Freezing Green Beans and Snow Peas

1. Bring a very big pot of generously salted water to a rolling boil (the kind that will quickly come back after you add your room temperature beans.)
2. Add rinsed beans, in one pound batches, though that depends on just how big your pot is. Do not crowd the beans!!
3. Boil , or as it is more technically called, blanch the beans for 2-3 minutes depending on just how big your beans are and whether or not you left them whole, or chose to cut them into 1 inch or 2 inch segments.
4. Drain immediately and rinse under cold water to stop the cooking process. The key is that your beans are partially blanched, not completely blanched, before freezing.
5. Shake the beans so that most of the water drips off and then lay them out of a baking sheet. If they seem really wet, pat them dry, to minimize ice crust formation on their surface.
6. Then place your sheet, of well spread out beans in the freezer and come back to it in a half hour or so. What you are doing is beginning the freezing process in such a way that each bean freezes on its own, and not in a crammed, packed mass stuffed inside a ziploc bag. You want inidividual frozen beans, not a frozen ice block of beans.
7. After a half hour or so of freezer time on the tray, go ahead and place them into ziploc bags with as much air as possible squeezed out of them.
8. Come December, enjoy your summer green beans and snow peas by pulling out a bag full and blanching them straight from the freezer for 2-4 minutes in a big, well salted, rigorously boiling pot of water!!!!

Japanese Cabbage Pancakes (Okonomiyaki) with Sweet & Tangy Sauce

This recipe is something from way back in March, when we were using up the last of the winter cabbages, and digging up the last of the leeks. No more leeks now until around September, but cabbage is just starting to come on, and we have tons of peas and garlic scapes. One of the exciting things about cooking on a farm is working with seasonal ingredients, so here's a favorite cabbage recipe, adapted for two different times of the year.

Pancake recipe adapted from 101 Cookbooks
Makes 3 pancakes

pancakes:
1/2 cup white rice flour
2 eggs
salt and pepper to taste
oil to fry

veggies late winter/early spring:
1.5 cups cabbage, shredded
1 cup leeks, halved and diced
1/4 cup carrots, grated

veggies early summer:
2 cups cabbage, shredded
1/4 cup snow peas, cut into horizontal strips
1/4 cup garlic scapes, minced
1/4 cup carrots, grated

sauce:
1/2 cup Worcestershire sauce
1/4 cup Ketchup
2 tbsp Soy sauce
1/4 cup Brown sugar
1 tbsp Mustard powder
Pepper to taste

To make the sauce, combine worchestershire sauce, ketchup, and soy sauce in a small saucepan until simmering. Add brown sugar and mustard powder and stir until dissolved. Cook for 5-10 minutes until reduced by 1/3 or until you get the yummy thick consistency of teriyaki or barbeque sauce. Resist the urge to take a spoonful and let your sauce cool while you start your pancakes.

Finely shred cabbage. If using carrots, peel, then grate on a large-size cheese grater. If using leeks, cut green tops and bottom roots of leeks and cut remaining white section down the center. Wash well to get rid of any grit that might be stuck way down in there. Slice the washed leeks into half-moons. If using scapes and peas, dice both into slices 1/4'' wide. Mix cabbage, carrots and other vegetables together in a bowl.

Add rice flour, salt and pepper and mix well. In a separate bowl, beat eggs and water together. Pour the egg over the veggies and stir well to coat. The mixture will not seem batter like -- it will be more like veggies coated in flour. This is okay.

Heat 1-2 tbsp of oil in a small pan over medium-high heat. When hot, scoop 1/3 of the mixture into the center of the pan. Use your spoon or fork to flatten out batter. It's best if the batter reaches all the way to the sides of the pan, this helps the pancake keep its shape as it's cooking. Fry for 2-3 minutes on one side; turn over by placing a large plate on top of the pan and flipping over. Return the pancake to the pan, other side up and fry another 2-3 minutes. Remove from pan and serve piping hot, drizzled with sauce.

Garlic scapes and snow peas substitute for leeks in the summer version of this crispy cabbage pancake

Using rice flour instead of wheat flour makes for a crispier, lighter pancake and a gluten-free dinner option

Thai-Style Lettuce Wraps

1 red pepper, diced finely
1 1/2 cups Napoli carrots, diced into 1/4'' cubes
6-8 brown crimini mushrooms, diced into 1/4'' cubes
1 cup Synergy snow peas, cut horizontally into 1/4'' strips
3 garlic scapes diced into circles 1/4'' thick
1 small Stuttgarter onion minced
1 large shallot minced
2 cloves garlic minced
1 lb Island Grown ground pork, optional

2 tbsp oil for frying
2 tbsp fish sauce*
4 tbsp soy sauce
2 tbsp brown sugar
black pepper to taste
1/4 cup chopped cilantro or mint or basil

2 lettuce heads (preferably a butter lettuce variety or trouthead for perfect lettuce-wrapping cups)

*you can find fish sauce at Market Place or Kings Market, or at the Gourmet's Galley store at 21 Spring Street in downtown Friday Harbor.

Directions:
Heat 2 tbsp oil on high heat in your pan or wok. Add in shallot and onion and fry for 10 seconds until fragrant, then add in garlic and fry another 20 seconds. Add ground pork, breaking it up with your spatula or wooden spoon. Fry for 2 minutes, or until browning, but not yet cooked.

Add in carrots and snow peas and scapes and fry another 2 minutes, stirring well. Add in mushrooms and bell pepper and fry another 2 minutes. The meat should be cooked, and everything should be well mixed.

Add in sauce and chilis, if using. Stir well to coat all ingredients. Add in chopped herbs (cilantro, mint or basil) and stir until wilted.

Serve at room temperature with washed lettuce leaves.

Ingredients all prepped to add to the pan

Stirring the meat into the sauteeing onions and shallots makes for a fragrant, well-flavored dish