Duck!

Today was a pick-up day, so we got a fresh new supply of vegetables (but no fruit this week! Booooooo!) Anyhow, we got: 1 head of bok choy, garlic scapes, one head of green leaf lettuce, 2 lbs of purple top turnips, 3 zucchini, 1 head of broccoli, a bunch of red basil, and a pound of red chard.

Nate was home early today, so he was the creative force behind dinner (what else is new). We started with a salad of the farm share lettuce (so good: I cannot say enough about how good, how flavorful, the CSA lettuce is) with almonds, some leftover bouchon cheese and tomatoes with lemon juice and olive oil.



Then we had roast duck with turnips (roasted in the pan with the duck) and red kale sauteed with ginger and garlic. But this was not the original plan: I will let Nate tell the tale.

I just informed Jen that I wasn't sure if I had anything witty to say about my original plan to which she replied, "You could just complain." So I guess that's what I'll do.

My original plan was to make a Pollo Rosso, which is just an overpriced Italian heritage chicken. Mainly I wanted to make it because I wanted to see if it could possibly be worth the hefty price tag. Unfortunately when I got it home I examined the plastic swelling a little (generally not a great sign). When I opened it up I took a sniff and noticed it was a little off. I rinsed it off and the smell, though faint, was still there.

Sadly I tossed the Pollo Rosso (which I assume is Italian for "smelly chicken") into the garbage and decided to go with a half a roast duck instead. Luckily I'd bought a couple of types of poultry while at the store.

I'd already cut up my vegetables and began cooking them so I had to cook the duck with somewhat non-standard seasonings (ginger, garlic, garlic scapes, purple basil, olive oil, salt and pepper) and in a very small amount of time. I would have preferred to roast it a little slower and longer but with time running out and the heat of July invading our apartment it was not meant to be.

Well, in any case, it was delicious. Nate did not take any whole-plate pictures, so here is a series of pictures to document:








And some leftover strawberry ice cream for dessert! Not too shabby at all.

Scaping By

Today was a draining day. For Nate, this meant heading to work early and then giving tours of multiple-hour lengths of the newest location of his Unnamed Employer to some bigwigs. For me, it began with an unexpected root canal (surprise!) and then continued on to a busy, pre-WSA ship day of interviews, fact-checking and writing. So when we got home, it was gratifying that Nate had prepared something last night in advance. I'll let him talk about it:

Hey there, food fans! Today's meal was incredibly simple. The premise may seem like fiction from one of today's hottest imaginations (such as Dean Koontz) however it is non-fiction that takes place in a place that is all too real: my life!

I discovered the other day that Jen, the woman who I married, had never had spaghetti and meatballs (note: this is in her memory, her mother may chime in to debunk this statement). I was shocked to find that I had married her without knowing this. A few years back I had learned that she'd never had peanut butter and jelly. After doing some soul-searching I still decided to ask her to marry me.

So, tonight's meal is a pretty simple preparation of a dish that I am assuming most readers (at least readers who grew up in North America) have had: Spaghetti & Meatballs.



I figured that if I was going to make spaghetti and meatballs I'd better make sure to make the sauce from scratch. I bought some pretty below average vine "ripened" tomatoes that I elected to concasse.



Concasse, for those of you who are not annoying assholes who went to culinary school such as myself, is when you take the core out of a tomato, score the bottom, then boil them for 10-12 seconds before submerging them into an ice bath. This loosens the skin and makes them incredibly easy to peel.



I made a quick tomato sauce, threw together some meatballs (which I seasoned with bread crumbs, basil, garlic, onion, leftover rictotta cheese from our tart a week or two ago, some parmesan, salt and pepper), and then served the meatballs and sauce over some spaghetti.

Then I served it to Jen. Who had spaghetti and meatballs. For the first time. Ever. In her life. At the age of 28.

And it was delicious, too! Although it was a totally farm-share-free meal -- perils of the Monday night dinner. Yesterday, in addition, we went out to eat for dinner, but for lunch, I did manage to use at least two farm-share ingredients (garlic scapes, parsley) to make a summertime favorite: cucumber soup.



Delicious!

Catching up

Yesterday was the fourth of July, and today was the opening day of the Tour de France, and I wish I could say that we celebrated both events with nationally appropriate dinner, but instead, we celebrated both days with slothful non-blogging. So, tonight is catch up and recap, starting with Thursday night:

Thursday
Nate had Thursday off, and I had a half day (read: I left at 4pm), so we invited our charming and talented friend Heather over for a meal. I picked up a few cheeses for a before-dinner nibble (clockwise from upper right): an American camembert (from the nearby Hudson Valley), a Belgian Chimay beer, a creamy French bucheron and a Humbolt Fog blue cheese from California.


The Chimay was good but SUPER bitter, the bucheron and the blue cheese were outstanding, but I was not that impressed with the camembert. (I should have heeded the cheese-counter woman's gentle nudges to not buy it, I think.) It lacked creaminess, it lacked aroma, it did not lack in having a flat, square shape, but this was not a boon for the overall experience. I salute the dairy farmers of the Hudson for their effort, but I do not if I would classify it as a success quite yet.



Nate took over after that, serving a beet (from the share) and feta (not) salad with cherry tomatoes and slivered pecans in a shallot-basalmic vinaigrette over some of the remaining greens, accented, as always, with some of the scapes.



After, Nate made scallops a la Woonsocket, as I call them: baked with lemon and butter with a Ritz cracker crust. This is one of the most delicious foods ever, as far as I am concerned, and I am jealous that Nate got to eat it frequently as a child. As a side, he steamed some asparagus with garlic and roasted some of the share turnips with lemon. The turnips were not as sweet as the baby ones from the previous week, but they were still full of delicious fresh turnipyness, and not that much like the autumnal version to which I am used.



For dessert, Nate turned our third week of strawberries (and looking, perhaps, as if the season is drawing to an end: very sweet, but very, perhaps over, ripe) into strawberry ice cream. Which, of course, was lovely.



Then Heather kicked our asses in two consecutive games of Wii bowling.

Friday
Being the Fourth of July, anywhere but this city, it would be celebrated with a barbeque. Being that we live in New York, however, where a simple Hibatchi grill is akin to the rare black rhino in its scarcity, we adjured the treat and instead headed to Joe's Brooklyn apartment for delicious brats and Rock Band. In the tradition of the Fourth of Julys of yore, however, I did make and tote around some salads, to serve as sides while using up some produce.



I used some leftovers (bread, tomatoes) and some farm share bounty (basil, from the first week) and some mozzarella that I had to run through some rain to get to make my dad's bread salad.



I also used our red romaine lettuce and leftover lemons to make a big Greek salad. Not surprisingly, the salad with more bread and less cucumbers was the more popular one.

Saturday
Today I had great plans to make a simple yet filling meal for a late dinner, since it was my understanding that Nate wouldn't be home until 9:30. Thus, after a hard day's labor on work and thank-you notes I was kicking back with a Blue Moon and playing some Text Twist at 8:45 as a prelude to starting dinner at 9 when Nate walked through the door. Thus, while I had the general idea for dinner, Nate is the one who actually made it, despite the fact that I was the one who had the day off. Bad, bad. But dinner was good, good:



Fresh spinach fettucine sauteed with pine nuts and garlic scapes (always with the g.s.) and topped with some Parmesan. Simple, fast -- not a tremendous use of the farm share, but at this point, beyond a few sad pieces of iceberg (I used some today for a salad, but it is looking limp) there is not much left. We're waiting for Tuesday ....

Quesidilla? I Chardly Knew Ya!

Tonight was a night for both fiber and inventiveness, as Nate combined much of our remaining bounty into meal that was unorthodox but delicious. I'll let him sound off about the prep:

Hey, everybody! Not only did I utilize a large portion of our farm-fresh produce (and other random crap we need to get out of our pantry) but I even had time to come up with this awesome entry title! Jen doesn't think it's a very good pun. She's of the school of thought that it needs to make sense on some level. That's where she and I differ. I think it's quite strong.



A critical ingredient that needed to be used was our strawberries so you will see them heavily featured in this meal. In fact, for my mid-day snack I made myself a sandwich with cashew butter, banana and sliced strawberries.



For dinner, I cooked down the Swiss chard and tossed it together with some cooked red lentils and quinoa.



For the salad we used some more salad greens, toasted pepitas, avocado, lime juice, salt and pepper.



I marinated the chicken with lime juice, olive oil, thyme, oregano, cumin, cayenne, chili powder, scallions, garlic, salt and pepper. Then I seared the chicken breast with carmelized onions.



The quesadilla was the most risky part of the meal. I had it in my head that I was going to make a quesadilla that heavily featured our turnips. Sorry, our Hakurei turnips. As you may be aware, turnips are not among the most popular ingredients featured in a quesadilla. I wanted the turnips to be the primary flavor so I cooked them down with the same spices I used in the chicken marinade. The quesadillas also had avocado, chicken, cheddar cheese, carmelized onion and green onion but the turnips were still the stars.



The complete meal worked together pretty well. I'm not sure exactly where any of the concept or execution came from but it was certainly different.



For dessert, more strawberries! Strawberry tart and . . .



Rice Krispie treats with strawberry! The Rice Krispie squares also used up a bunch of Rice Krispies, marshmallows and chocolate we had lying around.

Slowly but surely all our produce and our odds and ends from our pantry are being used up! Sure, the results may be in the form of a strange turnip quesadilla, but the point is that they've been used up and that's what really matters!

Tomorrow we have a guest over to experience the fruits (and vegetables) of our farm share. We're winding down already so hopefully we have enough to make something interesting. I've got some tortillas left so if all else fails: Rice Krispie Quesadillas!

I have to say, I would not have imagined that a turnip quesidilla would have been a fan favorite, but it was delicious. The flavor worked really well with the sweetness of the carmelized onions, and the chicken was a nice and spicy contrast. The quinoa salad, I think, is going to age really well: I'm looking forward to having it for lunch tomorrow.

But the biggest revelation, I think, so far in the farm share has been that lettuces can be a LOT more flavorful than I knew. Lately when we've been having salads made with the green and red leaf lettuces and even the iceberg, there's a distinct lettuce flavor for each, something I never even knew I was missing. That, and the fact that the scallions from the farm are about 3 feet long but super, super sharp tasting, has been an eye-opener. I know people always talk about the first time they have a home-grown tomato or a fresh-from-the-field strawberry as the moment they realized that modern farming practices have robbed the food we eat of so much more than we knew, but for me, it's lettuce. And I have to say, I am sorely going to miss the extra flavor they add to salads and meals when we're back to greenhouse lettuces, no matter how organic or how exotic.

Tomorrow: I continue to plagiarize thoughts from "Animal, Vegetable, Miracle" and Nate will continue to create possibly bizarre but always delicious meals!

You Can't Beet Those Vitamin Greens

After a hiatus of a few days we got our most recent farm share pickup today. As with the past couple of weeks it was very greens heavy. Here's what we got:

• 3/4 pound Swiss chard
  
• 1 head iceberg lettuce
  
• 1.5 pounds Hakurei turnips
  
• 3 beets w/ greens
  
• 3/4 pound vitamin greens
  
• 4 garlic scapes
  
• scallions
  
• salad mix
  
• 1 pint strawberries

I'm pretty sure they made up "vitamin greens" but then again I was pretty sure they'd made up "garlic scapes" a few weeks back.

I didn't have a great deal of time to cook after returning home around 6:30PM so I threw the beets on the stove to boil while I cleaned up all the greens.



I served the cooked beets over the mixed salad greens and topped with slivered raw almonds and grated parmesan cheese. I drizzled a little balsamic vinegar, olive oil and sprinkled some grey salt and pepper on top.



The main course was bone-in pork loin chops with the mixed beet and vitamin greens topped with pine nuts and lemon juice. On the side was a baked potato with sour cream and sliced scallions.

Tonight was a race against time. We were able to use up a lot of the nice seasonal greens we got but I'm hoping tomorrow is a little more of a celebration of the foods we got rather than a race to have dinner on the table before we starve to death. Dessert has been a little tricky with such a small amount of fruits coming in. And let's be honest, fruit is not my ideal dessert medium. I'm hoping next week to receive 2-3 pounds of chocolate cake. Now that's something I can work with.