9/2/2016 1 Comment Thick Corn & Potato PottageBy Christopher Totaro One of the important aspects of the preparation that will contribute to the flavor-complexity of this dish is the browning of the diced potatoes. Allow enough cooking time to permit the edges to become nice and crisp. The natural sweet flavor of the corn will nicely compliment the toasted flavor of the browned potatoes. I used a miso-ginger brother but any broth will do. Add as much broth at the end in order to achieve your desired consistency. To make this recipe vegan, simply replace butter with vegan butter spread.
Directions:
✼ In a large pot, melt 11/2 tablespoons of butter and 1 teaspoon of coconut oil over high heat. ✼ Add diced potatoes and cook until browned on the edges, stirring occasionally. ✼ Meanwhile, break off five or six florets from the cauliflower and place them in a vegetable steamer. Continue to steam over high heat until crisp-tender; set aside. ✼ In a smaller skillet, melt the other 11/2 tablespoons of butter over medium-high heat. Once bubbly, add the chopped onion and green pepper. Stir and cover until tender. Season with salt and pepper to taste. ✼ Cook until soft and then add the minced garlic and smoked paprika. Continue to cook, stirring occasionally, for about one minute more. ✼ Sprinkle on the flour and mix into the onion-pepper-garlic mix. Stir to combine (adding more butter if necessary.) ✼ Once the potatoes in the large pot are brown, lower the heat to medium and add the onion-pepper-garlic mix. Add 1 cup of the miso-ginger broth and stir thoroughly. ✼ Add the fresh basil & cilantro, steamed cauliflower, drained cashews, salt & pepper, red pepper flakes, cumin, and the remaining 1 cup of miso-ginger broth to a high-powered blender. Blend until smooth; remove from blender and set aside. ✼ Add corn to the large pot and stir until just heated through. ✼ Add the cauliflower-cashew cream from the blender to the large pot and stir. ✼ Serve & garnish.
1 Comment
By Lisa Shaub My grandparents were from Brooklyn and they lived through the Depression. They were always nagging me to save my pennies. They would tell me, “Be like Benjamin Franklin; the guy was so smart, he knew how to save money." As a teen I couldn't quite embrace that philosophy, but as a grown woman with college to save for I find wisdom in his and their words. I located the actual quote, which is “A penny saved is a penny earned."
I think of this every time I pick up the massive amount of food I get every week from our wonderful CSA. Even though we are a family of three, with one very picky nine year old, I always get a full veggie share with a fruit share. I just can't resist!!! Everything is so yummy, smells so good and I love opening my fridge and seeing it bursting at the seams with delicious, organic food. Every week there is a marathon in my house to completely use and eat the whole week's CSA before Tuesday rolls around, and there is a fridge full of new food. In the four years that I have been participating in the CSA, I have come up with some strategies. Here are some helpful hints about using all of our resources. If Benjamin Franklin were living in my brain, in my house with that fridge full of good stuff, I know he would think using it all would mean the savings. Herb rendition - We can count on one or two fresh herbs a week. Instead of wracking my mind for recipes to use them I immediately do one of two things: I either pin them to a bulletin board to dry them, or I blend them with walnuts, garlic and olive oil and freeze them into ice cubes. Sage is good for burning, and Rosemary is always neccessary. You can even take your dried herbs and render them in olive oil or vinegar to create aromatic salad dressings. Dry chilis on a plate, or string them up and post on a board until they are dry, then store in a container. Dehydrate it - If you have a dehydrator, you can dry fruit, radish, beet slices, or zucchini. Season with herbs and you have yummy a low calorie snack. If you lack a food dehydrator, just roast them in the oven on a cookie sheet on a low temperature with a little olive oil and seasoning. Juice it - Any left over greens can be juiced. If you don't feel like drinking that, you can dehydrate and make your own green powder for smoothies. Pickle it - I keep an ongoing jar of pickles, kimchee and saurkraut. As you use it add more. I always taste them, to re-adjust the seasoning. The liquid keeps forever and has loads of probiotics. Throw your extra cucumbers, radish, carrots and cabbage in there, and you can enjoy for quite a while. I also like to make a “chilli elixir." This is used as seasoning and to fight colds in the winter. Chop up chilis and add to a clean glass jar with a well fitting lid. Add Braggs Apple Cider Vinegar and fill to the top. Leave it in the fridge. Add more chillis and apple cider vinegar as you use it. Dry it - Anything with seeds can and should be dried and saved. In ten years it might be hard to get organic seeds, Everyone should have their own seed library. Just put miscellaneous things with seeds- beans, peas, chilis, sage, etc, on a plate and let them dry in the air. Label and date, and keep in the freezer. You can also dry chillis on a plate, or string them up and post on a board until they are dry, then store in a container. Share it - Kindness is a virtue, keep it cultivated.. If you know you are not going to eat everything, or there are things that you don't love, put together a bag for someone else. Give to a friend or drop it off at a food pantry. Someone will definitely enjoy it. I hope my grandparents and Benjamin Franklin would be proud of me for sharing this, and proud of you for reading. It is a great and wondrous thing to have a full pantry, full fridge and know in your heart that you can save money too. 8/1/2016 0 Comments Thai Basil, Eggplant & BarleyBy Christopher Totaro Choose whatever method you prefer for roasting the eggplant. You may roast it directly over a gas burner, grill, or broiler. I chose to wrap it tightly in foil and bake it in a preheated 500º oven for about an hour. I prefer this method because it allows me to season the flesh before roasting. I cut the eggplant into a slinky shape in order to expose as much internal surface area as possible then I spray it with coconut oil spray and grind lemon-pepper season directly onto the flesh before wrapping it up in the tinfoil package. Another benefit of this method is that the foil will also collects the delicious juices which should definitely be added to the mix before blending! You might prefer to remove the skin from the eggplant before blending but I just threw the entire eggplant into the VitaMix. I think that this would be great served over soba noodles or pasta but I used barley since that’s what I had on hand.
By Grace Edinger I found this recipe when I was looking for ways to to use the abundant greens attached to a bunch carrots. The green sauce adds an extra layer of depth (and zest!) to these simple and delicious vegetarian tacos. I adjusted the recipe slightly to give the black beans more flavor, and added parsley to the chimichurri, as I found the flavor a bit bitter with just the carrot tops and cilantro. Here is the adapted version: Ingredients For tacos 1 bunch carrots olive oil salt and pepper 1 can black beans 1 teaspoon cumin 1 shallot, chopped 1 clove garlic, minced corn tortillas 1 cup brown rice, cooked For chimichurri Carrot greens (I used about half of what was attached to my bunch of carrots) 1/2 bunch cilantro 1/2 bunch parsley 1 lime, zest and juice 2 Tbsp pickled jalapenos (I keep pickled peppers in the fridge for occasions like this, but a fresh jalapeno or other pepper would be great here as well) 2 cloves garlic 1/4 cup olive oil Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Chop carrots into 1/2 inch thick coins, and toss with olive oil and salt and pepper. Roast for 15-20 minutes, or until carrots are tender. In the meantime, rinse and drain your black beans. Heat 2 Tbsps olive oil in a medium saucepan. When shimmering, add shallot and sauté for 2-3 minutes, until softened. Add garlic and cook for 1 minute. Add black beans, cumin, salt, and pepper and cook for 10-15 minutes, or until beans have softened. For the chimichurri, add carrot greens, cilantro, parsley, jalapenos, lime zest and juice, and garlic to a food processor and blend. Add olive oil in a steady stream, and adjust for consistency. Before serving, heat corn tortillas in a dry skillet over medium heat. Then assemble tacos, adding rice, black beans, roasted carrots, and top with chimichurri. Serve with lime wedges. Pictured here with a side of rainbow chard, wilted in olive oil with garlic and red pepper flakes.
7/25/2016 0 Comments Who’s That? At Sixth StreetBy Lee Thatcher Many of you come on Tuesday to pick up your CSA share and leave ASAP, while others take their time and slowly select the perfect produce. Some of you may even take a class or two in the yoga studio on other days of the week. What many of you may have noticed are a few familiar faces around Sixth Street. Here is one of them: Name: Alfred Robertson Occupation: Maintenance Director at Sixth Street & Freelance Carpenter What are the day to day details of your job at Sixth Street? I keep things clean and do all the construction and maintenance work in the building from basement to third floor. I also handle the receiving of the agricultural deliveries from Hepworth Farm and set up for distribution. How long have you been working for Sixth Street? Since 2001 - 15 years. What is your favorite thing about Sixth Street? Everything, everything is my favorite thing about Sixth Street. We have some awesome after school and summer programs for kids. The one hosted on the third floor is called City Sculpting run by Vanessa Solomon. Another program hosted on the first floor called the Sixth Street Youth Program is run by Jen Chantrtanapichate and Libby Mislan, for kids ages 8-13. We also have many different yoga instructors here teaching classes at various times and days. I really admire the opportunities Sixth Street offers various non-profits looking to share the space and connect with the community. Is there a memory from Sixth Street, good or bad, that you can share with us? Well the only bad memory I have from Sixth Street is the time when Hurricane Sandy hit. All the people, thousands in the neighborhood, were without food and clean water. No power or heat. The damage that Sixth Street received from the water in our basement was just devastating. But what I am most proud of was the help that we got from all over the neighborhood, from other organizations coming together with ours. Sixth Street became a center for people to come to help and get help. So many volunteers, not to mention the people who were helped by those volunteers. What are you doing when you are not at Sixth Street? Loving my family, enjoying time with my children and wife. I wake up every morning with a smile on my face. One, because I am alive and two for the lovely family that I have. That is what is great for me. Positivity is key and I feel like we share that at Sixth Street too. How did you find Sixth Street? Actually I didn’t find Sixth Street - they found me. Annette Averette, Sixth Street’s Business Director, knew me for a long time. I was one of the worst little kids you could find in the street and she became a mother to about 50 of us and I was one of the kids who took positively to her mentorship. After years of friendship she invited me down to Sixth Street to do some carpentry and restoration work and the rest is history. I am a licensed carpenter, and my love for carpentry may outweigh my love for Sixth Street. I rebuilt the entire first floor and rebuilt and restored the front vestibule. The tile work is all original to the building and we were able to save and repurpose the marble in the front entrance. My work on those projects was the catalyst for my being at Sixth Street more frequently. Additionally me and my freelance team can be contracted to do all kinds of work outside Sixth street. We do kitchens and bathrooms and pretty much any kind of carpentry you need done. If you need it I can do it. What is your favorite vegetable and how do you like to eat it? That is funny because when I first came to Sixth Street I was a carnivore. Strictly....maybe a baked potato...but mostly meat. But since I have been at Sixth Street and been exposed to the CSA I have been leaning more towards a vegetarian/vegan lifestyle. I don’t eat as much meat and I feel a whole lot better. But my favorite vegetable is the green snap pea, they are so sweet and I will eat them raw. I almost ate a quarter of a box the other day, they are so good. What about your kids, I know you bring them stuff; what do they go crazy for? Ohh they love the fruit....they attack it. The blueberries, strawberries, apples. They love it all. Your wife is from the islands? What is the one thing you bring home and she knocks it out the park with her island flavors? The eggplant, ohh man, she cooks it up. She loves the squash, she is also a fruit and vegetable lover. She loves cooking and she loves cooking healthy for me and the family. I mean the whole CSA has really changed us and the way we raise the kids and how we eat. It’s changed us in a positive way. What is your favorite person, place or thing about the East Village? My corner deli. I love those guys, I have an account there. They really are some great guys. The people in the East Village are some of the most wonderful people I have encountered in my whole life. It’s a different world from some of the other boroughs that I have visited. Sometimes you get overwhelmed by the kindness of some of the people you meet down here. All in all I have never had a bad experience in the East Village. Thank you Alfred Robertson for spending time with us and letting us get to know you. For those of you who are interested in contracting Alfred or getting an estimate for carpentry work you can reach him at: tripleacarpenters@yahoo.com cell: 347-393-1961 (between the hours of 9-5) mail correspondence: 2749 8th Avenue, Suite 6A, New York NY 10039 |
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