Those of you in CSA will be getting elephant garlic this week (and we’ll have more to sell soon). Here are some tips on what to do with it.
What do I do with an elephant garlic?
Elephant garlic are larger and milder than regular garlic. They are not truly a garlic, rather are related to the leek.
Roasting
The most common way to cook elephant garlic is to roast them. First cut off the papery top and the top 1/2 inch or so of the garlic. Then put the garlic head in the center of a big piece of foil. Partially wrap the garlic and then drench it in olive oil. Seal up the foil, put the whole bundle on a cookie sheet, and roast for about 30 minutes (until garlic inside the cloves is very soft) at 425 degrees.
Once the garlic is done, cool it. Then squeeze the softened garlic out of each clove.
Then what?
After you roast the garlic, there are many things you can do with it:
Mash into garlic paste and spread on fresh French bread. (This is my favorite.)
Use the garlic paste to make a cream of garlic soup.
Mix with olive oil and toss with pasta and diced tomatoes.
Mash into garlic paste and mix into mashed potatoes or cheesy grits.
Mash into garlic paste and whisk with olive oil, plain yogurt or sour cream, and herbs to make a creamy garlic salad dressing.
The farm is now harvesting root vegetables, including delicious carrots and turnips. You may have received these in your CSA bags this week.
If you’re not sure what to do with turnips, here are some tips.
First, storage. You can store turnips much like potatoes. If they are kept in a cool, dark, humid place unwashed, they will last several weeks.
Here are some ways you can eat turnips:
Grate them raw and add to a salad or coleslaw.
Bake like you’d bake a baked potato (350 degrees, 30-45 min. depending on the size). Afterward the skin will slip right off.
Roast by cutting, drizzling on olive oil, sprinkling with coarse salt and pepper, and bake in a 450 degree oven until brown and crisp on outside.
Boil until soft.
After baking or boiling, put in a vegetable casserole or gratin. Or puree and add to a soup, which will provide good flavor and help thicken the soup. With a rich cream base and some garlic, turnips will make a nice soup just by themselves.
Boil with a couple potatoes and then mash them all. (This is a nice alternative to regular mashed potatoes. I like mine with some roasted garlic pureed as well.)
The farm has lots of yummy carrots right now, and we’ll be selling them at the farm stand in Portal tomorrow.
I learned a new trick today while I was at the farm. If you plan to store your carrots in the fridge for a few days, cut the tops off first. That will keep them firm and crunchy. (No wonder my carrots from last week got a little soft. They were still delicious in the korma I made though.)
I’ve been loving these carrots sauteed in butter with a little fresh sage!
Sometimes nature’s bounty provides us with a surplus that doesn’t match our desire to eat or our schedule. I got this big bunch of fabulous greens just before we were going to leave town for a few days.
Hmmmm…what to do? I love greens (kale, chard, spinach, etc.), but there is only so much the two of us can eat in a day or two.
When this happens, I enjoy cooking for the freezer. It makes good use of the veggies and gives us a special treat later on when there might be no fresh greens available and we’re craving them.
To freeze greens, here are the steps:
Wash the greens thoroughly.
Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil, and blanch the greens. Just put them in the boiling water, cover, and leave for no more than 3-4 minutes.
Then strain the greens from the boiling water and plunge them into ice water. (Alternatively, run them under very cold water in a strainer until they are chilled.) This stops the cooking process.
Squeeze any extra water from the greens. Then put in a freezer zip bag and squeeze out any extra air before putting in the freezer.
La Buena Vida Farm is proud to announce the new arrival of three baby goats and one baby sheep (with more to come soon). These little guys are unbelievably cute!
La Buena Vida Farm is serving up delicious pizza this Saturday at the Portal Cafe…and selling pizza crust for those of you who want to make your own at home.
