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Bossy Acres CSAWe received our first Bossy Acres CSA box this week!  It’s a little like opening the mystery box in those cooking shows on TV, but that’s part of the fun.

The haul from our first CSA box.

Radishes – Summer Salad Stars
1st challenge: We would be getting radishes in this delivery.  Radishes aren’t one of our everyday vegetable choices, so a little research was required.  I looked to Minnesota’s Bounty: The Farmers Market Cookbook by Beth Dooley for ideas.  Beth’s Midwestern focus means most of the recipes will include ingredients we’ll actually see in our CSA box or at our local farmers markets.  I made two different versions of a Mint/Cucumber/Radish salad.

Radish Salad (my strawberry version) – adapted from Beth Dooley’s Minnesota Bounty
Note: adjust the ingredient amounts to your eye and your taste

• 8 radishes, sliced or chopped, radish tops also chopped and added to the salad
• 1 cucumber, peeled, seeded and chopped
• 8 strawberries, sliced (alternately, cherry tomatoes as seen on the left in the photo)
• 1/2 cup chopped mint, hopefully from your garden
• 2 Tbs extra virgin olive oil
• 2 Tbs white wine vinegar
• 1 tsp honey
• salt and pepper to taste

Two different versions of radish salad: cherry tomatoes on the left, strawberries on the right.

Peppery radish crunch, mint, and a bit of strawberry sweetness

Lamb Chops and Quartered Yams
Sunshine Harvest Farms, our favorite local family farm source for meat and eggs is close by Bossy Acres.  In fact, the eggs in our CSA box are from Sunshine Harvest Farms.   I hope to be able to get out for a visit sometime this summer, photos will follow!

Cumin, Honey & Mint Marinaded Lamb Chops
Adapted from a recipe on food.com.  The food.com recipe was more of a wet rub than a marinade, so I added some traditional marinade ingredients.  Cumin was a great choice as the star flavor, even though I had a hard time tasting the mint in the final product.  Maybe more mint in the future?

• 1/4 cup chopped fresh mint
• 1 Tbs balsamic vinegar
• 1 Tbs extra virgin olive oil
• 1 Tbs lemon juice
• 1 splash of wine – your choice
• 2 tsp honey
• 2 tsp cumin
• pinch of salt and pepper to taste
• 4 lamb chops

• Separately,1 yam, quartered plus a touch of olive oil, salt and pepper and grill

I like my lamb chops a bit rare, they only took 2-3 minutes per side on the grill.

Tough to pick a single wine pairing, but dinner was a treat.

How about the wine pairing?  This meal would be easy if served in two courses.  Light and fresh, the Rosé was perfect with the radish salad, however, I thought it was a bit under-gunned when it came to the lamb.  Conversely, the Syrah was perfect with the lamb, but a bit much for the salad.  On balance, I thought the Wind Gap Sonoma Coast Syrah was the better pairing at the meal.

Always experimenting, we tried a Rosé and a cool climate Syrah

Wind Gap Wines 2009 Sonoma Coast Syrah ($35) – a real favorite
Eye: Deep, dark red.  Only translucent at the very edge
Nose: Dark fruit, blackberries but the dominant aroma (today) was black olives.
Mouth: Dark red fruit, peppery.  This wine is nice and lean and really wants food.  Very lively balance between good acidity and moderate tannins.

Sourced from several cool Sonoma Coast vineyards, you would never mistake this wine for something from Australia.  It is much more akin to wines from the Northern Rhone, although it is still uniquely Californian.  This is a Syrah I don’t hesitate to serve in the summer!

On balance, I gave the wine pairing to Wind Gap Sonoma Coast Syrah

Provenza Garda Chiaretto Rosé ($15 )
Eye: Bright, almost neon pink
Nose: Fresh strawberries and watermelon rind
Mouth: Light, refreshing red fruit with lively acidity, perfect with the salad.
Chiaretto wines are known as “wines of just one night”, referring to the brief contact between the fermenting juice and the must.

Chiaretto Rosé was lively and light, nice with the salad.