Author Archives: kbecker57

CSA Week 13

Funny, I thought I ate more vegetables than I actually did this week. I did manage to get through two weeks of lettuce, and make a decent dent in this week’s lettuce. It’s hard to catch up when you get behind in lettuce maintenance. On the other hand, it’s not too hard for me to keep up with the corn and tomatoes!

  • Musk melon: 100%
  • Tomatoes: 100%
  • Corn: 100%
  • Lettuce: 67%
  • Peaches: 67%
  • Potatoes: 0%
  • Eggplant: 0%
  • Leeks: 0%
  • Jalapeno pepper: 0%
  • Sweet peppers: 0%
It’s hard to believe, but I was actually hoping to get a summer squash this week, and I got my wish! I found a recipe that I want to try that calls for a medium summer squash. Now I will just have to buy baby spinach.

Week 13
Lots of peppers and ugly tomatoes (ugly-looking tomatoes might be the best tasting)…I might need to make sausage and peppers! 

My half

Curried lentils with sweet potato and kale

Another social media-inspired recipe, and the sweet potatoes are an early nod to my favorite season…fall! In reality, I was just looking for a new way to use two weeks of kale. The original recipe called for 1/2-pound of kale, but my version calls for ALL THE KALE, which was about one full bunch. 

A few other tweaks I made, some of which can be attributed to my forgetfulness at the grocery store:

  • On purpose: omitted salt (1/2 tsp), bay leaf, cilantro, scallions
  • On purpose for future: decrease garam masala to 1/2 tsp (original recipe called for 1 tsp)
  • Forgetfulness: lemon juice (forgot to buy a lemon)
Garam masala is a spice blend; the version I bought includes cardamom, cinnamon, cloves, cumin, black pepper, and coriander.
Chop chop chop

The hardest part of this recipe was trying to get the sweet potato into a uniform dice, aka this is easy! And you can make it vegetarian by substituting vegetable broth instead of chicken broth.

Curried lentils with sweet potato and kale
Source: Adapted from The Lemon Bowl

Simmer simmer

Serves: 4-6

Ingredients
1 Tbsp olive oil
1 large onion, diced
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 Tbsp ginger root, grated
1 tsp curry powder
1/2 tsp garam masala
4 cups chicken broth
2 medium sweet potatoes, peeled and diced
1/2 cup dried lentils
1 14-ounce can of diced fire roasted tomatoes
1/4 tsp pepper
1 bunch kale, chopped

Yum yum

2 Tbsp lemon juice
Cilantro, scallions, and plain yogurt to serve

Directions
1. Heat olive oil in a large soup pot on medium-high. Sauté onions until tender, about 5-7 minutes. Add garlic, ginger, curry and garam masala and cook for additional 1 minute.
2. Add chicken broth, sweet potatoes, and lentils; bring to a boil and simmer uncovered for 25 minutes.
3. Stir in tomatoes, kale, and pepper and cook for additional 20 minutes.
4. Stir in lemon juice right before serving and top with yogurt, cilantro, and scallions (or just yogurt) and enjoy!

Baba ganouj

There are only a few ways that I like to eat eggplant, and this just happens to be one of them. Though I don’t think I’ve ever made it before. The cookbook states “Start this 3 hours ahead of time. Eggplants need slow baking and cooling.” I cooked the eggplant ahead of time, when I already had the oven on for something else. I also know someone who likes to cook the eggplant on a grill instead of in the oven.

Moosewood Cookbook!

I had one eggplant so I halved the recipe and sautéed the garlic with some red onions that I had on hand. I skipped the scallions and used 1 Tbsp dried parsley instead of fresh parsley. The original recipe calls for a teaspoon of salt, of which I added 1/4 tsp. I also used a food processor instead of a masher.

Baba ganouj
Source: Moosewood Cookbook
Serves: “This recipe makes enough to fill six people who are dipping vegetables and bread into it, and calling it Dinner”

Individual serving

Ingredients
2 medium-sized eggplants
Juice from one good-sized lemon
1/2 cup tahini
3 medium cloves garlic, crushed
1/2 cup finely chopped parsley
1/4 cup finely minced scallions (optional)
salt and pepper to taste
1 Tbsp olive oil
Pita chips, veggies, or other things to dip

Directions

With a pita chip

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Cut off the stem-ends of the eggplants, and prick them (eggplants, not stem-ends) all over with a fork. Place them on an oven rack directly, and let them roast slowly until completely pooped (about 45 minutes). When they are sagging, wrinkled, crumpled and totally soft, you’ll know when they’re ready.

2. Remove them gingerly from the oven, and wait until cool enough to handle. Scoop the insides out and mash well (or add to food processor). Combine with all other ingredients, except olive oil. 

3. Chill the ganouj completely, drizzle the oil over the top just before serving, and enjoy!

Cucumber-pineapple salsa

I finally got around to some cooking, or perhaps I should say chopping. I found this recipe and thought it would be something interesting and different to do with some cucumbers. I thought I had more than one (I didn’t), so I had to halve the recipe. And now that I’m typing this up, I also realize that I forgot to add the oil. Below is the recipe with the original quantities and *all* of the ingredients.

The key to this is getting the cucumber and pineapple to be about the same size. Also, be careful when chopping the jalepeño!

Getting my ingredients ready

I thought it was the perfect amount of spice for me (I’m a little whimpy when it comes to spice), and I liked the balance of the sweetness from the pineapple and honey with the spice of the jalepeño and the crunchiness of the cucumber.

Salsaaaaaa


Cucumber-pineapple salsa
Source: adapted from Everyday Food, June 2007
Serves: 4

Ingredients
2 Tbsp fresh lime juice (from 1 lime)
1 Tbsp honey
1 Tbsp vegetable oil
2 Kirby cucumbers, finely diced
1 cup finely diced fresh pineapple (about 1/4 of a whole pineapple)
1 small red onion, chopped
1 jalepeño chile (ribs and seeds removed), minced

Ready for my close-up, via Instagram

1/4 cup cilantro, chopped
coarse salt and ground pepper

Directions
1. In a medium bowl, whisk together lime juice, honey, and oil.
2. Add cucumbers, pineapple, onion, jalepeño, and cilantro.
3. Season with salt and pepper; toss gently to combine. Serve with chips and enjoy!

August RC – China King

Thanks to Claire Blais for providing the post this month for RC.

GUEST BLOGGER ALERT! Kara chose to be a responsible human being and spent August RC night working with her group on a school project, so I volunteered to write the blog post for this month.  I offer the unique perspective of being terrified of the main entrée: traditional Peking duck (which you have to pre-order).

Quack, quack

ChinaKing in Chinatown is renowned for its Peking duck, which they present whole according to Chinese tradition, then return to the kitchen for preparation three ways: duck tacos, homemade udon noodles stir fried with duck, and duck/tofu soup.

Wanda ordered 2 whole ducks for the table, and in true RC fashion we also ordered several dishes to split. Not sure I can remember them all (I might have downed some liquid courage before getting to the restaurant in order to face said duck head on…literally) but I did take pictures of them all. Matching the pics with the menu, here’s what I’ve got:
  • Peking raviolis
  • Scallion pie
  • Pan fried wontons
  • Jellyfish
  • Beef tendon
  • Fried rice
  • Beef, Pepper, Onion Chow Foon
  • Bean sprouts with pork
  • Fried pork chops
  • Bok choy

Oh yes, this is *in addition to* the two whole ducks.  My favorite of the above was the Peking raviolis, but everything was tasty. I think most people tried the beef tendon but agreed it was a little chewy.
Back to the duck.  It’s presented whole, head on, which I’m told is a traditional symbol of good luck. Then it goes back to the kitchen and is prepared for the first dish, duck tacos.

Duck ready to be tacos
You’re served thin scallion pancakes with scallion “brushes” to paint on the hoisin sauce, and then fill it with crispy duck skin.
Ray “painting” his tacos
The meat is flavorful and the skin adds a crisp texture that is really good inside the “taco” of the pancake. I liked this dish and am glad I tried it! The next duck course is the stir fried udon noodles, which I read were hand made in house. This was really tasty.  The final dish was the soup with duck and tofu. The broth was really tasty but I was really full and couldn’t bring myself to eat the meat…which I think was the neck.
Thank you Wanda for picking a restaurant that helped me step outside my comfort zone!

The damage
$23 each – might be an RC record! (bring cash, it’s also BYO wine)

The rundown
China King (no web site, but here are links to reviews in Boston magazine, Boston Globe, and Yelp)
60 Beach Street, Boston

CSA Week 11

It’s been a busy week, resulting in a late post and a whole lot of zeros at the bottom of that list.

  • Corn: 100%
  • Basil: 100% (made more pesto!)
  • Tomatoes: 100%
  • Peaches: 100%
  • Watermelon: 100%
  • Lettuce: 50%
  • Pepper: 50%
  • Red cabbage: 0%
  • Beets: 0%
  • Kale: 0%
  • Beans: 0%
  • Beet greens: 0%
  • Eggplant: 0% (and unfortunately it started to get brown so it went into the compost bag)
I’m not sure Mother Nature got the memo that these are supposed to be the dog days of summer. I love the cooler weather and low humidity, so I’m certainly not complaining…however comma, I’m not sure the crops feel the same way.

Week 11

There’s something about the color yellow that always makes me happy, and I couldn’t help but smile when I cut into that yellow watermelon. In other yellow vegetable news, I will be super sad if we don’t get any more corn. I now have two weeks of Tuscan kale…I really need to make kale salad, since the original recipe calls for raw Tuscan kale (rather than the regular kale I usually use).

My half


CSA Week 10

Caprese

We’ve made it to the halfway point in my CSA season, which is kind of hard to believe! I did pretty well this week, probably because I had a couple of extra mouths to feed…in the form of parents visiting from NY:

  • Cucumbers: 100%
  • Zucchini: 100%
  • Beet greens: 100%
  • Tomatoes: 100%
  • Swiss chard: 100%
  • Basil: 100%
  • Corn: 100%
  • Blueberries: 100%
  • Watermelon: 100%
  • Lettuce: 50%
I super enjoyed the corn and the tomatoes (with basil and mozzarella). This week is also momentous because I fired up my grill for the first time, and grilled flank steak and zucchini…not a bad way to christen my free grill! Now hopefully I will remember how to light it without Dad around.

I was putting basil on everything, but decided to make more pesto with the rest of the basil from last week and the new basil we got today. We got a pretty huge share this week so there will be lots of veggie maintenance in my future. It was hard to fit it all in one photo.
Week 10
I appreciate all of the zucchini recipe love that people have been sending me! I really am looking forward to trying some of them…next time zucchini wants to come home with me.

My half
I am also very proud to present my very own tomatoes! These little grape tomatoes have been doing so well, one of the plants has even grown larger than the tomato cage.

Tiny tomato harvest

Green beans gremolata

I was looking online for something interesting to do with green beans. Yes even I can get a little bored with the standby of sautéing things with garlic and olive oil. I came across a Barefoot Contessa (Ina Garten) recipe, which is often a solid place to start. It’s also always a bonus when I have most of the ingredients already…in this case I just had to pick up lemons.

I decreased the olive oil from 2.5 Tbsp to 1 Tbsp and the salt from 1 tsp to a sprinkle. This was my dinner, along with kale chips, on a recent CSA eve (aka Tuesday night).

Getting my ingredients ready

Green beans gremolata
Serves: 4-6
Source: adapted from Ina Garten via the Food Network

#nofilter

Ingredients
1 pound green beans, trimmed
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 Tbsp grated lemon zest (1-2 lemons)
3 Tbsp minced fresh flat-leaf parsley
3 Tbsp freshly grated Parmesan cheese
2 Tbsp toasted pine nuts
1 Tbsp good olive oil
Salt and pepper to taste

Directions

Thanks Instagram!

1. Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Add the green beans and blanch them for 2-3 minutes, until tender but still crisp. Drain the beans in a colander and immediately place them in a bowl of ice water (to stop the cooking).
2. In a small bowl, toss the garlic, lemon zest, parsley, Parmesan, and pine nuts together and set aside.
3. When ready to serve, heat the olive oil in a large sauté pan over medium-high heat. Drain the beans and pat them dry. Add the beans to the pan and sauté, turning frequently, until coated with olive oil and heated through, about 2 minutes). Remove from heat, add the gremolata and toss well. 
4. Season with salt and pepper and enjoy!




CSA Week 9

This week I made a quick trip to North Carolina to visit some college friends. And I got to have some pretty fantastic fried chicken at one of Ashley Christensen’s restaurants in Raleigh. We went to Beasley’s Chicken + Honey for lunch, which opened at 11:30. I got there at 11:20 and there was a large crowd waiting outside the restaurant to get in. No food pictures…I was too busy eating!


For being away for the weekend, I did ok with my veg consumption for the week.

  • Basil: 100% made pesto and froze it
  • Blueberries: 100%
  • Lettuce: 90%
  • Radicchio: 90% (that tiny little head was super bitter)
  • Carrots: 25%
  • Onions: 10%
  • Zucchini: 0%
  • Cucumber: 0%
This week felt more like a normal share, though last year at this time we were already getting peaches. I’m not complaining, I love the blueberries…and we got a watermelon this week (always reminds me of Dirty Dancing, “I carried a watermelon”). I traded my Japanese eggplant for two extra ears of corn.

Week 9
I am excited for the first corn and tomatoes of the season. I picked up some fresh mozzarella to have with the tomato and basil.

My half