CSA update
We're still a little behind on using some of the veggies, but the beautiful thing is how long everything is staying fresh. Tonight was taco night and I opted for a taco salad. I used some green leaf lettuce that I'd gotten on June 4th and it was looking better than any of the lettuce I'd encountered at the grocery store recently. It makes me wonder how old store lettuce really is. Tonight I randomly also roasted the beets I got last week and confirmed that I do in fact like beets, which is great news as I got more tonight. Right now the only things I have to finish using from the 6/11 pickup are scallions, basil and lettuce.
Last week we finally used the bok choy - also still looking and tasting fab despite being 2 weeks old. Fred made a freaking fantastic stir fry from a cooks illustrated/ America's test kitchen recipe (though we skipped the noodle cake and just made rice). The magical aspect of the recipe was the "velveting technique" for the chicken. Basically you made a slurry of 1 tbsp of flour, 1 tbsp of corn starch, and 2 tbsp of toasted sesame oil and coat the stir fry sized pieces of chicken in it before lightly browning them in a skillet for 1.5 minutes (total time for both sides combined). You finish up the cooking of the chicken at the end of the recipe after all the veggies have been cooked, and instead of the dry stringy chicken that often accompanies stir fry, you get this fantastic moist and delicious chicken. Definitely a lesson to apply in other recipes. Best part about it is without the CSA sending me home with bok choy, we might not have ever discovered the recipe.
From the June 11th crop - the strawberries and peas were fantastically yummy. Still on the fence on the swiss chard -I tried another new recipe that had been suggested but in the long run I think I've decided that I like the first recipe I tried best, so I'm going to try that again tomorrow for this week's crop. We made more roasted radishes last week - this time just sliced in half brushed with oil and cooked at 450 for 15 minutes. I think it is the winning recipe for them. They come out almost creamy. It really is lovely.
Just got today's crop but I've tasted a few of the cherries and yum!!! I don't expect they'll be lasting past tonight. I also got eggs this week, so I'm looking forward to tomorrow's breakfast and I suspect there will be a scallion and something quiche in my future.
I've been getting the veggies later in the day, so I had to use flash on a few of these...
Veggies week of June 11th - with flash
Swiss chard, beets, radishes, zucchini, basil, spring mix, snow pea pods, strawberries, scallions, lettuce
June 11th crop - no flash
swiss chard, beets, radishes, basil, zucchini
June 11th crop
basil, zucchini, strawberries, snow pea pods, spring mix, scallions, lettuce
Week of June 18th
Swiss Chard, beets, arugula, basil big scallions, spring mix, snow peas, garlic scapes, eggs and cherries
spring mix, snow peas, garlic scapes, eggs and cherries
Last week we finally used the bok choy - also still looking and tasting fab despite being 2 weeks old. Fred made a freaking fantastic stir fry from a cooks illustrated/ America's test kitchen recipe (though we skipped the noodle cake and just made rice). The magical aspect of the recipe was the "velveting technique" for the chicken. Basically you made a slurry of 1 tbsp of flour, 1 tbsp of corn starch, and 2 tbsp of toasted sesame oil and coat the stir fry sized pieces of chicken in it before lightly browning them in a skillet for 1.5 minutes (total time for both sides combined). You finish up the cooking of the chicken at the end of the recipe after all the veggies have been cooked, and instead of the dry stringy chicken that often accompanies stir fry, you get this fantastic moist and delicious chicken. Definitely a lesson to apply in other recipes. Best part about it is without the CSA sending me home with bok choy, we might not have ever discovered the recipe.
From the June 11th crop - the strawberries and peas were fantastically yummy. Still on the fence on the swiss chard -I tried another new recipe that had been suggested but in the long run I think I've decided that I like the first recipe I tried best, so I'm going to try that again tomorrow for this week's crop. We made more roasted radishes last week - this time just sliced in half brushed with oil and cooked at 450 for 15 minutes. I think it is the winning recipe for them. They come out almost creamy. It really is lovely.
Just got today's crop but I've tasted a few of the cherries and yum!!! I don't expect they'll be lasting past tonight. I also got eggs this week, so I'm looking forward to tomorrow's breakfast and I suspect there will be a scallion and something quiche in my future.
I've been getting the veggies later in the day, so I had to use flash on a few of these...
Veggies week of June 11th - with flash
Swiss chard, beets, radishes, zucchini, basil, spring mix, snow pea pods, strawberries, scallions, lettuce
June 11th crop - no flash
swiss chard, beets, radishes, basil, zucchini
June 11th crop
basil, zucchini, strawberries, snow pea pods, spring mix, scallions, lettuce
Week of June 18th
Swiss Chard, beets, arugula, basil big scallions, spring mix, snow peas, garlic scapes, eggs and cherries
spring mix, snow peas, garlic scapes, eggs and cherries