Tuesday, June 30, 2009

Scallops with Greens


Tonight for dinner I made this. The picture demonstrates that I'm not a great photographer.

The original recipe was from Martha Stewart Living "What's for dinner?", March 2009. It contained spinach, arrugula, garlic and served 4 (with pasta, soup and dessert). I adapted to use ingredients from the CSA, and to serve 2 adults. On the side: sourdough toast (ok ok, bruschetta) with Barnacle Bill's (aka dear husband) artichoke and sun dried tomato pesto. And of course our homemade sparkling water. It was fast (30 minutes for everything) and delicious.

10 sea scallops, rinsed and patted dry
kosher salt
freshly ground pepper
1 1/2 T canola oil
1 garlic scape, finely chopped
1 bunch of dandelion greens, roughly chopped
1 bunch of red chard, roughly chopped
2 pinches of crushed red pepper

Heat large straight sided skillet over medium high heat. Sprinkle scallops with salt and pepper. Add 1 T oil then add scallops. Cook on one side until golden brown (about 7 minutes) then flip and cook until opaque (about 1 minute). Transfer to plate lined with paper towels.

Reduce heat to medium, and add 1/2 T oil to pan. Add scape, greens, pinch of salt and crushed red pepper. Cook until wilted. Divide greens between plates and top with scallops.


We both work full time. Ease of clean up after dinner is a consideration. Part of assessing each cooking adventure will be an assessment of cleanup.
DISHWASHING REPORT

cutting board
chef knife
tongs
skillet
bowl
food processor (for pesto)
3 plates (1 for serving toast)
2 glasses
2 forks
1 butter knife (for pesto)
1 spoon (for serving pesto)

Veggies left as of this evening
! = RotClock Alert
!russian kale!
scallions
scapes
broccoli
!bok choy!
romaine
white turnips
handful of snap peas

Monday, June 29, 2009

June 16 Share

June 16 was the first delivery of the season.
It contained the following treasures: kohlrabi, bok choy, garlic scapes, radishes, scallions, russian kale, swiss chard, romaine, and two beautiful rosy quarts of strawberries
Swiss chard:
  1. Frittata with garlic scapes, scallions and cheddar
  2. Sauteed with garlic scapes and scallions then tossed with tortellini, lemon and romano
Romaine: 3 nights worth of salad with radishes, green onions and chick peas and/or roasted chicken
Strawberries: sliced and tossed with a little sugar and a pinch of salt. Add yogurt for breakfast
At the end of the week, Bok choy, kohlrabi, scallions, scapes, and Russian Kale remained.
Week 2
Contained: basil plant, broccoli, daikon, dandelion greens, garlic scapes, snow peas, radishes, red chard, romaine, scallions, strawberries
Strawberries:
  1. Gave 1 quart to GB
  2. Sliced and sugared for yogurt and Strawberry shortcake
Daikon
  1. Made furikake
  2. Made Japanese pickled daikon for sushi
Snowpeas were cooked with bok choy and rice for a quick lunch
Bok Choy
  1. with snowpeas for lunch (see above)
  2. with rice, tofu, snowpeas and scapes

Saturday, June 27, 2009

A summer of recipes or how i used everything

My goal this season is to use every bit of goodness from my CSA share. CSA = Community Supported Agriculture. Basically, in the spring, one buys a share in a local farm, and collects dividends in the form of produce. Here in New York State it's approximately $600 for 22 weeks of veggies and 20 weeks of fruit. If the farmer has a good year, you eat well. If not, you don't eat so well, but the payback is that the farm survives the season.

Every year it is an adventure. Like a box of chocolates, "you nevah know what cha gonna get" each week. In a 2 person household, it is a challenge to use everything before rot sets in.