Once more with feeling [ow]
Just stopping by! I’ve been quiet lately because of a combination of overly busy life and Yet Another Injury. In this case a ‘hyperextended’ thumb, after a likely dislocation. The very nice doctor I saw claims it’ll be five to six weeks healing, which means another four or so of typing owiness.
So keeping things short, all I really wanted to say was ‘boo, Fall!’ We said goodbye to our most wonderful CSA last week, picking up a wonderful last haul of leeks, parnips (big enough to club someone with! or possibly juggle!), and squash. I’ll miss seeing the same group of friendly faces each week, as well as the lottery-like suprise of finding out what veggies were in.
One lasting goodness in particular stands out from a summer of CSA-supplied veggies; it’s broken me of my lifelong habit of fitting food to my whims. In the past I decided what I wanted to eat, then went out and bought it. Now though, my cooking follows a different pattern: What’s fresh this week? What can I make with it? There are a lot more experiments, and there’ve been a lot of tasty surprises. Tonight’s involves gnocchi with a cashew-squash sauce. Mmmmmm. (I hope.)
That’s all for now. Hopefully I’ll be back in less than four weeks. 
Roast vegetable salsa
One of the perks of joining a CSA is that you get to try new vegetables. This summer mine brought me my first ever ground cherries, and more recently tomatillos. I adored both, especially the way that they come in little papery husks that you peel off to find the fruit itself.
At about the same time the tomatillos arrived I also found myself with a few cobs or corn needing a tasty home, as well as some caramelized onions, eggplant, and cilantro. All together these spelled salsa. I decided to roast the veggies first to bring out the sweetness of the corn, and generally add a richness to the flavour.
Roast vegetable salsa
- 2 banana peppers
- 1 hot pepper
- 2 small purple eggplant
- 2 cobs corn
- 1 lb tomatillos
- 1/2 lb tomatoes
- 1/2 cup caramelized onions
- 1 bulb garlic
- 1/4 cup cilantro, chopped
- 1 to 2 T balsamic vinegar
- ~1/2 cup water
- oil
- salt and pepper [to taste]
- Smoked paprika, mushroom powder, or other seasonings [to taste]
To make the salsa, first roast your veggies:
- Cut the top off the bulb of garlic to expose the tops of all the cloves. Wrap the bulb in foil, drizzle with oil, then seal the foil packet. Bake at 350F for approximately 30 minutes.
- Slice the tomatoes and tomatillos fairly thickly and spread out on a baking sheet covered with parchment paper. (You might need two pans to hold all the veggies.)
- Cut the peppers in half and remove the seeds, put on a pan with the tomatoes.
- Prick the eggplant all over with a fork and put it on the pan too.
- If you like, you can drizzle a bit of oil over the veggies and sprinkle with salt and pepper.
- Husk the corn and wrap both cobs in foil to form a well sealed packet. Sprinkle with a tablespoon or so of water just before sealing this up.
- Bake at 375F for around 30 min.
- Let the garlic and veggies cool. If you like, you can lightly oil the roast corn and then put it under a broiler for a few minutes to blacken it and get an even richer flavour, but watch it carefully!
Then make your salsa:
- Once cool, cut the roast eggplants in half and scrape out the middles.
- Pulse all the veggies (but not the corn!) together with the garlic, onions, cilantro, and balsamic vinegar in a food processor until just combined. Add water a little at a time until you reach a good consistency.
- De-nibble the corn. =) Add the niblets to the salsa and stir in. You want to do this after using the food processor so that you get whole niblets in your salsa.
- Taste and adjust the flavour with whatever strikes your fancy. I like the smokiness I get from adding smoked paprika, and find mushroom powder balances the acidity of the tomatoes. YMMV — experiment!
Harvest
I went to pick up the weekly bundle of vegetables from our CSA this week, only to hear sad words when I arrived. “Last week for tomatoes! Last week for eggplant and herbs.” With October comes frost, and with frost the end of the season. The squash and brussel sprouts and suchlike still have some time, but the veggies that always remind me of hot sun and long warm days are on their way out.
At home it was time to harvest my own little balcony garden. The chard and brussel sprouts and tomatoes are still out there (quite a few cherry tomatoes still hoping for a few more frost-free days), but I dug up the potatoes and picked the last few beans. The turnips yielded a few tubers, though I waited just a few days too long and their greens went all straggly before I could harvest them. The peppers did well, both hot and sweet types. There was even one huge cucumber tucked away in a corner. All in all, a tasty and satisfying yield that helped make our Mabon dinner special.
Still to do, picking the last of the beans I left out to dry, so that I can use them for seed next year. Also beheading the dead marigolds and calendula, likewise hoping for seed. And then it’ll be time to start planning next year’s garden. =)
