Monthly Archives: July 2018

Simpaug Farms CSA: Week Two

Posted on July 2, 2018 by | 3 comments

After just five minutes in our 95-degree kitchen, the lettuce was already starting to wilt; there’s just one photo this week.

While building our new deck was the much-talked about home improvement project for this year (mentioned obliquely in the last few posts), the more extensive (and expensive) one was replacing our HVAC system. We ordered the units last month and scheduled delivery and installation for this week… but our current central air conditioning decided to leave the party a little early – in the middle of a heatwave, no less. We awoke to an overly warm house this morning, and realized the need to relocate our open-air food storage to a climate-controlled solution in the fridge – on CSA collection day, no less!

So, Clay had the opportunity to meet Max at the Fairfield Farmers Market while I got to work in the kitchen. Luckily we received the same weight of produce this week as last, but in somewhat denser packaging – squash takes up far less room in the fridge than baskets of greens!

What’s In This Week’s Share: Week Two

Vegetables

  • Cauliflower – 8 ounces
    Storage Instructions: Wrap loosely in paper towels inside a loosely sealed plastic bag and refrigerate. Use within 2 to 3 days.
  • Collard Greens – 14 ounces
    Wrap the greens in a damp paper towel and store in a loose plastic bag in the crisper drawer for 3 to 4 days
  • Snap Peas – 16 ounces
    Store in a plastic bag in the refrigerator. Use within 5 days.
  • Green Leaf Lettuce – 10 ounces
    Line a food storage container with paper towels; separate the leaves and place them in the container, wrap loosely with paper towels, and place in the crisper drawer – check daily to discard any spoiled leaves; will keep for a week
  • Squash – 56 ounces
    Refrigerate in a perforated plastic bag for up to a week
  • Pointed cabbage – 24 ounces
    Store in the crisper drawer for up to a week
  • Fennel – one 4-oz bulb
    Store in a plastic bag in the fridge for up to 10 days
  • Scallions – 5.5 ounces
    Store in a quart-sized mason jar with the white bottoms submerged. Change the water daily, and they will continue to grow.

Other

  • Eggs – one dozen

What To Make With This Week’s Share

I’ve ordered the list of produce in order of perishability, so that governs how we’ll consume it… but first I have a terrible confession: I loathe collard greens. I know, I know! My parents spent much of the last week raving about the wonderful southern cooking they experienced in Alabama and Tennessee this spring, including the fabulous stewed greens. I can get behind so much of it but collards just make me gag, no matter how they are cooked. So either Clay will eat these on his own at a time when I’m not around, or we’ll gift the beautiful bouquet of them to a friend with better taste than I have, but I can’t offer any useful recipes for them. (If you have a suggestion, please leave it in the comments!)

As for the rest…

Baked Squash Rounds
Samantha of the Five Heart Home blog has a terrific recipe for baked parmesan squash rounds. Since I can make these in our toaster oven and avoid heating up the whole house with the oven, I’ll make a big batch of these with our gooseneck squash and zucchini. They’ll make a lovely, light variation on eggplant parmesan, alongside some grilled herbed-chicken sausages and our homemade marinara sauce.

(More) Frozen Stir Fry Mix
We had a phenomenal stir-fry with last week’s veggies, so will turn the cauliflower, snap peas, and scallions into another batch of frozen stir-fry veggies, along with some onions, carrots, and bell pepper from the market. (I made two batches of rice before it got too hot this morning, so that’s already waiting for Tuesday night’s supper.)

Pulled Pork and Coleslaw
Yesterday I wrote up my method for making pork tenderloin with chard and fennel – and it was so good, I’m desperate to make it again! Clay isn’t a fan of having the exact same dish repeatedly, so our pork this week comes in the form of pulled pork sandwiches – he’s adding the fennel bulb into the crockpot of barbecued pork shoulder, and will work both last week’s cabbage and this week’s into a slaw with purple, white, and orange carrots to serve on top. We’ll make a spicy mustard sauce for the bottom of the sandwich, too, so all of the best flavors – spicy, smoky, sweet, fresh, crunch – come through in every bite.

Grilled Fish with Green Salad
The fennel bulb we received this week has a few fronds attached, so I’ll save them to garnish a grilled fillet of white fish on Friday. Fennel, lemon, and pink peppercorns will be a great topper for whatever the best catch is – and we can serve it either alongside or over the top of a traditional salad. We have a few radishes still in good shape from last week, so will have them with bits of carrot, cucumber, and grape tomato over the leaf lettuce – probably in a mini chop form, for a pleasant mouthfeel alongside the tender fish.

Holiday Frittata
Since we both have Wednesday off for Independence Day, I’ll make a Frittata – Alton Brown has a terrific recipe for a crookneck squash variety. I’m a big fan of “hiding” leftovers in baked egg dishes, so I’m sure that any leftover bits of sausage or stir-fry veggies are likely to find their way onto our holiday brunch plates. (Leftover frittata travels well when wrapped securely, so we’ll be able to bring a little of the holiday to work on Thursday as a packed breakfast, too.)

And that should serve us for week two!

I hope to write up a few more recipes this week – I made a to-die-for lemon tart for my mom’s birthday on Friday, and last week’s veggies lasagna worked beautifully with all of that fresh kale. I’d also love to hear what other CSA members are making with their shares. Leave a comment and let me know what you’re making this week!

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Posted in Veg Box Chronicles

How To Make Pork Tenderloin with Braised Chard and Roasted Fennel

Posted on July 1, 2018 by | 1 comment

As promised, a recipe from last week’s CSA meal-plan:

We built a deck last week. To be more accurate, my parents built a deck while we schlepped stuff around and dug holes for footings and garden beds. The point being, we expended enormous amounts of physical energy in activities outside our norm, and were pretty hungry while having zero energy for cooking.  As a solution, one of the easiest dishes I know how to make: roasted pork tenderloin. It’s tender and succulent, and difficult to overcook if you watch it carefully.

  1. Preheat the oven to 450 degrees, with a cast iron skillet inside.
  2. Prep your vegetables: I chose carrots and fennel cut into three-quarter-inch pieces, tossed with olive oil, sea salt, and fresh black pepper.
  3. Prep your tenderloin:
    1. Rinse it off, pat it dry, and trim away any silverskin.
    2. Slash it deeply in a few places and stuff the slashes full of minced garlic scapes.
    3. Drizzle the pork with a bit of olive oil, then massage a mixture of salt, pepper, and sweet Hungarian paprika into the meat.
  5. Pull the hot skillet from the oven; nestle the pork and veg into the pan, and pop it back in the oven for twenty-five minutes or until the internal temperature reads 160 degrees*.
  6. At the twenty-five minute mark, remove the pork to a carving board: tent it with foil and let it rest for ten minutes while the vegetables continue cooking, then slice it.

* Full disclosure: Clay swears by the instant-read meat thermometers, but I always determine doneness by color and texture. 160 is a little too shimmery and pale pink for my taste, so I generally end up slicing the pork, laying it over the top of the veg, and tossing it back into the oven for a few minutes to be really “done”.

During the twenty-five minute roasting time, prep the chard.

  1. Tear the leaves into bite-sized pieces. I dislike the stems so compost them, but you could chop them into small pieces and cook them, as well.
  2. Prepare a seasoning mix of salt, pepper, cumin, paprika, and sliced scallions.
  3. Prepare braising liquid – a one-cup measure of chicken stock** and wine.

** I didn’t realize until most of the way through prep that my stock was frozen solid, so I strained off a bit of broth from leftover wonton soup and mixed it with an equal measure of pinot noir. It worked a treat.

Set a skillet over medium heat on the stove, and melt some bacon drippings in it. (If you don’t keep bacon drippings in your fridge, butter or olive oil will suffice but the final dish will be less flavorful.) Toss the chard and seasonings in the melted drippings; allow the leaves to wilt slightly. Add the braising liquid, lower the heat, lid the pan, and let it be for three to five minutes, until the greens are fully wilted. Remove the greens to a warm dish, then reduce the remaining liquid until it’s the consistency of a sauce; drizzle over the wilted greens.

Serve slices of pork over a small bed of wilted greens, alongside carrots and fennel. It’s an aromatic and filling plate, for sure – so much so that all four servings were eaten and the dishes were washed before I thought to take a photograph. Next time…

CSA Notes
We used all of the fennel and all of the chard from last week’s box in this dish, along with 1/5 of the garlic scapes and 1/2 of the scallions. The volume fed four adults with hearty dinner portions and no leftovers.

 

 

 

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Posted in Dinner, Veg Box Chronicles