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This beet cake is a perfect way to use some of those farmshare beets. A halved recipe is just right for my 9" round springform pan. A full recipe in that pan would make a lovely layer cake. I just wish the final product retained the stunning magenta color of the batter.

Other beet cakes, most of them chocolate-flavored:

http://www.thekitchn.com/thekitchn/dessert/recipe-velvety-beet-and-cocoa-cake-021787
http://find.myrecipes.com/recipes/recipefinder.dyn?action=displayRecipe&recipe_id=665202
http://homecooking.about.com/od/dessertrecipes/r/blc125.htm
http://www.cooks.com/rec/view/0,196,145160-246206,00.html
http://beautyeveryday.com/2009/03/11/red-velvet-cake-with-beets/
http://low-fat-cooking.suite101.com/article.cfm/red_velvet_cake
http://www.theview.tv/blog/veggies-dessert

Current Mood: satisfied

rosefox

pisicutsa was thinking of coming over today to write with me for a couple of hours. I said we'd be happy to feed her cabbage soup for dinner. "I loathe cabbage soup!" she said, and we decided not to meet up today after all.

I'm not usually one to say "You just haven't met the right _____", but I do wonder whether she's had cabbage soup made with fresh organic Napa cabbage, which was so good that next time we get some from the farmshare we're planning on eating it raw or making coleslaw, and crumbled bacon and freshly grated Parmesan and fresh garlic from the farmer's market. We doubled this recipe, substituting half vegetable broth and half chicken broth for the stock, and using the bacon grease instead of olive oil. (We crisped the bacon in the bottom of the pot and then set it aside to crumble in later. Mmm, bacon.) The cabbage was just barely softened, still crunchy and tender and flavorful. It was magnificent. I had no idea cabbage soup could be so good.

( Full original (single) recipe, since links go away sometimes )

Between the beans and the cabbage,

sinboy and I are very glad to have separate bedrooms. Worth it, though. And if

pisicutsa decides it sounds worth trying, we have five more servings in the fridge.

(crossposted to my journal)

Current Mood: full

rosefox

We picked up our first farmshare on Thursday! It was very exciting. There was enough there to make the base of a lovely salad. With bacon, egg, and poached chicken added for protein, it was a tasty and satisfying meal for four.

From the farmshare:
1 head of lettuce, washed, patted dry, and torn into forkable pieces (my only requirement of a salad is that I not have to shove giant leaves or pieces of leaves into my mouth)
1 bunch of arugula, ditto
7 or so small white turnips, julienned

From the market:
3 pears, julienned
2 eggs, hard-boiled and chopped
8 slices of bacon, fried crisp and crumbled
4 chicken breasts, poached in chicken broth and tarragon and then diced

Dressing:
Juice of 3 lemons
1-2 tsp mustard
Olive oil
Salt
Pepper

On the side:
Sugar snap peas, strings removed, served whole, raw, and cold

Result:
Win!

Current Mood: pleased

stultiloquentia

This recipe came with my first share this week:

5 medium beets
4 medium carrots, sliced diagonally
4 medium hakurei turnips, cubed
1/4 cup vegetable oil
3 Tb lime juice
2 Tb chopped cilantro or dill
2 garlic scapes or 2 stalks green garlic, minced
salt to taste

Cook beets whole, skin and all until you can easily put a fork in. Drain and put in cold water until cool enough to rub skins off and cut up. Steam carrots until tender-crunchy. Cube turnips. (Greens from the beets and turnips can be saved and sauteed up with some garlic for another tasty addition to your meal.) Combine dressing ingredients. Put veggies in a bowl and toss with dressing. Chill.

Courtesy of Red Fire Farm (more recipes on their site).

rosefox

Our farmshare starts next Thursday (YAY!), and the farmer emailed us to tell us we'll be getting peas, lettuce, arugula, and rainbow chard. I've never cooked chard before, so this will be an adventure. Fortunately,

ladyvyola just posted this luscious-looking recipe for Swiss chard with raisins and pine nuts to

omnomnom.

sinboy also found this amazing recipe for what seems to essentially be chard curry. The curry only uses the leaves, but that's fine; we can pickle the stems!

Can you tell I'm excited? *grin*

Current Mood: hungry

sara

I've been finding Alice Waters' The Art of Simple Food (New York, Clarkson Potter, 2007) useful in dealing with CSA boxes, because she really does cook seasonally, unlike most modern cookbooks. It's hard to work with books that assume you can mix seasons when you're trying to eat locally!

That said, her meat dishes often involve much, much more meat than we usually eat in our household, and she's certainly got her elitist moments (I dunno about you, but I don't have duck fat on hand regularly in my kitchen). Still, it may be worth a look -- it is one of the few cookbooks that lives in my kitchen cabinet rather than in my living room.

loligo

For the first time, someone in my town is offering a CSA. So I signed up. This guy is the King of Greens -- our first box this week includes collards, two kinds of kale, and sorrel (plus some rhubarb and garlic scapes), and it will probably continue like this until the weather is regularly in the 90's. And even then we'll probably get collards.

What to do with all these greens? I have tons of recipes for tender greens like spinach and chard, but I'm kind of limited with my options for tougher greens. My standard is to blanch them, then saute with olive oil, garlic, and onion, and then toss in a can of beans. Depending on what kind of beans, and what other herbs and spices I use, the recipe can be vaguely Mexican, Italian, or Middle Eastern.

But if I'm going to be eating greens three times a week all summer, I need more options! Also, my husband is a vegetarian, so I rarely cook meat. ::weeps for all the bacon-containing greens recipes::

daedala

Sadly, my CSA last year did not provide me with brussels sprouts. This seems wrong in Minnesota, as brussels sprouts grow onna stick. Since I have to get them from the store anyway, I figured I might as well post this now. I am not sure I could make them any other way:

Rinse brussels sprouts and cut in half
Steam for 3.5 minutes
Toast sesame seeds in oil
Toss sprouts with sesame seeds, oil, soy sauce, and a pinch of sugar

From

lsanderson

P.S. Microwaving tightly covered = steaming. May need to adjust cooking time for microwave size.

Current Mood: hungry

rosefox

Corn is in season here in New York, which reminded me of this wonderful pasta dish we made last October after raiding the farmer's market. For once I really felt satisfied after eating a vegetarian meal! It's very flexible; we put in corn, onion, tomatoes, and poblano chiles, but pretty much any vegetable goes well with pasta and a classic white sauce.

( Pasta con rajas (roasted poblano peppers in a white sauce) )

We devoured the whole thing and used most of a loaf of bread to wipe our plates, the bowl, and the saucepan. I can't usually have that much dairy, but a) if you're going to eschew meat, the protein has to come from somewhere and b) it was too delicious to pass up.

Credit for the chilis-and-cream idea goes to Mi Cocina, an upscale Mexican restaurant on Hudson and Jane that serves a wonderful dish called pechugas con rajas: grilled chicken with poblano strips and onion in a cream sauce, served with fabulous little crispy potatoes. This video taught me how to fire-roast poblanos over my gas range; I recommend leaving the peppers in the bag a little longer than she suggests, maybe ten minutes, so they get a really smoky flavor. Also note that smoother peppers are easier to roast and skin.

sinboy had the brilliant idea of adding tarragon and grappa to the sauce.

Current Mood: nostalgic

daedala

Here is a preview recipe!

These are like popcorn or potato chips. You can't eat just one. Mathgeekboy and I stood over the stove, burning our fingers, eating them fresh out of the pan:

Preheat broiler to 500F. Set top rack about 4" from heating element.
Break off woody ends of asparagi. Toss with olive oil, salt, and lots of pepper in a roasting pan.
Broil for 4 minutes. Shake the pan. Broil for 4 more minutes.
Let cool enough so that you don't burn yourself.

The tops get fried-crunchy and the bodies are tender-crisp and delicious. You can add spices (on the second batch, we tried rosemary and thyme, and it was good) or I bet sesame seeds would be nummy. Something other than olive oil would be good (just keep in mind smoke points; butter may or may not burn). The hardest part is the "waiting for them to cool enough" part.

Recipe from The Best Recipe cookbook by Cook's Illustrated.

I am not sure what the makeup of this community will end up being, so if you need more cooking details or explanations, I am happy to provide them.

Current Mood: happy

daedala

Community Supported Agriculture is a great idea! You give a local farmer money, and they give you part of their yield. You get fresh, seasonal, delicious vegetables. The farmer gets to farm. It is a win/win! Most, but not all, of CSA farms are organic (or organic-but-not-certified). They're all small farms. It's a way for small farms to survive.

I like doing the CSA thing, but it's hard to eat a share by oneself. Every year I promise I will, but every year I fail and poor wee tasty vegetables are wasted. I started this community so that people could support each other in the quest to eat their vegetables!

A little friendly competition on polishing off shares is good. Arguments on food politics, however, will be squashed by the mod, because this community is not for that. This is a community for recipes, strategies for managing the vegetable invasion, creative ways to reuse leftovers, the trials of randomness (my CSAs never provide enough beets!), and above all tasty food.

I haven't figured out a tag scheme yet. Most shares haven't started (in the USA) yet, so I have some time.... If you have suggestions, I'd be grateful. Also, more silly interests are always good.

This community is called Iron Chef CSA after the Iron Chef TV show. I don't watch much TV, so I've maybe seen three episodes. I point this out so that readers will understand that I really have no idea what I am talking about. But being forced to make something with an ingredient is in there somewhere. :)

About me: I'm a lousy community moderator, but I'm a pretty good cook. I like kitchen gadgets. I anthropomorphize my food. I am single and live alone and (because my partner-in-vegetables cancelled) ended up with an entire CSA share by myself.

Current Mood: hopeful

Iron Chef CSA

Coping with the Vegetable Invasion

Beet cake!

Genuinely delicious cabbage soup

CSA salad!

Beets, Carrots and Hakurei Turnips in Lime Vinegrette

Things to do with chard

A cookbook rec.

greens greens greens!

One True Brussels Sprouts

Pasta con rajas

Addictive Broiled Asparagus

Introductory Mod Post

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April 2013

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