One Day's End of Garden Menu

Late October: Among other things, I harvested some turnips, beets, zucchini, garlic, parsley, thyme, mint this week.  I have tomatoes, onion, and garlic harvested earlier. We ate the turnip greens the other day, and today I made:

Roasted Turnips with Thyme and Garlic-
http://whatdidyoueat.typepad.com/what_did_you_eat/2006/01/roasted_turnips.html

Sauteed Zucchini, parmesan and mozzarela-
http://www.kalynskitchen.com/2007/06/cheesy-zucchini-with-garlic-and-parsley.html

Sauted then Baked Eggplant, Zucchini, Green Peppers, Tomato, Onion, Parmesan

http://www.yummly.com/recipe/Yummy-Vegetable-Casserole-Recipezaar

Roasted Chiogga Beets with Mint-(no raspberry vinegar though)
http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Chioggia-Beets-with-Raspberry-Mint-Vinaigrette-232297

Sauteed Beet Greens with Garlic

I also cut up one regular turnip and a tiny buttternut squash, so I am ready to make this later this week. http://www.kalynskitchen.com/2007/03/easy-south-beach-recipes-roasted.html

I also have 4 small roasted beets ready to eat within 3 days.

Non-recipe links

Although I have cooked a great many delicious meals with food from the garden, I haven't added anything in a while.  There is not enough time in the day to harvest, decide, cook, AND take pictures AND then write about it.

I am going to try using this blog to keep track of non-recipe links to sustainable agriculture, food, garden movement type websites and blogs. 

Future Farmers - Victory Gardens
Farm Together Now
passive solar house designs

2 Excellent No-Oven or Stove Zucchini Recipes

Here are 2 easy zucchini recipes. These are especially good on a day like today when it was too hot to cook and basil or other fresh herbs were also abundant.

Raw Zucchini Salad

With a peeler or a mandoline, shave zucchini the long way into long thin slices or slice into very thin rounds.
Dressing: Grated Lemon Peel and Juice from 1 lemon (at least 2 T), 2 T olive oil, and about 4 T of fresh herbs.  I used basil and chives, but other herbs, such as mint, parsley, dill, would be good too.  You could also add sprinkle some soft cheese, like goat or gorgonzola on top, although I did not.  Instead I added all 5 orange cherry tomatoes that ripened today.

The other recipe is just as simple although the zucchini is cooked. I grilled it outside.

Grilled Zucchini and Yellow Squash with Basil Parmesan dressing

Cut squashes in half.   Spray or rub olive oil on both sides and sprinkle salt and pepper.  Cook on gas grill on both sides until softer but where it will still hold a shape when you cut it into 1" pieces after it is cooked and cooled.  The cooking time depends on how big your squash is.  A normal sized zucchini probably only takes 10 minutes on hot grill.  (my big one took 20 minutes). Discard seeds if numerous.  Sprinkle and mix in 1/3 cup shredded parmesan, 1/2 cup chopped basil,  2 T balsamic vinegar and 2 T olive oil.  (recipe from Bon Appetit found on Epicurous.com)

Rhubarb Crisp from NY Times

I liked this recipe because it called for only 1/4 cup of sugar to 6 cups of rhubarb. Most other rhubarb crisp recipes have way too much sugar. The crisp topping adds more than enough sweetness.

Of course, I had to make modifications to Rhubarb Crisp - NY Times. I didn't use any lemon juice or zest in the rhubarb and less butter in the topping. The recipe called for pecans in the topping-I used ginger agave cashews because that is what I had in the freezer. The recipe called for 1.5 inch pieces of rhubarb. Mine were much smaller-maybe 1/2 inch. I also added some fresh ginger to the rhubarb, because I am on a ginger kick lately. Slightly less topping (less sugar) would be fine. My version:

6 cups rhubarb, cut into 1/2 or 1 1/2-inch pieces
1/4 cup white sugar
1/4 cup fresh ginger, cut finely (optional)

5 tablespoons cold butter, cut into small pieces
3/4 cup brown sugar (as little as 1/2 cup would probably be sweet enough if you like very tart)
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon, or to taste
Pinch salt
1/2 cup rolled oats
1/2 cup pecans or other nut. Perhaps it was the ginger agave cashews that made this so good.

1. Heat oven to 375 degrees. Grease an 8- or 9-inch square baking or gratin dish with a little butter. Toss rhubarb with white sugar, orange or lemon juice and zest, and spread in baking dish.
2. Put the 6 tablespoons butter in a food processor along with brown sugar, flour, cinnamon and salt, and pulse for about 20 or 30 seconds, until it looks like small peas and just begins to clump together. Add oats and pecans and pulse just a few times to combine.
3. Crumble the topping over rhubarb and bake until golden and beginning to brown, 45 to 50 minutes.

Mango Jack

A few months ago, we stopped at Harvest Spirits and sampled the Mango Applejack that distiller and owner Derek had concocted.  It was delicious, but not for sale, so he told me how I could easily make it at home.  I bought a bottle of applejack from him. The dried mango is from the Honest Weight Co-op.
 
On March 19, I started soaking about 1/2 pound of dried mango slices in pure Applejack (Batch 12, bottle 518).  I tasted it today, May 14.  It is sweet and ready to sip.

Sweet and Sour Chicken

My hankering for tart food started with this Sweet and Sour Chicken dish from guest blogger Jaden Hair at Elise's Simply Recipes. I used a green and yellow pepper, and sliced carrots, and served it with brown rice.

I made it Thursday thinking Phil would be returning home that night or Friday.   He is still helping out his parents, so I ate it for dinner Thursday and Friday, and lunch on Friday and Saturday, and there is still some left.   It was really good.

Tonight's Dinner complements of Anne's Food Blog

I found Anne's Food blog yesterday and I prepared 3 recipes from it for dinner tonght.  Anne is from Stockholm, Sweden. I really like her recipes' style and the unique search method she has for her recipes. I actually haven't eaten any of these yet, as I will bake the chicken and dress that zucchini, whenever Phil gets back from his parents sometime tonight.   If I cook from here often enough, maybe metric conversion will finally become second-nature.  For now, I use these cooking conversion calculators frequently.

I had 4 boneless chicken thighs that needed to be cooked and a bounty of rhubarb in the garden. Anne's recipe came up when I searched on those 2 ingredients together.

Boneless Chicken Thighs with Rhubarb, cream, chives, sambal oelek (dried chilies).   This picture is before baking.  My rhubarb is mainly green.  It tastes great, but red would be prettier. (Oops, I forgot to add the honey and already poured the liquid over the chicken and rhubarb, so I drizzled a little agave over it since that is not as thick as honey).

Red Potato Salad with yogurt, parsley, coriander, mint, capers, vidalia onion, and celery. (Anne used yellow onion, no celery)
 

Zucchini Ribbon Salad with french tarragon, dijon mustard, red wine vinegar.  This picture is just zucchini with a couple of tarragon leaves, before adding the dressing.

The Mango Chutney Carrot recipe comes from a different website-Taste of Home.  I used half the butter and sliced regular carrots into matchsticks. I didn't have any OJ or oranges, so I added less than a Tbsp of fresh lemon juice. I have also made this with raw shredded carrots with fresh squeezed orange, instead of cooked carrots and it was delicious.  http://www.tasteofhome.com/Recipes/Mango-Chutney-Baby-Carrots.