Summer Produce

CSA Box 6/21/2009

Here’s what I did with it:

Snap Peas: I shelled the fat ones to eat as peas and retained the pods for stock which is simmering right now. The slimmer pods were trimmed and bagged up for snacking. I even took a sandwich bag of them in my backpack last Monday. Oh yeah, I backpacked from Gettysburg to Harper’s Ferry from the 22nd-25th, but that’s another post.

Basil: I cleaned, chopped, bagged and froze this in 1/4 cup portions. It will go into spaghetti sauce for the most part. I just had pesto made from garlic scapes, and that did me on pesto for quite a while.

Lettuce: This was eaten in salads and on sandwiches. We’ve been putting lots of lettuce on sandwiches and wraps, but we still have lettuce left. I generally wash and prep it within 24 hours, and it seems to keep really well that way, so even though it’s a week old, it’s still looking healthy.

Spinach: There was some in with the lettuce, but not much. It looked a little mature, so I cleaned, chopped and froze it for future use. I actually eat braised greens at breakfast a few times a week instead of potatoes. I know it sounds nuts, but I started doing this when I was on Atkins years ago, and I still really like it. I take whatever grease is rendered from other breakfast items (usually from bacon or sausage, but sometimes I make them vegetarian with butter or the grease from Tino’s potatoes), add some onions (green or mature) and saute for a few minutes. I then add a tablespoon of apple cider vinegar and cover them for maybe a minute. They are good on their own or with sunny-side up eggs on top.

Turnips: I cleaned, chopped, bagged and froze the greens for later use, but some were just not really usable. We had turnips with dinner on the 21st, and we loved them, so now when Amanda puts out extra turnips, I take some! So far, I’ve been brushing them clean then boiling for 15 minutes. I drain, butter, salt and pepper. They really don’t need anything else. I know why all CSAs seem to grow turnips – these don’t bear any resemblance to the big tired and de-greened turnips sold in supermarkets. I use those in veggie pot pie in the winter, but their texture is no where near as nice as these and their flavor is far less subtle.

Scallions: I’m surprising myself with how much I like these. I’ve always been kind of “meh” on green onions. My favorite way to eat them is chopped up in Tamagoyaki.

Summer Squash: I made gluten-free “fried” zucchini out of them (though most of it was actually yellow squash) with a coating of olive oil, italian herbs, parmesan and rice flour. I baked them in the oven, and ate them with some ranch dressing. Tino is unenthusiastic about cooked squash, so I will cut some up raw for him to try this week. I did eat a few sticks of the yellow squash raw, and it was very nice and just a little sweet. The only reason I did these in the oven is that pan frying them is very messy, and the kitchen was freshly cleaned. There were tasty, but I should have put more grease into the jelly roll pan instead of just doing them on a Silpat. I kind of wish I had got more of them as they have very few calories and I like them cooked almost every way I’ve had them, and I also like them raw, as I already mentioned.

Radishes: I cleaned these up and I still have most of them. I’m going to try one today, but I just can’t figure out any way that makes me get excited about radishes. I love the texture and crunch, but the taste really leaves something to be desired. I saw a recipe for making oven chips out of them, and maybe I’ll try that. I love those mixed terra chips, and those are pretty weird stuff.

This weeks box (6/28/09) is very big, and I put a picture of it up on Flickr. I’ll talk about it more when I’ve used more stuff. I’ve already eaten some black raspberries, we had turnips and peas at dinner last night, and I used one of the scallions and a handful of curly endive at breakfast this morning.