Condiment Confidential: Ketchup (or Catsup)

I learned how to make mayonnaise years ago, and last month I made mustard for the first time—it turned out great, but I learned that good wine makes better mustard, and I guess that’s not a surprise. But with eleven pounds of tomatoes in the share last Saturday, my attention turned to homemade ketchup.

I have a recipe from my Uncle Eddie from half a century ago (he was the world’s biggest ketchup fan, even putting it on his ice cream to amuse the kiddies, so no surprise he had a recipe for making it from my grandfather’s tomato crop). I also found a recipe in a recent edition of the New York Times. Uncle Eddie’s calls for a Foley food mill (a great old device, but I don’t have one), and a long simmer time. The Times recipe uses a food processor and a sieve, but I found its simmering time was far underestimated. Therefore, I created my own recipe, borrowing from both, and the result was quite delicious, if I do say so myself.

What’s left in the world of condiments for me to try? Why, with the continuing onslaught of cucumbers, pickle relish, of course. That’s next; look for a recipe right here . . . eventually. But for now, use some of the tomato bounty to make your own ketchup, then cut and fry your own French fries for a real summer artisanal treat.

KETCHUP

2 pints (4 cups) ripe tomatoes, cored and with bad bits cut out (but don’t peel ’em!)
1 cup red wine vinegar
½ cup dark brown sugar
2 teaspoons salt (I like sea salt for this)
1 teaspoon ground pepper
2 teaspoons Worchestershire sauce

Cut the tomatoes into quarters (halves are okay if they are small). In a wide skillet, bring the tomatoes, vinegar, brown sugar, salt, and pepper to a low boil, then turn down heat and simmer until a thick jamlike mixture forms and liquid evaporates (this was about an hour for me). Let the mixture cool for about a half hour, then purée until smooth in a food processor. Strain what you get out of the food processor through a fine-mesh sieve for a smooth ketchup, and then stir in the Worcestershire sauce. Chill before serving. Makes enough to fill a dollar store squeeze bottle.

And Now for Something Completely Different . . . Cucumber Gazpacho

Okay, maybe not so different. We've had various gazpacho recipes posted on the blog and in the pages of the newsletter. But--there are still cucumbers in the harvest, so how about some cucumber gazpacho? If you still have a couple of jalapenos from a week or so ago, you are pretty much ready to go with this recipe, which is a little spicy and very tasty. Sort of a break from all those tomato recipes, too. I've been enjoying this cold soup off and on all week, it's a great cool lunch.

Spicy Cucumber Gazpacho
2 English cucumbers, peeled and chopped (4 cups chopped)
1 green bell pepper, cored, seeded, deribbed, and chopped
3 green onions, trimmed and cut into 1-inch lengths
2 jalapeno chiles, stemmed, halved lengthwise, seeded and deribbed (use disposable gloves)
small handful Italian parsley, large stems removed
small handful spearmint or lemon verbena leaves (I used orange mint)
2 large cloves garlic, peeled and minced or pressed
½ cup chicken stock, vegetable stock, or water
¼ cup olive oil
2 tablespoonsred wine vinegar
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
Tabasco (or homemade) green pepper sauce, to taste (just a few drops!)
1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt

Garnish
¼ cup diced cucumber (with peel)
croutons

Put the cucumber, bell pepper, green onions, jalapeno chiles, parsley, spearmint or lemon verbena, and garlic into a blender or food processor to puree. Add the stock, olive oil, vinegar, lemon juice, Tabasco, and salt. Pulse to combine. Taste and adjust the balance of salt and lemon juice if needed.

Chill completely, and just before serving, pour the soup into bowls and garnish with diced cucumber and croutons. Makes 2 quarts; serves 6.

Tomatoes Deserve an Ode

Eleven pounds of tomatoes in a large share on Saturday—that must be some kind of record. I've made gazpacho, BLTs, and ketchup! (more on that soon). There will be more recipes as we work our way through the immense red and yellow bounty, but today’s blog posting is simply a poem by Pablo Neruda, an ode to tomatoes, and just one thing to mention about it—remember, in South America, December is the equivalent of July here, when the tomatoes start rolling in by the bushel.

Ode To Tomatoes
Pablo Neruda

The street
filled with tomatoes,
midday,
summer,
light is
halved
like
a
tomato,
its juice
runs
through the streets.
In December,
unabated,
the tomato
invades
the kitchen,
it enters at lunchtime,
takes
its ease
on countertops,
among glasses,
butter dishes,
blue saltcellars.
It sheds
its own light,
benign majesty.
Unfortunately, we must
murder it:
the knife
sinks
into living flesh,
red
viscera
a cool
sun,
profound,
inexhaustible,
populates the salads
of Chile,
happily, it is wed
to the clear onion,
and to celebrate the union
we
pour
oil,
essential
child of the olive,
onto its halved hemispheres,
pepper
adds
its fragrance,
salt, its magnetism;
it is the wedding
of the day,
parsley
hoists
its flag,
potatoes
bubble vigorously,
the aroma
of the roast
knocks
at the door,
it’s time!
come on!
and, on
the table, at the midpoint
of summer,
the tomato,
star of earth, recurrent
and fertile
star,
displays
its convolutions,
its canals,
its remarkable amplitude
and abundance,
no pit,
no husk,
no leaves or thorns,
the tomato offers
its gift
of fiery color
and cool completeness.

Swiss Chard Variations: Tarts and Soup

Someone asked me what you can do with Swiss chard the other day, so of course I had some suggestions . . . and I thought I’d post them on the blog, too.

The first idea is Swiss chard tarts, pictured here, and inspired by Enright CSA member Mary Jo Bazeley and Pam Ford, who is not a member of the CSA, but who is a food stylist (an intriguing occupation) and who brought some tasty little tomato tartlets to EdenSong last week.

Mary Jo’s idea was to put little pieces of dough (wonton wrappers, perhaps) in the crannies formed on the back of a muffin pan by the muffin indents, as pictured here.


I tried this, and it worked okay, but because the filing was fairly liquid, it seeped out. I think if I made these Swiss chard tarts again, I’d use the muffin pans right side up and line them with the dough (in this case, store-bought puff pastry).

Swiss Chard Tarts
1 onion, chopped
1 garlic clove, minced
2 Tbsps. Olive oil
1 bunch Swiss chard
6 eggs
1 cup shredded cheese
Salt and pepper to taste
1 pkg. Pepperidge Farm frozen prepared puff pastry

Take the pastry out of the freezer to thaw and preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Brown the onion and the garlic in oil in a largish pan. Trim and chop the chard and add it to the pan, cook down until wilted.

Meanwhile, lay out the two pieces of puff pastry and cut each large square into four smaller squares. Grease 8 muffin cups and line them with the squares of pastry. Beat the eggs in a bowl and mix in the cheese (I used cheddar, but Swiss would also be appropriate), salt, and pepper.

Divide the chard and onion mixture among the 8 dough-lined muffin cups, then pour the egg and cheese mixture over each. Bake for about 20-25 minutes, until pastry is golden brown and filling puffs up.

You can use one piece of puff pastry and make half the recipe to make four tarts; you could also put all of the chard and egg/cheese mixture in one conventional pie crust; you’d probably want to bake it for 35 to 40 minutes in that case. Delicious!

Swiss Chard Soup
Now, for Swiss chard soup, which is so easy it barely needs a recipe (but it is in the Asparagus to Zucchini cookbook if you want to look it up). You need a bunch of chard, washed and chopped, 3 to 4 cups of chicken or vegetable stock, and 4 ounces of cream cheese (half an 8 ounce bar). Heat the broth, add the chard, and cook until the chard is wilted, about 6 to 8 minutes. Add some salt and pepper to taste (if you are using canned chicken broth, forget the salt, it already has enough). Cut the cream cheese into small squares and divide the squares among three or four soup bowls. Pour the hot soup over the cream cheese croutons and serve hot. Double delicious.

ENRIGHT CSA SPOTLIGHT

Michael Frazier,
Packout Team Leader

We’re going to “spotlight” a few of the Enright CSA folks who get things done—farmers, team leaders, and other people who go above and beyond to bring you all that great produce every week. CSA member Michael Waddell is our intrepid reporter, and his first Spotlight catches Packout Team Leader Michael Frazier.
**************************************************

For those who might not know him, Michael Frazier is our packout team leader. If you see him, say hi! He’s friendly, and an all-around cool guy. I interviewed him to find out more about who is he and why he helps with the CSA.

CSA: What is the packout team, and what does a packout team leader do?
MF: The packout team is responsible for taking each week’s harvest and preparing it for Saturday’s pickup. That can often include rinsing the produce, counting or weighing it, dividing it, and labeling and “staging” it. Volunteers on the packout team also make themselves available to greet members and assist them with picking up their share, should they have any questions or need any help. When arrangements have been made ahead of time (by emailing packout@enright-csa.org), packout team volunteers will also pack shares for members unable to make it to Saturday’s pickup, and put it in the cooler to be picked up later. Finally, after Saturday’s pickup is over, packout team volunteers clean up the greenhouse in preparation for the next week’s pickup.

CSA: ERUEV’s CSA was formed in 2009, and has grown since then. Are you happy with the growth you’ve seen in the CSA project? What changes have excited you the most?
MF: It’s been exciting to see the CSA grow and add members each year. There is a real excitement around this project and it’s been great seeing all the new faces. I am very excited about the fruit and nut trees!

CSA: What are some directions you would like to see the CSA take in the future?
MF: When I think about all the work that goes into this project, sometimes it seems like a small miracle that it all gets done, and yet, it always does. This is still a very young project and we’ve made some seriously huge strides. I’m looking forward to seeing the ways in which we can become more efficient and manage volunteer hours better so that some of the administrative duties don’t fall to so few people.

CSA: What has been your favorite produce you received from the CSA so far? And what (if anything) have you made with the produce from the CSA?
MF: Kohlrabi. I found that I really liked it, and prefer to eat it raw!

CSA: Many CSAs only require a monetary payment, but ours has a workshare component as well. What do you think this adds to the experience?
MF: Working for the CSA gives tremendous insight into what goes into growing our food. For me, it also gives a sense of investment that not only makes my share seem more valuable, but makes it taste that much better!

CSA: Have you lately read any good books, or watched any good documentaries, on CSAs or farming issues?
MF: Like many of us, I would assume, I was deeply moved by reading Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver and In Defense of Food by Michael Pollan. Fresh, a documentary film wherein urban farming activist Will Allen and Joel Salatin discuss how corporate America threatens our food economy, was very powerful. I’ve also enjoyed documentary films The Future of Food, King Corn, Forks Over Knives, Super Size Me, and Food, Inc., which all have to do with food production and the American diet in one way or another.

CSA: Most Americans buy just a few varieties of fresh produce, and are hesitant to use vegetables or fruits that they are not familiar with. That’s a shame, since a variety of fresh ingredients can be one of the most important components of a healthy diet. What are some good ways that a person can learn about different food items and ways they can be used?
MF: Google! Whenever I have something in my share I don’t know what to do with, I go to the web and look for ideas and recipes. We’ve also got a few good cookbooks that are specifcally for CSAs which show what to do with vegetables that are currently in season. The CSA blog and newsletters are also great resources.

CSA: What changes do you hope to see in the world in your lifetime, related to farming and the food supply? When your daughter is an old woman, what do you hope will be different about the way we produce and consume food?
MF: For myself, the reliance on processed and “fast” foods have resulted in excess weight problems that have plagued me my whole life. My hope is that growing knowledge of, exposure to and availability of locally-grown whole foods will help her avoid those problems, while strengthening and growing her local producers and economies.
—Michael Waddell

Riffling Through—and Interpreting—Old “Mango” Recipes

Because we got so many varicolored peppers in this week’s share, my mom called me looking for an old recipe for relish made from mangoes—an old name for sweet peppers—that she had given me. It took a little while, but I found it typed on its original 3 x 5 index card, probably from the 1960s. I sent it to her, and then decided I’d put it on the blog, too. It’s quite succinct, but I’ll warn you—a fifty-year-old recipe needs a little interpretation, which follows. Also, I’ve halved the recipe (it originally called for two dozen “mangoes”) but you can easily double this if the peppers keep coming.

Uphouse[1] Mango[2] Relish

1 dozen red and green MANGOES (soak in HOT water[3])
8 lg. onions[4]
3/4 cup sugar
1 Tbsp. salt
1/2 Tbsp. white mustard seed
1/2 Tbsp. celery seed
1 cup white vinegar

Put all peppers thru food chopper with a large knife[5] and cover with boiling water[6]. Let stand 10 minutes. Add onions and rest of ingredients. Cook 10 minutes and seal hot[7].

1. My grandparents’ neighbors were called the Uphouses, and as a kid I assumed it was because they lived in a house up at the top of my grandparents’ yard, but it turns out their name actually was “Uphouse.”
2. When I was a kid, we didn’t have green peppers; they were called mangoes. I’m told that no one around here ever ate tropical mangoes, but as green peppers turned orange and red, they looked a little like those tropical fruit, and so they got the name. I expect a few people still call them mangoes, but this mango relish uses green and red peppers. I’m sure you can substitute purple and white peppers as well.
3. I don’t know what this direction means. Do you soak them before you chop them, or after? I just don’t know.
4. My guess is you want to chop the onions, too.
5. A food chopper with a large knife—sounds like a proto-food processor, so I’m assuming you could chop them, pulsing before they turn to mush, or use a knife or some other chopping device.
6. How much boiling water? Hmmm. To cover. And it never says to drain the water. Do you? Or do you just throw in the sugar, salt, seeds, and vinegar on top of that water? Another mystery.
7. Seal hot is concise shorthand for a canning process—you want to put the hot mixture in sterilized jars, put on the lids and rings, and then put the jars in a boiling water bath. Since it has vinegar in the mixture, you don’t need to pressure can the relish, as it’s acidic. Probably best to leave it in the boiling water bath for 5 to 10 minutes. When you take the jars out, you should hear them click as the seal forms.

If you expect to eat the relish with a couple of weeks, you can probably safely put it in sterilized jars and refrigerate it without canning. And let me know if you figure out the hot water soak and whether or not to drain the boiling water. I’ll probably give it a try at some point, so if I figure it out I’ll post an addendum to this blog entry, too. One final note: As I recall, this relish is really delicious, well worth trying with our large "mango" harvest.

Poet Farmers

I was thinking about poems about farming, and decided that there are probably more poet farmers than, say, science-fiction writing farmers (does Stephen King dare to raise corn, do you suppose?) Wendell Berry comes first to my mind; Suellyn Shupe posted a poem by Berry on the blog earlier this season. I like “The Man Born to Farming” especially. Here’s an excerpt:

The Grower of Trees, the gardener, the man born to farming,
whose hands reach into the ground and sprout
to him the soil is a divine drug. He enters into death
yearly, and comes back rejoicing. He has seen the light lie down
in the dung heap, and rise again in the corn.

Walt Whitman wrote a wonderful short poem called “A Farm-Picture”:

Through the ample open door of the peaceful country barn,
A sun-lit pasture field, with cattle and horses feeding;
And haze, and vista, and the far horizon, fading away.

Then there was Carl Sandburg, a fellow who knew something about the Midwest with its fields of grain and pastures of cattle. He apparently caught the corn laughing at him once, and that inspired him to write “The Laughing Corn,” of which this is an excerpt:

There was a high majestic fooling
Day before yesterday in the yellow corn.
And day after to-morrow in the yellow corn
There will be high majestic fooling.
The ears ripen in late summer
And come on with a conquering laughter,
Come on with a high and conquering laughter.

But enough about corn! One of my favorite poets, the Chilean Pablo Neruda, wrote an ode to tomatoes that I really like; I think I’ll post the entire poem as a separate blog entry (done--here's the link). Other poets who were farmers . . . Robert Burns (he wrote a poem about turning up a mouse nest with his plow), Henry David Thoreau (his poem “I Am the Autumnal Sun” has some nice harvest images in it), and Robert Frost.

It has been said about Robert Frost that it is hard to tell which was his vocation and which his avocation—he was dedicated to both farming and poetry. The illustration at the top of this blog entry is a woodcut by J. J. Lanke of Frost's farm in Derry, New Hampshire. But even he occasionally was a bit overwhelmed by the harvest; I like his poem, “After Apple-Picking,” when he realizes just how many apples he has. It reminds me a bit of the yield of the pear tree in the Schenks’ yard:

And I keep hearing from the cellar bin
The rumbling sound
Of load on load of apples coming in.
For I have had too much
Of apple-picking: I am overtired
Of the great harvest I myself desired.
There were ten thousand thousand fruit to touch,
Cherish in hand, lift down, and not let fall.

Do you have a favorite farming poem, or a favorite poet farmer? Let us know!

Raw Panic

There was a great article in the NY Times yesterday about being inundated with raw vegetables, either because you went crazy at the farmer’s market, you have a garden that’s doing very well, or you belong to a CSA. I highly recommend reading the entire article, but if you don’t have time to do so because you are up to your ears in squash and tomatoes, here are some highlights—

First, try to deal with as much of the produce as you can the day you get it. Sometimes easier said than done, but I am happy to say I have learned this lesson in the last couple of CSA seasons. I do my best to clear Saturday afternoons in July, August, and September to blanch, pickle, freeze, and can. (That sounds like a song chorus, doesn’t it?) The NY Times article also suggests simply roasting the vegetables (each kind separately) with a little olive oil and salt in the oven, then cooling and refrigerating. This gives you a refrigerator full of cooked vegetables, which are easier to deal with during the upcoming work week. A good plan.

Not in the article, but my quick tip for the day, is “blanch and freeze.” This works great for green beans and tomatoes, but you can also use it for many other things (corn, eggplant, even some summer squashes). For tomatoes, put in boiling water for about 8 to 10 minutes, cool, peel/core, and freeze in freezer bags. For green beans, snap the ends off, cook for about a minute or two in boiling water, remove to a bowl filled with ice and water, drain, put in bags and freeze. This doesn’t take long, and you’ll have nearly fresh vegetables all winter long.

The article also says that greens should be washed before storing. I’m not sure I agree with that; I think lettuce, anyway, starts to wilt faster if it is washed and then stored. But the article does give a good tip for washing greens of all kinds: wash them in lots of water (that is, don’t stick them under the faucet, but fill the sink, douse the greens, swirl them around, and let the dirt sink). But soft herbs like basil shouldn’t be washed until just before they are used; the water will speed deterioration.

Vegetables and fruit should be stored separately, because the gas ethylene, which is produced by ripening fruit, can damage vegetables. Some produce will continue to ripen if left out on the counter, including apples, pears, and tomatoes. Others will not, including bell peppers and squash. They will only deteriorate if left out, so do refrigerate them.

Back to cooking—the article notes that though raw vegetables are definitely good for you, you can only eat so many of them. When you are eating all those good vegetables anyway, there is some justification in lavish applications of fat (bacon bits, butter, cheese, oil) to make those vegetables eminently palatable. Or, as Mike Flanders likes to refer to greens: “bacon delivery systems.”

A quick and easy way to add a little tasty fat to your vegetables is to sauté a little onion, garlic, or shallot in butter, turn the vegetables in the pan and move them around a bit until they start to soften. Then cover tightly and let them cook in their own steam, testing them often.

That’s it for the recap of the article; I do recommend reading the whole article online!

Time to Gear Up for Tomato Season

I think we’ve mentioned this before, but we’re going to be getting a lot of tomatoes . . . I am planning on eating a lot of mine on toasted bread with bacon and lettuce and a soupcon of mayonnaise, or cut into segments like an orange and topped wit a dollop of cottage cheese sprinkled with fresh chopped basil and black pepper, or sliced and layered with fresh mozzarella slices and basil, or . . . okay, I could go on and on describing ways to eat tomatoes pretty much as nature intended them, fresh off the vine.

But there are plenty of great recipes for tomatoes, too; some of them have already been included in the Enright CSA blog, so I’ll just provide links back to those recipes. The first is for Gazpacho, aka cold Mexican tomato soup. This uses cucumbers, too, and heavens knows we have gotten a lot of cucumbers lately. (The photo at the top of this blog entry shows a batch of gazpacho in progress.)

The second is for Grilled Caprese Salad; you probably know that Caprese Salad is concocted from fresh tomatoes, fresh mozzarella, and fresh basil, with a little olive oil and balsamic vinegar. It’s, well, a very fresh way to eat your tomatoes. But just try running it under the broiler for a few minutes for a warm version that is pretty great, too. Caprese Salad simply means “salad in the style they make it on the Isle of Capri,” an island off the coast of Naples, Italy. It’s called Capri from the Latin word capreae, which means goats. The Romans called it the “Isle of Goats,” and I expect that fresh goat cheese was originally used in Caprese Salad. Which sounds pretty good, now that I mention it.

Baked Tomatoes
One more quick and simple tomato preparation (it's too easy to warrant a recipe) to end this blog: Baked Tomatoes. Take a few tomatoes and cut off the top, making a flat top. Score the top of the tomatoes with a knife, then spread on just a little mustard of your choice. Sprinkle the tops of each tomato with salt and pepper to taste, bread crumbs, and anything else that sounds good—thyme, tarragon, basil, parmesan cheese—the garnish is up to you. Put the tomatoes in separate compartments of a muffin pan and bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes. A real taste treat!

Coming soon—recipes that use tomatoes AND zucchini!

Top Ten Things to Do with a Surfeit of Tomatoes

We’re going to get a bumper crop of tomatoes in the next few weeks. How great is that? The only thing is, you’ll need to figure out some ways to keep some of them for later. Even the most ardent tomato fan, like me, can’t eat tomatoes morning, noon, and night. Here are a few suggestions to keep in mind when the tomatoes start rolling in; we’ll start posting recipes for some of these ideas soon, too!

10. Cook up a big batch of ketchup. How cool will it be to have homemade ketchup for your burgers and fries?
9. Experiment with exquisitely flavored spaghetti sauce and freeze it to enjoy the essence of summer in the middle of winter.
8. Chop them up for tomato chutney, relish, chop-chop, or whatever you call it, to can and keep or jar and keep for a long time in the fridge.
7. Use them for a facial. It's true; they are an astringent and can allegedly clear up acne, open pores, and generally help your skin.
6. Create a French country pizza—fresh dough topped with olive oil, sliced tomatoes, and mozzarella. Or bake them in a pie. A tart actually, but there are lots of recipes for tomato tarts out there.
5. Process a few jars of tomato jam (great with homemade ricotta on homemade bread).
4. Make sun-dried tomatoes. You can do it in the oven, and if they aren’t completely dry, they also keep marvelously packed in olive oil with garlic and spices. When you want to use them, drain them and toss with pasta; save the olive oil to make a delicious salad dressing, too.
3. Blanch, peel, and freeze them in freezer bags to make sauce or add to stews all winter.
2. Put together a gallon of gazpacho. It’s no-cook (except for skinning the tomatoes) and the perfect food for hot summer days.

And the number 1, most delicious way to enjoy homegrown Ohio Valley tomatoes—slice and eat them with a little salt and pepper or oil and vinegar—enjoy the bounty!

Look for more ideas and recipes coming soon . . . and if you have a favorite recipe to share, send it to the Enright CSA blog at farm@pricehill.org or to the Enright Greenhouse Gazette at hotchsdirt@gmail.com.

TOMATOES!!

Sorry for shouting, but I do get excited when the tomatoes start to ripen. Oh, I’ve had a few red tomatoes in my backyard garden and from my patio pot (planted during that “hot” spell in mid-March), but I’ve had to fight the squirrels for those. A naturalist I know says this is because of the drought—the squirrels are stealing them for the liquid they hold. I don’t know about that; I think I’ve been fighting squirrels for the produce of my backyard garden for many years, drought and wet.

But now the tomatoes are starting to come in at the CSA in goodly numbers, and I wasted no time in making one of the ones we got this morning into a bacon, lettuce, and tomato sandwich. I don’t think I need to post a recipe for that particular specialty; it’s pretty self-evident. I had local tomatoes and lettuce, bakery bread (no homemade bread left, dang), and homemade mayonnaise, so it was pretty delicious. And to be any more artisanal, I’d have to take up hog farming (I did get the bacon down at Gibbs’ stand at Findlay Market).

I plan to eat another tomato this evening with fresh mozzarella and basil, drizzled with olive oil and balsamic vinegar, and I may chop up another one to make some guacamole. Not quite enough yet for gazpacho, but that’s on my list to make soon—it’s one of my favorite summertime foods, and would be particularly tasty in this never-ending heat wave.

We got a lot of cucumbers today, too, and I may slice some of those up with tomatoes for a salad. Tomatoes served just about anyway will be on the menu (I hope) for weeks to come, and I’m looking forward to that.

Bok Choy Stir Fry

Bok choy, pak choi, it can be transliterated in various ways, but it's still a kind of Chinese cabbage. Yeah, more cabbage! This is a type that makes a nice stir fry--quick and delicious. In fact, I beat the Rachael Ray 30-minute mark with this recipe (though it's not one of hers), going from deciding to prepare some of our fresh bok choy to sitting down to eat it in 18 minutes flat!

This is a very simple recipe; you could add other things to the stir fry, of course. And, sitting in a nice cool establishment enjoying a shandy with fellow CSA member Tina Michel on Fourth of July, she and I had the idea of combining this recipe with a previous one that featured celtuce and scallops--just replace the celtuce with bok choy. Sounded yummy!

Bok Choy Stir Fry

1 tablespoon olive oil
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 tablespoon minced fresh ginger
4 cups chopped fresh bok choy (1 large or two small)
2 tablespoons reduced-sodium soy sauce
Salt and ground black pepper to taste

Heat oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add the garlic and ginger and cook for 1 minute. Add the bok choy and soy sauce and cook 3 to 5 minutes, until greens are wilted and stalks are crisp-tender. Season, to taste, with salt and black pepper.

Patriotic Pickles

Still have those cucumbers from the last share? Not ready to start canning yet? Well, the New York Times had a recipe this morning for making bread and butter pickles that you don't have to can--they keep in the refrigerator for up to a month. And if they are like most bread and butter pickles, they will taste so good you don't have to worry about them lasting even that whole month.

The NY Times article also had interesting recipes for homemade mustard and ketchup, so here's a link if you are interested. But I'll reprint the recipe for pickles here so you can get started on them right away!

No-Can Bread and Butter Pickles

1 pound cucumbers
2 Tbsps kosher salt
3 large sprigs fresh dill
1/4 cup light brown sugar
/3 cup cider vinegar
2 tsps. coriander seeds
1/2 tsp. black peppercorns
1/4 tsp. allspice berries

Trim ends from cucumbers and slice into 1/4-inch thick rounds. In a colaner set over a bowl, toss them with salt. Refrigerate uncovered for 2 hours. Drain and transfer cucumbers and dill to bowl.

In a small saucepan, combine sugar, viengar, coriander, peppercorns, and alllspice; bring to a boil and cook until sugar dissolves. Pour hot liquid over cucumbers and toss well. Let stand, tossing every 10 mintes, for 30 minutes. Transfer to a clean (run through the dishwasher or pour hot water and let stand for ten minutes or so), airtight jar and referigerate. Makes approximately 1 quart; pickles keep for about a month.

A Couple of Cool Ways to Cook Cabbage

We’ve gotten a lot of cabbage lately. Also, it’s been in the high 90s, and there’s a big holiday coming up—in the middle of the week, no less. So I have been thinking about ways to cook that cabbage without heating up the kitchen or taking a lot of time away from holiday activities. And one of the things I thought of first was . . . crockpot! Here are two cabbage crockpot recipes; I adapted the first one from a recipe I found online and have already made it. Roast cabbage (shown at left) is delicious, even when it’s hot out. The second, scalloped cabbage, I haven’t tried yet, but what doesn’t taste better with cheese on it?

Crockpot Roasted Cabbage and Potatoes
1 small head of cabbage
8-10 fingerling or other small potatoes
8 whole cloves of garlic
3 or 4 of those sweet, delicious CSA onions
CSA turnips if you have them
1/4 cup olive oil
2 Tbsp balsamic vinegar
1/2 tsp kosher salt
1/2 tsp black pepper

Wash the vegetables and cut potatoes and turnips into 1 inch chunks (you don’t have to peel them). Peel and quarter the onions; just peel the garlic and leave the cloves whole. Cut the cabbage into wedges; don't worry about separating the leaves. Throw all the veggies into the crockpot with the whole garlic cloves. Mix together the olive oil, salt, pepper, and balsamic vinegar and pour it over the vegetables. Toss with your hands to coat the vegetables thoroughly. (Note: Don’t add any water.) Cook on high for 3 hours or low for 4 to 6 hours. The vegetables are done when the potatoes reach desired tenderness. The cabbage and onions get a little carmelized and crispy around the edges where they touch the crock walls. That's okay, it tastes wonderful!

Scalloped Cabbage in the Crockpot
1 can low-fat Cream of Mushroom Soup
1/4 cup chopped pimiento, drained (I may use chiles instead)
3/4 cup shredded cheddar cheese
8 cups shredded cabbage
1 1/2 cup shredded carrots
1/2 cup chopped onion
Salt and pepper to taste

Spray a crockpot container with butter-flavored cooking spray. In the prepared crockpot, combine mushroom soup, pimiento, and cheddar cheese. Add cabbage, carrots, and onion. Mix well to combine. Cover and cook on LOW for 3 to 4 hours. Mix well before serving.

A Beet Treat That Can't Be Beat

Sometimes the recipes on the blog are a little behind the harvest, since we have to all figure out how to prepare what we've picked up after we pick it up (but I promise some cabbage recipes are coming soon). So, this is a wonderful recipe for beets right after the beet harvest seems to have concluded. But there may well be more beets in the fall, and there will certainly be more next year. That's where the blog comes in handy--you can check last year's entries for things to do with produce that we are getting in abundance.

This recipe comes from Costa Rica, by way of Barb and Rank Dawson. Anne-Marie Cantelaube, the chef at the place they stayed there, is preparing a cookbook herself, and she was willing to share the recipe for her delicious beet fritters. Only one catch--the recipe was in French. But that's okay, a little translation keeps language skills sharp (and I learned the French word for beet, it's betterave). I tried the recipe the very evening I translated it, and I am happy to report that they taste as good as they look!



Beet Fritters (makes about 6)

2 large beets
1 egg
2 Tablespoons flour
1 teaspoon finely chopped garlic
1 Tablespoon cilantro, chopped
Oil for frying

1. Shred the beets coarsely.
2. Allow them to drain for ½ hour in a bowl.
3. Then mix the beets with the beaten egg, 2 Tablespoons of flour, and chopped garlic and cilantro, plus salt and pepper. Form the mixture into small fritters or croquettes and fry them in hot oil, 3 minutes on each side. Drain on paper towels and serve hot or warm.