Cooking Off The Cuff

One of my favorite ways to cook is to go at it with barely a plan in mind: pull things out from the refrigerator and figure out how they go together; how to make them into a well-balanced meal. Such was the case tonight as I set out to make dinner for Aurora and me. Wednesday is CSA pick-up day, so we had lots of fresh produce available. Somewhat more importantly, though, we had a fair amount of produce from last week that needed to be used up.

A third of the green beans we had gotten remained, and they were starting to develop some brown spots. I bolstered them with some of the garden-fresh beans that came in our shipment today and picked through, snapping off the parts that I wouldn’t want to eat. I tossed them with some oil, salt, and pepper to pan roast in a cast iron pan.

The greens that came attached to this week’s shipment of beets were a bit wilted and didn’t look like they’d last more than a day or two–might as well use them up while they’re still good. I stripped them from the stems, washed each half individually (the most efficient way to wash the leaves is by dunking them in water and lifting them out to drain, whereas the stems wash well under running water and then can be dried on a dish towel).

There were still a few zucchinis left from last week, but sauteed zucchini by itself is a bit boring. We got some amazing tomatoes in our box today, though… and a white onion. I cut the onion into julienne strips, and sauteed it in a cast iron pan with some salt and pepper. Meanwhile, I sliced my zucchini thinly and cored and sliced a couple of tomatoes. When the onion was translucent, I removed it to a bowl and arranged the sliced zucchini neatly around the bottom of the hot pan. I hit it with a touch of salt and some pepper, layered the onions over it, and then arranged the tomatoes neatly atop that.

It looked good, but something was missing. I threw open the fridge and grabbed the remnants of a block of asiago cheese and grated that over the tomatoes, then threw it in the oven I’d heated to 400 F. For good measure, I took the hot pan of green beans off the burner and threw it in the oven, too, on the top rack, directly above the ratatouille-esque dish to help the cheese brown a bit.

Meanwhile, I started the sliced beet green stems sauteeing on the stove with some salt and pepper (always salt and pepper, no matter what else goes in). As the stems cooked, I took the greens and rolled them as best I could into a compact tube and sliced them into ribbons to help them cook more quickly. I tossed them into the hot pan, but no more seasoning—it’s way too easy to look at the raw greens and throw what you think is a logical amount of salt on them, but as they cook down and lose moisture, that salt becomes way more than you thought it was.

I like my greens to retain some character (there are few things I like less than mushy, soggy, overcooked greens), so I turned the heat up and kept them moving in the pan to get some quick heat on them. As they started to take on the appearance of having been cooked, I added a bit of balsamic vinegar to the pan and stirred them into it. Vinegar is always a good accompaniment for greens, but unless I’m using balsamic, i don’t tend to add it to a hot pan. Balsamic adopts a characteristic sweetness as it reduces, where as other vinegars tend to become more bitter.

I turned off the heat from under my greens and pulled open the oven door. The cheese was melted smoothly across the tomatoes, onion, and squash, with just a hint of brown starting to form. I tasted a bean–cooked but still retaining that nice al dente bite you want in a fresh legume. It’s always satisfying to pull together a tasty, well-rounded meal from stuff you have on hand, especially when everything comes together so nicely and all finishes at the same time.

3 Responses to “Cooking Off The Cuff”

  1. kari Says:

    man, will you come over and use up the rest of my csa veggies? as recently posted, I’m having a heck of a hard time eating them up this year.

  2. Farmer Troy Says:

    Kari,
    You could always take your excess produce to the farmers market and sell what you don’t want to eat!!!!

    Just Kidding!!

    . . . but it wouldn’t be that unusual, since at some farmers markets, the vendors are “hucksters” and not real farmers . . . it pays to ask questions, because if you are buying from hucksters, that doesn’t support local farms, and you are just getting the same kinds of conventional produce that you would get at a wholesaler in the strip or at the grocery store . . . just my vent for the week. THANKS for listening!

  3. Tanner Navas Says:

    Fascinating! We began purchasing whole steer from the local farm last year, and it’s working out really well for us. We found a great website with lots of great dishes like this meat recipe to keep us going.

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