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Dear Common Thread CSA Members,
The tomatoes are still not pouring in, but we now have enough for all CSA members to get a little taste. My favorite summer sandwich is the tomato sandwich, sometimes with cheese and/or cucumber. Lately, I've been adding roasted vegetables to my tomato sandwiches - eggplant, peppers, or onions. Yum. One of Asher's favorite, easy quick tomato dishes is tomato slices tossed with olive oil, balsamic vinegar, salt, and some thinly sliced onions (fresh basil and a few slices of cucumber are great too). When there's enough tomatoes, it's nice to make our own salsas and tomato sauces. Hopefully the field tomatoes will ripen one of these days and we can hand out a more plentiful amount.
The green peppers are producing pretty well now. The banana peppers and cubanelles are known as frying peppers. Asher sauteed banana peppers with onions the other day and I've been putting a bit of it on top of just about everything I've been eating lately.
We have some beautiful collards that we just started putting in the share room on Tuesday. The are a very nutritious, tasty green similar to kale that is a staple in Southeastern US cooking. They are great sauteed with olive oil and garlic and can be substituted for kale in a variety of dishes. Asher thinks the key to enjoying collards is to slice the leaves into very thin strips (almost shredded) before cooking.
Here are a couple of beet salad recipes:
Roasted Beet Salad with Beet Greens and Feta
from Bon Appetit
7 medium beets with greens (about 3 inches diameter)
1 cup water
6 Tbsp good olive oil
2 ½ Tbsp red wine vinegar
1 Tbsp minced garlic
2 Tbsp chopped, drained capers
¾ cup Feta cheese crumbles
Cut off tops and stems from beets. Save greens. Arrange beets in a 13 x 9" pan, add water, cover and roast until tender, about 1 hour and 10 minutes for this size. (Beets are great cooked this way no matter how you use them!) Cool beets until you can handle them to slip off the peels. Slice beets thinly. Cut stems off of greens and wash well. Wilt them in a large pot with the water they have on them from washing. Cool, squeeze out water. Combine olive oil, vinegar, garlic and capers. Toss greens with enough dressing to coat, and salt and pepper to taste. Place greens on platter or in a bowl and put beets in the center. Sprinkle with feta cheese, and drizzle dressing over the beets. (Go easy on dressing the first time until you know how much you like.)
Beet and Fennel Salad
Adapted from Mark Bittman's How to Cook Everything
4 medium beets (a little more than 1 pound)
1 fennel bulb
2 Tbsp olive oil
1 Tbsp lemon juice
1 Tbsp minced fresh basil, 1 tsp minced tarragon, or ½ tsp dried tarragon
Salt and pepper
Preheat oven to 400°F. Wash the beets well. Wrap them individually in foil and place them on a baking sheet or roasting pan. Cook, undisturbed, for 45 to 90 minutes, until they are easily pierced (they may cook at different rates.) While they're cooking, trim the fennel and chop it into ½ - to 1-inch chunks. Remove beets and plunge them into ice water until cool. Peel them and cut them into pieces the same size as the fennel. Toss the beets, fennel and the remaining ingredients together and serve immediately. If you plan to let the salad sit, hold out the lemon juice until the last minute.
Yours in the field, Wendy and Asher
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