Hellgate CSA

This week I was intrigued by the inclusion of jerusalem artichokes in our initial season share (I thought for sure we'd get radishes!).  I didn't want to eat them raw, nor did I want to roast them, so I searched the internet for something interesting and tasty-sounding.  I found that in these jerusalem artichoke fritters, which I prepared last night.  

Last month, I made (and wrote about) a really tasty dish of quinoa, melted leeks and a poached egg. It sounded good when I first looked at the recipe, but was blown away by how it tasted all together - nutty, salty, buttery, rich but not heavy.  Fantastic. However, the melted leeks really stood out in the whole thing.  I wrote: 

First Share Salad

I always had trouble cooking brown rice until I ran across a new method in Saveur. Although we haven't received brown rice in our shares, I cook it so often to go along with other items from our share, I thought it worth posting. This method is very different from any other way I've cooked rice in the past, but it delivers the best brown rice I've ever made!

In case you don't want to just eat the grapes we received this week, think about making this super-easy, tasty juice.

We got 3 lbs of pears this week! If you're wondering what to do with them, may I suggest the following recipe, adapted from Pam Anderson's USA Weekend column recipe.

1 tablespoon butter per pear

1/4 cup lightly packed brown sugar per pear

however many pears you want, halved and cored (and peeled, if you want). 1 pear per person.

I'm one of those weird people who don't much like raw stone fruit. Why did I get a fruit share? Strawberries and apples. But the middle of the season is a tedium of peaches, nectarines, and plums. What to do? Add lots of sugar and cook, naturally!

American fruit desserts include compotes (fruit simmered with sugar), crisps (fruit covered with a butter/sugar/flour/oat crumb topping and baked), cobblers (fruit covered with a buttermilk pastry dough and baked), and of course pies and their relatives, tarts and galettes.

I'm embarrassingly inept with pastry dough, so I've been making stone fruit crisps with great results. Below is a recipe for what I made yesterday, with half a fruit share, based on a Deborah Madison recipe from Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone.

What do you do with all this fruit?

This just came through my RSS reader today and looks delicious! I may try it tonight, in fact (especially if we get mini tomatoes).

Summer Green Bean Salad

3/4 pound green beans, stems pinched off

1 teaspoon finely chopped chives
1/4 teaspoon finely chopped fresh thyme
1 tablespoon minced shallots
2 tablespoons lemon juice
2 tablespoons heavy cream
scant 1/4 teaspoon salt
tiny pinch of freshly ground pepper
1/3 cup olive oil
1 teaspoon honey (optional)

a handful of frisee or little gem hearts

a handful of small cherry tomatoes, each cut in half
1/2 cup hazelnuts, smashed and toasted

We get a lot of beets and carrots throughout the CSA season, and we frequently get them together. They're both summer root vegetables, and in addition to being harvested together, they also work well cooked together. I've been making a simple recipe from a CSA cookbook (recommended!) for a few years, and today made another version of the same idea, to good results. Both recipes are below.

In honor of the Bastille Day, I'd like to share with you a French savory tart recipe for your sorrel as well as a spaetzle recipe using most other items in the July 14th share.

Tarte d'oseille
(adapted from "Dans la Cuisine")

Ingredients:

10 oz sorrel, stems removed
Salt
1/4 c. butter
10 oz. sweet onion, halved and thinly sliced
1 1/2 c. heavy cream
3 eggs
Pepper
1 half-baked pastry shell (you can, of course, make this from scratch)