onions

First onions this week, though small. We might make some zucchini bread & butter pickles. Only one head of broccoli. The rains are still causing problems at the farm - they have lost some spinach ad early tomatoes, and are having trouble planting some of the fall crops.

• Broccoli
• Fennel
• Garlic (green)
• Kale
• Lettuce
• Onions
• Radicchio
• Summer Squash

Real men make their own quiche

Quiche has gotten a bad rap since 1982. OK, it's not like barbecuing a rack of ribs or something, but it's a pretty good summer meal, especially with all the vegetables we have to use up. I generally base my quiche on the Joy of Cooking quiche Lorraine recipe, although I use at least double the number of eggs for a single 9" pie shell, and somewhat less milk. The Joy of Cooking pâte brisée recipe is pretty foolproof for a crust, and nice and flaky.

6 eggs
about a cup of milk
two small heads broccoli
one onion, chopped and sautéed
3 strips prosciutto, chopped and lightly fried
about a cup of cubed jack & mozzarella cheese
chopped fresh herbs (oregano, thyme, etc.)

Chop the broccoli into fine florets. Separate one egg white to brush the pie dough before filling, and mix the yolk with the remaining 5 eggs. Stir in the vegetables, prosciutto, herbs and cheese, pour into the pie shell and bake at 375°F for about 40 minutes.

Tagliatelle with Prosciutto and Radicchio

From Italian Easy: Recipes from the London River Cafe by Rose Gray and Ruth Rogers.

16 0z. egg tagliatelle
6 prosciutto slices
1 radicchio head
1 garlic clove
2 Tbsp. rosemary leaves
2 oz. Parmesan
1 stick unsalted butter

Cut the prosciutto and radicchio into ribbons the same width as the tagliatelle. Peel and finely chop the garlic. Chop the rosemary and grate the Parmesan.

Melt half the butter in a thick-bottomed pan. Add the garlic and rosemary and cook for a minute. Add half the radicchio and prosciutto. Cook just to wilt. Remove from the heat.

Cook the tagliatelle in boiling salted water until al dente, then drain. Add the rest of the butter and half the Parmesan. Put into the cooked radicchio, then stir in the remaining radicchio and prosciutto. Toss thoroughly and serve with Parmesan.

--

Part of my quest to find a recipe that makes me like radicchio, and this one did far better than others so far, though I would have wilted all of the radicchio. Perhaps part of it is that we have rather wide noodles, and not a small head of radicchio, so the uncooked portion was very prominent in the final dish. Definitely use really good egg noodles. We made half of this recipe and had leftovers. And it was good! Which is a good thing, since we got more radicchio in this week's box.

Abundance

This is the first week that the box has really seemed to have a lot of anything besides salad greens. We got 4 heads of broccoli (which weigh almost 3 lbs.) along with some nice looking zucchini and cabbage. One bummer about the recent wet weather is that the tomato and pepper harvest may be delayed, and they had trouble planting some of the late summer crops. So far things look pretty good, though.

• Broccoli
• Chinese Cabbage
• Garlic Scapes
• Kale
• Lettuce
• Radicchio
• Summer Squash

Kill Soup Dumpling

For Joe's Shanghai, New York City home of the soup dumpling, this Kill Bill parody:



I especially like the employees gathered round laughing at him.

At least they cook down

Lots of greens this week. Looks like we'll be having spanakopita, a stir fry, and nightly salads. In this week's box:

• Broccoli
• Collards
• Endive (?! looks like it may be kale to me)
  
• Garlic scapes
• Lettuce (3 heads)
  
• Radicchio
• Spinach

Veggies week 2: return of the greens

Oh yes, I remember last spring.

• lettuce (3 kinds)
• spinach
• kale
• bok choy
• oregano
• winter savory

Picture coming soon, once downloaded from the camera.

Apple Coffeecake

From Julie Allen, via the "Sailor's Delight" WHOI cookbook.

½ c. walnuts
2 tsp. cinnamon
1½ c. sugar, divided
½ c. butter
2 eggs
1 tsp. vanilla
2 c. flour
1 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. salt
1 c. sour cream
2 apples, peeled and sliced

Mix nuts, cinnamon, and ¾ cup sugar in small bowl. Mix butter, remaining sugar, eggs and vanilla in a separate bowl. Sift together flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt; add to batter. Beat in sour cream. Spread half of batter in a greased 9-inch tube pan or bundt pan. Arrange sliced apples on top of batter. Cover with nut mixture and then the rest of the batter. Bake 40 minutes at 375 degrees.

I made this a couple of weeks ago and I am just getting around to posting it; I remember thinking that it was good, but I had some ideas for improvements. I have, naturally, now forgotten them. Darn. The only thing I remembered is that I substituted pecans for walnuts, and liked that. I also melted the butter, like in a muffin recipe, instead of creaming butter and sugar; that also worked well, though I am not sure if it's what was intended. I made it in a silicon bundt pan and wasn't sure it would hold together, what with the thick apple layer, but it did nicely. I think one main thing was that the baking time was really different than what the recipe said. Wish I remembered how.