Greek potatoes with vegetation

We started with this recipe and made:

Ingredients

1 Tbsp. olive oil
A bunch of leeks, cut into slices
1-1/4 lb. small red potatoes, quartered
salt and pepper
A bunch of Swiss chard, cut up
6 oz curly endive leaves, torn
Some Greek oregano
leaves from 2 mint sprigs, torn
good squeeze of lemon juice
2 packets of powdered lemon
2 garlic cloves, diced
1 cup Greek yogurt

Instructions

1. Put the oil into a heavy saucepan and add the leeks and potatoes. Season, add a splash of water, cover and sweat for 20 minutes. Add a bit of water every so often and stir.

2. Once the potatoes are almost tender, add the chard, garlic, and endive. Add another splash of water, season, cover and cook until the leaves have wilted—about 4-5 minutes.

3. Stir in the herbs, yogurt, and lemon stuff.

We had it with lemon salmon, which was tasty. I liked it with all the different flavors; Clay thought it was okay.

We started making an Emeril recipe and ended up with homemade Hamburger Helper

We started with this recipe by Emeril Lagasse but of course diverged in the name of using stuff around the house. Our ingredient list was more like this:

1/2 pound cooked elbow macaroni
1 teaspoon olive oil
2 medium onions, cut into small dice (about 2 cups)
2 cups red bell pepper, seeded and chopped
1/2 teaspoon salt, plus more for the pasta water
1 1/2 teaspoons freshly ground black pepper
1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper
1 1/2 pounds sausage without casings, compensate with Italian seasoning if not Italian
4 garlic scapes
1 giant head of escarole, cut into bite-size pieces
1 head of curly endive, cut the same
1 jar of cheesy tomato sauce

The short version of the instructions: While you're cooking the pasta, cook the aromatics down. Add the sausage and break it up as cooks. Add the greenery and remainder of the seasonings. When those are cooked add the pasta and sauce, then make sure everything is cooked through.

To see the finished product you'd never guess the huge amounts of greenery that went into the pot. And despite using half the pasta I would say that you could get away with even less.

Stoneledge Farm CSA Week 4

Escarole and White Bean Soup

To use up the escarole we tried this recipe from Food Network: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/giada-de-laurentiis/escarole-and-bean-soup-recipe.html

It's a good soup have along with something strongly flavored. Clay made a white bean spread that was rather spicy, and we had that on bread with the soup.

Stoneledge Farm CSA Week 3

Bonito flakes: they're not just for cats

Boil together for a little while:
1 seafood udon seasoning packet
4 cups water (instead of 2)
A bunch of bonito flakes
Salt

Drop heat, add, cook until almost done:
5 cabbage that is an awful lot like bok choy leaves, cut into strips
8ish crimini mushrooms, cut into slices

Return to a boil, add your udon, and cook as directed (2 minutes for me). Serve!

Bok choy, mushroom, and chicken... stuff

 

I don't know what to call this. It's remarkable how often that happens when I sit down to post something I/we made with random stuff out of the fridge. In this case it's mushrooms (not from the CSA), bok choy, and chicken thighs cooked with black bean garlic sauce, Szechwan pepper, aged vinegar, soy sauce, and a great deal of garlic-ginger paste. There's probably some stuff I missed, too.

 

I'm not sure what this green stuff is, but I bet it will be good with bacon.

 

I had no idea what to do with the mizuna, so I cooked it with a bunch of other stuff and put it on a hot dog. My logic was that if you cook something with bacon it will be good, and if you put greens on a hot dog it's healthy. Look at me eating healthy food!

 

I actually made two batches, both with the same ingredients (read as: stuff out of the fridge that needed to be used). The first batch of mizuna stuff made enough stuff for two dogs but had too much citrus in it, so the second, adjusted batch of mizuna stuff turned out better. That one contained two slices of bacon cut into small pieces, four sliced cloves of garlic, four Japanese kumquats cut into small pieces, a little salt, and some adobo cooked for a bit on the stove in maybe a teaspoon of canola oil. After the garlic was cooked I added the cut up mizuna and some of the Greek oregano from the CSA. All of that wilted together and cooked down until it was done (I don't have more precise instructions than that). Voila.

Stoneledge Farm CSA Week 2

Kale and Kohl Rabi Salad

When I picked up our first week of veggies the CSA folks had very thoughtfully provided prints of a couple recipes, so it was really easy to come home and make something immediately. The provided recipe was this one from Epicurious which we modified for available ingredients and efficiency, as always.
 

Ingredients
 

2 Tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
5 garlic cloves, finely chopped
1 bunch kale, stems and center ribs discarded, then finely chopped
2 kohlrabi bulbs, peeled and finely sliced
4 Japanese kumquats, finely sliced
1-2 tablespoons fresh lime juice
1/3 cup salted roasted pistachios, chopped
4 button mushrooms, sliced
 

Preparation
 

Heat oil in a 12-inch heavy skillet over medium-high heat until it shimmers. Sauté garlic until pale golden, about 30 seconds. Add kale; when wilted sauté with 1/2 teaspoon salt until just tender, about 3 minutes. Transfer to a bowl to cool. When room temperature stir in remaining ingredients plus 1/2 teaspoon each of salt and pepper. Serve.
 

(Might be good with some chili flakes or other spicey addition.)

Stoneledge CSA week 1