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.

Black Bean Salad

Good thing about having this many vegetables in my fridge? I actually have to plan my meals out as opposed to waiting till I'm too hungry to think clearly (which inevitably leads to me boiling some water for pasta). Today I made a slightly adjusted version of The Kitchn's Black Bean Salad. I ended up adding a tomato and subbing an onion for the shallot because (surprise surprise) I'm now I'm in a panic about all these veggies going to waste. At least I'm consistent.

Avocado-Lime Black Beans
2 servings

One 15-ounce can black beans
1/2 lime, juiced
1/2 cup fresh cilantro leaves, chopped
1 small shallot, diced
1 teaspoon ground cumin
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 avocado, to serve (I cubed this and tossed with the beans)

Drain the beans thoroughly. Toss with the lime juice, cilantro leaves, diced shallot (or onion), and ground cumin. Season to taste with salt and black pepper. Peel and slice an avocado, and serve the beans at room temperature, with 1/2 avocado on top of each serving.

The beans will last for several days in the fridge. You can take a helping of beans in your lunchbox, along with sliced avocado that has been tightly wrapped to protect against browning.

I liked this a great deal. Even more after it sat in the fridge for a bit and all the flavors melded. Next time I would use a red onion as opposed to white, and maybe add some grilled chicken on top.

Side note: I did not think ahead and wrap my herbs. And now they look sad. Live and learn I guess.

Sage Honey

Had no idea what to do with sage. Actually found an article of 45 things to do with fresh sage, and the one that jumped out at me was sage honey. Here's what I did:

(1) Put a bunch of sage in a bottle. (I included the sage flowers because I thought it might be pretty, and again, those CSA folks tell me they're edible... we shall find out.)

(2) Cover the sage with honey.

(3) Put completed honey on a dark shelf for a few weeks.

So I guess I don't know how this tastes

yet. But the pictures were pretty, and

since this week isa sage week, figured I'd post in anticipation of judging the final product. Will keep all you hard-core blog followers posted.

Baked Tomatoes and (shockingly) Lettuce

Had a lovely salad this eve. Baked tomatoes over greens.

For the tomatoes:

preheat oven to 400

oiled a baking dish

cut tomatoes into slices

mixed together bread crumbs, romano, oregano, parsley, garlic, salt and pepper

put that mixture on top of tomatoes, topped with romano and baked for 20 min

garnished with basil (from my garden!)

(if i were to do this again I would experiment with a bit of a beaten egg in my bread crumbs, just to hold the whole thing together)

for the salad

cut up lettuce.

dressing

a little bit of balsamic vinegar

3 times the amt of olive oil

salt, pepper, garlic, pinch of brown sugar

whisked till smooth

worked out well.

that is all.

snap peas

Its true. Our CSA was way more normal (normal, better, chose your adjective) in terms of the veggies--I don't know if I was relieved or disappointed. I do love a challenge.

It also must be noted that Jorge, our suave Pennsylvania farmer was extremely dreamy and really added to the collectivist spirit of the whole venture.

Today I made a sugar snap pea and mint sautee. It was pretty tasty. Here's what I did:

Boil the snap peas in boiling salted water for like, 2 min, then drained and set aside.

Then melt 2 table spoons of butter (too much, I admit it, I am from the south)

whisked in a tablespoon of water

added a very large pinch (over a tablespoon) of chopped mint

threw in the snap peas

squeezed some lime

cooked for like 1 min

Not so bad. I have a feeling you can bake the snap peas at 450 with some olive oil and salt and pepper for like 10 min and they will be delish. But I ate all my snap peas so I cant try this.

I think tonight I'll make a potato salad, and I was thinking about some baked breaded tomatoes with cheese, oregano and parsley. I'll let you know how these things work out.

We should also discuss veggie storage. I wrapped my herbs in damp paper towels and put them in plastic bags in the fridge so they've stayed nice and fresh so far. Did the same thing with my green onion (they always wilt so fast) so hopefully that will work. Just threw my red lettuce in there, and it has already wilted. So lets keep each other posted on what works in terms of that, because these veggies are going to take a week to eat.

Also, do you guys have anything to share about the dread zucchini?

Pre CSA Pick Up Panic

This afternoon marked the first pick up day for the Ditmas Park CSA. Jen and I gamely grabbed our bags, hopped the Q and headed down to Cortelyou Rd in the rain to pick up our share. To be totally honest, I'd been kind of nervous about the whole pounds of produce thing (what was I thinking buying five hundred dollars worth of vegetables?!?). Looking through Annie and Young's crop from yesterday helped a lot though. Lettuce? Ok, that I can do. Rhubarb? Oooooh. I think I see a pie in my future. Garlic scapes? Yes please (Annie-look at Dorie Greenspan's garlic scape pesto).

And then-

Radishes?

(gulp)

What do I do if we get radishes?

Cue the downward spiral. (What have I done? What do I do if we get pounds of radishes? I don't like radishes. Radishes are weird. They look like deranged Sesame Street puppets. With hair. What if we get all weird veggies no one has heard of? What if I hate them all? ) This whole CSA thing suddenly seemed like a very, very baaaaad idea.

"Jen...you like radishes,right?"

Luckily it would seem that the Brooklyn CSA is the much more homogenized and less inventive cousin of the New York CSA. In other words: totally non-threatening. Score.

We got:

Tomatoes.

Green Lettuce

Red Lettuce

Kale

Onions

Green Onions

Sugar Snap Peas

Zucchini

Potatoes

Mint

Cilantro

Parsley

I'm thinking cilantro lime shrimp for dinner tomorrow. Or cilantro chickpea salad.

Mmmmm. Cilantro.

Radishes

Who loves radishes?!
(silence...crickets...)
Wait, no, I do!

With only 7 radishes and way too much time on my hands, I decided to make a fancy lunch for myself.

(1) Essence of Radish:
Per Bon Appetit's "whole vegetable dining" recipe, the first thing to do is... eat the radish. Slap on some butter, sprinkle on salt, and enjoy. Actually, really delicious. But I did feel a little bit like a rabbit with the radish greens still attached and subsequently dangling out of my mouth.

(2) Do Something With the Green Stuff:
Coarsely cut up the radish greens and topped with a simple dijon dressing. Initially feared I was eating something that might in fact be inedible (and that the editors at Bon Appetit were patting themselves on the back having convinced some dumb city girl wannabe foodie that radish greens were in fact food). Lo and behold, though, they were good! They tasted like... lettuce! (See my prior post.)

(3) Make a Sandwich:
Because who doesn't love sandwiches. Though I linked to this before, I just enjoyed it so much that I decided to paste the actual text into this post:

* * *

Open-Face Butter and Radish Sandwich:

2 1/2 bunches radishes, trimmed
Unsalted butter, room temperature
20 1/4-inch-thick diagonal slices baguette
Maldon sea salt or coarse kosher salt

Place radishes in medium bowl of ice water and chill at least 30 minutes and up to 2 hours. Drain radishes and slice thinly.
Spread butter generously over baguette slices and sprinkle lightly with sea salt or coarse kosher salt. Arrange radish slices atop buttered baguette slices and serve.

* * *

I didn't have fancy bread, so I used a whole-grain roll. Toasted, of course.
I also didn't have the patience to chill the radishes in ice water. That would require thinking ahead.
Despite my alterations, for the record, this was one of the most delicious things I've ever eaten in my life.

What to do with Garlic Scapes?

Sage smells so good...
So here are some of my attempts with this week's CSA:

Mustard Greens Pesto on Pasta with Shiitake Mushrooms and Smoked Mozzarella
You can put it on pasta or bread (It calls for sage.... which I have!)

Rhubarb Salsa
I love that you can put this on any meat
I will let you know how this goes!

FYI
12 ways to use garlic scapes
(via http://www.applepiepatispate.com/vegetable/garlic-scapes-12-ways/)

1. Use as you would asparagus. I bet you saw that coming.

2. Add to an omelet or a frittata

3. Makes salads and pasta a bit more interesting. It has “secret ingredient” potential.
I'm guessing you just dice it up and add?

4. Grill, roast, or broil with olive oil and salt.

5. Keep it raw and make some garlic scape pesto.
This sounds neat

6. Garlic scapes sautéed in butter are excellent with mashed or lightly browned diced potatoes for a quick side dish.
Easy enough to do

7. Creamy garlic scape soup seems right up my alley but I have yet to try it.
Ummm, no.

8. Pickles! This Korean recipe for pickled whole garlic will work beautifully with scapes.
Of course - we pickle anything



9. Puree with your favorite dips to give it a subtle garlicky punch and a cool shade of green.

10. Stir-fry with rice, noodles, vegetables, or meats.


11. Deep-fried with a light tempura-like batter maybe?
oooo, like green beans

12. Add finely chopped garlic scapes to bread dough.

Week 1

WELL today was an exciting start to our shared Manhattan CSA.

Because Young was at work, I took my upper-east-sidey canvas bag to the 92nd Street Y to obtain:

Rhubarb: we have a ton of rhubarb recipes already, so while I can vouch for this rhubarb-raspberry crostata, I think we're going to try to invent some kind of rhubarb Indian chutney

Radishes: want to try this radish-butter sandwich recipe because it looks simple and delicious


Red Sail Lettuce: ummm, it's lettuce

Buttercrunch Lettuce: also lettuce

Mizuna: oh uh, a crazy vegetable; green and with a bunch of holes in it; never heard of it before, must read more

Suehlihung Mustard: I gave this whole bunch to Young because Santosh hates bitter greens, so she'll have to comment

Garlic Scapes: am sure I'll find something that needs garlic; does this do anything more exciting than what garlic does?

Sage with Edible Flowers: this smells AMAZING, and I'm tempted to re-try a sage ice cream recipe I found a while ago; however, now the sage and I are in a fight because I was putting it into little fridge baggies, and then I took out my contact lenses, and now my left eye won't stop tearing, and it buuuurrrnnnsss (note: have already googled "sage" + "blindness" ... this should pass)

Final joy -- sat down on couch to write this post, and my husband charmingly told me that I smell like vegetables. I can think of many worse things to smell like I suppose.

OH wait no, this is the final joy -- we have a new teeny pet that came along with the CSA batch. I will name him Leggy.

Seedlings

First, a warning: expect many future plant and fruit themed puns in this blog.

Second, a brief introduction:

We are four New York City gals who have signed up for two separate CSAs.
(I'm too lazy to define a CSA, so just read this.)

Young has participated in a CSA before, and therefore she is In Charge. Or at least is keeping us calm. The other three of us are CSA virgins.

Young and Annie: splitting a share of a Manhattan CSA.
Emily and Jen: splitting a share of a Brooklyn CSA.

We have no idea what foods are coming to us, but we're excited to learn how to cook strange things.

Did you know there's a "Lettuce Season"? Because apparently we're in it.

GET EXCITED.