Fellow CSA members, your patience has paid off! This week brings the best share we have had yet with the first appearances of fingerling potatoes, carrots and peppers. You might already have some standby recipes for your favorites in this week’s box, but if you do need a new idea, Shana is here to help:
Nightshade time! This may be my favorite CSA time of the year. We are still getting greens, but not in such huge quantities and the nightshade family (my favorite) is making its debut. Eggplant, peppers and tomatoes (soon to come) abound and the cooking possibilities explode!
I used to watch Jess make a quick dish of sautéed onions, peppers and sausage for her family and that has now become a regular in my household. I use Wrong Direction’s Sweet Italian sausage, which is incredible, de-case it, brown it and add onions, peppers and this week I even added some of the bitter dandelion greens – yum!
I have to admit that I don’t love cauliflower so I am always looking for dishes that help mask the flavor a bit. While searching for recipes last week, I came across one from Jamie Oliver that sounded interesting: Sicilian Cauliflower & Chickpea Stew. The “stew” is a pretty straightforward mixture of sauteed onion and cauliflower, stewed tomatoes and chickpeas, all served over couscous. He also adds plenty of chili, garlic, some cinnamon, olives and raisins which I found to be an interesting combo. Although it isn’t written that way, the recipe can easily be cooked in one pot (plus the bowl to soak the couscous) and should only take about 30 minutes to complete. I’ll be giving it a try, subbing raisins for dried cranberries that I had in the pantry already, fingers crossed!
Caldwell CSA 