Through our Fall CSA Share at Clark Farm, we’ve been introduced to caraflex cabbage, a conical shaped and creamy mild variety. This recipe for preparing caraflex cabbage as a side is easy and a delicious way to highlight the mild flavors and texture of this variety.
The recipe comes from Local Roots NYC, a farm-to-table and food sourcing organization based in New York City. Read about their mission of reducing toxicity in agricultural offerings here. While there are many sources for a roasting Caraflex Cabbage available, this one is a great one to try out – easy to make and the Gochujang-based sauce adds a layer of complexity. Recipe is free.
As our Clark Farm Fall CSA Share starts to wind down, we are eating more cold-tolerant veggies. This week we received some beautifully fresh pak choi in our share and so, we did what comes naturally. Stir Fry! If you’re wondering about the difference between bok chhoy and pak choi (besides the spelling), this article is a great explainer of both veggies.
The bowls pictured above are treasures from talented ceramicist and potter, Liz Rodriguez. Liz was formerly a studio artist at Western Avenue in Lowell, and now lives and works in Western Massachusetts. Check out her beautiful and unique work here.
Ingredients (adapt as needed)
Soy (prefer Tamari)
Toasted sesame oil
Unseasoned rice wine vinegar
Heat tolerant oil (like grapeseed)
Minced fresh garlic and fresh ginger
Protein of choice (I used extra firm tofu, drained and cut into large cubes)
Leafy veg (pac choi, spinach, arugala – whatever you feel like using)
Cook rice for serving
Method
I didn’t follow any particular recipe for this one. The ingredients are fairly standard for stir fries – protein + vegetables + garlic/ginger + sauce. I chose firm tofu, because that’s one of the ways we reduce our consumption of meats – and we like it. The standard sauce I use is tamari soy, splash of toasted sesame oil, and a capful of unseasoned rice wine vinegar.
Start with a hot wok, then add oil. I frequently use coconut oil, but this time I chose heat-tolerant grapeseed oil. Then add prepared (squeeze out as much moisture as possible) tofu or other protein. Sear without turning for about 4 minutes, flip, and sear again. When the tofu has a nice brown crust, remove it to a paper-towel lined plate.
Next add a bit more – about a tablespoon – oil along with about a tablespoon of minced garlic and a tablespoon of fresh ginger minced. Add the pak choi, which has been thoroughly cleaned and cut into chunks (the leafy parts can be larger as they will cook down quickly). Pour a bit of the sauce and let things cook down. If you have other leafy greens add them in as well.
Once everything has cooked down and is soft, return the tofu to the wok, add the rest of the sauce, and cook until everything is good and hot. Serve over rice.
I opened a bottle of Pinot this week which was not unusual, but the bottle was truly not to my liking. Not wanting to waste it, I looked a ways to cook with it other than as a braising liquid.
Andrea Geary recently published some interesting recipes for Pâtes de Fruit in America’s Test Kitchen, and I am here to tell you that the bottle of Pinot was put to good use. In fact, I’m just a little hopeful I come across another similar bottle before the holidays so I can gift these fruit squares to friends.
One of the most challenging aspects of the recipe is sourcing Certo liquid pectin. Whenever I’ve made jelly or jam, I’ve used powdered versions; Certo definitely took some sleuthing, but I did locate it. My advice is that if you are considering making these confections, forward-thinking will be your friend.
We had encountered these candies on our travels to France, but this version has a definite New World flavor. Mulled wine makes the Pâtes subtly spicy and thanks to the addition of unsweetened apple sauce, very apple-y.
I’ve been testing out quick breads that will eventually find the way to our Garden Club’s bake sale, a fundraiser we hold around Thanksgiving. So when King Arthur Baking featured this pumpkin recipe, I gave it a try. And as usual, it did not disappoint.
The recipe yields 1 larger loaf (8-1/2 x 4-1/2), but because I wanted to try this out for a possible bake sale item, I used 3 small-sized disposable pans. That worked well, with a small tweak to the baking time. The consistency of the baked loaf holds together really well, so if you are baking for a bake sale, individual slices could also be portioned and wrapped up.
We received some beautifully grown organic leeks in our Clark Farm CSA Share over the past couple of weeks, so when I noticed Yasmin Fahr published a pasta dish featuring leeks and mushrooms in this week’s NYTimes, I was intrigued. Sautéeing leeks and mushrooms then adding miso’s yumminess along with some sherry vinegar was absolutely inspired.
With my subscription to the New York Times, I am able to share this recipe. The ingredient list follows:
Here’s another great way to make use of all of those tomatoes!
This confit, unlike others I’ve found recently, is completely cooked on the stovetop. Since my slow-cooker is also an Instant Pot, and therefore the nuance of slow cooker temperature choices is non-existent, this one made sense for me.
One of my sisters lives in San Miguel, Mexico and gifted me with a delightfully smoked olive oil. So I used about half regular EVOO and half of the smoked olive oil. To say it came out well is an understatement!
This recipe was developed by Lisa Porter and is published on her blog, Parsley and Parm. The link is below and the ingredient list follows. Don’t be overly concerned about generating a lot of oil – that makes a great dipping oil for crusty bread, and is an elegant way to make a unique and tasty salad dressing.
The tomatoes were part of our Fall Share from Clark Farms in Carlisle – if you are local to Massachusetts, check them out.
Believe it or not, we seem to live in a fresh seafood desert, even though we are about 30 miles from the Atlantic. While fresh seafood is pretty hard to come by, I have found that some fish, scallops and shrimp, are just fine in the frozen version.
We have been treated to a bumper crop of fresh tomatoes with our CSA share from Clark Farm in Carlisle. As New Englanders will tell you, the rock-hard versions supplied to grocers in the tomato off-season, can never compare to fresh, homegrown, farm tomatoes. And so, whenever we can get our hands on locally grown tomatoes, we go for it.
This recipe (gifted below through my subscription to the New York Times), was a fancy yet simple supper – and honestly, aren’t those the best? Developed by NYT Cooking contributer Lidey Hauck, cherry tomatoes form the basis of a jammy savory sauce which is best sopped up with a crusty bread. Add a glass of perfectly chilled crisp wine, and you’ve got yourself an elegant meal worthy of celebrating.
I had not been a big fan of bitter greens until this year. But… finding new ways to use greens of all sorts has been part of our cooking expeditions since we joined Clark Farm CSA. This week, we received mustard greens as part of our share, and tried them in a fall(ish) soup recipe from America’s Test Kitchen (subscription access only) and was developed by Meaghen Walsh.
Cooked in a slow cooker, once prepped, this is a hands-off meal until serving time. Then, by mixing up a yogurt topping (yogurt, parsley and lemon juice), the soup is transformed into something creamy and quite spectacular. I did the slow cooking on a weekend day along with other meal prep, making this an even easier meal to get to table on a busy weeknight.
Slow Cooker Moroccan Lentil Soup with Mustard Greens
It seemed to take a long time to get here, but it is finally tomato season here in the Northeast. After eating hothouse tomatoes – or the gassed and golf ball like ones that get shipped here in the winter months – eating a fresh, juicy tomato is one of life’s great pleasures. So we use them and enjoy them while we can.
Sometimes it’s those simple pleasures that make a meal memorable, and such was the case with this tasty main dish. Add some crusty bread to sop up the sauce and a fresh green salad, and you’ve got yourself a meal worthy of a dinner party.
This one-pot dish from New York Times contributor Yasmin Fahr is quick and delicious. Those fresh cherry tomatoes from Clark Farm in Carlisle make the dish, as do the fresh herbs we picked at the farm this week.
I’ve gifted the recipe through my subscription to the New York Times below. The ingredient list follows.
This past spring, Adrien and I were privileged to travel to the land of my ancestors – Sicily. Sicily is such a marvelously complex mix of cultures, but one of the most striking things about it is the food. Sicilians take the abundance of the land and sea and create some of the most wonderful things ever imagined.
Pasta alla Norma is just one of those dishes. Eggplant, tomatoes, ricotta and pasta all co-mingled into a dish that, if you were not before, will make you an eggplant-lover.
The origins of this recipe come from Fabrizia Lanza‘s The Food of Sicily, but the preparations have been adapted by cookbook author, reknowned pasty chef and ex-pat, David Lebovitz. David published his version of Fabrizia Lanza’s recipe, which differs only slightly in that the eggplant is baked, not deep-fried.
When our Clark Farm CSA included eggplant last week, I knew exactly what we were going to do! The recipe, as adapted by David Lebovitz, is linked below, the ingredient list follows, but to dive deeply into authentic Sicilian cooking, I highly recommend Fabrizia Lanza’s book.
Four Nights A Week 