Locavore: Eating Seasonally

Purple Kohlrabi

Finally some time!

My schedule settled down this week and I finally found some time to think about food. This week's box contains:

• Purple Kohlrabi
• Lettuce
• Spring Onions
• Rapini
• Red Radishes
• Erbette Chard
• Fennel
• Broccoli
• Strawberries

 The viable items we still have on hand from past weeks includes:

• Broccoli
• Radishes
• Onions
• Red Cabbage (from 4/11 and 3/21!)
• Carrots
• Green Garlic
• French Breakfast Radishes
• Red Chard

Unfortunately we composted turnip greens, soup celery, red romaine lettuce, Portuguese cabbage and some little gem lettuces.

Having the time to think about food is not the same time as having the time to cook a good meal. First, there's deciding what to cook. Then there's shopping. Then there's cooking ... you get the idea.

When I picked up the box yesterday, I decided to go with what we had on hand (which wasn't much) and just work with it. We ended up making an adapted version of Martha Rose Shulman'sbroccoli risotto, adding sun-dried tomatoes and skipping the parsley; we were able to make use of the broccoli and some of the onions and green garlic from this week and those prior. I also started a batch of sauerkraut, using up the cabbage from 3/21 and 4/11 and the purple kohlrabi from this week's box.

For dinner tonight, we made Swiss chard stuffed manicotti (an adapted version of the Swiss Chard Stuffed Shells recipe from CHOW) served with a green salad. This meal made great use of the Erbette chard from this week's box and the red chard from 4/4 as well as the lettuce and onions from this week's box and green garlic from weeks past.

We now have rapini, radishes, fennel, and strawberries left. My plan is to pickle the radishes, eat the strawberries out of hand, make roasted fennel tartines for dinner one night next week, and to serve the rapini sauteed along side some to-be-determined main course.

Two main themes over the past month: time and eating seasonally and locally.

The trick on the time theme is knowing what is perishable and eating it first, then taking steps to preserve the food you don't have time to deal with right away. Lots of options for preservation, but my go-to solution continues to be Evert-Fresh bags; they really do buy you time.

On eating locally, the trick is starting with what you have and finding ways to make it interesting. All this takes is a quick inventory, a bit of research, and of course, time.

Experimenting with Cuisines: Moroccan Food

This week's box contained:

• Chantenay Carrots
• Sweet Corn
• Red Cabbage
• Desiree Potatoes
• Bunched Parsley Root
• Melons
• Strawberries
• Lettuce (traded for more parsley root)

Having just finished LuLu in Marrakech, I took my inspiration for the week from Morocco.  If you've never tried it, Moroccan food is exceptional.  Intensely flavorful, simple to prepare and, for the most part, really healthy.

I happen to have a tagine pot that I look after for a Moroccan friend.  I decided to put it to use for dinner tonight and made a mixed vegetable tagine, loosely based on a recipe from the BBC's Good Food site.

Making a tagine is easy and can be done on the stove top in a Dutch oven or a small stockpot. The process is as follows:

• Saute aromatics (onions, garlic, and the like) in olive oil,
• Add the spices and stir till fragrant,
• Add a can of diced tomatoes,
• Add a mixture diced vegetables and beans
• Add a cup of water, mix well, then
• Cover and simmer till the vegetables are tender

Serve over couscous.  The variations are endless.  Tagines are really a braise, so anything you'd consider cooking that way can apply here.  The Moroccan spices are heavenly and well worth a go, but the cooking technique lends itself to any flavor variation.

Seasonal Vegetable Tagine
... serves 4 generously as a main course

2 small carrots, diced
2 small turnips, diced
2 small zucchini, diced
2 medium onions, diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 14.5 oz can of diced tomatoes
1 14.5 oz can chickpeas, drained and rinsed
2t  agave nectar
4t  ras el hanout
3 T harissa
olive oil
water
salt and pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Saute the onions in olive oil over medium heat till translucent; add minced garlic and stir till fragrant.  Add spices and stir till fragrant.  Toss the prepared vegetables and chickpeas together, then place in the base of a tagine. Top with tomato mixture, add water and cover.  Bake, covered, for 1 hour stirring occasionally.

Other Moroccan recipes I'd like to try include:

• Moroccan Spiced Carrots
• Spiced Tomato and Couscous Soup
• Vegetarian Harira

Kitty Morse is well known in the US for her Moroccan cookbooks. I've just ordered The Vegetarian Table: North Africa and am anxiously awaiting the book expected from Mourad Lahlou of Aziza in San Francisco.  More Moroccan food to follow!

Box Contents: March 26, 2010

This week's box contains:

• Lettuces (just left these in the swap box)
• Carrots
• Chard
• Red Cabbage
• Green Garlic
• Rutabagas
• New Potatoes
• Rosemary
• Mystery (red beets)

It was an unusual box this week. While most of the vegetables were in good shape, others were less so. By no means were they spoiled, but the carrots and potatoes were covered with dirt and the beet greens were too dried out to be edible. This is a first in the 5 years I've been a subscriber, hope it does not continue.

Last week was a sad week for us, losing our 3 year old rescued beagle, Sam.  I was happy to have so much produce on hand and no plans for the weekend.  Cooking can be comforting, and certainly eating can be as well.

Though he never stopped stealing food, including veggies like the raw potato pictured above, he was a lovely dog and will be sincerely missed.

So, what did I cook?

With the carrots from this week's box and last, I made a batch of pickled carrots, modifying the recipe slightly by adding 1 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes.  One jar went into the refrigerator for immediate consumption and I canned the rest. If you choose to can, follow the process for canning high acid foods processing for 10 minutes.

After a good scrubbing, I roasted the potatoes and the rutabagas with salt, olive oil, and Piment d'Espelette. In general I chop vegetables to a 1 inch dice and roast them at 400 degrees Fahrenheit for 25-30 minutes, stirring occasionally.  If you are not a rutabaga fan, please try roasting them ~ they are fantastic.

With the red cabbage, I started another "experiment" -- this time it was homemade sauerkraut.  Since the cabbage was red, just like the beets, I tossed them both in.  The process looks pretty straightforward, let's hope it works.  You can find a good explanation of how to make sauerkraut here.

I used the new bundle of kale for Kamut Elbow Hoppin' John.  This recipe is from Eden Foods, a long time favorite.

I made a vegan version of this rosemary pesto, substituting miso for the Parmesan cheese.

The green garlic, a rare treat only available in the spring, will become Green Garlic Risotto from Michele Anna Jordan's Cook's Tour of Sonoma.

Box Contents: March 19, 2010

As expected, this week's box included:

• Savoy Cabbage
• Adolescent Lettuces (swapped for more turnips)
• Butternut Squash
• Fennel
• Leeks
• Portuguese Kale
• Red Spring Onions
• Baby White Turnips
• Chantenay Carrots

The first dish of the year was roasted vegetables, using ingredients from the box and a few we had on hand:

Roasted Vegetables

1 cup Brussels sprouts
1 cup baby white turnips
1 cup new potatoes
1 cup Chantenay carrots
1 cup red spring onions
small handful peeled garlic cloves

Preheat oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit.  Dice all vegetables to an even size and toss with salt, pepper and olive oil.  Roast for 30-40 minutes, stirring occasionally.

We also made Savoy Cabbage and Sausage Soup from Every Night Italian: 120 Simple, Delicious Recipes You Can Make in 45 Minutes or Less. Of course the sausage we used was vegetarian, but my omnivore husband Sean was quite happy with the result.

Other dishes planned for this week include:

• Portuguese Kale and Potato Soup
• Butternut Squash and Leek Soup