Jerusalem Artichokes

My garden friend, Danny, grows Jerusalem Artichokes.  He called me one day recently to say he had left me a bag of them in my garden plot.  He also leaves me wine and vinegar bottles for my project of building borders around my beds (if I ever remember to bring the camera to the garden, I will get pictures of this).  My gardening friends are all very nice.  My son refuses to go to the garden with me anymore because in his words "you say you will only be a minute and you take an hour".  That's because I have to stop and chat with the gardeners - that's part of being a member of a community garden.

Anyhoo, back to the artichokes.  They aren't really artichokes but a member of the sunflower family.  In fact, it's hard to tell the difference from your average sunflower

I have tried these vegetables in the past and have been ambivalent about them.  This time around, I thought I would try them with potatoes in a gratin.  It turned out pretty well but hard to tell what was a potato and what was the artichoke.

They can also be roasted.  This week, I made roast chicken for me and the kids and decided to throw a few into the oven.  There is a fine line between roasted to perfection and explosion in the oven.  The vegetables will explode at a certain point and then taste pretty yucky!

I decided that I just didn't like them and put the bag of the rest of the vegetables on the back porch, to be tossed into the compost.  The frugal side of me then took over as well as the guilty gardener - I don't like to throw anything away so I thought, what else can be made with these?  Soup.  Cream of Artichoke Soup.

So tonight, I made soup.  Simmered the vegetables the onions and carrots in chicken broth and pureed with my swanky new Breville Blender.

Jerusalem Artichokes - cleaned and scrubbed

In the pot with other vegetables

 Chicken broth, made last week.  Once the broth cools, the fat can be skimmed off the top.  Does anyone save this?  I think it's called schmaltz - I don't save the chicken fat because I have jars of lard!

Once everything was soft and blended, I decided it was too thin and needed some thickness.  So I took the rest of the potatoes and boiled them in the soup, then pureed again.  Much better.  Sean suggested adding Harissa which added the right amount of spice.  What soup doesn't taste better with bacon?

The rest of the meal was cheese, bread and salad.  I made the salad dressing with some pureed preserved lemons.  This was brilliant! I read in a blog about taking the rest of one's preserved lemons and just making a puree - so I did.  I could eat the whole jar of this, it's delicious.  I used up the rest of what I had in the fridge - just scraped out the seeds from the lemons and plopped it all in the food processor with the salt, lemon and lemon juice that was in the jar.

The rest of the meal.  There is also homemade fig jam.  The cheese was Salemville Amish Blue and Meadow Creek Grayson - described as having a big beefy taste - which it did - pungent and strong but perfect with the fig jam.

Cooking from the empty pantry

I've been away for a few days to Charleston, SC.  There is a conference there every year and this is the third time I've attended.  It's a librarian conference, focused on collection development, acquisitions, electronic resources, technology among other topics.  Sean came with me this year and let me tell you, we ate like kings.  Sean's birthday was Wed night so our three friends joined us for dinner at Fig.    Thursday night, several of us were treated to dinner at Poogan's Porch by one of our vendors.  The last night there, we went to Jestine's  I ate mac and cheese, collards and butter beans with a slice of coconut cream pie to end the evening.  Needless to say, it's water and stale bread for me for awhile.

I got home this afternoon and decided to make something for the next few days.  On the way home, I stopped at my garden and picked greens (mustard, lettuce, arugula, mizuna).  I opened my fridge and realized there wasn't much there and there was no way I was going anywhere out of the house.

I dug out a lentil stew recipe and miracles of miracles, had all the ingredients (well, I made substitutions)

Shallots, garlic, potatoes and tomatoes, all from my garden

Mustard Greens picked earlier

Spices (coriander, curry and cumin) and brown lentils

Vegetable base for broth and cilantro lime sauce to add at the end

Lentil Vegetable Stew

2 tblsp olive oil

1 onion chopped

1 tblsp minced garlic and ginger

1 tblsp curry powder

1 tsp each cumin, coriander, salt

1/2 tsp cayenne

1 cup brown lentils

3/4 lb red potatoes diced

29 oz veg or chicken broth

1 10 oz bag of spinach

1 cup shredded carrots

1 tomato diced

1/2 cup chopped cilantro

Heat oil, saute onion and cook 4 min,  Add spices and garlic and ginger and cook another minute.  Stir in lentils, potatoes, broth.  Bring to a boil and simmer for 30 min.  Add rest of the ingredients and cook for a few minutes.

Cooking from the pantry

As you all know, my freezer and pantry are full.  Luckily, my pork delivery has been delayed a couple of weeks so there is still time to reduce the inventory of pork products.  I decided that Sundays would be a good day to "cook from the pantry".  I'm hoping the dark day challenge that I did last year will be hosted again this year - a perfect way to cook my way through all the food I preserved.

I defrosted a bag of sausage, a bag of tomato puree and several tomato cubes.  The idea was to make a sauce to serve with Pasta.

Tomato puree with cubes

Sausage

I heated some olive oil and sauteed crushed garlic and shallots (both from my garden).  Added about 2/3 of the bag of sausage and browned.  Poured in thawed tomato puree and cubes.  Seasoned with Penzy's Italian Herb mix and some salt.  Simmered for several hours.

Went to the vegetable garden today and picked a nice assortment of greens

Served sauce over Penne (not homemade!)

While the kids are away

My kids are with their Dad for the next two weeks (headed to Chicago, lucky them) so I decided my challenge would be to only eat out of the pantry/freezer/fridge/garden for the next two weeks.    A trip to the store may be in order to buy eggs since Farmer Allan's chickens have stopped laying because of the heat.  I was thinking of also making a trip to Costco to stock up on essentials but for the most part, I think I can live off of what is in my house and garden.

An inventory of the freezer shows:

Bread flour
A bag of pecans
lots of soup bases (Roasted red pepper, vegetable, chicken)
2 bags of toffee chips
2 lbs of unsalted butter
bags of chopped rhubarb
ham steaks
2 boxes girl scout cookies (shortbread)
a bag of mahi mahi steaks
1 bag naan
1 bag plum tomatoes (from last year's garden)
tomato puree
lots and lots of sausage
pork chops
strawberries
blueberries


There's lots more in my little freezer and lots of vegetables in the fridge.

I started out this morning with fresh fruit, yogurt and honey.  Lunch was leftovers from last night's dinner.  Tonight I am making pasta with sauteed chard and garlic.  Chard and garlic from garden and I'm going to toss it all with a little arugula pesto that I made last month.

The chard is Bright Lights

Recipes from the garden

The garden is producing like mad.  This week, it's going to be close to 100 degrees every day so I'm going to have to water morning and evening, I think.    I'm from New England, and after living in the south (North Carolina before DC) for 16 years, I'm still not used to the hot and humid weather here.

Yesterday, Sean and I went blueberry picking at Butler's Orchard.  He needs some picking training as I seemed to have filled up my container while he was eating the berries off the bush instead of putting them in his bucket.

Here is the garden harvest and some things we made with the fruit and vegetables.

Blueberry Cobbler

Right out of the oven

Yesterday's haul

Leftover zucchini from relish making.  We decided to bread and fry the slices

Garden tomatoes, broiled with mozzarella cheese

Tonight's dinner.  Zucchini, potatoes, tomatoes, layered with bread crumbs, basil, mozzerella, parm and topped with beaten egg.  A favorite from the Moosewood cookbook

Cucumber Purslane salad with minty garlic yogurt sauce

Sesame Poppy Seed breadsticks

My son seemed a little bored when I got home from work - what tipped me off?  "I don't know what to do mommy" - I had just come home from work with a stop at the vegetable garden to water.  Since I rode my bike, when I got home all I wanted to do was to sit on the front porch and drink my iced tea.

"I know Mommy, can we make those twisty breadsticks with the poppy seeds?"  So said my son a few minutes after I had my iced tea.  "of course, honey, let me get the recipe"

Here is what we did this evening - recipe is from an old Ladies Home Journal

Sesame Poppy Coated Twists

1 package active dry yeast (or 2 1/4 tsp)
1/2 cup warm water (110F to 115F)
4 cups all purpose flour
1 1/2 tsp salt
1 cup room temp water
6 tablespoons sesame seeds
4 tablespoons poppy seeds
1 1/2 tsp kosher salt
2 tblsp olive oil

Sprinkle yeast over warm water in 2 cup measuring cup
Let stand 5 min until yeast is dissolved

Mix flour and salt in large bowl
Add room temperature water to dissolved yeast.  Add liquid to flour mixture and mix until a rough ball is formed.
 (I use the Kitchen Aid mixture with dough hook)
Knead a few minutes until dough is smooth and elastic

Place dough in lightly greased bowl, turn to grease top.  cover bowl and let rise in a warm draft free place until double in bulk, about 1 to 1 1/2 hours.

Combine sesame seeds, poppy seeds and kosher salt in a small bowl.

Grease a large cookie sheet

Transfer dough to lightly floured surface, press into a 12 inch square.  Sprinkle 3 tblsp seed mixture over the top.  Fold square into thirds, business letter style to form a 12 x4 inch rectangle. Pinch all seams to seal

Brush top with 1 tblsp olive oil, sprinkle evenly with half the remaining seed mixture.  With 2 large spatulas, turn over dough, seed side down, onto cookie sheet.  Brush top with remaining oil and spread remaining seed mixture.  Cut rectangle crosswise into 12 pieces

Twist one strip at a time and stretch to form 6 inch long twist.  Arrange twists 1/2 inch apart on prepared cookie sheet.  Cover loosely with plastic wrap and let rise for 30 min.

Preheat oven to 425.  Bake 20 min and reduce heat to 375 and bake 10 min more.
Cool on wire rack.

Sour Cherries - Danish Cherry Vlaai

On Sunday the kids and I went to pick strawberries and as luck would have it, the sour cherries were ready too.  My friend Kathryn has a cherry tree and in years past, I pick at her house.  Unfortunately, her tree didn't really produce last year so I felt like I had to seize the moment and pick cherries right away.

Ugh, my camera was blurry!

Usually I just freeze the cherries and then over the year, dehydrate them to put in my granola.  I found a recipe for something called Danish Cherry Vlaai.  It's a sweet yeast dough, put in a tart pan and topped with sugared cherries and baked for 30 min.

Dough in tart pan

Cherries mixed with sugar and beaten egg

Ready for the oven!

The rest of the cherries I put on a tray and froze.

Risotto with spring peas

I walked through the garden today and picked lots of greens for salads.  My garden neighbor D was sitting in his garden (he has set up a trellis like shade area with a chair) and while we were chatting I heard the sound of a bird singing very close by.  There was a little wren in his garden, chirping away.  He and his mate were nesting in the birdhouse that D had amongst his sweet peas.  My gardening neighbor said the wren had become very used to him in the garden.

Today was meatless Monday and while my son was not that enthusiastic about it, I insisted.  He did end up helping me make dinner and has already planned dinner for tomorrow night (fried chicken).

Risotto with Spring Peas

Chop fine a small onion.  Heat a saute pan with some oil or butter and fry onion until soft.  Add 1 1/2 cups arborio rice and stir to coat.  Pour in 1/2 cup white wine and stir until absorbed.  Slowly add 5 1/2 cups of broth, one ladle full at a time.  After each ladle of broth, stir until most of the liquid is dissolved.  Before the last cup of broth is used, stir in peas.  When all cooked, add parmesan cheese to taste (about 1/4 cup or so).

Frying onion

Fresh peas

Base to make vegetable broth

Rice and broth added

My helper

Risotto with salad

Meatless Mondays

My friend over at Mommy Porch has been posting for months about her Meatless Mondays.   I didn't realize until I read an article in this week's Washington Post that it was an organized movement.

I stopped eating meat when I was 19 and pretty much stuck to that routine until I was in my 30's.  Then I would eat the occasional piece of chicken while out dining and when I was pregnant with my daughter, I really craved chicken.  So slowly, meat has worked it's way back into my diet.  After all, there is a 1/2 of hog sitting in my freezer.  I would say that meat is still not a mainstay of our diets - chicken once a week and fish once a week and the rest of the time is really vegetable based. 

In any case, with the harvest starting of my own garden and my CSA set to start to deliver in a couple of weeks, I think I will try to follow the Meatless Monday routine and blog about it like my friend Mommy Porch.  Tomorrow for dinner will be risotto with fresh peas.

Speaking of porches, I was sitting outside on my porch shelling peas and enjoying looking at my garden.  It doesn't get any better than that.

My porch

I love my porch!

Chocolate Souffle

Mommy, can we make chocolate souffle for dessert?  Of course honey

Chocolate Souffle

6 tablespoons sugar plus extra for dusting ramekins
1 oz semi-sweet chocolate
4 1/2 tsp butter
2 tblsp cocoa
2 tblsp flour
1/8 tsp salt
1/2 cup milk
3 egg whites

preheat oven to 375  Grease and sugar 4 ramekins

Combine chocolate, butter and 3 tblsp sugar in saucepan.  Cook on low heat until butter is melted.  Add cocoa, flour and salt.  Whisk in milk and cook for 3 min.  Cool.
Beat egg whites until foamy.  Add remaining 3 tblsp sugar, 1 tblsp at a time.  Beat until stiff peaks form.  Fold 1/4 of mixture into chocolate, then fold in the rest.  Pour into ramekins and bake for 20 min.

Chocolate mixture

Ramekins, greased and dusted with sugar

Beanie Two, beating egg whites

Ready for the oven

Yum!  Ready to eat