Our Week 5 CSA Share Consisted Of:
4 small yellow squash
1 head unlabeled lettuce
1 bag loose lettuce (mesclun mix?)
2 heads broccoli
5 pickling cucumbers (2 yellow, 3 green)
1 kohlrabi
1 onion
1/2 lb. fava beans
And we still harbored these odds-and-ends from previous weeks:
5 small radishes
1 bunch ruby chard
1 bunch mustard greens
1 bunch carrots
a little bit of parsley
On to The Stuff We Ate!
1. A beet salad (CSA beets and lettuce). Also included: plenty of pepitas and goat cheese. Dan's asleep, but I'll ask him in the morning if he recalls what the dressing was.
2. Long-Awaited Carrot Cake (CSA carrots). This is technically Dan's birthday cake, but it came late this year. Luckily, we got carrots in the CSA share the week of his birthday. I had to pad them out with a few "regular" carrots, but the cake still tasted great. I almost always use a Cooks Illustrated recipe from 2003, and I didn't deviate from that this year. Here it is online (I don't add nuts). However, I followed the print copy's more heavily spiced variation (so much cardamom in my spice cabinet right now!) and this year I topped it with a cream cheese frosting that included Greek yogurt and orange zest. Happy Birthday, Dan!
3. Grilled fava beans (CSA fava beans). I know that fava bean pods aren't to be eaten, but when I chanced upon a recipe that called for preparing them edamame-style (seasoning on the outside, licking your fingers, eating only the beans, and tossing the pods as you go), I pounced. Here's the recipe, from 101 Cookbooks. Ours were seasoned as suggested -- with olive oil, coarse sea salt, and red pepper before grilling (I used our indoor grill pan) and doused with lemon juice and zest (and more salt and more red pepper) afterwards. We ate them on the spot, standing up next to the stove, and really enjoyed the licking-our-fingers part. This was our standout dish this week, and definitely a "best-of" CSA recipe. I hope more fava beans are in my future!
4. Pasta with squash (CSA yellow squash). Pasta is so simple, but it's a very effective way to use up CSA veggies. Dan topped his with ricotta. I just added a little extra butter to the noodles.
5. Turkey burger (CSA pickling cucumbers, onion, and parsley). This was served with sauteed CSA swiss chard (not pictured) on the side. Once again, I've skirted the whole "canning" issue and pickled half of the cucumbers without fuss.
It's 1 AM, and the clock has rolled over to Week 6. Pickup's in 9 hours. Good night!
The Stuff That Remains:
2 heads broccoli
3 yellow pickling cucumbers
1 kohlrabi
some of the lettuce
those darn mustard greens
The Stuff We Tossed Into the Garbage:
The sad little radishes. Look, I wanted to roast them. It got too hot. Then I wanted to make this. I got too lazy. Next time!
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Are you furious at my radish waste? Got any great ideas for that leftover broccoli? Did you make any standout dishes with your CSA produce last week? Please leave me a comment so I know I'm alive (that's the kind of joke I make at 1:08 AM).
