Weekend Evaluation: This is Not Awesome

Maybe this should be an airing of grievances - but summer is the greatest time of the year; but it's also the most frustrating.  The produce is amazingly great, so you should cook at home all of the time, but it's so nice out you want to be out enjoying the weather.

I guess this is why people have grills.  Too bad we just bought tiny house and it doesn't even have any outdoor space.

On top of that, since everything looks great so I always buy too much at the farmer's market.  I don't want to miss out on a thing, especially in the early spring certain product comes and goes so fast.  You need to jump right on asparagus and favas since before you know it, they're gone.  So with this stuff on top of the regular CSA share I always have a slammed refrigerator every Saturday; and spend the weekend digging out of the mess. 

This week asparagus, rhubarb and scapes probably made their last appearance at the market, but cherries showed up, so I felt compelled to buy them with no real idea of what I was going to do.

Usually this means a lot of great food that's fairly easy to prepare and an opportunity to be creative; but not when you're not trying to prepare to move in less than a week and still get out and enjoy the 86 degree weather.  It becomes just one more thing you have to deal with, a chore...almost. 

This led to some rushed and sloppy cooking; pretty stupid.

- Rhubarb Jam - 

The rhubarb has been disappearing, so when I saw some at the farmers market I jumped on it and made some more jam.


Positive -   I managed to make this jam, the ice cream and the ricotta all in 45 minutes total.  I'm amazed I got it done, but they aren't going to taste great since I rushed all three.


Negative - I'm not too sure if it's sweet enough, and I used brown sugar, so the color is kind of brownish.  I wanted to add some fresh herbs, or something more creative; but again, I was just trying to get everything done this weekend.

- Grilled Asparagus, with Fried Egg, Lemon/Basil vinegrette -

Positive - Had this for a quick lunch on Sunday; it tasted pretty good.  This is probably the last of the asparagus we're going to have for a very long time (besides pickles); so I wanted to prepare it with an egg; since Gretchen and I both really love great eggs.  Adding an egg, poached, fried, or whatever just seems to add a great richness that makes things taste more intense.  Maybe it's the fat in the yolk that convey the flavors better; I don't know but it just works. 

Basil is all over the place right now, and it has been so long since I've had it I was just pulling leaves off the bunch I bought at the farmers market and eating them Saturday morning.

- Cherry Ice Cream -

Positive - Was excited to get Cherries again; and the flavor of the ice cream is OK

Negative - Trying to freeze ice cream on a 90 degree kitchen doesn't work too well.  Between the long freezing time and the extra water from the cherry juice made this turn out really icy.  I normally add milk powder to ice cream bases to help the texture; and should have added more because of the extra water content.

- Stuffed Squash Blossoms -

Stuffed these with a ricotta basil mixture, kind of like a ravoli filling; and battered them with a light beer batter and shallow fried.

Positive - I've seen these at the market for years, but never bought them.  They were pretty good; but my filling had problems.

Negative - Probably didn't have the oil heated up enough so they browned slowly cooking the filling too much; they got kind of 'weepy' like any over cooked custard.

I was in a hurry when I made the ricotta, so I added a lot of citric acid and turned the heat up; both of these help speed the curdling process, but also cause a drier ricotta.

- Calaloo and Red Scallion Omelet -

  
Positive - Tried another green I've never had before, this tastes a lot like the lamb's quarters.  These actually seem to go really well with eggs to me.  The grassy flavor of the greens seem to pull that flavor out of the eggs; it's really crazy how much better fresh eggs are than the supermarket eggs; the

- Basil Whole Wheat Levain Boule - 

Again trying to use up the whole wheat flour; with a 70-72 percent hydration.  I used about 3/4 cup by volume of starter and forgot to turn on the scale when I add it to the bowl so I'm not really sure of the hydration level.  My starter is roughly 50/50 flour water by weight; but it was pretty risen when I assembled the dough.


Positive - This rose well, and it tastes fine; though not as assertive a sourdough taste; and isn't really basil enough either.  I didn't do a soaker or use that much starter (since it was risen), so I'm not surprised it's so mild.  I am glad it rose- two weeks in a row with no commercial yeast; I feel like it's 2009 all over again.

Negative - Needed more salt and maybe more sweetness.  I used the last of the honey, so I was just out.  I should have added parm; but I had that thought after I was done kneading, and to add more would have overworked the dough.  Overall this is fine.

- Roasted Beet puree -

w/dill and garlic 
 

Positive - It's still really early in the season for beets, but these taste much better than the wintered over ones I've been eating.  Really sweet.  When you roast them the bottom gets all carmelized and almost burnt; these tasted like candy.

Negative - I was having a problem pureeing these so I added some yogurt, and it probably ended up being too thin; or at least thinner than I wanted.  Hopefully it set up in the refrigerator.

- Italian Sausage w/ creamy pesto and tomato relish on a kolsh-yeast roll - 

- Pigeon/Black Eyed peas and sauteed beet greens (or spinach) -

Positive - The italian sausages taste pretty good, and the rolls were fine.  The pesto turned out well; and even the hothouse tomatoes that are showing up no are better than supermarket tomatoes.

Negative - The casings on these sausages have been an issue at times.  I use hog casings and brown them pretty well; but at times they're still chewy.  Maybe I need even smaller diameter casings so they aren't so tough; need to do more research.

- Bean Puree -

Basil, lemon, Garlic, Scallion

CSA Week 3

Toscano Kale 

Red Beets & Greens
Red Boston Lettuce
Kohlrabi
Baby Arugula
Garlic Scapes
Baby Spinach
Raspberries