Grand Street CSA

Almost-Perfect Summer Storm: Salsa and Pesto

2008-08-26T22:49:09Z

This week's bounty was an almost-perfect storm of ingredients to create two of CSA member Jeff Schiller's favorite summer foods: pesto and salsa. Here are his recipes:

Basic Salsa
2 cups diced tomatoes
1/2 cup minced onion
1/2 cup chopped green pepper
1 medium hot pepper, chopped (more to taste; remove seeds for milder heat)
1 large clove of garlic, minced
2 tbsp lemon/lime juice or vinegar
chopped cilantro, basil, parsley to taste
salt, to taste

Mix all ingredients in bowl and enjoy right away, or let marinate overnight for a fuller flavor. Shelf life: 2 to 3 days, so enjoy quickly with chips, in burritos/wraps, or with avocado and eggs for huevos rancheros.

Basic Pesto
1 cup pine nuts
2-3 cloves garlic
2 tbsp olive oil
1 cup basil leaves (can also add parsley, arugula, or a small amount of cilantro)
pinch of salt

Combine all in food processor until a creamy texture. Use on pasta, spread on slices of tomato, or drizzle over corn on the cob.

Pickling Workshop

2008-07-27T13:54:51Z

Sandra Dubrov invites you to join her pickling class and tasting on Saturday, August 9 at 7:30pm. Learn basic pickling techniques, taste a variety of pickles and chutneys, and make your own garlic pickles, ginger baby carrots, and dill green beans. Admission $15. Limited to 10 participants. Don't wind up in a pickle, email her at sandra.dubrov at gmail.com to reserve your spot today!

Read more about pickling on Sandra's blog.

Buy a Burrito for Just Food!

2008-07-27T02:29:54Z

This Wednesday, visit Chipotle's newest outpost to grab a burrito, chips & salsa, and a soda for $5. Not only will you be full and happy, you'll be helping the organization that helped us get our start, Just Food.

Chipotle, 320 Park Avenue
Wednesday, June 30, 3 to 9pm

Learn more here.

Beet It

2008-07-27T01:42:03Z

Sorry, we couldn't resist. And you shouldn't resist the bright, savory beets you've been getting in your weekly share. In fact, Sandra Dubrov thinks you should eat one a day. Here's why.

Farmer John's Recipes

2008-07-12T19:46:41Z

CSA member Jeff Schiller has alerted us to a new source of recipes, Farmer John's Cookbook: The Real Dirt on Vegetables. If you enjoy the ease of accessing recipes online, you can find pdfs of the book's 38 recipes online at Farmer John's website, Angelic Organics. Scroll down, they are on the bottom left of the page.

Just Food: The Binder

2008-07-03T00:23:03Z

During distribution you may have noticed a Just Food binder sitting around, chock full of veggie tips and resources. Well, CSA member Russell Tanenbaum has created .pdfs of each section of the binder for easy at-home access. Simply click on a section name below to read the info.

Introduction

Veggie Tip Sheets

Preservation and Preparation

Cooking Demonstration

Nutrition

Resource Directory

Cooking Class! Plus: The NY Times Loves Scapes

2008-06-19T13:16:14Z

CSA member Ella brought to our attention the Institute of Culinary Education's upcoming class on cooking with CSA bounty. A description and registration information (apparently there's still space) are here.

This week's delightfully curly and somewhat mystifying garlic scapes received a lot of ink in the Dining section of yesterday's New York Times. Here's the article itself; there are several recipes including the easy and delicious-sounding white bean and garlic scapes dip. Yum!

Cooking Greens

2008-06-18T22:31:22Z

Jeff serves up some additional variations on cooking greens. That's right, any of our hardy greens: kale, kohlrabi, turnip greens, pac choi . . . Enjoy!

Using any coarsely chopped greens and stems, steam until wilted.

Take steamer from pot and set greens aside.

Add soup bouillon to water, dissolve bouillon fully, and then return greens to the pot.

Stir and serve!

And to jazz this up, consider these options:

1. Before steaming the greens, steam other veggies first. You can try garlic scapes, onions, and later in the season, zucchini. When these have cooked a bit, add the greens as directed above.

2. Add a hard-boiled egg or two.

3. Serve the dish over grain or pasta

4. Season with fresh herbs.

Cooking With Swiss Chard and Cabbage; Salad Dressing; Sauteed Greens

2008-06-16T14:22:43Z

Tasty News: We will start to feature recipes here in the News section, and they will get archived for your searching pleasure. To access an older recipe, simply look for the Recipes header at the bottom left side of this page, just under Recent Entries. Enjoy!

This week, CSA member Jeff Schiller found two great greens recipes to share: Pasta with Swiss Chard and Whole Wheat Penne with Cabbage and Cumin, both at Chubby Bunny. Poke around the site, and you will find even more recipes to tickle your taste buds.

Also, Jeff highly recommends this dressing recipe, a staple for every kitchen with a fridge full of greens:

1 tbsp olive oil
1 clove garlic (crushed into the oil with fork, and he means CRUSHED well)
1 tbsp vinegar (apple cider, balsamic, raspberry)
1 tbsp mustard (brown, deli)
dash of soy sauce (Jeff prefers Nama Shoyu brand)
Optional: herbs such as cilantro, dill, basil, sage
Variations: use lemon juice instead of vinegar; substitute anchovies (mashed into the oil after the garlic) for soy sauce and add parmesan cheese for Ceasar dressing; skip mustard for less "tang"

Finally, here is Jeff's suggestion for cooking all greens, including radish and kohlrabi:

Saute in olive oil with garlic and/or onions over a low heat.
Cook finely chopped stems first, adding coarsely chopped leaves only after stems are soft, and only cook greens until they wilt.
Serve with a grain such as quinoa; toasted pine or walnuts; mushrooms marinated in sesame oil; lemon juice and soy sauce.

The Lowdown on Kohlrabi

2008-06-13T16:22:22Z

This week many members found themselves faced with a curious vegetable they had never seen before, let alone cooked. Sandra to the rescue with the lowdown on kohlrabi plus recipes.

Radishes Are Magical!

2008-06-05T23:36:02Z

Did you know that radishes have as much potassium as bananas? Neither did we. Learn more at Sandra's blog, plus get her fave radish recipes.

Join Our Core Group: Meeting

2008-05-30T11:12:46Z

If you are interested in joining the Grand Street CSA Core Group, please join us for an informal meeting on June 4 at 8pm.

Location:
550J Grand Street
Apartment 11F
Intercom #96

The meeting will last about an hour. If you cannot attend, but are interested in joining the Core, send an email to info at grandstreetcsa.org.

New Setup Time: 4PM

2008-05-30T11:05:54Z

If you are on Setup duty for the week, please note that your volunteer shift starts at 4pm, not 4:30. We will update our CSA calendar to reflect this change as well.

Green Reading

2008-05-25T14:44:35Z

Grand Street CSA member and Integrative Nutrition Counselor Sandra Dubrov has started a blog to share her extensive knowledge of how the foods we eat affect our health, focusing on how to turn the foods we get from our local farmers/green markets into nutritious meals.

This week, Sandra's post is specifically about our vegetables of the week, dark leafy greens, and she includes links to a few tasty recipes:

NYC Greenmarket Diva: What Color Is Your Salad?

Join Our Core Group!

2008-05-19T22:51:28Z

With one of our current CSA Core Group members limiting her role to care for a newborn and a second stepping aside to assume other responsibilities, we are looking for two or three new people to join our Core Group. Core Group members need to be present for many (not all) distributions during the season. They are involved with decision-making, communication with members, and other odds and ends. If you want to channel your passion for local food into sustaining our CSA, please email us at info at grandstreetcsa.org.