Adventures with CSA: Week 13 (Summer 2015)

This week has been pretty awful. I realized when my husband brought home the CSA share yesterday that I really look forward to discovering what we got every week. It's like a tiny bright spot in an expanding sea of shit. :P

This week's share included lettuce, swiss chard (rainbow), heirloom and hybrid tomatoes, two massive potatoes, a green pepper, a bag of hot peppers, an onion, a fat shallot, a bag of baby eggplants, a bag of okra, and a baby watermelon (not seedless--this one was pink, not the amazing yellow variety from last time).

I'm definitely going to make some home made salsa with some of the tomatoes, onion, and hot peppers.

Everyone who knows me knows that Indian cuisine is my favorite food--I'm not descended from Indian heritage at all, but my ex introduced it to me in my youth and I've been steadily trying new things through my late teens and 20's and into my 30's now. I was vegetarian when I was younger so I loved the diversity of choice it offered compared to other types of cuisine--and I was veggie before we had the wealth of options there are now--where people would sneer at you if it came up in conversation. Anyhow...the spices and flavors of Indian cuisine are so amazing! One of my favorites is baingan bharta, which is made with roasted eggplant. My local favorite Indian restaurant uses the baby eggplants when they make it. It is pure comfort food as far as my soul is concerned.

Anyhow, I think this dish is going to happen, like, TODAY: Fried Eggplant with Chickpeas and Mint Chutney

And this: Aloo Bhindi Bhujiya Potato and Okra Stir Fry

The chard will probably get sauteed with the shallot as a side dish. I do love sauteed greens. T sauteed a bunch of kale last week with a whole head of garlic sliced up and thrown in ala the style of my grandmere's green beans, which is again pure comfort food--the garlic get all soft and caramelized when you do it over low heat for a longer period of time. OMNOMNOM.

The baby watermelon got cut up immediately (again) and put into a bowl in the fridge--it is good, but not as sweet as the last (yellow) one.