This week’s box includes: Radishes, head of lettuce, cabbage, broccoli, tomatoes, cucumbers, summer squash (yellow & zucchini), Swiss chard, beets, celery, kale. 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 Ward Cameron over the years.
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More broccoli, you say? Yes, it is indeed the year of broccoli. I’m happy about that because it gives me one more shot at featuring this mac and cheese recipe from Chef Virginia Willis. Bon Apetite Y’all is my all-time favorite cookbook. Years later, she revised many of the recipes in her James Beard Award winning cookbook Lighten Up Y’all. Virginia’s approach to healthy eating does not vilify food groups, cravings, or desire for food that tastes delicious. This recipe remakes mac-n-cheese without the crazy calories.
Makeover Broccoli Mac and Cheese
1 cup shredded 50% reduced-fat extra-sharp Cheddar cheese
3/4 cup shredded 75% reduced-fat extra-sharp Cheddar cheese
2 tablespoons panko
½ teaspoon paprika
1 ¾ cups 2% milk
3 tablespoons unbleached all-purpose flour
1 cup low-fat cottage cheese, pureed
½ teaspoon dry mustard
Pinch freshly grated nutmeg
Coarse kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
8 ounces (2 cups) whole wheat elbow macaroni
12 ounces (4 cups) broccoli florets and steams
- Preheat oven to 450 F. Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil over high heat. Coat an 8 x 8 inch (2 quart) baking dish with cooking spray. Combine the two cheeses. Mix ¼ cup of the cheese mixture, the bread crumbs, and paprika in a small bowl. Set aside.
- To make the cheese sauce, heat 1 ½ cups of the milk in a large heavy saucepan over medium-high heat until simmering. Whisk remaining ¼ cup milk and the flour in a small bowl until smooth; add to the hot milk and cook, whisking constantly, until the sauce simmers and thickens, 2 to 3 minutes.
- Remove from heat and stir in the remaining 1 ½ cups of the cheese mixture and the pureed cottage cheese until melted. Stir in the dry mustard and nutmeg, and add salt and pepper to taste.
- Cook pasta according to package instructions. In the last 3 minutes of cooking, add the broccoli florets. Drain well and add to the cheese sauce; mix well. Spread the pasta-broccoli mixture in the prepared baking dish; sprinkle with the bread crumb mixture. Bake until bubble and golden brown, about 20 minutes. Remove to a rack to cool slightly. Serve warm.
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Another head of lettuce means it’s time for another Salad of the Week. Have you been to the Michelin-recommended (all about the laudatories this week) Talat Market in Summerhill? If you have, you likely encountered Chef Parnass’ crispy rice salad. If the freshest vegetables, fruits and herbs held a rave in Thailand, it would be this dish. Crispy rice studded with fresh herbs tossed in a dressing bursting with flavor equals crave-worth.
Of course you can’t find exactly that recipe online. But you can come close with the following recipe for Thai Nam Khao. Make it your own by featuring the veggies you have on hand: lettuce, shredded cabbage, cucumbers, spring onions, roasted beets, radish … even tomatoes would work. I’m serving it with lightly poached shrimp this evening.
At least one crispy rice salad recipe I tested recommended cooking the rice in the oven. Nope, did not work here. Perhaps my rice was too dry to begin with. The result was tooth-shattering. Better to use rice that is only a day old and fry it quickly on the stove top in a scant amount of high temperature oil, as recommended below.
Thai Crispy Rice Salad (Nam Khao Tod)
Rice:
About 2½ cups cooked jasmine rice, preferably day-old
1 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 to 2 tablespoons red curry paste (nam prik kang ped)
Vegetable oil for deep frying
Dressing:
1 heaping tablespoon chile jam (nam prik pao)
1 tablespoon sugar
6 tablespoons fish sauce
Juice of 1½ limes
Salad:
¼ head cabbage, finely shredded
¼ head lettuce, chopped
1 cucumber, peeled and sliced thinly
½ cup roughly chopped green onion
1 cup roughly chopped cilantro, plus more for garnish
1 cup mint leaves, roughly chopped
½ cup fresh basil, roughly chopped
½ lb shrimp, poached
1 cup roasted peanuts
Season cold rice with salt and red curry paste mixing it in by hand to separate the rice into individual grains. Taste and adjust the seasoning if desired.
Optional: Sprinkle a few tablespoons of rice flour over the seasoned rice and continue working by hand, gently rubbing the rice to separate it into individual grains. Add more rice flour a little at a time as necessary. When you are done, the rice should feel very dry and separate. Place in refrigerator for 30 minutes to dry.
Meanwhile, add enough vegetable oil to a deep pot so it goes halfway up the sides. Heat the oil until a thermometer inserted reaches 355 degrees.
Sprinkle the rice into the heated oil a handful at a time. (Test the temperature of the oil with a single grain first to make sure that it’s ready. The oil should bubble profusely and slowly settle down as the rice fries to a light golden color.) Fry rice grains in batches. When the bubbles have subsided, about 45 seconds, remove fried rice with a fine mesh strainer and transfer to a paper towel-lined tray to drain. Repeat with the remaining rice.
Combine the chile jam, sugar, lime juice, and fish sauce. Stir or whisk until combined.
In a large bowl, toss shredded cabbage, lettuce, cucumber, green onion, and chopped herbs. Very lightly dress with the fish sauce mixture, tossing to coat well. Do not over-dress.
Fold in shrimp and rice, tossing quickly to mix. Top with peanuts. Divide the mixture into servings, and garnish each with a little more chopped cilantro. Serve immediately.
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This week’s message was going to include a separate recipe for Shrimp Spring Rolls, however, simply wrapping the leftovers of this salad (if there are any) in rice spring roll wrappers with more fresh basil and rice vermicelli noodles will do the job. Done and done.
The gracious plenty of greens in this week’s box remind me to remind you to check our website for Swiss chard and celery recipes. If you didn’t have the chance to make this yet, the Lowland Celery Salad is not to be missed.
Finally, cabbage. A head of cabbage can be daunting. Humans probably harbor ancient memories of how cabbages would feed us in the hard winter times. Being faced with an abundance of cabbage might trigger …. feelings.
Fear not the cabbage. If you have a mandolin, now is the time to put it to good use. If you don’t, get one. Half a head of cabbage shreds up to a bowl full of fluffy threads in nothing flat. Do the same with half a sweet onion and you’ve got a side dish ready for whatever sauce you want to put on it. Lots of ideas for dressings are here on our cabbage recipe page. Shredding cabbage thinly – more thinly that you can do with that knife no matter how sharp – makes cabbage more enjoyable to eat and probably easier to digest to boot.
For those of you wanting to do away with the entire head in one meal, check out the recipe below for Cabbage Steaks from MarthaStewart.com. They season the cabbage with caraway or fennel, but me, I’d rather use garam masala or za’atar and avoid the troublesome seeds. Chef Steven Satterfield’s Garam Masala recipe is also below, from his Vegetable Revelations cookbook, another winner.
Cabbage Steaks
From Marthastewart.com
1 tablespoon plus 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1 medium head green cabbage, cut into 1-inch thick rounds
Coarse salt and ground pepper
1 teaspoon caraway or fennel seeds
Preheat oven to 400F. Line a rimmed baking sheet with aluminum foil; brush foil with 1 tablespoon olive oil. Place cabbage slabs in a single layer on the sheet and brush tops with remaining 2 tablespoons of oil.
Season with coarse salt, ground pepper, and sprinkle with 1 teaspoon of caraway or fennel seeds. Roast in oven until cabbage is tender and edges are golden, 40 – 45 minutes.
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Garam Masala Spice Blend
From Chef Steve Satterfield’s Vegetable Revelations
Makes about ½ cup.
2 tablespoons coriander seeds
2 tablespoons cumin seeds
1 tablespoon green cardamom pods
1 tablespoon whole black peppercorns
1 (3-inch) cinnamon stick
1 teaspoon whole cloves
1 teaspoon freshly grated mace or nutmeg
Combine the coriander, cumin, cardamom, peppercorns, cinnamon stick, and cloves in a medium skillet and set it over medium heat. Cook, swirling and stirring the spices around in the pan, until they smell toasted and take on a slightly darker hue, about 2 minutes. Transfer the toasted spices to a plate to cool, then pulverize in a spice grinder or mortar and pestle to a power. Transfer to an airtight container and mix in the mace or nutmeg. The spice blend will keep in a dark place at room temperature for up to 6 months.
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We promise, garlic is coming next week. Would you believe there was no room for it this week? The bunch of kale will patiently wait in your refrigerator’s vegetable drawer for the garlic, if you’re wanting another chance to make Pasta with Kale Pesto.
Here’s to enjoying all of your veg this week,
~ Suzanne