Can you name this vegetable? The leaves have a very grassy, earthy, lettuce-with-a-kick flavor, and those stalks are just lovely and crisp looking. How should I prepare this produce. Please help.
What about this one, can you name this vegetable? The stalks look like petite celery, with less ridges and course fiber. The leaves taste salty and vegetative, similar to spinach, leading me to believe it is a fancy green best served wilted, but then again who knows?Every Wednesday, thanks to our CSA subscription to Scott Arbor Farms outside of San Antonio, we receive a bag of produce. Most of it we can identify, and therefore find recipes and cooking instructions that are appropriate. This week, for example, we received beautiful red tip lettuce, fennel, broccoli, and kale. We don't need any help putting these in our belly. But then these two mystery vegetables. What are they?
If you can tell us what we are looking at, we will be grateful. If you can send a recipe for this particular produce item, even better. We are all ears.
8 comments:
The top vegetable looks like pak choi, a type of cabbage. But I have no idea what to do with it. Good Luck!
top bok choy--often found in asian dishes also known as snow cabbage. delicious in stir fry, I've also used it in wonton soup.
the second one looks like perhaps a chard.
mmm! use the bok choy for stir fry or a very effective hummous scooper.
Not sure on the second one. Would be turnip greens at my CSA, but up here in PA, we're a far piece behind you in that season I hear is called "spring" You're probably out of the root veg stage.
In general, you really can't go wrong with wilting a strong green (steam in the drips left from washing), then mixing w/olive oil, lots of dill, chopped mild onions, garbanzos, and feta, and running it into a hot oven for a bit. Serve w/ toasted pitas, or just belly up to the cooking vessel with a friend a couple of spoons/forks and your beverage of choice.
Cricket
Yep, veggie #1 is bok choy. It's also called qing cai (green vegetable) so you're probably getting the idea that it's Asian. Slice the stems on the diagonal and chop the leaves coarsely. Use it in stir fry.
Veggie #2 looks to be very young Swiss chard. Here I would throw the stems in the compost and use the greens either for braising or as part of a quiche.
Bon appetit!
Thank you all for the helpful identification. I will let you know if we make anything delicious from these "mystery" ingredients!
Kate! The newly minted Lauren Madrid sent me your blog (I sat next to you at Sunday brunch after her wedding). I love this.
I know the mystery was solved, but I still wanted to chime in. My favorite way to eat the bok choy is to slice it in sizeable chunks, separating the leafy parts from the firmer bottoms, then heat a little oil on high heat, throw in lots of minced garlic, and stir fry quickly (tossing in the bottoms first for a minute or two before the leaves)--just until it's a little softened but still with a good crunch. A crack of salt on top and I'm good.
Julie - that sounds delicious. What type of oil do you use? We still have the bok choy in our fridge, and I need to use it soon. I am excited about adding a new veggie to my cooking repertoire. Thanks for the hints.
I use canola or corn oil since it takes to high heat better than olive oil--at least in my experience. Enjoy!
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