Memorial Day Weekend

We get our CSA from Living Off The Fat of the Land Community Farms. If you're unfamiliar, a CSA is simply a program where you can purchase shares from a given farm. You'll receive a number of deliveries of whatever is harvested for a reasonable fee. The farm we signed up for will deliver goodies once a week. We purchased the biggest share they had available along with chicken and eggs plus bridge shares to extend the season for a couple of weeks in the spring and late fall. Split three ways, that will cost us each only $64 a month! I asked at my local organic grocer and was directed to the Local Harvest website to help find one that suited my friends and I.

Our first share arrived the Thursday of Memorial Day weekend. Since we'd been invited to multiple barbecues, I figured the best way to use our haul was to make appetizers to share with friends. We got a  bundle of the fattest asparagus I've ever seen, a bunch of spinach, butter lettuce, Hakurei turnips, sorrrel, green onions and a tomato plant. Bob the Cat ate the tomato plant so now I don't have to figure out where it will be planted.

Sorrel is a green leafy herb with a sharp almost citrus-like flavor. I tasted a leaf and my first thought was to make a pesto to top our asparagus. I did some research online and discovered that it was common in classic French cooking and used to make a cream sauce to top fish. I combined those ideas to make my Sorrel cream sauce. I think now that the asparagus' flavor was too bold and overpowered what turned out to be a very delicate sauce. I think next time, I'll use half of the liquid and a milder vegetable or fish as the vessel.

 I made a salad out of the turnips using a recipe I found online. We also threw a couple of them on the grill and they were fantastic that way. They're mild, almost like white radishes without the spice and instead have a bit of sweetness. The greens are intense and a bit bitter.

All that was left was the lettuce and the spinach. I brainstormed with my friend Sarah and she suggested lettuce wraps. I was worried that I wouldn't be able to feed enough people at a party with the relatively small head of lettuce and sort of blew that idea off, settling on a boring salad. Then she said, "I want those sweet potato tacos you made for us again." And there was my inspiration. Here is the original recipe and the modification I made is listed below.


Sorrel Cream Sauce

1 bunch of sorrel (I had probably about 30 leaves), stems and ribs removed
1 clove of garlic, minced
2 green onions, roughly diced
1 tblsp butter
1 cup of chicken stock or white wine
1 cup of heavy cream

Melt butter in a skillet and add the garlic, onion and sorrel. Sautee over medium heat The sorrel will begin to melt and does turn a brownish green. Once it's all softened, add the chicken stock and simmer for a few minutes, add the cream and turn down the heat. Let it cook gently at barely a simmer for five minutes or so, until it starts to thicken. Turn off the heat and let it cool. Dump it in your blender and puree. Season with salt and pepper if you need to. Top other goodies with it!


Hakurei Turnip Salad

2 or 3 tblsp of sesame oil
8 Hakurei turnips and their greens
2 cloves of garlic, minced
3 green onions chopped fine
Salt & pepper
Sesame seeds

Cut the ends of the turnips off. You don't need to peel them, just slice them thinly. Chop up the greens.

Heat the oil until it's very hot over medium high heat. Add the turnips and the garlic and sautee for 2-3 minutes.  Add the greens and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Sautee another minute or two until the greens are wilted and the turnips are tender. Sprinkle the sesame seeds on top. Enjoy!


Sweet Potato, Black Bean and Spinach Pesto Stuffed Lettuce Leaves

Preheat your oven to 400. (this recipe can easily be halved or quartered.)

4 sweet potatoes, peeled and diced
4 tsp cumin
4 tsp chili powder
2 or 3 Tblsp olive oil
salt
1 can of black beans, rinsed and drained
garlic salt
1 head of butter lettuce (I bet endive would be awesome, too)
1 lime

The original recipe called for Swiss chard pesto which was so much better than spinach pesto. But, the recipe is similar, take your greens of choice and throw them in a food processor or blender with a couple of garlic cloves and nuts of your choice. (Swiss chard and pepitas, Spinach and sunflower seed kernels, basil and pine nuts, kale and walnuts - experiment!) Process it, adding olive oil a little at a time until it comes together in a paste. Stir in the juice of half a lime. 

Toss the sweet potatoes with cumin, chili powder, olive oil and salt to taste. Roast in the oven for 20-30 minutes until they are tender.

Season the beans with garlic salt.

Mash the potatoes with some beans, the juice from the other half of your lime, some beans and some pesto. I added a little of the beans and pesto at a time until I got the flavor I was looking for.

Separate the head of lettuce into leaves. Rinse and dry well. Remove the ribs from the lettuce leaves. If your lettuce leaves are big, you'll want to cut them into smaller pieces to make bite-sized appetizers. Plop some of your mashed potatoes in the middle, fold them closed and secure with a toothpick. 

It's a little more work, but the party-goers really seemed to enjoy them.

Buon appetito!