Chinese Cabbage Stir Fry

Boc Choi, Chinese Cabbage, Garlic Scape. It's all good! Such surprises are being added to my repertoire, thanks to the mystery vegetables arriving at the CSA every week. My biggest discovery is peanut oil. Sauteeing a few vegetables in it requires no added spices for a scrumptious stir fry. Other discoveries include:

• Garlic scapes are the elusive wonder vegetable! I have never seen one at any store or farmer's market. I do not know where they can be found if one doesn't grow one's own garlic. But someone must be selling them somewhere. Perhaps the high-end restaurants all get them first. What I do know is they are simply delightful with a subtle garlic-fresh taste. I added them to stir-fry, spaghetti sauce, basically anything that likes a little garlic.
• Cook the leaves! I had no idea you could just throw the leaves of the boc choi or chinese cabbage right in the stir-fry. It melts down to nothing and adds a chewy, nutrient-rich element.
• Add funky mushrooms! Last week I threw some interesting chinese mushrooms in. The cashier at whole foods couldn't find them on his chart so he charged me for trumpet mushrooms - $5/lb less than my more exotic mushrooms. And this week I repeated the pictured stir-fry but used wood ear mushrooms. They are dark brown with a rubbery texture and a rich flavor. I would definitely try these again.

Follow the photos below to watch the leaves disappear. Just enough left for juicy, flavorful bites.

And here it is with Wood Ear Mushrooms.

Strawberry-Rhubarb Pie

I'm not a berry pie eater. Basically, I'm a pumpkin pie eater. If there were no other kind of pie than pumpkin, and no other time of year than fall, I'd be perfectly pleased. But there is one berry pie I will eat with a relish. Strawberry-Rhubarb. Maybe I like it because it's half vegetable. And tart.

When I saw rhubarb on our share this week I knew the only way to have it was in a pie. Benedicta went to retrieve our share with the objective of trading in one head of lettuce for one bunch of rhubarb and thankfully succeeded. Otherwise, this pie would have been light on rhubarb and I would have left the whole thing for her.

This ended up being the easiest pie I have every made in my life. Usually I make my own crust. But I knew it was going to be a stretch just to have time to cut up the rhubarb stalks so I picked up the whole foods vegan crust. What a find! I may never make crust again. Why bother, when this is better?

And why make any other dessert when this is absolutely the simplest thing imaginable. Wash the stems and berries. Chop. Add quick cook tapioca and sucanet. Stir. Fill pie shell. Then the one tricky part - place empty extra shell upside down on top and pinch the crusts together. Oh, I did slice it a few times first to let the juice bubble out the top. Voila. Dessert! Or rather, breakfast if your name is Benedicta.

Will there be Rhubarb Pie?

Rhubarb this week! And more radishes!!!  Benedicta was volunteering at the distribution today so we calculated our desires before she went over. The bounty this week included four heads of lettuce - all different varieties, three with red leaves - chinese cabbage,  garlic scapes, sage and the radishes and rhubarb. Since I'm making a pie, we decided to trade a lettuce for rhubarb and we contemplated exchanging the sage for anything else.

Since Benedicta was there monitoring the boxes, she kept a special eye out on the exchange box. Evidently radishes have not caught on in popularity since last week. Countless bunches were discarded awaiting more discerning palates. So now we have two radish bunches and one less lettuce head.

Next the rhubarb. Our quota only included a few stalks. What to do? Trade in one more head of lettuce! Rhubarb was a hotter commodity than the radishes. So with a watchful eye, Benedicta strategically snatched up the one that had been put in at the very beginning as a teaser. Voila! She could then carry on her volunteering without stalking the exchange box.

And what about that sage? Well, we're stuck with it. The distribution master made a decree: there will be no trading in your sage. You must all eat sage. Fortunately, the more experienced members have recipes for sage. We'll be sauteeing it with vegan butter and tossing it over some angel hair pasta. That sounds easy. Maybe Benedicta will even make it herself.

Boc Choi for Beginners

Okay, I know it's sometimes spelled Bok Choy. But on our list of vegetables from the farmer it's spelled Boc Choi. So I'm going with her spelling. 

I was suspect about coming up with something enjoyably edible with this one. I've had bok choy in chinese restaurant dishes. They're the whitish green stem-like pieces I push to the side of the plate. When I've bitten into a piece that's hidden under a mushroom or camouflaged in a vegetable dish, I greet it with bitter deference. I'll chew you this time but don't make a habit of stowing away on my fork.

Enter boc choi in my crisper. Armed with a recipe from Veganomicon I chopped away. I didn't have all the ingredients so improvised: peanut oil, fresh ginger, braggs, chopped boc choi stems and lots of green leafs - arugula, mizuna and all the boc choi leafs - and a sprinkling of toasted sesame seeds. 

Time for a taste. Surprise! It's actually very good. The greens melted down to nothing and were a delightful accent to the gingery boc choi. I would eat this again tomorrow if there was any left!

Awaiting next week's veggie list. Maybe there'll be a little more boc choi!

Salads, Salads, Salads

We made it through the last of the lettuces last night - two heads of red leaf and one head of butter crunch. The Blendtec hasn't arrived so we ate the leaves the old fashioned way. The bunch of cherriette radishes added a spicy crunch and in anticipation of loads of lettuce I'd picked up heirloom tomatoes at Whole Foods along with a herby vinaigrette.  So summery and fresh.

Now I have to work on the vegetables that require cooking. I've washed the boc choi and will saute it in peanut oil as soon as I unearth the recipe I ran across a couple weeks ago. I'm going to throw in the bunch of arugula and mizuna (this is a new one to me - basically chinese lettuce) and maybe the boc choi leaves for a green wilted dish to top some brown rice. If it doesn't taste good I'll just pour on lots of Bragg's.

The only thing left is the oregano. I'm going to toss it in with some garlic, roasted tomatoes, tomato paste and maybe a few dry italian spices for a marinara sauce to hold us over until Tuesday's delivery. I'm already curious about its contents.

There was a bunch of mustard greens that we left in the bin for someone with a more daring palate. The CSA has a bin where you can put things you don't want. And if someone has discarded something that appeals to you, you can make an exchange. Someone left their radishes. Seems sinful to me. Benedicta snatched them up and didn't think twice about throwing in those mustard greens.

Waiting

I feel like a kid at Christmas. I want to unwrap my veggie box and see what goodies are inside. The list for this Tuesday (our first week) is supposed to be posted on the Chelsea CSA website on Sunday night - several hours from now - and I've been checking the website for three days! It still has the list posted for the last delivery of last season:
   Keuka Gold Potatoes-4 pounds

• Bolero Carrots-1 pound
• Red Ace Beets-2 pounds
• Brussels Sprouts- 3 stalks
• Winterbor Kale-1 bunch
• Italian Flat Leaf Parsley-1 bunch
• Celeriac-1 root
• Garlic-2 heads
• Broccoli-2 heads
• Romanesco Cauliflower-2 heads

All that sounds so yummy ... and at the same time begs the question: "What will I do with all that?!" But the fall veggies are so different from the spring veggies so this isn't a preview at all.


Benedicta bought a Green Smoothie book this week. She decided if I wasn't going to be home to cook she'd just prepare everything raw. And a new adventure begins! New Blendtec with 4" super blade is on order! Lemons and ginger have been purchased. Large drinking containers have been pulled from the back of the shelf and readied for green smoothie storage. There's a whole world of lettuce and leafy greens prep we're about to discover. Hopefully there won't be too many blech tastes along the way.

I impatiently wait and realize this is actually better than Christmas, because I'm anticipating surprises I won't have to regift.

CSA Potluck

"What does CSA mean?" Benedicta asked for the fourth time after attending the potluck on Tuesday night. "Community Supported Agriculture," I repeated for the fourth time. "Okay," as she jotted her schedule down in her calendar.

Last night was the introductory potluck before the season gets underway. We'll be getting all our vegetables from Stoneledge Farm through October. As Benedicta commented during introductions, "My wife signed us up for this, now she's working, so I have to do all the work." Work meaning, volunteering to help out at the Tuesday afternoon distribution for four two-hour shifts. Oh, and there may be some washing of and perhaps even cooking of vegetables.

I WANT to do the whole thing. But it's not so easy when working two jobs. I think I will have to quit one of them in July. If for no other reason than to keep up with the vegetables. I have big plans for experimentation.

I did make the vegan coleslaw - Benedicta's contribution at the potluck. So I'm not a total slouch.

June 8th, the journey begins. Our cache for the week will be posted on Sunday - presumably so I can do preliminary shopping. Which is actually good since Monday is my only night off. This might just work out.