Spiced Pickled Summer Squash

From Red Fire Chef Kristen Schafenacker, 2007 

2 lbs zucchini or summer squash
2 medium onions
¼ cup kosher salt
2 cups cider vinegar
1+ cup sugar
2 t. mustard seed
1 t. red pepper flakes
2 t. celery seed
1 sliver fresh ginger

Place the vinegar, sugar, mustard seed, celery seed, ginger, red pepper, and salt in a large saucepan and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer for 10 minutes. Add the sliced onions and bring to a boil. Pack canning containers tightly with squash and fill with hot brining liquid. Submerge closed jars in a boiling water bath for 10 minutes.

Sofrito

From Sarah Voiland, 2011 

Sofrito is a delicious flavoring substance that is classic in Puerto Rican cooking. You add it to anything from rice and beans, to soups and slow cooker dishes, to omlettes, to sauces for meat dishes. Once made, sofrito freezes really well in ice cube trays or other portion-sized containers for winter!  It will also keep well in the refrigerator for about 3 weeks.

1 onion
1 green pepper
2-3 cloves garlic
1 bunch cilantro leaves
1/4 tsp oregano (more if fresh)
2-4 tbs olive oil
salt to taste
1 tsp capers (opt.)
1-3 hot peppers (opt.)
1-2 roasted red peppers (opt.)
a few to a bunch of pitted olives (opt.)
Other optionals: black pepper, cayenne, paste tomatoes, cumin, culantro, annatto, celery, parsley, and many more!

No hard and fast recipe here! Something to play with! Multiply recipe for winter freezing. Wash, deseed, trim as needed. Chop into large chunks. Put all in blender, in batches if need be. I like to blend not as far as puree, but stop while there are still little bits of things, like tiny pieces of pepper and onion, discernible shards of herbs.

Mix everything in a bowl at the end if you did batches. Then refrigerate and freeze for later use. Or use some now!

To use, put some in a pan with oil and saute to meld the flavors before adding rice to boil or whatever it’s in your plans to make.
Lovely with red peppers too!

Tomato Sauce, Farmer-Style

From Sarah Voiland, 2011

Here’s a quick description of how we make our sauce here, the short-cut way. We like to do just tomatoes, and then add our other sauce ingredients like onions, carrots, frozen peppers, garlic etc. in the winter when we go to use the sauce. Then you can make anything you want with it, from spaghetti sauce to tomato soup.

1. We get lots of tomatoes and wash them and cut out the stem parts and bad spots.
2. Then chop them in large chunks and puree them, skins, seeds and all in the blender or food processor.
3. Then put the puree in a big pot, and bring to a boil then simmer on low, stirring, until you get the thickness you want. The real key is having a good pot with a thick bottom that will keep stuff from sticking and burning on the bottom, and keeping an eye on it. A stirrer with a flat bottom edge that you can swipe across the bottom of the pan is great.
4. Once you have your thickness, you can it, using the boiling water method, 30 to 45 minutes or whatever your how-to-boiling-water-bath info source says. We’re a big fan of the wide mouth quart jars -easier to clean later on.
5. Instead of canning, you can also freeze the sauce instead! Jars make great presents. Freezing is easier if you have room in your freezer.

Here’s a great resource for canning recipes and methods: The National Center for Home Food Preservation.

Varieties of Tomatoes for Sauce 
You can make really flavorful sauces from mixed heirloom varieties. Heirlooms may take a little bit longer to cook down, but the flavor is great. Paste or Saucing Tomatoes have less juice and cook down faster, and also taste really good. I make big batches with the paste tomatoes, and then I like to make some batches with certain varieties of tomatoes, like an all Brandywine Sauce, and a sauce with only white, yellow and orange tomato varieties. Red Slicing types are great for salsa, and can also make good sauce with a little longer cooking time than with paste varieties.

Daikon Ginger Pickle

From Sarah Voiland, 2013

This is a lactofermented recipe, so once you have made it, it will last a long time in your refrigerator as a topper to salads or condiment for sandwiches etc.

1 big daikon radish or enough to mostly fill a quart jar
1 inch of ginger
2 tbs salt (without iodine or additives)
1 quart water

Wash and then peel any tougher skin at the top of the daikon. Slice daikon thin, easy with a Cuisinart slicing tool. Slice up an inch of ginger, skin on is fine. Mix 2 tbs salt with 1 quart water. Fill a quart glass jar up with the diakon and ginger, pour the salt water over it to cover. Stick a glass of water (or something) on top to hold the daikon down under the level of the salt water. Cover with a cloth to keep dust out. Leave it on your counter for a few days, tasting as you go until you like it, then refrigerate.

Green Garlic Pesto

10 stalks green garlic roughly chopped including as much of the greens as desired 
½ cup olive oil
½ cup walnuts or pine nuts (or other nuts)
½ cup grated Parmesan cheese
1 tsp salt
1 Tbs. Lemon juice.
1 Tbs. water

Place all ingredients in the food processor and blend until smooth. Taste and adjust as desired. Use on pasta, pizza or sandwiches.

Makes about 2-3 cups.

Green Garlic and White Bean Dip

1 (15-ounce) can white beans, drain and set aside liquid 
6 stalks green garlic
½ tsp red chili flakes
1 Tbs fresh lemon juice
1 tsp finely minced fresh rosemary
1 tsp salt
¼ cup olive oil

Place all ingredients in the food processor and blend, adding back bean water until desired consistency is reached. Serve on crackers or toast with fresh rosemary as garnish.

Makes 2 cups.

Curried Carrot Dip

7 medium carrots (about 1 pound), cut into 1-inch chunks 
1/2 teaspoon ground turmeric
1 teaspoon curry powder
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 clove garlic, minced
2 teaspoons ginger powder (or tsps of freshly grated ginger)
3/4 cup yogurt
1/4 cup mayonnaise
1/4 cup chopped cilantro leaves

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. In a large mixing bowl, combine the carrots with the turmeric, curry powder, salt, cayenne and oil. Toss to coat the carrots with the oil and spice mixture. Spread the carrots on a rimmed baking sheet, and roast for 30 minutes, until very tender and brown.

Put the roasted carrots in a food processor with the jalapeno, garlic, and ginger and puree. Add the yogurt and cilantro and process another few seconds until smooth and creamy. If the spread seems too thick add water 1 tablespoon at a time until you achieve the desired consistency. Taste, and add salt if needed. Serve warm or at room temperature with flatbread or crackers.

Makes about 2 cups

Cilantro Scallion Chutney

1 bunch cilantro 
1 bunch scallions
1 Tbs. lime juice
½ tsp. salt
¼ tsp ground cumin
¼ cup coconut
1 hot pepper or hot pepper flakes to taste.

Put all ingredients in a food processor and blend until smooth. This goes great with Indian food or as a substitute for salsa with chips.

Fresh Tomato-Corn Salsa

From the contributor, CSA member Anna: “Thanks for the wonderful veggies that are coming in so far. I’m enjoying them very much. I wanted to share two recipes that I recently tried and love. I hope others will try and enjoy eating them as well.”

3 tomatoes, chopped 
3 ears corn
1 onion, chopped
1 pepper, chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 hot pepper, minced, or 1 tsp cayenne pepper
1⁄4 cup lemon juice or vinegar
2 Tbs. olive oil
Salt to taste
3 Tbs. cilantro

Chop tomatoes, salt and let sit in a colander for 30 min. to drain off extra juice. In the meantime, cut kernels from corn (yep, it’s delicious raw) and mix in the rest of the ingredients, adding the drained tomatoes last and salting to taste.