Contents of this week’s box: Romaine, kale, butterhead lettuce, bok choy, tomatoes, green onions, cauliflower (or broccoli), more strawberries!
This must be the best strawberry season ever. Quarts of strawberries three weeks in a row may be a Riverview record. (Maybe I need to start keeping a chart!) With the first quart, I made strawberry pops – both plain and strawberry-basil. I posted a link to that strawberry-basil pop recipe posted two weeks ago. We’ve got six more strawberry recipes at grassfedcow.com. That’s not very many which tells me I’ve expected you have your own ideas for what to do with the first fruit of our season. Last week’s box was sliced up with a bunch of navel oranges – the cara cara ones that are the pretty pink and sweet, and the heirloom navel oranges they’re marketing these days. I’m not sure why I’m craving oranges in May, but there you are. Along with sliced strawberries, and sometimes a little ginger syrup, that’s been breakfast every day for a week. For today’s box, I’ll make that kale and lettuce and strawberry salad we posted four years ago. I’ve got everything (mostly from today’s box) including a bit of basil I bought from a hydrophonic farmer. That’s dinner.
Don’t let that bok choy wilt in the refrigerator. Lots of bok choy recipes at grassfedcow.com. I’ll make Ten Minute Bok Choy later this week.
I’m surprised at the number of recipes we have for cauliflower since that’s not a frequent occupant of our boxes. I’ve got one more for you, a recipe we ran in the AJC almost exactly a year ago. Really delicious. Fancy directions for if you’re working with charcoal, but I am lazy and just fire up the gas grill to make this.
Cauliflower Steaks with Beer-Raisin Glaze
In “The Outdoor Kitchen,” Eric Werner says it’s one of the best vegetables to grill because it holds up well to high heat and tastes even better when deeply browned or charred.
Cauliflower
Oil, for coating
Salt and pepper
Beer-Raisin Glaze (see recipe)
Wipe the grill grates with oil to prevent sticking. Build a two-zone fire. Your high-heat zone should have embers 1 to 2 inches from the cooking surface, with occasional flames licking it. To create your medium-heat zone, nudge the embers 2 to 3 inches lower than that.
Meanwhile, trim the leaves and stem from a cauliflower and place it stem side up on a cutting board. Starting where the florets attach to the core, slice vertically at 1-inch intervals; you should end up with 2 or 3 “steaks” and loose florets from either end (reserve these for another purpose, such as adding to a salad or grilling as a side dish for another meal).
Rub the cauliflower steaks with the oil and season with salt and pepper. Place directly on the grill grates over high heat and cook until well charred in spots, about 4 minutes, then flip and repeat on the other side. Move to medium heat and cook for another 5 to 10 minutes, turning often. Cauliflower is done when a fork pierces it easily.
Serve with a drizzle of the glaze, making sure each serving gets a few raisins. Serves 4.
Beer-Raisin Glaze
1 (12-ounce) can dark beer
1/2 cup dark or light raisins
1 mulato or ancho chile, stemmed and seeded
1 tablespoon butter
1/2 teaspoon salt, plus more for seasoning
Combine the beer, raisins, chile, butter and salt in a saucepan over high heat and bring to a boil. Move the pan to medium heat and simmer until the liquid has thickened and is syrupy, about 20 minutes. Remove from the heat and discard the chiles. Set aside. Makes 3/4 cup.