CSA Week 2: Three ways to eat A Choy
Farm Share Newsletter - June 10, 2023
Housekeeping
Please don't forget to break down and return your wax boxes when you pick up your share this week. We will make sure there is an obvious place to return boxes at each pick-up spot. For West Seattle members, please place your broken-down box on your doorstep tonight or tomorrow morning sometime before 7AM. Ballard members can just bring their boxes to the counter at Wildflour Bakery or directly to us at Ballard Farmers Market.
Are people interested in a Tian Tian CSA Discord server? It could be the best way to make last-minute announcements, to coordinate for those who need someone else to pick up their box, and to share fun things like recipes and photos. Let us know.
Week 2 Share
A Choy
Bok Choy
Snap Peas
Snow Peas
Perilla
Carrots
Scallions
Fava Greens
Three Ways to Prepare A Choy
We should probably start paying Dough Zone a commission, but don't tell them that. The local chain restaurant, launched on the Eastside a few years ago, sells a sesame a choy salad as an appetizer. I like it well enough, but a certain set of our market customers seem to love it and will let us know. I've included a recipe for that dish below. I'm more familiar with stir-fried a choy, which this YouTube video demonstrates well. We grew a lot of a choy this year. Too much, in fact. Consequently, we are always trying to find new ways to eat it. One day, we realized that it is pretty similar to romaine lettuce, so we made a whole bunch of caesar dressing and had caesar salad for, like, three lunches in a row.
Rows and rows of A Choy in a photo taken by our landlady, Amy.Rain Down
It was a wet harvest today, so wet we took a mid-day siesta to warm our fingers. The sun finally came out as we were packing up to leave, leading Elizabeth to compare the Earth's source of light to the proverbial blister (it shows up when the work is done).
While we might've preferred warmer temperatures, our greens absolutely loved the cool. We harvested fava greens for the first time ever from our first-time ever fava bean plants. Hopefully you'll see beans in a share to come. In the meantime, try this Spruce recipe for sautéed fava greens, which we made this week with scrumptious results.
Our favorite way to eat perilla is in a Korean-style wrap, either as a layer over a leaf of lettuce or as the wrap itself. We like pork belly for the filling, but have also enjoyed tofu and mushrooms. And always add rice and scallions. Use ssamjang, sesame oil, or hoisin sauce for dipping.
Member Dish Of the Week - Vanessa's stir-fried pea shoots
A Choy With Sesame Dressing This is adapted (okay, basically copied) from Fuchsia Dunlop's The Food of Sichuan.
Ingredients
2 tsp sesame seeds
1 head A choy
1.5 tsp light soy sauce
3/4 tsp white sugar
2/3 tbsp cold water
2-3 tbsp sesame paste or tahini in a pinch (but I recommend the sesame paste)
1 tsp sesame oil
Salt
Steps
Toast sesame seeds in a pan on medium heat. Don't burn them. Set aside in a bowl.
Chop A choy into bite-sized pieces.
Combine soy sauce, sugar, sesame paste (with some oil from the jar). Stir vigorously. Stir in sesame oil. Add more water if necessary. Your dressing should have a little thickness to it, but should also pour easily. Salt to taste.
Arrange A choy nicely on a plate and drizzle dressing over it to your liking. Sprinkle sesame seeds on top. Alternatively, toss the salad with the dressing like a normal person (honestly, what we do when we're not trying to take a picture for our CSA newsletter).
'Til next week,
Steven