Organic chem replaced organic veggies

It's not yummy and not fun, but it's true; organic chemistry took the place of our organic farm share.

During the last few weeks of the CSA I was so busy with my class that I composted more moldy radishes and yellowed, wilted collards than I care to admit. I also lost the opportunity to sign up for a winter share, which I was considering. Sigh! I did make a pot of delicious minestrone with almost all farm share veggies, which I brought to a friend's birthday potluck.

Oh, by the way, I noticed that there was an error in my minestrone recipe. It's not supposed to be an entire 32 ounce can of tomatoes - it should be about 1/2 a cup. Oops! Sorry if you followed it and your minestrone was too tomato-y and you didn't like it... Personally I prefer it with less tomatoes.

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Last week I went to Whole Foods with local on the mind and was able to buy the following: apples, collard greens, butternut squash. I know there must be Massachusetts-grown root vegetables for sale somewhere! Where are they?! (If you know, please tell me where I can buy them.) This makes me so mad about the systems in place!

Of course I also bought frozen salmon and shrimp, and all kinds of other non-local stuff. It's time for non-farm-share season survival mode. I do a lot of pantry cooking in the winter and frankly just buy less fresh vegetables.

There's also the issue of not having enough time to cook fresh food. But is that really true? Look at this article I came across.

I'll continue to share recipes post farm share when I can find the time - then before we know it, June will be here. Here's one I made last night - and in fact I was able to use one delicata squash left from the share. The ginger, garlic and curry are so warming - this is a great winter soup.

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Indian style butternut squash soup ~ adapted from How to Cook Everything Vegetarian by Mark Bittman

3 TBS butter (or oil if you'd like a vegan version)

1 small yellow onion, chopped

1 TBS garlic, minced

1 TBS ginger, minced

1 TBS curry powder

3 pounds butternut squash, pumpkin or other winter squash (I used one average sized butternut and one small delicata), peeled, seeded and chopped into 1-2 inch cubes

2 1/2 cups vegetable broth

2 1/2 cups water

1 cup coconut milk

cilantro for garnish

Warm the butter in a soup pot, on medium heat. Add the onion, garlic, ginger, curry and squash. Saute, stirring, for 5-10 minutes, until the onions begin to soften. Add some salt and freshly ground pepper to taste.

Add the broth and water. Bring to a boil, then reduce until the soup is bubbling gently, cover partially, and cook, stirring occasionally, for about 30 minutes or until the squash is falling apart.

Next, blend the soup using whatever method you can - we have a hand blender to put right into the pot. Finally, stir in the coconut milk. Taste and adjust seasoning.

Garnish with cilantro and enjoy.

White bean and squash soup

There are only a few weeks left in our farm share. I'm sad that our diet (and carbon footprint) is going to take a turn for the worse.

For these last couple bountiful weeks we've made soups as a way to use the veggies. Here's how I made a white bean and winter squash soup with sage and kale. This was easy, turned out great and made an excellent meal for a couple lunches and dinners. We had trouble getting a good up-close photo, as the soup always appears blurry and kind of gross. I think you get the idea here.

This was an easy soup to make and I adapted a recipe from Alice Waters' The Art of Simple Food. I love this cookbook.

The recipe calls for 1 medium butternut squash, but I used three small mystery squash from the share. I think one might've been acorn. They all had yellow-orange flesh. I also added the kale to the recipe, using a beautiful red one from the share.

winter squash, about the equivalent of 1 medium butternut squash, peeled and diced into 1/2 inch cubes

2 cans cannellini beans

3 cups vegetable broth, 4 cups water

2 TBS olive oil

2 onions, thinly sliced

3 or 4 sage leaves

1 bay leaf

1 bunch of kale, rinsed and chopped into bite-sized pieces

salt, fresh pepper

Waters' recipe calls for fresh beans cooked in a broth which is then used in the soup. Instead, I heated the canned beans (after rinsing) for about 5 minutes, in vegetable broth and water and saved this liquid. This time instead of using a carton of broth I used a sea salt and herb bouillion cube, which added great flavor.

In a soup pot, heat the sliced onions in the olive oil, along with the sage leaves and bay leaf. Cook the onions for about 15 minutes, stirring occasionally, until they're tender. Then stir in the squash and salt to taste. Cook for about 5 minutes, stirring a bit.

Next drain the warmed-up beans and save the cooking liquid. Add 6 cups of the liquid to the squash and onion mix. Simmer until the squash gets tender, about 15-20 minutes.

For the last few minutes of cooking stir in the beans and kale. Add more salt if necessary and fresh ground pepper to taste. Enjoy with a slice of hearty bread with butter.

Still CSA cookin'

I've been a very bad blogger. But I have been cooking despite the fact that I started organic chemistry class three weeks ago.

Quinoa salad with winter squash...

More quiche... (with the rainbow chard here, and see farm share broccoli steaming in top left)

Braised and glazed radishes and potatoes (yes, cooked radishes are good!)...

And potato leek soup. The recipe I used a couple weeks back was very easy and delicious. Here's how I did it, adapted from Bittman.

3/4 medium sized potatoes

3 leeks (or substitute in an onion or two)

1 cup shredded carrots (optional, nice to use up farm share ones)

olive oil

1 carton vegetable broth

salt and pepper

Scrub, peel and cube the potatoes. Finely slice the white and light green parts of the leek. Heat up a few tablespoons olive oil in a sauce pan or soup pot, on medium heat. When the oil is warm add the leeks. I like to cook them, stirring, until they're carmelizing. Then add the potatoes, along with salt and freshly ground pepper to taste.

I read the recipe wrong and instead of adding the broth at this point, I sauteed only the oil, leeks and potatoes for about 20 minutes, but I think this lent a nice flavor. Add in the broth, bring to a boil, then turn down to a simmer and cook until the potatoes are softened to your liking. I then used our hand blender to blend about half the soup, that is optional. Enjoy!

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The share has had an abundance of greens the last few weeks, which has been a challenge. But we've been able to easily enjoy delicious apples and plums.

Do you have easy ideas for greens? Collards, tat soi, rapini, etc. Pass them on!

Minestrone soup recipe

September is here and we're halfway through the farm share season. But we still have apples and pears and so much more to come! I'm both relieved and sad that the end is near.

This week's share: tat soi, beets, carrots, chard, garlic, leeks, lettuce, jalapeno peppers, green pepper, radish, potatoes, hakurei turnips, bok choi, cherry tomatoes and basil. Hmm...I've been spelling those turnips "harukei" instead of "hakurei".

Friday night we had salad for dinner, with green leaf lettuce, cherry tomatoes, fennel, turnips, radishes and carrots.

Unfortunately I had to toss a bunch of basil that I never got to. This was extra basil from unclaimed shares a week or two back, but it still pained me. This week's basil was brown by Saturday; we used what we could salvage for homemade pizza. If we get more this week, I'm blending it immediately!

Yesterday I made a big pot of minestrone soup, one of my favorites. It's a great recipe for farm share veggies this time of year. I combined my Aunt Christine's recipe, a very traditional Italian one that I've used many times, with Mark Bittman's (How to Cook Everything Vegetarian), who offers many variations on the vegetables used. I ended up using the following:

1 medium onion, chopped (not farm share)

4 small carrots, chopped

1 c. potatoes, chopped

1 c. turnips, chopped

1 c. zucchini (from friend's garden), chopped

1/2 head shredded napa cabbage, shredded

3 pieces of parmeggiano reggiano rind

1 32 oz. can whole peeled tomatoes (I recommend San Marzano), crushed

2 cups vegetable broth, 4 cups water

salt, fresh ground pepper

I didn't taste while cooking it, I think that's poor form. But I'll eat it for lunch today and report back (and hopefully get a good photo). Here's the recipe I used.

I followed the steps of my Aunt's recipe, which recommends that you add vegetables as you chop them. This way each vegetable cooks a couple minutes on its own before you add the next. The rinds of parmesan are optional but they add such amazing flavor that I never cook this without them. I usually toss them once the soup is done but Bittman says they're edible and delicious.

Heat 3 TBS oil on medium heat in a soup pot. When the oil is warm, add the onions. Cook them until turning translucent, but not browned, a few minutes. Meanwhile, chop the carrots and add them when the onions are ready. Repeat with the potatoes, turnips and zucchini. When you add the cabbage, let it cook longer than the others, about 6 minutes. Add salt and pepper.

Next add the cheese rind, tomatoes, broth and water. Let it come to a full boil, then reduce the heat to a medium boil. Let it cook for 2-3 hours, until it's a thick stew, with very little liquid at the top. Serve with more parmesan, freshly grated on top (optional) and a hunk of good bread.

Baby food

This past week's share was very green again. We got collards, rapini, tat soi, arugula, basil, lettuce, broccoli, cucumbers, fennel, shallots, onions, green peppers, potatoes, radish, hakurei turnips, parsley and tomatoes. Yikes.

My cousin flew into town with her eight month old on Thursday. We promptly ate the one tomato the best way I know how - a sandwich, with mayo, salt and pepper.

On Friday I blended up broccoli with a bit of water to make homemade baby food. (I blanched it first.) She didn't love it, but it was her very first time tasting broccoli, so you can't blame her or the vegetable.

I never got around to freezing the pesto starter but it was doing fine in the fridge. We had last minute dinner guests on Friday so we added the parmesan and pine nuts and voila, a light summer dinner for five, made in 12 minutes.

The tomatoes are not from the share - they were a gift from a friend's bountiful garden. We still have basil leaves in the fridge left from last week and I'm afraid to look at them. I have a feeling they're past their prime.

Saturday and Sunday were a bust for farm share cooking because we went to Northampton. It was hard enough just getting the baby stuff together, I completely forgot to bring veggies.

For lunch yesterday I was desperate to eat something from the share so I had a pesto vegetable sandwich. Pesto on both sides of the bread with sliced cucumbers, shredded carrots and radishes, and leaf lettuce. It needed some more flavor. Maybe a slice of cheese...

Last night I made stir fry yet again. Like I said, I'm trying to master this so I don't have to open my cookbook. Plus I was so tired that I didn't feel like experimenting. Hey, at least this time there are some different colors in there.

I put in onions, green pepper, hakurei turnips (from last week), carrots (from two weeks ago), rapini, tat soi, garlic, ginger and tofu. Like the last recipe I used peanut oil, sherry and soy sauce. Then I just realized this morning that I must've put arugula in there because it's in our share list this week and there was a third green that I put in not knowing what it was. Oops! Not the best use of arugula, which I love raw.

So it's Tuesday morning and we have the following left to deal with: collards, basil, lettuce, cucumbers, fennel, carrots, shallots, onions, potatoes, radish, hakurei turnips and parsley. Wish us luck!

Green stir fry

On Monday night I made a tofu stir fry again. This time I added in a bigger mix of greens from our crammed fridge: cabbage (from two weeks ago!), green beans (also two weeks old), tat soi and rapini, with onion (not from the share) and green pepper.

I'd never seen or heard of tat soi. It looks and tastes similar to spinach - a dark green leaf, round with a slight curliness to it, and it wilts down very small when cooked, like spinach.

In an effort to reduce farm share anxiety, I'm trying to intentionally make cooking a relaxing, stress-relieving activity after work. Music and a cold beer help!

Boston has been incredibly hot this week and we have no air conditioning. We'd like to make a quiche with the rest of the greens but we can't bring ourselves to turn the oven on at night. So while I made the stir fry, Charlie sauteed some greens and the leek to preserve them and we plan to bake them in a quiche some morning this week.

Last night I got through four more cups of basil by blending it with garlic and olive oil to freeze for pesto. Now I just have to find our pesto ice cube trays, which have disappeared into our big old-fashioned pantry. There's probably another six cups of basil in the fridge. What was I thinking taking all that extra basil? Never again.

It's already Wednesday again! Still in my fridge: cabbage, carrots, collards, harukei turnips, radishes.

Leafy greens

This week's share has an abundance of leafy greens: tat soi, broccoli raab (a.k.a rapini), collards, basil, carrots, lettuce, harukei turnips, summer squash, peppers, shallots, leeks. And, a couple shares were not picked up at our office and I couldn't help but take some extra basil.

Speaking of when someone neglects to pick up their share. I don't have the time to wrap up your vegetables and put them into the fridge for you and even if I did, there's no room in our office fridge. Then again, I feel awful letting the vegetables go bad. It sucks. Luckily this week we had a bunch of people in the office and I gave the vegetables to them. But other times they go to waste. Tisk, tisk.

Once again we had a challenging weekend for farm share cooking, travelling to Bucks County, PA for a family get-together at my mom and stepdad's home. We brought the basil, potatoes, leek, shallots, cilantro, parsley, carrots and radishes along. We ended up using only the potatoes, shallots, cilantro and parsley. The parsley made its way into my mom's amazing paella and the cilantro into Charlie's famous guacamole.

Charlie never made the bubble and squeak dish I mentioned, but we did make some delicious breakfast potatoes for Sunday brunch, using all the potatoes from the last two weeks and the shallots.

A comment on my brunch dish, where you'll see a piece of bacon. Nope, I'm not a vegetarian. I used to be just a fish and egg eater, now I eat meat about half a dozen times a year. Bacon from a local farm without hormones and other bad stuff is hard to resist!

The enormous basil bounty went all the way to PA and back to Boston and the leaves are still in wonderful shape. So last night I made more pesto - time to start freezing. I read that to freeze, you leave out the pine nuts and cheese and add it in after you thaw it. Good thing, because I'm out of those pricey ingredients.

And finally, how's this for leafy greens? A corner of my mother's beautiful garden.