Number nine...number nine...

Oh this was a lovely one! The fruit was blueberries, plums, peaches and a watermelon. The cheese was something on the hard side that tasted surprisingly mild. The bread was oniony and delicious and the veggies were peppers, lettuce, tomatoes, onions and a new contestant - TOMATILLOS!

As usual, the carnage began with the bread and cheese. No disappointment there.

The watermelon was strangely un-pink, but it still tasted sweet and was gobbled. The peaches were quite delicious as well. Not tremendously juicy, but sweet. I gave the plums and small peppers to my friend Kristine who also took the August 15 farm share because  I was away. Any other vegetables and fruit not mentioned in the rest of the post was eaten as God intended - naked. (The food, not us, you know, corn on the cob, lettuce in a salad, blueberries in a frenzy dripping blue juice down my chin...)

GLAMOUR SHOT!

Centerfold! Yep, we shucked them reeeeeal slow...

The tomatillos were new to me. Apparently they are new to spell check as well because it keeps wanting to change them to automatism. Which I don't even know! (A state of being automatic - thanks Webster...)

I found a recipe for Salsa Verde Chicken that looked pretty good and another one for Salsa Verde that conveniently called for tomatillos. Apparently like gooseberries are destined to become crumble or  jam, so are tomatillos destined to become salsa verde.

Peeling off the little jackets was very satisfying. The quartering followed smoothly!

Into the La Machine with you! And some of those red onions and some fresh garlic. Which I must have forgotten to mention earlier but was there, in the share.


Chop, chop, swirl!

Buh-buh-buh-bubbling.


I cooked it and it smelled amazing. My beloved came home at this point and said, "I don't care what is in it, I am going to eat a lot of it!" Which was gratifying and ...spoiler... is exactly what happened.

At first, I was concerned that we were going to have another ugly-but-delicious-cat-vomit-fiasco. But this was just the salsa verde spread a little too thinly over the chicken. Too much chicken, too little salsa. But it was all saved by the great deus ex machina of cooking...

...CHEESE!!!

Melty, beautiful tasty all forgiving cheese. I don't remember what kind. Probably some store bought shredded cheddar or mozzerella. It doesn't matter. It covered the gross looking part and tasted delicious!

Seriously, how yummy does that look? It tasted just as good. 

Thanks tomatillos for this splendid meal!

Two recipes for this one. First, the salsa which was extremely easy. Second the chicken, which was even more so. Just skip the helpful step where it says "open a jar of crappy salsa verde that has been sitting on the shelf at Market Basket for 6 months" and instead use your delicious fresh farm share salsa verde!

TomatilloSalsa Recipe

Total Time: - 40 min

Prep - 15 min

Cook - 25 min

Yield: about 4 cups

This is a standard Mexican salsa that you find everywhere in Mexico. Tomatillos have a natural acidic and fresh note that gives them a little sparkle. (They keep that sparkle even after they're cooked.) Tomatillo salsa is a natural with the flavors of grilled meat, but it is a great do-ahead, have-on-hand salsa to freshen up anything off the grill or out of a skillet.

Ingredients

1 pound fresh tomatillos

1 large Spanish onion (about 12 ounces), cut into large chunks (about 3 cups)

3 cloves garlic

1/2 packed cup coarsely chopped cilantro leaves

1/2 jalapeno (seeds and all if you like heat)

1/2 lime, juiced

Kosher or fine sea salt

Directions

Pull the husks from the tomatillos and wash them under cool water until they no longer feel sticky. Cut them into quarters and put them into the work bowl of a food processor. Add the onion and garlic and process until smooth. Add the cilantro, jalapeno and lime juice and process until the jalapeno is finely chopped.

Scrape the mixture into a small saucepan. Season lightly with salt and bring to a boil over medium heat. Cook, stirring occasionally, until most of the liquid is boiled off and the salsa looks relish-y, about 15 minutes. Cool before using. The sauce can be refrigerated for up to 1 week. If refrigerated, you may want to add a little salt and/or lime juice to the salsa before serving.

   

Salsa Verde Chicken Bake Recipe 

    Prep time: 5 minutes

    Cook time: 30 minutes

While the chicken is cooking, prepare some rice or quinoa to serve with the chicken. The recipe produces a lot of sauce which will go well with the sides. You could easily make this with boneless, skinless chicken thighs as well. You may need to cook them just a few minutes longer than the breasts.

    1 1/4 to 1 1/3 pounds boneless skinless chicken breasts

    1 3/4 cups (1 15-ounce jar) tomatillo salsa verde

    4 ounces grated Monterey jack and/or pepper jack cheese

    1/2 cup chopped fresh cilantro (optional)

  

1 Preheat oven to 350°F. Remove the tenders from the chicken breasts and cut the larger pieces in half. You should have 4 4-ounce chicken portions plus the tenders. Line a 8x8 casserole baking dish with the chicken pieces. Try to cover the bottom as completely as you can with the chicken.

2 Cover the chicken pieces with the salsa verde. Cover completely, there should be no exposed chicken or it will dry out. Place in the oven for 25-30 minutes. If you have a meat thermometer, use it. The chicken should be removed from the oven when the internal temperature of the breast meat reaches 150°F.

3 Sprinkle cheese over the chicken, increase the oven heat to 400°F and return to the oven for another 5-10 minutes, enough time for the cheese to melt and the sauce to get bubbly.

Remove from oven. Serve immediately. Spoon over cooked rice or quinoa. Sprinkle with chopped fresh cilantro. Serve with tortilla chips for crunch if you would like.

SALEM FARMERS MARKET

 A few weeks ago I got a lovely bunch of basil in my farm share but no tomatoes! What was I to do???

Then I remembered that Salem has a farmers market down the alley from Derby Square Books so I thought, well, maybe they will have some tomatoes.

They had EVERYTHING! This market is huge! Not Santa Cruz farmers market huge, but plenty big.

I found the tomatoes I wanted and there was a booth that had beautiful little boxes of raspberries. So I picked one up and stood in line to pay. Well, the line was a little long and by the time I got to the end, I had eaten all the raspberries. So I grabbed a box of lovely yellow cherry tomatoes (although can you call them cherry tomatoes if they are yellow?) and bought them, along with the empty raspberry box.

It is conveniently open 3-7 on Thursdays. Don't miss it!

Can it be Farm Share #8 already?

Look! Just look at this beautiful farm share in which I recognize all the vegetables! Okay, I do have to admit that I supplemented at the Salem Farmer's Market. I bought those little yellow tomatoes and I think maybe the red ones, too. But seriously, Farm Share, don't give me a spectacular bunch of basil and NOT have tomatoes!

Fruit - once again, peaches and blueberries. And I say why mess with perfection?? I just ate the peaches (not all at once, but it was close...) and made the blueberries into a pie from my mother's recipe. The recipe is on the card in her very own writing. I will make it big so that you can turn your computer on its side if you want to transpose it...And the bread was sesame bread sticks so delicious I forgave them for not being focaccia!

BUT FIRST SOME GLAMOR SHOTS!

 This will be eggplant stacks!

 This will be garden salad!

 This will be caprese something!

For those of you keeping track at home, the veggies are basil, carrots, peppers, cukes, lettuce (green leaf and romaine!), scallions, garlic and eggplant.

 

 The fruit need not be named. Not in a bad way, like Voldemort, but because it is recognizable...

Here is Mom's blueberry pie recipe. I don't bother with the cream cheese crust because I am essentially lazy, but you can if you like. Also, it works really well with strawberries. I may try peaches later this season, too...

First you boil the berries, sugar and water

Then add the cream of tartar until it thickens. Once it is thick take it off the heat and add the lemon juice.



Once it cools, pour the glaze over the berries, and eat it up, YUM!

And now to eggplant. I must confess, I still had last week's eggplant left over. So I cut both the older dark one and the pale purple newbie and admired them.

Then I salted them and let them drain. Then I wiped them off, peeled them (because I forgot earlier), dipped them in egg and then a mixture of breadcrumbs and panko. Note to self, before dumping two containers of breadcrumbs into a bowl, make sure one of them isn't panko...

Then I fried them up in a surprisingly small amount of olive oil.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, I chopped up some tomatoes and drizzled them with olive oil and balsamic vinegar.

Look at these delicious ingredients!

The little white blob is ricotta cheese with chopped basil in it.

This was quite possibly the most appealing farm share meal I have made thus far. It was SO delicious and other than a little olive oil and some ricotta, it was fresh from the earth. Okay, and the breadcrumbs. And the vinegar. You know what, just let me have this, okay? It was spectacular!

Here is the last glamor shot of the whole kit and kaboodle. The carrots and lettuce and peppers and scallions made a delicious garden salad. I am sure you know what one looks like, so I shan't put it up here. Also, I forgot.

The Eggplant Ricotta recipe is here, but I made them big bites and left out the Parmesan cheese. It was not missed. And you don't really need a recipe for this one. Just cook and eat!

Farm Share Number 7

Well, I am two shares behind and another one coming today! This share was AMAZING! First of all the two cheeses were worth the drive to Salem along. A raw milk cheddar and a raw milk cheddar with onions - are you kidding me? This is just a recipe for me gnawing this stuff straight from the block. Not that I did. But it was nearly that dignified. 

The bread was onion foccacia. I always feel like I won the lottery when I find a foccica in the basket. Not that I play the lottery, perhaps that is why I can get that special feeling from a round of tremendous bread. But I digress.

ON TO THE FRUIT AND VEGGIES!

 

The fruit was blueberries and peaches. Frankly I didn't expect much from the peaches. We were instructed not to squeeze them, and I was very careful not to. Until I put them in my sack. Then I gave them a little poke. Ooh, they were hard, I was worried. But when I got them home, they were sweet and juicy! Obviously they were stealth peaches. Very tricky, farm share, very tricky indeed!

I ended up cutting up the peaches and making the Peaches and Cream Pie that is not a pie that Jen made in the last post.  I didn't take a final picture because, well, I forgot. But it was beautiful and was eaten in record time. (recipe below)

The veggies were for the most part recognizable. A friendly eggplant, some lettuce, some beautiful red onions and green beans! Could it be that I actually knew all the vegetables this week? Not so fast. There is a spoiler. I got a bunch of CALLALOO. 

WTH?

I couldn't remember the name by the time I got home and I had to call Mira who very kindly reminded me. So I looked for recipes on the internet and I found exactly one. And it was a soup. With beef and seafood in it. Oh Lord...

BUT FIRST THE ONIONS!

Please excuse the pork porn, but I pretty much used them as a way to shore up a pork roast. They did their job admirably and made my house smell amazing.

I put the rest of the onions in with the green beans and some olive oil and garlic and they were terrific.

Now, come with me if you dare to explore the magic of CALLALOOOOOOOOOOOOOO...

First think you need to know is that salted beef is just corned beef. Thanks internet... There are a few shrimp in there, some scallions and onions. I think thyme and no okra. It is hard to find okra last minute... OH, and the Callaloo! I cooked it in chicken stock.

It cooked up very nicely and smelled pretty good!

I added zucchini at the end instead of the okra because I know nothing about vegetables and felt I had to add something!

I  zapped it in my magic bullett.

It ended up looking quite pretty, but kind of tasted like dirt. Oh well, leafy greens... I just need to learn to let them stay raw around me.

So I give a big thumbs up to the Peaches and Cream Pie that is not a pie and a tentative thumbs down to Callaloo soup which might be quite delicious if I ever actually use the recipe that I am given!

Peaches & Cream Pie

3/4 cup all-purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 (3 ounce) package non-instant vanilla pudding mix

3 tablespoons butter, softened

1 egg

1/2 cup milk

1 (29 ounce) can sliced peaches, drained and syrup reserved (I used fresh  sliced peaches and blueberries.)

1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese, softened

1/2 cup white sugar

1 tablespoon white sugar

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

 

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease sides and bottom of a 10 inch deep-dish pie pan.

In a medium mixing bowl, mix together flour, salt, baking powder and pudding mix. Mix in butter, egg and milk. Beat for 2 minutes. Pour mixture into pie pan. Arrange the peach slices on top of the pudding mixture.

In a small mixing bowl, beat cream cheese until fluffy. Add 1/2 cup sugar and 3 tablespoons reserved peach syrup. Beat for 2 minutes. Spoon mixture over peaches to within 1 inch of pan edge. Mix together 1 tablespoon sugar and 1 teaspoon cinnamon, and sprinkle over top.

Bake in preheated oven for 30 to 35 minutes, until golden brown. Chill before serving.

Callaloo Soup

"A taste of the Caribbean. The main ingredients are callaloo leaves, or spinach, and okra. Both were originally brought from Africa in the seventeenth century. Serve piping hot with slices of avocado pear and hot bread." — CORWYNN DARKHOLME

Original recipe makes 6 servings

    1 pound callaloo leaves or spinach

    6 cups chicken stock 

    1 onion, chopped

    1/2 pound salt beef, fat removed and diced 

    1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper

    6 tablespoons minced shallots 

    1/4 teaspoon dried thyme

    1 green chile pepper, chopped 

    1 cup okra

    1/2 pound crabmeat

 

Remove the thick stems of the callaloo leaves, chop roughly, and put into a large saucepan. Add the chicken stock, onion, beef, black pepper, shallots, thyme, chili pepper, and crab meat. Cover, and simmer until meat is tender, about 35 minutes.

Add the okra, and cook for 8 minutes.

Remove the chili pepper. Puree the soup in a blender or food processor. Reheat, and adjust seasonings.