CSA week 19 - Semur terong

which would be steamed eggplant in dark sauce. Eggplant stew is the exact translation from Indonesian, but that doesn't tell you much. "Dark sauce" is all that helpful either, I suppose.

Anyway, I didn't much feel like cooking tonight. I've been suffering from the dreaded oogy tummy syndrome lately. But even if I don't want to eat, I've still got to blog so here we are.

This is a modestly modified version of a recipe from my go to Indonesian cookbook The Indonesian Kitchen. I really ought to get another one of these days just to compare the different takes on the cuisine.

Ingredients:
1 pound eggplant, cut horizontally in 1/2 inch thick slices
1 egg, beaten with 1/4 teaspoon salt
6 Tablespoons peanut oil
1/4 cup thin-sliced onion
1/4 cup thin-sliced pepper
2 cloves garlic, sliced thin
1 cup beef or chicken stock
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon sugar
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg (less if it's fresh)
1/4 teaspoon pepper
2 teaspoons sweet soy sauce

1. Steam eggplant slices for five minutes. Remove and cool. (I had to pile up my eggplant to fit them all in the steamer. A dual level Chinese-style bamboo steamer might have room to lay everything out. I also found that the eggplant started falling apart as I removed it to a bowl. I decided to just go with that.)

2. Dip eggplant in egg and fry in 4 Tablespoons oil over medium high heat for two to three minutes, until light brown on both sides. (Individually dipping each slice in egg, even if they were holding together, would be a huge pointless pain so I just tossed the eggplant with the egg and dumped it all into a hot pan.) Remove and set aside.

3. Add remaining 2 Tablespoons of oil to pan, heat and add onion, garlic and peppers. Fry two minutes. Add stock, salt, sugar, nutmeg, pepper and sweet soy sauce. Cook three minutes more. Return eggplant and cook two minutes. Serve over rice.



Not much to look at, particularly with the eggplant all broken up like that, but, well, it's not much to taste either. It's rather bland and mushy. Just what my stomach can handle, but that wasn't my intention.

My cookbook has a second semur terong recipe which has made its way out onto the open web, so you can find it here. In retrospect, that looks rather better. Make that instead.

Vacation wrap-up, Week 19 start-up

I'm back and, thanks to la Diva, I've got this week's share.

As I predicted, I was kicked out of the kitchen while my mother, sister and brother-in-law cooked for Passover. I didn't even get to make any dessert. I don't really know how this traditional came about. They must have settled into a routine while I was living in San Diego and couldn't afford to fly back cross-country every year. Just as well, probably, as I've never actually roasted a turkey, braised a brisket, made chopped liver or matzo balls so I'd probably screw them up on my first try. Or more likely, do something different with them. Briskets should be smoked and there are plenty of interesting things to do with chicken livers.

Not that my mother's chopped liver recipe isn't interesting; she's got a few tweaks to the standard methodology that are worth recording. I'll took some notes and some pictures and I'll give it it's own sometime soon.

I did get to cobble together a meal from the picked-over leftovers: just some roasted broccoli and turkey scraps. I sauteed some onion and mushrooms, added the leftovers to reheat, then chicken soup and cream, salt, pepper and plenty of nutmeg which I cooked down for a sauce to go over fresh pasta. I didn't have a pasta maker so the noodles ended up quite thick and chewy, but since I didn't have to struggle with a pasta maker they were really easy to make. That's something everyone makes a few days after Thanksgiving, right?

I also spent some time looking through the cookbooks my sister brought and found a really interesting recipe for the beets. It's rather involved and I have the more perishable items from week 19 to worry about first so it may be a little while before I get around to it, though. How did you guys deal with the giant beets? Or are they still taunting you from the backs of your refrigerators?


As for those week 19 items, let's start with the leeks. When I thought they were more spring onions I decided on doing an onion bread and not 100% on abandoning that idea. But I've always liked leeks in a cream sauce too. I'll have to see what they look like cleaned up; I may have enough there for two recipes, particularly with last week's spring onions added to the pile.

For the eggplant, I have a Javanese eggplant in sweet soy sauce recipe I want to make and I'm thinking of adding onions, peppers and squash to make a weird version of ratatouille out of it.

La Diva got me an extra bag of green beans and I intend to freeze one of them. The other I want to use in a cold salad. I've gone back over the 11 different ways I've cooked green beans since starting this blog and and concluded that I prefer them cold. I'll figure out the exact details later. Bacon will probably be involved.

The cabbage will keep so I won't worry about that. The strawberries I need to add to last week's to make up enough for the strawberry/black olive ice cream I'm planning. Not enough kale or cucumber for much. I'll probably just make chips with the kale and pair the cucumber with dill and tuna or salmon for something simple. That leaves the Chinese celery which I need for my mysterious beet recipe from earlier in the post.

CSA week 18 - Quinoa-crusted quiche

It's been a while since I've made a quiche. I spent some time last Fall experimenting with crumb crusts trying to come up with something with a good texture that didn't require most of a stick of butter to make. I finally settled on using cracker crumbs mixed with finely grated cheese and blind baked like a pie crust.

So when I finished making beet-top, spring-onion, grape-tomato pizza last night with plenty of each left over (not to mention half a ball of fresh mozzarella), and thought of quiche as a way to use up some more, I wanted to do something a bit different with the crust.

Frequent commenter Kat has made polenta crusts that she's talked about on her blog so I thought I'd try quinoa to see how that might work.

I started by cooking up a half cup of quinoa, mixing it with a quarter cup of panko bread crumbs, salt and a spice blend and letting it cool. Once it was workable, I pressed it into a 9-inch pie pan. It was a little crumblier than I wanted, although it was sticking together, so I decided to pre-bake it. I grated a good layer of pecorino toscano over top before putting it into a 350 degree oven for 10 minutes. The results were interesting. The cheese melted to form a sort of shellac over the quinoa. I think mixing it in would have worked well, but this protective coating should keep the crust intact.

Meanwhile, for the filling, I fried up a couple thick slices of bacon until crisp, set those aside and sautéed a handful each of beet- and spring onion-tops along with a good bit of parsley. Once those were just about done I added a handful of grape tomatoes to cook just a little bit. I just quartered the tomatoes instead of slicing them as I wanted to have them be distinct chunks in the quiche and not just a general tomatoey flavor thinning out the custard. And finally, I chopped up a thick slice of mozzarella into half-inch cubes, crumbled the bacon and mixed it all together for the final filling.

I decided to experiment with the custard a bit too as I had half a cup of leftover Greek yogurt I wanted to use. I mixed that with a cup of milk, a quarter cup or so of grated cheddar cheese and four eggs for the custard. That turned out to be just a little too much so I wasn't able to get the pan into the oven without spillage, but I didn't lose a whole lot.

I baked it at 375 degrees for 45 minutes and then ate leftover pizza while it cooled because the whole thing took a lot longer than I expected and was getting really hungry.

After 15 minutes of cooking, here it is.



Near the center, quiche and quinoa stayed separate and the quinoa stayed crumbly so it's not much of a crust there. But closer to the edges, and particularly up on the sides, the custard soaked down. It's delicate, but it holds together and I think it'll be firmer once it's cold. The flavors blend nicely too. The soaking in means there's less custard on top so the filling ratio is higher than I was hoping for and it's hard to judge whether the yogurt has any real influence on the flavor. So I'm inconclusive on that part of the experiment. I was worried about the random mix of cheeses, but they're all mild. The bacon smooths over any faults and the quinoa matches well with the eggs and smokiness so, even if there are faults in some specific areas, I'm going to call this overall a success.

CSA week 18 start-up

Nothing much to wrap up for week 17. I tried to reproduce the hindbeh bil zayt with the daikon tops to see if it was the dandelions or the method that made it taste so good, but I couldn't resist tweaking it so much that I couldn't make a fair comparison in the end. And daikon tops aren't really your first choice as greens go so maybe not a fair comparison even if I did do it straight.

As for this week, I'm heading out of state on Monday for a week visiting family so I tried to take from my share only what I could use right away or freeze. I ended up taking most everything anyway.


The carrots and the beets can sit in the back of the refrigerator for a while without degrading much if I remove the tops. Same goes from the spring onion, I think. The squash should freeze well; I defrosted some zucchini this week and it seemed just fine. In my experience green pepper gets mushy when frozen and defrosted, but I've never really done it in the proper way so it's still worth a shot.

I left the carrot tops and the parsley in the extras bin. so that leaves the beet and onion tops and the tomatoes. That should make a good pizza topping, I think. I need to go buy some mozzarella.

Further on my trip, I'm not sure if I'll be able to post anything or have anything much to post about. I'm generally kicked out of the kitchen for Passover dinner, but I might be put in charge of dessert. We do the kosher for Passover thing, but not the meat and dairy thing so a mousse is a good choice. Maybe I'll write up my mom's chopped liver; I'd like to at least have the recipe for myself.

Also, I'm getting back too late on Saturday to pick up my share and I can't find anyone who wants it. So if you can find it a good home and you can come by the 24th street pick-up point to get it, please let me know.

CSA week 17 - orange-miso glazed scallops and bok choy

I'm not generally fond of fruit in savory dishes, but orange juice is a borderline case. I'm not saying I'm a fan, but I'm willing to consider it as an ingredient. Tonight I wanted to use at least one of the oranges as part of dinner. And also the bok choy which narrowed things down a bit.

I found a few different possibilities, but the one that appealed was this recipe I found at a vegan website, veggiemealplans.com:

1/3 cup orange juice [from one CSA orange if you juice it right]
4 teaspoons mirin
2 teaspoons rice vinegar (unseasoned)
1 tablespoon shiro miso
1 garlic clove, finely minced
1 jalapeno pepper, seeded and minced (vary amount to suit your preferences)
1/2 teaspoon fresh grated ginger
2 scallions, chopped [I was all out so I used red onion, chopped fine]

I don't think I've ever had orange with miso, but it sounded like it might work. They used it to glaze tofu, but I'm all out and I thought those flavors would work well with scallops too.

So, I mixed up the glaze and set it aside, brined some scallops, blanched the bok choy for a couple minutes (for the stems, just one for the leaves), and made some rice.

I was about to add the scallops to the pan when I had the brainwave to see if I could make a sesame crust so I dipped them in a bowl of sesame seeds first. Not great results; some of the seeds stuck, some didn't, but they all prevented the scallops from getting a good sear.


Once the scallops looked mostly done I added the bok choy and the sauce and turned up the heat to cook it down to a glaze. You may see the flaw in that plan. Once I noticed that I was over-cooking the scallops and boy choy I fished them out and let the sauce cook down for a couple minutes before putting them back, tossing them in the not-as-sticky-as-one-might-hope glaze and pouring everything out into bowl for serving.


Overcooking aside, the flavor combination is pretty good. The sauce is sweet but not cloying and complex with savory, spicy and tart notes too. The real question is would it be better with lemon instead of orange? And I'm going to say no. The orange brings a roundness to the citrus notes that pairs with the miso to tie the sauce together. Or maybe I'm talking crap there; I'm really not sure. If I'm not, then its worth trying with Myer lemons too as those may work as well without making you think "Is there orange in here?" the way this does.

Apricot-ginger crumble ice cream

I'm not going to bother with a real detailed post here. This is just a Jeni Britton-style ice cream base infused with ginger and mixed with lots of diced pieces of the apricot oat bars I made poorly last week. The points of interest here are the combination of flavors and the very low ratio of ice cream to stuff-mixed-in.

First, the flavor combination. A little bit of ginger in the stewing liquid enhanced the dried apricots for the oat bars, but here it doesn't play well with the cream. Maybe it's because I didn't blanch the ginger like a lot of recipes for ginger ice cream do. Maybe it's because the milk and cream are leftover from my last batch and, while not sour as such, are a little tangy.

It gets better as it warms up a little. Everything gets sweeter--balancing out the ginger and dairy--and the apricot's flavor blooms. That also helps the textural balance. While it's cold, I find I want a big scoop of ice cream with a few bits apricot bar, but when it's warmer the chewy apricot turns gooey, blending better with the creamy ice cream and contrasting with the chewy and still a little crisp oat bits. So the key to enjoying this ice cream is to sit at your computer and let its sit while you ponder the best wording to describe it.

CSA week 17 - Hindbeh bil zayt and mooli paratha

No surprise here; This is just what I said I'd make--Lebanese sautéed dandelion greens and Punjabi daikon-stuffed flatbread. To complete the pan-nationality, I ate them with a dollop of Greek yogurt.

Dandelion greens first. If you followed the link I posted in the week start-up post you saw a lot of variations on a simple recipe. What I did fell in that zone.

Ingredients:
100 grams (one share) dandelion greens
1 handful mixed parsley and cilantro leaves, chopped
2 cloves garlic, slivered
1/4 red onion, sliced thin
salt
olive oil
baking soda
lemon juice

1. Wash the dandelion greens and chop however you'd like. Or don't. I chopped them in thirds. Boil water in a medium pot. Add a pinch of baking soda and the dandelion greens. Simmer 5 minutes. Drain, rinse in cold water and squeeze dry.

2. Fry onion and garlic over medium low heat in a judicious amount of olive oil until they just start to turn golden. Remove half. Add dandelion greens, herbs and salt to pan and cook five minutes. [Some recipes call for cooking the dandelion for 15 minutes before adding the herbs, but I found that they were already fully cooked after the simmering so I didn't see any point.] Remove to bowl and keep warm.

3. Return reserved onion and garlic to pan and either turn heat up to get them crisp or turn it down to get them deeply caramelized. Either way, top the dandelion with them and a squeeze of lemon.


As you can probably tell from the picture, this is spectacularly flavorful, but I'm really not sure if the dandelion has anything to do with it. Yes, you can taste greens in the mix, and they're particularly yummy greens, but I don't know if that's natural to the dandelion or due to the cooking method. Only way to tell is to cook up every green in the house this way and compare the results which sounds like a pretty good plan to me.

Fair warning, the dandelion cooks down to not a whole lot and you won't want to share.


And now the daikon.

I used this recipe from recipezaar:

Daikon Radish Stuffed Flatbread/Mooli Paratha Recipe #105155

Delicious stuffed parathas make a wonderful heavy breakfast or brunch. These are good make aheads which you can wrap in some foil wrap and take to a picnic.Good to eat in the car as well no mess. Rather than drink soda or juice with this, you can have lassi which is yogurt thinned with water or milk(blend them well to make thickish smoothie type mix) to which you add sugar or honey to taste. Totally delish.
by ladyinred

55 min | 30 min prep

SERVES 4

* 2 cups wheat flour, add to this
* salt
* 1/2 teaspoon chili powder
* 1/2 teaspoon jeera powder (cuminseed)
* 2 tablespoons oil
* water, from the grated radish,for kneading the dough (will be explained below) [I got about a quarter cup from the daikon and added a bit more than quarter cup more to get a nicely kneadable dough.]

Filling

* 1 medium diakon radish, grated (after grating squeeze out the water/juice, use it for kneading dough)
* 1/2 teaspoon ajwain (available from indian stores) (optional) [This, according to indianfood.about.com, tastes like thyme. I used za'atar instead.]
* 1/4 turmeric powder
* 1/2 teaspoon jeera powder
* 1/2 onion, grated,juice squeezed out discard this [I used the bottom of the spring onion]
* salt
* 1/4 chili powder
* 2 tablespoons cilantro leaves, finely chopped [I increased the amount and used half parsley]
[ * 1 hot pepper, seeded and finely diced]
* oil (for frying)

1. Make up the dough using the water (as much as you need from the radish) Discard any left over water.
2. Leave the dough covered in a warm place to rest for half an hour.
3. Add salt to the grated radish.
4. After 15 mins squeeze out more water and discard this.
5. Then to the dry grated radish add the rest of the filling mix.
6. now make small balls of the dough a little bigger than an egg.
7. Flatten them out, dip in dry flour and roll them out using a rolling pin to a teacup saucer size.
8. Make smaller balls of the filling mix about the size of an egg yolk and place each filling ball in the center of the dough saucer.
9. Gather the rest of the dough around it so that the dough completely covers the filling.
10. Dip it in dry flour and roll it out again this time bigger than a saucer.
11. Heat a tsp of oil in the frying pan.
12. Add the bread and shallow fry on each side until brown spots appear.


I found the initial rolling and filling rather easy, although the envelope fold I used made the paratha turn out rectangular. Rolling the filled dough out was a little trickier to do without creating small tears and squishing a little filling out. Although the filling when I scooped it was dry, some liquid appeared from nowhere to squirt out onto the cutting board. The final size was a little smaller and a little thicker than I expected.

I fried the bread two minutes on the first side, poured a little olive oil on it before the flip, and then a minute or two on the other. I had some trouble keeping the pan temperature steady as I fried one at a time so I had some mixed results. I think my very first one turned out the best. Probably a good idea to brush off the extra flour better than I did.



As for the flavor, yeah, this tastes like the stuffed bread you get in Indian restaurants so not bad at all. I was afraid that with the chili, cumin and cilantro it would end up tasting Southwestern, but you can kind of get that, but the flavor of the daikon brings it back to Asia. It isn't strong and it isn't readily recognizable, but it's definitely there.

The paratha wasn't a bad match with the dandelion, but that was so good I just wanted to eat it straight. It would be pretty good with the Indian callaloo dish I made last week, I think, or chicken tikka.