Red Wagon Farm

Mashed Root Vegetables

Posted on November 3, 2021 by mo

In the Fall when vegetables like rutabagas, parsnips, purple top turnips, and celery root (aka celeriac) start showing up in our CSA share it’s the first time some people have seen these and of course they want to know what to do with them. I always say the same thing; anything you can do with a potato you can do with any root vegetable and, they are all interchangeable. Not only are they interchangeable they are so interesting and delicious together, mix and match any and all you have. Baked, mashed, roasted, au gratin, scalloped, and grilled you can do it all with any of them.

Today I was making some mashed potatoes and I had some parsnips, celery root, carrots and a rutabaga so I am making a mixed root vegetable mash instead of just plain mashed potatoes.

Peel and cut up whatever vegetables you are using. I didn’t peel my potatoes or carrots but I did peel everything else.

Put the peeled and diced vegetables in some salted water. Bring that to a low boil and cook until the vegetables are very tender. I cooked mine about for about 25 minutes. I added some pepper and herbs too. Celery root floats, weird huh?

Drain the cooked vegetables and fish out any herbs if you added them.

I was making this for a simple weeknight meal so I wanted to keep it light so I used milk and some olive oil. If I was making this for Christmas or Thanksgiving I would use heavy cream and lots of butter. The cream and butter make it fluffier.

I just eyeball the amounts and err on the side of less because I can always add more.

Milk and olive oil in the pan, oh, I rinsed out the pan.

Add the veg back and mash and taste to see if you want more salt or olive oil or butter if you are using that.

I like my mash a little lumpy. Keep mashing if you like yours lump free.

That’s it. So easy and quick and deliciously earthy and complex compared to just plain mashed potatoes.

So good. Enjoy your winter vegetables.

Posted in 2021, Rutabagas, Sunchokes, Turnips | Comments Off

Braised Brussels Sprouts and Leeks

Posted on November 2, 2021 by mo

I love braising vegetables. It is a simple mostly hands off preparation method. My favorite part of braising vegetables is that you get a bonus sauce or glaze that elevates the dish beyond roasting or steaming.

This dish is good hot or room temperature and travels perfectly so this would be a good vegetable dish to bring to a friends house for Hannukah or Thanksgiving, but it’s simple enough for a weeknight meal.

Here is what you need.

1 pound brussels sprouts
1 tablespoon unsalted butter
1 tablespoon olive oil
Salt
Freshly ground black pepper
1/2 cup dry white wine-I used vermouth
1 cup broth (chicken or vegetable)
1/2 to 1 cup of leeks or shallots or onions
2 tablespoons heavy cream-optional. I wasn’t going t use it then in the end I added a little.
1 tablespoon Dijon mustard

Those cubes on the dish are frozen chicken stock. I make and freeze it in small portions so I can use what I need. Use what you have.

Wash trim and cut the Brussels sprouts in half and cut up your leek or onion.

Heat the butter and oil in a large skillet with a medium heat. I used my biggest skillet, it’s 12 inches, put the Brussels sprouts cut side down in the pan, they all fit in my skillet. If yours is smaller you might need to do 2 batches to brown them.

Let those brown and cook without moving them for about 5 minutes. Then add the leeks, wine, stock and salt and pepper and give it a stir and cover it and let is gently simmer for about 15 minutes.

After 15 minutes they look like this. A lot of the liquid is magically absorbed and the sprouts are soft but still pretty firm, not crunchy. You could stop here and they would be delicious.

I scooped out my sprouts and was left with this much liquid. I added a little Dijon and just a splash of cream. You could use sour cream or butter, or nothing.

I stirred that up and let it reduce just a little and added my sprouts back to mix it all up to get that sauce in all the nooks and crannies.

We happened to be having cod and rice for dinner the night I made this, so we had this for our vegetable and you know what? It was unbelievably good. The strong flavors of the sprouts and mustard were perfect with the cod and rice and there was just enough sauce to not overwhelm the plate.

Anyway….

I have a couple other braising recipes here you might want to check out and this Brussels sprout salad recipe that I love too.

Have a great week. I hope you are enjoying these great winter vegetables.

Posted in Miscellaneous, Recipes | Comments Off

Pumpkin Maple Muffins

Posted on October 26, 2021 by mo

I roasted a pumpkin the other day to make some pumpkin soup and I had some leftover pumpkin puree so I thought I would make these muffins. They were so tasty and quick to pull together I thought I would share the recipe with you.

This is a New York Times recipe, it calls for browning the butter, which I did and it does add a really nice toasty element that comes through loud and clear in the muffins. You can skip that step and just melt the butter and proceed with the recipe, but I recommend taking the extra few minutes it takes to brown the butter.

½ cup/114 grams (1 stick) unsalted butter
1 cup/145 grams all-purpose flour
1 cup/140 grams whole-wheat flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 ¼ teaspoon kosher salt
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground ginger
½ teaspoon ground turmeric
¼ teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 ½ cups/355 grams pumpkin purée
3 large eggs
1 cup/200 grams light brown sugar
⅔ cup/150 milliliters maple syrup

PREPARATION
Step 1
Heat oven to 350 degrees.
Step 2
Spray muffin molds with nonstick spray or line them with paper liners.
Step 3
Heat butter in a small saucepan over medium heat. Cook, swirling
occasionally, until the butter has melted, foamed and started to brown,
about 5 minutes. Use a whisk to scrape up any browned bits at the
bottom of the pot. Remove from heat and set aside.
Step 4
In a medium bowl, whisk together flours, baking powder, baking soda,
salt, cinnamon, ginger, turmeric and nutmeg.

Step 5
In a large bowl, whisk together pumpkin, eggs, brown sugar and maple
syrup until totally smooth. Whisk in dry ingredients, followed by
browned butter.

Step 6
Divide among prepared muffin tins and bake until the tops are puffed
and spring back slightly when pressed, 20 to 25 minutes.

I haven’t made muffins in ages and I’m so glad I did. These stayed fresh for 3 days. I think these would freeze really well if you wanted to keep them longer than a few days.

Fall is in the air. It’s soup and muffin season.

Have a great week.

Posted in 2021, Recipes, Winter Squash | Comments Off

Winter Squash, Spinach and Broken Pasta Bake

Posted on October 19, 2021 by mo

I saw this Yotam Ottolenghi recipe in the Guardian a while ago and was intrigued. You basically thinly slice or cube winter squash, add a few other ingredients, mix it and and bake. There is no roasting the squash first, no boiling the pasta. The one hitch in that recipe is it calls for fresh lasagna noodles. Thus the reason I hadn’t made it. I rarely make pasta from scratch.

Then one of my favorite bloggers made a few user friendly changes to the original recipe. She used broken dried pasta, not fresh and different ratios of cheese and omitted the tomatoes. So I made it.

I combined what I liked of the two recipes, as always using what I have. The result is a really easy dish that is more vegetable than pasta and is worthy of being on a holiday table.

I used 1/2 this butternut squash and peeled and sliced it thin on a mandolin, you can use a knife and cut it thin or in chunks. It looks like cheese, it’s not. It’s butternut squash sliced thin.

In hindsight I think I would use a kabocha or delicata squash next time so I didn’t have to peel it. I forgot to take a picture of the spinach I used, but there was about 1/2 a bag of spinach. You can use kale or chard if you like. I used the odds and ends of the cheese I had in the refrigerator.

Preheat your oven to 350F and gather the ingredients.

1 large egg
1 cup (250 grams) ricotta
1 cup (100 grams) finely grated parmesan, divided in half
1 cup (85 grams) coarsely grated cheese I used aged cheddar and mozzarella
1 1/4 cups (300 grams) water or two tomatoes, I used tomatoes
2 tablespoons (45 ml) olive oil
1 1/2 – 2 teaspoons kosher salt, depending on how salty your cheese is
Freshly grated nutmeg (optional)
Freshly ground black pepper
1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes, to taste-optional
3 garlic cloves, thinly sliced-I used a shallot
2 tablespoons thinly-sliced sage leaves or 1 teaspoons chopped thyme leaves (optional)
5 ounces (1/2 a bag) spinach or another green, roughly chopped
1 1/4-pound (560-grams) butternut or another sturdy winter squash, peeled, seeded, sliced thin or 1 pound (455 grams) in prepared chunks, sliced thin
8 ounces (225 grams) dried pasta (see Note), broken into pieces if large/long

Mix the first 12 ingredients in a bowl

Then the last 3 ingredients.

Mix them together and put them in a casserole dish and sprinkle the rest of the parmesan cheese on top and cover with foil and bake for 1 hour.

This is after one hour.

Take the foil off and bake it another half hour until it is brown and crispy.

Let it sit for a half hour or so before you cut it to let it set so it is easier to cut and get out of the casserole. There you go. Lovely side dish or vegetarian main dish.

Well, this is it, week 23. Another CSA season in the books. Thanks for a great year. Maybe I’ll see some of you at the Winter CSA pickup, if not hopefully next year.

Be well and happy.

Posted in 2021, Greens, Recipes, Winter Squash | 1 Comment

Celery Salad

Posted on October 12, 2021 by mo

I love celery. I always, always have some in my refrigerator to add to just about every dish I make- salads, stir fry’s, soups, sandwich fillings…I love the crunchy slightly bitterness it adds to dishes.

I also really like celery salads where celery is the main ingredient. I like crunchy salads like this as a side dish with soups, chili, egg dishes or just with some nice bread and cheese. Celery salads are a great addition to heavy holiday meals and travel and keep really well so they are great for potlucks.

This is a clean out the refrigerator/use what you have type of dish for me usually. Today I had some celery, a watermelon radish, some blue cheese and walnuts. Almond and parmesan are one of my favorite combinations. Any cheese or nuts you have will do. You’ll probably want some sort of allium in your salad. I had some scallions that I used, any herbs are a nice addition too. I ended up adding some arugula. I had some walnut oil in my refrigerator and decided to use that. You can use any oil and any vinegar, don’t forget the salt and pepper! Whenever I am making an oil and vinegar based dressing I add just a little lemon. I find it balances out the one note tartness of the vinegar.

You’ll want to wash and trim your celery. I use a really steep bias cut when I cut celery. That reduces the strings per bite and makes for more pleasant eating, I think.