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We enjoyed a few favorites in the past week: steak fajitas with greens, spring turnip salad, and radish sandwich. If we have a bunch of greens or peppers to use, we often turn to fajitas. The turnip salad is one of my favorite things and the radish sandwich is all about good butter (we used Hope butter this time). Yum!

Steak Fajitas with Green Garlic, Radish Greens, Onion, Spinach




Spring Turnip Salad



1 fresh, young bunch of turnips, stems discarded, greens well washed and sliced into thin ribbons (1/3 inch or less), roots trimmed, peeled, and cut into 3/4 inch chunks
3 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
Olive oil
Salt
1 tablespoon honey
Juice of 1 lime
1/4 cup plain yogurt or buttermilk
1/3 cup chopped fresh herbs, such as parsley, cilantro, and chives
1 cup cooked white beans
3 hard cooked eggs, peeled and sliced
4 strips bacon, cooked and chopped or crumbled
3 pieces of cornbread (your favorite recipe), cut into small cubes

At least a few hours in advance, toss the raw turnip greens with 2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar, 2 tablespoons olive oil, and a big pinch of salt. Cover and refrigerate.

Put the turnip roots in a medium saucepan with an inch of water, a pinch of salt, and a splash of olive oil. Cover, bring to a boil, and boil hard, covered, until turning tender, about 5 minutes. Then remove the lid and continue to boil until tender enough to eat, a minute or two more. Drain if necessary and allow to cool.

Dissolve 1/2 teaspoon salt and 1 tablespoon honey in 1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar and the lime juice. Whisk in 2 tablespoons olive oil. Stir in 1/4 cup plain yogurt or buttermilk and the chopped herbs. Taste and add salt, vinegar, or oil if necessary.

Dress the beans with 2 tablespoons of the yogurt dressing. Spread some greens on each plate and top with egg, beans, bacon, steamed turnips, and cornbread. Serve extra yogurt dressing on the side.


Radish Sandwich

Asparagus, Spinach, Hon Tsai Tai, OH MY!

Over the past few days, we've used up most of Box #4. Here are the results:

Grilled Pizza with Mushrooms, Green Garlic, Spinach and Goat Cheese

This was our first time grilling pizza and it was fantastic. I can't wait to do it again! We added some shredded mozzarella to hold everything together in addition to the goat cheese.



Asparagus and Mushroom Bread Pudding
Recipe courtesy Deborah Madison, Local Flavors (by way of Barbara Kingsolver's Book, Animal Vegetable Miracle)

This recipe is absolutely delicious. The original recipe calls for morel mushrooms. Unfortunately, we cannot afford to buy a pound of morel mushrooms at this moment but I can only imagine how wonderful it would be if we had used morels.





3 cups milk
1 cup chopped spring onions with green shoots
Add onions to milk in sauce pan and bring to a boil, set aside to steep

1 loaf stale or toasted multigrain bread broken into crouton sized crumbs
Pour milk over crumbs and allow bread to soak

1 lb. asparagus
Chop into ½ inch pieces and simmer in skillet full of boiling water until bright
green

2 tbs. butter
1 lb. morels (or other wild mushrooms)
Salt and pepper to taste
Melt butter in skillet, cook mushrooms until tender, add spices and set aside

4 eggs
1/3 cup chopped parsley
3 tbs. oregano
3 cups grated Swiss cheese
Break eggs and beat until smooth, add herbs and plenty of salt and pepper, add
bread crumbs with remaining milk, asparagus and mushrooms with their juices
and 2/3 of the cheese. Mix thoroughly and pour into a greased, 8x12 gratin,
sprinkle remaining cheese on top and bake at 350 for about 45 minutes (until
puffy and golden).


Flank Steak with Hon Tsai Tai
Recipe courtesy Harmony Valley Farm

Owen has been such a trooper with trying our new creations. He really liked this one, but picked out the Hon Tsai Tai (it's green!).



1 ½lb. Flank steak
1 stalk green garlic
1 bunch Hon Tsai Tai or 2 heads baby bok choi
Peanut Oil to taste (we left this out because Owen hasn't had peanuts yet)
Mirin, to taste
Juice from one lemon
¼ cup sesame seeds, toasted
Soy Sauce to taste
4 small dried chile peppers, chopped finely
1 cup mushrooms, washed, and sliced, stems removed (can save and add to a stock)
¾ of package Soba noodles
5 Carrots, peeled, lengthwise slices

--Marinate steak in equal parts mirin, soy sauce, peanut oil and juice from one lemon for 1 hour
--In a large sauté pan over medium high heat, heat 1 tbsp oil. Sear flank steak on both sides, then reduce heat and cooked to desired degree of doneness. Set aside and let rest for 15 minutes. Slice thinly on a bias.
--Prepare soba noodles according to package, drain and set aside.
--Saute mushrooms until soft and cooked down, add carrots, green garlic, chile peppers and sauté until carrots are tender.
--Add a light drizzle of peanut oil (1-2 tsp), a dash of mirin (2-3 tsp), and a splash of soy sauce (1-2 Tbsp) to desired taste and enough to just to coat veggies.
--Cut Hon Tsai Tai and/or bok choi into bite-sized pieces and add to veggies. Cook until the greens are wilted.
--Add soba noodles and flank steak—stir until well combined and heated through. Top with toasted sesame seeds and serve. Peanut Marinated Flank Steak with Hon Tsai Tai
Serves 4-6

Box #3

We're finishing up Box #3. The contents?

Asparagus
Ramps
Parsnip
Sunchoke
Spinach
Salad mix
Green Garlic
Egyptian Walking Onion
Spring radish
Rhubarb
Sauté Mix
Garden Herb Packs

We went to the cabin for the holiday weekend and took a few items with us. We used the spinach salad to make a spinach, strawberry and onion salad with a poppyseed dressing. Delish!



Also while at the cabin, we made sunchoke dip with half of the sunchokes. Not my favorite recipe. Too bland and the texture wasn't right for me.



So far, the best use of the sunchoke was sunchoke pancakes (like potato pancakes). I think cooking sunchokes at a very high temperature so you get them nicely brown and crispy is the way to go. With the sunchoke pancakes, we had the asparagus with poached egg, ramp biscuits, and radish.





Sunchoke (jerusalem artichokes) Pancakes
via What's in the box

1 small onion
1 ½ pounds of Jerusalem artichokes, scrubbed
1 large egg, lightly beaten
½ cup of all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon of pure maple syrup
1 tablespoon of walnut or hazelnut oil (Optional) -- I used hazelnut
1 ½ teaspoons of kosher salt
1/8 teaspoon of freshly ground black pepper
A pinch of cayenne
1/8 teaspoon of freshly grated nutmeg
¼ cup of vegetable oil, or more as needed
1 tablespoon of butter

Using the shredder attachment, grate the onion in a food processor or through the largest holes of a hand grater, and transfer to a large bowl. Do the same with the Jerusalem artichokes.

Add the egg to the bowl and stir with a wooden spoon or spatula until well blended. Add the flour and stir in lightly; do not overwork. Add the maple syrup and the nutmeg, if using, and season with the salt, and the black pepper, cayenne, and nutmeg. Form into 8 or 9 equal pancakes, about 3 inches in diameter and a ½ inch thick. Place each pancake on a cookie sheet lined with wax paper.

Heat the vegetable oil and butter in a large heavy-bottomed skillet or on a griddle over medium heat. Working in batches, cook the pancakes until golden brown, about 5 to 7 minutes per side. You may need to adjust the heat as you work to avoid browning the outside of the pancakes too much before the inside cooks through. If the pan or griddle gets dry, add up to one more tablespoon of oil. Place the cooked pancakes on a plate lined with paper towels to drain, and cover loosely with foil to keep warm until ready to serve.

From Second Helpings from Union Square Cafe by Danny Meyer and Michael Romano

Ramp Biscuits from Bon Appetit April 2009

• 3/4 cup chilled buttermilk
• 3/4 cup thinly sliced trimmed ramps (bulbs, stems, and green tops)
• 1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 3/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
• 6 tablespoons (3/4 stick) chilled unsalted butter, cut into pieces
• 1 large egg, beaten to blend (for glaze)
• 1/2 teaspoon coriander seeds, cracked
  

Preheat oven to 425°F. Mix buttermilk and ramps in small bowl. Mix flour, baking powder, salt, and pepper in processor. Add chilled butter to processor; using on/off turns, cut in butter until fine meal forms. Transfer flour mixture to medium bowl. Add buttermilk mixture; stir until dough forms. Turn dough out onto lightly floured work surface and press out to 7-inch round, about 1/2 inch thick. Using 2-inch-diameter biscuit cutter dipped in flour, cut out rounds. Gather dough scraps; press out to 1/2-inch thickness and cut out additional rounds. Transfer dough rounds to baking sheet. Brush biscuit tops with some of egg glaze. Sprinkle with cracked coriander seeds. Bake biscuits until golden brown, about 20 minutes. Cool on rack. Serve slightly warm or at room temperature.

The last (and I mean last, we're not getting anymore) of our ramps, we made Ramp and Green Garlic Pasta.



Fantastic recipe. Simple and delicious. Even Owen liked it!

Box #2

Here's what box #2 contained:

Asparagus
Chives
Ramps
Sunchoke
Arugula
Spinach
Black radish
Salad mix
Sorrel

We're a little behind on box #2 because of our weekend of camping and some unexpected meals out this week. But, here's what we've done so far.

Asparagus on the campfire.



Spring Greens Salad with Goat Cheese and Dried Cranberries



BLT with Arugula instead of Lettuce (one of my favorite ways to have arugula!). I just noticed you can't see the bacon on the sandwich. I assure you there was bacon and plenty of it. It must be hiding under the tomato.



Bagel with Chive Spread and Arugula and another Spring Greens Salad



Chive Spread (adapted from all recipes)

3-5 tablespoons chopped fresh chives
A few dashes of garlic salt
12 ounce ontainer whipped cream cheese
8 ounce container Greek-style yogurt

Mix together. It's better the next day when the flavors blend together but who can wait that long? The second batch I made (yes, second), I used less cream cheese so it was about a 1:1 ratio of cream cheese and yogurt. I also tried 2% yogurt instead of whole. It's a little looser of a spread but still delicious.

Sorrel and Spinach Salad with Sunchoke and Chicken



Recipe coming soon...