Fabulous Summer Sides

It’s been awhile. So far August has proved to be the craziest month in the Markum house this year. Between family visiting, birthday parties, and weekend trips, I’ve barely had time to sleep, let alone blog. The crazy train doesn’t show signs of stopping anytime soon, so I figure I just better get on board and enjoy the ride!

August is the ultimate month for summer produce, our CSA box was so full this week, we could barely carry it out of the market! With almost everything at peak season , it's the perfect time to enjoy lots of delicious vegetable side dishes!

Sautéed Sweet Corn with Basil
Serves 4

6 Ears of corn
2 1/2 Tablespoons unsalted butter
1 Teaspoon Salt
1 Teaspoon pepper
7-8 Leaves Basil, julienned

Shuck the ears of corn, making sure to remove all the little strings. Stand corn upright on cutting board. Run a knife downwards, removing corn kernels. In a large sauté pan, add corn, butter, salt and pepper, cook over medium high heat. After about 8 minutes of cooking, add basil. Cook until corn starts to pop, about 10 minutes. Season to taste and serve immediately.

Garlic Green Beans

Serves 4

1 Pound green beans, ends trimmed
1 Clove garlic, finely grated
1 Tablespoon unsalted butter
Salt & pepper to taste

Boil large pot of salted water . When water is boiling, add green beans and boil 4 minutes. Immediately drain green beans in colander and run cold water over them to stop the cooking process. (at this point the green beans can sit for awhile while you prepare other parts of the meal.) Using the same pot, melt butter over medium high heat. Add green beans. Grate garlic clove over the green beans and sauté about 3 minutes. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Serve immediately.

Linguine with Snap Peas, Zucchini, Basil, & Gremolata

I was busy rifling through recipes to utilize some snap peas I had received in last week’s CSA box. Inside the box, I had found the attached instructions on how they should be eaten to be completely unacceptable. They were to: “just eat the snap peas, raw.” No thank you! Healthy eating can only take me so far, and it doesn’t take me far enough to sit and eat raw vegetables with no seasoning for dinner. If I died the next day I don’t want my last meal on earth to be raw snap peas, or carrots, or cauliflower, you get the idea. This was this reason for my fervent pursuit of a recipe, so I could use up the snap peas. I ran across this one, in the May 2008 issue of Bon Appetit, adapted it a little, and it turned out to be a pretty darn good summer pasta. I got my flavor kicks and also ate my veggies. Now that is a healthy compromise!

Serves 4!

Gremolata is garnish of parsley, lemon and garlic. In this recipe capers are substituted for the garlic.

Gremolata:

3 Tablespoons Italian parsley, chopped
1 Tablespoon lemon peel finely grated
1 Tablespoon capers drained & chopped
1 Tablespoon olive oil

Mix parsley, lemon peel, capers and olive oil in a small bowl set gremolata aside.

For the Pasta:

¼ Cup olive oil
12 Ounces linguine
1 small yellow onion, thinly sliced
4 cloves garlic, chopped
2 Red jalapeno chiles, thinly sliced
2 Zucchini cut crosswise into 1/3 inch slices
1 Cup snap peas
1Cup packed fresh basil leaves
1 Cup Parmesan cheese, grated

Cook pasta in boiling salted water until al dente. Make sure to reserve 1 cup of the cooking liquid. I like to do this buy sticking a heavy mug into the boiling water and scooping some out. While the pasta is cooking, heat the olive oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add onion, garlic, and jalapenos, sautéing until soft, about 3 minutes. Add zucchini and snap peas and sauté until tender about 3 minutes. Season with salt and pepper. Add drained pasta, the cooking liquid (salted boiled water), basil and grated Parmesan cheese to the skillet. Toss until the basil is wilted and the pasta is coated. Season with salt and pepper. Top with gremolata and extra Parmesan cheese.

Ode to Strawberries Part 3: Strawberry Rhubarb Crumble

This last Sunday we picked up our first CSA box of the season and I am happy to say that I was not disappointed. We received a nice assortment of fruits and vegetables and even a potted plant. Picking up the box is also kind of exciting, because you don’t really know what you are going to get. It reminded me of the feeling I used to get as a little kid buying one of those “mystery” goody bags at the toy store, and then eagerly ripping open the bag to see just what treasures it held. One of the treasures this week were 2 pints of fresh, red strawberries. But like anything in life, along with the treasures also come the challenges. This weeks challenge was the rhubarb. I have never cooked with rhubarb, and really know very little about it. What I did know was that it needs to be cooked for awhile, and that it supposedly goes well with strawberries. Looking at the rhubarb itself was a bit daunting. Raw rhubarb basically looks like a big fuschia celery stick. I toyed with the idea of making some sort of jam, cake, or crisp but ultimately decided on this crumble. I also toyed with the idea of not using the rhubarb at all, but that would be wasteful and I promised myself that if we purchased the CSA box this summer I would utilize every last piece of produce, so I made the crumble. And I am so glad I did! This crumble was very simple to prepare, smelled great while baking and came out of the oven, gooey, sweet and well, crumbly. This crumble topping is super versatile and I can’t wait to use it again in a month or so when raspberries and blackberries are in season!

Strawberry-Rhubarb Crumble

For the Filling:

1 Cup rhubarb, chopped roughly into 1 inch pieces
1 ½ Cup strawberries, hulled and quartered
1/3 Cup sugar
Juice of 1 lemon
3 Tablespoons cornstarch
1/8 teaspoon salt

For the Topping:

1 1/3 Cup flour
1 stick unsalted butter, melted
3 Tablespoons sugar
3 Tablespoons brown sugar
Zest of 1 lemon
1 Teaspoon baking powder

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. In an 8 x 8 pan, (you could use a 9 inch pan, or a pie pan, I actually used a 10 inch oval gratin dish.) mix the ingredients for the filling together. Your hands work best for this! Spread filling evenly over bottom of pan. In medium bowl, mix together ingredients for the crumble topping until small and large lumps form. (I.e; crumbles). Sprinkle topping generously over filling. Bake in oven until topping is golden brown and bubbly, about 45-50 minutes. Serve with a scoop of vanilla ice cream!

1st Blog Attempt Ever!

Hi Everyone! I am brand spanking new to blogging and not exactly tech savvy, so if anyone has any suggestions or tips they would be much appreciated.....I am excited to see the sun shining today and hopefully get out of this winter cooking rut. It makes me start thinking about well, food....For the 1st time this year our family is subscribing to a 1/2 share of a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) basket from Sungold Farms. Basically once a week starting in June we pick up a box from our local farmers market filled with fruits, veggies, and herbs of the season. I think it will be a great opportunity for us to stay on the path to eating healthy and also force my creative juices to start flowing. For example, what in the world do I do with a Khalorobi? It will also force us to eat things we usually avoid at all costs in the Markum household....like eggplant. I am making it my special project for us to not only eat everything we get in our box, but make it taste good and enjoy it as well. I will be posting my misadventures right here. For anyone interested about CSA boxes and how to subscribe follow this link:
www.localharvest.org
http://www.portlandcsa.org/oregon-csa-farms.php#OtherCSAs

It is a great way to support your local economy and eat healthy and organic!