CSA Box 6

The Bread

Okay, this was a bit strange this time. It still tasted good, just different. It was a very heavy bread with a sourdough taste and walnuts (I think) in it. And it was a strange color inside. Almost purple! Still trying to wrap my brain around that one.

The Fruit

Our fruit use has pretty much ended up being Matt eats all the apples, and I juice the citrus fruits for my breakfast. It works out pretty well! When there are other types like kiwis or pears, we usually eat them for dessert after dinner. As soon as my current batch of pears ripen I'll be posting a cinnamon and vanilla bean pear dessert. Yum.

The Veggies

This time we got cauliflower, beets, leeks, onions, and the usual salad mix and saute mix (not pictured). I'm not sure what to do with those beets. They are not something we usually eat, but I'll figure it out!

Saucy Little Crabs

My brother in law is a fisherman so yesterday my sister brought over two lovely, very fresh crabs. They were Dungeness which taste a little crabby for me to eat all by themselves so here is what I did with them.

Petite Crab Cakes with Tarragon Aioli

The green stuff is sauteed rapini and broccoli which almost ended up being the star of the plate. Matt kept taking bites and saying "what is this?!" and eating more. He loved the rapini. Then there are the crab cakes with hardly any filler, which is key in a good crab cake. And my Tarragon Aioli! I've never made aioli before so I was pretty excited that it actually worked. It really wasn't that hard either. This recipe will make a lot of it, so we're having chicken sandwiches with it tonight. I had a whole mason jar worth left over!

Tarragon Aioli Recipe

2 egg yolks

3-4 garlic cloves (depends on how much you like garlic!)

juice from one lemon

1/2 tsp salt

1/4 C. of almost boiling water

2 C. Olive oil

1 small bunch of tarragon, chopped fine

You want to use your food processor for this, and add your egg yolks, garlic, lemon juice, and salt. Give it a whirl until the cloves are all chopped up. With your processor running on low, pour in the hot water and process for about 15 seconds. Keep the machine running and slowly drizzle in your oil, once it's all incorporated the texture should be like smooth mayonnaise. Stir or process in your chopped tarragon and you're done! If you choose to process it in, do it by pulsing and only barely mixing it in, otherwise your aioli will be very green!

Crab cakes recipe

12 ounces Dungeness crab meat

1/3 C. Panko bread crumbs

1-2 green onions

1/4-1/2 C. tarragon aioli

Oil for cooking

Combine your crab, crumbs, and green onion. Add your 1/4 cup of aioli and gently work it together. Don't overwork your ingredients. The cakes should be loose and just barely hold togther. If they don't hold, add a little more aioli until they do.

Form into cakes and gently roll in bread crumbs. I got seven petite cakes out of mine. I then set them aside on a plate and quickly heated up about two Tbsp. of oil in a large, heavy skillet. Once your oil is hot, very gently put in your cakes. Saute until lightly browned and gently turn over. This part is hard.. a spatula by itself breaks them, so does tongs, so I used a combination of  a spatula and a spoon! Once that side is browned as well, plate them up and serve with some additional aioli sauce.

Teriyaki chicken salad

Teriyaki Chicken Salad

At the end of the week I go through the fridge and use up whatever is in there in preparation for the next CSA box delivery. Things like this happen. I soaked the pineapple and chicken in teriyaki marinade and grilled it. Then grated fennel and carrots, mixed it together, added a dash of lemon and pepper. Without the lemon, fennel browns. To add a little crunch I made some parmesan tuile. Or as Matt called it "That Cheese Thing". To make tuile all you need is a nonstick pan and grated parmesan. You put a thin layer of it in the bottom of the pan and cook on medium until it starts to brown. Using a very large spatula, flip it over and brown the other side. Most of the oils will cook out of it, so blot with a paper towel. You want to end up with a crunchy, dry cheese wafer. If you don't blot, it will be chewy.  To serve an appetizer in it you can do fun stuff like roll it before it cools and fill it, or cool it in a little bowl or ramekin so it has the bowl shape. It has a lot of neat applications.

Corned beef hash

This is my version of corned beef hash. When you have a ton of veggies to use each week, things like this happen.

Brown the potatoes

Add cute little mushrooms, corned beef, seasonings (whatever you like), and rapini.

Saute until everything is nice and toasty but not completely squishy. We like our food to not have the texture of baby food.

And there it is all done. Matt made the eggs and did a lovely job. Not your usual corned beef and hash, but change is good!

CSA Box 5

The Veggies

Carrots (so much better than store carrots!), cute little mushrooms, and rapini. At least that's what I think it is.. I really can't identify the green leafy stuff half the time.

More Veggies

Fennel, radishes, and broccoli

Raisins!

This was a very cool surprise this week. Normally I won't eat raisins plain just in baked goods because they are dry, chewy little things. These ones were not. They were very moist almost to the point of actually feeling wet to the touch and you could tell they were extremely fresh.

The Fruit

Pears and apples

Whole Wheat Sourdough. Probably. Good, whatever it was.

Barley Stew

The thing I love about barley is you don't have to soak it before cooking so if you want soup (which we quite often do!) you can have it in a hurry. You can cook barley just like rice 1:2 ratio with water and seasonings or chicken broth and then fluff after it's done cooking, or if using it in soups just throw it in whatever stock you use and let it simmer for about 45 minutes or until tender.

For my stew I cooked up some italian sausage in my dutch oven on the stove until it was about halfway cooked and crumbled it. Then I added some onion and garlic and let that get nice and toasty. I added the barley (1 small package) and five cups of water seasoned with beef "better than bouillion" which tastes so much better than buillion! Let it simmer for 35 minutes, added some kale, romanesco, and tiny turnips. Basically the veggies I had leftover in the fridge. You could add pretty much anything to it. I let it simmer about another 15 minutes and then it was done! We eat soup or stew at least once a week during the winter since Matt walks in the door starved and I can have it done early and heat it up when he gets back.

CSA Box 4

The Veggies

Some kind of squash, garlic, turnips, Cilantro, kale, and the usual salad mix and saute mix (not pictured)

Sesame Bread

The Fruit

Couple of oranges, some either satsumas or blood oranges-I never know until I cut them open! Apples, pears, and lemons.