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: This week is a great "kitchen sink" mesclun! It has a little bit of everything... shoots, baby kale, spinach, cress, red and green sorrel, red and green mizuna... hearty yet refreshing! We recommend rinsing the greens before eating. Store in the fridge.
Cress: This upland cress has a deep pungency with a unique twist between arugula and horseradish, pledging its allegience to the mustard family. Cress is indeed rich in vitamin C, vitamin A, iron, and calcium. Try it on sandwiches or in salads, in soups, or with cooked meat, poultry, and fish.
Brassica Mix: This week we were cleaning out a bed of Red Russian Kale, to turn it over for some of our transplants. The kale is the basis of this brassica mix, great for cooking down. I helped the crew harvest the kale - getting each leaf off is no easy, or fast, feat. It definitely makes me appreciate the back-breaking work to get these greens. The mix also includes mizuna and sorrel.
Mizuna: Mizuna is a Japanese mustard green with tender, pointy-lobed leaves and a pleasant, peppery flavor. You could substitute it, chopped, in a salad calling for arugula. It adds a nice zest to a stir-fry or saute too. Store mizuna, unwashed, loosely wrapped in a plastic bag in your crisper drawer.
Radicchio: This lettuce relative is actually a chicory, which has a bitter punch of flavor. Radicchio makes a great addition to salads for a pop of color and a contrast in flavor. You can also use the leaves as a base for hors d'oeuvres, or sauté them for a side dish. Pairs well with full-flavored cheeses, balsamic vinegar, and honey. Try chopping it finely and soaking in water to tame the bite!
Frozen Sweet Peppers: Throughout the summer and fall, we freeze a portion of our harvest so that we can provide you with a greater variety of vegetables throughout the winter. This week you will receive a package of our frozen sweet peppers. Keep them frozen into you are ready to use them. They will be delicious sautéed and thrown onto a pizza, or cooked into lasagna, casseroles, soups, or sauces. Look forward to more of the summer produce we have stowed away in our freezer, including corn, zucchini, beans, and broccoli!
Recipes
Caramelized Onion, Sweet Pepper, Greens, Feta Pizza
1 onion, sliced
several cloves of garlic
1 fresh sweet pepper or frozen sweet peppers
1 shallot if you have it, minced
Spinach or other green
1/2 container Marinated feta
oregano
crushed red pepper
Preheat the oven to 425F.
Stretch your pizza dough with well floured hands and place on baking sheet, let rest.
Heat a skillet, and add olive oil to coat. Add the onions and cover and simmer first on medium for around 5 minutes. Then add the peppers (frozen is fine) and cook on medium til the water evaporates from them. Then let onions and peppers simmer together a while to very soft and starting to color a bit. Add your shallots (if using) and garlic and saute a bit more til these soften but don't brown, and then remove to a plate.
In same skillet, toss in a bit more oil, some water, and the chopped kale and saute the kale til it softens. Steam will help achieve this and might take 5 mins. Then turn off.
Build pizza. Start with a smear of olive oil on the crust. Then spread the pepper mixture around. Then the crumble the feta between fingers and spread over crust. Then the kale. Then drizzle half the oil from the feta container and the yummy sundried tomato bits around. Next give your pizza a good sprinkling of oregano, crushed red pepper, and a bit of salt.
Bake until bottom is nicely baked and top comes together. Remove to a rack, slice and enjoy.
Potato, Roasted Pepper and Mizuna Salad
Adapted from Epicurious.com. You can roast and peel peppers following the directions below. Anchovies are a great source of omega-3s. If you are not so sure you are an anchovy lover, try this recipe. You may change your mind. Serves 4.
2 pounds potatoes, cut into 3/4-inch pieces
3.5 TB dry white wine
2 mixed colored sweet peppers
half of a 2-ounce can flat fillets of anchovies, drained, minced
4 tablespoons white wine vinegar
1/2 cup olive or sunflower oil
2-3 red torpedo onions, sliced (or 1 bunch of green onions)
1 bunch mizuna or arugula, sliced
Place potatoes in large pot. Cover with water. Boil until potatoes are just tender. Drain well. Transfer to large bowl. Mix in white wine. Char red or yellow peppers over gas flame or in broiler until blackened on all sides. Wrap in paper bag and let stand 10 minutes. Peel and seed. Rinse if necessary; pat dry. Alternatively, grill green or red peppers at a lower temperature to color and soften, without a lot of char. Cut peppers into 3/4-inch squares. Transfer to medium bowl.
Combine anchovies and vinegar in small bowl. Gradually whisk in oil. Pour 2/3 cup dressing over peppers. Add remaining dressing, green onions and mizuna to potatoes and mix gently. Season peppers and potatoes with salt and pepper. Let stand 30 minutes. Gently mix peppers into potatoes. (Can be prepared 1 day ahead. Cover and refrigerate. Bring to room temperature before serving.)
Classic Oven Roasted Onions
Bursting with rich brown flavors, roasted onions can be a one-dish meal, a first course, a salad or side dish. For a simple supper, try the warm onions with balsamic, maybe a drizzle of olive oil, and a crumbling of a favorite blue cheese, mild fresh goat cheese, or sp,e parm or whatever appeals.
4 medium to large organic onions (yellow, red, white)
Spread a sheet of foil on oven rack and preheat to 400 degrees. Trim away root and a 1/4 inch of top of onions. Set root side down on foil, spacing about 2 inches apart. Roast 1 hour, or until easily pierced with a knife. Serve warm or at room temperature. Make 2-inch deep cross out of top of each onion, spread slightly and season.
Seasoning Ideas:
*salt and freshly ground black pepper, 2 TB wine vinegar and 1 TB extra-virgin olive oil
*3 TB balsamic vinegar and possibly 2 to 3 oz of Gorgonzola, Maytag Blue, fresh goat cheese, Parmigiano-Reggiano, Fontinella, or cheese of choice, crumbled or grated
*chopped fresh herbs, rice and grain salads.
Asian Greens with Ginger Miso Dressing
This dressing of ginger, miso, tahini (sesame paste) and lemon adds a creamy balance to baby spinach, arugula, mizuna, and baby asian green blends.
1 (2-inch) piece fresh ginger, coarsely chopped
2 TBS white miso (or brown if you don't have white)
3 TBS tahini (sesame paste)
1/2 cup water
3 TBS fresh lemon juice
Salad:
5 ounces greens
Several radishes or 1 small daikon, sliced into 1/8-inch-thick rounds
1 carrot, cut into 2-inch-long slender sticks
2 green onions (white part only), chopped (or sub in slices red torpedo onions, sliced thin)
For the dressing, place ginger, miso, tahini, water and lemon juice in a blender and blend until completely smooth. The consistency should be similar to cream. Strain the dressing through a fine sieve to remove ginger fiber if desired (I never do).
For the salad, divide greens among serving plates. Arrange radish and carrot on top, then sprinkle with scallions/onions.
Drizzle one to two tablespoons of dressing over each salad and serve. Delightful recipe.
Simple Mustard Greens Recipe
This is a wonderful way to enjoy your greens - feel free to use your spinach in this recipe if you didn't get mizuna.
Fermented Carrot Pickles
1½ lb. small carrots, peeled
Zest of 2 limes, removed in 1” strips with a vegetable peeler
4 bay leaves
1.2 oz. kosher salt
Combine salt and 6 cups warm water in a large bowl, whisking to dissolve salt. Divide carrots, lime zest, and bay leaves between canning jars. Add brine to cover carrots. Cover with cheesecloth and secure with canning jar bands (without lids). Let sit out of direct sunlight in a room-temperature spot, skimming off any white mold that forms on surface of brine, 5 days. You may want to put the jars in a bowl or on a baking sheet just in case they bubble over.
After 5 days, taste carrots every day; once they are tangy and flavorful (this should take about 1 week in most cases), cover jars with lids and chill.
DO AHEAD: Pickles can be made 1 month ahead. Keep chilled.
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