Snapbacks & Tattoos
The first CSA dinner of the year. We got [reading from weekly email] leeks, strawberries, Jerusalem artichokes, kale, oregano and kale. I think that last kale was meant to be lettuce — we certainly get lettuce in our CSA . . . so much goddamn motherfucking lettuce.
I immediately disregarded the lettuce. Look, salads, in the scheme of making dinner in which kids are present, is a giant luxury that just doesn’t work. Besides which, I think salads are so fucking boring. And I’m not saying that because I can’t “enjoy” a salad or figure out how to make salad “really fucking wonderful,” because I can do both, but when faced with four or five green things, there’s only so much you can do. So maybe we’ll have salad another day this week. Or maybe the heads of lettuce will pile up in the crisper like so many packages of shitty baby carrots until they wilt and decay. Fuck lettuce.
So anyway, leeks. Leeks got steamed and then grilled in the grill pan with the skirt steak drippings (as per this but without the romesco component). Leeks are OK. I find the dirt off-putting and the extreme measures you need to take to rid a leek of dirt sort of off-putting. Ultimately they’re [googling] allium, so who cares? This leek treatment was basically OK.
I sauteed the Jerusalem artichokes using this inspiration with oregano — CSA oregano! — instead of sage. I’ve heard crazy things about Jerusalem artichokes — they’ll keep in the crisper for three seasons of the Kardashians — but I wanted them out of my life. So there.
The kale was like baby kale or something, so I didn’t bother it, or rather I put a bunch of bacon drippings in a pan and sauteed the crap out of it. Normally I would have boiled/blanched it for four or five minutes, but it just didn’t seem like it needed it. It probably did, actually.
With the strawberries we used the old standby recipe with the Michel Guérard “cuisine minceur” fromage blanc hack (16 oz. ricotta cheese, 4 tbsp yogurt and a pinch of salt). Not much to report other than IT WAS AWESOME. Such a great recipe.
Posted: June 6th, 2015 | Author: Scott | Filed under: Home Cooking | Tags: CSA Dinner