Produce from the CSA Box

Sage Mountain Farms & Deluz Farms may or may not be names you are familiar with. These are two local organic farms situated in the Temecula area. For those home cooks and foodies out there, the promise of a fresh, healthy and delicious home cooked meal with great ingredients is what makes this ‘tasty takes’ shot exciting.

What is a CSA box, you may be asking? CSA stands for Community Supported Agriculture. Basically, the community gives “pledges” and in return, they receive a box of fresh produce every week or two, depending on their pledge amount. There are several “pick up” locations around the county where members can get their box.

Depending on what is in season and what is ripe, the boxes will vary from week to week. This adds to the excitement of receiving the box every week. The CSA box in the picture above contains green bell peppers, carrots, tangerines, lemons, baby beets, juicy ripe Roma tomatoes, different varieties of new potatoes, green onions, red spring onions and a few varieties of patty pan squash. Oh, the possibilities…..

Inland Empire CSA
www.inlandempirecsa.com
sagemountainfarm.com
www.deluzfarms.com

Pick-up locations after the jump:

Pick-up locations:

De Luz Farms and Nursery       Loma Linda Farmers Market
22250 Corte Bonita                     Barton Road Frontage Road
Temecula, CA 92590                  between Loma Linda Drive and Benton St.
Saturday 8-11                               Sunday 8-10:30

Health Habitat
27190 State Highway 189
Blue Jay, CA 92317
Sunday 10-1

Riverside Farmer’s Market         Sage Mountain Farms
Sage Mountain Farm Booth        40630 Sage Rd
3700 Main Street                          Hemet, CA 92544
Riverside, CA 92501                     Saturday 8-11:30
Saturday 9-1

Claremont Farmer’s Market       L&M Fertilizer
Sage Mountain Farm Booth        28690 Las Haciendas
Indian Hill Blvd & 2nd Street     Temecula, CA 92590
Claremont, CA 91711                   Saturday 9-12
Sunday 9-1

Pulpo a la vinagreta

Vinegar, sweet peppers, parsley, extra virgin olive oil, and tender perfectly cooked octopus. This is one of many tapas at Costa Brava that are featured on the daily happy hour menu, from 5 – 7, along with pitchers of sangria.

If you’ve ever wanted to go to Spain, but are a few thousand dollars short, Costa Brava is the closest thing. Located on Garnet Avenue, enshrouded in foliage, as soon as you enter the covered patio, you feel like you’ve been transported to Spain.

The comfortable patio, the masculine bar, the skylights in the dining room, and the accent of the Spanish waiters all make you wonder how you’re still in Pacific Beach. And then with the first sip of sangria, the first bite of pulpo a la vinagreta, or patatas a la brava, or jamon Serrano, you start to wonder if you really are in Spain.

But then, you snap back to reality when you see the table next to you, they’re all decked out in flip flops and T-shirts that say “Pacific Beach,” then you realize, you’re still in San Diego.

Costa Brava
1653 Garnet Avenue
Pacific Beach
858.273.1218
http://www.costabravasd.com/
Open Daily 11:00 am to midnight

These little babies combine three of my favorite ingredients – chocolate, coffee and beer! This recipe is a slight variation on the layered chocolate porter cake at North Park’s Sea Rocket Bistro.

Ingredients:
• ¾ c stout or porter style beer
• ¼ c strong espresso
• 8 oz butter
• ¾ c cocoa powder
• 2 c flour
• 2 c sugar
• 1 ¾ t baking soda
• ¾ t salt
• 2 large eggs
• ¾ c sour cream
• 12 oz blueberry jam
• ¾ c chocolate chips
• 1 can dulce de leche
• ¾ c sour cream

For the cupcake batter:

Bring beer and butter to a simmer. Let butter melt completely. Whisk in cocoa powder. Take off the heat. Mix flour, sugar, baking soda and salt together in a separate bowl. In a mixing bowl, beat eggs and ¾ c sour cream 30 seconds. Add cocoa stout mix. Mix until incorporated. Add flour sugar mix. Mix on low until incorporated, making sure to scrape sides of the bowl. Fill cupcake cups ¾ full. It should make around 18 small cupcakes. Bake at 365 until a toothpick inserted comes out clean, about 12 – 15 minutes. Let cupcakes cool.

For the chocolate frosting:

Melt chocolate chips, whisk in ¾ c sour cream and ¼ c dulce de leche.

To assemble:

Take a tablespoon and scoop out the middle of each cupcake. Put 1 ½ teaspoons blueberry jam in the hole, and put the cupcake middle back in place. Ice cupcakes with either chocolate frosting, or dulce de leche. There should be enough frosting and left over dulce de leche to frost half chocolate and half dulce de leche. Let them set, then give to those special loved ones!

Visit the beach community Cardiff-by-the-Sea and you might get addicted to crack. Cardiff Crack, that is. In-the-know junkies so dubbed the Burgundy Pepper Tri-Tip from Cardiff Seaside Market at some point since 1990, when the marinated masterpiece first became available.

Be warned: taking a bite of the tender cut of meat fresh off your grill has been known to lead to an adventure so rich, juicy, and peppery you’ll be hard-pressed to satisfy yourself with a single serving.

“It’s our hottest selling item by far,” said Bob Byrne, the meat department manager at Cardiff Seaside Market. “We’ve got people who come all the way from Orange County to buy it.”

“It’s true,” said Dan Mezich, a Cardiff local hooked to the tender cut by his own admission. “I went in there in the late ‘90s and they told me this was the best Tri-Tip around.” Like many a sampler, the 43-year-old contractor first stumbled upon the “crack” at Cardiff Seaside Market by chance.

Tri-Tip is a boneless cut of beef taken from the bottom sirloin, or lower part of the cow’s ribs. It gets its name from the triangular shape. According to Byrne, the meat department can sell out of 600 to 700 pounds of Burgundy Pepper Tri-Tip on a busy holiday weekend alone. “On Memorial Day, it was crazy,” he added. At $8.99 per pound, meat eaters have shelled out a pretty penny to stock their barbeque feasts.

The finished product in all its glory

A cut particularly tender to begin with, the seasonings added by Cardiff Seaside Market tenderize it to new heights. When asked to state the secret behind the local sensation, Byrne explained, “The key is the marinade we use and the process. We marinade it in a vacuum tumble machine, put it in plastic containers. The air gets pumped out and spins so the marinade can really absorb.” About an hour later, the “crack” is ready for the dealing. And the answer is “no,” the meat manager would not reveal exactly what ingredients get smothered into the meat.

Upon trying the Burgundy Pepper Tri-Tip for the very first time, your reaction might be similar to that of Carmel Valley resident Rachel Leigh. One evening in Carmel Valley, she finally tasted the famed meat marvel for herself (full disclosure: my husband and I were present and already suffer from Cardiff crack addiction).

“Oh my gosh, that is good!” she gushed with a mouthful, proclaiming, “As a woman who knows her meat and grew up on a ranch in Texas, I am definitely going to go and get this.”

Ladies and gentlemen, gas up your grills! Crack craze, meat madness, whatever you want to call it, Burgundy Pepper Tri-Tip really is worth the trip to Cardiff.

Cardiff Seaside Market
2087 San Elijo Avenue
Cardiff-by-the-Sea
http://seasidemarket.com/

Hours
Open daily from 7:30 am – 10:00 pm.

This week, we feature some slices of summer from the corner of 25th and C Street in Golden Hill. On the right, we have a just ripened golden orange apricot from the corner fruit stand: Sweet, slightly tangy, with a hint of honey. They also have plums, nectarines, mangoes, papayas, and pineapples. You can also buy a fruit salad or an all beef hot dog, or bleach if you’re doing laundry next door.

The watermelon cookie is from Panchita’s Bakery. It’s a sweet sugar cookie with chocolate chips for watermelon seeds. Panchita’s is a Mexican bakery, or a panaderia. You walk in, grab a pizza tray and tongs, and load up. Then you wait in line, pay, have them bag it, and you’re on your way. If there’s a long line, while you wait, you can watch the bakers in the window, manipulating large mounds of sweet dough. Also try the tres leches cake, and the bolillos are five for a dollar.

Panchita’s Bakery
2519 C Street
San Diego, CA 92102
619.232.6662
Hours: 8 am to 8 pm

Fruit Stand
In the parking lot on 25th Street between C Street and Broadway, around the corner from Panchita’s.