Garlic Scapes

A friend recently posted a Garlic Scape Pesto recipe at her blog. Thanks, Katherine! I definitely want to try this out this year. I love pesto. I love garlic. I love easy recipes. Sounds just right for me.

Share # 5 - new items to try

If you are unfamiliar with kolrabi, peel off the outer skin, cut up and eat raw as is or in salad. Or cook in stirfry for a water chestnut-like crunch.

Garlic scapes - Use like scallions or garlic.

Pea shoots - We picked the tips only this time and they are a lot more tender. (Thanks for the tip, Marie!)

Radishes - Keep in mind that you can eat the greens. Best cooked because of their rough texture but think of them as turnip greens. They are closely related.

Parsley - This needed to be picked before it went to seed. The stems are kind of tough but could be chopped and added to soup, like celery. Parsley is super easy to freeze. Just wash, chop and freeze. In the winter you can scoop out what you need and it will be much closer in flavor to fresh parsley than the dried form.

Fava beans are forming. Now is the time to research recipes...

Rhubarb and Radishes

I don't have any particular hints or recipes of my own this week but I do have some links to some yummy sounding recipes elsewhere on the internet. Also, my friend Kiri made a beautiful meal featuring good bread with sweet butter and radishes and she said I could post a picture for you here.

So here goes:
Easy Rhubarb Jam
Rhubarb Cornmeal Cake
Custard with Rhubarb Sauce

And Kiri's beautiful meal:



Kiri said, "This was a great no-stove dinner for a hot night. Bulgur salad w/ mint, cilantro, chives, feta, roasted red peppers, cukes and arugula. Just lemon, olive oil, salt & pepper for dressing. The bread is whole wheat/oatmeal bread, spread with unsalted butter, sprinkled with Maldon sea salt, topped with easter egg radishes (shaved w/ mandoline). If my salad didn't have competing herbs I would have mixed some fresh thyme into the butter, too."

Pea shoots, sweet cicely pods, endive

I know that being part of a CSA can be a stretch for most folks. You end up with A Lot Of Vegetables and some of them are unfamiliar, even STRANGE. I happen to like eating a variety of foods and trying new things. I also love that at any given time the earth gives us a wide range of tasty edibles, no matter what the weather or season. I like to share the bounty with you.

Sweet cicely pods
These are a yearly treat for me. They only last for a week or so before the pods get way too tough. In the meantime, just chew the anise-flavored pods and spit out any fibrous parts you don't like. Or eat the whole thing. Fiber is good for us, right? The seeds can be tossed into salad or added to rice or really anything you like. The whole plant is edible and tastes like licorice.

Endive
These early heads of endive/escarole, (If I ever figure out the difference I will be very glad.), are tender and not bitter. I like to eat these like lettuce in salad. Later on, my favorite way to cook endive is sauted with garlic and olive oil.


Pea shoots
Last week I cooked some pea shoots for the first time. Yummy taste, but yuck! those stick-like stems! I don't get exactly how they can be so popular in stir fry, etc. So I did some checking on line and found that many people strip the leaves off the stems and either add the leaves to salad or cook them. Now stripping off leaves is way too tedious for me. I am a very lazy cook in some ways. So the next time I make them I will be experimenting with chopping the stems really, really short and then cooking them.

In the meantime, be warned that the stems are quite stemmy. Enough to choke or annoy the people eating them.


On the other hand, the leaves are delicious. They have a special flavor all their own. To my mind, it's worth pursuing how to cook them.