When we got our email the day before about what we would be getting I immediately ran to my cookbooks and asked myself, "What can I make with that?" Sadly, I was leaving for Chicago on Friday so I had a limited amount of time to create something with my half. Thankfully, Big L got me started off on the right foot by insisting that I try the peas raw. I, being a staunch anti-pea person, had my doubts. However, they were amazing. So sweet and so fresh, I now have a very specific exception on my no-pea rule. (This one was eaten the next day at my desk. Probably after a handful of candy, sadly).
I was really excited to try the kale, as I had never had it (I know, for someone who loves to eat and cook, kale seems like a pretty big basic but no dice). I decided to keep it simple because of the time constraint. I cooked some bacon in pot, took it out and sauteed the garlic in the fat, threw in the chopped kale, added some white beans and cooked pasta and the chopped up cooked bacon. And who doesn't love to celebrate the first harvest with a drink? Fresh mint? Mmmm, mojitos!
The next day, thanks to my sub-par storage technique, most of the rest of my greens had gone limp in the fridge. So I again kept it simple, just sauteed the radish tops, arugula and curly endive with garlic and oil, red pepper flakes then added 17 bean mix from Trader Joe's and chicken stock. Toasted some roasted garlic bread from Hudson Bakery (one of Big L's favorite things) with some shredded parm and then spread the garlic scape pesto I made on top of that. I don't know what it is but I can never get dried beans to rehydrate properly. Most of the beans came out ok but there were a few crunchy-ish ones in there. LeSigh. But other than that everything was really tasty. One miss of the delivery - the garlic scapes in an omelet. WAY too overpowering. However, maybe using a whole one in a small omelet was asking for trouble....
Here's the toast - so good!
I still have a few sprigs of mint that I've been using in tea, which has been good. There was one victim of the whole delivery - I came home to radishes that were completely shriveled. Live and learn...
