293107 Mon Jun 09 13:43:13 -0700 2003 15 27 General Chowhounding Topics 0 1602402 My husband and I bought a half share in a community farm for the summer. Last night was our first pickup, and our fridge is innundated with pea tendrils, mustard greens, spinach, and some other greens I'm not too familiar with. Does anyone know of a good cookbook that would give me some direction? I've gone to epicurious.com to look for some recipes and have some ideas, but would like more. Thanks! Mon Jun 09 13:43:13 -0700 2003 0 Weiszguy 1 1602403 Some good cookbooks for vegetables are: Vegetables Every Day - Jack Bishop Vegetable Book - Jane Grigson Vegetarian cooking for Everyone - Deborah Madison Mon Jun 09 13:51:45 -0700 2003 1602402 0 bloviatrix 2 1602407 Same issue here: I'm frequently using Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone by Deborah Madison. Sometimes the recipes don't sound exciting, but are truly wonderful with deep flavor. Mon Jun 09 13:57:45 -0700 2003 1602403 0 Thea 2 1602421 Also The Italian Vegetarian by Jack Bishop, and his Pasta e Verdura. I use his books the most of all I have. His italian vegetarian has some wonderful cold salads, including one for carrots, one for zucchini, and one for cauliflower. I tend to make a batch on share pick-up day and then take a little container with me to work every day to snack on or have for lunch. I really like Diana Shaw's cookbooks, though they're harder to find these days. Her Essential Vegetarian and Almost Vegetarian are my favorites. Also, Verdura by Vianna LaPlace, and any of Martha Rose Shulman's Light Provencal/Italian/Medditeranean cookbooks. If you like Indian, try Yamuna Devi's omnibus. I can't remember the title, but she's only got one, and it's indian, vegetarian, ayurvedic. Lots of work, but worth every bite. Also-- greens or any sort are always good sauteed with olive oil and some combination of: pine nuts/walnuts, red pepper flakes, garlic, raisins (regular or golden)/currants, tomatoes/cherry tomatoes/reconstituted sundried tomatoes, and served as a side dish, or with pasta, or with sauteed new potatoes, or with green or brown lentils and rice, or on top of a pizza crust, with ricotta salata or feta cheese. (balsamic is also good, if you skip the cheese). It's also good mized with ricotta or plain as a filling for crepes/manicotti. I even make a pizza with thin sliced potatoes and the chard/spinach pine nut garlic pepper flakes blend. You could also serve the blend with lightly mashed chickpeas and put it on crostini. Shred your kohlrabi and put it in coleslaw. Don't be afraid to blanch your greens (except mustard) and freeze them, or make soup and freeze it for the winter. Mon Jun 09 15:13:27 -0700 2003 1602403 0 Erika 1 1602404 We use James Peterson's Vegetables. Many great ideas for all kinds of things. Hasn't failed us yet. Mon Jun 09 13:52:42 -0700 2003 1602402 0 Janet 1 1602412 Last summer, for two quarters, we had a full share in a CSA project. Too many vegetables for two people! They began to rule our lives.......all meals were predicated on using that frig full of vegetables before they turned ookie! However, I did build up a good collection of recipes. I just went to www.google.com and ran a search on the name of the vegetable. Then I printed out any recipes that sounded good. I have three 3-ring binders full of recipes. Don't belong to the CSA project any more, but still use the recipes. There's an Indian one for eggplant that has become a favorite and we never really liked eggplant before!! Mon Jun 09 14:07:44 -0700 2003 1602402 0 Karolyn 1 1602420 One of my favorite way of using greens is to lightly saute them in a very hot pan until they wilt and then set them on a plate and top with a piece grilled fish. Grilled trout with a saute of pea shoots was a highlight of early summer last year. In my opinion, the problem with adding a lot of flavor components to greens is you lose some of the intensity of flavor in the greens themselves, so I go for keeping things very simple. Perhaps some rice vinegar. Maybe some garlic. A little sesame oil? With the amount of greens is sounds like you have, tasting the greens and then experimenting with additional ingredients that you think might compliment what you taste in the greens. For example, mustard greens can have a very peppery flavor that might conflict with many flavors. Pea shoots have a really nice sweet but earthy flavor that is delicate and easily lost by stronger herbs or too much salt. I can tell you that I was never confident in my skills as an experimentor in the kitchen until the summers that my wife and I had a CSA share. The bounty seemed daunting while it was sitting in front of us but it taught me lessons and paid dividends right up to the present. Good luck. Mon Jun 09 15:06:08 -0700 2003 1602402 0 StephenB 2 1602437 I like mustard greens in a pasta with sauteed onions and feta - it's from one of Mollie Katzen's early books (think it's the one between Moosewood and the Enchanted Broccoli one), can't remember which one off hand. Also Deborah Madison's newish farmer's market cookbook is great for ideas as is Alice Water's Vegetable book. Two CSAs I belong to both have some recipes posted on their sites: http://www.farmfreshtoyou.com/recipes/index.shtml http://www.eatwell.com/words/recipes/index.html I agree, it looks daunting at times, but it sure makes it easy to get your 5 servings of fruit/veggies! Enjoy! Mon Jun 09 16:28:42 -0700 2003 1602420 0 Celery 1 1602440 I don't have anything to add but I did want to thank you for posting this query as we'll be receiving our first shipment from our farm share this week. I'm looking forward to getting kale as I've found an interesting recipe for lebanese stuffed kale I'd like to try. Mon Jun 09 16:37:10 -0700 2003 1602402 0 LisaLou 1 1602469 Just remember this about greens: you have big bunches in front of you, but they'll all shrink down to much more manageable sizes when cooked! Mon Jun 09 19:16:57 -0700 2003 1602402 0 Caitlin McGrath 1 1602480 Red White and Greens by Faith Willenger is a great vegetable cookbook, organised by veggie Field of Greens , Annie Sommerville----she also has a new cookbook out which looks great too In general, look for recipes that use one green, say spinach, and then substitute your mustard greens, kale, or mix two greens together. Mon Jun 09 20:10:13 -0700 2003 1602402 0 dutch 1 1602481 Red White and Greens by Faith Willenger is a great vegetable cookbook, organised by veggie Field of Greens , Annie Sommerville----she also has a new cookbook out which looks great too In general, look for recipes that use one green, say spinach, and then substitute your mustard greens, kale, or mix two greens together. Mon Jun 09 20:12:17 -0700 2003 1602402 0 dutch 1 1602503 The CSA I belonged to last year distributed a cookbook from the Madison Area Community Supported Agriculture Coalition in Madison, Wisconsin called: "From Asparagus to Zucchini: A Guide to Farm Fresh, Seasonal Produce". You may still be able to order a copy from them for $22 to cover the cost of the book plus shipping and handling. Their phone number in Madison is 608-226-0300. When none of my other hundred or so cookbooks had a recipe (say, for the pounds of Kohlrabi that arrived one week) this CSA published book did. They really do feature recipes for CSA type vegetables. A CSA box full is a LOT of vegetables, especially greens, to deal with every week. It seemed as though I ended up adding a goodly measure of greens to everything I cooked all summer. Freezing and canning is another approach to using up the veggies. Dilled Green Beans...very good use for extra pounds of beans! Mon Jun 09 23:51:56 -0700 2003 1602402 0 Olympia Jane 1 1602514 my wife and i are expeting our first csa shipment this wed. this thread is beyond timely. my two favorite simple ways to make greens are: boil the greens in a mixture of beer with a small amount of pepper, clove (very little), and salt. you can add bacon fake or real at the end. sometimes a little cayenne or hot sauce is good. saute with sesame oil, and type of nuts and add rasins, craisins or currants at the end. can't wait for the shipment. Tue Jun 10 07:37:58 -0700 2003 1602402 0 davidt 1 1602733 I am looking forward to using "Parsley, Peppers, Potatoes & Peas: a cook's companion for handling, using & storing a garden's bounty" by Pat Katz this year, for my quarter share of produce from our sustainable ag program here at UMaine. I ended up using a lot of my cookbooks last year, along with the google trick, as well as freezing and canning any that I could. Found it an immensely enjoyable experience, and it also gave me more of an appreciation for cookbook writers that can write a decent index. If possible, a good compost heap is highly recommended as an accompaniment. Have fun! Wed Jun 11 11:59:13 -0700 2003 1602402 0 Margaret 1 1602925 I am a little old fashioned in some things so here are some ideas. Creamed-basic white sauce with chopped par cooked greens, you can cook a bit more and server. Bake with some cheese, and bread crumbs and then serve. Garlic and nutmeg are great with this. Also very yummy stuffing for onions. (vidala onion with Swiss chard, Parmesan, splash of cream, garlic, and nutmeg,) Yumm yumm no not lo-cal but good. And once baked freeze quite well. Salad, par cook them toss with a bit of oil and vinegar, let cool and serve I like this with pears and blue cheese. Use lightly steamed leaves as rollups put some filling in them (chopped cooked meat and rice, chicken curry and potatoes, etc) and then bake in a light tomato sauce. These also freeze well (if you have the room line a cookie sheet wit wax paper put each one on the sheet not touching anything else and freeze than pop them in a bag, they mico well and one or two make a light easy mealy and is low fat.) And if you haven’t tried green’s sautéed in browned butter you have missed out on heaven. Thu Jun 12 19:25:56 -0700 2003 1602402 0 WldRose