This week’s box included: kale, turnip greens, green leaf lettuce, Napa cabbage, peppers, cucumbers, sweet potatoes, spaghetti squash, apples, tomato, eggplant, green beans.
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Green is the certainly the color of this week’s box. For us: kale, Napa cabbage, turnip greens, a big head of frilly lettuce, green peppers, green beans, green apples.
With all those leafy greens, it’s easy to feel a bit overwhelmed, and if your refrigerator is like mine, there’s not necessarily room for all that. We are breaking up the lettuce into bite size pieces and spinning it dry, then it goes into a produce bag and it’s ready for salads at a moment’s notice. I’ll spare a few whole leaves for sandwiches, which are my favorite, but my husband wants his lettuce in salad form. He also requires a tomato for his salads so it was lovely to see one in the box. I’ll have to get to a farmers market for a few more.
I’m sauteing the kale and turnip greens and freezing them for those winter weeks when there’s no Riverview box and I’m wishing there were leafy greens on hand. The Napa cabbage went into a cotton produce bag and will be refrigerated where it will keep for a surprisingly long time. It may not come out until November!
The peppers will sit on the counter where I hope they will turn red before they begin to wilt. Sometimes that works, sometimes it doesn’t. After last week’s raw green bean salad, this week I’m cooking the beans. I have been craving a hearty stew and will make Stella Dillard’s Beef Curry Noodles and add green beans to her recipe. It’s down below – a long one but delicious and well worth the time. With temperatures in the 40s coming our way, I love having a recipe like this on tap. Just cooking it is warming enough. The AJC ran this recipe in October 2022.
But none of us are immune to what is happening in the world. And I find today that food writers are reflecting on what is happening in Israel. This morning Lean Koenig of “The Jewish Kitchen” sent her Substack subscribers a bit of edible comfort – a cross between baked apples and an apple crisp. It’s a brilliant idea, simple in execution, and comforting, indeed.
Baked Apples (But Make It A Crisp)
From Leah Koenig of “The Jewish Kitchen.”
4-5 medium baking apples, unpeeled
1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
3/4 packed cup light brown sugar
1/4 cup all-purpose flour (gluten free all-purpose is okay)
1 cup rolled oats (not instant)
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
3/4 teaspoon ground cardamom
1 teaspoon grated lemon zest
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
1/4 cup apple juice/cider or water
Heat oven to oven to 375 degrees.
Halve apples lengthwise (through the stem and core). Using a melon baller or small, sturdy spoon, scoop out and discard the cores and seeds. Arrange the halved apples, cored-side up, in a 9×9 inch square baking dish.
In a bowl, combine the softened butter with the brown sugar, flour, oats, cinnamon, cardamom, lemon zest, and salt. Using your fingers, a potato masher, or a fork, press and combine the ingredients until it forms a crumbly mixture.
Divide the topping amongst the apples, mounding and pressing it generously over the surface of each apple. Carefully pour the juice (or water) into the baking dish, taking care not to pour it directly over the apples. Bake until the fruit is tender and juicy, and the crisp topping is golden, 40-50 minutes. (The total time will depend on what variety of apple you use and how soft you like the apples to be.) Serve warm or at room temperature, drizzled with some of the juices from the baking dish.
Dandelion Food’s Beef Curry Noodles
Stella uses leafy greens in her recipe, and any of today’s greens would work just fine. I’m subbing in those green beans.
Beef Curry Broth
Dillard suggests that Kaffir lime leaves, fresh spices in small quantities and wide array of yellow curry pastes can be found at Buford Highway Farmers Market. For the curry paste, she recommends reading the ingredient lists and trying a few to find your favorite.
2 pounds beef bones
1/2 pound beef trimmings, all fat removed, if bones are not meaty
3 medium onions, peel on, plus 1/2 onion for garnish
1 3-inch pieces ginger, peel on, divided
1 head garlic, peel on, plus 1 clove for garnish
2 teaspoons pepper
1/2 teaspoon fenugreek
1 tablespoon turmeric
16 cups water, more if needed
2 1/4 cups coconut milk
2 tablespoons yellow curry paste, more if desired
4 kaffir lime leaves
1 1/2 tablespoons dark brown sugar
1 1/2 lime, zested and juiced
Salt
1 teaspoon coconut oil
Sliced Thai basil, scallions and cilantro, for garnish
Heat oven to 450 degrees.
Arrange bones and beet chuck trimmings, if using, on a rimmed baking sheet and roast until deep brown, 25 to 45 minutes.
At the same time, in a medium cast iron skillet, arrange 3 onions, 1 piece ginger and 1 head garlic and roast until skins are brown, shaking skillet occasionally to turn vegetables. Onions and garlic will take about 15 minutes, ginger about 25 minutes. Remove from oven. When vegetables are cool enough to touch, cut onions and garlic in half and slice ginger.
While bones and vegetables are roasting, in a dry skillet over medium-high heat, toast pepper and fenugreek, stirring constantly, until fragrant, about 30 seconds. Set aside.
In a Dutch oven, combine roasted beef bones and chuck trimmings if used, roasted onion halves, ginger slices and garlic halves, toasted pepper and fenugreek and turmeric. Add water, making sure everything is covered, adding more if needed. Bring to a boil over high heat, then reduce heat and simmer, periodically skimming any foam or scum that rises to the surface. Simmer partially covered 6 hours, or preferably overnight, adding water to cover ingredients as necessary. Add coconut milk, curry paste, lime leaves, and simmer 1 hour. Remove from heat and strain stock, discarding solids. Season broth with brown sugar, lime zest and lime juice. Add salt to taste.
To serve broth alone: Dice remaining 1/2 onion, mince remaining 1-inch piece ginger and remaining garlic clove. In a small skillet, melt coconut oil over medium heat. Add diced onions and minced ginger and garlic and cook until lightly browned, about 5 minutes. Garnish individual servings with sauteed onion, ginger, garlic and sliced Thai basil, scallions and cilantro.
Makes: 8 cups
Per cup: 198 calories (percent of calories from fat, 75), 3 grams protein, 10 grams carbohydrates, 3 grams fiber, 18 grams total fat (15 grams saturated), 5 milligrams cholesterol, 37 milligrams sodium.
Beef Curry Soup with Noodles
8 cups Beef Curry Broth (see recipe)
1/2 pound beef chuck, trimmed, cut into bite-size pieces
1 pound Yukon gold potatoes, cut into bite-size pieces
Salt and pepper
1 pound greens (such as kale or spinach), stems removed and chopped
3 ounces chuka soba noodles
Sliced Thai basil, scallions and cilantro, for garnish
In a Dutch oven over medium heat, bring broth to a simmer. Add beef chuck and simmer 90 minutes or until tender. Add potatoes and simmer 15 minutes or until tender. Season to taste with salt and pepper.
When potatoes have been added to the soup, bring a large pot of water to a boil. Set a bowl of ice water to the side. Chop greens and add to boiling water. Cook 2 minutes or until blanched, then using a sieve or slotted spot, remove greens to bowl of ice water. Quickly toss, then squeeze to remove water and set aside.
Cook noodles in salted water according to package directions.
Divide greens and noodles between bowls. Ladle broth, beef and potatoes into bowls and garnish with sliced Thai basil, scallions and cilantro. Serve immediately.
Serves: 6
Per serving: 478 calories (percent of calories from fat, 54), 18 grams protein, 41 grams carbohydrates, 8 grams fiber, 30 grams total fat (23 grams saturated), 32 milligrams cholesterol, 204 milligrams sodium.