More pesto: kale, pistachio, and lemon zest

Yes, I'm still on the pesto kick (e.g., pea tendril pesto, kale and walnut pesto, dried tomato pesto, and broccoli leaf, green garlic and pistachio pesto). 

This time, I decided to try a different twist on kale pesto, adding 1/3 c. pistachios and some lemon zest (a little over 1/2 lemon's worth) to a large bunch of kale that had been blanched for two minutes.

To the kale, lemon zest and pistachios, I added some olive oil, salt, a bit of the kale blanching water, and then some pasta water when it turned out that I hadn't saved enough kale blanching water.

Note that I didn't add any cheese to this pesto. If you've read more than a couple of my posts, you know that I like cheese and tend to put it in everything I make. However, I wanted to try a lighter pesto this time. It came out well, even without cheese. The lemon zest added a nice brightness to the kale.

Forget kale chips. Make kale pesto.

An owl ode to Elizabeth

When we ate at Elizabeth Restaurant in Chicago, described in this post, we were served a mushroom tea in the cutest owl mug.

Once home, I found these mugs online, available on Amazon. (How did we buy things before Amazon?) I ordered the tea set version, with a tea pot and two tea cups.

For its first use, I made a strong mushroom broth, served in the tea pot and poured into the cups: an ode to Elizabeth.

Mushroom broth is easy. Save your mushroom trimmings in the freezer until you have a large container. When ready to make the broth, put the mushroom trimmings in a small pot and cover with water. Add a bit of salt as well, bring to a boil, then simmer for 30 minutes to an hour. I usually let the broth cool before straining it, particularly since I usually make it in advance.

If you don't want to drink it straight, mushroom broth is great to use for many things, including risotto.

Roasted strawberries

I had seen this post on roasting strawberries and needed to try it. I actually tried the recipe multiple times, as evidenced by the photos below in different roasting pans. The round pie plate held one quart of strawberries; the rectangle, two.

Wash and hull the strawberries. (Don't forget that you can put your strawberry tops in a Mason jar and then fill it with water to make strawberry flavored water, giving you a spa experience at home. It's good after an hour, better after a bit longer. The hulls start to look odd after sitting overnight.)

Cut the strawberries in half if they are large. Most of mine were pretty small, as they were local berries. Add 1/4 cup of sugar per quart and stir.

Bake at 375 for an hour, gently stirring after a half hour. (Yes, it does seem like far too long to cook them, but it does work.)

 Serve over ice cream. Or mix with yogurt. Or find other good things to do with them.

But definitely roast some strawberries soon.

What's in the box, 7/17/14 edition

In today's box: beets, fennel, red potatoes, two heads of lettuce, kale, radishes, two bulbs of garlic, and a huge bunch of basil. I've earmarked the potatoes for a potato salad this weekend for a cookout. I need to do something with the basil, as I have last week's bunch still in a vase as well, meaning that I have two huge bunches of basil. There is a pesto potato salad recipe that I've made before, but I'm in the mood for potato salad with eggs and mayo. Perhaps I'll make a big bunch of pesto to freeze for the winter.

I also stopped at Verrill Farm, where I bought four ears of corn (the first of the season), a yellow zucchini, and a cousa squash. Also in the photo below are some day lily buds. This week's farm newsletter said that they can be grilled, so we decided to try a few.

Here are the prepped veggies. This week, in addition to trying the day lily buds, I decided to try grilling fennel and some radishes.

 Mid-grill:

The corn, off the grill.  It was on for about 10 minutes.

Ready for the table. The corn was really easy to peel after grilling, and the silk came off incredibly easily. I had always opened the corn to pull out the silk before grilling, but a friend had told me to skip that step and just put the corn on. Excellent tip.

The grilled day lily buds were okay. It's not something that I'll seek out on a regular basis. I liked the grilled radish, but the husband did not. I am unlikely to grill fennel again, as it still tasted strongly of licorice, which doesn't happen when I roast it.

Links: Pickles, peach pits, roasting cauliflower, and waiting for zucchini

Zucchini antipasto and orecchiette with zucchini, tomatoes, and ricotta: Waiting for zucchini....  And soon, I likely will have too much zucchini.  It's a very fine line.

Refrigerator pickle recipe from Smitten Kitchen that claims to be the easiest ever.  I have been making refrigerator pickles by heating equal parts of seasoned rice vinegar and sugar in a small saucepan over low to medium heat until the sugar melts (1/2 cup of each works well with about 3-4 large cucumbers or 6-8 pickling cukes).  While that cools, layer sliced cucumbers in the container you'll be using for pickling (often a large Tupperware bowl, because we go through them quickly) with salt, pepper, and fresh dill (or dried dill, or other spices, if you'd like to try something different).  Cover with the vinegar and sugar mixture, then refrigerate overnight.  As mentioned in the Smitten Kitchen recipe, you'll find that the cukes throw off a lot of water, so don't worry if all of them aren't covered to start.  I've found that you can use the pickling liquid a second time, adding more sliced cucumbers, but don't try for a third, as the pickles get too weak.

Also in the pickling vein, lots of canning recipes from Martha Stewart.

I read recently about a chef at the French Laundry needing to open bowls of peach pits, which I had not heard of before.  This post from Food52 describes what the centers of stone fruits can be used for.

A recipe for roasted cauliflower with tahini sauce.  No cauliflower in the boxes yet, but I'm looking forward to roasting or grilling some.  (Tamar: I think you said that you tried something similar months ago.  Can you post a link to your recipe in the comments?)

Grilling

I have been a vegetarian for a very long time. While I've grilled vegetables in the past, I never really embraced the grill. We even used to have a DMZ (de-meat-erized zone) on our grill, demarcated by a line of aluminum foil wrapped around one of the grate's bars (what does one call the metal pieces that make up the grill top?). But the DMZ meant that my veggies were on the very edge of the grill, where they'd eventually cook, but not get charred.

I was missing out.

This year, I've started to grill using the whole grate.  Two weeks ago, we grilled garlic scapes, yellow zucchini, cousa squash, radicchio, baby carrots, beets, parsnips (the last ones from the fridge!), and a vidalia onion.

 This week, we grilled cabbage, fava beans, and scallions.

Start by prepping the veggies. Wash, trim, chop as needed... and then douse them in olive oil and top with generous sprinklings of salt and pepper.

I cut the cabbage, an arrowhead variety, into quarters.  It was long and seemingly thin (at least at the top).  In retrospect, it would have been better to try eighths (or maybe sixths) as the thicker part near the bottom didn't cook all the way through.

Here are the veggies from two weeks ago ready to go. I cut the larger beets in half, but left the others whole.

After grilling. Notice the char on the cabbage.  I used to be afraid of char, but no more. It's a very good thing.  I left the cabbage on for about 12 minutes. The end leaves and the tips were cooked well, but the leaves near the core were much less cooked.

 The garlic scapes grilled quickly.

Ready for the table. Both times, I served the grilled veggies with a dilled Greek yogurt (non-fat Greek yogurt, lots of fresh dill, salt and pepper - be sure to let it sit in the fridge for at least an hour, if not overnight).

I plan to do lots of grilling this summer. I was already enjoying the grilled veggies, but I'm a true convert after trying grilled cabbage.

Leftovers can be made into salad, chopped into small pieces. I know I mentioned this in an earlier post, but I didn't have photos. Here are a couple, one pre-toss and one post.

We weren't able to finish all of the fava beans. I made a small salad with those leftovers as well. After dinner, I popped the leftover beans into a container, then added the juice from a half of a lemon, some olive oil, and a leftover grilled scallion, chopped finely. I put it in the fridge to marinate overnight. Husband reports it was good.

What's in the box, 7/10/14 edition

Today I met a blog reader during some robot testing (not at the farm). Hi Hillary - thanks for reading!

Here's what was in today's box:

Scallions, fennel, two green kohlrabi, lots and lots of baby carrots, a large bunch of chard (are Swiss chard and rainbow chard two names for the same thing?), a small head of red lettuce, a large head of green lettuce, a bunch of basil still with roots, and fava beans. This box was the first time I have received fava beans, as I was traveling last year when the fava beans were in the box (my sister-in-law got it that week).

I promptly put the basil into a tall glass on the counter to keep it fresh. It smells really great.

Tonight, we grilled the fava beans and some of the scallions. A grilling post will come soon. Over the past few weeks, I've been learning that most vegetables come out excellent when grilled with olive oil, salt and pepper.