Hello again friends,

I hope you enjoy the Chef’s Pantry this week. Here are some recipe ideas and info about the contents of this week’s box.

Russian Kale (The big curly green leaves)

Is a more delicate kind of kale. Its good any place you would use greens, chopped into a salad, sauteed, fried in shallow oil and salted for a crispy snack…

The salad greens this week

With the weather change I thought we needed a bit more salad variety this week so I included some frisee lettuce, some red leaf, and some micro greens.

Micro green salad – good with any seeds you might have around like pumpkin or sunflower and some lemon and olive oil…you can make a salad out of it, or use it to garnish something like the chicken or pasta

As I was unpacking the box I realized we have the perfect ingredients for a salad I really like.

Frisee Salad (frisee is the wirey lettuce for those of you that dont know)

• boil, sautee, or steam some of the skinny French green beans and when they are just softening take them out and give them an ice bath to stop the cooking
• hard boil a few eggs
• boil a few potatoes in salt water and let cool.
• chop some parsley
• rinse and dry the frisee lettuce and put on a plate or shallow bowl
• garnish with hard boiled egg slices and green beans and sliced potato
• for the vinaigrette, either 1/3 red wine vinegar with 2/3 yogurt or creme fraiche or sour cream salt and pepper
• or sherry vinegar with olive oil, mustard, salt and pepper
• BONUS: you can add canned tuna and olives to the top, or you can make the sherry vinaigrette with bacon in it and top with a poached egg instead of hard boiled..

Besides cooking with Fresh Mint, its great to make mint tea. You can just steep a few leaves in 175F water (not quite boiling) or you can make it Moroccan style by using a green tea bag or black tea bag, a good amount of fresh mint and some sugar (or honey).

Salmon – These fish came out of the water yesterday. I like cooking salmon with the skin on, then it protects the fish, especially if you want to grill it…it comes off easily once cooked, but you can also remove before cooking.

The sweet peppers – they were small and round this week, they are not spicy and can be used anywhere you would use bell peppers.

The sausage is Pig Wizards’ Spanish style Xorizo

Pork Shank – best stewed or slow cooked for a long time. At first it will be tough, but the longer it cooks the more tender it will become. It’s great in a stew with carrots and potatoes and onions and some wine… but season it however you like. Its best if the liquid its cooked in simmers but never boils, and for at least 2 1/2 hours i would guess but cook it until it starts to fall apart! It can be used to make a stock that’s great for cooking beans, lentils, split peas, or anything like that too…

Fava Beans – are the large bulky beans. they are a bit of a pain to shuck, but boy are they good! First you have to take the beans out of the pods (easy part..), then you have to peel off the light green outer shell of the bean until you get to the soft bright green interior. Then just toss them in with the fresh pasta and some garlic and olive oil! or sautee them lightly in a pan, or steam them and put them in a salad…they’re good however you like to cook them.

Thank you to our friend Gabriela Forte for the soup this week. She donated that to the group as a gesture of friendship…very nice!

As always, if you’re struggling to find a use for one of those ingredients or just aren’t sure what something is, don’t hesitate to reach out to me and I’ll do my best to help.

Gabe