Boiled/Braised, (Stir-)Fried, Grilled, Baked/Roasted, Made into Sauce
June 29, 2015 7:43 AM   Subscribe

Unsure of what to do with your CSA share? Enter the Contorni Matrix.
posted by slogger (43 comments total) 22 users marked this as a favorite
 
This is the square for "Fennel" / "Made into Sauce":
Trim top and fronds and cut into wedges. Serve cold, after a meal.
Sounds great! I love raw fennel. But this is not what I'd call a "sauce".

OR WHOOPS I TOTALLY MISREAD THE MATRIX :/
posted by kenko at 7:59 AM on June 29, 2015


OK, that is awesome, although many of these directions look more complicated than necessary. I mean, the answer I have for fennel is: chop thin & throw in a salad.
posted by suelac at 7:59 AM on June 29, 2015


My answer for fennel is to slice very thin, serve with salt/pepper/olive oil/orange supremes.
posted by feckless fecal fear mongering at 8:05 AM on June 29, 2015


What's a CSA share?
posted by Billiken at 8:10 AM on June 29, 2015


My family subscribes to a meat CSA so the answer is always "grilled."

Unless it's ground pork then the answer is "use it to make meatballs."
posted by bondcliff at 8:18 AM on June 29, 2015 [1 favorite]


"Kimchi" has proved to be a reliable option for us, especially when things end up hanging around in the fridge too long.
posted by ryanshepard at 8:37 AM on June 29, 2015


ryanshepard: can you elaborate? I thought making kimchee was a rather drawn-out process?
posted by cacofonie at 8:38 AM on June 29, 2015


CSA = community supported agriculture

A share is when you pay up front to a farm that has a CSA program, like a subscription, to get a share of the harvest for that year. It's a way to community finance the farmers' food production.

Regarding the FPP: wonderful! Thanks!!
posted by mondo dentro at 8:45 AM on June 29, 2015


> What's a CSA share?

I was thinking it had something to do with stock certificates relating to the Confederate States of America, maybe something to do with the recent flag stuff.

I'm pretty sure I'm wrong, even though "10 minutes over glowing hot coals" made sense.
posted by benito.strauss at 8:47 AM on June 29, 2015 [5 favorites]


This is glorious.

But - trust me - if you have sumac and a fresh bulb of fennel, then you need to thinly slide/mandoline that fennel into shreds and toss it with salt, your best olive oil and GENEROUS GENEROUS amounts of sumac.
posted by nerdfish at 8:49 AM on June 29, 2015


No swiss chard, no beats, no turnips? Even food blogs can't make them taste any better, oh well - at least they compost nicely.
posted by lpcxa0 at 9:05 AM on June 29, 2015 [3 favorites]


Show me what to do with yet another bunch of chard!
posted by cmfletcher at 9:06 AM on June 29, 2015 [1 favorite]


I will take all of your spare chard and beets and trade you my overabundance of zucchini.
posted by pemberkins at 9:09 AM on June 29, 2015 [2 favorites]


I strip the stalk off the chard, and wash it/treat the leaves like a nice, robust lettuce that last the week.

Zucchini grill and marinate, use it all week long.
posted by cacofonie at 9:13 AM on June 29, 2015


lpcxa0: "No swiss chard, no beats, no turnips?"

Sorry to hear you have fallen on chard times, lpxca0???

Anyway:
Beets: Chop rough, boil them, drain and rest until dry. Toss with S+P and olive oil, then bake. Also you can rotato (beetato?) them into noodles after they've been softened up. Also good in risottos or sauces.
turnips: thin slice on a mandolin, then fry. Boil and mash with potatoes or cauliflower and make a colcannon. Serve with butter and salt.
Chard/ Kale : SMOOTHIES SMOOTHIES SMOOTHIES SMOOTHIES. or sautee it up in the grease from a steak or bacon and reduce the fuck out of it until you got a reduced bit of chard. Season with minced garlic and almonds. Sautee and hit it with a splash of OJ, then shred it. Mix it up with rice and stuff peppers with it.
posted by boo_radley at 9:13 AM on June 29, 2015


ain't nobody who tries can't use kale or chard. it's like a five year old tellin' me he can't eat it if it's not chicken nuggets. Man alive with people orderin' food they refuse to know.
posted by boo_radley at 9:14 AM on June 29, 2015 [6 favorites]


and in general if you got a vegetable givin' you a case of the ideekays, toss it in some balsamic and garlic and sautee it. Probably not gonna work for everything, but it's a good start.
posted by boo_radley at 9:16 AM on June 29, 2015 [5 favorites]


Man alive with people orderin' food they refuse to know.

True dogg! Why come ain't nobody stuffing a lasagna inside a turkey? Where's the butter? Put butter on what I said!
posted by aramaic at 9:24 AM on June 29, 2015 [2 favorites]


I have friends with CSAs and they have, over time, learned how to make veggie protein shakes out of nearly anything.


a teaspoon of cayenne and sesame oil covers up so many sins
posted by The Whelk at 9:37 AM on June 29, 2015


We dropped out of our CSA a while ago for the reason that we kept ending up with a refrigerator full of rotting greens that we couldn't figure out what to do with. It didn't help that they didn't come marked so that half the time we didn't know what the hell they were.
posted by octothorpe at 9:47 AM on June 29, 2015


Is it not cool to call sunchokes Jerusalem artichokes now?
posted by Ashwagandha at 9:50 AM on June 29, 2015


lpcxa0: I caught this recipe for using turnips in veggie burgers. Could be relevant to your interests.
posted by slogger at 10:01 AM on June 29, 2015


Freezing is a good way to go when overwhelmed. Blanch sturdy greens and veggies and freeze them. Tomatoes can be frozen whole, surprisingly. When thawed, the skin comes off and then can go right in the sauce. Also, pesto and variations, and veggie sauces are perfect for freezing.
posted by mondo dentro at 10:02 AM on June 29, 2015


Roast turnips with honey are pretty damn great in the winter
posted by The Whelk at 10:04 AM on June 29, 2015 [1 favorite]


Start a pot of boiling water for pasta. While waiting for it to boil, wash two bunches chard, chiffonade the leaves and roughly chop the stems. Add chard and pasta to the water at the same time. While it cooks, saute half a chopped onion and a bunch of minced garlic in a couple tablespoons of olive oil. Drain pasta/chard, stir in onions and garlic, top with parmesan, eat too much in one sitting.
posted by skycrashesdown at 10:22 AM on June 29, 2015 [7 favorites]


Add some chopped or dried herbs to that oil with the garlic and you'll eat even more
posted by The Whelk at 10:27 AM on June 29, 2015 [2 favorites]


This morning I stuffed about a pound of random CSA stuff into the rice cooker and hit steam while I got ready, then took the resulting mess for lunch. It was filling but not actually good tasting. May need to print this out and put it on the fridge.
posted by miyabo at 10:28 AM on June 29, 2015 [1 favorite]


cmfletcher: you probably want to look at this thread. I contributed.
posted by Liesl at 10:44 AM on June 29, 2015


I scrolled down that chart looking for "lettuce" and found no help. There has to be something that one can do with lettuce besides salads, or grilling romaine (which, really, just makes a smoky tasting salad), or using it as a carb substitute in some kind of lettuce wrap thing.

so. much. lettuce.
posted by sparklemotion at 10:46 AM on June 29, 2015 [1 favorite]


Lettuce, yeah, lettuce is a problem. There only so many heads of lettuce a person can eat in a week and I'm pretty sure you really can't cook it. Supposedly you can, but I'm skeptical.

This chart could be so good, but only twelve vegetables? Please, this doesn't even begin to cover the weird things my CSA comes with.
posted by epanalepsis at 11:27 AM on June 29, 2015 [1 favorite]


sparklemotion: "so. much. lettuce."

ALL VEGETABLES YIELD TO THE SMOOTHIE BLENDER.

Seriously, it'll add just a hint of sweetness and some fiber. Not a whole lot of fiber, and I'm not gonna say that lettuce should be your smoothie mainstay, but if you've got extra that's in need of using, put it in a smoothie.

epanalepsis: "this doesn't even begin to cover the weird things my CSA comes with."

I like a challenge. What else do you have?
posted by boo_radley at 11:50 AM on June 29, 2015 [3 favorites]


lettuce is a problem

How about lettuce soup? The Chinese or French versions are good.
posted by Ashwagandha at 12:02 PM on June 29, 2015 [2 favorites]


My favorite bar in Honolulu has "Fried Lettuce" on the menu. Basically just treat lettuce like any other Chinese green, choi sum, bok choy, etc, (garlic, oil, etc) but just saute it for a shorter amount of time.

Also cardoon is my favorite new word. CARDOOOOOOOOON.
posted by spamandkimchi at 12:20 PM on June 29, 2015 [1 favorite]


If you get more than you can eat fresh, canning is fun. My go-to reference is Putting Food By by Ruth Hertzberg, Janet Greene, and Beatrice Vaughan.
posted by ob1quixote at 1:27 PM on June 29, 2015


ob1quixote: "canning is fun"

"Canned Lettuce"?
posted by boo_radley at 3:34 PM on June 29, 2015 [1 favorite]


boo_radley: “"Canned Lettuce"?”
Well, fair enough, but if there's a way to do it, it'll be in that book.
posted by ob1quixote at 3:36 PM on June 29, 2015 [1 favorite]


No, I think I'm genuinely curious now.
posted by boo_radley at 4:11 PM on June 29, 2015


I do not have grill access in my tiny apartment but this is my zucchini solution. I also have four heads of lettuce. I am one person but happily I like salad.

This week the fruit share starts, too...
posted by pemberkins at 5:01 PM on June 29, 2015


Fruit shares are great for making frozen yogurt via compote, it's actually easier then making ice cream and tastes miles ahead of store-bought
posted by The Whelk at 5:30 PM on June 29, 2015


Challenge mode: no freezer :(
posted by pemberkins at 7:17 PM on June 29, 2015


Challenge mode: no freezer :(
Fermentation is your cheat code.
posted by Ashwagandha at 7:33 AM on June 30, 2015


lettuce

Petits-pois à la française

posted by howfar at 11:43 AM on June 30, 2015 [1 favorite]


So personal favorite for the fall is always a fennel gratin: thin sliced fennel, salt, pepper,cardamom, allspice, butter, carmelized garlic and onion paste, grated parm and repeat. Layered to 3/4 of a Pyrex and then Baked in the oven until tender...
posted by Nanukthedog at 5:25 PM on June 30, 2015 [1 favorite]


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