CSA fuels my anticipation

Just got the word back from the farmer: we're in as members of the Henry's Farm CSA, sharing a 25-week share with two of our friends. Looking outside at the latest snowfall that is starting to melt and thinking about how much I'm going to enjoy fresh vegetables.

For those of you who may be asking "what's a CSA?" Let me back up a little bit. The acronym stands for Community Supported Agriculture. My analogy is buying stock. The farmer sells shares to generate capital for this season's expenditures for seeds, plants, and equipment. I purchase a share for a set price, and I accept some of the financial risk for the season. In return, I expect to receive a box of vegetables once a week. Hopefully, the farmer has made good choices for what foods to grow for the soil conditions and the caprices of Central Illinois weather. If the harvest is good, my weekly box has monetary value of 1/25 of my share, or I get even more food as "dividends," and the farmer has extra vegetables to sell for profit. If bad, I don't recoup my costs, but I do get some food items every week and the farmer is not going to be insolvent and can farm another year.

As an additional benefit for all of us going into the CSA business together, we have a partnership around local organic farming. Shareholders are invited to visit the farm. Some CSAs, although not this one, require a certain number of hours of farmwork for a lower-priced share. The farm serves as a clearinghouse for recipe ideas. Our particular farmer has an educational focus on his farm website and he is also an author (as is his sister, who has also written a book about the farm).

If it all shakes out as the farmer and I expect it, most weeks will have an abundance of the most successful crops and a smattering of those that are not planted in large amounts or those that don't fare so well this season.

Based on the information provided about last year's seed purchase, I expect that this year I'll have a chance to taste some things I've never eaten before and will have a steady supply of some favorite summer vegetables. Also, I'll have to figure out what folks will trade me for tomatoes, which I don't eat and of which Andrew eventually will have too many.

Happily anticipating the first box at the end of May.

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Colorful winter potluck dish

This dish garnered many positive comments at a potluck today. The original recipe comes from the cookbook Local Flavors: Cooking and Eating from America's Farmer's Markets by Deborah Madison. Here, I have adjusted the amounts of just about everything to make the dish for a larger group.

Sweet Potatoes Braised in Cider

Also good for winter squashes, perhaps yams, and carrots

4 medium-sized sweet potatoes, peeled and cut into bite-sized chunks (prepared weight is about 3 pounds)
4 Tbsp unsalted butter (for vegan version, use vegan margarine)
1 Tbsp finely chopped fresh rosemary
2 c or more of apple cider, enough to nearly cover vegetables in pot
salt and pepper if desired (I used none)
apple cider vinegar to taste (optional, I also used none)

Melt butter in a large pot, cook the rosemary on medium heat about 3 minutes to flavor the butter. Toss the vegetables in the butter, add liquid until vegetables are nearly covered. Cover pot with lid and bring to a boil. Turn heat down and simmer 20 to 25 minutes until vegetables are tender. If the juices have not reduced to a glaze yet, uncover and boil quickly on high heat until liquid reduces. Season with salt, pepper, vinegar to taste.

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Greens: welcome back into my life

For more than a year I avoided greens like lettuce and spinach and kale and so on due to my touchy stomach and guts. When I had a garden the year before last, I experimented with the occasional very small lettuce salad eaten at the end of the meal and it went modestly well, but not swimmingly. Since then, I have only eaten greens occasionally, in small amounts and still only after eating most of the rest of a meal.

This winter, inspired by some greens-based dishes I've been cooking for work, I've played around a couple of times at home with kale as a part of main dishes consisting of other Heather-friendly ingredients. This week's addition to that list of experiments was declared "amazing" by the spouse and the smell was admired greatly by co-workers when I brought leftovers to eat for my lunch at work.

As for the touchy stomach, well, it was a bit grumbly, but this dish was well worth the small amount of complaining from the guts a few hours later. Note to self: next time for a happier tummy, make plain potatoes the main dish and this dish the side instead of eating this dish with a side slice of bread. For folks with hardier digestive systems, this dish is great with a side chunk of focaccia bread.

Spicy sausage and greens
four servings

20 oz hot Italian turkey sausage, cut into chunks
1 large bunch kale, leaves stripped from stalks and chopped for about 2 quarts of leaves
2 leeks, white parts only, sliced thinly
1 handful fresh parsley leaves, chopped
1 onion, sliced thinly (optional)
salt and pepper to taste

Cook sausage chunks in a tablespoon or two of olive oil in a large frying pan. When sausage is half cooked, add onion and leek slices around the sausage and fry until tender. Fill the pan with kale and stir until wilted, then continue adding batches of kale and wilting until all the kale is in the pan. Cook, stirring occasionally, until kale is tender and sausage is cooked through. Stir in parsley and season to taste.

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Dressing up dinner with ajvar

Our favorite red pepper spread, ajvar or "Serbian salsa," has had a long hiatus from our house since we no longer live right down the street from a store that sells it at a reasonable price. I love the puree of roasted red peppers and eggplants mixed with garlic and oil. It tastes wonderful on sandwiches, on crackers, mixed into dips or casseroles or pasta dishes. I missed it so much that I made sure to put it on my list for a shopping outing that included returning to that favorite Asian market in our old neighborhood in Madison, WI. It comes in a rather large jar, so once we open one, it's imperative to use it frequently before it goes bad. 

A recent "meat" and potatoes type of dinner was a chance to try something new with ajvar. I made potatoes with lemon-garlic drizzle and tofu cutlets with blackened pepper coating. For a dessert/side, I served pears.

The recipes:

Tofu cutlets with blackened pepper coating
serves 3 to 4

1 block of firm tofu
ajvar red pepper spread
1 to 2 Tbsp oil for the pan

Squeeze the liquid out of the tofu, slice into six cutlets and spread each of them thickly on both sides with ajvar. Allow the cutlets to sit while you prepare potatoes.

Note: this part of the recipe could have been more successful if the time sitting was longer and if I had done more to turn the ajvar into a marinade. Next time I try this recipe, I'll try mixing the ajvar with oil and perhaps a little vinegar to see if it pulls more pepper flavor into the centers of the tofu pieces, which ended up tasting pretty plain this time around, and start marinating at least an hour before starting the potatoes.

When the potatoes are very close to done, heat oil in a large frying pan on high heat. Lay the ajvar-covered cutlets in the oil and fry on both sides until the pepper mixture is blackened.

Potatoes with lemon-garlic drizzle
serves 4

2 pounds Klondike Red potatoes (other boiling potatoes with pretty skins are acceptable), scrubbed but not peeled
2 Tbsp olive oil
3 cloves garlic, minced
2 Tbsp lemon juice

Boil potatoes in salted water until tender. Drain, leave potatoes in the pot and cover so they dry out a little while you prepare the drizzle. Heat the oil in a saucepan, add garlic and cook until very light golden, then whisk in the lemon juice and heat through. Put the potatoes in the serving dish and drizzle the sauce over them. Season with salt and pepper if desired. Garnish with fresh parsley if desired.

Perhaps next time I have a hankerin' for ajvar I'll have to try out this recipe http://easteuropeanfood.about.com/od/vegetables/r/ajvar.htm or the one at http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=6430271 and can it myself.

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