The toast is on long skinny toasts, because I was too lazy when making bread, and didn't knead it enough, and then wayyyyyy overproofed (like left overnight instead of 1 hour) the shaped loaf which just sort of oozed out into a very flat, pretty dense, hockey puck. The flavor is good, though, so when toasted up it's totally edible. My favorite way of making toast is to spread soft butter on both sides of the bread, then drop into a pan until the butter has melted and sizzled and the bread has been golden-browned. I recommend.
Ed's snack - toast with cottage cheese, green garlic, and balsamic-braised onions.
Sunday's breakfast - toast with cottage cheese, butter-fried morels, peas, and fresh savory. And coffee out of my latest favorite mug.
Breakfast on the go - toasts with cottage cheese, basil, and fried zucchini pennies. And iced cold-brew coffee in a mason jar, because I'm that sort of person. I enjoyed stacking up my toasts for transport - totally worked! We tried the Friendship cottage cheese this week, and it's really tasty, better than the usual store-brand stuff by a long shot. And not actually much more expensive. I can afford $0.49 for better cottage cheese.
In terms of actual recipes, something beyond "chop all the veggies and toss with a dressing" or "toast the bread with lots of butter and put tasty things on top", I think the balsamic-glazed onions are the only real thing I have to share. And maybe the bacon-scallion biscuits. Those we inhaled in an instant, prior to walking down to one of the three bars within walking distance and drinking the rest of our dinner. Hey, having a CSA doesn't mean you always have to be living clean, right?
Saturday's lunch, while the onions were braising, involved a yellow squash and baby shitake mushrooms, fried in a pan, then some collards, fried in the same pan and finished with some chicken stock, and topped with fresh peas and some parmesan. I would eat that any day of the week!
Another salad. Romaine, baby lettuce, some pickled cabbage that really needed using up, and some croutons, made from the sad sourdough and toasted in butter.
Balsamic-glazed pearl onions
This was tasty, but I think ultimately our onions were too big for this. So, the delicious caramelization and balsamic flavor really only made it to the outer layer or two. With onions this big, probably what we should have done was slice them in half, with the root ball still on there to hold them together. Regardless, they were tasty, juicy and sweet with an outer layer of rich, deeply caramelized, slightly acidic taste-bud-explosion.
1 bunch fresh pearl onions
1 tbs butter
1/4C balsamic vinegar
1/4C chicken stock
~1/2C water, to be added in dribs and drabs
several bunches savory (or thyme, or sage, or rosemary, or any of those herbs that go so well with roasted meet)
Clean any dirt off the skin of the onions, chop off the greens and the roots, and add to a pan with some melted butter and herb sprigs over medium-ish heat. Let them cook without turning them for 5min, then flip and cook another 5min. That'll start the caramelization.
Add the 1/4C balsamic vinegar and the chicken stock. Turn up the heat, toss things around, and let it bubble away for maybe 10-15min. You may want to partially cover the pan, to prevent your stove from being splattered all over with balsamic vinegar. Add water as needed to keep the liquid from evaporating away. How long these cook depends largely on the size of the onions. I think mine were in there a solid 20 minutes, because they were pretty big.
Stick a fork through the onions to test for doneness. Don't throw away that balsamic vinegar - that stuff reduced down with chicken stock and herbs and butter is pure magic.
Serve, either on little toasts, or as a side to roasted meats, or just as is. Enjoy!
Bacon green onion biscuits
When you have lots of greens coming off your pearl onions, it can be hard to figure out what to do with them all. Maybe scallion pancakes are next. Anyway, bacon scallion biscuits are a close second. We use a version of Alton Brown's Phase II biscuit, which is the one with buttermilk but no eggs. I didn't have buttermilk, and didn't feel like going through the effort of souring what little milk I had, so they were a little less flavorful than a buttermilk biscuit. That didn't stop us from inhaling these! Also, because I didn't use buttermilk, I left out the baking soda, as it had nothing to react with. And because I only had about a half cup of milk on hand (a little less, which I just filled in with water), I made a half batch.
3 pieces bacon, chopped and rendered
~1/2C chopped green onion
1C flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2tsp salt
2tbs butter, frozen
1/2C milk
Preheat oven to 500F.
Mix the flour, baking powder, salt. Use a cheese grater and grate the butter into the mixture. Use your fingertips and rub the butter into the flour for 37.2 seconds, according to Mr. Brown. Add the milk, fold it together using a minimum of strokes (don't want to develop any gluten!). Fold in the bacon and green onions.
You can either then shape these into something (wedges, for example), or just drop them onto a greased pan.
Put them in the oven and drop the temperature to 425F. Bake for 20-25 minutes, until they're golden brown and delicious.
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