Happy 4th Everyone!!
I heard there are lots of questions about ‘what to do’ with the Napa cabbage you are getting in the CSA share this week. I’ll try to give you some useful ideas.
But first, let’s pause for a moment. Aren’t they beautiful?
Way to grow 2013 Red Wagon Farm Crew. That is a well grown, perfectly harvested cabbage.
I cut my cabbage in half to make 2 dishes a few days apart. Cabbage, any cabbage, will keep for a long time in an airtight container in the fridge, so don’t feel like you need to use it up this week.
I made a coleslaw to take to a pot-luck and the other 1/2 I did a simple braise/saute’ and served that with rice for dinner for 2.
For the slaw I chopped 1/2 the cabbage up and added some cantaloupe, grapes, jalapenos, onion, basil and some chopped almonds.
I made a classic, but light dressing of;
3 tablespoons mayo
3 tablespoons vinegar. I used white, you can use what you like.
2 teaspoons honey
salt and pepper and about a teaspoon of celery seeds. You could use poppy seed or any seed, or none.
Mix it all up and that is it. The Napa cabbage has a very different texture than green or red cabbage and the taste is different too. I was trying to think how to describe the taste and I would say “Asian” almost a wasabi flavor without the heat.
Several people at the pot-luck asked me what greens I used for the slaw. They thought I used several different varieties. The texture is both crunchy and leafy so it is really nice raw.
I also made a really simple meal with the other 1/2 of the cabbage. I heated some oil in a pan and added some chopped cabbage and about 1/2 an onion.
When that started to heat up I added a glug of liquid (beer, you could use water, or broth, or wine).
The liquid steams and cooks the cabbage quickly, it also makes a nice sauce to serve the dish with grains for dinner.
OK, full disclosurer. The oil I used to heat the pan at the start of this dish was bacon. You obviously don’t have to use that. You can just heat up some olive oil and make this dish.
But…mmmmbaconybeercabbagedinner….
I hope you enjoy your vegetables this week! Did you see next weeks list of what we are getting?
Whooohooo!! Summer is on and so are the summer vegetables!
Have a safe and fun 4th weekend.
Mo
Beans and greens are very good friends. You can not go wrong pairing the two.
Pan roasting the garbanzo beans does two things.
1. It makes the beans creamy
2. The oil used is flavored by the beans and transfers the nuttiness to the rest of the dish.
Braising the vegetables sort of ‘melts’ the chard and all the flavors carry through the dish.
It sounds weird but this is great served with mashed potatoes or mashed yams. It is good alone too, or with grains. I ate some of the leftovers for breakfast with quinoa and an egg, that was good too.
Pan Roasted Garbanzo Beans and Braised Chard
1 15.5-ounce cans garbanzo beans rinse and drain the beans
2 garlic cloves peeled and chopped
1/2 chopped onion
2 small bay leaves (Mine were brown, but smelled fresh. I hope yours are prettier)
1 teaspoon fennel seeds
4 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
1 bunch chard, washed and cut into ribbons. I used the stems too.
2 cups vegetable, or chicken broth
Gather your ingredients.
Heat the oil to medium high in a large enough pan to handle all the ingredients. Then add the rinsed and drained beans and pan roast them for about 5 minutes.
Remove the beans to a plate with a slotted spoon leaving as much oil as you can. Add the garlic, onions, bay leaves, and fennel. I added the chard stems now to let them soften a bit.
Cook this for a couple minutes.
Then add the chopped garlic
Quickly stir to mix evenly, then add the chopped chard a little at a time until you have everything in the pan except the broth.
Slowly add the broth, be careful because it will bubble up on you a bit.
Let that simmer/braise for about 20 minutes. The liquid will cook down some and all the vegetables will soften together to a similar texture.
Add the beans back to rewarm them.
This isn’t the prettiest dish, but it is very, very tasty.
Chard is basically a leafy beet plant without a root. It is related to beets, spinach and quinoa, not kale, it’s not a brassica.
Wash your chard, don’t soak it. It will loose nutrients if you soak it.
Almost all recipes call for you to cut off and discard the chard stems. Sometimes I do, and sometimes I don’t. The stems are a little tough and crunchy so you might, or might not want that. It will depend on the dish. If there is a long cooking time for onions or something in the dish I will add the stems to cook with the onions, then add the quicker cooking leaves later. This is one of those kitchen decisions you will have to make as you go.
Sometimes recipes call for you to remove the rib of the chard.
To chop up chard I like to stack the leaves and roll them up like a cigar and chop them into ribbons. You can do this with or without the ribs.
Here is the bunch of chard all chopped up and ready to use, with or without the stems; you choose.
I’m going to make pan roasted garbanzo beans and chard with this bunch of chard.
Napa Cabbage is a little different than green or red cabbage. Napa cabbage is more closely related to bok choy so it is more tender and a little sweeter than green cabbage. I think of green cabbage as being rubbery, in a good way. Napa cabbage is crisp and sweet.
The Napa cabbage I got in my CSA share had lots of dark green outer leaves. I peeled them off to reveal what you are probably used to seeing Napa cabbage look like when you get it at the store.
I washed and chopped up the outer leaves, I’ll use those in a stir fry tonight. The outer leaves are a little tougher than the inside head.
You can store the head of the Napa cabbage wrapped in an airtight container or plastic in the refrigerator for up to two weeks. You can use it raw, like you would with lettuce or cabbage. Or you can use it in cooked dishes like you would green cabbage. Peel or cut off what you need and replace the rest in the sealed container and put it back in the refrigerator.
We’re really looking forward to week 7, the farm is busting with flavor!
Regular Share
Spinach
Turnip Choice: Hakurei OR Purple Top OR Scarlet
Choice: Kale OR Chard OR Napa Cabbage
Garlic
Fava Beans
Beets
Large Share
Spinach
Turnip Choice: Hakurei OR Purple Top OR Scarlet
Choice: Kale OR Chard OR
Napa Cabbage
Garlic
Fava Beans
Beets
Zucchini
Herb Choice
Check out the beautiful Chard!
It was great to see so many people at the Farm Tour yesterday. I think it was one of the biggest turnouts we have had. We love showing off what we do. We especially love seeing old and new CSA friends. We like to hear what you like as well as your suggestions of what you would like us to do differently.
Here are a few pictures from yesterday:
Everyone got to pick some strawberries
Ellie Belle the donkey got to eat more carrots yesterday than she has in her whole life time. Life is good for animals at Red Wagon.
That’s Wyatt helping some folks off the hay wagon after one of the tractor tours.
I think everyone had fun. If you didn’t make it yesterday we will have another Farm Tour in the Fall. Even if you did come out yesterday, try to come back for the Fall Tour. It’s fun to see how the Farm changes season to season.
We had a farm tour yesterday and we peeled and ate favas we picked from the field on the hay rides.
Favas are yummy raw and fun to eat. But cooked, favas are heaven. If you haven’t had favas, or haven’t prepared them yourself this might seem like a lot of work. Really it doesn’t take more than 10 minutes or so and the yummy, nutty result is more than worth the effort. You probably will only do this once or twice a year so, enjoy the time you spend preparing this fun legume.
Here is a basic fava bean preparation for most any recipe calling for favas, save grilled favas.
Check the recipe index for the grilling favas blog.
There are three steps to preparing a Fava Bean:
1.Removing the beans from the pod.
2.Blanching the beans in boiling water, that you removed from the pod, to soften for easy removal of the outer shell.
3.Peeling off the outer shell before eating or cooking to end with a bright-green, tender-scrumptious bean!
In the picture you can see the steps, except I didn’t show blanching the beans. You know what boiling water looks like, right?
The bright tender inner bean is what you are after.
A pound of fava beans yields a heaping 1/2 cup of recipe ready fava beans. You can simply eat favas with a little butter and salt, or add them to almost any pasta dish or salad.
I hope you enjoy your favas, I know I will!!
I really don’t like boiled beets. I do love love love roasted beets.
Roasting caramelizes the sugars in the beets and adds a toasty dimension. Boiling beets just makes them soft.
So, let’s roast some beets! Here is how I do it. Start with a bunch of beautiful beets.
Cut the beets above the stem, and cut the stem from the greens. Beet greens are delicious, so don’t throw them out. Save them to grill or sauté later. If you do throw them out, don’t tell any of us working at Red Wagon. We work really hard keeping the greens fresh and beautiful and it makes us sad to hear about people not eating them.
Scrub the beets and lay them on enough aluminum foil to wrap them in. Rub the beets with olive oil and season with salt and pepper.
I added some turnips, onions, and garlic scapes that were leftover from last weeks CSA share. I also put a little balsamic vinegar on these beets too, just a little glug. You can leave it out, or not.
You can just do the beets alone with oil, S&P for a basic roasted beet dish.
In the winter I like to roast vegetables in a 375F degree oven. I like the heat in the house. In the summer, not so much. I use the grill like an oven in the summer, heat your grill to medium high.
How ever you cook your beets it will take about 1 to 1 1/2 hours to cook. When you can easily slide a sharp knife into the beet it is done. Your other vegetables will for sure be done if your beets are done.
Let the beets cool a bit and peel the skin off with a paring knife.
That’s it. I think I’ll make a roasted beet salad with these beets.
If you think you don’t like beets, maybe it’s because you have only had boiled beets. Hope you try them roasted.
Wow, it’s already week 6 of CSA! This week is full of yummy choices!
The regular will consist of:
-Spinach
-Arugula
-Your Choice of Beets OR Fava Beans OR Snow Peas
-Your Choice of Kale OR Chard (no choice for the large share, you get both)
-Your Choice of Basil OR Garlic Scapes
Large Share Additions:
-Kale AND Chard
-Spring Onions
-Strawberries
