fall CSA, week 5

[cellio]

• 7 poblano (?) peppers
• rhubarb preserves
• butternut squash
• head green cabbage
• delicata squash
• 5 stayman winesap apples
• 5 red potatoes
• 7 rainbow carrots (most medium-large)
• 1 red onion

The email said we'd be getting poblano peppers, which I'm used to being less long and skinny. These smell like they could be poblanos. Is this just a variant form (it's not like I've seen tons of these, after all)? If not, what are they?

Dani would like cabbage soup. The last time I went to the elves Google for a recipe, he thought it was ok but wasn't what he is used to as cabbage soup. He couldn't really articulate it, though. If there is such a thing as a canonical eastern-European-Jewish cabbage soup, please enlighten me.

The preserves were listed as "a surprise valued-added item". I wondered if this were a way for them to solve a "misc" problem (having assorted stuff but not enough of any one thing to list it). Perhaps it was, but everybody at my pickup location got the same preserves. These ones are good on toast.

Comments

Cabbage soup

[(Anonymous)]

I recommend a Hungarian cabbage soup. It's one of my comfort foods, and I have fond memories from my childhood of my grandmother making it. I haven't cooked it for years though, because my wife doesn't like it and you cannot make just a little - so I'd end up eating a whole pot by myself for a week.

I'm currently at work unfortunately so I don't have access to my grandmother's handwritten recipe which I have stashed away at home somewhere, but from a quick search this one seems to be the closest: https://www.gimmetasty.com/hungarian-cabbage-soup/ with some important differences:

Leave out the apples and sugar. They don't have a place in this soup.

For the beef cut, I recommend a shank with bone in. The tougher the cut, the longer it needs to be boiled but the more gelatin it will release by conversion of collagen which will make the soup tastier. Plus you will get extra flavor from the bone marrow. Other than shank, you could use instead brisket or top round.
If you want a vegetarian variation leave out the beef and use vegetable broth instead of the meat broth.

The final soup should have a high solids-to-liquid ratio; more of a thin stew than a soup. We called it "heap soup" because a typical serving would be a heap of cabbage in the middle of the plate, surrounded by a little soup.

And yes, the hot pepper on the side is NOT optional. :)

If I can find my notes at home and I see any major differences I'll post an update here.

Silvio

Re: Cabbage soup

[cellio]

Thank you! That sounds tasty. So you cook a hunk of beef in the soup and then chop it up? (As opposed to conventional beef stew.)

What you call "heap soup" we call "stoup" -- that stage between stew and soup. We're fond of the approach too.

Re: Cabbage soup

[(Anonymous)]

Frankly you don't really need to chop the meat. You cook it until it falls off the bone by itself. :)
Stoup, I'll have to remember that.

Sivio

Re: Cabbage soup

[cellio]

True; an hour and a half in the pot should render a knife redundant.

Re: Cabbage soup

[(Anonymous)]

I'm sorry but since I posted this here I couldn't stop thinking about cabbage. I just had to make some. :)



About half of that pot is already gone.