Another week of glorious greens!

The carrots (left) are getting HUGE! This week, we also got an extra bunch of chard (thanks, MA`O!). Our pet is the most spoiled in the world, since the carrots go to her. She also had curly kale and castelfranco this week. She eats better than we used to! With the two bunches of chard, we made Mario Battali's Chard Tart (Pasticcio di Bietole al Forno), a recipe we've made before, but this time with parmesan cheese, as the original recipe calls for. It was delicious!

Ellie Krieger's Green Bean Salad

What a delicious recipe! This recipe seems very healthy, with the smallest amount of dressing I've ever seen on vegetables. But it works! The other flavors (the earthiness of the toasted walnuts, the bite of the red onion and vinegar, and the fresh, sunny flavor of the parsley) all marry well with the crunchy green beans. Here is the link.

Ingredients:
1/2 lb green beans, trimmed
2 tbsp chopped walnuts
2 tbsp finely chopped fresh parsley leaves
2 tbsp chopped red onion
2 tsp walnut oil or olive oil
1 tsp red wine vinegar
1 tsp Dijon mustard
salt and pepper

Directions:
Bring a large pot of water with a steamer basket to a boil, add green beans and steam for about 4 minutes. Transfer to a serving bowl.

Toast the walnuts in a small dry skillet over medium heat until they become fragrant, about 2 minutes, and then transfer them to a small bowl to cool. Add the parsley and onion to the walnuts and stir to combine.

In another small bow, whisk together the oil, vinegar and mustard. Toss the dressing with the green beans, top with the walnut mixture and season with salt and pepper. Serve warm or at room temperature.

Curried Hakurei Turnips

Hakurei turnips are very new to me, so I am still trying to get used to them. This recipe comes from The Veggie Project blog. It's good, but as a stand-alone dish, I wasn't too into it. It did inspire me to take the turnips one step further and incorporate them into a coconut curry chicken dish (recipe here).

Ingredients:

1 chopped onion

2 tbsp oil

5 or 6 hakurei, peeled and sliced thin 2 tsp curry powder

1 tsp salt

one lemon, cut into wedges

Directions: Saute the onion in the oil for a few minutes until translucent. Add the turnips, the curry powder and salt and cook until everything is tender. Squeeze some lemon juice over the dish before serving and serve with some extra lemon wedges.

Baked Coconut Curry Chicken

I cannot rave enough about this curry! I have finally found my go-to Indian curry recipe, after decades of looking. This recipe comes from the blog, checkitoutavesta.



Ingredients:2 1/2 lbs chicken (boneless, skinless thighs)
1 can coconut milk
2 cups chicken broth
2-3 tsp cayenne pepper
2 tbsp curry powder
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tbsp sugar
salt and pepper to taste

Directions:
Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Wash and pat dry the chicken with a paper towel. Pour the chicken broth and coconut milk in a baking dish then lay the chicken in the broth. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Then sprinkle the rest of the spices all over the chicken and broth.

Cover the baking dish tightly with aluminum foil. Bake for 30 minutes. Remove the dish from the oven, carefully remove the foil and turn chicken and mix up the broth mixture so the coconut milk breaks up. Put the baking dish back int the oven uncovered for another 30-45 minutes or until the chicken is fully cooked and very tender.

I cook this chicken a little longer than necessary because I like the thighs ... to sort of shred and since the chicken is in a broth, it does not dry out with the extra cooking time.

Once you remove the baking dish from the oven, carefully pour the sauce into a saucepan and add 1 tbsp butter. Mix using a whisk, bring the sauce to a boil and whisk till smooth and reduced. Taste the sauce to make sure it is spicy enough for your liking... if not... add more cayenne pepper and curry powder. Serve chicken over rice and pour the sauce over the chicken and rice.

Adrienne's Note:

When you are reducing the sauce on the stove, you can also add in diced curried hakurei turnips (recipe here) and French beans that have been cut into one-inch segments and parboiled for five minutes. This way the curry is a little more complex. You can also shred up the chicken thighs then throw them back into the sauce to combine all of the flavors. I topped this curry with cilantro leaves and served it over white rice.

Fennel, Apple, Celery Salad with Cilantro and (Meyer) Lemon

This recipe is delicious-- fresh, sweet, tangy, and herby all at the same time. The recipe comes from Food Network.

Ingredients:

1/4 cup plus 2 tbsp lemon juice

1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

coarse grained salt and cracked black pepper

2 large apples, julienned

1 medium head fennel, cored and thinly sliced

3 large ribs celery, sliced (about 1 cup)

1/2 cup cilantro leaves, roughly chopped or more to taste

Directions: In a large, non-reactive bowl, combine the lemon juice, olive oil, salt and pepper. Add the apples, fennel, celery and cilantro. Toss until well combined. Taste and adjust seasonings.

So far, this recipe utilizes the most (four) MA`O Farms CSA produce yet: Meyer lemons, cilantro, fennel, and celery. All of the produce was crisp and juicy!

The finished salad.

Beet Chips, Take Two: FAIL!

As you know, I have been experimenting with beet chips. The recipe is very simple: Slice beets thin, salt them, and toast them in a 350 degree oven for 20 minutes. For my first attempt, I followed the recipe and didn't add any oil to the foiled sheet pan when I toasted these in the oven. The result: beets stuck to the tin foil and oxidizing. This time around, I must have added too much oil, because the beets came off of the foil but were just greasy and limp. We will have to try this a third time with maybe just Pam spray on the tin foil!

Salad of castelfranco, hazelnuts and oranges with pink papaya seed dressing

What a delicious and visually stunning salad! The recipe for the salad comes from the UK's Independent (I've omitted the internal recipe for a Dijon-red wine vinegar dressing and used a pink papaya seed dressing instead). The recipe for the papaya seed dressing comes from epicurious.

Ingredients for the Salad of Castelfranco, hazelnuts and oranges:
1 small head of castelfranco or radicchio, washed, torn into strips and gently patted dry (Adrienne's note: for presentation purposes, keep about 8 of the smaller inner pink leaves whole)
2 oranges, peeled, all pith removed and sliced into pinwheels-- blood oranges are best for this recipe if you can get them
A handful of hazelnuts

Ingredients for papaya seed dressing:
1 cup sugar
1 1/2 tsp salt
1 tbsp English-style dry mustard
1 cup tarragon vinegar
1 cup vegetable oil
1/4 cup minced onion
1 papaya, halved, reserving 3 tbsp of the seeds and reserving the fruit for another use

Directions for the papaya seed dressing:
In a blender or food processor blend the sugar, the salt, the mustard, and the vinegar until the mixture is smooth. With the motor running add the oil in a stream and blend the dressing util it is emulsified. Add the onion and the reserved papaya seeds and blend the dressing until the papaya seeds are the consistency of ground pepper. The dressing keeps, covered and chilled, for 2 weeks.

Adrienne's notes and further instructions:
I used a red onion for the papaya seed dressing, which resulted in a baby pink dressing that complemented the pink-streaked inner leaves of the castelfranco. To make the salad, arrange some of the nicer pink leaves in a sunburst formation at the outer edge of the plate. Mound the strips of castelfranco in the center of the sunburst. Drizzle pink papaya seed dressing all over the greens, top with hazelnuts and orange segments. I ate this salad like a Neanderthal, mounding up the shredded castelfranco, hazelnuts, and oranges inside the whole leaves and eating it like a taco with my hands.

Massaged Avocado and Kale Salad

This recipe comes from goneraw.com.

Ingredients:

1 head kale, shredded

1 cup tomato, chopped

1 avocado

2 tbsp grapeseed or olive oil

1 tbsp lemon juice

celtic sea salt, to taste

1/2 tsp cayenne

Directions:

In mixing bowl, toss all ingredients together. Mush everything together (with hands) to create marinated/wilted effect on kale. This makes it much tastier and easier to digest.

Adrienne's Notes:

The avocado massaged into the curly kale creates a creamy coating. Next time I have this salad, I'd have it with roasted corn kernels and other greens that pair well with avocado (like cilantro, black beans, etc.).

Kale-Strawberry-Tropical Fruit Smoothie

This recipe comes from the Green Diva Mom. I substituted a mango and a papaya for the three small peaches that the original recipe calls for. The smoothie came out fibrous-- like it was just a blend of coarse fruit bits. It was hard to drink because of its chunkiness. In texture only, it reminded me of a gazpacho. I had to thin it with orange juice to drink it. Any better ideas for making this more drinkable?

1 bunch green kale (here, curly kale)
1 pint strawberries
1 mango
1 papaya (reserve the seeds to make a papaya seed dressing, if you like. Recipe here)
2 cups water

All of these ingredients get blended together until smooth.

The Green Goddess!

The recipe for this dressing is Ina Garten's take on the classic Green Goddess recipe, from the Palace Hotel in San Francisco. I've never had green goddess dressing before. I've seen organic varieties in the supermarket, with an earth-mama image on the bottle, so I assumed it was some gentle, herbacious, hippy dressing. Was I wrong! This is no peace-and-love dressing. This mother will punch you in the mouth!

Ingredients:

1 cup good mayonnaise

1 cup chopped scallions, white and green parts

1 cup chopped fresh basil leaves

1/4 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice

2 teaspoons chopped garlic

2 teaspoons anchovy paste

2 teaspoons kosher salt

1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

1 cup sour cream

Directions:

Place the mayonnaise, scallions, basil, lemon juice, garlic, anchovy paste, salt and pepper in a blender and blend until smooth. Add the sour cream and process just until blended. (If not using immediately, refrigerate the dressing until ready to serve).

Adrienne's Note:

Ina Garten serves hers with Bibb lettuce and tomato wedges. I would agree that that's a firm and juicy enough lettuce to stand up to the dressing. We tossed some cole slaw in the dressing, and it slapped the hot dog (lower left) around a little.

TGIF Cilantro-Lime Dressing

This recipe comes from allrecipes.com. This dressing is a little on the sweet side, but I imagine it would go well over a salad with grilled chicken, roasted corn, black beans, avocado, red onion, and cilantro.

Ingredients:

1 jalapeno pepper, seeded and coarsely chopped

1 clove garlic

3/4 teaspoon minced fresh ginger root

1/4 lime juice

1/3 cup honey

2 teaspoons balsamic vinegar

1/2 teaspoon salt, or to taste

1/4 cup packed cilantro leaves

1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil

Directions: Place the jalapeno pepper, garlic clove, and ginger into a food processor or blender; pulse until the jalapeno and garlic are finely chopped. Pour in the lime juice, honey, balsamic vinegar, and salt, add the cilantro leaves; pulse a few times to blend. Turn the food processor or blender on, and slowly drizzle in the olive oil until incorporated unto the dressing. Season to taste with salt before serving.

Caldo Verde and Pesto-Asiago Crostini

We got a massive head of curly kale this week. We're eating it in massaged salads as usual, but we thought it might also be nice to cook it in a soup. Caldo Verde is a hearty, spicy Portuguese soup. The recipe is here, from epicurious. The crostini recipe we made up, and ingredients/directions for that are below.

Caldo Verde:

Ingredients:

1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil, divided

1/2 pound chourico or linguica (smoked Portuguese sausage) or kielbasa, cut into 1/2-inch pieces

1 medium onion, chopped

2 garlic cloves, minced

1 pound russet (baking) potatoes, peeled and cut into 1-inch pieces

6 cups water (Adrienne's Note: the comments to this recipe suggested substituting water with chicken stock, which I think is a good idea)

1 pound kale, stems and center ribs discarded and leaves very thinly sliced

Accompaniment: piri-piri sauce or other hot sauce

Directions:

Heat 1 tablespoon oil in a 5-quarter heavy pot over medium-high heat until it shimmers, then brown sausage, stirring often, 2 to 3 minutes. Transfer with a slotted spoon to a bowl. Add 2 tablespoon oil to fat in pot and cook onion and garlic with 1/4 teaspoon each or salt and pepper over medium heat, stirring often, until browned, 7 to 8 minutes. Add potatoes, water, and 1 teaspoon salt and simmer (Adrienne's Note: use medium heat), covered, until potatotes are very tender, 15 to 20 minutes. Mash some potatoes into soup to thicken, then add kale and simmer, uncovered, until tender, about 5 minutes. Stir in sausage and cook until just heated through, 1 to 2 minutes. Drizzle with remaining tablespoon oil and season with salt and pepper.

Pesto-Asiago Crostini

Ingredients:

day-old baguette, sliced into 1/4 inch rounds

pesto

grated Asiago cheese

Directions:

Pre-heat the oven to 375 degrees. Smear each round with pesto. Place each round onto cookie sheet and sprinkle Asiago cheese over the rounds. Bake until golden brown, about 10-12 minutes.

Lup Cheong Fried Rice with Arugula

Another clear-the-fridge-out recipe. Lup cheong is like Rachel from Glee: the overbearing ham that shouldn't be showcased as the main ingredient but is just too damn good.

Ingredients: 2 lup cheong links, sliced on the bias 1/4 inch thick

1/4 cup diced onion

2 cups old and hard rice

1 tbsp shoyu

1 tbsp sesame oil

3 tbsp ginger-scallion-cilantro pesto (recipe here)

1 1/2 cup arugula, chopped

sriracha sauce, to taste

black pepper, to taste

Directions:

Heat a pan over medium heat. Cook the lup cheong in the pan until they are dark and translucent, the fat having rendered out, about 5-10 minutes or so. Set slices aside. In the rendered fat, saute the diced onion until translucent. Into the onion and oil mixture, crumbled in the old and hard fried rice. Season with the shoyu, sesame oil, and ginger-scallion-cilantro pesto. Mix well. Add sriracha and black pepper to taste. When the rice is well spiced, add in the lup cheong slices and the arugula until both are just heated/reheated through.

Mint Juleps

The Kentucky Derby isn't for a few more weeks, but you can practice being a degenerate at home in advance. This recipe comes from Walker Percy. "You need excellent bourbon whiskey; rye or Scotch will not do. Put half an inch of sugar in the bottom of the glass and merely dampen it with water. Next, very quickly-- and here is the trick in the procedure-- crush your ice, actually powder it-- preferably in a towel with a wooden mallet, so quickly that it remains dry and, slipping two sprigs of fresh mint against the inside the glass, cram the ice in right to the brim, packing it with your hand. Finally, fill the glass, which apparently has no room left for anything else, with bourbon, the older the better, and grate a bit of nutmeg on the top. The glass will frost immediately. Then settle back in your chair for half an hour of cumulative bliss."

Mushroom Pasta in Herb Cream Sauce

This is one of my "throw-it-all-in-there" improv recipes.

Ingredients:

2 cups dry egg noodles

1/2 cup heavy cream

1 minced garlic clove

3 cups button mushrooms (raw), with stumps removed, mushroom heads sliced

3 tbsp parsley, chopped

1 tbsp assorted other herbs, minced (here: sage, oregano, and thyme)

2 tbsp olive oil

lots of black pepper to season to taste

pinch cayenne

pinch nutmeg

1/4 (or more) grated parmiggiano reggiano

Directions:

Boil enough water to cook the 2 cups of egg noodles. Salt the water.

In the meantime, heat up a sauce pan over medium heat. Add to this sauce pan 1 tbsp of olive oil and the minced garlic clove. Saute until the garlic clove is fragrant (about 2-3 minutes). Throw in all of the mushrooms and salt and pepper them. Drizzle another tbsp of olive oil over the mushrooms, because they will have absorbed all of the oil that was in the pan. Cook for five minutes or until soft and brown. The mushrooms will shrink from 3 cups in volume to 1/2 cup. Set mushrooms aside.

In same sauce pan, heat up 1/2 cup of heavy cream over high heat. When cream boils, turn heat down to low and simmer until cream thickens, stirring frequently. Add salt, pepper, 1 tbsp of the chopped parsley, pinch cayenne, and pinch nutmeg. Sauce will thicken in about 10 minutes. Towards the end of the ten minutes, throw in another tbsp of parsley and the tbsp of other herbs. Throw in 1/4 cup grated parmiggiano reggiano.

When the pasta is done, toss it with the cream sauce. If the pasta and the sauce are still too watery, turn the heat up to medium and continuously stir the pasta, cream sauce, herbs, and mushrooms until the sauce thickens up again.

Serve hot, with more grated parmiggiano reggiano. Sprinkle the remaining tbsp of parsley over the dish as garnish. Pepper liberally.

Ginger-Scallion-Cilantro Pesto

This recipe comes from Grouprecipes.com.

Ingredients and Directions:

(all of these ingredients get thrown into a food processor and pulsed until done):

3/4 to 1 cup macadamia nut oil (I used Oils of Aloha);

1/2 cup chopped scallions;

1 cup loosely packed cilantro;

1/2 cup unsalted macadamia nuts;

3 tbsp chopped garlic;

1 tbsp chopped garlic;

the juice and the zest of 1 lemon;

salt and pepper to taste.

Adrienne's Notes: This would taste good on a grilled white and flaky fish like monchong or mahimahi. I was going to pair it with some roast duck we got (kind of like a cold ginger chicken sauce), but the taste is not like that. The grittiness of the ginger bits pairs well with the crunch of the macadamia nuts.

Curly endive salad with warm bacon vinaigrette

This recipe is from Michael Lomonaco (with the sub-recipe for croutons omitted).

Ingredients:

1 lb sliced bacon, cut crosswise into one-inch pieces;

2 tbsp chopped shallot;

1 tbsp Dijon mustard;

1 1/4 cup white wine vinegar;

Fine sea salt;

Freshly ground black pepper;

1/2 cup olive oil;

1 head (about 1/2 lb) curly endive or 2 heads frisee, cut into bite-sized pieces, well washed and dried

Directions: Warm a saute pan over low heat. Put in the bacon and saute until the fat is rendered and the bacon is crispy, about 8 minutes. Use a slotted spoon to transfer the bacon to a paper-towel lined plate to drain. Pour off and discard all but 2 tbsp rendered fat from the pan. (Leave more drippings in the pan for a richer dressing.) Add the shallots to the pan over low heat, stir in the mustard and vinegar, and season with salt and pepper. Slowly whisk in the oil to make an emulsified dressing. Put the endive into a salad bowl. Drizzle the dressing over the greens, add the bacon, and toss. Divide the salad among 4 to 6 salad plates and serve while the dressing is still warm and fragrant.

Adrienne's note: The dressing is way too watery and vinegar-y! The salad itself is great- curly endive, bacon, and other special additions suggested by the chef (toasted walnuts and bleu cheese). The next time I try it, I'll use a different tangy vinaigrette-- maybe an apple cider vinaigrette.

My question to cooks out there: Is the ratio of oils to vinegar correct here? I usually see 1 part vinegar to 2 or 3 parts oil. In this recipe, the ratio is reversed: about 2 to 3 parts vinegar to 1 part oil. Should the recipe read "1/4 cup white wine vinegar" instead of 1 and 1/4 cup white wine vinegar?

Curly Endive Salad with Blueberries, Toasted Hazelnuts, and Parmesan Shavings

Check out this huge head of curly endive! I wanted to get a shot of it sitting on the couch, like someone who has come over to visit-- that's how gigantic it was. It haunted me throughout the week. It was like a surprise houseguest that you don't know very well, who is staying for an indeterminate amount of time. You want to take him out and do things with him, but (1) you are busy, (2) fully engaging him appears to be a major task, and (3) all of this was so unexpected. So there he sits, waiting for you. It's a little weird, but you don't want to complain.

You come home after a long day at work, open the apartment door, hoping to see the sheets he used folded neatly on the couch, with some kind of thank-you note, and him? GONE! Instead, there he is, on the couch, with the remote in his hand. "Oh, hey!" you say, force-cheerfully. "You're still here! That's awesome! I was thinking we could do something this weekend, you know, if you're still around. Sorry we haven't had time to hang out." This you say, with your hand nervously rubbing the back of your neck. "Work has been so crazy lately, you know? Hope you're not too bored just sitting around here." And he is always so polite. He insists, "No, don't worry! I'm okay. Pretend I'm not even here. I don't want to be a bother." This conversation repeats itself day after day.

This massive houseguest took up an entire drawer in the fridge by itself, wrapped in a plastic bag, with a wadded up wet towel rubber-banded around its stump. I half-hoped that it would shrivel up and die before I got to use it, because it scared the crap out of me. The other (better) half of me hoped it would last long enough for me to at least try it. Well, this mofo has been going strong all week. I haven't seen any shriveled up leaves on it at all! It's still crisp and hardy in the fridge drawer. Yesterday, I got a chance to use it, and it was delicious! Curly endive, you are welcome in this house. I just had to get to know you first.

This is the first of a few recipes I am trying this weekend, and it comes from Ingrid Hoffman, of Food Network's Simply Delicioso.

Ingredients:

1/2 cup olive oil

1/4 cup raspberry vinegar

2 tsp honey

2 tsp Dijon mustard, smooth or whole grain

Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper

1 head chicory (curly endive) or other bitter leafy green, chopped

1/2 cup lightly toasted hazelnuts, coarsely chopped

1 cup fresh blueberries

4 oz aged Manchego cheese, shaved (Adrienne's Note: I looked for Manchego and couldn't find it, so I substituted Parmiggiano Reggiano)

Directions:

In a jar with a tight fitting lid, combine the olive oil, vinegar, honey, and mustard. Season with salt and pepper. Shake vigorously to mix well. Put the chicory in a large salad bowl. Drizzle the dressing all over the greens and toss gently with your hands to coat the leaves. Top with hazelnuts, blueberries, and cheese. Serve immediately.

Beet Chips

This recipe comes from Fix Me A Snack:

Ingredients:

2-3 medium beets;

Salt (optional)

Directions: Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Wash the beets thoroughly. Cut off both ends and peel. Keep a towel on hand or do your peeling under running water in order to keep the juices under control. Slice the beets very thinly (about 1 mm with a mandolin). (This is a rare instance where the mandolin is actually necessary. Uniform thickness in the chips is required in order for them to bake evenly). Lay the sliced beets out onto parchment-lined baking sheets. They can be placed close together as they will shrink during baking. Sprinkle with salt, if desired. Bake for 15-20 minutes keeping a close eye on them after 15 minutes as they burn easily. The beets will still be pliable when done and will crisp up as they cool.

Adrienne's Note: I didn't use parchment paper, so maybe that is where I went wrong. I used aluminum foil. My beets stuck to the foil and oxidized, turning an unappetizing gray color where they were stuck. If I do use foil next time, maybe I should toss the beet slices in olive oil so they don't stick? Also, my beets remained pliable even after they cooled. Hmmm..... a bunch of things to think about for next time.

Rainbow chard leaf pesto

Look at these rainbow chard! Nice, huh? I had a grand plan this week. I was going to make a rainbow chard lasagne using the leaves and stems in different ways. The leaves would be pulsed into a green pesto. The stems would be sauted in olive oil and garlic. The stems would be further cooked in the leaf-pesto-cream sauce before being layered with ricotta and mozzarella in a vegetable lasagne.

If it worked right, the finished lasagne would be an explosion of color: the light green of the pesto cream and the bright yellows and fuschias of the chard bits. Well, it totally did NOT work out as I planned. The leaf pesto came out fine, so I am including that recipe here, below. The stems, on the other hand, turned black! I had sauteed the stems ahead of time and refrigerated them, hoping to just combine the lasagne layers the next day. I cooked the lasagne anyhow, including the black chard bits, and it was a total FAIL! Oh, well, lesson learned. We will try to cook the chard into the lasagne on the same day next time.

In the meantime, here's the rainbow chard leaf pesto recipe from Pantry Eats:

Ingredients:

2 cups lightly packed chard, torn and ribs removed

1/4 cup toasted walnuts

2 tsp fresh lemon zest

2 tbsp fresh lemon juice

1/4 to 1/3 cup olive oil

1/8 to 1/4 tsp salt

1/8 tsp pepper

1/3 cup fresh shredded parmesan cheese

Directions: Process chard, walnuts, lemon zest, and lemon juice until paste starts to form. Gradually add oil and blend until creamy. Stir in parmesan cheese and salt and pepper.

Fennel Frond Pesto

What can you do with all the fennel fronds? Make pesto! It will have a bright lemon flavor and slight anise flavor, which I thought would pair well with fish. Here's the pesto recipe, from Recipe, interrupted:

Ingredients:

1/3 cup pistachios, toasted

1-2 cloves garlic, peeled and roughly chopped

1 oz (about 1/2 cup) freshly grated parmesan

1 tsp salt

ground black pepper, to taste

2 cups lightly packed fennel fronds (usually from about 2 fennel bulbs with a good amount of fronds on them)

optional: 4-5 mint leaves, torn

1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil

juice of half a lemon (or to taste)

Directions:

1. Put the pistachios, cheese, garlic, salt and pepper in a food processor. Pulse a few times to grind slightly.

2. Add fennel and mint, if using, to the food processor. With the motor running, drizzle in the olive oil until the mixture is reduced to a paste and has a spreadable, but not greasy, consistency. Taste and add salt if necessary. Squeeze in a little bit of lemon juice to taste.

Adrienne's note: We had this over sauteed salmon. To cook the salmon, salt and pepper the fleshy side of it. In a saute pan over medium heat, heat up about 1-2 tbsp of olive oil. Place the fish flesh-side down for about 6-7 minutes (this was a big slab). Watch the cooking process as the fish flesh turns from dark to light pink. When the fish is cooked midway through, flip it over so that the skin-side is in the pan. Cook for another 6-7 minutes so that the skin becomes crispy. Top with fennel frond pesto.

Fennel and Orange Salad

In 1995 or 1996, an English professor invited us (her "Asian American Women Writers" class) to her Upper West Side apartment for a potluck. Someone brought a fennel and orange salad. I went back to seconds, thirds, fourths, fifths. Yeah, no shame. What were we even discussing? Books? Politics? I don't think I was even paying attention. My single-minded focus at that gathering was eating more fennel salad. Ever since then, I have been wanting to make this salad. Guess what came in the CSA box and what will be coming for the next few weeks? Fennel! Here's that salad, courtesy of Martha Stewart (but we'll be trying different takes on this salad in the future!)

Ingredients:

1 tablespoon white wine vinegar

2 tablespoons olive oil

coarse salt and ground pepper

5 navel oranges

3 to 4 fennel bulbs (about 2 lbs total), ends trimmed, quartered lengthwise, cored and thinly sliced crosswise, plus 1/4 cup roughly chopped fennel fronds (optional)

Directions: 1. In a large bowl, whisk together vinegar and oil. Season with salt and pepper.

2. Using a sharp knife, slice off both ends of each orange. Following the curve of the fruit, cut away the peel and white pith. Halve orange from top to bottom; thinly slice crosswise. Transfer oranges, along with any juices that have accumulated on work surface, to bowl with dressing. Add fennel and, if desired, fronds. Toss to combine.