Rustlin' me up some grub-Farm Share Week One

I'm going to blog through this first week of the farm share. I'd like to see how much what I cook changes based on the fresh things I have.

Tonight's Menu:

• Salmon cakes with scallions and fresh basil
• Bok choy and garlic scapes stir fried with ginger and soy sauce
• Chopped Raw Kohlrabi

Salmon Cakes

6 oz of cooked salmon (I used the wild-caught kind that comes in a foil pouch)
2 scallions, chopped
1 stem's worth of fresh basil leaves, chopped
1/4 cup dry breadcrumbs
1/4 egg whites (about two egg whites)
1 tablespoon of olive oil

Mix all the ingredients in a bowl. Heat the oil in a non stick skillet. Form the mixture into patties, whatever size you prefer, and fry the patties on both sides until golden brown and heated through. The mixture will be kind of loose when you first form the patties, but should tighten up once the egg whites begin to cook. These are great for a meal, and even better the next day as a sandwich on wholegrain bread with watercress. This mixture made me six salmon cakes. I can't wait for leftovers.

I chopped up the bok choy, leaves and stems, the scapes, and thin julienne of ginger, and gave them a quick stir fry with canola oil in a hot skillet. At the last, I gave them a splash of soy sauce. Easy peasy!

Again I chose to eat the Kohlrabi raw. It's crunchy and mild, and kind of fits in the place of a salad.

I still have fruit salad from yesterday for dessert, along with an Italian Soda I made by mixing my basil-mint syrup with lemon seltzer. Its very delicious. My new summer treat drink.

What's for dinner? More of Farm Share Week One

Just a quick post to share my menu for the night. More veggie share yumminess!

My main dish was sea scallops sauteed in olive oil with mustard greens, beet tops, and arugula, and seasoned with salt, black pepper and garlic scapes.

I love the sharper greens, but I find that the flavor benefits from a liberal amount of salt. The bitter greens with the sweet scallops was a totally awesome combination.

Also on the plate was the kohlrabi, which I had never had but tastes like a mild turnip, almost sweet. I just chopped it up raw and ate it skin and all like a salad. Very crunchy and nice.

I had some small red potatoes that didn't come from the farm share, but were tasty. I just steamed a few, and ate them skin and all.

While I was cooking dinner, I whipped up my own batch of basil mint syrup. I also used more basil to make my basil-ginger strawberries, but this time, in addition to the strawberries, I used mango and blueberries. The fruit wasn't part of the share, but it should be good.

I think I'm really going to enjoy my farm share this summer.

Alleged Dinner-CSA Farmshare Week One

I've always wanted to get a farm share, but even a half-share is typically too much food for me. So I'd go to the farmer's market instead. The farmer's market is fun, but I don't always seem to make it, especially lately. This summer I got really lucky though. My friends Mark and Sylva were getting a farm share, but since it's just the two of them and their baby, a whole share was too much food. They offered me a third of a share. Which is just the perfect size for me. Also, since I have to go over to their house to do a pickup, it's the perfect excuse to visit my very busy friends. Especially since we are also planning to try to cook together as many pick up days as we can. Pick up days are on Thursday, but this past Thursday, we were all in different directions, and couldn't coordinate our schedules, so we arranged to meet tonight and have our inaugural dinner.

Our share comes from The Alleged Farm in nearby Washington County NY, which means that the food is fresh, fresh, fresh. They also thoughtfully provide recipe ideas with your veggies, and we decided to go with their suggestions for the first week. Our share this week was: Arugula, Beets with the tops on, Bok Choy, Garlic Scapes, Kohlrabi, Lettuce, Mustard Greens, Scallions, Basil, Mint and Strawberries.

Our menu for dinner was:

• Grilled Chicken
• Pasta with Garlic Scape Pesto
• Lettuce and Arugula Salad
• Ginger and Basil Sugared Strawberries
• Basil-Mint Juleps

Sylva made the pesto, and it was delicious, garlicky and wonderful. This isn't exactly the recipe she used, but I like it anyway.


Garlic Scape Pesto

1 pound garlic scapes
1 cup grated parmesan cheese
1 cup basil, packed
Olive oil (about 1/2 to 1 cup)
Pine nuts if available, or walnuts

Chop the garlic scapes into 3 inch lengths. Put it in the food processor with the basil and process until it's pureed. Add the parmesan and nuts and process until smooth. Slowly add the olive oil as the food processor runs and continue until all the oil is combined into the garlic. Store in an air-tight jar in the refrigerator.

We served this over pasta with chopped olives and scallions. Sylva sent me home with a little container of it for myself, and I was sorely tempted to eat it with a spoon, but I think I'll put it on sandwiches this week.

Ginger and Basil Sugared Strawberries

1 pint of strawberries, hulled and sliced (The little flavorful berries are best.)
1/2 inch knob of fresh ginger, peeled and grated
2-3 leaves of basil, thinly julienned
2 tablespoons of turbinado sugar

Put the strawberries in a bowl and sprinkle them with the sugar, grated ginger, and basil. Stir until all the strawberries are lightly coated. Let set for 15 minutes then eat.

This is so easy, but there's just something about the way the flavors combine that's like a song in your mouth. Pop one in your mouth, and it's so good that you have to stop talking for a second while your brain processes the burst of wonderful flavors you just got hit with.

Last but not least, our dinner cocktail was kind of a variation on the mint julep. Instead of fresh mint and sugar, there was a basil-mint simple syrup involved. The idea and the instructions come from The Alleged Farm Blog.

Basil-Mint Juleps

Take equal parts sugar and water and stir together in a pot. Put over medium heat and slowly bring to a boil, stirring until all the sugar has dissolved. As soon as the mix comes to a boil, turn the heat all the way down and simmer for five minutes. Take the syrup off the heat and add basil and mint leaves. Let the herbs steep until the mixture has cooled and then strain them out.
Put roughly equal quantities of good bourbon and syrup in a glass, add ice, stir and sip.

This drink was heaven, pure and simple. Sweet but not overpoweringly so, and refreshing. The bourbon we used was Woodridge Reserve, which was a good choice on Mark's part. If you don't use the entire batch of syrup making juleps, you could mix it with white rum and soda water for a twist on the mojito, or if you're a tea-totaller, it would make delicious iced tea or lemonade.

All in all we thoroughly enjoyed our first dinner, and used a decent amount of the share making it. My plans for the rest of the share this week include sauteed mustard greens and beet tops, another batch of basil-mint syrup, a scallion omelette, roasted beets, and stir fried bok choy and garlic scapes.

More Spicy! Chicken on a Stick

Here's another summer food post for you. Summer in the Northeast is prime time for picnics, barbecues and parties. Warm sunny weather is limited, and everyone wants to get out and celebrate. I like to party as much as the next person, and I like to eat good food, but I don’t want to spend a ton of time in the kitchen. So I have a few easy to prep recipes under my belt that are wicked good in the summer. One of them is my spicy peanut chicken on a stick. This recipe is great because it can be made in the oven, or on a grill, and has a lot of flavor. I’ve made it as an appetizer, or as part of the main course with rice and veggies. You can omit the stick, but I think it makes eating this more easy and fun.

Spicy Peanut Chicken

one lb of boneless skinless chicken, cut in to chunks or strips. (Either breasts or thighs will work.)

Sauce/marinade ingredients:

one cup teriyaki sauce
6 tablespoons crunchy-style natural peanut butter
Juice of one lime
two tablespoons of sambal olek (crushed red chili paste)
one 2-inch knob of fresh ginger, peeled and grated fine
3-4 cloves of garlic minced fine
2 teaspoons of toasted sesame oil

Put the cut-up chicken in a freezer bag, or a covered dish. Whisk together the ingredients for the sauce, and cover the chicken with half of it. Let it sit over night, or at least 30 minutes. Put the meat on skewers, (be sure to soak the skewers in water beforehand if using wood/bamboo) Grill the meat done, using the marinade to baste. You can also bake the chicken in a 350 degree oven, and just pour the marinating liquid over it before you bake. When the chicken is done serve it with the remaining half of the peanut sauce for dipping.

I love this peanut sauce. I’ve used it most often on chicken, but it’s also good with pork, or as a stir-fry sauce. The recipe I’ve posted is a double batch, so that there’s plenty left over for dipping, but you can halve it. I also like my sauce VERY spicy, so there’s a lot of sambal olek in there. You can adjust it upward or downward to get the amount of kick you like. I wouldn’t omit it altogether though. The spice and the peanut really complement each other. I get my sambal olek in the asian section of the grocery store, or the asian market. It’s usually next to the Rooster Siracha sauce. The difference between Rooster sauce and sambal olek is that rooster sauce is usually sweet and very garlicky and sambal olek is usually just red chili, salt, and lime juice or vinegar.

Oatmeal Cookies on Steroids, or what happens when you just throw stuff in.

You know I've been working on this healthy eating thing lately? Well I have, and without getting into super-dull detail, I've just been trying to make food choices that make my body happy and keep it running well. That involves cutting down on the amount of indulgences I allow myself. Notice I didn't say not indulging myself, I said cutting down. I'm trying to make a lifestyle of this, and for it to be sustainable on my part it has to A) Not be boring, and B) Allow room to eat for pleasure now and then. Now I love healthy flavorful food, so most of my eating is pleasurable. But when I say eating for pleasure I mean eating not because it's the most nutritious choice, or because I need the fuel, but just for the sensual enjoyment. For the play of flavors and textures in the mouth. Which means that when I pick treats I want them to be darn good ones. So, when I set out to bake cookies to take to my friend's birthday celebration, I wanted them to be awesome.

My go-to good cookie is my chocolate chip recipe. I can almost bake it by heart. Chocolate chippies are generally my fave but when I was planning ahead, I wasn't really feeling them. I started thinking about oatmeal raisin cookies, because I hadn't made them in a long time. I love the buttery, chewy texture of an oatmeal cookie, but the raisins weren't doing it for me. Chocolate chip oatmeal cookies weren't what I wanted either. I started thinking about a cookie recipe that I had made in the past, which was oatmeal cookie with dried cranberries and other additions and then I remembered a recipe from the Washington Post for salted oatmeal cookies. Neither of those were exactly what I wanted, but looking at the two recipes helped me decide what to do. The result was an oatmeal cookie that was totally worth the indulgence.

What Else Could Possibly Fit In Here Oatmeal Cookies

Basic Oatmeal Cookie Dough

3 eggs, well beaten
1 teaspoon of vanilla
1 cup salted butter, softened
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup white sugar
2 ½ cup flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon of ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon nutmeg
2 teaspoons baking soda
2 cups oatmeal

Add-Ins (use as many, or as few as you choose)

1 cup dark chocolate chips
1 cup dried cherries
1/2 cup dried apricots, chopped
1 cup crushed Heath Bar or toffee bits
1 cup pepitas (hulled, unsalted pumpkin seeds)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Mix the flour, salt, baking soda nutmeg and cinnamon together and set aside. In a large bowl, beat the sugars and the butter together. Then add the dry ingredients and mix well. Next blend in the eggs, vanilla and oatmeal. The dough will be a little stiff. Fold in the add-ins ingredients one at a time. Drop by heaping teaspoonfuls onto un-greased cookie sheet or roll in small balls and flatten slightly on cookie sheet. Bake for 10-12 minutes or until lightly browned. Depending on how many mix-ins you use this recipe should make 5-6 dozen cookies.

The original cookie recipe only called for a half teaspoon of salt, but I upped it to a full teaspoon. I also used salted butter. I was trying to get a lot of sensations into one cookie. There was the extra bit of savoryness from the salt, the bittersweet chocolate, the tangy dried fruit, the sweetness of the toffee bits, and the crunch of the pumpkin seeds. The pepitas weren't in the first edition of the cookie, but the second time I made them it seemed like a good idea. Each bite had a slightly different texture or flavor to it. Even though I made about 5 dozen, we had a full house and none survived the weekend. I'm giving up most other oatmeal cookies and saving all my loving for the next batch of these. Sometimes I can't believe how much I love my own cooking. I'm already wondering what would happen if I replaced the toffee bits with candied ginger.