The Eagles, A Blackout, And Organic Produce

This year, the Eagles won the super bowl. I watched the game at the Eagles bar in Austin, Texas, my adopted hometown. As I stumbled out into the parking lot, drunk on success (and beer), I ran into some strangers and got into their car.

When I came to, I was in a cabin in a dark field accessible only by dirt roads. Was I about to be “Hills Have Eyes’d” by mutant rednecks like my Yankee prejudices would have me believe? No, in fact, I had been picked up by the kindly workers on an organic farm in town. Now they’re my buds! Not just buds, but buds with benefits, at least for me. Every week, they get a box filled with the bounty of their labor, far too much produce for them to cook before it spoils. Every time I visit their house now, they try to foist their excess veg on me.

My last haul consisted thusly:

• a shitton of beautiful red new potatoes

• broccoli

• green tomatoes

• beets

• swiss chard

• fennel

I imagine people who subscribe to CSA boxes in my area are getting a similar selection of produce right now. One tough aspect of trying to cook seasonally with fresh produce is coming up with dishes that use up ingredients in a cohesive way. Here’s what I came up with.

Fried Green Tomatoes with Remoulade

This is a Southern classic, one that I had never gotten the opportunity to make because green tomatoes are hard to come by up north.

For the breading:

• 1 cup AP flour

• 1 cup bread crumbs

• 3 eggs

• 2 tbsp water

• Mexican hot sauce (something like Valentina)

• Cajun seasoning (I used Tony Chachere’s)

3 Green tomatoes, sliced into ¼ inch rounds

For the remoulade:

• ¼ cup mayonnaise

• Cajun Seasoning

• Mexican Hot Sauce

• Mustard

• Pickle Relish

• Capers

Oil for frying

Put the flour, breadcrumbs, and eggs in three separate containers. Season the flour and bread crumbs well with cajun seasoning. Beat the eggs with a little water and hot sauce until they are uniform in color and texture. Any unincorporated egg will make for an uneven coat of breading.

While you are preparing the breading station, heat frying oil in a skillet so it’s ready to go. You don’t need a huge pot of oil here, just enough to reach ⅔ of the way up the breaded tomato slices. I used a mixture of butter and olive oil for flavor, but you can use vegetable or canola oil if you’re afraid about oil burning. You don’t want the pan to get screaming hot, just hot enough so that the tomatoes sizzle once they hit the oil.

Dredge the tomatoes in flour first, making sure they are coated all the way around. Coat them in egg, and then in bread crumbs. Take special care to coat the edges of the slices with skin on them, you may have to press crumbs into the sides to make sure the slices are entirely covered in breading. Drop the tomatoes into the oil, taking care not to overcrowd the pan. Fry until golden brown on both sides, flipping occasionally. Drain on paper towels or a wire rack. Salt the tomatoes as soon as they come out of the oil.

To make remoulade, just mix the mayo with the other ingredients. This is all to taste, so experiment with different ratios of the flavorful stuff to make your ultimate sauce. Eat the tomatoes while they’re still hot, slathered with as much remoulade as your arteries can handle.

Beet Salad with Goat Cheese, Pistachios, and Herbs

It seems like every fine dining restaurant in America serves some version of this salad. This one is inspired by the one on the menu of the restaurant where my Significant Other works. The key to success with this is the technique for roasting the beets. Roasting them whole in their skin gives them an intense flavor and firm-yet-yielding texture that I haven’t replicated with any other method

For the beets:

• 2 to 3 medium beets

• Olive oil

• Salt

For the vinaigrette:

• ½ cup olive oil

• ¼ cup lemon juice

• 1 tsp mustard

• 1 clove garlic, minced

• Salt and pepper

For the salad

• Fresh goat cheese

• Fresh mint, ripped into pieces

• Fennel Fronds or fresh dill, also ripped

• ¼ cup salted roasted pistachios, shelled and rough chopped

To prepare the beets, preheat your oven to 350. Chop off the greens and root ends of the beets. Save the greens to saute later. Toss the beets in olive oil and lots of salt. Roast until a paring knife can be inserted to the center of the largest beet with little effort (This took about an hour and a half for me, but exact cooking times will vary). Let beets cool, and then while cool enough to handle but still warm, peel them under cold running water. I mostly use my hands to rip the skin off, breaking out a paring knife for the stubborn patches. You can do this part up to several days ahead of time if you want. Just store the roasted beets in the fridge until you’re ready to use them.

For the vinaigrette, mix all the ingredients in a jar and shake to combine. This recipe makes more vinaigrette than you will need for this salad, but it will keep for a month or two in the fridge and is very versatile. Olive oil solidifies at fridge temperature, so just run the jar under warm water a few minutes before you need to dress the salad.

Now it’s time to build the salad. Slice the beets into wedges that aren’t too big to eat in one bite and toss them in a mixing bowl with a healthy amount of vinaigrette, salt and pepper. It’s good to let the beets hang out in the dressing for a few minutes to let them soak up the seasoning. In a separate bowl, toss together the herbs with a small amount of vinaigrette and salt and pepper. Lay the beets on your serving platter in a single layer, then top with the herbs. Crumble goat cheese on top of these, then scatter the pistachios. Finish with olive oil and a little extra salt.

Kitchen Sink Vegetable Soup

Think of this not as a recipe, but a method. Soup is just about the easiest way to use random bits of vegetables hanging out in your fridge, and most veggies taste good together. This is the soup I made with various stuff I got from my farmer friends, but feel free to use whatever you have around. Just try to get something umami, something spicy, and something acidic in there to make sure your soup is bursting with flavor.

• 1 quart chicken stock (sub veggie stock or mushroom stock for a vegetarian version)

• 1 quart water

• 2 tbsp miso

• Cider vinegar, to taste

• 1 bulb fennel

• 1 medium yellow onion

• 4 cloves garlic, peeled and crushed

• 1 jalapeno, seeds and ribs removed

• 6 new potatoes

• 3 heads of broccoli

• Olive oil

• Parmesan rind

Roughly chop the onion and fennel, and put in a pot with the potatoes, chicken stock, water, jalapeno, miso, garlic, and parmesan rind. Bring to a simmer and cook for 20 minutes, or until the potatoes are almost tender. Chop up the broccoli and add to the pot, cooking until just tender and bright green. Blend using an immersion blender, or a tabletop blender if you don’t have one. Stream in about ¼ to ½ a cup of extra virgin olive oil while blending, and season with cider vinegar, salt and pepper. I like to serve this kind of soup with garnishes that add some crunch. The first night, I garnished with toasted pistachios, olive oil, and ripped mint leaves. The next day, I used crushed tortilla chips, creamy goat cheese, and hot sauce. Both were equally delicious!