This week’s box included: fall bounty of potatoes, green beans, bok choy, green leaf lettuce, Kirby cucumbers, summer squash (yellow and zucchini), apples, radishes, green peppers. You can see a photo that can help with identification on our Facebook page or check out our weekly video on Instagram.
Need storage instructions? Visit our fruit & veggie home pages. Click on the pic and a new page opens with storage instructions and a list of recipes curated by Conne over the years.
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I drove back into town Tuesday evening after a week in South Carolina. First errand after dropping off the dogs at home was to go back out and pick up our Riverview box.
So excited to see green beans because I’ve been wanting to share a no-cook recipe we ran back in July on Lao salads. The source was Ilene Rouamvongsor and you may have met her at one of the Community Farmers Markets where she occasionally does chef demos and shares recipes. I’m giving you a much abridged version of her Thum Mak Tua which is a salad traditionally made with long beans, pounded with peppers, garlic, sugar and shrimp paste and then dressed with two kinds of fish sauce. Ilene would not be pleased with my truncated version (sorry!) but this is a version I can make with just things that are always in my pantry. And it’s delicious.
We got a huge bunch of turnip greens this week and I’m going to make the crustless quiche we’ve posted at grassfedcow.com. (Note that the URL says it’s for spicy spaghetti squash with shrimp – but it’s not!) The original recipe called for creme fraiche and because I’m lazy and want to use what’s in the refrigerator, I’m making mine with sour cream. Which is exactly what I did last year when we posted the recipe. And will probably add a cup or so of shredded cheese of some sort since that makes it more appealing to the guy who lives here. 🙂 The recipe last year called for kale, but really, you can use any green. So this week, it’s turnip greens.
But that will still leave me with lots of greens. And (in our case) a bok choy. So I’ll be browsing the recipes for greens (maybe the Twice-Baked Green Potatoes we posted back in 2017) and for bok choy (there are over two dozen recipes there and I’m thinking Spicy Ginger Pork Noodles.
And still I’m likely to have some green things left over. I’ll saute what’s left in a little bit of olive oil and add thinly sliced garlic and a pinch of dried red pepper flakes. Kosher salt to taste. Now I have something I can add to other dishes. I’ve had my eye on a savory kugel recipe and can dice up our squash (we didn’t get zucchini, just yellow squash) and add along with greens. So there’s another dinner that is just as delicious cold as it is hot.
I wish we’d have actual cool weather … and some rain! … but I’m not going to hold back. It’s time for an apple cake. I love the idea of the recipe below – seems like it will be similar to a Dutch baby. Making that tonight.
Thum Mak Tua (Long Bean Salad)
4 Thai chili peppers, stems removed, cut into thirds, more if desired
2 cloves garlic
2 teaspoons cane or granulated sugar
3/4 pound green beans, ends trimmed and cut into 2-inch lengths
1 Roma tomato, cored and cut into quarters
1/2 cup thinly sliced shallots
Juice of 1 lime
4 tablespoons fish sauce
In a large mortar and pestle, combine peppers, garlic, sugar and shrimp paste. Pound until mixture has formed a thick paste. Add green beans and pound vigorously until beans are bruised. Add tomato, shallots, lime juice, padaek and filtered fish sauce. Gently pound and toss together. Serve cold or at room temperature.
Bolzano Apple Cake
From Alexandra Stafford of alexandracooks.com. This is a recipe her mother tore out of The New York Times back in 2004 (all my recipe roads seem to point there!) and she’s been making for almost 20 years.
1 stick butter, plus more for greasing pan
2 eggs
1 cup granulated sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla
3 cups peeled and sliced apples
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 cup milk at room temperature
powdered sugar
Heat oven to 375 degrees. Grease a nine-inch-circle pan with butter. Cut a circle of parchment paper to fit the bottom of the pan and place inside pan. Grease sides of pan and parchment round with butter.
Melt butter in small saucepan. Set aside.
Beat together eggs and half of sugar in a bowl. Continue to beat while slowly adding remaining sugar until thick — it should form a ribbon when dropped from spoon. Add vanilla.
Whisk butter into the sugar-egg mixture. Add the salt and baking powder and whisk to combine. Whisk in the milk. Whisk in the flour. Add the apples, and use a spatula to incorporate them, coating every piece with batter. Pour the batter into the prepared pan.
Bake for 55 to 60 minutes or until the cake pulls away slightly from the pan and is brown on top. Cool for at least 30 minutes, then cut into wedges sprinkling each with powdered sugar if desired.