Kohlrabi, Two Ways (Part I)

I know I kvetch a lot about the dreary repetition of certain vegetables from my CSA, but every now and then, there's a brand new vegetable I've never tasted before which makes the whole investment worthwhile. After all, it was this CSA that introduced me to the deliciousness of garlic scapes in our very first delivery from them last year. I now anxiously look forward to the beginning of the CSA season for the few weeks that we get these curly, green miracles that are so delicious on pizza or even substituted for onion and garlic in guacamole.

But I digress. The week we got the kohlrabi was just such an occasion, perhaps appreciated all the more as they sat amongst a delivery of peas, green beans, and squash. I'd never tasted, let alone seen, a kohlrabi before so when we got the packing list at the beginning of the week, I researched what they were and put out a call for help as a Facebook status. I only got two responses, both from in-laws, but they were very helpful, although polar opposites. One suggested roasting, the other suggested eating raw with generous helpings of sea salt. Since both John and I were kohlrabi virgins, if you will, I decided to give both methods a try so we could maximize our umm... kohlrabi experience, get a sense of how the vegetable's taste changes as it cooks and what may be the method of choice for future kohlrabi dalliances.



In this post, I'll describe the roasted kohlrabi dish. I love roasted vegetables, that nutty flavor complemented by a slightly crisp edge to the vegetables. I particularly like vegetables that have roasted with some chicken since the vegetables get mixed with the juices and fat from the bird. I didn't feel like dealing with a whole chicken though, so I took advantage of an Amazon Fresh sale of 2 6oz chicken breasts with drummettes. Unfortunately, I was sadly mistaken since I assumed that the chicken would still be bone in, so to accommodate the length of cooking time for roasting the vegetables and prevent the chicken from drying out, I ended up wrapping the chicken with prosciutto, hoping that the outside hammy layer would keep the chicken moist while crisping up on the outside.

Once prosciutto was involved, I got inspired by saltimbocca dishes and decided to incorporate some sage. Fooled again-- the fresh sage bush which I had relied upon existing in my yard somewhere had apparently died when John moved it to a new spot to make room in the vegetable garden. I had to make do with dried sage, and I think that this could have been better with fresh. Rounding out the Italian inspired flavors was some fennel mixed in with the kohlrabi and mushrooms, which acted as a bed upon which the wrapped chicken sat.

The kohlrabi was sweet and nutty when roasted. The fennel's delicious anise flavor was a contrasting flavor spike and everything was mellowed by the earthiness of the mushrooms. Overall, this worked out to be a delicious one pot meal, but here are some things to keep in mind should I do this again: 1) trim the kohlrabi better as roasting wedges of the vegetable sometimes had a tough, chewy skin attached. Perhaps this may be enlightening (from one of the blogs I regularly follow); and 2) maybe don't bother wrapping the chicken with prosciutto since the result was soggy skin and I'd take crispy chicken skin over prosciutto wrapped, but soggy any day.



2 kohlrabi, cut into 1 inch wedges
8 oz cremini mushrooms, halved
1 small fennel bulb, sliced
2 6oz chicken breasts, skin on
2 pieces of prosciutto
2 tbsp unsalted butter, softened
1 tsp dried sage
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
1 package fresh linguini
1-2 tbsp olive oil
salt/pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. In a roasting pan, mix together the kohlrabi, mushrooms, and fennel with olive oil and salt and pepper. Put in the oven to get a head start on roasting.

In the meantime, mix together the butter, sage, 1/2 tsp salt, and 1/4 tsp pepper. Carefully pull back the skin from the chicken and smear about 1 tsp of the butter mix all over the chicken meat and on the skin. Wrap each chicken in 1 piece of prosciutto. Set on top of your roasting vegetables and let continue to cook for another 20 minutes or until a meat thermometer says that the interior of the chicken has reached 160 degrees F.

Cook pasta according to directions, drain, and mix with remaining butter mix. Plate by putting a pile of pasta on the plate, topped with a chicken breast with some of the roasted vegetable mix on the side.

CSA Count: 2
Kohlrabi, fennel

Warm Green Bean Salad

We continue to slog through green bean hell. Tons of green beans for 3-4 weeks, and now they've mutated into Roma beans: long, flat beans that you cook like green beans. Having already pontificated on how boring I find this vegetable, I don't really have much to say in this post and will for the most part just jump into what I did. I will say this though: when a vegetable bores you to death, bacon is the key to invigorating things! My thoughts went to warm spinach salads with this one, cooking bacon with sweet onion and tossing that with warm, blanched green beans, fresh tomatoes, and a dressing made with mustard and dill. The end result was pretty wonderful for green beans: the beans were crisp and fresh, their taste mellowed by the sweetness of the tomatoes, the tang of the dressing, and the smokiness of the bacon. Huh... perhaps I should take my own advice when I tackle another 1.5 lbs of Roma beans next week...



1 lb green beans, ends trimmed
2 smallish tomatoes, chopped and seeded
1 small sweet onion, thinly sliced in half moons
4 strips Hempler's uncured bacon, diced
1 tbsp fresh dill
1 tbsp Dijon mustard
3 tbsp olive oil, divided
2 tsp honey
salt and pepper to taste

Bring a pot of water to boil and add the green beans. Cook 3-4 minutes and then drain and run under cold water.

In the mean time, add 1 tbsp of olive oil to a medium sized pan and heat over medium flame. Add the onions and the bacon and saute 7-10 minutes or until bacon is crisp.

While the onions and bacon cook, combine the dill, rest of the olive oil, honey, and mustard in a large mixing bowl adding salt and pepper to taste. Toss in the green beans and tomatoes and the bacon and onions fresh from the pan. Adjust salt and pepper if needed.

CSA Count: 3
Green beans, tomatoes, dill

Steamed Manila Clams with Fennel and Bacon

I'm a relative newcomer to loving steamed clams and mussels. I used to only be able to eat clams when unrecognizable, such as in chowder or in pasta. Admittedly, what first drew me to eating steamed clams was more for the wonderful prospect of dunking crusty hunks of bread in the juices, swimming in garlic, wine and butter. Really-- bread and butter will always be my downfall, my comfort food, so low carb diets can go do something rude to themselves.

But I soon came to appreciate eating the clams themselves, both for the clam meat and because it's just such a good, sloppy, social event. Diving into a bowl with another or a group of friends, everyone's whipped into a frenzy by the aroma from the steam that's released when the lid is removed from the bowl, the slurping, the development of a silent competition as we each see the other's empty shells stacking up.

A favorite, now sadly defunct, local restaurant turned me onto steaming clams with Pernod and pancetta. The licorice flavor from the liquor, the saltiness from the pork, and slightly toasted garlic slivers all combine into a heavenly broth. Those elements are reflected here, only since I'm too cheap to buy Pernod and too lazy to find someone who'll cut thick, slab sized pieces of pancetta for me, I've made a couple of substitutions: thin slices of fennel and crispy pieces of bacon.

The result is a fast, simple, and dare I say, even kind of impressive looking meal. There's something magical about how you can take these things that look like rocks (although that still doesn't stop my strange, irrational fear that they'll bite me as I'm cleaning them), stuff them in a pot with a little liquid, cover with a lid, and poof! In no time they've all popped open and all this lovely broth has filled the pot. I made these at John's very good suggestion that this, a good salad (in this case, heads of little gem lettuce, split in half, topped with chopped scallion and shredded carrot, blue cheese yogurt dressing and dill), a loaf of bread, and a bottle of wine could be a great mid or late week dinner, since usually by that point in the week, we're both too tired to cook. This may become a weekly staple-- it's just that great of a meal!



1.5 lbs Manila clams, scrubbed clean and hopefully still breathing.
4 slices thick, uncured bacon, chopped into 1/4 inch pieces
1/2 sweet onion, thinly sliced in half moons
1 small fennel bulb, thinly sliced
2 cloves fresh garlic, thinly sliced
2 tsp olive oil
3 sprigs fresh thyme
1/2 cup dry white wine (I usually look for a Semillon Blanc)
2 tbsp unsalted butter
1 loaf ciabatta bread
olive oil
1 clove garlic, peeled
fresh basil, chiffonade (optional)
salt and pepper

Rinse the clams under cold water, scrubbing the shells clean of sand or dirt (or if you're an irrational freak like me who still fears the clams will bite you, ask someone else to do this for you.) Check for any that are open and that won't close when you lightly tap them on your kitchen counter. Throw any of those out. Place clams in a bowl of water with a tbsp of flour or corn starch sprinkled over them. According to Ina Garten, the clams will eat the flour and disgorge any sand or grit. I'm not totally sure if it works, but I do admit that when I've done that, I've come across far fewer gritty clams than when I skip that step.

Preheat your oven to 375. Split the ciabatta loaf in half, lengthwise and bake for 10-15 minutes or until lightly toasted. Drizzle with olive oil and while the bread is hot, rub the garlic clove over the bread's cut surface. Sprinkle lightly with salt and pepper and fresh basil. Stack the halves together again and cut into slices, then set aside.

In a large pot or Dutch oven, heat the olive oil over medium heat. Cook the bacon pieces until crispy then remove from the pot with a slotted spoon and let them drain on a paper towel. Add the onions, sliced fennel and garlic to the bacon fat in the pan and cook until onions and fennel are soft and translucent. Add the clams, thyme and the wine, then cover the pot and turn up the heat to medium high. Check on your little lovelies in 10 minutes. If some are still closed, make sure they're submerged in the liquid, cover and cook for another couple of minutes. Check again and if any remain closed, toss 'em. Add the butter to the broth and stir until melted. Pour out all the pot's contents into a big bowl, scatter the top with the bacon pieces, and let the slurping begin!

CSA Count: 1, sadly; 5 if you count the side salad
fennel, little gem lettuce, carrot, scallion, dill

Braised Swiss Chard

Another CSA delivery, another bunch of rainbow chard. If the bunches weren't so pretty and tasty I would have been irritated at the lack of variety. As it was though, this gave me another opportunity to cook the chard in my favorite way of late: braised with some bacon, cider vinegar, and hot sauce.

Now I'm a Midwestern girl, born and raised in the northwest suburbs of Illinois. I know nothing about the South and make no claims that this is as good as someone's grandma's greens. I do know that bacon makes everything great though and that's probably why these taste as good as they do. Recently, I discovered the joys of a certain uncured bacon and whenever John and I eat it, we can't help but proclaim that it's the best bacon ever and don't think we truly knew bacon until we met this brand. Shall we take a moment to admire the bacon in all its glory?


So imagine this: there's thin slices of sweet onion and garlic cooking in olive oil and the little amount of fat that these babies render. The smell of onion and garlic is heavenly enough as it is, but when you add the chopped chard, the verdant aroma of the vegetables mixes with and some how enhances the hickory of the bacon so the air is just filled with this intoxicating, smokey, sweet smell. Add a shot of hot sauce and some cider vinegar and that sweet smokey flavor has an acidic tang.

As if the colors of the chard weren't bright and entrancing enough, we ate this as a side for John's specialty, pork chops and as an experiment, mashed purple potatoes. Basically, the CSA had warned us that eating purple potatoes mashed was not recommended as some find it a bit too trippy. That of course was practically a dare to John who wanted to see what they'd look like. So, prepare yourselves for the final Technicolor plate below!



1 bunch rainbow chard, roughly chopped
1/2 Walla Walla sweet onion, sliced thinly in half moons
1 large clove fresh garlic, minced (yielded ~1 tbsp)
4 slices Hempler's uncured bacon, cut into 1/4 inch strips
2-3 tsp olive oil
1/2 cup chicken broth (or water w/1 tsp better than bouillon)
1 tbsp cider vinegar
salt, pepper, vinegary hot sauce to taste

In a large pot or Dutch oven heat the olive oil over medium heat. Add the bacon pieces and cook until half cooked. Add the onion and garlic and cook until onion is translucent, about 5 minutes. Add the chopped chard and stir around until mixed with the onions and garlic. Add the broth then cover and let cook for 10-15 minutes. Stir in the vinegar, hot sauce, salt and pepper.

CSA Count: 2 (3 if you count the potatoes!)
fresh garlic, rainbow chard, purple potatoes

Pork Tenderloin and Salad with Cherries & Port Vinaigrette

Pork tenderloin is really one of those great secret weapons that can make any person seem like a fabulous gourmet. It's simple to dress and when it cooks, it always comes out juicy and tender. In fact, as far as my memory serves, pork tenderloin was the first "fancy" dinner that I made for John that really seemed to impress him.

That was back when we lived in Cleveland. I had bought a cookbook to support the local PBS station that contained recipes from the city's best restaurants, most of which we couldn't afford at the time on my nonprofit salary and his student loans. But we were able to splurge every now and then, including a dinner at Oz where I made sure to get the famous pork tenderloin and cabbage noodles. I bought the cookbook particularly because it had that recipe. It did not disappoint as it shows how much flavor can be yielded by a good cut of meat when the only thing you do to is put some simple seasoning on it and cook until it's the right temperature. That recipe taught me some basic skills which I used here.



I always return to that pork tenderloin in the fall or winter, mostly because the cabbage noodles make such a comforting meal. But lately with cherries in season, I keep running across menu items and recipes for pork with cherries. That still seems like an autumnal meal to me, maybe because of the sweet richness of a wine reduction. Since our CSA gave us a bag of delicious, deep red Bing cherries, my thoughts turned to a salad of some kind to lighten up pork tenderloin into a summertime meal. I thought I'd try making a vinaigrette using port as a nod towards cherry wine sauces and maybe as an excuse to have a glass of port while cooking, but you won't judge me, of course.

The main CSA challenge for me with this meal? Lavender. For the last 3 weeks we've received a bunch of lavender in our share. Lavender is the one thing I do not need: 1) we have bunches of it growing around our house, and 2) I can't stand the taste-- it's like having the taste of old lady in my mouth. Blech! The first week, I had John put the lavender in with our CSA share of lilies. Faced with a new bunch the following week, I thought that I should try putting it in something I make to eat, just to give it a try.



So with a lot of trepidation, I tried a sip of the port with the lavender to see how they paired together. I winced as I put a small leaf on my tongue but was surprised to find that instead of the flavor of grandma, it was peppery! I thought that this might actually be a nice sharp contrast to the sweetness of the cherries, and when you add some fresh thyme, the woodiness of the thyme helps the flavor of the lavender mellow into those cherries resulting in what John said, a flavor that's reminiscent of Thanksgiving-- kind of perfect for what was intended to be a light, summer tribute to a fall meal. :)



Pork Tenderloin
1 lb pork tenderloin
1/2 tbsp Kosher salt (I'm guessing at a smaller amount since I over-salted mine)
1 tsp course black pepper
1 tbsp fresh thyme leaves
1/2 tbsp olive oil
1 tsp sesame oil
8 oz shitake mushrooms, stemmed and cut in half
1/2 medium onion, sliced in half moons

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Heat a cast iron skillet over medium high heat. Blend together the 2 oils and use 1/2 of it to coat the pork tenderloin. Mix together salt, pepper, and thyme and coat the outside of the tenderloin. Sear each side of the tenderloin until browned, about 3-4 minutes per side. Add the rest of the oil on both sides of the tenderloin and add the onions and mushrooms on each side. Cook in the oven until the pork's internal temperature reaches about 160 degrees. Remove and let the juices redistribute before cutting on a bias and plate, spooning the mushrooms and onions over the slices and pouring any juices from the pan on top as well.

Salad with Cherries & Port Vinaigrette
1/2 cup cherries, pitted and sliced in half
Butter Leaf and Little Gem lettuce
2 oz chevre
1/4 cup chopped, toasted walnuts
1.5 tbsp port
1 tbsp champagne vinegar
1 tsp fresh thyme
pinch of dried lavender leaves
1 tsp honey
3 tbsp olive oil
scant amount of salt and pepper

Mix together the port, vinegar, thyme, lavender, honey, salt and pepper. Using a whisk, mix in the olive oil until combined. Plate the lettuce and top with chevre, walnuts and cherries then drizzle with vinaigrette.

CSA Count: 3
Cherries, Little Gem Lettuce, lavender