CSA Box Problem Resolved \(^_^)/ – Cabbage Quiche

I really had some trouble using up all the weird things from my last CSA box, and not all of the dishes were a big hit (like, sauerkraut with potatoes and sausages – I just can NOT eat sauerkraut, or lemon muffins with parsnips in them – ugh!), but there was one dish that really surprised me – a cabbage quiche. I took this recipe found here as a basis (it asks for savoy cabbage, but mentions that cabbage or leek do well, too), and added some Kasseler style smoked pork chops (this might be hard to find outside of Germany, so it can be replaced with ham or smoked ham). The result was a very flavorsome and moist quiche I will definitely make again. Next time, though, I will prebake the crust so it won’t get that soggy. Here’s the recipe (makes about 6 servings):

Just a deep-drawn sigh…

Sigh! This week’s CSA box is a real challenge. I have NO idea at all how to use up all the parsnip, cabbage, savoy cabbage, sauerkraut and dill. Any ideas are welcome. The other things in the box are  2 lettuces, spring onions, carrots, and a salad cucumber. And the cheese box contains a vanilla yogurt, Brie, Gouda, alpine cheese and Maasdamer cheese. So if you can think of any interesting combination, please let me know .

Potato Pancakes with Carrots and Parsnip

This week’s eco-box contained parsnip and carrots, amongst others. I remember parsnip from cooking baby food for my kids, and was never really inspired to buy parsnips for any other dish due to its strong flavor. And even though I can ask the farm to just take a certain vegetable out of the box if I don’t like it at all, I kind of find it challenging to find dishes that use up the veggies in my eco-box. So I was searching the internet again and the search result was this recipe from “Got no milk” blog. I tripled the recipe to use up all the parsnip. Also, I figured it should be possible to freeze whatever is left after the meal. I didn’t expect these potato pancakes to be really delicious (eatable, though), but I was wrong. I served them with apple sauce and we absolutely enjoyed the meal! Here’s the recipe (makes 25 pancakes):

Rhubarb Season (3) – Raspberry Rhubarb Grunt/ Cobbler

There was still some rhubarb left from my eco-box and my bargain at the grocery store, so I was looking on the internet for a new dish  I could use it for and stumbled upon a recipe published on Chocolate & Zucchini. Fresh fruit covered with lumps of dough and cooked in the oven sounded really appealing to me. The original recipe called for whole wheat flour, but as it was kinda late at night and I didn’t want to wake up my kids by grinding the wheat (yes, I DO have a flour mill at home and grind the grain as needed) I just used all-purpose flour I had at hand. Also, the original recipe used crème fraîche (=lightly soured cream), whereas the recipe the author was referring to was using  whipped double cream (= heavy cream). I figured I couldn’t do anything wrong by using normal whipping cream. As this dish should be served warm I prepared everything as far as it was ready to go in the oven and cooked it in the oven the next day. This worked totally fine. The result was refreshing, sweet but also kind of sour. I will definitely make this again.  This is the recipe I used:

Rhubarb Season (2) – Rhubarb Vanilla Jam

As I’ve written in my previous post, there is quite a big amount of rhubarb in my kitchen right now. My family loves jam on their toasts or rolls in the morning, so there is no way around cooking rhubarb jam. It was kinda hard for me to decide what gelling/ jam sugar (gelling sugar contains pectin as a gelling agent) to take because you have to choose between fruitiness and preservatives. In Germany gelling sugar comes in three different kinds (1:1, 2:1 and 3:1). The first number indicates what amount of fruit you use in relation to the sugar, e.g. 1:1 means 1 part fruit/1 part sugar, 2:1 2 parts fruit/1 part sugar etc. I like fruity jams more, but the 2:1 and 3:1 gelling sugars have preservatives added to them (which I want to avoid – it’s homemade jam, after all), so I went for the 1:1 gelling sugar. I also figured, that rhubarb was soooo sour that it hopefully wouldn’t really matter. Well, the jam IS kinda sweet (but really eatable), so I definitely won’t use 1:1 sugar for sweeter fruits like strawberries or so. I’ll find some other way to make jam – I might go for an attempt with agar agar which is a gelatinous substance derived from seaweed. Anyway, this is what I did this time:

Rhubarb Season (1) – Rhubarb Muffins

I’ve never been much into rhubarb. I remember my childhood containing lots of rhubarb, especially in form of rhubarb semolina pudding. This wasn’t really something to get me addicted to rhubarb , even though I’m addicted to semolina pudding (which is made of semolina wheat and might be compared to cream of wheat or grits). I don’t know how, but a couple years ago I discovered that rhubarb makes perfect jam, particularly in combination with strawberries.

As there was rhubarb in my last week’s eco-box (comparable to CSA)  and additionally, rhubarb was on sale at our grocery store last week (50% off, I just couldn’t resist), I had lots of rhubarb that needed to be put to good use. But I thought there had to be other delicious things on earth containing rhubarb than just jam. So I came up with the idea to combine the sourness of the rhubarb with the sweetness of a muffin. And it REALLY was a good idea! This combination is just perfect and makes a fluffy and moist muffin. The muffins didn’t rise as much as I had expected (I might add more baking powder next time), but they were still tasty.

Without further ado, here’s the recipe (makes 20 muffins):