Yesterday I found myself near a farmers market. Even though I knew I’d have a fresh batch of CSA veggies today, I couldn’t resist. I really did keep myself in check shopping, though. I bought a giant (3 pounds, by my estimate) zucchini for a dollar, and four July Red apples. Because I’ll no longer buy grocery store apples, early apples are exciting. July Red, clearly, is an early variety. The one I ate so far was very tart, and not as crunchy-crisp as I prefer. No regrets, though, on the apples. I was worried that I’d regret the zucchini, that we’d end up with more of it from our CSA. So, in a sort of defenisve measure, we used it up right away. We would have grilled it, but it was too much bother and too much charcoal. We sliced the zucchini up, maybe half an inch thick, and cooked the slices in a single layer (multiple batches) on a skillet until both sides were a bit browned and the insides were soft. We ate the slices on sub rolls with oil, vinegar, grated parmesan, and fresh basil. Delicious!
My fears were validated when we came home from our CSA pick-up tonight with six more zucchini. At least these are a normal size. We were only allocated four zucchini, but we got another two in trade for a bunch of spring onions. We also got one bunch of beets, two bunches of carrots, a head of green cabbage, four cucumbers, two pounds of green beans, and two pounds of potatoes.
Both bunches of carrots are orange, but I think a different variety from what we’d gotten so far this year. The new carrots are short and fat, like gnomes.
I think I’ll make a casserole with the zucchini, with layers of polenta, zucchini, cheddar cheese, and either salsa or crushed tomatoes seasoned with cumin and cayenne.
While picking up our veggies, we asked our farmer what to do with the fava beans. I don’t recall his answer, because another person there picking up a share said he’d cooked his up in oil, garlic, and lemon juice, which sounded good to us. A few leaves of the beet greens were starting to go already, so we made sure to use them in our meal, too. I shelled all our fava beans (weeks 6 and 7) into a skillet, then added garlic and olive oil, and put it over high heat. When the beans had softened a bit, I added the beet stems and salt. When the beans were getting wrinkly and starting to pop out of their skins, I added the beet greens and lemon juice. When the greens were wilted, I tossed the mixture with rotini. The beet stems turned the rotini pink. My husband picked through the remaining basil (week 5), and sliced the half of it that was still good into ribbons that went on top of the pasta-favas-greens mixture. It was tasty and satisfying. Now I know what to do with fava beans.
The Napa cabbage (week 6) finally went into peanut noodles. It was nice to have a cold supper on a couple of hot days. Now that we have cucumbers, there’s something good (besides carrots) to put with the parsley in tabbouleh.
With so much food this week, we ought to be preserving some of it, but the only thing that I think would blanch well are the green beans, and they’re so good fresh.
Tags: apple, basil, bean, beet, cabbage, carrot, CSA, cucumber, fava, green beans, greens, napa cabbage, onion, potato, zucchini
