as well as adding an extra note of flavor. The eight cups of lettuce called for was about one full head; I used my leftover romaine and greenleaf from the last couple weeks.

Most of the recipes used broth instead of the water this one calls for. I was unsure how much flavor the lettuce really was going to offer, so I used two cups of chicken broth as insurance.

I found the ten minutes of cooking time this recipe called for was plenty. You can see that that looks plenty cooked. I really can't imagine what the forty minutes called for in the newsletter recipe would do the a not-terribly hearty green like lettuce. If you try it, do let me know.

When I was blending it, I decided not to try to get it perfectly smooth as a little texture adds interest.

Finally, I made some croutons. Nothing fancy since I wanted the soup to stand up on its own if it could.

So how did it taste? Pretty much like spinach soup. Unlike spinach soup, however, I found that the greens flavor intensified as it cooled. Hot, it was disappointingly thin and weak, but at room temperature the lettuce really started pulling its weight amongst the other ingredients making the taste come together into a pleasing whole. Using the chicken broth was a good idea; I don't think the lettuce could have made it on its own.

Now that I've got a basic idea of how the recipe works I'm curious if I could make a presentable caesar or cobb salad soup. I'll bet caesar salad soup would work. I found one recipe for it on line but it takes major liberties with the concept. Watch this space.

CSA week nine - Greek salad

I had a Greek roommate a while back and to his mind a proper Greek salad consisted of tomatoes, feta, olive oil, salt and pepper and that's it. He was quite firm on this point. You could maybe gussy it up with some onion, a few olives or a bit of oregano, but adding cucumbers, peppers or especially lettuce was right out.

With a recipe that simple there's a lot riding on the quality of the ingredients. The tomatoes need to be very ripe and juicy, the feta should be flavorful and salty, and the olive oil should have a spicy bite. Unfortunately, I had problems on all three counts.

My tomatoes from last week's share were threatening to skip right over ripe to rotten so I figured today was the day to use them, but when I cut one open I discovered I was mistaking the firmness of a meaty tomato for the firmness of an underripe one. So the tomato was ready to go but it was the wrong sort for this recipe. However, it is a perfectly fine sauce tomato and I have been meaning to make a batch so I know where the other one is going.

As for the feta, I was able to find three varieties at Whole Foods but none were the really salty and sharp salad feta I wanted. I bought the least blah one I found, but it really didn't work. The texture was a bit off too. A good salad feta should be crumbly, but the block should be moist on the inside so it melts into the olive oil combining with the tomato juices to make the salad dressing. I really can't imagine what a cheese this bland and dry is meant for. I can't imagine it melts well, but maybe it will work crumbled on a focaccia.

And the extra virgin olive oil I have on hand happens to be a relatively mild fruity Spanish oil. Not really right for this application. Really, both the feta and the olive oil for a good Greek salad should be a bit too strong to enjoy without the tomatoes and bread to mellow them out.

I added sweet onion, fresh oregano and some kalamatas hoping to salvage it, but I can't say I enjoyed it much. Even the flatbread I bought has kind of a fluffy wonder-bready texture I don't care for.

I guess I need to stop trying this sort of thing and adjust to Miami by cooking more Cuban. Those ingredients I can find.

CSA farm subscription - week ten

The share was more substantial this week but I have to admit being dismayed at seeing yet more lettuce and scallions. I don't know about what turned up in your share (should be you a reader who has one. I'm getting a surprising number of readers who don't. Mainly they're coming for the no-knead bread recipe, but sometimes they take a look around.) but mine were huge. I'm hopeful that means these are the mature vegetables from the end of the season and we'll be moving on to something else shortly. As for how to use them, I'm thinking of a Chinese steamed fish dish I remember seeing pictures of (or maybe I'll just seal it up in a pouch and let it steam itself) and I want to see if I can do a no-knead version of potato scallion bread.

For the lettuce, the lettuce soup recipe in this week's newsletter made me take a second look at that idea. Looking around on-line I found a surprising variety of recipes. I found French, Slovak, Italian, Indian and Chinese versions. Those that specified a type almost all called for iceberg so I'm going to use just the romaine as the closest approximation currently in my crisper. I haven't settled on quite which one I'll make, but I'll probably go with either this one (possibly substituting curry powder for the coriander) or this one. And speaking of lettuce, I did manage to down a couple of salads over the last week. I've discovered that the case is less that I'm not a salad guy as I stated and more that I'm not a lousy homemade vinaigrette guy. Once I tried my hand at salad dressings involving mayonnaise or bacon drippings the situation improved.

I'm trying to resist the urge to bake the chard into chips like I did with the kale. It's probably too tender for that; I should treat it more like spinach. It'll probably end up in a frittata or over pasta.

The cabbage is a good utility player so I may not come up with a meal for it and it will find its own way into fried rice, hash and the like. It's as if cabbage starts out as leftovers. If I wasn't settled on the lettuce soup, I might make my Mom's cabbage soup. And if I wasn't getting bored with the combination, I might make a Chinese cabbage recipe (it's a Chinese cabbage-recipe, not a Chinese-cabbage recipe so this is the right sort of cabbage) that briefly fries the cabbage with lop chong, shrimp, garlic and ginger, adds a cup of chicken stock and a bit of soy sauce and then simmers for five minutes or so. But don't let that stop you. (Serve over noodles with a drizzle of sesame oil.) I still might change the type of sausage, switch out the shrimp for clams and make a Portuguese variation. Or I may go German. I can't be bothered to make sauerkraut but there are plenty of other ways to pair it with brats.

The green beans I might use in a Szechuan stir fry again. I wasn't 100% happy with the first one I made and I'd like to take another shot at it.

The red pepper will take care of itself I'm sure, and the grapefruit I'll probably just eat straight.

I think that covers it. From last week I still have the canistel and the tomatoes, neither of which are in any hurry to ripen. The canistel I may give away. I've now had a sufficient number and types of sapote and prepared them in a sufficient variety of ways to confidently say that I just don't much care for them. I should find some takers at work, though. For the tomatoes, I've been thinking of a Greek salad if I can find a good feta around here.

Hmm, seems like a busy week after a couple of slow ones. Good.