Member Diary #20 — Team Funcore

Our team consists of my wife Katie and I (Kenny), two insanely busy localvores who enjoy eating and our time cooking together immensely.  We had been receiving a CSA while living in the Bay Area for a few years now and blogging about it over at CSA Delivery. After moving to NYC we were delighted to find that not only were there great CSA’s available, but they were full of really awesome people!  Needless to say, we jumped on board as fast as we could.  We have the Woods share, which is Veg every week plus Orchard & Eggs on A weeks. S o here is what we did with our share for the week with the addition of some hot peppers, and eggs from last week that were left over. This week we received:

• 4 ears corn
• 2 onions
• 1 butternut squash
• 2 green peppers
• 3 jalapenos
• 13 tomatillos
• 1 head cabbage
• 1 head broccoli
• 4 tomatoes
• 1 bunch lemongrass

Hot Sauce with Jalapeños and Serranos

I don’t know about you, but I put hot sauce on just about everything.  We have been receiving tons of hot peppers each week, and sometimes it get a little difficult to use them all so quickly, so our solution was naturally- MAKE HOT SAUCE!  This recipe should contain enough acidity to remain canned and fresh tasting for a good 9-12 months, so that is a lot less hot sauce we are going to have to buy this year!

Ingredients:

• 4 26oz. cans of diced tomatoes with liquid (we used Jersey Fresh to keep it local)
• 5 cups of white vinegar
• 1 cup of roughly chopped garlic
• 1.5 cups of roughly chopped jalapenos
• 1 cup roughly chopped serranos (If you want it less spicy, just seed and de-vein the peppers)
• 3 tsp. salt
• 1 pair of gloves (which I didn’t have, but should have used)

Put on some gloves, no seriously, just do it.  Prep all of your ingredients and toss them into a pot, and turn the heat to medium high.  Bring to a boil and allow to simmer for 20 minutes, until the tomatoes start to break down.

Grab your immersion blender and process until totally smooth.  Wear gloves for this too please.

Now process according to the USDA Canning Guidelines and you will have almost 1 gallon of super awesome sweet and spicy hot sauce! Hot sauce alone does not make a meal, so we made some:

Butternut Squash and Corn Bread Pudding

This recipe can be used for all kinds of veggies, its pretty much just plug and play, and always comes out amazing while not taking up all of your time cooking.

Ingredients:

Dry:

• 1 pound loaf of crusty bread, roughly cubed (got kids? Let them tear it up!)
• 4 ears of corn, taken off cob (about 2 cups of kernels)
• 2 white onions, thinly sliced
• 2 pounds of butternut squash, thinly sliced

Wet:

• 4 eggs, beaten
• 3 cups milk
• 1 tsp. dried thyme
• 2 tsp. good mustard (we used My Friends Mustard made right here in Brooklyn!)
• Salt and pepper to taste

Topping:

• 2 cups shredded Gruyere Cheese (or whatever you like)

Preheat you oven to 375 degrees.  Combine all dry ingredients in a large baking dish.

Combine all wet ingredients and add to the dry, mixing well.  Go ahead, use your hands, get messy!

Cover with foil, and bake for 45 minutes.  Uncover, top with cheese and bake for an additional 15 minutes or until cheese is golden brown.  Let it rest for a few minutes before cutting into it and getting your grub on.  Enjoy!

Next up it was time to use up some of that hot sauce!  We got down on some:

Stuffed Green Peppers with Tomatillo and Avocado Sauce

Ingredients:

Rice and Beans:

• 2 cups long grain brown rice
• 3 cups H2O
• 4 plum tomatoes, diced
• 1 yellow onion, diced
• 1 jalapeno, diced
• 3 cloves garlic, roughly chopped
• 1 can black beans, drained
• 1 Tbsp. cooking oil
• salt and pepper to taste

Tomatillo and Avocado Sauce

• ½ pound tomatillos, husked, rinsed, and halved
• ½ yellow onion, roughly diced
• 3 cloves garlic, roughly chopped
• 3 Tbsp. cilantro
• 1 lime, juice only
• 1 ripe avocado
• 1 jalapeno, roughly chopped
• salt and pepper to taste
• water as needed to process

Peppers:

• 2 or 3 peppers, cut length-wise, seeds and ribs removed

Let’s start with making the sauce.  Place the tomatillos seed side down with the onions and jalapeno on a baking sheet and place under the broiler for 10 minutes until they start to brown and get charred.  (We use our toaster oven for this so that it doesn’t make the whole apartment ridiculously hot.)  Pull them out and place them in the fridge to cool.  Once they have cooled you can throw them into a blender with the rest of the ingredients and blend until smooth.  Use a little water to thin it out if it is too thick to process.  Place in the fridge and get ready for the rice.

In a larger sauce pot on medium heat (one that you have a lid for), add the oil, and then the tomatoes, onion, jalapeno, and garlic.

Cook for about 10 minutes, stirring occasionally until the tomatoes start to break down and the onions begin to become translucent.  Add the rice and stir to incorporate all the ingredients for a few minutes.  Add the water, cover, reduce the heat to medium and allow to simmer for 25-30 minutes, or until the rice is fully cooked.  Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.  When the rice has finished cooking stir in the black beans and season it to taste.  Stuff peppers with the rice and beans and bake in a covered, greased baking dish for 45 minutes until the peppers are cooked through.  Remove from the oven and top with sauce and any other toppings you desire.

Get down with your bad self, and have some dinner!

The rest of the produce will be made into a Thai inspired coconut noodle soup that can be found on our blog at http://CSADelivery.blogspot.com. Watch for it in the next few days.  We hope you enjoyed this week as much as we did, and remember, keep it local!