A CSA and a Pandemic

I learned to cook while living in Queens, where my apartment was a stone’s throw away from the Astoria-Ditmars Boulevard stop on the NW Subway Line. 

I’d browse recipes online during my commute home from work and mentally prepare dinner as the train snaked through the borough at sunset. Next I’d scoop the ingredients from my local veggie market and Key Food supermarket, which were both about 300 feet from the subway platform and a 10-minute walk from home. Little changed when I moved to the north Bronx; I have a grocery store within walking distance here, too. 

Given my love of food and eating in general, I was pretty excited to join the Norwood CSA Co-op last summer, and perhaps even a bit smug.

But it turned out, for all my cooking prowess, I wasn't great at having a weekly CSA share. I often couldn’t resist the temptation of grabbing new vegetables for dinner, and abandoning those from that week’s share that were already in the fridge. My partner John, who spent his summer after college working on a farm upstate, was rightfully perturbed by this perceived lack of CSA commitment — he remembers all too well the physical anguish that accompanies pulling root vegetables from the ground for hours on end, and during rain, shine and extreme heat. A full day in the field would leave him so depleted that he’d be in bed before dark most days. Relating this experience to our current situation, he said, “If someone’s going to take the time and energy to grow and harvest these vegetables, we might as well eat them.” Hm, true. Can't argue with that.

purple pepper, red kale, quinoa and spring onions 

This year has gone a lot better. In part because of the pandemic, I’m not tempted to visit the grocery store impulsively. I’d also agree with Mo’s sentiment in an earlier post that the CSA this year just felt necessary; a calming contrast to our world in chaos. A benefit of working from home is that I can prepare lunch every day, which forces me to step away from my phone and computer, and simply recharge for 30 minutes.

 In many ways, having a CSA has changed the way I cook. Here’s what I have learned: 

1. Instead of asking myself, “if I could eat anything for dinner right now, what would it be?” I go with “which of these vegetables look the most delicious right now?” 
2. Arm your pantry with key sauces, oils and spices you enjoy and will use often. This is helpful since a CSA veg like cabbage is versatile and can be the centerpiece of Asian stir fries, coleslaw, and minestrone soup, among many other great dishes.
3. Eat your greens. Love salad but your share only included root veggies this week? Don’t despair! Mix them with any leafy green for a great spring (er, summer) mix. Radish greens work great in this way. Cascading carrot tops also don’t always need to be composted. Here’s a recipe for carrot top pesto. 

cherry cobbler and greek yogurt 

Now in my second year with the CSA from Norwich Meadows Farm, I opted for some additional items, including eggs and Greek yogurt, and feel I’m moving closer to a CSA diet. Also I’m learning a ton of new things. Did you know that diluted greek yogurt can be substituted for coconut milk in curry recipes? Try it! This year I've been repeating CSA favorites from last year such as pasta a La everything and this cherry cobbler, which I previously wrote about. 

During the pandemic many of us have needed to adopt new ways of living and working. Maybe you're like me and the changes have helped kick a bad habit or two (in my case, not showing my CSA veggies the love they deserve). But even if they didn't, no matter. Through these coming weeks and the ups and downs they're sure to bring, may we be inspired by the warm weather and our summer share boxes, and continue to live in peace, love, and vegetables. 

Happy cooking and be well, everyone. 

Summer Veggie Snack Recipes

by : Afua Baako

Hello CSA

In this week’s veggie box, it was great to see some favorites such as carrots and basil and cauliflower.

During the heatwave, no one wants to spend too much time in a hot kitchen.

Here are two quick recipes for cauliflower and artichokes that looked like light summer bites and fun to try as new recipes.

A cauliflower walnut dip :

http://www.eatingwell.com/recipe/270988/roasted-cauliflower-walnut-dip/

Roasted artichokes :

https://healthyrecipesblogs.com/roasted-artichokes/#:~:text=%20INSTRUCTIONS%20%201%20Preheat%20the%20oven%20to,and%20remove%20the%20outer%2C%20tough%20leaves%2C...%20More%20

See you next week!

Amaranth, Two Ways

By: Afua Baako

Hello CSA

This week was exciting with new items in the box, we were happy to see purple peppers, eggplant, and artichokes.

My husband Peter delighted in cooking the amaranth as you would cook any other greens by sauteeing them. He refers to them as "callaloo", a dish made in the Caribbean.
It is a very simple recipe to chop onions, garlic, Amaranth, purple peppers, and some of the green beans and sautee in a wok with your cooking oil of choice.

I also made some amaranth myself with a crisper tray that turns any oven into an air fryer. I chopped it with onions, and green beans added some spray olive oil and seasonings and baked it for about 10 mins on 350 degrees. it turned out very crunchy and I used it to top my cheese pizza slice, yum!

Looking forward to our next box!

Purple and Green Curry

By Evan Casper-Futterman & Katherine Howitt

Our first CSA share was this winter, so we had gotten pretty used to being creative with beets, turnips, rutabaga, radishes, and of course, the unforgettable kohlrabi. But with the winter share, at least we had a couple weeks to figure out how to integrate all of those good roots into our weekly meals. Now, as first-timers to the summer share, we have to be super up on our game and ready to rock from the moment the box comes in the door on Wednesday afternoon. 

So we’ve gotten our routine down - quick inventory of the haul, followed by a reference check to what we’ve got on the fridge, followed by a huddle on first draft meal inspirations, followed by the longer task of cutting stems, and repacking everything into the fridge so it fits. Not easy with some of the leafy greens and giant spring onions! For dinners where we’re not sure exactly what we’ll want or have left in any given week, we’ve taken to writing in “garden basket” as a general catch all, that can go with anything: tofu garden basket, pasta garden basket, etc. 

But the times when inspiration strikes are usually a bit more fun, because they come with some intentionality around flavors, colors, etc. This week, our first meal was a gigantic (sort of accidentally) tofu and vegetable curry. This curry has now fed each of us (in a two person household, our cat has his own veggie share) for at least two or three meals, and is a real crowd pleaser we’ll come back to throughout the rest of the summer and fall. 

For the curry, we started off with a few things we had already that we wanted to use: tofu, one pepper, some mushrooms, and broccoli. The rest were from our share: a heaping bunch of amaranth, a beautiful purple pepper, an eggplant, romano beans, and a couple spring onions. We also threw in some of the garlic from the share the previous week. 

While the rice cooked with a bit of coconut milk, we threw the ingredients into the pan in stages, eventually realizing that we were looking at a near overflow situation. The ingredients were all cooked down with some curry paste and coconut milk, and after about 20 minutes of simmer, we were ready to go. It felt great to start off the new share with using so many different share ingredients all in one recipe, and we’re excited to try it again with some new veggies later on this summer.

RECIPE

Ingredients:

Lots of veggies! We used:

• Amaranth

• Peppers

• Eggplant

• Mushrooms

• Broccoli

• Spring Onion

• Garlic

• Rice (1 cup)

• 1 can coconut milk

• 1 tablespoon red curry paste

• 1 teaspoon curry powder

• 1 teaspoon coriander

• 1 teaspoon cumin

• ½ teaspoon paprika

• ½ teaspoon red pepper flakes

• Olive oil

• Salt and pepper to taste

To make the rice:
Boil 1 part rice with 2 parts water, half the can of coconut milk and ½ teaspoon of salt. Once boiling sit to simmer for 20-25 minutes until all liquid is absorbed. 

To make the curry:
We definitely didn’t follow a recipe here but spices and oil went first followed by onions and garlic. We added ingredients based on our beliefs about how long they’d take to cook (broccoli early, mushrooms late, tofu somewhere in the middle) to give everything adequate time to cook and cook down. At some point we added the rest of the coconut milk. Salt and pepper throughout as desired. 

Finishing touches:
We like more spice so we added hot sauce while eating. 

French Onion Soup with Spring Onions!

French Onion Soup!

I used to lump french onion soup into the category I have for complicated-sounding desserts, called “Best Ordered in a Restaurant and Not Attempted in my Kitchen.” You know, one of those advanced class dishes.

That was before last week, as we scrambled to finish the vegetables from the previous Norwood CSA share delivery. 4-5 spring onions, what to do? Soon, after Googling a recipe, I came to a shocking realization: not only is french onion soup pretty easy to make; I already had most of the ingredients in my fridge and pantry.

This recipe from Gimme Some Oven was super easy to follow and delicious. I used five small spring onions and one regular-sized yellow onion. I think the freshness and natural moistness of the spring onions made for a richer and more flavorful caramelization process. The dish was even more perfect and filling with a baguette from Madonia Brothers Bakery on Arthur Avenue that I’d been keeping in the freezer and later toasted in the oven. For garnish, I didn’t have thyme on hand, so I chopped a sprig of oregano from our rooftop garden. Turns out you can eat this herb once it starts to flower (I think, anyway).

Also, a note: for anyone who saw someone identical to me in the Dobbs Ferry Stop & Shop adding Progresso french onion soup to her cart during early days of quarantine, you are surely mistaken; I'm far too much of a cook to commit such a mortal sin. 

Grilled Zucchini and Squash

Hello  CSA members,

The best thing I have bought during this online shopping season is a cast iron stove top grill. It has brought the taste of back yard grilling to indoor apartment living due to current circumstances by covid. Now that the we are getting beautiful squash from our CSA, we turn on the grill and have delicious veggies in only a few minutes. Here is an easy recipe to use if you would like to have outdoor tastes while at home:

https://www.marthastewart.com/352690/grilled-zucchini-and-squash

The grill is so good we now have two, can't wait to get more from the farm to see what more we can do!

Post by : Afua Baako

Amaranth Greens- the new, new, new super food?

Cooking unfamiliar vegetables we get from Norwich Meadows Farm in the CSA is a whole new world these days.  When I joined the Norwood CSA in 2005, cookbooks were really the only place to turn for recipe ideas:
Farmer John's The Real Dirt on Vegetables was a must have
Simply in Season from the Mennonite Central Committee, also useful

These days, I almost always turn to the computer to produce creative and delicious dishes.  You still need to wade through many less than stellar recipes, but it turns up a lot of family crowd pleasers in our household!

I found this post on the Organic Authority (relation to the now bankrupt Sports Authority- could be!), extolling the wonders of mighty Amaranth Greens:

• vitamin E in them could lower cholesterol and reduce risk of heart disease
• potassium can improve brain function and reduce risk of stroke
• magnesium reduces high blood pressure, gives energy, calms anxiety, prevents osteoperosis
• improves digestion
• high in iron, addresses anemia

We are now feeding the stems to our guinea pig with the hopes that he develops super powers, or at least starts cleaning his own cage.

We tried the recipe included, using some of the spring onions and garlic scapes, replacing the coconut milk with some of the cream we had left over after making chicken tikka masala (ok, I realize that cream might counteract some of the amaranth benefits).  The girls loved the pink greens, as well as their parents.  If that's not a super food, I don't know what is!