GardenFork – Eclectic DIY

Tag: Recipes

  • And I Pointed My Antenna to Milwaukee : GardenFork Radio

    And I Pointed My Antenna to Milwaukee : GardenFork Radio

    Why did Mike point his antenna to Milwaukee? You’ll have to listen to this week’s GardenFork Radio to find out. Tyler , CEO of Allison House, joins us. Then we talk about Facebook Privacy, pole beans and peas, sink toilets, insect attractant plants, canning and applesauce, apple butter, and Carbon Monoxide detectors.

    Tyler’s blog is www.mychicagogarden.com

    an article on Facebook Privacy here

    Marisa’s blog post about her blueberry butter recipe is here

    You can watch a how to video and applesauce recipe, and learn how to can applesauce on GardenFork.TV

    Caroma’s Sink Toilet, learn more on their site

    antenna photo by wallyir

  • OK, I DO like ramps.

    OK, I DO like ramps.

    Last week, someone posted on Twitter that they didn’t get the hype about certain ‘foodie’ foods, and ramps being one of them. I concurred.

    Then last weekend, we had dinner at the camp, and I sat down to a plate of ramps.

    WOW

    photo: wfiupublicradio
    photo: wfiupublicradio

    For these ramps, the recipe was simple: Saute in olive oil.

    That’s it. The cook apologized for not having any garlic to add to the dish. It didn’t need it. They taste like a cross between garlic and scallions, and sweet and buttery.

    According to Wikipedia : Allium tricoccum, commonly known as ramps, spring onion, ramson, wild leek, or ail des bois (French), is a member of the onion family (Alliaceae). Found in groups with broad, smooth, light green leaves, often with deep purple or burgundy tints on the lower stems and a scallion-like bulb strongly rooted just beneath the surface of the soil. Both the white lower leaf stalks and the broad green leaves are edible. They are found from the U.S. state of South Carolina to Canada and are especially popular in the cuisine of the US state of West Virginia and the Canadian province of Quebec when they emerge in the springtime. A common description of the flavor is like a combination of onions and strong garlic

    Ramps grow on the East Coast of the U.S. in wooded areas. So last Sunday, on our hike with the Labradors, I kept my eyes out for ramps, but found none. But I will keep looking, as my neighbors down in the valley have ramps, so I’m thinking they are up at my house as well, maybe they sprout a bit later. ( i’m hoping )

    My Brooklyn neighbors, Food52.com, interviewed Hubert McCabe of Windfall Farm on their blog here, and he says: “They’re like a present … You stumble on them, and nobody will tell anybody else where their secret spots are.”

    Thanks to Food52, I met a new Brooklyn Food web video person, Lisa, of The Funny Side Up, and here is her video about ramps, direct from her kitchen.

    some other food bloggers who have written about ramps are listed below, please check them out.

    Closet Cooking

    innBrooklyn

    Radishes and Rhubarb

    Good Food Revolution

    The Just in Case Book

    What do you know about ramps? How do you cook them? tell us below:

  • Easy Cake Recipe Peach Dump Cake – GF Video

    Easy Cake Recipe Peach Dump Cake – GF Video

    I’m not a great baker, so this easy cake recipe appeals to me. This is called a Dump Cake Recipe.

    Watch here as we make this peach dump cake that tastes good and is quick to make.

    This all came about as I had a can of peaches and wanted to make a dessert with them. So I asked on Twitter for a peach dessert recipe, and @writersinthesky answered with this peach cake recipe.

    What I like about this cake recipe and dump cakes in general is that they’re a great emergency dessert. If you forgot to plan a dessert or you just decide that you want to add a simple dessert to your dinner, you can make it happen. Because you, like me, always plan ahead, you can keep a can of peaches or a can of pears or other fruit (ideally in a light syrup not the heavy syrup) in the kitchen. Pull it out, add flour, and boom you’ve got a cake.

    This easy cake recipe comes together in minutes. All you really have do is remember to preheat the oven. I like to use a glass cake pan, I think the crust is more crunchy, but you can use a metal pan as well. Use what you got is what I say. You can do this, it’s easy, it’s quite good and it’s wicked simple. So go ahead make this and tell me your thoughts.

    Peach Cake Recipe

    1 cup self rising flour
    OR 1 cup all purpose flour + 1 1/2 tsp baking powder and 1/2 tsp salt

    1 stick of butter

    1 cup milk

    1 cup sugar – you can use less sugar, this cake is pretty sweet

    1 can of peaches, drained, light syrup preferred, 20-24 oz

    Preheat the oven to 375F

    Put the stick of butter in a 9×9 baking dish, preferably a glass dish, and place in the oven to melt the butter.

    Mix together the dry ingredients, then add the milk and mix.

    Pour the batter into the heated baking dish with the melted butter, then add the can of peaches.

    Bake at 375 for 30-40 minutes. The cake is done when a knife comes out clean.

    recipe ©2014 Eric Rochow all rights reserved

  • Kinda Carbonara with what’s in the fridge

    Kinda Carbonara with what’s in the fridge

    Tonite we drove to NYC for work tomorrow. Most nights like this, I go buy a burrito from the local tacqueria. The burritos are great, and healthy, as I opt for yogurt in place of sour cream in my black bean burrito.

    But tonight, after getting a parking spot, I thought, why not see what I have in the fridge and cook something quick?

    The basic ingredients on a Sunday night
    The basic ingredients on a Sunday night

    A quick scan yields frozen peas, eggs, some Pecorino Romano cheese, and pasta. There was some yogurt too, but not much else in the fridge. So I think this is kinda Carbonara.

    scramble the egg add the cheese
    scramble the egg add the cheese

    I cooked the penne pasta, mixed the egg with the grated cheese, drained the cooked pasta, saved some of the cooking water, put the pasta back in the pot, added the cheese-egg mixture, stirred it, added a bit of the pasta water, and some salt. I warmed up the frozen peas in the microwave and dropped them into the mix.

    Add the egg-cheese to the warm pasta
    Add the egg-cheese to the warm pasta

    Not bad. I added too much of the pasta water, and it could have used more cheese, but not bad for a Sunday night.

    The finished dish, the peas added.
    The finished dish, the peas added.

    Charlie Pup and Henry were very interested in what i was eating. It was good.

    What have you put together lately?

  • How to make Quiche, Eric’s Quick Quiche Recipe

    How to make Quiche, Eric’s Quick Quiche Recipe

    Quiche is a healthy and fast dinner for the middle of the week or a simple weekend lunch, or breakfast. Check out Eric’s Quiche Recipe

    You can learn more about the magazines we mentioned in this Gardenfork.tv episode here: Edible Nutmeg and Edible Brooklyn.

    Rachel Wharton appeared in the How to make Southern Biscuits, and is planning on appearing again in another show on southern food.

    Super Easy Cheese and Leftovers Quiche

    1 pre made pie crust  ( the kind that comes with a foil pie pan )

    6 eggs

    1 1/2 cup milk, skim or low fat works for me

    Meat Leftovers: turkey, chicken, beef, pork

    1 cup Grated Cheddar Cheese , other cheeses are fine, but I like cheddar. you can also mix cheese.

    Preheat oven to 375 degrees

    In a bowl mix together the eggs, add the milk, salt & pepper.

    Stir in milk

    Cut into meat into small pieces and place in pie crust

    Pour egg mixture into pie crust and bake for 30 minutes.

    Check at 30 minutes, the quiche should be puffed up a bit and browned slightly. The quiche should not wiggle much when shaken. If it wiggles, bake for another 7 minutes and check again.

    Allow to cool for at least 15 minutes before serving, it stays hot for a while.

    ©copyright 2010 Eric Rochow all rights reserved

  • Mom’s Banana Bread Recipe: a GF video and recipe

    Mom makes banana bread, Eric eats it. yum.

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    The Gardenfork.tv Banana Bread Recipe by Eric Rochow

    2 cups all purpose flour

    1-1/2 teaspoons baking soda

    1/2 teaspoon salt

    1 handful walnuts

    3 really ripe bananas, mashed with a fork

    1 stick of butter unsalted

    1/2 cup sugar

    2 eggs

    1/2 cup yogurt, buttermilk, or milk with 1-1/2 teaspoons of white vinegar added – let the milk/vinegar sit for 5 minutes, then add to batter.

    This is the one bowl method of Banana Bread.

    Preheat the oven to 350F

    Melt the butter -if using a microwave it helps to cover the bowl with wax paper. Save the butter wrapper and bowl used to melt butter to grease the loaf pan.

    Add the mashed bananas, melted butter, eggs, and yogurt to a large bowl and mix well.

    Then add each dry ingredients. The trick here is to not over mix the batter, which can cause the bread to not rise well.

    Add the flour, baking soda, and salt.

    Then toss in the walnuts. You can use chopped walnuts or pieces. (don’t toss in the walnuts before this, or they will be coated with dry flour )

    Grease the loaf pan with the butter wrapper and the butter left behind in the bowl what was used to melt the stick of butter.

    Place in a 350F oven and bake for 55-65 minutes. When a clean knife is inserted and comes out clean, its done. My oven always takes longer than most to bake things, so check the bread at 55 minutes.

    Allow the banana bread to cool for 10-15 minutes then run a knife along the edges of the pan and turn out onto a cooling rack. Let the banana bread sit for a bit, it will slice much easier that way. copyright eric gunnar rochow

  • How to make yogurt in a cardboard box – GF Video

    How to make yogurt in a cardboard box – GF Video

    Want to learn how to make yogurt? Here you go,  yogurt video on how we make it. Making yogurt is fun, and in a cardboard box its even easier. and kinda green as well.

    What i like about this is the simplicity of this and i think kids would like to do this, with supervision, of course. watch our gardenfork.tv episode on making yogurt in a cardboard box and then tell us how you make yogurt below.

    The Gardenfork.tv Yogurt Making Recipe

    how-to-make-yogurtOur how to make yogurt recipe is based on 1 quart of milk, which will fill up two 8 oz mason jars, which is what i use to make yogurt. You can use skim, part fat, and whole milk, it just depends on your preference. Whole Milk will taste better, but you know that. You can add powdered milk to the mix, which will make the yogurt thicker. Add too much and it gets like custard.

    1 quart of millk

    1 talbespoon of plain yogurt, the more natural the better.

    optional: 1/4 cup of powedered milk

    Put the milk in a pot with a thick bottom, or use what I call a waffle, or heat diffuser between your pot and the burner. Burned milk is no fun.

    Heat the milk to 180 degrees F, bubbles will gather around the edges of the pot when the temperature is right.

    Put the pot in the fridge, or put the pan into an ice bath to lower the temperature.

    When the temperature is between 90-110 F, add the plain yogurt and if desired, the powdered milk.

    Pour into clean glass containers, screw on the cap, and place in your cardboard box yogurt maker. You can also use a large stock pot with the heating pad placed in the bottom of the stock pot. Make sure the heating pad is a waterproof one.

    After pouring the milk mix into the jars, you can add maple syrup, honey, or other sweeteners if you like.

    Let the yogurt ferment at about 110F for 3 hours, check for doneness.

    Temperature is important when making yogurt, too high or too low and it wont work. Do not move the yogurt jars while incubating them, it wont end up being good yogurt if you do.

  • Creme Brule the gardenfork.tv way

    Creme Brule’ is easy, and tastes great. Plus its really fun to use new tools, readily available from your hardware store to make the burnt sugar crust. Yum.

    Note: the first part of this show is shot in the dark on purpose. watch and learn.

  • White bean soup with kale recipe

    White bean soup with kale recipe

    White beans, be they navy beans, yankee beans, great northern beans, are great in soup. This is my really simple fast recipe for white beans. This can be cooked with canned beans or dry beans. Dry beans take longer, but if you have time, great. I use a pressure cooker to cook my dry beans.

    Being a strong proponent of the KISS [keep it simple stupid] theory of life, this soup is a charter member. Beans, onions, garlic, olive oil – cook and you are done.

    The version we do here is dressed up a bit with cheese rinds and oregano, but again, it doesn’t need this to taste great on a fall evening.

    white-bean-soup-with-kale-recipe

    White Bean Soup

    Bag of White Beans or a large can of beans

    1 onion, chopped

    Chopped Garlic

    Options:

    Chicken or vegetable stock

    Cheese rinds

    Oregano, Marjoram, Rosemary, Sage

    Pesto

    If you have dry beans, cook them and save the cooking water.

    Saute the onion until golden clear.

    Add the beans, and bring to a simmer.

    If desired, add seasonings and cheese rinds.

    If you have the time, allow the beans to simmer so the flavorings work thru the soup.

    If not, after 10 minutes, its done.

    For a decadent flourish, add a splash of olive oil or pesto to each bowl just before serving.

  • Pork with Rhubarb Video

    Pork with Rhubarb Video

    The boss gave me a new cookbook: Happy Days with the Naked Chef, by Jamie Oliver, and I found a recipe for Pork Filets over Rhubarb. This interested me because i’ve never seen rhubarb used in such a way before. So this merited a try.

    pork-with-rhubarbWe’re going to have to improve the lighting in the kitchen up at the house, as once again the video is pretty dark. I contemplated re-shooting the whole thing, but i thought it wouldn’t be as fun on a re-shoot. And the whole idea here is low-tech, simple stuff. I promise the next kitchen shoot will be better.