Harvest Box for August 30, 2012

AKA: I Have Too Many Tomatoes!!!  

This week is not going to be so much about what you can do with the veggies in your order, but what I did tonight with the veggies in my order.  Each week I look at the list when it comes on Monday to see if there might be something I want extra of that week but I don't really start thinking about the list seriously until Wednesday or Thursday when I write the blog.  So this week, I'm unpacking my box and look, a lovely 3 orange tomatoes, ummm, they will go well with my 2 that I still have from last week.  Ooohhh and look, another lovely pint of cherry tomatoes to go with my other pint from last week.  And WOW, a clamshell full of Roma tomatoes.  (NB - you can return the empty clamshell in your blue tote box and Ferme aux Pleines Saveurs will recycle it)  And then I look over to the counter where I have 2 large bowls of tomatoes picked from our garden.  The plans for the evening suddenly changed.

What was to be a quiet evening of finding some recipes, writing the blog, maybe reading, and heading to bed early has turned into a marathon of cooking, prepping, canning, and figuring out what to do with the tomato bounty.  As I type, there are still two lovely pints of mixed cherry tomatoes sitting in front of me, but that's the best I could do on short notice.  And photos to document it all.

As I stated last week, the leeks were going to get used in soup, never happened, but now that I had two from last week and two more this week, I couldn't let the other two go bad, so a batch of Leek and Potato Soup onto the stove.

Why can't this wait until another night when I don't have to spend a couple of hours writing?  Because we are headed to the cottage this weekend, and I decided earlier today that I would make a Mediterranean Rice Salad knowing that I was getting some red peppers in the order.  I am not really sure where this recipe came from, but it is one of my favorites.

3 c. cooked long grain rice
1 c. cooked wild rice
1 c. feta, crumbled
1/2 c. chopped red onion
1/3. c. each of red, yellow, and green pepper, finely chopped (use the green from last week and the red from this week)
1/4 c. chopped parsley
1/4 c. each chopped black and green olives
2 tbsp capers
1-15oz can of cannellini beans (ordered those a while back as well)

Combine all of that in a large bowl and mix well.

Dressing:
3 tbsp. white wine vinegar
2 tbsp. water
1 tbsp. extra virgin olive oil
1 tsp. Dijon mustard
1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. pepper
1 clove of garlic, minced

Mix the dressing ingredients together in a bowl with a whisk.  Pour over the rice mixture and combine well.  Serve chilled, and even better the next day.

The wild rice is still cooling as I type before I can add it to the salad.

 Beets, from last week.  I cooked them last night and since I was on a roll, I decided that they might as well get pickled.  This is the easy recipe from my London Olympics post from a few weeks ago.  Super easy, can't wait to try them.  Make sure to process them as directed.

And the tomatoes - what to do with that many tomatoes?  I looked up a lot of options online.  You could check out the Top Ten Ways to Use Up Tomatoes.  The Tomato Medley recipe from last week is a great option to use up all three types at once.  You could certainly slice the orange tomatoes and have a nice toasted tomato sandwich with some mayo, salt and pepper.  Or as I saw on one "what to do with too many tomatoes" post - upgrade the simple toasted tomato sandwich with a thicker bread, some gouda, and fresh basil.  Layer the tomatoes first onto the bread, top with the gouda, place under the broiler until the cheese is bubbly then top with some shredded basil and cracked pepper.

Most sites suggest roasting the tomatoes or baking them on low heat to dry them for future use.  A lot of recipes also suggest making tomato sauce or paste and then freezing it.  You can also just dry pack the tomatoes (put them in a Ziploc and take out as much air as possible) and freeze them.  When you want to use the tomatoes, bring them out of the freezer, run them under warm water to remove the skins and use in sauces or soups.  If we weren't going to be a the cottage this weekend, I would probably take the time to make a nice pasta sauce with the Romas, the garlic, and some fresh herbs from my pot.

However, I had a soup on the stove, 2 jars of beets waiting to be processed, and a some wild rice about to be drained for a salad - I opted for the least time consuming option.  This title Grab the Blender caught my eye.  So, a bit of sacrilege to some fine tomatoes, but not even a minute in the food processor and I had first some lovely orange tomato juice and secondly some red tomato juice.  I have put it in small storage bags and into the freezer.  Not even 20 minutes of my time, and I will use that juice for sauces and soups over the next few months.  I won't feel bad about any tomatoes going bad, and I won't resent my garden from overdosing on caprese salad, tomato sandwiches, and pasta with tomatoes!

The soup is done, the beets are in the canner, and I am just about done typing.  I want to leave you with one last recipe that I will be making tomorrow night with the Savoy Cabbage and Red Pepper.  It's a Napa Cabbage Salad (sub the Savoy for the Napa) and is similar to a Japanese Coleslaw recipe that I may have given you in the past.  I apologize if it's a repeat, but it's a good one.

1 large cabbage, chopped
2 bunches green onions, chopped
1 red pepper, seeded and diced
Place chopped cabbage, onion, and red pepper in a large salad bowl

1/4 c. butter
1 c. slivered almonds
2 pkgs chicken flavored ichiban noodles with the seasoning mix
Melt the butter in the frying pan, then add the almonds, broken noodles, and seasonings.  Saute until almonds are golden.  Add to cabbage mixture and toss.

1c. vegetable oil
1/2 c. red wine vinegar
2 garlic cloves
2 tsp. soya sauce
1/3 c. sugar
Shake the dressing ingredients in a jar or resealable container.  Consider only making half the dressing or pour about 1/2 the dressing over the salad and toss at least 30 min before serving.  If you made a full batch of dressing, you will have leftovers, refrigerate and use again.

Organic Harvest Box for August 23, 2012

So while I was out of town last week, Tasha is sending me this beautiful photo of the cherry tomatoes from Songberry Farm (not to make me jealous of course) and some of you may have been lucky enough to get them if you are getting the Local Only box.

And then she proceeds to send me this recipe for a Tomato Medley by Jamie Oliver.  Really, we are out of town, not cooking for ourselves checking email only to see mouth watering cherry tomatoes and a great idea for what to do with them - and we can't have any.  However, this week's order has both cherry tomatoes and orange field tomatoes and if I raid our own plants, I think the Tomato Medley will be a great starter one night for dinner.  In case you are unsure, you can get Halloumi cheese for the recipe at almost any Middle Eastern grocery store.  

I don't want to rush the end of summer by any means, my oldest daughter starts school for the first time in a couple of weeks, swimming in the lake won't last much longer, and traffic on your favorite thoroughfare is going to get busy again.  But I do love to see the start of the fall harvest in our veggie order.  Soup season will start again soon and it's one of my favorite meals so I'll probably make a Potato Leek Soup this week.  I make this recipe from the Joy of Cooking, it is very simple:

3 tbsps. unsalted butter
6 medium leeks, chopped
1 1/4 lbs potatoes, peeled and thinly sliced
6 c. stock (poultry, vegetable) or water
Salt and Pepper
1/2 to 1 c. heavy cream

In a soup pot, over low heat, melt the butter.  Add the leeks, stirring regularily, and cook until they are tender but not browned about 20 minutes.  Stir in the potatoes and stock and bring to a boil.  Reduce the heat and simmer until the potatoes are soft, approx. 30 min.  Puree in a blender or with an immersion blender until smooth.  Add the cream and reheat gently.  Serve garnished with snipped chives.

I was trying to keep summer in mind and think of some light and fresh recipes to keep me away from what I really want to start cooking - fall comfort food - so I started to search out salads with beets and fennel.  I could write this whole blog just about that combo (and I apologize in advance if that's what it turns into).  Add some apple or some oranges to the mix and I will need three extra orders of each.  Here is what I came up with - starting light and fresh and still a great choice for this weekend's hot weather - Hearty Beet and Fennel Salad - don't forget to use that basil from the plant from week's ago.  Everything is grated, no cooking and a really fresh tasting dressing - you might want to wear rubber gloves when grating the beets.  Another two salads that caught my eye are Herbed Beets with Fennel and Beets with Fennel, Orange and Walnuts; both require cooking the beets first, roasting or boiling.  But fast forward a few weeks from now when we are getting much cooler weather, frosty mornings, and leaves turning, and you would do equally well to make this recipe for Roasted Beets, Fennel and Apple  or Beet and Fennel Soup with Kefir.

Since I offhandedly mentioned wearing rubber gloves for grating your beets, I thought I should check into how to clean beet juice stains from your hands.  Google is a wonderful thing but can easily distract - did you know that drinking beet juice is the latest performance enhancing craze.  According to Adrian Chen of Gawker - beet juice was "the fuel of elite international athletes in London."  Apparently the nitrates improve the muscles ability to use oxygen.  I digress from my original thought - how to remove beet stains from your skin.  If you can, do avoid getting your skin stained in the first place by wearing kitchen gloves when prepping your beets, but if you prefer bare hands - then after the fact you can try a bit of lemon juice when you are washing hands.  Or you can use coarse salt (or table salt if you don't have coarse) on your dry hands and try rubbing them together until the stains start to lift and the salt starts to "melt".  At this point you can rinse you hands, if the stains still remain you can try repeating the process.  Be aware of a couple of things - remove your watch and jewelry prior to using the salt, be wary if you have any nicks or cuts on your skin, and this trick may actually work on clothing as well.

A couple of more ideas for this week:

• Use the green beans and tomatoes in "Beatrice's Salad" from Ricardo's website,
• Use the broccoli and apple in Broccoli Apple Soup from Food52.com,
• Pick up an onion and add it to the fennel, green pepper and tomatoes to make The Ultimate Greek Salad from Nigella's website

And enjoy the hot weather this weekend with some great food and fresh produce.

Organic Harvest Box for August 10, 2012

I am not actually getting a box this week but am hopefully getting just some beans and sugar snap peas to snack on as the peas were so good last week, I couldn't resist.  I am single parenting with only one child this week and we are not getting through our veggies fast enough before we leave on Saturday morning for a few days away.  There will be no box photo with this post, and no post at all next week.  I do have photo though of the makings for a fantastic quick fresh pasta that we enjoyed Monday evening after arriving home from the cottage.

Put your pasta on to boil as you start this sauce.  Heat approximately 2-3tbsp of olive oil over medium high heat.  While that is heating, finely chop your garlic, add to the oil.  Chop your tomatoes (they don't have to be perfectly uniform, and you can use large or cherry tomatoes) and add to the oil.  They will splatter, turn the heat down a little bit.  Let the tomatoes cook for about 5 minutes.  Chop some fresh basil and add to the sauce with some salt and pepper to taste.  Remove from heat when the pasta is ready, add some shredded parmesan cheese and stir into the pasta.  I don't know if it was specifically the tomatoes that we had last week in our box, but it was so sweet and tasty that my 2 year old ate 2 full bowls - I didn't have any seconds or leftovers for myself!

I came across this great post today on a quick way to chop cherry tomatoes at Food52.com.  I will be using it when I make this pasta again later this week with my garden tomatoes.

I can't believe all the good fruit coming this week, and then the huge amount of veggies.  These days, I am not the best person to ask about how to cook any of these veggies because as usual, they are mostly getting eaten raw.  But I have been cooking the zucchini.  Zucchini is apparently a great source of antioxidants and Vitamin C but research shows that the antioxidant benefits can decrease depending on how it is prepared.  The best way to keep as many nutritional properties as possible with zucchini is to eat it raw or just briefly steamed, and eat the skin, and seeds if possible.  Summer squashes such as zucchini can have fragile skin that can get bad spots if nicked.  To store your zucchini it is best to not wash it and place it in an airtight container in the fridge.  It should last up to 7 days that way.  If you are getting over run by zucchini from the garden then freezing it is a great option and it does maintain its antioxidants when frozen.  Some websites suggest blanching it before freezing, but my experience is to grate it so it can be thawed later to be used in sauces, baking, or casseroles.  My dad has a huge garden and is constantly picking zucchinis at this time of year.  He reminded me of a stuffed zucchini recipe that he does, and this is the closest I could find online - Stuffed Zucchini with Tomatoes and Mozzarella.  Zucchini goes really well with tomatoes and could be done roasted, sautéed, or raw in a salad such Zucchini Carpaccio (Raw Zucchini Salad).

As I said, my yellow beans are going to get eaten raw as a snack on our road trip.  But there are so many options with yellow or green beans to make a nice side dish.  You can easily sauté or steam them and add your favorite oil/butter/lemon juice and then herbs or seasonings.  This recipe for Garlic Yellow Beans is a great starting point and you can add or adjust with your preference or what's in your pantry.  If beans are still available after my holidays, I am going to get a few pounds and try these Spicy Dilled Beans from Canadian Living.  Their intro caught my eye stating that the dilled beans would be a great cocktail garnish, and I might tone down a jar or two given that the kiddies are into everything pickled (don't judge, but they love a pickle at breakfast).

I often feel that I should be writing more recipes for the fruit that's in the box, however, I would be surprised how many people are actually cooking with their fruit as opposed to just eating it.  But I am going to challenge myself to include 1 fruit recipe each week.  Last week's Plum Strudel recipe was the inadvertent start, and as I was reviewing the list this week, I thought to myself that I better include that easy tart recipe from the Food and Drink, and good thing I looked at last week's blog - already done!  So this week, I want to share some ideas for Mango Salad.  Mango Salad with shrimp is one of my favorite dishes at Vietnamese or Thai restaurants.  Here are two easy recipes with no shrimp in either but it could be added easily.  One recipe for Thai Mango Salad from the Toronto Sun and another recipe from Canadian Living.

Wish me luck on a 6 hour road trip with a 2 year old, some snacks of yellow beans and snap peas, multiple kids CDs, and likely a barrage of stickers in the backseat.  I'll return, somehow rested hopefully, in 2 weeks.

Organic Harvest Box for August 2, 2012

This is going to be a quick one tonight, it's late, I have to get up early and the long weekend is upon us.  It was so nice to see so much local produce in the regular box this week.  If I can brag, I think the cherry tomatoes from my back yard are equally as good as the ones in this week's box, however, they are not as plentiful as I have little hands who get them every time they are outside!  Also to brag, sort of, the week we were on holidays in July I forgot to ask anyone to water my plants.  Most everything did fine except the herb pot, it didn't look like anything survived the week of crazy hot weather.  But after just a couple weeks of watering, there is one plant that is back to life and doing better than before - that little basil plant that we got in our box almost a month ago.  Phew.

Also, last week I made the Chard and Tomato pie from the Bristish website, and it was delicious, a great lunch meal with some fresh veggies.  This week you could do the same recipe and use the beet greens and tomatoes.  Here is a photo of everything getting cooked up.

Last week I meant to give you this recipe for the plums for a lovely dessert out of the Summer 2012 edition of the Food and Drink magazine.

Plum Strudel
Filling
1/2 c. sugar
1/3 c. fresh bread crumbs (challah bread if you can)
1 tbsp. flour
1/2 tsp. ground cardamom
3 c. firm ripe plums, cut in 3/4" dice


Pastry
6 sheets of phyllo
1/3 c. melted butter
1/3 c. sugar


Preheat oven to 400F.  Combine 1/2 c. sugar, bread crumbs, flour and cardamom.  Toss all but 2 tbsp bread crumb mixture with plums.  Set aside.  Lay phyllo sheets on counter and cover with a tea towel.  Working with the long edge of the phyllo in front of you, place first sheet on a parchment lined baking sheet, brush with butter and sprinkle with about 1 tbsp. of sugar.  Repeat until all of phyllo and most of sugar have been used.  Sprinkle reserved 2 tbsp of bread crumb mixture on lower third of top layer leaving about 2 inches from the long edge and 1 inch from the short edge.  Place plums over bread crumb mixture.  Fold in short edges and roll pastry lengthwise into a strudel shape, sealing edges with butter and making sure the seam is underneath.  Brush with butter and cut 3 slits on top.  Sprinkle with remaining 1 tbsp sugar.  Bake for 20 to 30 minutes or until the top is browned and plum mixture is cooked. Serve with fresh whipped cream.

I got a sneak peek of the Fuji apples last week when I popped in to pick up my box and I can tell you, they are fantastic, crisp, and so delicious.  One of those ones that I should have remembered to order extra of.

Unfortunately, my little beets did not get pickled last week - these big ones may as we are just two in my house this week and that's a lot of beets to go through.  What I forgot to mention last week was how to store beets.  It is important with these beets to trim the greens off near the top of the beet.  Try to use the beet greens fairly quickly as you would chard (steamed, boiled, sauteed).  Put the beets in a plastic bag, push out as much air as possible and tie up the bag.  Store in the refrigerator for up to 3 weeks that way.  The beet page at WH Foods outlines all the good properties of beets, and some simple ways to cook them.

I came across a neat summer recipe for Creamy Corn and Zucchini that at first glance I thought it was a salad but as I read the ingredients and directions - it is a cooked dish that's pretty simple.  If you are familiar with the Kraft.ca recipes you know how the recipes are part advertising but still appealing enough to want to make them so you can easily substitute any of the brand name items they recommend for your own choice, and even substitute their dressing recommendations with homemade.  Kraft also had this simple Farmer's Market Corn Toss that would be easy to make with the zucchini this week and maybe pick up some nice local corn.  A few years back a lady I play ball with made a delicious potato salad recipe that is so simple to make, the new potatoes we got this week are the ideal size for this salad:

Potato Salad (courtesy of Dominique)
Red potatoes - cook and cool
Finely chop red onion and shallots
Stir together equal parts of canola oil and plum vinegar.  Add some pepper and cilantro.  Toss with the vegetables and chill.


One last thing, I usually don't say too much about the easy vegetables (that's how I think of them) such as carrots.  When I opened my box and took out the carrots, the variety of colors was fantastic so I thought I should look something up to see if there was any good recipes to showcase the color variety and I came across the carrot museum website - www.carrotmuseum.co.uk  I had a bit of a laugh and then clicked on it, and actually found some really interesting information about all the different colors of carrots (incidentally, the purple carrots have more beta carotene than the orange carrots).  If you scroll down to the bottom of this article, The Many Colours of Carrots, it outlines the nutritional benefits and differences of each of the different colors.  And there is a recipe for Coloured Carrots and Couscous at www.coloredcarrots.com that also looks really good.

Enjoy the local produce, make a caprese salad with the tomatoes and basil, and snack on the sugar snap peas - that's what I'll be doing.