Who says I actually need to cook the thing before I suggest it to anyone else?
The forecast for this weekend is for weather close to 90, and we've got enough other stuff to do in the house that now is not the best time to heat up the kitchen. But I just read this idea in our CSA newsletter and thought "aha!" So I'm passing it on.
The brilliant insight: Instead of trying to freeze zucchini, freeze things you alredy cooked with the zucchini. Zucchini bread was at the top of their list.
No recipe, because I don't know that I'd use the one in the newsletter. Use your favorite, with nuts or chocolate or raisins to make the a bit sweet. Or ask a friend!
Saturday, July 3, 2010
Thursday, July 1, 2010
Market Analysis: Week 4
giant head of Chinese Cabbage: $3
Hakurei Turnips: $2.50
2 lbs zucchini ($2/lb) : $4
bunch of baby beets & greens: $3
Scallions: $2
Arugula: $2.50
Head Lettuce: $2.50
Green Kale: $2.50
bonus: a few sprigs of dill
Total: $22.00, back above the weekly cost, by a hair.
To go along with my "market analysis", a quick note on "inventory management"...
We spent a few days out of town since picking up the last share, and didn't cook quite as much. In preparation for this one arriving I made stir fried noodles yesterday with some of last week's chinese cabbage, bok choy, leftover noodles, and turnips. I also steamed the kale and the turnip greens and froze them. So in addition to this week's sharem our fridge already contained a little bit of lettuce, half a Chinese Cabbage, a few turnips, half the bok choy, and a few garlic scapes.
Not enough to be a huge challenge to use up while it's good, I hope.
Hakurei Turnips: $2.50
2 lbs zucchini ($2/lb) : $4
bunch of baby beets & greens: $3
Scallions: $2
Arugula: $2.50
Head Lettuce: $2.50
Green Kale: $2.50
bonus: a few sprigs of dill
Total: $22.00, back above the weekly cost, by a hair.
To go along with my "market analysis", a quick note on "inventory management"...
We spent a few days out of town since picking up the last share, and didn't cook quite as much. In preparation for this one arriving I made stir fried noodles yesterday with some of last week's chinese cabbage, bok choy, leftover noodles, and turnips. I also steamed the kale and the turnip greens and froze them. So in addition to this week's sharem our fridge already contained a little bit of lettuce, half a Chinese Cabbage, a few turnips, half the bok choy, and a few garlic scapes.
Not enough to be a huge challenge to use up while it's good, I hope.
Market Analysis: Week 3
The week 4 box is on its way to Boston, but I never wrote about Week 3, so here you go.
My box contained:
1 GIANT head of napa cabbage - I've got to guess on this one, $3
1 head of lettuce - $2.50 at this week's market
1 head of kale - $2.50 at this week's market
2 zucchini, about 1 lb - $1 at this week's market
1 large bunch bok choy - $2.50 at this week's market
1 head hakurei turnips with greens - $2.50 at this week's market
1 small bunch garlic scapes - about $3 worth
This week's total: $17, less the $21.25/week cost of my share. I'm a bit surprised. Before I started adding up the total of what's in my box, I would have expected that the first month or so would be less than the cost of my share per week, but would quickly catch up. Instead, the first 2 weeks just about broke even and the third week was a little light on value at the farmers market (though as the farmers said, it's getting heavier on weight!) My guess is that at the beginning the farmers' markets are actually charging a bit more of a premium for what they've got for sale. Also, we got a pretty long list of greens and that's mellowed out as we're getting some more dense items like the bok choy and the Napa cabbage.
Will the trend go up, or down, in week 4? Stay tuned, the truck is already on its way here...
My box contained:
1 GIANT head of napa cabbage - I've got to guess on this one, $3
1 head of lettuce - $2.50 at this week's market
1 head of kale - $2.50 at this week's market
2 zucchini, about 1 lb - $1 at this week's market
1 large bunch bok choy - $2.50 at this week's market
1 head hakurei turnips with greens - $2.50 at this week's market
1 small bunch garlic scapes - about $3 worth
This week's total: $17, less the $21.25/week cost of my share. I'm a bit surprised. Before I started adding up the total of what's in my box, I would have expected that the first month or so would be less than the cost of my share per week, but would quickly catch up. Instead, the first 2 weeks just about broke even and the third week was a little light on value at the farmers market (though as the farmers said, it's getting heavier on weight!) My guess is that at the beginning the farmers' markets are actually charging a bit more of a premium for what they've got for sale. Also, we got a pretty long list of greens and that's mellowed out as we're getting some more dense items like the bok choy and the Napa cabbage.
Will the trend go up, or down, in week 4? Stay tuned, the truck is already on its way here...
Wednesday, June 30, 2010
Scallion Pancakes
Scallion season is here! We cook scallions in just about everything, but I'm also trying to be in squirrel mode all summer long instead of just in the fall this year.
Here's my favorite way to save fresh scallions for later: frozen scallion pancakes.
The dough is easy to make, I'll get plenty of scallion goodness when I use them later, and our household's resident picky eater loves them.
Plus, once they're in the freezer it's very easy to pull out one or two and fry them up, making it possible to make a simple Chinese-style meal at home *and* a favorite appetizer. Meanwhile we're cooking our own healthy vegetables instead of paying someone else to deliver theirs.
I borrowed the recipe from Ming Tsai, but I've included it here with my way of creating the pancakes and freezing them.
Ingredients
* 2 cups all purpose flour
* 1 cup hot water (I boil it in the microwave)
* 1/2 cup sliced scallions
* 1 tablespoon sesame oil
* 1/2 cup canola oil
* Salt and black pepper to taste
* 1/2 cup ginger dipping sauce, recipe to follow
Directions
Measure flour into a bowl, then make a dough by adding the hot water while mixing with a wooden spoon. Mix/knead (be careful, the dough will be hot!) until dough forms a ball.
On a floured surface, roll out dough into a 1/2" thick rectangle. Brush on oil mixture, cover with scallion and season with salt and pepper. Carefully roll dough into a log, rolling the scallion inside. Cut into 4 pieces.
Flatten each piece, fold over again once or twice, then shape into a ball and form a pancake about 1/4" to 1/2" thick. Place pancake on wax paper and continue stacking pancakes with wax paper between. Freeze pancakes. (I made a double batch and cooked about 1/2 the first batch the same day, and froze the rest.)
Cooking
To cook pancakes, in a hot non-stick pan, coat with canola oil and pan sear both sides until golden brown. Cut into wedges and serve immediately with dipping sauce of your choice.
Here's my favorite way to save fresh scallions for later: frozen scallion pancakes.
The dough is easy to make, I'll get plenty of scallion goodness when I use them later, and our household's resident picky eater loves them.
Plus, once they're in the freezer it's very easy to pull out one or two and fry them up, making it possible to make a simple Chinese-style meal at home *and* a favorite appetizer. Meanwhile we're cooking our own healthy vegetables instead of paying someone else to deliver theirs.
I borrowed the recipe from Ming Tsai, but I've included it here with my way of creating the pancakes and freezing them.
Ingredients
* 2 cups all purpose flour
* 1 cup hot water (I boil it in the microwave)
* 1/2 cup sliced scallions
* 1 tablespoon sesame oil
* 1/2 cup canola oil
* Salt and black pepper to taste
* 1/2 cup ginger dipping sauce, recipe to follow
Directions
Measure flour into a bowl, then make a dough by adding the hot water while mixing with a wooden spoon. Mix/knead (be careful, the dough will be hot!) until dough forms a ball.
On a floured surface, roll out dough into a 1/2" thick rectangle. Brush on oil mixture, cover with scallion and season with salt and pepper. Carefully roll dough into a log, rolling the scallion inside. Cut into 4 pieces.
Flatten each piece, fold over again once or twice, then shape into a ball and form a pancake about 1/4" to 1/2" thick. Place pancake on wax paper and continue stacking pancakes with wax paper between. Freeze pancakes. (I made a double batch and cooked about 1/2 the first batch the same day, and froze the rest.)
Cooking
To cook pancakes, in a hot non-stick pan, coat with canola oil and pan sear both sides until golden brown. Cut into wedges and serve immediately with dipping sauce of your choice.
Thursday, June 24, 2010
Sharing a Share!
Has all this talk about community supported agriculture and farmshare boxes got you thinking about trying it out?
I'm an enthusiastic CSA customer - of meat, vegetables, fish, and fruit so far (though we're skipping the fish this season) but lest you think that I'm some kind of crazy person I should mention that I've tried out all of these CSAs by sharing them with someone else at first. And added each one in gradually.
My very first season with Brookfield Farm, I think we signed up to take home a third of someone else's box - giving us a chance to choose those vegetables we thought would get eaten in our household, and to take home an amount small enough to feel managable and to adjust to how to plan my meals around which vegetables are arriving in the box that week. Hate brussels sprouts? (What's wrong with you?) Your share may be happy to take extra. Love rutabagas? You can probably bargain with you share partner to take them all home. You might want to find a partner who doesn't love and hate all the exact same things as you so that the splitting has two winners instead of a winner and a loser.
With our CSA, we moved up to half a share for a year or two, and then a full share's worth because eventually I felt confident that I wanted to cook and eat it all, and I couldn't stand seeing all that good stuff in the box and only taking half of it home. We still share our meat CSA - though in the end I take home a quantity that's about as much as having one small share, we save a bit more money per pound and get a bit more selection by having one extra-large share to divide up. I signed up for the fish share myself because it seemed like a lot of time-sensitive work to divide up a whole fish each week, and my eyes were a bit bigger than my stomach - though I did adapt eventually and we didn't waste much fish. Next time we do it, though, I've realized the best way to share it would be just to alternate weeks - one week I'd get a whole fish, the next week the next person would.
Even though the season has started by now, it may not be too late to find a friend who has a share and has decided that it's a bit more than they want to cook and eat each week. Keep your ears open and join us in cooking fabulous sustainably raised local food!
I'm an enthusiastic CSA customer - of meat, vegetables, fish, and fruit so far (though we're skipping the fish this season) but lest you think that I'm some kind of crazy person I should mention that I've tried out all of these CSAs by sharing them with someone else at first. And added each one in gradually.
My very first season with Brookfield Farm, I think we signed up to take home a third of someone else's box - giving us a chance to choose those vegetables we thought would get eaten in our household, and to take home an amount small enough to feel managable and to adjust to how to plan my meals around which vegetables are arriving in the box that week. Hate brussels sprouts? (What's wrong with you?) Your share may be happy to take extra. Love rutabagas? You can probably bargain with you share partner to take them all home. You might want to find a partner who doesn't love and hate all the exact same things as you so that the splitting has two winners instead of a winner and a loser.
With our CSA, we moved up to half a share for a year or two, and then a full share's worth because eventually I felt confident that I wanted to cook and eat it all, and I couldn't stand seeing all that good stuff in the box and only taking half of it home. We still share our meat CSA - though in the end I take home a quantity that's about as much as having one small share, we save a bit more money per pound and get a bit more selection by having one extra-large share to divide up. I signed up for the fish share myself because it seemed like a lot of time-sensitive work to divide up a whole fish each week, and my eyes were a bit bigger than my stomach - though I did adapt eventually and we didn't waste much fish. Next time we do it, though, I've realized the best way to share it would be just to alternate weeks - one week I'd get a whole fish, the next week the next person would.
Even though the season has started by now, it may not be too late to find a friend who has a share and has decided that it's a bit more than they want to cook and eat each week. Keep your ears open and join us in cooking fabulous sustainably raised local food!
Wednesday, June 23, 2010
Keep it Simple
One thing I've learned as farm season starts to ramp up is that it's easier to keep up if I keep my meals simple. The vegetables don't need elaborate preparations to taste good when they're this good to begin with (and that's a relief when it's over 80 degrees in the kitchen, too!)
So with the many cooking greens we've gotten in the past 2 weeks - mixed baby braising greens, tat soi, komatsuna, swiss chard, collards, turnip and radish greens - the first step I've taken is generally to sautee, boil, steam, or blanch.
Sautee
Two-thirds of the komatsuna got put away after sauteeing and eaten just like that.
The other third went into a quick grain salad - brown rice, komatsuna, raw scallions, and frozen corn from last year with a dressing of oil rice vinegar and a splash of soy. Grain salads are one of my go-to sides in summer - just mix some likely suspects including cooked greens up with something crunchy or chewy and sweet and some grains cooked in the rice cooker.
Boil
The swiss chard went into our favorite simple dish from the Croatian coast - chard and potatoes. ( Cook peeled potato slices in salted water, when they're close to done add the chard, then drain when the potatoes are cooked, mix, and season with olive oil and more salt.)
Steam
The braising greens got steamed in the microwave and sent to be part of a school lunch, and the remainder went into some scrambled eggs with greens.
Blanch
The tat soi, which I love, but was looking like I might not get to while it was still in good shape, got blanched and frozen so I can love it when the season's ending too. I pulled a little bit out before I was steaming to go in some fried rice while it was cool enough to cook last night.
One place I violated "keep it simple" was the turnip greens - which I steamed, then incorporated into a pasta dough. It was healthy and fresh, but such a pain to work with - the greens made the dough wet and sticky and I didn't get them dry enough first. I actually stopped when I'd made what looked like enough for dinner and still had some dough left over, which we experimentally made into some firm gnocchi a few days later. I won't rule this idea out entirely, but next time I won't try to pretend pasta making is simple just because sometimes I can pull it off without seeming like a Project.
So with the many cooking greens we've gotten in the past 2 weeks - mixed baby braising greens, tat soi, komatsuna, swiss chard, collards, turnip and radish greens - the first step I've taken is generally to sautee, boil, steam, or blanch.
Sautee
Two-thirds of the komatsuna got put away after sauteeing and eaten just like that.
The other third went into a quick grain salad - brown rice, komatsuna, raw scallions, and frozen corn from last year with a dressing of oil rice vinegar and a splash of soy. Grain salads are one of my go-to sides in summer - just mix some likely suspects including cooked greens up with something crunchy or chewy and sweet and some grains cooked in the rice cooker.
Boil
The swiss chard went into our favorite simple dish from the Croatian coast - chard and potatoes. ( Cook peeled potato slices in salted water, when they're close to done add the chard, then drain when the potatoes are cooked, mix, and season with olive oil and more salt.)
Steam
The braising greens got steamed in the microwave and sent to be part of a school lunch, and the remainder went into some scrambled eggs with greens.
Blanch
The tat soi, which I love, but was looking like I might not get to while it was still in good shape, got blanched and frozen so I can love it when the season's ending too. I pulled a little bit out before I was steaming to go in some fried rice while it was cool enough to cook last night.
One place I violated "keep it simple" was the turnip greens - which I steamed, then incorporated into a pasta dough. It was healthy and fresh, but such a pain to work with - the greens made the dough wet and sticky and I didn't get them dry enough first. I actually stopped when I'd made what looked like enough for dinner and still had some dough left over, which we experimentally made into some firm gnocchi a few days later. I won't rule this idea out entirely, but next time I won't try to pretend pasta making is simple just because sometimes I can pull it off without seeming like a Project.
Thursday, June 17, 2010
Market Analysis week 2
It's already starting to look like a lovely bounty in there! I only went to one farmers market this week (and only bought garlic scapes so I'd be sure to have enough to make scape pesto even though I knew there'd be some in our share, and fresh shallots because I couldn't resist... er, and some fruit too.) I noted the prices of radishes, turnips, scapes, and bunches of pretty much any green thing that could come in bunches (all $2 a bunch). A few things in our box weren't actually available at the market this week though so I followed these observations and made a few guesses.
1 bunch radishes ($2)
1 bunch Hakurei turnips ($2)
1 small bag of garlic scapes ($3)
1 large bunch baby bok choy ($2)
1 bunch arugula ($2)
2 tiny zucchini - I saw none at the farmers market, but they're tiny, call it 50c worth.
1 bag washed cutting lettuce ($3)
1 bag washed tatsoi ($3 pending more any more specific tat soi info)
1 head romaine ($2)
1 bunch collard greens ($2)
total market value of my box this week: $21.50, officially ahead of the farmer's market prices on week #2!
.
1 bunch radishes ($2)
1 bunch Hakurei turnips ($2)
1 small bag of garlic scapes ($3)
1 large bunch baby bok choy ($2)
1 bunch arugula ($2)
2 tiny zucchini - I saw none at the farmers market, but they're tiny, call it 50c worth.
1 bag washed cutting lettuce ($3)
1 bag washed tatsoi ($3 pending more any more specific tat soi info)
1 head romaine ($2)
1 bunch collard greens ($2)
total market value of my box this week: $21.50, officially ahead of the farmer's market prices on week #2!
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