[local eating] Farm share, week 12, and fish share, week 10

[magid]

• a pound of pickling cucumbers
  
• a pound of summer squash (I chose zucchinis; they had yellow squash and a variety of more globular ones)
  
• a bunch of edamame plants (to be harvested properly at home!)
  
• a bunch of kale or collards (I got lacinato)
  
• a head of lettuce (I got green leaf)
  
• two eggplants
  
• a quarter pound of basil
  
• a pound of Walla Walla onions
  
• two young fennel
  
• two pounds of tomatoes (yay!)
  
• a pound of orange carrots

I had hoped for more corn; maybe there will be some more in future weeks. Current plans include pickling the carrots (along with last week's), sauteing the no-longer-young broccoli from previous weeks, doing something with the tomatillos, now that I have hot peppers and even some tomatoes), more salad, roasted veggies (eggplant, summer squash, fennel), and blanching the edamame and freezing it.

This week's porch tomato harvest: 11 cherry tomatoes, and one full-sized one of some (red) sort.

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Yesterday I did not get cod! I got haddock instead.






I was in a bit of a rush, so I filleted one of them (the first side is always easier than the second, and I still don't have the hang of dealing with that front section on the bottom), cut the fillets into pieces, then did the double dunk (mayo and hummus, then white wheat flour with lots of tandoori spice and some ground ginger). I guessed and baked them at 425 F (ish) for 12-13 minutes, figuring they weren't as thick as the cod, and that worked well. I had some for dinner last night, and some for breakfast this morning. I had planned to deal with the other fish tonight, but tonight's errands and other tasks got the better of me, so I did neither that nor any vegetable cookery (though I did assemble a salad for a quick dinner about two hours ago: tomato, cucumber, basil, last week's lettuce, feta, black pepper, olive oil).

Comments

[goldsquare.livejournal.com]

Earlier this week, I made a haddock casserole. Thin sliced a potato and onion. Layered the spud and onion on the bottom, skinned and chunked the fish, another layer of potato and onion on top. Tossed some diced mushrooms on top and poured some white wine over it all. I went light on the spices (thyme, only - my wife is cutting back salt and doesn't care for a lot of black pepper), so it was a bit bland. I should have added some basil and/or paprika. Baked at 350 on convection (covered) for 45 minutes.

At table, with salt and pepper and some spices, it was good. Next time I'll add some chunks of tomato in the fish layer, as well.

[magid.livejournal.com]

That sounds excellent.

[goldsquare.livejournal.com]

I was sick of our regular recipes. And our regular fish. :-) We don't often get the "plain white fishes".

Once you exclude frying and other higher fat preparations, life can get dull. :-)

I hope to concoct some more casserole style fish bakes, and otherwise. On a rerun of Jacques and Julia that we watched recently, Jacques tried a very butter intensive recipe that I really want to adapt. He took a loaf of day old bread, cut open the top and pulled the stuffing. He lined the bottom with herbed butter, tossed in a variety of seafood, placed more butter on top, shredded the removed interior bread into crumbs, and mixed that and some olive oil on the top of the open container, and baked. Sliced, it looked amazing.

Since I can't do nearly that amount of butter, or any, I'm trying to create a modification that will work. You might like the original. My current plan is to line the "vessel" with super-thin slices of zucchini, and use a bit of fat-free mayonnaise instead of butter. And lots of fresh herbs and some garlic.

[magid.livejournal.com]

I'm not as restricted as you are about butter, but I don't tend to cook with it much, so your permutation sounds like a worthy experiment to me.

The fish share has pretty much been plain white fishes all the way, which I suspect is challenging to a lot of the people who signed up for the share. I'm still planning to re-up for the next 12-week season :-).

[goldsquare.livejournal.com]

I'll fill you in on how it turns out.

(I wouldn't re-up - white fish is relatively cheap, and available already filleted. Have you calculated roughly what your price/per-pound is for whole fish?)

[magid.livejournal.com]

White fish is cheaper, yes, but cod isn't as cheap as some, actually; I've seen it upwards of $10/lb. Technically, a half share is 3–6 pounds of whole (/gutted) fish; I haven't been weighing to find out just how much I've been getting (more than 3 pounds, though; I can tell that from carrying it); 12 weeks' half share cost $180, which is $2-$5/lb for the whole fish. The other benefits include caught-that-morning fish and supporting local fishermen.

[goldsquare.livejournal.com]

From what I can see, you are saving about a dollar a pound, or maybe less, given that you have to fillet yourself. (I purchase fresh fish about 4 times a week. Sometimes more.) I see some kind of fresh fillet in most groceries, all prepared, for about 4-6 a pound, if not always.

Personally, I'd rather have a choice of fish, as well as what day it arrives. :-)

Mind you, we're big fans in the house of supporting local agriculture. My wife volunteers for our local farmer's market, and writes their web site, a weekly newsletter, and a bi-weekly newspaper column on the topic, as well as being in process with a cookbook on the same.

I was surprised to learn that Stop and Shop (amongst other stores) is a big believer in local sourcing. Some of the fish is local, and a lot of the produce. I went into my local-to-work Whole Foods, and not ONE of the fruits that I saw this week was local. Go figure.

De Gustibus, and all that. I don't mind filleting and boning my own fish, in fact it is fun. But if all you are getting is cod and haddock, and not a full service of that all the time, I would consider the share uneconomical and not worthwhile.