95: Smoky Kale and White Bean Soup

Mmmmm. I used a few recipes as inspiration for this, but as it goes, the most important thing was to use up a bunch of ingredients/leftovers I had in my fridge. So more a case of: fill my mind up with possibilities then kinda wing it. It'd be nice if that always worked well, I'll say it comes through 75-85% of the time. This was a good time.

Ingredients:

- 2 medium onions, diced

- 2 cloves of garlic, minced then made into a paste with kosher salt

~ 1 cup super strong turkey broth concentrate (from a bag in my freezer, I'm not sure exact amounts)

- 1 1/2 cups cannellini beans

- 1/4 cup bean water

- 3/4 water water

- 2 cups diced canned tomatoes

- Sprigs of savory, parsley, and basil

- Most of a bunch of kale, sliced into thin strips (minus the small amount I used on this and some leaves I ate as I went)

- 3/4 tsp smoked paprika

- salt and pepper to taste (heavy on the pepper!)

Sweat the onions a bit, then added my garlic, cooking briefly until fragrant. Then I added my tomatoes, broth, bean water and water. I like my soups thick so I let this simmer away for a while to reduce, throwing in a decent sized sprig (kind of a branch, really) of savory, basil and parsley mid-way through.

Once it had reduced to my liking I added the beans and kale, along with 1/2 tsp smoked paprika and a little more salt and pepper. Removed the herb sprigs. Let that simmer a little longer, then decided to add a bit more paprika and pepper.

Super happy with the result. Before I added the sprig/branches of herbs I thought the base was a little too...bright? acidic? It just wasn't doing it for me and I can't describe why. But those herbs really helped broaden the flavor. I'm generally not a huge tomato soup fan, either, but I can get behind this. I think it's the smoked paprika.

90: Candied Sungold Tomatoes

My inspiration for this (and the recipe for the tomatoes) came from this recipe on food52. I haven't done a lot of sweet things with tomatoes, so this was a nice change of pace. Only had about 6 oz of sungold tomatoes, which meant cutting the given amounts in half. No worries on that front.

The initial goal was to make the baked ricotta as well, but when I stopped at my local cheesemonger (I have one of those now, I'm turning so Brooklyn), they didn't have any appropriate goat cheese. So I just bought a giant thing of ricotta and settled on this alteration.

I also didn't have light brown sugar, so I used a little dark brown and honey (why not?). No marjoram either, so I used savory. Just kept adding it bit by bit until it was a nice background flavor. The bread is more foccacia from SCRATCH. Honestly I ate the Bruchetta for dinner and this for dessert. Crazyperson. Carbfiend. So full.

My only complaint was that it was a little too sweet. The best bite I had was one where a tomato hadn't completely given up its juice, and that extra pop of tartness was amazing. Next time I'll either try to keep the tomatoes more whole or just add less sugar. This time I added a few drops of lemon juice to the leftovers. This recipe is something I'll definitely do again, maybe for a potluck. It's just seems really classy.

89: Bruschetta

Mmmm so obsessed with tomatoes. I think I've only ordered bruchetta once from a restaurant- and it was amazing, don't get me wrong- but it's so simple I usually just think "I can make that myself"...but then never get around to it. Finally did last night, and yum so good.

I winged this, so no recipe per se. It was a nice mix of:

- Cocktail tomatoes

- Sweet Onion

- Garlic

- Basil

- Savory

- Olive Oil/Salt/Pepper

Mixed everything up and let it sit out at room temp a bit to meld. Didn't sweat the proportions, and even forgot the olive oil until right before I ate. Toasted up some foccacia from SCRATCH, spooned the tomato mixture on and nommed. So good.

Not sure I have any notes for improvement- it was pretty damn good. Maybe a little more basil? Or to just make more I guess. Can never get enough tomatoes.

88: Peperonata

Dear Purple Bell Peppers,

Why you gotta turn white when I cook you?

Love, 

K

Seriously though, how awesome would that purple have been in this dish? When I cut them I knew it wouldn't last though- the purple color is only skin deep.

Anyway, I used a mix of the two peperonata recipes I'd mentioned in the Delivery post- probably relying on the more laid back Bittman version.

Sliced up my two peppers (for the record the purple was just bitter whereas the green had a bit more to it- a little grassy? probably not the right word), and half a walla walla onion. Chopped up a 1/4 cup of basil, some parsley and a little savory. Minced two cloves of garlic and diced a roma and cocktail tomato.

Started the onions in a pan, cooked until they got soft. Added everything else and cooked until the peppers softened as well.

Super good, very comforting and tomato-y. Needs some crusty bread. As do all the things.

Note for Improvement: Don't cook it quite as long, the peppers could've used a little more bite.

Update: I had cold leftovers for lunch and loved it. The peppers had a bit more bite to them than I remembered last night, and while the purple ones were still bitter, it contrasted nicely with the sweetness of the tomato and onion. I definitely want to do this again.

87: Mushrooms and Radish Greens

Only a very small part of this is from my share. So sue me. 

I'd picked up mushrooms last week, the morning before I worked my CSA shift and got bonus shrooms, so these had been languishing for a bit. I also needed a snack one day happening by a farmer's market near work, and picked up a nice bunch of radishes. Ate the radishes raw (nom!), saved the greens for a better use. Came up with this.

It's my standard greens + shrooms + quinoa deal. Used a little sweet onion I'd had left over from another use, and threw in some savory as I thought it would go well.

It did- it was just a little strong. Those leaves are so tiny, I kept convincing myself to add more. It's not bad by any means, just need to restrain myself a bit I guess.

Notes for Improvement:
- Taste before you add more (duh)
- Wash your greens better! These were a little gritty...

86: Carrot Top and Herb Scrambled Eggs

I have off today, so a weekend breakfast was in order. Making a point to use up herbs this week, I also felt like experimenting with carrot tops. Not entirely successful, but learned a thing or two. 

Ingredients: 

- 1 tsp savory

- 1 tbs parsley

- 1 tbs basil

- 1/2 cup carrot dops

- 2 eggs

- olive oil/butter

I sliced the herbs as thin as I could manage, then chopped up the carrot tops fairly fine. Started some olive oil in the pan, added both. Assumed the carrot tops would soften up pretty quickly. Let those go for a minute before adding some butter and salt to the pan. Whisked my eggs, added those as well. Scrambled. Etc.

Turns out carrot tops are pretty toothsome, so the texture here was weird. And I think I overdid the savory and butter- I was missing a little brightness. Maybe I'm so used to having sriracha/jalapeno in my scrambled eggs anything rich just tastes odd.

Used up the last of my SCRATCH buckwheat sour. It was growing on me a bit. Will probably go back to the regular sour, or the foccacia, next time.

Notes for Improvement: When trying new veggies, how about you taste them? If I'd just tried the carrot tops before adding the eggs, I would've realized they needed more time. Womp womp. Hard to do that badly with eggs tho.

Delivery 9

Two months done! I'm due for another recappy post. Once I have time (tomorrow? maybe?).

Carrots with Greens - 1 bunch

Walla Walla Sweet Onions - 2

Peppers - 2

Summer Savory - 1 bunch

Orient Eggplant - 2

Genovese Basil - 1 bunch

Tomatoes - 6

Sun Gold Cherry Tomatoes - 1 basket

White Russian Kale - 1 bunch

Bell Eggplant - 1

Tomatoes

So wonderful. Six roma/plum tomatoes (top), six cocktail tomatoes (bottom), and a container of sungold cherry tomatoes. I ended up eating my last batch of cherries as is. Really have to refrain from doing that with these. No promises. 

I'm thinking of using most of the plum on a new batch of Baignan Bharta. As for the others...we'll see. I do have basil.

My dad sent me a link to an awesome farmer's market/CSA recipe generator. There are a few good ideas for tomatoes, but most require lots of extra ingredients.

Carrots:

I've done dilly carrots before. Looking for something a bit new. Carrots lend themselves to a lot, and with a few other ingredients I have this delivery I could maybe make a soup? Anyway, I'm excited for carrot tops, here are a few recipes for those.

Kale

Yesss. Honestly a little in love with kale. Lots of options: Beans and smoked paprika, cornbread, with wheat berries, nommy salads. This one isn't as frilly as I'm used to, but it has that awesome bitterness. Having greens with stems also makes me happy, as they're just great to dip in hummus.

Savory

I haven't cooked with savory before- and it's proving a little hard to find recipes- but once I smelled it I immediately recognized it. It's used in a lot of things. With the carrots it's just begging to be a soup. I'd also like to buy chicken this week- either livers again, or thighs- and this would work very well with that. Bruchetta, beans, mushroom pate. The kitchn has a little roundup too- the simplest one would work well.

 

Walla Walla Onions

Honestly, while cutting these last week I was eating pieces raw. They are so sweet and delicious.

Googling these came up with a website - with recipes - dedicated to them. I guess there's a big Walla Walla lobby to combat the Vidalia onion lobby.  Oh, and the internet wants me to make bruchetta this week.

Peppers

Debating doing another jar of pickled peppers- hesitant as I'm not sure how that one turned out at all. I'll probably do something different. It's been a while since I've made a pizza. Peperonata look amazing. Here's a great recipe roundup from the NY Times.
 

Basil

I'm making a pesto this week. I have to. I always have so much herbage left over that just goes bad in my fridge, and it's making me sad. I'm determined to use this up.

Eggplant 

Baignan Bharta is a given. Part of me just wants to make that with all of this- though most likely I'll use the bell on it, and then use the smaller orient on other recipes.