Bialas Farms CSA: Week 10

Monday, September 1, 2014

This was another short week of cooking. My sister’s wedding was in Halifax, so I we left just a few days after I picked up my share. My freezer is full now that it’s received a Summer’s worth of pesto-packed ice cube trays, garlic scapes bagged in their raw state, and an arrangement of fully-cooked meals that would make a new mother swoon. So we ate some pretty big meals in an attempt to whittle down our Bialas Farms pile of goods, which included:

Green Beans
Garlic
Italian Eggplant
Fresh Dill
Parsley
Bok Choy
Kirby Cukes
Carrots
Spinach

Starting with this zucchini butter, which in fact contains no butter at all. I saw a gorgeous version posted on Local Haven’s website, and had to make it for myself.

I made Local Haven’s recipe almost to the letter, adding a little bit of lemon thyme to the zucchini while it was cooking. It does end up the consistency of butter, hence the name. It’s soft and spreadable, and perfect on lightly toasted focaccia. I topped mine with some of my abundant corn supply using my new technique of scoring and microwaving the ears, which you can read about in this post.

I made a ton of zucchini butter. Perhaps I was expecting a visit from the President and had anticipated that he would like zucchini butter. Having no clear indication about whether it would freeze well, I ended up incorporating the remaining butter into a great veggie-packed Bolognese sauce.

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CSA

Bialas Farms CSA: Week 8

Monday, August 18, 2014

We were supposed to entertain a few families at the lake last weekend, but after an emergency call to 911 to report smoke billowing from the house, we prudently canceled. Turns out that it was a faulty boiler, no cause for alarm, but with our house full of steam and smelling like antifreeze, we made plans to host another weekend. Leaving us with a truckload of food, and nobody but ourselves to eat it. Which isn’t such a bad thing, but my husband has cried uncle on the amount of food that I’ve been serving lately and has been an eyelash-width from starting a juice cleanse.

On Saturday morning, I headed out first thing to the Ringwood Farmer’s Market to pick up my weekly Bialas CSA box. After last week’s episode, I was relieved to find out that they’d run out of ghost peppers, although my box was supplied with a healthy dose of jalapeno peppers. I’ve learned my lesson though – these will stay far out of the kids’ curious hands and have been buried in the farthest reaches of my cooler. Likely to never be seen again. If you don’t see a jalapeno recipe for the next few weeks, please remind me to dig them out before they develop more white fur than Santa Claus.

Here’s what we received in this week’s box:

1. Bok choy
2. Jalapeños
3. Fresh leeks
4. Green beans
5. Fairy tale eggplant
6. Parsley
7. Strawberries*
8. Broccoli*
9. Turnips with greens
10. New potatoes
11. Cilantro
12. Indigo rose tomatoes*
13. Swiss chard
*purchased from Bialas Farms separately

Once back from the market, we started our Saturday with one of my now famously rich meals – breakfast tacos, which I made with some leftover sliced strip steak, cilantro, tomatoes, and a lime crema. My timing was way off, with Rodney nowhere to be found when the tacos were done. Thinking maybe I’d disrespected his plea for lighter meals, I searched the house, but apparently he’d already left to take the kids to the park. Leaving me to eat two of these things by myself and ruining my appetite for the rest of the day but one does not let breakfast tacos get cold, wither and die.

To make the breakfast tacos:

Whether you’re grilling from scratch, or using leftovers, all you need are a few slices of sautéed strip steak per taco. First start by heating a large cast iron pan over medium heat and adding three flour tortillas (I use fajita size). When one side is starting to brown, flip, and add a dollop of sour cream that’s been mixed with some lime juice & zest. Add the steak to the top of the cream, add a few chopped tomatoes, a fried egg, and some cilantro sprigs over the top. If you like things spicier, add some hot sauce.

Given that I had a mound of food to cook through, I knew that I had to get cracking early and cook as much as I could in order to freeze some meals. With the mound of turnip greens, and the leafy green chard, I figured that a braised dish could use both at once, along with the ham hock that had been taking up space in my freezer.

I found a tasty Southern-inspired recipe on Epicurious, and made it pretty much to the letter, swapping kohlrabi for the carrots and adding the bunch of Swiss chard to fill out the greens.

As you can imagine, my kids, not having grown up with Southern influences aside from cornbread, didn’t want to even be in the same room as the braised turnips.

They were much more interested in this activity: a make-your-own pizza bar using some locally-purchased flatbreads. What I didn’t tell them is that pizza-making lets me use up just about every leftover in the fridge, so kids, thank you.

The best part of the pizza bar? Grilling the pizzas…(yes, one has a bite out of it already)

Please excuse the blurry shot – I was surrounded by smoke and had three little helpers standing by. This was a Ninja-quick mission to get in and get out, hopefully with crispy pizzas and body parts intact.

Lauren made Rodney’s pizza, which resulted in a tower of tomatoes. “Why so much tomato?” he asked me, not knowing that he was in fact eating a masterpiece. To which I gave him a sideways neck jolt towards the little chef. Silenced.

My own pizza was base on a pizza that I grew up eating in Toronto at a restaurant called Il Fornello. In the 80s it was the place to go for Canada’s best imitation of Wolfgang Puck’s California Pizza Kitchen. I ordered pizza #11 from the menu every time – pesto, chicken, goat cheese, and eggplant. I tried to replicate the dish exactly, except that I didn’t have eggplant. But it was still delicious.

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Bialas Farms CSA: Week 7

Monday, August 11, 2014

Our CSA box #7 arrived, all to be cooked, photographed, documented, and presented in a post that I almost considered calling “scenes from a family table”…or “the gluttons”. Having two short weeks of cooking due to travel, I sorely missed the feel of a chef knife in my hand and the sound of onions frying on the stove. There is no place where I feel more at peace and secure than in the kitchen.

We’ve had fun together this summer. I’d venture to say that we’ve had more fun than we’ve ever had. Living at the lake has been a bonding experience for the family, giving us the opportunity to sit together, share meals, relax, talk, and enjoy an occasional sunset.

With busy school schedules, babysitting help, and long work hours, it hasn’t always been possible for us to eat our meals together. This summer we’ve not only grown closer as a family, but my kids have also become better eaters. For better or for worse, I’ll tell you why in a minute.

But first, this week’s box:

1. Carrots
2. Cucumbers
3. Ghost peppers*
4. Celery
5. Garlic
6. New potatoes
7. Fairytale eggplant
8. Red radishes
9. Kirby cucumbers*
10. Red onion
11. Yellow onion
12. Broccoli
13. Dill
* purchased separately

When I saw the weekly Bialas newsletter come out, I was ecstatic that fairytale eggplants were going to be delivered. I remember them from last year – small and beautifully mottled, without the seeds typical of larger varieties. I served this dish – a Greek-inspired plate of sautéed eggplant, ground beef, and tzatziki – 10 minutes after I arrived home from the market.

To make the sautéed beef & eggplant:

Start by making the tzatziki by mixing an 8-oz container of Greek yogurt with a squeeze of lemon juice, 1 small cucumber shredded and squeezed dry, ½ clove of grated garlic, and a handful of chopped dill. Season to taste.

Next, season and sauté in a medium pan some minced onion and 1 lb. of grass-fed beef, breaking up the beef until the onion is translucent and the beef is no longer pink. Transfer the beef to a plate, leaving the fat in the pan. If you’re using grass-fed beef, there won’t be a lot of fat; if using a fattier grind, drain some of the fat off, leaving 2-3 tablespoons. Slice 6-8 fairytale (or other) eggplants lengthwise, and sauté them in the remaining fat on medium-high heat until golden. Season to taste.

On a platter, pile the eggplants, then the ground beef, and finally the tzatziki.

Back to that “for better or for worse comment”, the rest of the veggies were still lying out as we were finishing lunch, and while I eating my last few bites of eggplant, my three little mice disappeared to go sampling the vegetables from the new box. Which generally wouldn’t be an issue, but this week they went straight for the ghost peppers, which on the Scoville heat index, are twice as spicy as a habanero. 30 minutes, a bucketful of tears, one frantic call to Poison Control, and two bowls of ice cream later, Sam and Emma were playing anew, unchanged except for a newfound appreciation for chili peppers.

I had to get the peppers out of harm’s way; my first use was a ghost pepper and rosemary-infused vodka (which presumably they won’t drink, but at this point, I’m not entirely certain)…

The rest of the ghost peppers went into batch #2 of the sweet and spicy fridge pickles that I told you about last week.

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Bialas Farms CSA: Week 2

Monday, July 7, 2014

We’re into week 2! We picked up our CSA box on Saturday and spent another great week cooking more vegetables than we can usually handle.

This week’s box had some new vegetables including broccoli rabe, and Adirondack blue potatoes. I should have kept some of them separate for our mystery food challenge since neither I, nor the kids, have tried them before. But they were so perfect for a July 4^th red, white and blue potato salad that I used them all in one fell swoop.

Given that we had a few families visiting the lake this weekend, I also loaded up on a few extras that weren’t in my box.

Here were the contents of Week 2’s box:

Green leaf lettuce
Italian parsley
Yukon Gold potatoes (from their regular farm stand)
Sugar snap peas
Garlic scapes
Bok choy
Red radishes
Adirondack blue potatoes
Sage plant
Swiss chard
Baby carrots
Broccoli rabe

*not pictured (in hiding?) were a boatload of English peas

Aside from the Bialas produce, I picked up some local strawberries and blueberries from another vendor at the Ringwood Farmer’s Market, The Orchards of Conklin, and a pork shoulder from Snoep Winkel Farm.

The kids have been pretty excited to pick up the box because it brings mealtime and playtime together. After I set out the vegetables and get them ready for washing & bagging, Lauren now asks me if she can do her own vegetable artwork. In theory I don’t have a problem with it, but it makes for a gigantic clean up effort. But if that’s what it takes to get the kids interested in eating their greens, I’m game.

One of the first things that the kids like to eat are the carrots. With the greens and peels intact. I’m a peeler myself, but the skins on these baby carrots are so thin, that they’re downright delicious straight from the ground with nothing but a quick wash.

This week, my first dish was a beet hummus, using some leftover beets from last week’s box, to serve as a dip for the radishes. To call this dip hummus is a bit of a stretch since it contains no tahini, and a fair amount of yogurt. But with its chickpeas and garlic, it’s about as close as Lauren will come to tasting true hummus given her sesame allergy. Potato potah-to, it’s still pretty fantastic, and I’ve included the recipe below.

To make the beet hummus:
Blitz a garlic clove in a food processor until minced.
To the processor, add a few roasted beets (roast the beets in foil at 350 degrees for an hour, let cool, and then slip from their skins), a 14-oz can of garbanzo beans, 14-oz can of butter beans and then pulse. With the motor running, add a ¼ cup of olive oil in a slow stream to emulsify. Add a 6-oz container of yogurt and a tablespoon of Harissa; blend to incorporate. Season with salt and pepper.
(Optional) Serve with a drizzle of olive oil, a sprinkling of Maldon salt, and/or chopped fresh herbs.

The hummus was also really great stuffed into a toasted pita with a basic tabbouleh which I made with our farm share parsley, a tomato, bulgur and some lemon juice + olive oil. Feeling like I was going with a Mediterranean vibe that day for lunch, I rounded things out with some green leaf lettuce topped with grilled calamari. We don’t do this every day, but we should. It took almost no time to prepare and was a great combination of healthy and delicious.

We had fun with our greens at lunch this week and opted one day for a pasta bar instead of our usual sandwiches. I was skeptical about whether this approach would encourage the kids to eat more veg, but was shocked when Sam layered broccoli rabe and blanched English peas over his pasta. On top of the mountain of bacon of course.

Lauren, my resident vegetable eater, just went for bacon and a splash of the pasta cooking water, which she referred to as “dishwater”. Appetizing. Feeling bad for my neglected vegetables, I loaded up on ricotta, heaps of English peas, mint, lemon zest and chili flakes and it was one of the best pastas I’ve had in a long time.

With the heat this week it was hard not to go crazy for cold things, so we made a lot of pops. Thinking that it might help entertain the kids this summer, I went hog wild on Amazon before we left the city, ordering a few different types of popsicle molds. The added benefit being that it gets the kids off of the neon ice pops from the A&P, and gives them some added nutrition.

These ring pops were one of their favorites – we pureed strawberries with some mint simple syrup and poured them into the molds. The best kind of accessory for beating the heat…

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CSA

Bialas Farms CSA: Week 1

Sunday, June 29, 2014

We’ve done it again! Against all odds, we decided to sign up for another year of CSA adventures, this year with Bialas Farms, which operates a farm in the black dirt region of the Hudson Valley.

Although it’s not our first year with a CSA, things will be different this Summer, given that I’m a) not pregnant and b) lucky enough to have more space to prep and store each week’s haul. We have (pinching myself) a brand new beverage fridge that we’ve installed in the basement, so taking the beer out of the crisper and the wine out of the top shelves has given us a few acres of storage space for vegetables.

My plan is to document each week’s box and some of the meals cooked from the produce received, at the very least in short form. If you want more details about what I did to prep or cook one of the dishes, just leave a comment on the post. This week’s post will likely be more detailed than the ones to come, since many of the recipes will be riffs on what I’ve done this week. That’s what I’m telling myself anyway. I know that once I start to get new vegetables, my brain will be spinning with new ideas which I’ll want to put to paper. If you see me doing this kind of detailed post every week, yell at me to get out from behind the computer and go enjoy my summer for crying out loud.

My first box was highly anticipated – by me, and potentially my kids, who have been listening to me yammer on about the damn box for weeks. And it was great to finally meet Kasha, the woman, the myth, the legend behind Bialas Farms, who grow some of the best produce in the region. Kasha also writes the blog The FarmGirl Cooks, and at my first pickup, gave me some recipe inspiration, which I’ll share with you below.

So let’s get on with it, here is the Bialas Farms CSA farm share, week 1:

Garlic scapes
Red leaf lettuce
Yukon gold potatoes
Tuscan kale
Green leaf lettuce
Red radishes
Bok choi
Sugar snap peas
Rainbow chard
Red beets and beet greens

As you may know by now, one of the kitchen strategies that I stick to without fail is my veg prep when I get home from the market. So my heart was palpitating ever so slightly when I was faced with the mountain of greens that I’d have to wash and bag. But the work moved quickly, and within the hour, I had all of my greens prepped, labeled and stored in the fridge.

But it really does save time in the long run, and keeps your greens fresh throughout the week until you can pick up your next box, so in my book, it’s worth the extra effort up front.

Now for the fun part. I couldn’t wait for my first dinner with my new veg, but first, it was snack time. I scrubbed and trimmed the bunch of radishes, and scooped some sour cream into a bowl – the perfect vehicle for the new finishing salts I picked up in Chelsea Market last week.

Even the kids loved the treat, with the super smoky Alderwood smoked salt as the runaway favorite. Their assessment of truffle salt: “disgusting”. They’ll learn the error of their ways…

And here is where our first dinner with our CSA box went off the rails – one beer led to another, next thing we knew it was time to watch the sunset with a bottle of rose in hand. Prepping dinner took a backseat, and it was 8:30PM cheese quesadillas for everyone, followed by smores. Not a green in sight. Bialas, we apologize.

But we made it up the next morning when I fried up some eggs and locally-made pork sausage patties for breakfast, and served it alongside a heaping pile of lightly-dressed kale.

To make kale salad: In a large bowl, whisk a tablespoon of Dijon mustard with a tablespoon of white wine vinegar and a splash of lemon juice. While whisking, add ¼ cup of extra virgin olive oil, and season with salt & pepper. Tear a few handfuls of kale greens right over the dressing, and toss to combine. Let the salad marinate for 30 mins to an hour before serving, tossing every so often, to let the kale soften and absorb the vinaigrette.

One of the best things about kale salad is that it can sit in the fridge overnight, in its dressing. Perfect for tucking under poached eggs on toasted Portuguese muffins.