Myerov Farm CSA Blog

Hi Neil,

I was so excited when I saw we got celeriac in our pick up last week.

I made my French Onion Soup with Celeriac and of course it came out delicious!

So I wanted to share it with you and if you’d like please feel free to pass it on and share with others.

INGREDIENTS

• 1 head garlic
• 1 teaspoon olive oil
• salt to taste
• 1/2 cup butter, softened
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 2 tablespoons butter, melted
• 3 large sweet onions, chopped
• 1 celeriac (celery root), chopped
• 2 cups beef broth
• 1 cup dry red wine
• 2 cups vegetable broth
• 1 head garlic cloves, chopped
• 2 teaspoons paprika
• 2 tablespoons dried parsley
• Cajun seasoning to taste
• salt and pepper to taste
• 1 loaf French bread, toasted and sliced
• 1 cup shredded Swiss cheese

DIRECTIONS

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees F (220 degrees C). Slice the top off the whole head of garlic, sprinkle with 1 teaspoon olive oil, and season with salt. Wrap loosely in foil, and bake 45 minutes, or until the cloves are very soft. Squeeze the cloves into a small bowl, and mix with the 1/2 cup softened butter.
2. Heat 2 tablespoons olive oil in a large pot over medium heat. Melt 2 tablespoons butter in the pot, and blend with the oil. Stir in the onions and celery root, and saute until the onions are lightly browned. Reduce heat to medium low, and mix in the beef broth, wine, and vegetable broth. Mix in the chopped garlic, and season with paprika, parsley, Cajun seasoning, salt, and pepper. Simmer, stirring occasionally, for 1 hour.
3. Preheat the oven broiler.
4. Spread the toasted bread slices with the garlic butter. Ladle the soup into oven safe bowls, and place the bowls on a baking sheet. Reserving remaining bread, place one slice of toasted bread on top of the soup in each bowl, and sprinkle with Swiss cheese.
5. Broil soup 5 minutes in the preheated oven, until the Swiss cheese is melted. Cool for about 2 minutes before serving warm with remaining garlic bread.

Enjoy!

Nancy Calandra

As we all know, Neil never has a shortage of hot peppers. Here’s a link to some Jalapeno Recipes he wanted us to share with you to get some ideas on how to use them all. Our favorite way is chopped up in an omelette served with some taco sauce over it (with the seeds and ribs removed, they really aren’t that hot).

This recipe is one of my absolute favorites.  It’s from my Mother-in-law and makes me wish summer squash lasted all year.  A good thing it doesn’t since this isn’t the lightest of recipes!

1 can cream of mushroom soup

1/2 cup sour cream

4 cups sliced cooked zucchini or yellow squash

1 cup shredded carrots

1/4 cup chopped onion

2 cups herb stuffing mix (like Pepperidge Farms)

1/4 cup melted butter

Note: To cook the squash I cut it into half moons and put a little olive oil on it and salt and pepper and then bake it at 350 for 25-30 minutes or until tender.  Use the same casserole dish you are using to make the casserole and just be careful when combine the ingredients to make it.  One less dish to wash is a great thing!

In 2 quart shallow baking dish combine all ingredients except stuffing mix & butter.  Toss stuffing mix & melted butter & spoon over vegetable mixture.  Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes or until hot.

Hope your family loves this as much as I do!

My mom’s recipe from Betty Crocker Cookbook

1-1 1/2 lbs. fresh or frozen green beans

2 Tablespoons veg. oil – I used olive

1 Tablespoon vinegar

1 Tablespoon minced onion (you probably could substitute 1/4 cup finely diced fresh onion)

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/8 teaspoon pepper

1 clove garlic, minced

Topping:

2 Tablespoons breadcrumbs

2 Tablesppons parmesan cheese

1 Tablespoon melted butter

paprika

Cook fresh or frozen beans (a light steam does the trick).  Toss beans with oil, vinegar, onion, salt, pepper and garlic.  Place in 1 quart casserole dish.  Stir together topping ingredients except for paprika.  Sprinkle topping over beans and then sprinkle with paprika.  Bake at 350 degrees for 15-20 minutes or until heated through.

Enjoy!

Food Documentary

FRESH

July 25, 2009 @ 7 pm

Many people have seen, or heard about, the movie Food, Inc., currently playing in theaters, but equally as important is a new and beautifully made documentary, FRESH. FRESH is showing in public and private screenings around the country and in Bucks County on July 25 @ 7 pm at The River Valley Waldorf School. FRESH tells the stories of the farmers, thinkers and business people across America who are reinventing our food system. Forging healthier, sustainable alternatives, they offer a practical vision of our food and our planet’s future. FRESH addresses an ethos that has been sweeping the nation and is a call to action America has been waiting for.

Not to be missed.

Call ahead and reserve your seats Now !!!

610-982-5606

Thanks to CSA member Angelique R. for the info!!

1 can of Cheddar Cheese Soup

16 oz of diced ham

1/2 box of cooked pasta (we used mini bowties)

1 frying pepper, diced

1 small onion, diced

2 tomatoes, diced

1 clove garlic, minced

a splash of milk

salt and pepper to taste

Begin by cooking pasta in salted water.  While pasta water is coming to a boil, saute onion, pepper, and garlic, until soft.  Once veggies are softened combine in large bowl with ham, and cooked pasta, tomatoes, soup and fresh cracked pepper to taste.  A splash of milk might be needed to make it easy to stir.  Put into 8×8 casserole dish and bake at 350 for 30-35 minutes.  Before baking if you wish, top with broken crackers or bread crumbs that have  been browned in a bit of butter.  Enjoy.

These recipes were sent by a fellow CSA member Steve L.  Here are two fabulous sounding dishes from him!

Panzanella Salad

With tomatoes and basil being harvested it is time to make one of my favorites, panzanella salad (Tuscan bread salad). Cut up stale Italian bread into one inch pieces and soak in red wine vinegar. Squeeze out excess vinegar and combine with whole basil leaves, chunks of tomato and sliced red onions. Add olive oil, salt and pepper. You may also like to add celery, chopped hard-boiled eggs and anchovies. That’s right, basil leaves for the greens. This is a simple recipe, but if you need more details you can google them up. Enjoy!!

Pea Pod Veggie Saute

Sorry that I have no picture to post but all the edible pod peas we have been getting are great sauteed with sliced mushrooms and sliced onions. Very easy, very tasty!

Thanks Steve!  I can’t wait to try these recipes!  I’ll try to add pictures when I make them!

Want to share some recipes with the CSA? Leave them in a comment like Steve, or email them to us at Andy@lolindrath.com.  Happy Cooking!

Salon Concert at Myerov Farm

Location: 306 Elephant Road, Perkasie, PA

When: Sunday, July 12, 2009 at 5:00pm

RSVP requested – to Neil Myerov

Are you a home brewer?  If some why not bring some of your most recent brew to share!  This is a great way to enjoy some wonderful music while getting to know others in the CSA.  Want to meet your bloggers?  We will be there!  Hope to see you Sunday.

We made this for dinner tonight and all I can say is I will be buying Kale (that’s right, you read this correctly) in the grocery stores once we don’t get it in the CSA share because this soup is THAT GOOD!

Bean Soup with Kale

Ingredients:

4 cups kale, washed with stems removed (we used kale and swiss chard)

2 (15 oz) cans cannellini beans

4 plum tomatoes, diced

1 medium yellow onion

8 cloves garlic

1 tablespoon olive oil

salt and pepper to taste

4 cups vegetable broth

2 teaspoons dried Italian seasoning

chopped fresh parsley

In a large pot, heat olive oil. Add garlic and onion; saute until soft. Add kale and saute, stirring, until wilted. Add 3 cups of broth, 2 cups of beans, and all of the tomato, herbs, salt and pepper. Simmer 5 minutes. In a blender or food processor, mix the remaining beans and broth until smooth. Stir into soup to thicken. Simmer 15 minutes. Ladle into bowls; sprinkle with chopped parsley.

Now would be the time for me to admit that I also added some orzo to the soup when there was the amount of cooking time left required to cook the pasta.

My husband’s reaction to this soup was “Boy was that filling!”  I just can’t say enough about this soup.  Oh, and for you picky eaters out there or the parents who are trying to feed their children greens you can’t even taste the greens in this soup!

A few tips and alterations that I made are:

Make sure you do a good job chopping the greens, I didn’t and some of the pieces in the soup were a little large which didn’t bother me, but it might help the picky eaters for the pieces to be smaller.

I added a large fresh tomato and then because I didn’t have anymore fresh I did use a 15 oz can of tomatoes.

I used marjoram, oregano, basil and dried parsley as a substitute for the Italian seasoning (I honestly can’t believe that in my arsenal of spices I don’t have Italian seasoning)!

Don’t skimp on the spices, garlic and salt and pepper; they really make the soup!

If you have an immersion blender this is the place to use it!

Good Luck! Enjoy!

Onions

Garlic ready to go

Kale and Swiss Chard

Blend the remaining beans to thicken the soup

Strip the Kale off the stems

Yum!  A different alternative to traditional coleslaw made with mayo.

1 medium head cabbage (either arrowhead or napa works)

3 carrots

1 Spring onion

3-4 radishes

~ 1/2 cup sour cream

3 tablespoons cider vinegar

salt and pepper to taste

Remove core if using arrowhead or head cabbage and quarter.  Thinly slice cabbage, no larger than 3/8 inch thick.  In my opinion the thinner the better, who wants a large chunk of cabbage in their slaw!  Peel and grate or shred carrots and radishes.   (Leaving the tops on the radishes makes them easier to peel.)

Julienne spring onion into similar size of carrots.  Combine sour cream, vinegar, salt (at least a 1/2 tsp.) and pepper (1/4) and mix well.  Add dressing to vegetables and toss.  At this point taste the coleslaw and add salt and pepper as needed.  The coleslaw will look like it needs more dressing.  Don’t add more!  The salt you added will pull liquid out of the cabbage as it sits and will make more dressing.  Allow to sit in fridge at least 6 hours before serving.   Stir or toss before eating.

Enjoy!