228: Kohlrabi Carrot Soup

Not a pretty soup, but a sweet and tasty one. I sort of used this recipe from Eat, Love and Be Happy! When skimming it seemed fine, but upon the reread I was generally confused as to what I was supposed to do, so I did my own thing.

Ingredients:

2 kohlrabi
3 carrots
1 head garlic
1 onion, diced
2 ribs celery, diced
~ sage, thyme, parsley
~ chiken stock
~ salt, pepper, olive oil

I peeled, cut into chunks, and roasted the kohlrabi and carrots until soft and browned. I also chopped the top of the garlic off the head, drizzled a little olive oil and wrapped in foil. That was also roasted until soft.

Meanwhile, I diced my onions and celery and started those in a pot with a little olive oil and salt. Once they got soft, and the onions started to brown, I added in the rest of the ingredients. The chicken stock was added until it just covered (I like my soups full of "stuff", not super brothy), and I let that simmer for a while, until the flavors had a chance to mingle and the herbs had some time to do their thing. Tasting, adjusting seasoning as necessary.

Roasting the kohlrabi and carrots brought out their sweetness, which extended out into the soup. Last night it seemed unpleasantly sweet, but I dug it a lot more for lunch. Next time I'd probably add roasted potatoes, but I totally forgot until it was too late to prep them.

Delivery 23

Potatoes - 2 pounds

Orange Carrots - 1 pound

Yellow Carrots - 1 pound
Kohlrabi - 2

Sage - 1 bunch

Garlic - 2 heads

Celeriac - 1 head

Collards - 1 bunch

Beets - 2 pounds

Radish - 1 bunch

Collards

Lots of extras but here's a curry. A soup with grits. Creamed. Not sure I'd follow the filling but I could use the leaves for a wrap.

Carrots

A few soup ideas: with ginger or a little more plain.

Celeriac

Aka celery root. Smashed, gratin with potatoes, salad with parsley, root veggie slaw.

Potatoes

I can't even...

Beets

Moroccan stew (bonus for radish and excuses to buy squash), beet and radish slaw, or another round of picked beets. Beet ketchup. Borscht.

Radishes

These guys are tiny. White bean and radish salad. Roasted. Savory toast (with yogurt?!).

Garlic

Garlic confit. Honey lemon garlic tea (I'd throw ginger in there, too). Turkish poached eggs with yogurt and spicy sage butter (!!!).

Kohlrabi

Love these guys! "Ceviche" with radishes and carrots. Lots of extras, but crostini with mozz. Pickled with carrots. Nommy looking soup with carrots, potatoes, herbs I have kicking around.

Sage

Carrot and sage soup.

196 & 197: Kohlrabi and Apple Slaw

This recipe from Martha falls under the insanely easy but kinda neat column. Literally just apples and kohlrabi, cut into match sticks, tossed with salt, pepper, olive oil and lemon juice.

With something so simple you need to be spot on. I made it once, thought it was good but needed improvement so I made it again the next night.

Version 1: Gala Apple

My kohlrabi sticks were a little larger than I'd like, especially as the vegetable is much firmer than the apple. The kohlrabi was very mild but a little savory, the apple nicely sweet and the dressing tart, so there was a good combination of flavors. 

My thoughts were to cut the kohlrabi smaller or the apple bigger, or to try a firmer variety of apple. 

Version 2: Granny Smith

My kohlrabi was a lot more uniform this time (yay to squaring off- meant less for the salad but more scooby snacks) and my apple was firmer so texturally it was a bit better, but I actually think I like the gala a bit more. Both of my dressings were on the tart side, and then having the granny smith just kinda set it over the top. At least the gala was more sweet than tart, you know?

Overall though it's simple and new enough to be interesting, and something I'd definitely do again, with a bit more adjustment (less lemon in the dressing, for one).

Delivery 20

Butternut Winter Squash - 1

Turnips - 2

Lettuce - 2 heads Lettuce Smettuce, went for another bunch of radishes again

Broccoli - 1

Radish - 1 bunch

Potatoes - 2 pounds

Garlic - 2 heads

Kohlrabi - 1 bunch

Sage - 1 bunch

Carrots - 1 pound

Hot Peppers - Jalapenos

Cauliflower - 1

I have a bit of a crazyplan this week, just to chop everything up and roast it with the sage. But then I don't have enough sheet trays/oven space/etc.

Turnips

Kinda giant turnips this week. Here's a soup. Fritters with potato and scallions. Frittata. Simple roast.

Cauliflower

Heyyy I got one that wasn't moldy this time! Faux cous cous looks neat (and I love excuses to use the food processor). Spicy roasty cauliflower steaks. Creamy curried soup. And a curry with potatoes.

Jalapenos

Part of the reason I was able to build up so many habaneros for that jelly was they were too spicy to use in normal dishes. Happy to have a few milder everyday peppers to just use as needed.

Garlic

Every time I look at this thing, I just keep thinking of Eraserhead. I'm sorry if that's now stuck in your head. I use garlic all the time, but don't want to just toss this in with a bunch of other flavors. One of my favorite things about the CSA is subtly but profoundly different ingredients taste when they're this fresh. Most likely this will just get roasted and spread on bread like butter.

Butternut Squash

Yay! Butternut squash is one of those foods I adore, but don't order it at restaurants as it's a borderline food. It can be sweet or savory, and I want none of the sweet. Or rather, additional sweet. So no cinnamon or maple syrup please, the squash brings enough of that to the party as is. Roasted squash soup. I have my own favorite soup recipe with rosemary and onions, may try that out. These wontons sound neat, if a little sweet.

Potatoes

Salad with salmon. Pizza dough. First batch that appear to have been cleaned before sending.

Carrots

Roasted carrots and avocado salad. Carrot cake pancakes. Carrots with potatoes and dill. Spoon bread.

Sage

Crispy sage. Pizza with butternut squash. If I didn't still have pate in the freezer I'd make that again.

Radishes

There was a lot of sage (and I mean a lot) on the swap table today, but thankfully my radish-hating friend left an extra bunch for me to swap out. It's more than a little ridiculous that I traded two heads of lettuce for a baby bunch of these radishes (especially when I'm on a salad kick lately), but it happened. Pickles, with cheese and chives on bread, or just with butter and salt. Or I'll just make a bunch of radish roses, and throw them at people.

Broccoli

Broccoli grilled cheese (healthy wha?). Hummus with white beans. Chilled soup (bonus for dill, which I still have from last week).

Kohlrabi

Salad with apples. Slaw with apples. Slaw with turnips.

63: Roasted Kohlrabi

Chopped up the kohlrabi and tossed in olive oil and salt. It was less of a roast and more of a low sautee while working on other projects. Nothing fancy as I stumbled upon it at the bottom of my veggie crisper, on its way out, begging to be used. Cooked until soft, added a bit of pepper once it was on the plate.

It was a nice change from raw. There was a slight comforting sweetness. Not sure what to compare it to. 

Notes for Improvement: look for a recipe next time. 

Dish 40: Lasty

Ahhh end of the delivery week. Like last week it's a frantic rush to use up what remains. This week's was more composed, but not terribly well thought out.

I tossed the last of those vidalia onions in a pan with the last of the garlic scapes. The heat was high so they browned quickly.

Turned down the heat a bit and tossed in the last of the spinach and escarole. Tongs were useful here.

...then things got a bit crazy. Added the leftover vermicelli from my spring rolls and it stuck like crazy to the pan- maybe I needed more oil? Maybe that's what these noodles do? But in a rush I tossed in a peanut sauce I'd prepped (peanut butter, a little soy, toasted sesame oil, a little apple cider vinegar, a little sriracha and some blackberry jam). Mixed it up as best I could.

Was it good? Yes, but not at all suitable for summer. I can stand chilis and soups and risotto in the heat, but I'm drawing the line at peanut sauces. At least ones that aren't dips. I'm not a pad thai girl.

Sriracha helped. Of course. I went on a ~8.5mi bike ride to work some of it out of my system, came home and chopped up a little kohlrabi and carrot to have on the roof. I still have a kohlrabi left, I'm planning on cooking it somehow. But very delicious.

Especially when enjoyed on the roof.

Dishes 27 & 28: Broiled Corn & Sauteed Kohlrabi

Side dishes for dinner.

Only the Kohlrabi is from the share- I was picking up a few additions for other dishes, and happened upon a deal of 6 ears of corn for $2. I picked up 3, not knowing how successfully I could cook them without heating up the entire apartment. I may pick up more after this.

I chopped up some rosemary and thyme, then mixed them with some butter and salt. With my hands. (What? The butter was cold and impossible to mix otherwise). Then I coated the corn with the butter. Also with my hands. (My hands were covered in butter, it made the most sense). There are no pics (see previous comment re: butterhands), but it did happen.

Cobs went into the oven under the broiler; I turned them once they started getting a little brown caramelized goodness. Turned off the broiler when they were done, but left them in the semi-warm oven as the greens finished up.

Was worried the broiler wouldn't cook them enough but they turned out well. Definitely cooler than heating the oven to 350 and cooking for a half hour (per another recipe).

 

Most of the herbs fell off during cooking, that's fine. When I cut the kernels off the other two cobs I added the toasty bits from the baking sheet to the storage container.

Notes for Improvement:

- Chop the herbs a little finer- or make the butter ahead of time so the flavors infuse a bit more.

- Do this again. A bunch. Nom.

On to Kohlrabi!

I cut the stems/leaves off two Kohlrabi, then sliced up the leaves (later chopped those up a bit more) and chopped the stems, onions, and garlic semi-fine. Ok maybe a semi-coarse. Don't have those knife skills yet.

Sauteed the onions and garlic for a bit, then on a whim tossed in some sunflower seeds and the kohlrabi stems. Once the stems got a little soft I tossed in the leaves.

At the very end I added a splash of soy sauce and sesame oil. Definitely made things awesome. The leaves were tougher than I'd like- not sure if they would've wilted down eventually or they're just Saving the rest for lunch tomorrow with Quinoa.

Notes for Improvement:

- Blanch the greens before sauteeing? Or just add them earlier so they cook longer

- Random seed additions turned out well. Do that more.

Delivery 4

Leftover from last week: one zucchini and a little purslane. 

This week's haul:

Tropicana Lettuce - 1 head 
Romaine Lettuce - 1 head

Encino Lettuce - 1 head

Escarole - 1 head

Summer Spinach - 1 bunch

Mint - 1 bunch

Garlic Scapes - 8

Kohlrabi - 1 bunch

Summer Squash - 2 pounds

Three new things! Still more of the same. Etc! Highlights:

Lettuce

I have not had nightmares about lettuce but I may start. A friend suggested juice. Or braising. Or soup. I found (my fav) a tart- bonus for also using zucchini, and being from Kayser. Tropicana Lettuce reminds me of my hair, but beyond that I can't find anything special about it.

Escarole

Escarole looks like lettuce but it isn't- it's a broad-leafed endive. The internet is telling me it's less bitter than other varieties of endive- but apparently the leaf I tried hadn't heard that fact. It's a decently sized head, and beyond the standard saute with onions and garlic, I'm not sure what to do with all of it.

There's a simple braise, I'm not sure what to call this rich bready goodness but I want it, or maybe stuffed with rice. I could do that last one with any of my lettuces, too.

Or green harissa (bonus for mint). I've been meaning to try out this condiment. The only thing is now that I'm no longer in Spanish Harlem, grocery stores don't just automatically have all the varieties of peppers this calls for. A field trip is in order.

Mint 

Always very excited for fresh herbs. Not terribly long ago in my mind mint was just for desserts (though honestly I don't like mint ice cream) or toothpaste. But with a gentle touch I've liked it in more savory things lately. Would be nice and cooling for summer.

Beyond the harissa above, I have a small backlog of herbs from my last few weeks of cooking. May whip up a variation on salsa verde.

Summer Squash

I have a BBQ on the 4th, would love to make this zucchini salad. May even have enough leftover for that tart above. Or just sauteed/broiled in a little butter.

Dish 26: Breakfast for Dinner & A New Shiny

Sunday's normal breakfast was coopted by tomatoes and pizza, so I was jonesing for scrambled eggs. These were somewhat kitchen sink to clear out more room in advance of today's delivery, too. 

Chopped up garlic scapes and started those in a pan some oil. Once those had sizzled a bit added the remains of my Swiss Chard and some Romaine. After those had wilted added the eggs. You know how to scramble them.

I served it with some nommy SCRATCH sourdough and some sliced Kohlrabi, which I'd topped with a little salt and some olive oil- the salt enhances the flavor and fat helps deliver it.

MORE IMPORTANTLY, however, I bought a fancy Japanese knife :)

On the one hand, yes, I spent a lot on it...and the sharpening stone, and the case. But this thing will last forever as long as I take care of it. Quality over something easy and cheap. Part of my attempt to be an "Adult" and also "take this cooking thing seriously." I'll believe those things enough someday to not have them in quotes.

And! I signed up for a knife skills class at 3rd Ward, so hopefully I'll learn to not chop off my fingers. It's sooo sharp. Just need to think of a name.

Dish 25: Spring Rolls / Salad

I had a little more variety in this delivery so I thought it would be a good idea to revisit spring rolls.

Ingredients: vermicelli (again with toasted sesame oil), carrots, zucchini, kohlrabi, and buttercrunch lettuce. 

They were assembled as before. I still haven't gotten the right taut-ness down in the wrappers. 

It wasn't entirely successful. The ingredients had more texture than before which was nice, but none had a particularly strong flavor. I also prepped way too much of everything- dinner was already leftovers from my tart and the tomato, purslane and egg deliciousness.

I ended up prepping way too much of everything, so I used the leftovers in a salad. 

It was very similar- I think I used a little romaine as well. Again too many bland flavors- the dressing was a simple vinaigrette, and with the grated carrots it for reminded me of KFC cole slaw. I'm not sure what that means: watery and vaguely sweet?

Note for improvement: stronger flavors- either with ingredients, marinates, or dips. Maybe roast/broil some of the veggies?

Delivery 3

A few awesome parts to this new delivery. Also starting to build a backlog in the fridge. Maybe I'll start blanching and freezing.

Here's the list this week:

Red Sails Leaf Lettuce - 1 head**
(Green Towers) Romaine Lettuce - 1 head
(Butter Head) Buttercruch Lettuce - 1 head
Encino Lettuce - 1 head
Summer Spinach - 1 bunch
(Bright Lights) Swiss Chard - 1 bunch
Garlic Scapes - 6 scapes
Golden Purslane - 1 bunch
Kohlrabi - 1 bunch
Summer Squash - 2 pcs

** I couldn't deal with four different types of lettuce this week. Red Leaf has been my least favorite of the bunch, so I took advantage of the swap table and got a second bunch of the Swiss Chard. To be honest I've never had chard before but it looked so damn pretty.

Here are my highlights:

Summer Squash: I may not have been the best CSA-mate and selected two of the biggest of the crate to take...I'll be better in the future. But I'm just so excited for a non-leafy. I have a squash soup I love to make, but it's been super hot here lately. Maybe pickles? Or just a saute in some butter...

Spinach: This makes me happy like kale. I've had quiche on the brain lately. And then I see the butter and cream AND cream cheese in that recipe and am thinking more of a tart? I have a removable bottom tart pan that needs to get used.

Kohlrabi: Related to broccoli and cabbage. From the CSA email:

The variety is Kossak which yields a larger Kohlrabi. They look like they should be a root crop but really grow on top of the soil on a short stalk. They can be eaten raw or cooked. They taste a bit like broccoli stems. Peel them, slice and add to a salad. Or cube and roast. The greens are edible as well. Wash, slice and boil.   

Reading around a little online, people are comparing the crisp texture to a water chestnut or granny smith apple- under that very tough peel. So raw with a little salt? Though there are neat looking salads, pickles, or use it in spring rolls!

Encino Lettuce: Frilly Lettuce. Is it bad that when I google this I just get a bunch of lists from the farm that does my CSA for this week's delivery? I'm running out of ideas for lettuce is what I'm saying, and I wish the internet would understand and help me out here.

Purslane: It's a succulent, which is exciting. There's some good inspiration here, oh hey a chilled zucchini soup. I'm generally happy I have an excuse to buy and eat tomatoes here as well with a salad. Apparently you can sub it for spinach in tarts and whatnot. There may be another ingredient fight.

There's a spiffy bit on wikipedia about it:

At night its leaves trap carbon dioxide, which is converted into malic acid (the souring principle of apples), and, in the day, the malic acid is converted into glucose. When harvested in the early morning, the leaves have ten times the malic acid content as when harvested in the late afternoon, and thus have a significantly more tangy taste.

Mine are not that tangy, but this seems to happen more in dry times- and it's been pretty wet here. Ah well.

Swiss Chard: Taken in by the lovely colors. I asked the volunteer if there was a difference between the flavors stems based on color (they ranged from a light yellow to deep purply red), she said she thought the redder ones had a mild beet flavor, so I was all over it. Pickling the stems, sauteing the greens. This may be the week of tarts and here's one with zucchini, too.