Nicole, Deipnosophist.

Have I touted the delicious benefits of Farm Fresh Delivery? I receive a bin of fresh, seasonal, organic fruits and vegetables every week. They offer a standard selection that varies by week; also, they allow for modifications and substitutions if you don’t want a rutabaga and would prefer oranges.

I love that the bin comes with recipes for using the stuff. For example, I had never eaten fennel, and the fennel salad recipe was simple, healthful, and delicious. I’m licking my own produce section.

On the negative side, you can’t pick your own items, so you may get an apple with a mushy spot. And I’ve found that the shelf life for organics is half what it was for chemically-enhanced produce. Also, the website for updating produce is not the easiest to navigate. Not only do I have a short window to adjust the bin, if I miss the window, I have no clue what they are sending me! Difficult for menu planning.

OK enough. On to the recipe. I was inspired by a bunch of things I found in my bin this week and some potatoes from last week.

Add

2T butter and
1T olive oil

To a skillet on medium-high heat. While the butter foams, chop and add

One small yellow onion.

After onion has started to turn golden, add

One small bunch rainbow carrots (see note below)

One pound porcini or other mushrooms, chunked into quarters

Reduce heat to medium and stir occasionally until mushrooms have given up their water and all vegetables are golden. Add

3T whole wheat flour

and stir until mixture has cracker-y consistency and flour is turning gold. Deglaze the pan with

4T good red wine (I used cabernet). Slowly add

One teaspoon No-Beef stock base, dissolved in one cup warm water

1/2t black pepper
2t coarsely chopped parsley
2t finely chopped fresh rosemary.

Stir frequently. Once mixture has thickened (about 3 minutes), add

1/2c fat-free yogurt and
1/2c heavy cream (I know, these two ingredients are an oxymoron).

Simmer until thickened. Serve over garlic mashed potatoes.

I had fun inventing this recipe. You’ll note that there’s no salt added. That’s because the only drawback to the No-Beef base is that it is a bit too salty.

The purple carrots add a beautiful color to a sauce that could have been brownish grey. Hey, Pasta Queen, have you ever licked a purple carrot? (I promise that’s not as bad as it sounds!!!!)

Prep time: 20 min
Cook time: 15 min
Taste:
Ease:

A serious fried food craving overtook us, so we succumbed. Our dinner of vegetables couldn’t have been much less healthful!

Slice

2 large eggplant (or a meaty squash such as zucchini)

into rounds about 1/2 inch thick. Add in layers to a colander; sprinkle each layer of rounds liberally with

kosher salt.

Allow salt to pull out water for at least 30 minutes. Shake excess water off of eggplants. Dredge in

1/2 cup whole wheat pastry flour

And allow dredge to set for 10-20 minutes. Meanwhile, heat

2 cups peanut oil

to 375 degrees F in a cast iron skillet. Prepare coating by blending

1 cup coarsely ground whole wheat bread crumbs
3 T finely minced parsley
1 t granulated garlic (use powder only if granulated is unavailable)
1/4 t freshly ground black pepper

Toss ingredients to combine. Prepare each round by dipping in

2 eggs, beaten until slightly light in color

then dipping in bread crumb mixture. Working in batches, add rounds to hot oil. Flip after 90 seconds. Check color after an additional 2 minutes; if golden brown, pull from oil and allow to drain. Tilt rounds against each other so oil can drain well from top surface. Serve immediately with marinara for dipping.

Salting the rounds is imperative; without salting and shaking off the water, eggplant and squash are so high in moisture that they can become soggy when fried. I use an immersible thermometer to constantly read temperature. My draining rack (barely visible in the right side of the picture) is a cooling rack over yesterday’s WSJ.

The coarse bread crumbs give a nice nutty crunch. As I ate, I thought that two large rounds with a piece of cheddar would make a nice veggie burger on a bun, ready for ketchup and mustard and other summer condiments.

Prep time: 40 minutes
Total Time: 90 minutes
Taste: [rate3.5]
Ease:

Incredibly easy.

Drain

2 25 ounce cans whole roma tomatoes.

Chop coarsely;  drain, pushing liquid through strainer.  (Save this juice for bloody marys)  To a blender, add

1/2 small onion
3 cloves garlic
1 T cumin, roasted and ground
3 dashes smoke seasoning
2 red jalapeno peppers, whole
1t smoked paprika
juice of one lime

Put drained tomatoes on top.  Blend thoroughly.  To the blender, add

2t kosher salt (more or less to taste)
1 small bunch cilantro, stemmed (about one small handful of leaves)

Pulse until cilantro leaves are in small pieces.  Drain one last time, adding juice to the bloody mary mix.  Serve with freshly fried flour tortillas (if you have time to make them!).

This recipe is very easy, and almost anything can be adjusted.  If you are not in a hurry, use fresh tomoatoes and roast the tomatoes, onion, and pepper at 400F for 30 minutes.  Omit smoke seasoning.

Prep time: 10 minutes
Taste: 
Ease:

Looking for a quick recipe that tastes long-simmered?  Look no further…

Into a large, heavy pot, over medium high heat, add

¼ c extra virgin olive oil (or butter)

and heat until oil shimmers (or butter stops foaming).  Roughly chop

1 medium yellow onion
12 ounces Portobello mushroom caps (or baby bellas, aka criminis)

Sauté onions until soft; add mushrooms.  Sauté mixture until onions are golden and mushrooms have given off all water.

Turn heat to high; deglaze pan with

3/4 cup Burgundy wine (white or red)

and allow to reduce by half.  Turn heat to medium; add

1 1/2 c vegetable or chicken stock
1 T fresh thyme leaves
1 bay leaf
1-2 t freshly ground black pepper
Tiny pinch cayenne pepper

Simmer for 10-15 minutes, or until mushrooms are tender.  Add

1 c heavy whipping cream
2 green onions, chopped, green part only
2 sprigs parsley, chopped fine
Salt to taste (about 1t)

Bring to a simmer again.  Use an immersion blender to blend about half of the soup, leaving some chunks of onion and mushroom.  Taste and adjust salt/pepper as needed.

Makes 4 servings. This is delicious with toast dressed in extra virgin olive oil and shredded parmesan, toasted until golden.  The mushroom caps are very robustly flavored and I recommend the red wine version.  Using baby bellas lends less woodsy flavor and the white wine will not overpower the more delicate flavor.
 
Prep time: 15 minutes
Total time: 25 minutes
Taste
Ease

Note: all amounts on vegetables/herbs are approximate.  Do not change the amount of cornstarch added.

To a large crockpot, add in this order:

1 bulb fennel, cut into chunks
4 ribs organic celery, cut into chunks (or the base of one bunch of celery stalks, degritted)
4 carrots, chunked
two large or three small onions, chunked
Mushroom stems from 8-16 ounces cremini or button mushrooms (optional)
2 t dried Mexican sweet oregano, uncrushed (optional)
10-20 black peppercorns
6-10 cloves garlic, peeled and lightly crushed
1/2 bunch fresh italian flat leaf parsley (about 1 cup)

Fill crock pot with water until barely covering ingredients.  Simmer on low for 8 hours (or high for 4), uncovered for the last half hour.  Remove from heat.  Strain through a chinoise (then strain again through cheesecloth for really clear stock…but I’m too lazy for that step!).  While stock is still hot, make a slurry of

1 T corn starch
2 T water

While stirring stock, add slurry until well mixed.

Organic celery is more flavorful; if not using organic, increase celery to 6 ribs or add 1/4 teaspoon celery seed.  This stock can tend to have some residual bitterness; to combat this, replace one cup of the cooking water with one cup beer.  I freeze this stock in 2-cup containers; 4 cups takes forever to thaw and is often too much for a non-soup recipe.  To amp up the flavor, add fennel, celery, carrots, onions in the crock pot insert and roast in a 450F oven for about 30 minutes or until golden brown and roasty-smelling.  Remove from oven; allow to cool, then proceed with recipe as written.  If the container is not cooled before adding water, the cold water could crack your insert.

Prep time: 15-20 min
Cook time: 8 hours
Taste:
Ease: