July 16, 2010

July 16th, 2010
In Your Boxes This Week You'll Find Some of the Following:

Strawberries or Blueberries

Zucchini

Cucumbers
String Beans

Onions

New Potatoes
Eggs

Cabbage

Peppers and tomatoes are coming—there may be a few appearing in your boxes already this week. This will be the earliest David has ever had ripe tomatoes out of doors, thanks to the warm days of early July.

Fresh Cabbage Salad

2 cups finely shredded green cabbage

1/2 cup julienned carrot
1/4 cup finely slivered onion

Chives
1/4 cup white wine vinegar

1/2 cup olive oil

1 teaspoon Dijon mustard

1 teaspoon sugar

Kosher salt

Fresh ground pepper

In a bowl whisk together the vinegar, oil, Dijon, sugar, and season with salt and pepper. Set aside. In another bowl, toss the cabbage, carrot, red pepper, red onion, and chives together lightly. Drizzle the salad with the vinaigrette, and toss to coat.

Easy Refrigerator Pickles

6 large cucumbers

1 c. onions
1 c. vinegar

2 c. sugar
1 t. celery seed

2 T. canning salt (no iodine)

Method: Bring ingredients for the dressing to a boil and cool. Mix and pour over vegetables. Put in glass bowl, cover, refrigerate. Let sit overnight before eating. Store in refrigerator for up to one week.

Grilled New Potatoes with Herb & Lemon Butter

New potatoes

Minced herbs: cilantro, mint, and basil all work well
Juice of ½ lemon

2 T. butter
Olive oil

1 clove garlic, minced

Note: Prepare your charcoal or gas grill as you normally would. Once you’ve done the initial preparations, these potatoes will only need to grill for about ten minutes, about the same amount of time it will probably take for you to grill your main course.

Leave the smaller potatoes whole but cut the larger potatoes to about their size, but not so small that they’ll fall through your grill. Leave the skins on. Bring a pot of salted water to boil and boil the potatoes for five minutes, then shock with cold water and strain into a deep bowl. Toss the garlic with the par-boiled potatoes and then drizzle with just enough olive oil to coat each piece of potato lightly.

Use a grill tongs to place each potato cut-side down on the hot grill and grill on each side just until grill-marks appear and the potatoes begin to soften. You may push the potatoes to the side of the grill and they will hold until you are ready to serve. Meanwhile, melt the butter and then whisk in the herbs, lemon juice and some salt and pepper. Toss the herb butter with the grilled potatoes right before serving.

Kolokithikia Matista
This preparation is popular along the Aegean islands: Samos, Chios and Mytiline

Red potatoes

2-4 zucchini or yellow squash
4-6 T. extra virgin olive oil

½ cup chopped fresh mint
1 small can whole peeled tomatoes

3 garlic cloves, smashed
Salt and pepper

In a skillet large enough to hold all the vegetables, heat 2 T. of the oil. Add the potatoes and stir to coat with the oil. Sprinkle them with a little salt, one of the garlic cloves, and 2 T. of the mint. Cover the skillet and cook over medium-low heat for about 8 minutes.

Next, break up the tomatoes in your hands and spread half the tomatoes over the potatoes. Add another sprinkle of mint, another clove of the garlic, and a sprinkling of salt. Layer the zucchini next, again sprinkling with mint, salt and pepper, and the remaining clove of garlic and the remaining tomatoes. Drizzle with the remaining olive oil, cover the skillet, and cook over very low heat until the vegetables are soft and the flavors have melded together, 20-30 minutes. Serve warm or at room temperature.


Thin-Batter Pie with Shredded Zucchini & Goat Cheese
From Diane Kochilas' THE GLORIOUS FOODS OF GREECE


2 cups flour

1 tsp. salt
2 large eggs

1.5 cups, plus 3 T. water
8 oz. goat cheese

5 T. extra virgin olive oil
2 zucchini, grated

Toss the grated zucchini with salt and place in a colander. Work the zucchini with your hands, rubbing it against the sides of the colander and squeezing out as much liquid as possible. Set aside to continue draining.

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees. Brush a 15-inch round baking pan (at least 2 inches deep) with olive oil and sprinkle with a little flour, tapping the sides of the pan so the flour coats the surface evenly.

Combine the 2 cups of flour and the salt in a large bowl and make a well in the center. Add 1 egg to the well and pour in 1.5 cups of the water. Mix with a fork to form a batter about as thick as pancake batter. Add the strained zucchini and whisk one more time. Pour 2/3 of the batter into the prepared pan and tilt the pan so it spreads evenly. Spoon drop the goat cheese over the batter.

Beat the remaining egg and mix it into the remaining batter. Add the olive oil and the remaining 3 T. water, mix well, and spoon the mixture over the feta. There will not and should not be enough to cover the whole surface—some of the cheese will show through. Bake on the center rack just until the pie peels back from the pan easily, about 35 minutes. Be careful not to allow the bottom to burn. The pie should be about ½ inch thick once it is baked. Allow to cool slightly before slicing

July 9, 2010

NU-WAY FARM CSA
June 9th, 2010


This Week You'll Receive Some of the Following:

Strawberries

Blueberries

String beans
Onions

Chayoga Beets

Eggs
“8-ball” Zucchini

White or Red New Potatoes

Cucumbers

Exceeding the demands of the famous proverb, David’s sweet corn is well over knee-high a week past the 4th of July. His cucumbers, peppers and zucchini are coming strong, and he has lots of string beans to pick (you’ll be seeing a bag in your boxes today). All his tomato plants are looking great too and we’ll see an avalanche of tomatoes in August.

Considering the sweltering conditions and complete lack of rain, this is a surprising amount of productivity. To my surprise, David didn’t seem worried at all. “Yes,” he said, “we could really use a shower or two. But the carrots I seeded two weeks ago are coming up already. There’s still enough moisture in the soil for things to flourish.” This is evidence that David’s hard work is paying off, since years of soil conditioning and composting have produced soil that doesn’t turn to dust in the absence of constant watering. Enjoy the fruits of that labor!

New additions this week include some of the first new potatoes of the season (I’d urge you to put down your peeler and just give these little delicacies a light scrubbing—the skins are delicious), as well as a globe-shaped squash called “8-Ball Zucchini.”




Rudimentary, but Sublime String Beans
The very easiest and—to my mind—most delicious way to eat the first string beans of the year.

1-2 pounds string beans, trimmed of stem ends

Coarse sea salt
Very high quality extra-virgin olive oil

Fresh-ground black pepper

Steam the beans until just crisp tender, 4-5 minutes. If serving the dish later, at room temperature, transfer the steamed beans immediately to a giant bowl of salted ice water to stop them from cooking any more. Then proceed.

Toss the steamed green beans in a generous amount of olive oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Serve while still steaming hot.

Green Beans with Tomato, Anchovy, and Basil
a.k.a. “Slightly More Fancy String Beans” Don’t fear the anchovy—it brings a huge amount of calcium to the party and they melt into the dish.

1 pound young green beans, snipped of their stem ends

1 large, ripe tomato, diced
4 leaves fresh basil

2 small anchovy fillets
3 T. excellent quality extra-virgin olive oil

Sea Salt

Steam the green beans until just crisp tender, 4-5 minutes. Do not overcook them. In the meantime, prepare the accompaniment. Roll up the basil leaves into one long cigar shape, and then thinly slice them so you have tiny ribbons. Finely chop the anchovy fillets and add them to a small bowl along with the basil and tomatoes. Add one tablespoon of the olive oil and stir to combine.

Transfer the steamed green beans to a bowl and toss them with the remaining two tablespoons of olive oil and a little sprinkle of sea salt. Arrange the beans on a serving platter and then top with the tomato mixture and serve immediately.

Roasted Green Bean, Green Onion and Beet Salad
The multiple step, multiple pan nature of this recipe keeps the salad’s colors intact—otherwise the beets will turn everything pink!

5 beets, trimmed of roots

1 bag Yoder green beans
4 T. olive oil

5 T. chopped fresh herbs (basil &parsley)
½ cup fresh onions, sliced

¼ cup water
2 T. balsamic vinegar

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Wrap beets tightly in foil. Place directly on the oven rack. Roast until tender when pierced with knife, about 1 hour. Cool beets, then peel and quarter them. Transfer to a large bowl. Add 1 T. olive oil, 2 tsp. fresh herbs, salt and pepper; toss to coat.

Oil 1 large-rimmed baking sheet. Spread onions out on baking sheet and drizzle with a little more oil, some herbs, salt and pepper. Roast about 5 minutes, or until golden brown. Transfer to another bowl.

Place green beans on the same baking sheet. Drizzle with a little more olive oil, ¼ cup water, and more fresh herbs. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Cover with foil and roast until almost crisp tender, about 14 minutes. Uncover and continue to roast until water evaporates and beans are crisp-tender, about 5 more minutes. Transfer to bowl with onions.

Drizzle onions and green beans with balsamic vinegar. Toss to coat. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Top with beets and serve warm or at room temperature.


Our Farmer
David Yoder
19 Fredonia Hadley Rd., Fredonia, PA 16124