Drying parsley

Over the past few weeks, I received two large bunches of parsley in the boxes. Today, I dried it.

I washed the parsley and put it on a kitchen towel, then removed the leaves from the stems. I let the pans sit out a bit on the counter to let the leaves dry.

I dried it in a 175 degree oven, checking it every 10 minutes. It took about 30 minutes to dry the parsley. It probably would have taken less time if I had let more of the water dry off the parsley before putting it into the oven.

When it was done, I turned off the oven and let it sit in there for an hour, to cool and to finish any last drying.

I then took the pans out of the oven and let them sit for another hour or so.

Then I put the parsley into a jar for storage. (The jar is from maple syrup we had years ago. I like the shape of the jar. For some reason, it's become my parsley container, perhaps because it's easier to find with the tall container.)

I didn't take a photo, but I used a funnel and a metal skewer to get the parsley into the jar.

What's in the box, 11/13/14 edition

Time continues to fly by: next week marks the end of the fall CSA period, and this morning there was a dusting of snow on the ground. Winter is coming.

In this week's box: Brussels sprouts, a huge bunch of kale, kohlrabi, leeks, honeynut squash, rainbow carrots, potatoes, green oak leaf lettuce, and radicchio. No purple top turnips yet!

What's in the box, 11/6/14 edition

In this week's box: bok choy, broccoli rabe, watermelon radishes (one small, one huge), a very large head of escarole, parsley, leeks, rainbow carrots, hakurei turnips, several types of beets, and a butternut squash.

I made David Chang's carrots this past week and might make them again soon. I'd also like to roast some carrots with last week's fennel, which I mentioned in last week's post but didn't actually do this week. I haven't made the slow roasted carrots with cherry sauce and hazelnuts in many months; it might be a good choice for a side to go with a whole chicken the husband is planning to roast over the weekend.

Some of the beets will be eaten raw in salads, with others roasted for eating on their own or to be put into other salads (I haven't made this beet and citrus salad in a while). Hmmm.... A salad with both raw and roasted beets? I might also make the shockingly pink pasta again, since there were lots of beets in the box this week.

Links: Brussels sprouts, cauliflower cakes, butternut squash risotto, and dessert

We had Brussels sprouts in the box this past week, so I spent a little time searching for recipes. Here are some that look good:

• Basic recipe for roasting Brussels sprouts
• Roasted Brussels sprouts with pears and pistachios
• Roasted Brussels sprouts with pecorino and almonds
• Brussels sprouts recipe from David Chang (all things David Chang are good)

Pan-fried cauliflower cakes, a link sent by the husband. Another reason I would like to see more cauliflower in the boxes. Perhaps I should go buy some to try some of the many cauliflower recipes that I've seen recently.

Butternut squash and saffron risotto. I have a large butternut squash and a couple of smaller honeynut squash, so I'll likely make this recipe in the next week or two.

Playing with your food:

• Sculpting animals with grated daikon radish. Not much instruction on the page; they want you to buy their book. However, it's worth looking at the photos.
• Totoro pancakes. Unlikely that I'd make them, as it seems too fussy to have to frost pancakes.
• Totoro cake. I am more likely to try to make this, as it's a single Totoro, not a bunch of little pancake Totoros.

Finally, dessert: Food52's Banana butterscotch pudding. Sounds like a good cold weather dessert.

Roasted oyster mushrooms

I bought some oyster mushrooms at the store last week.

I decided to roast them with some onion. I set the oven for 375, then prepared the mushrooms. I washed them, then cut them into their individual mushroom pieces. (I saved the thick core in a container in the freezer for later use as veggie stock.) I added sliced onions, salt, pepper, thyme, and olive oil, then stirred.

I roasted them for about 30 minutes, stirring every 10 minutes for the first two times, then every 5 after the first 20 minutes. They probably were fine to eat after 20 minutes, but I wanted the onions to cook more.

These roasted mushrooms make an easy side dish. Any type of fresh mushroom should be good roasted, although cooking times are likely to vary.

Salad bar: pomegranate seeds and raw beets

I bought Plenty More by Yotam Ottolenghi as a present for someone. (I think that the recipient can guess who she is. Surprise....) I had to skim it before sending it. (Yup, you're getting a pre-read book.) One of the first recipes is for a tomato and pomegranate salad, which can also be found online.

I changed the recipe in two ways. First, I used chopped raw sweet onion instead of chopped raw red onion, partly because I had a sweet onion but no red onion and partly because I can't look at a raw red onion in a salad now without hearing Scott Conant, a frequent judge on Chopped, whining about raw red onion. (Yes, I do watch too much television.) Second, I put chopped parsley on the salad instead of oregano. The salad was great. It sounded like it'd be odd, but it really worked.

Next up, Oregon salad with a few modifications. I didn't have any red cabbage, so I used a mix of kale and red oak leaf lettuce. I also added pomegranate seeds to the salad. (I had bought a couple of pomegranates. If you don't know about getting seeds out in water, which is easy and will leave your hands unstained, check out this video from Saveur.)

Verdict: The red oak leaf lettuce did not hold up as well as the red cabbage does, but the pomegranate seeds were a nice addition.

I had read in several places that you could use raw beets in salads. I had also read that you could use raw Brussels sprouts. So I made a salad that incorporated both. This salad had romaine lettuce, thinly sliced raw beets, thinly sliced brussel sprouts, julienned raw kohlrabi, and pepitas. I made a warm dressing by sautéing a couple of shallots in olive oil, then adding a heaping tablespoon of dijon mustard and some white wine vinegar.

I'll admit that I was worried that this salad could end up being horrible. But it wasn't. It turned out really well. I'd definitely make this salad again.

What's in the box, 10/30/14 edition

In this week's box: romaine lettuce, Brussels sprouts, daikon radish, dill, leeks, fennel, kohlrabi, potatoes and kale.

I've seen quite a few recipes for Brussels sprouts that have them shaved into thin slices, raw, for salads. As we have lots of Brussels sprouts, maybe I'll try some raw in a salad and sauté the rest.

I will likely stuff the acorn squash, as I really enjoyed it that way. The fennel will likely be roasted with carrots, perhaps apples too. I'll make a quick pickle of the kohlrabi. And I should freeze the dill, as well as some of the bunches of herbs from prior weeks. It should come as no surprise that the kale will be made into pesto.

The daikon might be destined for daikon cakes, although I'll likely wait to make those until we have more daikon radishes in the box. This first one will be good in stir fries, fancy ramen, and Momofuku vinegar pickles.