Good Eats Newsletter - May 5, 2010

This Week's Vegetable Share Contains:
2 lbs Red Norland Potatoes; 2 lbs Gilfeather Turnips, 2.5 lbs Copra Onions; 2 Heads of Lettuce; 1 Bunch Sweet Salad Turnips; 1 Bag of Upland Cress; 2 Lettuce Heads plus.....

1 European Cucumber
1 Bag Frozen Vegetables
(there will be a mix of frozen veggies delivered to sites - choose one bag only)

Localvore Offerings Include:
Aurora Farms Vermont Organic White Flour (not all sites, see below!)
1 Dozen Pa Pa Doodles Eggs
1 Container Maple Sun Cider Vinaigrette
1 Container Veg or Chicken Broth*

*Before selecting your broth, please double-check your share type on the names check off sheet. We have sent out veggie broth for vegetarians (says V on the lid), and chicken broth for non vegetarians. Thank you.


Flour Snafu! We did not receive our entire flour order. We packed as many bags as we could and will be sending out what we have. Not all sites will receive flour. Those that don't receive flour this week, will receive it next week.

Meat Share Members - This is a Meat Share Week.

Summer Share News
The share is about half way full now and the pace of sign ups has picked up in the last week or so. It really is going to be a great season, we are ahead of schedule and the crops are doing so well! The share begins June 16th and there's only 5 more deliveries of the Spring share after this week.

Good Eats Members Seeking Share Partners - There are a couple posts on the Members Seeking page from members looking to split a summer share with someone. If you pick up in Stowe or Morrisville and are interested in sharing with someone, please check the page. If you would like to split a share with someone at another site, please email me and I'll post your notice on the page.

New Sites for Summer - We are considering two new pick up sites for Summer. We are planning to add a downtown Burlington location, something we have wanted to do for a while. We are also looking at a Williston location in the Blair Park area. Though neither location is yet set in stone, both look promising. More details coming in the next week or so.

The Vegetable Only Share brings you weekly deliveries of a diverse mix of Pete's super fresh organic vegetables.
Vegetable Only - $504 (avg. $28 a week)

The Vegetable/Localvore Share offers the same veggies but also provides a weekly selection of great organic and local pantry staples, all sourced very near the farm. Vegetable/Localvore - $792 (avg. $44/week)

Meat Share available too, featuring 4 monthly deliveries of a selection of local, grass fed, and often organic meats. Meat Share - $199 (avg. $50 a month)

Meat Orders for May 12th delivery
We still have a small amount of meat left (Beef, lamb, chicken) and the meat order form is on our website. The minimum meat order is $50.

Because of our weekly CSA schedule, meat orders must be received by Wednesday to be packed Thursday for the next week's delivery. Email is best for getting forms to me, though mail will work too. If you cannot download the form please email me.

Pete's Pastured Chicken - Order 5 for special price
You can take advantage of our special Pete's Pastured chicken offer now as well, and have chickens delivered next week. If you order 5 or more whole birds, they are only $3.50/lb. This is a great price for these birds which were raised on our pastures in just about the best conditions possible. Their meat is far healthier having assimilated the nutrients of all the forage they consumed.

All free range is not created equal. Many farms that offer "free range" chicken raise their birds just to free range standards which require the birds have access to an outside area. Often times this means that the birds live loose in large barns with a couple openings to small dirt lots outside. This is an improvement over the standard meat bird production, but does not compare to keeping birds outside on pasture and greens throughout their lives.

To take advantage of this price, please visit the bulk meat order page and download the meat order form. For more info about our chickens, please visit the chicken page.

Storage and Use Tips
Frozen Vegetables This Week - We have a mix going out to fill the frozen veggie slot this week. At each site there will be a mix of different veggies in the coolers. Please take just one bag of frozen veggies. There will be braising greens, beet greens, spinach, broccoli, and hot peppers to choose from.

Sweet Salad Turnips - The beautiful white turnips in your bags have just been pulled from the ground yesterday and looked so beautifully creamy white stacked up in their crates. Sweet Salad Turnips can be eaten raw or cooked. Raw they have a texture similar to a radish, but are not so sharp. You can slice, dice, or quarter them and saute with butter or oil. Cook until just tender and still a little crisp. Just a little salt or maybe a little bit of vinegar is all they need. Or cook them with butter and drizzle of honey or maple syrup and even picky kids may gobble them up. The greens are a bonus and are tender and flavorful when cooked. Chop and saute with the turnips for a side dish, or cook up with other greens, or by themselves. I often chop them and toss them into pasta sauces.

Upland Cress - I can't wait to pack a sandwich full of cress this week. I absolutely love the stuff and when available I can't get enough, putting it in salads and sandwiches or just on the side of my plate with a little oil and vinegar. There are many types of cress, but all of them may be eaten cooked or raw, and they all have variations of their mild peppery flavor. Watercress is a very powerful antioxidant. A two year study published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition in 2007 determined that eating watercress daily can significantly reduce DNA damage to blood cells, which is considered to be an important trigger in the development of cancer. It is brimming with more than 15 essential vitamins and minerals. Gram for gram, it contains more iron than spinach, more vitamin C than oranges and more calcium than milk.

Localvore Lore

We have a second round of VT white flour organically grown in Charlotte by Tom Kenyon at Aurora Farms. I'd love to hear how you all have been enjoying this flour. I really like it. Though I try to incorporate as much whole wheat into my family's diet, there are times when it sure is nice to make a white flour confection! And I love to have a product on hand that is grown so close by, and that I know has been grown organically and that performs so well to boot. There is a nice article in the Spring issue of Local Banquet about the partnership between Tom and Randy George of Red Hen Baking Co. that brought this flour into existence for us to enjoy. Read the article here.

Finally, Deb's new flock of hens is producing enough eggs for the share and for the rest of the share period you can count on eggs every other week. Deb's flock produces eggs almost exclusively for Good Eats and (in summer) our farm stand. Her chickens are pampered and well cared for. If you didn't have a chance to watch the Seven Days interview with Deb and her hens last time I posted it, here it is again now!

Bill has made us a tangy sweet localvore salad dressing this week using our sunflower oil, apple cider vinegar from Gingerbrook Farm, maple syrup, mustard seed and a bit of sea salt. He recommends adding black pepper (fresh ground is best!) and maybe a bit of salt until the flavor is just to your liking. Let us know how you enjoy the dressing!

Also from the kitchen, we have quarts of chicken broth for you carnivore folk, and veggie stock for those of you signed up for the vegetarian share. The chicken broth is made from our own birds, and flavored with some of our veggies and herbs. And the veggie broth was made from our vegetables of course. Both should make your next batch of soup easy and tasty.

Meat Share
Bonnieview Farm Rack of Lamb - I drove over to Bonnieview Farm last week. If you have never been on the South Albany Rd in Craftsbury, make a point to drive it someday. It's one of the loveliest roads I have been on in Vermont. It's lambing season (nearing the end actually) and Neil has around 300 lambs on the ground now and his dairy herd are now producing milk and his cheese making season begins! The lamb in the share comes from the lambs from last years crop, raised on the hillsides surrounding Neil's farm. The rack of lamb is the prime rib of the lamb world and makes a very handsome dish. Bill has given a simple but what I am sure will be delicious recipe below.

Bonnieview Sweet Italian Sausage - This is a classic lamb sausage, and Bill has used it in a lamb stew recipe below. But don't hesitate to grill these and put them in a bun, or use them in a pasta sauce. They are mild and delicious.

Pete's Pastured Ground Beef - I know none of you will have any trouble trying to figure out what to do with some of our ground beef. There's a meatloaf recipe today if you are in a comfort food mood, but with the weather we have had of late, you may just end up grilling up some burgers. This is the very last of our ground beef for the moment, and we actually had to substitute Applecheek Farm organic veal cutlets in just a few shares.

Pete's Pastured Chicken - And for the second time this share period, we have one of our chickens. I am definitely going to be making Bill's Cinco de Mayo Oaxacan Chicken recipe below. Yum!

Recipes

Chicken with Oaxacan Mole
In the spirit of Cinco de Mayo, here is a favorite recipe from one of my favorite regions of Mexico. While it might seem daunting at first, if you double it you can refrigerate what you don’t use on the chicken and use it for lamb. As well, these spices are available at most local stores. While you’re at it, check out the story of mole, at least one of them, since there is still debate as to where it originated. ~Bill

1 chicken, quartered

1 tbsp. cumin seeds
4 cinnamon sticks, crushed
¾ cup almonds
½ cup sesame seeds
½ cup sunflower seeds
¼ cup coriander seeds

4 oz. butter
1 onion, rough chop
2 poblano peppers, seeded, rough chop
2 ripe plantains, sliced
3 cups vegetable or chicken stock
1 cup orange juice
½ cup lime juice
2 cups plum tomatoes, rough chop
2 oz. dark chocolate
For the chicken:

Heat some oil in a heavy braiser or large saucepot. Season the chicken generously with salt and pepper and seared until golden on all sides. Place in 350 degree oven and roast until the chicken juices run clear from the chicken when pierced with a knife. Pull from oven, place on a platter and serve with sauce.
For the mole:

Toast first set of ingredients in heavy sauté pan until sesame seeds start to pop. Add coriander and toast for 1 minute more.

Transfer this to a food processor and pulse until you have a powder.

In a heavy saucepot, melt butter and add onions and poblano peppers and sauté until translucent. Add remaining ingredients, with the exception of the chocolate, spice powder and simmer for 30 minutes on very low heat, stirring often. Puree mole in blender. Add crushed tomatoes and chocolate and whisk until incorporated. Season with salt.

Upland Cress and Cucumber Salad

1 European cucumber, peeled, seeded and cut into half moons
½ cup sweet salad turnips, washed and thinly sliced
2 cups upland cress
½ cup toasted pecans
Apple cider vinaigrette, to taste
Salt and Pepper

In a large bowl toss cucumber and turnips with just enough vinaigrette to coat them. Season with salt and pepper. Add the cress and gently toss. Mound this mix on plates and crumbled the toasted pecans on top of each. Drizzle some more dressing if needed. Any number of cheeses can be add to this including gorgonzola and goat cheese.

Stir Fried Turnips with Greens
From Jack Bishop's A Year in a Vegetarian Kitchen. This is a simple and tasty way to use your turnips and greens.

3/4 cup orange juice
2 TB soy sauce
3 medium scallions
4 med garlic cloves
1 TB minced ginger
1/2 tsp hot red pepper flakes
1 TB plus 1 tsp peanut oil
1.5 lbs Salad Turnips or Spring Dug Turnips, cut into 3/4" wedges or chunks
5 cups packed, stemmed greens (Pac Choi, Braising Greens, Yukina Savoy, Chard, etc)

Combine orange juice and soy in measuring cup. Place scallions, garlic ginger, red pepper flakes in small bowl. Heat 1 TB oil in large skillet over med high heat until shimmering. Add turnips and stir fry until lightly browned, 5 to 7 minutes. Push turnips to edges of pan, spread garlic mixture in center of pan. Drizzle remaining 1 tsp oil over mixture and cook until fragrant, about 1 minute. Stir to combine with turnips. Add orange juice mixture to pan, cover and cook, until turnips are creamy and tender and liquid has reduced to a few tablespoons (2-3 minutes). Add greens, cover and cook until just wilted, about 1 minute. (If the contents of the pan are too soupy, simmer with the cover off to reduce the liquid to a sauce consistency.). Serve immediately.

Not Your Grandmother’s Irish Lamb Stew
4 links lamb sausage
3 tbsp. oil
2 cloves garlic, fine chop
1 copra onion, medium dice
2 carrots, peeled, cut into ½ inch rounds
2 Gilfeather turnips, washed, quartered and cut into medium chunks
6 Norland potatoes, washed and cut into medium chunks
4 cups beef broth
¼ cup fresh mint, rough chop

Greens - beet, spinach or braising greens

Prepare all vegetables and set aside.

Heat oil in a heavy soup pot. Once hot, add the sausage links and brown evenly on all sides. Remove to a plate and add onions, carrots and garlic. Saute for 3 minutes. Add beef broth, turnips and potatoes. When the sausage in cool enough to handle, slice each link into one inch pieces. Add to pot, cover and lower heat to simmer. When vegetables are tender, remove from heat and stir in mint and season with salt and pepper.

In a separate pan, heat a small amount of oil and sauté greens until barely wilted. Place greens in the bottom of a bowl and ladle the stew on top.


Market Street Meatloaf
2 lbs. ground beef
1 onion, finely dice
1 red pepper, fine dice
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 eggs
½ cup ketchup
¼ cup grain mustard
1 tsp ground cumin
1 cup panko
6 strips bacon

Combined all ingredients in a large bowl and mix until well incorporated. Form into a loaf shape on an oiled sheet pan. Wrap bacon around the formed loaf, tucking the ends into the bottom of the loaf. Cook until internal temperature taken from center is 145 degrees. Remove from oven and cover with foil. Let rest for 10 minutes.

Herb & Mustard Crusted Lamb Rack
1 lamb rack
1 sprig rosemary, stripped and finely chopped
2 tbsp. dijon mustard
freshly ground black pepper

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Mix mustard, rosemary and black pepper in a small bowl. Set aside.

Remove any excess fat on the meat side of the rack, leaving a thin layer. Heat a dry sauté pan (enough fat will come from the lamb itself) and carefully place the rack, meat side down and sear until well browned. Remove the pan from the burner and using a large spoon, rub the mustard mixture along the top of the meat side. Place in the oven. Roast in the rack for 10 minutes for a medium rare lamb. Remove from oven and let rest for 5 minutes before cutting the chops, slicing every 2 bones.