What's in the box, 5/7/14 edition

Today's box (and blurry photo) contains...

...parsnips, carrots, Gilfeather rutabagas, eggs, rhubarb, ramps (hooray!), garlic chives, and kohlrabi greens.  I don't think I've had garlic chives or kohlrabi greens before.

While I had made a dent in the fridge stock a few weeks back, I have fallen quite behind with the parsnips and carrots.  Will have to share with our guests this weekend, both cooked for meals and raw to take home.

Spicy peanut noodles

Food and Wine magazine published a recipe for Joanne Chang's spicy peanut noodles in its November 2009 issue.  The link will be the best way for you to read the recipe, but I wanted to include a photo of my recipe binder here.

I modify Joanne Chang's recipe a bit, skipping the sugar in the peanut sauce and adding whatever veggies I have to the top of the noodles.  This time, I used julienned daikon radish, slices of yellow and orange carrot, and some chopped chives.  If I have cilantro in the fridge, I'll use it, but I don't put the rice vinegar on it.

Here's what I use to make the peanut sauce:

3/4 c peanut butter (smooth)
6 T seasoned rice vinegar
6 T soy sauce
1/4 c water (I use warm water)
1 T toasted sesame oil
2 t red pepper flakes (cut down if you'd like it to be less spicy)
1 garlic clove, minced

You can also add a piece of ginger if you have it.  I like the sauce without ginger as well.

Mix everything in a blender while your pasta is boiling (or before - the sauce can sit for a while, even for a couple of days in the fridge, according to Joanne Chang's recipe).  I tend to use whole grain spaghetti, which comes in packages smaller than a pound, meaning that I have more sauce on my noodles than if one used a full pound of spaghetti as the original recipe calls for.  

Once the pasta is finished, drain it and put it into your serving bowl.  Blend the peanut sauce again quickly, then pour it over the noodles and mix well.  Top with chopped fresh vegetables.

Husband usually cooks a chicken breast to put on top of the noodles; I eat mine vegetarian. Leftovers eaten cold make a great lunch.

Greek yogurt with chives

Adding chopped chives and a bit of freshly ground pepper to non-fat greek yogurt makes a great topping for potatoes, some soups (e.g., carrot soup), and salmon.  I'm sure it could be used for other things as well, maybe even on a bagel, although I've not tried it.

The key is to let the chives sit for an hour (or more) before using the yogurt.  Before then, the flavor won't have had a chance to permeate the yogurt.  It's even better after sitting overnight.

Signs of spring: asparagus

We inherited a small asparagus patch on our land.  For the past few weeks, I've been watching for spears to start poking up.  Today, one was finally tall enough to cut (the one on the right in the photo below).

When we get just a few spears (or one), I eat it raw by slicing it thinly and adding it to a salad.  The raw asparagus tastes a bit like raw peas.

Tonight, I made a salad of just tomatoes and the asparagus spear, with a bit of olive oil and salt.

Red peppers, pecorino romano and scrambled eggs

Many years ago, I read a recipe for scarmbled eggs with roasted red peppers and pecorino romano, made by a mom for her family with many teenage boys, saying that the eggs are good both warm and cold (for the late risers).  I thought it was in the Boston Globe, but I can't find a link to it after multiple searches.

Over the years, I've adapted the recipe a bit (and don't have the original recipe anywhere).  Instead of roasting the peppers, I saute them in olive oil at a low heat until they are soft.  This morning, I used two red peppers.

Once the peppers are soft, add eggs beaten with salt and pepper.  I used 6 eggs for 2 red peppers, but you can adjust to make the number of servings that you need.

Once the eggs are cooked, add some pecorino romano cheese.

Two of us had this for breakfast, served with toast, then the leftovers were eaten cold for lunch the next day, meaning we had three good sized helpings from two red peppers and six eggs.

Spinach with almonds and raisins

This week, there was a bag of spinach in the box.  I cleaned it, taking off the stems, then sauteed it with a bit of olive oil, golden raisins, and some slivered almonds (the ones from Trader Joe's, which conveniently come with no skin on the almonds).

Some of the leaves stuck to the bottom of the pan a bit during cooking, as I had used just a little oil and the spinach had dried before I started cooking it.  A little water would have prevented that from happening, except.... The spinach was better this way.  It didn't have the waterlogged quality that cooked spinach can have. So I think it is better to take a chance on a leaf or two sticking to the bottom - I scraped them off with the tongs while stirring.

At dinner, husband asked me to "pass the salad," meaning the spinach.  I hesitated, then told him it was spinach, as he does not like spinach at all (and can even detect when it's been mixed into other dishes surreptitiously).  He said he'd try it... and he liked it!  Raisins and almonds for the win!

Turnip cakes

I have finally discovered a way to cook purple top turnips so that both of us enjoy them!  At the suggestion of my sister-in-law, I tried the daikon cake recipe, substituting grated turnip for the grated daikon radish.

I let the salted, grated turnip sit in the fridge for a few hours, instead of the minimum half hour suggested in the recipe, as I've found turnips to have a high water content.  I also squeezed out as much water as I could before mixing the grated turnip with the other ingredients.

The result:

They were delicious.  Husband commented that the turnip tasted more radish-like than the daikon radish had.

I'm happy to find a way to cook purple top turnips that we both enjoy, although I'm continuing the search, as we don't want to eat fried foods all that often and we have accumulated many purple top turnips over the past few weeks.