GardenFork – Eclectic DIY

Tag: cooking

  • Foraging For Edible Wild Plants In The Backyard – GF Video

    Foraging For Edible Wild Plants In The Backyard – GF Video

    There are edible wild plants in your backyard that you can forage for and make a great salad from. No need to go to the farmers market, you’ve probably got edible greens in your yard you can eat. Identifying and harvesting edible plants is called foraging, but I call it free food in your yard.

    Below are some photos for plant identification, but be sure you know what these plants are. These are fairly unique plants, but be sure, OK? And make sure the area you are foraging has not been sprayed with fertilizers, herbicides, etc. You don’t want that stuff getting into your food. You can buy Leda’s Foraging Book here.

    Some Wild Edible Plants:

    Dandelion

    foraging for wild edible plants foraging for wild edible plants

    When harvesting dandelion, you can choose to leave the plant in the ground and growing if you want. Just harvest the outer leaves and the plant will continue to grow. The leaves get stronger tasting when the dandelion flowers, but I think you’ll find the taste pleasing.

    Plantain

    foraging for wild edible plants

    Plantain grows close to the ground usually. Once it sprouts its flower stem, you probably don’t want to forage for it, as the older leaves are not as great to eat. They can be stringy.

    Chickweed

    foraging for wild edible plants foraging for wild edible plants

    Chickweed grows in nice big bunches, and if you cut off just the top 3-4″ of the plant, it will keep growing. It self seeds if you let some of the plants flower and go to seed. Then you’ll have more free food!

    Garlic Mustard

    foraging for wild edible plants foraging for wild edible plants

    Garlic Mustard is a non-native invasive plant. I see it along roads a lot. Harvest it by pulling up the whole plant with the roots. This plant will crowd out native plants, and most states want to get rid of it. The leaves taste like mustard greens, though not as strong. It has some good vitamins, so eat up.

    Violets

    foraging for wild edible plants

    Violets grow like weeds. There are some cultivated varieties, but the ones in our yard are wild edible plants, and easy to identify. They are low growing and have white – purple flowers. Harvest the flower and stem for your salads. They look great on a dinner table.

  • How To Make Banana Bread With Mom’s Recipe

    How To Make Banana Bread With Mom’s Recipe

    Moms shows us how to make banana bread with a recipe she has used for years. If you want moist banana bread, I suggest using riper bananas and more of them. You will have to bake the banana bread a little longer.

    Banana bread is one of those comfort foods from childhood that still work. Having a bad day? Have some banana bread. I really like this loaf toasted with some butter on it, served with tea. Nice.

    I don’t recall the name of the cookbook this banana bread recipe comes from, but it was one of those recipe collections put together by a group of people and self published. There are many variations on banana bread, we have one made with coconut here, and a dutch oven banana bread here. But this is mom’s standard and its the one we will learn how to make banana bread with. So here we go.

    how to make banana bread

    I have found that dark metal or glass loaf pans work better for this, I like the browning of the crust. And if you want a taller loaf use slightly narrower pans than the standard loaf pan. The baking time will vary depending on your oven, they are all different.

    I’m all about saving bananas in the freezer. Have some your family wont eat? Put them in the freezer to save for this. They thaw quickly and fall apart in the batter. Nice that you don’t have to jump through all sorts of hoops to prepare them for freezing. Just throw them in. Done.

    Banana Bread – Mom’s Recipe
    Recipe Type: Baking
    Author: Community Baking Book
    Prep time:
    Cook time:
    Total time:
    Serves: 1 loaf
    Here is how to make banana bread, this basic recipe will make a nice loaf, if you want a moist banana bread, add more bananas and bake longer.
    Ingredients
    • 1 cup sugar
    • 1/2 cup butter
    • 3 ripe bananas
    • 2 eggs
    • 2 cups all purpose flour
    • 1 teaspoon baking soda
    • 1/2 teaspoon salt
    Instructions
    1. Mix together the sugar and softened butter with a hand mixer
    2. Add in the bananas and eggs, mix them in.
    3. Mix the dry ingredients together in a bowl with a fork.
    4. Add the dry ingredients into the wet batter and stir to combine, but don’t overmix.
    5. Pour into a greased loaf pan and bake for 1 hour at 350F
  • Cabbage & Apples with Salmon Recipe – From The Fridge

    Cabbage & Apples with Salmon Recipe – From The Fridge

    I’m trying to cook more from the refrigerator, as I always have something in there I can cook with. If I was more organized I could plan dinners, but that happens rarely. Instead I keep a stock of stuff I like to cook with, and go from there. But the fridge was looking kinda empty and there was this half a cabbage in there with some apples that were going soft.

    cabbage-apples-with-salmon-2

    So I put some chopped onion into the pan and then added in the apple and cabbage. The apples will disappear in the mix, adding that applesauce kind of taste to the dish. I remembered from a Facebook conversation we had awhile ago, some people suggested caraway seed, and I had that from a bread baking experiment.

    cabbage apples recipe

    I first covered the pan of cabbage to let it steam and break down the leaves a bit. This also softened the  apples. And I could walk around doing other stuff, as the water that sweats out keeps the pan from burning. After the cabbage has broken down nicely you can remove the lid and let it start to brown.

    I read recently where you shouldn’t let cabbage cook too long or it will have a mustardy smell, I have not experienced that.

    cabbage-apples-with-salmon

    I always keep frozen salmon in the freezer. It defrosts quickly using our How To Defrost Meat Quickly video technique. I put it under the broiler for a few minutes. I am good at over-cooking salmon, so I have to focus, which can be a challenge.

     

    Cabbage With Apples Recipe

    1/2 head cabbage, chopped up

    2 apples, sliced with skin on, its OK if they are soft

    1 medium onion, roughly chopped up

    2 teaspoons caraway seeds.

     

    Put a few glugs of oil into your pan. You want the whole pan to be covered with about 1/8″ of oil.

    Drop in the onions and cook down a bit until you can they become kinda transparent.

    Add in the cabbage and the apples, scatter some salt on it,  mix it all up, and cover.

    Set on medium or low heat, depending on how your stove works. You want the dish to steam-cook, not burn.

    Give the dish a stir every 5 minutes or so, chopping up any hunks of cabbage.

    When the cabbage has broken down to your liking, take off the lid and brown the cabbage.

    Taste for salt, it may need more, and then you’re done.

     

  • Best Rice Pudding Recipe : GF Video

    Best Rice Pudding Recipe : GF Video


    How To Make Rice Pudding Recipe Video. I love rice pudding, here I show you how to make rice pudding in the oven. There is also a stove top rice pudding recipe, which we will show you soon. Rice pudding is a comfort food, it reminds me of diners and maple syrup. Plus rice pudding is super easy to make, even I can make it .
    Many people make a bouron sauce for rice pudding, but I prefer honey or maple syrup. I’m not big on the bourbon sauce, I find it too sweet and boozey.

    Plus this is another use what you got recipe, in that you can put in nutmeg or cinnamon or a combo of both. At the local diner, they sprinkle the cinnamon over the dish of rice pudding just before baking it rather than mixing it into the batter.

    Other additions that I’ve seen are chopped apple, lemon or orange zest, dates, currants, and other dried fruit. Try some stuff in your cupboard and let us know what works for you in the comments below.

    In testing for doneness, its eye of the beholder, some people like pudding firm, and others like it more loose pudding like. I think a lot of it depends on what you ate as a kid. I remember a lot of Jello pudding as a kid, so i tend toward the firm side of puddings.

     

    rice pudding small

    Best Rice Pudding Recipe
    Ingredients
    •    2 cups cooked rice, long, short, or brown
    •    1 1/2 cups milk
    •    4 eggs
    •    1/3 cup sugar
    •    1 tsp vanilla
    •    1 tsp salt
    •    1 tsp cinnamon or nutmeg
    •    1/2 cup walnuts or raisins ( optional)
    Cooking Directions
    1. Preheat Oven to 325F
    2. Mix together everything but the rice.
    3. After the eggs are well mixed, add in the rice.
    4. Pour the batter into a greased 8×8 or 9×9 dish
    5. Bake for 25-30 minutes
    6. Pudding is done when its the consistency that you like pudding, some like it firm, some like it jiggly.
    7. I prefer to serve warm with honey or maple syrup.

  • Braised Short Ribs Recipe Fail

    Braised Short Ribs Recipe Fail

    Why do my short ribs blow?

    Short Ribs ready to be oven browned
    Short Ribs ready to be oven browned

    So this is one of those where I had some short ribs in the freezer, I defrosted them, and cooked them pretty much how everyone else does, and the short ribs come out tough, not fork tender.

    I’m not a huge cookbook collector, but I have  few general go-to reference cookbooks, and the braised short ribs recipes are all pretty much like this:

    Sear the ribs in dutch oven or in a baking pan in the oven, add liquid, cover and cook for hours on a low flame.

    Short ribs browned in oven
    Short ribs browned in oven

    I did try the browning the meat in the oven method, because I think the short ribs can get cooked to fast when searing them. Or maybe this is all just in my head and not real food science…

    Thinking this was one of those dishes I could safely ignore, I got sucked into the world of tweaking the GardenFork.TV website, and then realized how  long it had been since I started cooking the ribs. I got up and turned them in the dutch oven, and let them cook longer.

    I even cooked these in the afternoon, and then pour off the liquid, threw that in the freezer to separate the fat out – which worked, BTW.

    I gently reheated the ribs which I had cooked with onions, carrots and about 2 cups of liquid, half red wine – half water.

    But the ribs were tough, which bummed me out a bit, as they looked great when i first opened the package. Food guru Chris Kimball has taught me that meats like short ribs will turn tough if cooked too long. The proteins lock up and don’t allow any liquid in, thus being tough to chew.

    Braised Short Ribs look great, taste tough
    Braised Short Ribs look great, taste tough

    So many recipe give a time and oven temp to cook meat, but what I think recipes really need is a temperature to attain, and then the meat is done.

    Have to work on this more. What are your thoughts on overcooking meat, especially things like short ribs? Let us know below:

  • Pizza Oven Plans by Kathlean Video

    Pizza Oven Plans by Kathlean Video

    GardenFork Viewer Kathlean made a brick pizza oven based on our How to make a backyard brick oven video, and put together this great video of how she made a pizza oven out of brick. Kathlean found the brick on freecycle.org, which is brilliant – i’m all about use what you got, and these bricks fit the bill. These bricks have holes in them, our brick oven bricks did not, but Kathlean puts the holes to good use, making the roof of the oven out of brick and black pipe that slides through the brick and supports it.

    We’ve gotten a bunch of photos of back yard pizza and bread ovens, and i plan on putting together a photo gallery of the backyard ovens people have made inspired by our brick oven. Next on my list is an enhanced oven to bake bread. I need to increase the mass of the oven with more brick, and make a door to cover the front opening. Then we’ll heat up the oven with firewood to about 700F, let the fire die down, and slide in some loaves of bread. Neat.

    Have you built a brick, stone, or cob oven? I’d like to hear about it, you can leave comments below:

  • How to make sausage at The Meat Hook & The Brooklyn Kitchen

    How to make sausage at The Meat Hook & The Brooklyn Kitchen

    The latest project in my head is to make and cure home made sausage. I signed up for a how to make sausage class at The Brooklyn Kitchen taught by Ben Turley, an owner of The Meat Hook who shares space with The Brooklyn Kitchen to learn phase one: how to make fresh sausage at home.

    FYI, we have a bunch of how to cook videos here if you’d care to check them out.

    Pork Shoulder is best for sausage.

    I’ve never taken a cooking class before, and was kinda ambivalent the day of the class, but I knew it would be good when I showed up at the classroom and was handed a cold beer by Valerie, who assisted Ben with the class.

    Valerie offers advice on chopping herbs

    Rather than one of those cooking classes where you just sit there and watch; we were going to learn how to make sausage by making sausage, guided by Valerie and Ben.

    Ben first gave a short talk, and what stuck in my head was his goal of transparency in the food they sell, and their recipes. The sausages were to make were two types of sausage they sell at the Meat Hook, and we had in our hands the actual recipes they use to make them.

    Eric mixes spices into sausage meat

    The common wisdom is when many chefs publish their recipe for a signature dish in a magazine, they leave out crucial details. Ben didn’t leave out any details. He laid out exactly how to make good tasting sausage.

    The key to making homemade sausage is the ratio of salt and spices to fat and protein, and Ben wrote it all out for us in grams. How cool is that?

    We then broke into two teams and prepared two different sausages, while Valerie and Ben offered suggestions and guidance.

    A few key things I learned about making sausage:

    • Pork Shoulder is best, with  30% fat to 70% protein ratio.
    • Have the butcher grind the meat for you with a 3/16 diameter grind
    • Mixing the meat and spices-salt together to the right consistency
    • Cook a small piece of the mixed sausage before stuffing it into casings, do a taste test.
    • Refrigerate sausage overnight before cooking, don’t stuff and cook right away.

    To make sure the meat and ingredients have been mixed properly, and the salt has been kneaded into the meat, make a thin patty of the sausage meat, put it in your palm, and turn your palm upside down. Then count to 5. If the patty is still stuck to your upside down palm when you get to 5, the meat is mixed properly.

    Each person got to take home two sausages from the class project. The next day they tasted amazing.

    Home Made Sausage. how cool is that?

    cooking videos
    Watch Our Cooking Videos here

    We’ll be making a how to make sausage video soon. You can sign up for cooking classes at the Brooklyn Kitchen here.

    Do you make sausage homemade? Any suggestions or tips? Let us know below:

  • Roast Cherry Tomato Pasta Recipe GF TV Video

    Roast Cherry Tomato Pasta Recipe GF TV Video

    Easy Cherry Tomato Recipe served over pasta, rice, or quinoa. Here’s a recipe for all those ripe cherry tomatoes in your garden. Roast the tomatoes with some garlic and the like, and its amazing.

    My friend Bill gave me this cherry tomato recipe; he’s been making it a few times a week. Its a great midweek dinner, or weekday dinner recipe, super simple.

    I make this with all yellow tomatoes, but you can ‘ use what you got ‘ cause that’s the GardenFork way, after all. The yellow cherry tomatoes have  lower acid content, and are sweeter, I think, than red cherry tomatoes, but that’s just my opinion.

    If you have a recipe for cherry tomatoes, please share it with us below, be great to hear from you.

    Roast Cherry Tomato Pasta Recipe
    Recipe Type: Pasta
    Cuisine: Italian
    Author: Eric Rochow
    Prep time:
    Cook time:
    Total time:
    Serves: 4
    Cherry Tomato Pasta recipe to deal with all the tomatoes you have in the garden.
    Ingredients
    • 2 pints cherry tomatoes
    • 1/4 cup olive oil
    • 4 large cloves, coarsley chopped garlic
    • 1 cup oil cured black olives – optional
    • 1 cup cubed feta cheese
    • 1 lb pasta, preferably whole wheat
    Instructions
    1. pints cherry tomatoes
    2. /4 cup olive oil
    3. large cloves, coarsley chopped garlic
    4. cup oil cured black olives – optional
    5. cup cubed feta cheese
    6. lb pasta, preferably whole wheat
    7. Cooking Directions
    8. Preheat the oven to 375F
    9. Wash and dry the cherry tomatoes. arrange the tomatoes in one layer in a 9 x 13 pan.
    10. Coat with the olive oil and distribute chopped garlic over tomatoes.
    11. Roast in oven for about 30 minutes, or until the cherry tomatoes start to burst and brown slightly.
    12. If using black olives or feta cheese, add these after tomatoes are roasted.
    13. Cook pasta while tomatoes are roasting. Drain cooked pasta and divide between 4 bowls.
    14. Pour roast tomato mixture over the pasta.

     

  • Braised Italian Meatball Recipe

    Braised Italian Meatball Recipe


    My friend Elaine’s mother is the consummate southern Italian cook. Mama Lena shared her meatball recipe with me over the phone, but I had to figure out the proportion of ingredient. After a few batches I think I came close. Lena’s meatball recipe makes roughly 50 small meat balls.

    • 2 spicy Italian sausages (remove casing)
    • 1 lbs ground beef (80/20 fat)
    • 1/4 ricotta cheese
    • 1/8 cup grated Parmesan cheese
    • 1/4 cup unseasoned bread crumbs
    • 1/4 cup minced onion (fine)
    • 1/4 minced parsley (fine)
    • 1 tbsp each: dried oregano and basil
    • 1/2 tsp salt
    • 1 egg
    • 3/4 cup olive oil
    • 4 cups of marinara sauce

    The key to rolling perfect meatballs is a little olive oil. Also don’t crowd the pan, cook in small batches (8 at at time). Mix all ingredients well with your hands, set aside for 20 minutes. Coat the palms of your hands with a little olive oil, pinch a golf ball size portion and roll into a tight ball, make enough for the week. Apply olive oil again if the meat sticks to your hands.

    Heat a large saute pan and add enough marinara sauce cover half the depth of the meatballs. Add meat balls to the pan, cover and braise for 8 minutes. Turn meatballs over and braise for another 5 minutes. Set them aside and start a new batch. Add more marinara and a little water if the sauce becomes too thick. Serve meatballs with sauce over your favorite pasta with a little fresh parsley and more grated Parmesan. You can freeze meatballs without the sauce and reheat them in the oven for another meal.

  • Nettles Plant Identification & Foraging

    Nettles Plant Identification & Foraging

    Nettles, aka Stinging Nettles are a wild food that is edible. Here is video about how to cook nettles for a pesto recipe we made. Foraging for nettles is easy, they grow like the weeds they are considered, and are easy to harvest. Nettles have hairs along the stem that will sting you if you grab the plant, so wear gloves. The key to eating nettles is to blanch the leaves and stems in boiling water for 5 minutes, then drain. Nettles taste like spinach, and have been used to treat numerous ailments.

    For some reason I associate Nettles with medieval times, not sure why, it just seems like the people of that age would use Stinging Nettles to treat ailments in addition to harvesting nettles to eat.

    The nettles that grow in our area are perennial, and have squarish stems, like mint does. It grows up to about 3 feet high in summer, and spreads by rhizomes. Stinging Nettles are native to North America, but I don’t think harvesting them for personal use will put a dent in the number of them in our world. To harvest nettles you can cut the stem or pull out whole plants with the roots. You can transplant young nettle plants into your edible medicinal plant garden if you like. The plants will spread, so you might want to keep the roots contained.

    Here is picture of edible stinging nettles:

  • Truck Stop Meatloaf Recipe with Potato Chips

    Truck Stop Meatloaf Recipe with Potato Chips

    Ah, meatloaf — it  brings back memories of a cross-country road trip, getting lost, and finding a diner that served the best home-cooked meals. The meatloaf was delicious, moist and smooth, but the waitress was salty. I asked her what was in it, she made a crack about lost college kids. In a hushed tone she said  “potato chips” then she gave us pie on the house.

    You don’t have to get lost to find this truck-stop style meatloaf. This recipe does not call for salt or oil since potato chips already have the perfect balance and just the right amount of starch which gives this meatloaf a very moist, smooth texture. I prefer plain low-salt potato chips, but you can explore the many varieties that are available. Cool Ranch anyone?

    You’ll Need:
    1 lb ground chuck or sirloin
    1 lb ground turkey
    2 sweet Italian sausages or 1/4 lb ground pork
    3/4 cup crushed plain potato chips, low salt
    1/2 cup unseasoned breadcrumbs
    1 cup onion, minced
    1 cup celery, minced
    1/2 cup fresh parsley, minced
    3 cloves of garlic, minced
    1 tbsp each dried ingredient: rosemary, thyme, basil, black pepper
    2 tbsp dried mustard
    1 eggs
    1 large and 1 medium size bowl
    1 paper bag
    a low baking dish
    oven thermometer

    The Sauce
    1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
    1/4 cup ketchup
    1 tsp powdered onion
    1 tsp dried mustard
    1/2 Liquid Smoke (optional)

    Make the Sauce
    The sauce is important, it makes a tangy seal that keeps in moisture as the meatloaf bakes. In a small bowl mix ketchup, Worcestershire sauce, powdered onion, and dried mustard. Liquid smoke is optional but it gives this meatloaf an extra kick.

    Mix It Up
    In a measuring cup, crush and pack in enough potato chips to yield 3/4 cup, then pour everything into a paper bag. With the bottom of a glass or the palm of your hand, pound the potato chips further to remove excess oil (warning: the bag will be soaked with oil). Pour crushed chips and all dried ingredients into a bowl and mix well.

    The key to a smooth meatloaf is to not overwork everything. I find that mixing with my hands instead of a food processor give me the right texture. Remove sausage from the casing (or use ground pork), add all ground meats, minced ingredients, and egg into a large bowl and mix well. Add all dry ingredients and mix again. Here’s how I do it: plunge both hands into the bowl and squeeze every thing through your fingers, turn everything over in the bowl and repeat until everything is smooth and evenly distributed. Let it rest for 15 minutes.

    Bake It
    Preheat the oven to 375°. In a low baking dish form a loaf into a low, rounded rectangle — roughly 2″ deep. The edges will further round off as it cooks. Use the back of a spoon to generously smooth the sauce over the top, but coat the sides lightly. Bake the meatloaf for an hour and 10 minutes. Use an oven thermometer to check if the center has reached 165°. Remove from the oven and let the it sit for 5 minutes.

    If you want a more caramelized meatloaf, stick it in the broiler for three minutes, but watch it closely to make sure that it doesn’t burn. Serve it hot with gravy, more ketchup, or cocktail sauce… turn off the TV and enjoy every bite, but try to leave some for sandwiches tomorrow.


     

  • Roasting Turkey on a Charcoal Grill

    Roasting Turkey on a Charcoal Grill

    oil skin with olive oil, salt & pepper if you want
    oil skin with olive oil, salt & pepper if you want

    Here we show you how to roast a turkey on a grill. we are using the charcoal method of cooking a turkey on a grill. the photos here will show you how to make your turkey tasted great on the grill.

    add a meat thermometer
    add a meat thermometer
    charcoal burning grill, propane lit
    prep your charcoal burning grill, ours also has a propane lighter
    light off and gray up 30 briquettes
    light off and gray up 30 briquettes
    divide, 15 per side
    divide, 15 per side
    add a drip pan between the coals
    add a drip pan between the coals and add the grill
    add the turkey
    add the turkey (this is our T-Day bird, an heritage breed, Bourbon Red)

     

     

    vents full open, top and bottom
    vents full open, top and bottom. start your timer: 1 hour intervals
    relax. best of all, the turkey is out of the kitchen
    relax. best of all, the turkey is out of the kitchen
    every hour add 8 briquettes to each side
    every hour add 8 briquettes to each side. it usually takes 3 – 4 hours of cooking
    Sydney naps in the ginger lilies near the grill, visions of turkey dance in her head.
    Sydney naps in the ginger lilies near the grill, visions of turkey dance in her head. (obligatory GF dog pix)
    A great bird roasted on the grill
    A great bird roasted on the grill
  • Christmas Sugar Cookie Recipe Video GF.TV

    Christmas Sugar Cookie Recipe Video GF.TV

    Sugar cookies are an easy christmas cookie recipe, even I can make these holiday cookies, maybe. Watch here and learn how to make sugar cookies for Christmas and the holidays.

    Universal Sugar Cookie Recipe

    This sugar cookie recipe is based on one Chris Kimball wrote about, saying its the universal recipe used by almost every baker.

    1/2 cup white sugar

    1 stick butter ( 1/2 cup ) slightly softened, but not mushy.

    1 egg

    1 1/2 cups flour

    1/4 teaspoon baking soda

    1/4 teaspoon coarse salt

    dash of vanilla

    optionals:

    chopped walnut, espresso powder, cocoa powder, almonds, etc.

    Preheat oven to 375F

    Put the stick of butter and the sugar in your food processor. You can also use an electric mixer, but I don’t have one right now, so the food processor works well for me.

    Turn the food processor on to medium speed to mix the sugar and butter together, then add the 1 egg and vanilla, mix it in. The mixture should be lumpy, not super smooth.

    Mix together all the dry ingredients – flour, baking soda, salt, – and then add these to the food processor butter mixture.

    Run the food processor until the mixture starts to form into a ball.

    Turn our the dough onto a floured board and divide the dough into two equal pieces.

    Roll each piece of dough into a log shape about 1 1/2 inches in diameter.

    Wrap these dough logs in plastic wrap and put in the fridge for one hour.

    Using knife or pastry blade, slice off 1/4″ thick circles from the dough logs, place on cookies sheets with parchment paper.

    Bake at 375F for about 8 minutes. you want the edges to be starting to brown, but not dark.

    Cool on a wire rack and eat as soon as possible. They taste great when warm.

    What is your sugar cookie recipe, your favorite addition to sugar cookies? Let us know below

     

  • Can You Eat That?

    Can You Eat That?

    She, Who Must Be Obeyed, wanted “a-big-mess-o-greens” last night…and cornbread.

    “Fine. You pick’em, I’ll cook’em.”

    So a while later she comes back with a big-mess-o-mess.

    califlower
    The leaves of many garden vegetables are edible

    “What have you done?,”  I ask as I sort through the bale of leaves She dumps on the counter. Collards, fine. Chard, fine. But what’s this?

    “Honey, that’s one of my califlowers,” cut off in it’s infancy. And these are the tops of my radishes. And this looks like kohlrabi.

    “But they’ll make greens, right?”

    Which is an interesting question. Will they? Most cooks in the kitchen focus on what they’re after and compost the rest. If they’re after broccoli or cauliflower, they’ll lop off the leaves and toss them, keeping the florettes. Same with radishes and beets. But those leaves are all edible plant parts. If you don’t want to eat them now, save them for a mess-o-greens or a caldo verde, or wilt them into an omelet for breakfast.

    It’s easier, in fact, to list off the leaves of plants that are not so good to eat: tomatoes & eggplants (alkaline) are in the nightshade family, rhubarb leaves contain oxalic acid. There are probably others, but they’re not common in the garden. As always, check if you’re unsure. Here’s a list of “Secondary Edible Parts of Vegetables“ to get you started.

    BTW, Eric’s recipe for DIY recipe for Baking Powder works great! The cornbread was a success. Well, off to find and dig up those radishes She lopped off last night. 

     

  • Kimchi Soup (Kimchi Jigae) Recipe

    Kimchi Soup (Kimchi Jigae) Recipe

    Kimchi Jigae, or kimchi soup, is a traditional winter stew from Korea. It’s like a very spicy hot and sour soup made with fermented cabbage — some call it the cure-all for all winter ailments. It’s simple to make and many of the ingredients are not considered as exotic anymore. You might be able to get everything at an Asian market, or like me substitute a few things. Sliced pork belly is a key ingredient to this soup, which I have left out. It gives this soup a silky texture and a deep smoky flavor. Instead I added butter before serving and used a dried chipotle pepper to give it that smoky flavor. The secret to this soup is low, slow cooking.

    You’ll need:
    1 cup or more kimchi, the thicker pieces sliced into thin strips
    1/2 cup kimchi juice (right from the kimchi)
    2 tsp gochujang (sweet Korean chili paste)
    3 tsp red miso
    1 small onion, sliced thinly
    1 cup mushroom, sliced
    1 cup carrots, sliced diagonally
    1/2 cup pureed pear
    1/4 cup sugar
    1/2 tbsp salt
    5 cloves of garlic, minced
    2 cups chicken or pork broth
    2″ stem of pulverized old ginger root, or 1 tsp of powdered ginger
    1 large dried smoked chipotle pepper
    1 tbsp soy sauce mixed with 1/2 cup water
    1 tsp rice vinegar
    1/2 cup cubed firm tofu or glass noodle
    1/2 cup light sesame oil
    1/2 cup sweet butter
    sliced green onion, garnish (optional)

    If you plan on making your own stock, do it the day before, otherwise buy a good low sodium stock. So let’s get cookin’. In a large stock pot heat sesame oil then add mushrooms, carrots, and onion. Add salt, cover and sweat everything until enough liquid covers the bottom of the pot. Now add the kimchi and juice, stock (chicken or pork), soy sauce, water and vinegar. Bring to a boil then add ginger, garlic, red miso, chili paste, sugar, pureed pear, and dried chipotle pepper. Lower heat, cover and let everything simmer for about half an hour. If you have sliced pork belly add this to the pot , but do use regular bacon.

    Let the soup simmer on low for another 20 minutes then add glass noodles or firm tofu, stir occasionally. Simmer for another 25 minutes, or when the kimchi is soft enough to fork through. Remove from heat and add 1/2 cup butter. Stir then let it rest for another 5 minutes, remove the ginger root and the chipotle pepper. Serve hot and garnish with sliced green onion. I like mine with lots of sweet corn on top.

  • Zucchini and Corn Fritter Recipe

    Zucchini and Corn Fritter Recipe

    This fried dish marks the last summer harvest — sweet corn and zucchini from Eric’s garden make for some tasty, savory fritters. Some find it difficult to make golden, crispy fritters that hold together. When something is deep-fried correctly it is not greasy and the inside is perfectly steamed. The usual suspects are soggy batter, over crowding the pan, and oil that isn’t hot enough for deep frying. The key ingredient, zucchini, must be coarsely grated and salted to remove some of the liquid, otherwise the batter is too wet. Use a high heat oil like Canola to get the right frying temperature, which is between 175 and 190 °C (345–375 °F). Frying in small batches ensure that the oil maintains its high temperature. Baking powder is optional, but it does lighten up the batter as it rises with heat. Are you ready to fry?

    Squash and Corn Fritters
    Yield: 4 fritters

    2 cups coarsely grated young squash (or zucchini)
    1/2 cup thinly sliced white onion
    1 cup cooked corn (frozen or fresh)
    1/4 cup Quinoa, (optional) or corn meal
    1/2 cup unseasoned breadcrumbs
    1 egg
    1 tsp each thyme, oregano, powder cumin, dried onion flakes
    1/2 tsp chili powder
    1/2 tsp powdered garlic
    1/2 tsp baking powder (optional)
    1/4 tsp black pepper
    2 tsp white flour
    1 tbsp sea salt
    9″ Cast  iron skillet
    Canola or any high-heat oil

    With a coarse grater, shred the green squash, add thin slices of onion (paper thin), Quinoa,  and 1/2 tbsp salt and mix well. Press the mix in a sieve with a spatula then set aside for about an hour to drain most of the liquid. It should yield about 1/8 cup of liquid, which you will discard. If your squash is a bit seedy, use a tablespoon to scoop out the seeds and tough fiber.

    In a hot pan, cook corn with a little water then add a little oil (or butter) and a pinch of a salt. When most of the water has evaporated and the corn is lightly browned, it’s ready. Set it aside to cool down to room temperature. The corn can be fresh or frozen. You can’t beat corn on the cob, but freezing actually improves corn giving it a sweeter flavor and a better texture. If you’re using frozen corn be sure it’s completely thawed and drained before cooking.

    In a large bowl, add cooked corn, grated squash and onion, dried herbs and spices. Mix until everything is evenly incorporated. Then add egg, baking powder, salt and all remaining dry ingredients to bind everything. Mix well, cover and set aside in the fridge for at least half an hour. The batter should be thick, gloppy, and lumpy and it should hold together without separating.

    In a hot 9″ cast iron skillet add oil to a depth of 1/4″. To check if the oil is hot enough, stick the end of a wooden chopstick into the pan. When bubbles form around the chopstick it’s fryin’ time. Scoop a heaping tablespoon of batter into the pan. Brown for about five minutes, gently press down with a spatula, then carefully flip it over. Don’t crowd the pan, fry only two or three at at time. When both sides are evenly browned, drain well on paper towels. If the oil starts to smoke, clear out the dukes and lower the temperature.

    Keep the finished fritters in a warm oven and serve hot — garnish with fresh cilantro, fried onion or mushroom. How about some mango chutney or Branston Pickle? If you want to make this an authentic South Asian dish, add ground dried shrimp or diced cooked lap song sausage to the batter and served with pan-toasted garlic.

  • Summer Salad with Maple Blue Cheese Dressing Recipe

    Summer Salad with Maple Blue Cheese Dressing Recipe

    If this salad looks simple, that's because it is! Cool down with a summer salad with Maple Blue Cheese Dressing and lots of crumbled bacon.

    I love Blue Cheese dressing with my hot wings or salad. It’s tangy, salty, and creamy with a rich blue-veined flavor. There’s quite a few varieties available, but Roquefort, Stilton, and Gorganzola work the best. You don’t need much, but do get a good Blue Cheese. I like Danish Saga, it’s less salty and much creamier than Roquefort. I found that crumbled cheese is usually much cheaper than the block since it’s made from what’s left after cutting. Everything else you probably have in the fridge. Let’s get busy.

    Danish Blue Saga has more body than Roquefort, and it's less salty.

    Maple Blue Cheese Dressing

    • 1/2 cup crumbled Danish Blue Saga
    • 1/3 mayonnaise
    • 1/3 sour cream
    • 1 tsp maple syrup
    • 2 tbsp white vinegar
    • 1/4 tsp powdered garlic or 1/2 tsp minced garlic
    • 3 tbsp crumbled bacon (optional)

    In a small bowl add cheese and garlic into the mayonnaise and sour cream and mix. Make sure not to overwork the dressing, you do want some chunks of cheese in there. Then add maple syrup and a little vinegar and mix well. Adjust ingredients to suit your taste. I always add more Blue Cheese.

    Crumbled bacon is optional but I never leave it out. Cut streaky bacon into 3″ strips. Coat a hot skillet with a little oil. Cook the fattiest pieces first to make enough fat for frying. Fry until evenly golden, drain fat, cool and crumble into small pieces. Add about 3 tbsp of bacon to the dressing, reserve the rest for the salad.

    My friend Lindsey says her mother makes some kick-ass Blue Cheese Dip. Mrs. McCosh was more than happy to share her recipe with us. This Midwestern classic dip is made with Roquefort and cottage cheese. It’s light with a hearty texture — guaranteed to take the sting out of any hot wing.

    The bluest of the blues — Roquefort is an age-old classic cheese.

    Mrs. McCosh’s Blue Cheese Dip

    • 1/2 cup Roquefort Cheese
    • 1/2 cottage cheese, small curds
    • 1/2 yogurt
    • 3 tbsp white vinegar
    • 1 tbsp sugar
    • 1/4 tsp dried dill
    • 1 tsp minced garlic

    Dissolve sugar in the vinegar and set aside. Crumble Roquefort in a bowl using a fork then add the rest of the ingredients and mix well, salt an pepper to taste. The cottage cheese hold everything together perfectly, lumps and all. Adjust ingredients to your taste. Pour Blue Cheese dressing into a container and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes before serving. It’s served best the next day — then it’s thick enough to stand a fork.

    For salad, tear Romaine lettuce into bite sized pieces, toss with thinly sliced white onion and red grapes and plate up serving portions. Add hard boiled egg and drizzle Blue cheese dressing, and (optionally) top with more bacon. Diner is served!

  • How to make easy pie & pastry crust by Chez Pim – a video how to

    How to make easy pie & pastry crust by Chez Pim – a video how to

    Trying to actually chart how I find cool people and neat stuff on the web can be interesting. I was showing my sister the Tartine Bread video made by 4SP films, and I saw that 4SP also had produced a video about Chez Pim making a pie – pastry crust. The recipe is super simple, what really interested me was the technique of making the dough by hand on a piece of marble. So many of us – me included – pull out the food processor to make pie crust. Next time I’m using Chez Pim’s method shown here in this well done video:



    Pim has published a book, The Foodie Handbook, information is on her website here.