CSA Shares Jan 28 - 30, 2021

Hello RCF CSA members! Contents for this week's shares:

Produce Shares
hydroponic greens--kale or swiss chard / hydroponic lettuce

mung bean sprouts / apples--Black Arkansas or Granny Smith

carrots / rutabaga / sweet potato purple or Covington / turnip / beet (as pictured left to right below)

The turnips and rutabagas look very similar, but the turnips are whiter and fatter/shorter round, rutabagas more yellow and elongated some, and are denser.

Mung bean sprouts

freshest within 5-7 days; best for saute/stir fry

By now you've seen the variety in different sprout textures. Mung bean sprouts are great in stir fries or brothy soups like with ramen. These and all sprouts will have a short shelf life and should be consumed probably within 5-7 days. Again, recipe suggestions below. Most of Friday and all of Saturday deliveries are getting carrots instead of the sprouts. The late harvest means these will be super sweet.

Protein Shares

With a full variety of different proteins these days, there isn't much fluctuation from share to share other than the beef cuts. Currently most shares are going out with higher end beef cuts, including bone in ribeyes, New York Strips, filets, and big poundage roasts. A few years back, I demonstrated a reverse sear method on WJHL's Daytime TriCities cooking segment to promote our annual farm to table dinner, Grown & Gathered. I'll include those steps below.

Bakery Shares

This week's shares include a sourdough sandwich loaf, peanut butter cookies, bachelor's buttons with blackberries, apple stromboli, and a garden foccacia. Pasta this week is creste rigate or spaghetti, and 2x pizza kit is included as usual.

Happy eating!
Elise, Jamie & the crew at
River Creek Farm

Meal Planning Suggestions
CSA subscriber Liz B. has shared this beautiful butternut curry recipe with us, to take on her pile of accumulated butternut! The winter squash is done for the season, but this recipe also makes great use of any root veggies you'll have on hand. While this shot is a beautiful presentation, I probably wouldn't cook this curry in an iron skillet, as some of that metallic taste can end up in your dish. It's best to avoid all acids in an iron skillet.

https://littlespicejar.com/thai-butternut-squash-red-curry/

Lunch 1: Salad with lettuce, crunchy sprouts, roasted beet, apple & pickled onion. Balsamic vinaigrette or dressing of choice. Feta or other cheese if preferred.

Top with brined & roasted split chicken breast. Split chicken breast recipe: brine your poultry overnight by submerging in salt water. Add any other preferred seasonings at this time, and of course plenty of garlic. Next day, pat chicken skin dry, rub with oil and dry seasonings, roast at 425F approximately 45 minutes till interior temp hits 155F, it should come to 165F while resting. Lid on makes for a moister breast, less skin browning, remove the lid for the final 10-15 minutes and use the broiler if preferred to brown the skin.

Lunch 2: Creamy rutabaga, kale & chicken soup with sourdough toast

I followed the above steps to set up my chicken roast, and surrounded the chicken breasts in the pan with garlic cloves, onions, and diced rutabaga. I poured the brine water over the veggies for the roast. When the chicken is finished, the rutabagas should be tender. Remove from the cooking liquid and reserve. Pull the chicken into shreds, mash the rutabaga, and add the liquid back with an immersion blender if on hand. Rutabagas are a great potato substitute, as they contain less starchy sugars. I saved the rest of the mashed rutabaga for dinner.

Dinner 1: Reverse sear ribeye, mashed rutabaga and garlicky sauteed kale.

The goal is to bring the entire steak to nearly finished temperature before introducing the high heat at the end to sear off a golden brown crisp. You should see you'll manage to keep more of the interior temperature true to your desired finish temperature once it's sliced. The best thing you can do for your steak is to open it from its package, salt and season it and leave it uncovered in the refrigerator for minimum 24 hours. You're setting up the first steps of evaporation from the surface of the steak, to improve the browning you'll get in sear, and you're allowing time for the salt to season the steak throughout, instead of only applying to the surface. A thorough explanation and detailed steps here: https://www.seriouseats.com/2017/03/how-to-reverse-sear-best-way-to-cook-steak.html


Dinner 2: Hot and sour soup with cabbage, tofu, straw mushroom & mung bean sprouts. House lo mein

Stir fry lo mein with flank steak, cabbage, carrots, and mung bean sprouts. Rice noodles, buckwheat noodles, or even our semolina spaghetti or fecttucine will work fine in a lo mein stir fry. Thick soy sauce goes far to flavor a dish without adding extra moisture.

Breakfast: Apple beet muffins.

Follow your favorite banana bread recipe, and update it with really ANY preferred fruit or vegetable. Be mindful of how much moisture you are or aren't adding. Beets should be grated and quickly roasted before mixing in to the batter.

Snacks: Beet pickled deviled eggs.

You'll get both the glory of the pickled beet and a beautiful stained egg in the end. Hard boil eggs and peel OR lightly crack the shell for a textured crackle stain. Add beets to a standard refrigerated pickle recipe, and soak your eggs. The longer the soak, the deeper the stain. Finish prepping for standard deviled egg recipe, top with fennel and candied bacon chip.