Tuesday, July 29, 2008

flavor of the day: cumin

Farm day today. We seem to be just starting to get cherry tomatoes. I picked two quarts today and saw loads of flowers and green tomatoes on the vines. This could be The Summer of the Tomato, though last year, we had plenty, too.

I was all set to make a curry tonight except that it was too hot. And I was going to make raita -- usually "stuff" (often cucumbers) with yogurt. I got most of the way through the raita only to discover that our yogurt smelled like bad cheese, so we made an abrupt executive decision and had something similar but not quite.

The salad portion of the meal included:
- cucumbers from last week, peeled, quartered, seeded, and sliced.
- micro-steamed cubed potatos, super sweet beets, and garlic, then rapi-cooled
- sauteed cumin and mustard seeds and half an onion (oh yeah, the other half went into that cole slaw I made on Saturday), cooled
- halved cherry tomatoes
- feta cheese
- chopped parsley
All tossed in a light vinaigrette. Turned out well.

On the side, I served rice and tiny sliced carrots, which I'd steamed along with olive oil, butter, more cumin seeds, and a little cardamom.

We had a fresh peach, grapes, and chocolate for dessert.

Another success.

This week's farm share will be easier to get through because my share partner is back from vacation, so we'll only be faced with half of it once again. We'll have no trouble eating the tomatoes (though maybe I shouldn't speak in the plural). We have a smaller amount of lettuce to go through than in past weeks, a lot of carrots and cucumbers, some fresh mozzarella, a few herbs. We also have another huge beautiful onion, some rainbow chard, and a little summer squash.

MMM, maybe a little sautee with squash, onion, and tomato would be good, with some minced garlic and ginger thrown in at the last minute. Or maybe all that with chard instead of squash.

Thursday evening, I'll need to plan something quick because we have 8pm theater tickets. I'll see what else inspires me during the week. (oh! pesto! We're still working on last year's batch with this year's bounty just around the corner!)

Monday, July 28, 2008

yummy eggplant

At the farm stand yesterday, I couldn't resist three tiny baby eggplants. They were so cute! And purple! Suddenly I wanted yu-siang (sp?) eggplant -- that tangy, sweet, salty dish that's sometimes actually good. Mr. P has a huge Chinese cookbook which I consulted and tried to follow (I'm not all that great at precisely following recipes ). To the recipe, I added onion (actually, a huge gorgeous organic onion from last week's farm run), which I sauteed and set aside. Then I cut up eggplant rectangles and sauteed them on fairly high heat for a while. The recipe called for two cups of oil (YOOOWWW) and I did use more oil than I usually do, but not nearly that much. I cooked the eggplants until tasty and not overcooked.

You remove the eggplants from the heat, and in very quick succession cook minced garlic and ginger, add eggplant, toss, add a sugar-soy mixture, combine, stir in some vinegar, let it steam off, and at that point, I removed it from the heat and added toasted sesame oil and topped with chopped scallions.

We served it on rice with, what else, a side of salad (including some homemade mozzarella, not made in this home).

It was delicious, certainly not bad for a first attempt. The only thing I'd add on the second attempt would be something spicy -- Chinese pepper, chili sauce, or hot oil. But otherwise, wow. I didn't know I could make that.

The farm supplies from last week are almost gone, except for a huge pile of cucumbers and a smaller pile of carrots, and a few odds and ends. Maybe we'll have raita tomorrow night, which might require us to cook something containing paneer, which implies something curried. We'll see what we pick up at the farm and go from there. If cauliflower, then it'll be easy to add a couple of potatoes, maybe some peas, paneer, spices, and we'd call it a meal.

Sunday, July 27, 2008

first corn of the season

This afternoon, I drove over to the local organic farm stand and picked up some corn. For dinner, we had two ears each plus a lot of salad, for which I steamed, then cooled, a small potato and a couple of beets. Our salad also included Feta cheese and half an avocado.

Oh -- cooking corn. I shuck it, wrap each ear in wax paper, and pop them in the microwave for about two minutes each. I like it with butter and salt; Mr. P likes it with olive oil. First corn of the season is such a treat, an exciting and notable occasion.

Saturday, July 26, 2008

dinner - yum

Lots of good fresh food lately, supplemented by a raid on the grocery store for a few out-of-season, non-local items I was craving.

We've been eating salads nearly every night. I'm starting to think of them as "kitchen sink" meals because we load them up with just about anything we can think of -- lots of farm lettuce, leftovers, various cheeses, steamed and cooled vegetables, and so on. Salads around here are not boring.

One night, we had a tiny salad with farm cucumbers, farm carrots, and a store tomato, with a dressing of vinegar, soy sauce, and toasted sesame oil. Very tasty.

It's been fairly cool, so we've also been cooking. One night, we had alio y olio -- pasta with olive oil sauteed garlic (store bought but organic) and farm peas, topped with romano cheese.

Tuesday, farm day, Mr. P made string bean thoren, that delicous south indian dish that includes shredded coconut and sauteed rice and mustard seeds.

A few nights ago, we had summer squash canoes -- hollowed out summer squash, topped with sauteed onion, garlic, and multigrain bread, then roasted for a short while under tender but not mooshy. Mr. P thought they were delicous, despite his antipathy toward zucchini and its ilk.

Last weekend, we attended a potluck party to which we brought a salad (natch) and a dish made of cubed watermelon, blueberries, feta cheese, and fresh mint. Although some people were a bit cool to the fruit dish, a few people raved about it.

Today, we're off to a party to which we'll bring cole slaw, mostly because we have a head of farm cabbage in the fridge and after getting no carrots at the farm, I bought a bunch, only to get a load of farm carrots this week. I think I've found a decent recipe for dressing that is vegan, so I'll give that a try (oil, vinegar, sugar, mustard, celery seed, salt, chopped onion).

Thursday, July 17, 2008

last few meals

I've been a little lame about posting. The farm is really starting to explode and we've had loads of salad of late. Sometimes I put in leftover rice. For one salad, I steamed, then cooled, chopped, and added a bunch of potatoes, beets, and cauliflower. Last night, we added homemade mozzarella cheese, which I occasionally pick up at the farm.

A few other meals:
  • Roasted cauliflower -- chopped cauliflower, onions, and paneer tossed in olive oil, cumin seeds, ginger, garlic, and cayenne, then roasted in then oven. That night, I also sauteed (but did not pop) a lot of mustard seeds, then added chopped greens, lowered the heat, and steamed for a while. We tossed the greens with tahini and umeboshi plum paste and served brown rice on the side.
  • A variation on the pasta and pesto meal. This time, I sauteed onions, then added greens broccoli, and cauliflower, and covered. When done, we tossed everything together. We *still* have pesto from last year and I imagine we'll start getting basil in large quantities soon.
  • Tuesday, I made a shredded salad that looked rather festive. I got out the food processor and used the grating disk, processing summer squash, beets, and carrots. I chopped cucumber and some fresh green beans and we peeled some fresh peas and added some fresh herbs. The dressing was carrot juice, peanut butter, a little vinegar, some cayenne, and we added small amounts of chopped cheddar cheese at the table.

I'm finding that we're barely keeping up with our half-large share at the farm. I can't imagine taking on a small share by ourselves without giving or tossing away some of it. Right now, we're getting loads of lettuce and greens, radicchio, herbs, many kinds of summer squash, carrots and beets are starting, cucumbers, broccoli (though none this week - I took kale instead), snap peas, green beans, favas, fresh flowers. This week, I took home three very full grocery store plastic checkout bags and gave another three equally full bags to my share partner. Next week, my partner is away, so I get the entire large share to myself. I suspect I'll be handing a good deal of it out to neighbors or friends.

Wednesday, July 9, 2008

farm and dinner

The tyranny of vegetables has started at the farm, so much so that I didn't take everything we were offered yesterday. I did take extra cauliflower, though (there was some on the "free table"). It's sooo tasty. The clusters are looser than what we get in the store, and the flavor is subtle and delicious. Oh gosh, we got peas, lettuce, chard, bok choy, kale, cabbage, squash, herbs, and I'm sure I'm leaving something out. Garlic scapes and strawberries appear to be done already.

Last night, it was terribly hot so we had a giant salad again, including some store-bought veggies. We threw in peas, lettuce, cabbage, feta cheese, brown rice that I'd tossed with toasted sesame oil, radishes, mushrooms, and some chopped herbs. I also steamed a little cauliflower, cooled it down, and added it to the salad. Oh, it was tasty. Yum.

If it's hot again tonight, we'll have more salad. However, I'm dying to roast the cauliflower. I bet it would be good covered with oil and cumin seeds before roasting. We also have a mess of greens to eat up. I'm hankering for my tahini-umeboshi plum sauce again.

I find that most years, the summer zooms by. With the farm, at least I notice that the summer is happening, from tender green of the spring to deep yellows and oranges of the fall.

Monday, July 7, 2008

been cookin'

The weather has cooled off enough that we've actually been eating some warm food for dinner.

A few nights ago, I used up half a farm cauliflower, along with sauteed onions and edamame from the freezer in an Indian simmer sauce -- one of those jarred sauces that are really tasty. I supplemented the taste a bit by toasting cumin and mustard seeds before adding the onions. Later this summer, we'll have a few weeks of farm edamame, but they're not ready yet.

Two nights ago, I used farm broccoli, chopped kale, and garlic scapes, along with onions, to make a weird broccoli with bread crumb dish. The bread crumbs were mixed with farm parsley, some pepper, and a French herb mix, oh, and some Romano cheese. When all the ingredients were "well acquainted," I sprinkled on some lemon juice. The whole thing was fairly moist. Next time, I might mix the Romano in separately or sprinkle it on top, but the dish was fairly good anyways.

Last night, Mr. P made cabbage thoren. We had loads of farm cabbage (regular and napa) and a great thoren recipe. Given that we never see thoren on Indian restaurant menus, it's probably the reciped Indian dish we make the most. It has shredded coconut, toasted brown rice, and toasted seeds and it works as well with cabbage as it does with asparagus or green beans. Yum.

We served all dishes on brown rice, with a tasty salad to accompany.

Despite our massive salad consumption, we'll likely have leftover lettuce at the end of this week, so we may end up tossing it in favor of the next fresher batch. I guess this is a good year for green stuff! But tonight, we'll probably have a tasty salad, with additions from the grocery store, things that aren't in season yet or won't be -- peppers, shrooms, feta cheese, scallions (which are in season but we only got them one week -- maybe it was a "thinning" batch?).

And then tomorrow is another farm day -- hooray!

Wednesday, July 2, 2008

many meals

Thursday, we were running a little low on salad supplements, so I stopped in at our local independently-owned health food store and stocked up on an avocado, some organic cherry tomatoes, mushrooms, a red pepper, and a lot of organic broccoli, which I'd been craving. Now that I work in the neighborhood, I forget how easy it is to stop off on my way home, quickly snag some produce, pay, and dash out. It's maybe an extra 7.5 minutes off my evening. And they're *so* nice there! It's also a good incentive to leave work at a reasonable hour.

That night, we indeed had a fresh salad with the rest of the smoked salmon, some fresh mozzarella, lots of fresh lettuce, garlic scapes, tomatoes, some of the pepper, mushroom, and avocado.

Friday and Saturday, I had dinner with friends but I did get that omelette in, a little two-egger filled with sauteed mushrooms, onions, and parsley, with cheddar cheese.

Sunday night, we had another salad. I made a tiny stir fry with onions, chopped baby beets, mushrooms, and fresh peas I'd picked the day before. We also had strawberry soup -- fresh strawberries, yogurt, mint, and water put through the food processor. It would probably be good with a little sour cream on top, too, but there was none in the house. For dessert, we had fresh baklava, brought back from Mr. P's trip to New Jersey. The rest of the baklava went into the freezer. We'll eat it over the course of the next few months.

Monday, we had pesto-stuffed gnocchi (Trader Joe's) with broccoli (finally), ginger, and my own pesto. I was so stuffed that I didn't want dessert. Based on a recipe in the farm newsletter, I made a quart of pickled broccoli, which we'll eat in a week. It might be horrible, in which case we'll never have it again.

And last night was farm pickup night. We had a big salad with fresh strawberries, romano cheese, turnips, garlic scapes, the rest of the red pepper, some fresh peas, fresh herbs (probably basil and parsley), and raw pine nuts.

I also made a little stir-fry over high heat of fresh zucchini, garlic scapes, and chopped spinach. Mr. P typically hates zucchini and says the stuff should be licensed. I never buy it. It is good raw and I might grate it into a salad later this summer. But I thought I'd try cooking this little guy. And it worked! Mr. P got to the seconds before I could and said "Can I finish it?" and then realized what he'd said. He couldn't get over how much he liked it. (Tiny victory dance.) We'll probably have an opportunity to try the same trick with brussels sprouts later this summer.

Not sure what's up for the rest of the week. We now have some yummy cooking vegetables in the house -- broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, kale. Depending on the misery index (temperature plus humidity), we may cook some of it up and eat it cold later.