Ahhh, the wonder of the mysteries awaiting inside the weekly CSA box!

I firmly believe in the principle of buying one new/unknown fruit or vegetable a month and introducing it to your family!

This year I get to practice it.  (Yes, not all of my principles get exercised regularly.  I’m guilty of buying tomatoes and avocadoes … every week.)

So, to quiz your veggie brains!

500 karma points to whoever can accurately name all 3.

Aren’t they beautiful?

And no, I couldn’t.

And yes, I cheated.

No karma points for me.

And no, I still don’t know all 3 of them!

Answers tomorrow ….

And recipes after that!

Please post your answers as well as share with us your favorite, brilliant methods of preparation!

What a fun name to say!  Beer-rocks.  I don’t know the origin of the word or the food so if you do, feel free to comment.  I only know that I had awesome ones on the road at a great little coffee shop in Kansas … here’s a shout out to Lincoln Perk in Hesston!  And I know that this week I had a package of grass-fed ground beef thawed in my fridge that I needed to use, along with more of that cabbage (cabbage cameos in my CSA box, see last post).  And all of a sudden the angels of aha! moments popped the idea of bierocks into my head.

So I tried my hand….

Ingredients: (Now in my book there are 3 reasons to love bierocks and here’s #1: a short ingredient list!)

1 small onion, chopped

1/2-3/4 small head of cabbage, chopped

1 lb. ground beef, browned

Seasonings (sea salt, freshly ground pepper, other of your choice)

Bread Dough (recipe below) – or use frozen bread dough/frozen rolls for extra ease!

Steps:

1.  Make the Bread Dough (or thaw the frozen) and let rise while completing the following.

2. Brown the ground beef, season as you like, maybe a little cumin, salt and pepper.  Even chili powder could be good.

3. Saute the onions in a little butter until slightly softened; stop cooking but add cabbage and stir.

4. Season the onions and cabbage.  The recipe I used called for 2 T. Worcestershire but I’m not a huge fan of Worcestershire.  Have you ever checked the ingredient list on the back of the Worcestershire bottle?  I can’t tell what the heck it is!  It also called for lemon pepper.  Ditto on the lemon pepper – ack!  How do you season pepper with lemons?  Evidently with yellow #5 and polysorbate 80.

So maybe you could season with some fresh or dried garlic or marjoram.  Or a couple of dashes of soy sauce or Bragg’s Liquid Aminos.  Yeah, that’s starting to sound healthier!  But be discretionary – use your senses of smell and intuition before you mix chili powder and cumin into the ground beef and marjoram and soy sauce into the cabbage!  That sounds a little much and a little strange.  However, this seasoning part I’m going to let you experiment with, because I had to experiment, and I didn’t get it perfectly right yet.  If experimenting sounds scary, just stick to salt and pepper for now!

5. Mix the ground beef with the cabbage mixture.

6. Divide the bread dough into 15-20 small roll-size balls.

7. Roll each ball flat (like you would a pizza crust and a pizza crust roller works great for this) and top with 2-3 T. of ground beef mixture.

8. Wrap the corners of dough around the mixture and pinch together.

9. Bake at 350 for 25 minutes.

Bread Dough Recipe

2 c. warm water

2 packets yeast

1/3 c. sugar

1/4 c. butter, softened

1 egg

1 1/2 tsp. salt

7 c. flour

Dissolve yeast in warm water.  Add sugar, salt, butter, egg and half the flour.  Mix until smooth.  Add the remaining flour and mix until dough pulls away from sides of the bowl.  Cover and let rise 1 hour.  Punch down and divide into roll-size as described above.

Now.  Here are the other 2 reasons to love bierocks.  You knew I wouldn’t leave you hanging, right?

#2 - They have cabbage in them.  Besides that I’m cheering for another way to use the heads of cabbage from my local organic crop share, this is a tasty, happy way to eat this nutritious, anticancer, cruciferous vegetable rich in chlorophyll, folic acid and phytonutrients!  Everyone should eat cabbage at least sometimes.  For their health.

#3 - They’re handy! Individual little pockets of hearty goodness to pack for the road, in a sack lunch or a backpack!  Freeze and pop into the oven one at a time to reheat for a quick lunch.

You’d never guess what’s waiting inside these disguises of dinner rolls.  Serve with a big, beautiful side salad!

La Luz is a local fish taco cafe that posts their yummy recipe on their community bulletin board for all to see and share!

I took note, and took advantage.

There are 3 keys to this delicious meal:

1) Good fish

2) La Luz’s marinade

3) Cabbage!

Yes, cabbage.  You’ll see.

First of all, let’s choose a good piece of fish.  La Luz uses mahi mahi, which I like very much and have used before.  However, when I went to Whole Foods this week to buy mahi mahi, the helpful and knowledgeable lady behind the fish counter told me they’re not buying it right now because of how expensive it is.  So she directed me to wahoo (ono) instead.  I love saying those names.  I got some WA-HOOOOO!  No, actually I got, O-NOOO!!  How cool to be the fish that got two of the most fun names in the fish world.

Wahoooooo (Oh-NO!) is, like mahi, a mild, moist white fish.  Try to buy fresh, wild fish whenever you can.  For those of you in West Texas and similarly fresh-fish-and-Whole-Foods-deprived areas, I think you could try this with frozen tilapia.

My apologies ahead of time for the dearth of pictures.  I made this meal in a hurry for two hungry hunters and was just about to sit down to mine when I realized it would be a GREAT blog post.

Oops, I got ahead of myself there.

Okay, we have the fish.  Now let’s cut it up into nice strips, similar to how you would slice chicken or steak for fajitas.

That’s right, I have no pics.

Now the marinade!

Mix:

Pineapple juice

1 tsp. olive oil

1 T. chili powder

1 T. fresh minced garlic

1 tsp. salt

1 tsp. pepper

1/2 tsp. cumin

And pour it over the strips of fish in either a tough plastic storage bag or a container with a tight-fitting lid.

This is important because I like to turn/mush the marinating fish every little bit, and you don’t want the lid coming off or the bag bursting! 

Place the marinating fish in the fridge to marinate for 30 min. to overnight.

Now, while the fish is marinating we are are going to do 3 things:

1. Make pico de gallo.

2. Slice cabbage.

3. Make guacamole.

In that order.

First, a simple pico de gallo.  Dice the following fresh ingredients:

Tomatoes

Onion

Jalapeno

Cilantro

Again, no pictures.  I’d say one large tomato to 1/2 small onion to one jalapeno is a good ratio.  And then a handful of chopped cilantro and squeeze lots (yes, a little more than that – LOTS!) of fresh lime juice all over it!  Place this in the fridge as well for the flavors to blend.

Second, finely chop cabbage into long slivers.  Diced cabbage is just going to fall out of the tacos all over the place.  You want it long and thin like the fish slices so you can bite into it!

Finally, prepare guacamole: 

Scoop out the flesh of an avocado and mash with salt, garlic powder and fresh lime juice.

I cannot overemphasize the importance of limes when preparing Mexican food!

When you’re ready to cook the fish, I would recommend a) sauteing lightly until opaque or b) baking 15-20 minutes at 350 in parchment paper (as per my last post.)

Ahhh, the pieces of the puzzle are complete.  Time to put them together!

1.  Warm white corn tortillas in a skillet or on a griddle.

2.  Fill with fish.

3.  Top with cabbage, pico de gallo, and guacamole!

It might look something like this (I have to get in my one picture again!):

4. Add a tiny touch of sour cream or crema fresca if you wish.

5. Bite in and let your taste buds be wowed!

The cabbage is surprising, I know, but perfect.  It adds a delightfully fresh crunch.

When I’m getting a head of cabbage every week in my CSA box, I’m very happy I have this recipe.

Takes a lot of fish tacos to eat a head of cabbage.

But so far, it’s my happiest way to eat cabbage!

And yes, my two hungry hunters scarfed them.  Probably four apiece.  Another reason I forgot about pictures…I was busy keeping them supplied!

Thanks La Luz!

It gets one star for …. easy!

And one star for …. fast!

And one star for …. yummy!

And two stars for …. healthy!!

Okay, you’re right, I just couldn’t think of anything else for the last star.  But it definitely is healthy.

For this lunch (yes, I made it for lunch.  What a fancy lunch!  It would be fabulous as dinner too …)  you will need:

Parchment Paper (An easy find beside Saran Wrap and waxed paper in most grocery stores.)

Mild White Fish (I chose halibut but I think tilapia or cod or ____ would work too.)

Squash – Yellow or Zucchini

Cherry Tomatoes

Olive Oil

Salt & Pepper

Herbs of Your Choice (I chose fresh thyme out of my garden but you could use a mixture of dried herbs just as well.)

Ahhh, the beauties of produce.  Isn’t it simply drop-dead gorgeous?  I could sing the praises of fresh produce.  In fact, I do sing them.   Every week when I pick up my fresh crop share.  And I sing them in the aisles of Whole Foods.   And in the streets at the farmers’ market.  And to my clay pots of herbs on the patio.

Focus …

And you’re correct, I did not tell you that you needed lettuce for this recipe.  You don’t.  The lettuce merely sneaked into my picture to be a part of a sideline salad.  The lettuce is not part of the main show.  But it’s beautiful nonetheless!

Okay, first tear sheets of parchment paper roughly 15-16″ long.  Fold them in half, crease them down the middle, and open them.  You’ll need one sheet per person, or per serving.

Next, julienne the squash.  I promise, this isn’t hard.  Slice off the ends of the squash, then slice it in half.  Then slice it lengthwise down the middle so you have a flat side to lay it on.  Then continue figuring out the slicing (sorry, I should’ve taken more pictures!) until you have 3-4 inch long strips of squash roughly the diameter of a pencil.  Thin, in other words.

Lay nice piles of julienned squash to one side of the crease on each parchment paper. Lightly season with sea salt and pepper.

Add a nice serving of fish (4-6 oz.) on top of each pile of squash and season lightly with herbs and/or salt and pepper.

Pile the cherry tomatoes and (OOPS!  Another show-stealer.  Olives.  I forgot to mention the olives.  These are optional, and I opted for kalamata for a nice burst of flavor.)

Pile the cherry tomatoes and olives beside the fish.  Drizzle it all with 1 T. of olive oil.

Fold the other half of parchment paper over and make a fold in one corner.

Then make another fold that starts in the middle of the first fold.  Then fold again from the middle of that fold.  Etc., etc.

I did think to take pictures of this.  I could foresee it being confusing!

Finish folding all the way around the edges of the parchment paper until you have a half-moon shape.

Tuck the final fold into the fold just before it.

Ahhhhh!!  Beaut-a-mus!

Bake at 375 for 15-20 minutes.  The contents of your beautiful packets are steaming.

You may need to lift a corner and test the flakiness of the fish with a fork to be sure that you don’t overcook it.

However, please be careful of escaping steam when you do so!

I do NOT have pictures of the final result.

They were inhaled before I even remembered that I own a camera.

All four of them.

I have since made four more, but with salmon!  They were just as excellent.  And just as inhaled.

One beauty of this recipe (it has many!) (bonus: count how many times I’ve used the word ‘beauty’  in this post!)  is that you can easily interchange ingredients!

Swap out the proteins and veggies to create your own yummy combinations!  Chicken, leeks, and potatoes anyone?  Or salmon and spinach and lemon?

I cannot overemphasize to you how EASY this is once you’ve done it once.  Today on my second try at them I prepped them in just under 10 minutes.

And who doesn’t love one-pot wonders?  10 minutes and it’s all cooking in the oven, a complete meal waiting for you on the other side of 15 minutes of baking!

Bon Appetit!

PS – I owe the inspiration for this meal to Body+Soul magazine.

Surprise ….  I like beet greens!

I feel like the little boy in the Dr. Seuss book, Green Eggs and Ham – “I DO, I like them, Sam I Am!”

So here’s breakfast … a nice egg, avocado, and beet greens.  It was excellent.

I prepared the beet greens by lightly sauteing in a pat of butter, then topping off with a squeeze of lemon and a grind of sea salt.

I’m finding I like any kind of greens with a little butter, a little lemon, and a little little salt.

Speaking of greens, finally this year I discovered the best way to wash them!

Maybe you already knew this, but I’ll share anyway.

It made my salads 50% less time consuming and soggy.

See, I used to wash a leaf at a time by hand under the faucet when I needed it.  And drain on paper towels.

Now, I fill a sink with cold water, dump a whole bunch of leaves in and let them soak for 5-10 minutes.

The leaves float to the top and the sediment sinks to the bottom!

Scoop the greens out, toss into a salad spinner, give it a whirl, and voila.  Crispy, clean greens.

Then I store them in the salad spinner, toss ‘em in the fridge and for the next couple of days I have them at the ready.

Toasting greens once again here in this household!