Friday, November 26, 2010

Soothing Potato and Leek Soup

Here's what was available at the Silver Lake pick-up this afternoon:

From Weiser Family Farms there were parsnips and Russian Banana spuds.

From Underwood Family Farm there were broccoli, celery, orange carrots, leeks, red chard. green leaf lettuce, candy beets, butternut squash, and hachiya persimmons.


Potato and Leek Soup

A simple and soothing soup is the perfect antidote to the indulgences of Thanksgiving and our CSA box today included the perfect fixings for such a soup: leeks and potatoes. There are many versions of this classic combination. I like my recipe because it's not only delicious, but super easy and quick, too.

1 T butter
2 medium leeks
1 to 1-1/2 lb potatoes
3-4 C chicken stock, vegetable stock or water
1/4 C cream (optional)
salt and pepper to taste
chopped Italian parsley for garnish

1. Melt butter in medium stock pot on very low heat.

2. Wash the leeks. Trim off the root ends and put in the compost. Thinly slice the white and very light green parts of the leeks. You'll probably have to re-wash the leeks as you pull off the outer layers, as dirt often lodges in them.

3. Put the sliced leeks in the stock pot and cook on very low heat. Do not brown. Compost the remaining tough leek stalks.

4. Peel the potatoes and chop into chunks. Add to the stock pot. Compost the peels.

5. Add the stock or water. Bring to a boil. Cover and simmer until leeks and potatoes are very tender, about 15-20 minutes.

6. Using an immersion blender, puree the soup. [Alternatively, you can puree the soup in a food processor or blender, but let it cool a little before doing so.]

7. Stir in cream, if desired. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Serve hot, garnished with chopped parsley.

A nice crusty bread and this soup make a lovely meal.

Enjoy!

Shelley

Friday, November 19, 2010

What to Do with Red Kuri Squash

Six different farmers and a shareholder provided today's bounty. Here's what was available at the Silver Lake pick-up this evening:

From Underwood Family Farms, there were valencia oranges, spaghetti squash, romaine lettuce, fennel, kale, and boy choy or boy toy or bok choi (depending on where you're at in life)

Tierra Miguel Foundation provided red kuri squash, horehound mint (native to California), cilantro, dill, beets, chard and carrots.

From Weiser Farms there Russian banana potatoes, brown onions.

Winnetka Farms provided salad greens.

Rancho Santa Cecilia in Carpenteria provided limes, Satsuma tangerines, and Hass avocados.

Shareholder Brian Lee provided beautiful and fragrant guavas from his garden. Thank you Brian!

Silver Lake Farms provided delicious microgreens: arugula and pak choi.

Also this week, there were 2 special items: Sriracha sauce "made with jalapeno peppers exclusively grown by Underwood Ranch" and cured, smoked and carmelized pork belly from the fabulous Rashida Purifoy, chef/owner of Cast Iron Gourmet.

I'm fine with the swine, so I couldn't wait to get home to open my container of carmelized pork belly. In fact, I had to exercise extraordinary will-power not to eat the entire container before pulling into my driveway!

I met Rashida Purifoy, chef/owner of Cast Iron Gourmet, at the Eagle Rock Brewery recently where I tasted (and purchased) her fine pork products. In fact, I had some delicious Cast Iron Gourmet bacon for breakfast this morning. I cooked the thick slices crisp and served them with fresh eggs I got from my chickens. Earlier this week, I served her divine bacon chutney on crackers to a visiting friend. What a treat!


Red Kuri Squash

If you're wondering about red kuri squash, so was I. I've seen it in stores, but never cooked with it. So, the first thing I did when I got home was cut it in half, seeded it (compost those seeds) and roasted it in the oven (along with an acorn squash I had in my fridge) until it was soft, about an hour.

My roasted kuri squash had a rich and slightly nutty flavor. It was less sweet and more starchy than the acorn squash. It reminded me a lot in texture of potato, so I mashed it with butter and a little milk and seasoned it with salt, pepper and freshly-ground nutmeg. It turned out to be a wonderful alternative to ordinary mashed potatoes and would make a deliciously different addition to the Thanksgiving table.

Red kuri squash is a variety of winter squash, so called because unlike summer squash, you can store it for many months. Most winter squashes can be used interchangeably, so you can certainly substitute red kuri squash for the butternut squash in the recipe for Roasted Butternut Squash Soup I posted on October 15; and you can probably use red kuri in shareholder Christina's Butternut Squash Lasagna recipe that was posted on January 11, 2010.

More Thanksgiving Sides: Sauteed Kale and Orange Fennel Salad

Sauteed kale and/or chard make a wonderful side dish for Thanksgiving. Here's a quick recipe using several of today's CSA products:

Chop 1/4 onion finely and saute in a heavy skillet with a lid on low heat in 1 T olive oil or bacon grease. Add 1/4 to 1/2 C chopped carmelized pork belly. Cook until onion is translucent and pork belly is as soft or crisp as desired. While onions are cooking, chop the kale and/or chard (leaf and stem) cross-wise into 1/2 to 3/4" slices. Add to skillet and cook slowly on low heat, covered, until desired doneness. I like my kale to be soft, but some folks like it with a little bite. It's up to you. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

If you're looking for a tasty salad, try this Orange Fennel Salad:

2 bunches arugula
extra virgin olive oil
white balsamic vinegar
salt and pepper to taste
1 large fennel bulb, thinly sliced
2-3 fresh oranges, peeled and sliced crosswise, save juice
chopped walnuts or pinenuts (optional)

1. Wash arugula, spin dry, remove stems and compost them. Put dry arugula in a large bowl.

2. Mix together 2-3 T olive oil, 1-2 t white balsamic and 1 T reserved orange juice. Drizzle over greens, reserving 1-2 t dresseing. Season with salt and pepper to taste and toss to coat.

3. Arrange greens on a platter. Arrange orange and fennel slices over dressed greens.

4. Drizzle remaining dressing over salad and sprinkle with chopped nuts, if desired.

Enjoy!

Shelley

Friday, November 12, 2010

Drying Persimmons

Six different farms provided produce for this week's CSA box!



Underwood Family Farms in Moorpark provided:
Butternut squash
Carrots
Pomegranates
Fuyu Persimmons
Fuji apples
Napa cabbage
Red leaf lettuce
Spinach
Tomatoes


Rancho Santa Cecilia provided:
Hass Avocados
Satsuma tangerines
Limes


Tierra Miguel Foundation, a biodynamic grower, provided:
Beets
Chard
Cucumbers
Cilantro
Dill
Horehound mint


Weiser Farms provided carrots and Russian Banana potatoes.


Winnetka Farms provided Italian salad greens.


And Silver Lake Farms provided microgreens: pea shoot, radish shoots, and arugula shoots.



Fuyu and Hachiya are the two most common varieties of persimmons. Fuyus are firm when ripe, while Hachiyas are best when soft. Hachiyas are great for things like persimmon pudding, bread and cake because the pulp can be easily mashed (think banana bread). You can make baked goods from Fuyus, too. However, because they're firm, they're usually peeled and chopped and they remain discreet bits in your baked goods.


Fuyus are perfect for drying. They're quite beautiful when dried and can be eaten like any other dried fruit: plain as a snack, mixed into oatmeal or granola, even chopped and added to savory dishes like rice pilaf or stewed chicken. I like them in salads, too.


It's unbelievably easy to dry persimmons. Simply wash and dry the fruit and slice them crosswise (horizontally) into 1-4 to 1/8 inch slices. A little lemon or lime juice will prevent them from turning brown and enhance their flavor. Then use the drying method or your choice.


I like to dry fruit in my oven. You'll need an oven thermometer to ensure that the temperature stays around 150 degrees F. Place the slices on cookie sheets lined with racks so that air can circulate. Turn the slices every 2-3 hours. They'll take about 10-12 hours to dry, depending on the thickness of your slices and the temperature of your oven. Convection ovens might be a little quicker because of the circulating air. You want them to be deep orange in color and not sticky. Let the dried persimmons cool before storing them. Well-dried persimmons can be stored in a can or a jar and do not need refrigeration.


If you have a solar dehydrator, you can use that instead. Erik Knutzen and Kelly Coyne discuss solar dehydrators in their wonderful book, The Urban Homestead.


Enjoy!

Shelley

Wednesday, November 10, 2010

Wild Kauai Boar

Shelley here - your intrepid traveling recipe blogger. I just got back from Kauai. When most people think about Hawaii, they think sun, sand, and surf; I think about wild boar. In fact, I dream about the wild boar on Kauai. There's a man in Anahola about half way between Lihue and Hanalei who traps young wild boars, butchers them, and roasts them at a roadside stand on weekends. You can smell the wafting aroma of succulent pig on an open fire from blocks away. He sells slices or chunks of any size with well-seasoned, roasted red skin potatoes, island grown sweet corn, and of course, his secret sauce, which is a smoky barbeque sauce with a hint of sweet and touch of tart. It's about as local as you can get on an island where there are very few mammals suitable for eating.

I usually pick up a few pounds of the tender, smoky meat. It's a slice of heaven right off the grill. It's also great cold on sandwiches, chopped and folded into scrambled eggs for breakfast, diced and made into hash with potatoes and onions, or just plain re-heated gently for another great meal.

Being a locavore on Kauai is much easier than it used to be. There's a "sunshine market" every day somewhere on the island and a passel of other privately-run farmer's markets. Competition for island-grown greens, such as arugula and mizuna, can be fierce, but tropical fruits such as papayas, pineapples, and bananas are abundant, as are sweet potatoes, taro, and giant avocados. Island-grown carrots, tomatoes, onions and herbs are also available, as well as eggs from local farms.

Of course, there's wonderful, locally-caught fish, especially ahi tuna. I discovered locally-caught shrimp on this trip. They were so fresh and minimally-processed with their shells, heads, and long antennae still attached! They tasted sweet and juicy sauteed quickly in butter and lime juice with a little salt.

There's a goat farm in Kilauea where a lovely, mild, soft goat cheese is produced. It's sometimes available in local markets but restaurants on Kauai apparently have first dibs. Coffee is grown on many of the Hawaiian Islands and there's a nascent chocolate industry on Kauai, too.

I remember a time when fine food on Hawaii meant steak and lobster shipped over frozen from the mainland. That's still available, but there's no need to settle for that when there's so much locally-grown, organic, fresh food available from small farms and artisan producers. So, wherever you go, take a moment to seek out the local delicacies and you'll take home the memory of these special treats as your souvenir.

Shelley

Saturday, November 6, 2010

Persimmon & Spinach Salad - From Jennifer's son's school lunch program

From shareholder Jennifer:

Hi Tara,
I'll be picking up my first box today with my kids, I'm looking forward to it.
I've been searching for a good way to use persimmons. Mostly I find desserts but this recipe (I'll be trying it this weekend) comes from, believe it or not, the lunch program from my son's public school:

Persimmon and Spinach Salad

3 cups spinach, washed
3 medium "Fuyus" Persimmons, sliced
1/4 cup dried cranberries
1 1/2 tablespoons olive oil
3 tablespoons 100% orange juice
2 tablespoons Rice Vinegar
1/2 teaspoon salt

In a small bowl, combine oil, orange juice, rice vinegar and salt for dressing
In a large bowl, combine spinach, persimmon and cranberries
Toss with dressing and serve

Jennifer: yay to the good peeps at your son's school for feeding developing brains with real food. Tara

Kelley's fall fruit cocktails

This from shareholder Kelley:

Soooo excited for the fruit. Amazing.

So many great recipes, but since it's holiday season, some of my favorites for those are party-friendly:


Pomegranate seeds are easily mixed into tons of dishes: guacamole, yogurt, ice cream, pumpkin butter (over toast- yum) ... also, for a great salsa that I like to put over grilled fish: pomegranate seeds, lime juice, salt, cilantro, onion, maybe some ginger, maybe some peppers, and voila. :)

See you in a bit!

Kelley: Thanks for being a shareholder since the start. Love ya! And I'm coming to any cocktail party you ever have at your house. oh yeah.

Jess' savory galette with pomegranate seeds

From Shareholder Jess: my favorite way to use pomegranate seeds is on a savory galette, to add a little crunch and tartness. They're not the primary ingredient, but the way I heap them on, they might as well be. This is great for the holidays. I adapted this recipe from smittenkitchen.com

Dough:
1 cup unbleached all-purpose flour
1/8 teaspoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
6 tablespoons (3/4 stick) unsalted butter, just softened, cut in 1/2-inch pieces
3 1/2 tablespoons chilled water

Combine flour, salt, sugar, and butter in a bowl. Combine butter with a pastry mixer or two knives until mixture resembles a coarse cornmeal. Add the water a tablespoon at a time. Toss with hands until you can roll dough into a ball. Flatten into a disk and store in the fridge for half an hour.

Filling:
1 small squash (butternut or kabocha work well)
olive oil
1 tablespoon butter
1 large onion, halved and thinly-sliced
salt
Pinch of sugar
3/4 cup cheese of choice (gruyere or parmesan work well)
1 teaspoon chopped fresh sage
pomegranate seeds

Cut squash into half-inch cubes and roast with a little olive oil and salt at 375 for 30 minutes or until tender. Meanwhile, caramelize the onions with the tablespoon of butter, about a half teaspoon of salt and a pinch of sugar, stirring occasionally over medium heat until golden brown (about 20 min).

Turn the oven up to 400. Mix cooled squash, onions, cheese, and sage together in a bowl. On a lightly-floured, ungreased baking pan (or on parchment paper), roll your dough out to about a 12-inch round. Spread your squash/veggie mixture over the round, leaving an inch border. Fold the edges over, crimping as you go.

Bake until golden brown, 30 to 40 minutes. Remove and sprinkle with a generous handful of pomegranate seeds, and garnish with a fresh sage leaf. Serves 6.

Jess' savory galette with pomegranate seeds

From Shareholder Jess: my favorite way to use pomegranate seeds is on a savory galette, to add a little crunch and tartness. They're not the primary ingredient, but the way I heap them on, they might as well be. This is great for the holidays. I adapted this recipe from smittenkitchen.com

Dough:
1 cup unbleached all-purpose flour
1/8 teaspoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
6 tablespoons (3/4 stick) unsalted butter, just softened, cut in 1/2-inch pieces
3 1/2 tablespoons chilled water

Combine flour, salt, sugar, and butter in a bowl. Combine butter with a pastry mixer or two knives until mixture resembles a coarse cornmeal. Add the water a tablespoon at a time. Toss with hands until you can roll dough into a ball. Flatten into a disk and store in the fridge for half an hour.

Filling:
1 small squash (butternut or kabocha work well)
olive oil
1 tablespoon butter
1 large onion, halved and thinly-sliced
salt
Pinch of sugar
3/4 cup cheese of choice (gruyere or parmesan work well)
1 teaspoon chopped fresh sage
pomegranate seeds

Cut squash into half-inch cubes and roast with a little olive oil and salt at 375 for 30 minutes or until tender. Meanwhile, caramelize the onions with the tablespoon of butter, about a half teaspoon of salt and a pinch of sugar, stirring occasionally over medium heat until golden brown (about 20 min).

Turn the oven up to 400. Mix cooled squash, onions, cheese, and sage together in a bowl. On a lightly-floured, ungreased baking pan (or on parchment paper), roll your dough out to about a 12-inch round. Spread your squash/veggie mixture over the round, leaving an inch border. Fold the edges over, crimping as you go.

Bake until golden brown, 30 to 40 minutes. Remove and sprinkle with a generous handful of pomegranate seeds, and garnish with a fresh sage leaf. Serves 6.

Friday, November 5, 2010

fall fruit at pickup


We are having so much fun with the CSA program. Today we scored 150 pounds of Fuyu persimmons, and 150 pounds of pomegranates from Rancho Santa Cecilia in Carpinteria. It's fun cos it's new. We didn't have fruit in the CSA this time last year.

Then someone posted a video link to our facebook page showing Martha Stewart smacking a pomegranate on the bottom with a right- no-left handed lady. Cracked up laughing at it.



I picked up from Underwood this morning. They never fail to deliver, and they are such nice people to work with.

On my way home from their farm, I meet Craig from Winnetka Farms and pick up the Italian salad greens he grows. I love this guy. He so knows his stuff. And he's a laugh and a joy to work with. We cannot stop talking and he keeps making me late for things.

Here's what we had at pickup today:

From Underwood:
Cauliflower
green butter lettuce
mizuna
french breakfast radish
broccoli
corn
spaghetti squash
Cherokee tomato

From Tierra Miguel Foundation:
biodynamically-grown, organic carrots, chard, basil and rhubarb

From Weiser Family Farm: heirloom spuds, tons of garlic, carrots

From Winnetka Farms: Italian salad greens

From Rancho Santa Cecilia in Carpinteria: pomegranates and persimmons

From Silver Lake Farms: "shier than mamma" arrrugula, and radish microgreens.


Recipes coming up next: I'm posting each one received from shareholders.

See you soon!

tara