Mixed Summer Vegetable Recipes

Here is a good place for those recipes with a little bit of everything in them!

July 14, 2007 Pick-Up -WOW!!!

Cabbage

Ahhh...Cabbage Season! One of my favorites! Did you know that if people ate more cabbage in their diet ( this is science...) that we would have far fewer intestinal ailments in this country? It's true! Brassicas are the best thing you can do for your body! We grow severl types fo cabbage, this is the traditional green cabbage, we also grow red, savoy ( crinkly kind), and Napa ( Chinese Cabbage).

Of course, Cole slaw is a given. We use cabbage all year long, its the one thing we buy at the grocery when we run out in the winter. We like to sautee it with onions and add caraway seeds to the mixture, serve this with Pierogies ( mashed potatoes inside a pasta shell, can be found in the freezer section, or made from scratch) or add ground beef and put it inside pizza dough like a calzone! In the clazone, I would also add a TBS of vinegar to the cabbage-onion-beef-caraway mixture.

Shredded cabbage with a little lime juice on it makes a great topping for FISH TACOS!!! Our official favorite food! We use talapia, but red snapper is traditional- Toss fresh fish sliced into strips in seasoned flour, deep fry for a few minutes until crispy. Place in a soft corn tortilla with cliantro, shredded cabbage and sauce ( mix 2 TBS mayo with 1/4 cup sopur cream, the juice of 1 lime and 1/4 tsp celery seed) Yummy!

Basil

It's that time of year again! Time to make PESTO! and Tomato Basil Salads!

I do not recommend that you put basil in the refridgerator, I dont recommend washing it ahead of using it either. The best place to keep basil is in a glass of water on your counter, this way it will not turn black and will stay fresh for a week.

To make pesto, I just use a generic recipe, meaning I made it up!

In a food processor put a ton of basil, some garlic cloves ( or scapes) to your liking , a good amount of salt and,if you choose, pine nuts or walnuts. Puree until it is the desired texture. I like mine a little chunky. Slowly add olive oil until it is yout desired thickness. Add parmesean cheese just before you are planning to use the pesto, it gets kind of gross in the freezer or fridge with the cheese in it. Use this pesto on sandwiches, pasta, pizza, you name it!

To preserve pesto or plain basil, you can freeze it very easily. Using an ice cube tray will make easy work out of adding pesto or basil to your recipes. Simply remove the "basil cubes" after they are firmly frozen and put them in a plastic bag for long term storage, 6 months is about it.

To freeze pesto- just put it in the cubes as is.
To freeze plain basil, chop it and put in in ice cube trays with a little bit of water to fill the cube.

I have also heard that you can simply layer basil between sheets of wax paper and keep them in the freezer whole.

Garlic Scapes

Garlic Scapes are delicious! Unfortunately, we only have them for 2 weeks a year, so you wont be seeing them again until next year.....

Use them as you would cloves of garlic, chop them up and saute them with greens, chop them or grate them into a pulp ( using a micro plane or rasp ) for marinades and sauces or use them fresh in salads and such. They last quite a while in the fridge, so hang onto a few.