Monthly Archives: June 2011

More Ideas For Greens And Garlic Chives

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A few more ideas from Korean cooking to use greens, garlic scapes/garlic chives, scallions, and whatnot!

  • A Korean-style fish stew (similar to the chicken stew with greens in this week’s newsletter). Note that this can also be made with leftover grilled, broiled or baked fish fillets: just add the fish at the very end of the cooking time and heat gently to warm it.
  • A side dish of cucumber and garlic chives, from Aeri’s Kitchen.
  • And also from Aeri’s Kitchen, a snack: garlic chive pancakes! (Think scallion pancake, but with garlic chives instead).

Enjoy!

A Pea Primer

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There are three different kinds of peas that could turn up in your FDC share: English/shell peas, snow peas and sugar snap peas. Snow peas are easy — they are flat. You often find them in Asian stir-fries. English/shell peas and sugar snap peas look a bit more similar, but are very different. You cannot eat the shell of English peas — you must shell them first. They are usually a paler shade of green than sugar snap peas, and when you open them, you will see fully formed peas. Sugar snaps are bright green and you can eat the pod. If you open sugar snaps, you will often see just tiny unformed peas inside. try to shell them and it’s really hard — the shell is thick and crunchy. Bite it and it is crisp and sweet and tasty. Here are some great recipes for sugar snap peas.

 

Party On My Plate

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There’s not a heck of a lot to say about this except it was so good, I made it two days in a row. I am a dirty repeater like that. I found myself rationing out the radishes and strawberries so I’d have enough for more salads. Mission accomplished. Oh, and it kind of looks like a little party, I think.  It’s a very celebratory salad.

The inspiration for this came from So Good and Tasty‘s blog, and I basically took the core ingredients from it, and then did a little tweaking.

Change the proportions as you like, of course.

  • ~2 cups of romaine, cut into bite sized pieces
  • 1 cup of strawberries, hulled and cut in half
  • 5 large radishes, quartered
  • 1 scallion, diced (I used white and green parts)
  • 2 tbsp cashews, roughly chopped
  • good handful of basil, thinly sliced
  • mozzarella cheese, diced into small pieces

For the dressing, I mixed together balsamic vinegar, maple syrup and grapeseed oil with a pinch of salt and pepper each. I don’t measure a lot, but it’s easy to adjust to taste and whisk up.

So, combine your salad, top with dressing right before serving. I love the sweet, salty, bitter, crunchy combination. Truth be told I can eat the whole thing myself (though it’s probably 2 servings). And the 2nd day I made this, that’s  just what I did.

Beauty Food

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I think of this greens and quinoa salad as a beauty food. Kale and broccoli are wonderful for your skin: it’s all the Vitamin C, A, and K. Add in some quinoa and all those happy amino acid chains, and you have a lovely lunch. I chopped up some tomatoes for lycopene, and a little mozzarella for….fun. But let’s call it calcium.

  • 1 cup cooked quinoa
  • 1 cup kale, deveined and cut into strips
  • 1 cup broccoli florets
  • 1 large tomato, chopped
  • 1/4 cup mozzarella cheese, cut into small pieces
  • 1 good fistful of basil (I have really no idea how much that is), julienned
  • 1 tbsp really good balsamic vinegar
  • 2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
  • salt & pepper, to taste
Bring a pot of water to a boil and add kale and broccoli. You’ll want to blanch for one minute, then drain. I rinse with cold water to stop the cooking process (mainly because I never have ice cubes for an ice bath). Combine quinoa, kale, broccoli, tomatoes, basil and mozzarella. In a small bowl, whisk together balsamic vinegar, olive oil, salt and pepper. Pour over salad. Makes 2 servings.

Strawberry Fatigue And Its Cure

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I love the wonderful strawberries we’ve been getting, but even my family of fruit fanatics can only eat so many berries in a short time. I could make a strawberry pie or some jam, but I wanted a fast and easy way to extend our enjoyment of those berry beauties.

A little digging on the internet turned up an idea to make strawberry topping for ice-cream sundaes. One thing led to another and…I give you this recipe to help reduce the strawberry overload at your house!

 Strawberry sauce to make popsicles and/or topping for ice cream or yogurt

  • 2 cups of thickly sliced (or quartered) strawberries*
  • ¼ to 1/3 cup sugar, depending on desired sweetness**
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla
  1. Place the strawberries and sugar in a 2-quart saucepan. Mix together and let stand for about 15 minutes to macerate (the sugar will cause the strawberries to start releasing their juices).
  2. Place the pan over medium heat and bring to a boil, stirring occasionally to dissolve the sugar.
  3. Lower the heat and simmer for about 5 minutes or until the berries are soft. Add the vanilla and stir to combine, then let cool.
  4. Puree the sauce right in the pan with a stick blender, or pour it into a blender or small food processor and puree. I prefer to make the sauce smooth for popsicles, but if you want to have some chunks of strawberry left, you can puree half of the sauce and then stir it back into the pan.
  5. To make popsicles, pour the cooled sauce into molds and freeze. For ice cream or yogurt topping, store in a tightly closed container in the refrigerator for up to one week. You can also freeze the sauce and enjoy it in the middle of winter – plain yogurt with strawberry sauce and granola makes and awesome breakfast in the middle of winter!