Week 15: corn chowder and biscuits

I finally got to make the corn chowder recipe I've been eyeing! I quite enjoyed it, and it followed what I was talking about last week regarding one of the reasons I love making soup: so easy! Just chop and throw in the pot at the right time. As usual, I made a few adjustments: chicken broth instead of vegetable (just what I had on hand), and I added several chopped and seeded jalapenos and my remaining green tomato.

To accompany, I made some rosemary and cheese biscuits from this recipe. I had never made biscuits before, but had a craving thanks to a story my coworker told about cheesy biscuits. I loathe cutting in butter, so I finally invested the $11 to buy a dough blender, and boy was it worth it. For herbs I used a little basil, some chives, and some rosemary. I will surely be making these again.

Week 15: caprese

I made somewhat of a dent in my tomato supply yesterday by making myself a sort of caprese salad for dinner. I had intended to buy some fresh mozzarella at the farmers market near my office, but by the time I had a chance to get there after work they had sold out. There's always next week! So I settled for grocery store mozzarella which, though not made fresh yesterday morning, was still delicious. I dressed a bed of mixed greens with a little drizzle of olive oil, then topped with cubed mozzarella, two chopped tomatoes, some nice balsamic vinegar, and some of the basil that comes in a squeezey tube. Delicious! I might perhaps bring this to work for lunch tomorrow, as I still have many tomatoes left.

Week 15: roasted roots galore

Yesterday my coworker asked for my brussels sprouts recipe (not really mine, it's this one, and it's amazing) and I wished I had brussels sprouts instead of many roots. Carrots and parsnips, while delicious, are not my favorite, and while I am 100% happy with my farm share, it is very different to not purchase whatever I'm in the mood for. However! I managed to make a tasty meal indeed: roasted chicken and vegetables.

I used this recipe, which I tried out just before the farm share kicked in, as a base, though I deviated a bit, as usual. First, I used skinless chicken breasts, and added a few whole peeled garlic cloves, and some poultry seasoning, and used just a bit of lemon juice instead of a whole one (S. isn't fond of heavy lemon flavor in savory foods). The veggies I included were the turnips, last week's yellow carrots, this week's carrots, and the parsnips. I also still have the greens from the fennel and thew in some of those as well, and added some scallions. Pretty tasty! I should have added the vegetables a bit earlier in the cooking time, because by the end, the chicken was a bit dry, and the veggies (especially the parsnips) could have used a bit more time. But overall, a healthy and delicious dinner!

Week 15: pickup and pasta

Last night's pickup included:

cherry tomatoes

carrots

parsnips

japanese turnips

celery root

corn

tomatoes

potatoes

I am eyeing another corn chowder recipe, but S. appropriately pointed out that yesterday was a bit hot for soup so I will make it later in the week. Instead I made a version of an old stand-by pasta recipe:

Orecchiette with Pancetta and Turnip Greens

Orecchiette

Turnip greens (washed and chopped into strips)

Fennel greens (washed and chopped)

Garlic (minced)

Jalapeno (washed, seeded, and diced)

Pine nuts

Pancetta (sliced into strips)

Extra virgin olive oil

Red pepper flakes

Salt, pepper

parmesan

1. Boil water for pasta, cook orecchiette to taste, drain

2. In the mean time, toast the pine nuts in a dry pan over low heat

3. Crisp the pancetta in a pan over medium heat until most of it has begun to brown, then transfer into the pot with the drained pasta

4. Add a tablespoon of olive oil to the pan, then the garlic, jalapeno, red pepper flakes and fennel greens

5. Before the garlic begins to brown, add the turnip greens. Stir and then cover for a few minutes to wilt the greens.

6. Stir the turnip green mixture into the pasta, season with salt and pepper, and top generously with grated parmesan.

Week 14: turnip potato soup, and veggies galore!

I have really been falling down on the posting job!

On Monday my sister came over and we were quite busy with some other tasks so I wanted to make something quick. The solution: soup! I love the fall and love that it's now soup season. Soup is one of my favorite things to cook because it's so easy. I used this recipe as a base, but ended up with this:
Potato and Turnip Soup

Ingredients
4 Tbsp unsalted butter
3 sliced of bacon, chopped
1 large onion, thinly sliced
3 bunches turnips, peeled and thinly sliced
2 pounds of potatoes
Salt, pepper
5ish cups of chicken stock
Poultry seasoning, white pepper, thyme
Dried chives, for garnish
1. In a large pot over medium heat, cook the bacon until it just begins to brown, then melt the butter. When the bacon is cooked but not crispy, add the onions and cook until translucent, about 5 minutes.

2. Add the sliced turnips, potatoes and about 2 teaspoons of salt, stir to coat with the butter.

3. Add the chicken stock and seasonings and bring to a simmer. Cook over medium-low heat until the turnips and potatoes are very tender, about 25 minutes.

4. Smooth using an immersion blender (or in batches in a regular blender). Garnish with chives, and enjoy!

I had hoped to use leeks instead of an onion, but none were to be found at my grocery store. It seems the theme of today's post is finding recipes and then largely changing them... This was definitely the case last night. I wanted to use up as many of last week's share as possible to make room for tonight's pickup, so I ended up making some collards and a tomato-butter bean concoction which was surprisingly tasty.

The collards inspiration was this recipe, but here is what I actually did:

Steamed Collards

Ingredients:

1 bunch collard greens, chopped
2 cloves garlic, chopped
lemon juice
fennel greens, chopped
1 tablespoon olive oil
cajun seasoning

Directions:
Fill bottom of a pot with two inches or so of water. Bring to a boil, and placer steamer basket in the pot. Fill with collards, cover and steam 5 min.

In a small pan, saute the garlic in the olive oil until just beginning to brown. Toss the garlic and oil with the steamed collards, adding fennel, dash of lemon juice, and a dash of cajun seasoning.


The second dish really was a smorgasbord... I had no idea what to do with green tomatoes, and so did a lot of googling. I also turned to my new favorite recipe resource, gojee.com (you tell it what ingredients you have, and it tells you tasty recipes) and found this recipe from a site called "Sassy Radish." I basically followed the recipe, with the following changes: canned butter beans instead of dried (drained and rinsed), added chopped baby fennel bulbs, added 3 jalapenos (seeded and diced), minced the garlic instead of smashing and didn't discard, and substituted 1 red tomato, 1 zebra tomato and 1 green tomato for the specified tomatoes. This was so unexpectedly delicious! I can't wait to eat the leftovers, and am definitely now a green tomato fan.

Here is the finished product on my plate:



And, since I just remembered, here is a photo of last week's Afghani Eggplant prior to going to in the oven:

Week 14: jalapenos!

This week's pickup included:

-collards

-purple top turnips

-golden carrots

-baby fennel (very exciting)

-potatoes

-green tomatoes

-tomatoes

and the most exciting of all...

-jalapenos!

Last week I made an Afghani Eggplant from this recipe using last week's eggplant and tomatoes. I brought it to a pot luck and had excellent feedback :)

I haven't made anything with this week's veggies yet, but I'm very excited.

Week 13: stir-fry

On Monday night I made a stir-fry using pretty much the same recipe as last week, only this time I used broccoli, bok choy, and turnip greens, and some strips of steak. I added the steak with the oil half the garlic, ginger, and sriracha. Once the steak was done, I removed it from the pan and set it aside and cooked the veggies covered for a few minutes. Pretty tasty! And easy, which might be the best part...

Week 13: pickup and enchiladas

Last night's pickup included:
-turnips
-carrots
-bok choy
-broccoli
-potatoes
-eggplant
-poblanos
-tomatoes

I peeled the carrots to bring to work for a snack, and made chicken enchiladas using the poblanos and tomatoes. I combined two recipes: this one for the sauce, and this one for the filling. It was very tasty, though much more time-consuming that I was expecting... It probably took about two hours. A few small changes: immersion blender instead of food processor, and no vinegar in the sauce.

Week 12: veggie stir-fry

I did try out that crazy recipe I was imagining last night, which used the turnips, turnips greens, last week's radishes (the greens were too wilted by now, but I would have used them too), bok choy, and green beans. Here it is:

Bok Choy, Turnips, Green Beans, and Radishes with Ginger and Soy

Ingredients:
Bok choy
Radishes
Radish greens
Turnips
Turnip greens
Green beans

Sesame oil (1 tablespoon)
Canola oil (3ish tablespoons)
Garlic (3-5 cloves, minced)
Soy sauce (3ish tablespoons)
Sriracha (to taste, I think I used about half a tablespoon)
Ginger (1 tablespoon grated)
Sesame seeds
salt

Prep:
-wash and slice bok choy (1inch thick)
-wash and slice turnips (peeled, halved, thin sliced), greens
-wash and slice radishes (thin sliced), greens
-wash, trim, slice green beans
-grate ginger
-mince garlic

Directions:
-toast sesame seeds
-Heat a large wok over medium until very hot. Add the canola oil and heat until just smoking.
-Add the garlic, ginger and sriracha and stir-fry until lightly browned, about 30 seconds.
-Add turnips and radishes, sauté to soften slightly, about 3 minutes.
-Add the bok choy, radish greens, green beans and turnip greens and a pinch of salt and stir-fry until crisp-tender/wilted, 1-5 minutes.
-Add the sesame oil, and soy sauce and reduce heat to low. Simmer until turnips are just tender, about 3 minutes
-Garnish with sesame seeds.

I brought it to a pot luck and everyone seems to enjoy it :)

Week 12: pickup, corn chowder, bbq

Week 12's vegetables are as follows:
-eggplant
-cousa squash
-green peppers
-bok choy
-turnips
-carrots
-green beans
-tomatoes

On Friday night I made a corn chowder with last week's tomatoes and poblanos. I mostly used this recipe, but with the following modifications: no bacon (normally I would use bacon, but we had a guest who was vegetarian, so I used butter instead of bacon grease), 4 poblanos instead of 1 (and omitted jalapeno), no celery, no sugar, half & half instead of cream, and frozen corn instead of fresh. I really liked how this turned out, and will definitely be making it again. It was surprisingly refreshing for chowder, and the only real prep needed was the chopping.

On Sunday some friends had a barbecue and I brought the eggplant and cousa to grill. I also brought the green peppers and carrots to work today for lunch.

Tonight I am going to pot luck, and am planning to make a sort of stir-fry with the bok choy, green beans, turnips, turnip greens, and possibly the radishes and radish greens. I've been making a lot of greens in a sauce of different variations of soy sauce, ginger, garlic, sesame oil, and sriracha. We'll see....