Box Contents April 17, 2009

This week's box contains:

• Mint
• Loose Beets
• Fresh Shallots
• Agretti
• Berries (we got strawberries)
  
• Carrots
• Broccoli
• Mystery (we got Bok Choy)

Given my schedule this week and the fact that we added a new beagle to the pack, Sam, the remainders include:

• Leeks
• Mixed bag of Parsley Root and Chantenay Carrots
• Smallage (aka Soup Celery)
• Baby Minicor Carrots
• Broccoli
• Turnips

Quite a bit of food ... here's the plan:

Carrots: Given that we have so many of them, I'll likely make and freeze Carrot Mint Soup and Baked Carrot Oven Fries (if you haven't tried these yet, you should).

Broccoli: Again, given the plethora on hand, I'll make soup.

Strawberries: sliced and to the freezer.

Agretti: sauteed with garlic, white wine, and lemon juice.

Shallots: hold for future use.

Leeks: add to broccoli soup.

Beets: roast.

Parsley Root: add to roasted turnips.

Turnips: roasted, as follows:

Roast Turnips
Best with fresh, young turnips. If you use the larger, mature turnips you will want to peel them before roasting.

• turnips
• olive oil
• spice mixture of your choice
  
• salt
  

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Scrub and dice turnips, toss lightly with olive oil then roast for roughly 40 minutes, stirring once or twice as they roast.

We used a pepper/allspice blend from the Patricia Wells recipe Rue Saint-Dominique "Caviar" (see page 12). It combines equal parts black peppercorns, white peppercorns, and allspice berries for a warm spiciness that goes well with neutral things like turnips -- or better yet -- bread and butter. We keep a pepper mill full of this blend on hand just in case.