Preserving Food: Just Getting By

This week's box contained:

• Thyme
• Broccoli
• Little Gem Lettuces
• Red and Purple Radishes
• Onions
• Couve Tronchuda (Portuguese Cabbage)
• Arugula
• Red Cabbage
• Rainbow Carrots
• Red Romaine

Unfortunately, this too was a time constrained week. I ended up picking up the box at 10:30pm (well after the cut-off time) and depositing it directly in our refrigerator. Honestly, just picking it up felt like an accomplishment.

I'm sad to say the box sat unattended as delivered. We composted everything but the broccoli, radishes, onions, cabbage, and carrots.

First Box of 2012 Season

This is the first week of our 2012 CSA season and our fifth year as subscribers. We've learned a lot and eaten a lot of amazing food over the past 5 years, all of it documented on this blog.

CSA stands for Community Supported Agriculture. Through this model, consumers like me purchase a share of the produce to be grown by a farmer during the upcoming season.  You pay in advance, helping the farmer fund their business and receive food from the farm at regular intervals throughout the season, sharing in both the risks and the rewards. You typically pick up a box once a week at a location convenient to you. With produce in hand, you're all set.

It's both fun and frustrating to participate.  On the positive side, you receive amazingly fresh, healthy  food, you get to try new things, and have the opportunity to build a relationship with the people who grow your food.  On the negative side, it can be a challenge to keep up with the amount of food and to be creative when you receive the same thing several weeks in a row or receive something you simply don't like. All things considered, it's been a fantastic experience.

You can learn more here:

• What is a CSA?
• Getting Started with a CSA
• Find a CSA in Your Area

This week's box contains:

• Little Gem Lettuce
• Soup Celery
• Yellow and Orange Chantenay Carrots
• Red Bearded Scallions
• Arugula
• Red Chard
• Red Radishes

Some of you know I am not a lettuce fan and often end up sending it right to the compost pile. This week though, I'm actually glad to see it. I've been on a mustard kick for the past few weeks and the lettuce gives me a chance to dip into a new jar of PIC Moutarde Forte.

To say that I love this mustard would be an understatement. It's tough to find, but well worth the effort.

With dijon mustard as the starting point, our menu tonight will include:

Red Radish Canapés (radishes)
Salad with Dijon Vinaigrette (lettuce, red bearded scallions)
Mushroom and Barley Soup (soup celery, carrots, arugula, chard)
Fresh Sourdough Bread

...which leaves us with a second bunch of radishes.  I plan to try a radish and sesame soy noodle salad from Ching-He Huang at the BBC.

This Week's Box

This week's box contains:

• Parsnips
• Chantenay Carrots
• Thyme
• Lacinato Kale
• Green Garlic
• Hearts of Escarole and Little Gem Lettuce
• French Breakfast Radishes
• Rainbow Chard
• Calçot Onions

Parsnips
Similar to the carrots below, I plan to slice these into "French fry" sized pieces and roast them, though for parsnips I add garlic.  My adaption of Alana Kellogg's recipe can be found here.

Chantenay Carrots
Baked Carrot Oven Fries from 101 Cookbooks.

Thyme
I'll uses this up as I go, this week and next.

Lacinato Kale
I stumbled upon a recipe for Three-Greens Ribollita Soup from the new cookbook I got last Sunday: Color Me Vegan.With collards left from last week, and two greens this week, it's perfect.

Green Garlic
Risotto for sure.  Michele Ana Jordan has an excellent recipe in her book The New Cook's Tour of Sonoma.

Hearts of Escarole and Little Gem Lettuce
For the escarole, I'm going to make Escarole and White Bean Soup.  It's easy and really, really good.

I must admit, I tossed the little gem lettuce. I received two small heads, each about the size of tennis ball. Yes, I regret it now.  I am simply going to have to push myself on the lettuce front this year...

French Breakfast Radishes
I'll just clean these up and eat them out of hand.

Rainbow Chard
See above; Three-Greens Ribollita Soup from Color Me Vegan.

Calçot Onions
We've got a bit of a backlog on these onions receiving them two weeks in a row. Since they freeze well and are delicious, I'm going to make a double batch of Chinese scallion pancakes.  Worth noting that I substitute buckwheat flour for some of the all-purpose recommended in this recipe and use a mixture of toasted and regular sesame oil.

Experimenting with Ingredients: Red Radish Canapés

This week's box contains:

• Lettuce  (traded for more shallots)
• Red Radishes
• Strawberries
• Bunched Spinach
• Bunched Green-Tailed Shallots
• Artichokes
• Fava Beans

Red radishes are not something I would normally procure ...

Members of my family actively seek them out ~ eating them out of hand topped with salt.  I don't mind them, and actively like them pickled.  However, having them in the house takes thought and effort if they are to avoid the compost pile.

There is a bunch in this week's box, so I thought I'd focus on dealing with food that doesn't have immediate appeal.  What do you do when you have something on hand that does not inspire?

I typically do one of a few things:

• Research: Cookbooks and the internet are a tremendous help.  Either leverage the index of your favorite cookbook or search the internet for the ingredient in question.  An example would be a Google search on "radish recipes".

• Integrate:  Some ingredients can be integrated into something that does inspire.  For example, if you love risotto, almost anything you can imagine can be added to a compatible recipe.  Some ingredients can be "hidden"; check out Jessica Seinfeld's Deceptively Delicious for ideas.
  
  
• Trade:  In some cases, I know we will not eat the food.  Friends and family will often take the food off your hands, sometimes in exchange for something else.  This is a great option and often starts for us when we pick up the box.  Our CSA offers a "trade" box; if yours does ~ use it.
  
  
• Imagine: Sounds trite, but stay with me.  Is there a situation in which you can imagine a ingredient making an ingredient work?  We've got family in town this weekend and heavy appetizers were a part of the plan for tonight.  I narrowed my search on "radish recipes" to those that would fit the situation.  Knowing a few appetizer-like terms, such as canapé and "amuse bouche" helped.

I landed on a typical French preparation of radishes: radishes, butter, and salt.  Given the noshing planned, it wasn't a stretch to create Red Radish Canapés by adding bread to the equation.  Here's the recipe, which was a big hit.

Red Radish Canapés
Serves 4 as a first course

3 large red radishes, thinly sliced
butter, at room temperature (we used Kerrygold)
coarse salt (we used Celtic Sea Salt)
bread, thinly sliced
minced herbs of your choice

Lightly toast the bread and set aside to cool.  Spread butter on the bread and top with radish slices.  Top with minced herbs and coarse salt.  Enjoy!

We served these canapés with a Schramsberg Mirabelle Brut ~ a entirely pleasant pairing.

As for the other box contents, we ate the strawberries out of hand throughout the day and grilled the artichokes for dinner tonight.  The spinach and shallots will likely find their way into risotto while the favas wait for next weekend when we have time to deal with them.