This week your basket contains: snap peas (full shares only), kohlrabi (half shares only), red, white & blue potatoes, dill, beets, lettuce, zucchini, cucumber, garlic, spring onions, and broccoli and/or Asian broccoli.

THANK YOU TO ALL WHO ATTENDED OUR SUBSCRIBER POTLUCK this past Sunday.  We enjoyed meeting new people, catching up with long time subscribers, and cooking many delicious pizzas for you all.  We may have jumped the gun a bit, but we promise BLUEBERRIES will be ready soon.  We will have pints available for $3 or flats of 12 pints for $30.  Email us to order.

This is one of my favorite summer recipes.  It can be made with either regular or Asian broccoli.

BEET AND BROCCOLI SALAD

A great salad can be made with beets and broccoli. We steam the broccoli and beets together with the sliced beets on bottom.  Generally, when the broccoli is done (i.e. just turned dark green and starting to get tender) the beets are also done.  We then toss them in a simple vinaigrette and serve them either warm or cold.  This vinaigrette is the one we use:

VINAIGRETTE

1 clove garlic

1 tsp salt

3 Tbs red wine vinegar

1 tsp wet mustard

5 Tbs extra virgin olive oil

black pepper

Press garlic into the bottom of  your salad bowl.  With a fork, mix well with salt until it forms a paste.  Mix in vinegar and mustard until salt is dissolved.  Whisk in olive oil to make an emulsion.  Add black pepper to taste.  These proportions are in no way set in stone.  You should experiment to find the proportions you prefer.  Also, other spices, herbs and vinegars can be used to vary the dressing.

One of the dishes that a subscriber brought to the pot luck was cupcake versions of this recipe.  Sounds odd, but it is very good (and a great way to feed beets to anyone who thinks they don’t like beets).

CHOCOLATE BEET CAKE

1 ¼ c. beet puree (see below)

3 eggs

½ c. vegetable oil

½ tsp. salt

¾ c. cocoa powder

1 ½ c. sugar

1 tsp. vanilla

1 ½ c. flour

1 ½ tsp. baking soda

Beet puree can be made ahead of time. Basically, you need to cook beets until they can be easily pierced with a fork. You can roast whole in silver foil (this takes about an hour) or chunk and boil. Either peel before cooking (if boiling) or after (if roasting). Puree cooked beets in blender or food processor. You want the puree to be pretty thick, but you can add a touch of cooking water to make them whirl. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour bundt pan (or 8-9” square pan). In a large bowl, beat eggs. Whisk in sugar, oil, vanilla, salt and beet puree. In a separate bowl, mix flour, cocoa and soda. Add dry ingredients to wet ingredients a little at a time until incorporated. Pour batter into prepared pan and bake 45-50 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.

In honor of July 4^th we’ve included red white & blue potatoes.  Here is our favorite potato salad recipe.

POTATO SALAD FROM PERIGORD

1 1/2 lbs. potatoes, unpeeled

1 garlic clove, cut

1 onion, sliced

2 Tbsp. chopped sour gherkin

1 Tbsp. capers, drained

1 Tbsp. chopped parsley

2 tsp. chopped chives

1 tsp. chopped tarragon

salt and pepper

2 eggs, hard boiled

3 Tbsp. vinegar

1/4 c. olive oil, or to taste

To make a Gribache sauce:  mash the egg yolk into a puree with the vinegar and salt and pepper to taste.  Incorporate the olive oil (or a mix of walnut and peanut oils), using enough to suit your taste. Boil or steam potatoes until tender.  Run under cold water to cool.  Cut into thick slices and keep warm.   Rub the inside of a salad bowl with the cut garlic clove.  Put the potatoes into the bowl with the onion, gherkin, capers, parsley, chives and tarragon, season with salt and pepper.  Pour the sauce over the salad and mix well.  Garnish with chopped egg white.  Serve warm or cold. (The gherkin and capers can be omitted.   Olives can be substituted.  Tarragon is optional and cilantro would work well).  Adapted from Salads by the editors of Time-Life Books