I can’t say I’ve been perfect on my eat-it-all effort with my Rolling Prairie CSA subscription this year. A few chives got away from me (meaning, they got unappetizingly slimy) before I used them, but I think that’s it.
My biggest accomplishment was eating all the mushrooms from the first bag. Yes, I had a pint container full of shiitake mushrooms, and I consumed them all. (It didn’t hurt that they looked like little chocolate cakes.) I started off well, sautéing them and adding them to a spinach-rice concoction. I added more to something else I don’t recall. That left two chewy, earthy mushrooms and flagging will on my part.
The two mushrooms seemed to shrink. They looked as though they were drying right there in the refrigerator. They sat a couple more days. Hating to think I was going to fail so early in my produce season, I pulled them out of the refrigerator and washed them thoroughly. I’d read somewhere that shiitakes are known to really soak up water, so I figured a serious washing might rehydrate them, and indeed it seemed to do the trick.
I diced them and turned to one of my two use-up-the-bounty fallbacks: eggs. (The other is risotto.) I melted a little butter, and I cooked the mushrooms along with a little green onion, pieces of asparagus and spinac, and then poured five or six beaten eggs over them. I covered the pan, turned the heat to low and let the eggs cook. I lifted the edge to let uncooked eggs run to the bottom. I attempted to finish the top off in my toaster oven, and found it’s still too small for my small cast-iron skillet. No matter. I just put the pan back on the stove with the lid until the eggs were set on top. E presto! Frittata, or something darned close. And it actually tasted pretty good.
The current challenge in the refrigerator is the radishes, but I’m making progress. So far, I’ve had a radish sandwich and radishes on salad. Still, I’ll probably have to resort to a stir-fry to use a lot of them up. But I will do it! Whether I eat the radish greens as intended is another question. I’m trying to take inspiration from Sylvie’s Cream of Radish Leaf Soup, but I’m making no promises.
Meryl // May 13, 2009 at 8:24 am
Yay for mushrooms! May I also suggest mushroom gravy?
Amanda // May 13, 2009 at 9:12 am
I have a recipe for Mushroom Roll-ups, an appetizer, I’ll send it to you… I seem to recall even the mushroom haters liked them.
Janet Majure // May 13, 2009 at 4:37 pm
Gravy, of course, makes lots of things taste better, Meryl. I’ll have to think about chopping them pretty small for that treatment, though!
And thanks for the recipe, Amanda. I’ll keep it in my mushroom arsenal, even if it means I have to have a party to consume future mushrooms. :)