Creative Recipes with CSA (or Farm Fresh) Produce!

Well here's a recap of everything I've cooked since Saturday.  Warning, this will be a long post! Turkey, Kale and Pinto Bean Enchiladas, Spicy Corn Cakes, Blueberry Zuchinni Bread, Proscuitto Wrapped Cod with Green Sauce, Potato Chips, and Polenta Pizza Squares.


So lets start with the Enchiladas.  These beauties were inspired by a new blog I discovered: Cate's World Kitchen.  I love Cate's recipes and she's a runner who qualified for Boston! Anyway, I took a picture of the ingredients We Are Not Martha style before I started.  I always try to remember to do this, but I usually forget. I used store--bought enchilada sauce and ground turkey... Cate's were vegetarian. So for ingredients we have...

Turkey, Kale and Bean Enchiladas
Ingredients:
93% Lean Turkey
Shredded Cheese ( you only need a handful or two)
1 tablespoon of pre-minced garlic
1 Onion, diced
2 zuchinnis, shredded
1 jalapeno, diced (remove seeds)
1 bunch of Kale
1 Can of Pinto Beans
1 Container of Enchilada Sauce (or make your own)
6 flour tortillas- I used Jalapeno Cheddar Mission Wraps
Instructions:
Preheat oven to 350F. Heat a medium skillet over medium high heat. Add the olive oil and jalapenos and stir for a minute. Add the zucchini, cumin and salt. Cook for about 3 minutes, then add kale and stir until soft. In another skillet, brown the turkey. Remove the first skillet from heat and stir in black pepper, the pinto beans and a few tablespoons of enchilada sauce. Mix together the Kale Mixture and the Turkey Mixture.  Taste and season with more salt and pepper if necessary. Put together the enchiladas, prepare the tortillas by warming them in a hot skillet for about 30 seconds per side. Spoon a thin layer of enchilada sauce over the bottom of a greased 13 x 9 pan. Form the enchiladas one at a time: Put a few spoonfuls of filling in a tortilla, roll up and place it in the pan. Pour the remaining sauce evenly over the top and sprinkle with cheese. Cover with aluminum foil and bake for 25 minutes, then remove the foil and bake for an additional 10. Cool for 10 minutes before serving.

Check out these guys! They were spicy, FILLING and delicious. Nice little twist on a classic enchilada and a good use for my CSA Kale and Zucchini.

Here you can see the filling starting to leak out the sides....

Alright moving on to Spicy Corn and Sweet Potato Cakes, also adapted by Cate's World.


Below is my shredder attachment on my food processor.  My friend Joanna asked what the shredder attachment looked like so I wanted to show you this amazing piece of machinery. It shredded all my sweet potato in minutes.  This would have taken me probably a half hour to shred and most likely I would have cut myself like I usually do using that damn box grater....

Spicy Corn and Sweet Potato Cakes
Ingredients:
2 ears of corn (or 1/2 cup frozen corn)
1 tsp olive oil
1 tablespoon of minced garlic
1 jalapeno, minced (ribs and seeds removed, if desired)
2 teaspoons ground cumin
1 tsp salt
1 can (15 ounces) black beans, drained and rinsed with half of the can pureed until smooth
2 cups sweet potato, peeled and coarsely grated (1 medium sweet potato)
1 egg
1/4 cup whole wheat flour
Instructions:
Preheat the oven to 375 F. Heat a medium skillet over medium-high heat and add the olive oil. Cut the kernels off the corn and saute in the oil until tender. Set aside to cool. Stir all ingredients (including corn) together until uniformly mixed. Pat into 4″ patties on parchment or silpat-lined baking sheets. Bake at 475 for about 30 minutes or until set. Cool on the sheets for 5 minutes, then serve.


This recipe used my corn, zucchini, and eggs from my CSA! I added hummus to these and put them in a wrap on Sunday.


Also over the weekend I made Closet Kitchens Blueberry Zucchini Bread. 
I don't think I baked this long enough. Use his recipe! 
I was able to use TWO CSA goodies- Blueberries and Zucchini!

Monday night I made something absolutely fabulous.  I really think you should all try this green sauce.  I wish I could say this genuis green sauce was my idea, but sadly, it was also Kevin's over at Closet Kitchen. 
I made Prosciutto Wrapped Cod on Asparagus Green Sauce. Doesn't it look almost restaurant worthy?

Prosciutto Wrapped Cod on Asparagus Green Sauce

Ingredients:
1 tablespoon butter
1 clove garlic (chopped)
1 leek (finely sliced)
1/2 pound asparagus (cleaned, trimmed and cut into 1 inch pieces)
1 cup arugula/spinach mix
salt and pepper to taste
2 (6 ounce) cod fillets
salt and pepper to taste
4 thin slices prosciutto
1 tablespoon oil

Instructions:

Melt the butter in a pan. Add the leek and garlic and saute until tender, about 3-5 minutes. Simmer the asparagus in a small amount of water until tender, about 3-5 minutes. Add the Spinach/Arugula mix and cook until wilted, about a minute. Puree the leeks, asparagus and greens in a food processor. Place the sauce in a pan on low heat to keep warm. Season the cod with salt and pepper. Wrap the prosciutto around the cod. Heat the oil in a pan. Add the fish and cook until golden brown, about 2-3 minutes per side. Transfer the cod to a baking dish. Bake in a preheated 450F oven until the fish has finished cooking, about 5-10 minutes. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

So in this recipe, I used leeks, and arugula from my CSA.  This sauce was unbelievable and I definitely want to use it in more dishes.


And I wanted to make fish and chips... so I made potato chips on the side.  Of course, these didn't get done until we were done eating the fish but thats besides the point, right? I made these on a baking sheet with salt and pepper and olive oil.

Alrighty, now on to another more colorful dish.  My dinner from last night.  (PS- Does Alrighty remind anyone else of Sex and the City? Anyone?)  Another recipe I saw from Cate's World: Polenta Crust Pizza. 

Polenta Crust Pizza
Recipe:
(adapted from Cates World)
1 cup corn meal
3 cups skim milk
1/2 tsp kosher salt
1 tbsp olive oil
pizza sauce and toppings
Instructions:
Preheat the oven to 375 F. Put a Silpat on a cookie sheet. Stir the corn meal, milk, and salt together in a medium saucepan. Heat over medium-high, stirring constantly, until mixture comes to a boil and thickens enough to pull away from the sides of the pan. Remove from heat and stir in the olive oil. Let cool for about 2 minutes, then spread evenly over the Silpat with a rubber spatula. Bake for 10-15 minutes, or until set. Top with pizza sauce and desired toppings (I used tomato sauce, ground turkey I had left from the enchiladas, banana peppers, cheddar cheese, onions, prosciutto and feta cheese...I think thats all, I pretty much cleaned out the fridge with this recipe) and bake until cheese is melted. Cut into squares to serve.

I served this with a CSA salad of tomatoes, spring red onions and cucumber. 

I just made Summer Vegetable Crepes and I will post that recipe another time.  Past my bed time!