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Hello, everyone! I decided to buy a weekly share of community supported agriculture (CSA) this year. What is that, you ask? Here’s a nice USDA link about them . Or if you prefer the short version, it’s you buying a share of a local farm’s crops that you either pick up or are delivered at set intervals. The key aspect for this thread is that you normally do not get a choice of what produce you receive; every week will be somewhat random. Some farms/CSAs will also offer additional things like meats, eggs, beans, homemade sauces and spice blends, etc. However, lots of people just like to shop for local in season produce at farmers markets, and may just buy stuff because it’s in season. And also lots of people buy stuff because it’s on sale and they’re out there charging 4 bucks for a broccoli crown some places so we all have to make do. So, I would like the purpose of this thread to be about helping people figure out stuff they can make to use up their produce, no matter where it’s sourced. I will try posting each of my weekly hauls, my own ideas for recipes, and general ideas about meal prepping, ingredient prepping, and how to store foods to make them last as long as possible. CSA veterans will know there are gonna be beet and cabbage and squash recipes incoming. I generally prefer to meal prep on one or two high energy days and have stuff that Incan reheat easily over the next several days. That’s my style; I’m open to making something more elaborate, keeping in mind it’s gotta be single serving. Other folks will have different needs and approaches to cooking and all are accepted in this thread! Also accepted is the fact that CSAs cost more than what you can get at the grocery, are better quality, and folks may have opinions on how to take advantage of that quality (e.g. you gotta use this vegetable very quickly or it loses a lot of quality). Conversely, I also want this to be about how to best conserve vegetables as long as possible. I have some green onions that are still crisp and tasty and are close to a month old because I’ve kept them at room temp in delitainers with water and trimmed off brown ends. They’re not as fragrant as they were when I first got them, but they’re still yummy. This week’s haul includes my weekly produce and a once a month selection of beef, chicken, and pork. I’m getting eggs every other week because I am one person and can’t be bothered to fix a dozen eggs a week. Pictured below are: various tomatoes and a bag of cherry tomatoes, sweet peppers, basil, a head of Napa cabbage, carrots, a cantaloupe, and summer. Also the aforementioned green onions. Not pictured are the meats, which are frozen vacuum sealed chicken cheddar brats, chicken breast, pork chops, blueberry maple sausage patties, sirloin steak, and ground beef. It’s around 9.5 pounds of meat and I plan for it to make up the next months worth of meat I use for cooking, other than anything else I have frozen/leftover.  Now here is everything packed up for storage. Tomatoes will stay on a plate at room temp to ripen a little further, before going in the fridge, and the cherry tomatoes are fine to just go in the fridge now. If using raw, make sure to get refrigerated tomatoes up to room temperature. Peppers, carrots, cabbage and squash all get wrapped up and bagged with a simple label to go in the fridge. Cantaloupe goes in the fridge as is. The basil is using the basic trick for keeping most herbs fresh. Cut a bit off the bottoms of the stems and place in a jar or delitainer with some water. Some herbs like basil or green onion do well sitting at room temperature. Others, like parsley, do better in the fridge. I also have some oregano in the fridge that’s just tightly wrapped in a damp paper towel. I have previously used a shorter delitainer for basil and leaves all fanned out of the top. I’m trying a taller one and seeing how the basil fares. Using this technique you can get herbs lasting 2 or more weeks.  I’ll make another post later with planned recipes for these veg and others I have leftover from the last couple weeks. Other folks feel free to share your produce/grocery hauls and recipe plans for them! fr0id fucked around with this message at 06:06 on Aug 8, 2023 |
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Aug 7, 2023 23:17
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I'm going to share this with the gardeners
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Aug 8, 2023 00:50
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Okay, so now it’s time to plan out what kind of food I want to make this week. It’s really important to know what your eating habits are like. I’m often tired from work and just want something I can pop in the microwave to heat up and make some garnishes for. I like at least one hearty meal a day. I’m also okay with eating leftovers multiple times a week, though usually only 3-4 times per dish. I’m also gonna try to use around 2 pounds of meat cooking per week, maybe more maybe less. That said, combining this weeks veggies with last weeks, I currently have: Onions Garlic Ginger Green onions Basil 5 bell peppers 2 long sweet peppers 1 poblano 3 small spicy chiles Lotsa Squash Several tomatoes, 2 large Cherry tomatoes 2 Napa cabbages Swiss chard Cantaloupe Lots of eggs First off, the chard is starting to really wilt so I definitely need to get it used up. I’m gonna go with a pretty classic “I gotta use up these veg” meal: a frittata. This is a lovely recipe for a Swiss Chard, Onion, and Cheese Frittata that I won’t need to buy anything for since I’ve already got some parm. I’ve made this before and even cold out of the fridge it still tastes great. Great for a super easy breakfast and it keeps well for a few days. Here’s my completed attempt from tonight.  I got distracted and forgot to mix the chard back in with the eggs before adding to the pan, but it didn’t ruin it. The real issue came from me not managing my heat well, leading to the bottom being browned. Browned frittatas just aren’t as good and don’t add great flavors imo, especially when eaten cold or reheated. Oh well. Next we’ve got the Napa cabbage. I already made a batch of kimchi a few weeks ago that is fermenting away in my fridge, so I’m looking for other uses. I found this recipe for a Miso Veggie Chicken Soup that will also help use up the carrots. I’ve only got the pound of frozen chicken breasts so I’ll probably poach and shred them separately to add at end, and bulk up with some extra shiitakes and the whole head of Napa. As a note, everyone should get a pack of dried shiitakes at an Asian or international grocer; they are great to have around. I’ll skip the bok choy since I have so much cabbage already, but I will have to buy some leeks. Since this is a soup, it will reheat super well and keep several days. So here is the result of the soup.  I forgot to thaw out my chicken so I’m just gonna poach it tomorrow and portion it out. The soup as it stands is quite tasty. I wound up adding my green bell peppers and some extra salt and MSG. The flavor is a bit one note because there are so many vegetables that it’s going to be hard to sauté them rather than just steam a bunch of them. Also they’re gonna lose a lot of bite from this kind of cooking. It may help to roast some of the veggies beforehand or even to use leftover roasted veggies for this. Once again, I’ve gotta give a hearty recommendation for delitainers. These are smaller ones, but they are the perfect size for a serving of soup. I’m letting the soup cool off on the counter for a while before I toss it in the fridge so it doesn’t throw the temperature off too badly. For another hearty recipe and in order to get some extra non-meat protein, I’m gonna make a bean dish. These almost always reheat super well. This recipe for Frijoles Charros looks like a great option. I’ll fire roast some of my tomatoes for it, as well as use up the spicy peppers I have. I’ve also already got some frozen bacon. Here’s a tip for freezing bacon: roll each slice of bacon into pinwheels, and place on a baking sheet or plate in the freezer. Once frozen, toss them all into a bag together. Now you can easily pull out as many slices as you need at once and they will thaw very quickly. I’m only gonna need to buy the beans and some epazote for this one. Instead of cilantro I’ll just use my green onions as garnish. Squash is one of those summer veggies that everyone is always struggling to use up. I’ve already done southern fried squash with some friends a couple weeks ago. However, that’s a fairly big todo and fried breaded foods don’t tend to keep or reheat very well. Maybe if I had an air fryer. So, I’m gonna try out this Stewed Summer Squash recipe which also seems to imply that it keeps well in the fridge at least for a few days. As a bonus, it will use up of my basil! It looks like it will do well as a side dish or a snack. For the sweet peppers I have some older ones that are starting to get a little soft, meaning I’m not gonna want to eat them raw, if only because the texture won’t be great. I found this pretty interesting recipe for a Peperonata, which is slow cooked peppers, onions, garlic, and tomato purée in olive oil. This is another dish mentioned to be good chilled, so it should keep well in the fridge. I’ll probably have to halve the recipe since I don’t think I have 4 pounds of peppers, but it should still be good. Another one where I won’t need to buy anything and it can also use some of the basil. Looks like it will be good as a side or a snack. So that leaves me with the cantaloupe. I’ve never really been a huge fan of cantaloupe, but here’s a recipe for Filipino Cantaloupe Juice that I may give a shot. I’ve got some citrus fruits too that I may add just to use them up. This is another one that it’s helpful to have delitainers, especially quart sizes, for. And lastly, I’m probably gonna thaw out some of the sirloin steaks to make this amazing looking ”Minute” Steak and Egg with Red Hot Butter Sauce recipe from Chef John. The steaks themselves are already pretty thin so I think this would be a great way to use them up. So, that leaves me with a grocery list of: a couple leeks, dried pinto beans, and epazote. I may also look into getting a baguette or maybe even some soft cheese to serve the bell peppers or some fresh onions on. I’ll probably also have to get some more olive oil and better than bouillon. Anyway yeah, that’s my week planned out with about 8 servings of soup, 8 of beans, 6 of frittata, 4 of the peppers, 6 of the squash, and a couple steaks. The beans and soup I’ll likely freeze some portions of, which can help when on nights into meal prep running out or if I just want some variety in the future. Other folks feel free to post your thoughts on meal planning, ways you use up your ingredients, or any questions you have! fr0id fucked around with this message at 04:43 on Aug 9, 2023 |
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Aug 8, 2023 02:57
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What a great idea for a thread!
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Aug 9, 2023 02:40
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I've been a CSA person for god, like three years now and I love it. For me the benefit comes in how it makes meal planning a bit easier by removing choice paralysis to an extent. I live in a major city and have access to plenty of stuff, but having a bag of veggies I get every week, have already paid for, and do not want to waste makes decisions easier. Tonight I made miso garlic eggplant over fried rice, using eggplant, red onion, purple sweet pepper and egg from my CSA.
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Aug 9, 2023 05:06
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If you have epazote and pinto beans, your only choice is to make Mexican beans: https://mexicanmademeatless.com/frijoles-de-olla-making-a-pot-of-traditional-mexican-beans/#recipe This lovely Mexican lady has the instructions on how to use it with your beans. I find her recipes to be pretty straightforward to follow. Leeks are begging to be made into potato leek soup. If you ever have an abundance of cabbage, collard greens, or any other brassica vegetable that you're not sure what to do with, the basic Cabbage Poriyal from South India does an admirable job of using them up. Here's a basic recipe: https://holycowvegan.net/cabbage-curry/#recipe PLEASE NOTE: Indians like their veggies to be cooked to hell and back. Stir fry and taste your cabbage as you go, so that you don't end up cooking to a mush, and for the love of diddly, don't cook the drat finely chopped cabbage for 10 whole minutes. That's insane. I cook it closer to a stir fry, over screaming high heat, constantly stirring, until it's just cooked on the outside, and crisp on the inside. RE: Zucchini/Summer squash. I made a pasta dish at my friend's house. She had 3 medium sized zuchhini/summer squash. They're *eat* them, but they're not terribly fond of them. Anyways. I chopped up the squashes super duper finely. Like maybe 1/8 - 1/4 inch cubes. Anyway. Also had a bunch of cherry tomatoes from the garden, and I had brought over some basil. I crushed like 3 cloves of garlic, and cooked them in hot olive oil until it was fragrant. I added the cherry tomatoes whole, and covered the lid of the pot, because when you add cherry tomatoes to hot oil and let it cook, the cherry tomatoes will burst and splash oil everywhere. Then I added the very finely chopped squash, and cooked it over highest heat until just barely tender. I added a good hit of basil that I had chopped up right quick, salt, and some red pepper flakes. Then I tossed through some angel hair pasta along with the pasta cooking water, and brought it all together. It was surprisingly delicious and used up 3 squashes in one dish, where they mostly disappeared. Other thing to do with squashes. Make fritters. How? Grate up your squashes (about 1 lb or so) along with 1/2 of a medium onion. I use a food processor, but you can use a box grater. Toss in salt, and let sit in a colander to drain for like 15 minutes. Squeeze out the excess water, and toss the dried off shreds with rice flour, chickpea flour, salt, pepper, and sesame seeds. You can also add some ground coriander seed and cayenne pepper for some kick. Add a few tablespoons of water as needed to make a relatively thick batter. You want the batter to coat the shredded squash, but not clump together. Fry in hot oil over medium heat (roughly 375º F I think) until golden brown on the outside. The ratio is roughly 1 part rice flour to 1 part chickpea flour. You CAN use all purpose flour if chickpea flour is hard to find, but the rice flour is essential, because it makes the fritters super crispy. Also, don't be timid with your seasonings. Fritters can take a good fair bit of spices.
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Aug 9, 2023 20:08
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I do CSA and live in an apartment complex in the Northern Chicago Suburbs so home delivery doesn't work for me. Luckily I was able to find a CSA that regularly does drop-offs locally, so I just pick up my box of veggies every week from one of the neighbors. Here's my haul for this week. Lots of corn this week so I plan on making Kenji's Pressure Cooker Corn Soup Recipe (https://www.seriouseats.com/pressure-cooker-corn-soup-recipe). Another hit around here has been the Zuppa Toscano recipe posted in this forum.
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Aug 9, 2023 23:46
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I have beets again. I thought it was over. I've used up all my beet ideas.(Also wtf no zucchini for isca)
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Aug 10, 2023 01:04
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Guildenstern Mother posted:I have beets again. I thought it was over. I've used up all my beet ideas.(Also wtf no zucchini for isca) What beet ideas have you done so far?
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Aug 10, 2023 01:08
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Yes please share I too have many beets Edit to add: I've made beet dip (cooked grated beets + Greek yogurt + lemon juice + dill) and a whole lot of pizza with pesto, beets, red onion and feta or blue cheese. I've also diced them up for salads and roasted them with carrots for a side dish. I need to either cook or dehydrate these soon cause they're going bad in the fridge. Chernobyl Princess fucked around with this message at 01:50 on Aug 10, 2023 |
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Aug 10, 2023 01:42
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thunderdome winner
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fr0id posted:What beet ideas have you done so far? Roasted with a head of garlic for green salads with blue cheese and nuts and similar, or for a caprese like thing with fluffy goat cheese, black pepper, balsamic syrup and mint. Beet carpaccio (especially nice with golden beets)...umm. Oh beet chips, I haven't done beet chips yet! Problem solved. edit: My dislike of beet based soups is part of the problem as is the Mr's hatred of goat cheese.
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Aug 10, 2023 02:25
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Beet risotto is really good. Add dill if you have it. Beets with indian tarka is really good (aka basically "curried beets") Beets roasted like potatoes with herbs is really good.
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Aug 10, 2023 04:54
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I was actually going to suggest beet chips! I also got out the Flavor Bible to try thinking out some other ideas. The big suggestions are pairing them with a salty cheese, as well as orange, lemon and nuts. Lots of salads, as well. It might be interesting to actually try roasting the beets, freezing, pureeing with some orange juice or maybe also milk into a sort of sorbet, then topping with goat cheese, walnuts, orange zest, and maybe some mint.
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Aug 10, 2023 04:57
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I just like peeling them, cutting into wedges, tossing with cumin, pepper, salt, and olive oil and roasting them like you would potato wedges. if they're bigger you'd probably wanna go the chip route though.
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Aug 10, 2023 14:15
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Grate up some beets (4 parts), carrots (2 parts), and Granny Smith apples (1 part). Combine with a dressing made of peanut butter, cider vinegar, lots of ginger, a little garlic, soy sauce, and some water to thin it out a little bit. Blend the dressing in a blender until smooth. Toss with the dressing and eat. It’s really refreshing and hearty for the summer. Also, it makes the beets not taste like eating a plate of dirt. And also, South Indian tarka is indeed lovely with beets.
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Aug 10, 2023 19:02
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dino. How do you think the fritter recipe would do for green leaf lettuce? You’d probably need to use a lot of it to account for more water loss, but do you think it could work?
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Aug 10, 2023 21:46
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So I enrolled in both my main CSA and they are partnering with a local orchard that does a lot of older, uncommon varieties of apples you don't see in stores. This is week one of apples, which are wonderful and tart but lose texture pretty quickly. Early season, I eat 2-3 apples a day! Williams Pride and Liberty.  (Chunky cat for scale, she kept chewing on the corn tassels) The farmers did a survey last year, and people want corn - so we are getting 7 weeks straight of corn. Going to do some corn relish, with the red peppers, the cukes and tomatoes will be a Greek salad, the cilantro ugh, I give away. There are white cukes too which look very nice on open sandwiches! I love interesting CSAs like apples, honey, eggs. No middleman, just food less traveled. Arkhamina fucked around with this message at 00:20 on Aug 11, 2023 |
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Aug 11, 2023 00:16
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I’ve never done cooked lettuce, to be honest. I have a lettuce keeper I got in Amazon and it keeps my lettuce fresh for about 1 1/2 months in the fridge, so I’ve never had to bother cooking it.
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Aug 11, 2023 13:25
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Made risotto with csa beets, carrots, garlic and onions. Also some leftover chicken and kale from my garden and some goat cheese for added goat cheesiness. Very good. Very pink due to beets.
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Aug 11, 2023 22:18
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Trip report: 3 beets don't make nearly as many chips as you think its going to, although the fact that I kept snacking on the ones I pulled out a bit early might be related to that.
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Aug 12, 2023 01:21
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Chernobyl Princess posted:Made risotto with csa beets, carrots, garlic and onions. Also some leftover chicken and kale from my garden and some goat cheese for added goat cheesiness. Very good. Very pink due to beets. love it
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Aug 12, 2023 01:29
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Chernobyl Princess posted:Made risotto with csa beets, carrots, garlic and onions. Also some leftover chicken and kale from my garden and some goat cheese for added goat cheesiness. Very good. Very pink due to beets. Do you mind giving a general recipe for this?
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Aug 12, 2023 07:24
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Guildenstern Mother posted:Trip report: 3 beets don't make nearly as many chips as you think its going to, although the fact that I kept snacking on the ones I pulled out a bit early might be related to that. I think this is kind of a normal thing but also good. CSAs often give us these weird single or 1/3 servings of stuff. If you’re single, great! Hell yeah this is just for you. But if not…those best chips should like great croutons for salad. Great crunch for stir fry or soup. Please post the recipe you used or whatever you approximated.
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Aug 12, 2023 07:27
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Chernobyl Princess posted:Made risotto with csa beets, carrots, garlic and onions. Also some leftover chicken and kale from my garden and some goat cheese for added goat cheesiness. Very good. Very pink due to beets. Could you post your basic risotto recipe on here to help give folks ideas?
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Aug 12, 2023 07:27
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fr0id posted:Could you post your basic risotto recipe on here to help give folks ideas? Sure! Basic ingredients and eyeballed measurements - 1.5 cups rice - 3ish tbsp fat (volume really depends on the type of fat you use) - 1/2 ish cup dry white wine - Good soup stock -1 cup Parmesan or other hard, salty cheese - The stuff you want to add to your risotto, assume about 3 or 4 cups of add-ons for every cup of dry rice you use. First prep all your additions. Toss veggies with salt, pepper, olive oil. Then I roasted the beets, carrots, and single kohlrabi (which turns out to be a terrible way to do kohlrabi, very woody) at 425 for about 20 minutes. I also sauteed some kale in olive oil, little salt, pepper, and a squeeze of lemon juice. Saute an onion in the fat of your choice (my husband hunts so we use a lot of duck and goose fat, but olive oil or butter works great). Add some crushed garlic. Add some more fat and about a cup and a half of short grain rice. You probably should use risotto rice for this, but I use sushi rice because I buy it in 20lb bags and I believe in using what I've got. Start heating up about six to eight cups of stock. Use good stuff, this is where a lot of flavor comes from. Stir the rice with the fat until every grain is toasted and it starts to smell a bit nutty. Add about a half cup of dry white wine. (I keep a Bota box of Pinot grigio just for cooking with, it stores better for longer.) Stir. Once the rice has soaked up most of the wine, begin ladlihg stock into the rice, stirring with every addition until it starts to look a little dry. Every so often, when you think it might be done, taste the rice for texture. Once it's fully soft and nice and not grainy in the middle, turn off the heat and stir in about a cup of Parmesan or other hard, salty cheese. If you're doing goat cheese too, add that in as well. Once it's nice and creamy stir in all your additions. Taste for flavor and texture, add more goat cheese, stock, spices, or whatever you think it needs.
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Aug 12, 2023 14:06
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Great thread, thank you for putting it together. My wife and I are on year 3 of our CSA and enjoy it very much. I will be happy to add each weeks haul. One thing I still struggle with is what produce to keep in air tight bags vs loose mesh bags? I have searched a lot but never found answers that seemed right.
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Aug 12, 2023 17:05
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I feel like that depends so much on your fridge environment, like not just brand and temp but like what else you have in there. This week's haul. More of this seedy German sourdough, more whole wheat flour. Also more eggplant, which I dislike but can probably hide in pasta sauce and fritters like dino. suggested, and a single bell pepper, which I loathe. Also a ton of tomatoes, tomatillos, basil, potatoes, leeks, jalapenos and shishitos... Along with the masses of cherry tomatoes and sixteen pounds of potatoes I pulled from my own garden. Oh, and the pound of blue oyster mushrooms from our Mushroom Lady. So tonight we'll be roasting a chicken with mashed potatoes and a regular old salad. And leek and potato soup. And I'll make some tomato sauce and tomatillo salsa, which means I'll probably have to order some more lids for canning. What would y'all do with these shishitos? I'm not sure whether to pickle them or what. eta: Oh also we found some wild grapes while we were walking to the market! What a weird flavor. We took a cutting and are gonna try to start some seeds for shits & grins/free rootstock for a vinifera graft. 
Chernobyl Princess fucked around with this message at 17:32 on Aug 12, 2023 |
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Aug 12, 2023 17:30
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Chernobyl Princess posted:
Just clowning on us with your use of local produce! Great job tho. First, any bell pepper is always gonna be great as part of a cajun meal. Gumbo, jambalaya, etoufee, dirty rice, and more. It’s getting turned into a stew of some sort so I imagine most of its issues for yu disappear. For shishitos, they are of course wonderful when sautéed and lightly blistered. They fit all stir fries. They’d probably also make amazing candidates for tempura, along with some other veg. Maybe a shishito salsa with tomatoes, ginger, and green onion?
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Aug 13, 2023 07:28
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I see eggs in that picture. I’d be making omelettes with sautéed peppers and mushrooms.
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Aug 13, 2023 12:30
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Arkhamina posted:This is week one of apples, which are wonderful and tart but lose texture pretty quickly. Early season, I eat 2-3 apples a day!
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Aug 13, 2023 15:38
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Oh, good idea. I've done sauce before with them, too, but sometimes that's a bit silly, if you have like 3 apples gone sad. We get 5lbs apples week.
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Aug 13, 2023 20:27
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You could similarly fry them up in butter with sugar if you’ve got a smaller amount to use up.
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Aug 14, 2023 01:01
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fr0id posted:You could similarly fry them up in butter with sugar if you’ve got a smaller amount to use up. Throw some parsnip in there and red pepper flakes, maybe sub maple syrup for the sugar, maybe you have a little bacon fat reserved and use that for the butter. Now I want tart apples and parsnips. The good tomatoes are gone until the Wednesday pickup and I'm looking at the grocery store ones and trying to think if there's anything I can do to make them not taste like complete poo poo. I used one to fluff out another recipe for hot pasta cold sauce and I wish I hadn't. Maybe I just put them out for the squirrels? Our power was out for about 24 hours, and the freezer was never opened. I'm tossing anything that has ever looked at meat (farewell stock bags and 14 lb turkey), keeping the ginger, unsure about strawberries and rhubarb? Is freezerburn the big concern here or food safety?
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Aug 14, 2023 04:58
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Guildenstern Mother posted:Throw some parsnip in there and red pepper flakes, maybe sub maple syrup for the sugar, maybe you have a little bacon fat reserved and use that for the butter. Now I want tart apples and parsnips. Buying the smallest size possible, e.g. cherry tomatoes, helps. So does letting the tomatoes sit out on the counter for a few days to keep ripening.
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Aug 14, 2023 06:29
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 Made tomato sauce yesterday with tomatoes from my garden and the CSA, in which I also hid two weird skinny eggplants and one massive zucchini by grating them up and pureeing the whole mess with the stick blender. The three big jars are headed for the freezer, while the other three are gonna get used this week. The first jar got combined with some venison sausage and rotini. 
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Aug 14, 2023 23:55
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This week’s haul is: corn, tomatoes, sweet peppers, baby onions, purple string beans, squash, curly parsley, kale, and eggs.  For breakfast meal prep this week, I’m thinking of some veggie bowls with hummus, kale salad (just massaged with garlic, lemon, salt, and olive oil), quinoa, medium bowled eggs, and sweet pepper strips. Breakfast during weekdays has to require no prep, so I’m gonna make these all together ahead of time. For the corn, I’m gonna try that pressure cooker corn soup from earlier in the thread. The squash and cherry tomatoes from last week I’m gonna make Dino.’s pasta dish and will post a pic of how it turns out. For the green beans, tomatoes, and some of the sirloin steak from my meat share, I’m gonna try these Chilean Steak Sandwiches. I’ll be honest, I dunno what to do with curly parsley or the small amount of baby onions. I guess I could try braising the latter or something like that. Apparently curly parsley gets used in chimichurri? I guess I’ll do that lol. Internet says it’ll keep for a while too.
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Aug 15, 2023 02:35
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Chernobyl Princess posted:
What was your recipe/technique/amounts for the tomato sauce? I’m trying to figure out if I have enough tomatoes for a sauce to be worth it.
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Aug 15, 2023 02:36
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fr0id posted:What was your recipe/technique/amounts for the tomato sauce? I’m trying to figure out if I have enough tomatoes for a sauce to be worth it. I've only made it twice now, but so far I've used every single cherry tomato I've had. Three-ish pounds of them maybe? I kind of eyeball the amounts. My technique has been to saute an onion and a bunch of garlic and then dump all the tomatoes in, let them release all their juices and cook down over the course of Way Too loving Long, add some basil and other assorted herbs, more salt and pepper, splash of Worcestershire sauce, hit with a stick blender, then let reduce/thicken even further. For this one I did the onion and garlic in a separate pan, to which I added the grated squash and eggplant. Once those were tender I threw them in with the tomatoes to cook down further. ...I also like an excessively smooth sauce but don't own a food mill so I'll get cute about it and try to put about half of it through a fine sieve to get the skins and seeds before I lose interest. I don't know that that's super helpful since I don't measure or even use the same ingredients constantly. I do have a solid chimichurri recipe to maybe make up for it! Throw into blender: 3 bunches herbs (whatever's available, I like parsley and cilantro best), 1 cup vegetable oil, 1/2 cup rice vinegar, 1 1/2 tsp red pepper flakes, 4 cloves garlic, 1 shallot or small onion, 1 tbsp Dijon mustard, 1 tbsp honey, salt & pepper. Blend. Use as a marinade and as a condiment.
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Aug 15, 2023 03:13
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Going to try that chimichurri! I love it on things I have eaten out, but never made it.
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Aug 15, 2023 18:44
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It's super easy and flexible once you do it a few times. Last night I was having some serious dinner plan paralysis and just started chopping and figured it would sort itself out. Ended up with parsley, Serrano, touch of honey, green onions, oil and a splash of vinegar in the mini chopper and it was zesty af. Just start chopping
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Aug 15, 2023 19:55
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