ramp and sausage risotto

Now this is the way to start off the CSA season: ramp and sausage risotto! I found this idea through A Good Appetite on their page that lists the menu for the week. It seems this recipe is floating around the web. One of the things I like about looking for recipes on the web is reading the comments at the end. I like hearing about how others change or substitute ingredients for each recipe. Which is how I operate. Rarely do I have all the necessary ingredients and so I'm constantly changing it to accommodate what I have in my pantry. For this recipe, I did not have any vermouth and immediately thought to add the leftover white wine I had sitting in my fridge. Saw a comment that did this and that gave me confidence as I was cooking.

Also, I have to say that I love recipes that use the whole plant. This ramp and sausage recipe called for the ramp bulbs, stems and leaves. The leaves are sliced thin and added at the end of the recipe. I cut them and left them sitting on the kitchen counter. I had to go into the cupboard space beneath the bowl for a few things and after a while I started thinking perhaps something had died in my cupboard - the smell was so strong. I got worried. Then, I realized the smell was the ramp leaves. Nonetheless, the leaves added another layer of flavor and made the whole meal look like fresh spring!

Oh, my goodness, it was so incredibly wonderful. I took some pictures while I was cooking, but woke this morning with the realization that I did not have the memory card in the camera, so no pictures. They wouldn't have captured the yumminess of this recipe anyway!

It's really fun to think about the fact that while these ramps are available in the woods - in abundance - they won't be there very long. Now I'm all fired up about foraging for my own.

Cooking risotto in this household is fun. There are a lot of "yes, chef!" thrown about. I admit that I am a fan of "Hell's Kitchen" and risotto is always on their menu. I'd never tried a risotto before watching this television show. It was surprisingly easy to prepare.

I bought the sausage at Ready Meats. I bought the regular which seemed spicy enough. I steamed up some broccoli (not from CSA) and served it on top of the risotto. I should have gotten from french bread to prepare some garlic bread, but I forgot, so some biscuits went into the oven.

Now I have spinach, rhubarb and parsnips left until Thursday. I gave all the sorrel to my mother, but plan to keep the next batch for myself. I'm going to try that sorrel dal recipe. Also, I looked at the "best guess" list for this week's delivery and read that we are getting asparagus and salad mix! I love the salad mix! It has flowers in it! So pretty and convenient! Yum!

ramps growing in the woods

Ramps are growing everywhere in the woods!

Every year, we see the ramps spread out further on the woodland ground.

They haven't made to our land yet, but I think that is just a matter of time.

Weekend recap

The beginning of the CSA season coincides with our return to the trailer. We have a really old trailer out on some land and when the weather warms, we try to head there every weekend. Cooking out at the trailer is a challenge so I usually end up choosing easy meats like sausages that can be cooked over an open fire. I'll bring along a few CSA items, but these are easy to prepare like salads. This weekend, our trailer's furnace finally gave out. Because the nighttime temps were going to dip down into the 30s, we returned to the city early. Initially I was excited to get back to my urban kitchen in order to get wild with the CSA.

But I was tired. Then spent most of Sunday working in my garden. When it came time to cook dinner, I was really tired. But I worked through my exhaustion, got the dishes done and had all the space I needed to prepare a meal. The menu:

breaded chicken
roasted sunchokes topped with chives
spinach salad with tomatoes and black radish
= 4 CSA items.

I think this picture reveals what went wrong.




First off, there was too much dressing on the salads. I didn't have the energy to makes the ramp dressing, so we used conventional stuff. The black radish was crisp and crunchy. I think next time I will try grating the radish. And dang it, it was so cute, this little black thing, I should have taken a picture. I'm learning so much about CSA eating and also CSA blogging.

Second, I didn't roast the sunchokes long enough. I knew that sunchokes take a long time to cook up. They are really crispy and remind me of apples when I am chopping them up. I stuck a fork in them when I thought they were done, but that little test was not sufficient. I should have just tasted one before declaring that dinner was done. The good thing is that sunchokes can be eaten raw so eating slight crunchy ones is all right, if not tasty. I has tossed them with some olive oil and cajun seasonings, then topped then with chopped chives.

I have a few things left to cook up: rhubarb, burdock, spinach, ramps, parsnips.

As much as I looked forward to the season starting, the realities of this experiment hit me square on this weekend. Using high-quality ingredients makes it a lot easier to whip together a simple, yet amazing meal. I just have to make sure I cook it long enough!

May 7: Box #1

The CSA boxes are delivered to a house in my neighborhood. Very, very convenient!!! The process for picking up the box is really easy. You go to the designated house with a bag and check off your name from the list. Pick a box, then empty the contents into your bag, grab a newsletter and you're done. Timing can be tricky. Sometimes when I show up there are a ton of people, so it can crowded in the porch, but then it's nice to meet fellow CSA members.

There is a range of time for pick up and I tend to go early. If I don't go at this time, there is a strange, but strong chance that I will forget. Sometimes, I wait for my hubby to come home from work and we will walk over to get the CSA box. Yesterday I went early and was surprised to see that most of the boxes had already been picked up. I think there are 50 members at this location. It was exciting to see that the shares sold out in the Twin Cities area!




The choice this week was dogwoods or willow branches. I picked the bright dogwood. It was a tough choice.

About choices: I can be frustratingly indecisive. The CSA helps me with this annoying trait of mine. I like that I don't have a choice with what shows up in the box. I just take what's packed in the box so one level of decisions are done. Choosing what to do with the vegetables is the fun side of decision-making.




There is rhubarb down under all that spinach. There were also the dreaded parsnips and the intriguing black radish.




Look at them chives!! There are a few buds in there too which are a little extra spicy.

This is going to be a weekend of good eating!