The Farmshare Project: Week 9 [RecipeS]

Would you like to know what I did NOT remember to do last week when I picked up the share as a small thank you to my neighbors who picked it up and dispatched with it while we were galavanting on the White River in Arkansas the previous week?

Take the photo of the farmshare stuffs.

Lose track of what I was talking about? Yeah, it happens.

Basically, I just realized I forgot to take the photo of the basket with all the shit in it. I'm sure you'll forgive me. If not, you better find another farmshare blogger to follow because I imagine this isn't the last time I'll be so honed in on getting through my evening's chores so that I can have my G&T that I forget to do frivolous shit like arrange my farmshare produce in a basket and take a picture of it.

Meanwhile, want to know what ELSE I didn't take a picture of? Any of the recipes that I'm prepared to share with you this week. Which I'm now going to tout as my way of persuading you to stick with me and the idea of farmsharingness even though I've apparently become a lackadaisical photo taker.

You have imaginations right?

You can imagine what it might look like if you had a white bowl and filled it with pink ice cream looking stuff, except the ice cream is more a dark pink with little red specks because it's actually strawberry sorbet made almost entirely of fresh organic strawberries? Right?

I knew you could do it. Nice work, folks. Really working out those brains.

So, now that I know you can bend your imagination into the shape of strawberry sorbet, I can trust you with the rest of this week's Farmshare Project.

[Now bend your mind into the shape of a basket of sexy vegetables]

Last week's box had:
Arugula
Broccoli
Carrots
Chard
Fava beans
Green garlic
Kale
Lettuce or Napa Cabbage
Young onions
Rapini
Spinach
Summer squash
Strawberries

And their fate was:
We ate them
Green garlic: Hot Grilled Salad (recipe below), Chopped Tuna Salad (recipe below), fish tacos
Kale: White Bean Pasta with Kale
Lettuce: Hot Grilled Salad (recipe below), fish tacos
Young onions: Hot Grilled Salad (recipe below)
Summer Squash: Hot Grilled Salad (recipe below)
Strawberries: Strawberry sorbet

We stored them
Arugula
Broccoli
Fava beans 
Carrots
Rapini
Spinach

We gave it to the neighbors
Chard

We're planning to be OK with it going into the composter if it's gooey when we finally get to it
Arugula
Lettuce or Napa Cabbage
Rapini
Spinach

We're eating it TONIGHT DAMN IT
Broccoli

We stored it so we can have a juicing party of 1
Carrots

So, as you can see, this last week's share sort of got neglected.  Which I can tell because when I open the fridge, there's not the usual Thursday Void happening in the crisper area where all I see is the paper towel lining on the bottom of the drawers.

I'm not sure why I do that - the paper towel thing. Does anyone else do this? I guess it helps pick up the dirt that gets knocked off the vegs from the garden, but I'm not sure. I'm a mystery to even myself.

Anyway.

This week the fridge looks pretty green and colorful in the crisper area and that freaks me out. Because, for the next two weeks, the share is all ours since our neighbors are going out of town and we're going to have to somehow consume a full family share-sized box of produce ourselves. Which is going to mean that some of my other neighbors who ARE in town are about to get door-ditched some really good strawberries and a lot of salad greens.

Have I told you lately that my own garden's lettuce is exploding because it is. And I don't need other salad greens distracting me from the gorgeous Lollo Rosso out there. Or the head of it that's hanging out in my crisper yet still.

Y'all, I'm haunted by greens.

For those recipes though. I promise they're good even though I don't have photographic proof of their goodlookingness.

Strawberry Sorbet
Recipe by moi because I reject the one from the Cuisinart cookbook that came with my ice cream maker which called for corn syrup BARF.
Makes 1 1/2 quarts

Ingredients
1 quart of fresh strawberries, hulled
2 C sugar
2 C water
1 T lemon juice

To make
MAKE SURE YOUR ICE CREAM MAKER'S BOWL IS FROZEN SOLID. Just saying.

In your food processor, armed with the metal blade, add the strawberries and blend until they're nearly pureed, or to the point where they're the consistency you'd like to see in your own sorbet. I'm flexible like that. You can do it how you like it.

Then pour in the lemon juice and mix it briefly. Set aside.

In a small sauce pot, mix sugar and water together and bring to a boil. Continue to stir until the sugar dissolves, remove it from the heat (and turn the burner off! Geez. Why do I always forget this part and then set my sleeve on fire?) and let it cool completely.

When everything's cool, mix it together and let it sit and, like, mature or something, for about an hour.  Then set up your ice cream maker with the freezer bowl (WHICH SHOULD BE FROZEN FUCKING SOLID. GOT IT?), the stirring blade and lid and turn it on. When it's spinning, pour in your strawberry mixture through the hole on top.

Let it ride for about half an hour. It will be pretty soft, but totally edible and passable as sorbet. After a night in the freezer it will be the most perfect incarnation of strawberry sorbet a person could hope to enjoy. Really, now.


Chopped Tuna Salad
Recipe adapted from Farmgirl Susan's recipe for Healthy Swiss Chard Tuna Salad with with Scallions and Kalamata Olives
Serves 3


Ingredients
1  6 oz can of solid white albacore tuna packed in water, drained
1 15 oz can of garbanzo beans, rinsed well and drained
1/4 C of that good olive oil mayo that doesn't taste like a rear end, or whatever YOU like
1 t dijon mustard
2 t champagne vinegar
1/4 C chopped marinated kalamata olives
2 t brine from marinated kalamata olives
3/4 C chopped bok choi stems
3/4 C chopped bok choi leaves
3 T chopped green garlic
1/4 C chopped fresh parsley
1/2 C chopped scallions
1/2 C chopped red onion
Salt & Pepper to your liking

Whisk the mayo, dijon, vinegar and brine in a medium bowl. The add in everything else except the salt and pepper which you always add last so that you can season and taste and season and taste so that it doesn't get too salty or ACHOO peppery. 

Toast some wheat bread and serve the salad on top of it even though you're not making a sandwich.



Hot Grilled Salad
Recipe by moi. But don't get too excited because it's not much of a recipe. 
Serves 2

Ingredients 
1 Leek, sliced lengthwise
1 Onion, sliced
1 Summer squash, chunked
2 T chopped parsley 
4 T olive oil, divided
Juice from 2 lemons
2 cups of salad greens
Handful of feta or goat cheese
Salt & Pepper to your liking


In a saute pan, heat 1 T olive oil over medium high heat until it smells real nice, then add the vegetables and a bit of salt and toss to coat. Let them brown for a few minutes, stirring and tossing if you're so inclined. You want them soft and slightly browned.


Whisk together the rest of the oil, the lemon juice, parsley and some salt and pepper.


Now pour your vegetables over your salad greens, the dressing over the greens + vegetables and then the cheese over that. Add more pepper if you're a psycho like I am.


Go to town. Salad-wise.