CSA Week 9

This week we got Yukon Gold potatoes, zucchini, radishes, a Walla Walla onion, green beans, fava beans, golden beets, and a patty pan squash. 

Fava Beans Two Ways: Friday Fail Edition

In addition to the dried fava beans we already had from last summer, we have been getting fresh fava bean pods the last couple of weeks, just like last year.  I decided to try to make both kinds (dried and fresh) for dinner one night when I couldn't come up with any better ideas.  In hindsight, maybe I should have thought harder about other meal possibilities.

The inside of a fava bean pod is pretty cool.  Each bean is surrounded by this spongy material, which makes them look so comfy cozy in there.

The first recipe I got started on seemed promising as it had a base of tomato, garlic, and onion that all got chopped up and cooked together. 

Along with some seasoning and the beans, that was basically all there was to it.  Doesn't seem like there would be a whole lot to mess up.  Unfortunately, my interpretation of "shelled, dried fava beans" perhaps was not the same as the recipe's.  That, combined with my reliance on HH to guide me when cooking dried beans, was this dish's downfall. 

If I had paid more attention to how to prepare dried beans, I would have known that they usually take hours to cook after soaking in water overnight.  Note that the recipe uses less than an hour of total cooking time.  And I don't know if you have ever seen a fava bean, but they are quite large in comparison to others like black or kidney beans.  And by quite large, I mean huge (at least the ones we have been getting).

So, the beans took forever to cook and were not done in time for dinner.  I ended up adding a bunch of extra water to the pot and letting everything cook together until bedtime.  A couple days later, I chopped/mashed up the beans and put them in enchiladas, so all was not lost. 


The second recipe with the fresh fava beans went a lot more smoothly, but the results were a little bland.  (I did the Middle Eastern Fava Bean Pilaf about halfway down the page.)  I think the recipe was pretty standard for a rice pilaf (though I've never actually made one before).  I ended up squeezing in quite a bit of lemon juice and cilantro for flavor, and thought it could have used even more. 

Sorry for my lack of pictures of the finished product.  By the time this was ready to eat I was too annoyed at my overall failure and didn't feel like taking any more pictures, I guess.

In order to redeem myself (and because we still had a bunch of fresh beans), I made this recipe that was very similar to a dish HH cooked up last summer.   The fresh fava beans were combined with orzo pasta, garlic, and onions for a nice lunch.  I have decided that I much prefer the taste of the fresh beans to the dried ones, which is a bummer since we have a bunch of dried ones still to use. 

Modified Dulce de Leche

I recently got a hankering for some caramel apple popsicles, but I didn't want to use store-bought caramel.  I had tried that before and it didn't freeze very well.  I decided to make my own, but instead of doing it the regular way by cooking the sugar and adding in cream and butter, I found a recipe that uses coconut milk as the base.  So I guess that makes it more of a dulce de leche than caramel, but it was just as delicious. 

I started by heating up the coconut milk, honey, and sugar, which is a combination that is fantastic all by itself.

I cooked it until it turned a caramel color, about 20 minutes.

Then I stirred in some vanilla, salt, and a tiny bit of butter, and sampled on some apple slices I was preparing for the popsicles.  Oh my goodness, it was delicious. 

This sauce would be delicious used for a variety of purposes: as a dipping sauce for fruit, drizzled over ice cream, whipped into some cream cheese frosting (I did this...post coming soon), added to iced coffee, and so on. 

CSA Week 8

This week we got 2 kinds of beans (green and "Royal Burgundy"), a bag of mixed greens, yellow zucchini, shelling peas, a handful of pickling cucumbers, rainbow chard, and French sorrel.

I think HH will be happy to know that pickling cukes may now be available so he can continue to perfect his pickling skills.

CSA Week 7

This week we got beets, carrots, kale, rhubarb, mint, "braising" onions, cilantro, and zucchini.  We also bought some delicious green tomatoes that we fried up with zucchini for lunch one day.  On the agenda for tomorrow is to pick up some rum to make mojitos with the mint. 

CSA Week 6

This week we got fava beans, kohlrabi, cabbage, chives, green onions, beets, and kale.  If we would have bought a full CSA share, we would also have carrots (at least we think that's how it works).

Fish burgers

A few weeks ago my parents mentioned that they might be coming through town over the weekend.  Our favorite fish mongers were having a sale on their cod burgers so I decided it would be a good time to try them out.  I made some buns, seared the burgers in my trusty cast iron pan, and put together a little sauce of mayo and onions.

My mom, who is quite a fan of fish sandwiches, claimed it was the best she'd ever eaten.

CSA Week 5

From left to right we received chard, bok choy, fava beans, sorrell, spinach, shelling peas, and onions.  I've never had sorrell before but there seems to be a lot of popular french soup recipes with it so I'm going to give it a shot.

Red Kuri Green Curry

I may have made this dish only because I thought the name was clever and because we had a red kuri squash that I didn't know what to do with.

I really enjoy getting winter squash to increase our vegetable intake during the winter months, but they can be a pain to prepare.  Luckily the red kuri squash doesn't have many ridges so a vegetable peeler works pretty well to take off the skin and then it can be diced up.

I've gotten pretty decent at using the basics from this green curry recipe and adding whatever is convenient to it.  I've become a big fan of these curry pastes to make a delicious curry/stew, though not so much right now as the temperatures are near record highs.

Fig cookie bars

LJ received some fancy fig jam as a present over the holidays that sat on our counter for a couple of months because we were unsure what to do with it.  It was delicious but there was a lot of it so I decided to try to create homemade fig newtons with it.

I used this recipe with some success.  The cookie part of the bar wasn't quite right (I may have rolled it too thin) but using the jam as filling tasted perfect.  I'll have to keep working on the dough in the hopes that we come across another jar of jam.

Tabbouleh

I could have sworn I wrote a post about making tabbouleh previously but I can't find it in the archives.  It really couldn't be easier to make and it a delicious side dish (though I've been known to eat only it and pita for a meal).

There are many variations but I keep mine pretty simple.  Cucumbers, tomatoes, garlic, lemon juice, olive oil, parsley, and bulgur wheat went in to this batch.  It is easy to make for a summer party or potluck.