Monday, June 21, 2010

The Farmshare Project: Week 11 [Recipe]

Rest your weary imaginations, friends, this week I have photos.

I mean, not photos of every single thing I made with the farmshare, but you know, some old favorites that you've been in charge of imagining for a few weeks now. I didn't want to risk burning out your brains, so I decided to suck it up and crack out the camera for a moment.

I'm the nicest. It's OK, you can say it. I won't get a big head.

So THAT is what a carrot looks like! All this time I imagined them round.

Last week's box had:
Bunch of Chard
Bag of Fava Beans
Bag of topped Red Beets
Bunch of Broccoli
Bunch of Onions
Baskets of Strawberries
Lettuce
Bunch of Carrots
Bunch of Fennel
Bag of Oyster Mushrooms
Mystery Item which turned out to be cabbage and squash

And their fate was:
We ate them
Bunch of Broccoli: Broccoli noodle salad
Bunch of Onions: Chopped on hot dogs (oh yes, we're WT), grilled with fish
Strawberries: Strawberry rhubarb crisp
Lettuce: Salads of many varieties
Bunch of Carrots: Broccoli noodle salad
Bag of Oyster Mushrooms: In pasta primavera
Cabbage: Asian coleslaw
Squash: Fresh spring rolls

We abandoned them appropriately:
Bunch of Chard

We stored them:
Bag of Fava Beans
Bag of topped Red Beets
Bunch of Fennel

And because it's summer now and YAY my awesome neighbors returned from their Midwest pilgrimage with their mom's homegrown rhubarb (For me? I couldn't! I mean, GIVE IT.) I made strawberry rhubarb crisp which is the best fruit-based dessert in the whole world and do not try to tell me differently.

I get very emotional about this, my favorite dessert of the year.

And, let it be known that my recipe is sort of a patchwork quilt from multiple Joy of Cooking recipes and my own pea brain. Just so you know that this recipe is not all my doing, but the way I put it together, it's *sort* of mine. In the sense that I lay claim to the whole thing when it's done baking and only let Bubba look at it out of the corner of his eye.

MINE.

Just kidding, I share. A little. But, in this rare instance, when he offers me the last bite from the dish (because you know only the first scoops are served on an actual plate and the rest are eaten from the Pyrex), I totally take it.

It's MINE.

With other desserts, I usually let him have it out with the remains in the pie dish and don't intrude because I like my limbs attached and don't want to risk a fork wound to the face just for the last bite of whatever cake/pie/cobbler is in his meaty hands.

Strawberry Rhubarb Crisp
Recipe adapted from Joy's strawberry rhubarb pie filling recipe and apple crisp topping

Ingredients
Crisp
8 T cold butter, cut into small cubes
3/4 c all-purpose flour
2 T sugar
1 t salt


Filling
1 1/4 lbs rhubarb, chopped into 1" pieces
1 pint strawberries, topped, halved
1 c sugar
1/4 c flour


To make
Preheat the oven to 375

In a large bowl or 6 cup Pyrex if you want to be just like me, mix the filling ingredients together and then leave it out on the counter to macerate while you make the crisp.

And I don't call it a crisp topping because I hate the word topping when it comes to food. Sounds gross for some reason. Like the reason that I associate "topping" with Cool Whip and Cool Whip is gross. So, I just call it, "crisp", and I'm sorry if that confuses you but I'm sure you'll learn to deal.

Anyway. To make the CRISP - in a medium mixing bowl or the ample bowl of your 14 cup food processor, blend together everything for the CRISP except the butter and then cut in the butter until the mixture has the consistency of delicious gravel. Or peas. Or whatever the commonly accepted term is for how crisp topping (BARF) or pie crust should look before you throw it on top of your fruit filling and bake it.

Like this

Then pour your filling into a square glass dish, pour the CRISP over the top evenly and then tap it on the counter to make sure it all gets in there and such.

Then bake it for 45-50 minutes until the CRISP is golden and the filling is all abubblin' around the sides.

I considered taking a video of the bubbling but then I felt retarded so I stopped.

Once it's cooled below Nuclear Volcanic Death, scoop yourself out a slice and prepare your strategy for how you'll eat the rest of it before you YAY make another one because YAY AGAIN your neighbors brought enough homegrown rhubarb for two crisps and don't you know there will be more strawberries in next week's share.

And then the week after that and the week after that until...oh...OCTOBER.

Too bad rhubarb season is so short.

Enjoy. And feel free to fight for the last bite with a fork.

Fork Force!

Scary.

5 comments:

  1. I just made a couple of batches of strawberry-rhubarb jam with some rhubarb that had been in our refrigerator for at least 3 weeks. And it was almost all still just fine. Rhubarb is a wonderful thing.

    Too bad I don't have any rhubarb left. We have about 10 pounds of strawberries in the refrigerator right now, and I would like to eat this dessert. Oh well.

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  2. I did the trial CSA thing. I didn't renew it though. I just felt like we didn't eat enough of the stuff that came in it.

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  3. If you can spare some rhubarb for something other than crisp? I HIGHLY recommend this if you're into waffles:

    http://www.eatingwell.com/recipes/rhubarb_waffles_with_rhubarb_sauce.html

    Make 'em. Top 'em with strawberries. ENJOY.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Yep, I'll try it even though it mixes the fruit. I trust you Finny.

    WOW to your farm share. Amazing plethora of goodness.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Did you know rhubarb freezes? My mom chops it up and puts it in a freezer bag for baking with later. So, if you get some more, you can ration it out! Or, come to Minnesota, where people are desperate to give it away because there is just so much!

    ReplyDelete

[2013 update: You can't comment as an anonymous person anymore. Too many douchebags were leaving bullshit SPAM comments and my inbox was getting flooded, but if you're here to comment in a real way like a real person, go to it.]

Look at you commenting, that's fun.

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Sucks, right?

Anyway, to remedy this, I usually come back to my posts and post replies in the comment field with you.

But, if you ever want to email me directly to talk about pumpkins or shoes or what it's like to spend a good part of your day Swiffering - shoot me an email to finnyknitsATgmailDOTcom.

Cheers.