Spinach pizza; turnip spice cake

Hi everyone,

I see Patricia posted this link in the newsletter, so if you're just checking us out for the first time, welcome! We've set ourselves the project of blogging for a year about how we use up the Taproot CSA box. We don't always mention everything - apples and carrots tend to go in lunches, so I don't really write about them - but we'll try to let you know how we use up most of the box ingredients. We include recipes the first time we write about something, but we do have some stand-bys we cook often, so we won't repeat those recipes. You can search previous entries by ingredient. The hope is that it'll give people some ideas about how to use unfamiliar vegetables - or overly familiar ones! We'd love to hear what you're doing with your box in the comments.

Thursday I made an 'old standby' - German skillet of sausages, sauerkraut and potatoes. I added in some purple cabbage and while it makes the potatoes look a little odd (they turn blotchy purple) it tastes good.

Friday I made spinach pizza, inspired by a pizza I used to love at Porterhouse North in Dublin. It also had portabella mushrooms, which I didn't have yesterday, and is really good with a handful of arugula dropped on top after it comes out of the oven (which I also didn't have). But our version was tasty nonetheless. Brush a whole wheat pizza base with olive oil. Crush a clove of garlic and spread it over the base (or if you prefer less garlic, cut a clove in half and rub the halves on the base). Spread washed (uncooked) spinach over the base. Dot with kalamata olives and generous amounts of blue cheese. Cook until base is crispy and cheese is melted.

Today I was going to make turnip spice cake, but when I cut the turnip into cubes and steamed it, Ria ate most of it. For breakfast. I swear she would choose turnip over candy. Weird child! But I'll include the recipe here anyways, since I promised it last time.

Turnip Spice Cake

2 ½ cups whole wheat flour

¼ tsp salt

2 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp nutmeg

¼ tsp cloves

½ cup butter

1 cup brown sugar

1 cup soured milk (if you don’t have sour milk, combine 1 T lemon juice and 1 cup milk, and let it sit for 5 minutes)

2 tsp baking soda

1 ½ cups cold mashed turnip

1 ½ cups raisins

Preheat oven to 350 F. Combine flour, salt and spices. Cream butter and sugar. Stir the baking soda into the soured milk; add to sugar mixture. Mix in the turnip and raisins. Combine with the dry ingredients. Bake in a 13 x 9 pan for 40 minutes.

Right now I'm boiling beets, and will make roasted beets for supper, I think. Kenneth won't like them but his folks are coming over, so they and Ria can eat most of them. The recipe is from a vegetarian cookbook called Paradiso Seasons (a fantastic cookbook)

20 small beets (I have more than that)

olive oil

salt

1 T balsamic vinegar

1 tsp caraway

1 onion, thinly sliced

Boil beets then lift them out to a bowl of cold water. Rub the skins off. Put the beets in an oven dish and toss with olive oil and salt. Cook 375 F for 15 minutes. Sprinkle on balsamic vinegar and caraway seeds and cook another five minutes.

I'll let you know how they taste!

-Kathy

Lemon greens penne

I kept it simple tonight: pasta with salmon and greens. This is a very easy-dish - mild-flavoured, but the flavours mix nicely and I think shine better than in a more overpowering dish.

Grill some salmon fillets (one fewer than the number of people). Meanwhile, start the water boiling. Wash the greens - I used spinach and the rest of last week's savoy cabbage, but you can use any greens - and slice them to manageable size. Heat 1-2 T of olive oil and 3-4 T of lemon juice in a large pan or wok. Add 1 T of lemon zest. Start the tougher greens in the pan. When the water boils, cook 1 c of penne per person. Add the spinach or other greens to the pan. Break the salmon into bite-sized chunks and stir into the greens. Drain the pasta; add to the pan. Toss with a bit more olive oil and lemon juice (the dish should be quite lemony). Serve with lots of fresh parmesan and fresh ground pepper.

Patricia said some people were having trouble using up the beets - I think I'll make pickled beets this weekend, but if that doesn't suit your fancy, try the beet conserve: http://csanovascotia.blogspot.com/2011/02/root-vegetable-chips-parsnip-and-carrot.html.

-Kathy