Midsummer Farm CSA Weekly Newsletter: Share Pick Up #17 Greetings and Happy Autumn Equinox!!
We will have some the second round of eggplants this week, along with spaghetti squash, honeydew melons, and another round of beets!
Only one more week after this week!
And here are some of our favorite great recipes...
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RECIPE: Eggplant Meatballs
Ingredients:
3 Tbs olive oil
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 eggplant (~12 oz.) peeled and diced
1 to 2 Tbs water
1 1/4 cup fresh bread crumbs
1/2 cup minced fresh Italian parsley leaves
1/2 tsp fine sea salt
1 1/2 tsp dried oregano
2 large eggs slightly beaten
1/2 cup freshly grated Pecorino (Romano) cheese
1/4 cup vegetable oil
Directions:
Heat olive oil in a large nonstick skillet or saucepan and slowly cook the garlic over medium heat until golden. Add the eggplant and 1 T of the water, cover, and steam the eggplant over low heat until very soft, about 10 minutes. Add the remaining water only if the eggplant begins to stick to the skillet. Stir the eggplant occasionally while it cooks. Set the eggplant aside and let it cool.
Combine the bread crumbs, parsley, salt, oregano, eggs and cheese in a large bowl. Stir in the eggplant, mix well, and let it stand for 20 minutes. Scoop small amounts of the mixture into your hands and form meatballs the size of a small egg. There should be enough to make about eighteen. Heat the vegetable oil in a large saut� pan over medium high heat, then fry the meatballs, turning them occasionally so they brown evenly, or bake them in an oiled casserole dish in a preheated oven until browned, 20 to 25 minutes.
NOTE: When forming the meatballs, wet your hands occasionally to prevent the mixture from sticking.
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RECIPE: Saut�ed Eggplant Salad
Ingredients:
2 large eggplants, cubed
2 tbsp salt
1/3 cup olive oil
1 cup tomato pur�e
2 tsp red wine vinegar (or balsamic works too - just skip adding sugar then)
2 tsp sugar
Directions:
Put the eggplant cubes in a large bowl. Fill bowl with enough water to cover the cubes. Stir in salt and let stand for 1 hour. Then, drain the eggplant, squeezing the cubes gently to remove excess water.
Heat the oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat, Add the eggplant and saut� stirring frequently, until golden brown, about 5 minutes. Remove eggplant and let drain on a paper towel covered plate.
In same skillet, reduce heat to medium and add tomato pur�e. Stir in vinegar and sugar. Simmer, stirring frequently, for about 5 minutes then stir in the eggplant. Simmer for 5 more minutes, then remove from heat.
Let the flavors develop at room temperature for at least 2 hours. Stir, and serve at room temperature with crusty bread or over pasta or over salad greens.
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Cabbage - A note: Although it keeps very long, it is best to cook stored cabbage; use only fresh cabbage for eating raw like in cole slaw. Here's a new recipe for a Cilantro-spiked Cabbage Slaw! _________________________________________________________________________________________
RECIPE: Coleslaw with Cilantro
Ingredients:
4-6 cups shredded cabbage
1/4 cup minced cilantro
1/4 cup minced shallot, scallion, chive, or onion
3 tbsp olive oil
3 tbsp white wine vinegar
2 tbsp sugar
1 tsp salt
Directions:
Toss cabbage, cilantro, and onion in a large bowl. Put in fridge for at least an hour or overnight.
When ready to serve, mix the oil, vinegar, sugar, and salt in a small bowl. Then pour the dressing over the cabbage mixture and mix well.
_________________________________________________________________________________________ Spaghetti Squash - the oblong yellow one... You can actually eat this very similar to how you would eat pasta-spaghetti, with tomato sauce! I like it simply tossed with olive oil, salt and pepper, and some fresh herbs. Here's how to prepare: Cut the squash in half lengthwise. Scoop seeds out, and lay on a baking sheet with interior side facing down. Add 1/4 " of water to baking sheet and bake for30 minutes at 35 degrees. Then take out of oven, turn so interior is facing up, and sprinkle with melted butter or olive oil and a dash of salt and pepper. Then cook another 20-30 minutes until tender. _________________________________________________________________________________ RECIPE: Traditional Pumpkin (or any yellow or orange fleshed winter squash) Pie
Except for the yellow spaghetti squash, all the winter squash will make nice 'pumpkin' pies as well.
Here's my favorite recipe: Three steps - these can be done on different days!
1) Make the pie crust
1-1/4 cups flour (plus a bit more for the work surface)
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp sugar
1/2 cup (1 quarter-pound or 1 stick) butter cut into 1/2 cubes - cold
2-4 tbsp water - cold
Mix together flour, salt and sugar in a large bowl. Once thoroughly mixed, add cubes of butter, and with two hands start start quickly crumbling butter into flour. You don't want to grab a fist of it and mush it into a ball. You are trying to basically suspend the butter in small particles through out the flour - working toward a course consistency rather than a ball. Once you've incorporated the butter, add a splash of cold water - just enough to incorporate and form quickly into a dough patty. Patty should be a slightly flattened circle about 1-1/2 inches thick and about 6 inches in diameter. Do not overwork!
Put dough into fridge at least an hour or you can make a bunch and freeze doughs now to use later.
2) Prepare the squash
Like described for preparing the spaghetti squash, I like to bake squash with cut-side down on a baking sheet with a little water. Some people boil pumpkin, which takes less time, but the flavors really build so much better when you bake them. By baking them with the cut side down, you effectively steam them for the first part of the cooking time. Then the flavor really starts coming to fruition once the skin starts to blister and burn a bit.
Here's what I do:
~ Clean off outside of squash or pumpkin. Cut in half, and scoop seeds and stringy flesh flesh our using a strong spoon. You will have to put some muscle into it!
~ Then place the two halves, cut side down in a relatively deep baking sheet. A cookie sheet works, but it has to have at least a 1/2 inch edge to it. Add enough water to go up sides of squash about 1/4 inch.
~bake at 350 degrees - depending on the size of squash this can take 1 hour to 2 or 3 hours. Check it periodically. You want the skin to brown intensely. You want to smell an almost caramelizing scent... then its done! You can do several different sizes of squash at once - just take out the smaller ones first. Watch the water - if it all dissolves, add more.
~Let cool. Then, scoop flesh out of skin. I use some of the caramelized skin pieces - they add a lot of flavor.
~Put the flesh into a food processor and pur�e until smooth.
I usually bake as many squash as I can fit in my oven at once and then scoop out the pulp and freeze it in pie-quantities of 1-1/2 cups of pur�e.
3) Mix the interior and Put the pie together
1 cup packed brown sugar (light)
1 tbsp (non-GMO) corn-starch
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp ground ginger powder
2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground clove powder
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg powder
1-1/2 cups of squash pur�e
3 large eggs
1/3 evaporated milk
Preheat oven to 425 degrees, take dough out of fridge. Line a baking sheet with parchment or tin foil (food won't touch it so tin foil is fine too). Get pie dish out.
In a large bowl, combine sugar, cornstarch, salt, spices, pur�e, and eggs. Beat well until starts to get lighter in color. Then add evaporated milk and combine gently.
Roll out the dough into a circle that overhangs your pie dish with plenty of room for enough crust. I usually roll it out quite thin, then I put the pie dish upside down on the dough and cut a circle about 1 and a 1/2 inches out from the edge of the dish. That gives you room for the sloping sides and for a nice amount of overlap. I like a thin crust on the bottom of my pies but a thick edge crust...
Be wary of how the dough is sticking to the counter as you roll - you may need to add flour to keep it from sticking but not too much.
Lift the dough into the pie dish. Gently prod it into place and curl any extra dough over sides and pinch so it looks cute... If you have extra dough add it to edges. I roll out the extra dough sometimes and use leaf shaped cookie cutters to make little leaves to add around the edges...
Put the pie dish with crust in it onto the covered baking sheet. Put baking sheet into hot oven for 5 minutes. Then take out and pour the pur�e mixture into the pie crust. Bake for 10 minutes.
Then reduce oven temperature to 350 degrees and continue baking for about 30 minutes, check for doneness by gently shaking the pie dish - if the center of the pie seems watery or swishy, continue cooking. It is done when the center stays nice and firm and the entire surface is shiny and sealed or cracked. If the center is still light and matte leave it in.
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Sweet Vegetables - beets, turnips, and squash are all wonderful sweet vegetables and can really help in combatting sugar-cravings! Almost everyone craves sweets. Rather than depending on processed sugar to satisfy cravings, add naturally sweet foods to your daily diet to satisfy your sweet tooth. Sweet vegetables soothe the internal organs of the body and energize the mind. And because many of these vegetables are root vegetables, they are energetically grounding, which helps to balance out the spaciness people often feel after eating other kinds of sweet foods. Adding in sweet vegetables helps to crowd out less healthy foods in the diet.
Examples are corn, carrots, onions, beets, winter squashes, sweet potatoes and yams turnips, parsnips and rutabagas red radishes, daikon, green cabbage, and burdock. These vegetables are sweet when cooked - subtly sweet, but have a similar effect on the body in that they maintain blood sugar levels, reduce sweet cravings and break down animal foods in the body. A simple way to cook these vegetables is to follow the recipe below called "Sweet Sensation". It has few ingredients and preparation time is minimal. "Sweet Sensation" Recipe: * Use one, two, three, four or five of the sweet vegetables mentioned above. * Chop the hardest ones, like carrots and beets, into smaller pieces. * Softer vegetables, like onions and cabbage, can be cut into larger chunks. * Use a medium-sized pot and add enough water to barely cover the vegetables. You may want to check the water level while cooking and add more water if needed. Remember, vegetables on the bottom will get cooked more than the ones on the top. Cook until desired softness. The softer the vegetables get, the sweeter they become. * You may also add any of the following ingredients: spices, salt, seaweed. You can add tofu or a can of beans for extra protein. * When the vegetables are cooked to your satisfaction, empty the ingredients into a large bowl, flavor as desired and eat. The leftover cooking water makes a delicious, sweet sauce and is a healing and soothing tonic to drink by itself. All of the sweet veggies can be cooked in several different ways: * steamed * roasted in the oven with a bit of olive oil, salt and pepper for 30 to 45 minutes (squashes with thick skins can be roasted with the skin on - once roasted, the skins fall off with ease) * thinly chopped and added to a stir-fry * simmered and pur�ed to create a soup * grated and used raw in a salad (try carrots, beets, parsnips, zucchini, summer squash, radishes and cabbage) The winter squashes and root vegetables are known for their influence on the spleen-pancreas and the stomach, and for improving energy and circulation. This family of vegetables is a great source of natural sugars, beta-carotene and carbohydrates. They are a great choice for diabetics and for those with digestive problems.
Enjoy and thanks!
Barbara and Mark
Midsummer Farm
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Midsummer Farm Contact Info:
Barbara and Mark Laino
Midsummer Farm
156 East Ridge Road
Warwick, NY 10990
845-986-9699
info@midsummerfarm.com
Holistic Health Counseling Contact Info:
Barbara Taylor-Laino
Barbara Taylor Health
156 East Ridge Road
Warwick, NY 10990
845-986-9699
info@barbarataylorhealth.com
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