This post is sort of a heads-up for making sure you have everything you need in the kitchen to prepare and preserve the vegetables we will be harvesting soon from the farm. Here are a few methods.
1) Roasting/grilling: the easiest way to prepare and eat most of the veg
One of the best and simplest way to prepare fresh, just-picked veg is to roast or grill them. This works for practically any vegetable: beets, fennel, leek, onions, carrots, potatoes (sweet and regular), cauliflower, brussel sprouts, green beans, rutabaga, parsnips, squash, zucchini ...
For this all you need is fat (good olive oil), sea salt, fresh ground pepper; sometimes I toss in a spoon of sugar (to get a nice caramelized flavor) and/or a couple splashes of balsamic or sherry vinegar (you can use others) for a nice zing. Other items to add are fresh chopped garlic (or leave them whole) and/or herbs: rosemary and thyme work well during the roasting process and others such as tarragon, basil, parsley, oregano, chives, you will want to add after you take the veg off the heat. If you want to use fat other than olive oil, you can combine or use alone, melted butter or duck fat (particularly fabulous with potatoes) or I have discovered extra virgin pure coconut oil (amazing with cauliflower and a little bit of madras curry powder).
Wash and cut the veg about a good size for that veg (cubes for potatoes, fat rings for fennel, wedges for beets, beans- leave whole, leeks- cut in half length-wise), let air dry to get rid of the water which will just steam rather than roast your vegetables. Drizzle with oil (or other fats), salt, pepper and any other flavors you want to use, toss well with your hands and place in a 425 degree oven. Check on them every 15-20 min and toss them around to keep the roasting even. They are done at the desired tenderness and browning. If you are roasting them on the grill, line a grill basket with heavy-duty foil and oil it well before putting the veg in it and roast. You can also grill directly on the grate over flame but you will want to use larger, thick-sliced veg pieces and I recommend parboiling hard veg like potatoes just a little to avoid burning them to a crisp- eggplant, fennel, zucchini work well as is.
N.B.- if roasting different veg together, be sure to match the cooking times ie: hard veg like potatoes and beets should not be roasted with zucchini. You can mix them together after they have finished roasting.
2) Pickling vegetables for long-term use
Pickling is a great way to preserve vegetables when you have a lot of them and can't use them up right away.
This is a link that has recipes for several kinds of pickled veg but I encourage you to get creative with both the vegetables and flavors and spices:
Pickled Vegetables
And for those of you who love super spicy foods, it took me a while to find a good source but here is the recipe for hot pickled Mexican vegetables. This recipe calls for habanero peppers, but you can use serrano, jalepenos or other hot peppers instead, which we will have from the garden:
Hot mexican pickled vegetables
3) Kimchi
Finally, if you are feeling adventurous you can make kimchi (a spicy fermented Korean condiment). I will try to dig up some recipes for using this, also see Thursday, April 18, 2013 post on this blog. Napa cabbage is the traditional vegetable but you can make it with bok choy or radishes- all from the garden. My friend Dan (and fellow CSA member) has been making kimchi and was kind enough to share his recipe/process with me (pasted below). I am going to try it this year, maybe I can bribe him into helping me the first time.
Ingredients:
1 large or 2 medium sized heads of napa cabbage or bok choy. Napa tends to work out better
One piece (about a thumb-sized section) of ginger, peeled and chopped finely
1/2 cup salt
1-2 cloves of garlic to taste, peeled and chopped finely
1-2 tbsp red chili pepper to taste, finely ground... or traditional Korean fermented chili paste. (I never have this so I just grind some dried red chilies)
2 tbsp raw sugar
1-2 tsp fish sauce- I use the Thai kind but there is probably a Korean variety that would be more appropriate.
1/2 carrot, julienned (optional)
2 tbsp toasted sesame seeds (optional)
Procedure:
Make sure your work surfaces and hands are clean.
Rinse the cabbage well in a big bowl. I do this leaf by leaf to eliminate as much of the bacteria as possible here to help the yeast dominate the culture. They will eat the sugar and give it some fizz if you're lucky.
Chop the cabbage cross-wise. I leave the leafy parts about 1" wide but the stem parts I cut thinly, so the brine can penetrate better. Especially important if using bok choy cause it's more stemmy.
Put the chopped cabbage in a big stainless bowl with cold water and the salt. I layer the salt with the cabbage as I chop, then fill it with water after. Swish around to help dissolve the salt. Put this in the fridge for at least 1 day. 2 is fine. Use a plate or something to weight it down and keep it all submerged.
After the cabbage is wilted, drain and press it in a collander. Rinse it here to get rid of some of the salt. Taste now to achieve the right saltiness. Press out as much of the rinse water as possible.
Put the rest of the ingredients except the carrots in a large bowl and mix and mash them up. (No salt here. You already used all of it in the brine)
Add the cabbage and carrots to the bowl and mix it all together with a big spoon so the cabbage is evenly coated.
Stuff the kimchi in glass jars with a non-metal spoon.
Cap the jars tightly and put them in a cool dark place for a day or 2 ... or 3 if you're feeling brave. This all depends on ambient temperature and your taste, but personally I never go longer than 1 day. It's also good fresh but the flavors mix and infuse after a while.
This will stay good in the fridge for at least a week. After it starts to get funky you can still cook with it.
And there you have a tasty, low-calorie, pro-biotic snack.
4) Summer drinks
And finally, a summer drink guide to go with all the delicious food:
Summer Drinks Guide
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