We’re having cooler nights here in SE Michigan – clearly we’re in the last weeks of summer. There are still glorious tomatoes, but CSA 2022 week 21 brings us hot peppers, eggplant, and young ginger. While I’m not a fan of hot peppers – in fact, I gave them away – the young ginger has me very excited. Our farmers at Beaverland Farms have surprised and delighted us.
Ginger this young and tender is a new experience. It’s very tender, and hasn’t yet become fibrous; it will be wonderful to cook with (it doesn’t need to be peeled!) I’m going to see if I can make a ginger syrup from the stems, and perhaps ginger tea from the leaves.
This week’s box brings us other good stuff:
cherry tomatoes- lettuce mix
- Swiss chard
- eggplants
- cucumbers
- hot peppers: habanero, jalapeño, ripe red cayenne
- shishito peppers
- young ginger
While I wash and trim the veg, I like to think about how I might use all this good stuff. My goal is to use every delicious bit. Given that bag of mixed lettuces, good salads are a given. Looking beyond the salad, here are some possibilities:
- various stir-fry with young ginger
- braised chicken with young ginger
- stir-fried shrimp with young ginger
- ginger syrup and tea (from the stalks and leaves)
- miso-broiled eggplants
- Yotam Ottolenghi’s eggplant and lamb casserole (also at the New York Times cooking website)
- cucumber salad (many possibilities here!)
- bacon & chard quiche
- lasagna with squash and chard
Follow the season with me, and I’ll show off my CSA box of the week, including ideas of how I might use all the good stuff. Feel free to chime in with comments or questions.