Red Wagon Farm

Olive Oil Lemon Zucchini Bread

Posted on September 10, 2018 by mo

When bloggers say, ‘I’m so excited to bring you this recipe’ it comes across to me as disingenuous . So, you know what I am about to say, right? I am so excited to bring you this recipe, and I am very sincere. You should make this.

This zucchini bread is all grown up. Not the traditional oily ‘bread’ that is really a cake, loaded with oil and sugar.

This is dense and moist, bright and not overly sweet bread ,made with olive oil and lemon and yogurt. It is a perfect breakfast treat or snack.

I saw this recipe in the New York Times and followed it almost exactly, but I did make a few changes. I didn’t use the traditional cinnamon, it seemed out of place to me with the bright lemon and complex taste addition of olive oil. I used ginger and I love how it tasted with the lemon. I upped the lemon zest too. I will note the changes I made in parentheses in the recipe below.

INGREDIENTS
Butter, for the pan
1 ½ cups/185 gr grated zucchini ( didn’t measure, I used two medium size zucchini)
⅔ cup/140 gr light brown sugar (I used 1/2 cup)
⅓ cup/80 gr olive oil (or other
oil such as safflower or canola)
⅓ cup/80 gr plain Greek
yogurt
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon/5 gr vanilla
extract
1 ½ cups/190 gr all-purpose flour (I used 1/2 cup whole wheat and 1 cup all-purpose flour)
½ teaspoon/3 gr salt
½ teaspoon/3 gr baking soda
½ teaspoon/2 gr baking powder
1 ½ teaspoons/4 gr ground
cinnamon (I didn’t use cinnamon, I used dried ginger)
¼ teaspoon/1 gr ground nutmeg
1 teaspoon/2 gr finely grated
lemon zest (I doubled the amount of lemon zest)
½ cup/55 gr chopped walnuts (I used toasted pecans)
(optional)

PREPARATION
By Melissa Clark YIELD One 8-inch loaf TIME 1 1/2 hours (that is mixing and baking time)

Olive Oil Zucchini Bread
Step 1
Heat oven to 350 degrees. Butter an 8-inch loaf pan.
Step 2
In a large bowl, use a rubber spatula to mix together the grated
zucchini, sugar, olive oil, yogurt, eggs and vanilla extract. (I mixed everything but the grated zucchini together, then I mixed the dry ingredients, then I mixed the zucchini and the nuts)
Step 3
Whisk together the flour, salt, baking soda, baking powder, lemon zest
and spices in a separate bowl. Fold the dry ingredients into the wet
ingredients. Fold in the walnuts if using.
Step 4
Pour the batter into the prepared loaf pan and bake for 40 to 55 (I baked mine 65 minutes)
minutes, rotating the pan halfway through baking. The bread will be
done when a toothpick inserted into the middle comes out clean.
Step 5
Cool on a wire rack for 10 minutes. Remove the bread from the pan
and cool on a rack completely before cutting and serving

Posted in 2018, Recipes, Zucchini | 1 Comment

Blistered Shishitos with Dipping Sauce

Posted on September 3, 2018 by mo

I Love Shishito Peppers .

I saw this recipe and was inspired to make a similar dipping sauce to the one in the recipe but use shishito peppers for the vehicle to move the sauce from the dish into my mouth. Broccoli, beans or snap peas would be good vehicles too.

I gathered these ingredients

And I made a sauce. I didn’t measure, I eyeballed and tasted. It was pretty basic, some yogurt, a dash of soy sauce and a squeeze of lime and a squeeze of sriracha. It’s not a great picture, but it gives you an idea of proportions.

Mix that up and cook your shishitos either in a pan with oil or on your grill. Sprinkle some sesame seeds on and enjoy the heck out of this dish!

We grilled some beans and made another sauce (that recipe is here) and had that with some gazpacho and margaritas for a great end of summer dinner.

Happy Labor Day Weekend. Be safe.

Posted in 2018, Peppers Sweet, Recipes | Comments Off

Charred Beans with Nori and Sesame Seed Dipping ‘Sand’.

Posted on September 3, 2018 by mo

This is my new favorite way to eat grilled vegetables. I love to eat with my fingers and I love to dip-dip-dip. This is so easy and fast to make. It’s just a sheet of Nori, some seeds and chili pepper flakes.

I used green beans here, but you could use any type of bean, or shishitos, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, or Romanesco.

This is barely adapted from this recipe (second recipe down on that page) from Yotam Ottolenghi. He used shishitos in his recipe, and I didn’t have all the different seeds he used. This is what I had.

1 sheet of nori seaweed
1/2 cup of sunflower seeds
1/4 cup of sesame seeds
1 tsp chilli flakes
Flaky sea salt
1 pound of vegetables to roast or grill. Like I said before have used several different vegetables.
olive oil
mayonnaise, homemade or store bought.

Put a medium-sized frying pan on a medium heat, add the nori and dry-fry for six to seven minutes, turning once halfway, until it starts to brown and break apart easily. Break into very small pieces, either in a food processor or by hand (in which case the pieces will be slightly bigger) and put in a medium-sized bowl.

Return the pan to a medium heat, add the sunflower seeds and sesame seeds and toast them for three to four minutes, until they have turned golden brown. Put into a food processor or chop by hand. I used a small food processor.

Put the vegetables you are using (in my case, beans) in a large bowl . Add some olive oil and a half-teaspoon of salt and toss to coat evenly. Grill or roast your vegetables until they have a nice char.

Remove and serve warm with a bowl each of mayonnaise and nori salt alongside, for dipping. You dip the bean into the mayo then into the seed mix, then into your mouth.

We had this along side this shishito dish and interchanged the sauces and vegetables. It was a delicious meal.

See you at pickup and hopefully the Farm Tour Thursday.

Posted in 2018, Beans, Recipes | Comments Off

Salad Sandwiches

Posted on August 28, 2018 by mo

I love sandwiches. I can eat them for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Sometimes I like a plain fried egg sandwich, or a grilled cheese. This time of year I like to see how many vegetables I can cram into (onto?) a sandwich. On this sandwich I got a whole cucumber, a tomato, some onion and a jalapeno-cheese and mayonnaise too. Pretty much a salad on bread. Yeah, I ate that whole thing and yeah, that tomato was dripping down my elbows. I had to hunch over the counter to keep it from dripping on the floor. I’ll eat my salad sandwich outside next time.

Most salad sandwiches benefit from slicing the vegetables up as thin as possible. I like to use this cheap mandoline slicer and vegetable peeler. I am not a big kitchen gadget person, but I love these tools.

Another way I like to make salad sandwiches is to use a ciabatta roll. I hollow out the top half so I can fill up the vacant area with vegetables. I spread some goat cheese on the bottom roll before I put on the roasted beets to keep the roll from getting soggy.

I added some cucumbers, carrots and egg and some hummus on the top of the roll.

It kind of hugs all the salad stuff. This was a well behaved sandwich and wasn’t messy.

This is one of my favorites.

It is grilled bread topped with melted cheese then tomatoes, herbs, salt and pepper and a little olive oil.

We had this with shishitos and beer. It was a perfect Summer meal.

Have fun and be creative with your CSA bounty. See you at pick up.

Posted in 2018, Recipes, Salads-Spring-Summer | Comments Off

Brown Butter Tomatoes and Corn

Posted on August 20, 2018 by mo

Last year a CSA member (hi Merrill!) told me she made a dish that knocked her socks off, it was just tomatoes and brown butter. I thought about it a few times and never made it until yesterday. Oh, my. My oh my. You need to make this.

The recipe is here , you really don’t need a recipe though. Here’s what you do; brown some butter

then pour it over the ripest, most beautiful tomatoes you have and put salt and pepper on it and swoon. I had some leftover roasted corn and I thought; corn and butter are good-corn and brown butter are probably good too. I was right.

As we ate this we kept saying, “this is so good”. In one of the comments where the recipe is published someone said it is sort of reminiscent of lobster butter. Oddly it sort of is. I hope you try this.

Have a great week, see you at pickup.

Posted in 2018, Recipes, Salads-Spring-Summer, Tomatoes-Tomatillos | Comments Off

Potato and Green Bean Gribiche, Mexican Street Corn, and Fresh Corn Polenta

Posted on August 20, 2018 by mo

I made these dishes with my wonderful CSA bounty. They are all super simple, with only a few pantry ingredients and the CSA vegetables we have. These all were so good I wanted to share them.

Gribiche sauce is French for; chunky-tangy-upscale mayonnaise. Not really, but that is pretty much what it is.

It’s so simple to make with only a few ingredients that you probably have on hand; hard boiled eggs, mustard, vinegar, olive oil, capers, mild onions and pickles. Does that sound like potato salad makings? It pretty much is. But boy, does it elevate almost any dish.

Sadly the sauce isn’t very photogenic. I almost didn’t post these recipes because I am not too happy with the photos. But these are all too delicious not to post, so here we go.

Gribiche Sauce

2 hard boiled eggs smash the yolks in a bowl chop the whites

2 tablespoons vinegar-I used white wine vinegar

One small onion or shallot chopped up fine

2 tablespoons mustard-I used a stoneground mustard

6 tablespoons olive oil

2 teaspoons capers, rinsed

2 tablespoons pickles chopped-I used dill you could use cornichons and be fancy.

Salt and pepper

Smash the yolks in a bowl and whisk in everything else-taste and adjust vinegar and salt and pepper-that is it.

Dish this on everything. I boiled some potatoes and some green beans (you could use any vegetables) then I mixed it up like potato salad and served it with some Mexican Street Corn. the Street Corn recipe is here.

The next night I spooned the gribiche on some grilled zucchini and onions, it makes a really elegant dish.

Next up is Fresh Corn Polenta. This screams Summer and so simple and delicious you will wonder why you haven’t made it before. Again, not very photogenic, but you should make it. The recipe is here.

I hope you try these dishes. They are so easy and tasty.

Have a great week.

Posted in 2018, Recipes | 1 Comment

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