Tuesday, September 3, 2013

CSA Harvest Week 17: Edamame Treats

CSA Harvest Week 17: Edamame Treats

Check out all of the new pepper recipes below.  Remember, you can freeze peppers. You can choose to blanch them or just stuff the chopped peppers into a freezer bag. Check out this helpful guide.  http://www.pickyourown.org/peppersfreezing.htm

Farm Fresh Harvest
Arugula- Spicy!  The arugula grew a little taller than we usually let it get, so it is spicy!  Pair it with sweet dried cranberries, honey mustard dressing, and toasted walnuts.   For those of you who think it a little too spicy raw, try this.  Make an arugula pesto with walnuts. Check out this blog post! http://www.simplyrecipes.com/recipes/arugula_pesto/
Radish- Spicy little radishes.  To help make them more mild…grate, slice, or chop and add salt and olive oil.  Let marinate for about 5-10 minutes before eating.
Edamame- Pluck the pods from the stems. Steam or boil the pods for 4 minutes. Splash with soysauce. The sweet beans will just pop out. They are packed with flavor AND nutrients. The plants are enthusiastic producers of the beans.
Fresh edamame is a special, nutritious treat.  The beans are Delicious baby soybeans . You may have had the edamame appetizer at a Japenese restaurant. The frozen pods are always tasty, but you can’t beat the delicious fresh ones! At home you can recreate the edamame appetizer. The beans are boiled or steamed whole in the pod, drained, and sprinkled with soy sauce. 8-10 minutes of boiling or steaming makes lightly cooked beans. Edamame, like all legumes, is high in protein, B vitamins , and potassium.
Note: The kudzu bugs that have been covering the edamame plants are 95% gone thanks to Thomas and William’s dedication and lots of dunking in soapy water.  (soybeans and edamame beans are related to kudzu) Either squish with a paper towel or put into a container with a lid and dump them outside.
Beans, Chinese Red Noodle Beans (and a few long green pole beans)- These long meaty beans cook just like green beans.  They grow on a pole or trellis and the beans hang down like red noodles!  The Greek Style Green Beans are a great recipe for these tasty beans. Or you can sauté them in olive oil with some garlic and onion for about 10 minutes.  Then I add a splash of lemon juice and a sprinkle of Parmesan cheese.
Bell peppers- Crunchy!  They are turning red and sweet! They ripen with sunshine in late August and September!
Tomatoes- The tomatoes have full ripe flavors since we grow them under the hoophouse, which keeps the rain from watering the flavor down.
Cherry tomatoes- Little gems of sunshine!
Summer squash and Zucchini
Cucumbers The little plants aren’t too happy.
Basil Ditto. We hope to have more next week.


Recipes: Peppers…Stuffed, Roasted, Relish

Peppers Stuffed with Chile Grits 
This recipe does not require baking and making the grits is quicker than making rice!  Try this richly flavored recipe with roasted poblanos, green chiles or bell peppers or even an assortment of peppers. The piquant flavors of roasted peppers melt into the satisfying thick comfort of chile grits.  Serve with chips ,salsa, and sour cream or plain yogurt next to shredded lettuce or cabbage.
To Prepare bell peppers for stuffing:  Try this!  Don’t cut the top off of the pepper making a deep soupy cavity- try cutting the bell pepper in half vertically all the way through the stem.    Leave the curly stem for a nice garnish.  Trim the membrane and seeds.  Add 3 tablespoons of olive oil to a pan and heat to high.  Add peppers to hot (medium high heat) skillet to sear.  Listen for the sizzling racket for about 3 minutes and turn and sear for another 3 minutes.  This cooks the peppers slightly and browns them a bit.   This way the peppers are ready for a hot stuffing to placed inside of them and served.  Save the fragrant oil and cook with it. 
Note: Have peppers or chiles prepared beforehand or prepare them while you are making the grits. Also note that the peppers are not baked after they are stuffed!  I cook the grits while the onion is cooking to save time.  Follow the directions on the package.  It’s okay to use “quick” grits, just make sure to get plain flavored, watch the amount of sodium in the package, and make them thick!
1 tablespoon oil
2 medium onions, diced
1/2 tablespoon ground coriander
2 cups corn kernels, fresh, frozen or canned
1 clove garlic
1 cup thick cooked grits or polenta
3 tablespoons roasted, diced green chiles, jalepenos, poblanos, or more to taste.  You can also use about 1 tablespoon chipotle powder  or ¼ or ½ teaspoon cayenne powder
Salt and Pepper to taste
6 or 7 roasted poblanos  or green chiles or (3 medium bell peppers- prepared for stuffing)
Heat the oil over medium heat, add onion and sauté for 4 minutes.  Add ground coriander and corn and sauté for 3 more minutes. Add garlic, grits (or polenta), diced green chile, and stir to combine.  The filling will need to be thick enough to stick together somewhat.  If it’s not, cook and gently stir until thick.
Stuff the peppers or chiles and serve. 
Chile Cheese Grits: Add ½ cup shredded cheese to the chile grit mixture and stir to combine

Stuffed Peppers (From From Asparagus to Zucchini: A Guide to Cooking Farm-Fresh Seasonal Produce)
A little oil
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 onions, chopped
3 cups raw brown rice         
6 cups water, chicken or vegetable stock, or tomato juice
½ teaspoon allspice
½ cup almonds, chopped
1 cup chopped tomatoes
¾ pound cheddar chease, grated
Salt and pepper
9 large paeppers, tops cut off, seeds removed

Heat oil in a large skillet; add and sauté garlic and onions.  Add rice and brown about 5 minutes.  Add desired liquid and allspice.  Cover and cook until rice is done, about 40 minutes.  Toast almonds in dry skillet or hot oven several minutes, tossing often.  Stir in tomatoes, cheese, almonds, and salt and pepper to taste.  Cook peppers in boiling water 2 minutes.  Drain and stuff peppers with rice mixture.  Bake 350 degrees 30 minutes.  Makes 9 servings.

Roasting chiles or peppers is simple.  You char and blacken the chile or pepper with intense heat or direct flame.  That means you can roast a poblano, chile, sweet pepper, jalepeno or anything else with a gas grill, charcoal grill, gas stove range, electric or gas broiler.
 I love roasted chiles!  I was first introduced to a freshly roasted chile while staffing a farmer’s market in Colorado for the ranch I was working on.  My first bite was of a “Big Jim” chile stuffed with fresh soft sheep cheese, and it was love at first bite!  The smells of the propane chile roaster rotating and flame roasting the chiles filled the air, bringing the locals to declare that the heights of summer had arrived! 
Here’s a quick way to knock out a batch.  Place the peppers or chiles with stems under a very hot grill or put the peppers or chiles on a baking sheet under a preheated broiler until the skin blisters slightly and is black in spots, about 5 minutes on each of two sides.   Place in a large bowl with a towel over it until cool enough to handle; this steams the skin off.  Peel most of the skin off.  Don’t rinse the flavor away! Use a paper towel if needed!  The pepper can then be used for days in many dishes. Or freeze for later.
Preparing for Stuffing : Cut a slit lengthwise from under the stem to the end point.  Delicately scrape any seeds than can be easily removed.  Stuff with your favorite stuffing.
Preparing for dicing:  Cut a slit lengthwise from under the stem to the end point.  Remove the stem, seeds and membrane.  Slice and dice.


Poblano Pepper and Heirloom Tomato Fresh Relish:
Try the piquant flavor of the poblano in this salsa type relish. You can also use roasted sweet bell peppers for a flavorful, but mild relish.
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 tablespoons pine nuts (optional)
3 or 4 poblanos, roasted, peeled, and diced
2 ears of corn, cooked and cut off the cob
1 bunch scallions or 3 tablespoons diced sweet onions
1 clove garlic, crushed or diced
2-3 tablespoons chopped cilantro
1 tablespoon fresh lime juice or more to taste
Tomatoes, diced- about a half pound
Salt and pepper to taste
Heat the oil in a saucepan over medium heat. Add the garlic and optional pine nuts and cook for 2 minutes.  Stir in poblanos, corn, scallions, cilantro, and lime juice and cook until the flavors blend- about 2 minutes.  Remove from the heat, add diced tomatoes, salt and pepper to taste and let cool.  Can be cover and refrigerated for a couple of days.  Best served at room temp.

Greek Style Green Beans
This recipe is a new favorite here at the farm.  The dish does take a while to cook, but requires hardly any attention.
How about some green bean recipe ideas?  You can use the Chinese Red Noodle Beans in place of any green bean.  Martha Stewart provides inspiration again…
Healthy Green Bean Recipes
Three Bean Salad with Honey Mustard Vinaigrette
If you don’t have watercress or mache on hand (and you won’t, because mache doesn’t grow here when green beans grow), you can use arugula, lettuce, or any other salad green,

Grilled Summer Vegetable Pasta Salad (from From Asparagus to Zucchini: A guide to Cooking Farm-Fresh Seasonal Produce)
This great pasta salad recipe can be made with a variety of summer vegetables.  It is easy to mix and match ingredients based on seasonal availability.
1 zucchini
1 yellow squash
1 eggplant
4 tomatoes
4 portobello mushrooms
1 red bell pepper
Olive oil spray
2 cloves garlic, minced
Salt and pepper to taste
1 pound penne, cooked, rinsed, and cooled
4 oz. mozzarella, sliced
3 tablespoons toasted pine nuts
3 tablespoons chopped fresh basil
Approximately 1 cup vinaigrette made with balsamic vinegar

Heat/prepare an outdoor grill.  Slice zucchini, squash, and eggplant into long ½ inch thick “planks.”   Cut tomatoes in half.  Remove stems from mushrooms.  Cut pepper into quarters; discard core and seeds.  Spray veggies with light coating of oil.  Sprinkle with minced garlic; season with salt and pepper.  Grill until lightly charred and barely tender.  Chop and place in large bowl with pasta, cheese, nuts, and basil.  Toss with vinaigrette.  Season with salt and pepper.  6-8 servings.

Late Summer Bruschetta
 (from From Asparagus to Zucchini: A guide to Cooking Farm-Fresh Seasonal Produce)
2-3 large tomatoes
1 crunchy sweet pepper
1 medium sweet onion
2-3 cloves garlic, minced
Olive oil
Small handful fresh basil, chopped (optional)
Crusty bread (like baguette)
Shredded mozzarella or grated parmesan (optional)
Chop the vegetables into a midsize dice.  Combine with garlic 1-2 tablespoons olive oil, and optional basil.  Slice baguette down the middle and lay the two sides cut side up.  Brush with additional 1-2 tablespoons oil and sprinkle on cheese, if using.  Broil bread for several minutes until bread or cheese browns a bit.  Top the sections (you may cut them smaller, if desired) with some of the vegetable mixture.  Makes 4 servings


Grilled Summer Vegetable Pasta Salad (from From Asparagus to Zucchini: A guide to Cooking Farm-Fresh Seasonal Produce)
This great pasta salad recipe can be made with a variety of summer vegetables.  It is easy to mix and match ingredients based on seasonal availability.
1 zucchini
1 yellow squash
1 eggplant
4 tomatoes
4 portobello mushrooms
1 red bell pepper
Olive oil spray
2 cloves garlic, minced
Salt and pepper to taste
1 pound penne, cooked, rinsed, and cooled
4 oz. mozzarella, sliced
3 tablespoons toasted pine nuts
3 tablespoons chopped fresh basil
Approximately 1 cup vinaigrette made with balsamic vinegar

Heat/prepare an outdoor grill.  Slice zucchini, squash, and eggplant into long ½ inch thick “planks.”   Cut tomatoes in half.  Remove stems from mushrooms.  Cut pepper into quarters; discard core and seeds.  Spray veggies with light coating of oil.  Sprinkle with minced garlic; season with salt and pepper.  Grill until lightly charred and barely tender.  Chop and place in large bowl with pasta, cheese, nuts, and basil.  Toss with vinaigrette.  Season with salt and pepper.  6-8 servings.



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