Using up the Winter Squash

I found a copy of the original Moosewood Cookbook in a free pile of books a couple of years ago.  Being one of the original vegetarian cookbooks, they have some fantastic recipes to make use of all of our fresh produce.  Here are two adapted recipes for our current winter boxes.  While it isn't out of copyright yet, I'm going to risk posting them mostly in their original form with a hearty recommendation that books by the author, Mollie Katzen, are well worth purchasing for your shelf.

Arabian Squash-Cheese Casserole

2 hunks of hubbard or banana squash (from the shares)
1 large onion, chopped
2-3 cloves garlic, crushed
1 double handful chopped braising greens (kale, chard, spinach, collards)
1 package of roasted peppers (or a chopped bell)
3 T butter or oil
salt, black pepper, and red pepper to taste
2 beaten eggs
1 c buttermilk, yogurt, or soured milk (milk + 1 T lemon juice)
1 c crumbled feta or cotija cheese
1/4 c sunflower seeds or chopped nuts

Seed the squash and roast until tender in the oven @ 375.  Scoop out flesh and mash.  Saute the onion and garlic in the butter (oil) until soft, then add the peppers.  (Already roasted peppers just need to warm up, fresh peppers need to soften a bit.)  Combine eggs, buttermilk, cheese, squash, peppers, and onions, mixing well.  Season to taste, and spread into lightly greased casserole dish.  Top with seeds or nuts and bake at 375, covered for 25 minutes and uncovered for an additional 10.


Gypsy Soup

3-4 T olive oil
2 medium onions, chopped
2 cloves garlic, crushed
2 cups chopped, peeled winter squash
3 stalks celery, chopped
1 cup (or can) diced tomatoes
1 package roasted peppers (or 1 chopped fresh pepper)
1 can chickpeas, or about a pound of leftover roasted lamb, diced
3 cups stock

paprika, turmeric, basil, salt, cinnamon, cayenne, bay leaf, and soy sauce to taste
   (I don't measure anything, and go entirely by my nose.  Shoot for more paprika and go light on the cinnamon.)

Saute the onions, garlic, celery, and squash in the oil in a dutch oven or soup pot until the onions start to soften.  Season and add stock.  Simmer until the squash starts to soften.  Add the rest of the veg, plus the chickpeas (or lamb).  Simmer until everything else is soft (or as done as you'd like).

Borscht

Dinner tonight.  Hearty, warm, and uses lots of fresh farm ingredients.

Borscht (Russian cabbage and beet soup)

knob of butter, bacon grease, or double glug of olive oil
1-1/2 cups chopped onion
1 large, sliced carrot
1 stalk chopped celery
1 tsp caraway seeds
3 cups chopped cabbage
4 cups of stock
1 1/2 cups thinly sliced potatoes
1 1/2 cups thinly sliced beets (peeled)
1 can (or cup) of diced tomatoes
salt & pepper to taste
1 Tbs sour cream per serving
a pinch of dill per serving

In a large, heavy bottomed pot, saute your onions, carrots, and celery until the onions are starting to soften.  Add caraway seeds for a couple of minutes, then the cabbage for a couple of more.  Add stock, potatoes, beets, and tomatoes, and boil for about 30 minutes.  Season to taste, and serve with a dollop of sour cream and a pinch of dill.  Probably best with a heavy rye loaf.

Winter Squash Risotto

This is days late in being posted, but I don't think our share make-up will change drastically this week.  My family really enjoyed this recipe from RealSimple.  It will make use of your winter squash (I used a chunk of hubbard), onions, and spinach.  I threw a couple of cloves of garlic in for good measure.

It was also very simple.  About 10 minutes of chopping vegetables and 10 minutes in front of the stove.

David's no-gravy Mashed Potatoes

I think David learned this working the kitchens at the Grand America.  Seriously no gravy needed.

5lbs red or gold potatoes, peeled and cubed

1/4 lb butter, melted

1/2 cup milk

1 cup cream

3/4 cup mascarpone cheese

salt, pepper, and herbs to taste

Boil the potatoes in salted water until soft, then leave to sit in the hot water while you mix the rest (a good 10-20 minutes is best).  You'll want to adjust the liquids -- if you're using lighter cream, you'll need a little less milk.  Stir together the butter, milk, and cream.  Drain the potatoes, and start mashing, maybe with an electric beater.  Whip in the cream / milk / butter in batches to avoid splashing.  The final product shouldn't be stiff -- no forks standing up in there.  Add more milk if needed.  Lastly, blend in the mascarpone and season to taste.

Go-to Greens and a Simple Miso

I know I tend to overuse the Mark Bittmann / Minimalist recipes, but they're generally so flexible, fast, and straightforward that it is hard not to do so.

This week's Minimalist would go well with any of the greens we have been / will be receiving (broccoli rabe, spinach, choy, kale, collards, chard, the nicer beet greens).  Not that you can go wrong with parmesan and garlic.  Fry an egg, and you have dinner in 25 minutes.

I mention making simple soups out of the vegetables we receive pretty regularly.  If you keep miso paste in the fridge (you should), this is a fast, healthy dish that can be as simple or as complex as you'd like.

Here is Alissa's go-to recipe soup.  Below is mine...

Twenty Minute Miso
dashi, vegetable, mushroom or chicken stock
   (the stock shouldn't be too strong or salty)
1/2 to 1 block tofu, drained and cubed
2 carrots, cut into thin rounds
2 small daikon, cut into thin half rounds
1 small onion, halved and sliced thinly
1 pinch dried wakame seaweed per serving of soup
   (You can use a handful of sliced greens if seaweed doesn't appeal)
miso paste to taste (roughly 1T per 2 cups soup volume)

optional:
thin sliced pork, browned, roughly 1/2 lb
1-2 burdock roots, peeled and sliced into rounds

Boil together everything but the miso paste.  When carrots are softish, turn off the heat and strain a bowlful of broth out.  Dissolve the miso into this broth and return to the pot.  Serve immediately.

Using Greens and Roots

First, a few pics and updates to help out.  The share included a kale that wasn't mentioned in the list -- Siberian Kale.  Great firm leaves that store well and taste great.

On roots and peppers...

Image from Kitazawa Seed Co.

One of our radishes was called a Chinese Red radish, but it isn't red on the outside.  It is also called a Watermelon, Red Meat, or Beauty Heart radish.  Great in a salad, as a quick pickle, or treated like a turnip (roasted, sauteed, mashed, or stirfried).  The peel can be eaten, and apparently the white outer flesh is spicier than the pink inner.

We also have a largish, black skinned radish.  It isn't dirty -- just black. These are supposed to have a stronger, peppery flavor.  Generally peeled before eating, the size and firmness holds up well to cooking.

(BTW, here is a great reference on radishes)

With the peppers, none of them are very hot.  The mirasol (reddish) and mariachi (yellowish) are both fruity, slightly spicy peppers for raw or cooked eating.  You'll recognize the poblano from chile relleno, and they're good stuffed or turned into a mole sauce.

On turnips and greens...
Trying to figure out what to do with those turnips and greens?  You can eat them by themselves, or you can eat them together.  Root vegetables make great accompaniments to their own greens, but they go well with others as well.

For these young turnips, you can eat them sliced with some nice cheese and apples.  Snacky dinner.

Or try this:

Roasted roots and greens
2 double-handfuls of cubed turnips, radishes, banana squash (3-4 cups?)
olive oil to coat
1-2 T diced garlic
salt and pepper to taste
spice according to taste (coriander, curry powder, garlic, or chili)
2 double-handfuls of chopped greens (kale, broccoli raab, turnip greens)

Toss the roots and garlic with olive oil and spices.  Roast in the oven at 400 for 20 minutes, or until nearly done (depends on how small your cubes are).  Mix in the chopped greens, add a little more oil if it is dry, and return to the oven until the greens are tender (5-10 minutes).  Serve, maybe with a splash of vinegar.
(This can be made a single dish meal if a can of rinsed garbanzos is added at the start.)

Recipes for sorrel

Sorrel

The sharp, almost citrusy green is more common abroad, particularly in Northern Africa, Russia, and South Asia.  Sometimes called lemon spinach, it adds a bright note to salads and an interesting taste to soups.  Below I'll include two different uses for it, but add it anywhere you're trying to make a sour soup.  These recipes are equally good with sorrel, arugula, cress, or any sharp tender green.

Creamy Greens Soup
2 cups of flavorful stock (broth from a pork or chicken roast is great)
4 cups of chopped greens (I used equal parts spinach and sorrel)
2 cups cream or milk
salt and pepper to taste

Boil the greens briefly in the stock, until tender.  Puree together if you want it really creamy (I didn't bother).  Add the cream / milk, warm it a bit, season to taste, and serve.

"Russian" variation -- add a cup of peeled, chopped beets to the boiling stock for 10 minutes before the greens.


Simple Sharp Green Salad
2 cups shredded greens (arugula, sorrel, basil with spinach)
1/2 cup feta or cotija cheese
1-2 cups of chopped tomato
drizzle of olive oil
spices to taste (I like a little red pepper flake or 5-spice)

The feta and tomatoes will bring down the harshness of the greens.  Toss this together and eat soon after.

A couple of recipes

Here's a recipe that uses kohlrabi AND summer squash that I found on the Straight from the Farm blog.  Visit their site -- they have good pictures of filling the empanadas.


Kohlrabi & Squash Empanadas
3 cloves of garlic, finely minced
1 inch of ginger, peeled and grated
2 medium kohlrabies, peeled and cut into small cubes
1 large summer squash, cut into small cubes
2 large scallions, both white and green parts, finely cut
1 radish, minced (optional)
1 T. extra virgin olive oil
1 T. butter
salt and pepper to taste
dash of freshly grated nutmeg
1 box of pre-made pie crust or one batch homemade*
1 egg

In a medium skillet, heat oil and butter over medium heat.  Add garlic and ginger to brown.  Add kohlrabi cubes, a pinch of salt and some pepper. Toss well and cook 3 or 4 minutes until kohlrabi are softening a bit.  Add squash cubes and continue to cook for 4 more minutes.  Add scallions, radish, nutmeg and another pinch of salt and pepper.  Mix well and cook for one minute before removing from heat.  Set mixture to this side to cool.

Roll out dough to be a little thinner than pie crust typically is.  If you are using pre-made crust from the store, run your rolling pin over it once or twice.   Using a cereal bowl or large circular cookie cutter, cut out 6 inch-ish circles from the dough.  It should yield about 15, give or take depending on your cutter and dough thickness.

Pre-heat oven to 425F and line a cookie sheet with parchment paper.   Prepare egg wash by beating egg with a teaspoon of water and set to the side along with a small bowl of water.

To make the empanadas, spoon one tablespoon of kohlrabi and squash mixture into the center of a circle of dough.   (It’s better to have less filling than too much or the empanadas won’t hold together. Feel out the right ratio that allows you to close off the dough without any filling popping out.)   Dip your finger in the bowl of water and run it around the outside edge of the dough.  Fold dough over the filling to create a half circle.  Press down edges.  Carefully pick up the dough pocket and pinch edges (see photo) to seal them tightly.  A fork can also be used to crimp the edges if you want a less tedious method.

Repeat above process to finish all the empanadas, laying them on the lined cookie sheet when done.  With a fork, prick the tops once and brush with egg wash.   Bake for 8 minutes and turn over.  Bake another 5 to 7 minutes until deep golden brown and flaky.  Best served straight from the oven.

_________________

In case you've been throwing your beets and cabbage into the bottom drawer and forgetting about them, I harvested these from Simply Recipes:

Beet Hummus - you can use up our cucumbers dipping in it

Roasted beets with balsamic and orange zest glaze - side dish

Colcannon - Irish mashed potato and cabbage dish

Italian sausage and cabbage stew - cabbage stew doesn't sound super appetizing, but the recipe sounds pretty tasty

Cabbage without borders

Cabbage grows well, stores well, and keeps you well.  And I don't think we've seen the last of it.  So here a few simple ways to use it up.  Please, chime in with more.  I've listed each of these as vegetarian, but all of them are good with a pound or so of ground beef added to the skillet first.

Simplest Cabbage
2-4 T butter
1/2 head shredded cabbage
salt and pepper to taste

Saute the cabbage in the butter until tender, season to taste, serve as a side.


South of the Border Cabbage
2-4 T butter or corn oil
1/2 head shredded cabbage
1/2 onion, diced
1-2 sliced jalapenos
a package of your favorite corn tortillas
a package of cotija or queso fresco

Saute the cabbage, jalapenos, and onion in the butter (or oil) until soft.  Serve as filling for the tortillas, topped with some cotija or any other variety of fresh Mexican cheese.


East of the Border Cabbage
2-4 T butter or olive oil
1/2 head shredded cabbage
1/2 onion, diced
1 can of diced tomatoes, drained
2 T Worchestershire sauce
salt and pepper to taste
1 t paprika
1/2 c sour cream

Saute the cabbage and onion in the butter (or oil) until soft.  Stir in the tomatoes, spices, and Worchestershire sauce and simmer another 2 minutes.  Turn off the heat, stir in the sour cream, and serve.


Even Further East of the Border Cabbage
(This is actually a dish called yakisoba, a street food famous in Osaka, Japan.  I've only had this made with chicken, but pork and tofu are acceptable substitutes.  Stir fry bite sized pieces of about a pound of meat or tofu ahead of time if you'd like to use them.)
2-4 T sesame oil
1/2 head shredded cabbage
1 onion, sliced into thin half moons
thumb length chunk of ginger, diced
2 carrots, cut into matchsticks
4 scallions, in 1/4" rounds
yakisoba sauce to taste (Asian section as the grocery, or much cheaper at the Asian store, or sub 1/3 c soy sauce, 1/3 c ketchup, 1/8 c rice wine, and 2 T sugar)
about a pound of yakisoba noodles (refrigerated near the tofu at the grocery, or much much cheaper at the Asian market, or substitute soba, lo mein, or ramen without the seasoning packet)

Brown the meat/tofu first.  The put the onion, ginger, and carrots into the mix until just beginning to soften.  Add the cabbage and season with the yakisoba sauce.  Cook about two minutes, until the cabbage begins to soften, then mix in the noodles and stir well.  As everything gets coated with the sauce, it will start to caramelize.  Stir in the scallions a minute before turning off the heat.  Serve.
(You can watch a video of a Japanese lady making it here.  What is up with the dog?)

Week 14 recipes

First off, we'll try to deal with that pile of summer squash you might be staring down.

Ratatouille -- traditionally heavy on the tomatoes and eggplants, both of which are a week or two away for our particular CSA, this is a great way to use up your summer vegetables.  I chose the recipe from Cooking for Engineers, because I'm an engineer and the site amuses me.  It has lots of pictures!  You could follow the recipe exactly, or sub out the eggplant with the softer pattypans, the herbs with microgreens and garlic chives, and cut some of the sweet corn from the cob to add.

Marinated Garden Vegetables -- Adapted from Mark Bittman's How to Cook Everything Vegetarian


  1/2 c red wine or rice wine vinegar
  2 T salt
  herbs to taste (oregano, thyme, Herbs de Provence) - about 2 t
  2 bay leaves
  2 cloves garlic
  1/2 c olive oil
  1 head broccoli, chopped
  2 medium squash (yellow, zuccs, or pattypan) cut lengthwise and sliced
  2 medium carrots, cut into rounds
  handful of green beans, cleaned and cut into 1" lengths
  a bell pepper, sliced
  1/2 cup of good black or kalamata olives
  black pepper to taste

  Bring herbs, salt, oil, vinegar, and garlic to a boil in about a quart of water.  Add broccoli and green beans and boil for about a minute.  Then add the squash, carrots, bell pepper, and olives and boil less than a minute more.  Turn off the heat and cover.  Allow to cool in the pot, and serve at room temperature or cold, with a bit of the liquid plus the black pepper.

Vegetable Pancakes -- These will use up summer squash in a flash, and this great New York Times article (again, Mark Bittman) brings several international flavors to the table.  Many of these can use cabbage instead of summer squash.
 

Tomorrow I'll try to hit beets and cabbage.

Squash suggestions

From Alissa, member and manager of the CSA.


Squash & Beet Chips
If you have a dehydrator, make beet and squash "chips".  They can also be done in your oven if you have an oven that stays at really low temperatures.
http://www.mommypotamus.com/raw-veggie-chip-recipe/

Quick Squash Pizza Sauce (Hiding the veggies so my kids won't pick 'em off):
One of my favorite things to do with my squash is make sweet pizza sauce.  I used to go through an elaborate preparation of cooking down fresh tomatoes and pureed squash until all the water was gone.  Then I started wanting to eat more raw foods.  So now, I just process my squash in the food processor and add a bit of tomato paste.   I also used to go through the elaborate process of making my own pizza dough from sprouted grains.  Now, I just plop down a sprouted grain tortilla, add the squash/tomato sauce, raw milk cheese and whatever toppings I want.  Then I put it in my oven for 5 minutes just until the cheese gets melty.  By the way, I also add spinach and other dark leafy greens to the sauce.  It's a great way to "hide" all kinds of vegetables : )

Save your squash.  You'll be glad you did.
I love to use my food processor to grate my zucchini.  Then I divide it into 1 or 2 cup portions and use my FoodSaver to vacuum seal it (any freezer container works well too) - and put it in the freezer.  Then all winter long, I have perfectly sized portions for making zucchini breads, muffins, pizza sauce, etc.

Squash Quiche
This is a favorite with my kids too.  I chop the squash into tiny pieces and mix them with eggs to make a quiche (with or without crust).  I add herbs, garlic, onions, spinach, whatever I have around.  And cheese.  Then I bake @ 325 degrees until it seems like the center is no longer liquidy.  Don't bake too long, or you'll end up with a dry one.

Apricots

In preparation for the large pile of apricots you're receiving this week, I'm going to post a link to the USU extension publication on preserving apricots.  I could gather up lots of different recipes for you, but honestly, the only thing it was missing is freezer jam (see below).  I did, however, add my favorite apricot dessert after the freezer jam -- Apricots and mascarpone.  Dead easy and looks professional.

http://extension.usu.edu/energyconsumer/files/uploads/Preserving%20apricots.pdf


Freezer Jam
For freezer jam, you're going to need a couple of packages of pectin (CERTO, SureJell, etc).  I always have to look around at the grocery, but they're usually on the top shelf in the baking aisle or near Jello products).  You will need to follow the directions on the pectin package as opposed to this, as each is different, but your ratios should be something along the lines of the following:

3 cups mashed apricots (roughly 2 lbs)
6 cups of sugar
2 packages of pectin
water to dissolve the pectin, probably less than a cup

To prep the apricots for mashing, you'll want to wash them, peel them, and take out the pits.  Dipping them whole into boiling water for a couple of minutes will help the skin slide right off.


Fantastically Fancy Apricot Dessert
This is an elegant dessert option, but takes almost no effort to make when served cold.  It can be served raw or quickly baked.  You'll want a couple of apricots per person, some mascarpone cheese, some honey, and maybe a dash of cinnamon or powdered ginger.  Wash and halve the apricots and arrange on a baking dish with some butter in the bottom to prevent sticking (if you're serving hot) or a serving plate (if uncooked).  [If serving hot, baste them with a little warmed honey and bake them at 400 for 10-15 minutes until soft(er) and starting to caramelize.]  Put a dollop of mascarpone in the center of each apricot half, drizzle everything lightly with honey, and add a dash of spice if you'd like (or slivered toasted almonds).

Side note:  This makes a great pairing with an apricot wheat / hefeweizen beer as a dessert course.  It would also go well with a bit of ginger muddled with soda water for those who don't partake.

of Rhubarb and Cookbooks

A go-to cookbook is a must-have as the CSA season progresses.  My personal go-to manual of all things cookery is Mark Bittman's How to Cook Everything.  He wrote a How to Cook Everything Vegetarian, as well, which expands on the original with a more varied veggie selection.  His books cover basic (and advanced) cooking techniques, go through a large list of vegetables one by one with handling and suggestions, and focus on simple but tasty meals (he wrote the Minimalist column for the NYTimes for many years).  These books took me from cooking only a few comfort meals I learned growing up to fearing no food and being able to make something out of very few ingredients on the fly.

With that, I'll present a version of one of his recipes (for Dal, and Indian dish focused on lentils) adapted for what we have in our shares this week.


Red Lentils with Rhubarb and Indian Spices
1c dried red lentils, washed
2 or 3 stalks rhubarb, strings removed, chopped
2T minced peeled fresh ginger
3 young garlic, minced
1 spring onion, diced
4 cardamom pods
1T mustard seeds
2 cloves
(you could replace the cardamom, mustard seeds, & cloves with your favorite curry or masala paste / mix)
1t cracked black pepper
1 mild dried chile
salt
2T cold butter or peanut oil
microgreens for garnish

1. Combine the lentils, rhubarb, ginger, garlic, onion, cardamom, mustard seeds, cloves, pepper, and chile in a saucepan and add water to cover by about 1 inch.  Simmer until the lentils are soft, adding salt to taste towards the end.
2. Remove the cloves and the cardamom pods.  Stir in the butter or oil.  Taste and adjust the seasoning, then garnish with microgreens and serve.  (Also tasty with a bit of yogurt dolloped on top)

Not Pie

I was pretty disappointed at the Member Farm Day when David said the rhubarb went to seed to early thinking we wouldn't get any, so the two stalks in this week's share were a happy surprise.  Just enough to make this unique pound cake, which uses cornmeal.  The recipe is written for strawberries, but works perfectly with rhubarb.  I assume everyone else has no strawberries left by the time the box gets home.

Strawberry/Rhubarb Pound Cake

10-minute soup

I spontaneously found a way to use up several of our odder ingredients at once last night, in a way that pleasantly accentuates their flavors.  The shungiku and amaranth greens really shine through in something this simple.  This was partly dependent on ingredients I keep in my cupboard, namely Udon noodles (a thick Japanese noodle, but you could sub egg noodles) and Tsuyu soup base (a starter broth for Japanese noodle soups, called hontsuyu or mentsuyu - basically soy sauce, rice wine, and sugar -- you could sub any chicken, fish, or vegetable stock with comparable results).  And I realize this is a warm dish in our warm weather, but it was perfect yesterday when I came in from cutting grass and was sitting near the swamp cooler.

10-minute soup
about 5 cups water or stock
3-4 tablespoons soup base
two shallot scapes, chopped
one handful shungiku greens, chopped
one handful amaranth greens, chopped
two bundles udon noodles
white (or black) pepper to garnish

Start the water to boil and add your stock flavoring.  As it heats, throw in the scapes and greens.  About the time it comes to a boil, add the noodles.  Udon cook quickly (<5 minutes) so you won't have to wait long.  Turn off heat, serve, and sprinkle with white pepper.

Sunchoke overload

One of the vagaries of CSA membership is the overload of some vegetables coupled with the complete lack of others due to crop loss or uncooperative weather.  We agree to support the farmer through those ups and downs in return for some really great produce.  But occasionally, enough is enough.  I believe a few of you are feeling this way about the sunchokes.  I can assure you, the two CSA managers have fridge-fulls ourselves.  Even sharing them with friends, I have a couple of bags waiting to be used.  I don't want them every night or even twice a week for dinner... so they languish.  Luckily, they aren't going bad, and options remain for using them up.

Here is a simple (and not terribly heavy) sunchoke and leek soup I found.  I made one very similar, but instead of leeks I added Chinese broccoli.  This would be great with kale (coming in a week or two).

http://www.laughingduckgardens.com/ldblog.php/2009/02/14/cream-those-sunchokes/

A vegetarian friend of mine, gifted with sunchokes by me and doubly gifted with abilities to improvise recipes, made a fantastic and simple hash-brown sort of recipe from scratch last week.

Skillet Sunchokes
a pound or so of sunchokes
2-4 Tbsp oil (olive, or if you have it, sunflower)
herbs and spices to taste (I think she used salt, pepper, and thyme)
1/4 cup shelled sunflower seeds

Clean the chokes well.  Slice them into thumb-sized chunks.  Throw them into the heated oil in the skillet, stirring to prevent sticking and spicing to taste.  When they're soft and getting crispy on the edges, add the sunflower seeds and cook another 3-4 minutes.  Serve with salad.

Variations -- add some diced onion, peppers, and garlic to the mix before the sunchokes make it to the pan.

Go-To greens with goma sauce

This recipe used up my whole bag of spinach, and it is super versatile for use with any greens (the mizuna, spinach, and chard this week are all good candidates) and things like green beans, spicy greens, and eggplants that we'll see later in the year.  It is incredibly quick, gets rid of the greens that will so quickly overwhelm our share in the next month, and has a simple elegance if served to guests.

"Gomaae" is Japanese sesame-based sauce that is equal parts sweet, salty, and nutty.  It is traditionally served tossed with lightly boiled spinach (hourensou no gomaae).  The recipe varies from kitchen to kitchen, but what follows is where I usually start.  I had to estimate the measurements -- I cook with the "glug" and "splash" measurement and taste frequently.  I like this dish a little stronger as well, because I usually serve it with plain rice.


3-4 Tbsp toasted sesame seeds (toast them in a dry pan over medium heat, stirring regularly, or by them pre-toasted in the Asian section)
1-2 Tbsp mirin, a sweet cooking wine/vinegar
     (alternate: 1 Tbsp sake with 1 tsp sugar, or 1 Tbsp rice vinegar with 1 tsp sugar)
1-2 Tbsp soy sauce
roughly 1 pound of spinach

Bring a pot of water to a boil.  Crush the sesame seeds in a mortar and pestle (or with a coffee grinder, gently with a mallet, or with a dowel in a bowl).  It doesn't need to be too thorough.  Mix in the mirin and the soysauce.  Boil the spinach for just a couple of minutes, then drain, squeezing as much liquid out as possible.  Roughly chop the spinach and toss with the gomaae sauce.  Serve.

Alternate flavors to try:  substitute peanuts for the sesame seeds, or substitute miso paste with a tiny amount of water for the soy sauce.

Sunchoke recipe

I bet you're all cursing the dirt that the sunchokes grew in about now.  Try floating them in a sink full of warm water, bang them around a little bit, drain the water, rinse down the bulk of the dirt, and start again.  The dirt will fall away pretty quickly with a change of the water.  Then give them a thorough scrubbing and rinse.

Here is the sunchoke gratin I threw together last night, using the spinach, the young garlic, and the beef from the share as well.

1 lb ground beef
half an onion, diced
several young garlic, chopped
3-4 smallish potatoes, unpeeled, 1/4" slices
a double handfull of sunchokes, unpeeled, 1/4" slices
a double handfull of spinach, shredded
about a pint of Mexican crema (you could use 1/2&1/2, milk, sour cream, or whatever sounds tasty with your spice combo)
cheese to top

1. Set the oven to 350 and oil a casserole dish.
2. Brown the beef with the onion and garlic, spiced to your taste.  I used a greek mix that I like a lot, but you could use salt, pepper, paprika, more garlic, herbs -- basically however you'd like to theme your gratin.
3. Make a layer of potatoes and chokes.  Then add a layer of the beef, then some spinach, then some crema, then repeat.  Salt and spice to taste as you go.  I finished with potatoes/chokes, and topped with cheese. 
4. Cover the casserole dish with foil and bake for about 45 minutes.
5. Uncover and cook another 15-30 minutes.  Your cheese should be brown and your potatoes soft.

Enjoy!
Dusty

Sunchokes, aka Jerusalem Artichokes

These are probably the least common of the vegetables in our share this week.  Sunchokes are the starchy tuber of a sunflower relative, with a taste between an artichoke and a potato, and a texture between a water chestnut and a potato.  They can be eaten raw or cooked, peeled or unpeeled.  These guys are pretty dirty because they were just dug up on Saturday, so give them a good scrubbing in a sink full of water before doing anything else with them.  Store them in a cool, dry place, or in the vegetable drawer of your fridge wrapped in paper towels and plastic.  They should keep for 2-3 weeks.

My go-to way of preparing a root vegetable that I'm unfamiliar with?  Roasting with other root vegetables.  And we have parsnips in the share this week as well.  Chop them up into a casserole dish, throw in a quartered onion, some chopped celery, maybe a beet, sweet potato, or carrots, then drizzle with plenty of olive oil, salt and pepper, and herbs of your choice.  Add a cup or so of stock (or water or beer), cover in foil, and roast @325 until everything is soft and slightly caramelized (between 1 and 2 hours, depending on how much is in your dish).

Sliced sunchokes can be used to make a gratin (just substitute the chokes for the potatoes in your favorite recipe).  The spinach and chard we received this week would go great in this.  You can also deepfry the slices to make sunchoke chips.

Lightly (15 minutes) boiled sunchokes, pureed, can be added to a soup as a thickener.  Or make a variation on potato soup using your sunchokes.  Or mash them with potatoes, carrots, or parsnips to make an interesting variation on mashed potatoes.

If in doubt on recipes, go to the web!
About.com has the best synopsis of the roots I found, but if you come across something truly fantastic please share it via the comments.

A word of warning:  Some people don't process the starch in this tuber, inulin, all that well.  If you haven't eaten sunchokes before, don't overdo it with your first meal.  You could get a gassy bellyache.

Lavendar & Herbal Honey

I know it's been a long time since we had the lavender in our share, but I just came across this great use for it.  So if you happened to dry some of your lavender . . .

Herbal Honey
Take 4-6 stems of fresh lavender, or 2 four-inch pieces of fresh rosemary, and submerge in a one-pint jar of honey. Screw the cap on tight and put in a sunny window for two weeks. Every day or two, invert the jar several times. Taste after two weeks and see if the herbal flavor is strong enough for you. If not, repeat for one more week. You may remove the herbs before using the honey, or leave them in.