Grilled Romaine Lettuce
Okay, it sounds funky to many people, but you have to try it before passing judgment. The grilling adds a sweetness to the leaves, and the stems become succulent-still a bit crunchy, but also tender. The cores remind me a bit of asparagus. The little bits of charring are a nice contrast to the bright lettuce flavor. If you have a good balsamic vinegar, this is a great time to break it out. You only use a little of the vinegar to dress the leaves.
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It’s hard to believe it’s June already, and the windy, cool days and periodic rainstorms don’t help. Everything seems to be growing slower than expected this year. The first of the blueberries are ripening at last. Of course, the birds found them right away! We’ve had to cover the rows with bird netting to keep them from eating every berry as it turns blue.
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“Spaghetti” of Squash
This is a colorful dish that is best done with a mandolin. With a mandolin, this dish is super fast, and as the squash is very much like a pasta here, many sauces work well. This is the basic recipe for just the “noodles”, but it is so easy to vary this. Half an onion sautéed while blanching the carrot, a few basil leaves thinly sliced and you have a quick, light, and elegant dish. Have some leftover tomato sauce? Heat it up and pour it on. A dash of white wine, lemon and garlic works. Another reason I always liked this dish was my kids ate it up, and any way to extra vegetables into children is welcome.
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This dressing was originally for blanched and chilled haricot vert. It goes well on things like shredded beets, cooked or raw. If you use these on red beets, the dressing will take on a lovely magenta color.
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One night many years ago, Steve couldn’t sleep and got up to read in the living room. All was quiet in the house; except… what was that humming sound? The sound seemed to be coming from the floor. He put his ear on the floorboards and the humming grew louder. That’s how we first discovered that we had a hive of honey bees living under our floor.
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Here is a hearty salad with lots of bold flavors in it, all linked together by a dressing thickened with berry jam. The salad features ingredients that are similar in how they all have a little hit of bitter or sharp to spark the tongue, and then they contrast in textures (soft lettuces and blue cheese, crunchy almonds and lettuces, chewy raisins) all robed in a silky dressing that is sweet and tart. I like this salad for a main course, especially if there is some leftover roast or poached chicken to shred and mix in.
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Lemony Grilled Squash
This is a quick and simple preparation that adds pizzazz to a vegetable that many see as pretty bland. Although marinating is something that is normally associated with meat, many vegetables benefit from marinating as well. Using salt here would result in flabby vegetables, so do not salt until just before grilling.
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We had a good productive week here on the farm. We listed the last twelve or so acres of un-planted ground up into beds. We’ve been laying down drip tape in the blocks that we will be planting our winter squash into later this week. And we have been planting out lots and lots of transplants—lettuces, broccoli, cabbages, fennel, celery, cauliflower, chard, kale, and peppers.
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There are a few variations of this dressing, and many stories as to its origin. The story that is generally accepted in the restaurant world is that Caesar Cardini invented the recipe “on the fly” once when the restaurant was packed and he was out of some ingredients. A quick scan of the pantry gave these ingredients along with the salad base, and then he prepared the salad at tableside for flair. Cardini family legend has it that Caesar did not put in anchovy as he didn’t like them. Supposedly these were added later by a relative. The salad traditionally is made with smaller whole leaves from closer to the center of the head, and the leaves were picked up or cut with knife and fork. I make the dressing without egg yolk because I am lazy. You can also substitute mayonnaise for the egg yolk. Yolk or mayo really do give you a much richer dressing that coats the leaves beautifully, but the flavor is still quite good without them. You will need to use more olive oil to get the right emulsification of the dressing instead.
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Caesar Salad
Quite popular in its original form, the Caesar Salad has enjoyed a renaissance that has lasted for over the last decade and then some. The salad has become a vehicle for everything from chicken to seafood to beef. There have been some versions that shared little with the original but the name and Romaine lettuce. Here is the stripped down version close to the original. The salad was supposedly first concocted from things Caesar Cardini had on hand at his restaurant when he was faced with a large party and was out of many ingredients. It was prepared tableside with much flair.
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INGREDIENTS:
1 bunch of collard greens 1 half of a spring red onion 1 teaspoon bacon fatContinue reading »
The lovely little oakleaf lettuces in your boxes this week are two varieties that are new to us this year. We are so pleased with them that we will probably put them in our regular lettuce rotation. Let us know what you think.
This week’s fava beans (part of the mystery) are all from our Redman House field. It has been a while since I last grew favas, and I made the mistake of planting them too close together in the rows. The plants grew beautifully (a little too beautifully) but because they were spaced so closely together, the patch became a jungle-like thicket that is a real challenge to harvest.
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I love fruit salsas, they are so surprising. We have a small place in Yelapa, Mexico and this is always a favorite when my pineapples are ripe and the mangoes are falling off the tree. I haven’t had very good luck growing strawberries; the iguanas always get them first!
The salsa is perfect for barbecued meat or is nice inside a fish taco. The taste is a bit sweet and sour.
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INGREDIENTS:
½ bunch scallions, green parts and whites separated and sliced finely 2 cloves garlic, peeled and de-germed and minced 1 leaf of fresh sage, slivered finely 1 cup farro ¼ cup white wine 3 cups liquid (water, stock, a combination) Salt and pepper to taste 2-3 tablespoons olive oilContinue reading »
I like my tabbouleh good and green. I use a lot of mint if I have it, or I just use flat leaf parsley if I don’t. If tomatoes are in season, I use them as well. If not, well-I just don’t use them, but only use good tomatoes as there is nowhere for a lousy tomato to hide here. I find tabbouleh a great way to use up the lemons on my Meyer lemon tree when it goes into overdrive, and tabbouleh keeps for a couple days so it helps when I need something fast. Look for bulghur in bulk bins instead of boxes. It is usually fresher and tends to be a slightly larger grain which I prefer.
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To me, “white balsamic vinegar” is a bit of a misnomer as one of the things that give balsamic vinegar its particular flavor is the succession of barrels it goes through over time. The white balsamic version is lighter and subtler than regular balsamic vinegars, and makes a nice dressing or sauce for when you want to complement more delicate flavors.
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The big story down here in Watsonville last week was a 4-alarm fire at the Apple Growers Ice and Cold Storage Co. warehouse in Watsonville that completely destroyed the building and most of its contents. It started at 3:30 on Wednesday and burned for almost 2 full days. Once they deemed that no one was inside the building, firefighters stayed safely outside and worked mainly to contain the blaze as it burned itself out.
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INGREDIENTS:
8 cup home-made chicken stock2 stems green garlic chopped and sautéed
2 Tbs. butter 1 Tbs. freshly-squeezed lemon juice
Salt to taste
Freshly-ground black pepper to taste
½ to 1 cup cooked fava beans
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This recipe comes from my sushi bar days. This is based on the frugality typical of Japanese Buddhist cuisine. We used a lot of spinach and had a lot of stems sitting around. I had seen a recipe where the “root crowns”-the cluster of stems that gather into the root at the end of the bunch- were blanched and dressed and served as a little side dish. We served these as a little gift from the chef when people first sat down. The hardest part of this recipe is cleaning the crowns. Lots of water is the trick here. You won’t get a lot of these from a bunch, but they are worth doing as the take little time and are very good.
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