G Wiv wrote:

Kennyz wrote:great looking meal. particularly gorgeous egg. nicely done!

Yes, nicely done, I'm not sure I would have thought to pair an egg with shrimp and hash, but looking at the nicely setup plate it makes perfect sense.

Thanks gentlemen. This really was an "Iron Chef" moment for me. I just started grabbing ingredients that I thought would work together and started putting together the dish as I washed the veggies. Next time I make something like this, I'm adding some minced jalapeños and finishing it with a little infused oil (chive oil comes to mind).

Best,
Michael

Please forgive this non-CSA member from hijacking your thread for a minute. I think CSA's are terrific, but greater joy for me comes from interacting with farmers at the market, and - more importantly - from smelling and tasting all of their wares before deciding what to buy. Today, I sampled or sniffed countless items before deciding who would get my dollars. I don't want to give that up.

Here's what I ended up with:


left to right, top to bottom (roughly):
Seedlings Farm melon, Genesis Growers yellow cauliflower, Green Acres Farm poblanos, Ellis Farm peaches, Hillside Orchard apricots, Bennison's mini ciabatta, Blue Marble drinkable yogurt (awesome stuff), Floriole Bakery cannelles de bordeaux, Nichols Farm shallots, Green Acres chinese eggplant, Smits Farm corn, Green Acres baby fennel, Hillside apple and pears, 2 Hidden Springs sheeps milk cheeses.

This haul is a cook (and eater's) dream. Cauliflower florets are already roasting with cumin, coriander and cayenne. A stock is simmering with the cauliflower stalks, cinnamon sticks, fennel fronds, carrots, onions and garlic. Florets and strained stock are soon to be pureed into soup for the weekend. I can't wait to eat all the rest of this stuff.

And so, you see, I won't soon be joining a CSA.

Nice post, Kenny.

Kennyz wrote:Please forgive this non-CSA member from hijacking your thread for a minute. I think CSA's are terrific, but greater joy for me comes from interacting with farmers at the market, and - more importantly - from smelling and tasting all of their wares before deciding what to buy.

Keep in mind that for many people, the two are not mutually exclusive. We eat from our CSA and no less that two or three different farmer's markets.

first use for this week's haul...

Spicy Roasted Cauliflower Soup, roasted sweet corn garnish

Separate florets from stalk and roughly chop stalk:


Toss florets from 2 heads with olive oil, cumin, coriander, cayenne, salt and pepper. Then roast at 400 degrees for 35 minutes:


Remove and try not to eat them all:


Crank up oven to 475 and put husked corn on roasting pan and in oven. Roast for 30 minutes, turning a few times:


Put cauliflower stalk, 1/2 a big onion, 2 chopped carrots, 2 cloves of garlic, some fennel fronds and a cinnamon stick in a pot. Cover with water. Add salt and pepper. Simmer this stock for 2 hours and strain.


In pot big enough to hold completed soup, sweat a large shallot in some butter. Season shallot with more salt, pepper, cayenne, cumin, coriander. Then add roasted florets and enough stock to cover. Simmer this for 15-20 minutes, then puree. Return puree to the stove and cook on low heat for a few minutes.


Serve with a few roasted sweet corn kernals and fennel fronds:



Ignoring all pretense of modesty, let me say that this is one heck of a soup. Complex, good deal of heat offset nicely by cinnamon undertones and very sweet corn, and the star of the show - the terrific cauliflower flavor - really shines through it all.

eatchicago wrote:The only thing that's really new to me are the romano beans. The newsletter doesn't have a recipe. Any suggestions?

I took a cue from Laura Sbrana (via the NYTimes) and braised the romano beans in tomato sauce.

After about 40 minutes of braising they were quite delicious, having maintained a good amount of crispness. Their flavor was outstanding, almost a concentrated green bean flavor. Easily one of the best vegetables I've received from this CSA. It's almost a shame to have them in any sauce at all. I should have held a few back and steamed them gently and tried them with a little bit of lemon juice and sea salt.

Best,
Michael

That soup sounds good, I don't think I have ever had cauliflower soup.

Your haul from the farmer's market looks excellent. I'm usually at two markets per weekend also. Interacting with the farmer's is always a lot of fun and I have learned often leads to discounts! Joe the Mushroom guy sells to me for half price usually and Farmer Jon of Farmer Jon's Cheese usually knocks 75 cents to a dollar off of each brick I buy.

Two weeks in a row I have purchased a musk melon (could be a cantaloupe, it's orange inside) from a Farmer at the Monona farmer's market, and it is without a doubt the best melon I have ever tasted. I believe it was from Nimmer's Family Farm Produce. I'll have to check and make sure.

I love the farmer's markets, I could easily walk around and just eat for hours, buying way more food than we could ever eat before it goes bad.

More CSA/Farmer's Market Cookery. Isn't this fun?

I went full-blown meat-and-potatoes tonight, augmenting a locally-raised hunk of ribeye from Whole Foods with things from my CSA and today's Federal Plaza farmer's market.

I was delighted today to find Nichols Farm selling celery. This is not the thick, water-heavy celery that you'll find at the supermarket. It's thinner, tougher and jam-packed with celery flavor. Also, there's a TON of leaves. Since I've always treated celery leaves as somewhat interchangeable with flat parsley, I made a celery leaf chimichurri with my CSA's garlic.

So, here's dinner. Ribeye steak with celery leaf chimichurri, pan-roasted new potatoes (CSA), roasted peppers (CSA), and steamed Nichols Farm broccoli (market).



Paired with Bonny Doon Ca' del Solo Big House Pink.

Best,
Michael

eatchicago wrote:

eatchicago wrote:The only thing that's really new to me are the romano beans. The newsletter doesn't have a recipe. Any suggestions?

I took a cue from Laura Sbrana (via the NYTimes) and braised the romano beans in tomato sauce.

After about 40 minutes of braising they were quite delicious, having maintained a good amount of crispness. Their flavor was outstanding, almost a concentrated green bean flavor. Easily one of the best vegetables I've received from this CSA. It's almost a shame to have them in any sauce at all. I should have held a few back and steamed them gently and tried them with a little bit of lemon juice and sea salt.

I was also at a loss with what to do with this ingredient. I went simply, sautéing thickly sliced creminis until browned and soft, remove from pan, add more oil and romano beans chopped into about 1/2" pieces. Saute until beans are brighter green and softened but still toothsome, about 5 minutes. add more oil, sliced shallots, thyme, the mushrooms and red wine and balsamic for an acidic note. Salt and pepper. Delicious.

I have a question for CSA vets: have any of you done any fall or winter shares? I'm looking into it and was wondering if it was worth it.

AndrewR wrote:I have a question for CSA vets: have any of you done any fall or winter shares? I'm looking into it and was wondering if it was worth it.

I did a winter share last year, and am still debating about this year, especially with Green City doing a winter market. I remember not using alot of parsnips and popping corn last year. Would love to hear others thoughts on this as well.

I signed up for Home Grown Wisconsin's winter share last year. The popping corn was my favorite part (along with onions, carrots, and a pie pumpkin right before Thanksgiving). The hardest part for me was the immense amount of potatoes. I love potatoes, but after awhile they seemed to pile up. I signed up again though, so if you have any good potato recipes, I'd love to hear them.

Lindsay

Lindsay wrote:if you have any good potato recipes, I'd love to hear them.
Lindsay

vichyssoise

We're doing the HGW winter share again as well....I'd second the notion that the potatoes kind of takeover, but we entertain alot, so we managed to get rid of them before they went bad. And we loved the popcorn too!

I just made a delicious bean and potato recipe from the Mar/April 08 issue of Cook's Illustrated - a roasted green bean and potato salad, and it is YUMMY. I'm trying very hard to keep my fingers out of it until dinner. preheat oven to 500, with a half sheet pan in the oven. Chop 1lb beans in half. Chop 1lb red bliss potatoes into 1/2" cubes. Toss with salt, minced garlic, a glug of olive oil, salt, and a dash of sugar. Spread on hot cookie sheet in one layer, roast at 500 for 25 minutes. In a large bowl combine 3T red wine vinegar, 1T olive oil, salt/pepper to taste. When the veggies come out of the oven, toss in the vinaigrette, let cool and serve. YUM.

On the same page in the Cooks, is an awesome roasted beet/carrot salad as well, and is most excellent topped with some fresh goat cheese.

Well, your posts are edging me closer to ordering that winter share! Tonight, I roasted my string beans from Wednesday's HGW delivery. Tossed them with olive oil, salt, pepper and smashed garlic. Fantastic. That potato and bean salad sounds delicious. If I'd logged on sooner, I'd have made that instead!

Homegrown Wisconsin Delivery #6 of 10



Gold summer squash (really not my favorite veggie, but i'll eat it)
Red bell pepper (already chopped up in a quinoa salad)
3 tomatoes (1 heirloom variety)
Arugula bunch (I was excited to receive this after all the normal lettuce this summer)
Herb bouquet (flat parsley, sage, chives)
Small celery stalk (it's very small, but this type of celery packs a huge amount of celery flavor into dishes. a little goes a long way--i'm gonna chop some up and freeze it for use in soups this winter)
Raspberries (super-ripe and sweet)
Musk melon
Broccoli (a HUGE head. hard to tell in this photo but it's nearly 2x the size of the melon, some will get blanched and frozen)
Eggs
Red bottle onions (can't get enough of these to make me happy)
Garlic heads
Fruit mixture (Williams Pride apples, Mt. Royal plums, Dolgo crabapples)

Overall, a haul that i'm very pleased with. A good amount of sweet stuff, good lettuce stuff, green veggies, herbs, tomatoes. I can't complain at all.

My goal of using 100% of what I receive came to a screeching halt as I found the two beets from the last box to be completely mushy and slightly moldy in my fridge a few days ago. I don't know much about storing beets, but I figured they'd be fine in my fridge for a little while. They were not salvageable at all. I should have just cooked them right away and put them in a container for use.

Best,
M

eatchicago wrote:My goal of using 100% of what I receive came to a screeching halt as I found the two beets from the last box to be completely mushy and slightly moldy in my fridge a few days ago. I don't know much about storing beets, but I figured they'd be fine in my fridge for a little while. They were not salvageable at all. I should have just cooked them right away and put them in a container for use.

weird. I have had local beets in my fridge for over a month now, and they still look good. Did you detach the greens?

Kennyz wrote:

eatchicago wrote:My goal of using 100% of what I receive came to a screeching halt as I found the two beets from the last box to be completely mushy and slightly moldy in my fridge a few days ago. I don't know much about storing beets, but I figured they'd be fine in my fridge for a little while. They were not salvageable at all. I should have just cooked them right away and put them in a container for use.

weird. I have had local beets in my fridge for over a month now, and they still look good. Did you detach the greens?

They didn't come with the greens. They had about 3 inches of the greens' stem. (See delivery #5 photo). I was surprised when I picked them up and my thumb nearly went through them.

I like this article about cold storage of beets and other veggies.

I am a little behind. Here is delivery 6. Delivery 7 is on my camera still.


Corn, Cabbage, Carrots, Green Beans, Basil, Garlic, Onion, Plums, Pears, Apples, Beef, Pork, Zucchini, Peppers, and Cauliflower.

Froze the carrots and green beans. Made scalloped cabbage with the cabbage, that was great. Grilled the corn. Made some salsa with some of the tomatoes, the rest went on tomato and toast sandwiches. I had a bunch of other peppers from the farmer's market, so I took them all and threw them in the crock pot with a pork shoulder and some other spices. That turned into pulled pork tacos with a pepper sauce.

Homegrown Wisconsin Delivery #7 of 10



Slightly smaller box this week, but still a lot of good stuff.

(left to right)

--Large bunch of mizuna.
--Head of frizze
--2 Italian frying peppers (I love these)
--Sack of potatoes
--Two red onions
--Head of red cabbage
--Bag of honeycrisp apples and moonglow pears--they seem a little small to me.
--2 large beets (what the hell do they do with the greens?)
--A nice variety of tomatoes (standard red, yellow heirloom, small green zebras, sungold cherry)
--Eggs

I was hoping for a little better showing on the fall fruits this time. There are plenty of nice big apples and plums at the farmer's markets, but this box fell short.

I'm not a huge fan of red cabbage. I think I'll just make soup from it and freeze it.

And this is a lot of mizuna for two people to eat--does it have the same diuretic properties as dandelion greens?

A few pictures from last weeks delivery, the next delivery will be on the 23rd.







We were very pleased with this delivery. The melon, raspberries, and pears were all very flavorful. Other things in the delivery include shallots, potatoes, beans, eggplant, tomatoes (so good), beets, a few peppers, parsley, celery, beef, and lamb.

This week I made a CSA soup. I used some beef from this CSA (on the right with the bones) and some from a previous CSA, onions, shallots, carrots, celery, and potatoes along with some thyme from my porch plant. It turned out really fantastic.

eatchicago wrote:Homegrown Wisconsin Delivery #7 of 10
And this is a lot of mizuna for two people to eat--does it have the same diuretic properties as dandelion greens?

I am also a bit stymied by what to do with this rainforest of mizuna. When I cooked with it last summer, I found it a pretty pedestrian green. Eat this much and I think you'll be able to answer your own question

Better living through empirical vegetable testing!

My red cabbage go-to is shredded and braised with cider vinegar (throw the apples in if you like), bacon and a bit of maple syrup.

We also get the HomeGrown Wisconsin box. This week's tomatoes are wonderful! We had the green zebras in BLTs last night (we also get a monthly bacon delivery... but that's another post altogether) and a salad with the sungold cherry tomatoes - oh my lord those were like candy! Yum, I just wish we'd gotten more of those rather than the red.

We have never had mizuna before, and are also unsure about it. It is definitely stymying (sp?) when they give you a really large bunch of one green. In fact, we still have the big bunch of celery from the last box!

*raises hand for being stumped by mizuna*

Not sure what to do with the mizuna...but I figure greens are always good sauteed with a bit of bacon grease, topped with crisp bacon and a bit of vinegar....better living through bacon, right?! If anyone comes up with something great with mizuna, do let us know.

I loved the celery two weeks ago - it made my chicken stock extra good, and then I chopped a bunch and added it to a summer vegetable soup...WOW. That is some great celery flavor, and the leaves were really good chopped up and put in the soup like parsley, too.

I have already snarfed the sungold tomatoes, just popping one in my mouth everytime I walk by.

Tonight's dinner was sauteed mizuna with garlic and sungold tomatoes over brown rice with a beet and goat cheese salad.

I sweated a little garlic in olive oil with s&p, added halved cherry tomatoes and sauteed for a minute or two. I added the mizuna (a little more than half the bunch, ends trimmed) and sauteed until just wilted. I finished it with a splash of white wine vinegar and served it over brown rice. The tomatoes and oil made a bit of a sauce in the bottom of the pan which I poured over everything.

Cookie actually described the mizuna as "meaty". It certainly has substance and deep flavor without being too bitter. I'd actually recommend cutting the long pieces into halves or thirds to prevent chewing on long strands.

Overall, easy to prepare as a quick sautee and quite delicious. It would go equally great with good pasta or sauteed white beans.

Best,
Michael

I made a mixed green salad with mizuna, frisee, spinach, sliced pears (from the CSA box), toasted walnuts, blue cheese and a homemade vinaigrette. I thought the salad tasted great with our surprisingly delicious beet pasta dish (saute butter, oil, and garlic, then combine with two grated beets and a teaspoon of cayenne pepper and cover for 12 minutes - mix with pasta) and broiled peppercorn salmon last night. But then, everything tastes good after a few glasses of wine!

I did a simple salad with some of the mizuna and the sungold cherry tomatoes. i just did olive oil and sea salt on the vegetables and then topped the lot with an over-easy egg. Very yummy. I have been enjoying the Green Zebras, as well. Chicory is next. Not quite sure what I'm going to do with that.

We chopped up and sauteed the mizuna for use in our fried rice tonight. We added it to jasmine long grain rice, green and yellow onions, egg, and some country bacon (again from our bacon-of-the-month club), flavored simply with soy sauce.

Not very bitter, mustardy or peppery, it lent itself well to this application, much like other Asian greens we've used before (yu choy, baby bok choy, etc.).

Homegrown Wisconsin Delivery #8 of 10



A little bit lighter delivery this week, but all good stuff:

--2 leeks (I love leeks, especially making little bitty fried leek rings out of them)
--A nice large spaghetti squash
--3 tomatoes (2 standard red and one nice heirloom)
--Mutsu apples and pears
--2 heads of garlic (garlic is always welcome)
--A daikon radish
--A big bag of carrots
--Green leaf lettuce
--Red radicchio
--Eggs

Some carrots, a leek, and the daikon have already found their way into the pressure cooker with some chicken thighs and herbs to make a nice fall stew.

Two more deliveries and then I start my winter share (three monthly deliveries).

Best,
Michael

eatchicago wrote:--A nice large spaghetti squash

Not having any idea what the ultimate plan for it was, I roasted the squash last night and let it cool to shred it up. I gave it a quick taste out of the oven and realized that I didn't need to do too much to it at all. It was sweet almost to the point of tasting sugary and very tender.

I simply sauteed it in a little butter with chopped leek, garlic, a tad of Parmesan cheese, S&P. It was among the best examples of squash that I've ever tasted.