Harmony Valley Farm: May 11, 2023 - This Week's Box Contents Featuring Parsnips

Welcome to the second week of our 2023 CSA delivery season and this week’s Cooking With the Box article! If you are joining us for the first time, welcome! Every week I will use this space to provide you with recipe suggestions and ideas for how to use every single vegetable in your box as well as 1-2 featured recipes! This week we’re going to start with our featured vegetable, overwintered parsnips, and this week’s featured recipes. The first recipe is for Gluten-Free Spiced Oat Flour Pancakes with Parsnips (See Below). Whether you choose to eat a gluten-free diet or not, these pancakes are quite tasty and an excellent way to start the day! They have a nice texture, and the combination of spices complements the unique flavor of the parsnips. They also reheat well, so leftovers are a bonus! The second recipe is for Parsnip, Potato & Horseradish Gratin (See Below). This is a hearty, comfort food type of recipe, but well-suited for spring given it is infused with the flavor of horseradish and uses chives in the breadcrumb topping. I used 3 Tbsp of freshly grated horseradish whips to yield a mild horseradish essence. If you like a stronger horseradish flavor, you may wish to use more like 4-5 Tbsp of fresh horseradish.

Photo from www.dishingupthefirst.com

We are nearing the end of overwintered spinach and ramp season. This week’s spinach is full of flavor, but the leaves are a little less tender than our earlier harvests. As such, I recommend you cook the spinach which will make it nice and silky, perhaps in this recipe for Creamed Ramps & Spinach! Before ramp season closes, may I suggest a few of our longtime farm and member favorites? In our private Facebook Group several members have already shared that they made Ramp Pesto and Ramp Butter! These are two simple recipes to capture the full essence of ramps and may be used in a variety of ways plus you can freeze them for later use! The other recipe I want to mention is this delicious recipe for Nettle & Mushroom Pizza with Ramp Cream. You will not be disappointed, trust me!

It’s our first week for asparagus! If you’re looking to try some new recipes, check out this collection of 25 Delicious Asparagus Recipes which includes this recipe for Parmesan Asparagus Pastry Twists. I bet even your picky eaters might try these! We also just started harvesting green garlic. Green garlic has a bright, vibrant flavor that is excellent in either of these two simple preparations for Alice Water’s Spaghetti with Green Garlic and Green Garlic Risotto. Sometimes keeping it simple is the best approach.

As we look ahead to next week, we have more delicious spring vegetables to add to the mix. Our first little red radishes will be ready along with our first crop of baby arugula! Our sorrel crop took a bit of a hit with the repeated frosts we had this spring, but I took a peek at it this week and it’s coming. Hopefully, we’ll be able to send some your way within the next few weeks. Rest assured, there’s always something delicious to look forward to! Have a great week—

Chef Andrea

Vegetable Feature: Parsnips

by Andrea Yoder

Overwintered Parsnip Harvest

Parsnips fill an important place in our seasonal Wisconsin diets. We harvest parsnips both in the fall to sustain us through the winter months, but we also harvest them in the spring as “Overwintered Parsnips!” Earlier this spring, we dug these parsnips from the field where we left them from last fall. It’s a little risky to do this as you never know what may happen over the winter, but it’s well worth it to have these unique, sweet and delicious spring-dug, overwintered parsnips! Over the course of their winter in the ground, they develop more sugars to act as an antifreeze. The side effect is that overwintered parsnips are even more sweet and delicious than they are in the fall. Parsnips are often described as being a white carrot and, while they do resemble carrots, they are not just a white carrot! They have a distinct flavor that is much different from a carrot.

Parsnips are a versatile vegetable that can be prepared in a variety of ways. Their sweetness really comes out when they are roasted, which is one of my favorite ways to prepare parsnips. They also make a nice addition to a root mash or mix them with other vegetables in hearty soups and stews. You can also use them in baked goods such as cakes, cookies, and bread, similar to how you might use carrots.

Parsnips all washed up and ready to go!

Parsnips pair very well with other root vegetables, wine, shallots, apples, walnuts, and a variety of spices including cinnamon, nutmeg, cardamom, and ginger as well as dairy products, toasted nuts and maple syrup. Some people really like the distinct flavor of parsnips, while others may still be learning to like them. If you’re in the latter group, I’d recommend that you start by using parsnips in a baked good or in this week’s recipe for Gluten-Free Spiced Oat Flour Pancakes with Parsnips.

Store parsnips in the coldest part of your refrigerator in a plastic bag. They will store for several weeks under these conditions, so don’t feel like you need to eat them all right now. When you are ready to use them, Scrub the outer skin with a vegetable brush and trim off the top and bottom. Peeling is optional and totally up to you.

Gluten-Free Spiced Oat Flour Pancakes with Parsnips

Photo from healthynibblesandbits.com

Yield: 4 servings

1 ¼ cups oat flour*

1 ¼ tsp ground cinnamon

1 tsp ground ginger

¼ tsp ground nutmeg

½ tsp ground cardamom

1 tsp baking powder

½ tsp baking soda

Pinch of salt

1 cup milk

2 large eggs, beaten

3 Tbsp maple syrup, plus more for serving

1 cup grated parsnips**

3-4 Tbsp vegetable oil

Preheat oven to 180-200°F. In a large bowl, mix the oat flour, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, cardamom, baking powder, baking soda and salt together.
In a separate bowl, combine the milk, eggs, and maple syrup. Stir well to combine, then add to the dry ingredients. Stir until all the ingredients are well combined into a batter. Let the batter rest for 10 minutes.
While the batter is resting, grate the parsnips. Gently fold the grated parsnips into the batter.
Heat a large non-stick skillet or a griddle over medium heat. Add enough oil to the skillet or griddle to just coat the surface with a shimmer of oil. When the oil is hot, add the pancake batter, about ¼ cup at a time, and use a spatula to smooth out the batter into a circle. This batter is a little thick, so you may need to use a spatula to smooth out the batter into a circle and spread it to a thickness of about ¼- ½ inch.
Cook each pancake for 2 to 3 minutes, until the edges of the pancake are puffed up and bubbles have formed on the top surface of the pancake. Flip and cook for another 2 minutes or so. Put the cooked pancakes on a rack on a sheet tray and hold them in the warm oven while you finish cooking the remainder of the batter. This will serve to finish cooking the interior of the pancake while also keeping them warm until you are ready to serve them.
Serve the pancakes warm with butter and warm maple syrup. You may also wish to serve them with fresh berries, baked apples, or baked pears as a fruit topping.

*Oat Flour: You can either buy oat flour, or make your own by blending rolled oats in a blender or food processor. Check out this article for details: How To Make Oat Flour.

**Recipe adapted slightly from Lisa Lin’s recipe found at www.healthynibblesandbits.com. Lisa’s original recipe used half parsnip and half carrot. These two vegetables may be used interchangeably in this recipe. When I (Andrea) made this recipe, I did so using parsnips only.

Parsnip, Potato & Horseradish Gratin

Yield: 6 servings

Photo from www.bbcgoodfood.com

2 cups whole or 2% milk

1 cup heavy cream

2 Tbsp finely chopped green garlic or ramp bulbs

½ tsp dried thyme

¼ tsp ground or grated nutmeg

3 Tbsp freshly grated or finely chopped horseradish root

6 cups diced potatoes (approximately 2 pounds)

1 ¾ cup diced parsnips (approximately 1-1.25 pounds)

2-3 tsp salt

Freshly ground black pepper, to taste

3 Tbsp melted butter

¾ cup dry breadcrumbs

½ cup chopped chives

Preheat oven to 350°F. Grease a 2 to 2.5 quart baking dish with about 1 Tbsp of melted butter and set the dish aside.
In a medium saucepan over medium heat, combine the milk, heavy cream, green garlic/ramps, thyme, nutmeg, freshly grated horseradish, 2 tsp salt and freshly ground black pepper. Bring to a simmer, then remove from heat and set aside to infuse the flavors for about 10 minutes.
While the milk and cream mixture is infusing, cut the potatoes and parsnips into medium dice. Add the vegetables to the cream mixture and return to the stovetop. Heat the mixture over medium to medium-high heat just until the liquid starts to simmer.
Pour the vegetables and the liquid into the prepared baking dish. Cover with foil and bake in the oven for 25-30 minutes, or until the vegetables are tender. You may wish to put a sheet tray under the baking dish in case the liquid bubbles over the edge of the dish.
While the vegetables are baking, prepare the breadcrumb topping. In a small bowl, combine 2 Tbsp melted butter with dry breadcrumbs, ½ tsp salt and freshly ground black pepper. Stir well to combine. Fold in fresh chives and set aside.
Once the vegetables are tender, remove the foil. Spread the breadcrumb topping evenly over the surface and return the baking dish to the oven. Bake for an additional 10-15 minutes or until the breadcrumbs are golden. Remove from the oven and let rest for 10 minutes before serving.

Recipe adapted from www.bbcgoodfood.com.

Wednesday, May 10, 2023

May 11, 2023 - This Week's Box Contents Featuring Parsnips

Cooking With This Week's Box

Vegetable Feature: Parsnips

Gluten-Free Spiced Oat Flour Pancakes with Parsnips

Parsnip, Potato & Horseradish Gratin

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