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Chicken Milanese with Arugula

Thursday, July 15th, 2010 by virginia

Arugula

In our week 2 CSA share, we received .2 lb of arugula. Josh and I both adore arugula, and this farm fresh version was really fantastic. Peppery, not too bitter, and the leaves were so tender, not at all like the arugula we get from the supermarket. Unfortunately, that was the only time we got arugula as part of our CSA share, which is really too bad because the arugula contributed to one of my favorite meals we’ve made, chicken milanese.

To make the chicken, we pounded out two boneless/skinless chicken breasts until they were about a 1/2 inch thick. Then we coated the chicken in a mixture of flour, grated parmesan cheese, salt, and pepper, using an egg wash to help the mixture stick to the chicken. After the chicken had a nice thick coating, we fried it in a dutch oven that was filled with about 3 inches of vegetable oil. The coating puffed up nicely and was really crispy.

We served this quick and easy chicken milanese over the arugula, which we had tossed with some lemon juice, olive oil, and salt. We also added chunks of tomato for some sweetness. We just squeezed a bit of lemon over the chicken, and everything tasted really fresh and bright.

Chicken milanese with arugula and tomatoes

Hands down it was one of the best dinners we’ve made with our CSA share, and it was ready in about 20 minutes. I don’t know anything about the seasonality of certain vegetables, but I keep holding out hope that we’ll get arugula again. This CSA stuff has really spoiled us, hasn’t it?

Tags: Arugula, Chicken
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CSA Week #6

Wednesday, July 14th, 2010 by virginia

It’s been yet another hot week and according to the farm reports we get from our CSA, the weather hasn’t been so great for the crops or the farm workers. Our share this week was larger than last week but I wonder what the long term ramifications are of the unbearable heat. The contents this week included:

Lettuce – 1 head red leaf
Basil – 2 oz
Fava Beans – 1 1/4 lbs
Radishes – 4 each
Greens – 3/4 lb
Squash – 1 3/4 lbs
Pole Beans – 1/2 lb

Fava beans, greens, basil, red leaf lettuce, squash, pole beans, radishes in the middle

Unfortunately we haven’t had the chance to cook a lot of veggies recently so we still have tons of stuff left over from last week. A neat little trick I’ve discovered is that if you soak a lot of the veggies in cold water, they’ll perk right back up. This especially works well with limp lettuce. Just chop them up and soak, and they’ll be as good as new.

With regard to our fruit share, we’re overwhelmed with cherries! This week was a smaller batch at least, but we still have tons in our fridge. We’ve been snacking on them left and right but can’t seem to eat them quickly enough. Our fruit share this week included:

Sugar Plums – 1 quart
Cherries – 1 pint

Sugar plums and cherries

I’ve never seen sugar plums before but I hope they’re sweeter than regular plums. They’ve got a lovely yellow color and feel soft to the touch. I’ll let you know how they are when I get around to tasting them!

Tags: Basil, Fava Beans, Lettuce, Pole Beans, Radishes, Squash
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CSA Week #5

Wednesday, July 7th, 2010 by virginia

It’s CSA Wednesday again! I ran home during the day to pick up the share because I had a softball game after work, and boy, is it hot out. Unfortunately the hot weather has not been good for the crops, and our share this week was the smallest that we’ve had so far. I’m not too concerned because we still have stuff left from last week, plus Josh is traveling so I haven’t been eating our veggies (otherwise he might get jealous). Our share contents this week included:

Lettuce – 1 head green leaf
Radishes – 4 each
Squash – 1lb
Onions – 4 each
Peas – 1/2 lb
Fava Beans – 1lb each

The peas and the beans will be interesting to cook with, since we don’t eat too much of either, but I’m really interested to taste freshly shelled peas/beans.

Peas, white and red onions, green leaf lettuce, squash, radishes, fava beans

Our fruit share also included less fruit, though we did get a strawberry rhubarb jam, which should be interesting:

Cherries – 1 quart
Jam – 1 pint
Juice – 1 pint

Cherries, strawberry rhubarb jam, blackcurrant apple juice

A new juice this week as well, blackcurrant apple this time. Still sad that it’s the smaller bottle, since the first week was more than double the size. The cherries this week are a different variety from the last two weeks, and hopefully they’ll be a bit sweeter. Still more recipes to come!

Tags: Cherries, Fava Beans, Jam, Juice, Lettuce, Onions, Peas, Radishes, Squash
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Red Leaf Lettuce With Radishes, Beets, and Goat Cheese

Sunday, July 4th, 2010 by virginia

Red leaf lettuce

Radishes

As part of our second CSA share, we got a large head of gorgeous red leaf lettuce that we weren’t quite sure what we wanted to do with. Usually we only eat red leaf lettuce with Korean food, wrapped around pieces of grilled bulgogi or marinated pork. Since we didn’t have any on hand (H-Mart has really good pre-marinated meat that’s relatively cheap), we decided to make a simple salad with lettuce, beets, and goat cheese.

To make the salad dressing, I combined equal parts balsamic vinegar and olive oil, seasoned with salt and pepper, then added a dollop of mustard to make the dressing thicker. I blended it all together in my handy knock-off magic bullet, then tossed it with the washed and chopped red leaf lettuce.

I piled the lettuce onto plates, then topped them with slices of canned beets. Some people might scoff at using canned beets, but I think they have good flavor and are super convenient. No mess, no fuss. On top of the beets, I added crumbled bits of soft goat cheese. To contrast the sweetness of the balsamic vinaigrette and the beets, I thinly sliced some CSA radishes and added it to the salad for some crunch and slight bitterness.

Red leaf lettuce tossed with balsamic vinaigrette, topped with beets, goat cheese, and radishes

It was a hearty salad, and although it was vegetarian, we still felt full afterward. It’s rare for us to not miss meat, but this was a great combination of flavors and textures. I could definitely eat this salad again and be satisfied!

Tags: Beets, Goat Cheese, Lettuce, Radishes
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Spaghetti “Carbonara” with Turkey Bacon and Sauteed Greens

Thursday, July 1st, 2010 by virginia

Greens

Going back to our first batch of CSA goodies, we got 3/4 lb of “greens”. I’m not sure exactly what kind of “greens” these are, but they had a pretty tough and thick stem running through the middle. The leaves were also on the thicker side and seemed pretty hearty, so we decided to saute them instead of eating them raw. I trimmed the stems and roughly chopped the leaves into 1 inch pieces.

Cut, washed, and ready to go

We wilted the leaves in some olive oil with minced garlic, and then set them aside. Instead of having plain sauteed greens, we decided to mix them into our recipe for spaghetti carbonara. To make the carbonara sauce, we cooked about 10 ounces of turkey bacon in a large pan until rendered and crispy. In the meantime, put a pot of spaghetti on to boil.

After it was rendered, we scooped out the bacon and deglazed the pan with a bit of white wine, about a cup. We let the wine reduce until the sauce had a thicker consistency. Meanwhile, we cracked two eggs into a large bowl and beat them until smooth. After draining the pasta, we dumped it into the pan with the bacon/wine sauce and stirred it around.

Using some of the hot pasta water, I tempered the eggs so that they wouldn’t scramble when we poured the hot pasta mixture into the bowl. I stirred everything quickly while Josh slowly poured the pasta into the bowl, making sure that the egg coated all of the noodles. Then we added the cooked bacon and sauteed greens and tossed everything together thoroughly. Make sure to taste and season with salt as needed. The greens added a nice vibrant color to the pasta.

Our version of spaghetti carbonara

To finish it off, we grated some parmesan cheese on top and a few cranks of fresh black pepper. The carbonara sauce was lighter than other versions, but still had that nice glossy, velvety richness from the egg. It’s definitely an easy dish to make, and adding greens to the mix just somehow makes you feel better about eating a sauce made from bacon. At least it was turkey bacon, right? That’s what we like to tell ourselves…

Mmm bacon (and greens!)

Tags: Greens, Pasta
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CSA Week #4

Wednesday, June 30th, 2010 by virginia

It’s Wednesday again (don’t the weeks just seem to fly by?) which means it’s time for CSA! Josh actually volunteered today to help out with the distribution. All members of the CSA are required to volunteer 4-6 hours per season to either help meet the truck delivery, help with distribution, or help clean up the distribution site, which is a church near our apartment. The nice thing about this particular CSA is that all of the unclaimed/extra food is donated to the church at the end of the night so it doesn’t go to waste and it’s helping out people who probably wouldn’t normally have access to fresh vegetables and fruits.

Our share contents this week included:

Lettuce – 1 head romaine
Garlic – 3 each
Beets – 3 each
Carrots – 5 each
Onions – 4 each
Squash – 1 lb
Basil – 2 oz
Mixed Baby Greens – .25 lb

The beets and carrots widely varied in size (some were barely larger than my thumbnail), and I tried to pick out the largest ones. They weren’t super huge but I guess it’s still early in the season. The basil was gorgeous and fragrant, and 2 ounces is really a lot. Same with the mixed baby greens.

Beets, garlic, mixed baby greens, romaine, squash, carrots, onions, and basil in the middle

We also got our fruit share, which was pretty much the same as last week, except a smaller juice (boo).

Cherries – 3 pints
Juice – one bottle

We picked raspberry apple juice this time, and I liked it even better than the rhubarb apple from last week (though Josh prefers the rhubarb version).

Cherries and raspberry apple juice

According to the farm reports, the super hot weather hasn’t been good for the crops. Hopefully it cools down a bit because I’m really loving all these fresh veggies and fruits that we’re getting. And hopefully the pests stay away as well!

Tags: Basil, Beets, Carrots, Garlic, Greens, Onions, Romaine, Squash
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Minty Mojitos

Monday, June 28th, 2010 by virginia

Minty mint

So what do you do with a third of a pound of mint? That’s the dilemma we faced when we got our first CSA share. Josh and I like mint but don’t really cook with it too often, plus we still have our mint plant from last year that is surprisingly still alive and producing leaves. We decided to go with the more obvious route and made a few batches of minty mojitos.

To make a mojito, muddle together a handful of mint leaves, a teaspoon of sugar, and the juice of half a lime. Really squish it all together for about a minute to extract every last bit of flavor. Add rum into the container where you’ve been muddling the other ingredients and swirl it around a bit. We like two shots per drink. Pour it all into a cocktail mixer with ice. Shake well, pour into glasses filled with ice, top off with club soda, garnish, and serve.

Lime mojitos

We also made mojitos with lemons (are they still considered to be mojitos?) when we accidentally ran out of limes. Mint lemonade is a classic summer drink, and adding rum into the mix only made it better. Vodka would probably do the trick as well.

Lemon mojitos

The mint really works well with the citrus, and you can boost up the flavor even more with citrus-flavored rum. The amount of rum/sugar/club soda can vary between personal tastes, but adding a lot of fresh mint leaves really brightens up the drink. It’s perfect for these hot summer days!

Tags: Mint, Mojitos
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Roasted Bok Choy

Thursday, June 24th, 2010 by virginia

Bok choy

Based on a recommendation by commenter Sean, we took our CSA bok choy and roasted it in the oven. Our usual method of preparing bok choy is to chop it up into smaller pieces and sautee it with olive oil and garlic, but cooking it in the oven seemed much simpler and quicker. Our first step was to separate the leaves from the core, but as I attempted to do so, I found a little surprise…

Well hello there Mr. Slug!

I was a little freaked out but hey, this stuff really is coming straight from a farm so it should be expected. I removed Mr. Slug and carefully washed the leaves. After drying them thoroughly, I tossed them with a bit of olive oil, salt, and pepper, then laid them out on a large baking sheet.

Bok choy on a baking sheet ready to go into the oven

I placed the baking sheet in the oven preheated to 450 degrees and kept it in for about 10 minutes, watching it carefully. When the edges of the leaves started to visibly crisp up, I pulled them out and seasoned the bok choy with more salt and pepper, plus a few squeezes of fresh lemon juice.

Oven roasted bok choy

Wow the bok choy was awesome! It was cooked through but still crisp and juicy. The lemon juice added a brightness to the already fresh flavor, and it really couldn’t have been more simple to prepare. We covered the baking sheet in foil first, so clean up was a breeze – just pull off the foil and toss in the trash! It was a great side dish to our meal, and I have a feeling we’ll be cooking bok choy like this from now on.

Tags: Bok Choy
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CSA Week #3

Wednesday, June 23rd, 2010 by virginia

Yet another week has gone by and you know what that means: CSA! We’ve got veggies bursting out of our fridge but we still can’t get over how great they are. Farm fresh really does make a huge difference. Our share this week included:

Lettuce – 1 large head
Garlic – 3 bulbs
Garlic scapes – 5 stalks
Radishes – 4
Onions – 4
Greens – 3/4 lb

We had a choice between romaine lettuce and red leaf lettuce so we chose the romaine, because we still had red leaf left over from last week. We also had a choice between ruby chard and kale for the greens, and we went with the kale because we had chard last week.

From left to right: onions, radishes, garlic, romaine, kale, garlic scapes

In even more exciting news, our fruit share started this week!! The email that we received regarding the contents was a bit confusing, and so we thought we were getting three pints of juice. Not exactly fruit, but we figured it was because it’s still early in the season. Turns out that we got three pints of cherries, plus a juice. There were several juices to choose from and we opted for rhubarb apple, since it seemed to be the most unusual option.

Cherries – 3 pints
Juice – one bottle

Cherries and rhubarb apple juice

The cherries are slightly tart but have a great firm, juicy texture. They’re good for snacking on their own, but I’m hoping to bake with some as well, since three pints is quite a lot of fruit.

Oodles of cherries

We’re still trying to cook more each week, and we’re getting much better about it. More recipes to come!

Tags: Cherries, Garlic, Garlic Scapes, Greens, Juice, Kale, Lettuce, Onions, Radishes, Romaine
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Light Caesar Salad

Thursday, June 17th, 2010 by virginia

Gorgeous romaine lettuce

As part of our first CSA share, we received two medium-sized heads of romaine lettuce. They were really gorgeous – vibrant green, fresh, and crisp. We wanted to make caesar salad with it, but our usual homemade dressing is pretty heavy and thick. We didn’t want to overwhelm the lettuce and lose the fresh flavor so we decided to lighten it up a bit by omitting the egg and garlic and putting in a smaller amount of anchovy paste.

The dressing really couldn’t be simpler, and I made it in my knock-off magic bullet blender. Just throw the following ingredients in, eyeballing the amounts:

-Juice of one lemon
-About a teaspoon of anchovy paste
-A dash of worcestershire sauce
-Grated parmesan cheese
-Salt
-Pepper
-Olive oil

The amount of olive oil depends on how thick you want it to be. I started with about a quarter of a cup and then increased it to make the dressing a bit thicker, so that it would cling to the leaves. Blend, and then toss with the leaves, which we cleaned and chopped into 1 inch pieces. Grate some extra parmesan over the top, and a few grinds of pepper.

Lightly dressed leaves

The salad was really fantastic, with the lemon brightening everything up. The lettuce itself was the best romaine we’ve ever eaten, crisp and flavorful, not watery and bland like the romaine you get from the supermarket. We served the salad alongside some tilapia cakes that Josh made extra special by adding in some bits of crunchy turkey bacon. It was a light meal but packed with flavor, and so very easy to prepare.

Tilapia cakes with caesar salad

Tags: Romaine, Tilapia
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