by Coltrane

The recipe is basically Mark Bittman’s, from How To Cook Everything, 10th Anniversary Edition.  I used french bread that I’d made the day before.  The bread hadn’t risen like I would have liked — it wound up relatively too dense to use as “bread”, so I repurposed it into these crostini.  

This crostini recipe didn’t quite use up all of the bread I’d made — the remaining bread became Bittman’s French Toast.  The French toast was also quite good.  That book has yet to let me down.

The crostini ingredients:

I  used canned tomatoes in this recipe and it went over well.  Roma tomatoes would be good too.  My advice would be to go with whatever you have on hand.

Directions:

Place the tomatoes in a colander and drain for a few minutes.   Heat broiler and adjust the rack to 4″ from the heat.  Place the bread onto a cookie sheet or equivalent.  Lightly brush the bread slices on both sides with olive oil.  Place the cookie sheet under the broiler to lightly brown the first side of the bread.  (This will take 2-4 minutes.)  Turn and brown the other side.  Don’t walk away from the bread while it’s under the broiler, as the bread will go from “toasty” to “setting off the fire alarm” in about 30 seconds.  Rub the crostini with the halved garlic clove.

Combine the tomato, basil, cheeses, minced garlic, and the two tablespoons of olive oil.  Mix to combine and salt to taste (about 1/2 tsp).  Distribute the tomato mixture on the crostini rounds.  Finish with a drizzle of olive oil.

As for what happens when you get wrapped up in taking pictures and forget about the bread under the broiler…

by Coltrane

Chard arrived in the CSA box this week.  The chard, along with some leftover cheese, canned beans, and basil from the planter box become a very nice topping for crostini or crackers:

Heat skillet over medium high heat.  Add Olive Oil, Shallots, and Garlic.  Saute until soft.   Add Chard, Beans, Chicken Broth, and Red Pepper.  Cook until the Chard is wilted and reduced.  Add cheese, basil, and lemon juice, heat through.    Salt to taste (the chicken broth and cheese both contain some salt.)

Serve over crostini, bruschetta, or crackers.

This recipe would work well with spinach instead of chard.   A lesser amount of onion may be substituted for the shallot.

By Iron Chef Leftovers

I don’t actually get a CSA basket (although I probably should), but I know plenty of people who do and I frequently get asked if I want the stuff they aren’t going to use or what can they do with the leftovers. I say, make a stir-fry. I am pretty sure that stir-fry is ancient Chinese for “take a whole bunch of shit and throw it in a pot to make something tasty.”

I love summer in the Northwest since we have access to some great quality and amazingly fresh ingredients. Here is my CSA inspired stir-fry from a farmer’s market shopping spree. There is really no recipe. I just cut up a bunch of stuff, cooked it and ate it. It really is that simple.

The Software
Zucchini
Bok Choy
Green Bell Peppers
Walla Walla Onions
Broccoli
Garlic – minced or sliced
Oil (any kind will do, I use olive)
Lime
Soy Sauce
Rice Wine Vinegar
Chicken Stock
Sesame Seeds

The Stir-Fry
Chop the zucchini, bok choy, peppers and onions to whatever size you want them to be. I personally like large pieces of veggies, so I chopped them very roughly. You are going to cook all of the veggies separately, so you will need a large sauté pan and a large bowl. Heat the pan over medium-high heat with about 1.5 tablespoons of oil. When the oil is hot, add the onions. Cook for about 1 minute until they begin to soften. Add a little soy sauce and toss the onions around in it. Continue cooking until less cooked than you would want to eat (they will continue cooking in the bowl). Add in garlic and cook for 15 -30 seconds more. Empty contents of pot into bowl. Return pot to heat, add oil until it is hot and add whichever veggie you would like to cook next (it really does not matter), just remember not to overcook them and add a dash or 2 of soy sauce for the last minute or so of cooking. Repeat the process until all of the veggies are done. Once all of the veggies are done, take a small amount of chicken stock and deglaze the pan (or you can use veggie stock, water, wine, beer – pretty much any liquid will work). Add it to the bowl of cooked veggies. Takes some rice wine vinegar, the juice of the lime and a handful of sesame seeds and add them to the bowl. Give everything a good stir and taste. Adjust the seasonings as needed. Eat. That is it; the whole thing takes less than 10 minutes.

Notes
You can add any veggies you want to this, the recipe is based on what I picked up and looked good. I like to serve this over some pan-fried yakisoba noodles, but you can serve it over rice, cous cous, pasta or just on its own. If you want some protein in it, this does work well with tofu or poultry. If you like heat, a nice chile sauce or some diced chile peppers are wonderful. Ginger is also nice with this too – just mince it and add it at the same time as the onions. Just remember – don’t overcook the veggies or you will end up with mush.