winter CSA, week 7

[cellio]

• 5 Rome apples
• 3 celeriac (one small) (late substitute for the beets we were expecting)
• 4 medium blue potatoes
• 16 small carrots, generally around 4" long
• large bunch arugula (that is the one front right, isn't it? it's bigger than past arugula, but the bag back left doesn't look like arugula)
• bunch tatsoi
• bag mizuna (this is a new green for me)
• half gallon apple cider
• 2 pounds pastry flour
• small jar green tomato relish ("think of it as a more mature salsa")
• 6oz piece goat's milk Parmesaanen

The preview email, once again, included a picture not of the cheese but of the goat.

The cornbread recipe that came with the cornmeal in a past box calls for pastry flour, which I didn't have then but do now. Last time I made it with regular flour, so I'll see if I can tell the difference with pastry flour. Meanwhile, this bag of flour comes with a recipe for pancakes. Neither cornbread nor pancakes are pastry in my mind, but I'll assume that the term "pastry flour" is expansive.

(The CSA linked to a short article about the difference between pastry flour and regular flour, but the site goes overboard with annoying in-page ads, so instead of linking to it I'll summarize: pastry flour is lower in protein than normal flour, which means it's lower gluten, which means it makes biscuits, scones, pie crusts, and quick breads lighter and flakier.)

Comments

[minoanmiss]

Cornbread and pancakes do kind of count as quick bread, so I guess that's the connection?

I love mizuna, it's juicy and kind of sweet. I dice it up and use it instead of parsley in tabbouleh, or in a salad with grated carrots and ginger. And of course it can be Sautéed With Garlic!

[cellio]

When you say in a salad with ginger, do you mean you just grate the raw ginger root, or do you make some sort of dressing, or what? I'm always interested in knowing more things to do with ginger. :-) And I do have plenty of carrots (which can also go into a saute with greens, onions, and garlic).

[minoanmiss]

I really like ginger, so I do grate about a tbsp of raw ginger root, but sane people could whisk a tsp of ginger into a nice simple vinaigrette, especially one made with a sweet vinegar.

I LOVE GINGER DON'T GET ME STARTED You can grate it and mix it with sugar and strain off the resulting syrup to make drinks with, or slice it really thinly and pickle it, orslice it somewhat less thinly and candy it, or grate a half a cup and make a Fresh Ginger Cake, or...

[cellio]

You are talking to somebody who has a bottle of homemade ginger syrup in the pantry, who adds pieces of crystalized ginger to ginger-molasses cookies (or just eats it like candy), and who thinks Jamaican ginger ale is a good start and generic American "ginger ale" is unworthy of that name. :-)

I haven't tried grating ginger root into a cake. Thanks!

[minoanmiss]

HOW HAVE I KNOWN YOU THIS LONG AND NOT KNOWN HOW MUCH YOU LOVE GINGER?! I have MADE A NOTE!

I really like using sugar rather than heat to extract the ginger juice because of the fresher flavor.

Jamaican ginger beer is a nice beverage. :) American ginger beer is ecru sugar water.

The cake I use is based on the Joy of Cooking's Fresh Ginger Cake. I like using a lighter syrup in it, like golden syrup or honey, rather than a lot of molasses.

I definitely have other ginger ideas. We shall discuss ginger at gingery length. :D

[cellio]

American ginger beer is ecru sugar water.

That is a perfect description.

Looking forward to gingery length!

[minoanmiss]

I just emailed you a bunch of my ginger recipes. :)

[richardf8]

The difference between bread flour and pastry flour is that bread flour has more gluten. The pastry flour tends to produce softer crumb, while the crumb of bread flour is “pullier.” “General purpose” flour falls somewhere in between. I have substituted each for the other with no ill effects.

For my challah I use a hard red winter wheat flour (which is fairly high gluten) and supplement it with extra gluten because my wife likes really pully challah. We are rippers, not slicers, and she likes challah that can put up a fight.

[cellio]

Yeah, that sounds like challah that fights back! For my challah I go to the store, I'm afraid.

[shewhomust]

A linguistic note, rather than a culinary one: your 'pastry flour' is evidently what I think of as 'normal flour'; your 'normal flour' is my 'strong' or 'bread flour'. I don't think this is just me, I think this reflects marketing (in non-specialist shops, at any rate).

Also sharing the ginger love. (I used up my piece of root ginger in Monday's curry, and oh how I missed it last night...)

[cellio]

Interesting! I wonder what our "bread flour" is to you, then?

Grocery stores here usually have bread flour and all-purpose (normal) flour, but I guess pastry flour is a specialty thing. (These are all white flours, as distinct from whole wheat or things involving other grains.)

[eub]

For future leafy green reference, to my eye the back left does look like the arugula to me (thin-bodied), and the front right the tatsoi (spoon-shaped). Though I must admit nothing there cries out mizuna to me (branched and pointy) so I'd doubt my attributions somewhere or other. Maybe the back right's dark green is more like the tatsoi. Anyway arugula to the left.

(The taste is more what matters in the end, where tahtsoi is quite mild cabbagey; arugula has some mustard but most characterized for me by a nutty aromatic taste; mizuna is variable but usually has a delayed mustard/horseradish zing.)