Autumn Vege Bag - Week 8
We keep an archive of previous vege highlights, tips and recipes in the previous weeks blog posts.
Click on any vegetable that has a link to see posts with more detailed information about it.
Click here to go to the archive and use the “filter” to bring up previous posts we’ve highlighted a vegetable for more tips, recipes and background info.
This week we have
Salad (from Ahoaho māra kai)
Zucchini (Ahoaho māra kai)
Kale (Ahoaho māra kai)
Carrots (Ahoaho māra kai)
Capsiscum (x2) or Tomatoes
Chilli (mild Shishito, medium Jalapeno or Cayenne, or HOT Habanero) or Basil (Crooked Vege)
Napa Cabbage, Pak Choi or Radish (Crooked Vege Ōtaki)
Coriander or Snake Beans (Crooked Vege Ōtaki)
Vege highlights, tips & recipes
Tempura Shishito chillies (mild)
Shishito are a common bar snack in Japan, and I can confirm they go well with a cold beer. They're quite mild (the occasional one is hotter).
We normally just char these in the pan and add a bit of seaseme oil, soy sauce and lemon/lime and have them as a snack with friends or a side dish.
But a Japanese visitor told us one of her favourite ways to eat shishito is to make tempura with them. I haven’t tried it yet, but its hard to imagine it not being great. Here’s a recipe.
Of course, you can always just use them like you would a normal green chilli!
Pak Choi
Pak Choi is the first crop we ever grew at Crooked Vege Ōtaki about 2 years ago, and it’s been the staple crop ever since. It’s by far the crop we grow the most of, sowing about 1000 a month 11 months of the year. We have established a solid wholesale market for pak choi, and we seem to reliably produce a good crop. (For those who don’t know, Crooked Vege supplies some organic shops and restaurants - this is an important part of making pay-what-you-can kaupapa viable). We don’t do Pak Choi in the vege bags too often during the warmer months, when there is more abundant diversity on farm, but it will become more important again moving into winter.
George’s favourite way to use Pak Choi is in a stir fry. Her key tips:
She pulls apart the leaves and slices them thinly across the leaf. If you slice down the leaf, they tend to be somewhat stringy.
Use them right at the end of the stir-fry for the best texture.
I also like to use them as a substitute to napa cabbage in kimchi. I wrote a bit about kimchi here a few weeks ago.
—
Ka kite ano,
Jon
