glacier grist

Issue #1 • Sunday, September 07, 2008

10 September 2008 box contents:

green cauliflower | celery | tomatoes | zucchinis | cucumber | carrots | NEW potatoes | Savoy cabbage | collards | broccoli

Everyone’s farms are producing like crazy right now! I’m including a couple of my favorite recipes to inspire you to cook some vegetables you may not have already tried: Savoy cabbage & collards, and green cauliflower! But don’t stop there! Check out http://www.SouthAnchorageFarmersMarket.com, where you can search by vegetable for heaps of other fantastic vegetable recipes.

We want you to love your box of produce! We want our box to meet your needs, and we want to know what you think! Since we’re just starting up, this is a great time to learn from you, our customers! Please, if you have any comments—positive or negative—or just ideas about how to make it even better for you, please, let us know!

Tell Arthur, your farmer, when you pick up your box of vegetables on Wednesday! You can ask him questions about the vegetables, his farming practices, and his farm! (He’d love to tell you about his family, too—did I mention he has three charming children?) Send a quick email to him at , or call him at 907-354-5833 and let him know what you think!

recipes

for glacier grist Issue #1

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green cauliflower with mustard & caper sauce

You’re going to be amazed how much cauliflower you can eat at one sitting with this recipe!  The sauce is based on a recipe from Deborah Madison’s Local Flavors: Cooking and Eating from America’s Farmers’ Markets.

2 garlic cloves
sea salt and fresh-ground pepper
2 tablespoons garlic oil, extra-virgin olive oil, or softened butter
1-2 tablespoons Dijon mustard
¼ cup rinsed and drained capers
grated zest of a lemon
¼ cup chopped parsley
1 large head green cauliflower

1. To make the sauce, press the garlic (or mince very fine) into a large bowl and, using a fork, mash it with ½ teaspoon salt. Then stir in the oil or butter and add the mustard, capers, lemon zest, and parsley.
2. With a sharp paring knife, cut through the cauliflower stem and pull the florets apart. Cut the larger floret stems in half. Steam the florets in a steamer basket over boiling water until the florets are tender but still a little firm when pierced with a knife, 4 minutes or so. 
3. Toss the florets into the mustard-caper sauce. Taste for salt, season with pepper, and toss again.
 

collards & Savoy cabbage with white beans on garlic toast

The ingredients are so unassuming and humble, but when you cook them all together, they become wonderfully good. You don’t have to put this on toast, but I love it that way.
It makes a big batch, but I’m betting you won’t have any trouble finishing it off as leftovers. This recipe is a variation of one in Deborah Madison’s Local Flavors: Cooking and Eating from America’s Farmers’ Markets.
beans:

2 cups white beans, soaked for 4 hours or overnight
1 onion, peeled and quartered
4 garlic cloves, peeled but left whole
2 bay leaves
sea salt or kosher salt

vegetables:

2 large onions, finely diced
1 large bunch collards (or kale), leaves stripped from the stems and sliced into ½” slices
1 small cabbage, either Savoy or green cabbage, quartered, cored, and sliced thinly
4 plump garlic cloves, minced
1 cup of chopped parsley
1-2 tablespoons olive oil
sea salt or kosher salt and freshly-ground pepper

toast:

thick slices of hearty whole-wheat bread (1 or 2 per person)
garlic
extra-virgin olive oil

1. Drain the soaked beans, then put them in a pot and cover with cold water by at least an inch. Add the quartered onion, garlic, and bay leaves and make sure the water covers the onions. Bring to a boil, then lower the heat and simmer, partially covered, until the beans are tender. This could take 45 minutes to 1 ½ hours, depending on the size of the beans and how old they are. When the beans are tender enough to easily squish between your tongue and the roof of your mouth, turn the heat off. If you have time, let the beans sit in their liquid with the aromatics until cool. Remove the quartered onions and whole garlic and discard. Add salt to the beans to taste.
2. While the beans are cooking, chop all the vegetables and bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Add the collards and boil them until tender. The boiling time could be as short as 3 minutes in the summer, or as long as 10 or 12 minutes in the fall, depending on how big and old the greens are—just keep tasting them. Drain the greens.
3. Warm the olive oil in a heavy, wide skillet or pot (non-stick works especially well). Add the onion and cook over medium heat with 1 teaspoon salt until the onion is soft and golden brown, about 12 minutes. Add the collards, cabbage, garlic, parsley, and 2 more teaspoons salt. Cook over low heat with the pan covered until the vegetables are soft and the volume greatly reduced, about 15-20 minutes.
4. When the beans are done, add them, along with a cup or two or their cooking liquid, to the pot. Simmer until the greens are completely tender. Taste for salt and season with pepper. (You may have to add quite a bit of salt—greens need a lot of salt, as do beans.) Save the rest of the bean broth for vegetable stock in soups and stews—just freeze it until you need it.
5. Toast the bread slices. Rub the toasts with a peeled clove of garlic. Spoon the beans and greens over the toast and serve, drizzled with a little olive oil, if desired.

lentil soup

This recipe is a vegetable-heavy rendition of Deborah Madison’s—from her Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone. It’s very easy, but the mustard and sherry vinegar add an amazing zip at the end that you really have to try to believe. Use the little French green lentils if you can find them--they stay more intact than the regular brown lentils.

2 tablespoons olive oil
3 cups finely diced onion
3 large garlic cloves, minced
sea salt or kosher salt and freshly ground pepper
3 tablespoons tomato paste
1 cup thinly sliced celery
1 cup thinly sliced carrots
2 bay leaves
½ cup chopped parsley
1 ½ cups French green lentils, or brown lentils, sorted and rinsed
1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
1 tablespoon sherry vinegar or red wine vinegar
chopped celery leaves and more parsley (for garnish)

1. Heat the oil in a large soup pot over high heat. Add the onion and 1 teaspoon salt and sauté until it begins to color around the edges, 5 to 7 minutes. Work the tomato paste into the onion, then add the garlic, celery, carrot, bay leaves, and parsley and cook for 3 minutes.
2. Add the lentils and 2 quarts of water and bring to a boil. Lower the heat and simmer, partially covered, until the lentils are quite tender, 25 to 35 minutes.
3. Stir in the mustard and vinegar. Taste and add more of either as needed, and add salt to your taste. Season with plenty of pepper, remove the bay leaves, and serve garnished with celery leaves and parsley. If you can let this soup sit overnight before serving, it tastes even better. Just re-adjust the seasonings when you warm it back up.

green salad with hazelnuts and rosemary-balsamic vinaigrette

Based on a recipe from Rebar: Modern Food, this salad is great with the lentil soup—or on its own as a meal, with a piece of hearty toast.
vinaigrette

2 garlic cloves, coarsely chopped
3 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
4 teaspoons red wine vinegar
4 teaspoons Dijon mustard
2 teaspoons honey
½ teaspoon sea salt or kosher salt
½ teaspoon cracked pepper
2-4 tablespoons fresh rosemary leaves, picked off their stems
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1/3 cup extra-virgin olive oil

Put all the ingredients except the oil in the jar of a blender. Whirl everything until it is completely smooth—this might take a little while because of the rosemary. Slowly pour in the oil as the motor is running to make a smooth sauce. Adjust salt and honey to taste.

salad

large head of lettuce, washed and torn into small pieces
½ small red onion, cut in half and sliced very thinly
¼-½ cup hazelnuts
½ cup blue cheese (optional)

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Roast the hazelnuts until golden-brown and fragrant, about 15 minutes. After the nuts are toasted, you can rub off some of the loose skins in a kitchen towel if you want, but they won’t come completely clean—that’s OK. Chop the hazelnuts coarsely.
2. Put the sliced onions in a bowl and cover them with boiling water for 30 seconds. Drain them and set aside.
3. Just before serving, place the greens and onion in a large salad bowl. Drizzle the dressing on and toss well. Sprinkle with nuts and optional cheese.

cabbage salad with lime and oregano

This salad recipe is based on one in Deborah Madison’s Vegetarian Suppersbook. It’s fine even the next day as leftovers—it just gets to be more like cabbage pickles.

6 cups finely sliced red or green cabbage
1 ½ teaspoons sea salt or kosher salt
2 teaspoons sugar
¼ cup finely diced onion or scallion
2 pinches dried oregano
2 to 4 tablespoons chopped cilantro (optional)
1/3 cup lime juice

Toss the cabbage with the salt and onion and sugar. Add the rest of the salad ingredients, toss well, and taste carefully. Does it need more sugar? More salt? More lime? Add until you’re happy with the flavors. Its should be bright and sparkling. Refrigerate until ready to use.

Indian-spiced roasted potato salad with carrots

Loosely based on a recipe in Yamuna’s Table, it’s a big batch because the leftovers are delicious!

3 pounds waxy potatoes (like Yukon Gold)
2 tablespoons olive oil (plus more, for vinaigrette)
½ teaspoon sea salt or kosher salt
1 ½ teaspoons chili powder
6 to 12 carrots, peeled and grated finely
½ cup chopped cilantro
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1 tablespoon brown mustard seeds
1 tablespoon whole cumin seeds
1 cup vegetable broth, plus extra to taste
1 tablespoon garlic oil or olive oil
½ - 1 teaspoon salt
freshly ground pepper

1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Scrub the potatoes and cut them into ½” to ¾” dice.
2. Coat 2 large rimmed baking sheets with non-stick spray or oil (this makes cleanup a lot easier). Toss the potatoes with the garlic oil, salt and chili powder, and roast in the oven until they are golden-brown, tender, and browning on the bottom where they touch the baking sheets, about 30 minutes, but check them after 20 minutes, turning them over with a spatula.
3. Scrape the potatoes into a large bowl and fold in the carrots and cilantro.
4. Preheat a skillet over medium high heat. Add the mustard seeds, cover with the lid, and shake the pan until they begin to pop. Add the cumin seeds, cover them, and shake for 30 seconds or so while the mustard seeds continue to pop. When the cumin seeds are fragrant and toasted, remove the pan from the heat and add the broth, garlic oil, and salt. Whisk to combine, and pour the sauce over the potatoes. Taste for salt, and add freshly ground pepper to taste. If you think it could use more moisture, add more broth. Serve warm or at room temperature.
5. When eating the leftovers, you might want to add more broth, since the potatoes absorb the broth as it sits in the refrigerator. You might need to add more salt and pepper, too. 

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