Last Week: 8/27 - 8/30
Thursday 3pm - till Sunday Night | SELF SERVE 13197 10TH St. South. Afton, MN. 55001 | 612.770.7194
What we're up to:
This week is the last week of the Summer Share. We thank you all for participating this year and supporting our farm! Your contribution allows us to develop our passion, train future farmers through our internship program, influences possitively the local economy and ecology and fuels a local food movement that will someday feed the world once again. So yea, you are pretty cool :) If you have any CSA bags hanging around your house, please bring them back this week and if you are not joining us for the Fall share, we ask that you bring your own bag to load your share into so we can reuse our CSA bags throughout this year. Thank you!
In Your Bag This Week
Cucamelons: For our CSA members, we’ve got something new in the bag this week. Ladies, gentleman, and everyone in-between, please allow me to introduce you to my friend, the cucamelon. Also know as Mexican Sour Gherkins and mouse melons in English, and pepquinos, sanditas, melon riata, and pepinillo agrio in Spanish, cucamelons (Melothria scabra) are in the cucurbit family along with cucumbers, zucchini, melons, and butternut squash (to name a few). I was first introduced to them as Mexican Sour Gherkins, but I’ve fallen in love with the name cucamelon, and that’s what I’m calling them from now on. Native to Central America, I first met cucamelons at Red Cat Farm in the Lehigh Valley where I was helping farmer Teena Bailey to clean up her greenhouse in preparation for the winter. She had cucamelons growing up the table legs of her planting boxes, their slender vines winding around the boxes and up the greenhouse posts, the little melons dangling like ornaments. Enchanted, I asked her what they were, and she sent me home with a handful and a name. A few years later, when I was managing the Pendle Hill Kitchen Garden outside of Philadelphia, I built a trellis and started growing them myself. This year I planted a bed of them in the 96’ greenhouse and they couldn’t be happier. Store in your fridge. (grown by Lucia!) Romaine: this is a butter romaine so it is a bit smaller than what you may see at the store-easy to chop off the root for a salad or throw the whole thing on the grill for a couple minutes for a spectacular dinner. Store in a bag in your fridge. Peppers: A mix of sweet peppers in your bag-see pepper picture below for identification. Store on your counter if eating soon, or in your fridge. Bok Choy: super versatile, add to stir frys, salads, or the grill selection. Store in a bag in your fridge. Parsley: great in salads, dips or sauce! Store in water on your counter. Micros: Flavor Mix Micros. Eat as a salad with olive oil, salt and pepper or add to a sandwich, your breakfast eggs or pretty much anything else! Store in your fridge. Green Beans: delicious in almost anything! Pickle them, steam, boil or eat raw! Store in your fridge in a bag. Cherry Tomatoes: a happy mix of color and flavor. great in the tart recipe below! Store on your counter Collard Greens or Brussels sprout greens: As the cooler weather rolls in this weekend, these will be perfect for chili, pot-liqure meals or casseroles. Store in a bag in your fridge.
Garlic Parmesan Green Beans with Bacon | Serves: 4 | total time: 20 mins
Ingredients
1/2 pound green beans
3 strips bacon diced
1tsp tablespoon butter
1 cloves garlic minced
1 Tablespoons parmesan cheese grated
salt and pepper to taste
Instructions
Start by trimming the ends of your green beans and slice into 2 inch pieces. Bring a large pot of water to a boil and add the green beans. Cook until tender 5-8 minutes and drain and put the green beans in an ice bath.
In a medium sized skillet cook the bacon until crisp. Remove with a slotted spoon and drain the fat. Add the butter to the skillet and garlic and saute until tender. Add bacon, green beans, and parmesan cheese to the skillet and cook until heated through. Salt and pepper to taste.
Stuffed Collard Greens | Serves: 6 | total time: 2 hours
Ingredients
1 large bunch collard greens (about 1 1/2 pounds), stemmed
¼ cup olive oil
1 large red or white onion, finely chopped
Salt to taste
1 ¼ cups medium-grain rice, rinsed and drained
3 tablespoons pine nuts
2 to 3 garlic cloves (to taste), minced
⅓ cup chopped fresh dill
⅓ cup finely chopped mint
½ cup finely chopped flat-leaf parsley
Freshly ground pepper to taste
⅓ to ½ cup strained freshly squeezed lemon juice
2 tablespoons tomato paste
1 lemon, sliced (optional)
Instructions
Bring a large pot of water to a boil while you carefully stem the collard greens, trying to keep the leaves intact. Fill a bowl with ice water. When the water comes to a boil, salt generously and add the collard leaves, in batches. Blanch for 2 minutes and transfer to the ice water. Drain, gently squeeze out excess water and set aside.
Heat 2 tablespoons of the olive oil over medium-low heat in a large nonstick skillet and add the onions and a pinch of salt. Cook, stirring, until the onion is tender but not browned, 5 to 8 minutes. Add the pine nuts and garlic, stir together and add the drained rinsed rice. Stir for a minute or two, until you hear the rice begin to crackle, then remove from the heat. Toss with the herbs, salt and pepper, and 1 tablespoon olive oil. To gauge how much salt you will need, use the amount that you would use when cooking 1 1/4 cups of rice.
Oil a wide, deep lidded sauté pan or saucepan with olive oil. To fill the leaves, place one on your work surface, vein side up and with the stem end facing you. The leaf may have a big space in the middle where you stemmed it; if it does, pull the two sides of the leaf in toward each other and overlap them slightly. Place about 1 level tablespoon of filling on the bottom center of each leaf. Fold the sides over, then roll up tightly, tucking in the sides as you go. Place in the pan, seam side down, fitting the stuffed leaves in snug layers.
Whisk together the lemon juice, remaining oil, and tomato paste with 2 tablespoons water. Season to taste with salt. Pour over the rolls. Add enough water to barely cover the rolls and top with a layer of lemon slices if desired. They will add some bitterness to the dish because of the bitter oils in the lemon skin. Invert a plate over the rolls to keep them wrapped and in position, and bring to a simmer over medium heat. Cover the pan, turn the heat to low and simmer for 1 hour, at which point the leaves will be tender and the rice cooked. Remove from the heat and carefully remove the stuffed leaves from the water to a platter or to plates with a slotted spoon or tongs. Allow to cool for at least 15 minutes. Taste the liquid left in the pot and adjust seasonings. Serve the rolls warm or at room temperature with the liquid from the pot as a sauce.
Grilled Romaine Salad | Serves: 4 | total time: 25 mins
Ingredients
4 romaine hearts
2 ears of corn husked & cleaned
1 orange or yellow pepperquartered
1 tablespoon of capers drained and roughly chopped
2-3 tablespoons roasted & chopped peanuts
1/4 cup fresh cherries quartered or chopped
1 red jalapeno or small chili pepper thinly sliced
1 tablespoon finely chopped mint or chives
FOR THE DRESSING:
3 tablespoons tahini sesame seed paste
Juice of half a charred lemon can also use fresh lemon
Juice of half a charred orangecan also use fresh orange
1 clove of garlic grated finely using a microplane
1 tablespoon honey
2 teaspoon chopped mint or chives
Pinch of cayenne pepper
1/4 teaspoon salt
Couple cracks of pepper
Water
Instructions
To char the citrus for the salad, pre-heat your grill to medium-high. Cut the lemon and orange in half and place the flesh side down on the grill for 5-6 minutes, or until it gets nicely charred, take off heat.
Make the dressing by whisking together all the ingredients, except for the water, in a bowl. Add enough water, about 1-2 tablespoons, to thin out the dressing and make it pourable, but still thick. Taste the dressing, it most likely will need more honey and/or lemon juice. You want the flavor to be slightly sweet and tart.
Grill the husked ears of corn and season the quartered pepper with a little touch of oil, salt, pepper, and grill until slightly charred on each side, about 7 minutes. When the corn and peppers are ready, cut the corn kernels off the cob and roughly chopped the peppers. Prep the remaining salad ingredients so they are ready to go. Cut the romaine hearts in half going from top to bottom. Brush or drizzle on a little olive oil and season with a good pinch of salt and pepper on the cut side. Grill the romaine cut side down for 3-5 minutes until nicely charred, remove from heat.
To assemble the salad, lay the romaine heart side up on a platter and scatter the corn, chopped peppers, and all the remaining salad ingredients over the top. Use a spoon and drizzle a good amount of dressing over the top. Serve & enjoy!
We wash everything in your bag but we wash them in bulk so some things may need an extra rinse at home.
Please bring your bag back next week so we can re-use them!
thanks!
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