Eating Out of the Box: Last Hurrah

The final CSA box weighed a ton. Seriously: I needed a Gatorade after I lugged that thing into the house. The combined heft of a ginormous squash, a healthy noggin of cauliflower, apples, peppers, delightful baby turnips, potatoes, and lettuce challenged my muscles as well as my cooking skills this week.

Corn, lettuce, Harukei turnips, peppers, apples, onions, potatoes, butternut squash, and cauliflower.

The corn, onion, and potatoes became a rich chowder, with stock made from the corn cobs and onion skins. We topped this with a confit of duck necks (more on that project later).

Corn chowder with crispy duck neck confit.

I fell victim to the persuasive powers of the Paleo-obsessed internet and made cauliflower “fried rice,” adding some of the roasted hot peppers from the basket. I had this for dinner topped with two sunny side up eggs (look at those yolks!) and a healthy squirt of Sriracha. Hot peppers + hot sauce for the win.

Cauliflower “fried rice” with roasted hot chiles and Pat’s Pastured eggs.

I used the butternut squash and the apples (plus a handful of pecans) as a stuffing for these wee bacon-wrapped quail, which I served on a bed of fresh corn polenta. The remaining apples I ate sliced with almond butter and sea salt. (Does anyone else like to put salt on fruit? I can’t be the only freak, right?)

Pan roasted quail, stuffed with butternut squash, pecans, and apples, over fresh corn polenta and a sherry vinegar pan sauce.

Because the squash was massive, I had enough left over to make a pot of Thai-influenced soup, bumped up with red curry paste, ginger, lemongrass, fish sauce, and coconut milk. I brought this jar to work for lunch and had all sorts of curious noses sniffing their way to my office. The fish sauce gets ’em every time.

Thai-scented butternut squash soup.

The lettuce became several salads and the baby turnips I sliced thinly on the mandoline and pickled on a whim with a star anise. We’ll see how those turn out.

Did you notice that I drank NO WINE with any of these things? It’s sad, but true. I cooked all these thing while on a Whole 30, which meant NO ALCOHOL (and NO lots of other things, either). It also means that all of these items are Whole 30 approved (except for the fresh corn polenta, which has some Parmesan cheese in it), so you can eat any of them during your own Whole 30 if you are ever daft enough to do one. (My point here? Not a fan of the Whole 30.)

I’m quite sad that this challenge has come to an end. I have a new one in mind, though. which includes Pickles, Pigs & Whiskey. Three of my favorite things!

Stay tuned!