We are knee deep in preparations, organizing everything, and trying to get ready for a super year. The best way to keep in touch with us is through the Southside CSA Facebook Page. Everything is always posted there. However, if you are a facebook abstainer, sign up for our mailing list. We are infrequesnt emailers but you will get notified of any events, esp during sign-up time.

Sign ups for returning members are on Jan 30th, Feb 6th, & Feb 20th.

Sign ups for new members starts March 5th.

Greig Farm Share. Best Berries Ever! Aug 11, 2011

We are in the process of updating our blog, www.southsidecsa.org. Right now, all the info is from 2011. Stay tuned as it is updated. More info regarding this year’s sign will be available shortly. Bring your questions about Southside CSA, our farmers–MimoMex Farm, Greig Farm, Circle C Farm, & Northwind Farm, and how our farm shares operate to the following open house [question-n-answer] events:

• Winter Share Distribution & 2012 Harvest Season Open House
  • Tues Jan 10th. 630-830pm @ the Woods. Look for Yolim
• Southside CSA Speakeasy
  • Sun Jan 22nd. 3-8pm @ 140 Metropolitan. Ring 1st Flr buzzer

]]> http://southsidecsa.org/2012/01/09/sign-up-for-2012-harvest-season/feed/ 0 craigskitchen pic by ryan kuonen http://southsidecsa.org/2011/11/09/recipe-red-onion-marmalade-pickled-red-onions/ http://southsidecsa.org/2011/11/09/recipe-red-onion-marmalade-pickled-red-onions/#comments Wed, 09 Nov 2011 01:51:07 +0000 craigskitchen http://southsidecsa.wordpress.com/?p=4814 ]]>

Red Onions by MimoMex Farm. Marmalade by the Fox.

I was asked by a member if i had any good ideas for using up copious amounts of red onions in a jiffy. With Thanksgiving on the horizon,  I can think of no better idea than to put up a batch of marmalade or pickles. Both rock out, both are great additions to our harvest meals, and both are pretty easy cooking.

There are lots of good recipes for Red Onion Marmalade on the internet. It is a pretty basic savory jam type thing. Miss Fox made us a batch back in July for our big bbq on the 4th using a recipe from her vault of British classics. Here are a few gems i found online:

• Red Onion Marmalade by mirrormirror
• Spicy Red Onion Marmalade by Homesick Texan

Pickled Red Onions are one of the best accoutrements to a big family style meal. Almost as necessary as gravy! They also make great additions to salads,grains, legumes, tacos, sandwiches, and for just plain snacking. They take crackers & cheese to fabulous places. Chef Ann made a big batch for one of the Soup Kitchen Supper Clubs and it was divine. Her recipe of choice is from the essential “Joy of Pickling”. (You should really own this book if you fancy pickles!) Lots of resources on the internet for pickling:

• Pickled Red Onions by David Leibovitz
• Pickled Red Onions by Umani Girl
• Pickled Red Onions by Maia Spins
• Quick (Spicy) Pickled Red Onions by not without salt
• Cebollas en Escabeche by Rick Bayless

As you can see, both the marmalade and the pickle recipes can flux to your own tastes. Get creative with what you  like and what yo have stocked in your pantry. Also, they both have a refrigerated shelf life of 6 months, so neither HAS TO be canned. However, they make great gifts at winter potlucks and for the holidays so canning up a bunch is a great idea for the motivated sort.

Our Devoe Street group consists of myself (Dee Dee), my boyfriend (Andy) and our fabulous neighbors (Karen & Dave). We have a Deluxe share which is a full veggy, full orchard, full berry and half egg share. Sharing with your neighbors is a great way to go if you can (especially if there are only 1 or 2 of you in your home) as it makes it fun, keeps the cost down and you can share pick up, recipes and even dinner!  Karen and Dave are great cooks! This week we received another wonderful fall bounty:

• 1 bucket of apples-4 lbs of Empire & Joroman
• 1 dozen eggs
• 6 Potatoes
• 4 ears of corn
• 1 Bunch of Kale
• 2 lbs of frying peppers
• 1 Butternut squash
• Lemongrass
• 3 Tomatoes
• Parsley

Although I swear I have been experimenting way out of my comfort zone, this week may be slightly less optimistic in terms of creativity as we are headed for a holiday and want to make sure we use everything before we leave. So I will dub this ‘realistic week’.  

The night we picked up our share we were starving (which is quite often the case) so we chose the easy route. Fast, easy and filling! Steamed Spanish corn and sage mashed potatoes. At the beginning of the summer we planted herbs on our fire escape, which I highly recommend for vertical dwellers. The herbs had their ups and downs since May but the sage was truly the stand out consistent survivor and it is also delicious. I found that simple mashed potatoes come alive when you add sage (as well as many other dishes). We simply boiled the spuds in salted water. Andy saved the salted water to whip with the potatoes. It is a great trick to create a creamy consistency without overusing fat (oil, butter) or added salt.

We just chopped our sage and put it right in tonight with a little olive oil, salt and pepper but earlier in the summer we did try frying and salting the sage which is really tasty!

I decided I want to jazz the corn up a little. Typically a meal begins with what we may have in the refrigerator so I made a “Spanish” version of Mexican corn with olive oil, Spanish paprika and Manchego cheese.

It was especially tasty complimenting such wonderfully sweet corn. This was not the most balanced of meals but surely satiated everything we were trying to accomplish: convenience, hunger and taste!

The night we pick up our share and after gobbling down the first meal, I typically write myself an e-mail with the list of what we received so that I can do some research on new and exciting recipes to utilize everything. Since I am not someone who is a natural at experimenting, I go to the cookbook or internet for some ideas. I have found that after I have been in this rhythm for the last 5 months, I have felt a little more comfortable to experiment on my own.

Typically we try to utilize a few of the main ingredients on the second or third night of the week. Using the butternut squash as the key component, we made a vegetarian Moroccan Tagine which was delicious. I found a great recipe on Allrecipe.com and highly recommend.

MOROCCAN TAGINE recipe

It calls for chicken (or lamb) but since Andy is vegetarian we made a meat-free version. Although I swing both ways, I am perfectly happy with a largely plant-based diet. Our only variance to the recipe was adding celery and fresh kale from the farm! It’s a hearty stew which is usually accompanied (and we obliged) by cous cous. Ridiculously easy, you basically add all the components to the pot and cook. If you do the prep, its one step!

It saves really well and we found that it is even better the next day, so make a lot and you will have a few more meals for the week. For us, that is key and helps us utilize everything in our share and make it last.

I am going to take this opportunity to cheat slightly. Although we did receive plenty of apples this week (I could have easily created this week), I cannot lie this was a dish I made a couple of weeks ago. I so badly wanted to share. I am NO baker and this was my first foray into the field. A few weeks back our share had the most beautiful apples and mini pears (not sure the name) so in my desire to have nothing go to waste, I started researching something I could bake utilizing all of the orchard bounty. I did want to challenge myself right? Although not so difficult, (baby steps) I found a fabulous recipe for Apple/ Pear Crisp by Ina Garten.

It turned out better than I expected, even without a mixer, and I was left with a feeling of accomplishment. Everyone at work enjoyed the ‘fruits’ of my labor. I will surely try this one again. We simply ate the apples we got this week.

Karen, who truly is a baker, jazzed up a simple pumpkin bread with fresh apples. The recipe also utilized 2 of the fresh farm eggs. Super easy (about 5 minutes added to bake time) and makes your whole house smell delicious. Great for breakfast. Utilizing peppers, kale, potatoes, parsley and tomatoes from our share this week, Karen crafted a beautiful dish. Lamb with a Parsley-Mint sauce and oven roasted potatoes and kale with onions, pepper and roasted tomatoes. (I told you she is a rocking cook). She admitted that she was halfway through eating before she remembered to photograph the dish! The photo may not capture the full beauty of her creation.

“I scrubbed and sliced potatoes to about 1/8″ thick and tossed with a little oil and seasoning and baked at 375 for 35 min. I put tomatoes wedges at the end of baking sheet – roasted them and added to kale. I sauteed minced red onion and one of the peppers we got this week until softened and then added chopped kale. I covered the pan and cooked at med heat for about 7min – depends how cooked you like your kale. I added the tomatoes when they came out of the oven.

I don’t know the cut of lamb I got – I went to the Meat Hook and asked for lamb for two people. I seared the steak on both sides about 2-3 min then baked in 375 oven for 4 min for med rare. Dave made the sauce the night before from the following recipe. The night before, Dave used a spicy dry rub on chicken cutlets, seared them and served with this sauce (found recipe online). Very tasty. Have enough leftover sauce for a third meal. Froze the last portion for tasty treat in the dead of winter.

Parsley-Mint Sauce:

• 1 1/2 cups tightly packed fresh mint leaves
• 3/4 cup tightly packed fresh flat-leaf parsley
• 6 cloves garlic, chopped
• 2 serrano chiles, grilled, peeled, chopped
• 2 tablespoons honey
• 2 tablespoons Dijon mustard
• 1 cup olive oil
• Water
• Salt and freshly ground black pepper

Place the mint, parsley, garlic and serranos in a food processor and process until coarsely chopped. Add the honey and mustard and process until combined. With the motor running, slowly add the olive oil until emulsified. Transfer the mixture to a bowl and whisk in a few tablespoons of cold water to thin to a sauce-like consistency. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

As far as the lemongrass goes, we all were pretty perplexed on how to use. We had some great ideas, steam fish with it, make tea, add it to tofu, but I think Karen has been the only of us to take a crack at it. She also has been freezing it, hopefully to utilize in the future. Speaking of storing, I have many freezer bags of berries from the summer when we were receiving so many. I am very excited to have fresh berry smoothies in the winter months, knowing they are still chock full of nutrition.

Eggs. They are amazing! Absolutely nothing like what you get from the supermarket; beautiful golden yokes with a freshness that is beyond compare. Andy does not eat eggs so it is up to me to eat the half dozen we get every 2 weeks. I typically like to fry an egg and put it over any grain (brown rice, faro, quinoa, cous cous)/ vegetable dish so it can run right into my dish. I love it! Also lately, I have been making scrambled eggs with the juicy tomatoes from the farm with drizzled olive oil and coarse salt to complete. We made a jalapeno salsa from the jalapenos & tomatillos from a few weeks back and I have been topping my breakfast with that as well. Below are a few of my concoctions.

I hope you enjoyed, we sure did. Happy fall bounty to all!

mimomex veg share

greig farm “berry” share

ny state orchard share

mimomex egg share

northwind farms meat share

 This week our share included:

• 3 beets
• 1 bunch of mint
• 2 sweet potatoes
• 3 green peppers
• 1 acorn squash
• 2 red onions
• 4 Yukon gold potatoes

We celebrated a successful pick-up with rum drinks highlighted by the bunch of fresh mint! My friend had just sent me an interesting recipe for beet cake, seeing the beets in this weeks farm share I thought it could be an interesting experiment. My plan was to make a savory galette with the butternut squash from last weeks farm share and the beet cake for dessert. The butternut could easily be replaced by the acorn squash from this week (same prep and roasting directions apply). First the galette! This is a recipe Kelly sent me a few months ago, and as my preferred way of eating is anything wrapped in a piecrust with cheese; it has become a staple in our household. This recipe is from the fantastic food blog smittenkitchen.com.

 Butternut Squash and Caramelized Onion Galette

For the pastry:

• 1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter, cut into
• pieces
• 1/4 cup sour cream
• 2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice
• 1/4 cup ice water

For the filling:

• 1 small butternut squash (about one pound)
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 to 2 tablespoons butter (if you have only non-stick, the smaller amount will do)
• 1 large onion, halved and thinly sliced in half-moons
• 1 teaspoon salt
• Pinch of sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon cayenne, or to taste
• 3/4 cup fontina cheese (about 2 1/2 ounces), grated or cut into small bits
• 1 1/2 teaspoons chopped fresh sage leaves

1. Make pastry: In a bowl, combine the flour and salt. Place the butter in another bowl. Place both bowls in the freezer for 1 hour. Remove the bowls from the freezer and make a well in the center of the flour. Add the butter to the well and, using a pastry blender, cut it in until the mixture resembles coarse meal. Make another well in the center. In a small bowl, whisk together the sour cream, lemon juice and water and add half of this mixture to the well. With your fingertips, mix in the liquid until large lumps form. Remove the large lumps and repeat with the remaining liquid and flour-butter mixture. Pat the lumps into a ball; do not overwork the dough. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 1 hour.

2. Prepare squash: Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Peel squash, then halve and scoop out seeds. Cut into a 1/2-inch dice. Toss pieces with olive oil and a half-teaspoon of the salt and roast on foil lined (for neatness sake) sheet for 30 minutes or until pieces are tender, turning it midway if your oven bakes unevenly. Set aside to cool slightly.

3. Caramelize onions: While squash is roasting, melt butter in a heavy skillet and cook onion over low heat with the remaining half-teaspoon of salt and pinch of sugar, stirring occasionally, until soft and lightly golden brown, about 20 minutes. Stir in cayenne.

4. Raise the oven temperature to 400 degrees. Mix squash, caramelized onions, cheese and herbs together in a bowl.

5. Assemble galette: On a floured work surface, roll the dough out into a 12-inch round. Transfer to an ungreased baking sheet. Spread squash, onions, cheese and herb mixture over the dough, leaving a 1 1/2-inch border. Fold the border over the squash, onion and cheese mixture, pleating the edge to make it fit. The center will be open.

6. Bake until golden brown, 30 to 40 minutes. Remove from the oven, let stand for 5 minutes, then slide the galette onto a serving plate. Cut into wedges and serve hot, warm or at room temperature. Serves 6.

Now I do not make my own piecrust, for those of you who do, I am humbled. But for now, I am happy with the Pillsbury ready-made piecrusts found in the grocery store by the eggs and milk.

Meanwhile, Kelly stuffed peppers with spiced ground beef, cinnamon brown rice, and sweet potatoes.

STUFFED PEPPERS

• Sweet potatoes
• Ground beef
• Bell peppers (banana peppers can be used)
• Yellow onion
• Tomato paste (6 oz. can)
• Feta cheese
• Lemon
• Fresh oregano, chopped
• Brown rice
• Cinnamon stick
• Ground cinnamon, paprika, cayenne pepper, ground cumin, salt & pepper

For Yogurt Sauce:

• Plain yogurt
• Lemon juice
• Garlic
• Fresh parsley
• Fresh mint

1. Prepare brown rice by boiling in water with salt and cinnamon sticks.
2. Prick sweet potatoes with fork and bake at 375 until cooked through (about 45 mins to 1 hr). Cut cooked sweet potatoes into ½ inch cubes.
3. Halve peppers and remove seeds. Place cut side down on a lightly greased baking sheet and bake for 20 mins at 375.
4. Sautee chopped onion in skillet; add ground beef and brown.
5. Add tomato paste and spices to taste and cook over medium heat for 5-10 mins.
6. Stir spiced beef mixture into cooked rice.
7. Add feta cheese, oregano, chopped sweet potato, and juice of 1 lemon.
8. Spoon mixture into pepper halves, sprinkle with paprika, and bake for 15-20 mins at 375.
9. Prepare yogurt sauce by mixing lemon juice, garlic, parsley, and mint into yogurt to taste.  Drizzle over stuffed peppers before serving.

The beet cake was a bit more of a challenge. The recipe is from this beautifully produced food blog: tiger in a jar

 BEET CAKE

Ingredients:

• 1 cup of butter
• 1 ½ cups of packed dark brown sugar
• 3 eggs
• 4 ounces of semi-sweet chocolate
• 2 cups of pureed cooked beets
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 tsp. baking soda
• ¼ tsp of salt
• Confectioner’s sugar

We put the beets in the oven at 375, drizzled with olive oil and let them roast for about 30 minutes. We let them cool, peeled, and sliced them up. I didn’t puree them, which I should have, so the batter was a bit lumpy. I would puree them next time before adding them into the mix.

In a mixing bowl cream the butter and brown sugar. Add eggs and mix well. Melt chocolate and remaining butter in a saucepan over medium heat. Stir until smooth and let cool slightly. Blend together chocolate mixture, beets, and vanilla into the butter brown sugar mixture. Sift together the flour, baking soda, and salt. Add to the creamed mixture and mix till smooth. Pour into a 9-inch baking pan and bake at 375 for 40 minutes. Let cool and dust with confectioner’s sugar.

It tasted delicious. It was moist and chocolaty, but next time I would serve it with a drizzle of heavy cream over the top. The beet flavor was subtle; I think it mostly gave it a little depth to the flavors.

After all that, I think tonight we will just be throwing the potatoes and red onions in a skillet with rosemary & olive oil, and a Napoli baguette from the Bedford cheese shop (somehow the best and cheapest baguette around).