Storage Tips and Recipes
Every week we'll send you snapshots of veggies in your share. You can always find more recipes and storage info on our blog and website.
Mesclun: A hearty, winter blend of lettuce, spinach, and claytonia. We recommend you wash greens before eating and use within a week.
Kale: Surprise! We eeked out a few more bunches of lacinato kale for our Lean & Green share members.
Red Radishes: These Asian radishes are also known as Beauty Heart, Valentine, or Watermelon. The exterior of this radish is quite nondescript, they look just like a plain greenish whitish turnip. And they can also be quite large, even softball size which is not what comes to mind when one imagines a radish. But cut into one, and they reveal a distinctive bright pink interior. Sweet, with just a hint of a radish bite, red radishes are great in salads, slaw, or as crudites (I love to eat them raw). You can also add to soups, or saute thinly sliced or shredded radish in butter with a pinch of salt. Cook lightly without browning. A stunning bright pink addition to any meal! Store loosely wrapped in a plastic bag in your crisper drawer.
Turnips: We have two types of turnips in your shares this week - goldball and purple tops. The purple tops are, well, purple! The goldballs are yellow turnips that tend to have a long tail rather than a round shape and are creamy yellow on the inside. I like to peel, chop, and saute them with some carrots and onions for a veggie stir fry, or they're also great cooked and added to mashed potatoes. Here are a few other ways to enjoy turnips:
*Grate raw into salads and slaws.
*Steam 1-inch slices for 12-15 minutes.
*Bake turnips for 30-45 minutes at 350 degrees F basted with butter.
*Roast along with roasting meats
Sunchokes: Also known as Jerusalem artichokes, sunchokes make their debut in the large share this week! You might know of this plant as a beautiful yellow flower on tall stalks that blooms in summer. The tuberous roots, which appear in your shares, are also edible. Eat with or without the skin, and prepare as you would potatoes: roast, saute, bake, boil, or steam. They can be stored for a few weeks in your fridge.
Shallots are a member of the allium family being similar to both garlic and onions. They grow in cloves similar to garlic and have a sweet, mild flavor like a sweet or Spanish onion. They are well known for their ability to be caramelized or cooked down to where the sugars are reduced or concentrated. When eaten raw, they are much sweeter and milder than even sweet onions. You can slice them thin and saute them in recipes that benefit from a sweet, mild onion flavor. When minced, they are fantastic in homemade vinaigrette and pan sauces. Store them in a cool, dark place.
Recipes
Turnip and Potato Patties Recipe
Here's a great recipe for turnips that may turn you into a turnip lover! Recipe from Gourmet Magazine.
1/2 pound turnips, peeled and cut into 1/4 inch cubes (about 1 1/3 cups)
6 oz potato, peeled and cut into 1/2 inch cubes (about 1 cup)
2 1/2 tbsp thinly sliced scallion greens
1 egg, beaten lightly
1/4 cup flour
Grapeseed oil, peanut oil, or canola oil (high smoke point vegetable oils)
Salt and pepper
In a large saucepan of boiling salted water, cook the turnip and potato cubes for 15-17 minutes, until they are tender, and drain. In a bowl, mash them with a fork and stir in the scallions, egg, flour, and salt and pepper to taste.
Coat the bottom of a large, heavy bottomed skilled with about 1/4 inch oil. Heat the pan on medium-high heat until the surface of the oil begins to shimmer, but not smoke. Spoon 1/4 cup mounds of the batter into the pan, flattening them into 1/2 inch thick patties with the back of a spatula. Fry the patties until they are golden, turning them once, about 4 minutes on each side. Transfer the patties to paper towels to drain off excess oil.
Sweet and Sour Radish Salad
This is a beautifully colored salad to serve during winter!
2 cups thinly shredded watermelon radish (about 2 medium)
1/2 tsp salt
1 tbs white vinegar
1 tbs sugar
Peel the radishes and shred into 1/8'' thickness. Put into a bowl and add the rest of the ingredients. Mix well and marinate in refrigerator for about 20 minutes or so. Enjoy!
Sunchoke and Potato Gratin
This recipe comes from a blog whose writer first tried sunchokes in their CSA basket. If you're new to them too, this sounds like a great family-friendly way to try them out!
1 garlic clove
10 sunchokes (about golf-ball sized), sliced thin
2 medium russet potatoes, peeled and sliced thin
2 shallots, sliced thin
1/4 cup milk
1 cup grated fontina cheese
salt and pepper
Preparation
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Spray a 9×9 ceramic dish with cooking spray. Cut the garlic clove in half and rub the cut sides onto the dish. Discard garlic.
Layer the potatoes evenly in the dish covering the entire bottom. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Layer the sunchokes evenly covering the potatoes. Sprinkle the sliced shallots on top of the sunchokes – and sprinkle again with salt and pepper. Pour milk all over the vegetables. Sprinkle with the fontina cheese.
Cover the dish with tin foil and bake for about 45 minutes. Take the cover off and bake for an additional 15 minutes. Make sure the sunchokes are soft – if not cook a little longer.
Simple Roasted Sunchokes
.5 pound sunchokes, sliced into half-inch rounds
.5 pound potatoes or carrots, sliced into half inch rounds
2 Tablespoons oil
1 TB lemon juice
Sprinkle with dried Rosemary or thyme
Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Toss the sunchokes with the oil & lemon juice. Sprinkle with the herbs. Bake in a shallow gratin dish with the herbs for thirty to forty-five minutes or until done. (Pierce them with the tip of a knife. They should be mostly tender but offer some resistance. Don’t let them get mushy.) Sprinkle with salt and pepper and serve immediately.
Creamy Turnip with Paprika Soup
Here's another great way to use your turnips. It's still soup weather, especially with this upcoming snow storm!
2 tbs olive oil
1 1/2 pounds peeled turnip bulbs, cut into 1 inch chunks
1 large onion, diced
1tbs butter
1 pinch sugar
3 large garlic cloves, thinly sliced
2 tsps paprika
1 tsp dried thyme leaves
1/8 tsp cayenne pepper
3 cups broth, veggie or chicken
1 1/2 cups half and half or whole milk
Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
Heat oil over medium-high heat in a large, deep saute pan until shimmering. Add turnips, then onion; saute, stirring very little at first, then more frequently, until vegetables start to turn golden brown, about 7 minutes.
Reduce heat to low and add butter, sugar, and garlic; continue cooking until all vegetables are a rich spotty caramel color, about 10 minutes longer. Add paprika, thyme, and cayenne pepper; continue to simmer until fragrant, 3o seconds to 1 minute longer. Add broth; bring to a simmer over medium-high heat. Reduce heat to low and simmer, partially covered, until turnips are tender, about 10 minutes.
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