Just a few stray collards

Well, we almost cooked all of our CSA vegetables. Everything left went into a batch of risotto except some collard greens and beets we are saving to make sorbet from. We used the same recipe we came up with a few weeks ago (See Risotto and Roasted Roots FTW!), but the dandelion greens were much more bitter this time. I did a little reading about them and I've concluded we must have gotten young dandelion greens last time, and old dandelion greens this time. We also used up our turnips - Gretchen braised them in a middle eastern tomato sauce with olives and raisins and we had them over quinoa with a fried egg on top. Our new delivery came in yesterday, but we haven't opened the bag yet. Anyone with expertise in how to cook old bitter dandelion greens, let us know.

We tried a new restaurant last night -- new to us, that is, called Colori Kitchen. It was quite good. It's a jovial, brightly colored Italian place with no corkage for your first bottle of wine at 8th and Olive next to the Golden Gopher. Their bread was excellent- crusty outside and soft inside, and their burrata was delicious. Gretchen had pumpkin ravioli with walnut cream sauce, and I had spaghetti alla vongole. Very good clams, but I wonder if spaghetti alla vongole can ever be a really knock your socks off dish. They are rumoured to have amazing ricotta cheesecake, but we didn't try it this time, despite our waiter insisting that the chef rides a unicorn and collects dew from an enchanted forest, and creates the ricotta cheesecake from magical dew.

Whole Wheat Pita Pizzas, Radish Cesar, and Spiced Carrot Soup

We continue with our challenge to ourselves to eat all of our vegetables by Wednesday. Yesterday at dinner, we used up ALL the carrots, half the romaine, most of the radishes, and almost all of the basil. I thought I was sick of carrots and I was dreading having to eat another bunch of carrots, but I made soup with them and it was delicious. Carrot soup is a whole different animal than whole carrots, and this is my special recipe that has a couple of unusual carrot soup ingredients. For our pizzas, we used some of the tomato salad/tomato a la checca that we made in the morning plus a little but of leftover canned tomato sauce. We will definitely make them again! The sauce a la checca (uncooked tomatoes with basil) was really flavorful on the pita pizzas, especially because we used meyer lemon infused olive oil. Here are the recipes:

Spiced Carrot Soup

2 bunches CSA/farmer's market carrots, peeled and roughly chopped
1/2 russet potato, chopped the same size as the carrots
1 tbsp chopped ginger
1 large clove chopped garlic
1 small onion, chopped
1 tsp black mustard seeds
1/2 tsp five spice powder
juice of one orange (or 1/4 cup store-bought OJ)
1 tbsp olive oil
2 tsp honey
salt and pepper
Vegetable broth (we use Better than Boullioun, which is a concentrated vegetable paste you mix with water)

Bring a saucepan of water to a boil and add carrots and potatoes. If you aren't using better than boullion or cubes, make it a saucepan of vegetable broth. If your vegetable broth is really salty, do half broth and half water. Meanwhile, heat oil in another saucepan and begin sauteeing onions, garlic, and ginger. After a few minutes of sauteeing, add 1 tsp black mustard seeds. When the mustard seeds start popping, turn down the heat or if you have a stupid electric stove like we do, take the pot off the heat because it won't reduce fast enough and you don't want to burn the seeds. When the carrots and potato pieces are soft, drain them, reserving the cooking liquid. I've read that using the cooking liquid retains nutrients, and that using water potatoes have been cooked in helps with texture. Add carrots and potatoes to onion-garlic-ginger-mustard seed mixture and cover with reserved water. Mix in five spice powder, honey and salt and pepper to taste. At this point, if your cooking water is not vegetable broth, add better than boullion or a cube and stir to dissolve. Bring soup to a boil then turn down to a simmer. Use an immersion blender to blend it in the pot, or remove it to a food processor and puree it. Simmer soup for as long as you'd like -- soup is better the longer it simmers.

Whole Wheat Pita Pizza

1 big heirloom tomato, diced
2 tbsp lemon-infused olive oil (or 2 tbsp olive oil, a good squeeze of lemon, and little lemon zest)
salt and pepper
3-4 cloves garlic, minced
2-3 tbsp fresh basil, chopped
3 whole wheat pitas
1 cup shredded mozarrella
however many black olives you like on your pizza

Combine diced tomato, olive oil, garlic, salt and pepper, and basil, and let them sit together for a good half an hour or more. Top pitas with mozzarella, tomato-basil mixture, and olives. Broil until good and melted and crispy. Don't drop it on the floor like we did, or you will be sad.

Tarragon Caesar with Radish

Cut up and clean a bunch of romaine. Use a mandolin to slice radish and scallion. Use the finger protector so you don't cut your finger off (you live, you learn).

In a small bowl, mix together 1 Tbls. of mayonnaise and 2 Tbls buttermilk (or milk with a little lemon juice thrown in, which goes with the Caesar feel of this salad, and is easier than buying buttermilk). Add tarragon, Worcestershire sauce (if you can find it in your fridge; we couldn't), chopped garlic, salt and pepper, and a little olive oil (lemon flavored if you have it). Toss over the salad ingredients.

Mothers' Day Brunch and other uses of vegetables

Happy Mother's Day! We made brunch for my mom, including our family recipe from a village in Germany: http://www.food52.com/recipes/4133_history_repeats_itself_for_a_reason_blueberry_steam_dumplings
These steam dumplings with blueberry sauce are delicious, but you've got to get started 2-3 hours before you want to eat them because there are two rises involved. My mom loves them but doesn't want to make them herself, so it was a good choice for Mother's Day. We also had cheesy eggs, chicken italian sausage, rosemary-sundried tomato scones (homemade), Gretchen's kale and flor de jamaica salad, canteloupe, and tangerine mimosas. Not a super-vegetable heavy meal, but we did use kale and rosemary from the CSA.

Last night, we made an incredibly healthy but indulgent tasting baked pasta casserole. Each serving only has 1 oz of meat and 1 oz of pasta (measured dried), but is totally filling and cheesy and good. And, we used a ton of vegetables. Which is good, because we were hungry after hiking in Griffith Park (the pic is a flower growing out of a rock in Griffith Park).


Here's the recipe:

Becky's Super-Veggie, Cheesey, Tomatotey, Pasta Delight (8 servings)

8 oz whole wheat penne or ziti
8 oz italian sausage
3 small eggplants, sliced
1 poblano pepper, chopped, no seeds
1 humungous carrot or 2-3 normal carrots, shredded
1 onion, chopped
3 cups mushrooms, sliced
1 bunch swiss chard, chopped
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 large can of chunky tomato sauce (or a regular size can of diced tomatoes, drained, and a regular size can of tomato sauce)
1/4 cup feta cheese
3/4 cup shredded asiago
1 cup shredded mozarrella
1 tbsp italian herbs, dried
4 tbsp fresh basil, chopped
2 tbsp olive oil

Set a saucepan of water to boil for the pasta. Meanwhile, heat 2 tbsp of olive oil in a wok or wok-like skillet and sautee poblano, onion, garlic, and carrot. In a separate pan, steam the eggplant slices until soft. After a few minutes, add the mushrooms and chard to the mixed vegetables. Continue cooking until mushrooms are cooked through. Around this time the water should be boiling. Add 8 oz whole wheat pasta to water and cook al dente. Add can of tomato sauce, dried herbs, and fresh basil to vegetables, and season with salt and pepper. Remove sausage from casing and brown in a separate skillet, then chop into small pieces. In a lasagna pan (or two small lasagna pans), put down a layer of vegetables and pasta, then a layer of mozarrella cheese and sausage, then more vegetables, and finish with a layer of feta and asiago. Bake at 350 for 25 minutes.

Vegetables for the Week

See that? Yeah, that pile of vegetables that looks like the produce section of your neighborhood market? Yes, those are the vegetables we must eat by Wednesday at 5:00 when our next batch of vegetables arise. It consists of onions, green onions, rosemary, beets, lots and lots of carrots, lots and lots and lots of turnips, iceberg lettuce, romaine lettuce, turnip tops, carrot tops, chard, dandelion greens, collards, kale, rhubarb, radishes, lots of lemons, lots of tangerines, basil, tarragon, parsley, oregano, 2 poblanos, and a potato.

Let's do this thing! Let's eat vegetables!! (Any suggestions?)

Chinese Black Bean Sauce Braised Turnips, Carrots, Celery and Scallions

When we got turnips in our CSA, I admit I was a bit stumped. The only things I have ever eaten turnips in are a vegetarian gravy recipe (great) and the frozen mashed kind at my grandmother's house (blah). Last night we decided to braise them with other vegetables and have them over brown rice. It actually came out quite delicious, especially the turnips, which were soft and slightly sweet. We had it with some sushi which sort of collapsed, and decided the nori worked well with the flavors of the braised vegetables so we threw some of that in too. I failed to stir around my jar of black bean sauce and the chili oil seems to have risen to the top, because it ended up VERY spicy. Here's the recipe:

1/2 onion, sliced
1 large turnip, sliced
2 scallions, chopped
2 strips fakin' bacon (tempeh bacon)
1 tsp minced garlic
1 tsp minced ginger
1 large carrot, julienned
1 celery stalk, chopped
2 tbsp Chinese black bean garlic sauce
2 cups water
1 sheet nori, ripped into small pieces
1 tbsp olive oil

In a large deep pan, sautee garlic, ginger, fakin' bacon, and onion in olive oil until aromatic. Then add the rest of the vegetables. After sauteeing a couple of minutes more, add the black bean sauce and the water and stir well. Cover and cook on medium heat for about ten minutes. Uncover and check to see how done the vegetables are. If the turnips are tender so that a fork easily piereces them, you're good. Add the nori and stir it around so it softens. Eat these vegetables as a side dish or as a main over brown rice.

Omg, so healthy!

Well, it certainly has been a healthy weekend for us. Two days in a row we have breakfasted on a soup of assorted leafy greens with poached egg, and yesterday we took radish sandwiches to the beach! I feel like a rabbit, but in a good way. On Sunday we looked up the Malibu Lagoon online and learned that there were hiking trails around and near it. So we went to the lagoon with our sandwiches and snacks, but there was no trail. After getting our feet very dirty in weird lagoon mud and watching lots of giant pelicans fly around, we decided to just walk on the beach instead. Our CSA-based fuel was radish-walnut-red leaf lettuce-mustard sandwiches and raw carrots. And we also had some pb&j and cheese and pickle sandwiches (one can't surive on radishes alone :). The vegetable sandwich was quite tasty and I think will repeated next time we hike. The rest of the radishes got braised with their greens and tossed with pasta for dinner, along with some farmer's market broccoli and mustard-panko chicken. Malibu was beautiful, but the contrast between the public and so-called private beach areas was pretty crazy. In the "private" areas (the coast can not actually be private, legally), everyone is thin, most people are white, and all the women are in bikinis. The children have surfboards and wetsuits. We saw one fully dressed woman walking purposefully with an off leash chihuaha scampering along behind her in the sand trying to keep up on its little spindly legs. In the public part of the beach, there is a more representative variety of body types and racial diversity (though it is weighted toward the white and blond, being Malibu after all). Overall, the beach was very mellow, and not crowded, and the water was actually warm. Despite my painfully sunburned shoulders, I'm glad we went.


The culinary highlight of the weekend however, was probably the least healthy -- food at El Rey de Barbacoa. To our credit, we walked two and a half miles there and two and a half miles back to get some barbacoa. Barbacoa is a very old dish that traditionally involved slowly roasting a whole animal in a put in the ground. This barbacoa was made from goat, and I don't know exactly how it was prepared but it was super soft and delicious and rich. Gretchen had a really good quesadilla on a fresh handmade tortilla, and we sampled all of the excellent salsas. We also tried a nopales salad, but concluded, as we do every time we order something with nopales, that we don't like it.

So if you have a hankering for delicious soft rich meat or fresh, thick quesadillas, you won't be disappointed at El Rey de Barbacoa at Adams and Hill. And you should call us so we can go with you :)

Chile Rellenos with Walnut-Pomegranate Sauce

Last night I made chile rellenos that used no ingredients from our CSA. I had an idea I wanted to enter in a recipe contest, but I forgot that the contest closed at 12 am EST and by the time I was ready to type in my recipes it was too late to enter! But since they came out pretty well, I thought I'd post them anyway. I made roasted poblanos with walnut-pomegranate sauce (inspired by the Persian stew), and jalapenos with coconut sauce. I originally was thinking of cornmeal-crusting the jalapenos and frying them, but when I roasted them they were too soft to do that. If you haven't roasted chiles before, it's super easy-- just put them under the broiler, turn them over when the skin blackens, then take them out when the other side is blackened. Put them in a big bowl and cover it with saran wrap, then leave it alone for 10-15 minutes. This will make it easier to peel the skin off.

Filling: Fresh mozzarella, sundried tomatoes, corn kernels, cilantro, garlic, cayenne. Stuff roasted chiles with filling and bake for 5-10 minutes or until cheese is melted.

Walnut- Pomegranate sauce: Sautee 2 cups sliced onion until soft, then add 1/2 tsp cinnamon, 1 cup ground walnuts, 1 cup vegetable broth, 1/4 cup pomegranate molasses, and 1/4 cup tomato sauce. Simmer until thick.

Coconut Sauce -- Reduce 1/3 cup rum over high heat, then add 1 can coconut milk, 1 tsp sugar, 1/4 cup tomato sauce, 1/4 cup chopped cilantro. Reduce to a thick sauce.

I think the best thing about this meal was the coconut sauce. It would be really good with chicken, shrimp, or something crispier (like cornmeal crusted jalapenos).