In the box:
Apples
Broccoli - M
Savoy cabbage - Su
Carrots - T
Meyer lemons
Mizuna - T& Freeze the rest for future soups
Red onions (Pinnacle Organic)
parsnips - T
Dry-farmed tomato juice (will be inside your box)
In the fridge:
3/4 cabbage - Su
onions (red & yellow) - T
apples
meyer lemons
cucumber - snacks
pears
romanesco cauliflower - Su
ginger
pecans
Groceries:
shrimp
andouille sausage
scallions
green pepper
Menu:
Saturday:
Sunday: Granola Bars, Steamed Romanesco, leftover duck, roasted potatoes, massaged cabbage salad, make sauerkraut
Monday: Sesame Ginger broccoli frittata
Tuesday: Shrimp Gumbo with carrots and parsnips, King Cake
Wednesday: French Onion Soup with minced mizuna with Fresh Bread
Thursday: Apple Butter, Leftovers
Recipes:
Debbie's sweet-hot massaged cabbage salad with oranges and slivered almonds... plus easy way to stretch the leftovers (from LEF's recipe database @
http://www.writerguy.com/deb/recipes/keyingred.html )
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Me again - I made this twice now, because I liked it so much the first time I wanted to be able to repeat it and write it down for all you guys. What are the things I like about it? Well for one, I'm loving my favorite new 'trick' for softening the harder, sturdier greens like cabbage and kale. This technique sprang originally from my forays into fermenting, but I soon discovered it worked niftily for things you didn't plan on fermenting too! The trick (it's no trick, really) is massaging. Yup, just like it sounds; you get your hands in there and moosh things around (fun!) and this achieves two goals: 1) the veggies become softer and more toothsome [sometimes I like a crunchy cabbage salad, but sometimes I'm put off by all the extra chewing] and 2) it reduces veggie volume modestly to considerably (depending on how much you massage it), so if I'm trying to use up veggies, I find I can consume a lot more this way without hardly batting an eye!
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For this particular salad I used the Savoy cabbage we've been getting the last few weeks, but you could certainly use any type of cabbage (yes, even red!) and it'd still taste good. The crinkly-leafed Savoy is more delicate, so if using regular cabbage I'd take pains to shred it more finely, but other than that, any cabbage will do. Proportions are loose so don't sweat the measurements too carefully.
For the salad:
<> shredded cabbage, preferably Savoy, but any will do in a pinch
<> sea salt
<> minced fresh cilantro (as much or little as you like; a couple tablespoons up to half a cup per head of cabbage easy - I just grab a handful and chop it up, leaves, stems and all)
<> slivered almonds (similarly flexible; they add a nice crunchy counter-texture to the softened cabbage so I tend to be generous - maybe 1/4 - 1/3 cup per cabbage)
<> Oh, and one or two oranges, peeled and cut into bite-sized pieces (I'll explain how)
For the dressing:
rice vinegar
Dijon mustard
maple syrup
oil -- I used hazelnut 'cuz I had it, but you could use walnut or olive oil instead.
Sriracha sauce (or your favorite hot sauce, as long as it is the smooth puree type, not chunky!)
**note: because I massage the cabbage with salt, I don't add salt to the dressing**
Dressing is easy to make if you become comfortable with proportions; I'd say about half oil to half everything else... but don't hold me to this; I make it every day so I don't measure anymore. Try this: put about 2-3 tbsp. vinegar and a goodly blob of mustard (a rounded teaspoonful or so) in a cup. Pour in a little maple syrup -- about a half-teaspoon to a teaspoon, give or take (more if you like it sweeter). Just eyeball it. Whisk this together with a fork until combined. Pour in the oil, in roughly equal proportion to the mixture already in there. Whisk it in. If it is too runny and separates, whisk in more oil. If you think it's too oily, thin with a bit more vinegar. The Dijon really helps blend the the oil and vinegar together. Oh, and the Sriracha! Add as much as you like, depending on how spicy you want it. You can always add more, but you can't take it away! Squirt some in, taste it, squirt in some more. And remember that once you mix the dressing into the salad, the heat will be further 'diluted'.
Preparing the orange(s): Slice the top and bottom of the orange off so it has a flat end to set on (cut deep enough so you pass through both the skin and membrane, exposing the tips of the sections themselves). Set one flat end on a cutting board and, using a sharp knife, carve off a strip of the peel and membrane in a careful curved stroke, working top to bottom; rotate the orange and continue cutting off the skin in strips like this until it's all gone (you can be as fussy or not as you like). Now cut your peeled orange crosswise into a couple slices, removing seeds as needed, and then cut the slices into bite-sized pieces. (You can also just peel and section an orange and cut the sections into pieces if you don't mind the membrane. You could also use tangerines to good effect.)
Making the salad: put shredded cabbage in a bowl large enough to contain it all comfortably. Lift it by handfuls and sprinkle salt in and around over cabbage. We're not talking salt in the kind of quantities you use when making sauerkraut (that's way too much!), just sprinkle it modestly, in quantity to suit your taste. Now roll up your sleeves, wash your hands, and commence massaging! This is fun; squeeze, squish and otherwise moosh it for a minute or two or three and watch how it starts to become translucent and softer, and notice how you find yourself with lots more room in the bowl than when you started. Cool! You're there. Now just add in the cilantro, the almonds, and orange pieces and toss to combine, then pour dressing over all and toss well to distribute the flavors. Taste it, and feel free to squirt in more Sriracha if you want it spicier. (You can also leave the hot sauce out entirely if you don't like hot stuff.) Serve it right away, or refrigerate it 'til later; this is good and tasty even after a couple days!
Which brings me to my last bit: when I made this, I made a big batch and so we did indeed eat it over a couple days. But by the last day we ended up with only enough for one serving and I wanted two. Hm, let's see, what have I got in my fridge? Carrots. A partial bag of baby arugula. So I just grated a couple carrots into the bowl with the left-over salad, added some more vinegar and oil (just poured some over), and threw in the arugula and tossed it all together. Bingo - yummy new salad, now sufficient for two! You can do this, I know you can. What's in this week's box... let's see, in addition to arugula there's also mizuna, that'd be a good "stretcher" too. Be creative!
