Organic Harvest Box July 5, 2012

It's Thursday evening, I've travelled the Ontario countryside today for work, Brockville and then along the St. Lawrence to Gananoque, and up to Westport and then back to the city.  Hence, no veggie box yet.  I'm looking at the list of ingredients and can't wait to see everything tomorrow.  All I can think is green, green, fresh, green veggies, the kale, the choi, lettuce, basil, more scapes, pears and the green onions.  Most of our vegetables are getting eaten raw this time of year.  And I'm not sure why I even considered any recipes for my peaches or nectarines last week - the kids gobbled them up by Sunday.  I don't doubt that the same will happen this week.

Everything on the list this week (maybe cauliflower excluded) can be used in salad.  And given our heat and the forecast for the coming days - anything that doesn't require cooking is a blessing.  Add some grilled chicken, a can of tuna, or some chickpeas to your salad to make it a meal.  My favorite dressings for salads are homemade.  I have both a salad dressing making bottle (one of those home party companies that list their ingredients down the side for each different dressing) or my tried and true Tupperware Gravy Shaker.  To either I add some olive oil to start (try a nut oil for different flavor), then some vinegar (balsamic, cider, red wine) or fresh squeezed lemon juice, or grapefruit juice, then some seasonings, fresh chopped herbs, maple syrup, garlic, mustard, poppy seeds, or finely chopped onion, a pinch of salt to bring all the flavors together and then shake it up and place in the fridge until you are ready to use it.  You can put it in a jam jar with a sealer top and it should keep for a few days at least.  

My kale chips - they were a bit overdone

I started searching some recipes for red kale specifically and came across so many things that sound delicious.  Again, if I wrote this earlier in the week, I would know to order extras!  I really love how kale turns out in a salad when you massage the dressing into it - like in this very simple Red Kale, Raisin and Toasted Almond Salad and it's topped with Manchego cheese, one of my favorites.  I also love the idea of using the kale chopped up in an omelette, frittata, or Red Kale and Red Onion Savory Breakfast Squares (you could try substituting the green onions from the box).  The most interesting recipe I found for red kale this week is by far this Bacon Wrapped Red Kale recipe from the Preserving the Soul food blog.

Bacon Wrapped Russian Red Kale
 
1 Head of Kale - Halved or Quartered (depending on size)
1-2 pieces of bacon (depending on your love for bacon)
Handful of fresh thyme
Oil Oil
Balsamic Vinegar 

Halve one Kale. In a mortar, mash up the oil and thyme, drizzle it on the leafs then wrap it in bacon. Drizzle the balsamic and put it in the oven at 375 for, approximately 25-30 minutes or so.

I don't feel very innovative with pak choi - all I do is stir fry it.  If it was winter I would undoubtedly put it into a Chinese noodle soup but not right now.  There are so many different recipes for pak choi or bok choy that it's hard to choose just a few to post.  You might be better off to just pick your favorite stir fry recipe and add your pak choi to that.  This week you could also use small cauliflower florets, garlic scapes cut into 1-2" pieces, and the green onions to fill out the stir fry.  Add some chicken, pork, fish or tofu for some protein and then whip up an Easy Stir Fry Sauce.  I've come across two different sites that have great tips and some easy straight forward stir fry sauces.  First this Super Easy Stir Fry Guide from allrecipes.com walks through the steps of making stir fry and this post on www.fortysomething.ca gives a great list of 15 easy sauces to put on a stir fry.  However, if you want one recipe from start to finish try this Honey Chicken with Pak Choi.

If your cherry tomatoes don't just get eaten as snacks they would go well in this Chickpea and Cherry Tomato Salad.  Or if you have the air conditioner running and don't mind doing a bit of cooking at the stove, Jamie Oliver's recipe for Simple Summer Spaghetti is a great option for the cherry tomatoes and basil, you could substitute the garlic scapes for the garlic, and add some green onion as well.


We are off on holidays starting this weekend and heading to the cottage.  That means that I might actually get to cook all these things that I research each week.  And it also means that I don't have an internet connection and won't be able to post this coming week.  Enjoy.

Organic Harvest Box for June 28, 2012

Do you know what an RFP is?  Request for Proposal or what's been going through my head - Request for Pain.  It is due on Tuesday after the long weekend and has caused me enough overtime in 1 week to ensure my summer holidays are covered!  Hence the lateness of this post.  Because of my schedule, I can't even get my box until Friday midday so I don't have any hot tips from Tasha to share with you.  However, after painfully typing away at repetitive technical documents, I am just happy to sip the last of my decaf and write some ideas for this week's box.  I want to share some ideas about kiwi, the results of my scapes recipes, and  highlight a selection of "Canada Day" recipes.   And how smart of Tasha to start a Local Only Box on the week leading up to Canada Day when our national pride is bubbling up. I love the idea of a Local Only Box because for me one of the biggest appeals of buying through Life Organics is the opportunity to get as much local produce as possible.

So here goes - should we start with garlic scapes?  I hope that I'm not the only one who is still oddly excited about them.  I brought both my scape pesto and the white bean scape dip into work last week, although both went over well, I do think people think I'm a bit odd for being so excited about them.  The dip was really nice with crackers, chips, and the beans from last week's box.  I made a whole batch of pesto (so easy in a food processor) and have frozen it in ice cube sizes for use on pasta soon.  I haven't quite decided what I'm going to do with this week's scapes - hopefully get to that great Pork recipe from the New York Times from 2 weeks ago.  Maybe use up my pesto in this Warm Pasta and Chick Pea Salad with Garlic Scapes or for a great weekend entertaining recipe Garlic Scape and Potato Salad.

Kiwis are delicious when they are nice and ripe, and not too tart.  They should be left to ripen at room temperature.  If they are already ripe then they can be stored in the refrigerator.  Kiwis have a very high amount of Vitamin C, more than the an orange of the same size.  They also contain a lot of fibre and are great for the digestive system.  You can eat the skin of a kiwi but just make sure to wash it to remove any dirt or dust, and rub some of the fuzz off prior to eating as well.  I learned that the antioxidants in kiwis actually increase the riper the kiwi gets.  We mostly eat our kiwis just cut up, but they would be equally delicious in a salad, fruit salad or with some yogurt.  Or for something different, try these Kiwifruit Muffins.  Try making a unique salad with this week's romaine, spinach, and tomatoes, tossed with some cut up kiwi and some Kiwi Dressing from the California Kiwi Commission's website.  

We will be spending Canada Day weekend at the cottage with friends and plan to use the grill most of the weekend.  We've picked up the beer and Caesar's but I may have to grab a bottle of some Canadian Whisky and try out this Peach and Whisky Cocktail with the peaches from our box.  You could also use the peaches and/or nectarines in this recipe for Grilled Plums with Yogurt and Spiced Maple Syrup.  And although we don't have a lot of red and white veggies in our box this week, you can certainly still have a lovely Canadian menu with some great recipes taken from freshjuice.ca:

• Green Salad with Toasted Mustard Seed Dressing - use the romaine, spinach, and even scapes in this salad that is inspired by the mustard and seed crops from the Prairies,
• Wild Turkey Burgers - I suppose you could try to catch your own in a local field or on the side of the road!!  Serve these burgers topped with some spinach or romaine, sauteed mushrooms, and sliced tomato (or garlic scape pesto - just had to get that in there),
• Cool Wild Rice and Mushrooms - use the Criminis in this dish that highlights the great wild rice that is harvested from our northern lakes and marshes.

I am fading quickly - one last recipe - a Mushroom Stuffed Zucchini (with good Canadian cheddar).  Have a great long weekend.

Organic Harvest Box for June 21, 2012

It's really late tonight as I'm writing this, so I apologize in advance for any nonsensical musings about garlic scapes and kohlrabi.  I'm trying my best to get the blog posted on Wednesday evenings and hopefully - coming soon to an email near you - to send the blog via email at the same time as your invoice based on the popular response from the survey.  So in my effort to get this to you on Wednesday night, after getting through regular work and family commitments, the blog is getting my full attention as last item to get done very late in the evening.

I am so excited to get garlic scapes this week, maybe a little overly excited.  I love scapes, I discovered them only last year and have been asking the last 3 weeks at the Ottawa Farmers Market, "when will you have scapes?"  And now we do, I bought a huge bag at the market and we are getting more in our veggie box this week.  You may have even had some scapes in your green garlic last week - they are the long firm bean like stems that come out from the green leaves of the garlic.  Scapes have a milder taste than garlic and are very versatile.  They can be sauteed, steamed, chopped fine, stir fried, grilled, put in sauces or pureed into pesto.  You could saute them with this week's green beans, or make a pasta with the scapes and spinach.  I have so many plans for my scapes, but I'm most excited about making pesto from them.  

Getting ready to make Scape Pesto

There are so many recipes out there for scape pesto that it really just depends on which ingredients you want more or less of.  Here are a few different recipes:

• Scape Pesto 2 Ways 
• Scape Pesto - from www.seriouseats.com
• Scape Pesto - from a local blogger

My Scape Pesto

I came across a recipe for Double Garlic Soup that could make use of last week's green garlic (if you have any left) and this week's scapes, and also this dip recipe from 2 Sisters Garlic in Indiana.

White Bean and Garlic Scape Dip 

1/3 cup sliced garlic scapes (3 to 4)

1 tablespoon freshly squeezed lemon juice, more to taste

1/2 teaspoon coarse sea salt, more to taste

Ground black pepper to taste

1 can (15 ounces) cannellini beans, rinsed and drained

1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil, more for drizzling.

In a food processor, process garlic scapes with lemon juice, salt and pepper until finely chopped. Add cannellini beans and process to a rough purée.  With motor running, slowly drizzle olive oil through feed tube and process until fairly smooth. Pulse in 2 or 3 tablespoons water, or more, until mixture is the consistency of a dip. Add more salt, pepper and/or lemon juice, if desired.  Spread out dip on a plate, drizzle with olive oil, and sprinkle with more salt.  Serve with bread, tortilla chips, etc.

It may be sounding like it, but this is not late night craziness. I am also excited to get kohlrabi this week. Not quite as excited as I am about the scapes, but a little oddly excited about kohlrabi. I had it for the first time at some point last year in our veggie box and my girls ate it all up - just sliced - they thought it was apple. It was delicious. At some point this spring, my mother told me that my grandmother used to grow kohlrabi all the time in her garden because it grew so easily, and so my daughter and I planted some this spring in front of our tomatoes. I only have 4 plants, and the bunnies have eaten the leaves off three of them, so they are a bit sad looking but the bulbs are growing and should be ready soon. 

I read a few different things about kohlrabi and my favorite description is "little sputnik like vegetables." The bulbs should trimmed of leaves and then stored in a plastic bag in the refrigerator. The small ones can be eaten as is with the skin, larger ones need the tough skin peeled off. Most of what I read recommends eating kohlrabi raw and I completely agree.  Have it chopped as a snack, cubed, or shredded into a salad such as Kohlrabi Apple Slaw with Creamy Dressing. If the leaves are still on the "sputnik" then they can be sliced into a salad, that is if the bunnies haven't eaten all of them off the plants (not that I'm bitter or anything). Kohlrabi is also good cooked, slice or dice it and wrap in tinfoil to grill on the BBQ or cook it according to this recipe for Kohlrabi Ham Bake.

Okay, now I am into late night craziness as evidenced by the photo, so just one last thing for this week's box. My favorite mom website is SavvyMom.ca.  The most recent installment of One Ingredient, Four Ways, on their EatSavvy section is about cucumbers, which for me is perfect timing.  Number one - we have cucumbers in the box this week, and number two - we are entertaining at the cottage this weekend (where the kids will outnumber the adults, hence sliders instead of burgers) so I can try the Lamb Sliders with Cucumber and Feta Sauce.  The other cucumber recipes from EatSavvy are Homemade Tzaziki, Roasted Salmon with Fresh Cucumber Salsa, and Chilled Cucumber Soup.

Under the wire, blog finished and posted on Wednesday evening, a first for me, like growing kohlrabi and making scape pesto.

POST NOTE - Friday, June 22, 2012 - just got my box and Tasha wanted everyone to know - try to eat your green beans soon, ASAP if you can.

Organice Harvest Box for June 18, 2010

We are missing our Harvest Box photo this week because we took our family camping this weekend and I had a neighbour bring my box inside for me on Friday night. She had all my goodies packed away in my fridge, so I wasn't able to snap a picture for you! It was hot and humid on Friday, so I made sure she came by to bring my food in as soon as it was delivered (my cooler was not available, since we had it with us on our camping trip). If you will not be home when your Harvest Box is delivered, please leave a cooler on your doorstep and your driver will be happy to place the contents of your box inside. Fresh, local produce can wilt and go bad in a short time in hot, Ottawa summer weather.

Before I started receiving the Life Organic delivery service over two years ago, I had no idea what a garlic scape was. And then one lovely day in June I received these curly delights in my Harvest Box.

Yes, these green, curly ribbon-like "things" are garlic scapes. The garlic scape is the "stem"' from which the seed head of a garlic bulb is formed. As the bulb grows and matures, the stem, or stalk, also begins to lengthen. Over time the scape begins to curve. Garlic scapes taste garlicky but have a fresh, green flavouring. They can be used in a variety of dishes, especially where you would want a garlic flavour. A garlic scape is less strong and has less "bite" than regular garlic cloves.

In the past I have most often used my garlic scapes in pesto - it is delicious, light, and a delightful addition to any pasta. I usually use this Garlic Scape Pesto recipe, but any variation will do, and it is usually best to fiddle with the recipe until you find something that you love. I am planning on trying Kalyn's Garlic Scape Pesto this year, as I've been so pleased and impressed with many of her recipes over the past few months.

For an easy, quick appetizer, try making this White Bean and Garlic Scape Dip - the flavour is fantastic and it is a hit at most parties and get-togethers. I am also intrigued by this recipe for Creamy Garlic Scape Soup and would love to try it out if I have enough garlic scapes to go around this week! Great for the barbecue, these Grilled Garlic Scapes are something easy to add to a weeknight meal. More of a pizza lover? Give this Garlic Scape And Ricotta Pizza a go and wow your friends and family. And if you fancy yourself an egg connoisseur, please let me know if you get an opportunity to try out these Zucchini Eggs. They look delicious!

And while we're on the topic of pesto, let's talk about your basil plant! Nothing tastes like fresh basil, and once you go fresh, you will never go back to the dried stuff in a jar (well, unless you absolutely have to). It is easy to keep your basil plant alive - so don't fret if you're not an expert gardener. Basil likes lots of sunlight, and lots of water - keep the soil moist and water it often. If the plant starts to flower, just pinch the bulbs off and your plant will keep growing and growing.

Fresh basil is most often associated with thoughts of home-made pesto. And if you want to try the good stuff, I urge you to give this Homemade Pesto Recipe a go. You'll love it! I tend to chop up basil and throw it in almost anything I'm cooking - pasta dishes, grilled chicken or fish, salads, etc. You can really enjoy the flavour of fresh basil in a simple Caprese Salad, although basil lends itself well to many salad types. This basic Tomato and Basil Crostini is a great appetizer or lunch addition, and the pairing of tomato and basil simply can't be beat. Which is why basil goes so well with so many tomato pasta dishes. For something a little unique, try this Mixed Fresh Herb Pasta.

Looking for something a little different . . . spectacular, maybe? Serve up this Boursin Burger and be ready to be the talk of all your friends - and be sure to have enough on hand for everyone to have seconds. And I just love the sound of these Lemon Basil Snaps - what a beautiful addition to such a light cookie. If I get a chance to make these this week I will most definitely take pictures and share.

Enjoy your produce and have a wonderful week!