Spring Rolls With Shredded Kohlrabi

Photo by Andrew Scrivani for the New York Times

Kohlrabi will be in the farm share this week from Glade Road Growing.  You can cook this milder sweeter descendant of wild cabbage in a variety of ways.  When it comes to the bulbs, you can  bake or roast 'em, pickle 'em,  stew 'em (I love them in curries),  saute 'em and braise 'em.  Or don't cook them at all.  This recipe is in the last category, because, hey it's hot come summer. 

The greens and stems, by the way, are also edible.  I'd suggest that you fix them as you would kale or collards.  Or, if they are too tough, after steaming them lightly, puree and add to soups, hot or cold.)

*

Serves 4

The inspiration for using kohlrabi in a spring roll was Martha Rose Shulman, but her recipe uses rice sticks, while I prefer mung bean threads.  She uses tofu and I use tempeh. 

Ingredients:


2  ounces mung bean threads
1 package of tempeh, sliced into pieces 1/2 inch wide by 1/4 inch thick
1 medium carrot, peeled and cut into matchsticks
2 small kohlrabi, peeled and cut into matchsticks (make sure to remove fibrous layer just under the skin before shredding)
Salt to taste
1 tablespoon fresh ginger, cut in julienne
1/4 teaspoon of demerara sugar
1 tablespoon fresh lime juice 1/2 cup roughly chopped cilantro, plus 16 sprigs
1/2 cup of slivered basil, plus 8 leaves
1/2 cup of chopped mint leaves, plus 16 leaves
8  8 1/2-inch rice flour spring roll wrappers
1 tablespoon of ground, roasted peanuts
1 tablespoon of toasted sesame oil
1 tablespoon of miso
1/8 teaspoon of red pepper flakes

Directions:

1.  Place the bean threads in a large bowl and cover with boiling water.  Soak for 15 to 20 minutes until the noodles are pliable, then drain and transfer  to another bowl. Using kitchen scissors, cut the noodles into roughly 6-inch lengths. Pat dry. Leave the warm water in the bowl for softening the wrappers.

2.  Blanch carrot in boiling water until softened, about 45 seconds. Drain. Rinse under cold water to stop cooking.

3. Toss the shredded kohlrabi with salt to taste and let sit in a colander placed in the sink for 20 to 30 minutes to drain. Squeeze out excess liquid and toss with the sugar, lime juice carrot, ginger, chopped cilantro, slivered basil and chopped mint leaves. Let stand 5 minutes.  Drain the pickled vegetables, reserving the marinade.

4.  One at a time, place a rice flour wrapper in the bowl of warm water until just softened. Remove from the water and drain briefly on a kitchen towel. Place the softened wrapper on your work surface and put a line of tempeh slices in the middle of the wrapper, slightly nearer the edge closest to you, leaving a 1 1/2-inch margin on the sides. Place a small handful of noodles over the tempeh, then place a handful of the shredded vegetable mixture over the noodles. Lay a couple of sprigs of cilantro and a Thai basil leaf and a couple of mint leaves on top. Fold the sides of the wrapper over the filling, then roll up tightly. Arrange on a plate and refrigerate until ready to serve.

5. Cover rolls with damp paper towels and then plastic wrap.

6.  To make dipping sauce, whisk together peanuts, sesame oil, miso and pepper flakes and thin, as desired, with the marinade.  Refrigerate.

Serve within four hours.

*
Some past recipes for kohlrabi:
Roasted Veggie, Chickpea and Collard Salad with Tahini Dressing Kohlrabi Home Fries
Kohlrabi Fritters with Tzatziki (Greek Cumber Yogurt Dill Sauce)Kohlrabi Apple Carrot Slaw

Fennel, Radish and Strawberry Salad with Sumac

Photo by Yuki Sugiura  for The Guardian.


*


JP tells me the June 13, 2017 farm share for Glade Road Growing will include fennel, baby greens, summer squash, cilantro, beets with greens, and red radishes.

The Guardian had this lovely picture by London based photographer Yuki Sugiura of a salad with fennel and radishes with pomegranate seeds.  Given the season and what's available locally, might I suggest strawberries instead?  I've seasoned this salad with ground sumac, often added to Mediterranean and Middle Eastern cooking to add tartness.  While the staff at Eats told me that they don't stock sumac in their bulk spices, they suggest you might try Oasis.  You can also harvest sumac here in the fall.  (Poison sumac has white berries, but for more identification, see this post from the Ashville, NC foraging company, No Taste Like Home.)

*

Serves 4

Ingredients:

3 tbsp lime juice
1 fennel bulb, about half a pound trimmed
1/2 pound of red radishes, trimmed
3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
2 cups of strawberries, trimmed and halved
1 tsp sumac (optional, if you can't find it)
Sea salt

Directions:

1.  Wash the fennel and trim the root end off the bulb and discard.  Trim off the stems and fronds and cut the bulb into quarters  and slice thinly.  Place in a bowl of cold water with 1 tablespoon of the lime juice to keep from discoloring.  Reserve stems and fronds for another purpose.  (I like to coarsely chop and steam the stems and puree them like I would celery in soups.  I like to puree the fronds with nuts, olive oil and Parmesan, Romano or Asiago cheese to make a pesto.)

2.  Wash the radishes and trim off the roots and discard. Trim off the leaves, if any and finely slice the radishes.  If there are leaves, you can use reserve them for another use.  (I like to chop and saute them, as I would turnip greens.  They also add a peppery taste to salads.)

3.  Wash the strawberries, drain immediately.  Trim off the top stem and leaves.  Cut in halves, or quarters, if large.

3.  To make dressing, whisk the oil and remaining lime juice together.

4.  Drain the fennel and toss gently with the radishes and strawberries. Drizzle over the dressing and serve on individual plates, dusted with sumac and a little salt.  Serve immediately.

Quick Pickled Carrots and Beets

Epicurious credits the photo of the carrots to Chelsea Kyle and Anna Stockwell in April 2015. Epicurious lists the photo of the beets as from the December 2000 issue of Gourmet Magazine, with no photographer credited.

*


J.P.  tells me that this week's farm share from Glade Road Growing will include lettuce mix, carrots, fresh dill and kale and I thought it would be great time to develop a recipe for quick pickles.  (You could also use the marinade to pickle fennel and salad turnips, which are also in season.)

*

Yield:  about 2 1/2 cups of pickled carrots and 3 cups of pickled beets

*

Marinade:

2 cups apple cider vinegar
2 TB water and 1/2 cup demerara sugar;  or 1/3 cup maple syrup
1 tablespoon sea salt
1 tablespoon black peppercorns
1 tablespoon mustard seeds

Vegetables:
1 pound carrots
1 pound beets
1/4 bunch fresh dill, chopped

Preparation:

1.  Bring the ingredients for the marinade to a boil in a 2- to 3-quart saucepan, stirring until sugar is

     dissolved. Cover and simmer 30 minutes.Cool marinade, then chill, covered, 1 day to allow

     flavors to develop. 

2.  Peel and slice carrots and slice on the diagonal into 1/8-inch-coins and place in mason jars.
3.  Remove beet greens, if any, and reserve to refrigerate until ready to cook as greens.  Cook beets in

     a saucepan of boiling salted water until tender, 1 to 1 1/4 hours. Drain and cool. Slip off skins, 

     trim root and top and cut into 1/2-inch pieces and place in mason jars.
4.  Bring half of marinade to a boil and pour over carrots, let cool to room temperature, then cover
     and refrigerate for at least one day.
5.  Pour other half of (cold) marinade over beets, then cover and refrigerate for at least one
     day.

Serving suggestions:

You can serve the pickles as a side, topped with a sprinkle of the fresh dill or as a condiment for cooked kale or other greens.

You can also use the pickles in a great main course salad.  For each serving cover the bottom of a plate with a thin bed of lettuce, spinach or arugula or a combination thereof.  Top with 1/2 cup of cooked green or French lentils and garnish with both kinds of pickles, halved hard boiled duck or chicken eggs, topped with crumbled goat cheese and a sprinkling of fresh chopped dill.

Stir Fried Bok Choy and Carrots with Spring Onions

Photo from Chef Curtis Stone's website (of the LA Restaurant, Maude)

May 30 starts the 2017 farm share for Glade Road Growing.  Sally tells me there will be carrots and bok choy, so I came up with this recipe for a side, which can be expanded to a main dish with the addition of your choice of protein and starch.

*

Serves 4


Ingredients:
2 teaspoons toasted sesame oil
2 teaspoons extra-virgin olive oil
1 tablespoon peeled, smashed and minced fresh garlic
1 tablespoon minced peeled fresh ginger
1/4 teaspoon of crushed red pepper
4 bok choy (about 3 pounds total), cut crosswise into 1-inch-wide ribbons
2 carrots, peeled, shaved into ribbons
1 4-ounce spring onion, sliced thinly, tough dark-green top removed (may substitute 3 to 4 scallions,
   white and light-green parts)
4 teaspoons of miso thinned with water and 1 teaspoon balsamic vinegar with 1 teaspoon of
   demerara sugar stirred in until it dissolves

OPTIONAL: 
If you want this to be a main dish, rather than a side, you can add 1 package thinly sliced tempeh or 2 cups of cooked white beans or 2 cups of cooked chicken or 2 cups of cooked pork and serve the mixture over 4 cups of cooked brown rice or rice noodles.

Directions:


1. In a large cast iron skillet or wok, heat the oils over medium high heat.

2.  Add the garlic, ginger and red pepper sauté for 30 seconds, or until fragrant and tender.

3.  Add the sliced onion and cook stirring for one minute.

4.  Add carrots and cook stirring for 2 to 3 minutes.

5.  Add the bok choy.  Cover and reduce heat to medium and cook, stirring occasionally for 5 to 10
     minutes, or until the green parts of the bok choy have wilted and the white parts are crisp-tender.

6.  Add in the protein (see OPTIONAL), if desired, and heat until warmed through. 

7.  Take off heat and stir in the miso mixture.

8.    Divide evenly among 4 plates and serve right away.

THIS IS WHAT I WANT TO TELL YOU by E. Ethelbert Miller

Alexa Zalopany Casey took this photograph January 30, 2017 facing Henderson Lawn at Virginia Tech, as we gathered to express our support for immigrants and especially our Muslim neighbors, after the Executive Order banning immigration.  Used with permission.

*

In the morning some of us will be missing.
Some of us never came home. Some of us
were rounded up and taken away. Some of
us disappeared. Some of us said nothing.
Some of us said it didn't matter. Some of us
didn't care.

This is how it begins.
It begins slowly like air.
It begins invisible like fear.
It begins like rain before clouds.
It begins when listening is no longer heard.
It begins when blood is red like eyes.
It begins with silence breaks into pieces.

All of us are strangers.
All of us will be taken.
All of us are crying.
All of us are angry.

This is what I wanted to tell you.
This is how it begins.
Every ending begins with someone.
Every beginning begins with us.

We can stop this.
We can stop this now.

This is how it begins.
Not with some of us but with all of us.

This is what I wanted to tell you.
Now tell someone else.

*
My friend poet and literary activist Ethelbert Miller posted his poem this morning on Facebook.  In the spirit of the last line, I share it with his permission.  It brings to my mind not only the immigration bans, but the forced removal of native water protectors and their supporters from the Oceti Sakowin Camp today.  For more information on the forced removal see the Lakota People's Law Project.

Instagram photo posted by the Oceti Sakowin Camp four days ago with the caption, "Today a dump truck tried to run over 3 Water Protectors. The Oceti community addressed it peacefully. The matter was pretty much resolved, but they I guess they thought they would like to show a little bit of force."

Moonlight: A Moving Depiction of Inner City Miami

Poster for Moonlight, Barry Jenkins' film based on “In Moonlight Black Boys Look Blue,” Tarell Alvin McCraney's shelved semi-autobiographical 2003 60-page memoir.
" [Liberty City] is a unique place in that the same things that exist in other urban general populations exist for us, and yet there are palm trees and beautiful sunsets and you can smell the ocean five miles away. "

~Tarell Alvin McCraney

*

Moonlight has two more showings at Lyric Blacksburg tonight at 7:00 and 9:15 pm. I saw it last night and had been looking forward to it since filmmaker Catherine Pancake recommended it. I preferred the first two sections of the film to the last and am wondering about his depiction of the adult Chiron, v.s. that of Jenkins.  I couldn't find a copy of his memoir to make a comparison.

How one of my favorite scenes got shot

Gregg Kilday at Hollywood Reporter explains the shooting of my favorite scenes: Juan (Mahershala Ali) — a local drug dealer who has befriended a wary 10-year-old Chiron (Alex Hibbert)--teaches the boy to swim in the Atlantic Ocean.

A massive storm front, with clouds ominously gray, was moving in...The schedule called for a five-hour shoot, but ...[Jenkins] knew he'd only have 90 minutes to capture the sequence before the cast and crew would have to seek shelter...

"Once we realized the weather wasn't going to cooperate, I knew I had two things — a kid who didn't know how to swim and a camera that would be half in, half out of the water.' He took Ali aside and told him not to worry about hitting the dialogue, just teach the boy to swim. Nine takes and one lens swap later, they had the footage and beat a hasty retreat....

"What you're watching...is real life. A grown black man teaching a young black kid how to float and how to swim in the Atlantic Ocean as a storm is coming in. Sometimes pressure and duress work in your favor. If I had tried to get every line we had scripted, I would have tried to control things in a way where we wouldn't have had this moment in the film."

How Jenkins and McCraney began their collaboration.

They never met as boys in Miami’s inner city neighborhood of Liberty City all they grew up a few blocks from each other and both had mothers afflicted by drug addiction. They met met as adults when McCraney’s script found its way to Jenkins through the Borscht Corporation, a Miami-based film nonprofit.

According to Kilday, Jenkins and McCraney began exchanging what Jenkins calls "loopy emails.

I explained what I saw as the film version, but I'm a straight man and I felt Tarell's voice needed to be preserved.

McCraney by then had received a 2013 MacArthur Grant and was involved in other projects; he gave Jenkins his blessing to write the film. McCraney talks about the adaptation in NY online magazine, The FADER, which is where I got the quote that starts this post.

The Music in Moonlight

Interestingly, Jenkins led the discussion of Twelve Years a Slave at Telluride, and found himself talking with producers Jeremy Kleiner and Dede Gardner, partners with Brad Pitt at Plan B Entertainment. According, again to Kilday, "The two had been fans of Medicine [Medicine for Melancholy, his 2008 film] and wanted to know what Jenkins planned to do next. He promised to send them the Moonlight screenplay when it was finished."

Composer Nicholas Britell came to write the score because he had worked with Kleiner on The Big Short. Kleiner encouraged him to read Jenkins' script.  Britell says,

One of the first takeaways I had was that it felt like poetry — beautiful, intimate, sensitive.

 And so Kleiner arranged a meeting, and Jenkins and Britell immediately clicked.

I had the same feeling of poetry when I saw the early cuts of the film...and that immediately impacted the musical ideas. I started asking myself right away, 'What is the musical analog to the movie's poetry?' Among the first things I sent to Barry was a piece called 'Piano and Violin Poem,' which became 'Little's Theme' in chapter one and evolves into 'Chiron's Theme' in chapter two and then becomes what we call 'Black's Theme' in chapter three. So those immediate feelings I had about the screenplay and the film really paved the way for some of the groundwork of what the movie would become.

Jenkins told Britell about how he loved "chopped and screwed" Southern hip-hop, where the tracks are slowed way down.

When you slow them, the pitch goes down....So you get these tracks that are deepened and enriched in their sonic quality. I said to Barry, 'What if we applied that technique to the orchestral technique? What would happen?

Kilday explains that Britell "began slowing and bending the piano-and-violin theme he'd written. In the schoolyard fight in chapter two, for example, Britell slowed it way down, nearly three octaves down, layering the piece on top of itself and running it through vinyl so it has a vinyl hiss."

It's almost unrecognizable...It's like a rumbling in the subwoofers of the theater. You can hear what almost sounds like bells, but that's actually the piano notes that have morphed into this totally other formation.

If You're Questioning the Election Results, We Need an Audit. Or Even if You're Not...

Graphic from "Want to Know if the Election was Hacked? Look at the Ballots" by J. Alex Halderman published on November 22, 2016.  Caption: "The pink counties predominately use optical scan paper ballots, which can be examined to confirm that the computer voting machines produced an accurate count. Blue counties use paperless voting systems, which require forensic analysis."

*
For the second time in sixteen years, the winner of the popular vote in the election will not be inaugurated as president. (Something that happened only three other times in the history of our country--with the other instances all happening in the 19th century.)

Suggestions swirl around the internet.  Write the electoral college to reverse the results!  Maybe Trump didn't even win the electoral college vote!  Call the Justice Department!  Petition the Secretaries of State! 

Among what seems to me to be a spinning of wheels,  this IS interesting

Ron Rivest and Philip Stark explained in USA Today  on November 18 how the presidential vote could be audited before December 13, when the States have to file their results with the Electoral College.

We know that the national results could be tipped by manipulating the vote count in a relatively small number of jurisdictions — a few dozen spread across a few key states. We know that the vast majority of local elections officials have limited resources to detect or defend against cyberattacks. And while pre-election polls have large uncertainties, they were consistently off. And various aspects of the preliminary results, such as a high rate of undervotes for president, have aroused suspicion.

Auditing .5% of the ballots would do the trick

Rivest (Institute Professor at MIT and a member of the U.S. Election Assistance Commission Technical Guidelines Development Committee) and Stark (associate dean of mathematical and physical sciences at the University of California, Berkeley and a one-time appointee to the board of advisers of the U.S. Election Assistance Commission)  say a “risk-limiting” audit--in which a random sample of just 1 percent of the paper ballots cast  is examined--“could give 95% confidence that the results are correct in every state. And it might not even require 1% of the ballots. An audit would first

check the results in the states Trump won. If auditing confirms those results, there’s no need to audit in the states Clinton carried: Trump really won. That means auditing about 700,000 ballots in the 29 states Trump won, about 0.5% of the ballots cast in this election.

On November 18, Rivest and Stark linked to a Verified Voting  petition at Change.Org addressed to the Secretaries of State of Florida, Iowa, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Michigan, asking for an audit. Author Justin Krebs has a petition at Moveon.Org addressed to Clinton, Trump, Gary Johnson, Jill Stein, Secretaries of State in Michigan , Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. 

Ditch the phone campaign to the Justice Department

Relying on the good will of the Secretaries of State seems a stretch.   Although less of a stretch than calling the Justice Department to demand an audit.  Even if, according to Gabriel Sherman, National Affairs Editor for New York Magazine,  

...some Clinton allies are intent on pushing the issue. This afternoon, Huma Abedin’s sister Heba encouraged her Facebook followers to lobby the Justice Department to audit the 2016 vote.

(Well, actually, his link goes to a Daily Beast writer who posted a screenshot of Heba Abedin's facebook page.  You or I can't even see the facebook posts, even if you follow her and her twitter page no longer exists.)

As Washington Post reporter Matt Zapotosky noted  spokesman David Jacobs has issued a statement:

The Justice Department does not tally the number of callers to determine whether federal action is warranted...Investigatory decisions are based solely on the facts and evidence as they relate to the federal statutes the department enforces.

Ignore New York Magazine's anonymous "scoop" on voting machine fraud

Other media writers, including by CNN's political producer Dan Merica, linked to Gabriel Sherman, not for his coverage of the campaign to phone the Justice Department, but for his "scoop" from a "source briefed on the [conference] call with Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta and campaign general counsel Marc Elias.  The source says a  group including voting-rights attorney John Bonifaz and J. Alex Halderman, the director of the University of Michigan Center for Computer Security and Society, told Podesta and Elias that they had found evidence that in

Wisconsin, Clinton received 7 percent fewer votes in counties that relied on electronic-voting machines compared with counties that used optical scanners and paper ballots. Based on this statistical analysis, Clinton may have been denied as many as 30,000 votes; she lost Wisconsin by 27,000....complicating matters, a senior Clinton adviser said, is that the White House, focused on a smooth transfer of power, does not want Clinton to challenge the election result.

Does New York Magazine have the rigorous sourcing requirements depicted in All The President's Men of how the Washington Post covered the Watergate scandal? Sherman, in particular, has been criticized by the The New York Times's Janet Maslin as setting "a record for blind items and the untrustworthiness they engender" in his bio of Roger Ailes. Clinton communications director Jennifer Palmieri did not respond to Sherman's request for comment. Neither did Bonifaz or Halderman.  The latter also failed to respond to requests for comment yesterday evening from CNN's Merica.

Alex Halderman, the subject of the scoop, says Sherman got it wrong

In his own post on post on Medium, Halderman writes that Sherman,

includes somebody else’s description of my views, incorrectly describes the reasons manually checking ballots is an essential security safeguard (and includes some incorrect numbers, to boot).

Let me set the record straight about what I and other leading election security experts have actually been saying to the campaign and everyone else who’s willing to listen....Were this year’s deviations from pre-election polls the results of a cyberattack? Probably not. I believe the most likely explanation is that the polls were systematically wrong, rather than that the election was hacked. But I don’t believe that either one of these seemingly unlikely explanations is overwhelmingly more likely than the other. The only way to know whether a cyberattack changed the result is to closely examine the available physical evidence — paper ballots and voting equipment in critical states like Wisconsin, Michigan, and Pennsylvania. Unfortunately, nobody is ever going to examine that evidence unless candidates in those states act now, in the next several days, to petition for recounts...

Support Jill Stein's recount as the most practical short-term action

State laws call for recounts at a candidate’s request as long as he or she can pay for it. Green Party candidate Jill Stein announced a fundraising campaign on her website to ask for a recount in Wisconsin by the Friday deadline. She is also raising funds for a recount in Pennsylvania by November 28 and Michigan by November 30.

According to Ballotpedia, Wisconsin machines have a paper trail. Michigan uses paper ballots. Pennsylvania (as is the case in Virginia) has no statewide paper trail. A pattern, if found, would have to hold true for all three states in order for the electoral college vote to favor Clinton.

We must do a lot more before 2018

Current post-election verification is inadequate, Halderman explains:

After the election, human beings can examine the paper to make sure the results from the voting machines accurately determined who won. Just as you want the brakes in your car to keep working even if the car’s computer goes haywire, accurate vote counts must remain available even if the machines are malfunctioning or attacked. In both cases, common sense tells us we need some kind of physical backup system. I and other election security experts have been advocating for paper ballots for years, and today, about 70% of American voters live in jurisdictions that keep a paper record of every vote.

There’s just one problem, and it might come as a surprise even to many security experts: no state is planning to actually check the paper in a way that would reliably detect that the computer-based outcome was wrong. About half the states have no laws that require a manual examination of paper ballots, and most other states perform only superficial spot checks. If nobody looks at the paper, it might as well not be there.

And superficial spot checks are not enough, as Black Box Voting points out.

Sad how long I've been writing about  problems with electronic voting machines

Following the 2000 election, billions were spent on new voting machines. My first post about the problems was in 2005.  Halderman has suggestions for how to fix the mess:

States still using paperless voting machines should replace them with optical scan systems, and all states should update their audit and recount procedures. There are fast and inexpensive ways to verify (or correct) computer voting results using a risk-limiting audit, a statistical method that involves manually inspecting randomly selected paper ballots. Officials need to begin preparing soon to make sure all of these improvements are ready before the next big election.

Root Veggie Salad with Red Grapefuit and Cilantro

Photo by Romulo Yanes for Martha Stewart.com.  Yanes was staff photographer for the late great Gourmet Magazine.

*

Sally tells me that Glade Road Growing's farm share this week will include parsnips and other root veggies.  Parsnips, which are a native of Eurasia, are closely related to carrots and parsley.  They are  delicious roasted, steamed, sauted or raw.  They make a nice addition to stews.

While there won't be the pound and a half of parsnips called for in the original recipe, you can use the other root veggies in the share such as turnips and carrots. I've substituted cilantro for parsley, lime juice for vinegar, maple syrup for honey  and added some green onions. 

This salad would be nice served on a bed of arugula or other greens.  If you want to make this a main dish, you could add two cups of cooked white or black beans.  For meat eaters, this salad would be a great side for roasted chicken, duck, turkey or pork.  It would also be great accompaniment for tuna or salmon.


*

Serves 4

Ingredients:

2 red grapefruits, peel and pith removed (I love the Texas Rio Reds when they're available.)
3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
1 tablespoon lime juice
1 teaspoon maple syrup
1/2 teaspoon each sea salt and fresh ground pepper
1 1/2 pounds peeled parsnips, carrots and peeled turnips (unless you are using salad turnips which   can be unpeeled)
1/2 cup fresh cilantro leaves
1/4 cup of finely chopped green onions

1.  Working over a large bowl, cut out grapefruit segments, setting the membranes aside.  Squeeze 1/4 cup juice from membranes and discard the membranes. Whisk in oil, lime juice, honey or syrup, salt and pepper into the grapefruit juice and add to bowl.

2.  With a vegetable peeler, shave the root vegetables  on the diagonal into strips. Add to bowl and toss, along with cilantro and green onions and toss.

Smashed Swedes with Ginger-Roasted Pears

Photo by Con Poulos for Bon Appetite.

Sally tells me that the farm share for this week from Glade Road Growing will include rutabagas (or what I know as swedes), a brassica that results from crossing turnips and cabbages.

Since I'm not sure how of the quantity of swedes in the farm share, I've made this recipe proportional.  If you don't have two pounds of swedes you can mix them with cubed winter squash.  In fact, you can do that anyway, if you prefer something a bit sweeter.  This recipe works with apples, when pears are no longer available in season.

*

Serves 4 for two pounds of swedes.

Ingredients:

Swedes (rutabagas) peeled, cut into 3/4- to 1-inch cubes
1 1/2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
2 tablespoons minced fresh ginger
1 tablespoon of maple syrup
1 firm Anjou or Bosc pear for each pound of swedes, cored, cut into 3/4-inch cubes
1 firm Anjou on Bosc pear, cored and sliced for garnish
1 tablespoon of butter for each pound of Swedes + 1 tablespoon to grease the pan of pears
1 tablespoon chopped fresh thyme (optional, can substitute a sprinkling of ground nutmeg and 1 /2 teaspoon of cardamon)
Sea salt
Fresh ground black pepper

Instructions:


1.  Preheat oven to 400°F. Lightly oil a large, rimmed cookie sheet with butter.
2.  Combine oil, lemon juice, ginger, and maple syrup in large bowl. Add pears; toss to coat. Spread on prepared sheet. Roast until tender, turning pears every 10 minutes, about 35 minutes total.
3.  While pears are cooking, cook the swedes in pot of boiling salted water until tender, about 35 minutes. Drain swedes and return to same pot. Mash to coarse puree. Stir over medium heat until excess moisture evaporates, 5 minutes. Stir in thyme or nutmeg/cardamon and butter.
4.  Mix in the cubed pears and any juices from baking sheet. Season with salt and pepper.
5.  Serve in small bowls, garnished with sliced pears.  You can top it all off with a dollop of Greek yogurt or sour cream, if you like.

Black Radish Chips

Photo by Karis (no last name), who has a vegetarian food blog.

The share from Glade Road Growing for election day (or Friday, if you pick your veggies up at the farm) includes black Spanish radishes.

Radishes are annuals in the Brassica family.  This variety is also known as Gros Noir d’Hiver, Noir Gros de Paris and the Black Mooli. They are an excellent source of vitamin C and said to help fight off infection and promote healthy digestive and liver functions.  

Sharp in flavor raw (similar to horseradish), you can cut them into match sticks or grate them and add them to salads or yogurt.  You can pickle them or you can slice them thin to serve with dips. To tone down the heat of radishes, peel, slice, salt and rinse with water prior to using. 

They gain some sweetness when roasted or sautéd and braised.   They can be served as a side dish or added to soups, stir-fries and stews.  The greens are also edible and can be prepared in recipes calling for kale or turnip greens.

After experimenting a bit, I decided my favorite way to eat them is as chips.  Here is my recipe for crisp chips.  Clotilde Dusoulier notes in her recipe that if you slice them thicker, you'll get a softer version.

*

Ingredients:
Black radishes
1 tablespoons of balsamic vinegar
2 tablespoon of extra virgin olive oil
sea salt

For a curried chip, you can substitute the following for the vinegar:
3/4  teaspoon of ground cumin
1/4 teaspoon of ground cardamon
1/4 teaspoon of ground turmeric
1/4 teaspoon of paprika.

If you don't like vinegar chips or curry chips, just use olive oil and salt.

Instructions:1.  Cut off the greens and reserve for another use.  Scrub the radishes and slice as thin as possible.  In a large bowl, toss the slices with a olive oil and sea salt.  For flavored chips add either the balsamic vinegar or the curry spices (or make two batches so you can have both.)

2.  Preheat the oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit.

3.  Line a rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper (or aluminum foil).  Placed the radish slices on a cooling rack on top of the baking dish.

4.  Bake for 10 to 15 minutes, until the chips are crinkled around the edges.  Be careful not to burn them.
5.  After the cooking is finished, the radishes will continue to crisp as they cool.

6. Eat!  If you have so much self-control that you have some left over, you can store the completely cooled chips in a dry airtight container at room temperature for up to one week.

Moroccan Stew with Butternut Squash, Red Potatoes and Brined Green Olives

Photo by Deb Perelman of The Smitten Kitchen

 *

This week's farm share from Glade Road Growing includes butternut squash, so I thought I'd do another Moroccan stew.  The original recipe calls for preserved lemons, which, if bought prepared  are pricey.  Making them takes three weeks or four weeks, if you want to use this recipe or this one. Since Perelman says they're an acquired taste which she hasn't yet acquired,  I substituted lemon juice.

I also used a combination of lentils and chickpeas, rather than only chickpeas. While couscous is traditional,  it's a pasta.  I prefer to use quinoa, which is gluten free and higher in protein.

I also roasted the potatoes and butternut squash to deepen the flavor.  If you want to cut out this step, you can add them at the beginning of the boiling time. 

Serves 6

Ingredients:

1 and 1/2  cup  dried chickpeas, cooked
2/3 cup raw quinoa, cooked
2 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil, divided in half
1 onion, chopped
6 cloves of fresh garlic, smashed, peeled and chopped
2 teaspoons ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground turmeric
1/8 teaspoon red pepper flakes
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
2 cups of  tomatoes, diced (canned is fine, if they are out of season)
3 cups water
1 pound butternut squash, cut in half, strings and seeds removed
3/4 pound small red potatoes, cut in half
1 1/2 cups green lentils, rinsed well
juice of 1/2 a lemon
1 cup brined olives, pitted. (Green Cerignolas are nice.  If you prefer, substitute Kalamatas.)
1/3 cup of fresh cilantro, chopped
1/3 cups of sliced almonds, toasted


Instructions:


1.  To cook chickpeas,  in a medium saucepan with a heavy bottom and a tight-fitting lid, cover with an 3 cups of water, and and bring to a boil.  Rinse.  Return to pot, add ½ teaspoon sea salt and bring again to a boil again.  Cover, reduce heat and simmer for 5 minutes. Let stand over night or for at least one hour. Rinse a second time, add three cups of water and bring to a boil again and simmer on low heat until soft, about 1 hour.

2.  Preheat oven to 450 degrees, F. Coat the  squash and potatoes in one tablespoon of the olive oil and roast, cut side down  on a cookie sheet in preheated oven until soft, about 30 minutes.  Cook until you can handle and then dice.

3.  To make the stew, heat the oil in a medium pot over medium heat and saute onions and garlic few minutes until the onions are softened.  Stir in cumin, cinnamon,  sea salt, black pepper, red pepper flakes, and turmeric.  Cook a few minutes until spices are fragrant. Add cooked chickpeas, tomatoes, water and lentils.  Bring to a boil, then cover, reduce heat.

4.  To cook quinoa, bring 2  cup of water to a boil.  Add the 2/3 cup of  raw quinoa and return
to boil.  Take off stove and rinse well.  Add back in a scant 2 cups of water and return to stove and    bring to a boil.  Turn down to low.  Cover.  Cook 15 minutes.  Turn off heat.

5.  Add roasted squash and tomatoes to the stew mixture and cook for an addition 5 minutes or until lentils are fully cooked. Stir in lemon and olives.

6.  Fluff the quinoa with a fork and divide among six bowls.  Ladle the stew on top, garnished with cilantro, almonds and with greek yogurt, if desired.

This would be good served with steamed or braised greens, such as kale, tatsoi or spinach.

Curried Kabocha Squash Soup

Photo by Willow Arlen of Will Cook for Friends.

*

This week's farm share from Glade Road Growing includes a sunshine kabocha squash. Rob Johnston developed this variety over the span of nearly twenty years of hand pollination and released it to the commercial market in 2004. In the 1970’s Johnston started by crossing two orange kabochas, the red kuri and golden nugget.  Later in the 1980’s Johnston crossed the most desirable offspring of this work with a green kabocha known as home delight, which was known to have a desirable sweet and dry flesh.

*

Serves 4

This soup  will keep for about a week in the fridge, or can be frozen.

Ingredients:

1 kabocha squash (about 2 lbs)
2 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil or coconut oil
1/2 medium yellow onion, diced
3-4 cloves garlic, smashed, peeled and finely chopped
1 tablespoon of fresh ginger, finely chopped
1/4 tsp. ground cumin
½ tsp. ground coriander

1/2 tsp    cardamon

1/8 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/8 tsp. ground turmeric

 1/8 tsp.  mustard

 1/8 tsp.   red pepper flakes

2 cups water
1/4 cup unsweetened shredded coconut
sea salt, to taste
fresh cilantro, for garnish
wedges of lime, for serving

Greek yogurt for garnish (or coconut milk for vegan version)

Instructions:

1.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

2.  Remove the stem, and cut the squash into wedges. Scoop out the seeds and stringy insides, and discard them. Place the wedges cut-side up onto a foil lined baking sheet, drizzle with 1  tablespoon of olive or coconut oil, and sprinkle with a generous pinch of salt. Roast the squash for 30-40 minutes, or until tender. Remove from the oven and let rest until it is cool enough to handle, then scoop the meat away from the flesh.

3.  In a large pot or dutch oven, saute the onion with 1 tablespoon of oil for 5-7 minutes, or until translucent. Add the garlic, ginger, spices and a pinch of salt, and cook for another 1-2 minutes, or until the spices are fragrant.

4.  In a blender, combine water with coconut and blend until smooth.  Add squash and spiced onions and puree until smooth. You may need to do this in batches. Return to the pot and add additional liquid as needed to reach the desired consistency.

5.  Serve with fresh cilantro, drizzle of yogurt or coconut milk and and wedges of lime.

Spaghetti Squash Ramen

Photo from Anarchist Kitchen.

Serves 4

Ingredients:

1 spaghetti squash, halved and de-seeded
2 carrots, cut in half lengthwise and cut into sticks
1/2  # mushrooms, sliced
2 cups arugula (or kale, chard  or spinach) chopped
2 green onions, chopped
1/2 cup of cilantro, chopped
1 tablespoon of fresh ginger, finely chopped
4 cloves of garlic, smashed, peeled and finely chopped
4 tablespoons of miso, thinned with water
1/2 tsp red pepper flakes
2 tablespoon of demerara sugar
1 fresh lime lime
sea salt to taste
4 tablespoons of toasted sesame seed oil
8 cups of water
4 hard-boiled chicken or duck eggs, peeled and halved

Directions:

1.  Preheat oven to 400 C.  Cut squash in half and remove seeds.  Place face down in baking dish with some water and bake for for 40 minutes.

2.  In a skillet, add about 1 tbs sesame seed oil. Sautee half the mushrooms with the carrots and half the grated ginger and garlic. When carrots look soft take everything out of the skillet and set on a plate.

3.  In the same skillet, add the greens and remaining garlic and saute them. They will wilt quickly. Once done add them to the cooked veggie plate.

4.  To make broth, bring water to boil in the skillet with the rest of mushrooms and ginger, oil,  pepper flakes and sugar.  Let broth cool until it's warm, stir in the miso and the lime juice.

5. Take spaghetti squash from oven and use fork to remove insides in strands. Divide the squash among four bowls, add broth, and place veggies on top and garnish with onion greens, cilantro and hard boiled eggs.

Fennel-Apple-Winter Squash Tart

Photo by McKel Hill for her blog Nutrition Stripped



*

This week's farm share is slated to include fennel and I thought I'd do a recipe for a tart to celebrate.  With it being apple and winter squash season, why not combine all three? My recipe uses delicata squash and an onion, while butternut squash is pictured.  You could even use sweet potatoes instead.


This tart features a gluten and soy free vegan crust. If you'd prefer a conventional butter crust, see my recipe here.  I also have a recipe for a crust that includes corn meal and cheese here.  You can make the rice and the quinoa flours called for in this recipe by chilling the grains and then running them through a blender.

*

Serves 6 - 8

Crust:

½ cup brown rice flour
½ cup quinoa flour
¼ cup cornstarch
8 tablespoons coconut oil, chilled
6 tablespoons ice water
¼ teaspoon sea salt

Filling:

1 delicata squash, unpeeled and halved, (or 1 half large butternut, peeled and quartered), seeds and strings removed and then sliced thin. 
1 large Granny Smith apple, quartered, cored and sliced thin
1 fennel bulb, end trimmed, sliced thinly (reserve the greens and stems for another purpose)
1 large onion, peeled, end trimmed, sliced thinly
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 teaspoon dried sage or 1 tablespoon fresh sage leaves chopped
1 teaspoon of dried rosemary or 1 tablespoon fresh rosemary, whole leaves
1 teaspoon sea salt
¼ teaspoon ground nutmeg
¼-1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes

1.  Preheat your oven to 400 degrees F.

2.  To make the crust, combine all the rice and quinoa flours and corn starch in a large mixing bowl.  Start making small balls or chunks of the chilled coconut oil that you'll be working this into the flour and gradually adding in the ice cold water 1 tablespoon at a time. At this point, the dough will look very crumbly. Work your hands into the dough bringing it together- use a pastry scraper to help get the dough off the the sides of the bowl. Spread the dough out in a well-greased cast iron skillet, making sure that the dough comes all the way up to the top of the sides so that you will have the option to fold it over..  Chill for 5-10 minutes in the refrigerator.  If you don't have a large skillet, you can roll the dough out on a piece of parchment paper on a baking sheet instead.

3.  To make the filling,  combine in the sliced squash, apples, onions and fennel in a large mixing bowl. Add olive oil and seasoning and gently toss.  Arrange in layers until the entire crust is full. When the crust is warm enough to work, gently fold the edges on top of the sliced filling. Drizzle entire tart with additional olive oil and sea salt.

4.  Bake for 40 minutes at 400 degrees F or until crust is golden brown.

5.  If you'd like you can serve each slice with a dollop of  Greek yogurt, a crumble of goat or feta cheese, soy sour cream or McKel Hill suggests cashew spread ( I prefer Molly Patrick's recipe because it avoids the brewer's yeast, but you may want to spice it up with fresh garlic and Dijon mustard.)  In addition, or instead, you can also used a few of the fennel fronds torn apart for a garnish.

Spicy Carrot Soup

Photo by Karsten Moran for the New York Times.


*



Hail got Glade Road Growing's chard this week (sigh), but there will still be carrots and onions in the farm share.  With the cold weather, I though soup would be good.  (And when the warm weather returns, this one is also good chilled.  If you would like this to be heartier, for a main course, you can add two cups of cooked white beans or garbanzos. 

*

Serves 4


Ingredients:
3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil,  coconut oil, or ghee
2 medium onions, thinly sliced (about 3 cups)
1 tablespoon fresh ginger, finely chopped
4 cloves of fresh garlic, smashed, peeled and finely chopped
1 tablespoon turmeric
½ ground coriander
⅛ teaspoon red pepper flakes
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
2 pounds young carrots, peeled and cut into 1-inch pieces
8 cups of water
1 cup of dried white beans or garbanzo beans, cooked (optional)
1 bunch or hakurei turnips or one small daikon radish, peeled, halved lengthwise and sliced 1/4 inch thick (about 2 cups) (if using turnips, reserve the greens for another use)
1 teaspoon mustard seeds
1 teaspoon cumin seeds
Cilantro or basil leaves, chopped, for garnish (optional)
Lime wedges, for serving
Greek yogurt or tofu sour cream for garnish (optional)

Directions:

1.  If you are adding beans to make this a main dish, the night or at least two hours before, in a medium saucepan with a heavy bottom and a tight-fitting lid, cover 1 cup of beans with 2 cups water, and bring to a boil.  Rinse.  Return to pot, add ½ teaspoon sea salt and bring again to a boil again.  Cover, reduce heat and simmer for 5 minutes. Let stand over night or for at least one hour. Rinse a second time.  Add two cups of water and bring to a boil again and simmer on low heat until soft, about 1 hour with 2 bay leaves.



2.  In a heavy-bottomed, lidded  soup pot, over medium-high heat, add 2 tablespoons of the oil.  When it is hot enough that a drop of water turns to steam, add onions saute, stirring, for about 5 minutes, or until lightly browned. Add ginger, garlic, turmeric, coriander and cayenne and cook for one minute more, or just until fragrant. Season with salt.

3.  Add carrots and water. Raise the heat and bring to a brisk simmer, then put on the lid and turn heat to low. Cook until the carrots are tender, about 15 minutes. Remove from stove and let cool slightly. If you would like this to be a main dish, add two cups of cooked beans.  Purée in a blender in batches, then return to soup pot.  Thin with water as  necessary, as the soup should not be too thick. Set aside.

4.  While soup is cooking, steam the turnips or daikon until tender, about 5 to 6 minutes. Drain and keep warm.

5.  Reheat the soup over medium heat, stirring occasionally. Meanwhile, heat remaining tablespoon of  oil in cast iron skillet over medium-high heat. When hot, add mustard seeds, cumin seeds and red pepper flakes. Cook for one minute, or until spices are fragrant and beginning to pop. Pour the entire contents of the pan into the soup and stir to combine. Taste for salt and adjust.

6.  Divide daikon pieces among four bowls and ladle over a cup or so of soup. Garnish with cilantro or basil leaves, if using, and give each bowl a squeeze of lime.   Add a dollop of yogurt or tofu sour cream, if you desire.  

Poem: Lucy Lee Shirley's Skirt

ad more here: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/news/nation-world/national/article103423762.html#storylink=cpy

Back then, if they saw us trying to read or write they would take our hands, take our eyes, if they saw us keep doing it, take our lives, and here I was being awarded one of the top literary awards in the country, having come from that land...That’s our spirit – you can kill us, some of us will die and some of us will take the stories of our grandparents to the next generation. I am the living embodiment of that.   

      ~  Nikky Finney on the dedication of the new Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, talking about one of the artifacts, a videotape of her acceptance speech for the National Book Award.

*

Six days after police shoot Keith Lamont Scott claiming he posed a threat,
Zianna Oliphant testifies before her hometown City Council:
It’s a shame that our fathers and mothers are killed, and we 
can’t even see them anymore. It’s a shame
that we have to go to their graveyard and bury them.

Scott's wife has released a video she took
as she yelled at police:
He has no gun.

His sister tells reporters,
He sits in the shade, reads his book
and waits on his kid to get off the bus
He didn’t have no gun, 
he wasn’t messing with nobody.

In the museum on the Mall, hangs that little skirt  
someone carefully sewed
using a whip stitch and natural thread:
fabric linen/cotton blend
patterned with small flowers:
red, purple, tan and blue.
Style typical of the day,
trimmed with a pleated self-fabric ruffle,
piped in blue, gathered into a yellow waistband.

Worn often, Lucy's skirt shows its age
in stains and holes and worn patches
and later alterations.
Her granddaughter Cornelia 
has shared it with us. A Polaroid shows
how once it had a long-sleeved
matching peplum top.

The curator says:
people's ability to continue to love 
is something that I can never quite get over.

Picture Lucy, seven or eight or nine
at dusk on a summer Sunday forty miles south in Loudon County
a century and a half earlier
whirling at the edge of a dirt track
fringed in wild asters.

Zianna, the same age, now, crying at a Charlotte podium.


*

Enchilada Spaghetti Squash Bake

Photo by Dara Michalski (aka the Cookin' Canuck).
*

Sally asked me to come up with a recipe for spaghetti squash for this week's farm share from Glade Road Growing.  Italian or greek is pretty obvious and I'd already done one for Pad Thai, so I thought I'd come up with something with Mexican flavors.  Unlike Michalski, I make my sauce and beans from scratch and use feta cheese (as we do on Masa Mondays at the farm), rather than Monterrey Jack.  She uses two small squash and I substituted one large one cut in fourths.

*


Serves 4

Ingredients

Sauce:
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
2 teaspoons whole wheat flour (or corn starch, if you would like this to be gluten free)
3 tablespoons paprika
1 tablespoon of cocoa powder
4 teaspoons oregano
4 teaspoons ground cumin
3/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper red pepper flakes
3/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1 sprig epazote (optional, if you can't find it)
3/4 cups water or stock
1 cup tomato paste or 4 fresh tomatoes roasted and pureed
1/3 teaspoon sea salt

1 cup dried black beans, cooked, rinsed and drained
1 large spaghetti squash
2 tsp olive oil
1 onion, chopped
1 red bell pepper, diced
4 garlic cloves, smashed, peeled and finely chopped
1 cup corn kernels, fresh cut off cob or frozen and defrosted
⅔ c feta cheese crumbled (or vegan feta substitute, see below)  If you eat neither dairy, nor soy,
     substitute 2/3 cups of chopped pitted kalamata olives)

3 tbsp cilantro, chopped

Ingredients for vegan feta substitute:
1⁄4 cup olive oil
1⁄4 cup water
1⁄2 balsamic vinegar
2 teaspoons salt
1 tablespoon dried basil
1⁄2 teaspoon dried oregano
1⁄2 teaspoon red pepper flakes
1 lb firm tofu, crumbled

If you want to try an almond-based feta substitute (which requires more work, see this recipe.


1.  To cook the black beans, the night before, bring 1 cup of beans to a boil in 3 cups of cold water and simmer for five minutes.  Rinse.  Bring back to boil and soak overnight. The next morning rinse well and drain. Cover with colder water plus an inch and start to simmer. (Add water as necessary to keep the beans barely covered).

2.  If you are making the vegan feta subsitute, place everything but the tofu in the bowl and whisk together. Add the tofu, stir, and let sit for at least an hour.  You will need 2/3 of a cup for this recipe and can store the rest for another use in a lidded glass jar in the fridge.

3.  To make the sauce,  heat the oil in a medium saucepan, add flour or corn starch, smoothing and stirring with a wooden spoon. Cook for 1 minute. Add spices and cook for 30 seconds. Add water or stock, tomato paste and stir to combine. Bring to a boil, reduce heat to low and cook for 15 minutes. The sauce will thicken and smooth out. Add salt and adjust the seasonings, as desired.  If you'd like, you can scale up this recipe and use 1 3/4 cups of the sauce and freeze the remainder for another use.

4.  Preheat oven to 450 degrees F.  Using a large, sharp knife, cut the spaghetti squash in half lengthwise.  Scrape out the seeds. Place the squash cut edge down in a  baking dish and roast in oven for about 20 minutes, or until soft.  Before handling, let the squash stand for 10 minutes. Using a fork, twist out strands of the spaghetti squash flesh and place in a large bowl. Let stand at room temperature. Save the shells of the squash for stuffing later.

5.  Heat the olive oil in a large nonstick skillet set over medium heat. Add the onion and cook until tender, about 5 minutes. Add the red bell pepper and cook until just tender, about 2 minutes. Add the garlic and cook for 30 seconds. 

5.  Stir in the spaghetti squash strands, black beans, corn and enchilada sauce, and cook until heated through, about 2 minutes.  If you eat neither milk nor soy, instead of feta or substitute, stir in the chopped kalamata olives.  Scoop the spaghetti squash mixture into the spaghetti squash shells and top with cheese or vegan feta substitute, if using.

6.  If you are using the tofu vegan feta substitute skip this step, as it will not melt.  If you have made the almond vegan substitute or are using feta cheese, proceed as follows.  Turn oven to broil.  Place the stuffed spaghetti squash onto a baking sheet and place under the broiler. Cook until the cheese is melted, about 2 minutes. 

7.  Sprinkle stuffed squash with cilantro.  Cut the halves in half again crosswise, so that you have 4 pieces, plate and serve.