CSA 2023 Ideas (by week)

 

Week Five:

We are sticking with Smitten Kitchen for two strawberry recipes I can not leave out: Strawberry graham icebox cake and a strawberry drink that seems impossible to not love. I also just love to smash them up in a glass and add vinho verde or prosecco.

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Mulberries make one of my top fave jellies. I use pectin and any blackberry jelly recipe - it's so good!

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While we're talking about spring favorites, I love to make a simple syrup with rose petals (I add the sugar straight to the roses and squeeze them, then let them sit over night before adding the water, heating until the sugar dissolves and straining) and then freeze it for rose soda anytime all year - just add some sparkling water. It's a nice peppery floral flavor, and you don't have to make it too sweet.

 

Week Four:

I've been really enjoying some foraging books from the library lately. They have some great ideas for lots of stuff we eat, or are easily subbed in. I recently returned Forage, Harvest, Feast by Marie Viljoen and Ugly Little Greens, by Mia Wasilevich. I saved a lot of recipes before I took them back! One that I'm excited to try is the Lambsquarter Savory Rice Pudding in from Mia, which is a great convergence of cooking greens, eggs and herbs. Unfortunately it's too big of a picture to link here, and I can't find it online. Check it out if you can!

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I also love looking at the Smitten Kitchen website for inspiration. Everything Deb makes is beautiful and she gives great directions. It's also really easy to search! Here is a beautiful looking recipe for roasted carrots that uses sprouts (and makes me hungry!), here is one for a simple fried egg in a lettuce salad meal, and here is one for a different lettuce salad with home pickled onions. There are lots of great veg forward meaty recipes too, if you like that sort of thing!

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Week Three:

Looking for more ways to use up herbs? Herb biscuits are always a hit. Delicious, cute and really quick to make - they can be ready in about half an hour (well, especially if you just eye the amounts like I do!). This recipe looks great. Just note that you can sub any kind of milk (or cream, yogurt, whey, etc) for the liquid in the recipe, and of course you can add any mix of herbs you like! I also sometimes add a handful of bran or semolina in there for a heavier texture. You can cut them tiny to go on a cheese plate, or big for a side with a meal.

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Week Two:

Here is Martha Stewart's version of a delicious treat, Rosemary ganache. I love any ganache, and rosemary and chocolate are such great partners. I skip the microwave part, boil the cream on the stove an pour it over the choco. It makes great truffles, cake filling, or fudge for ice cream.

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Grape leaves are easy to brine for later use, either home canned or just kept in the fridge for anytime. Here's one recipe.

 

Mint makes a wonderful chutney. Here's one I can't eat too much of.

 

Spring Rolls are a popular dinner item at our house. The pea tips and baby lettuce or spring mix this week are all wonderful added to any other shredded veggies and herbs (or just solo) and rolled in rice paper wrappers. The sauce that wins for dipping here is this one, but there are lots of delicious options for spring roll dipping out there!

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Week One:

Here is a link to the best Kombucha tips I've found so far, from the BBC. We use Assam loose leaf tea, 6 teaspoons per gallon batch with one cup of sugar. Favorite flavors around here are mint, berries in season, and ginger.

 

Here is a link to a rye starter feeding schedule and yield calculator that my awesome baker brother made. Or, you can do as I do, store it in the fridge between uses and feed a mix of roughly 50/50 water and flour the day before use, repeating if you need a lot of starter. I've enjoyed some great sourdough cookbooks, most recently: Flour Power by Tara Jenson, with copies at the Kingshighway and Buder libraries. Don't forget, you can feed your starter any flour you like to change it from being a rye starter into whatever you prefer - I always feed it rye for the amazing activity, but use it in any bread (white, wheat, etc.).

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Bitter Greens make a delicious addition to lasagna. This week I used the spring tonic mix as a side with pita and other dips (baba ghanouj with green garlic, yogurt with mint!) by putting in into a hot cast iron skillet with olive oil, frying for about 5 minutes, then adding kalamata olives and a little brine. I let it cook until the greens were all really soft, then put into a bowl and added lemon juice and balsamic vinegar to taste, along with salt and black pepper. Intense and tasty.

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Speaking of green garlic, I have loads of it to use up at home. I will use most of it in falafel. I make it by soaking dry chickpeas overnight (or longer, until I have time to make it), then grinding them in a blender (it's a pain, food processor would be much better!) with loads of any herbs I have. I add salt and any amount of the soaking water needed to get it to blend - and I don't stress if there are still some chunks at the end. I also add onion and a few spices, usually after the blending but either way is fine (coriander, cumin, hot pepper, cardamom, black or white pepper, whatever I have handy). I then make patties and fry them in olive oil. They freeze well and keep well in the fridge.

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My family loves asparagus. We often steam it whole and eat it just salted - it's finger food at our house. I also love to cut it small and use it in pasta with red sauce, onions and olives. And any green vegetable that we eat cooked it a great one for stir frying Thai style - an easy, quick process that goes 1. Fry chopped garlic, a lot of it, in your favorite vegetable oil over high heat until edge pieces are golden 2. add your already bite size-prepped asparagus, zucchini or leafy greens and stir well 3. add in chopped hot peppers, light and dark soy sauce or fish sauce and sugar or salt and molasses 4. adjust flavors as needed and serve with rice. In Thailand a sunny side egg or plain omelet is a popular addition to a meal like this.

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Happy eating for week one!

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Iced Tea Herb Mix Directions

Congratulations on your purchase of a beautiful fresh bunch of herbs to make iced tea! It's a refreshing addition to any day, and a great way to get your extra minerals. Our retail bunches are large, so you can choose to make one big batch or a concentrate to freeze or keep in the fridge and dilute over the next several days.  If you like it sweet, you can make a syrup that will keep in the fridge long term.

For one large batch, bring about half a gallon of water to a boil.  Rinse your herbs (just in case), turn off the water as soon as it boils and add the whole bunch.  Let it all steep for about 5 minutes (up to 10 is fine).  Strain into a large container, sweeten to taste, and add up to another equal part of water and ice to dilute (less if you like it stronger).  For the concentrate, just do the first part of the recipe, strain and let cool before putting in the fridge or freezer.  For syrup, add up to two cups of sugar or honey when you add the herbs to the hot water. Let cool and refrigerate. Add it to cold water whenever you'd like a glass.  It also makes a delicious lemon or lime-aide, if you add the citrus juice and dilute it to taste.  Enjoy!

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Maypops - What are they?

Maypops are a hardy native passionfruit.  They ripen in fall here and have a strong and lovely tropical aroma when ripe.  They are a mix of tart and sweet flavored fruit pulp around lots of seeds inside the fruit.  The seeds are edible or you can spit them out if you prefer. 

For easy uses of maypops besides fresh eating, you can soak the peeled fruit in any drink (kombucha, iced tea, lemonade) or make a simple syrup (equal parts sugar and water, heated until the sugar dissolves) and then infuse the fruit in the syrup to add to any cocktail.  To get fancier, infuse the fruit in heavy cream for a day before heating and straining over an equal portion by weight of dark chocolate to make a passionfruit ganache.  Then you can chill the ganache to roll into truffles (to be rolled in cocoa powder or dipped in tempered chocolate to finish) or leave it at room temperature to fill a cake or add a  passionfruit fudge ribbon to vanilla ice cream.  You could also melt the ganache and drizzle it over any baked goods for an exotic finish.

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Holy Basil or Tulsi

This lovely herb is known for it's health benefits in many parts of the world.  We dry it for tea, and also really enjoy it fried to make dinner.  Recipe as follows:

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Ingredients - Several large bunches of Holy Basil, Chicken or "soy chunks" (textured soy protein or soy strips) soaked until soft, Soy Sauce or Amino Acids, Molasses or Sweet Soy Sauce, Fresh Garlic, Fresh or Dried Hot Chillies, Black Pepper, Oil (olive, coconut or any to taste)

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To make (amounts based on serving two adults and one hungry kid with rice as a whole meal) - prep all of the ingredients.  Cut the chicken into thin strips or small chunks, remove the basil from the stem and wash if needed, peel and coarsely chop the garlic and chop the chillies (or leave whole for easy removal if you aren't a big fan).

Heat the oil (about 3 Tablespoons or to taste) in a wok or skillet and add the garlic.  I'd use 2-3 entire bulbs of garlic for this dish.  Immediately add the chicken or soy sub to the pan to fry (squeeze out the soy first).  For chicken I'd say 3 breasts or one small whole chicken, all bones removed.  For soy I'd use enough to make three big handfuls when soaked.  Fry until browned and yummy looking.  Add the chilies and black pepper (I'd use lots of both, but to taste is key!) when close to done.  If you sneeze it means it's extra delicious!  Add Basil leaves (whole is fine, as many as you can get your hands on) and sweet/salty sauces above to taste.  I like a little sweet and a lot of salty, but (of course) it's up to you.  Stir well and turn off heat as soon as leaves wilt.  Remove to a plate and serve with hot rice.  Some like a fried egg on top as well.

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Soft Boiled Duck Eggs

Duck eggs cook much like hen's eggs, but have more yolk than white and a slightly different finished texture.  As they're extra rich and creamy, they make a great soft boiled egg if you like them that way.  Easy method is to put the egg(s) in a pot with a lid, cover with water and bring to a boil.  When the water boils, turn off the flame and time for 6 minutes.  After the time is up remove from the hot water (rinse in cold if you like) and serve immediately.  We use espresso cups as egg cups at my house.  Dip in toast strips as desired.