Sweet Day In The Morning, It's Sweet Potato Season!

So, unfortunately, my brain hates freedom tonight and no amount of Advil or Tylenol is touching it.  I am actually blogging in sunglasses at the moment.  Classy.  Thus, for now at least, this week's posts will be rather short and sweet.  In the Spoiler e-mail we linked you to our favorite, simple preparation for Sauteed Swiss Chard, which doesn't exactly scream Labor Day picnic food, but thankfully with this week's bounty of fruit you'll be able to throw together a wonderful fruit salad, fruit crisp, or even go all-American with some apple pie (or tart it up a bit!).  But I've got two preparations for those sweet potatoes for you.  One (an oldie but a goodie from our Crop Share vault) that will be a healthy, yet filling game day recipe now that football season is upon us (I might as well draw ire where I can...Go Colts!) and then another to take you from the gridiron to the grill and have you set for this weekend's picnic circuit.  Happy Labor Day weekend everyone!  Now where's a nice, dark and quiet room for me to hide?

Veggie & Chicken Sausage Stuffed Sweet Potatoes

Grilled Sweet Potatoes with Scallions via Martha Stewart

Szechuan Noodles with Cabbage & Broccoli (Peanut & Gluten Free)

As promised, I tried my hand at a peanut & gluten free version of Barefoot's Szechuan Noodles, and my oh-so delicious results are below.  I absolutely forgot to pick up bell peppers to add in (geeze Tara, where do you work again?) and forgot to trim my beastly growing scallions to complete the recipe (again  I ask, what do I do for a living?), so this version is sans a few of the veggies from the original.  But I did add in some sauteed cabbage, which I think was a great addition and would play well with all the original veggies I forgot to include.

Szechuan Noodles with Cabbage & Broccoli

Ingredients:
2 Tbsp wok oil (or olive oil if using a saute pan)
2 broccoli crowns, rough chopped
1/2 head of green cabbage, sliced thin into strips
pinch salt
1/2 lemon, juiced
1 tsp sesame seeds
1 tsp dark chili oil
6 garlic cloves, chopped
1/4 cup fresh ginger, peeled and chopped
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1/2 cup tahini (sesame paste)
1/2 cup almond butter
1/2 cup gluten-free soy sauce
1/4 cup sherry vinegar
1/4 cup sherry or dark red wine (I had a tad bit of some Merlot leftover that had gotten quite full bodied, so I used that in place of sherry.  I know, leftover wine, I should be ashamed of myself.  My Mama raised me better.)
1/4 cup local honey
3/4 tsp red chili pepper flakes
2 Tbsp dark sesame oil
1/2 tsp ground black pepper
1 lb gluten-free pasta (I used rice-based tagliatelle noodles from Schar)

Cook pasta to package directions.

Meanwhile, in a saute pan or a wok, heat oil on medium high heat.  Add in broccoli and cabbage, and saute until they begin to brown.  Season with a pinch of coarse ground salt and lemon juice.  Stir in sesame oil and sesame seeds and cook for an additional 1-2 minutes, taking care not to burn the sesame oil as it does not have the same heat properties as normal cooking oils.  Remove from  heat and set aside.

In a food processor or blender, blend ginger, clover and vegetable oil until smoothe.  Add in tahini, almond butter, soy sauce, vinegar and sherry/wine, and blend to incorporate fully, scraping down the sides if need be.  Add in honey, chili flakes, sesame oil and black pepper.  Pulse until well blended.  Pour half over pasta and toss to fully coat the noodles.  Reserve the rest in an air-tight container for future use (I think it could make a pretty killer marinade for some flank steak).  Stir in veggies and serve immediately.

The Fungus Among Us!

I'm a big fan of mushrooms.  If a dish contains them, it's a pretty safe bet I will order it or see if I can add mushrooms to it.  So while I'll have a hard time NOT making the Skinny Mushroom Risotto from Skinnytaste yet again, I figured I would give you a veritable pu-pu platter of some of our recent favourite mushroom dishes we've had on the blog.  Plus, I'm just waaayyy too engrossed in SyFy channels marathon of epically cheese shark movies tonight to do much justice with the blog tonight.  Nerd alert!

Don't forget we long to know what's cooking in your kitchen, so send your recipes (mushroom containing or otherwise) to cropshare@nallsproduce.com!

Mushrooms Sauteed With Sherry Vinegar via Herbivoracious

Skinny Mushroom Risotto via Skinnytaste

Veggie & Chicken Sausage Stuffed Potatoes

Szechuan Noodles with Broccoli via Barefoot Contessa

Wednesdays are typically my day off from Nalls Produce and that means I actually get to watch Barefoot Contessa.  Nothing relaxes me quicker than the soothing sound of Ina Garten's voice, even though I always feel like she's silently judging me.  Am I using good olive oil?  Would Ina approve of my faux cheeze?  And this week, as I slipped into a vicarious food coma, I watched as Ina whipped up Szechaun Noodles with Chicken & Broccoli.  Then I thought to myself, "Ooo, next time we get broccoli in the Crop Share, I'm making this!"  And then lo and behold...broccoli is coming home with all of us this week!  The version linked below is the bare bones version, but in the show she added shredded chicken from 4 roasted, bone-in chicken breasts and about a cup of blanched broccoli.  I'm going to use some of this week's cabbage and possibly some of the eggplant, as well, in this dish.  And since we're peanut free in this house, I'll see how it turns out with almond butter in place of the peanut butter called for in the sauce.  So be on the lookout for my follow up post after this weekend, but until then, I give you Barefoot's version...

Szechuan Noodles with Broccoli via Barefoot Contessa

Click through to view this recipe from Barefoot Contessa...