[local eating] Veg and fish
Jul. 22nd, 2009 09:10 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
magidFarm share week 7:
Yesterday I picked up my 5th week's fish share, which, unsurprisingly, is a cod (apparently some shares also got a yellow-tailed flounder). In the interests of not being lame and trying to work on my fishly skills, I filleted it. Extremely inexpertly; I think that first week's fish looked better. *sigh* Ah, well. The carcass plus some parsley and other odds and ends of vegetables is making fish stock, and the skin and some other trimmings got put in one of the wildly exuberant tomato plants on the porch. The fillets I cut into smaller pieces, then dredged them first in mayonnaise, then in a mixture of chickpea flour and zaatar. I baked them in a hot oven (425-450 F) for about 10 minutes. The hope was that they would end up crunchy, which they didn't (I didn't feel like buying the potato flakes that so many recipes called for), really. Still, tasty, and I didn't have to deal with frying and spattering oil and such. (I don't think I've ever fried anything, rather than sauteing with a bit of oil on the bottom. I'm not sure whether I will remedy this any time soon.)
Also, Monday I started a batch of sauerkraut from a lot of the farm share veggies I had hanging around. I thinly sliced a tiny head of green cabbage, and most of a medium head of red cabbage (perhaps two thirds, the other part having gone into slaw for Shabbat), plus a couple of carrots and some rather elderly scallions I'd forgotten about. Those sat for a while with some kosher salt, then I packed it tightly into a biggish glass jar. By the time I got to the last of the vegetables, liquid had already started being pulled out by the salt. This time I put the sauerkraut on a platter, so when the liquid overflowed, it would be caught (guess how I learned this one...). I've read recipes that say if there's not enough brine from the vegetable liquid to submerge the vegetables, add some salt water, but I've never had that issue. It's sitting on the counter now, fermenting. I'll likely put it in the fridge after about a week, which will slow the fermentation process enormously. I just hope I didn't add too much salt; the brine I tasted was saltier than I like. (Measurements? What measurements? :-)
No photo this week: the fish is rather like all the other cod, and I'm feeling lazy about photographing the sauerkraut, even though it's rather pretty.
- two pounds of cucumbers
- two pounds of summer squash (I chose zucchini)
- a head of lettuce (I chose red oak again)
- a head of garlic
- a bunch of kale or collards (lacinato kale for me)
- two pounds of new potatoes (I chose a mix of red-skinned and what might be Yukon Gold)
- one and a half pounds of green or wax beans (I chose green)
- one and a quarter pounds of rainbow carrots (including orange, yellow, almost-white, and purple)
- two tomatoes
- two sprigs of basil
Yesterday I picked up my 5th week's fish share, which, unsurprisingly, is a cod (apparently some shares also got a yellow-tailed flounder). In the interests of not being lame and trying to work on my fishly skills, I filleted it. Extremely inexpertly; I think that first week's fish looked better. *sigh* Ah, well. The carcass plus some parsley and other odds and ends of vegetables is making fish stock, and the skin and some other trimmings got put in one of the wildly exuberant tomato plants on the porch. The fillets I cut into smaller pieces, then dredged them first in mayonnaise, then in a mixture of chickpea flour and zaatar. I baked them in a hot oven (425-450 F) for about 10 minutes. The hope was that they would end up crunchy, which they didn't (I didn't feel like buying the potato flakes that so many recipes called for), really. Still, tasty, and I didn't have to deal with frying and spattering oil and such. (I don't think I've ever fried anything, rather than sauteing with a bit of oil on the bottom. I'm not sure whether I will remedy this any time soon.)
Also, Monday I started a batch of sauerkraut from a lot of the farm share veggies I had hanging around. I thinly sliced a tiny head of green cabbage, and most of a medium head of red cabbage (perhaps two thirds, the other part having gone into slaw for Shabbat), plus a couple of carrots and some rather elderly scallions I'd forgotten about. Those sat for a while with some kosher salt, then I packed it tightly into a biggish glass jar. By the time I got to the last of the vegetables, liquid had already started being pulled out by the salt. This time I put the sauerkraut on a platter, so when the liquid overflowed, it would be caught (guess how I learned this one...). I've read recipes that say if there's not enough brine from the vegetable liquid to submerge the vegetables, add some salt water, but I've never had that issue. It's sitting on the counter now, fermenting. I'll likely put it in the fridge after about a week, which will slow the fermentation process enormously. I just hope I didn't add too much salt; the brine I tasted was saltier than I like. (Measurements? What measurements? :-)
No photo this week: the fish is rather like all the other cod, and I'm feeling lazy about photographing the sauerkraut, even though it's rather pretty.
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no subject
Date: 2009-07-23 01:40 am (UTC)What will you do with the carrots to showcase their colors?
Fishly skills!
I saw on a cooking show a way of preparing fish that involved pounding a fillet, draping it over a bed of grains that was topped with vegetables, and quickly broiling.
Wildly exuberant tomato plants!
no subject
Date: 2009-07-23 05:57 am (UTC)I was taught how to make it as part of a microbiology class in High School, and we also learned how only the correct level of salt would provide safe and healthy fermentation.
Too much salt is food safe, but not tasty.