This week your basket contains: cauliflower, carrots, beets, elephant garlic, Florence fennel, cooking greens (Swiss chard, kale, and Chinese cabbage), celeriac, broccoli OR Romanesco, and leeks. 

We hope your Thanksgiving was as fun and tasty as ours.  Polly has posted a blog post to our web site featuring some of the dishes we made from the veggie lineup from your double basket.  Check it out for some good ideas for using this season’s bounty.  Our December schedule will be as follows: Double baskets on 12/15 & 22; skip deliveries on 12/29 & 1/5; resume normal deliveries on 1/12.  This info will also be posted on the home page of our web site.

Since we have not yet had a frost (!), we are able to continue broccoli harvest.  Some of you will have Romanesco (the spirally broccoli/cauliflower heads).  Romanesco is not only beautiful, it has a nutty flavor that is amazing.  The unique for of this broccoli/cauliflower means you can use it in any recipe calling for the normal form of either of those veggies. 

Borscht is a quintessential winter dish that, to me, feels like eating good health from a bowl.  While the recipe calls for cabbage, the greens mix will work just as well. You can also use diced celeriac in place of the celery called for. 

RUSSIAN CABBAGE BORSCHT

2 Tbsp. butter

1 1/2 c. chopped onion or leek

4 c. stock or water

1 1/2 c. thinly sliced potato

2 tsp. salt

1 c. thinly sliced beets

black pepper

1 large sliced carrot

1/4 tsp. dill weed

1 stalk chopped celery (optional)

1 1/2 Tbsp. vinegar

3 c. chopped cabbage

1 c. tomato puree

1 scant tsp. caraway seeds

sour cream for topping

Begin cooking onions or leek in butter in a large kettle. Add caraway seeds and salt and cook until translucent. Add celery, carrots, potatoes, beets and cabbage. Add water and simmer slowly for 45 minutes. About 15 minutes before serving add pepper, dill weed, vinegar, and tomato puree. Taste to correct seasoning. Serve topped with sour cream.  From the Moosewood Cookbook. 

This is a perfect way to use your greens mix.

MIXED GREENS ENCHILADAS

2 Tbs. veg. oil

2 cloves garlic, chopped

1 onion, chopped

4 cups coarsely chopped greens

1 Tbs. butter

1 Tbs. flour

½ cup milk

½ cup grated cheddar cheese

6 corn tortillas

½ cup salsa

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.  Heat oil, sauté onion & garlic until golden.  Add greens in small amounts until cooked down.  In another pan, melt butter, stir in flour, add milk slowly and then cheese.  Stir until thick then mix into cooked greens.  Fill the tortillas, roll and place in a lightly oiled baking dish.  Spread salsa over and bake for 25 minutes, until edges of tortillas are crisp.  Adapted from The Cook’s Garden catalog.

It seems there are a lot of fresh porcinis in the store of late, and it make me think of this soup, which I love.

CELERIAC AND PORCINI SOUP

1/2 oz. dried porcini (or similar) mushrooms

1 chopped celeriac (3-4 oz.)

1 chopped onion

2 oz butter

1/4 pt. sour cream

1/4 pt. regular cream or half and half

1 Tbs flour

dill weed or parsley

salt and pepper

Soak the mushrooms in a ladle of very hot water for 20-30 minutes.  While they are soaking, sweat the celeriac and onion in the butter in a covered pan until they begin to soften.  Add the mushrooms and their liquor.  Simmer, covered, until the vegetables are tender.  Puree in a blender and return the puree to the pan.  Mix the creams and the flour to make a smooth paste and stir into the soup as it reheats.  Cook slowly for about five minutes, until the taste of flour has gone.  If the soup is too thick for your taste, dilute with hot water.  Stir in chopped dill weed, salt and pepper to taste.  Serve with croutons.  From Jane Grigson’s Vegetable Book.