Keep Cool in the Kitchen this Summer
If you like a good, home‐cooked meal, but loathe the idea adding even more heat to your apartment during the summer by cranking up the oven or toiling over the hot stove, then our CSA has got you covered! The abundance of the lush, fresh greens over the past few weeks have been perfect for cold salads – cucumber fennel salad or a big‐ole chef salad anyone??
But if you’re feeling a bit like a rabbit with all these salads and are craving a more home‐cooked meal but without the heat, check out these recipe ideas from some of our members:
Oven-Less Squash Casserole
By Lisa Kirchner
“My recipes may scandalize the foodies out there, but my style is very relaxed. There is nothing I want to do less on a hot summer day than stand over an oven and stir or fry anything. So what to do with all that squash? The answer? Microwave! You can puncture a patty pan squash, pop it in for a minute, cut it in half and eat the whole thing. Almost as easy? The following casserole I just cobbled together.”
- 3-4 medium patty pan squash
- 1 medium zucchini
- 1/4 C melted butter, unsalted
- 1/4 C bread crumbs
- 1/4 C rice milk, pinch of salt
- dried sage
- smoked gouda (enough to cover top)
- Rinse and slice your squash. Add salt to milk. Add sage to breadcrumbs.
- Pour a small amount of butter into microwave safe baking dish. Line the bottom with squash. Over each subsequent layer add more breadcrumbs and pour butter.
- Pour milk over the entire batch when finished layering.
- Cover the top with slices of smoked Gouda.
- Microwave on medium for three minutes. Rest the dish halfway through cooking so the Gouda doesn’t get overdone. Serves 2.
Wheat Germ Summer Salad
By
Francesca
Capone
- Wheat germ, cooked and cooled
- carmelized onions
- chopped up feta cheese
- chopped up fresh mint leaves
- walnuts, crumbled and toasted
- golden raisins
- a heavy hand of olive oil
- salt and pepper to taste.
Prepare and mix all the ingredients in a bowl, placing the mint at the top for aesthetic purposes.
Chilled CSA “Stone Soup”
By
Kajal
Patel
Below
This versatile recipe is perfect for using up the odds and ends of your share from last week. Choose your favorite combination of veggies and modify with your favorite blend of spices.
Recipe can be made ahead of time (whenever it’s cool enough to use the stove for a bit!) and stored in the fridge.
- 3-4 medium potatoes
- 2‐3 cups of your favorite veggies, chopped (I used a couple heads of broccoli and one zucchini)
- Onion, chopped
- 2‐3 garlic cloves, chopped.
- 2 cups of stock (enough to cover veggies in a pan)
- 1/2 – 1 C plain yogurt
- Chop potatoes, potatoes, garlic, onion and any veggies you would like. Add potatoes, onion, garlic and any heavy veggies (root veggies, broccoli, cauliflower, etc) to large saucepan or stock pot.
- Cover veggies with stock add salt and any herbs or spices you like.
- Cover, bring to a boil and let simmer until heavy veggies are nearly done.
- Add the lighter veggies (greens, zucchini, tomatoes, etc), simmer until done.
- Add any herbs or spices you like. Puree.
- Add 1/2‐1 C yogurt (depending on how creamy you want it).
- Chill (though I think you could also eat it hot but not when it’s 90 degrees outside)
The Great eScape
By
Malorie
Schecter
The garlic scape is one of the prized items in the early shares of the Summer/Fall CSA season. Their tender mild tender stalks bring a bright, springy flavor to your kitchen.
Garlic scapes are the flowering stalks of hardneck varieties of garlic. The stalk is harvested as soon as it starts to curl – which, in theory, is meant to direct the plant’s energy into making bigger, better bulbs.
Scapes will store for a few weeks when kept refrigerated (ideally in a brown bag), but they taste best when fresh. So what to do with all those scapes that are building up in your crisper drawer? Here are a few suggestions.
- Use them in everyday cooking as you would an onion. They don’t have as much of the potentially overwhelming hot garlic flavor as the mature bulb, so you can throw them into just about any dish to give it a nice onion/garlic‐y background flavor.
- Freeze them. They can be chopped and frozen for use this fall or winter when your tastebuds are craving a bite of that spring flavor. Bonus – scape pesto, like the one in last week’s newsletter, will freeze well for a ready made addition to a quick pasta dinner.
- Infuse oil. Scapes add a nice peppery, mildly garlic‐yflavor to your oil – great for dipping fresh bread! Cut scape to desired length, bruise to release flavor, sauté in pan 2‐3 minutes to kill bacteria, place in CLEAN glass bottle, cover with warmed (200°) oil. Use immediately or refrigerate to avoid botulism. DO NOT soak raw garlic in oil for prolonged time at room temperature.
- Pickle them! Visit 2sistersgarlic.com for pickling recipes and other ideas.
What’s fresh? CSAs around the country
By Jonathan Schecter
Ever wondered what CSA’s are like on other parts of the country? Check out last week’s haul from CSAs in San Diego, Chicago, Dallas, and Portland.
Seabreeze Organic Farm: San Diego, CA Bananas, kiwis, avocado, Valencia oranges, Pink crisp apples, tomatoes or green beans or summer squash or cucumbers, scallions, radishes or beets, Swiss chard, corn, lettuce, sprouts, salad, basil or French sorrel, broccoli and bouquet of flowers.
Grass is Greener CSA: Chicago, IL Potatoes, Kale, Beets Baby Leeks, Turnips, Flat Leaf Parsley, Broccoli, Basil, Baby Onion, Shelling Peas , Snap Peas & Oregano.
Eden Creek Farms: Dallas, TX Their CSA has been postponed until further notice due to a drought and bug infestation
Singer Hill Gardens: Porltand, OR Braising greens (i.e. kale, mustard greens, chard, bok choi), braising baby greens with edible flowers, baby beets, turnips, Persian Star garlic, salad mix, celery, mixed herbs, garbanzo beans, and coriander/cumin seed
We Love Garbage: Sixth Street Compost Committee Update
Submitted by Sarah
Pollock
Don’t forget ‐ the Sixth Street CSA has paired up with El Jardin to create a composting plan. Bring your compost with you on Tuesdays during pickup!
3 Simple Steps For Composting First‐time composters wonder about the best way to get their veggie trimmings to the compost collection. Here’s a quick guide from GrowNYC:
- Get a storage container. Anything from a 32‐ounce yogurt container or plastic bag to a covered pail will do the job.
- Keep it cool. Store scraps in the freezer or fridge to reduce odors at home.
- Bring it to the CSA and drop it off. You can reduce waste by reusing the same container. After you collect your share, drop in unwanted carrot tops, corn husks, etc before leaving.
That’s it! For a list of what you can and can’t compost, visit www.GrowNYC.org/compost
Events: Sandwiches, Farm Trips, and Food Culture
Serious Eats All‐Star Sandwich Festival: Proceeds of this food fest benefit Edible School Yard NYC. Saturday July 23, noon – 4pm, Governors Island. $65. seriouseatssandwichfest.eventbrite.com
Sixth Street CSA’s Trip to the Farm: See where our veggies come from every week with a trip to Catalpa Ridge Farm in Wantage, NJ. Sunday July 24. Call 212.677.1863 or email csa@sixthstreetcenter.org
Food Markets and Immigrant Identity in NYC: Explore the customs, places, and innovations that shape how New Yorkers buy and sell food—and find out where to buy the best Sri Lankan chilis, West African gari flour, and mithai sweets from Pakistan. Thursday July 28, 6:30pm, The Museum of the City of New York. $12 http://www.mcny.org/public-programs/all/Food-Markets.html
Have an event to share? Email it to sscc.newsletter@gmail.com!
