Monday, July 25, 2011

Keeping Up with the CSA – Week 6

Frozen Carrots
I sliced the carrots, blanched them in boiling water for two minutes, drained them and cooled them. I used a freezer bag to store them in the freezer. As always I relied on my favorite website for freezing vegetables.

Frozen Stored Summer Squash and Zucchini
“From Asparagus to Zucchini” suggests freezing puree of Summer Squash or Zucchini to be used in soups. I thought this sounded like a great idea. Again learning from the Missouri Extension site, I blanched chunks of Summer Squash and Zucchini for 2 minutes – separate batches for each vegetable.
I then froze them the same way I do herbs. I reserved ¾ cup of the puree – a mix of the two and made muffins for breakfast.

Basil
Sitting in the library recently while my children were enjoying the Summer Reading Program I was perusing a volume of Cook’s Illustrated. For storage of Basil Pesto they suggested blanching the basil leaves for 20-30 seconds to retain the bright green color and to discourage browning of the pesto. They suggest it is not worth blanching if you are going to use the pesto right away, but that it is wonderful for storing pesto.

Parsley
I wanted to try a new Parsley Pesto. I tried Parsley Pesto with Sundried Tomatoes from elanaspantry.com. The sundried tomatoes add a wonderful richness. We’ll have it tomorrow night with penne pasta.

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