Steamed Okra with Green Onions and Lime

[Printable Recipe]

I’ve tried okra a few ways now. My least enjoyable was boiling it, then dipping it in a soy-based sauce. Blech. Slime central. I saw this recipe for steaming it and was intrigued — perhaps a gentler form of cooking would cut down on the slime?

It definitely did!

The original recipe calls for matchsticks of fresh ginger root to be tossed with the green onions and the okra at the end of cooking. I don’t care for the texture of ginger matchsticks without cooking it, so I just grated the ginger over the okra and green onions.

From Gourmet

Ingredients:

• 1 lb. whole okra
• 1 tsp. canola oil
• 1 bunch green onions, chopped
• Juice of 1 lime
• 2″ piece of fresh ginger root, grated
• Salt, to taste

Directions:

• Heat about 2″ of water in a pot until boiling. Place a steamer basket in the bot, then put the okra in the steamer basket and cover the pot. Steam the okra for 7 minutes.
• While the okra is cooking, heat the oil in a skillet. When hot, add the green onions and saute for 2 minutes.
• When the okra is finished steaming, set aside in a bowl. Toss with the sauteed green onions, grated ginger and lime juice. Add salt to taste and serve immediately.

Verdict:
I really loved the zing from the fresh lime juice and the spiciness of the ginger. The slime factor was definitely cut down, but there was still a bit there. Oddly enough, I didn’t mind it so much, as it allowed the green onions to stick to the okra more.

Cold Sesame Noodles with Chicken and Cucumbers

[Printable Recipe]

I love pasta salads. They’re perfect for 2 people or big group gatherings, and they make great leftovers for lunch the next day. This one has an Asian spin and uses sesame oil and soy sauce to pack lots of flavor.

This recipe comes from Cooking Light, and as I’ve mentioned before, they don’t really like when food bloggers use their recipe on their websites. As such, I don’t use a ton of Cooking Light recipes. This one was too good to pass up though. You can head on over to the website for the full recipe.

My local grocery store didn’t have udon noodles, so I subbed whole grain thin spaghetti. It was nice, but I’d like to try this with udon also. We got a few nice cucumbers in our Greenling box this week, and this recipe was the perfect way to highlight their crunchy texture. Along with the cucumbers, I tossed the cooked pasta, grilled chicken slices, and chopped green onions in a sauce of toasted sesame oil, rice wine vinegar, a bit of honey, soy sauce and grated ginger. After topping with peanuts, we were ready to eat.

Verdict:
While pasta salad is traditionally a side dish, this was a filling lunch for us. Whole wheat pasta is much heartier than pasta made with white flour, and the chicken provides some protein, so there’s not much else needed. The sauce is a light but really flavorful base for the pasta and veggies.

The only change I’d make in the future is toasting the peanuts before putting them on top of the noodles for another layer of flavors.

Corn Saute with Tomato and Fried Okra

[Printable Recipe]

What a way to use as many items from our Greenling box as possible! We’ve been getting okra and squash for the last few weeks, and we got garlic last week. Fresh corn and really ripe tomatoes have been abundant for a few weeks now too, so this was the perfect dish to use all of that beautiful produce. I served this with simple grilled chicken, but this side dish was really the star of the meal.

It makes at least 4 servings for hungry people, so we had plenty of leftovers.

From Epicurious

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup yellow cornmeal (1/4 c. was plenty)
• 12 large okra pods, cut crosswise into 1/2-inch pieces
• 2 Tbsp. olive oil, divided
• Kernels from 3 ears of corn (~2 c.)
• 3 summer squash, roughly chopped
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 12-ounce bag cherry tomatoes, halved
• 2 Tbsp. chopped fresh cilantro
• 2 green onions, chopped
• Salt and pepper, to taste

Directions:

• In a small bowl, toss the sliced okra lightly in the cornmeal to coat.
• Heat 1 Tbsp. oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Shake off the excess cornmeal with a slotted spoon, then add the breaded okra to the skillet and saute until coating is golden brown, stirring occasionally, about 6 minutes.
• Using a slotted spoon, transfer the browned okra to paper towels to drain; sprinkle with salt and pepper. Wipe out the skillet.
• Lower the heat to medium and heat the remaining 1 Tbsp. oil in the same skillet. Add corn, squash, and garlic and saute for 2 minutes.
• Add tomatoes, then cover and cook until squash is crisp-tender, about 5 minutes.
• Mix in okra, cilantro, and green onions. Remove from heat. Season to taste with salt and pepper, then serve immediately.

Verdict:
I couldn’t stop eating this. There were so many flavors and textures going — the brightness of the cilantro, the pungent acidity of the okra, the sweetness of the corn. And the colors were beautiful!

However, the cornmeal breading didn’t stay on the okra at all. I think I could’ve skipped that step and just browned the okra with the squash. However, if you want a true fried okra feel to the dish, I’d dredge it in egg before coating with cornmeal to ensure that the breading sticks.

Goat Cheese-Stuffed Fried Squash Blossoms

[Printable Recipe]

Squash blossoms are a rare luxury at farmstands or farmer’s markets. When they came in our Greenling box this week, I was so pleasantly surprised by the novelty of such a rare find and at how fresh they were. I was planning to make stir-fry for dinner, so I borrowed some of those flavors to stuff the squash blossoms with somewhat non-traditional flavors.

Keep in mind that when cooking with squash blossoms, you’ll want to rinse them, then slice them open vertically down one side of the flower and remove any insects that may be lurking in there (we had a few!). You’ll also want to remove the stamen. Slicing them makes it much easier to stuff the blossoms with cheese.

Adjust the quantities below as appropriate for as many squash blossoms you have. I got 1 large and 4 smaller squash blossoms in my Greenling box, which yielded 3 stuffed and fried blossoms, since I overlapped the smaller ones to create a bigger squash blossom.

Ingredients:

• 3 large squash blossoms
• 1/3 c. softened goat cheese (this should be adjusted according to how many squash blossoms you have. I stuffed each blossom with ~2 Tbsp. cheese filling)
• 2 green onions, sliced thinly
• 1 garlic clove, minced finely
• 1/2″ ginger, grated
• Pinch of salt and a few grinds of pepper
• 1/2 c. flour seasoned with a bit of salt and pepper
• 1 egg, beaten
• 1 c. breadcrumbs
• 1 Tbsp. canola oil

Directions:

• Clean and prepare the squash blossoms.
• Combine the goat cheese, green onions, garlic, ginger, salt and pepper in a small bowl.
• With the squash blossom sliced open, add a dollop of cheese filling to the center of the blossom. Fold the sides of the squash blossom around the filling to close it. Repeat until all squash blossoms have been filled.
• Freeze the squash blossoms for ~10 minutes to firm up before frying them.
• After 10 minutes of freezing, dredge the squash blossoms first in flour, then egg, then breadcrumbs. I wanted a thick breading, so after dredging the blossom in the breadcrumbs, I repeated the egg and breadcrumb step for a second coat.
• Heat the oil over high heat in a large skillet, then fry the breaded squash blossoms until browned on all sides (only took ~2 minutes total). Drain the excess oil on a paper towel and serve immediately.

The crust was quite crunchy.

And the hot cheese oozed out of the blossom when I bit into it.

Verdict:
Granted, when you fry anything, it’s bound to be good, but these were fantastic! I really liked the flavors in the goat cheese and they went well with our accompanying stir-fry. I’d highly recommend double-breading; the crispy, crunchy crust was fantastic and a great difference in texture from the gooey goat cheese.

Scallion-Corn Pancakes

I’m a member of a group called Cooking Away your CSA, and one of the group members emailed us a recipe for scallion pancakes. To me, scallions make everything better, and I thought corn would be a good addition for another dimension of texture.

This recipe makes ~10 pancakes.

Adapted from Dolores Riccio

Ingredients:

• Pam spray (if necessary)
• 1 bunch scallions
• Kernels from 2 ears of raw sweet corn
• 1 c. buttermilk (you can make your own by adding 1 Tbsp. lemon juice to a scant cup of milk)
• 1 c. boiling water
• 3/4 c. cornmeal
• 1 1/2 c. sifted all-purpose flour
• 1 Tbsp. baking powder
• 1 tsp. salt
• 1/4 tsp. baking soda
• 2 eggs, slightly beaten
• 3 Tbsp. vegetable oil

Directions:

• Heat a griddle over medium-high heat and spray with Pam if it’s not a non-stick pan.
• Thinly slice scallion bulbs and about 3 inches of the green part.
• Whisk the cornmeal with the boiling water, then add the flour, baking powder, salt, and baking soda to the cornmeal mixture.
• Mix the buttermilk, eggs, and oil together, then whisk into the cornmeal mixture. Fold in the scallions and corn kernels.
• Drop the mixture onto the hot griddle as pancakes and cook until they are lightly browned on each side (it took me ~3 minutes per side).

Verdict:
You know how some people have a sweet tooth? Well I have a scallion-corn pancake tooth. These have the same comfort food flavor as cornbread, but in breakfast food form, which automatically makes it better. I thought that this would be the perfect vessel for an hors d’oeuvre if you made the pancakes a bit smaller and more like blinis — maybe with a red pepper or black bean relish?

Pasta Pasta

The recipe for spaghetti and swiss chard with garlic chips caught our eye when we first saw it in the Thanksgiving 2008 issue of Gourmet. With a substitution of green onions for onion, it was a great means for eating out of our Local Box, since it also incorporated two weeks’ worth of Swiss chard. We also substituted Barilla Plus linguine for the spaghetti. This pasta has a bit more body – and lots more nutritive value, too.

How did you eat last week’s Local Box Swiss chard?

Potage Saint-Germain

My husband cooks, so I shouldn’t complain. He cooks well, in fact – and the French pea soup he made for dinner last night using Local Box lettuce was no exception.

But I must confess, I was biting my tongue. We are so loaded with vegetables from Greenling right now that I have to pack our crisper drawers to get them to close. The kohlrabi, the green garlic, and the green onions have been booted to regular shelves, since they seem to stay crisp, even out of the drawers. But my dearest went to the grocery store for this recipe. He bought frozen peas, leeks, and fresh mint. Could we really not have substituted green onions for the leeks? Cilantro for the mint?

The soup turned out great, but I think I’ll test my theory. I love the French potage style of soup, so I want to try one with what we already have on hand. Lettuce, cilantro, green onions… what else? Maybe a garnish of microgreens? I’ll let you know how it turns out.

Don’t get me wrong, though. I’m *definitely* not complaining.

What have you eaten from your Local Box so far this week?

Local Veggie Mish-Mash, with Quinoa

I heart quinoa. Last night I cooked some up using a new-to-me method from Paula Disbrowe’s book, Cowgirl Cuisine. Instead of rinsing it ’till kingdom come, she toasts it before cooking. (On a cookie sheet, 350 for 8 minutes.) After toasting, I dumped it into a pot of boiling water (3 cups water to 2 cups quinoa) to cook for 15 minutes. Yum! Until it gets so hot I’m loathe to fire up the oven, this method will serve me well. It did last night, especially under the mish-mash of Local Box carrots, scallions, and collards I cooked lightly, then spooned over it. I even added sliced avocado at the end. When the ingredients are this right, it’s hard to go wrong.

What did you eat out of the Local Box yesterday?

Local Box Lookout, week of 02.23.2009

Here’s what the folks at Greenling have planned for this week’s Local Box. Remember, you can still order this week’s Local Box through Saturday and later, depending on your zip code. Click here to check it out!

• spinach
• lettuce
• radishes
• green onion
• kale and collard bundles
• sweet potatoes
• carrots
• grapefruit
• kohlrabi
• mustard greens

Local Box Lookout, week of 02.02.2009

Here’s what to look for in this week’s Local Box:

• broccoli
• spinach
  
• arugula
  
• herbs
  
• green onion
  
• microgreens
  
• lettuce
  
• avocado
  
• oranges
  
• radish