Sunday, September 2, 2012

Week 5 -- July 17th


Our share this week included broccoli, kale, onions, rainbow carrots, cucumbers, green beans, beets and cherry tomatoes. Our CSA, unlike some which give everyone the same selections each week, allows its shareholders to pick out some (usually six) of the items ourselves. Since we were going away on vacation four days into the week, I tried to select some vegetables that could be preserved or quickly eaten as snacks (like the cherry tomatoes and carrots), or like the onions and beets, vegetables that could be stored for a week or two.

I made kale chips with the kale, something I had wanted to try for a long time. Kale chip recipes are pretty much all the same, but here is the one I used. They turned out great, although next time I would dry the kale leaves even more carefully and spread the kale out on an additional baking sheet (I used two, but really should've used a third) to allow more of the leaves to crisp up more. The chips were very tasty and super addictive. It's shocking how quickly one can down a huge bunch of kale when it's been tossed in olive oil and baked 'til crisp!

I decided to pickle the green beans and the cucumbers. I have no experience with canning and wasn't prepared to learn on the fly, so I tried out a couple refrigerator pickle recipes. Refrigerator pickles, as the name implies, must be stored in the refrigerator and are a terrific way to make pickles that you intend to eat within a few weeks. 

I used this recipe to make the pickled green beans with one adaptation: I omitted the coriander seeds, mostly because I didn't feel like buying a spice that I might not use again. Instead I added about a 1/4 teaspoon of ground coriander which I already had in my pantry.  

For pickling the cucumbers, I used Kittencal's excellent recipe for kosher garlic-dill pickles. I sliced the cucumbers into thick coins instead of leaving them whole as my cucumbers were the conventional variety and not pickling cucumbers. On the advice of some of the commenters I decided to double the amount of white vinegar (to 1/4 cup); I also used a couple tablespoons of dried dill weed after being unable to find fresh dill weed locally, and only about 4 garlic cloves because that's all I had.

We tasted the green beans and the pickles when we returned from our vacation (about 1 1/2 weeks after I first pickled the vegetables). The green beans were kind of disappointing to me -- super vinegary and a little unpleasant to eat. My 18-year-old son liked them more than I did, but even he had had enough after a few.

Kittencal's pickles were a revelation, however! Crisp and so delicious -- the flavor was really balanced, even with the dried dill and half the amount of garlic. We were fighting over them and rationing them out at the same time. I was really pleased with my first experience with homemade pickles.

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