Swiss chard with raisins and almonds

This was pretty good. I made it with what we had on hand, pecans instead of almonds, and regular old thompson seedless raisins. Used 2 weeks' worth of chard, which I'm sure was less than 2 lbs. Needs salt, of course. This was the recipe in our weekly CSA newsletter.

Swiss chard with raisins and almonds
Gourmet, February 2008

½ large onion, sliced lengthwise, 1/4 inch thick (1 cup)
2½ tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil, divided
¼ teaspoon Spanish smoked paprika
2 lb Swiss chard, center ribs discarded and leaves coarsely chopped
½ cup golden raisins
½ cup water
¼ cup coarsely chopped almonds with skins

Cook onion with ¼ teaspoon salt in 2 tablespoons oil in a 5- to 6-quart heavy pot over medium heat, stirring, until softened. Sprinkle with paprika and cook, stirring, 1 minute. Add chard in batches, stirring frequently, until wilted, then add raisins and water. Cook, covered, stirring occasionally, until chard is tender, about 7 minutes. Season with salt.

Cook almonds in remaining ½ tablespoon oil in a small heavy skillet over medium-low heat, stirring frequently, until golden, 3 to 5 minutes. Sprinkle almonds over chard.

Makes 4 servings.

Garlic scape pesto

In an effort to use garlic scapes in a new and interesting way, I tried making garlic scape pesto. It was inspired by this recipe, but more traditional in using a whole lot of basil, pine nuts, parmesan and olive oil. Really, it's just replacing the garlic with a whole lot of garlic scapes. It has a really nice, mild garlicky flavor - almost like cooked garlic.

Normally we throw in the weekly scapes into a stir-fry, which is also good.

More, more, more

This week:

• Basil
• Cabbage
• Chard
• Cilantro
• Cucumbers
• Dill
• Garlic scapes
• Lettuce
• Parsley
• Radicchio
• Scallions
• Zucchini

More herbs, more zucchini, first pickling cucumbers.

It's getting summery

This week in the box:

• Zucchini
• Broccoli
• Kale
• 3 heads lettuce
• Basil
• Chard
• Garlic scapes
• Scallions
  
• Oregano

We're starting to move beyond the spring greens.

Broccoli Potato Soup

From Barbara Kafka's Vegetable Love, abbreviated.

2 large floury potatoes, peeled and cut into 1-inch cubes
1 head broccoli, florets only, in 1.5-inch pieces (about 5 cups)
1 cup part-skim ricotta
6 cups chicken stock
1 T. kosher salt
freshly ground black pepper to taste

Steam potatoes until soft, about 25 minutes. Set aside. Steam broccoli until soft, about 10-13 minutes. Transfer potatoes to a food processor and puree until smooth. Pour into a medium saucepan. Transfer broccoli to the food processor and puree until smooth. Add the ricotta and pulse until just incorporated. Add 2 cups of stock and puree until smooth. Pour the mixture into a medium saucepan. Add remaining stock. Heat over medium heat until hot. Season with the salt and pepper.

My comments: first, my Mom taught us all the hard way once that it's just a really tragic idea to food process potatoes to mash them. You make an approximation of wallpaper paste. So I gamely went along and did it and made the requisite gloop, which was really hard to scrape out of the food processor into a saucepan (starch taffy, anyone?). I then proceeded with the recipe and added the broccoli mix to the same saucepan, heating and smooshing and stirring, and eventually stick blending to try to get the gloop to mix in. Even that didn't work completely. (Kels tried to make Kloese once and made potato soup--I try to make potato soup and get Kloese. Go figure.) So here's my question. Why do it this way? Susan? Can you think of any reason not to just throw everything in a pot with the stock and then stick blend it?

Is there something else I missed? I have reproduced the recipe as directed in the cookbook, and you'll notice that it never actually tells you to do anything with the potatoes again (i.e. it does not tell you to put the broccoli mixture in the same saucepan, I just assumed that's what they meant but it's not how it's written). Is that because they're so awful after you've food processed them that you throw them out and simply make broccoli ricotta soup? Is it because they meant to tell you to throw them back in with the broccoli/ricotta/stock mixture and process them together there, before returning it all to the pot? Next time I will try stick blending it all in the pot.

I used 4 cups of Kels stock plus some water, and even then only added 2 tsp. salt. I think a T. is too much, but since this isn't in the potato section of the book, it's only got 1.5 times the salt you'd want, as opposed to 4x or so. Also, I peeled and chopped broccoli stems and included them.

Raspberry lemon muffins

She lives, she breathes, she even bakes muffins!

1 1/4 cups sugar, divided
4 teaspoons finely grated lemon zest (about 2 lemons' worth)
2 cups all purpose flour
2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
1 large egg
1 cup buttermilk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
juice of 1 lemon
1 cup frozen raspberries

Preheat oven to 375°F. Mash 1/4 cup sugar and lemon peel in small bowl until sugar is slightly moist. Whisk flour, baking powder, and salt in medium bowl to blend. Using electric mixer, beat remaining 1 cup sugar and butter in large bowl until smooth. Beat in egg. Beat in buttermilk, then vanilla, 1 tablespoon lemon juice, and half of lemon sugar. Beat in flour mixture. Very briefly mix in raspberries.

Divide batter among muffin cups. Bake muffins until lightly browned on top and tester inserted into center comes out clean, about 35 minutes. Brush tops of muffins lightly with lemon juice; sprinkle with remaining lemon sugar and cool.

Modified from this recipe on epicurious.

Scapes

This week:

• 4 heads lettuce
  
• broccoli
• kale
• dandelion greens
• bok choy
• garlic scapes
• spinach

The most interesting thing to me is the garlic scapes (ramps). No strawberries this week.

Ice cream cake!

Ice cream cake is not really that hard to make. Line the bottom of a springform pan with crushed chocolate wafer cookies and melted butter, and cool in freezer. Soften ½ gallon ice cream until it can be mixed and spread over the crust. Freeze for at least 1 hour. Melt 8 oz. semisweet chocolate chips in ½ cup heavy cream, and spread over ice cream. Top with chopped candy if desired, and freeze for 3 hours. Soften a bit before removing springform ring.

Source: Eggs on Sunday

Marinated cauliflower salad with arugula

We've liked this recipe for a long time. I like to use prosciutto or other cooked ham instead of bacon, and skip the celery.

Marinated Cauliflower Salad
Arugula, bacon, and olives

Ingredients for 4

½ pound fresh arugula
½ head cauliflower, cut into bite size florets
1 teaspoon minced garlic
1 teaspoon picked fresh thyme leaves
¼ cup small diced celery
¼ cup diced scallions
½ cup cooked bacon, small diced and cooked
½ cup of your favorite olive, pitted
salt and pepper

Dijon Vinaigrette

1 cup cottonseed oil
¼ cup red wine vinegar
¼ cup dijon mustard
salt and pepper to taste

Method

Wisk together all the ingredients for the vinaigrette and set aside. Marinate the cauliflower florets in a ¼ cup of vinaigrette. Let stand 1 hour or overnight.

In a large mixing bowl, combine all the salad components with a pinch of salt and pepper. Drizzle with dijon vinaigrette, about 1 ladle or 2 ounces. Gently toss to coat with vinaigrette.

Plate on one large platter or individual plates and enjoy!

Source: chef2chef.net

Rotini with roasted peppers and spinach

I didn't have pine nuts, but otherwise followed this recipe pretty closely. It was fine, but a little bland. Needed more salt, and more dried red pepper and a little cream might be nice next time.

A little variety

This week:

• 3 heads lettuce
• spinach
• radishes
• peas
• arugula
• kale
• bok choy
• strawberries

That's a pretty good haul for the 2nd week. The pick-your-own quota for strawberries at the farm field is now 4 quarts.

First veggies

Now it really feels like summer, with our weekly vegetables back for the season. Largely greens this week, unsurprisingly.

• 6 heads of lettuce
• kale
• arugula
• strawberries

How are we going to eat that much lettuce?