CSA Box: More greens

I’ve used up all the greens from our CSA box, just in time for Wednesday’s delivery!

Our box had some young, soft lettuce (I’m not very well versed in types of lettuces, so I have no idea what kind of lettuce it was). I chopped up one of the Fuji apples that came with the box and made a sweet bacon vinaigrette.

Bacon Vinaigrette

This makes enough to dress 1 or 2 servings of salad.

1. Cut up two slices of bacon into 1/2″ pieces. I usually use cooking scissors to do this straight into the pan.
2. Cook the bacon over medium heat until it’s as crisp as you like. Scoop out the bacon and drain, but reserve about a tablespoon of bacon grease in the pan.
3. If the pan is still pretty hot, turn off the stove and remove it from the heat. Add another tablespoon or two of olive oil and swirl around.
4. Add about two teaspoons of sugar to the pan.
5. Add a tablespoon of vinegar. I usually use balsamic vinegar, but you can use any kind you want. The vinegar may sizzle and spatter, but stir it in until everything is combined.
6. Drizzle immediately over the salad and top with the bacon bits.

Our box also had four beautiful leeks. I tried out a recipe from Perfect Vegetables for braised leeks, but I was also making spaghetti mizithra and shrimp scampi at the same time and ended up carmelizing the leeks by accident! They were still pretty tasty, however.

Spaghetti Mizithra

Spaghetti mizithra is a super-easy dish to make, especially if you pre-grate the mizithra cheese and store it in the freezer, ready to go. You can find mizithra cheese in your deli section, usually in plastic-wrapped wedges.

1. Grate mizithra cheese using the finest grater that you have. Some people like to combine it with parmesan and romano cheese as well in equal quantities, but by the time I’m done grating the mizithra the last thing I want to do is grate more cheese! You can do this step ahead of time and store in the fridge or freezer.
2. Boil water and cook spaghetti according to package instructions.
3. While the water is boiling, brown butter in a small skillet. You’ll want about 4 tablespoons of butter per serving, although having extra is always a good thing! To brown butter, melt the butter over medium-low heat and let it keep cooking until the melted butter turns brown. You can skim off the brown foam if you want, then pour the butter into a small serving dish.
4. To serve spaghetti mizithra, give each person a serving of pasta. Put the cheese and butter in separate serving bowls with spoons. Each person can sprinkle as much cheese as they want on the pasta, then spoon the browned butter over the pasta and cheese, then mix it all together!

I’m still trying to find a way to make kale and similar tougher greens in a way that Steve likes. I tried another recipe from Perfect Vegetables which involved blanching the greens (I used kale and mixed stir fry greens from our box), cooking sausage (the recipe called for kielbasa but I used andouille sausage instead), and mixing the greens and sausage with other seasonings. I served a generous helping of this mixture over couscous. Steve liked the sausage but still wasn’t enthused with the greens, so I’ll have to keep trying other recipes!

I somehow found myself buying giant artichokes and added it to my dinner menu along with leftover couscous, pan-fried tri tip steak with a Worcestershire-mustard-parsley-wine sauce, and Swiss chard cooked with red onion and bacon — again, another recipe from Perfect Vegetables. As Swiss chard is a more tender green, Steve loved it (especially with the bacon!). The addition of the artichoke made this way too much food for us and we had leftovers for a few days!

• CSA Box
• Food