A Life, Lived

Grilled Garlic Scape Dijon Herb Salmon

We were happy to receive our first CSA shipment last Wednesday  . . .of course, we'd be happier in Italy but you can't have everything in life. When we had left the root vegetables from the fall were done and we were seeing the start of the fresh, local produce.

One of the things in this shipment were garlic scapes (Paul thought that they were green onions). You might not be familiar with scapes - particularly as a food item - since they used to be cut from a garlic plant and placed promptly in a composter.

Garlic scapes are the "flower stalks" of hardneck garlic plants, although they do not produce flowers. These stalks start to appear a month or so after the first leaves. They are usually cut off of the plant, since leaving them on only diverts the plants strength away from forming a plump bulb. If left on, they eventually form small bulbils that can be planted to grow more garlic, but it takes 2–3 years for them to form large bulbs

I had a recipe I was making that called for garlic and decided to sub in a couple of garlic scapes instead. The result was amazing!

Salmon is one of my favourite fishes for a robust rub (garlic scapes + dijon mustard = robust). Salmon is a fatty fish, rich in heart-healthy omega-3 fatty acids, protein, and vitamin A. When buying salmon, try to look for wild Alaskan salmon, a sustainable fish that lives in clean waters and eats a healthy diet. I always stay away from farmed salmon.

If youdon't have a supply of garlic scapes on hand (not surprising since they are generally only available for 3 - 4 weeks a year) substitute 4 cloves of garlic for the scapes in the recipe below.

Grilled Garlic Scape Dijon Herb Salmon

2 garlic scapes, chopped
1 tsp dried Herbs de Provence
1 tsp red wine vinegar
1 tsp olive oil
2 tbsp Dijon mustard
olive oil spray (I used my misto)
4 (6 oz) wild salmon fillets, 1" thick (if frozen, thaw first)
salt and fresh ground pepper to taste
4 lemon wedges for serving

In a mini food processor, process the garlic scapes with the herbs, vinegar, oil, and Dijon mustard until it becomes a paste. Set aside.

Season salmon with a pinch of salt and fresh pepper. Heat a grill or grill pan over high heat until hot. Spray the pan lightly with oil and reduce the heat to medium-low. Place the salmon on the hot grill pan and cook without moving for 5 minutes.  

Turn and cook the other side for an additional 3-4 minutes spooning on half of the garlic herb mustard sauce.

Turn and cook 1 more minute spooning the other side of the fish with remaining sauce. Turn once again and let the fish finish cooking about one more minute.

Transfer the fillets to plates and serve with fresh lemon wedges.

Initial CSA Thoughts

It's been about 4 weeks since we started to receive our CSA deliveries. That first one was delivered in the midst of a late winter storm, happily the weather has turned more mild and most of our snow is gone.

We are receiving e-mails like this from the farm:

Finally, almost all of the snow has melted on our farm & the sun is warming our unheated greenhouses. Everything in the greenhouses is sprouting up, in a month or so our crops of Kale, Green Onions, & Garlic will be in your Shares!

Our shares are predominantly root vegetables and apples which have been stored since harvest last fall, greens and soft vegetables from greenhouses, mushrooms, and eggs. Generally each week is different so you don't have an opportunity to get sick of one vegetable or another.

This was our latest delivery:

Dante is as excited as we are to see what is inside.

Some of my initial thoughts on the CSA - we are enjoying thinking about our menus differently - using what we have on hand rather than what we crave; we are wasting far less food than we used to; and our grocery budget has dropped.

We'll see how this goes as we continue throughout the year. I can imagine that folks would be getting mighty sick of root veggies by now if the boxes weren't supplemented with organics grown in area greenhouses!

How We Used Our First CSA Box

I mentioned a couple of weeks ago that we had signed up for a CSA program.

Our first shipment contained the following items:

Mushrooms, carrots, a butternut squash, a small cabbage, onions, potatoes, apples, a head of boston lettuce, arugula, pea shoots, and a dozen eggs.

This is how we used it all up:

The apples got tossed into my lunch.

Most of the pea shoots got used up in the seared salmon with ginger-soy vinagirette and pea shoots.

The potatoes, part of the cabbage, an egg, and some onions were used up in the St. Patrick's Day Colcannon.

The last of the cabbage was used with some sauteed cabbage with bacon we had as a side dish. It's one of those things we had regularly when I was a kid but for some reason had't had it much as an adult.

Shame.

Some eggs, mushrooms, and an onion went into a fritatta.

The carrots were used for honey-roasted carrots.

The arugula, some of the lettuce, and half of the squash were used for the salad that Paul made for our St. Patrick's Day dinner.

The last onion and some eggs were used for corned beef hash.

and finally . . . the last of the eggs were used on Friday when I made Fettuccine Carbonara.

I think we did pretty good at using up last week's box.

Seared Salmon with Sauteed Pea Shoots and Ginger-Soy Vinaigrette

One of the items in our first CSA delivery was a container of living pea shoots. Pea shoots have long been prominent in Asian cuisine but haven't been a mainstay of North American culinary tradition. One reason why this is changing is the CSA movement - they are easily grown in greenhouses and thus provide a viable option of something green for winter CSA boxes.

Of course, you can't ignore the taste. Their soft leaves, curly-cue tendrils and watery stems hold the promise of spring peas to come. But even better than that, they hold the flavor of them, too. We were amazed at how they tasted of those tiny spring peas that pop in your mouth when eaten raw.

Pea shoots are also full of nutritious goodness - high levels of vitamin C and vitamin A and significant amounts of folic acid.

Of course, never having had them before, we had no idea how to cook with them. We knew we wanted to do more than just add them to a salad (although we did do that all week - it was a large container) I found this recipe on the Fine Cooking website for seared salmon served on peas shoots with a tangy ginger-soy vinaigrette. Since it seemed very 'French Bistro' to me I served the whole thing on a bed of lentils.

The recipe calls for a whole salmon fillet - I went with two pieces of Alaskan, wild-caught salmon instead. We tent to do this more often than not in order to control leftovers and stuff. The only thing you need to watch is the cooking time as the smaller fillets tend to cook more quickly than the large fillet.

This was a brilliant meal!

Seared Salmon with Sauteed Pea Shoots and Ginger-Soy Vinaigrette

¼ cup olive oil
3 tablespoons fresh lime juice
2 tablespoons soy sauce
1 tablespoon grated peeled fresh ginger
½ teaspoon minced garlic
fine sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

1 tablespoon canola oil
8 cups baby pea shoots (if not available, use adult pea shoot tops)
¼ cup shelled and blanched English peas
2 teaspoons minced peeled fresh ginger
1 teaspoon minced garlic
fine sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

1 (2 pound) salmon fillet, skin and bones removed, fillet cut into 8 slices (each about 1-inch thick)
2 tablespoons canola oilfine sea salt and freshly ground pepper

For the vinaigrette, stir all of the ingredients together in a bowl; season to taste with salt and pepper and set aside.

For the pea shoots, heat the canola oil in a large sauté pan over high heat. Add the pea shoots and peas and cook just until the pea shoots are wilted, about 3 minutes. Add the ginger, garlic and 2 table¬spoons of the vinaigrette and toss to combine. Season to taste with salt and pepper, remove the pan from the heat and set aside.

For the salmon, preheat a griddle or plancha on high heat until very hot. Season the salmon slices on both sides with salt and pepper and brush them with canola oil. Sear the salmon on the griddle or plancha until golden brown and crusted, about 1n minutes on each side. A metal skewer can be easily inserted into the salmon when it is done, and when the skewer is left in the salmon for 5 seconds it feels just warm when touched to the lip.

To serve, divide the pea shoots and peas among 4 plates. Place 2 salmon slices on top of the pea shoots on each plate, slightly off-center from each other. Spoon the vinaigrette around the pea shoots and serve immediately.