The vege and fruit box arrived this morning. The fridge is stuffed to overflowing, especially the vegetable drawer. But it won’t be for long. This post is about what happened to all that food.
I love getting a box of produce delivered. It narrows down the choices with weekly food planning, and it adds an element of surprise and challenge. And, I don’t have to go shopping (or persuade someone else to).
And it’s all organic, or spray-free, and it’s all locally grown. We’ve opted for the Ooooby Big Organic Mix box, which is a bit more expensive than the basic box, but I figured I should put my money where my mouth is.
We do also buy veges and fruit at the farmers’ market, and we have some growing in the garden. With four adults in the household, we get through a lot of food.
There are several other vege box suppliers in the Waikato, including Locavore, The Farm Shop and at Raglan, WOK (Whaingaroa Organic Kai). I’m planning to write more about them soon.
This post is about what we did with the contents of the previous Ooooby box. (We’ve only just started on today’s box.)
A box of treasure, freshly arrived on our doorstep.
In the box
It contained: strawberries, tangelos, mandarins, a paper bag of macadamia nuts, some beautiful ripe tomatoes, cos lettuce, broad beans, asparagus, a chili pepper, a yellow capsicum, a bunch of spring garlic, a bunch of spring onions, a couple of kohlrabi, a bunch of bok choi, a bunch of mixed young greens that were mainly (I think) kale, some potatoes and kumara. And an avocado.
The first thing I did after opening the box was to decide what needed to be used first, and what would keep for a few days. This time it was the young greens, the kale and the bok choi, because it was a very hot day and it looked like they wouldn’t keep well, even in the fridge. (Mature kale lasts better.)
Spring garlic, spring onions, avocado, capsicum… and those kohlrabi.
Tuesday night
Stir-fried kale and bok choi, with one of the spring garlic bulbs, a couple of spring onions, the chili and the capsicum.
Here’s what I did:
Heat a couple of tablespoons of oil in a wok. Add finely chopped spring garlic and 2 tsp finely grated fresh ginger. Stir for a couple of minutes, then add everything else. Stir and cook for a couple of minutes, and then add a splash of soy sauce and a splash of Chinese cooking wine (optional). Cover and cook until all the greens have wilted – maybe another five minutes.
Wednesday
Salad with the cos lettuce, a couple of tomatoes and herbs from the garden, i.e. oregano and sorrel.
Slice or tear cos lettuce into bite-sized pieces. Finely chop herbs and sprinkle over the lettuce. Cut tomato into wedges and add.
Just before serving, toss with a dressing made with extra-virgin olive oil, balsamic vinegar, mustard, a pinch of salt and a grinding of black pepper. Two or three tablespoons of dressing should be plenty.
Thursday
Kohlrabi, two ways: pickled, Scandinavian-style, and combined with the potatoes in Bashed Neeps. For recipes, see my previous post, “Laughing at vegetables”. We had the kohlrabi with some excellent pork schnitzel from The Organic Butchery.
Friday
Steamed broad beans, baked kumara wedges, tomato salad
To make kumara wedges: Heat oven to 200 degC. Cut kumara into wedges. I don’t bother peeling it. Toss kumara with 2 tablespoons of olive oil, or lard if you’re a carnivore. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Bake for about half an hour, or until kumara is cooked. Don’t overcook – kumara cooks much faster than potato.
Gorgeous tomatoes and broad beans.
Saturday
Asparagus: This time we just steamed it, but my favourite way to cook asparagus is on the barbecue.
What happened to the rest
The avocado took a few days to ripen in a shoebox, and then disappeared into somebody’s lunch.
The macadamia nuts gave us a good reason to go and buy a new turbo-strength “Bonk” nut-cracker from The Scullery in Victoria St (a shop which is full of beautiful and useful kitchenware, and I wish I could spend much more money there).
The strawberries, tangelos and mandarins vanished within 24 hours.
