It's in the Bag

Friday's Specialty Produce Farmer's Market Bag class at Great News featured all these gorgeous vegetables!  From bottom left, pencil asparagus, Blood oranges, snap peas, freckled romaine, baby rainbow carrots, red radishes, baby hydroponic bok choy, baby red scallions, and Oro Blanco grapefruit.  All this fresh produce in one bag for the week.  We added some Rimrocker cheese from Venissimo which is an addition you can choose to add to the bag if you like.

 I have to admit that I had a bit of "writers'/recipe block" when I got the contents of the bag on Monday; but plowed through and I think our class was one of the best ever.  We did a frittata with the asparagus, and some rimrocker, then a pasta with the snap peas and carrots and scallions, and stir fried the bok choy and served it under some stir fried shrimp.  Dessert was awesome, a blood orange  mascarpone tart with whipped cream.

For any of you who got the bag this week, I've got a few other recipes that you can use the veggies in, and I hope you will come on down in June for our next Farmer's Market Class.

Although this salad was made with butter lettuce, the freckled lettuce, which is a bit softer than your typical romaine would work well here.

Freckled Lettuce Salad with Blood Oranges and Green Goddess Dressing
Serves 4 to 6

For the Avocado Dressing

Makes about 2 1/4 cups

This dressing is awesome on chicken salad, pasta salad, potato salad, mashed into eggs for green egg salad, and great in baked potatoes as a topper. 

1 cup mayonnaise

1 cup chopped scallions

1 cup packed fresh basil leaves

2 tablespoons lemon juice

2 cloves garlic

grated zest of 1/2 lemon

One large avocado, cut into chunks

2 teaspoons anchovy paste

4 drops Tabasco (to taste) 

1 cup Greek Style yogurt

Place all the ingredients into the food processor and process until smooth.  Taste for seasoning and adjust with salt, pepper or Tabasco. 

Salad Assembly

One head butter lettuce, cleaned and separated into leaves

2 blood oranges, peel and pith removed, and segmented or sliced into 1/4 inch slices

1/2 cup toasted sliced almonds

Avocado Dressing (see preceding recipe)

Separate the lettuce, and place about 4 leaves on each plate.  Arrange 3 slices of orange on the lettuce, and drizzle the dressing over the salad.  Garnish with almonds and serve. 

This salad can be made a whole meal with the addition of cooked shrimp, leftover chicken, or fish. 

 This is a great citrus salsa that we made with Cara Cara oranges last month, but it's great with Oro Blanco grapefruit and blood oranges.  Serve this will grilled seafood or chicken.  

Roasted Halibut with Citrus Salsa

For the Salsa

Makes about 2 1/2 to 3 cups

depending on the size of the oranges

           

3/4 cup blood orange juice (or naval orange juice)

3 blood oranges, peel and pith removed, cut into segments, and chopped (you can change this up and do one grapefruit and 2 oranges, or all grapefruit, adjusting for sweetness with honey)

2 Tbs. minced red onion

2 tablespoons finely chopped basil

2 Tbs. chopped fresh Italian parsley

1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil

6 drops Tabasco

Salt to taste

1. Combine all the ingredients in a glass (or non-reactive bowl), and toss to blend.
2. Taste for seasoning and add salt if necessary. 
3. Allow the salsa to mellow at room temperature for 2 hours, or refrigerate for up to 3 days. 

For the Halibut

Serves 6

1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil

1/4 cup unsalted butter

4 garlic cloves, minced

2 teaspoons Old Bay Seasoning

2 tablespoons lemon juice

2 tablespoons fresh orange juice

Grated zest of one lemon

Grated zest of one orange

2 1/2 pounds halibut filets

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.  In a sauté pan, heat the oil and butter over medium high heat.  Add the garlic and Old Bay and sauté for 1 minute. Cool the mixture, add the juices, and zest. 

Coat the interior of a 13-by-9-inch baking pan with non-stick cooking spray.  Pour a bit of the butter sauce into the bottom of the pan, arrange the halibut in the pan, and pour the remaining sauce over the halibut.  Bake the halibut 10 minutes per inch of thickness, until it reaches 165 degrees on an instant read meat thermometer.  Allow to rest for 5 minutes, then serve with a bit of the pan juices, and top with the salsa. 

For this halibut dish, we used local halibut from Catalina Offshore.
They are a local purveyor of high quality fresh fish and their fish is available weekly in the Farmer's Market Bag for an additional cost. 


I hope you all are enjoying your weekend, I'll be back with an ode to Sunday Suppers.