Hi Freinds,

Happy Valentines Day!

Passion Fruit seems appropriate for Valentine’s day.  You can eat the seeds and the pulp inside the fruit.  One idea is to make a passionfruit curd.  Use about ½ cup of butter and ¼ cup of sugar and melt them together in a double boiler (or in a metal bowl over steaming water).  In a separate bowl mix ½ cup passionfruit pulp, juice of half a lemon, and 4 eggs.  Then add the passionfruit mixture to the melted butter and sugar and stir continuously until it starts to thicken (about 2 minutes).  Remove from heat and store in a jar as a spread for toast or to eat with yogurt.  You could also use it to make a sweet and sour sauce for chicken.  Cook the passionfruit seeds in butter, add some chicken stock, some brown sugar, some apple cider vinegar, salt and pepper and cook it down until it thickens a bit.

Badger Flame Beets are so amazingly colorful.  I would roast them in the oven until tender, but you can also steam them.  They are great as a side or cooled and served on salad.

You can cook the beet greens separately or mix them with the kale.  I like to sautee my greens with garlic and olive oil.  Then, add a splash of stock or water and cover for a few minutes until they get tender.  A little lemon juice or apple cider vinegar at the end is always good on greens too, as is a little bit of butter melted on top.

We made a nice tomato sauce this week that could be used as a base for a pasta sauce.  You can use it as is, but a lot of the veggies in the box this week would make good additions including: bell pepper, mushrooms, parsley, basil, and even asparagus.

Kanpachi is very similar to yellowtail tuna.  It’s a bit smaller and firmer though, and it’s one of our favorites.  This Kanpachi is fresh enough to eat as sushi if you like it raw.  It would make great ceviche too…I was thinking marinated in lime juice, with red onion and passionfruit and basil…  Or you can sear it in a pan with a little salt and pepper or soy and ginger.  It would probably work really well cooked and served with a passionfruit based relish with some red onion and vinegar too…

We made cannelloni using Brandon’s chestnut crepe recipe. The crepes are made using chestnut flour instead of wheat flour which gives them a more delicate texture and nicer flavor.  Then we stuff them with a mix of greens and Schoch fromage blanc.  We included a wild mushroom bechamel to go on top.  Just put them in a baking dish and reheat in the oven for 10 minutes at 350 then add the sauce and let them go another 5 minutes.

Brussel Sprouts were looking good this week.  I like to steam them ahead of time and then give them an ice bath.   Then I keep them in the fridge and reheat them by cooking them at high heat in a pan with oil and garlic to brown them.  A little splash of apple cider vinegar at the end of cooking adds a nice touch.

The Fennel Sausage is good grilled, or used in tomato sauce, or cooked down with onions and bell pepper…Brandon and I agree that this is some of the tastiest pork we have ever gotten and we look forward to sharing it with you in various preparations.

As always, if you have questions or want additional recipe help or ideas, feel free to reach out to us anytime.

Gabe and Brandon