Box-five wrap up

When we got our box last week I knew the romaine lettuce would become a salad and that I, at least, would want to eat the fennel raw. Besides that, I saw two meals taking shape: The peas and scallions could become a stir fry, and I would finally be able to make my absolute favorite dish, a liberal take on Bittman's Roasted Brussels Sprouts with Garlic that I've been calling roasted brassica.

First up, the second round of Use What You Have Stir Fry, cooked up quick and very late on a night when Patrick and I each had other stuff to do.



This time we added carrots, which I will slice more thinly or shred next time, because they don't absorb the sauce very well. Wow, those peas add crunch to a stir fry.

Saturday morning's breakfast included biscuits. While I was making them, I remembered some Driftless oregano from Box #3 that I'd dried. I minced it along with some dried rosemary and added it to the dough.



It's nice to have a little bit of the CSA preserved. It's like a little treat from yourself.

I used some of this week's fresh fennel leaves in sangria. It turned out super tasty. I took this picture before I poured the wine in:



Here's a recipe for a quart:

Fennel Sangria
Half a can of frozen apple juice concentrate
Some frozen peach slices
Half a pear, sliced
A lemon, sliced
Some fennel leaves, minced (I should have used more than what you see in the photo--like half the leaves from one bulb)
Most of a bottle of cheap white wine (You can add the rest as you drink it down, or make it in a bigger container)

Put it all in a quart jar and shake it. Chill it for a couple hours, at least. Shake it some more and serve it over ice, with some of the boozy fruit in each glass.

Finally, the best part: roasted brassica! This is amazing with Brussels sprouts as Bittman intended, and he also suggests radiccio and purple cabbage, which are delicious. But I've done it with regular cabbage and now broccoli and it really hits the spot. I eat some version of this dish almost every week with store-bought veggies, so I was thrilled to have enough CSA veggies to make it.



Cut like a pound of cabbage (or broccoli or whatever) thick. Preheat the oven to 450. Heat olive oil on the stovetop in an oven-safe pan and lay the veggies in there. Put in like five garlic cloves. (This is the fresh garlic from Driftless.) Sprinkle it with a bunch of salt and pepper.



Leave it alone until the bottom is pretty brown. Be patient; it takes like five minutes. Bittman says "cook undisturbed." Then shake it a little and stick it in the oven.

Shake it a few times during the next half hour. Let it get nice and brown, then a little browner, so some spots are crispy. Now, here's the part that makes it taste really, really good: Toss it with a tablespoon of balsamic vinegar. Yum!



We ate it with salad. I know--greens with a side of greens. I could blame the viridescence of last week's box, but the fact is we failed to take our own advice and were caught without cooked beans or really any other protein to serve with this. So we made the salad and put some cheese on the table.