Collards!

Many people know Collards as a Southern dish traditionally made with ham, but Collard greens are very versatile and go well with a number of different flavors. Collards, Cabbage, Kale or any type of green in the cabbage family can be used in this very tasty vegetarian African dish.   Even if you didn't get Collards in your share this week, try using any of the Brassicas to make yourself an awesome version of Zambian Ifisashi and impress all of your friends!

Ifisashi is a simple and common ndiwo-a soup, stew or sauce made with greens and peanuts that is always served with Nshima, the staple food of Zambia made with pounded white maize meal.  You can try this on grits, polenta, or rice.  Other ndiwo dishes are made from various sorts of fish, meat, beans or peas.  The combination of nshima and ndiwo is the only thing that most Zambians call a real meal, much like meat and potatoes in the United States. 

Ingredients:
2 bunches fresh collard greens (or other greens), washed and chopped
1 cup raw peanuts, ground (or chunky peanut butter-try freshly ground peanut butter from Whole Foods or another health food store)
Salt to taste
1 onion, sliced
2 medium tomatoes, sliced (or canned chopped tomatoes)
Water (you can also use vegetable broth or chicken broth to add flavor)

Preparation
In a medium-sized saucepan, boil the onion and tomatoes with the ground peanuts, adding salt to taste and water as needed.  After a few minutes, add chopped greens, stirring occasionally, continue cooking until the peanuts are soft and the mixture has become a fairly thick buttery sauce (15-20 minutes). Serve hot or cold.

Cabbage Roundup

We may be seeing more Chinese (or Napa) cabbage in the share this week, and those heads of cabbage are so big, they can sometimes be overwhelming, especially when we get it a couple of weeks in a row. Never fear, there are some great ways to use your cabbage, even some that don’t involve any cooking at all!

Since we’ve often gotten a lot of cabbage, this has been a common theme of some past blogs. So, I decided to round up the cabbage recipes that have already been posted in past seasons, and you can take your pick of those listed below. There are recipes for cooking cabbage in a crockpot, using it raw in a really delicious salad that makes a large amount—perfect for a Memorial Day picnic—and even a recipe for kimchi, a method of Korean cold pickling that can make your cabbage into a spicy treat that lasts for weeks.

And this is also a good time to point out the Search feature on this blog. The Search This Blog box at top right will help you find recipes and information about many of the types of produce you’ll get in your share over the course of the season. Just enter an item, such as Eggplant or Tomato, and click the Search button. A list of blog entries that refer to that type of food will list at the top of the blog page.

There have been almost two hundred posts on the Enright CSA blog since it started in 2009, with lots of recipes people have shared on how to prepare the great local produce we receive. Be sure to use this resource to find interesting ways to enjoy your weekly share. For now, here are some quick links to tasty cabbage recipes.

A Couple of Cool Ways to Cook Cabbage

Use That Chinese Cabbage for a Tasty Holiday Salad

It's Kimchi, Not Land Mines: Asian Cold Pickling I

Winter Vegetables Lend Themselves to an Ethnic Approach

Ten Things to Do with the Chives in the Share This Week

We got a nice big bunch of chives in our CSA share last Saturday. What have you been doing with yours? Here's a Top Ten List with a few ideas:

10. Boil some new potatoes, drain, and toss with butter and chopped chives. Duh!

9. Chop some up fine with a little of the cilantro and oregano we got and add it to a two-egg omelet as it is cooking, then grate a little Gruyere cheese over all, and enjoy a fines herbes omelet, as the French would say.

8. Add chopped chives to homemade salad dressing—they are good in vinaigrette, bleu cheese, and even ranch dressing.

7. Make chive butter. Chop ’em up and add ’em to a stick of softened butter, then refrigerate. It’s delicious on steamed vegetables.

6. Add them to a baked potato with sour cream.

5. Cut off the blossoms and toss them in your salad for an oniony taste and some interesting color.

4. If you want to get all fancy, take a few of the longest chives and use them to tie up bundles of cooked asparagus before serving. Oo, la, la!

3. Make vichyssoise (cold potato soup) and top it with chopped chives. Does there seem to be a potato theme developing here? Chives and potatoes just go so well together . . .

2. Roasted beet, grapefruit, and goat cheese salad garnished with chives—it’s colorful, messy, and swoonworthy.

1. And, as David Letterman would say, the #1 thing to do with chives: add them to whipped cottage cheese for a true German delicacy, Schmeerkase mit Schnittlauch. One of the best foods ever. I want some right now!

If It’s Spring, Those Must Be Greens

We get a lot of greens in the early weeks of the Enright CSA’s season. That’s a good thing; greens are good for you, and they are very versatile. We got some salad greens, some cooking greens, and some greens that swing either way (spinach and arugula) this week. I’ve had a couple of delicious salads, and I used some cooking greens in a stir fry, but there were still some greens in the fridge. I also had some leftover couscous, so I decided to concoct a new dish using greens. You could use any kind of greens—kale, yukina or other Asian greens, collards, bok choi—you name it. I used cheddar cheese, but I think it would also taste great with Swiss or mozzarella or even Monterey Jack. It’s a quick and easy dish that’s good for you, too. (I know that from watching Popeye as a kid . . .) And it will clear out a little room in your greens-filled refrigerator, too.

Couscous Greens Casserole

1 cup couscous

1½ cups water or vegetable or chicken stock

1 bunch greens

1/3 cup vegetable or chicken stock (in addition to the amount used above to cook the couscous)

1¼ cups shredded cheese (cheddar, Swiss, whatever)

Boil the water or stock, adding a little salt if you prefer. Stir in the couscous, turn off the heat, and let sit for about 15 minutes.

Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Wash the greens well but don’t dry them. Cut off any thick stems; chop up the rest of the greens into 1/4” ribbons.

Grease an 8” x 8” casserole dish. In a bowl, mix the couscous, the greens, and 1 cup of shredded cheese. Arrange in the casserole dish and top with the rest of the cheese. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes, until cheese melts.

You could steam or sauté the greens first if you like them softer, but they are good with a little crunch in this casserole, too.

It's Time to Start Eating Fresh Local Produce Again!

It's been a long six months since the last pickup at the Enright CSA greenhouse last December, but it's finally time to start getting our locally grown greens and vegetables again. This Saturday, May 18, is the first pickup of the 2013 season. Pickup times are 10:00 am to 12:00 noon at the greenhouse, as usual.

The packout workers work hard, and they are working a longer shift this year, so they really, truly appreciate it if you can respect the pickup time and arrange to be there in time to be finished by noon so they can clean up and get on with their Saturday, too. If you can't make it before noon, just let the packout folks know (packout@enright-csa.org) the evening before and they will pack up your share and have it waiting for you in the greenhouse cooler.

We haven't heard what will be in this first week's share yet, but you can probably expect greens. There's lettuce growing at the Terry Street garden, and there are also greens coming along at the greenhouse. Whatever we get will be welcome as we can start eating fresh and locally grown food again.

Don't forget to bring your bags, and if you haven't signed up for a work team yet, there will be people there on Saturday morning to help you do that. There is also a plant sale during the same hours as pickup, so if you are looking for plants grown using organic practices, heirloom varieties, tomatoes, peppers (hot and sweet, bell and pimento), tomatillos, eggplant, collards, cabbage, and chard, be sure to check out the plant sale, too. There will be several kinds of herb plants available as well, including dill and three kinds of basil.

See you at the greenhouse!