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For this dish low moisture content squash such as Costata Romanesco or Cousa are ideal, but you can do this with any summer squash, really. The trick is to merely sear the outside of the squash for flavor and color, not to cook it through. A fixed-blade slicer or mandolin is great for prepping this dish, otherwise use a thin bladed razor sharp knife to prevent the squash from cracking.

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This salad is indeed inspired by traditional tabbouleh, and resulted from a hurried “tour du fridge” one night. For the cucumber, be sure to avoid any with waxed skin, or peel it, especially if the skin is thick. Smaller Japanese cucumbers are ideal. Any squash will do, but Costata Romanesco or Cousa are great because they take on color without getting mushy or bitter better than most other summer squash, and this salad is about the contrast between the chewy farro and the crisp cucumber and squash.

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This is a variation on the Quickle theme. The “pickling” solution is heated to infuse it with the flavors of the herbs and spices, and then is poured over the roasted beets so it is absorbed as the beets cool. Tarragon is a great flavor to go with beets, and the other spices are there to enhance this marriage.

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This dressing was made to go with the Strawberry Spinach Salad, but will work to dress other things as well. This would work well on a salad of arugula, mizuna, mei quin, and mushrooms, or would be nice on grilled fish or pork skewers. Just remember to go easy with the sesame oil. Use just enough to detect it, but not enough to flat-out taste it. The same with the soy sauce.

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This is based on a typical Japanese technique, but the flavorings are a little more forceful than you would find in a traditional dish.

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“Sformato” sounds more elegant than “Flan of Broccoli”, but I think more people get the idea with the latter name. I know, sounds funky, but vegetable custards have a long tradition. Think of quiche, or frittatas. Pretty much the same thing, just bigger and has a crust. These are a bit more elegant, and work well in a fancy menu as well as every day cuisine. They are easy to add things to, play well with other items on a plate. For instance, I can see laying down a bed of the Carrot Sauce (Using thyme or sage instead of curry.), then putting the flan on top of that, and then drizzling the plate with a balsamic vinegar reduction syrup. Bold colors on the plate and big flavors in the mouth.

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Another dish in the Moroccan “salad” style. If you wanted to make it more of a Western style salad with lettuce, use romaine. Remove the darker outer leaves and cut the pale inner leaves across the length into thin ribbons and lay them down as a bed for the carrot ribbons. A Ben Riner or mandolin is best to make this recipe, but if you do not have one, slice the carrots on a diagonal with your sharpest knife, or use a really sturdy peeler.

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Colorful and sunny flavors of the south of France, with nice crunch enhanced by soaking the vegetables in cold water for a while prior to serving.

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Be sure to start this enough ahead of time for the radishes and turnips to soak in ice water for at least a half-hour. This helps tame some of the bite, and yields nice crisp slices.

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Use this dressing where you might use a Louie (1000 Island type) dressing, or with seafood. This recipe was designed to go with the Romaine Salad with Seafood and Shellfish Dressing, which includes instructions for saving the liquid from draining tomatoes. If you are using tomatoes, and have the liquid from them as they drain, great! Use it for flavor and color. If not, don’t worry about it.  

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Fresh shelling beans (like cranberry beans or dragon’s tongues) and dark cooking greens (kale, collard greens, chard) simmer in broth and exchange flavors and textures. Add sausage, chicken, or smoked meat to make it a more traditional main dish.

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This dressing was made to go with a roasted beet, orange, and mizuna salad, but would work with other bitter or sharp leaves (arugula, radicchio, and escarole) or roast cauliflower, as well as going well with shrimp, hot or cold, grilled fish such as sword or tuna, or even pork chops.

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This dressing was designed for the Spinach Kabocha Squash and Dates salad, but will work with other spinach salads as well as salads with Little Gem or Romaine lettuces. If you have nut oils on hand, it is nice to match the oil with the nuts if you are using them in a salad. This dressing would also be a good sauce on chicken or grilled lamb chops.

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Pink shrimp look beautiful next to pale green fava beans in this recipe adapted from Elizabeth Schneider’s Uncommon Fruits and Vegetables

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INGREDIENTS:

For Cabbage rolls:

2 pound head green cabbage
1/4 cup (1/2 stick) butter
1 cup shredded cabbage
1 cup sliced fresh mushrooms

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Although this may sound odd, it is a wonderful flavor booster. Essentially, you are seasoning an oil for cooking or flavoring by cooking raw shrimp shells and aromatics and gently infusing oil with the flavors and aromas of a dish of sautéed shrimp. Use this oil to season fish before cooking, flavoring seafood soups and stews, pasta dishes, etc. It goes wonderfully with saffron and corn, and is at the base of a wonderful sauce of pureed fresh corn and saffron. If you only cook a few shrimp at a time, put the few shells into a zipper bag and force out all the air before stashing them in the freezer until you have enough to make the oil.

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This features one of my favorite combos used as a contrast to earthy flavors-plumped raisins and nuts. This recipe uses a large pan-12 or 14 inches. If you do not have a pan that large, just decrease the volume. Figure for a 10 inch pan use ¼ less cauliflower and pull a little of the other ingredients.

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This is another “vegetable as sauce” recipe, and is simpler than the others, both in method and ingredients. This was first made to go on roasted cabbage but is really nice on other things. See notes.

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This is a dish to be made at the start of the New Year when the new olive oil has just been bottled. The carrots are cooked simply and act as a sweet and earthy foil to the bright and peppery pungent oil. The oil is drizzled in at the end as a seasoning with a few drops of vinegar and some parsley. If you do not have any olio nuovo, a bright and bold Tuscan oil would serve. This is one of those dishes where the combination is greater than the parts, and there is nowhere for inferior ingredients to hide, so fresh carrots, fresh oil, and good vinegar are all a must.

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Simply flavored, easy to execute, simply delicious. Much of the secret lies in the thickness of the cut, and having fresh squash which are moist and not bitter. The rest lies with finding the sweet spot on the grill, where it is not scorchingly hot, nor where the heat is sort of feeble. The heat should be a 5-second heat, meaning it should take 5 seconds for your hand, 5 inches above the grill, to become painfully hot and you have to pull it away. This would be like medium-high on the stove.

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Similar to a sunomono, but with thicker slices than is traditional, adding plenty of crunch. White wine vinegar makes for a more robust flavor as well.

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For this dressing, you want to use a good quality red wine vinegar. There are a lot of cheap ones out there, and the taste of most of them is sour, rather than tart, and metallic, aggressive, even bitter. Shun them, as all they will do is ruin your food. Since this dressing is so simple, there is nowhere for an inferior vinegar to hide. While you want to use extra virgin olive oil here, save the heavier Tuscan or Olio Nuovos for other dishes. Something lighter is called for here so the flavor of the beans will shine through. Reducing the vinegar concentrates the flavor and gives it a bit more body, like a balsamic vinegar. I give two measurements for the oil here. The first is for what is referred to as a “slack” vinaigrette-meaning loose, as it will not stay well emulsified due to the ratio of oil to vinegar. This is what you use for salads using vegetables such as beans or carrot, where you dress blanched vegetables while still warm, and is more tart than most salad dressings. It is good on cabbage salads, too. The second is for leafy salads or things that are dressed just before serving, where you want the dressing to cling. It is milder and will stay emulsified better.

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This came about to go into a sandwich with a coleslaw done for the CSA box. Nothing too fancy, no brining or soaking, just dip, shake, and fry.

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This dressing is nice with assertive flavors or things with a bitter edge to them, such as radishes, turnips, or chicories. It is also nice used on fish or shrimp. If you don’t have tangerines, just use oranges.

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A very basic “creamy” dressing for when you want a little sweetness, but still want the vegetables to shine through. This was first made for a Rainbow Carrot Slaw.

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This is a bare bones simple white balsamic dressing for when you want the flavors of the salad to stand out.

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A very simple sauce. That means you need good tomatoes, and it is very important to cook the garlic slowly so it will caramelize, not burn. Mexican, or Korintje, cinnamon will give a lovely floral flavor, and the recipe is written with this in mind. If you use another type, start with less as they will provide more of a red-hots candy flavor which can easily overwhelm the dish. Use this sauce anywhere from delicate pastas to fish, chicken, or goat, or on vegetables such as escarole or greens, or with a mélange of summer vegetables a lá ratatouille.

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This was made to go on a fried chicken sandwich, but is great as is. Using a Ben-Riner or other fixed blade slicer (or even a food processor) makes this a quick-fix dish.

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This slaw can be made with green cabbage, but if you have Savoy cabbage it is even better. This recipe includes strips of collard greens, but you can use lacinato, or other, kale if you wish, or skip it altogether.

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Another dish where vegetables pose as a sauce. Here, cauliflower or Romanesco are cooked down with mushrooms and Purplette onions to make a sweet and earthy topping for fish, poached chicken, or tofu. This would work fine as a pasta sauce as well.

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