The Suburban Herbivore

Cabbage starts this week. Somewhere in my giant pile of clipped recipes, I’ve got a couple for cabbage that I want to try. Though I’m not that big of a fan of coleslaw, this recipe (which I linked to last year) is pretty good. Of course, that is for red cabbage, and we received green cabbage this week. I once tried making sauerkraut, but my lackadaisical approach and faulty memory made it somewhat of a disaster. I ended up tossing the entire pan, complete with towel and National Geographics (for weight) into the trash – what a waste!

Half share from June 17, 2009.

This week’s photo may look a little sparce. It is just half of the produce, as I was not able to get a photo of the full share. We actually received two cabbages, one bunch of baby turnips (so double what’s in the photo), two pounds of cucumbers, two heads of lettuce, and three onions (two white, one red). Additionally, what looks like parsley in the photo is actually cutting celery, an herb that I’ve never used before. It smells and tastes like celery. Above the onion is a lemon cucumber. This is one of my CSA’s specialties. It tastes like a normal cucumber, but is round and yellow instead, so it would yield nice big slices for a cucumber sandwich.

White Bean and Root Vegetable Gratin

I know this is going to make it sound like I never cook, but I prepared a very tasty gratin way back on May 17. Yes, this is another catch-up post. (As opposed to a ketchup post.) (Sorry… I think I’m hilarious, but my husband tells me that I’m really not.) Based off a method in Bittman’s How to Cook Everything Vegetarian, the gratin turned out wonderfully, and is a great way to utilize those random root vegetables you may have lying around. It calls for Parmesan cheese on top, but is vegan without that.

Sauteed Greens

I also sauteed the radish, kohlrabi, and turnip greens and swiss chard that I’d been accumulating. This was a wonderful accompaniment to the gratin. The photo makes it look like I’m stir-frying a salad, though.

Ingredients

1/4 cup olive oil
1.5 lbs root vegetables (I used turnips and kohlrabi)
1 onion
2-4 cloves garlic, chopped finely (depending on how much you like)
3 cans white beans
salt and pepper to taste
2 tsp rosemary
1/2 cup grated Parmesan
1/2 cup breadcrumbs

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Peel and chop the root vegetables and onion. Heat most of the olive oil in a skillet over medium heat. Saute the vegetables until they begin getting soft. During this time, you can drain and rinse the beans, but reserve about half a cup of bean liquid. Also prepare a shallow casserole pan by rubbing it with a towel (paper or otherwise) dipped in olive oil.

White Bean and Root Vegetable Gratin, plus sauteed greens and bread.

Add a little salt and pepper, plus the onion and garlic, and cook until the onion is soft. Turn down the heat if necessary to keep the vegetables from browning too much. Once done, remove from heat and add the rosemary and the beans. You can add some or all of the reserved bean liquid at this point if the vegetables are too dry. It should be stew-like. Add more salt and/or pepper if needed.

Pour the mixture into the casserole pan, and sprinkle with breadcrumbs and Parmesan cheese. Drizzle with the remaining olive oil. Bake for at least 40 minutes, and then until the edges and top are browned and the sauce is bubbling.

We received some broccoli this week along with a sizable number of cabbage worms. The weekly newsletter included a tip on deworming the broccoli (shudder): soaking it in salt water until the worms detach and rise to the surface of the water. I grew broccoli one summer a few years ago and had the same infestation. It’s particularly insidious because the worms are the exact same color as the broccoli stem. It was actually enough to put me off trying to grow broccoli again because ewwww.

Full share from June 10, 2009.

Here’s the full list of what we received this week: one pound of green beans, two heads of lettuce, three onions, one bunch of orange carrots, one bunch of beets, one pound of broccoli, and one bunch of radishes. The white onions are a variety called Candy, and the red one is Candy Apple. These are said to be sweeter than the average onion, though I don’t know how they will compare to Videlias. We are a little overwhelmed with beets!

Durham and Carrboro are neck and neck in the Farmers Market contest sponsored by LocalHarvest and Care2. The contest goes until September 17, so you’ve got a while to cast your vote. The winner gets $5,000, and there are prizes for the rest of the top five vote-getters as well. I’ve been keeping an eye on this contest since it opened, and Durham has been #1 off and on the entire time, but always in the top five. Check it out, and please consider voting for your favorite farmers market.

Hooray for a new restaurant at American Tobacco! I was fortunate enough to get invited to the Tuesday night opening party at Cuban Revolution, and though they just had a what I would describe as a sneak peek of their food, I was definitely intrigued. Much of the food was standard finger food – cheese, fruit, and veggies – but there were two vegetarian items that were clearly from the menu: a tomato and cheese sandwich, and a little bitty wrap with maduros (fried plantains), rice, tomatoes, and cheese. Based on this, I was hoping that the full menu would be vegetarian-friendly. After going there today for lunch, I can tell you that it surely is.

Maduros Vegan-Sushi Rolls - not actually vegan. Or sushi. But still very tasty.

The most interesting food on the menu comes in the form of tapas. There is fried cassava with garlic dip, roasted red peppers with feta and olive oil, pepperdews stuffed with goat cheese, two types of empanadas (spinach/cheese and portabello/cheese), black beans and rice, and sweet potato fries. One particularly delicious-sounding offering is fried green beans with remoulade dip.

Additionally, there are several sandwiches made with Cuban bread available: tomato and cheese, and hot peppers and cheese. (These come with the usual condiments and add-ons.) The maduros wrap is what I had for lunch today, and was a more expanded version of what I tasted last night. The plantains were yummy, though I wished there had been some kind of sauce for the wrap. They also serve a Gardenburger.

I must report that there are some inconsistencies printed on the menu surrounding vegetarian and vegan items. The most glaring is that the maduros vegan sushi wrap mentioned earlier is not, in fact, vegan since it contains cheese. At least the fact that it contains cheese is clearly printed on the menu. The Gardenburger is listed as being vegan as well. Since there are multiple varieties of Gardenburger, it may well be that the one they serve is vegan. If this is a concern of yours, though, I would suggest verifying it before ordering. The chicken quesadilla being marked as vegetarian is just laughable. I spoke with one of the owners about this issues (as well as the others), and he said that on previous menu versions, it was simply a quesadilla and it was accidentally left as vegetarian when the name (and ingredients) changed. It is, of course available without chicken. He also confirmed that the Caesar salad, marked as vegetarian, does NOT contain anchovies in its dressing.

All in all, Cuban Revolution is a welcome addition to American Tobacco and to Durham, and I look forward to going back there again soon!

I feel compelled to periodically remind the readers that my husband and I are splitting this share with another couple. What you see in the photo is the full share, and we are just keeping half of that. I like to include everything in the photo to illustrate the wide variety and quality of produce that we are getting from our CSA.

Full share for June 3, 2009.

Here is this week’s produce: one pint of strawberries, two yellow squash, one zucchini, one bunch of leeks, one bunch of orange carrots, one bunch of beets, one bunch of kale, three cucumbers, and some basil. Happily, we have more strawberries, though this will definitely be the last week. I have some cucumbers of my own growing in a tiny little garden that I carved out this spring (more about that later), so I suspect there will be pickles in our near future.

This is week 4, a particularly colorful week! With the appearance of yellow squash, the summer vegetables begin. I refuse to make squash casserole right away. I’m going to use the squash in something else. I’m guessing that this is the last of the strawberries. I definitely need to start thinking about these beets, though they will keep for a while. It has been interesting, if challenging, getting different varieties of beets.

Full share from May 27, 2009

Here’s what we got: one head of lettuce, one large cauliflower, two zucchini, three yellow squash, one bunch of scallions, two pints of strawberries, one large bunch of Forona beets, one bunch of parsley, and one bunch of yellow, orange, and purple carrots. The parsley is a variety called Giant of Italy, and surely, the leaves are huge (for parsley, anyway).

The strawberries are still coming in strong, and they are getting sweeter. (If there is a lot of rain while they are ripening, the berries will taste a little watery and not as sweet.) So far, the produce has been wonderful. I’ve really been enjoying all the lettuce – we’ve been having salad almost every night. Salad before the meal, that is. I’m rarely able to eat only a salad – it’s just not substantial enough for me.

Full share from May 20, 2009

This week: two pints of strawberries, two heads of lettuce, one bunch of scallions, one bunch of purple, yellow, and orange carrots, one bunch of Chiogga beets, one bunch of purple radishes, and two baby boc chois. In the photos, the radishes are on the left and the beets are on the right.

More greens this week, and some left over from last week. I’ve got to get a jump on that, because the beets will start soon, and then I’ll be completely overrun with greens. Fortunately, they cook down quite a lot, so you can have a giant mess of greens that reduces to a relatively small mess of greens.

Full share from May 13, 2009

This week’s haul: two pints of strawberries, two heads of lettuce, one bunch of scallions, one bunch of baby turnips, one bunch of dill, one bunch of Swiss chard, and the magical, once-a-year kohlrabi. Last year’s kohlrabi, I believe, went into a dish of roasted root vegetables. Let’s see what I can come up with for this year’s…

I’ve got some catching up to do. Not only am I way behind on updating for this year’s shares, I would still like to at least include the lists and photos from the rest of last year.

For 2009, we are with the same CSA as last year: Elysian Fields Farm. And again, we are splitting a full share with friends. I like to include the entire share in the photo to fully illustrate what we receive. But I am only responsible for cooking half of it!

Full share from May 6, 2009

The year was off to a great start with three pints of strawberries! We have to eat the strawberries right away as they spoil pretty rapidly. But generally, this is not a problem. We also got one bunch of red Russian kale, two heads of Boston lettuce, one bunch of French breakfast radishes (I don’t know what makes them “breakfast”, but they are long, pointy, and will be eaten at supper), one bunch of baby turnips, two baby boc chois, and one bunch of scallions.