This is going to be my attempt to blog about what I do with my CSA shares in the kitchen.
I would never consider myself a chef: I don’t follow recipes, I don’t like to cook anything that takes a lot of prep time, I never really have the right utensils to cook with, but I like making my own food and eating at home. I’m part of three CSAs and more often than not, find my fridge overflowing with food that sometimes goes bad (horrible, I know). I pick up meat shares from High Point Farms, veggies from Cobble Hill CSA, and of course I get my fruit from Red Jacket. I’m beginning to find that the best way to eat all my delicious food (without canning or pickling), is just to try just cook it all with no apprehensions: throw it all together, try new things, and hope for the best. To make a long story short, I’m going to blog about the dishes I make with my Red Jacket share – because fruit doesn’t have to just be eaten in pies or raw.
Ham Steak Roasted with Plums and Peaches
I drizzled olive oil, salt, and pepper on a ham steak, cut up some plums and peaches and put them on top of the steak. Roasted it for 15 minutes or so, and then sprinkled some thyme from my indoor “garden”. I also added a few raw plums to add texture (roasting them softens them up more). The roasted plums and apricots added a little sugar to the steak. When eating a bite of steak and fruit, it was the perfect contrasting balance of salty and sweet. A real trip for the taste buds. This took me all in all about 20 minutes to make – 7 minutes if you don’t count the time I watched Mad Men while it was roasting in the oven.
Stew Beef and Peaches in the Crock Pot
This really consisted of me throwing almost all the produce that was in my fridge right into a Crock Pot. I threw in my stew beef, onions, tomatoes, pepper, squash, and peaches into the crock pot with an inch or two of water. Added some salt, pepper and soy sauce.
Slow Cooked Pork Ribs with Peaches
In a Crock Pot, I put in some pork ribs, onions, and peaches with spicy bbq sauce, salt, and syrup. I can’t even tell you how good it tasted….ok I’ll try to tell you – it tasted really good.
Grilled Cinnamon Quince
I peeled the skin, cut the quince into wedges, added sugar and cinnamon, sprinkled olive oil on top, and wrapped it in foil. After sitting on the grill for about 10 minutes, the fruit was soft and cooked. This took me about five minutes of prep time and the outcome was great. Soft and tangy, with a hint of sweetness.
Quince and Kale
First, I cut up the quince into tiny cubes. I sauteed them in duck lard, added onions and then some cut up kale. I then added just a dash of salt and some thyme.
Quince Salsa
I haven’t made this yet, but the idea sounds delicious, don’t you think?
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