The Last of What’s In My Box?

Tags

Abel & Cole, beet salad, bell pepper, bergamot, bergamot de Nancy, bergamot lemon, broccoli, carrots, chioggia beets, courgette, CSA, earl grey tea, Jerusalem Artichokes, kindred spirits, medium veg box, mushrooms, potatoes, red bell pepper, soups stews, zucchini

We have now entered our last two weeks here in England. Our things will get packed up and shipped to the United States on Monday. This coming Monday. Our time here feels like it has been cut short.

Emily pets Patella, they are incredibly kindred spirits!

One of the things that I will really miss about England and living here is our Abel & Cole boxes! Here is the last one that we received. Essentially we are making soups, stews and chilis with everything that is in our fridge right now because they work the best at using up all sorts of odds and ends in our fridge before we start giving away and donating all the items that we aren’t taking with us or can’t. We even have a couple families lined up that are having a hard time making ends meet that will really appreciate all the little goodies we will be dropping off this weekend – and what a better way to use up all of our pantry items?

Without much ado, here is What Came in Our Box for our last week of this series!

• White mushrooms
• Carrots
• Zucchini (or courgettes)
• A bag of spuds
• A bag of Jerusalem Artichokes
• Broccoli
• Red bell pepper
• Chioggia beets
• Bergamot Lemon

These beautiful, bright red beets were roasted and turned into a salad… lately we can’t get enough of beet salad – it’s been a mainstay in all of our lunches!

see the little lemon? it’s a Bergamont and a completely new obsession!

it’s not quite yellow, but it’s not quite orange either… it’s rather golden and it smells AMAZING!!

What is a bergamot lemon? It is the fruit from which Earl Grey tea and bergamot candies are derived. I’m not entirely sure what I’m going to make with this little guy quite yet. So far, I have been completely enamored with it and carrying it around and making people smell it. The skin is incredibly fragrant and it is such a treasure and a treat that I am not keen on letting it out of my sight, nor am I certain I want to eat it but we will only be in England for a couple weeks so….

David Lebovitz has done a little piece on bergamots which you can read here.

Wikipedia, in all it’s factual glory, has done a bit on bergamots as well.

Naturally, since we are moving to California, I’m now going looking for a place to buy a bergamot lemon tree to plant at our new house… naturally!

Have a lovely Wednesday!

Abel & Cole Citrus Chicken

Tags

Abel & Cole, carrot, clementine, CSA box, onion, orange, orange roast chicken, potato, winter root vegetable

Each week, our Abel & Cole box comes with a little newsletter with fun information and a couple recipes concerning the things in your box and what you can do with the abundance of squash or greens they send, etc so you get the most use out of your box each week.

The recipes are always an interesting jumping off point and have given us plenty of ideas for what we want instead in the past but this past Tuesday when we read the recipes that were included, it was the first time that both the husband unit and I were interested in making BOTH! So here is the first, it is a roasted citrus chicken and we had to sacrifice one of Mei’s clementines for the meal, but she hardly noticed.

Mei literally eats 1 kg of oranges every two days so we go through a whole bunch of oranges each week, in addition to all of the other fruit she loves to eat on a daily basis! She loved a bit of this chicken too! Naturally!

This was really simple and don’t let the recipe fool you! You can include as much chicken as you like, just adjust the number of oranges for the amount of chicken you are making, along with the root veggies. We tried to keep our veggies proportional to each person and what they would eat but you can leave the veggies out or put in more or less and of course, only the veggies you want! The beauty of this type of roast recipe is that it is entirely adaptable to you and your family – and I’m certain that you will be able to sacrifice some of your citrus for this recipe even if you have an orange hoarder on your hands like we do!

Ingredients:

• chicken (you can use two breasts, two legs, four thighs or four drumsticks or whatever combinations suit you) 
• olive oil
• salt and pepper
• 2 oranges or any orange citrus variety you have on hand, quartered
• a couple handfuls of seasonal vegetables, cut into chunks (we used potatoes, onions, carrots and turnips)
• one red chilli, finely chopped (to taste)
• 3 garlic cloves, finely chopped
• 2 TBS honey
• a handful of fresh coriander or parsley roughly chopped for garnish (optional)

Preheat your oven to 400 F/ 200 C / Gas 6.

Pop the chicken in a roasting tray. Glass with oil and season well with salt and pepper. Scatter the veggies in among the chicken then squeeze two of the orange quarters over the chicken and place the rest of the orange segments around the veggies.

Roast for 25 minutes.

Squeeze the juice from one of the orange segments taht is in the dish over the chicken then drizzle the honey over the chicken and decorate the skin with the chilli and garlic.

8

Crank the oven up to 450 F/ 230 C/ Gas 8 and cook for an additional 10-15 minutes until the skin is crispy.

Add a final squeeze of roasted orange juice over the chicken and finish with a scattering of fresh herbs.