CSA week 8

After a spring full of leafy greens, our CSA share is quite different this week. We're starting to get summer veggies.

This week's box.

There is still plenty of kale, but no more lettuce, kohlrabi, cabbage, beets, radishes, or carrots.

Garlic, onions, potatoes, beans, broccoli, tomatoes and kale.

In all honesty, I'm much more comfortable and familiar cooking with these veggies. I miss the lettuce a bit (although 2 heads a week was a little much), but I'm excited by the tomatoes.

We'll probably make more soup with the kale, although I may mix it up with some pork, white bean and kale soup. I know at least one tomato sandwich is in my near future. And fresh garlic! I've been using the fresh garlic rather than my jar of minced garlic.

Oh, and last night's accomplishment was cooking Swiss chard that was actually good. My first batch was inedible (note to self: skip recipes with vinegar). Last night I sautéed the chard with some fresh garlic and olive oil, a sprinkle of red pepper flakes, topped with a dash of salt and some butter. The butter was overkill, but that's what the recipe called for. Next time, I think I'll either skip the butter or just sauté in butter and skip the olive oil. Also, the red pepper flakes added a little spice, but it would also have been good without.

Kale strata

The first month of our CSA has been an interesting experiment. We have discovered we like beets and kohlrabi.

But the kale, which we have received nearly every week, has been a test of my (not very good) culinary skills.

Week 1 I made pork, white bean and kale soup. It was pretty good.

Last week I tried kale chips. I'm not crazy about them. Really, the whole reason to eat them is for the salt.

This week I decided to try a strata. I usually make strata with spinach, but thought kale might be an ok substitute. One of the things I really like about strata is its versatility. I can usually clean stuff out of the fridge, changing up the ingredients each time.

My basic recipe is thus:

Make 1 box of Stove Top stuffing, following the directions on the box.
Mix in filling ingredients.
Beat 6 eggs and stir into stuffing mixture.
Pour into greased 8" square baking pan.
Top with cheese.
Bake at 375º for 35 minutes.

Now, the change-up is always the filling. For tonight's version, I very lightly sautéed the kale in olive oil and minced garlic and fried up some bacon to crumble in. I also had some left-over ricotta cheese that I stirred in because cheese always makes it better. I topped it with shredded Swiss cheese, since that was what I had.

Kale, bacon and ricotta strata, topped with Swiss cheese

The verdict: it was ok. The kale is more bitter than spinach, and spinach is better, but this was edible. My three year old ate it without prompting and said he likes kale. My five year old ate with some prompting, but didn't complain.

I do have to say soups seem to be the best use of kale. I have a Zuppa Tuscana recipe ready to go next week if we get more kale (we probably will).