glacier grist
Issue #4 • Sunday, October 19, 2008
22 October 2008 box contents:
Here’s a list of the Alaskan produce in this week’s box.
Alaskan Brussels sprouts on their stalks | Alaskan beets with their greens | Alaskan carrots | Alaskan green cabbage | Alaskan Yukon Gold potatoes | Alaskan turnips
Glacier Valley Farm and VanderWeele Farm are providing the Brussels sprouts, fresh-dug carrots, green cabbage, turnips and new potatoes. The beets were dug out of the snow personally by Arthur. (I talked to him on the phone while he was doing it, freezing his hands.)
On the farm
All kinds of winterizing activities are taking place right now, getting the fields put away for the winter. The potato harvest ended about a week ago and now the carrot harvest is happening at full speed. Later this winter I’ll write more about the amazing carrot harvest!
More recipe ideas!
We have a new source for fantastic recipes: Chef Delicious Dave! Dave has just returned to Alaska after being the personal chef to Jack Johnson and crew, while on tour! (He’s also cooked for Dave Matthews, Justin Timberlake, James Taylor, Paul Simon, and Willie Nelson!)
Dave is passionate about local food, and he’s committed to getting one of our CSA boxes every week—so he’ll be cooking along with you, and posting his recipe ideas! This will give you all kinds of great ideas for what to do with the vegetables in your box! See his blog: http://alaskansupper.blogspot.com/
I’ve loaded lots more recipes on Alison’s Lunch, and you can see photos of most of these recipes there.
recipes
for glacier grist Issue #4
roasted Brussels sprouts
The easiest, and probably most delicious, way to cook sprouts. You’ll be eating them like popcorn!
1 or 2 large stalks of Brussels sprouts
extra-virgin olive oil
sea salt or kosher salt
1. Preheat your oven to 450 degrees. Coat 1 or 2 large baking sheets with non-stick spray or oil (that makes clean-up a lot easier).
2. Break the sprouts off the stem. (If they are hard to break off, just use a small paring knife to cut each sprout off its stalk.) Cut the largest ones in half, but leave the smaller ones whole. Put them all in a large bowl.
3. Drizzle two tablespoons or so of olive oil over the sprouts, and sprinkle with salt (about ½ teaspoon per pound—or to your taste). Mix them all up until they are coated with olive oil, and then pour them onto your baking sheets. Make sure the cut sides are touching the baking sheet, and that they are only in a single layer, so they brown and roast instead of steam.
4. Roast them until the cores inside the sprouts are tender when poked with a paring knife and they start to brown on the bottom where they touch the baking sheet. This might take 20 minutes or so, depending on their size, but maybe longer. Just keep checking them! Try not to burn your mouth!
cabbage & fennel salad with apples & raisins
This fantastic salad is based on a similar salad in Peter Berley’s Fresh Food Fast
1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
3 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice
1 teaspoon fennel seeds, toasted in a small skillet, then ground
½ to 1 teaspoon sea salt or kosher salt
freshly ground black pepper
1 large bulb fennel, trimmed and sliced paper thin, some fronds chopped
½ small head green cabbage, thinly sliced
1 sweet red apple, unpeeled, cored and cut into matchsticks
generous ¼ cup raisins (or more to taste)
1. In a salad bowl, whisk together the oil, lemon juice, ground fennel seeds, and salt. Season with pepper.
2. Add the fennel, cabbage, apple, and raisins and toss to combine. Refrigerate for 15 minutes. Season with additional salt and pepper as needed, and serve.
beets, greens & lemony dill vinaigrette
Glorious flavors AND colors! The vinaigrette is loosely based on one in Rebar: Modern Food Cookbook
.
vinaigrette
3 garlic cloves
zest & juice of a lemon
¼ cup apple cider vinegar
1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
1 tablespoon dried dill (or 2 T fresh)
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon honey
¼ teaspoon freshly-ground pepper
½ cup olive oil
salad
2 bunches beets with their greens and stems
(if the beets lack greens: 2 bunches chard)
¼ cup sunflower seeds, toasted
1. First, roast the beets. (You can do this a day or two ahead of time if you’re baking something else in the oven and have room for a pot of beets alongside.) Preheat your oven to 400 (or if you’re baking something else, just do it at that temperature). Cut the beets from their stems, wash them, and put the whole, unpeeled beets in a baking dish or Dutch oven. Put about ½-inch of water in the dish. Cover tightly with foil or the lid of the Dutch oven and bake them until tender when stabbed with a paring knife. Usually they take 40 minutes or longer, but young beets might be quicker, depending on their size.
2. While the beets are roasting, make the vinaigrette. Toss the garlic cloves in a blender jar, and buzz them briefly to chop them a bit. Add the lemon zest, juice, vinegar, mustard, dill, salt, honey, and pepper. Puree until smooth, scraping down the blender jar as necessary. While the motor is running, pour in the olive oil and puree until everything is nicely emulsified. The color will be a beautiful light green! Taste the dressing—it will be quite tart, to cut the sweetness of the beets, but add more salt, honey, and olive oil as necessary to get a nice balance.
3. When the beets are tender, remove them from the oven. If you have a variety of sizes, you’ll have to pull the smaller ones out first and let the larger ones cook a little longer. Let the beets cool just a bit, or if you’re in a hurry, run them under cold water. Don’t let them dry out, though, because the skins will be a lot harder to peel off. When the beets are cool enough to handle, slip their skins off. Cut the beets into ½-inch pieces and toss with a few tablespoons of the vinaigrette. Set them aside to marinate.
4. While the beets are roasting, toast the sunflower seeds on a baking sheet in the oven for about 10 minutes, until lightly browned and fragrant.
5. Pull the green leaves from their stems—but reserve the stems! Wash the leaves and set aside. Wash the stems, cut them into ½-inch slices, and set aside.
6. Steam the beet greens over boiling water for 5-7 minutes, until nicely tender. Set aside to cool in their bowl. Steam the beet stems for 10 minutes or so, until they are nice and tender, as well. Set aside. Chop the beet greens coarsely.
7. To assemble the salad, toss the beet greens with some of the vinaigrette, and then toss the stems with some vinaigrette (keep them in separate bowls). Make a little tower: first the greens, then the stems, and finally the cubes of beets. Drizzle with a little of the green vinaigrette and then sprinkle with sunflower seeds. Enjoy warm or at room temperature!
roasted carrots & turnips
In this very simple recipe, the super-sweet carrots are tempered by the slight bitterness of the turnips—combining a bite of each is something close to perfection! If you want, you can add a teaspoon of chopped thyme or rosemary when you toss the carrots with their olive oil and salt.
1 pound carrots
1 pound turnips
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
½ to 1 teaspoon sea salt or kosher salt
1. Preheat your oven to 450 degrees.
2. Peel the turnips, and if the carrot peels seem tough, peel them, too.
3. Slice the carrots into 1/4” slices (a Cuisinart is nice for this—just cut the stem end off and shoot them, one at a time, down the narrow feed tube, pushing them with the pusher cup to ensure even slices). Cut the turnips into quarters, then slice them into ¼” slices. The idea is to get them more or less the same size as the carrots.
4. Coat 2 large baking sheets with non-stick spray or oil. (This makes clean-up a lot easier.)
5. Toss the carrot slices with olive oil and salt, and spread the carrots out in a single layer on the baking sheet.
6. Do the same thing for the turnips. It’s best to keep the veggies separate, since they may cook at different rates.
7. Roast for 20-25 minutes, or until they start to get golden-brown on the underside. Flip them after 15 minutes or so, when they are starting to get browned on one side, so you can have them toasted on both sides. They are done when tender when you stab them with a fork (or when you eat one!).
Cheers! And happy cooking! --Alison
