In Kim's Kitchen

Broccoli, Spinach, Carrots, Squash, Beets, Shallots, Brussels sprouts, Rose Gold Potatoes, Purple Top Turnips, Beauty Heart Winter Radish, Flowering Kale, Thyme

As nights turn cooler and days turn shorter, we may be looking at the last of our Broccoli harvest this week. With the fall weather, broccoli takes on a sweeter flavor. Quartered and steamed until tender, it’s a simple vegetable that can’t be beat.

In a normal year, we plant a crop of spinach at the beginning of September for winter harvest, and another crop of spinach in mid-September to overwinter. This year, we missed the early-September planting, so we dipped into our overwinter crop to get this week’s spinach. Chris harvested this late in the day and only ate a couple of pounds, coming in from the field with a rim of dirt and green around his mouth. This stuff just might be too good to cook, and with its small size will make fantastic salad greens.

We are featuring two squash varieties this week, squat Sugarloaf and acorn-shaped Heart of Gold. Of all of the many kinds of winter squash, these two are our favorites, both for their great taste and their fast cooking. Sliced in half and baked face down on a cookie sheet for thirty minutes at 375 (or time-adjusted for a different temperature if the oven’s already going), this, more than anything else, is the taste of fall.

Pasta With Winter Squash and Tomatoes

from Mark Bittman's column in the New York Times October 17, 2007

Salt and pepper
3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1 tablespoon chopped garlic
1/4 cup sliced shallots
1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes, or to taste
2 cups chopped tomatoes (I used fire roasted canned chopped tomatoes Muir Glenn)
1 1/2 to 2 pounds peeled, cubed or shredded butternut or other winter squash, about 5 cups
1/2 pound cut pasta, like ziti or penne

Freshly chopped parsley or Parmesan for garnish.

Bring a large pot of water to a boil and salt it. Put olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add garlic, shallots and pepper flakes and cook for about a minute; add tomatoes and squash, and cook with some salt and pepper. When squash is tender -- about 10 minutes for shreds, 15 or so for small cubes -- cook pasta until it is tender. Combine sauce and pasta, and serve, garnished with parsley or Parmesan.

Beets provide a great red gleam when included in other dishes, or baked and served on their own.

The aristocrat of the onion family, Shallots can be used anywhere you would use garlic or onions. They tend to cook somewhat more quickly than onions, and taste great when caramelized. We often use them alongside beef and chicken roasts, as well as caramelized and added to potatoes and beets.

Perhaps one of the most maligned of winter vegetables, Brussels sprouts actually taste great when grown in a place that gets a good hard frost, which causes them to get good and sweet in a hurry. Most Brussels sprouts, grown in California, never see a hard frost. We start harvesting these in the field, then, in early November, harvest the tall stalks the sprouts grow on and store the whole plant in the cooler until we are ready to pluck them off. Brussels taste great steamed with butter – again, like all of the cabbage family, just cook until fork tender, being careful not to overdo it.

Roasted Brussels Sprouts

1 lb Brussels sprouts
3 Tbsp olive oil
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp black pepper

Preheat the oven 400 degrees. Mix Brussels sprouts with olive oil, salt, and pepper. Roast on a baking sheet for about 40 minutes, shaking occasionally, until crisp on the outside but still tender inside. Sprinkle with even more salt, and serve.

Rose Gold Potatoes are a favorite of ours, with a nice waxy flesh and beautiful color, especially nice for boiling and mashing.

Purple Top Turnips have a rich, earthy taste that goes nicely when mashed with potatoes or steamed alongside of carrots. Large ones should be peeled, but smaller ones can be used without the extra work.

Roasted Turnips and Carrots

1/2 lb carrots
1 lb turnips
1/4 cup olive oil
1 tsp fresh thyme (optional)
Salt and pepper

Preheat the oven to 400. Prepare the carrots and turnips so that they are about the same size and shape, by cutting the turnips lengthwise into halves or quarters. Toss with olive oil and thyme, and season generously with salt and pepper. Spread evenly in a baking pan in a single layer, and roast, uncovered, for 20 to 45 minutes, stirring and tossing periodically until the vegetables are cooked through.

One of our favorite treasures of winter are Beauty Heart Radishes, which have green shoulders and a bright pink interior. A close cousin to spring radishes, they grow to the size of turnips and store right through the winter. Their pink flesh has a nice sweet flavor and great crunch; the exterior portion contains most of the radish-y heat, so peeling it away leaves a sweeter tasting dish.

Beauty Heart Slaw

2 Beauty Heart Radishes
2 Tbsp honey
1 Tbsp cider vinegar

Coarsely grate the Beauty Heart radishes. Add honey and vinegar and let sit for about 30 minutes. Serve small portions, chilled.

Flowering Kale, with its bright pink leaves, is most commonly found as an ornamental plant outside of the dentist’s office; the variety we grow makes for much more tender eating, similar to the normal green kale but a little lighter in texture. Steam with seafood for an elegant dish, or steam on its own and use it as a bed for meats or the above roasted winter vegetables. We enjoyed it tonight sautéed with olive oil and lightly sprinkled with kosher salt.

Small-leaved Thyme makes a nice addition to almost any root dish. Strip the leaves from the stiff stems and sprinkle them generously over the dish at the end of cooking.