Last night I tried something very different for me, and it was all from CSA veggies. I have too many radishes to use sliced up in salads, so I looked up any other ways to eat them, and found that you can saute them! I also have a ton of arugula from the past couple weeks and it's a bit strong for me to use much in my salads, so I wanted to try sauteing that as well.
I started by heating up some olive oil in a skillet, then added 3 cloves of minced garlic, and half of a large onion, diced. I sauteed this until the garlic was nice and brown and the onions were getting soft. Then I added radish slices - last week I got a large radish so this was all I needed, but if using smaller radishes, then probably 2 would be needed. I sliced the radish into fairly thin slices, but not super thin, maybe a little thicker than you would use in a salad, and I did not peel it. I added the slices and sauteed on each side for 2-3 minutes. Then I added a large handful of arugula and mustard greens and some salt and pepper, and lowered the temperature and put the lid on. I only cut the bigger greens into smaller pieces, but left them mostly whole. I let it simmer with the lid on for about 10 minutes, stirring it around only once, until the greens were nice and wilted. I let it cook for another couple of minutes with the lid off to relieve some of the moisture, added more salt and pepper, and that was it!
I got some cool new veggies this week, in addition to some of the same ones. And no more garlic!
This week I got:
a bag of arugula
a bag of mustard greens
a large eggplant
an armenian cucumber
3 green chiles
a bag of small okra
a bag of basil
3 radishes, one white
Hmmm do I attempt the chiles rellenos again??? I also need to look up some info about the armenian cucumber, I have never used one of those before.
I finally attacked the large bag of okra I got in last week's CSA bag. I'm still trying to avoid frying it, so I decided to saute / steam it tonight. I chopped up a medium onion and added that to a hot skillet with olive oil, along with 3 cloves of minced garlic. I sauteed the onion and garlic for a few minutes until the onion was turning soft and it was all coated in oil. Meanwhile I chopped up 1 1/2 tomatoes, and cut the stem and bottom tips off the okra. I left the "cap" on the okra, just chopped the stem part off. I added the tomatoes to the skillet for about a minute and mixed it all in with the onions and let some of the juices start to come out, then I added the okra. I picked out some random spices and added them at this point - celery seed, cumin, cayenne pepper (just a dash), salt, pepper, and my secret ingredient - ginger. I tossed the okra and spices in with the onions and tomatoes, lowered the heat, and simmered it covered for 10-15 minutes until the okra was done. I stirred it around a few times during the simmer. After cooking I added a little more salt and pepper, then squeezed fresh lemon juice on the top. Delish! The okra was cooked but still crunchy, no "okra slime", and no mushiness. I will add more spices next time, I was a little hesitant since I wasn't sure how they would mix, but it was still very flavorful.
I did not get anything new this week in my CSA bag, but I sure got some good stuff! I got a big bag of arugula, okra, basil, a nice sized butternut squash, another head of garlic (I have so much garlic right now!), 3 radishes (1 is pretty big), a bag of mizuna, and 2 good sized onions.
Time to find some more okra recipes! And maybe some butternut squash soup...
Yesterday I made a pot roast in the crock pot - one of my favorite meals. A couple of weeks ago I had made black eyed peas with tomatoes in the crock pot and froze it, and thought that sounded good with the pot roast, so I thawed that out. The pot roast was fairly simple - I browned the roast on all sides in a skillet first (this took only 5 minutes, make sure you dry it off first with paper towels). Then I put sliced onions, carrots and potatoes in the crock pot, put the roast on top, then added some chicken stock and red wine. You can use a variety of liquids, I just happened to have some chicken stock left from other recipes, and I always like red wine. I set the crock pot on low and let it cook all day while I was at work. I sliced the veggies the night before to make it quicker to assemble in the morning before work.
When I got home from work, I removed the meat and veggies, then poured the broth into a saucepan. I mixed in some cornstarch (works a little better than flour for thickening) and simmered it while stirring while it thickened up. Then I put the whole thing back in the crock pot on high for 15-20 minutes.
For the black eyed peas, I sauteed an onion and some garlic and put it into the crock pot. Then I added 2 pieces of cooked bacon, a couple of diced tomatoes, the shelled black eyed peas (not sure how much it was, it was all that I received in 2 weeks of CSA bags) and 2-3 cups of chicken stock. This was cooked on high in the crock pot for 4-5 hours. To reheat it yesterday I thawed it for 2 days in the fridge, then put it in a large pan on low heat while I was preparing the rest of the meal. It came out as more of a soup, though you can strain out the broth and thicken it up if you prefer it that way. We ended up spooning it over the pot roast and it was really good.
To add some green to this meal I made my usual mixed green salad with homemade salad dressing. It tasted even better with the addition of some gorgonzola cheese leftover from the lasagna. Yum!
To serve the roast, I put the meat and veggies on a platter, with the onions on top of the roast, and added a fresh sprig of parsley on top to brighten it up. The gravy went into a gravy boat, and I didn't grab a pic of that.
It was a LOT of food! I definitely have some leftovers to eat over the next few days. Pot roast is almost as good leftover as when it's first made. To store it, I shredded up the meat, added it to a container, and poured the gravy and the black eyed peas all in the container. Lunches should be good this week!
Last week the recipe that came with my CSA bag was for arugula lasagna. It sounded amazing so I finally decided to try it tonight. It was a lot of work but soooo worth it! I think cheese is my favorite food, so this is definitely one of my favorite meals. The recipe can be found here - http://www.food52.com/recipes/2734_arugula_lasagna
I started by cooking the lasagna. While it was boiling I rinsed and chopped all of the arugula that I still had from last week's CSA bag. This actually took a little while to cut the arugula leaves into long strips! I saved about 8 of the best looking leaves for the top of the lasagna. At the same time I also put a single layer of pine nuts on the tray in my toaster oven to toast them. I don't know if you can buy pine nuts that were already toasted but I bought fresh ones so I toasted them myself. I also sliced 2 shallots and grated the Pecorino cheese. Then I sauteed the sliced shallots while mixing together the cheese sauce. I did not read the directions very well and dumped all of the Pecorino into the cheese sauce - oops! I was supposed to save 2/3 of it for the top. The cheese sauce contained gorgonzola, ricotta, Pecorino cheeses, plus heavy cream, salt, pepper and cinnamon. The recipe called for nutmeg, but I forgot to buy that so I used a little bit of cinnamon as a substitute. Once the shallots were sauteed I put them aside and sauteed the arugula and garlic for just a few minutes.
Friday night I decided to cook for my friends for the first time! I made mushroom pasta with baked chicken and a mixed green salad.
I picked up some mushroom flavored linguine at the Phoenix farmer's market - the brand is called Decio. They also had some free recipes so I picked one up called Quick Mushroom Pasta. I cooked the linguine, that only took a few minutes because it is very fresh, and set it aside. Then I made the sauteed mushrooms to go over the pasta. I started by sauteing some garlic in olive oil (the way many of my recipes seem to start!) then added chopped fresh parsley, chicken stock, white wine, soy sauce, Italian seasonings, and a bunch of sliced mushrooms.
Then I tossed the mushroom sauce in with the mushroom pasta.
Meanwhile I mixed together some French herb seasonings with olive oil and basted 2 large chicken breasts cut in half, and baked them in the oven for about 25 minutes.
Finally I made a mixed green salad, similar to recent salads but bigger! I made the honey basil balsamic vinaigrette again to go on the salad.
Most of this meal did not come from CSA veggies, but I did use some - garlic in the mushroom sauce and salad dressing (I use a LOT of garlic in my cooking, which is good since I get a lot from the CSA!) and radishes, arugula and mizuna in the salad.
