Cooking With This Week's Box
Spinach:
Salad Mix:
Italian Garlic:
Red Summer Crisp
Lettuce:
Caesar Salad (See below)
Yellow Onions:
Mini Sweet
Peppers:
Jalapeño Peppers:
Rainbow Chard:
Green Savoy
Cabbage or Broccoli or Cauliflower:
German Butterball
Potatoes:
Butterscotch
Butternut Squash:
Sugar Dumpling or Jester Squash:
Orange Carrots:
Hello Everyone!
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| Life Changing Crispy Baked Fish Tacos with Cilantro Lime Slaw |
As we roll past the halfway point in the month, summer
vegetables are fading away and we’re getting closer to the end of our growing
season. Many farms wrap up their
harvests by the end of October, but we’ll push on through November. We still have beautiful tat soi, radicchio,
escarole, kale and bok choi remaining in the fields. These will be our late fall & winter greens
that we hope to include in your boxes through November. Many of you may be wondering about sweet
potatoes. We are happy to report we finished
harvesting them earlier this week. They
are “curing” in our greenhouse right now and we hope to start putting them in
your box as early as next week if they are ready! That’s a little glimpse of what’s coming your
way.
As for this week, we have a nice selection of greens for
eating raw and cooking! This will likely
be our final week for spinach, salad mix and the last of our head lettuce. This week we’re featuring one of our favorite
lettuce varieties, Summer Crisp. You can
read more about why this is one of our favorites in this week’s Vegetable Feature Article. Summer Crisp lettuce is a versatile variety
that may be used in a variety of salad applications. This week we’re keeping it simple and
traditional with Caesar Salad
(See Below)! This version uses yogurt
instead of raw egg yolks in the dressing.
It does call for anchovies which is a staple ingredient in a traditional
Caesar salad. If you’ve never used anchovies,
don’t be afraid. They contribute a nice
salty, umami flavor to the dressing that is quite tasty. You can find little jars of anchovies in the
grocery store section near the olives, canned tuna, etc.
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| Mini Pepper Chicken Nachos photo from heatovento350.com |
We are nearing the end of pepper season, with the
possibility of another week or so of picking if we don’t get a frost. This week enjoy those little mini sweet
peppers in this recipe for Mini Pepper Chicken Nachos. Skip the chip and use the pepper
instead! We also stuck two more little
jalapeño peppers in your box this week. Check
out this recipe for Grilled Jalapeño Burgers and put them to use!
It’s time to get serious about eating winter squash
now! You know I like a tasty pizza,
which is why this recipe for Butternut
Squash & Apple Pizza with Sage, Feta & Pickled Onions caught my attention! As much as I like a
good pizza, I also like a good taco. If
you receive cabbage this week, consider making this recipe for Life Changing Crispy Baked Fish Tacos with Cilantro Lime Slaw. They are pretty amazing!
Lastly, I included a few hearty meal ideas that match the
changing weather of fall. As the
temperatures continue to get colder, we’re all going to start craving more hot,
nourishing dishes such as this recipe for Cider Braised Chicken with Apples and Onions or this Hungarian Beef & Onion Stew.
That’s a wrap for today.
Over the next week Richard and I will be laying out our preliminary
plans for what will be going into the final six boxes of the year. Can you believe it—only six more
boxes?!? Have a great week and I’ll see
you next week!—Chef Andrea
Vegetable Feature: Summer Crisp Lettuce
By: Chef Andrea Yoder
Description: We grow many varieties of head lettuce here
at Harmony Valley Farm, each of them carefully selected with specific
characteristics we’re looking for at different times in the growing
season with their own special flair to
keep things interesting and diverse. Lettuce can be a tricky crop to
grow. In general, lettuce is best grown
in the more mild, cool temperatures of spring and fall. During the heat of the summer it bolts very
quickly and typically does not taste good.
While spring and fall are more conducive times of the season for growing
lettuce, it is still very vulnerable to field and weather conditions. There are many varieties of lettuce, but they
are not all created equally. We have
tried to select varieties that have greater disease resistance, are beautiful
with good flavor, and have good field-holding ability which gives us a longer
window in which to harvest them.So with that background, I want to introduce this week’s
head lettuce. It’s a unique variety
called “Magenta.” This variety is
classified as a Summer Crisp lettuce, also known as Batavia lettuce. It’s a unique type of lettuce that is kind of
a mix between leaf lettuce, iceberg and romaine. The heads start out similarly to a leaf
lettuce, which is loose and open, but as they mature the inner leaves start to
wrap into more of a compact head. The
texture of the leaves is kind of a cross between iceberg and romaine. There are several things we like about this
lettuce. First of all, it is tolerant to
heat so it does well even in the heat of late summer and early fall. It also has a longer harvest window whereas
some varieties can quickly go “over the hill.”
Lastly, it tastes pretty good, lacking the bitterness that Romaine can
develop sometimes. You will seldom see
this variety of lettuce in a regular grocery store, but over the past few years
this has become one of our favorite varieties of head lettuce to grow and
eat!
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| Head Lettuce sprouting in the greenhouse. |
Preparation & Use: When you are ready to use your
head lettuce, cut out the base of the stalk and pull off the leaves. Gently
swish around in a bowl of water or a clean sink of cold water to loosen any
dirt, especially the lower part of the leaves near the base. Put the washed
leaves in a wire basket or colander, hold it by the handle and shake vigorously
over the sink so the water is spun out. If you do not have a basket, you can
wrap the lettuce in a clean cloth and blot out the water, a salad spinner also
works well and is relatively inexpensive.
This variety of lettuce has enough structure to the leaf
to hold up to thick, creamy dressings such as a a Caesar dressing as in this
week’s featured recipe. You can use this
lettuce in any recipe or use that you may normally reach for iceberg or romaine
lettuce. Of course, you can also dress
it lightly with a vinaigrette.
Storage: Store these heads loosely wrapped in a plastic
bag or stored in a covered container in the refrigerator until you are ready to
use it. When storing, add paper towels to the plastic bag to keep lettuce
fresher longer. Do not store near ethylene-producing fruits, like apples or
bananas, to avoid rapid decay.
Caesar Salad
Yield: 4 servings
“In this version of a Caesar salad, raw eggs are
replaced with plain yogurt. Otherwise,
the flavors are authentic, combining tart lemon juice, briny anchovies, and
savory Parmesan cheese with crunchy lettuce and crisp garlic-scented croutons.”
1 head of Summer Crisp or Romaine Lettuce
3 Tbsp extra-virgin olive oil, plus ½ cup
2 cloves garlic
3 or 4 slices French or Italian bread each ⅜ inch
thick, crusts removed and cut into ½-inch cubes
Salt and ground pepper, to taste
6-8 good-quality anchovy fillets in olive oil, drained
1 ½ tsp dry mustard
2 Tbsp fresh lemon juice
1 ½ Tbsp plain yogurt
½ cup grated Parmesan cheese
- Break off the leaves from the lettuce core. Wash and dry well. Tear into bite-sized pieces. Place in a salad bowl, cover with a damp kitchen towel, and refrigerate to keep crisp.
- In a large frying pan over low heat, warm the 3 Tbsp olive oil. Using the flat side of a chef’s knife, smash 1 of the garlic cloves and add it to the oil. Sauté for 1-2 minutes. Add the bread cubes and fry, stirring and tossing, until crisp and golden on all sides, 4-5 minutes. Discard the garlic. Sprinkle the bread cubes with a little salt. Using a slotted spoon, transfer to paper towels to drain. Set aside to cool.
- Chop the remaining garlic clove and combine with the ½ cup olive oil in a blender. Puree until smooth. In a small bowl, using a fork, mash the anchovies until they form a paste. Add to the oil and garlic in the blender along with the mustard, lemon juice, and yogurt. Blend at high speed until smooth. Add 2 Tbsp of the Parmesan cheese and blend again. Season with a little salt, remembering that anchovies are salty, and a little pepper.
- Add three-fourths of the dressing to the lettuce and toss to coat well. Add about half of the remaining cheese and toss again. Taste and add more dressing or more seasonings to taste. Sprinkle with the toasted croutons and the remaining cheese. Serve right away.
Recipe borrowed from Cooking At Home, a
Williams-Sonoma cookbook by Chuck Williams.
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