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.

Eggplant Caviar

Roast Eggplant & Garlic for Eggplant Caviar

This week's box contains:

• Red Potatoes
• Strawberries
• Mixed Tomatoes
• Summer Squash
• Red Gem Lettuce
• Red Beets
• Nadia Black Italian Eggplant
• Chives

More squash.  This is the part of CSAs that gets tough.  Eating seasonally, especially when dependent on one farm, can be repetitive.  Tonight we're going to try Pasta with Zucchini and Mint as a main course, served with Eggplant Caviar and herb ciabatta, made with this week's chives plus some basil and rosemary we had on hand.

Ciabatta

As usual, the strawberries will be frozen for smoothies.  My tried and true smoothie recipe is as follows:

Breakfast Smoothies
Serves 1

1c frozen fruit
1c low fat, unsweetened soy milk
2c water
2 scoops Vega Smoothie Infusion

Add all ingredients to the Vita-Mix and blend well.

The potatoes were added to a Tempeh Curry. Later this week I plan to make the following with the beets and tomatoes:

• Beet, Citrus and Avocado Salad
• Pasta With Cherry Tomatoes and Arugula
• Wheat Berry and Tomato Salad

Mother's Day Brunch

 

This week's box contains:

• Strawberries
• Sugar Snap Peas
• Green Kohlrabi
• Cardoons
• Lettuce (swapped for more cardoons)
• Baby Carrots
• Baby Spinach
• Chantenay Carrots

Not surprisingly, it contains a lot of spring vegetables.  With Mother's Day this weekend, we're planning brunch as follows:

Soup of Pureed Cardoons

Spinach and Snap Pea Risotto
Salmon Sous Vide
Sauteed Baby Carrots
Strawberry Shortcake

I will roast the kohlrabi, the sole remaining vegetable from the box, later this week.

Box Contents: April 16, 2010

This week's box contains:

• Leeks
• Gold Chard
• Cilantro
• Oranges
• Mystery (Strawberries)
• Baby Fava Beans
• Mystery (Orach)

We made fresh squeezed orange juice from the oranges and ate the strawberries out of hand for breakfast today.  With two sets of greens, and the remaining ingredients on hand, we're planning Hearty Greens Soup for dinner today or tomorrow.

I am looking forward to the fava beans.  They are lovely when you have the time to prepare them.  If you've not had the pleasure, it is a 3 step process: remove the pod, blanch the beans and remove the outer shell, then cook.  I like them best tossed with olive oil and salt.

As far as the rest of it goes, we've got another "not going to cook" week ahead.  Last week box contents are still resting comfortably in the refrigerator and the remains of this week's box will join them.  Weeknight cooking is not something we do well...