End of Summer Soup

As we sat down to eat, my daughter said this was the prettiest soup. And, except for a few ingredients (carrots, celery, parsley, beans), everything is from our share.  It looks like a long recipe, but it takes no more than 30 minutes once the broth is ready.

Thank you!

Perfect end of summer soup

For the broth (or use 3-4 quarts of your favorite broth)
1 chicken carcass
1 onion, peeled, cut in half
1 head garlic, unpeeled, cut crosswise
innermost ribs and leaves of a celery heart
a bay leaf
a few strands dill
a few springs parsley
sea salt to taste
a few black peppercorns or to taste

Put it all in a big pot and cover with cold water by two inches.  Bring to a boil, skim any foam, and lower heat to a slow simmer.  You can forget about this for a couple of hours on the stove or use it in 30 minutes.  Either way, it is tastier than boxed broth.  Strain and discard the solids.  Season if desired.

For the veggies
olive oil
1 small onion, diced
4 small carrots, diced
two fistfuls yellow wax beans, cut into bites
3 or 4 small summer squash, cut into bites
1 bunch chard stems, chopped
a few cloves garlic, minced
salt and pepper

Heat a big skillet over medium/high heat.  Add a few swirls of olive oil, then cook the onion and carrots to tender-crisp.  Season as you go with salt and pepper.  Add the green beans, squash and chard and go a few more minutes (I like the veggies still a little crunchy in the soup, cook more if you want them soft).  Add the garlic last, and cook until fragrant.

To finish
2 cans Great Northern beans or other large white beans, drained and rinsed
1 bunch chard leaves
chopped fresh dill, sage and basil
chopped jalapeno
freshly grated parmesan cheese
salt and pepper to taste

Add the beans and cooked veggies to the broth pot and cook until heated through.  Chiffonade the chard (stack the leaves, roll like a cigar, and slice parallel to the stem).  Pile chard leaves in each bowl, ladle soup over them and finish with herbs, jalapeno, parmesan and more salt and pepper if desired.

Throw in a crunchy baguette, rubbed with olive oil and garlic.  A chopped tomato on top would probably be very tasty, didn't think of it.

Posted by 

Siobhan McDevitt (CSA member)

Fennel Dill Hummus

When I saw the fennel in the CSA box on Tuesday I became very excited. I knew exactly how to put that veg in my belly.... Here's a recipe I whipped up (literally) using the lil' fennel babies of Rio Gozo Farm. 

Fennel Dill Dip

2 c. Fennel bulbs

2 T. Garlic scape or fresh green garlic

2 T. Green onion

juice of 1/2 a lemon

1/4 c. olive oil

1 t. cumin

2 T. fresh dill weed

3 T. Tahini 

salt n' pepper

Chop fennel lengthwise and clean.  Boil or steam for approximately 5 minutes.  In a blender or food processor combine fennel, garlic, onion, lemon juice, olive oil and lemon.  Puree until creamy.  Pour into a serving dish and add cumin, dill, tahini, salt and pepper, stir well.  Chill if desired or eat it all up at once with last week's kohlrabi!!!

Posted by Amber and Ventura Locavore

Dill Dressing

(courtesy of Pun Pun Farm's kitchen staff!)

Ingredients-
+/- 1 cup chopped ginger (a tsp. or two of ground ginger works too,depending on your taste or what you have available)
1/2 cup crushed garlic (15-20 peeled cloves)
1 large handful fresh dill, torn
2 handfuls fresh sweet basil
3 Tbsp vinegar (apple cider or rice varieties are nice)
5 Tbsp soy sauce (Braggs also works as a gluten-free sub)
Salt to taste
5(ish) Tbsp sugar (agave is a nice sub)
2 Tbsp sesame oil
juice of 3 limes (can sub w/lemon juice)

Toss all ingredients into a blender & add water to make the mixture to your desired consistency. I've made this recipe with huge variations lately (i.e. no basil, no sugar, no vinegar) and it hardly seems like you can go wrong with these ingredients - the amounts are all pretty subjective, I just add ingredients to taste.

Creamy Potato Kale Soup with Leeks

This Potato Leek soup has been on my favorites list for the past 10 years. It's from Mollie Katzen's Moosewood Cookbook. Click here for more of her recipes. The main ingredients for this soup are in the CSA box, (hope you dried some of that dill.)

Ingredients:

1 cup finely chopped onions

2/3 finely chopped leeks

1/2 Tsp salt

1 Tbsp vegetable oil

4 c. vegetable stock (We like Rapunzel's pure organic w/ sea salt and herbs)

4 c. coarsely chopped potatoes

1/4 tsp ground fennel

1/2 c. finely chopped celery

2 tbsp white wine

1/2 tsp dried dill

2 tsp dijon mustard

1 1/2 tbsp minced fresh basil

2 tbsp minced scallions

1/2 c. evaporated milk

4 c. loosely packed shredded kale

salt and pepper to taste

squeeze of fresh lemon

Directions:

In a soup pot sauté onion, leeks, and salt in oil on very low heat until tender. Add stock and bring to a boil. Add potatoes, fennel, celery, wine, and dill. Simmer 20 minutes, covered, until potatoes are tender. Puree soup in blender until smooth. Return to pot and stir in mustard, scallions, basil and evaporated milk.

In a separate pot, boil kale in just enough water to cover. When tender drain and add to soup. Salt and pepper to taste.

Rio Gozo Farm's Logo

Rio Gozo Farm's new logo is coming out soon, and guess what image we're going with?

The one we love the most, the Beet.

Ironically, it's the one thing we've had trouble growing from seed this year at Rio Gozo Farm. It's the good kind of trouble... there's a soil borne pest that occurs in rich, healthy soils containing a lot of decomposed material. Lately, we've been transplanting our beets and it has resulted in Rio Gozo Farm beets in the CSA once again.

One of Rio Gozo Farm Ventura CSA's members is Alison Soens, a hip graphic designer from Ventura.

She does design, paintings, and illustrations- her whimsical paintings often incorporate recycled and reclaimed materials. You can find her work on her website www.kasleberry.com or on her blogs here and here. But most impressive is how she manages two blogs?

Stay tuned for the unveiling of our new logo.

But while you're waiting- eat your beets. Here's a couple more recipes adapted from Andrea Chesman's book, Serving up the Harvest.

Beets with Chocolate Mint

2 to 4 beets, cooked, peeled, and sliced (boiled till you can pierce it with a fork)

1/4 cup rice or apple cider vinegar

2 tbsp chopped fresh mint

1/4 tsp orange zest

1 tbsp fresh squeezed orange juice (try tangerine or blood orange for a variation)

1/4 cup olive oil

Salt and freshly ground black pepper

4 ounces goat cheese, crumbled

Whisk all the wet ingredients together with the mint, salt, and pepper. Toss the cooked beets in the dressing. Garnish with goat cheese, zest, and more freshly ground pepper.

Borscht

Serves 4-5

Ingredients:

6 beets, tops and roots removed

1 onion, diced

2 potatoes, peeled and diced

3 cups vegetable or chicken broth

2 tablespoons chopped fresh dill, plus additional for garnish

2 Tbsp lemon juice, or to taste

Salt and freshly ground black pepper

Sour cream or plain yogurt, to garnish

Preheat oven to 400

Roast beets, whole and un-peeled 50- 60 minutes until soft enough to pierce with a fork. Let cool, when they are soft enough to handle peel and cut into shoestrings or bite-sized chunks.

You may like to sauté the beet greens in oil and garlic and add them to the borscht as a garnish.

Meanwhile, combine the onion, potatoes, broth, and dill in a medium saucepan. Bring to a boil, then reduce the heat and simmer until the potatoes are completely tender, about 20 minutes. Stir in the beets, lemon juice, salt and pepper.

Serve hot or chilled, garnishing each bowl with a dollop of sour cream and a sprig of dill.

Enjoy

Hearty Chicken Vegetable Stew

I don't know about you, but we make soup at least once a week. Something about all those veggies floating around is too wonderful to resist. Here is member Karen Gamboa's excellent Chicken and Vegetable Stew recipe.

Hearty Chicken Vegetable Stew

2 Tablespoons Extra Virgin Olive Oil

4 leeks halved and sliced ¼ in.

4 medium sized carrots cut in ½ in pieces

2 turnips cut into ½ in pieces

1 Tablespoon Italian seasoning

1 Tablespoon chopped fresh Dill

1 32 oz. can of Chicken broth

1 28oz. can of Crushed tomatoes

2 15oz. can of Great Northern beans

1 whole roasted chicken shredded

Heat Olive oil over medium heat add carrots, turnips and leaks stir occasionally until vegetables are slightly softened approximately 8 to 10 minutes. Add Italian seasonings, Dill Chicken broth, tomatoes, beans, and shredded chicken. Simmer over low heat for 20 minutes.

Dressing

I was puzzling about what to do with my herbs this week, when CSA member Celia advised me of the perfect solution - add them to dressing! I love this solution because it not only uses the herbs, but also helps with the lettuce abundance. Because we know that you might not have buttermilk hanging around, it's handy to know the following trick: Add 1 Tbs lemon juice to a cup of milk and let sit for five minutes. Obviously, cut that in half to complete the recipe below. Celia advises me that the dressing is just as good sans parsley.

1/2 cup buttermilk
1/2 cup mayonnaise
6 T. sour cream1
T. minced shallot or red onion
1 T. minced fresh parsley
1 T. minced fresh cilantro or dill
1 garlic clove, minced

1 tsp. fresh lemon juice
pinch sugar
1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. pepper.

Whisk until smooth. Dressing can be refrigerated up to 4 days; just whisk to recombine.

What Do You Use Pollen For?

Hello friends,  this week you will find a bag containing dill flower in your share.  We here at Gozo think this little addition is the bee's knees.  I am currently reading, "Heat" by Bill Buford, about New York chef Mario Batali.  Sprinkled among descriptions of cooking sheep head and stuffing ravioli with beef cheeks are tips on using dill pollen.  Dill pollen is an excellent accent or exclamation point when added to potatoes or poultry and fish.  Simply shake the head of the dilly firecracker over the dish before serving and watch the grand finale on the faces of friends and family.  I suspect that it would perfectly compliment a chocolate torte or vanilla ice cream.  Enjoy and let us know how you pollinate your creations.  

Recipe of the Week

Dill

     Speaking of abundance, dill is a great example of "you don't know what you've got until it's gone".  As summer turns on it's heat our cool weather crops go to seed and we say goodbye to tender, aromatic dill leaves until fall.  Some say good riddance old pal, who overstays his welcome and takes up too much room week after week in the crisper. But what of egg salad sandwiches on summer picnics, or salmon poached with lemon and dill on a hot summer's eve?       We'll surely miss it, so here's how to preserve what you've got though dill has packed its bag and gone for the summer. 

Dry it.  Dry it fast and hot to avoid browning.  On a hot day you can bunch it loosely and hang it in the sun.  I love to hang dried herbs around my kitchen window.

Another good recipe is a Creamy Dill Sauce (excerpted from Farmer John's Cookbook of Angelic Organics)

In the food processor combine:

1/3 C. olive oil

2 Tbsp vinegar

1/2 Tsp minced onion

1/4 tsp dijon mustard

1/4 C. Sour Cream

3 Tbsp minced fresh dill

salt, pepper, and lemon juice to taste

Thank you to Kasey Kersnowski and Christina for contributing their favorite dill recipes.

One of our very own CSA member writes:

"Thanks again for the beautiful veggies. Some dill recipes from Christina below.

Enjoy,
Kasey"

CARROT DILL SOUP
Six servings.

soup:
4T unsalted butter
1 large onion, diced
2.5 lbs carrots, peeled & diced
2 ribs celery, diced
8 cups chicken or vegetable stock
.25 cup + 2T chopped fresh dill
1t salt
.25t fresh ground black pepper
1 pinch cayenne pepper

garnish:
6t sour cream
6 dill sprigs
.25 cup finely diced red bell pepper

Melt the butter in soup pot. Wilt the onion for about 10 minutes. Add
the carrots, celery, stock, .25 cup dill, salt, pepper and cayenne.
Bring to a boil. Reduce heat and cover pot. Simmer until tender, about
40 minutes. Let cool enough so that your blender doesn't explode when
you puree it (a mistake you only make once). Puree the soup in a
blender, a small amount at a time. Return it to the pot, stir in 2T
dill and heat through. Serve garnished with sour cream, red bell
pepper and dill sprigs.


DILL BREAD
One loaf.

1 package of yeast
.25 cup warm water
2.75-3 cups flour
1 cup sour cream
1 egg
1 onion, chopped
2T sugar
1T butter, melted
1T dill
1T dill seed
1t salt
1 egg white, beaten

Preheat oven to 350°. Disolve yeast in water. Stir in 1 cup flour,
sour cream, egg, onion, sugar, butter, dill and salt. Knead in
remaining flour for 5-8 minutes. Let rise until double. Punch down and
divide by three. Let rest, covered, for 10 minutes. Make three 18"
ropes. Braid, cover and let rise for 30 minutes. Brush with egg white.
Bake for 35-40 minutes.

  Please feel free to comment on the blog and share your own ideas.

What's the Dill?