May 16, 2019 - This Week's Box Contents, Featuring Rhubarb and Sorrel!

Cooking With This Week's Box

Wild Ramps: Buttermilk Ramp Biscuits; Ramp Butter

Spinach: Greek-Inspired Sorrel-Spinach Soup (see below); Sausage, Egg and Cheese Casserole with Spinach

Overwintered Parsnips: Parsnip Hash Browns

Chives: Greek-Inspired Sorrel-Spinach Soup (see below); Nettle & Wild Onion Rice Balls

Nettles: Nettle & Wild Onion Rice Balls; Sausage, Egg and Cheese Casserole with Spinach

Asparagus: Chicken,Asparagus and Wild Mushroom Stir-Fry

Rhubarb: Rhubarb-Almond Baked Oatmeal (see below)

Sorrel: Frosty Sorrel-Banana Smoothies; Greek-Inspired Sorrel-Spinach Soup (see below)

Saute Mix: Saute Mix Salad with Toasted Sesame Asian Salad Dressing; Sausage, Egg and Cheese Casserole with Spinach

GT French Breakfast Radishes: Radish Top Aioli; Sausage, Egg and Cheese Casserole with Spinach

For those of you who are joining us for your first week of deliveries…welcome to the weekly 2019 Cooking With the Box!  The box is already packed with some fun and delicious ingredients and we’re only in the second week of the season!  Meet me here each week and I’ll walk you through the contents of each box, offering recipe and serving suggestions for every item!  Along the way I hope you’ll find some recipes that fit your style or perhaps a bit of inspiration to make something else.  Either way, don’t forget to have fun, enjoy eating well and NEVER BE INTIMIDATED BY A VEGETABLE!

Frosty Sorrel-Banana Smoothie

I always like to start with our featured vegetables, which means we’re going to kick off this week’s cooking with Rhubarb and Sorrel. As much as possible, I try to incorporate vegetables into breakfast.  One of this week’s featured recipes is for Rhubarb-Almond Baked Oatmeal (see below), which is a delicious start to any day.  You can prep this recipe the night before and bake it off in the morning which will fill your house with sweet, spicy aromas that are sure to get everyone up and going for the day!  We like to eat this with a drizzle of maple cream and a few slices of salty bacon.  You can also incorporate sorrel into your morning with this Frosty Sorrel-Banana Smoothie.  This is a recipe I developed several years ago and I just can’t get enough of these when sorrel is available in the spring. 

If you don’t use your sorrel for a smoothie, you could use it to make the other featured recipe this week for Greek-Inspired Sorrel-Spinach Soup (see below).  This is based on the traditional Greek soup called Avgolemono which is a simple chicken soup flavored with lemon and thickened with eggs which enrich the soup and make it velvety smooth.  You can make this recipe in 15-20 minutes at most and it’s a great way to incorporate greens into your day.  You can just make the basic soup or you can add orzo or rice as well as shredded chicken if you like.  Serve this with a slice of rustic bread or a green salad and dinner is done.  In fact, you could make some Ramp Butter to slather on that bread or you could make these Buttermilk Ramp Biscuits.  If you have any biscuits remaining, heat them up in the morning to make some breakfast sandwiches including scrambled eggs with chopped chives. 

Radish Top Aioli, photo from food52.com

If you’re making the ramp butter, don’t be afraid to double the recipe and use the entire bunch of ramps.  It freezes really well and is nice to tuck away for a nice winter treat.  It is also really delicious spread on the pretty little French Breakfast radishes!  I typically eat the first radishes of the season with nothing more than salt and butter, ramp butter is just a bonus.  Don’t forget about the radish tops—they’re part of the vegetable and may be eaten as well!  I like to spread butter on the leaves and then wrap them around the radish for a quick little snack.  You could also try this recipe for Radish Top Aioli.  Spread the aioli on bread and add the sliced radishes for a quick open-faced sandwich or, as the French call it, a tartine.

Nettle & Wild Onion Rice Balls
Photo from GatherVictoria.com

I’m really excited to try this recipe for Nettle & Wild Onion Rice Balls.  The “wild onion” called for in this recipe may be ramp leaves or chives.  You do have to plan ahead to get all the components ready including blanching the nettles and preparing the rice.  For this recipe you’ll need to use a short grain rice or sushi rice which is stickier than long grain rice.  These can be served at room temperature with a little soy sauce.  I’m going to serve them with a fresh salad made from this week’s saute mix tossed with this Toasted Sesame Asian Salad Dressing.

What are we going to do with the pound of asparagus in this week’s box?  I typically don’t get past simply steaming or roasting asparagus, but I also really like asparagus with mushrooms.  Thus, this recipe for Chicken, Asparagus and Wild Mushroom Stir-Fry caught my eye.  This has more of a French feel to me than an Asian feel which I associate more with the term “stir-fry,” but who can go wrong with mushrooms, asparagus, cream and white wine or dry vermouth to make a light cream sauce!?  Serve this over cooked egg noodles with a bit of chopped chives as a garnish.

Sausage, Egg and Cheese Casserole with Spinach
Photo from AlexandraCooks.com

Most weeks need to include some sort of quantity egg dish, at least in my world.  This week I’m going to try this simple recipe for Sausage, Egg and Cheese Casserole with Spinach.  You can use whatever greens you have remaining which could be spinach, saute mix, nettles or even your radish tops! Serve this breakfast casserole with Parsnip Hash Browns and you’ll have yourself one delicious meal.

We’ve reached the bottom of this week’s box.  Next week we have our eye on a unique spring green, Hon Tsai Tai.  Don’t worry, I’ll coach you on how to pronounce it next week!  It looks like our first crop of salad mix may be ready next week as well and we have some pretty little mini romaine lettuces that may make it within the next two weeks.  Have a great week of cooking and I’ll see you back here next week!

Featuring Sorrel & Rhubarb...the Unsuspected Vegetable Cousins from the Buckwheat Family

This week we have another double vegetable feature, which is very fitting since the two vegetables are in the same botanical family!  We’re talking about RHUBARB & SORREL.  Rhubarb?  I thought rhubarb was a fruit, not a vegetable.  Lets talk, starting with rhubarb first.

Yes, RHUBARB is a vegetable, although it is most often used like a fruit.  Rhubarb is a perennial crop and it takes several years to build up the energy reserves in the rhizome.  Thus, we don’t harvest rhubarb until, at the very earliest, the third year.  We remove the leaves in the field because they should not be consumed or eaten.

Rhubarb is thought to have originated in Asia, specifically the areas of western China, Tibet, Mongolia and Siberia.  Thus, it’s easy to understand it is well adapted to cold climates.  Before it became a food crop, it was actually used for medicinal purposes.  It was the early 1900’s before it really gained much momentum as a food crop, at least in Europe and the United States.  

Grandma Yoder's Rhubarb Custard Pie

Rhubarb has a distinct, unique flavor that is quite good.   It may be eaten raw or cooked, however it’s pretty tart and it is most often cooked first.  Over the years it became known in some areas as “The Pie Plant” because it is most often used in pies.  While the sweetness of baked goods helps to counter balance the tartness of rhubarb, this vegetable can also be used in savory preparations.  Instead of masking the characteristic tartness of rhubarb with sugar, why not use those innate qualities to your advantage?!  It can be used to create a flavorful braising liquid or sauce to serve with pork, duck, chicken thighs or other fatty meats.  The flavor of rhubarb can stand up to bolder spices such as curry powder, cardamom, peppercorns, cinnamon and ginger, thus rhubarb chutney can make a nice accompaniment to Indian curry dishes or serve it with grilled or roasted meats.  Rhubarb compote or chutney is also delicious served simply as a snack with cream cheese and crackers!  Rhubarb can also be used as a stir-fry vegetable, added towards the end of cooking so it just starts to soften, but still holds its shape.

Whether sweet or savory, there are so many things you can do with rhubarb.  If you can’t decide what to make now and need some time to think it over, you can easily preserve rhubarb by freezing it.  Just wash the stalks, cut them into bite-sized pieces and put them in a freezer bag to pop in the freezer.  Perhaps you’ll come up with just the right use for it sometime during the winter!

Ok, moving on to SORREL.  Sorrel is a leafy green that is bright lime colored with pinkish stems.  Just like rhubarb, it is characterized by its tartness.  It has a bright citrusy flavor and may be eaten both raw and cooked.  In its raw form, it makes a nice addition to salads or some of our other spring favorites including Sorrel Hummus, Sorrel-Lime Cooler and Frosty Sorrel-Banana Smoothies! Thinly sliced sorrel is also a nice addition to spring tacos or use it as a garnish for lentils or beans in lieu of a squeeze of lemon or lime juice.

Sorrel is also commonly used in soups and sauces.  It is an interesting green that literally melts when you put it in hot liquid.  It gives soup a velvety texture and creates smooth sauces. You’ll also notice the color will quickly go from bright green to olive green when you cook it.  Don’t worry, you didn’t do anything wrong, that’s just what it does.  Sorrel pairs well with cream, eggs, chicken, fish, mushrooms, asparagus, spinach and other spring greens.  It is also a nice balance to more neutral foods such as dried beans and potatoes.

There you have it, two unique spring vegetables with a long list of possibilities of delicious outcomes!

Greek-Inspired Sorrel-Spinach Soup

Yield:  4 servings

4 cups chicken or vegetable broth

1 bu sorrel, roughly chopped (approx. 4 cups)

3 oz baby spinach (approx. 4 cups)

½ cup finely chopped chives (for garnish) AND 1 cup roughly chopped chives

1 tsp salt, plus to taste

Freshly ground black pepper, to taste

3 eggs

3 Tbsp lemon juice

¼ cup uncooked orzo or ¾ cup cooked rice (optional)

½- ¾ cup shredded cooked chicken (optional)

1. Place chicken or vegetable broth, sorrel, spinach and the 1 cup of roughly chopped chives in a blender along with 1 tsp salt and freshly ground black pepper.  If your blender pitcher is too small to contain all the greens, just add part of the greens at first, run the blender for a few seconds and then add the remainder.  Blend until all the broth is smooth and all the greens are well blended.
2. Pour the mixture into a large saucepan and bring it to a gentle simmer over medium to medium-low heat.  If there is a froth on the top of the soup, use a large spoon to skim some of it off.
3. Meanwhile, in a medium bowl, whisk the eggs until they’re well blended and a pale yellow.  Whisk in the lemon juice, one tablespoon at a time.
   

   
4. Once the greens broth is warm, add the orzo or rice.  Simmer just until the orzo is al dente or the rice is heated through.  Reduce the heat to low.  
5. Next you will need to carefully temper the eggs.  To do this, ladle about ½ cup of the warm broth into the egg mixture and whisk to combine.  Continue to do this 4 or 5 more times.  The purpose of doing this is to slowly warm up the egg mixture without curdling the eggs.  Be patient and don’t skip this step.
   

   
6. Once you’ve tempered the eggs, add the egg mixture into the warm broth and whisk well to combine.  Gently simmer the soup for another 1 to 2 minutes, whisking periodically.  The soup should thicken slightly and lightly coat the back of a spoon.  Taste and adjust the seasoning to your liking by adding more salt, pepper or lemon juice if needed.
7. Serve hot and garnish with the finely chopped chives.

This soup is based on the classic Greek soup called Avgolmemono.  It is a simple chicken soup that is thickened with eggs and flavored with lemon juice.  It yields a silky, slightly thickened broth and often has orzo pasta or rice added to it.  This soup only takes 15-20 minutes to make from start to finish and while it’s very simple, it’s also rich enough to be filling. If you have leftovers, take care to reheat them gently over medium-low heat so you don’t curdle the egg.

Recipe by Chef Andrea Yoder

Rhubarb-Almond Baked Oatmeal

Yield:  6 servings

⅔ cup chopped almonds, toasted

2 cups old-fashioned oats

2 tsp ground cinnamon

¼ tsp ground nutmeg

1 tsp ground ginger

1 tsp baking powder

¾ tsp sea salt

1 ¾ cup whole milk or nut milk

½ cup maple syrup

2 large eggs

1 ½ tbsp unsalted butter, melted

2 tsp vanilla extract

2 cups rhubarb, small dice

Maple Cream (optional):

1 cup sour cream or plain yogurt

1 ½ Tbsp maple syrup

1. Preheat the oven to 350°F.  Butter a 9-inch baking dish or individual ramekins.  You may also use a 9 ½ x 11-inch baking dish, the pieces will just be thinner.
2. In a medium mixing bowl, combine the oats, almonds, cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, baking powder and salt.  Stir well to combine.
3. In a smaller mixing bowl, combine the milk, maple syrup, eggs, butter and vanilla.  Whisk until well blended.
4. Add the wet mixture to the dry mixture and mix well.  Fold in the rhubarb.  
5. Pour the batter into the baking dish or ramekins.  Bake for 35-40 minutes or until the top is nice and golden.
   

   

     
6. While the oatmeal is baking, combine sour cream or yogurt with maple syrup and set aside.
7. When the oatmeal is finished baking, remove from oven and let it rest for 5-10 minutes before serving.
8. Serve warm topped with maple cream if you like.  You could also serve it with a drizzle of melted butter or a drizzle of heavy cream or milk if you prefer.

NOTES FROM CHEF ANDREA:  You can assemble this recipe a day ahead and hold it in the refrigerator overnight.  In the morning, remove the baking dish from the refrigerator and let it warm up a bit while you preheat the oven.  If you have any leftovers, they reheat very well in a toaster oven or oven.  I have not tried reheating it in a microwave.

Recipe adapted by Chef Andrea from a recipe for Honey & Nut Baked Oatmeal originally published at dishingupthedirt.com.