Cucurbit Risotto

Lindsay — Tue, 19 Aug 2014 00:24:01 +0000

Did you know there’s a name for the veggies overflowing your crisper/garden/CSA box right now? Cucurbitaceae! Zucchini, summer squash, cucumbers, melons…we’re kind of drowning in them over here. Well, not melons, so much, and our little muffin (9 months tomorrow!) devours zucchini and summer squash, so we don’t really have a problem with that, but all the cucumbers are in our refrigerator right now. ALL! So. Many. Cucumbers.

We’ve eaten summer salads for days. I’ve blended them into smoothies. I’ve even baked them into pancakes with questionable success. Pickles? Done. And I don’t even love pickles.

What do I love? Warm smooshy things in bowls that don’t take forever to make. Bonus points if The Muffin likes it. Extra bonus points if he can feed it to himself. Super extra bonus points if leftovers are still tasty. What fits the bill? Cucumber risotto. “EWWWWWWWWWWWWW!”, you say? “Delicious!”, I counter. “EWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW!”, you still say. Well, everyone’s entitled to her opinion, but this risotto is sweet and subtle and creamy and lavender/green. If you still don’t trust me, substitute zucchini – I have and it’s great.

Apologies (once again) for the phone photos. We’ll figure out this technology thing, I promise!

Cucurbit Risotto

Adapted from Greene on Greens

Serves 4-6 as a main

Amount	Ingredient	Preparation	Notes
4 TBsp	Butter	Divided	Kate’s Homemade Butter
1 medium	Red onion		Farmer Dave’s CSA
2 cloves	Garlic	Minced	Farmer Dave’s CSA
1 cup	Arborio rice
Good pinch or two	Crushed red pepper flakes
About 4	Cucumbers (whatever size you have – use more if they’re tiny or fewer if they’re gigantic)	Peeled, seeded, and diced	Farmer Dave’s CSA
3 cups	Chicken stock		Homemade
To taste	Salt and pepper
Small handful	Fresh, soft herbs	Such as dill, basil, parsley, and fennel fronds	Chopped

Directions

Heat the chicken stock (on the stove or in the microwave). Prep your veggies. You don’t have to be too fussy with seeding and peeling the cucumbers. I think it’s easiest to seed cucumbers by cutting them in half the long way and scooping out the seedy middle with a spoon. (See picture above)

In a heavy skillet, melt half the butter (1 TBsp) over medium-low heat. Add the red onion and sweat (cook slowly without browning) for 2 minutes; add the garlic and cook for another minute.

Thoroughly stir the rice into the onion mixture, so that each grain is coated with butter.

Add the cucumbers and crushed red pepper flakes. Stir well, then use your spoon to smooth and level the rice mixture in the pan.

Gently pour a generous 1 cup of hot stock evenly over the rice mixture. Don’t stir. Just let the rice absorb the liquid, which should take about 15 minutes.

When all the liquid has been absorbed, stir and repeat with another generous cup of stock. Reduce the heat if the last batch was absorbed in less than 15 minutes.

Stir in the last 1/2 cup or so of stock. Keep your eye on the risotto this time. It’s done when the rice is tender, but not mushy. If it’s the right consistency, but there’s still liquid in the pan, raise the heat to boil it off. If the rice isn’t ready when all the liquid is gone, add a little hot water and keep cooking.

When the rice is perfect, stir in the remaining butter (1 TBsp) and salt, pepper, and herbs to taste.

Getting Creative with Cucumbers

Lindsay — Thu, 08 Aug 2013 12:20:08 +0000

Hi folks! I am so happy that our heat wave has finally broken. It has been miserable here! Given the weather (and my pregnancy…have we mentioned that?), I’ve been eating a LOT of ice cream. A LOT of ice cream. But not nearly enough to make me sick of it, unfortunately. In an attempt to avoid strange ingredients and unnatural dyes (green mint chocolate chip, anyone?), I’ve been making a lot of it at home. It’s really not all that difficult, but it does take a little planning if you’re planning to use eggs, since they have to be cooked and then cooled. I’ve been making a basic base and then adding whatever looks good at the farmer’s market or bits we’ve got hanging around in the pantry.

The most recent batch, cucumber, sounds wacky, but really works, in my humble (and admittedly possibly skewed) opinion, was inspired by two events. First, a fantastic dinner we had with some friends in Paris last month that was capped off by a sort of sundae with cucumber ice cream, strawberries, and crumbled meringue. We were all a little hesitant at first, but the combo really worked. Second, a crisper full of cucumbers on Wednesday night, less than 24 hours before our weekly CSA pick up. With refrigerator space at a premium, they had to go. I think it’s delicious just as it is, but Erik prefers some accoutrements so he can forget he’s eating vegetable ice cream. Either way, it’s not terribly difficult and it’s something different to try at least once!

I’m really sorry for the equipment heavy recipe this time. If you don’t have a juicer, you could just blend or food process the cucumbers. Either use the mush directly in the ice cream or strain it either through a fine mesh sieve or cheesecloth. I don’t have a tried and true method for freezing the ice cream without a machine, but I’ve seen a couple of methods on the internet, so it’s worth a try. Alternately, I think you could use the base in ice pop molds, perhaps with a few chopped up strawberries.

I didn’t take any pictures of the process, because I thought it was a weird pregnancy thing and wouldn’t be worth posting. Here’s a bad cell phone photo of of the ice cream with a tasty piece of blueberry walnut cake. Mmmmmm!

Cucumber Ice Cream

Makes about 1 1/2 quarts
Note: Ice cream base needs to chill overnight (or 8 hours).

Amount	Ingredient	Preparation	Notes
2 cups	Whole milk		Shaw Farm
1 cup	Cream		Shaw Farm
4	Egg yolks		Red Fire Farm
1/2 cup	Sugar
Pinch	Salt
1 cup	Cucumber juice	See intro for alternatives	Red Fire Farm
Juice of 1	Lemon	About 3 TBsp

Directions

Pour the milk and cream into a small saucepan and heat over medium until it starts to steam and tiny bubbles appear on the edges.

While the milk and cream are heating, give the yolks, sugar, and salt a good whisking until they’re lighter yellow.

Once the milk and cream are warm, SLOWLY pour about a cup into the yolk mixture, while whisking. This will warm up the yolks without scrambling them. After that portion of warm milk has been thoroughly incorporated, dump the lot back into the pan and whisk it up.

Heat the milk and yolks over low heat, stirring frequently, until the mixture thickens enough to coat the back of a spoon. This will take somewhere between 5 and 10 minutes. Make sure to scrape into the corners to avoid burning.

While the base is thickening, get out two large bowls and a fine mesh sieve or cheesecloth. Fill one bowl with ice and set the second inside it.

Once the mixture has thickened, pour it through the sieve or cheesecloth into the second bowl. Straining the base will remove any scrambled bits of egg. Letting it sit over a bowl of ice water will help cool it down faster, so that you can get it into the refrigerator. Stir the mixture every once in a while until it is room temperature. Chill in the refrigerator overnight.

After its overnight chill down, add the cucumber and lemon juice to the base and freeze according to the directions for your machine. Eat as is or top with strawberries and crumbled meringue cookies.

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Cucurbit Risotto

Getting Creative with Cucumbers