Saturday, July 5, 2008

Le Menu

So I'm having breakfast (that Ronnybrook yogurt I said I was going to make raita with -- lies, all lies I tell you! avec cranberry pecan granola and a couple of apricots I just picked up from the greenmarket), and making the final decisions about what to have for dinner tonight. This is going to be a collaboration between Ranbir and I, which is a first. Because Sara Does Not Cook For Dinner Parties. Well, Sara does, except Ranbir gets territorial so she ends up not. Tonight he will be whipping up that Indian Turnip Thing I talked about a while back, and hopefully some black daal (but it might be yellow daal after all, we'll see).

I am responsible for:

Sea Bass fillets with a Goan masala rub (the masala is left over from a previous dinner party, so don't give me that much credit)

More of that lovely sauteed chard, which is going in with beet greens and spinach this time to make sort of a halfassed gora saag. Which would be kind of hilarious to see this dish called on a menu, actually.

Basil Sorbet

Homemade Nimbu Pani (sort of an Indian limeade or lime soda)

Aside from the need to juice thirteen lemons and make a simple syrup for the nimbu pani and sorbet, this looks way more ambitious on paper than it really is. I have an ice cream machine which will do most of the work on the sorbet, and both the sea bass and halfass gora saag will take all of 10 minutes.

There also may be a salad (we might be having a sixth dinner guest), and if these apricots last we will also have that. And several bottles of white and rose. And some sparkling orangeade if the nimbu pani doesn't last (two of our guests are nondrinkers).

Bon appetit! Recipes to come after I actually make them...

Friday, July 4, 2008

CSA Week 3 -- July 3, 2008

Oh, dear.

I think I'm sensing a pattern, here. I have to say that when Ranbir and I decided to join the CSA this year, I thought our biggest hurdle would be cooking and eating so many fresh vegetables. I was also a little worried about getting stuff we weren't used to eating or didn't like very much. I did not, however, think to worry about the issue of repetition.

So far we seem to be getting a lot of the same stuff every week. I feel like if I see another pile of turnips I might scream. My love of leafy greens is starting to wear thin. I actually think that, from here on out, I might stop taking our allotment of lettuce, because it's just too goddamn much. We cannot eat this much lettuce fresh, and I can't come up with anything else to do with it or any way of preserving it for the future.

Anyway, here's what we got: a head of lettuce and yet another huge mess o' salad mix (and the especially annoying thing is that we're having friends to dinner tomorrow night and I don't think we have room for salad on the menu for all the turnips, cooked greens, etc. we're shoving down their throats), the aforementioned turnips and bok choi, green onions, purple basil, swiss chard.

And beets. Blech. I have ideas for the beet greens (and cheated by picking out a bunch with lots of lovely greens and very small roots), but beets? Oh, I was really hoping we wouldn't be stuck with any beets until at least the fall. However two of our dinner guests are beet lovers, so we can send the 5 paltry little baby beet roots home with them. Maybe the other dinner guest will take some lettuce?

Stay tuned for my dinner party menu!

PS - made the garlic scape pesto again, probably for the last time this year because we didn't get any more this week. And It Was Awesome. Again. That is all.