Red Wagon Farm

Sugar Snap Pea and Fava Carbonara

Posted on June 18, 2018 by mo

Yum. Carbonara is one of my favorite dishes. Carbonara with fresh peas and favas is off the charts. I like it with spinach or chard too, or broccoli and basil.

Before you start get everything ready, this comes together really, really fast. I use only a 1/2 pound of past here because I am using so many vegetables. If you want more pasta and adjust the amounts accordingly. This made way more than enough for two of use for dinner.

You’ll need;

1/2 pound dried pasta, I used spaghetti
1 to 2 cups of fresh vegetables
1 tablespoon butter
garlic scapes, cloves or green garlic
1/2 cup grated Parmigiano cheese
2 large eggs, beaten
pepper and salt as needed

I used snap peas and shelled favas and garlic scapes. You can use garlic cloves or green garlic. As always, use what is in season and what you have. I just shelled the favas and didn’t bother with peeling the skin off because they are still small and young.

Boil your pasta and while that is cooking saute the vegetables with some butter in a pan big enough to hold all the vegetables and the pasta. you will be tossing all of it together and you need the heat of the pan to gently set the egg mixture.

When the pasta is cooked drain it, reserving 1/2 cup of the cooking water. You need to add a little of the cooking water at the end to make the sauce creamy and pull the whole thing together, so reserve 1/2 cup of the cooking water!. Turn the burner off, you don’t want to scramble the eggs. The residual heat will set the egg mixture. Add the pasta to the skillet and toss with the vegetables, and garlic and butter. Add half the cheese and, with metal tongs, toss until well coated, about 1 minute. Add the eggs and toss for 1 minute more.

Add the remaining cheese, salt and pepper to taste, and enough of the reserved cooking water to form a creamy sauce that clings to the noodles. Start with about 1/4 cup of the cooking water, don’t dump all of it in, you might not need it all.

That’s it. I like to add some bread crumbs and extra Parmesan cheese but I forgot to take a picture of it. This was a hard dish to make and take pictures of at the same time :)

If you look at the first picture you can see how the creamy sauce coats everything, that is what you are going for. This is one of those dishes that is more than a sum of it’s parts and so, so delicious. Even better with fresh vegetables!

Enjoy.

Posted in 2018, Fava Beans, Peas, Recipes | Comments Off

Hazel Dell Mushroom Add-On Share

Posted on June 11, 2018 by mo

I had a few people at pick-up ask me about the mushrooms share. I showed them the bag we were giving to the members that week who choose this add on option. But, I thought it might be better to take few pictures of the mushrooms out of the bag to better show what you get.

You get about 1/2 a pound of mushrooms. The varieties change most weeks, and honestly that make it really fun. This is a picture of my share last week.

I have been getting a bi-weekly mushroom share for 3 years and I love how it compliments the vegetables. It really helps me round out meals. I almost always do the same thing with my mushrooms. I chop them up and pan roast them with whatever garlic or onion we got that week.

This is what it looks like cooked. I get about a generous cup of cooked mushrooms.

I add them to greens, or pizza, or any egg dish. Eggs, kale or chard and mushrooms on toast is one of our favorite meals during CSA season.

Have a great week.

Posted in 2018, Miscellaneous, Recipes | Comments Off

Kohlrabi Turnip Salad with Tahini Dressing

Posted on June 11, 2018 by mo

If you aren’t familiar with kohlrabi you might want to have a quick look here. Basically kohlrabi is a brassica that taste like a tender peeled broccoli stem and the texture is more like an apple. If you haven’t had kohlrabi before I suggest you peel it and slice it and eat it like an apple. Delish.

Kohlrabi is great raw or just slightly cooked, like in a stir-fry.

I made a simple salad with some of my CSA share. This would have been really good with the Tokyo cabbage we got earlier, but I had spinach so that is what I used. Anyway. This is what I had.

Kohlrabi, spinach, turnips, parsley, and radishes.

I chopped everything up into salad-bite size pieces. I used a really cheap mandolin to make the job go really fast, but you can use a knife too.

I made a tahini dressing (I’ll post the recipe at the bottom of this page.) and I added a few currents and chopped nuts and a half of an avocado that was lurking alone in the vegetable drawer and I tossed it all together.

This was a substantial salad, you could add a protein like tofu or chicken and have a meal. It’s nice and crunchy with unusual textures and flavors.

Kohlrabi Salad with Tahini Dressing

For the salad;

3 small kohlrabi peeled and cut salad sized
a CSA share of spinach or cabbage
a handful of chopped parsley or basil, or another soft herb
a handful of currants or raisins or nuts. Granola with be good here too.
salt and pepper to taste

For the dressing;

1/4 cup tahini
juice from 1/2 a lemon, you might need more
2 teaspoons honey
1 clove of garlic, minced
3 Tablespoons water + more to thin if necessary. I made mine pretty thin, you might not want it that thin
salt and pepper to taste

Prepare all the vegetables and put them in a big bowl. Make the dressing by combining all the ingredients in a bowl and mix thoroughly with a fork until everything is smooth. Now decide if the dressing is too thick add a little water until it is the consistency you are looking for. Mix the dressing with the vegetables and dump everything into a serving bowl.

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

Spinach and Onion Strata

Posted on June 4, 2018 by mo

This is an easy go-to, adaptable, make ahead meal. Use any greens or alliums you have, use a lot or a little. Use up any bits of cheese or meat or vegetables you have in the refrigerator, anything you have will be delicious.

I had some onions, spinach and mushrooms leftover from some pizza I made earlier so I used up those leftovers. I made this in a loaf pan. You can easily double this and bake it in a 9 X13 pan.

Spinach and Onion Strata

I used about *2 cups total vegetables
1/2 teaspoon salt
a few cranks of fresh black pepper
4 cups cubed bread
about a cup of cheese
1 1/4 cups milk
4 or 5 eggs
1 tablespoon Dijon mustard

*You will want any vegetables you use in your strata cooked and cooled before you assemble the dish, so do that first.

Next spread one third of the bread cubes in a well-buttered oven proof dish. Top with one-third of your vegetable mixture and one-third of the cheese. Repeat layering twice with remaining bread, spinach and cheese.

Whisk eggs, milk, mustard and remaining 1/2 teaspoon salt and 1/4 teaspoon pepper together in a large bowl and pour evenly over strata. Cover with plastic wrap and chill strata for eat least 8 hours or up to a day. All that egg and milk need to get soaked up in the bread.

Preheating the oven to 350°F. Bake strata, uncovered, in middle of oven until puffed, golden brown, and cooked through, 45 to 55 minutes. Let stand 5 minutes before serving.

Posted in 2018, Eggs, Onions and Leeks, Recipes, Spinach | Comments Off

CSA Week 3

Posted on June 1, 2018 by lnmayer

Hello CSA Members!

Here is what we hope to bring you for Week 3 of our CSA

REGULAR SHARE
CHOICE: Parsley OR Dill OR Cilantro OR Mint OR Chives
CHOICE: Radishes OR Pea Shoots
Hakurei Turnips
Green Garlic
CHOICE: Spinach OR Head Lettuce
CHOICE: Kale OR Swiss Chard OR Bok Choi

LARGE SHARE ADDITIONS
Double Herb Choice
Radishes AND Pea Shoots
Kohlrabi

Posted in 2018 | Comments Off

Rhubarb Upside-Down Cake

Posted on May 30, 2018 by mo

I saw this recipe and knew I had to make it. I’m so glad I did. I am not a big dessert eater, but I love making desserts. I love making beautiful delicious desserts, and this, I think, is both.

I followed the recipe in the link pretty closely, but changed a few things.

First, I didn’t use any of the spices she calls for, they seemed to Christmas-y. I doubled the lemon zest and used only vanilla. I served this with whipped cream and after having that I think I will add fresh mint to the whipped cream next time.

Second, I didn’t cook the rhubarb in the pan before adding the batter. I melted the butter and sugar and added raw rhubarb and topped it with the batter. I think cooking the rhubarb first would make it too mushy. Also, several reviewer of the original recipe said the rhubarb was mushy and turned a gray/green color. I am happy with the color and texture I got by not cooking mine first, so I would do that again. I also spread the batter with an off-set spatula. She mentioned that she had trouble spreading the batter and the rhubarb was getting shoved around. I didn’t have any trouble.

Third, because we are high altitude I upped the oven temperature from what is called for in the original recipe to 375F and I cooked it about 15 minutes longer than the original called for.

Fun, delicious, easy, seasonal. This is a keeper.

Posted in 2018, Recipes, Rhubarb | Comments Off

Tokyo Bekana Rice Bowl Slaw

Posted on May 27, 2018 by mo

Tokyo Bekana is a new crop here at Red Wagon.

Tokyo Bekana is an Asian green (obviously) with really tender leafy greens and crisp ribs much like bok choi. To store this green, wrap it loosely in a plastic bag and keep it in the refrigerator for at least a week. I have had this head wrapped in my refrigerator for 5 days and it is still perfect.

You can use the tender leaves of Tokyo Bekana as a salad green. The leaves are sweet and crisp. The lower part of the plant will hold up to a stir frying or sauteing. You can use the whole plant in stir frying, oh, soup too!. The leaves will collapse, but still be delicious. I made a slaw and ate it over rice. I want to try this recipe using the TB instead of mustard greens. This looks like it would be really good too. I’ll let you know if I try either, and you do the same for me!

To make the slaw I cut up the vegetables we got last week which were; Tokyo Bekana, hakurei turnips, a few pea shoots, and a walking onion.

Then I made one of my favorite dressings. It’s a miso based dressing.

Miso dressing:

3 Tablespoons white miso paste
3 Tablespoons rice wine vinegar
1 Tablespoons low sodium soy sauce or tamari
1 1/2 tablespoons maple syrup

Just mix that up and toss with your salad. You might not need it all. I like a lot of dressing if I am eating it with grains or rice. Nuts are nice with this salad too.

I’m so happy to have CSA vegetables again.

Have a great week, see you at pick-up.

Posted in 2018 | 2 Comments

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