Shannon Phillips

In the box: chard, lettuce, collard greens, carrots, leeks, three bulbs of fennel, a bunch of slim asparagus, two heads of cauliflower, and a bunch of rosemary.

Last week’s standout success, from my perspective, was a Whole Foods recipe for quinoa stew with salmon and tomatoes:

I have trouble with fish because I’d like to eat it more, what with all you hear about those omega fatty acids, but I can’t stand that briny, fishy taste that can often occur when you’re, you know, eating fish. Fried fish is generally safe and I adore sushi, and bagels with lox, but fish cooked any other way is often just repulsive to me. Still every few years I buy a cut of fish and take it home to cook, because it’s definitely my culinary last frontier, and I want to keep pushing the boundaries. Two years ago I bought a big salmon fillet and cooked it en croute with goat cheese and herbs: it sounded like a no-fail recipe but two bites in, there it was, the fishy taste. We didn’t finish it, a huge disappointment for an expensive and time-consuming dish.

This quinoa and salmon stew was this year’s foray into fish-land (or fish-waters, whatevs) and I’m delighted to tell you that the dish is lovely, bright and citrusy and not briny at all. The salmon was on sale so it worked out to a reasonable price too. Robin demonstrated his opinion of fish by picking out all the biggest salmon chunks and eating them first! So, with this success under my belt I’ll be looking for more chances to work fish into my menus.

Tonight though I think we’ll start on the cauliflowers, in an Indian-style curry with chickpeas: since Delicious Living came through for me on the salmon stew, I’m going with this recipe.

Tomorrow for lunch Robin and I will have the other cauliflower, and the collard greens. For dinner, Panko-Crusted Catfish with Garlic Chard…unless they don’t have catfish at the fish counter. As noted, I’m not a regular there and I don’t have much insight into how fish seasons move. Maybe I’ll ask if there’s something else that can substitute.

Friday: Mushroom-barley soup (I intend to add leeks too) and salad. Saturday: an asparagus tart along the lines of what my fellow csa’er describes here (the chard version looks awesome too, doesn’t it?) And for our Sunday-night roast we’ll do garlic-rosemary pork loin, with fennel. That’ll provide leftovers for at least one night; if I need to improvise something on Tuesday, I will.