This week your basket contains: potatoes, carrots, garlic, Kabocha squash, leeks, CELERY, salad mix (spinach, radicchio, mustard greens, arugula, and French sorrel), and parsnips.This is definitively a winter basket, but it has hints of spring as well.  The salad mix includes French sorrel (looks like spinach; tastes like lemon) which is one of the first greens to emerge at the end of winter/beginning of spring.  The more hearty greens in the mix are best with a more hearty dressing like this one.  You can use a few of the celery leaves in place of the parsley.

AVOCADO AND BUTTERMILK SALAD DRESSING

1/2 Hass avocado, coarsely chopped

1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons buttermilk

1 tablespoon white wine vinegar

1 small shallot or onion, coarsely chopped

1 1/2 teaspoons minced flat-leaf parsley

1 small garlic clove, smashed

1/4 cup vegetable oil

Kosher salt and freshly ground white pepper

In a blender, combine the avocado with the buttermilk, vinegar, shallot, parsley and garlic and process until smooth. With the machine on, add the vegetable oil in a thin stream and process until smooth. Season with salt and white pepper.

We are amazed to have celery for you this late in January.  This was an experimental late planting that we put in a hoop house.  We had hoped that it would be ready for Thanksgiving or Christmas, but it had its own timeline.  We’re just happy to have it for you.  This is a wonderful soup to serve on a cold night.

DUTCH  SPLIT  PEA  SOUP

1 lb. dried green split peas

2 1/2 qts. cold water

1/4 c. diced salt pork

1/2 c. chopped leeks

1/2 c. chopped celery

1/2 c. chopped onions

1/2 c. celeriac, optional

1/2 bay leaf

2 tsp. salt

1 pigs knuckle, optional

1 smoked Dutch ring sausage, sliced,

or 1 c. sliced Polish sausage

Chopped parsley

Rinse peas under cold water and remove all foreign particles.  Place peas in large kettle, add the water, cover and let stand overnight.  Or boil 2 minutes and let soak 1 hour. In a skillet, cook the salt pork 5 minutes.  Add the vegetables and cook 10 minutes, until tender but not browned.  Add the salt pork mixture, bay leaf, salt and pigs knuckle to the peas.  Cover and bring slowly to a boil.  Reduce the heat, skim foam from the top and simmer gently 2 hours or until the meat on the pigs knuckle separates from the bone. Remove the pigs knuckle, shred the meat and reserve.  Discard the bone and the bay leaf.  Strain the soup and press the vegetables through a sieve, or puree in a blender or food processor.  Return the meat and sieved vegetables to the soup kettle and adjust the seasonings.  Add the sliced sausages and simmer 5 minutes longer.  Serve the soup piping hot and garnish each portion with chopped parsley.

If you have not yet watched the Netflix 4-part series Fat, Salt, Acid Heat, we highly recommend you do so.  It is a fascinating and beautifully filmed examination of basic cooking elements that we found inspirational.  One recipe from the show we’ve tried several times is a roasted vegetable salad.  This is an extensive recipe too long to print here but this is a link (see the online version of this note for easy access). (https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.today.com/amp/recipes/roasted-vegetable-white-bean-salad-recipe-t144350).  To summarize, the key to this recipe is to roast your veggies (carrots, parsnips, Brussels sprouts, cauliflower, broccoli, celeriac, winter squash etc.) at 425 degrees on separate baking sheets after coating them in olive oil and salt.  It is important to leave plenty of space between the individual pieces of the veggies as they roast. This allows any moisture that is released to evaporate rather than being reabsorbed by the vegetables which makes them flabby.  After everything is roasted, combine all the veggies in a bowl, garnish with your choice of herbs (celery leaves, mint, parsley, etc.) and feta cheese.  Add cooked white beans and dress it all with vinaigrette.  After trying this techniques several times, we see any and all of the elements more as suggestions rather than hard and fast rules.  You can mix and match to your own preferences.  Have fun and explore your options!

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