In Kim's Kitchen

Chinese Cabbage comes in many forms – heading and non-heading, thick leaved and thin leaved, and all sorts of shapes – but our favorite is the crinkly, light green heads of Napa Cabbage. A staple in Korean Kim Chee – a fermented vegetable dish ubiquitous in Korea – Chinese Cabbage tastes great raw or cooked.

Napa Cabbage Carrot Slaw with Toasted Sesame Seeds

3 carrots, shredded
1 small head Napa cabbage or Chinese cabbage shredded
1/4 cup onion,
1 clove garlic, minced
1/4 cup coarsely chopped fresh cilantro leaves
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
1 tablespoon white-wine vinegar
1 teaspoon sugar
1 tablespoon sesame oil
1/2 teaspoon Tabasco
1/3 cup olive oil
1/4 cup toasted sesame seed

In a large bowl, combine the carrot, cabbage, onion, garlic and cilantro. Combine the remaining ingredients, except the sesame seed, until blended and toss with the cabbage mixture. Sprinkle with sesame seed.

Candy Sweet Onions look a lot like regular Yellow Onions, but they lack the high sulfur content of the regular onion. They make a great raw addition to sandwiches and hamburgers, or you can use them as you would a regular onion.

Smaller than onions, Shallots have a milder flavor that is distinct from onions. Some folks say it’s a mix between garlic and onion, but we think it’s something different entirely. Great for raw uses, shallots also work nicely to add a classy touch where you might otherwise choose to use an onion.

The Golden Zucchini have slowed down considerably out in the field. The first of our two successions is almost finished, and the cooler grey weather has not helped the second crop make up for the decline.

We harvested the first of our Edamame crop this week. These edible green soybeans are a staple bar food in Japan, where they boil them in the shells, then pop the little beans out of the shells right into their mouths.

Classic Edamame

1 lb Edamame, in their pods
Water
Coarse salt (sea salt is preferable)

Rinse the pods and drop them into a large quantity of boiling water. Return to a boil and cook until beans are just tender, and pods are bright green, about 3 to 5 minutes. Drain and sprinkle generously with coarse salt. Serve warm or at room temperature. To enjoy, slurp or squeeze the beans from the pods right into your mouth, and discard the pods.

Harvesting Green Top Beets in the mud was not an easy undertaking on Wednesday afternoon, but we got it done. Although many of the beets from this weeks harvest are quite large – we had a thin stand, which left more room for the beets to grow – they retain their sweetness and the tenderness of a good, fresh beet. Quick beets can be made by grating the roots or slicing them into a julienne, then sautéing in butter or olive oil for just a few minutes. Don’t forget that the beet greens, which cook up quite nicely like spinach.

Beets with Onions and Capers

1 tablespoon olive oil
1 pound red onions, very thinly sliced
2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
1 pound cooked beets, julieened
Salt & pepper
4 tablespoons drained capers

Heat the oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Sweat the onions until they're very soft but not browning, about 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. Stir in the vinegar and the beets and combine until coated. Season with salt and pepper, Toss with the capers and serve.

Broccoli harvest came on with abundance this week. We get a lot of questions about using the stems, and our response is always, yes, do! We like to peel the main stalk, because the outer skin can get quite tough, then slice or dice the stems and cook a little bit longer than you do the florets.

We had to feel somewhat lucky with the Carrot crop this week, because digging carrots would have been well-nigh impossible. Chris got a little carried away with the carrot digger on the one day last week when carrot harvest was even vaguely resonable, and we ended up with a two-week supply stored away in the cooler.

Harvest of our Dutch Greenhouse Cucumbers has been a little on the slim side lately, but what we’ve been getting tastes great, even if it looks a little funny. The damp weather has made it difficult to get the kind of airflow we would like in the greenhouse, and fungal diseases are popping up all over the farm. We hope to keep the cucumbers ahead of the disease pressure for a little while longer.

Harvests of both the Sungold Cherry Tomatoes and Round Red Tomatoes are also down this week due to the goofy weather. Even in the greenhouse we have to work with the outside weather conditions, since we rely on scarce sunshine to dry things out and promote disease-preventing air circulation; without it, we have had a lot of cracked tomatoes that are not suitable for sale.

The Jalapeno Pepper crop seems to be surviving the weather quite nicely, although the Sweet Red Peppers are suffering mightily from blossom end rot, and harvest is really down for that crop. To use the jalapeno peppers, you may want to handle them with gloves, although we don’t. The heat on our variety is pretty middle-of-the-road. We pick with our bare hands, since the inside of the pepper has most of the heat-producing capsaicin. In fact, you can get to a pretty tame pepper if you remove the seeds and the whitish veins that hold them. Kim throws a little fresh jalapeno into lots of dishes when we have them in season. The following recipe plays the heat of the jalapeno off against the cooling effect of the cucumber.

Cucumber Hot Pepper Salad

1 greenhouse cucumber
1 medium red onion, finely chopped
1 jalapeno pepper, seeded and finely diced
2 Tbsp lime juice
1 Tbsp tamari
1 Tbsp brown sugar
1 Tbsp olive oil
1/3 cup chopped roasted peanuts or almonds
Julienne or slice thinly the cucumber. Combine cucumber, onion, and hot peppers in a bowl. Combine lime juice, tamari, sugar, and oil separately and mix well. Toss the vegetables with the dressing, add nuts, and salt and pepper to taste. Garnish with fresh chopped mint, basil, or parsley, if desired.