Fish Tacos!

So we got all these tomatillos this week. And it turns out when you try to google "tomatillo recipes" all you get is... salsa. (Though to be fair, last week we made a rockin' tomatillo Indian chutney.) But in any event, we were psyched about the chance to try it out on fish tacos.

Yes, that's right, what you are about to see is 'just a Thursday night dinner.' *brag*

(1) Grill fish: Buy cheap white fish. (Not too cheap... food poisoning = waste of tomatillos.) Coat in olive oil, salt and pepper. Ideally grill on outdoor BBQ, but if you have any sort of grill pan for indoor cooking Small-NYC-Apartment style, that's delicious, too.

(2) Make salsa: Hoorah, Mark Bittman! I was initially thrown off that this recipe didn't involve blending, but it was totally right to keep things chunky. Gave the final product much more oomph. In summary: chop of tomatillos, garlic, onion, some sort of spicy pepper, cilantro; add cayenne, salt, lime.

(3) Make corn: Corn is good. Corn with spicy mayo and salt is better. (And healthier!) Combo'ed a few tbsp mayo with lime juice, cayenne and grated cheese. (Didn't have the fancy crumbly mexican cheese.)

(4) Make lettuce: Ummm... wash it. This will be the 'taco' (WARNING: actually healthy). Suggestion courtesy of Young Rhee.

(5) Eat fish in lettuce with sour cream and salsa. Side of corn. Bring many napkins. Reward self for healthy dinner with ice cream.

I'M BACK!

Yes, I know, you've all been checking the blog daily wondering, where did Annie go? Has she stopped eating? Is she on a hunger strike? No, nothing that exciting. Have been studying for the internal medicine board exams (blech), but kept taking pics of the foods we were making over the last two weeks. Here's a quick sample (and more to come now that I don't have to take another standardized test for ten years):

(1) Pizza with baby tomatoes, fresh basil, asparagus-tomato sauce, mozzarella and garlic. Not much of a recipe to write for that one.

(2) Santosh's Tomato Peach Salad. Bring water to a boil, and drop tomatoes and peaches in for a few seconds until skin splits. Take them out of hot water, put into ice bath, peel, chop up. Combo with feta, olive oil, balsamic vinegar, salt, pepper.

(3) Indian cabbage and potatoes.

Heat veggie oil with various Indian spices (mustard seeds, cumin, urad daal = a type of lentil) until the spices start to pop, then turn down heat. Add chopped onions and cubed potatoes (peeled, but not yet cooked) and cook on low heat, turning frequently. Sprinkle with salt, turmeric and chili powder (sparingly). When potatoes are starting to brown, add cabbage. Adjust spices as needed. (These reheated the next day really well).

(4) Cleaning out the Fridge Plus Pesto. This was me panicking because of all the stuff that hadto be eaten before we went out of town for the weekend. Made some pesto with basil and walnuts (see Emily's awesome prior post) andput on toast with melted mozzarella. Cut up fancy cucumbers, fancy carrots, fancy pale green peppers. (Omg we had purple peppers last week. They tasted like... green peppers.) Dip veggies in yogurt / garlic / dill sauce (not pictured because wasn't pretty).

(5) Mac and Cheese with Swiss Chard. YUM. (As evidenced by picture, which I didn't remember to take until we had inhaled the entire dish.) From Bon Appetit, of course.

6 tablespoons (3/4 stick) butter, divided

1 cup chopped onion

2 garlic cloves, minced

1/4 cup unbleached all purpose flour

3 cups reduced-fat (2%) milk

2 cups (packed) coarsely grated aged Gouda cheese plus 1/2 cup finely grated

2 cups (packed) coarsely grated Edam cheese, divided

1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper

1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg

1 1/2 pounds Swiss chard, stems and center ribs removed

12 ounces elbow macaroni

1 teaspoon cumin seeds (optional)

Preparation:

(1) Melt butter, saute onions, add garlic, then flour, whisk in milk, cook until boil about 5 minutes, add cheese, then add cayenne and nutmeg, season with salt and pepper.

(2) Boil macaroni until al dente while preheating oven to 350. Mix cheese into macaroni.

(3) Blanch chard, chop finely.

(4) Butter 13x9x2 cooking pan; blanch chard, chop finely. Put half of macaroni into dish, then cover in chard, then top with the other half of macaroni. Sprinkle top with cumin seeds. Bake x 40 min until bubbling, let stand x 10 min.

Possbily Pesto

I *might* have geeked out on the CSA this week.

I *might* have actually become a single lady crazy person and bought a mini food processor and made 3 (yes 3) batches of basil pesto. For my lonesome.

I *might* have done that. Who's to say? Its possible.

I *might* have eaten one entire batch straight from the mini prep bowl. Also possible.

I *might* have then frozen the pesto in ice cube trays so as to make lots of little individual servings.

And I *might* have then dropped said frozen individual pesto poops (they look just like little green turds) over couscous with grape tomatoes, over fresh pasta, over roasted tomatoes, over sauteed zucchini/squash/peppers and over a bunch of other warm dishes that instantly melt the frozen pesto in a luscious yummy sauce.

I *might* be convinced that this is the single most brilliant idea I've ever had. And I *might* have bought more basil to make into pesto tomorrow.

I *might* have done all these things.

Only my freezer knows the truth. And thats the way it should stay.

Mom's Basil Pesto

2 cups tightly packed basil leaves
2 TBS finely chopped pinenuts
2 cloves garlic, peeled
1 TSP salt
1/2 c. olive oil
1/2 c. freshly grated parmesan cheese
2 TBS freshly grated romano cheese
4 TBS butter, softened

In mixing bowl of food processor put the garlic, salt, basil, pinenuts and olive oil and process until smooth, scraping down sides once or twice.
Add the cheeses and butter and process briefly, just to incorporate the cheeses and butter.
Add 2 TBS of boiling water in which pasta cooked. If still too thick, add additional boiling water. Process 1-2 secs.

Personally I forgot to add the butter. Still tastes damn good.

It's Too Darn Hot

So here's a SUPER easy lemon buttermilk basil ice cream recipe.

Of note: does require ice cream maker. Such is life.

Combine 2 cups sugar, 1 quart buttermilk, 2 tbsp lemon zest, 1/2 cup lemon juice, a big bunch of muddled basil leaves. Put in fridge a few hours. Strain out basil leaves. Put in ice cream maker. Put in freezer a few hours. Eat and enjoy. Try to avoid heat stroke.

It's Not Easy Being Green, Part II

I suppose it's not so crazy that two of our recent dinners have been green-themed given the CSA's influence.

I did a bad job of using up the CSA veggies this past week (stupid new job), but today we picked up a second batch of scallions, and something had to be done. That something, courtesy of Young's recommendation, was Mark Bittman's Scallion Pancakes. I was a bit thrown off to find that they were... green. But DELICIOUS. (And the side salad wasn't bad, either!) And kudos to Santosh for not only tracking down the recipe but doing all the cooking, for that matter. (Hey, I set the table at least.)

Ingredients
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
4 bunches scallions or spring onions, about 1 pound
1 egg
1 teaspoon soy sauce
1/2 cup flour
Peanut, canola or olive oil as needed

1. Boil water, roughly chop three bunches, mince the forth.
2. Add the roughly chopped scallions to water and cook x 5 minutes. Drain and save a bit of water.
3. Puree cooked scallions in blender, use the reserved cooking water as needed to make it all mushy together.
4. Mix the puree with the egg, soy and flour. Salt and pepper to taste. Cook in oil, about 2 minutes each side.
5. Serve with more soy sauce. MMM.

THIS BABY or The Apricot Cherry Clafouti

I made a salad yesterday with lots of CSA veggies (cukes, tomatoes, 2 kinds-o-peppers, garlic) and herbs (basil) And gals, it was really perty and healthy and all that good stuff, but I'm not gonna post about it because:

1. As we have already determined, many of us don't follow actual recipes.

2. Its a Greek salad. Do you really need another Greek salad recipe? No.

3. Who gives a crap about veggies? I don't. They're nice and all, but they don't hold a candle to....

THIS BABY!!!

(Which for the record, is not mine).

Sebastian Matthew Smiley is evidence of the following:

-Bite size chunks make everything better.

-Playing with your food is immensely more interesting than eating it.

Also I made a clafouti (but was so focused on THIS BABY that I failed to get pictures, bad, bad blogger). What's a clafouti? According to the food dictionary at epicurious.com, clafouti is:

Originally from the Limousin region, this country-French dessert is made by topping a layer of fresh fruit with batter. After baking it's served hot, sometimes with cream. Some clafoutis have a cakelike topping while others are more like a pudding. Though cherries are traditional, any fruit such as plums, peaches or pears can be used.

I used apricots from the farmers market and cherries from my crap local grocery store. The apricots were amaaaazing. The cherries were sad and pathetic looking. But together....oh together, they made sweet sweet love in my oven.

Apricot Cherry Clafouti

• lb. apricots, quartered and pitted (about 2
  cups)
• .5 cups of cherries, pitted
• 2 tsp. brandy or cognac (not optional)
• 2 eggs
• 3/4 cup plus 2 Tbs. milk
• 6 Tbs. granulated sugar
• 1 tsp. finely grated lemon zest
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract
• Pinch of salt
• 1/3 cup all-purpose flour
• 2 Tbs. confectioners sugar

Prepare the baking dishes
Preheat an oven to 350°F. Butter 8x8 baking dish and place on a rimmed baking sheet.

Place the apricots/cherries in baking dish and sprinkle with the brandy.

Mix the batter
In a blender (or bowl) combine the eggs, milk, granulated sugar, lemon zest, vanilla, salt and flour. Process (or stir) until smooth. Pour the batter over the apricots/cherries.

Bake the clafoutis
Bake until clafouti is puffed and golden brown, 40 to 45 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack and let cool slightly. Dust the top with confectioners sugar and serve.

Hodgepodge lasagna

The beauty of lasagna is that you can add a bunch of veggies, add it to some cheese and sauce, and bake. It's like a pasta sandwich. It's also great because you don't really need to follow a recipe which is my favorite kind of cooking. So we used up the rest of our veggies (swiss chard and spinach) and one from this week (eggplant) to our lasagna. I put in some ricotta, tomato sauce, noodles in layers. Joe wanted to add the squash, but I adamantly said no (see letter to zucchini entry). This is what I will be eating the rest of the week. I forgot to take a picture before I took a few slices =)

Currant Events

The first thing we tried to do with this week's currants was eat them raw.

This was unwise.

The second thing we tried to do with this week's currants was combine them with our new SodaStream machine.

This was genius.

And so I present a new cocktail:

The Varment.

(1) Rinse some currants, put into a small pot with some sugar, boil until gooey.

(2) Strain so you're left with a syrup. Throw out the solid gunk.

(3) Combine seltzer, 1 tbsp currant syrup, 1 tbsp lemon juice +/- vodka.

(4) Garnish with crazy thai basil that is sitting in the fridge begging to be used.

(5) Enjoy with reruns of The Cosby Show, The West Wing.

Beautiful Week 5

Hoorah for the beginning of our fruit share! Blueberries and nectarines and currants, oh my!

squash sambar

Yep, i'm only good at posting about indian stuff. but i'm pretty proud - i went and picked up yesterday's CSA veggies and turned them into sambar, which Wikipedia describes as a "vegetable stew." I guess that's pretty much what it is.

Summertime Squash Sambar
- 2 squashes, peeled and cut into 0.5 inch chunks

- 1 onion, cut roughly

- tamarind paste

- salt, brown sugar, turmeric

- ground red chilis or chili powder

- cumin powder

- rice flour

1. bring water in about half a large pot to a rolling boil

2. add squash, onion, and salt. boil slowly until the water is boiled about 1/2 off.

3. add about 2 tbsp of tamarind paste, 2 tbsp brown sugar, and 1 tsp turmeric. continue boiling.

4. when the sambar starts to thicken and/or the squash is WELL cooked through, add cumin powder (2 tsp) and red chilli powder (2 tsp).

5. When its ready (it takes about 45 minutes total to boil down), add about 1 tsp of rice flour to thicken up the sambar. Serve with rice.

Also pictured: daal with peaches (for this i used toor daal because it was sweeter) and chutney made out of tamarind and rhubarb that annie made a few weeks ago with our massive CSA acquisition of rhubarb.

It's Not Easy Being Green

The theme of last night's dinner was: green food.

I panicked because I'll be (finally) starting work on Monday, and there's a bunch of CSA veggies that could go unused (cardinal sin, see dead radish entry). So, though this was a bit too visually match-y, it was perfectly taste match-y.

And without further adieu, I present: a trifecta of green foods:

(1) Yogurt Chicken, aka The Easiest Chicken Ever
- Take chicken breasts, put in a bowl covered with plain yogurt (fat free fine), a chopped up onion and some salt. Let that sit in the fridge for as many hours as you have time, overnight best.
- Cook chicken in oven at 350 for about 40 minutes.
- Put in broiler about 4-5 minutes until onions start blackening.
- [and here's where the green comes in] Sprinkle with ample cilantro.

(2) Sugar Snap Peas
[Note, these were hands down the best CSA veggie we've received thus far, as evidence by the recipe below.]
Wash sugar snap peas, serve raw, do not put anything on them that might ruin their amazing flavor.

(3) Basil Mashed Potatoes
- Put basil leaves in boiling water x 15 seconds then transfer to ice bath to stop cooking (i.e. blanch them).
- Use the same water to boil some peeled-and-quartered potatoes about 20-25 minutes (until soft).
- In a separate saucepan, simmer 1 cup milk (skim worked fine) and 1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese, then add basil and use immersion blender to blend.
- Add milk to potatoes and again use immersion blender to blend. Salt and (white) pepper to taste.
[This recipe, for the record, was SUPER good and very easy. Will definitely make again.]

Actually tasty

Zucchini, baby, sweetheart, you're makin' a comeback.

So this was actually good, and had the benefit of being low-carb.

I call it: Zucchini Spaghetti.

Julienne your Zuck. Or you can just peel it into thin long strips, like pasta.

Make a sauce. (I just sauteed a bunch of CSA veggies--onion, green pepper, tomatoes with basil and oregano and garlic in olive oil).

Add some garlic to some olive oil in a skillet. Then put in the Zuchhini. Then add salt and pepper. Toss till hot.

Serve with sauce, basil leaves, and some feta.

Then enjoy your completely weird but totally edible meal.

Zuccess!

(Yes, I'm very proud of this blog post title ThankYouVeryMuch.)

Fine, I'll admit it. I've perhaps made just a few CSA things that didn't turn out so great. The cumin-yogurt dressing salad that made me cry it was so cumin-y. The escarole pasta (which only needed about thirteen extra ingredients to make it edible -- turns out you can make any pasta into a meal with crushed red pepper flakes and lemon juice). But most depressing has been, as everyone else discusses, the zucchini creations. Santosh successfully made an excellent zucchini-lentil (daal) dish, but he was silly and posted it as a 'comment' in Jen's PS: Zucchini post rather than creating a blog post all of his own. (I'm trying to guilt him into posting in the near future.) But my two prior zucchini attempts both wound up the same: moldy. According to Jen, zucchini is super moist and so, despite the fact that I covered both zucchini bread #1 and zucchini brownies with plastic, they turned into an even greener pile of mush within days on my kitchen counter.

Long story short, because (surprise) we got zucchini again this week, I told myself that I would not only find a better zucchini bread recipe, but that I would store it in the fridge to avoid it turning into penicillin. And what I created by combining two recipies was, might I say, delicious. Here's what I did:

- Preheat oven to 325, butter and flour a 9x4" loaf pan

- Combine 2 cups flour, 3/4 cup sugar, 1/2 tsp baking powder, 1/2 tsp baking soda, 1/2 tsp salt, 2 tsp cinnamon, 1 tsp allspice
- Separately, combine 2 eggs, 1/2 cup veggie oil (YES, oil makes this better, it's true), 1/2 cup plain yogurt, 2 tbsp lemon juice
- Add wet ingredients to dry ingredients
- Toast 1 cup walnuts, then chop and add to batter
- Grate one medium zucchini (there it is!) and add to batter
- Scold self for eating raw batter for fear of new deadly E. coli virus (Whatever, it's only in Germany, right? RIGHT?!?)
- Bake for about 1 hr 15 min (and at the end I threw some raw sugar on top to make it extra crunchy; and besides, despite the fact that this recipe involved yogurt, it also involved oil, so who are we kidding this wasn't going to be particularly healthy)

Serve with beer while studying for internal medicine qualifying board examinations on August 12th.

Subsequently forget what you've studied that night. Have more zucchini bread for breakfast, re-study cardiology chapter.

P.S.

Zucchini, while I do feel similarly to Emily, chin up. A lot of people are having a good deal of success on match.com. A few words of advice, however: no shirtless photos, and leave the phallic jokes off of your profile.

All best,

Jen

Dear Zucchini

Dear Zucchini-

We have to talk. Things haven't been good between us for a while now. I avoid you when I open the refrigerator door. I choose lettuce over you. Today I picked you up and you were cold to the touch. Cold and clammy. No one wants to eat cold and clammy. Its unattractive.

What I'm trying to say is: Its over.

I tried. I did. First I roasted you with some olive oil and salt. And you were, well....boring. But I thought, hey, first dates are always awkward. Maybe you need a little help in the flavor department (it happens to everyone), something to give you a little zing, a little mystery, a little je ne sais quoi. So I slipped you in a salad with my favorite balsamic vinaigrette. I was excited. I was anticipating sparks. And.....nothing. Nada. I left you on the bottom of the bowl. But still, STILL I rationalized. This should work. WE should work. Maybe you just weren't supposed to be a vegetable. Maybe you were a baked good in a past life. In a last ditch effort I paired you with what might be my favorite food in the entire world: Chocolate. Surely you would be friends I thought. Everyone likes chocolate. And chocolate makes everything yummier, sexier. Surely I would see a new and improved you through chocolate tinted glasses.

And then you did this:

And well, I can pretend no more. Its not that there is anything horribly wrong with you. But there's nothing right either. And even paired with chocolate, you just taste weird. Its time to face the facts, we have no chemistry.

I wish you nothing but the best and can only hope that your relationship with Jen is progressing better.

Emily

PS: There's nothing wrong with this recipe. Its yummy. If you like zucchini. Which I don't.

Chocolate Zucchini Bread

(makes 2 smallish loafs or one giant unwieldy loaf)

2 (1 ounce) squares unsweetened chocolate
3 eggs
2 cups white sugar
1/2 cup vegetable oil

1/2 applesauce
2 cups grated zucchini
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
3/4 cup semisweet chocolate chips

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Lightly grease two 9x5 inch loaf pans. In a microwave-safe bowl, microwave chocolate until melted. Stir occasionally until chocolate is smooth.
2. In a large bowl, combine eggs, sugar, oil, grated zucchini, vanilla and chocolate; beat well. Stir in the flour baking soda, salt and cinnamon. Fold in the chocolate chips. Pour batter into prepared loaf pans.
3. Bake in preheated oven for 60 to 70 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of a loaf comes out clean.

Scrambled Eggs with Tomatoes and Collards

After a long day of biking and adventure around Gov'ners Island, wanted something easy and healthy. This did the trick.

For the tomatoes. Sliced 'em. A little olive oil, salt, pepper and in the oven in a baking dish at 425 for 10 min.

For the collards:

sauteed shallots in butter

added some veggie stock (half a cup or so) and threw in the collard greens with some salt and pepper. Covered and let simmer for 10-15 min.

Scrambled eggs:

I really enjoy how this man tells us to make them. And he has a British accent, which automatically gives him great credibility. No creme fraiche for me, instead a bit of Romano cheese.

It was tasty. And pretty. My terrible camera could not capture its beauty, but trust me.

Happy Crabbin

While only one CSA vegetable made an appearance at our crazy tasty crab-boil this weekend (green onion in the potato salad, I'm looking at you), there was a collective agreement that the experience should be blogged. And so, a step by step guide, with pics!

Step 1. Rent a Zipcar and drive to Brooklyn's Chinatown. Use sign language to buy 4 lbs of live crab from the supermarket guy who speaks no English. Rejoice when he agrees to part with his battered basket.

Step 2. Roll the windows down. Pity the people who rented the Zipcar after you. Stinky seafood zipcar.

Step 3. Wash crabs. Don't use a dish drying rack. This seemed like a really good idea at the time.

It was all fun and games till someone lost a claw.

Step 4: Prepare a nice warm bath for your new friends. Boil water and add a mix of the following: Old Bay Seasoning, Cayenne, Salt, Onion (cut in half). Don't skimp. The broth should taste excessively salty/spicy.

Step 5: Send your victims to a watery death. Liz "The Crab Whisperer" Wagoner suggests using tongs. Cover and Boil for 10 minutes. Turn off heat and leave in pot for another 10 minutes.

Step 6: Remove from broth and arrange on a platter!

Step 7: Anxiously await your guests arrival. Try. Not. To. Eat.

Step 9: Rejoice when friends arrive. Dig into the fruits of your labor.

The Best Lasagna in the World - Swiss Chard

Yes, that's right.

And I made it.

I will start off by admitting that I have never made lasagna before. But I've eaten a lot of it, so I can say with confidence that this recipe was awesome... tasting.

What was NOT awesome was how many pots and pans it used up in the kitchen. Luckily, we have about a week's worth of leftovers.

I think this recipe is just a great base for any veggie you want to turn into a white lasagna. I

made the bechamel with skim milk and only 1/2 a stick of butter, I used no-fat ricotta, and I

only sprinkled stuff with parmesan -- still delicious. I think if there were a lot more fat in it one might lose track of the veggies. OH, two recommendations -- double the veggies and 1.5x the bechamel for the recipe, because I found that I wanted more of those in the end.

I've read a few reviews of folks saying you can pretty much use any vegetable. I used this week's Bright Light Swiss Chard, though the stems I cut off and am saving to cook like asparagus in something later this week. (Maybe thrown into a salad? Still got LOTS of lettuce to burn through.)

So find a day when guests are coming over, or a day when you just don't mind doing a few steps of prep work throughout the day. This was WORTH IT.

Ingredients:
Béchamel sauce: [**I would make 1.5x the amount as listed below**]
2 1/2 cups whole milk [**I used skim**]
1 Turkish bay leaf
6 tablespoons (3/4 stick) unsalted butter [**I used 1/2 stick**]
1/4 cup all purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon coarse kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon (scant) ground nutmeg
Pinch of ground cloves
Swiss chard and mushroom layers:
1 pound Swiss chard, center rib and stem cut from each leaf [**I would double this**]
4 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil, divided
1 1/3 cups chopped onion
4 large garlic cloves, chopped, divided
1/4 teaspoon dried crushed red pepper
Coarse kosher salt
1 pound crimini mushrooms, sliced [**I would double this**]
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
Lasagna:
9 7 x 3-inch lasagna noodles
Extra-virgin olive oil
1 15-ounce container whole-milk ricotta cheese (preferably organic), divided
6 ounces Italian Fontina Cheese, coarsely grated (about 1 1/2 cups packed), divided
8 tablespoons finely grated Parmesan cheese, divided

Preparation:
For béchamel sauce:
Bring milk and bay leaf to simmer in medium saucepan; remove from heat. Melt butter in heavy large saucepan over medium-low heat. Add flour and whisk to blend. Cook 2 minutes, whisking almost constantly (do not let roux brown). Gradually whisk milk with bay leaf into roux. Add 1/2 teaspoon coarse salt, nutmeg, and cloves and bring to simmer. Cook until sauce thickens enough to coat spoon, whisking often, about 3 minutes. Remove bay leaf. DO AHEAD: Béchamel sauce can be made 1 day ahead. Press plastic wrap directly onto surface and chill. Remove plastic and rewarm sauce before using, whisking to smooth.
For swiss chard and mushroom layers:
Blanch chard in large pot of boiling salted water 1 minute. Drain, pressing out all water, then chop coarsely. Heat 2 tablespoons oil in heavy medium skillet over medium-high heat. Add onion, half of garlic, and crushed red pepper. Sauté until onion is tender, 3 to 4 minutes. Mix in chard and season to taste with coarse salt and freshly ground black pepper.
Heat remaining 2 tablespoons oil in heavy large nonstick skillet over medium- high heat. Add mushrooms and remaining garlic. Sauté until mushrooms are brown and tender, 7 to 8 minutes. Mix in nutmeg and season with coarse salt and pepper.
For lasagna:
Cook noodles in medium pot of boiling salted water until just tender but still firm to bite, stirring occasionally. Drain; arrange noodles in single layer on sheet of plastic wrap.
Brush 13 x 9 x 2-inch glass baking dish with oil to coat. Spread 3 tablespoons béchamel sauce thinly over bottom of dish. Arrange 3 noodles in dish to cover bottom (2 side by side lengthwise, then 1 crosswise). Spread half of chard mixture over pasta, then half of mushrooms. Drop half of ricotta over in dollops and spread in even layer. Sprinkle with half of Fontina, then 4 tablespoons Parmesan; spread 3/4 cup béchamel over. Repeat layering with 3 noodles, remaining chard, mushrooms, ricotta, Fontina, Parmesan, and 3/4 cup béchamel. Cover with 3 noodles and remaining béchamel. DO AHEAD: Can be made 2 hours ahead. Cover with foil. Let stand at room temperature.
Preheat oven to 400°F. Bake lasagna covered 30 minutes. Uncover and bake until heated through and top is golden brown, 20 to 30 minutes longer. Let stand 15 minutes before serving.

Sorrel Soup

I thought sorrel was going to be some sort of really fancy, exotic veggie. (And I of course was not surprised to find out that it, too, looks like lettuce.) Then when I did some online research, I basically found out that it is considered a weed of sorts in Europe because it overtakes gardens. There goes the charm. But despite that, I wanted to try to make something out of it -- and I happened across this recipe for sorrel, pea and leek soup, which is a chilled soup and therefore good for summer. (Especially considering that our in-window air conditioner is apparently not good for summer.) I will be honest, it did taste a lot like a potato-leek soup, but a little more lemon-y. (Perhaps because of the lemon-scented sorrel, who knows.) Despite the fact that I'm still not exactly sure what sorrel tastes like, it was delicious, so will post. Heregoes:

Ingredients:
white and pale green parts of 3 leeks (about 3/4 pound), chopped, washed well, and drained
1 1/2 tablespoons olive oil
1 small boiling potato (about 1/4 pound)
1 1/2 cups chicken broth
1 1/2 cups cold water plus additional to thin soup
1/2 cup shelled fresh or thawed frozen peas
1/4 pound sorrel*, stems discarded and leaves washed, spun dry, and cut crosswise into thin strips (about 3 cups loosely packed)
1/3 cup sour cream
1 teaspoon fresh lemon juice, or to taste
Garnish: chopped hard-boiled egg and thin strips of sorrel

Preparation:
In a large saucepan cook leeks in oil with salt and pepper to taste over moderately low heat,

stirring, until softened. Peel potato and cut into 1-inch cubes. Add potato, broth, and 1 cup water to leeks and simmer, covered, about 10 minutes, or until potato is tender. Stir in peas and simmer, uncovered, about 5 minutes, or until peas are tender.
In a blender purée potato mixture with sorrel in 2 batches until very smooth, transferring to a bowl. Whisk in sour cream and remaining 1/2 cup water, adding additional to thin soup to desired consistency. Chill soup, covered, at least 2 hours, and up to 24. Just before serving, stir in lemon juice and salt and pepper to taste. Garnish soup with egg and sorrel.

Red Sails and Sage Flowers Salad

SUCCESS, I finally figured out what to do with the sage flowers from week 1.

Being in a panic about receiving even MORE lettuce this afternoon when I pick up the Week 3 CSA batch, I combined all the remaining stuff in our fridge into one lunch salad. Actually turned out awesome, and I'm reminded of the fact that herbs in salad are delicious. For this one I did:

- red sails lettuce

- carrots (thank heavens for our cheapo mandoline, which I highly recommend for everyone)

- pears

- crumbled feta [note to self: do not buy low-fat feta anymore, relatively blech]

- sage flowers

- leftover bow-tie pasta

- balsamic vinaigrette, salt, pepper

Totally delicious.

Shrimp and Snow Pea Stir-Fry

Jen totally impressed me last night. Her calla-who was really good. And it was classic Jen cooking: no recipe, lots of cumin. I was inspired. Tonight, I thought, I'm gonna let my hair down. I'm gonna improvise. I'm gonna cook without a recipe.

Living on the edge. Clearly.

I did a stir-fry because apparently its more of a technique than a recipe. You cook everything in batches, first meat, then veggies, and last you add the sauce. No clue when you are supposed to add the garlic/onion/ginger mixture (aka the aromatics...ooooh fancy word) to the wok and I'm too lazy right now to look it up. I also have no idea how much of each ingredient I used except that there was a serious amount of ginger. Which made me want to try this recipe. Because how cool is that?

I used:

garlic

ginger

CSA green onions

shrimp

CSA snow peas

cashews

Sauce:

rice wine vinegar

soy sauce

sugar

cornstarch

mirin

(you should add a little chicken stock, but I didn't have any)

1. Mince ginger, garlic, onion. Peel shrimp. Mix a couple teaspoons each of soy sauce, mirin, sugar, cornstarch and rice wine vinegar together in a bowl. Adjust to taste.

2. Heat a largish pan with some oil over high heat. Add the shrimp when the oil starts looking shimmery. Cook till barely pink, about a minute.

3. Add snowpeas and garlic/ginger/onion. Cook for one to two minutes.

4. Add cashews and sauce. Cook for one to two minutes or until slightly thickened and glossy looking (cornstarch at work).

And ta-da! Stir fry! Serve over rice.

First Casualty

Week 2 radishes: rest in peace.

Calla-who?

This week we got a strange vegetable. Callaloo. I was not entirely sure it was edible, though research revealed it is a staple of Jamaican cooking. Not something I know how to do. So after further research/ contemplation of what was available in my fridge/ a kind of highly complicated algorithm, I came up with this recipe. Which was, dare I say, delicious. More delicious than it appears in this picture. Though extremely spicy. Like sweating while you eat spicy. But just for me, not Emily. This I failed to comprehend.

So:

Onion, bell pepper, tomato, garlic scapes, green onion, jalepeno (the culprit!) all chopped.

chop the callaloo

peel some shrimp.

coconut milk and veggie stock on hand.

cumin, curry, salt, pepper

With a generous amount of butter sautee all the first veggies for a while (till soft), add the cumin, curry, salt and pepper as you go (I like to put cumin in with the butter cause I like how it tastes when its really cooked). Then add the Callaloo. Then the coconut milk and veggie stock, with spices to taste. Simmer for a vague amount of time (long enough to drink some wine?), then add the shrimp. Cook till pink (5 min or so). Serve over brown rice.

Escarole

Thank heavens for the CSA emails that come out each week warning us what we're going to get. This week was super lettuce-heavy (see prior post), including five different leafy veggie things. The most exotic was escarole, which looks like... you guessed it, folks... lettuce. But apparently, according to the CSA email we received, it does NOT taste good as a salad base. The only dish I could think of involving escarole was white bean and escarole soup, and when I realized that I had all the ingredients except for a tomato (easy enough to obtain), I made it for dinner tonight. (The picture doesn't do it justice.) Turned out GREAT and wasn't much work at all, largely because no blending was involved (unlike many of my other favorite soup recipes). The only change I made was that because I didn't have any canned tomatoes, I just cut up some fresh ones. Can't imagine the canned would have been the superior.

It goes a little somethin' like this (from Bon Appetit, March 1996):

• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1 cup chopped onion
• 1 large carrot, cut into small dice
• 5 large garlic cloves, peeled, flattened
• 3 cups (packed) 1-inch pieces escarole (about 1/2 large head)
• 4 cups (or more) canned vegetable broth or low-salt chicken broth
• 3 1/4 cups cooked Great Northern beans or two 15-ounce cans cannellini (white kidney beans), rinsed, drained
• 1 14 1/2- to 16-ounce can diced tomatoes, drained

• 2 tablespoons freshly grated Parmesan cheese

preparation

Heat oil in heavy large Dutch over medium-low heat. Add onion, carrot and garlic and sauté until onion is golden and tender, about 7 minutes. Discard garlic. Add escarole; stir 3 minutes. Add 4 cups broth, beans and tomatoes and bring to boil. Reduce heat to medium-low. Cover and simmer until escarole is tender and flavors blend, about 20 minutes. Thin with more broth, if desired. Season soup to taste with salt and pepper. (Can be prepared 1 day ahead. Cover and refrigerate. Bring to simmer before continuing.)

Ladel soup into bowls. Sprinkle with Parmesan cheese and serve.

Week 2: That's-a-Lotta-Lettuce

Woah.

Garlic Scapes, Part Deux

Tried the garlic scape pesto from Young's prior post. YUM. Super intense, though, so good thing both my husband and I ate it at the same time.

As for the side salad, used the butter lettuce (aka Boston Bibb) with some canned baby peas, goat cheese and the remainder of the dijon vinaigrette from the radish greens salad. Have now discovered the dijon is super easy to make and often milder than balsamic and oil.