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August 28, 2006
Welcome to Session 4
Welcome to our last session of our summer CSA.
it may be hot, dry and dusty here at the farm but we have a juicy treat for you this week. We are delighted to offer you organic Red Haven Peaches from Rama Orchards this week. These are beautiful peaches, large, sweet and delicious. I made my cobbler with their peaches for some friends and they loved it so much I had to make it again the next day! We also have some lovely flagolet beans in the shell. These are a gourmet bean with a delicate flavor. Here is Jeff's favorite way of preparing all of our shelling beans. I have also posted another recipe from the Incredible Feast. This one comes from Lark and is a wonderful way to enjoy our tomatoes, cucumbers and parsley in this scrumptious chopped salad with smoked paprika prawns!
Small Shares: 1/4# Salad Mix, 2 bn carrots, 1 bn bok choy, 1# Flagolet Beans in the shell, 1 Slicing Cucumber, 1# Red Torpedo Onions, 2 Red Haven Peaches
Medium Shares: 1/2# Salad Mix, 2 bn carrots, 1 bn bok choy, 1 1/2# Flagolet Beans in the shell, 1 Slicing Cucumber, 1# Red Torpedo Onions, 2 Beefsteak tomatoes, 1 bn Italian Parsely, 3 Red Haven Peaches
Large Shares: 1/2# Salad Mix, 3 bn carrots, 1 bn bok choy, 2# Flagolet Beans in the shell, 2 Slicing Cucumber, 1# Red Torpedo Onions, 3 Beefsteak tomatoes, 1 bn Italian Parsely, 1/2# Haricot vert beans, 5 Red Haven Peaches
Posted by Christine at 12:12 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Omar's Chopped Salad with Smoked Paprika Prawns
This is another recipe from the Neighborhood Farmers Market Alliance's Incredible Feast. This comes from Chef Johnathan Sundstorm at Lark. Help us support chefs that support local farms!
Chopped salad (serves 4)
4 c. ripe tomatoes, washed. cored and chopped
1/2c. cucumbers, peeled, seeded and shopped small
1/2c. lemon cucumber, peeled, seeded and shopped small
1/2c. sweet peppers, cored, seeded and chopped small
2 garlic cloves
1/4 bunch Italian parsley, washed. leaves picked and chiffonade
1 small bunch tarragon leaves, washed, picked and sliced
1 1/2TBS sea salt
1/8c. extra virgin olive oil
1/8c. white balsalmic vinegar
Fresh ground pepper
Combine the tomatoes, garlic and salt in a large non-reactive bowl, marinate for 30-60 minutes chilled. Season with extra virgin olive oil, vinegar, pepper and more salt if needed. Chill thoroughly (in freezer in possible) for 1-2 hours.
Smoked Paprika Prawns
8 fresh prawns
1/2TBS olive oil
1 small clove garlic minced
1/2 TBS smoked paprika
Sea salt and freshly ground pepper
Heat a medium saute pan, add oil swirling it around the pan. Add the prawns in a even layer, season with paprika, salt and pepper. Let sear on one side until pink and jsut lightly browned. Turn each prawn over, season again. Add the minced garlic and toss gently to coat. Remove from the pan when prawns are just done and before the garlic browns. Cool to room temperature if using immediately or chill.
To serve: Divide into chilled serving bowls, sprinklw with parsley chiffonade and tarragon leaves sprinkled on top. Slice prawns in half lengthwise and place several halves on top of each chopped salad.
Posted by Christine at 11:59 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Bean's Favorite Fruit Cobbler
This is my absolute favorite cobbler recipe. The melted butter helps form a golden crisp bottom crust and the batter rises around the fruit to envelope it.
1/4 cup unsalted butter
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup white sugar
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup milk
1/2 teaspoon almond extract
4 cups fresh peaches, pitted and sliced (or four cups of berries)
1/4 red raspberries (optional)
Melt butter or margarine in a 9 x 13 inch pan. Set aside to cool.
Stir together flour, sugar, salt, and baking powder. Mix in milk and vanilla. Pour batter over melted butter. DO NOT MIX OR STIR. Spoon fruit with juice over the batter. DO NOT MIX OR STIR.
Bake at 350 degrees 55 minutes or until the bottom crust is a deep golden brown and the top of the cobbler is light golden brown.
Posted by Christine at 11:22 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Jeff's Shelled Bean Recipe
2 cups fresh shelled beans
3 Tbsp olive oil
2-3 fresh basil leaves
1/3 cup chicken stock
1/2 onion
1 large clove garlic
1 Tbsp whole unsalted Butter
1 medium tomato
Sea Salt and fresh ground pepper
Soak beans in water and remove any debris that floats to top. Boil beans in salted water for 7 minutes or until just tender. Strain cooked beans and set aside. Sauté diced onions and minced garlic in olive oil until soft, DO NOT BROWN. Add beans and chicken stock simmer on med/low heat for 3 min. Add freshly chopped basil and peeled, seeded, chopped tomato. Stir briefly. Adjust seasoning, add sea salt and pepper. Top with butter and stir in.
*variation– substitute fresh thyme for basil. Add cooked chopped pancetta. Eliminate butter. Put all ingredients in a Gratin dish, top with fresh grated Parmigiano Reggiano cheese. Brown under broiler and serve.
Posted by Christine at 11:18 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
August 20, 2006
Week 4 Session 3
We are pleased to offer the French Orange Melons from Tonnemakers again this week. I had a wonderful soup made from their melons, try this melon soup recipe with these juicy orange melons. Juicy red beefsteak tomatoes continue to delight us with an excellent harvest. They are excellent paired with the Walla Walla onions like in this tomato salad recipe. Beans are back and this week it is our velvety smooth Romano beans. Try Jeff's Romano Ragout
Don't forget the deadline to sign up for session 4 is on Sunday night for Weekday deliveries and Wednesday night at 6pm for the Weekend deliveries. We will be sending out information on our Winter CSA next week.
Small Shares: 1/2# Salad Mix, 1 bn carrots, 1 slicing cucumber, 1# Willie Walla Walla Onions, 1 beefsteak tomato, 3/4# Romanos, 2 French Orange melons
Medium Shares: 3/4# Salad Mix, 2 bn carrots, 2 slicing cucumber, 1 bn turnips, 1 1/2# Willie Walla Walla Onions, 2 beefsteak tomato, 1# Romanos, 3 French Orange melons, 1 bunch rapini
Large Shares: 1# Salad Mix, 3 bn carrots, 3 slicing cucumber, 2 bn turnips, 2# Willie Walla Walla Onions, 3 beefsteak tomato, 1.25# Romanos, 4 French Orange melons, 1 bunch rapini, 1 bn bok choy
Posted by Christine at 10:58 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Melon Soup
At the Incredible Feast, Renee Erickson of Boat Street Cafe made a wonderful chilled melon soup from Tonnemaker's melons. It was delicious. She made it spur of the moment so it did not make it into their published recipes for the event, however, she did tell me the basics and it is very close to a recipe that I have used in the past. Since the French Orange melons are so sweet, I would start with only 1/2TBS of sugar and add to taste.
Melon Soup Serves two
1 French Orange Melon
1/2-1TBS sugar
juice of 1/2 lime
3/4 c. water or a light white wine
fresh mint to garnish
Peel the melon. Cut in half and remove the seeds. Cut the melon flesh into chunks. In a food processor, puree the melon, lime juice and water/wine. Add the sugar to taste. Serve in chilled bowls with a mint garnish
Posted by Christine at 10:46 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Heirloom Tomato Salad w/Charred Sweet Onions and Mozzarella
Today the Neighborhood Farmers' Market Alliance held their second annual "Incredible Feast where the Farmers are the Stars". Each year chefs pair with farmers to create exquisite dishes as a fund raiser for the farmers markets. This recipe is from Ethan Stowell of the Union restaurant in Seattle.
Heirloom Tomato Salad w/Charred Sweet Onions and Mozzarella
2 Large ripe tomatoes
2 medium or 1 large Willie Walla Walla Onion, peeled and sliced 1" thick
2 buffalo mozzarella sliced
Good quality extra virgin olive oil
3 TBS red wine vinegar
Salt and pepper
For the charred onions:
Brush the onions with extra virgin oil and saute in a cast iron pan for about 4 minutes on eah side over medium high heat. Work in batched if needed. Cool onions to room temperature when done..
For the tomato salad:
Slice the tomatoes about 1/2" thick and lay out on a plate. Very liberally brush the tomatoes with extra virgin olive oil, pour the vinegar all over and season with salt and pepper. Let marinade for about 5 minutes.
For the buffalo mozzarella:
Lay the slices out evenly on a plate and season with salt, pepper and extra virgin oil.
Final presentation:
Divide the tomato, mozzarella and charred onions between four plates. Pour any remaining marinating fluids over each dish and serve with fresh bread to soak up the juices.
Posted by Christine at 10:33 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
August 14, 2006
CSA summer bounty, week 3
We are delighted with the boxes that we are able to put together for you this week and we hope that you will be too. We really appreciate the feedback that you have given us and are cutting back on the greens in the smalls this week and upping the other produce. We have more gorgeous tomatoes this week and basil for everyone.
Try our caprese salad recipe for a classic pairing of these two. Our other two recipes are from your fellow CSA customers. Try Marjorie's parsley pesto or Karen's corn salad recipe. Do you have a favorite summer recipe that you would like to share with us?
Yep, thats right more corn this week. The ears may not be as pretty this week, but they are so sweet! The corn plants on our last four seedings suffered during transplant and the plants are stunted so their ears are not as long and full. The flavor, however, is outstanding. Our slicing cucumbers are kind of curvy but really tasty. Best of all, we have the eagerly awaited melons from Tonnemakers. They are providing us with French Orange melons, the cadallac of cantaloupes. When the outer rind of these melons are soft yellow with not more than the faintest smidgen of green, they are absolutely incredible. They are a small melons, about the size of a large softball. A melon half makes a juicy and delicious breakfast.
SMALL: .5# Spinach, 1 bunch carrots, 2 beefsteak tomatoes, 2 ears sweet corn, 2 slicing cucumbers, 1 bunch basil, 2 French Orange melons
MEDIUM: .5# Salad Mix, .5# Spinach, 2 bunch carrots, 3 beefsteak tomatoes, 3 ears sweet corn, 3 slicing cucumbers, 1 bunch basil, 1 bunch Italian parsley, 3 French Orange melons
LARGE: 1# Salad Mix, 1# Spinach, 3 bunch carrots, 4 beefsteak tomatoes, 4 ears sweet corn, 3 slicing cucumbers, 1 bunch basil, 2 bunch Italian parsley, 4 French Orange melons and 1/2# arugula
Posted by Christine at 09:29 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Parsley Pesto
This parsley idea is from Marjorie, a fellow CSA member.
I just wanted to let you know that we are loving our CSA experience! And here's a tip for people overwhelmed by a lot of parsley--you can make a lovely pesto with it. Last week I had a backlog of a bunch and a half, and was afraid if I didn't do something with it soon it would start to go bad. So I whipped up a batch of pesto (I just use the recipe from the Greens cookbook and substitute parsley for the basil--no need to be exact with quantities; taste as you go and adjust the texture to your liking). I divided it into a couple of small freezer bags and stashed it away so we can enjoy a kiss of summer come November. In addition to being terrific in the usual pasta preparation, a dollop of this parsley pesto on a bowl of tomato, bean or vegetable soup adds a nice burst of fresh flavor.
Here is our arugula pesto recipe if you need a basic pesto recipe to work from.
Posted by Christine at 09:19 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Summer Corn Salad
This recipe comes from Karen Sparks, a fellow CSA member.
There were only three of us for dinner a night ago so I made up our family's favorite salad with two ears of leftover corn, Willie's onions, organic tomatoes and a can of black beans. Here is the basic recipe
2 ears leftover corn cut from the cob
1 can black beans rinsed and drained
1 onion chopped medium, sweet onions are great
3 medium ripe tomatoes, chopped
We toss this with about 1 TB olive oil, 2 TB balsamic vinegar, 1 teaspoon ground cumin, mixed together. It is a great way to use up leftovers and sometimes we throw in other ingredients like bell peppers of any color. I never really measure the ingredients, these are approximations, but somehow it always turns out and none is ever left at the end of the meal.
Posted by Christine at 09:15 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
August 08, 2006
Tabouleh
This version of Tabouleh comes from Ed Amato, one of our CSA customers and a great sicilian cook. A lot of great cooks are very into a "little of this" and then a "pinch of that" so pinning him down on the exact amounts of the ingredients was a challenge. Use his amounts as a guide and let your palate be the final judge on the amounts.
2-3 bunches Parsley, finely chopped
1 bunch green onions, sliced
2-2 1/2c cooked bulgar wheat
1/4 c.Extra virgin olive oil
Juice of 2 lemons
1-2 sprigs fresh mint
2-3 cloves fresh garlic minced
1 large tomato, diced
1small- medium cucumber, diced
Salt & freshly ground pepper
Put it all in a bowl, tasting as you go. Tasting as you go is the MOST important part in Ed's kitchen. Serve and enjoy
OK, when I was growing up I used to call this "Rock Salad", primarily because my mom used about 4:1 bulgar to parsley. I prefer a 1:1 ratio or even a 1:2, letting the nutty and crunchy bulgar wheat complement the salad instead of be the salad. Ed's version made me a believer.
Posted by Christine at 02:09 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
CSA Boxes Week 2, Session Three
This dry heat is great for the tomatoes. Look for some nice juicy beefsteak tomatoes in your boxes this week. Unfortunately, that is the only fruit for this week's boxes. We have been working up to the last minute to try to get peaches or melons into your boxes but we have been told the peaches are "sticking to the trees" and the melons weren't quite ready to make the trucks in time. They are getting ready to harvest them and they have assured me that we will have melons in the next box.
So on to more goodies in this weeks box. Italian parsley is so much more than a garnish. A couple of years ago, Chef Naomi Kacughi was making tempura at the West Seattle Farmers Market. Jeff hustled over with some of the parsley. It ended up being one of the crowd favorites. My personal favorite use of parsley is Tabouleh Salad. Try out Ed Amato's version. Parsley is great in a variety of salads, I love it in one of my favorite summer salads, Spicy Corn Barley. This corn is so sweet that you can catch Brett eating it raw in the walk-in as his snack!
Willie's Wallas are back and these are some big onions! I sliced up a bunch to tweak my onion ring recipe and ended up using about one large onion per batch. Needless to say the neighbors were delighted in my pursuit to keep the batter ON the onion rings. Read more about my batter tips here.
SMALL SHARE: .5# Salad Mix, 1 bn turnips, 1 bn carrots, 2 ears sweet corn, 2 beefsteak tomatoes, 1 bunch Willie Walla Walla onions, 1 bunch baby bok choy, 1 bunch Italian Parsley
MEDIUM SHARE: .75# Salad Mix, 1 bn turnips, 2 bn carrots, 3 ears sweet corn, 3 beefsteak tomatoes, 1 bunch Willie Walla Walla onions, 1 bunch baby bok choy, 1 bunch Italian Parsley, 1/2# sugar snaps
LARGE SHARE: 1# Salad Mix, 2 bn turnips, 3 bn carrots, 4 ears sweet corn, 4 beefsteak tomatoes, 1 bunch Willie Walla Walla onions, 2 bunch baby bok choy, 1 bunch Italian Parsley, 1/2# sugar snaps, 1/2# Saute Mix and 1 bn Basil
Posted by Christine at 01:03 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack