Blogging for our CSA's website

With a crazy, busy week ahead of us we picked up our CSA share on Monday night and immediately got down to procrastinating about what we were going to make this week.  Our time was going to be pretty limited, so we decided to try to combine as many ingredients as we could into two large meals, which would provide us with ample leftovers for the week.  Here is what we got this week:

 
1 dozen eggs
4 lbs peaches
4 ears of corn
1 bunch of purslane
1 bunch of chard
3 green peppers
1/2 lb cherry tomatoes
1/2 lb tomatillos
3 cucumbers
2 onions
1 lb purple potatoes
1/2 lb serrano peppers

So on to the first meal!

We have really been craving cheese burgers so we decided to grab some ground beef from Simply Grazin' Farm in NJ and indulge ourselves with some epicness on a bun.  So we made a chili and tomatillo sauce to top them with.

We took half an onion, some chopped garlic, six serranos and the tomatillos and cooked them in a little oil on low for about 30 minutes.  We added about a cup of stock and some honey, blended it with an immersion blender (leaving some chunks) and let it cook until the sauce tightened up a bit.

The burgers were cooked in a cast iron skillet for a good crust without overcooking.  After the burgers were a tasty medium rare and the cheese was melted we set them to rest and used the skillet to quick-caramelize some red onion to battle the Veganaise on the bottom of the bun. 

One cannot live on cheeseburgers alone (although it would be a deliciously short existence) so we made a really delicious cold summer salad with the green peppers, raw corn, cucumbers, chick peas, Divina Roasted Tomatoes (Seriously, if you have never eaten these- you are missing out big time!) and a basic balsamic vinaigrette.  The best part about this salad is that in the days ahead, it only gets better!

And now, number two!

We got some super fresh chicken breast from Lancaster, PA (my hometown!), and decided to give them an epic ride in a peach BBQ sauce and serve it with an ultimate Summer pasta salad.  Oh, and then there was dessert (OMG!).

For the peach BBQ sauce we sauteed 8 serranos and 2 jalapenos (from our garden) with half an onion, two peaches and 3 big cloves of garlic.  We sprinkled in a little bit of ketchup, brown sugar, and white vinegar to get the perfect flavor and let it concentrate and thicken for about 30 minutes.

While that was going on we made the pasta, dressing and blanched the corn and greens.  We used whole wheat penne, blanched and shocked the remaining two ears of corn as well as the chard and purslane.  We strained these and dried them in a salad spinner.

For the dressing we blended 2/3 cup of olive oil with 1/3 cup balsamic vinegar and 7 oz. of Divina Roasted Tomatoes (just go get them, you won't be sorry).  Season it with salt and pepper.  It is thicker than a lot of other dressings you might make, but remember it's for pasta, so a lot of it will get absorbed into the noodles.

We tossed all of the greens, noodles, corn, and dressing into a container and mixed it well.  When we were ready to serve it we halved the cherry tomatoes and threw them into a blazing hot skillet coated with olive oil.  We let them cook for 5 minutes, turning constantly until they started to caramelize and then deglazed the pan with a tablespoon of balsamic vinegar and let it concentrate for 2 minutes.

We put the whole dish together and topped it with fresh micro-basil from our garden and grated Parmesan.

Once the sauce was finished we seared and cooked the chicken.  We started it on high and seasoned and seared both sides in an oiled non-stick pan before applying the peach BBQ sauce and a lid and allowing it to simmer with a cover, turning every 5 minutes for 20 minutes.

Once the chicken was cooked through we took it out of the pan and let it rest, adding 1 Tbsp. of butter to the sauce in the pan to finish and thicken it.  And then we ate...

But wait- there is more!

We made dessert!

We took 2 Tbsp. of butter and heated it in a skillet on medium high.  We cut peaches into 6th's (less than that will fall apart) and caramelized them in the pan.  We ate this over shortcake and topped it with Brooklyn's own Steve's Salted Caramel Ice Cream.  If you haven't eaten this dudes ice cream, you are doing you soul a disservice.  Just go do it.  It's enlightening.

That's our week!  See you next year for a week South Side CSA!

Love,
The FunCore's