In Kim's Kitchen

We harvested these Carrots last week to keep them from rotting in the waterlogged soil. We’ve never seen so much mud in the packing shed!

After a summer’s absence, Bok Choi reappears this week. A type of Chinese cabbage, it is closely related to turnips. The broad stems have a nice crunch, and the tender leaves have a mild, mustard-y flavor.

Soy-Glazed Baby Bok Choi

2 teaspoon sesame seeds, toasted
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 pound baby bok choi, chopped 1 inch pieces
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 tablespoon fresh ginger
1/4 cup onion, chopped
Glaze:
1 1/2 tablespoons rice vinegar
1 1/2 tablespoons soy sauce
1 teaspoon sesame oil
1/2 teaspoon sugar

Toast the sesame seeds in a dry non-stick skillet to golden. Set aside. Add the olive oil to the skillet and let heat on medium high. When it's hot, add the bok choy. Let brown for 3 - 4 minutes. toss and cook a minute. Transfer to a platter. (While they're cooking, assemble the glaze ingredients in a small bowl.) Add the garlic, ginger and onion to the skillet, let cook 1 minute. Add the glaze ingredients and cook til just beginning to thicken, about 1 minute. Return the bok choy to the skillet, and cook for a minute or two. Return to the serving platter, top with sesame seeds. Serve immediately.

Flat, red Cipollini Onions have a more well-rounded onion flavor than your average onion. Onions have more than forty different sulfur compounds that make a distinctive onion flavor; cipollini have a more complex range than regular yellows or reds. We like to use them in places where we want to feature the onions, such as alongside a roast, or just roasted along with some rosemary sprigs. Sometimes we do this with the onions in their skins, sometimes we peel them first.

Our Round Red Tomatoes have really slowed down in the greenhouses, so we don’t have many to offer this week.

Sweet Peppers have come on in relative abundance. We eat a lot of these just standing out in the field. We don’t eat a lot of the smaller, hotter Jalapeno Peppers standing out in the field! Our jalapeno variety falls in the middle of the hotness range. You can make them less hot by stripping out the veins and seeds, or leave them in for a hotter flavor.

Fruit Salsa

This salsa can be made with nearly any fruit: peaches, nectarines, plums, or mangos and makes a nice sauce served with pork.

11/2 cups fruit, cut into small diced pieces ( last night we used plums and peaches)
1/2 fresh jalapeno, seeded and minced
1/4 cup minced red onion
1 tablespoon minced cilantro
2 tablespoons lime juice
1 tablespoon olive oil
1/2 teaspoon cumin
salt and pepper to taste

Mix all the ingredients, including salt and pepper to taste, in a medium bowl. let stand for 15 minutes to allow the flavors to blend.

The second crop of French Petite Green Beans looks like the nothing crazy ever happened with the weather around here, and they taste fantastic.

Potato Green Bean Salad

2 Tablespoons tamari or soy sauce
2 Tablespoon sesame oil
1 Tablespoon rice vinegar
1/2 teaspoon grated ginger
1 small clove garlic, pressed
dash honey
1 tablespoon finely chopped sage
1/2 pound potatoes, quartered if large
3/4 pound green beans, trimmed

In a small bowl, whisk the tamari, sesame oil, vinegar, ginger, garlic, honey and parsley together. In a large pan of boiling salted water cook the potatoes until tender, Transfer the potatoes to a bowl and add the beans to the boiling water and cook until tender yet crisp about 2 minutes. Drain and pat dry. Add the beans, and dressing to the potatoes and toss Serve warm.

Like the carrots, this is the muddiest Edamame crop we have ever seen. So muddy, in fact, that we actually had to pressure wash the pods to get them clean. Just boil these in the pods for about five minutes, salt the pods, and squeeze the beans right into your mouth.

We know it’s September because Sage sales have picked up. Sage goes great with almost any savory dish, including beans and roasts, but I especially enjoy it with my morning eggs.