What’s in your box for week 17

Standard

Spinach  1 bu
Cylinder Beets  3 lbs
Potatoes  3 lbs
Savoy Cabbage  1 hd
Baby Dill  1 bu
Rye Flour  2 lbs
Red Leaf Lettuce   1 hd
from River Run Farm
Brussels Sprouts  2 lbs

Small

Red Mustard Greens 1 bu
Parsnips   2.5 lbs
Savoy Cabbage  1 hd
Baby Dill  1 bu
Red Leaf Lettuce  1 hd
from River Run Farm
Brussels Sprouts  1.5 lbs

 

 

Roasted Beet & Brussels Sprout Salad

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

½ to 1 pound bacon
6 to 8 beets, cubed
1 pound Brussels sprouts, trimmed
1 medium white onion, thinly sliced
6 cloves garlic, whole
3 teaspoons thyme
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
3 tablespoons olive oil, divided
1 to 2 cups mixed salad greens
½ cup almonds, chopped (or substitute another nut)

Cook the bacon to your personal preference and set aside.

Preheat the oven at 400°F. In a large roasting pan, add the beets, Brussels sprouts, onion, garlic, thyme, and salt and pepper, and toss with 1 to 2 tablespoons of the olive oil, coating evenly. (If you’re using red beets, they will bleed red onto the other vegetables as you mix them. To avoid this, toss the beets separately with oil, salt, and pepper and bake them in another pan—or just keep them to one side of the larger roasting pan.)

Roast the vegetables uncovered in the oven until they have softened and browned—approximately 30 minutes. Remove the vegetables from the oven. Crumble and stir in the bacon. Allow to cool slightly.

Arrange the mixed greens on a serving plate and top with the vegetables. Sprinkle the almonds over the vegetables and finish by drizzling the remaining olive oil over the entire dish.

Serves 12 as a side dish, 4 to 6 as a main dish

Annie McHale, the chef who originated this recipe, lived in Port Angeles and did recipes and cooking demos for Nash’s Farm Store for about a year. She has since moved to Portland, OR, and we miss her! This recipe appears in Bounty from the Box: The CSA Farm Cookbook, by Mi Ae Lipe

 

Rye Flour

Rye is one of the top five most consumed cereals on the planet. It is grown extensively throughout the world and is very similar to wheat and barley, so it has many of the same applications. You can find it being used for animal feed, a base for whiskey, and especially for different types of bread and crackers.

Rye was widely cultivated in Roman times, but it was likely grown far earlier, given how easy it is to grow and how hardy it is as an agricultural staple.

Some of its health benefits include helping the efficiency of the digestive system, preventing gallstones, lowering the risk of diabetes, lowering blood pressure, and protecting cardiovascular health.

New York Style Rye Crackers

1 cup rye flour
1 cup all-purpose flour, like Nash’s white or triticale
1 Tbsp. caraway seed
1 1/2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. onion powder
1 tsp. garlic powder
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1 tsp. honey
1/4 cup water, or as needed

Combine the rye flour, all-purpose flour, caraway seed, salt, onion powder, and garlic powder in a bowl. Stir in the vegetable oil and honey. While stirring with a fork, slowly add the water until the dough comes together in a ball. Cover and rest for 10 minutes.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Divide the dough into 4 sections, rolling each piece out on parchment paper to 1/8 inch thick. Cut into desired shape then place on a baking sheet. Prick each cracker a few times with a fork.

Bake in the preheated oven until the edges are brown and the crackers are crisp, 10 to 12 minutes. Remove immediately to a cooling rack.

Recipe from allrecipes.com

What’s in your box for week 16

Standard

Red Baby Bok Choy  1 lb
Apples  2 lbs
Hard Red Wheat Flour  2 lbs
Carrots  3 lbs
Leeks  2
Green Kale  1 bu
Green Cabbage   1 hd
Red Beets  2 lbs

 

Small

Red Baby Bok Choy  1 lb
Collards  1 bu
Spinach  1 bu
Hard Red Wheat Flour  2 lbs
Carrots  2 lbs
Chioggia Beets  2 lbs
Potatoes  3 lbs

 

 

Red Baby Bok Choy

Bok choy’s name is derived from the Chinese name for “soup spoon” because of the shape of its leaves. The red pigmentation in the leaves of the red bok choy is due to the presence of anthocyanins. Anthocyanins are a type of flavonoid pigment that are responsible for the red, purple and blue colors in plants. The concentration of anthocyanin polyphenols in red bok choy’s leaves provide health benefits as dietary antioxidants, as an anti-inflammatory, and they have potentially protective, preventative, and therapeutic roles in a number of human diseases, including cancer.

Red bok choy can be used in any recipe calling for bok choy. It can be added to soups, sautéed, steamed and eaten raw in a salad. As an all-purpose vegetable, it can add a warm, brothy and umami-like note to savory recipes. Complementary pairings include garlic, ginger, mushrooms, soy sauce, tofu, pork, white fish, noodles, grains, chicken broth, light bodied vinegars, citrus, ginger and chilies.

Red Bok Choy Sauté

1 Tbsp. organic veggie oil
1 garlic cloves, peeled and minced
1 1/4-inch piece ginger root, peeled and minced
Pinch red-pepper flakes, or to taste
1 bunch red baby bok choy, cleaned, with the ends trimmed
1 tsp. soy sauce
1 tsp. chicken stock or water
Toasted sesame oil for drizzling

In sauté pan with lid, heat oil over medium-high heat until it starts to shimmer. Add garlic, ginger and red-pepper flakes and cook, stirring constantly, until fragrant, about 45 seconds.

Add bok choy and stir carefully to cover with oil, then cook for approximately 2 minutes. Add soy sauce, stock or water, then cover pan and cook for approximately 2 minutes more, until steam begins to escape.

Uncover and continue to cook until liquid is close to evaporated and stalks are soft to the touch, approximately 3 minutes more.

Remove to a warmed platter and drizzle with sesame oil.

 

Hard Red Wheat Flour

A basic rule of thumb is that hard wheat (red or white) creates structure in a baked item, so it is good for breads and pretzels. The higher gluten content makes it possible to hold a shape and even bake without a pan, like those round European artisan loaves.

Soft wheat has less gluten and creates a crumbly or fluffy texture. It’s excellent for pastries, that either need a baking pan to hold their shape, like a cake, or they flatten out, like cookies or pancakes. They can also use a reinforcement to give the dough structure, like eggs.

Nash’s hard red wheat is our go-to flour for bread. It is high in protein and high in gluten, so your bread rises well. It gives a hearty, nutty flavor and produces a crisp crust and a crumb with desirable irregular holes. As its name suggests, it gives your bread a slight reddish color. It is great for sourdough or yeasted breads, but also lends itself well to biscuits, pancakes, muffins, cookies, pizza and pie crusts and for thickening stews and gravies.

Some bread making tips

  • Whole wheat flour takes longer than refined white flour to absorb moisture. So give your dough time alone after mixing (but before kneading). Cover the dough and let it rest for 10 minutes, then do it again part way through kneading. It will be much less work for you, and your bread will have more air bubbles.
  • Knead with water, not flour. Lightly dampen your work surface to prevent your dough from drying out.
  • Whole wheat bread especially benefits from longer rises. You use less yeast to make this happen so the bread rises more slowly. Your bread will be much moister this way.
  • Here’s a good website to start making bread!