csa farm fresh salad

We haven't been doing much grocery shopping lately. It's too hot and we're not lucky enough to live in a neighbourhood with one of those fancy air-con supermarkets. While there is appeal to standing in front of a popsicle fridge with the doors wide open and my tongue stuck to the rack, it's just not going to happen. Neither is shopping during a heatwave in an overcrowded and tiny market in Chinatown fighting for elbow room. Nope, not my idea of happy fun times. Luckily, we've been CSA blessed. We split a share with friends and every Tuesday we get a huge load of veggies to be eaten up throughout the week. This was last week's share and here's what yesterday's half share looked like.

If you live in the Pacific Northwest, you are well aware that there is a heat wave happening. We're wimps and we just can't handle the heat. There's no way that I'll be turning on the oven, the stove or even make a pot of coffee. I tried my hand at cold-brewing coffee again (this time a different & more successful recipe) and it turned out great. So for dinner, I turned to my csa share for inspiration and decided that a gigantic bowl of salad would do nicely. It was perfectly crunchy and full of flavour. And it's flexible....just add in what you've got. The dressing which I had planned as some kind of asian ranch actually turned out good, especially considering that I didn't have any mayo to thicken the dressing at all. Consider this a runny buttermilk asian vinaigrette of sorts. It's runny but it tastes great. But add mayo if that's your thing.

Oh, and I'll be heading out on holiday next month and would love if a Vancouver-ite could take over our half of the csa share while we're gone. So if you are around throughout August and love the idea of organic and locally grown produce, please send me an email for more information. GONE!

csa farm fresh salad
1 small head cabbage, chopped
1 red pepper, diced
1/2 head of broccoli, finely diced
2 radishes, diced
2 T chopped onion, diced
2 large handfuls of walnuts, chopped
2 handfuls of raisins

dressing
1/3 c buttermilk
1 small lemon, juiced
1/2 t fresh ginger, minced
1 T olive oil
1 T soy sauce
1/4 t agave syrup
a few shakes of sriracha

Add all the vegetables into a large bowl and toss with the raisins and walnuts. In a measuring cup, blend together the dressing ingredients and pour over salad. Toss well. This dressing is runny. If you like a thicker dressing, cut out some of the buttermilk and sub in some mayo.

cherry buttermilk sherbet

I have been seeing homemade ice creams, sorbets, granitas and sherbets popping up on food blogs all summer long and it's been driving me bonkers! I really, really wanted to make some ice cream but I also didn't want to find all the ice cubes needed for my ancient-but-oh-so-beautiful turqouise ice cream maker. I wondered if it was possible to make ice cream without an ice cream maker? And then I remembered that last year I did make a Seville orange ice cream sans and it turned out just fine indeed.

It's cherry season around here and I had some dark, sweet Bing cherries from the Okanagan just waiting to be used up...perfect for an icy treat. I also had buttermilk in the fridge and figured it would add the perfect amount of creamy tang to this sherbet. From the photo above, I obviously didn't have a cherry pitter*, so I just used a knife to un-pit the cherries. They were going to be blended up so I wasn't looking for intact-looking cherries. I just put on some loud music and got my pitting groove on!

Once you finish pitting, the hard part is over. The ingredients are easy enough to come by and the process is simple. I didn't strain the liquid after blending which would have removed the cherry skin, but I actually liked the added texture of the itty-bitty nubbly bits. If you don't, go ahead and strain the mixture before adding in the sugar. Now, the only thing you have to do is wait it out...and the wait can be a bit of a buzz-kill, especially when it's really, really hot outside.

However, once the wait is over, scoop on in. The resulting sherbet is ripe and bursting with cherry flavour: it's heady and gorgeous in taste and well, just look at the damn thing! It's beautiful and it scoops like a dream. Enjoy this now while cherries are at their peak. I mean it, just do it.

* Uh, little did I know, I did have a cherry pitter. Cornelius brought it to my attention. He inherited it from his grandma and it sat unbeknownst to me in our drawer of strange kitchen things. Next time.

cherry buttermilk sherbet
3 1/3 c cherries
3/4 c sugar
1/3 c pomegranate-cherry juice blend
1 3/4 c buttermilk
2 T bourbon
1 t almond extract
1/4 c lime juice

Pit the cherries and place into a medium-sized saucepan. Add in the juice and bring to a boil. Lower heat and simmer until cherries are soft, about 20 minutes. Use a hand blender or transfer the hot mixture to a blender and blend well until everything is totally liquefied. Stir in sugar until it has dissolved completely. Refrigerate for at least 1 hour.

When the cherry mixture has chilled, add buttermilk, bourbon, almond extract and lime juice and stir to combine. If you have an ice cream maker, pour into maker and churn. Otherwise, pour mixture into a large rectangular cake pan and put in the freezer. Whisk the mixture every hour or so until it sets. Transfer to a lidded container and freeze for at least 4 hours.