Sweet Potato Salad

Potato salad - the cool, soft, mayonnaise laden concoction served alongside all number of summer favorites like hot dogs, not dogs, hamburgers, and grilled chicken. If you're like me you've got a favorite recipe (Mom's), but like to try all those new and interesting potato salads in vogue these days (like Pesto Potato Salad with Green Beans). It had been so cool here that I'd been figuring potato salad season was over. I was contemplating soups. And then, on Friday, when I was going to make a Peanut and Sweet Potato Stew, it was ninety degrees. Despair, dismay, I love stew, the sweet potatoes were getting wrinkly, I don't have air conditioning so I can't fake fall, I can't stand my apartment any hotter than it already is or a warm-your-insides meal...

But then - flash! Potato salad. Oh sweet deliciousness! Perfection. I boiled my sweet potatoes, but them in the fridge and started contemplating recipes. It would be a bit different from potato salad with white potatoes of course, but I wasn't feeling the sweet versions with apple slices and nuts. I wanted something more akin to Mom's potato salad, but without the pickles. Something about the combination of sweet potato and pickle just didn't sit right with me.  Ultimately, I ended up with a simple but delicious recipe:

Ingredients:

3 medium sweet potatoes, boiled, peeled, and cubed
3 T candy onion, minced
1 small green bell pepper, minced
2 T mayonnaise
Dash of salt

Boil the sweet potatoes until tender. Peel before or after boiling as you prefer. Chill potatoes in the fridge for at least 1 hour.

When the potatoes are cool, add all the other ingredients and stir. Usually, I'm a big fan of rough chopping and calling a dish rustica, but when it comes to potato salad it's best to take the time to chop your veggies small for even flavor. Recipe serves 3.

While it's not the prettiest dish, (the final product looked a little like baby food and I couldn't get a good photo if it) it is delicious. I served it with some fish I picked up at Trader Joe's, but it would pair well with anything that usually keeps your potato salad company on the plate.

Inspired by the English

A popular traditional English tea sandwich is watercress - a microgreen hailed as a superfood for its high nutritional value. It has a long history in England and many followers, including a website dedicated solely to this food: watercress.co.uk.

My beloved CSA box, which I picked up yesterday, did not include watercress, it did, however, include arugula microgreens. These are in the same family as watercress along with brown mustard and chia. Yes, chia, like the pets. I had no idea what to do with my arugula microgreens. I'd eaten a watercress sandwich and grown a chia pet, but neither of these came to mind as I stared at the little bag of greens with heart-shaped leaves and long thin stems. It was only after I did some research that I figured it out. And since eating a Chia Pet is inadvisable, I made a variation on the watercress tea sandwich:

Arugula Microgreens Sandwich (minus the second slice of bread, which is necessary for elegant eating)

Arugula Microgreens Sandwich
A good snack with a cup of tea.

Spread a light layer of cream cheese on a piece of white bread (I used a thin sliced but chewy Italian) and sprinkle a handful of greens on top. Cover with a second slice of bread. Enjoy.

If you like, you could add cucumbers or butter instead of cream cheese, but I really enjoyed that sandwich. I made a second one as soon as the first was gone.

Pasta with Tomato Cream Sauce

I based this recipe on “Creamy Pasta with Chard and Tomatoes” from the Joy of Cooking: 75th Anniversary Edition. I made their version a few weeks ago and it was delicious, but I didn’t have chard this week so I made a variation based on the ingredients in my CSA box. As usual, items from the CSA are in bold.

Ingredients:

1 T olive oil
2 shallots, peeled and chopped
2 cloves of garlic, peeled and minced
1 pound green beans, snapped into bite size pieces
2 large tomatoes, chopped
1/8 c. basil, shredded
1 c. heavy cream

Sauté garlic, shallots, and green beans in olive oil until shallots are soft and green beans have softened a little. Add tomatoes and basil and cook for about five minutes more. Pour heavy cream over all. Cook until cream bubbles and sauce thickens a little (2-4 minutes). Serve over pasta.

The recipe made about four servings. And I recommend having some bread on hand, as you’ll want to use it to soak up the sauce that pools at the bottom of the bowl. Trust me.

And as you can see, all the ingredients except the olive oil, cream, and pasta were from the CSA. These were all organic brands. A very green meal!

Quick Cucumber Slaw

In last week's CSA box, I was presented with four beautiful cucumbers. While I love cucumbers, this is a lot of cucumbers for one person to munch, especially since this is the first week of the season when I didn't receive lettuce, so my easy "make a salad" standby was lost. I considered freezing two and eating two (like I did with the green bell peppers), but, according to my copy of Joy of Cooking, cucumbers don't freeze too well - at least not in an easy "put on cookie sheet until frozen, then place in labelled plastic bag" kind of way. And I'm far too busy to make pickles.

The idea for the recipe below, Quick Cucumber Slaw, actually came to me in the midst of making Cold Cucumber Soup, also from the Joy of Cooking. I was planning to adapt the recipe slightly to fit the goodies in my CSA box. But I tasted the mix before I got to adding the yogurt and heavy cream and was so pleased with it, I just stopped. Thus, accidentally writing the recipe for this slaw. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did. All the ingredients in bold came from one of my recent CSA shares.

Quick Cucumber Slaw

2 medium cucumbers, sliced very thin or shredded
1 large clove garlic, minced
2 T olive oil
1/8 c. fresh basil, chopped
¼ c. chopped walnuts (optional)
pinch salt
black pepper to taste

Combine all ingredients, stir, and chill in the refrigerator at least 2 hours. Serve cold. Makes a good side dish for most summer meals.

CSA – Community Supported Agriculture. What is it?

Local.

Sustainable.

Fun.

By signing up to participate in a CSA, you are signing up for a share of what a farmer or group of farmers produce(s) during the growing season. Usually, this means that you will receive a box or basket of produce each week for a prescribed period. All the food in the box will be fresh (picked that day or within a few days before) and local (and usually organic or chemical free as well).

The contents of the box vary by the CSA and the season. For example, here in Pittsburgh with the Penn’s Corner Farm Alliance, I received boxes filled mostly with lettuces, eggs, cheese, and stores from root cellars and greenhouses early in the season. This week, lettuces are still abundant but are mixed in with goodies like blueberries and peppers. When my next box comes, I’m hoping for sweet corn.

Often, you’ll also have the opportunity to visit the farm and see where products are grown. One of my greatest childhood memories is wandering the farm of “our farmer” from the CSA my mom signed us up for each summer. He had painted his mailbox in a tie-dye pattern, had a daughter about my age, and was always eager to show off his rows of lettuces, blueberry patch, and greenhouses.

And, as you’ve seen based on my previous posts and recipes, a CSA will challenge your eating habits. Salads are a constant, but in addition I experiment with soup, stir-fry, bread, and any number of other dishes based on being given so many vegetables – including at least one each week that I’ve never heard or at least never cooked with. It’s probably too late in the season to sign up for a CSA this year, but keep them in mind for next year and share your recipes and new experiences.