Cooking with this week’s box……
This week I want to introduce you to Alexandra Stafford, the
blog writer behind alexandracooks.com. Alexandra lives in Upstate New York with her
husband and four kids. She stays busy
cooking with the vegetables from her own CSA share and shares her recipes on
her blog. She also writes for Food52.com
and recently published a cookbook about bread.
Both of the recipes featured in this week’s newsletter come from her
blog. So lets dive into the box and talk
about this week’s featured vegetable first, Sweetheart Cabbage!
Alexandra has some other interesting vegetable focused recipes
I’d like to highlight. You know those
bushy carrot tops I’m always encouraging you to eat? Well you can always fall back on pesto or
chimichurri, but here’s another idea to try.
Alexandra has a recipe for Fried Greens Meatless Balls. This recipe calls for a lot of
greens, so you could use the carrot tops along with chard if you like, or any
beet tops, amaranth or other greens you might have remaining from last week’s
delivery. There are some good ideas for
variations in the comments listed below the recipe, so you might want to peruse
them to see what other people have tried.
These Fried Greens Meatless Balls would pair nicely with Alexandra’s New Potatoes with Green Harissa. These tasty potatoes will make good use
of basil and any other herbs you have available from your herb garden. The recipe calls for 1 pound of potatoes, but
you have 2 pounds in your box. You can
either double the recipe if you’re feeding more people, or use the other pound
of potatoes to make Crushed Potatoes with Cream and Garlic. This is a recipe from Nigel Slater’s cookbook
that we featured in a previous newsletter.
They are an excellent accompaniment to steak or roasted chicken.
The red chard this week is one of my favorite box
contents! I’ve had my eye on Alexandra’s Swiss Chard Salad with Lemon,Parmesan and Breadcrumbs for awhile now. Chard is usually eaten
cooked, but it is tender enough to eat raw if you slice it thinly. This could easily become a main dish salad by
adding some protein such as chicken, tuna or some chickpeas or white beans.
During the summer we often have sandwiches, good for dinner
and easy to make again for lunch the next day.
This week I’m going to use the baby arugula to make Skirt Steak Sandwiches with Herbed Mayonnaise and Arugula. You’ll need to pick a few more herbs from your herb garden to make the
mayonnaise. Serve these sandwiches with Alexandra’s
Cucumber and Feta Salad. This recipe is part of another recipe, so
scroll all the way to the bottom of the blog post and you’ll find it.
What shall we do with the zucchini this week? Well, I haven’t made zucchini fritters yet
this year, so I think it’s time. Check
out Alexandra’s recipe for Zucchini Fritters with Tzatziki. Her Tzatziki doesn’t call for cucumbers, but
I think I’ll dice some up and add it in.
Lastly, we need to use the broccoli! I’m saving some of the broccoli to make this Summer Breakfast Strata. It calls for a small head of broccoli and
some zucchini. I may substitute more
broccoli for some or all of the squash and might even add some mushrooms. Her recipe calls for garlic scapes, but the
fresh Italian garlic will be a great substitute. We’ll enjoy this for Sunday brunch along with
a few pieces of bacon and fresh fruit.
Lastly, before next week’s box rolls around I’ll pull out
all the odds and ends of vegetables remaining and turn them into stir-fry. I’m going to use Alexandra’s Stir-Fried Veggies and Tofu recipe that has a simple 5-ingredient sauce to put on the stir-fry. Richard isn’t a big fan of tofu, so I’ll
probably substitute chicken instead.
There you have it…this week’s box is all used up. Thank you Alexandra for helping us find a use
for everything in the box! Now it’s time
to start planning what to do with the tomatoes, eggplant and peppers that we’ll
be picking very soon! Have a great week
and have fun cooking!—Chef Andrea
Vegetable
Feature: Sweetheart Cabbage
Sweetheart cabbage may be eaten raw or lightly cooked. I recommend slicing it thinly or shredding it
for use in vegetable slaws or other raw salads.
It can also be used to make spring rolls (see this week’s recipe) or you
may use the leaves as a wrap in place of tortillas or bread. If you choose to cook it, I’d recommend a
quick cooking method such as stir-frying or grilling and be careful not to
overcook it!
Store your sweetheart cabbage loosely wrapped in plastic in
the refrigerator until you are ready to use it.
Lightly rinse the outer leaves before using. If you don’t use the entire cabbage for one
preparation, wrap the remaining portion of cabbage and store it in the
refrigerator until you are ready to use it.
One cabbage typically yields 6-8 cups of shredded cabbage.
Thai-Style Slaw with (or without) Chicken
Yield: 6 servings
2 chicken breasts, about 1 lb., (optional)
6-8 cups shredded cabbage
2 Tbsp olive oil
½ tsp kosher salt
1 cup thinly sliced snow or sugar snap peas*
2 to 3 carrots, thinly sliced or shredded
6 scallions, thinly sliced (May substitute the green onion tops in this week’s box)
1 small bunch cilantro, roughly chopped to yield about 1 cup
1 small red onion or purple cipollini onion, thinly sliced
¼ cup plus 2 Tbsp freshly squeezed lime juice and the zest of 2 limes
1 Tbsp fish sauce
1 ½ Tbsp sugar
½ tsp Sriracha, plus more to taste
*Note from Chef Andrea: The original recipe called for red peppers, but the author encourages you to substitute whatever vegetables you have in season. I chose to use snow peas in place of the peppers.
- If you are using the chicken, bring a small pot of water to a boil and salt the water as if you were going to boil pasta. Drop in the chicken breasts. Cover the pot. Remove pot from heat. Let stand 15 minutes. Uncover. Remove breasts. Let cool briefly. Pull/shred into pieces.
- Meanwhile, cut the cabbage in quarters and remove the core. Thinly slice the cabbage and place in a large bowl. Pour in the oil. Sprinkle evenly with the salt. Massage the cabbage with your hands. Really squeeze it firmly until it shrinks in size and becomes more saturated in hue.
- To the bowl of cabbage, add the peas*, carrots, scallions, cilantro, and red onion. Add the chicken, if using.
- Make the dressing: Stir together the lime juice, lime zest, fish sauce, sugar, and Sriracha. Pour over the bowl of vegetables. Toss to coat evenly. Taste. Adjust with more salt or Sriracha as needed.
Chef Andrea’s Variations: This recipe was written by Alexandra Stafford and was featured on her blog, alexandracooks.com. The actual recipe may be found at Food52.com. It is delicious as it was originally written, however here are a few variations you might want to consider trying.
 |
| Chef Andrea's Spring Rolls with a Basil leaf added! |
- In addition to the cilantro, add fresh basil and/or mint to the slaw.
- Consider garnishing the slaw with chopped roasted peanuts or cashews
- If you have any leftover slaw, repurpose it the next day to make fresh spring rolls using rice paper wrappers. Simply soak the rice wrappers in water for 20-30 seconds to soften them, then put some of the slaw in the middle of the wrapper and roll it tightly like a burrito. If you plan to do this with the leftovers, I’d recommend saving about ¼ to ⅓ of the dressing to use as a dipping sauce with the spring rolls.
Simplest Cabbage Slaw
Yield: 4 to 6 servings
½ cup sour cream
½ cup buttermilk
2 Tbsp apple cider vinegar, plus more to taste
1 Tbsp sugar
1 tsp kosher salt, plus more to taste
1 small head cabbage, cored and finely shredded
1 small red onion, thinly sliced
- Whisk together the sour cream, buttermilk, vinegar, sugar, and salt. Taste. For more bite, add another teaspoon of vinegar. Stir and taste again. Adjust with more salt if necessary.
- In a large bowl, toss together the cabbage and onion. Add the dressing and toss to coat. Taste. Adjust with more salt if needed.
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