2021 Produce CSA Week 29

This week’s box included: Potatoes, carrots, peppers, sweet potatoes, popcorn, radishes, apples, butternut squash 

Second to the last box of the year with another giant sweet potato and peppers still being harvested. What a year it’s been. How can farmers ever predict what they will be able to harvest? But thank goodness for storage vegetables like the potatoes, butternut squash … and now carrots. Another beautiful bunch this week.

No collards at all this year. But popcorn! Always a big treat around here and there a half dozen or so recipes on the popcorn page at grassfedcow.com if you want something beyond just a bowl of freshly harvested freshly popped popcorn. That recipe from Canoe is fabulous if you want something decadent.

I hear that there’s some hope for greens next week in time for your Thanksgiving dinner. And the last box for 2021. We shall see!

I’ve been having cooking lots of different recipes with potatoes (since we’re getting them every week which is absolutely no hardship) when normally I would just do routine things like smashed potatoes and mashed potatoes – both of which are my husband’s favorites. I made two recipes from smittenkitchen.com this week – this breakfast slab pie which was fabulous (used mustard greens instead of spinach). It turned out perfectly, which is seldom the case for me and pastry. I did cut down a bit on the 3 sticks of butter called for in the crust, and made it with half whole wheat flour. I will make this again …. maybe adding more cheese …. maybe throwing in some bits of sausage …. it was so perfect I think you can’t go wrong.

And I made the Potato Pizza below (which I would have called potato flatbread) Sunday night and it was amazing. Part of what made it delicious was smearing the baking sheet with lots of olive oil, which mean the crust baked up incredibly crisp on the bottom. Part of what made it delicious was the potatoes crisping up like potato chips. This was a wonderful crunchy side dish for a big bowl of cabbage and farro soup, using up the last of a large Napa cabbage. Great dinner.

Potato Pizza, Even Better
Adapted from Jim Lahey’s My Bread by smittenkitchen.com

Yes, they call it potato pizza, but really it’s potato flatbread. Absolutely delicious right out of the oven and until it gets cold. After that, not so much. So make this when you can share.

1 recipe pizza dough (below)

4 teaspoons fine sea or table salt
6 to 8 small to medium potatoes
1 medium yellow onion, diced
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
4 to 5 tablespoons olive oil
About 1 tablespoon fresh rosemary leaves

In a medium bowl, combine the 1 quart lukewarm water with salt, stirring until the salt has dissolved. Use a mandoline or your best sharpest knife to slice the potatoes very thin (1/16 inch thick), and put the sliced directly into the salted water, which prevents oxidation and also helps soften them so they cook up nicely. Lahey says to let them soak for 1 1/2 hours or up to 12 in the fridge overnight, but I was quite happy with my results after a 25 to 30 minute soak.

Heat your oven to 500°F with a rack in the center. Brush either 1 13×18-inch rimmed half-sheet pan or 2 9×13-inch quarter-sheet pans (shown) with olive oil. Divide your risen dough in half and use your fingertips, oiled or dusted with flour, to pull, stretch, nudge and press the dough across the bottom of the pan. The dough will be thin and imperfect. If holes form, just pinch them together. It’s all going to work out, promise.

Drain the potatoes in a colander and use your hands to press out as much water as possible, then pat dry on paper towels. In a medium bowl, toss the potato slices with the onion, pepper, and olive oil. Spread this potato mixture over your dough, going all the way to the edges so that there’s no uncovered edge; put a bit more topping around the edges of the pie, as the outside tends to cook more quickly. Sprinkle evenly with rosemary. Usually the salt the potatoes were soaked in is enough, but you can sprinkle more on if desired.

Bake for 25 to 30 minutes, until the topping is starting to turn golden brown and the crust is nicely bronzed underneath. Serve pizza hot or at room temperature.

Jim Lahey’s Basic Pizza Dough

2 cups minus 1 tablespoon all-purpose or bread flour
1 1/4 teaspoons instant or active dry yeast
A heaped 1/4 teaspoon fine sea or table salt
A heaped 1/4 teaspoon granulated sugar
2/3 cups room temperature water

In a medium bowl, stir together the flour, yeast, salt, and sugar. Add the water and, using a wooden spoon or your hand, mix until well blended, about 30 seconds. Cover the bowl and let sit at room temperature until the dough has more than doubled in volume, about 2 hours. Continue using instructions above