Summer Session: Week 1 Boxletter

Welcome to the Week 1 Summer Boxletter! 

This week we have a special treat, our own Jubilee grown and ground whole wheat flour!  This is a hard red spring wheat that makes really great and flavorful baked goods.  We tend to cut it with some all purpose flour if we are making yeasted goods, but it does make a absolutely great quick bread or cookie all on it’s own!  To store the flour, because it is fresh, wheat germ and all, please use within 7 days or transfer to an airtight container and store in the fridge for up to a month or freeze for up to 6 months. 

As for the rest of this weekly publication, I’m not one for following recipes exactly, sub in what you have! I try to include recipes that use more than one of the box contents and often offer even more options to include even MORE veggies!   Don’t have radishes and have turnips? Great! Greens are all interchangeable, kale, collards, chard will all do essentially the same thing for you with maybe a little different cooking time.  Want a salad and you didn’t get lettuce, but you have that greens mix? Go for it.  I know many of you are well versed in our typical boxes but for those new to this CSA thing of receiving veggies that aren’t your favorite or you aren’t as familiar with, I am here to help!  Email me by all means for help before you write a veggie off for life just because it got the best of you once.   Don’t be afraid of the vegetable.  It’s just a vegetable, and chances are we can make it delicious! 

Happy Eating!

-Liz

Garlic Scape Pesto

This is something I hoard garlic scapes for.  You can add a handful of nuts or seeds like sunflower seeds when you puree it all up to make a more traditional pesto that you can serve with pasta.  I like to leave out the cheese and slather this all over a whole chicken a bit before throwing it on the grill. It’s also good to just keep in the freezer and add a bit to winter soups and stews.  Once defrosted it will keep for a week or so in the fridge.  Try the oregano lemon riff below as a marinade for shrimp, chicken, or firm veggies like big mushrooms or summer squash. 

1 bunch garlic scapes

1/3 cup finely grated Parmesan or Pecorino cheese (optional)

salt and black pepper

1/3 cup olive oil

Puree the garlic scapes, Parmesan, 1/2 teaspoon salt, and 1/4 teaspoon pepper in a food processor until very finely chopped. With the motor running, slowly pour the oil through the opening. Season the pesto with salt and pepper to taste. (The pesto keeps in the fridge, covered, for 1 week or frozen for many months.)

Garlic Scape, Lemon and Oregano Marinade

Use for meat or veggies.  Marinate any variety of meat or veggies in this to either throw on the grill or under the broiler.  Fresh and bright, perfect for these summer days we are having!  It will keep in the fridge for a week or more as well. 

1 bunch garlic scapes

Juice of 2 lemons

¼ C fresh oregano

1/3 – 1/2 C olive oil

Salt and pepper

Puree the garlic scapes, oregano and the lemon juice in a food processor until smooth.  Stream in the olive oil till it’s the consistency that will marinate meat or veggies well and get into all their little cracks and crevices.  Season with salt and pepper. 

Eat your Greens Polenta

A recipe you can do just as easily in the morning with an egg as you can for dinner with braised meats or sautéed mushrooms and a little feta.  Try pan roasting those radishes in a bit of butter till they are nice and tender and topping this with them!  Polenta is comfort food to me, and there’s always room for a little bowl of comfort.   

5 C chicken stock

1 C polenta (course corn meal)

1 bunch chard, collards or kale, stems removed

2 tbsp unsalted butter

2 tbsp olive oil

¼ C crumbled soft goat cheese or feta plus a little more for garnish

Salt and pepper

Combine 4 cups chicken stock and the polenta in a pot over medium heat and stir until the polenta begins to simmer.  Turn down the heat to low and cook, stirring occasionally, until the polenta is cooked and tender and is quite thick.  Be careful, it has a tendency to bubble and sputter a bit.

While the polenta is cooking, fill a large bowl with ice water.  Bring a large pot filled with salted water to a simmer and add the greens. Cook till tender, 2-3 minutes.  Transfer the greens to the ice water to chill quickly.  Drain the greens and press out any excess water with your hands.  Place the greens in the fridge until the next step. 

When the polenta is almost done, combine the greens with the remaining 1 cup stock in a blender and puree till smooth. 

With the heat under the polenta on low, add the butter, olive oil and goat cheese.  Stir to combine. Add the pureed greens, season with salt and pepper. 

Top with a bit of the extra goat cheese and whatever else you have around. (Ahem….bacon.)

Chocolate Chip Kale Cookies

I know, I know these were in the last week of Spring boxletter too. But! I was strangely impressed with them and how easy they were, plus we have so many new people that only half of you or so are bored with kale cookies. 

1 cup Jubilee flour or the flour of your choice, loosely packed

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp salt

1/2 cup unrefined sugar

1/3 cup chocolate chips

2 tbsp milk of choice

2 tbsp oil

1/4 tsp pure vanilla extract

1 cup raw kale, no stems

Preheat oven to 325 F. Process kale or dice it extremely fine. Combine all dry ingredients except kale in a medium bowl, then stir in remaining ingredients to form a dough. It will be dry at first, so keep stirring until a cookie-dough texture is achieved. (Add 1 additional tbsp milk of choice only if needed – I didn’t need it.) Roll into balls. Place on a cookie tray, and bake 11 minutes. They will look underdone. Remove from the oven anyway, and let them cool 10 minutes, during which time they will firm up. You can also make extra cookie dough balls and freeze them to bake at a later date.

*As always, use these recipes as a guide, nothing is hard and fast, taste as you go and adjust spices and seasoning as it suits you.