Farm share, week 13

[magid]

• eight ears of corn (Warner Farm)
  
• two large-ish white onions (Next Barn Over)
  
• four small Italian eggplants (the whole season, these are ones smaller than my palm in both length and width)
  
• two green bell peppers (I found ones that are just starting to ripen to red)
  
• two long peppers (a choice of red and yellow; I chose one of each)
  
• a pound of baby lettuce leaves
  
• a pound of spicy salad mix
  
• four small red tomatoes
  
• two bunches of tarragon

First thoughts: no kale or carrots this week, which is a nice break, however much I like them! Corn and tomato salad. Possibly some corn relish (but given the heat, possibly not). Roasted eggplant and peppers (and then possibly put on pizza, with some of the basil puree I made a couple of weeks ago). Lots of green salad.

I'm not sure what to do with that much tarragon, other than do another herb puree with some salt and store with olive oil. Suggestions welcome.

Comments

[minoanmiss]

I atually prefer frozen tarragon to fresh -- the leaves fall right off the stalk and are much easier to use.

[teddywolf]

I like tarragon with a variety of dishes, including cut-up chicken ad the occasional omelet. It can be nice as an herb in salad dressing, and I’ve heard of it working as an accent in egg salad.

[cutieperson]

a friend told me tarragon vinegar is amazing. I have not tasted mine yet, but do have bunches infusing.

[magid]

What do you use it for after that?

[magid]

Thank you for the suggestions!

[magid]

So, I used this idea... kinda: I just canned 7 pints of tarragon carrot pickles :-)

[minoanmiss]

It’s good with fish and chicken especially. Cold dishes. It has a green anise scent less SWEET than fennel.

Sent from my iPhone

[teddywolf]

You’re welcome.

And I realize I forgot to mention fish. It goes very well with most kinds of the flaky stuff. I’ve used the dry leaves with flounder, I’ve put it in sauces for salmon, and I’ve used it in tuna salad too. It should work well in many applications that use mayo.

Favorite dish I put it in at this point is chicken marsala, though.

[teddywolf]

Dunno if you would find this of use, but some lower-temperature sous-vide settings (130ishºF) can speed up an infusion decently without seriously dinging the flavor of the infusion bits unless they are very sensitive to heat.

(If you already knew, my apologies for the tiny time sink.)

[magid]

I hadn't realized that was something a sous-vide could be used for! Neat!

[magid]

Hm. I may make some tuna salad for Shabbat (this heat....), so that seems like a good way to make it less like my usual.

[magid]

I don't think of fennel as sweet at all (unless roasted). ::ponders::

[cutieperson]

sous vide is more paying attention than I want to put in :)

[cutieperson]

oooh.

[minoanmiss]

Oh interesting. I experience that anise/licorice flavor as sweet. Not weighty with sweetness like sugar sweetness, but a sweet flavor, often harshly/bitter-edged sweet (such as in licorice). Flarvors are interesting. And I owe that word overtime pay.

[magid]

I haven't played with a sous vide ever, so my impression is that it's not a lot of hands-on time, but there is buying equipment and using whichever proven recipes....?

[cutieperson]

*nod* but also having to take things out at specific times and make sure it's hit temp, etc. it's not a ton of paying attention, but it's more than I have spoons for much of the time.

[magid]

Oh, sure, that makes sense. I find some things too much of a pain that other folks don't (cookies), and vice versa.

[cutieperson]

I am so with you on cookies!!

[magid]

I mean, I'm mostly too lazy to make Ritually Encouraged Cookies aka Hamantaschen (for Purim); no way will I manage something that needs exactly 12 minutes in the oven (or whatever). Especially for things like chocolate chip cookies, that can easily be made as bars and cut.

[cutieperson]

heh, fair. my partner's mom makes what I consider an ideal chocolate chip cookie. it involves beating things for precise amounts of time & letting the dough rest overnight & baking for a precise time THEN resting on the cookie sheet THEN moving to a rack. I have tried to replicate this once and it was annoying and not nearly as good as hers. I'm resigned to only eating them a few times a year now when she makes them.

[magid]

Whoa, that is way too fiddly for me! Also, I always suspect that the person who gives you the recipe doesn't realize that they do one little thing that makes the cookies above the rest, so they don't know to tell you to do that. Or there's extra cookie goodness baked into her kitchen by now.