Philly chefs cook their way through Green Meadow Farm’s CSA box

The Brendle family’s heirloom Pennsylvania grits, wild ramps, and deeply smoked bacon had to go somewhere. But Green Meadow Farm, one of the region’s renowned purveyors of Lancaster County’s agricultural bounty to local restaurants, had seen its customers evaporate overnight. On March 7, it made deliveries to 53 Philadelphia restaurants. By March 14, as Pennsylvania’s statewide shutdown of nonessential businesses was about to be enacted, its orders had dwindled to seven.

A quick pivot to sell its products to retail consumers was in order for Green Meadow. And its community-supported agriculture (CSA) initiative, delivering preordered boxes of mixed seasonal vegetables, meats, and dairy, has been an instant hit, with nearly 250 new customers by Week 4. It’s a move that’s been undertaken by many in the food-supply chain who previously relied on restaurant customers. Lancaster Farm Fresh and Zone 7 are two other locally focused purveyors who’ve also since upped their CSA games, with convenient pickup locations and, in some cases, free home delivery.

On its surface, it appears to be an ideal solution for two conundrums: an eager new market for relatively small farmers whose crops are about to hit spring stride; and a convenient source of stellar fresh ingredients at a moment the public has been advised to minimize trips to the market.

The transition has not been entirely seamless for the Brendles. Seventh-generation farmer Ian Brendle and his father, Glenn, have been determined to keep prices reasonable during the crisis, despite the fact their cost on a $39 box of vegetables can be as high as 60 or 70%. In addition, assembling far more retail orders each week than they’re used to, but at far smaller quantities with more packaging than their usual bulk restaurant orders, adds-up to “twice the work literally to break even,” says Ian Brendle. “You figure it out or, you know, you lose the farm.”

For consumers, meanwhile, having rare access to these prime ingredients is both a major opportunity and a culinary challenge.

The contents of Green Meadow’s $50 meat box are typically straightforward enough, with sustainably-raised chickens from an Amish farmer named Joseph King that are among the best I’ve ever tasted. There’s coveted thick-cut bacon that smells like a country smokehouse, ground beef with dry-aged savor, and eggs with yolks as vivid as morning sun.

But Green Meadow’s produce? It’s as prized for its unusual diversity as for its quality. Who knows what to do with daylilies, which look like delicate leeks? Or the foraged fiddlehead ferns, tiny Beauregard sweet potatoes, jars of thick raw honey, bags of unidentified greens, and heirloom corn appearing in multiple shades of roast and grind?

The region’s chefs know. The boxes, whose contents are posted on Green Meadow’s Instagram account Friday evenings, have been selling out within hours. And a brief scan of social media reveals so many Philadelphia-based culinary pros and writers flexing their daily Green Meadow inspirations that it’s become something of a Philly food world meme, from chef Brad Daniels’ maple-brined grilled duck (a three-day process also involving the farm’s sumac and allspice) to writer Adam Erace’s ramp and cheddar hoecakes. And then there was the granola made with Green Meadow’s maple syrup by Victoria Jeker of South Philly’s Mole Street Baker, who was a winner on season two of Netflix’s Sugar Rush last summer. Personal chef Hillary Prickett (a.k.a. The Salted Apron) posted pics of her blueberry cornmeal skillet cakes and dry-rubbed chicken with creamed greens and ramps.

“It’s easier for me because this is basically the way we’ve been cooking for six years,” concedes Palmer Marinelli, the executive chef at Peachtree Catering who’s posted multiple instructional videos with recipes on his Instagram stories cooking through boxes from Green Meadow and other CSAs. In one, he turns a $19 whole broiler chicken into three separate meals, roasting the breast, making confit of the legs for later, and steeping the back and wings into broth. “This idea that the producer comes first and tells us what’s going on, and then we take it from there — this is how every cook should act.”

Of course, it helps to have some skills in the kitchen. A lack of them, paired with the spontaneous nature of each week’s changing contents, can be intimidating for many home cooks when it comes to CSAs, whose contents are predetermined by the farmers. So I asked four local chefs for help with suggestions on how they would approach a week’s worth of Green Meadow boxes. And the responses from Nicholas Elmi, Elijah Milligan, Angelina Branca, and Anthony Andiario were as diverse as the kitchens they run respectively, from classic French (Royal Boucherie and the Bercy) to Malaysian (Saté Kampar) and seasonal Italian (Andiario).

Their flavor profiles covered the globe, with each chef calibrating their approach for home cooks, delivering recipes that are ultimately flexible.

The deep-dish quiche Elmi modeled after his version from Royal Boucherie showcased Green Meadow’s bacon, mustard greens, eggs, and Colby cheese, but could work with any filling. Taking scarce quarantine pantries into consideration, he dialed back the original richness of his custard made with cream and yolks to accommodate whole eggs and whole Lancaster milk. Better yet, it’s a do-ahead recipe with several days of shelf-life, meaning “you get to sleep in.”

Milligan, until recently executive chef at the Bercy and a veteran of Le Bec-Fin, Laurel, and Petit Crenn in San Francisco, looked at the bacon and relatively giant 6-pound chicken in my box and immediately went to the French classic coq au vin, also turning the Kennebeck spuds into cylindrical fondant potatoes. I didn’t have the pearl onions that are essential to the Burgundian garnish, but charred wedges of onions worked beautifully. Improvisation is not only necessary during quarantine cooking — finding substitutions and creative solutions is part of the fun.

Improvisation, practicality, and thorough planning were at the core of Branca’s approach. The Malaysian-born chef broke down the boxes’ ingredients in order of perishability then put them to use in building blocks of preparations. From bone broths to crêpe batter and poached chicken (for gado-gado salad!), those elements added up to a dozen meals — plus a regular hot toddy each night with that honey.

Step one: “Ferment the mustard greens... . [They] take too much fridge space," Branca said.

Fermented greens, which take a minimum of three days, are also among the Malaysian kitchen’s most versatile ingredients. A briny, funky flavor-enhancer that brings umami and depth to dishes like her Hakka-style juk, a rice porridge cooked toward the end of the week’s cycle using broth and making the most of every last scrap.

Anthony Andiario, meanwhile, offered a font of ideas built around techniques to preserve the seasonal bounty for a number of Italian preparations, from pastas to polenta-style grits topped with an herb sauce and a poached egg. The chef offered a few other particularly useful recipes I plan to repeat. Roasting apple wedges in a caramelizing glaze of honey, salt, and lots of cracked black pepper — 15 minutes each side at 350°F until they almost turn leathery — offered a brilliant touch of concentrated fruity sweetness sparkling with spice useful in salads (and pork chops) that can be repeated with any orchard fruit.

Andiario’s Vitamix technique for puréeing greens that still retain their color was especially versatile for transforming the season’s gift of ramps, whose peppery leaves I blanched, shocked in ice water, then blended into a green silk. I used it to make an infusion for a walnut pesto, compound butter (for roasted oysters and potatoes), bright-green scrambled eggs, and even pasta dough. And now wish I had more.

Admittedly, it takes a willingness to dive in to expand your hands-on kitchen skills, not to mention a moment to get the rhythm of cooking steadily through what seems like a mountain of ingredients. Those daylilies? They added a lovely green tint and oniony savor to pureed potato soup.

By the time I spent a couple weeks with the help of these chefs braising, baking, fermenting, and roasting through the rest of our Lancaster farm treasure, we’d eaten some of our best home meals of the year. It’s still uncertain whether Green Meadow will continue its retail CSAs once the coronavirus crisis eventually passes and restaurants come back on line. But what a rare gift it is in the meantime to be able to support this wonderful farm during tough times while the Brendle family and other talented farmers, in turn, keep some of us all fed — one weekly box of farm-fresh surprises at a time.

Make this a day ahead, and use whatever fillings you want. It lasts for up to a week and gets you out of having to make breakfast in the morning, so sleep in!

Dough

400g/ 3 ¼ cups all-purpose flour

30g/ 2 egg yolks

6g/ 1 tablespoon salt

90g/ ⅓ cup iced water

180g/ 1½ sticks cold butter

In a food processor add the flour, salt and chopped-up cold butter and pulse until the butter is small like peas. Add the egg and water and pulse until incorporated. Let rest at room temperature for an hour.

Filling

150g/ ⅔ cup bacon or pancetta, diced small

10g/ 2 or 3 cloves garlic, minced

80g/ 3 or 4 shallots, diced

1½ cup grated Colby or cheddar cheese

2 cups chopped kale or mustard greens

Splash of white or red wine vinegar

Base

1 quart whole milk (or 1 quart heavy cream, if available)

8 whole eggs (if using milk); or, if using cream, 4 whole eggs plus 135g/8 egg yolks

Preheat oven to 325°F. In a pan sweat the bacon until crisp and add the garlic and shallot. Cook until tender and add the kale. Cook until greens wilt, then deglaze with splash of vinegar and cover. Cook on low until the kale is tender but still has a little texture. Cool. Fold in the cheese.

Roll out your dough so that it fits a deep 10-inch cake pan and covers the edges. Butter the pan then lightly dust it with flour. Place the dough in the pan then weight it using a piece of parchment and some dried beans. Trim the edges. Bake for 10 minutes, remove the weight then bake for another 10 minutes. Remove. Let the dough cool.

Mix together the eggs and yolks in a large bowl with a whisk. Add the cream and fold in the rest of the filling. Gently pour the filling in the dough that is still in the cake mold and bake for 35-45 min at 350°F or until set. The milk-based batter may take about 10 minutes longer than the batter with cream. Let it rest over night if you can. Slice warm.

From chef Nicholas Elmi of Royal Boucherie, ITV and Laurel.

Serves 4

4 shallots sliced (or 1 onion)

1 large carrot chopped

2 stalks celery, sliced

2 garlic cloves

1 bottle red wine (Burgundy or pinot noir)

1 large chicken, about 4 pounds (or larger), cut into 8 pieces

1 tablespoon vegetable oil

100g/¼ pound thick-cut smoked bacon, sliced into lardons

salt and pepper, to taste

50g/3 tablespoons tomato paste

25g/3 tablespoons flour

1 liter/1 quart chicken stock

Several sprigs of parsley, thyme and a bay leaf, tied into a bouquet garni

2 tablespoons butter

225g/8 ounces button mushrooms

15-20 pearl onions, peeled (or, a small onion cut into wedges if pearl onions aren’t available)

Combine the shallots, carrot, celery and garlic with the red wine in a pot. Bring to a simmer for five minutes, then cool. Place chicken pieces, cooled wine and vegetables into a deep glass or ceramic bowl (avoid metal) and place into the fridge overnight, or as long as two days.

Preheat oven to 325°F. Remove the chicken from marinade and pat dry. Strain the vegetables from the wine and reserve both.

In a Dutch oven, heat the vegetable oil over medium heat, and render the bacon until the bits are brown and crisp. Remove the lardons and reserve for garnish. Season the chicken pieces with salt and pepper and add to the pan skin-side down and cook until they are thoroughly browned on all sides. Remove the chicken from the pan and reserve. Add reserved vegetables from the marinade and cook until lightly browned. Add tomato paste, toss with vegetables and let it toast in the pan for 2 minutes. Add the flour and stir until it lightly browns, about 2 minutes.

Add the wine to the pot and stir to incorporate, using a spatula or spoon to scrape the bottom the bottom. Once it begins to thicken add the stock and stir. Add the chicken back to the pot, along with the bouquet garni, covering the chicken completely with the sauce. Cover pot and cook in the oven until the chicken is fork tender, for about 90 minutes.

While chicken is cooking, prepare the garnish. Heat butter in a pan over medium heat, add the onions and cook until browned on all sides. Remove and combine with the lardons. Add mushrooms to the same pan and sauté until lightly browned, then combine.

To finish, remove chicken to a serving platter. Strain sauce from the pot, discarding the braising vegetables. Adjust sauce for seasoning and thin, if necessary, with more stock or water. Pour sauce over the chicken, scatter with the garnish of lardons, onions and mushrooms and serve.

— From chef Elijah Milligan

Congee, or rice porridge, is common in many cultures. In Ange Branca’s Hakka heritage, the congee is called juk and showcases the complexity of flavors and textures of different ingredients cooked separately then added-in, rather than other congees in which ingredients are cooked together. This makes it the ideal for making the most of leftovers to bring elements of saltiness, sweetness, sourness and fresh crunch together in the same bowl.

Makes 2 servings

Congee base

1 pint cooked rice (preferably jasmine) or 1 cup uncooked rice

2 pints chicken broth (ideally from the bones of your CSA box whole chicken), or water; if using uncooked rice, 5 cups of liquid is required

Optional add-ins:

Make the congee base by boiling the rice and broth in a pot without lid for about 45 minutes on medium-high heat, until the whole grains dissolve into a creamy porridge. If cooking from fresh rice, more time will be required.

Prepare whatever add-ins you have at hand from leftovers. Present in small bowls around the pot of congee and let guests ladle their soup then top their bowls as desired.

A note on salt: If you are using fermented greens, you don’t need to use salt. You can use the fermentation brine. Do not add salt to the congee when making it. The congee should be tasteless, except for the flavor of the rice and broth. The toppings are where the flavor should come from, adjusted individually to everyone’s taste.

Half a bunch of mustard greens

1 quart water

2 tablespoons kosher salt

Wash the mustard greens, cut them, including the stems and put them into two sterilized Ball jars or a ceramic pot. Do not use a metal container. Place a weight on the vegetables to hold them down so they are submerged in the brine. Any vegetable not submerged will start to spoil and attract unwanted bacteria.

Make a simple 2% brine by combining 2 tablespoons of sea salt per quart of water. It should taste like sea water. Pour brine over the greens, completely submerging them. Cover the jar, but do not screw the jar tight, it needs to breath. Leave it in a corner out of the sun for at least 3 days. Once it’s ready, seal and put in fridge.

— Recipes from Angelina Branca of Saté Kampar.

Anthony Andiario uses ramps in many forms and preparations, from wood-charred to powdered and pickled. Turning ramps into purée, however, is one of the most versatile preparations, allowing ramps to be used in sauces, compound butters, hollandaise, a pesto with black walnuts, and even pasta dough, substituting for some of the egg.

Makes about ¾ cup

2 cups ramp greens

Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Remove the bottoms and reserve for another preparation. Blanch the leaves in salted water for 1 minute, then shock in ice water. Remove and drain well. Roughly chop the ramp leaves.

To make the purée, place 4 tablespoons of ice water in the bottom of a Vitamix or other blender. Turn it on high. Then using your hands, stream the chopped-up pieces of ramps into the Vitamix. If it starts to get bound up and isn’t spinning, turn it off, stir with a spoon, add a little more ice water and ice cubes, 1-2 tablespoons at a time until it comes together. Turn it back on gradually bringing it up to high. Continue this process till you have a very smooth paste, similar to tomato paste in consistency.

Put it in a strainer lined with a tea towel or coffee filter, allowing the excess water to drain out. The water can either be discarded or used for another purpose. After an hour or two, you should be left with a nice, stout, ramp top puree, ready to use in pesto, pasta, eggs or any sauce.

— From chef Anthony Andiario of Andiario in West Chester.