Carrot Ribbon Steam-Fry, Acorn Marmalade, Stuffed Eggplant, Med-Bread, Asparagus Tart

 Carrot Ribbon Steam Fry
Half steamed, half stir-fried -- that's what this dish is:

I've been making orange-ginger carrot ribbons for years:  peel some carrots, and keep peeling until that's all you have.  Pan-steam them with some orange juice concentrate and minced ginger, and call it a fabulous side dish.  

This time, however, I started with a GIANT carrots from the SW Florida Produce Co-op.  They know I generally prefer Large veggies, but this was exemplary!

In the same produce order we got a box of snow-pea pods that were begging to be stir fried.

So I string-sliced half a sweet onion and stir fried that together with the pea pods and some raw cashews.  Then I added giant strips of carrot ribbon, and 3-4 Tbsp of frozen OJ concentrate and 1/4 cup of water.   

I put the lid on the skillet and let things steam together for 6-8 minutes before tossing and serving.  WOW!

PS.  This will also work with smaller, more ordinary carrots...

Acorn Squash Marmalade
This is super simple!

Halve an acorn squash. 

In this case I used an uncommon White Acorn squash, and seed it. 

Bake or nuke until the skin is pliable but not mushy and the meat is fork tender. 

Add a couple spoonfuls of your favorite homemade marmalade (as I've described here many times) -- and serve.  This time I used Pomelo Marm made from one of the beautiful pomelos we've been getting locally.  

Stuffed Eggplant
This is one of our favorite dishes because you can using different spices to take it in a wide range of flavor directions -- Latin, Cajun, pan-European, Asian, Mediterranean...  You can make it vegan or pescatarian (our favorite) by adding canned tuna, or cooked shrimp, crawfish, even scallops/clams/mussels.

Halve the eggplant lengthwise, and use a knife and spoon to cut the meat out of each half, leaving about a 1/4" thick shell.  

Set the shells aside, cut side down, while  you make the stuffing.  

Chop the eggplant meat and saute it with some EVOO and a cup or so of chopped vegetables.  I used celery, onion, and bell pepper; but par-cooked carrots or parsnips, corn, peas all make good additions.  Spice with your choice.  I also used about a tablespoon of our favorite Cajun seasoning, but any spice combination will do.  

Add a bit of water to help the cooking process.  If things get too wet, you can always add a handful of panko or other breadcrumbs to tighten it up.

Stuff the eggplant "boats" and top with some shredded cheese, and bake in a pre-heated 350F oven for about 25 minutes until the cheese is well melted.

And serve:

Mediterranean Fauxcaccia
Terrible play on words, isn't it?  Faux plus caccia = imitation focaccia.  A shallow round loaf of bread.  In this case a Cider Bread I made using my basic Beer Bread recipe but with a hard cider instead of a beer.  Nice and light and slightly sweet.

I took half of the loaf, and cut it into four pieces:

Then using the multi-colored baby bell peppers and cherry tomatoes from our produce box, I roasted them with kalamata olives and red onion to create a Mediterranean style topping.  Opa!

Top it all with some crumbled feta and you've got a great supper!

Asparagus Leek & Mushroom Tart
Another great product of our SWFL produce box -- pencil-thin asparagus, sliced leek and rustic mushrooms, with cheese and bleu-cheese dressing.

The crust was made from my Two-Ingredient Yoghurt-Self-rising Flour recipe.  And I par-cooked it for about 10 minutes to get the bottom cooked.

Then I laid down some cheese, and added a pound of par-cooked 1" asparagus pieces, slices of disassembled thin-cut leek, chopped red bell pepper and mushrooms.  

I topped it with more cheese and a nice splash of bleu cheese salad dressing and baked it for about 15 minutes at 400F until everything was bubbly.