Eating My Share (8.31.10)

Back to basics.

First off, an apology. My lack of posts had more to do with August travels than the hazy lazy daze of late summer. (If you click on my profile, you can see what I was up to in my new travel blog.) Missing posts aside, it's time to get back to work.

Sometimes eating a CSA share is all about keeping it simple. The great thing about the three "s's" - soups, salads and salsas - is that they use up a large portion of your share without being horribly labor intensive. You pretty much clean your veggies (which you should be doing regardless), chop and mix together. Minimum creativity for maximum effect.

This is really a two-fer, as the photos were taken over the course of two distributions. The week of August 24 brought rain and cooler temperatures, and as I had just returned from a week out west, most of my veggies were looking a little soggy. That is the perfect time to bring out the stockpot. Because I had been traveling, my supplies were depleted, and I could actually see the back of my freezer. In it were several ziplock bags filled with greens. Remember that smoked hock bone I was saving? Found that, too. Into a pot of water it all went. For two days on low.

Ideally, you want to cook mammal bones for three days to get all the nutrients out, but this really requires a crock pot, something I do not own. So, I let my soup simmer on the back burner for two days (turning it off at night; it was still quite warm by the next morning, although being an insomniac limited the time my stock was unheated). The result was a nice rich broth, even before I added any seasoning. I simply strained the stock of the meat, bones and limp greens, and to it I added carrots, cabbage, chives and chicken. I called it "C Soup."

Next came the salad, a mix of green and red leaf lettuce along with green onion, cauliflower, mild peppers, tomatoes and cucumber. I added a basic dressing of apple cider vinegar and olive oil; sonny took his salad with Ranch (of course! hey, just a spoonful of high fructose corn syrup makes the vegetables go down!).

Finally, this week it was tomatillo time. This little vegetable is a toughie. If you aren't used to it, knowing how to use it can be a challenge. I take it easy and go for the salsa verde (recipe below). I add it to eggs or lettuce or garnish meat dishes.

And all three leave room for leftovers (I actually froze a good bit of the soup for later consumption). Et voila, le dîner est servi!

Salsa (almost) Verde

All items should be chopped and then mixed together; add olive oil last.

• About two dozen tomatillos
  
• 1 bunch fresh pipicha, cleaned from stem (or cilantro, if pipicha unavailable)
  
• 1/2 red onion (medium-large)
  
• 1 whole tomato (large)
  
• 6 small poblano peppers
  
• 1/4 cup olive oil