Week Three Experiments

Our third week box contained all sorts of goodies to play with. Bearclaw was working late all week so it was up to me to do some cooking. Here's what I came up with!

First up, a kale and red potato gratin:

This was super easy and only took a handful of ingredients (recipe here). It was healthier than your average gratin because it had far less cream and cheese. It used a whole bunch of kale and was absolutely delicious!

Next it was the Italian parsley's turn to shine! Our bunch was looking a little sad and I knew I needed to do something with it quick. I decided to turn it into a wonderful pesto based loosely on this recipe. We already had some toasted almonds which was perfect. I also added some lemon to brighten up the recipe a bit. Absolutely amazing!

From there it was time to do something with the bok choy. I've never actually made bok choy and I wanted something that would highlight its natural flavor. I simply cut the bok choy in half, sprinkled them with a little salt and pepper, and added some olive oil. I broiled them for about 7min and got a delicious snack: 

The second to last veggie that I hadn't used was our turnips. That's because I had no idea what to do with them. They sat in the fridge getting sadder and sadder. I can't actually remember the last time I ate turnips. My biggest childhood memory of them is reading about them in the American Girl Dolls books (Molly's book) and how much she hated eating them.....

Anyway, I finally pulled them out determined to make something. But, of course, I found they had gotten quite soft and squishy. I'm no turnip expert but I knew that couldn't be good. Lo and behold, the internet saved the day. Apparently a quick soak in an ice water bath (pictured below) can restore turnips to their firm and delicious selves. Hooray! 

So, with turnips much firmer, I decided to Google recipes. However, somewhere in the Googling, I got confused and thought I had white radishes. Oops. That's how I ended up loosely basing the following on a recipe called "radish hash browns".

I caramelized our walla walla onion, shredded the remainder of our red potatoes, and shredded the turnips. I added some cheese and cooked it all up! SO GOOD! Who knew?! 

Finally, the fennel! Neither Bearclaw or I like raw fennel (probably because we really dislike black licorice). I went on a hunt to find a recipe that would take away (or at least soften and sweeten) the licorice taste. This recipe promised it would be the "best fennel I'd ever eat" and that it was good for non-fennel lovers. Sold. The result: 

  

I learned how to cut up fennel and I turned into deliciousness! Ok, I know, the end result looks kind of.... well... gross. BUT, I promise, it was awesome! Salt, pepper, lemon juice, and olive oil. All added together and caramelized on the stove top for about 8 minutes. I swear, this was SO much better then we could have imagined. Absolutely delicious on it's own warm as well as cool in our salads the next day. 

Hooray! Week three had a lot going on but it was all super yummy. CSA experiment = success so far!