In The Box 2 - Local
You’ll laugh to read this post and compare it to the post on the last local delivery. Then, we were under water, and now – nothing! We’ve had pretty much no rain since the flood. It’s certainly feast or famine when it comes to moisture this year. But, thankfully, we can irrigate when we’re dry. We’re also thankful that the gardens are yielding some spectacular romaine lettuces, which are just the thing to eat when you come in from this hot parching weather.
Spinach – This is the last of our first-planted spinach. This week, the plants were pulled up and their rows re-planted in carrots. We’ve got more growing in the shade now but depending on how fast the summer heats up, we may not get much until our fall crop. So enjoy!
Summer Salad Greens – These summer greens are more bitter than those that grow in the cooler weather, so this is a good time to try a European favorite: braised lettuce. See recipe below.
Green Forest Romaine Head Lettuce – Yum! I do love a crispy romaine! This is a great box to put together an artistic salad. We’ve included a bag of Salad Confetti for you to experiment with: sunny calendula blossoms, multi-hued violas, tender pea shoots and purple sage petals.
Snap Peas (round pods) – This is really the end of the snap peas, too bad! But what a banner year for peas. We suggest you eat these raw with LaShawn’s Hummus, recipe included below.
Giant Snow Peas (flat pods) – Wow! These really got ridiculously large before they turned sweet. Eat them raw, or slice and add to stir fry.
Scallions – I consider these to be the Taste of Early Summer, in the way that tomatoes are the Taste of Mid-Summer. These tiny little tender onions can be simply rinsed and eaten from top to bottom, minus the roots. I eat Scallion sandwiches for breakfast, a treat I learned from my dad. Simply butter a slice of bread, slice scallions onto the butter, salt lightly and either cover with another slice of bread or eat open-faced. You can also use these in Emily’s Terrific Couscous, recipe as follows.
Garlic Scapes – A great way to eat garlic before the bulbs are ready. These crazy, twisty little oddities are the blooms of garlic plants. They’ll make seed, if you let them, but we’ve picked them instead. Like garlic, a little bit goes a long way. Chop these into a salad, or throw in the blender, and make a great simple pesto for pasta (recipe below). See a fun local food blogger’s post on garlic scapes at whatgeekseat.com. You can also use the scapes instead of garlic in LaShawn’s Hummus (recipe below).
Radish pods – Another crazy seed that we’ve harvested. Radishes, which love cool weather, turn woody and unpalatable in this sort of heat. However, they do produce these tasty seed pods in summer – excellent mixed in salad, or ground up to season a dressing. I like them whole and raw because I love their crunchy texture and light spicy taste. Author of A Cook’s Garden, Barbara Damrosch, crisps them in hot oil and uses them to garnish rice and noodle dishes.
Pineapple Sage – This is a truly gorgeous plant – like many sages. I’ve got a lot of them, some of which are just for show and not to eat. But the leaves of this one, when crushed, do impart a unique, fruity/mint flavor, nothing like the culinary sage you got in your last box, but you can use this in the Sage Tea Cake recipe from last time, and get a different effect. Crush a few fragrant leaves into hot or iced tea for a flavorful treat, or dice the leaves into fruit salad, or a yogurt dip for fruit slices.
Right now, our pineapple sage just has dramatic red stems, but in summer, they’ll sprout these gorgeous fuschia flowers that attract hummingbirds and butterflies.
This week you also have: Chives (flat leaves are Garlic Chives), Dill, Chocolate Mint, Curly Parsley and Oregano
Recipes
Emily’s Terrific Couscous
This wonderful dish can be served cold on a hot day. WorkShare Member Emily brought this to a recent potluck and it was a big hit with the whole crew. She adapted it from The Collection II: Simple & Elegant Recipes from the Attic Angel Association.
2 T butter
1 1/2 c chicken stock
1 c couscous
1/2 c dried raisins, soaked in hot water 15 min, drained
1/3 c sliced green onions
1/3 c sliced chives
1/2 c shelled, toasted pine nuts, chopped
2 T fresh minced parsley
Salt and pepper
3 T fresh lemon juice
6 T olive oil
1/4 t ground cinnamon
In a medium saucepan, combine the butter and chicken stock. Bring to a boil, stir in couscous. Remove from heat and let mixture stand, covered, for 5 minutes. Transfer to serving bowl. Break up any lumps with a fork; stir in raisins, green onions, chives, pine nuts, parsley, salt and pepper to taste. In a small bowl, whisk together the lemon juice, oil, and cinnamon. Toss the dressing with the couscous and serve.
Garlic Scape Pesto
Couldn’t be easier, or fresher. Chop a handful of scapes into 1-inch pieces. Throw in a blender. Pour 3/4 cup olive oil over. Blend until green! Add 1 cup parmesan cheese by hand. Serve over pasta, or spread on baguette slices.
LaShawn’s Hummus
LaShawn, a WorkShare Member, has been enjoying her snow peas dipped in this unique hummus recipe, adapted from Epicurious.com.
2 garlic cloves, or a handful of scapes, chopped
1/2 teaspoon salt
1-pound 3-ounce can chick-peas, drained and rinsed
1/3 cup well stirred tahini
1/8 cup fresh lemon juice, or to taste
1/4 cup olive oil, or to taste
1/8 cup fresh parsley leaves
1 T pine nuts, toasted lightly
On a cutting board mince and mash the garlic to a paste with the salt. In a food processor purée the chick-peas with the garlic paste, the tahini, the lemon juice, 1/8 cup of the oil, and 1/4 cup water, scraping down the sides, until the hummus is smooth and add salt to taste. Add water, if necessary, to thin the hummus to the desired consistency and transfer the hummus to a bowl. In the food processor, cleaned, purée the remaining 1/8 cup oil with the parsley until the oil is bright green and the parsley is minced. Transfer the parsley oil to a small jar. Divide the hummus between shallow serving dishes and smooth the tops. Drizzle the hummus with the parsley oil and sprinkle it with the pine nuts. Makes about 2 cups.
Braised Summer Lettuces with Fruits and Nuts
I’ve adapted this recipe from a Farmer John’s Cookbook one for chicories, which are even more bitter. This is also something you can do with a head of leaf lettuce that grows wilty in your fridge.
3 T chopped dried apricots (or raisins or cranberries)
1 lb bitter greens (lettuces, endive, escarole, radicchio)
1/4 C olive oil
2 cloves garlic, peeled and thinly sliced (or handful of diced scapes)
3 T walnuts (or pine nuts, almonds, pecans)
Put apricots in a bowl and cover with boiling water for 15 min.
Put lettuces in a steamer basket, set over 1 1/2 inches boiling water, and cover. Steam until just wilted, 2 to 4 minutes. Transfer to a colander to drain.
Heat the oil in a large skillet over medium high heat. Add garlic and nuts and cook, stirring constantly, until nuts brown in spots. Chop the greens into large pieces, add to skillet and stir until well-coated with oil. Remove and stir in apricots, season with salt and pepper to taste.
