This week’s box included: butternut squash, turnip greens (or mustard greens), peppers, salad cucumber, okra, potatoes, lettuce, Napa cabbage, apples
Conne is out of town and away from her box this week. This is Suzanne, her back-up.
First, a confession. It’s Wednesday night, and this week’s box has yet to be unpacked here. After finishing this message, I’ll be soaking the turnip greens in cold water to revive them and tucking the radishes, peppers, and cukes into the refrigerator. The potatoes, apples, and butternuts live in baskets on the counter, in the very hot last-day-of-summer air.
Okra, you’re getting pan fried, again, for dinner tonight. I just can’t beat cutting them lengthwise, tossing with salt, pepper, cornmeal, and a pinch of paprika then searing them in a small amount of oil. A toss with Maldon smoked salt sends them over the top. The kid here will eat them, thanks to ranch dressing.
For expedient’s sake, here are my quick suggestions for this week’s bounty, along with a recipe that features poblano peppers.
GREENS: Have you seen our greens recipe section? The last time I counted, there were nearly 100 greens recipes there. Surely one will strike your fancy. The turnip greens that we get in our boxes are prized for their mild flavor that plays well in any greens recipe.
To keep up with the greens that don’t get eaten within a few days: chop them up, spread them over a parchment covered sheet, freeze, then transfer the frozen chips to a bag for freezer storage and you’re all set to enjoy them over the winter, one handful at a time. Conne may disagree with skipping the blanching step. I can’t tell the difference.
APPLES: They’re backing up in our kitchen. I like to peel, core, slice, and freeze the surplus and use them later in our favorite Conne recipe of all time, German Apple Pancake for the Day After Thanksgiving. This recipe has replaced regular old pancakes in our house — blasphemy!! It conserves time at the stove, and is egg-centric which is healthier for our insulin-resistant eater. We save money on maple syrup too. Sorry, Canada. There are a bevy of apple recipes on our apple page if you’re needing more inspiration.
Finally, I was excited to see the first fall radishes to appear! This is a testament to the seasonal, rotational eating that the CSA lifestyle promotes. I would never purchase a radish from a store, but now thanks to the farm I’m excited to see them. My favorite Radish Sandwich recipe was contributed by Conne a while back, from Steven Satterfield’s cookbook.
This week’s box included a small bag of hot peppers with jalapenos, habaneros, and poblanos. The heat in poblanos can vary – sometimes mild, sometimes hot. This recipe came my way from the Splendid Table and is originally from Rick Bayless’ cookbook More Mexican Everyday. I like to save up my poblanos until I have enough for this recipe, but you could also substitute some bell peppers. The recipe suggests using the rajas as part of a vegetarian taco filling. We did that, then enjoyed the remainder in a creamy chicken dish later in the week. In addition to vegetarian tacos, rajas are the perfect accompaniment to grilled meat or fish tacos, to steak or pork chops, or to grilled, sauteed, or broiled fish or chicken.
Roasted Poblano Strips with Cream (Rajas a la Crema)
4 (about 1 pound) medium fresh poblano chiles
2 tablespoons vegetable or olive oil
1 large white onion, sliced ¼ inch thick
2 garlic cloves, peeled and finely chopped
½ teaspoon dried oregano, preferably Mexican
¾ cup Mexican crema, crème fraiche or heavy cream
½ teaspoon salt
Roast peppers over a gas flame over high heat, turning frequently. The heat should be so intense that the tough skin of the chiles will blister and blacken without softening the flesh too much. (I rest my chiles on the burner, directly in the flame.) When chiles are evenly blackened, enclose them in a paper sack or in a bowl covered with a kitchen towel. When the chiles have cooled enough to be handled, rub (or rinse) off the charred skin, remove the seed pod, seeds, and the interior fiber ribs that can concentrate the chiles’ heat.
Slice roasted chiles into ¼-inch strips.
Heat oil over medium-high in a 12-inch skillet. When hot, add the onion and cook, stirring regularly, until the richly browned but still a little crunchy, about 7 minutes. Stir in the garlic and dried oregano.
After a minute, stir in the chile strips and Mexican crema. When the cream has thickened enough to coat the chiles nicely – that takes only a couple of minutes over the medium-high heat, though it needs to be stirred nearly constantly – season with salt to taste.