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Category: Recipes

  • Shishito and Leftover Potato Hash-Browns

    We have a bumper crop of potatoes this year. That means CSA members will be most likely be getting lots of potatoes in our weekly shares. So, I wanted to throw out an idea or two for potato leftovers.

    Mashed, boiled, roasted, fried, potatoes are good anyway you cook them (I think).  I routinely like to cook more than I need for one meal because the leftovers are so versatile and often more delicious than the original dish I made.

    I had some leftover roasted potatoes and needed to make a quick meal. I also had some onions and shishito peppers from last weeks CSA share, so that is what I used here. You can use any pepper you like. I just had shishitos so that is what I used.

    I cut up some onion and peppers and tossed them in a lightly oiled pan.

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    While that is cooking cut up your leftover potatoes. Any leftover potato dish will do, even mashed. This is what I had after I cut it up.

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    When the peppers and onions look like this.

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    Chuck in your potatoes turn the heat to medium and let them cook for about 5 minutes or so to let them brown a bit.

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    Try to just turn them once and let them cook as undisturbed as possible for an other 5 minutes or so. They should look like this.

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    That is it. Add some eggs or just have this for a quick and easy side dish.

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    Have a great week. I’ll see you at the CSA pick-ups.

    Mo

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  • Watermelon Margaritas

    My favorite thing to make with watermelons is this  beet salad. This is my second favorite thing to make with watermelons.

    Watermelon Margaritas.

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    First, you have to turn the melon into juice, and you need some tequila and limes too.

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    I don’t have a juicer, so I went low-tech turning that watermelon into juice.

    I cut it up.

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    Smooshed it with a potato masher.

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    Then I strained it to get the seeds out. I got about a quart of juice from my watermelon.

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    I chilled the juice for a couple hours, but you could use ice, or hey! You could freeze some of the melon juice into ice cubes so you don’t dilute the drink…oh man…I wish I thought of that before I took the pictures…oh well…moving on….Next, I added some tequila and lime.  I used about an ounce of tequila and 1/2 a lime for each margarita. But you can use more or less in yours!  It’s like a party in a glass. IMG_2977

    Happy Weekend Red Wagon CSA! See you next week!

    Mo

     

     

  • Storing Parsley and Basil

    Today is August 22, 2016 CSA week #14. Almost 3 weeks ago we got parsley in  our CSA share. I put that parsley in my refrigerator to see what is the best way to store it. I put two small bunches in a tall container with water (on the left), hoping that the tall sides would protect the parsley. The other bunch I put in a glass of water. Like I would a bunch of flowers, leaving the parsley leaves exposed to the air. I didn’t take a picture of them on July 29th, darn. This picture is was taken this morning.

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    I didn’t change the water, or do anything to them after I put them in their containers. Have a look at the difference between the two.

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    The two bunches on the left that were somewhat protected by the container look nearly fresh. The bunch on the right is droopy but usable.

    Here is a closer look at on of the bunches on the left kept in the higher sided container.

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    I think we can conclude that keeping bunches of herbs like parsley (cilantro too) in containers of water will keep the herbs fresh for weeks. The higher the side, the better!

    Let’s talk about basil now. Here at Red Wagon we harvest basil by ‘tipping’ the plants. We only take the top 6 leaves off the basil plants.

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    We harvest the tips of the leaves because it allows the plant to keep producing harvest-able leaves which, in turn will prevent the plant from flowering. We can harvest our basil all season without succession plantings.

    Basil doesn’t like cold at all. That makes storing a little tricky. With a little trial and error I have found that given the way we harvest basil the best way I have found to store the basil is like this.

    In a semi-opened baggie in the door (warmest part) of the refrigerator. I don’t have a butter shelf in my refrigerator. If you do, that would be a great place to store your basil.

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    The semi-opened baggie seems to be the key to storing the basil longer than a few days. I tried storing closed bags and I also tried to poke holes in bags of basil and leaving about a 1/3 of the bag open/un-zipped, kept my basil fresh for 8 to 10 days.

    This is day 11 and the basil is starting to look a little sad :-(  . It’s usable, but on it’s last leg.  I made pizza last night and used some of this basil. I had to pick through it, but it was fine.

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    I hope this was helpful and that all your herbs are fresh and lovely. Enjoy your week!

    Let any questions or comments below and I’ll see some of you at the pick-ups!

    Mo

     

     

     

     

     

  • Onions-Different Types for Different Uses

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    So many different alliums! How are they different and how do you use them to their best advantage?

    Let’s start with young onions, or what we at Red Wagon call ‘grilling onions’ vs the storing onions we are starting to see at the CSA pickup.

    Grilling onions are just young thin-skinned onions. We harvest them while they are still developing so they are mild, sweet and tender. You can eat them raw and they will be mild and crisp. If you grill them they are not too bold in flavor. Grilling onions will only store for a week or two in the refrigerator. They are not storing onions.

    Look at the stems of these three onions, the stem of an onion tells us their story.IMG_2905

    The first onion is a Grilling/Young  Onion, Second a Storage Onion and third is a storage onions still curing. Look at the stem on the onion on the left. It is fat and the rings of the onion are exposed to air. This onion will not store for long but will be delicious for a week or two. The middle onion is a storage onion. This onion has been harvested and properly cured/dried so the stem dries and closes around the onion providing natural protection so this onion will store for months in a cool dry spot. The onion on the right is a storage onion still being cured.See how the onion skin is drying and closing around the stem? You can see how the papers of the onions’ job is to dry and shrink around the bulb of the onion to protect it for long storage. In a few more days this onions’ stem will be dry and shrink and close the stem around the bulb to protect it for long storage.

    These three onions are pretty similar, right? Clearly meant to be storage onions.

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    Let’s cut them open and see what is going on.

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    Go back and look a the picture of the uncut onions again. Look how the onion stem on the left* is sort of flat and open, the middle is seemingly dry and closed, and the last is dried and shriveled up high, but firm against the top of the bulb of the onion. All of the skins look pretty good though.

    When cut open, it is easy to see how, and why, middle onion and the onion on the right were cured properly and will store well. If I had these onions in my pantry I would obviously throw away the onion on the left and use the middle onion first, then the onion on the right last.

    Phew. Was that too much info?

    I’ll give my short answer when I’m asked ‘what is the difference between red, yellow and white storage onions’.

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    Yellow onions are an all purpose onion. They are great for cooking, not too pungent and are sweet enough to caramelize when cooked. Raw they have a more assertive/pungent onion flavor than white onions and they can be less crisp than white onions. I try to save yellow onions for cooking.

    I like to use white onions if I am making something raw, like salsa, or a sandwich. You can cook with them, but they aren’t as sweet as yellow onions and many times if you are trying to ‘brown’ your onions you will burn a white onion because it doesn’t have the natural sugar that yellow or red onions have. If you need to brown an onion and only have white onions add a pinch of sugar and you should get it to brown OK, and not burn.

    Red onions are obviously very pretty raw. They taste similar to yellow onions raw and cooked. They are pungent/assertive raw and have nice assertive but sweet ‘onion’ flavor cooked.The color gets a little washed out when you cook them, so I usually save my red onions for using in raw dishes.

    We will talk about leeks and boiling onions in another blog post.

    If you have any questions, email me or leave a comment below in the comment section.

    Have a great week.

    Mo

    *It took me about 10 minutes to find an onion that wasn’t curing properly from literally TONS of onions we have harvested this year. 99% of our storing onions, the onions you will get, will be cured properly and will keep (if you store them in a cool dry place) for  months. I just wanted to get the concept across of how an onion cures and what it looks like when done properly. I hope these pictures do that.

     

     

  • Quick Pickled Onions and Pickled Onion Potato Salad

    We have a bumper crop of onions at the Farm this year. Let’s use some of them up and make a quick refrigerator pickle.

    IMG_2874This is a super simple pickle to make with only a few ingredients. A lot of refrigerator type pickles are hard for me to get a good balance of acid, sweet, and spice. I almost always find them too acidic and when I try to balance too much acid with something sweet, I never seem to get it right.

    The ratios I used for this pickle are from a David Lebovitz recipe here except for the onion amount. I doubled the onions (I didn’t double anything else) and followed the rest of the recipe. I think these are the best, easiest, quick pickled onions I have made.

    Start with your vinegar, sugar and whatever spices you  want to use and boil the mix until the sugar dissolves. 3/4 cup vinegar and 3 tablespoons of sugar and I added some pickling spices and crushed red pepper.

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    Chuck in your sliced onions and bring all of it to a boil for about a minute.

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    That’s it….done. The 7 onions I used made exactly one quart. Let that cool, put it in a jar in your refrigerator and eat it with just about everything.

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    I made a really nice potato salad with some of those cute little potatoes we got this week. I cooked potatoes and added sour cream, a little Dijon mustard, scallions and some pickled onions.

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    Everyone really liked this. Have a great week. Let me know what you  are making with your CSA vegetables when I see you at the pickups!

    Mo

     

     

     

     

     

     

  • Chimichurri

    I have made this twice in the last two weeks. I have been putting it on everything. Grilled or raw vegetables, grilled meat, any grains or legumes, sandwiches, eggs, Mexican food…really anything. It is fresh and tangy and fast and easy to make and it keeps for at least a week in the refrigerator. Though, mine only lasted a few days.

    Here is what you need. We got almost everything to make this in our last CSA share!

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    • 1 bunch of parsley, not the stems
    • a clove of garlic peeled
    • 3/4 cup of olive oil (I didn’t take a picture of that:)
    • 1/4 cup of vinegar, I used red wine vinegar this time, last batch I used white balsamic and it added a bit of sweetness to the chimichurri
    • juice of a lemon, give or take. Use 1/2 the lemon and see if you want more after you mix it up
    • a red onion, chopped
    • I had a jalapeno I threw in, it doesn’t need it, but it added a nice heat to the sauce
    • other herbs, if you like. I had some oregano I used, you  could use basil, or thyme, or pretty much anything you have
    • salt and pepper

    Now you just throw it all in the food processor and whiz it up.

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    That is it. That is delicious.  It tastes like a summer garden. I had chimichurri with leftover rice and eggs for breakfast and mixed it in tomatoes for dinner last night.

    I hope you try it!.

    Mo

     

  • Crispy (creamy inside) Roasted Potatoes

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    I could eat just these for dinner and nothing else. The leftovers are great for making hash browns, so make more than you need for one meal. You will be very happy you did.

    The key to making great roasted potatoes, not just good roasted potatoes is par boiling your potatoes before roasting them. Boiling the potatoes before roasting keeps the inside of the potato creamy and light. Roasting without boiling first will produce a dry potato, more like a baked potato. I saw this  and used it as a jumping board for making this version, I like better. Hope you like it too.

    For crispy creamy roasted potatoes you will need;

    • 1 to 2 pounds of potatoes. You can use any kind. Just cut them into pieces about as big as a golf ball.
    • some oil in an oven proof pan
    • Parmesan cheese, or you can use bread crumbs, or really just oil if you like. The potatoes won’t be as crispy, but they will still be great.
    • Salt, pepper and any herbs. I used some garlic and rosemary.

    Put some salted (use plenty of salt, your water should taste like the ocean) water on to boil and pre-heat your oven to 400F.
    While the oven is heating up boil the potatoes for 10 minutes. I didn’t take a picture of that, you know what boiling potatoes look like, right?

    Next film an oven proof pan with oil. I used olive oil, but use what you like.

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    Sprinkle some Parmesan cheese and any herbs you  have on the bottom of the pan.

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    After you potatoes have been boiling for 10 minutes drain them and cut them so they fit in the pan. I didn’t cut the small ones and a few of the bigger ones I smooshed and some I cut into thirds, so they all were about the same size in the pan. Brush the tops with a little oil and salt and pepper. When the oven is hot cook the potatoes for about 35 to 40 minutes.

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    They look like this when they are done. Sort of wrinkly. Pretty unimpressive at this stage huh?

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    But just wait, let them sit for about 5 minutes before you take them out of the pan, or the ‘crispy’ bottom will stick to the pan and not your potato, and all your patience and hard work will be for nothing. Test a corner before you remove them. Bingo.

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    I like to dip them into ketchup, Sriracha, and mayo…equal parts.

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    Swoon and enjoy.

    Hope you make enough to have some leftovers for hash-browns. You will be so glad you did.

    Mo

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

  • Carrots with Coconut Butter and Lime

    Wyatt met Deborah Madison at the Farmer’s Market a year or two ago, how cool is that? It’s a great story ask him about it sometime.

    I haven’t met her, but I do feel like I know her. I have read, and reread Vegetable Literacy and Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone so many times I feel like the books are good friends. Her writing and inspirational use of vegetables speak to my heart, as a grower and an eater.

    This ‘recipe’ is from her book Vegetable Literacy and is barely a recipe. It is mostly a great idea and inspired combination of flavors. You boil some carrots and  toss the cooked carrots in coconut butter and lime. That’s it. But, the combination of coconut butter, carrots and lime are completely delicious and worth adding to your repertoire. Add some nuts or mint, or basil, or parsley if you have it, or just enjoy this very simple preparation and let the beautiful carrots shine.

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    Start with about a pound of carrots, a lime and some coconut butter.
    Put a pan of water on to boil.
    Wash and slice the carrots.
    When the water is boiling put the carrots in with some salt and boil the carrots for about 5 to 8 minutes or until the carrots are tender.
    Drain the carrots and toss the warm carrots in about 2 tablespoons of coconut butter, then squeeze the lime over the carrots. I used 1/2 a lime, taste it and add salt and more lime if you like.

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    I had some macadamia nuts I added. After tasting this I think almond butter would be good too if you don’t have coconut butter.

    Thanks Ms Madison for a simple tasty dish.

    Mo

  • Shaved Fennel Salad, and other Fennel Ideas

    Last week I mentioned that I really like fennel raw. I think it tastes best raw if it is shaved as thin as you can possibly get it. I used a food possessor for this salad, you can use a mandoline if you have one. Or, just use your knife and as you are cutting think ‘thin fennel, thin fennel’.

    I got this recipe  from 101 Cookbooks. It is really basic and, like most of the recipes on Heidi Swanson website it starts with a great idea that you can adapt to whatever you have on hand. I had fennel, zucchini, and the ingredients for the dressing. I also had some zucchini blossoms leftover from Thursday’s CSA pickup. I tore them up and added them to the salad. The blossoms add a nice floral/zucchini flavor and I think they are beautiful.

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    The main idea here is to cut the fennel very thin, and to let the flavors meld and mellow for a hour or so with the dressing before you eat.

    I love roasted fennel, but I don’t love the oven on in the summer. Pan roasting is a great option when you don’t want to heat up the whole house with the oven on.

    Just heat up a pan to medium and add some oil, I used olive oil. Add your sliced fennel, don’t crowd the pan or you will steam your fennel, not roast it.

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    Keep the heat to medium and after 8 or 10 minutes turn the fennel. You want it to slowly brown and get really soft and caramelized. This is after about 10 minutes, go slow.

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    This is going to take about 25 or 30 minutes.

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    You want it really ‘done’. Yum.

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    OK. What else? How about those fennel fronds? What to do with them? You can snip off the tender bits and use them like any herb, stuff them in a chicken or fish and roast or grill the fish or chicken.Or, you could make some tea. Pour boiling water over the fronds and wait 20 or 30 minutes and strain it. Drink it warm or chill it and drink it cold.

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    ….there are a lot of fronds in a fennel bunch. I have been using them for my flower bouquets as green filler.

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    What a pretty and delicious plant. Have fun with your fennel this week. I’ll be at several of the pick-ups. Let me know what you are doing with your CSA vegetables. I love to hear from you! Have a great week.

    Mo

     

     

     

  • Grilled Fennel

    Amy said she and Wyatt have been enjoying the beautiful fennel we have at the Farm right now grilled. I usually pan roast or shave fennel raw into salads. So, I thought I would try some grilled fennel for a change.

    Before we get to the fennel, look at what I have from my CSA share.

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    Dang, what a haul. Let’s start with that fennel. Cut the fronds off and trim the bulbs up so they look a bit like this.

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    These fennel bulbs are pretty small and tender. You can leave them whole to grill, leave the root on so they don’t fall apart. Salt, pepper and oil them and toss them on the grill.

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    Do the same with any other vegetables you have, you might as well cook the rest of your vegetables, once the grill is hot. Any leftovers will be good with just about anything else you cook this week. I grilled my onions and zucchini and kale too.

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    The fennel, zucchini, and onions took about 20 minutes to cook. The kale only takes a few minutes. When the fennel is done you will want to cut off the tough root. You can either slice it up or serve it whole. I think it is pretty left whole, but easier to eat cut up. Do what works for you.

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    We had our grilled fennel and vegetables over polenta. There were a lot of leftover grilled vegetables for a few more meals this week. I liked the fennel grilled. The texture is a bit like cooked celery and the flavor is less anise pronounced than raw fennel. I must confess, I do like the fresh crunch of raw fennel. I hope we have more fennel bulbs in our CSA future.

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    Enjoy these dog days of summer, and all the great food we are getting.

    Mo