glacier grist
Issue #5 • Friday, October 24, 2008
Happy Halloween!!
29 October 2008 box contents:
Alaskan Brussels sprouts | Alaskan carrots | Alaskan yellow onions | certified organic pie pumpkin | certified organic celery | Honeycrisp apples (from Washington)
We have some beets left over from last week, but not enough to fill everyone’s boxes, so we’ll have beets available separately if you want to buy them on Wednesday when you pick up your box. Glacier Valley Farm and VanderWeele Farm are providing the Brussels sprouts, fresh-dug carrots, onions, and beets. The pie pumpkins and the celery are certified organic, and come from the Lower 48.
On the farm
They’ve been harvesting Brussels sprouts like crazy on the farm! Did you ever notice how tough the stalks are on Brussels sprouts? They have to cut the stalks with a lopper, top and bottom, and then they break or cut all the big leafy stems off the stalks so you can get to the sprouts. Did you notice that the sprouts grow in the “armpits” of the leaf stalks? Arthur spotted a couple of swans winging their way south over the farm yesterday!
More recipe ideas!
Check out Chef Delicious Dave’s blog for more ideas about what to make with the vegetables in your box! He’ll be cooking up his box of veggies along with you all, and then posting them on his site. And I’ve loaded lots more recipes on Alison’s Lunch, and you can see photos of many of these recipes there.
CSA Program details
Until we get our website up and running in a week or two, we need to know EACH WEEK whether you would like a box of produce. I apologize that we’re not quite set up yet to take your orders for every week, or every other week, or once a month. (The website will take care of that!) So for now, please email us each week, in response to my email, to let us know for NEXT WEEK whether you’d like a box. .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)
We’ll keep you posted by email about the progress on our website, and on our other pickup locations. Thank you so much for your patience and understanding!
Please try and remember to return your box!
recipes
for glacier grist Issue #5
Brussels sprouts with mustard & caper sauce
This fabulous recipe is based on a recipe from Deborah Madison’s Local Flavors
2 garlic cloves
sea salt and fresh-ground pepper
2 tablespoons garlic oil (see following recipe), 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
2 pounds Brussels sprouts
1. Press the garlic (or mince very fine) into a large bowl and mash it with ½ teaspoon salt. Stir in the oil or butter and add the mustard, capers, lemon zest, and parsley.
2. Bring a large pot of water to a boil and add salt. While the water is heating, trim the bases of the sprouts and slice them in half, or, if large, into quarters.
3. Add the brussels sprouts to the water and cook for 5-8 minutes, testing every minute after 5 minutes, until the cores of the largest sprouts are tender but not mushy. Pour the sprouts into a colander, shake off excess water, and immediately spread them out on a baking sheet spread with a dishtowel. (This allows the hot water to evaporate, and the sprouts stop cooking immediately: a perfectly-cooked sprout!)
4. Toss warm sprouts with mustard-caper sauce. Taste for salt, season with pepper, and toss again.
garlic oil
Mash or mince 3 or 4 garlic cloves and cover with ½ cup extra-virgin olive oil. Let steep for 30 minutes. Strain out the garlic and store the oil in the refrigerator.
whole pumpkin baked with savory apricot & prune stuffing
This is SO FUN to make for Halloween or Thanksgiving!! Don’t use a Jack-o-Lantern pumpkin, though—they are stringy and tough. You can use stale bread for the stuffing: when you have stale slices, just pop them in a plastic bag in the freezer (don’t dry them out first). When you need bread for crumbs or cubes like this recipe, just thaw the bread out on the counter and proceed. You can prepare the stuffing the day before you bake it and refrigerate it overnight. This recipe is based on one in Crescent Dragonwagon’s Passionate Vegetarian
If you can’t fit all the stuffing in your pumpkin, bake the extra in a greased baking pan, covered with foil.
the stuffing
1 cup dried apricots
1 cup dried pitted prunes
1 cup apple juice
1 loaf (or the equivalent in stale slices) whole wheat bread (I like sourdough whole wheat)
1 large onion, diced
3 stalks celery, diced (including leaves)
2-3 teaspoons dried leaf sage
pinches of dried oregano and dried basil (optional)
¼ cup butter, melted, or olive oil
vegetable stock as needed
soy sauce to taste
sea salt or kosher salt and freshly ground pepper to taste
1. Put the dried fruit in a heatproof bowl. Bring the apple juice to a boil and pour over the dried fruit. Let the fruit stand for 2 hours or overnight. Drain the fruit, reserving the liquid, and chop the fruit coarsely.
2. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees, then turn it down to 200 degrees. Cut the bread into ½” cubes. Put the bread on baking sheets and toast the bread until dry and crunchy. This will take 45 to 60 minutes. Check every 20 minutes or so. Remove from the oven and let cool.
3. Put the bread into a large bowl, and add the onion and celery. Add the sage, rubbing it in your palms to release the oils. Pour the melted butter or oil over the mixture and toss well to combine. Add the soaked dried fruit and toss again. Add the liquids—apple juice and vegetable stock—until the dressing is quite damp but not soggy. Add soy sauce, starting with about 1 tablespoon. Taste for salt and add it and plenty of pepper to taste. Maybe more sage? Add dried oregano and dried basil here, if you like. You can prepare the dressing to this stage and refrigerate it, covered, overnight. Warm it up in the microwave, or let it come to room temperature before stuffing it into the pumpkin.
4. When you’re ready to stuff the pumpkin (or bake the dressing on its own), preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Steam the pumpkin (as directed below) fairly soon before stuffing it to keep it warm and lessen the baking time. Oil a baking pan large enough to hold the pumpkin, or the dressing on its own.
5. Stuff the dressing into the pumpkin, topping with the cap (or, if you’re not using a pumpkin, just put it in the pan and cover the pan with foil). Place the pumpkin in the baking dish, put it in the oven and bake until the pumpkin is slightly brown and looks a bit collapsed in on itself, about 40 minutes (it may take longer). Serve whole, at the table, scooping out pumpkin to eat with the stuffing.
the pumpkin
1 medium-large pie pumpkin or cream-colored pumpkin, prepared for stuffing as follows.
1. Cut off and reserve a lid, like for a Jack-o-lantern. Scoop out all the seeds and fibers.
2. Put one or two inches of water in a large pot. Place the pumpkin, cut side down, in the water, cap wedged near it. Bring to a boil over high heat. Cover tightly and steam in simmering water for 10-15 minutes to precook slightly. Remove the pot from the heat and let pumpkin cool slightly.
3. When the pumpkin is cool enough to handle, season the inside with salt, pepper, a little soy sauce and brown sugar, rubbing it in.
carrot & mint salad with currants
This recipe looks so pretty, and tastes AMAZING, even though it’s very simple. The recipe is based on one from Peter Berley’s Fresh Food Fast
2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice
1-2 teaspoons extra-virgin olive oil
2 tablespoons chopped fresh mint
1 tablespoon minced fresh chives (or scallion greens)
coarse sea salt or kosher salt
1 pound carrots, peeled (if the peels are tough) and grated
¼ cup dried currants
1. Steam the currants over boiling water for 5 minutes.
2. In a salad bowl, whisk together the lemon juice, oil, mint, chives, and ½ teaspoon of salt. Add the carrots and currants and toss well.
3. Add more salt to taste. You might want to add a drizzle of maple syrup, honey, or sugar to bring the carrot flavor up and make the mint sparkle.
roasted beets
1. Put whole, unpeeled beets in a baking dish or dutch oven and put ¼” 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. Remove from the oven and let them cool, or run them under cold water. When the beets are cool enough to handle, slip their skins off. Cut in halves lengthwise and then crosswise into ¼-inch thick slices, or in wedges—as you prefer.
3. Toss beets with a little red wine vinegar, olive oil, and salt. The vinegar offsets the sweetness of the beets and really brings out their best.
For more recipes, search my other websites: Alison’s Lunch and the South Anchorage Farmers’ Market website!
Cheers! And happy cooking!
Mango/Kale salad is delicious. And I love it amazingly. We all friends eat in the summer hot weather. It’s really really tasty. Yummy! 
