Beautiful Food – November 2015

There are so many beautiful foods to choose from this time of year. It seems like there are bright colors at every turn.

The salads have the orange of sweet potatoes or carrots…the dark green of parsley or cilantro…the magenta of watermelon radishes…even the cheese and boiled eggs in this salad are colorful! The whole is as beautiful as it is tasty.

And the salsa made with end of season bounty of tomatoes, cilantro, onions, hot pepper, garlic, and onions…gets just a spike of citrus from a lemon (peel and all). The colors and flavors blends together to contribute to several kinds of meals and snacks: salads, stir fries, tacos, chips….

And what about all the root veggies this time of year: white turnips, watermelon radishes, sweet potatoes (ok…I cheated a little – the green is a broccoli stalk rather than a root vegetable)…all in one stir fry. I add a little water when I first start cooking them to make sure they have enough cooking time to soften. Again – the appearance of food makes a big difference in the appeal of the meal.

New this month – and something I look forward to every years – is the arrival of pomegranates in the grocery store. I buy at least one a week. The seeds always look like little jewels to me; the color meshes well with the season. And they are my favorite afternoon snack until the season runs its course sometime in the early part of next year!

CSA Week 22 – The Last Week of the Season

This was the last week of the 2015 Gorman Produce Farm CSA. I took an extra bag because I anticipated a lot of food. I’m glad I did.

The main part of the share included:

• 2 kinds of lettuce
• Broccoli
• 3 watermelon radishes
• Pac choi
• Tatsoi
• 4 beets
• 2 bunches of turnips with greens
• 4 garlic
• Honey
• Parsley
• Chard
• Radicchio 

The 6 pounds of sweet potatoes and 1/2 pound of spinach did not fit into the picture!

The overage table was pretty full to and we were not limited to one or two items. I got carrots (with tops still attached), Brussel sprouts, bell peppers, and snacking peppers.

When I got home I had a lot of processing to do:

• The sweet potatoes are cured so will keep outside the refrigerator but they had gotten wet (rainy day) so I spread them on a big tray to dry.
• I cut the tops off the carrots and copped them up with the parsley…the pulp is on a tray drying.
• The turnip tops are cleaned, cut into pieces and in the freezer for use in winter soups.
• The Brussel sprouts are cut from the stalk and clean – ready to roast or toss into a stir fry.
• The Pac choi, Tatsoi and Chard leaves are in a bag – clean and ready to easily cut up. The stems are collected into a small bin; I’ve discovered that I like to cook the stems a bit more than the leaves so it is convenient to have them together rather than still attached to the leaves.

The crispers are full…the 3 bins I have for the overflow of veggies are full too. I’m focused on eating the ones most in danger of spoiling first!

CSA 21 and Beautiful Food

Next week will be the last of the CSA for 2015. We are getting a lot of vegetables each week as the fields end-of-season harvest rolls on. The week the bag was stuffed again.  The leaves of the bunch of turnips and stalk of Brussel sprouts stuck out of the top. The 3 pounds of sweet potatoes and watermelon radishes were at the bottom of the bag. A head of cabbage and bell peppers were toward the middle and the lettuce and bunch of cilantro was at the top. I traded the hot peppers included in the share for an extra bunch of cilantro. We were allowed two items from the overage table and I chose the pink stemmed chard and a pound of small broccoli stalks.

There is so much that is beautiful about fall foods. The one-potato-soup made with a broth started with water beets were cooked in (very red, a little vinegary) was a beautiful color and tastey.

Some food are beautiful in the raw – like these Brussel sprouts.

I’ve discovered that I use the firmer veggies like broccoli, sweet potatoes, kohlrabi, radishes and turnips in salads (slaw or added to lettuce) and stir fries when they are already shredded and ready to go.  The shredder disk of the food processor makes it very easy and the result – all mixed together – is beautiful and tastey. The picture below is from last week with the watermelon radish contributing the bright pink, sweet potato the orange, broccoli (the whole stalk!) the green, turnips and kohlrabi the white. Later today I’ll make a new batch with the veggies I need to use up now: purple cabbage, watermelon radish, sweet potato, broccoli, and turnips.

CSA Week 20

Our CSA ends at the end of October. Right now we are almost overwhelmed with fall veggies. I still have a lot left from last week and there was another very full bag for week 20:

Several kinds of peppers: bell and snack (I got double snack peppers by trading away my hot peppers).

Turnips. There were two kinds to choose from (red and white). I got one of each by trading away my eggplant for one of them. The turnip greens are a lot to eat before they go limp.

I’ve already made chips with the bunch of kale.

The broccoli and a few sweet potatoes were shredded with some turnips and watermelon radish left from previous weeks. It makes a complete meal when combined with dried soy nuts…and cooks quickly when added to stir fry. Of course I still have sweet potatoes to last for quite a while after the CSA officially ends.

I chose the red leaf lettuce rather than all green. I like the color variety. The arugula and pale green cabbage is enough ‘green’ for salads.

I picked up a bunch of mizzuna from the overage table.

My focus for meals over the next week is to eat the veggies that will spoil most easily….and save the ones that will last a week of more in the crisper.

CSA Week 17

I still have a few potatoes, sweet dumpling squash, chives, and bell peppers left from week 16. The potatoes will keep. I’ll bake the squash in a few days I should freeze the peppers and endeavor to use up the chives as quickly as possible.

The share this week was a typical fall bounty:

Beets ---- I am making fruit beety with the beets and using the stems/leaves in stir fries

Broccoli ---- We were warned by the farmer to soak the broccoli to get the insects out of it. I’ll probably make slaw out of it after that….which can be used in salads and stir fries

Bell peppers and snack peppers ---- It’s a bit overwhelming but I like peppers both raw and cooked

Parsley – I’ll use as much as I can fresh but will probably end up drying some of it.

Thyme – I traded my hot peppers to get a second bunch! I’ve become a fan of thyme in stir fry and soup…and it dries very easily

Kohlrabi – I’ll use the leaves and stems in stir fries. The bulbs may become part of the slaw I make with the broccoli

Tomatoes – We are down to a pound of the red tomatoes this week. I got a pint container of the sun gold tomatoes as my pick from the overage table.

Butternut squash – This is probably my favorite winter squash because it is big enough to have enough left over to make custard (made with the cooked squash instead of pumpkin but otherwise the same ingredients)

Eggplant - There are two again this week. I plan to make another batch of eggplant balls and may freeze some of them.

Yummy meals in week ahead!

CSA Week 3

I had no trouble using up everything from the week 2 share from the CSA with a house guest here for most of the week. The last to be eaten was the lettuce - we ate big salads with it just before we went to pick up the week 3 share from the Gorman Farm CSA.

It was another good one: (starting at the left in the picture) beets, broccoli, scallions, dandelion greens, garlic scapes, and arugula.  

When I got the produce home - I cooked the beets (setting the leaves and stems aside) immediately in water laced with raspberry vinegar. While they were cooking I rinsed everything (including the beet greens) and stored everything in 2 plastic bins that fit neatly into the crispers; that will shorten the prep for meals. I started the prep for making fruit beety (getting out the food processor, cutting up oranges). By that time the beets were done and I quickly peeled them and cut them into chunks before processing them with all the other ingredients to make fruit beety. After packing individual servings of the confection - I rewarded myself with fruit beety with coconut on top.