Thursday, July 7, 2011

Bachelor Recipes Vol 1 #2

What’s in the Box:

Shunkyo radishes

Spinach

Pom Pom lettuce

Oregano

Garlic flowers (scapes)

Strawberries

Cherries

Lily stem

Family shares also include:

Curly kale

Bok choy

No problem...

If you have not done so already, make the QnE (quick and easy) dressing described in the previous recipes. Stuff a stem of Oregano in the bottle and hang the rest by a thread or any other string (or twistie or whatever you find in a draw or on the floor) above the sink in the kitchen. After about a week the bunch will be dried and can be crumbled into a jar or just used a stem at at a time to flavor other recipes or add to future dressings. The spinach in this week's delivery is not your granma's spinach. When delivered fresh you may be pleasantly surprised by just how good spinach really is. You may rinse and tear it as you did the lettuce from last week, but I suggest: heating a large cast skillet to medium high with some olive oil in the bottom. Dunk the spinach in a sink full of cold water. As you remove the spinach from the sink, just tear the leaves from the stems and shake the water off. Place them immediately in the hot pan, stir quickly, and cover. Sautee until just tender and salt lightly. The garlic scapes are a bit weird but they are a great sauteed garnish and an excellent salad topper. The trick to these is to get them tender without burning them. Discard most of the stem and concentrate on the flower bud and the inch or two of the stem directly below it. You can either sautee them (do this first and then use the same pan for the spinach), or wrap them in foil and make them on the barbecue. To get them soft without burning you need low heat for a long time; you will do better if you pay attention to them, stirring and flipping while you gorge yourself on cherries and draft a plausible explanation as to why there are no cherries left when someone else reads the farm notes.

Here is an oldie for the other greens: Make about a cup of rice/two people. Rinse the kale and grab a decent handful. Holding the kale at the leaves with all the stems facing the same direction, slice the leaves perpendicular to the stem as thin as possible. Do the same with the Bok Choy. Heat a woc or large cast pan with olive oil and a splash of sesame oil. Place the greens in the hot woc or large pan and sautee until tender. Move the tender greens to the outside edge and drop two or three eggs in the middle. Break the yokes and fry the eggs until hard. Slice the fried eggs thin with a dull knife while still in the woc and toss with the greens. Add the rice and toss the whole thing together. Serve with tamari and a smattering of sesame seeds. Garnish with sauteed garlic scapes. This is a great breakfast recipe.

5 comments:

Worried but Hopeful said...

I want to hear the plausible explanation of why there are no cherries left!

Anonymous said...

because when you got them out of the box, they were moldy like the strawberries! :(

Mike said...

Uhmmm, Where the strawberries really moldy? We are all too happy to refund replace any damaged or unacceptable product. We can credit your account or replace with a like selection.Whatever would make you happy.

Anonymous said...

Yeah they were. Not all of them, but a few. It seemed like they were otherwise on their last legs, the cherries were definitely the highlight of the fruit portion of the box. We didn't let them sit around either, we ate them that night (the decent ones, which by the way were much better than what you usually get at a grocery store when they were better the previous week, but you know that).

I appreciate your farm blog, it helps us feel connected. While I'm not the target audience of the "bachelor style" recipes, I religiously read them because they're fun and remind you that sometimes the simple things are the best.

Are the sample shares that are on the CSA signup page still relevant? (besides the lillies, which are a great idea and set you apart from the rest) It would be great to have some kind of roadmap to frame out what's coming up when, I imagine you couldn't be too specific but it'd be great to have an idea.

Thanks again for your dedication Mike, it makes a difference.

heidi said...

Just want to jump in with a quick reply here-we will definitely have more cherries for the coming week, but they, like everything else, were slow to come on this season and there weren't any available last week in the quantity we needed for our farm members. I repeat, more cherries are coming! :)