This week your basket contains: onions, acorn squash, pie pumpkin, potatoes, carrots, celeriac, celery, BRUSSELS SPROUTS, HAMBURG PARSLEY,  broccoli OR cauliflower, cabbage, and RADICCHIO

THIS IS YOUR THANKSGIVING DOUBLE BASKET.  We will skip delivery Nov. 28^th and be back on Dec. 5^th.  If you ordered pears from Big Barn Organics, we’ve sent them along today.

Thanks to one of our subscribers for the following new version of a recipe we’ve given in the past.  She describes this as “a winter tonic!”

MODIFIED DOUBLE CELERY TURKEY SALAD

Dressing:

¼ head crushed garlic

olive oil

toasted sesame oil

soy sauce

rice vinegar

black pepper

Salad:

1 grated celeriac

few stalks minced celery

2-3 grated carrots

1 lb. cooked turkey

1 roasted beet, diced

Sauté garlic in olive oil briefly, just so that it is not raw.  Whisk garlic together with other dressing ingredients to taste.  To roast the beet, wash,  wrap in aluminum foil and bake in 350-degree oven for about an hour or until easily pierced with a fork.  Allow to cool, then rub off the skin with your thumb.  Dice or shred the turkey.  Mix salad ingredients with dressing (adding beets last and mixing only gently afterward) and serve.

To make pumpkin puree, you can cut off the skin of the pumpkin as if you were peeling an orange. Then, halve the pumpkin and scrape out the seeds and pulp. After this, cut the flesh into 1 1/2-2 in. chunks and steam until soft. Press through a strainer or puree in a food mill. Pumpkin chunks can also be microwaved in a covered container in about 8 minutes. Use the puree for pies or in other recipes. It can be frozen and used later.  Below is the basic pumpkin pie recipe I use for my famous pumpkin pie pizza!  I add a splash of brandy when making a pie, which seems to just kick the flavor over the top of deliciousness.

PUMPKIN PIE

2 c pumpkin, canned or cooked

1 1/2 c milk, evaporated or cream

1/4 c brown sugar, firmly packed

1/2 c white sugar

1/2 tsp salt

1 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp ginger

1/4 tsp nutmeg, grated or allspice

1/8 tsp clove, ground

2 eggs, slightly beaten

Whisk 2-3 large eggs in a bowl.  Whisk in rest of the ingredients into the egg.  Leave the pie filling at room temperature before pouring the rest of the mixture into the crust. Bake for 35-45 minutes until firm.  Cool completely/refrigerate for up to one day.

QUICK CELERY ROOT SALAD WITH CAPERS AND LEMON

1 lemon, juiced
1 celery root, peeled
Salt and pepper
2 tablespoons walnut oil
1/4 cup olive oil
2 teaspoons sugar (optional)
1 tablespoon red wine vinegar
1/3 cup juicy capers, rinsed
Small handful Italian parsley, chopped

Peel the celery root and shred it. Stop halfway through and sprinkle with a tablespoon of the lemon juice to keep the root from turning brown. Shred the other half and toss with another tablespoon of lemon juice. Salt and pepper liberally and toss.  Whisk the remaining lemon juice with the walnut oil, olive oil, sugar, and vinegar. Taste and adjust. Toss with the celery root, capers, and chopped parsley.

SAUTÉED BRUSSELS SPROUTS

3 strips lean bacon, chopped

1 stalk Brussels sprouts

1 leek or onion

1-2 c. chicken stock

1 tsp. lemon juice

Thinly slice the leek or onion.  Slice the sprouts thin, about 1/8-inch thick.  Cook bacon in a sauté pan, add the olive oil and sauté the leek slices.  When they have wilted, add the Brussels sprouts and sauté for a few minutes.  Add the chicken stock, to a depth of about a ¼ inch and continue cooking until tender.  Season with salt and pepper and the lemon juice.  Mix to end up with an emusified liquid that just coats the sprouts.

Parsley Root, sometimes called Hamburg Parsley, was widely use in medieval times but is now a mostly “forgotten food”. It’s often cooked with other roots (try it in mashed potatoes!) and is crucial for flavoring some traditional chicken soup recipes and authentic borscht. You can add it anywhere you’re cooking up carrots, celery and onions for a vegetable soup or braise. The leaves are just parsley leaves and would be perfect for inclusion in your turkey stuffing or in the celery root recipe above.  This year our parsnip crop failed, but Hamburg parsley is a great substitute in any parsnip recipe.

The recipe below is one we learned at a winter vegetable variety showcase a few years back.  It is one of the best celeriac recipes we have (and we have a LOT of celeriac recipes)!

ALL IN THE (APIACEAE) FAMILY CELERIAC SOUP

3 Tbs. butter

2 leeks

2 fennel bulbs thinly sliced

2 celeriac chopped

1 cup dry white wine

2 bay leaves

2 sprigs fresh thyme

6 cups water

½ cup heavy cream

For the smoky Ghee:

4 Tbs. ghee

1 tsp. carraway seed

1 tsp. smoked paprika

For the Gremolata:

¼ cup finely chopped parsley

2 cloves minced garlic

2 Tbs. finely diced celery

Grated zest of 1 lemon

Melt butter in a large heavy-bottomed pot over medium heat.  Add leeks and cook until beginning to soften (2-3 min.).  Add fennel and cook until softened (8-10 minutes). Add celeriac along with salt, bay leaves and thyme, stirring to combine.  Add wine and simmer until mostly evaporated.  Add water and bring to a simmer.  Reduce heat to low and simmer until all vegetables are soft enough to puree (10-12-min.).  Puree until smooth either in a blender or with an immersion blender.  Re-heat over medium heat and add cream.  Taste and adjust seasonings.  For Ghee:  Melt ghee in saucepan over low heat.  Add caraway seeds and paprika and cook stirring occasionally being careful not to scorch spices (about 4 minutes).  Remove from heat, allow to cool and strain to remove solids.

For Gremolata:  Add all ingredients to a small bowl and mix.  Serve soup swirled with ghee and sprinkled with gremolata.

From Mona & Jaret at tournantpdx.com

CRISP-BAKED ACORN SQUASH RINGS

2 eggs, beaten lightly

1/4 cup milk

2 teaspoons honey

3/4 cup yellow cornmeal

1 1/2 cups fine fresh bread crumbs

Salt and freshly ground black pepper

2 small acorn squash, sliced crosswise into 1/2-inch-thick rounds and seeded

3 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. In a shallow dish, whisk together the eggs, milk and honey. In another shallow dish, stir together the cornmeal, bread crumbs, and salt and pepper to taste.  Dip the squash rings into the egg mixture and then into the crumb mixture, coating them well and patting the crumbs on well. Generously butter 2 rimmed baking sheets. Arrange the squash rings in one layer on the sheets and drizzle with the melted butter. Bake for 30 minutes, turning once halfway through, or until they are tender. Sprinkle the squash with salt to taste and arrange on a heated platter. Makes 6 servings. From Gourmet magazine, November 1985

These are the biggest radicchio we’ve ever grown!  Unlike lettuce, they keep in the fridge very well.  Soaking the leaves in ice water removes any bitterness.

RADICCHIO SALAD

1 onion, chopped

¹/₄ cup good-quality balsamic vinegar

¹/₄ cup good-quality sherry vinegar

3 heads radicchio

1 tablespoon honey

³/₄ cup olive oil

1 ¹/₂ cups Manchego, finely grated and divided

1 pinch salt, plus more to taste

In a large bowl, add the balsamic vinegar, sherry vinegar, and chopped onion. Break the onion up into pieces so that all of that oniony flavor gets into the vinegar. Let it sit for 1 hour and then strain out the onions. Remove the cores from the radicchio and discard. Chop into 1-inch pieces. Take 1 gallon of water in a large bowl and add enough ice to make the water icy cold. Once cold, strain out the ice and add the radicchio to the water. Let it sit for 15 minutes to remove some of its bitterness, strain and then spin in a salad spinner until dry. Fluff the dried radicchio. (Note: If you don’t strain the ice out before adding the radicchio you’ll be pulling out ice pieces for half an hour so that you don’t have wet radicchio.) Add the honey and olive oil to the strained vinegars and whisk. Using your hands, toss the radicchio with the dressing until evenly coated. Add 1 cup of finely grated Manchego, salt, and toss again. To serve, top the salad in a serving bowl with the remaining 1/2 cup grated Manchego or distribute salad and Manchego among 4 to 8 bowls or plates.  Adapted From Toro Bravo. Stories.Recipes. No Bull by John Gorham & Liz Crain