Small Kitchen Cooking
Vegetables
Every week throughout the summer, we'll be getting a large bag of organic locally grown vegetables. This should be interesting!
Week 8. See Blog
CSA Week #7
Sauce with 3 csa veggies
1 can whole tomatoes, crushed by hand
1/2 chopped onion
1 Purple Pepper (which turned translucent)
1 Zucchini
chopped herbs from the garden:
-Basil
-Parsley
-Oregano
salt
pepper
hot pepper flakes (from a harvest of Super Hybrid F1 Chile Peppers that I dehydrated. They seem to last forever)
Saute the onion with a bit of olive oil, salt and pepper (with some red peppler flakes) until soft ~ 3-4 minutes
In a separate pan, get the cut up pepper and zucchini going in a pan with some oil, salt and pepper as well.
To the onion, add the can of tomatoes (crushed up), herbs (reserve about 3 or 4 leaves of the basil to add at the end)
When I use cans of whole tomatoes, it takes a bit more to get it reduced to my liking, although really, once the zucchini and peppers are soft, it's done. Add these to the sauce that you have going, cook down if you wish. Taste for seasoning, add the last of the basil at the very end. A quick stir, and serve.
The challenge of using kohlrabi...hmmm...how about:
Kohlrabi and Cucumber Spring Rolls
hey, why not. Time to get busy with combining more vegetables. For these, I brought out my handy V-Slicer. Scares me every time I use it.
1 Peeled Kohlrabi thinly sliced
1 Cucumber thinly sliced
some of the Nevada Summer Crisp Lettuce in large tears
Onion tops, again thinly sliced
and a bit of basil from the garden
I had some Vietnamese Spring Roll Skins lying around, so I carefully rehydrated those. Sadly, I can't share the peanut sauce recipe because I tried 3 times and failed on each attempt. Too salty, even using low-sodium soy sauce. By the third attempt I had run out of lime juice, garlic, rice wine vinegar...etc. Everything ran out at once. I tried substituting, but to no avail.
All in all, a good use of the veggies. The kohlrabi has a taste I found similar to cabbage and radish. Not bad raw. Haven't tried it cooked yet.
Our week #7 Bounty
7 Cucumbers
2 cubanelle peppers
2 purple peppers
1 Kohlrabi
3 yellow squash
1 sunburst squash
2 onions
1 head of Nevada Summer Crisp lettuce
4 Zucchinis
Green beans
2 small heads of broccoli
Simple, fast and mighty tasty!
Thai Basil & Chili Noodles with Veggies
1 Box of Thai Basil & Chili Take-Out Meal
1 Patty Pan Squash
1 Zucchini
Green Beans
Saute veggies, pour over box prepared noodles
My version of Stuffed Cubanelle Peppers
I've never had a Cubanelle Pepper, but people say to stuff them, so that's what I did. Stuffed simply with Spanish Chorizo, Fontina Cheese, and some onion. Elizabeth loved it, I thought it was lacking something, but not sure what. Served with green beans.
CSA Week #6
I think we've approached "Dinner party status".
Sockeye Salmon with Preserved Lemon and
Carmelized Onion
Used an onion and a zucchini (along with...........more salad!) from our CSA bag. I keep forgetting to start eating these beans.
The best salmon dish I've ever made.
To start, I've got a jar of preserved lemons that I keep in the fridge. I make these about once every 3 months. If you've never made them, they are very easy. Feel free to email me if you wish to make a jar. You use the peels, and discard the insides of the lemon.
I took the biggest onion that I had received and thinly sliced it up. That gets sauteed with a bit of olive oil and salt until translucent. On top of the onions goes the salmon, which I drizzled with olive oil (this was a lemon-infused extra virgin) and seasoned with salt and pepper.
On top of the salmon goes the thin slices of 1 rinsed preserved lemon. I covered this, and cooked over medium heat until done. Maybe about 8 minutes for the filets I had. I wish I kept an accurate time because I decided to make croutons for the salad, so while those were in the oven baking, I let the fish sit off the heat, covered in the pan. You can probably see those yummy croutons in the salad, and the zucchini sitting next to the fish. The fish was finished with a topping of sour cream mixed with some lemon juice, salt, and dill.
Zucchini's
Normally, we're happy just sauteing them in olive oil, and just salt and pepper. Nothing more. However, sometimes you have to revert to some old-world methods. Zucchini Fritters, from my Cucina di Calabria cookbook.
2 Zucchinis go a long way. Probably got 20 of these babies.
Every week throughout the summer, we'll be getting a large bag of organic locally grown vegetables. This should be interesting!
Week 8. See Blog
CSA Week #7
Sauce with 3 csa veggies
1 can whole tomatoes, crushed by hand
1/2 chopped onion
1 Purple Pepper (which turned translucent)
1 Zucchini
chopped herbs from the garden:
-Basil
-Parsley
-Oregano
salt
pepper
hot pepper flakes (from a harvest of Super Hybrid F1 Chile Peppers that I dehydrated. They seem to last forever)
Saute the onion with a bit of olive oil, salt and pepper (with some red peppler flakes) until soft ~ 3-4 minutes
In a separate pan, get the cut up pepper and zucchini going in a pan with some oil, salt and pepper as well.
To the onion, add the can of tomatoes (crushed up), herbs (reserve about 3 or 4 leaves of the basil to add at the end)
When I use cans of whole tomatoes, it takes a bit more to get it reduced to my liking, although really, once the zucchini and peppers are soft, it's done. Add these to the sauce that you have going, cook down if you wish. Taste for seasoning, add the last of the basil at the very end. A quick stir, and serve.
The challenge of using kohlrabi...hmmm...how about:
Kohlrabi and Cucumber Spring Rolls
hey, why not. Time to get busy with combining more vegetables. For these, I brought out my handy V-Slicer. Scares me every time I use it.
1 Peeled Kohlrabi thinly sliced
1 Cucumber thinly sliced
some of the Nevada Summer Crisp Lettuce in large tears
Onion tops, again thinly sliced
and a bit of basil from the garden
I had some Vietnamese Spring Roll Skins lying around, so I carefully rehydrated those. Sadly, I can't share the peanut sauce recipe because I tried 3 times and failed on each attempt. Too salty, even using low-sodium soy sauce. By the third attempt I had run out of lime juice, garlic, rice wine vinegar...etc. Everything ran out at once. I tried substituting, but to no avail.
All in all, a good use of the veggies. The kohlrabi has a taste I found similar to cabbage and radish. Not bad raw. Haven't tried it cooked yet.
Our week #7 Bounty
7 Cucumbers
2 cubanelle peppers
2 purple peppers
1 Kohlrabi
3 yellow squash
1 sunburst squash
2 onions
1 head of Nevada Summer Crisp lettuce
4 Zucchinis
Green beans
2 small heads of broccoli
Simple, fast and mighty tasty!
Thai Basil & Chili Noodles with Veggies
1 Box of Thai Basil & Chili Take-Out Meal
1 Patty Pan Squash
1 Zucchini
Green Beans
Saute veggies, pour over box prepared noodles
My version of Stuffed Cubanelle Peppers
I've never had a Cubanelle Pepper, but people say to stuff them, so that's what I did. Stuffed simply with Spanish Chorizo, Fontina Cheese, and some onion. Elizabeth loved it, I thought it was lacking something, but not sure what. Served with green beans.
CSA Week #6
I think we've approached "Dinner party status".
Sockeye Salmon with Preserved Lemon and
Carmelized Onion
Used an onion and a zucchini (along with...........more salad!) from our CSA bag. I keep forgetting to start eating these beans.
The best salmon dish I've ever made.
To start, I've got a jar of preserved lemons that I keep in the fridge. I make these about once every 3 months. If you've never made them, they are very easy. Feel free to email me if you wish to make a jar. You use the peels, and discard the insides of the lemon.
I took the biggest onion that I had received and thinly sliced it up. That gets sauteed with a bit of olive oil and salt until translucent. On top of the onions goes the salmon, which I drizzled with olive oil (this was a lemon-infused extra virgin) and seasoned with salt and pepper.
On top of the salmon goes the thin slices of 1 rinsed preserved lemon. I covered this, and cooked over medium heat until done. Maybe about 8 minutes for the filets I had. I wish I kept an accurate time because I decided to make croutons for the salad, so while those were in the oven baking, I let the fish sit off the heat, covered in the pan. You can probably see those yummy croutons in the salad, and the zucchini sitting next to the fish. The fish was finished with a topping of sour cream mixed with some lemon juice, salt, and dill.
Zucchini's
Normally, we're happy just sauteing them in olive oil, and just salt and pepper. Nothing more. However, sometimes you have to revert to some old-world methods. Zucchini Fritters, from my Cucina di Calabria cookbook.
2 Zucchinis go a long way. Probably got 20 of these babies.
CSA Veggies Week#5
This picture isn't all in inclusive. We dropped off the Swiss Chard (which looked perfect), a head of lettuce, and bunch of peas. What remains is....daunting.
1 large Chiogga Beet and a 5 star dish!
Roasted the beet in a 400 degree oven for 40 minutes. Didn't do the trick. Finished 10 minutes in the microwave, covered with about 1/2 water. Perfecto!
In a bowl, combine
bit of balsamic vinegar (about 1 Tbs I think)
Olive oil (3 Tbs?)
about 1/2 or more Tsp of caraway seeds
Slivered Green Onion tops. about 1 Tbs or so to taste.
black pepper to season.
slice the beets (when cooled enough) into half moon shapes and add to the dressing. Cover with some fresh grated Parmesan cheese.
Both loved it!
Green Onion Day !
Ok, we're only using 1, but I had to use it up before it went bad. I think that's the last of them (except for the tops, which are dehydrator bound). what to use it for????
Steamed Mussels Served over Angel Hair Pasta
1 bag of PEI Mussels (This was a great batch! All tightly closed before cooking, and only 1 that didn't open after. He of course was garbage bound.
The pasta kindly provided (with a small fee on my part) by Barilla Plus.
I melted about a 1/2 stick of butter in a wok (normally use my bigger pot, but that was being used for the angel hair). In went
1 green onion, chopped, tops and all. I didn't use the very middle piece. Sauteed that for only about 1 minute.
2 cloves minced garlic
a few hot pepper flakes....which I forgot this time. That was it for tonight. no parsley in the garden except a small garnish.
Add about 1/2 cup white wine
Add the mussels, and steam about 5 minutes, giving a shake now and then, until they open. The end result was real and spectacular!
CSA vegetables Week #4
ACK! The Challenge begins. I was out for a few days last week, creating a slight backlog in lettuce eating. This may be the first week we have to give some away. Not sure yet, but it's starting to look like it.
5 Chiogga Beets
5 Zucchini
1 Yellow Squash
Green Beans
Sugar Snap Peas
Magenta Summer Crisp Lettuce
Red Oak Leaf Lettuce
Romaine Lettuce
CSA vegetables Week #3
More lettuces, peas (which are really like candy...great for snacking), green onions, and this time Swiss Chard.
oh, and we must have been one of the lucky ones, because we had a beautiful zucchini in the bag!
Swiss Chard recipe courtesy of my cookbook The Silver Spoon (see homepage). This turned out very very good. Excellent taste, probably a little too much sauce, and cooked have used some more chard, but well worth it.
Swiss Chard au Gratin:
butter for greasing
2 1/4 lbs Swiss Chard
1 quantity Bechamel Sauce (I won't publish the recipe here, but feel free to email me if needed at bob@smallkitchencooking.com )
1 cup Parmesan cheese, freshly grated.
Preheat the oven to 350f
Grease an ovenproof dish with butter. Separate the chard leaves from the stems using kitchen scissors or a sharp knife (set the leaves aside to make soup (hopefully another recipe for that soon)), Cook the stems in lightly salted boiling water for 10-15 minutes until tender, then drain well and cut into small pieces. Make alternate layers of Swiss chard stems, bechamel sauce, and Parmesan, ending with a layer of Parmesan. Bake for about 15 minutes.
Serves 4
Notes on this:
I probably overcooked the chard a little bit, and used too much bechamel. Having never cooked Swiss chard, or made a bechamel, it came out fantastic!
CSA vegetables Week #2
Green Lollo Rosa Lettuce
Romaine Lettuce
Magenta Summer Crisp Lettuce
Spinach
Gold Beets
Green Onions
Sugar Snap Peas (2#+)
Use the Forum to discuss ideas for uses and storage.
For tonight, we're going to incorporate a little bit of everything into dinner. We finished our week 1 bag earlier today (Saturday), trying to get the most out of every week. Scraps to into our Envirocycle composter, or pureed for our 2 dogs (going on almost 10 years of a raw food diet for the pets). Some of the green onion tops will probably end up being dehydrated for later uses.
Peas and green onions are going into a stir-fry. I took:
1 clove of garlic - minced
1 Tbs dry sherry
1 Tbs cornstarch
1 Tsp sugar
3 Tbs soy sauce
ground pepper
Mixed that all up nice, and cut up a little over 1/2 lb of sirloin into thin strips. This marinates in the sauce for about an hour. When ready, this will stir fry along with some of the sugar snap peas, slices of green onion (about 2 Tbs of this onion was grated for the recipe that follows) including the tops, and some morel mushrooms that I had on hand. Those were brought back from their dehydrated state, and the water they soaked in was used in the stir-fry for a gravy.
The beets and lettuces are going into a lettuce and beet salad, which is from a Bon Appetit recipe from Nov 1995.
Ingredients
2 medium beets (about 8 ounces)
2/3 cup sour cream
2 tablespoons grated onion
1 tablespoon red wine vinegar
1 tablespoon sugar
1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
5 cups (packed) mixed torn lettuces (such as romaine, red leaf and butter lettuce)
This picture isn't all in inclusive. We dropped off the Swiss Chard (which looked perfect), a head of lettuce, and bunch of peas. What remains is....daunting.
1 large Chiogga Beet and a 5 star dish!
Roasted the beet in a 400 degree oven for 40 minutes. Didn't do the trick. Finished 10 minutes in the microwave, covered with about 1/2 water. Perfecto!
In a bowl, combine
bit of balsamic vinegar (about 1 Tbs I think)
Olive oil (3 Tbs?)
about 1/2 or more Tsp of caraway seeds
Slivered Green Onion tops. about 1 Tbs or so to taste.
black pepper to season.
slice the beets (when cooled enough) into half moon shapes and add to the dressing. Cover with some fresh grated Parmesan cheese.
Both loved it!
Green Onion Day !
Ok, we're only using 1, but I had to use it up before it went bad. I think that's the last of them (except for the tops, which are dehydrator bound). what to use it for????
Steamed Mussels Served over Angel Hair Pasta
1 bag of PEI Mussels (This was a great batch! All tightly closed before cooking, and only 1 that didn't open after. He of course was garbage bound.
The pasta kindly provided (with a small fee on my part) by Barilla Plus.
I melted about a 1/2 stick of butter in a wok (normally use my bigger pot, but that was being used for the angel hair). In went
1 green onion, chopped, tops and all. I didn't use the very middle piece. Sauteed that for only about 1 minute.
2 cloves minced garlic
a few hot pepper flakes....which I forgot this time. That was it for tonight. no parsley in the garden except a small garnish.
Add about 1/2 cup white wine
Add the mussels, and steam about 5 minutes, giving a shake now and then, until they open. The end result was real and spectacular!
CSA vegetables Week #4
ACK! The Challenge begins. I was out for a few days last week, creating a slight backlog in lettuce eating. This may be the first week we have to give some away. Not sure yet, but it's starting to look like it.
5 Chiogga Beets
5 Zucchini
1 Yellow Squash
Green Beans
Sugar Snap Peas
Magenta Summer Crisp Lettuce
Red Oak Leaf Lettuce
Romaine Lettuce
CSA vegetables Week #3
More lettuces, peas (which are really like candy...great for snacking), green onions, and this time Swiss Chard.
oh, and we must have been one of the lucky ones, because we had a beautiful zucchini in the bag!
Swiss Chard recipe courtesy of my cookbook The Silver Spoon (see homepage). This turned out very very good. Excellent taste, probably a little too much sauce, and cooked have used some more chard, but well worth it.
Swiss Chard au Gratin:
butter for greasing
2 1/4 lbs Swiss Chard
1 quantity Bechamel Sauce (I won't publish the recipe here, but feel free to email me if needed at bob@smallkitchencooking.com )
1 cup Parmesan cheese, freshly grated.
Preheat the oven to 350f
Grease an ovenproof dish with butter. Separate the chard leaves from the stems using kitchen scissors or a sharp knife (set the leaves aside to make soup (hopefully another recipe for that soon)), Cook the stems in lightly salted boiling water for 10-15 minutes until tender, then drain well and cut into small pieces. Make alternate layers of Swiss chard stems, bechamel sauce, and Parmesan, ending with a layer of Parmesan. Bake for about 15 minutes.
Serves 4
Notes on this:
I probably overcooked the chard a little bit, and used too much bechamel. Having never cooked Swiss chard, or made a bechamel, it came out fantastic!
CSA vegetables Week #2
Green Lollo Rosa Lettuce
Romaine Lettuce
Magenta Summer Crisp Lettuce
Spinach
Gold Beets
Green Onions
Sugar Snap Peas (2#+)
Use the Forum to discuss ideas for uses and storage.
For tonight, we're going to incorporate a little bit of everything into dinner. We finished our week 1 bag earlier today (Saturday), trying to get the most out of every week. Scraps to into our Envirocycle composter, or pureed for our 2 dogs (going on almost 10 years of a raw food diet for the pets). Some of the green onion tops will probably end up being dehydrated for later uses.
Peas and green onions are going into a stir-fry. I took:
1 clove of garlic - minced
1 Tbs dry sherry
1 Tbs cornstarch
1 Tsp sugar
3 Tbs soy sauce
ground pepper
Mixed that all up nice, and cut up a little over 1/2 lb of sirloin into thin strips. This marinates in the sauce for about an hour. When ready, this will stir fry along with some of the sugar snap peas, slices of green onion (about 2 Tbs of this onion was grated for the recipe that follows) including the tops, and some morel mushrooms that I had on hand. Those were brought back from their dehydrated state, and the water they soaked in was used in the stir-fry for a gravy.
The beets and lettuces are going into a lettuce and beet salad, which is from a Bon Appetit recipe from Nov 1995.
Ingredients
2 medium beets (about 8 ounces)
2/3 cup sour cream
2 tablespoons grated onion
1 tablespoon red wine vinegar
1 tablespoon sugar
1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
5 cups (packed) mixed torn lettuces (such as romaine, red leaf and butter lettuce)
Preparation
Preheat oven to 400°F. Wrap beets tightly in foil. Bake until tender, about 1 hour. Cool; peel beets. Coarsely shred beets.Whisk sour cream, onion, vinegar, sugar and mustard in small bowl to blend. Season with salt and pepper. Place lettuces in large bowl. Add dressing and toss to coat. Divide salad among 4 plates. Top each with beets, dividing equally.
The dressing tastes great. The beets, I probably over-baked as they started to carmelize. Nothing wrong with that though, as I was still able to grate them up. The beet tops are being saved for a following meal.Day 2 meal:
The last 4 beets are roasting in the oven. 2 Are going into a "Roasted Gold Beet Hummus" (along with some whole wheat pita, canned grape leaves, roasted red peppers, and maybe some olives). The other 2 beets are going back to duty in the above salad for an encore performance.
For the hummus: (bear with me because I usually don't measure for this)
1 can garbanzo beans
2 Tbs Tahini
Juice of 1/2 lemon
~1/4 tsp hot pepper flakes or cayenne
Ground cumin ~ 1/3 palmful
Ground coriander ~ 1/3 palmful
Some of the green onion tops (normally I use garlic)
2 of the roasted beets
salt and pepper
All this goes into a food processor and mixed while drizzling in a little olive oil.
The last 4 beets are roasting in the oven. 2 Are going into a "Roasted Gold Beet Hummus" (along with some whole wheat pita, canned grape leaves, roasted red peppers, and maybe some olives). The other 2 beets are going back to duty in the above salad for an encore performance.
For the hummus: (bear with me because I usually don't measure for this)
1 can garbanzo beans
2 Tbs Tahini
Juice of 1/2 lemon
~1/4 tsp hot pepper flakes or cayenne
Ground cumin ~ 1/3 palmful
Ground coriander ~ 1/3 palmful
Some of the green onion tops (normally I use garlic)
2 of the roasted beets
salt and pepper
All this goes into a food processor and mixed while drizzling in a little olive oil.
Week 1 of our CSA veggies is "in the bag"!
Romaine Lettuce
Magenta Summer Crisp Lettuce
Lollo Red Lettuce
Boston Lettuce
Spinach
Sugar Snap Peas
Snow Peas.
The cool weather crops are flowing in :) 2 lbs of peas. Yum. Great raw.
Recipe of the week: Spinach Fettucine
Ok, why not. I like making homemade pasta, and I have lots of spinach. It's a natural! Total time was almost exactly 1 hour.
First of course was to use some spinach. I pulled apart the leaves of one of the bunches that I have. I just eyeballed how much I might need.
Ahh, 1/4 cup cooked spinach (which I ran through the food processor for a couple of seconds). Boiled for 3 minutes, then plunged into ice water to retain the nice color. Oh, I also added about 8 lemon balm leaves to the water. Why? I have no idea. I have lots of it, and I figured that lemon and spinach kind of go together. The lemon balm was removed for the pasta though. I'm not squeezing out the water because I always add water to my pasta dough anyways. Might as well keep some nutrients in there.
Next step is to make the dough. 2 cups '00' pasta flour and 2 eggs. That's about it. Add the spinach and keep about a 1/4 cup of warm water on hand. Add the eggs, mix. That took about 3 minutes to get it together. Then I spent about 4 minutes kneading the dough. Adding little bits of water if it seemed to need it. When it's all nice and doughy looking, let it rest for about 20 minutes, covered in plastic wrap. This will allow the flour to absorb the moisture and let the glutens do their thing. When 20 minutes are up, I section it off into 4 pieces.
The it's on to the pasta roller. You could use a rolling pin, but being Small Kitchen Cooking...we don't have that kind of space. We here have limited counter space, and a small kitchen island. Not shy with the flour at this point, because if it's not used, the pasta sticks together. I roll it a few times at each thickness, starting with the largest, and working down to the second smallest. One of the sections that I make turns into 2 nice sized sheets. This goes on the drying rack, and then into the roller again through the fettucine cutter. A knife would work fine if you have the space. Of course you can turn this into raviolis or tortellinis...etc. Voila, fresh spinach fettucine!
Sunday night dinner. Salad using all of the lettuces and peas...both types raw..., with chunks of feta, red onion, sliced almonds, and craisins. The dressing was a lemon-balm vinaigrette (again using up the lemon balm!). The tomato sauce made with a can of whole tomatoes, parsley, basil, and oregano from the garden, and the rest is a secret :)
Suggestions
Please use the contact form for recipes you'd like to see tried here. Maybe it's something you haven't had success with, and want to see how another cook copes. I'm wide open to ideas!
Please use the contact form for recipes you'd like to see tried here. Maybe it's something you haven't had success with, and want to see how another cook copes. I'm wide open to ideas!
Foraging
Relying on Euell Gibbons and some edible plant guides, it's time to eat what is easily found! From wild asparagus (ok, not so easy to find) to milkweed (very easy to find...at where I live), this is where the real experimentation will probably be taking place.
Relying on Euell Gibbons and some edible plant guides, it's time to eat what is easily found! From wild asparagus (ok, not so easy to find) to milkweed (very easy to find...at where I live), this is where the real experimentation will probably be taking place.
