Saturday, May 3, 2008

Today's Bountiful Harvest

Today's harvest was even better than last week. They have ingredients that will make a meal together, ie. peppers, onion, avocados, cilantro and bell peppers for fajitas! (Sunday's dinner). They also have ingredients for salsa. I figured if everything was on a great sale, I would have spent about $30 -35 and I only paid $15. The bread cost $2 each. All of the produce is really big and in real good condition. The pick up was real smooth and fast today. Very impressed overall!Try it out if you haven't already! I just had to share this one more time for those of you in AZ who were still wanting info.

I will give you some of the recipes I used with these items this week.

Here are my basket contents:

9 keylimes

14 red potatoes

3 avocados

8 apples

11 carrots

bunch broccoli

4 zucchini

4 cucumbers

3 grapefruit

7 bananas

9 oranges

4 onions

2 red bell peppers

2 bunches cilantro

7 tomatoes

romaine

2 comments:

Melissa said...

I am a little more tempted this time. Last time I couldn't get past the radishes. I am still struggling with the zucchini, but I am getting closer to trying it. Can you tell them the things you don't want? I hate wasting food and I know I wouldn't use some of the things. (I swear I am not that picky)

Anna and Ryan said...

Hi Shari. I'm a friend of Shawni's and I found your blog through hers. I live in North Carolina and am doing a similar thing through a CSA(farm share) so each week I get a box of locally grown produce filled with things like bok choy and kholrabi which I have never EATEN before, much less cooked with. It's turning out to be a lot of fun. Anyway, I saw that you got avocados in your box and I wanted to pass on this recipe. I know it might sound gross (I guarantee you I wouldn't have tried making it if a friend hadn't served it to me first!) It is delicious! If you get more avocados you might want to give this soup a whirl.

Chilled Avocado-Tomatillo Soup
From The Border Cookbook by Cheryl Alters Jamison and Bill Jamison

Serves 4

3 chopped roasted mild green chiles, preferably poblano or New Mexican, fresh or frozen
10 to 12 ounces tomatillos, husked, roasted, and chunked (core them too)
2 Haas avocados, chunked
1 teaspoon salt, or more to taste
1 garlic clove, minced
Generous grinding of black pepper
3 cups chilled defatted chicken stock (I uses Swanson’s brand—it comes in a box)
1 to 2 tablespoons of sour cream, Crema, or crème fraiche
Juice of 1 lime (be careful, it will go sour—a little bit is best)

Sliced green onions and slivered red radishes, for garnish

In a blender, combine all the ingredients except the lime juice and puree until smooth. Taste the mixture, adding more salt or pepper if you like and as much lime juice as is needed to heighten the soups fresh citrus flavor without making it sour.

The soup is ready to serve but can be refrigerated for 1 hour or longer without losing its sprightly green color. Garnish individual bowls of soup with green onion and radish slices.

To roast tomatillos: Broil whole tomatillos for ten to fifteen minutes. Remove the paper skin first. When picking tomatillos, the best ones have a loose paper skin with some air between the paper and the fruit inside. If you can find some that are a little bit soft—not mushy, but not hard as rocks—they are usually better tasting. You may be able to use canned/frozen tomatillos if you can find them, but I haven’t ever tried them in this recipe.

To roast green poblano or New Mexican chiles: Put the whole chiles in a single layer on a grill, or on a baking sheet beneath a broiler, and heat them until they are blistered and uniformly darkened. Transfer the chile to a sturdy plastic bag to steam, which loosens the skin and make it easier to peel after the chiles are cool enough to handle.

You can use the whole chile seeds and all, but I usually discard the seeds—that is what is “hot” about chiles. These are mild chiles, but I still just prefer the flavor to any bite.

Best,
Anna