Locomotoring

We have consumed more greens in last two years than we ate the entire last two decades. I have our CSA (Live Earth Farm) to thank for that. Red beets come with lively green tops. Baby carrots come with leggy green tops. The turnips come with eager green leaves. The fennels come with delicate frond wings. Then there are just the greens on stalks – the rainbow chard and the spinach and the collard greens and the lacinato kale and the russian red kale and the winterbor kale. And of course there are herbs – the cilantro, the parsley, the rosemary, the scallions and the basil. These are not your anemic slim bunches that you get at the grocery store. The leeks come whole i.e. twice the greens of your grocery store bought ones. And finally, the heads, the salads, the radicchio etc.

There is no way you can waste them. These are no faceless farmers from another continent. They are located in Freedom, just a hop, skip and jump away. The food is grown on a land that I call home and I am convinced that small scale organic farming is backbreaking labor of love.

So, I have been cooking these greens in all possible ways. The unexpected greens from the carrots, turnips, fennel and beets, the stalky greens, the heads of greens, the herbs. And the greens don’t just stop with CSA – the real backyard giveth onion weeds, the oregano buds, the mint, the sorrels, the lemongrass, the makrut lime leaves, the fig leaves, and the bay leaves. Sometimes there are microgreens in a box by the window.

… and it has been exhausting. Like I have been running a marathon. All the cleaning, chopping, drying, freezing, pureeing, powdering, …

The most surprising of them all has been kale – its refusal to be tamed flummoxed me at first. Like all kale enthusiasts, I had started by massaging my kale. I really wanted to love it, but I didn’t. And I didn’t give up. I am more stubborn than kale that way. After trying an exceptional kale pizza, I tried drying and blitzing kale – while flavor forward, it is no way of consuming fields of kale. I have added them to tray bakes to add to the morning bowl of savory oats – it is delicious but again, it is hard to consume in large amounts. I have made a delicious south indian style chutney, kale thogayal, after first tasting a version at Ettan. I have also made “saag paneer” versions – with and without paneer, with and without coconut milk – in these mixes, kale lends a robust flavor (as does the carrot tops). Moreover, I can make a large batch with three or four bunches of greens and freeze portions. More recently, I have taken to cooking them the way Italians cook radicchio (link) – boil them for a few minutes followed by slow cooking in good amount of olive oil, with a moderate amount of rosemary and onion, a pinch of red pepper and a splash of vinegar and cooking it until it turns black (greenish black or reddish black depending on the variety). Subsequently, I convert it to a pasta dish. The chewiness of pasta gives a nice contrast to these slow cooked greens.

The last two weeks of the year, I am taking a break from the CSA to give myself a break from my current patterns. I am looking forward to new patterns next year.