New Recipes for CSA Vegetables

While joining a CSA seemed like a great idea in the dead of winter when all I craved was some fresh summer vegetables, I have to admit it's a lot more difficult than I thought to come up with new ways to cook the same vegetables each week. It's especially difficult when your husband doesn't like eggplant, squash, or zucchini for the most part....yeah, pretty much the bounty of what we get each week. That being said, I'm always looking for new recipes to use the ingredients we get before they go bad.... (The alternative, suggested by my 10 year old niece, was to get a guinea pig to eat all the bad vegetables....tempting, but I think I'll try the recipes first). The latest experiment was a recipe from Anne Burrell from the Food Network - Seared Halibut with Sauteed Swiss Chard & Salsa Cruda. As a little disclaimer, the recipe below says it is for one serving.....so I doubled it. However, it does make quite a bit of Salsa Cruda. In the end, though, the taste of the Salsa was wonderful so I'm not disappointed & will probably use some of the leftovers on our grilled chicken later this week:

Salsa Cruda:

1/2 pound heirloom tomates (assorted colors preferred), stemmed, seeded & cut into 1/4in. dice

1/4 small red onion, cut into 1/4in. dice

1/2 small zucchini, green part only, cut into 1/4in. dice

5 pitted Gaeta or kalamata olives, slivered

1 clove garlic, smashed & finely chopped

1 spring fresh oregano, picked & leaves chopped

3 basil leaves, chiffonade

1 1/2 tbs red wine vinegar

Pinch crushed red pepper

1 1/2 tbs extra virgin olive oil

kosher salt

Combine everything in a large bowl & reserve while making fish & swiss chard.

As I mentioned before, we doubled the recipe, although I think the 10 kalamata olives we used were slightly overpowering. I will probably stay with the 5 olives for the doubled portion when we make this again.

For the Fish & Swiss Chard:

Ingredients:

Olive Oil

1 clove garlic, smashed

Pinch crushed red pepper

1 slice bacon, cut into 1/2 in lengths (lardons)

4 large swiss chard leaves, stems removed & cut into 1/2 in lengths, leaves cut into 1 in. lengths

1/4 cup chicken stock, divided

Salt

1 6oz. halibut filet

1/2 cup Salsa Crudo

Directions:

Coat a saute pan with olive oil. Toss in the garlic clove, crushed red pepper, bacon, & a couple drops of olive oil. Bring the pan to a medium heat. When the garlic is golden & very aromatic, remove it and discard. When the bacon has become crispy, toss in the Swiss Chard stems, half of the chicken stock, & season with salt. When the chicken stock has reduced, toss in the rest of the chicken stock, Swiss Chard leaves & season with salt. Cook the leaves until they are just wilted, about 3 to 4 minutes.

Coat another saute pan with olive oil & bring to high heat. Pat the halibut fillet very dry with a paper towel & season with salt. When the oil in the pan is very hot but not yet smoking, place the fish flesh side down & cook for 3 to 4 minutes. As the fish cooks it will turn from translucent to opaque. Turn the fish over & cook for another 3 to 4 minutes. When the fish is done it should be golden & firm but still moist.

Place the Swiss Chard in the center of the serving plate. Lay the fish directly on top. Top the fish with the Salsa Cruda.

All in all, I think this was a successful dish & I would definitely make again. We were able to use Swiss Chard, Zucchini, Tomatoes, & Red Onion from our CSA and we tried a new recipe. My one gripe is that, at $25 a pound for halibut, I'm thinking we could use Tilapia or Cod at a much lower expense and still appreciate the flavors. I guess we'll just have to try!

A picture of our masterpiece: