From 12 o'clock: savoy cabbage, the best milk maybe ever, green beans, red raspberries, kind of mind blowingly good swiss cheese, kirby cucumbers, regular cucumbers, eggs, yellow summer squash, green zucchini, yellow zucchini, beets, broccoli crowns, blueberries, butter, cherries, tomatoes. Not shown is Yoni's chocolate milk. We also have yogurt from last time. We're gonna have some good eats these weeks.
Summer has officially arrived! ... ... ... OK, maybe there are like, 4 more days until it actually "officially" arrives, but we're close enough ... Anyway ... Yoni and I got half a farm share, but we are bestowed with great bounty a few times a month from our friendly neighborhood CSA. They are super nice and accommodating, but this week I got grumbly and wrote a letter that wasn't mean, but it wasn't as positive as I would have liked it to be. Fewer greens, I complained. More fruit! I insisted. Better cheese! I demanded. I fear I am always going to whine to them if this is their reaction. Farm share from heaven. It's like a produce rainbow. SO ... in gratitude and as penance, Imma start a little feature on the blog about how to use up all of the beautiful food that comes via your farm share or CSA.
DAY 1
RASCHERRY SYRUP CHERRIES, RASPBERRIES, LEMON JUICE, SUGAR ... I plan to throw the extra cherries and raspberries (the ones I don't eat with my yogurt, that is) in a little sauce pan with some lemon juice and bring it to a simmer. I'll add sweetness -- either sugar or agave or maybe I'll wait til it cools down and add Stevia so it's lower calorie -- for a nice RasCherry syrup. How much sugar? Add it to taste. I like things sour, so I'll probably add a table spoon or two of sweetener for every cup of berries I use. You can use this in lemonade, on pancakes, yogurt, ice cream, ice cones, in sodas and cocktails (or in my case, mocktails).
DAY 2
Tonight ... Yoni and I ate most of the cherries. They were delicious and sweet (more than tart) and needed no embellishment. Berries are like that. Little jewels on the stem and in your mouth. But eat them fast or they'll ... errr ... change color?
DAY 3
BRAISED SAVOY CABBAGE GRATIN -- BUTTER or OLIVE OIL, SAVOY CABBAGE, VEGETABLE BROTH, SOFT CHEESE LIKE BRIE OR ST. MARCELLIN I had grand plans for a slaw -- I love slaw -- but Yoni really wanted to braise last night. Why in crazy heat, I don't know but it was actually delicious. He used this recipe from All About Braising by Molly Stevens. Yoni swears by her recipes and rightfully so. Every time he makes one, they are amazing.
DAY 4
MEDITERRANEAN MELON SALAD -- TOMATO, CRENSHAW MELON, CUCUMBER, FETA, KALMATA OLIVES, I sliced up one of the tomatoes, one of the cucumbers and a mellon I had left over. I tossed them with some feta cheese and kalmata olives. Somehow the similar textures of the mellon, tomato and cucumber allowed the flavors to really sing. I love to sing.
DAY 5
YELLOW SQUASH SUCCOTASH -- SQUASH, ONION, CORN, BUTTER, Everyone near a garden needs a go-to squash recipe that never fails and that uses a lot of the stuff. This is EASY, delicious and almost impossible to mess up. You can use zucchini, ten commandment squash, yellow squash, white squash, even butternut squash or pumpkin, though summer squash really shines with this one. It works for company, just make sure to brown the butter before adding the onions and squash. It will ensure that the pan is hot enough to get a nice sautee on the veggies and it will make your life more delicious. Last night, I make a succotash with the yellow zucchini, yellow squash, ten commandment squash and an onion. Brown the butter. Add a diced onion. Add the cubed squash. Add salt and pepper to taste. I served it over grits prepared with veggie broth and finished off with a half cup of whole milk and some of the pioneer cheddar from last share. It was so delicious. You should all make this.
DAY 6
SOURDOUGH WITH SALT AND PEPPER RICOTTA AND GREEN BEANS the name is pretty self explanatory. Take bread. Spread on cheese (chevre and cream cheese work too). Sprinkle with salt and petter. Top generously with beans. With thicker beans like this, give them a quick blanch but with french green beans, there is no need to blanch them. They're fine raw.
DAY 7
PASTA CARBONARA VERDI, INGREDIENTS: WHOLE WHEAT PASTA, BUTTER, CHILI FLAKES, CRUMBLED PARMESAN CHEESE, SALT this has become my go-to dish for greens of all sorts. it works with beet greens, mustard greens, broccolini, broccoli, arugula, kale, radish greens -- essentially the sharper and spicier the green the better. You can also mix your greens in this. I've used as many as four different green leafy things at a time in one pasta dish. They set off the richness of the egg yolk and the browned butter, balancing the whole grain pasta beautifully. Make whole grain pasta -- preferably capellini or thin spaghetti. Meanwhile, wash and either slice broccoli in long thin strips or chiffonade (there's a link on that word) your leafy greens. Place greens back in colander. When the pasta is done, reserve a little water and dump pasta into colander with green veggies. This should give the greens a nice blanch. Put a lob of butter -- think 2 tbp to 1 tbsp per serving -- into the pasta pot along with a hefty pinch of red chili flakes. As butter becomes aromatic and brown, dump pasta and greens back into the put with a few pinches of salt. Toss until everything is coated in brown butter. Add a generous amount of parmesan. You can stop there and have a delicious dish, but I have all of these farm fresh eggs that are amazing. If you fry one (you could poach it too), the yolk will act as a sauce if you leave it loose. It is so good and rich. We eat this way too much just because its that delicious. You should eat it too.
BLUEBERRIES i ate them just like the Good Lord made them. They were delicious. So delicious.
If there are veggies you're having a hard time figuring out (beet greens, radish greens, any greens) tell us and we'll try to figure something out for you. If you have any amazing ways to use your beautiful summer produce, let us know so we can pass it on!