May 23, 2019 - This Week's Box Contents, Featuring Hon Tsai Tai!

Cooking With This Week's Box

Baby Arugula or Baby Spinach: Balsamic Vinaigrette; No Bacon Pasta Carbonara Loaded with Greens

Overwintered Sunchokes: Sunchoke Chive Soup; Chili & Lime Sunchoke Salsa

Chives: Hon Tsai Tai & Shiitake Potstickers with Sesame Honey Dipping Sauce (see below); Roasted Radish and Herbed Ricotta Omelet; Sunchoke Chive Soup

Asparagus: Shaved Asparagus and Whipped Ricotta Pizza

Salad Mix: Spring Salad with Green Garlic Dressing

Red & Diana Radishes: Roasted Radishes with Brown Butter & Lemon; Pan Roasted Radishes in Bacon Cream Sauce; Roasted Radish and Herbed Ricotta Omelet; No Bacon Pasta Carbonara Loaded with Greens

Green Garlic: Hon Tsai Tai & Shiitake Potstickers with Sesame Honey Dipping Sauce (see below);  Spring Salad with Green Garlic Dressing

Hon Tsai Tai:  Hon Tsai Tai & Shiitake Potstickers with Sesame Honey Dipping Sauce (see below);  No Bacon Pasta Carbonara Loaded with Greens

Don’t be intimidated by the length of the featured recipe in this week’s newsletter.  The recipe is for Hon Tsai Tai & Shiitake Potstickers with Sesame Honey Dipping Sauce (see below).  This week’s recipe will take a little time to assemble, but potstickers are both fun to make AND eat!  If you recruit a friend or two or make it a family event you’ll have them made in no time.  So what’s the story on potstickers? 

Hon Tsai Tai & Shiitake Potstickers 

Potstickers are a type of Chinese dumpling.  The story, as told by Andrea Nyugen on her blog, is that potstickers date back to somewhere between 960-1280 AD.  A Chinese chef was steaming dumplings in a wok, got distracted and let the pan go dry.  The dumplings stuck to the bottom of the wok—uh oh, what to do?  Well, they must not have been burned and he must’ve been in a pinch because he served them to the guests who actually really liked them!  Thus, these little dumplings became known as potstickers because they stick to the bottom of the pan.  So a potsticker is different from other Asian dumplings in that they are first fried in a thin layer of oil to get a crispy bottom, then they are steamed to cook the rest of the dumpling, then fried again at the very end to ensure a crispy bottom and a soft top with the filling thoroughly cooked.  They are often made with ground pork or other ground meat, but I wrote this recipe with a vegetable only filling.  If you like, you can add ground meat to the vegetable mixture.  Potstickers are best served warm right out of the pan.  They can also be frozen, so if you aren’t going to eat all the potstickers this recipe makes, freeze some of the dumplings on a parchment lined cookie sheet before they are cooked.  Once they are frozen you can take them off the cookie sheet and put them in a bag in the freezer.  I haven’t tried this myself, but from what I’ve read you want to pull them right out of the freezer and put them directly into a hot pan to start cooking them.  If you thaw them first the wrapper will get soggy and might tear.

If you’ve never shaped potstickers before, here are a few videos that will be helpful and show you how to do this.  Try this one OR this one.  I hope you’ll consider making these and even more, I hope you have some fun doing it! 

Shaved Asparagus and Whipped Ricotta Pizza
Photo from HowSweetEats.com

Ok, moving on to the other things in the box.  I always love a good pizza and thought this recipe for Shaved Asparagus and Whipped Ricotta Pizza looked pretty delicious.  Serve this with a baby arugula or spinach salad dressed with this simple Balsamic Vinaigrette.  The acidity of the vinaigrette will be a nice balance to the rich cheese and prosciutto on the pizza. 

It’s a radish kind of week!  If you are a radish lover this is the week for you.  If you are still learning to appreciate radishes, perhaps you might like them better roasted?  Roasting helps to mellow the radishy-ness of radishes and even brings out a hint of sweetness. Try this recipe for Roasted Radishes with Brown Butter & Lemon.  This is a pretty simple preparation.  If you prefer something a bit more rich try this recipe for Pan Roasted Radishes in Bacon Cream Sauce.  This is the recipe Richard prefers.  You could serve this as a side dish or turn it into a main entrée by tossing the radishes with cooked pasta.  I also found this recipe for Roasted Radish and Herbed Ricotta Omelet.  This recipe calls for fresh herbs in the ricotta cheese, so I’d recommend using a generous addition of the chives in this week’s box.  Chives and radishes are a great combo.

Don’t forget the radish tops!  They make up more than half of the vegetable and so often they just get thrown away!  One thing you could use them in is this recipe for No Bacon Pasta Carbonara Loaded with Greens.   This is a great recipe to make use of any greens that might be hanging out without a purpose in your refrigerator.  Radish or turnip tops, spinach, saute mix, hon tsai tai, nettles….what do you have? 

Chili & Lime Sunchoke Salsa on top of seared salmon

If you’re looking for a light lunch option, that’s also pretty quick to make, consider using the salad mix to make a Spring Salad with Green Garlic Dressing.  This recipe calls for baby spinach, but salad mix will work too.  The greens are dressed with a simple green garlic dressing and the salad is topped off with cooked bulger, sunflower seeds and hard-boiled eggs.  You could also serve this salad alongside Sunchoke Chive Soup.  The two will make a great spring dinner on a cool evening.  You could also use the sunchokes to make Chili & Lime Sunchoke Salsa.  I like to eat this on top of seared salmon or as a topper for tacos.  I also like to just add a spoonful to a bowl or rice or a simple green salad. 

That brings us to the end of another week’s box.  We’re hoping our little romaine head lettuces are ready for next week.  I have a few lettuce wrap recipes I’m looking forward to trying.  We are also planning to send baby white turnips, another spring favorite.  And for one more little beacon of hope to leave you with….we’ll likely be picking strawberries in just 3-4 short weeks!  Enjoy this week’s box!

Vegetable Feature: Hon Tsai Tai

Hon tsai tai (pronounced hon-sigh-tie) holds an important place in our spring vegetable line-up.  It matures more quickly than other spring-planted greens and is very tasty when grown in cool spring weather.  It is in a group of plants referred to as “flowering brassicas.”  While it is related to such vegetables as mustard greens and bok choi, what sets it apart is that it has beautiful purple stems that produce a sweet, delicate, edible yellow flower.  While other vegetables in the brassica family also produce flowers, they do so towards the end of their life cycle and at that point there are often undesirable flavor changes in the edible portion of the plant.  Hon tsai tai is unique in that it produces the flower early in its life when all the parts of the plant still taste good.

Hon tsai tai has a mild mustard flavor that is very well-balanced this time of the year.  The entire plant is edible and may be eaten raw or cooked.  The thin purple stems are more tender when the plant is young.  While still flavorful, they may become more coarse as the plant matures, so should be cut very finely at this stage.  Hon tsai tai is delicious in stir-fries or lightly steamed, but also makes a stunning and flavorful addition to raw salads.  A common preparation in Chinese cuisine is to quickly stir-fry hon tsai tai with garlic, onions, and ginger, then add oyster sauce.  This would also be a tasty green to use in spring rolls, pot stickers or fried rice.  This vegetable is also a good addition to broth-based soups such as miso soup or could be a nice addition to a ramen bowl.  

If you do a search for recipes using hon tsai tai, you likely won’t find much.  Your best bet is to check out our recipe archive on our website for past recipes we’ve featured in previous newsletters.  You can also use hon tsai tai interchangeably in recipes calling for bok choi or mustard greens. Store hon tsai tai loosely wrapped in a plastic bag in the crisper drawer of your refrigerator until ready for use.  

Hon Tsai Tai & Shiitake Potstickers with Sesame Honey Dipping Sauce

Yield:  30-40 potstickers

2-3 tbsp vegetable oil
1 Tbsp fresh ginger, minced
½ cup minced green garlic
8 oz fresh shiitake mushrooms, sliced thinly and chopped
3 Tbsp low sodium soy sauce or tamari
1 tsp ground coriander
1 bunch hon tsai tai, leaves and stems finely chopped
¼ cup minced fresh chives
2 Tbsp sesame seeds, toasted
Salt and black pepper, to taste
36-40 dumpling wrappers (see note below)

Dipping Sauce:

¼ cup finely minced chives

⅓ cup rice vinegar

¼ cup toasted sesame oil

1 Tbsp Korean chili paste or chili sauce

2 Tbsp low sodium soy sauce or tamari

1 Tbsp honey 

1. Heat 2 tablespoon oil in a large skillet over medium high heat.  When the oil shimmers, add the ginger and green garlic.  Saute for 1 minute.  Add the mushrooms and continue to saute until they are softened.  
2. Add soy sauce and coriander.  Stir to combine.  Add hon tsai tai and season with a small amount of salt and black pepper.  Cover the pan and steam for about 1 minute or until the greens have wilted down.  Reduce the heat to medium.  Stir in the chives and sesame seeds.  Cook until nearly all the liquid has evaporated.
3. Remove from heat and taste a bit of the mixture.  Season to your liking with additional salt, pepper or soy sauce.  Set aside to cool while you make the dipping sauce.
4. In a small bowl, whisk together all ingredients except for the chives.  At the very end, stir in the chives.  Set aside at room temperature until ready to serve.
   
5. Now it’s time to assemble the potstickers.  If you are using eggroll wrappers, make sure your potsticker wrappers are cut and ready to use.  Lay the wrappers out on a work surface, 3-4 at a time.  Leave the remaining wrappers covered with a towel or plastic wrap to keep them from drying out.  Put about 1 tablespoon of filling on each wrapper.  Brush water around the edge of each wrapper with your finger.  Fold the wrapper in half to create a half moon shape.  Using your fingers, pinch the edges to seal them.  The water will act like the glue to hold the two sides together.  You want to have enough filling in the wrapper so the dumpling is full, but not too much or it will pop open.  Once the edges are sealed, you can pleat the top by folding the edges over on themselves (there are videos online that demonstrate how to do this) and pinching the pleats to secure them.   Place the formed dumplings on a platter and continue to form the remainder of the dumplings.
   
6. Once the dumplings are formed, heat a large skillet (or two if you want to cook them all at the same time) over medium-high heat.  Add about 1 tablespoon of oil, or enough to just lightly coat the bottom of the pan.  When the oil shimmers, add the potstickers to the pan.  You want to leave a little space in between each, don’t overcrowd the pan.  Once they are in the pan, let them cook for about 3 minutes or until the bottoms are light golden brown. 
   
7. Next, you need to steam the dumplings to finish cooking them.  To do this you will need to add ¼ cup water to the pan, but do so carefully and immediately cover the pan with a lid.  Continue to cook, covered for about 3 minutes to steam the dumplings.
   
8. Remove the lid and reduce the heat just a bit.  Continue to cook until all the liquid has evaporated.  This will help crisp up the bottoms of the potstickers.  Be careful not to get them too crispy though! Serve hot with the dipping sauce.
   

Recipe adapted by Chef Andrea from an original recipe featured at www.halfbakedharvest.com. 

Note about dumpling wrappers:  Dumpling wrappers are thin sheets of dough typically round and about 3 inches in diameter.  You can make them (there are lots of recipes on the internet) or buy them premade.  They are typically found in the refrigerated section near tofu, tempeh, kim chi and sometimes tortillas.  If you are not able to find round dumpling wrappers, you can use egg roll wrappers which are made from a similar dough.  Egg roll wrappers are rectangular, so you need to cut them into rounds using a biscuit or cookie cutter, a round glass, etc.  I used egg roll wrappers when I made these and was able to use a 2½ to 3 inch cutter to get two round pieces from each egg roll sheet.