Week two of the fall farm share...
Three years ago I subscribed to my first farm share at Edgewater, a wonderful local farm in Plainfield, NH. I picked Edgewater because they deliver their summer shares to the community where I live each Tuesday. I love the surprise each week of opening the box to find out what's there. I started with a small summer share. Last year, I extended into a fall share for six weeks. This year, I had both. The contents consistently challenge and reward me in the kitchen. Three years ago, I discovered my first garlic scapes in my summer share, a delightful treat that I used in all sorts of delicious places:
However, the box sometimes contains more challenging ingredients that I work harder to prepare in a way that my family will eat.
Today, I am still working on some week one vegetables. Trying to keep up because I know another box arrives on Wednesday. I was very proud of myself for using four eggplants in one day this week, and getting four members of my family (including two kids) to help cook that meal. It included baked egglplant parmesean medallions topped with garlicky stewed tomatoes and mozzarella and parmesean. We also made a modified rattatouile (which I apparently can't spell) with eggplant, onions, sweet peppers, garlic, fresh basil and parsley and more tomatoes. Both delicious. At least one kid ate both.
My challenge this week is two fennel bulbs like this one:
They are celery-like in consistency, but the problem is that they taste like licorice. Having once had a memorable and unpleasant experience with Sambuca, a licorice flavored liquor, the licorice flavor is ruined for me. Possibly for life. This was more than 20 years ago. I placed the fennel in my onion bowl this week, so I would be reminded repeatedly to find a use for them. First, I offered them in an email to the five other families that create our fall farm share carpool group. The farm doesn't deliver the fall farm share to our community, so several families banded together to share the 45 minute drive to the farm each week. We each pick up all the shares one week and deliver to five other houses. No takers from them on the offer of more free fennel. I'm thinking fennel is not well loved.
This morning I was inspired by a memory of my father. One of the things he cooked in his later years was a red cabbage dish he often served with saurbraten, a german pot roast. A large head of red cabbage from last week's box remained in my fridge. I remembered that he sometimes put fennel seeds in his red cabbage. This might have been an accident because I think his recipe actually calls for caraway seeds. In any case, I decided to try slow-cooked fennel and red cabbage. Plus beer. My father liked beer. There are a few rare beers in my fridge this week. Since I no longer drink them, they are also part of my cooking challenge for the week. I used two today.
I love the challenge of cooking with what's available. I rarely follow recipes exactly (except when I bake). Here is what I conjured up today inspired by the fennel, red cabbage, and beer:
Red cabbage with fennel and ale
~1 Tbs Butter
1 small onion sliced on my mandolin
2 bulbs fennel sliced thin on my mandolin
2 cloves garlic, crushed
1 red cabbage, cut in thin slices
1 bottle of ale
splash of white vinegar
handful of light brown sugar
~1 tsp salt
a dash or three of ground black pepper
Saute the onion and fennel in the butter in a large pot until limp. Add the garlic and saute a few more minutes. Add cabbage and a bottle of ale. Bring liquid to boil and cover. Add a splash of white vinegar (maybe 1/4 cup-ish) and a handful of brown sugar (maybe 1/3 cup). Add salt and pepper to taste. Reduce heat to low. Stir occasionally. Cook over low heat for 90 minutes to 2 hours.
For the second bottle of beer I started a beef stew in my crock pot. My crock pot gets lots of use this time of year. In the past few weeks I have made meatballs and marinara, pulled pork, and chicken thighs and potatoes.
Beef stew with ale
1 onion, choped in 1 inch pieces
2 cloves of garlic, crushed
handful of carrots
handful of white mushrooms, quartered
2 lbs of cubed stew beef
5 red potatoes cut in 1 inch pieces
1 bottle of ale
2 cups of beef broth, heated up
handful of flour mixed into beef broth
dash or three of black pepper
salt to taste
Combine all ingredients in crock pot. Set to high. Wait.
The garlic, onion, and potatoes are from the farm share.
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