This Week's Eatwell Box - 11/2/2011

This week's box of goodies is as follows:

Pomegranate
Apples
Florence Fennel
Chard
Cauliflower OR Romanesco
Italian Parsley
Kohlrabi
Napa Cabbage
Leeks
Eggplant
Small Iceberg Lettuce
*Bonus: Ugly Basil

First of all, there is no ugly basil - it's all good especially in a pesto that will be frozen for winter use.  The pomegranate seeds will be crushed, strained and made into a salad dressing.  If you are adventurous, there are Indian cooks who make a pickle out of the bitter rinds of the pomegranate, but this is beyond my skills.  Apples will be great for snacks.  The cauliflower or romansesco makes a great sauce for pasta - check out Lidia's Italy website at http://lidiasitaly.com/recipes/detail/450 (I'll be using gemelli for the pasta in this recipe).  How about an iceberg lettuce,  fennel and orange salad to perk up a meal?  Napa cabbage, chard, leeks and kohlrabi can make a great mizutaki with some thinly sliced chicken breast or thighs added along with some carrots and udon noodles.  A recipe can be found at http://japanesefood.about.com/od/chickenturkey/r/mizutaki.htm   Lastly, the eggplant - make some baba ganoush for snacking or lunch using carrots and celery or pita bread as dippers. 

Up to My Ears in Greens

Yipes, the greens are getting away from me in the fridge.  Large bunches of Russian kale, collards and turnips greens along with 2 bunches of leeks are being turned into ravioli filling.  The filling is cooling right now and I'll chop it more finely, then make the pasta for the ravs.  These should taste good with some tomato sauce made from Eatwell Farm tomatoes at one of their tomato saucing party events.

Mixed Greens filling for Ravioli

3 large bunches of greens, washed well, made into chiffinades and then sliced into 1/4 inch strips
3 large or 6 small leeks (or combination of leeks and onions) finely diced
1/4 cup fresh parsley leaves, chopped
1/4 tsp. fresh ground nutmeg
1/4 tsp. turmeric(optional)
1 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. black pepper
1 tsp. dried italian seasoning(mix of oregano, basil, rosemary)
3 TBSP olive oil
1 lb. of pasta dough

Make the pasta dough. A typical recipe can be found here http://lidiasitaly.com/recipes/detail/1032
Allow it to rest while you make the filling.

Heat the olive oil over medium high heat, add the leeks, salt, black pepper, turmeric and nutmeg. Saute for 2-3 minutes, then add the greens.  Add the dried italian seasoning and parsley.  Saute for 6-8 minutes until the greens are thoroughly wilted, stirring occasionally.  Once cooked, allow the mixture to cool to room temperature.  Place the mixture in a food processor, and pulse several times to further chop and blend the mixture ( you don't want a smooth paste, but a rough chopped look to the greens).  If you don't have a food processor, chop by hand to achieve the same effect.  The mix should be well chopped and scoopable (if more moisture came out during the chopping, return the mix to a saute pan and heat to through to remove excess moisture). 

Rollout the pasta dough into sheets using a pasta maker or rolling pin.  Place small dollops of greens mixture on one pasta sheet, brush some egg wash or water around each dollop and cover the dollops with a second sheet, cut between the greens mixture dollops to create pasta squares.  Seal the squares with the tines of a fork pressed along the edge of each square. Place the filled squares in a single layer on a cookie sheet lined with a lint free tea towel sprinkled liberally with flour.  You can freeze the raviolis for later by placing the cookie sheet with the ravs in the freezer and once frozen place the raviolis in a freezer bag for later use.  Or if using that day - cover the ravs with a tea towel and place in the fridge until ready to cook. 

To cook, fill a large pot with water, bring to a boil, add ravioli, cook until they all float to the surface, remove from the pot with a slotted spoon or spider and dress with your favorite sauce.

Curried Pumpkin and Turnip Soup

We received a wonderful small pumpkin and some turnips from Eatwell Farm this week, along with a recipe for Pumpkin and Turnip Soup in the newsletter.  I took liberties with the soup and used an olive oil instead of butter base and also substituted the cream with chicken broth I made from Soul Food Farm chicken leftovers (head, neck, wings and back).  I also added cumin and tumeric to the mix along with some dried parsley.  There was a cup or two of kabocha squash in my freezer so I added that as well.  Here's my revised recipe:

Curried Pumpkin and Turnip Soup

3 TBSP olive oil
2 cups leeks, washed well and sliced into 1/8 inch rounds
2 large garlic cloves, minced
1 tsp. ground cumin
1/4 tsp. turmeric
1/8 tsp. cayenne pepper(optional)
2 tsp. dried parsley
1 tsp. salt
1 small pumpkin seeds removed, peeled and chopped into 1 inch cubes
3-4 medium sized turnips, peeled cubed
2 cups kabocha squash, peeled and cubed
4-6 cups chicken broth

In a heavy bottom soup pot (4 or 5 quart pot), over medium heat, pour in the olive oil.  When heated, put in the leeks, garlic cloves and salt.  Stir.  Add the cumin, turmeric, cayenne pepper and stir - allow to sweat 2-3 minutes covered.  Add the dried parsley and 1/2 of the chicken broth.  Bring to a boil.  Then add the pumpkin, turnips and squash. Simmer until the squash, pumpkin and turnip cubes are soft and mashable.  Add chicken broth as needed to maintain liquid in the pot, but don't add so much that the soup will be too runny once done.  Puree the soup in a blender or with an immersion blender.  Return the soup to the pot, correct the seasonings with salt and pepper to your taste, heat through.  Serve with a green salad on the side and a slice of good bread, toasted with cheese on top.  Enjoy!

This week's Eatwell Farm Box - 10/26/2011

Here is what's in store for us this week from Eatwell Farm-

Green Beans
Fuji Apples
Green Tomatoes
Mixed Sweet Peppers (Banana, Bell, OR Yellow Tapered)
Broccoli
Eggplant
Leeks
Baby Pumpkin
Radicchio
Escarole
Japanese Turnips
Stir-Fry Mix

Stir fry mix and broccoli with chicken, garlic and oyster sauce - yum!  Then the fuji apples can go into a bit of apple crisp.  Leeks and escarole will form the basis of a good hearty soup when paired with some chick peas (garbanzo beans) in a chicken broth from Soul Food Farm chickens.  Fried green tomatoes - dipped in egg and cornmeal - then pan fried, yum, served with green beans and a radicchio salad.  I might try pickling the eggplant to use in an antipasto later along with the sweet peppers.  Is that baby pumpkin edible?  If so, peel, cut up and roast in the oven with garlic, balsamic vinegar and olive oil for a great side dish.  And the turnips, cut some up for the soup, make pickles from some, or just slice thinly in a salad.  So many possibilities!

Stirred Curd Cheddar Success!

We opened the stirred curd cheddar 1 lb. wheel of cheese to see how it did.  It tastes like a sharp cheddar cheese.  I can't wait to try it in some grilled cheese sandwiches. 

We had a good dinner tonight of oven baked chicken from Soul Food Farm in Vacaville, along with the first sweet potatoes of the season from Eatwell Farm and some green beans also from Eatwell.  Dessert was an apple crisp with apples from Eatwell, too.

Later in the evening I put together a whole wheat soaker and poolish for some whole wheat bread baking tomorrow.  The Fidibus 21 grain mill is awesome.  This time I ground the wheat berries on the finest setting and got some beautiful flour to use in the soaker and poolish.  The recipe I'm going to use for the whole wheat bread is from Peter Reinhart's Bread Baker's Apprentice.  This time I think I will reduce the white flour to just one cup and see what difference that makes. 

Bread, bread and more bread!

Just pulled two loaves of pain de campagne (recipe from Peter Reinhart's Bread Baker's Apprentice).  I used more whole wheat flour and less white flour than was called for in the recipe, so perhaps my loaves won't have all the great big holes of artisan bread.  I have to wait a while before cutting one open to see the crumb.  They smell great.  Look good too, even if I was a little slow getting the water into the baking pan underneath the loaves to generate some steam in the baking process.  I've got to work on making that a smoother set of moves.  Once I get my camera recharged I can post some pics.

This Week's Eatwell Box - 10/19/2011

This week we have another great box of fruits and vegetables from Eatwell Farm.  They are:

Green Beans
Fuji Apples
Cherry Tomatoes
Serrano Chiles
Baby Bok Choy
Collard Greens
Sweet Potatoes
Easter Egg Radishes
Romaine Lettuce
Fennel
Eggplant

Oh boy!  The fuji apples are great snacks or fruit for lunch. Sweet Potatoes!  Love them - just roast in the oven and eat, but maybe these will get special treatment and become sweet potato rolls - check out http://www.thefreshloaf.com for the recipe.  The baby bok choy calls out - stir fry!  Romaine, radishes, cherry tomatoes and fennel are a great start to a tasty salad or two.  Of course fennel braised in white wine and broth would be a tasty side dish for a roast chicken. Eggplant makes fantastic baba ganoush roasted, or cook the roasted eggplant flesh with tomatoes, onions and garlic, puree the whole thing to make a tasty pasta sauce.  Green beans just steamed with some fish and rice makes a quick healthy meal. The serrano chilis will spice up any dish, you can slice them in half the long way, remove the seeds, freeze on a cookie sheet, then bag them up for later use.  Collards with onions and garlic sauteed in olive oil makes a great side dish for a barbequed chicken or lamb shanks and cornbread.  MMMMMMmmm the possibilities!