Jun 29
2010

One of the downsides to taking a three-day vacation when you’ve got a CSA … OMG, what do you do with all the food when you get back?

I’m glad it’s been June-Gloomy today, because this would NOT have been made in hot weather. But it successfully used up a whole pile of veggies I had sitting from both this week’s and last week’s CSA. It’s easy to throw together and takes well to substitutions. I’m suspecting it’ll freeze well too, which is a good thing. I still have leftover veggie-and-sausage-pseudo-lasagne-casserole thing from last week that needs eating, too.

This is not really a fucha ryori recipe (traditional Japanese Buddhist cuisine), because I used regular dashi instead of vegetarian dashi. It can easily be made vegetarian by substituting vegetarian dashi or vegetable broth. Purists might frown on the use of onion and garlic, but I like them. (:

Temple Garden Chowder: Summer Garden

  • 1 large red onion, chopped
  • 3 large cloves garlic, minced
  • 1 thumb’s worth of ginger, peeled and minced
  • 3 carrots, peeled and cut in half-circles
  • 3 small zucchini, cut in half-circles
  • 4 c. dashi, preferably homemade (you can use vegetarian dashi, vegetable stock, or chicken stock if desired. Maki has a simple recipe for dashi over on Just Hungry.)
  • 2 1/2 c. pinto beans (canned is fine, I had homemade in the freezer. Any type of beans would do.)
  • miso, soy sauce, mirin, sake, sugar, and pepper (sansho or regular) to taste
  • 1 package abura-age (fried tofu puffs), halved and thinly sliced
  • 1/2 bunch kale, stemmed and torn into bite-sized pieces

Sauté the onion in a bit of olive or vegetable oil. Add the garlic and ginger. Add the carrots, and while they’re cooking, slice and add the zucchini. Add the dashi, pinto beans, and whatever seasonings you prefer to taste. For the seasonings, I didn’t really measure. I used about a Tbsp. of white miso, a tsp. of red miso, a splash each of soy sauce, sake, and mirin, a large pinch of sugar, and a generous sprinkle of sansho pepper. Simmer until the flavors meld and the vegetables are the consistency you like them.

Just before serving, stir in the abura-age and the kale. Allow the kale to just wilt and turn bright green, and serve immediately.

Temple Garden Chowder

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Jun 29
2010

I didn’t realize when I finished watering the pots by hand on Thursday that I turned off the water at the tap instead of at the hose. Ooooops. /:

What this meant is that I got home to a slightly peaked-looking garden, and a bunch of my San Marzano tomatoes had gotten a case of blossom-end rot. Booooo. I had to toss about fifteen tomatoes. ): NOT happy.

We turned the water back on and everything looks perky today, but I’m keeping an eagle-eye on the tomatoes at this point. Can’t believe I did that … argh. I need some sort of mnemonic to remind me to leave the tap on and the hose turned off at the pipe splitter.

Also, we seem to have an infestation of common garden caterpillars. The black ones with the green-yellow racing stripes. You know what they like? Onions. Well, according to Wikipedia, they like “slender grasses”. M-hm. Well, this is why you want variation in your yard. We have no grass at all, since we ripped out the lawn several years back. I’d been planning on putting in a border of native grasses and spiky things along the back edge of the yard, but haven’t gotten to it yet.I can’t really plant anything new until fall, really, partially because the summer heat will probably kill anything we put in, and partially because we’re saving to get the fence replaced. I’ll just have to deal with the caterpillars for now. We have some cabbage loopers too, but not too many of those. I haven’t seen hornworms yet. *crosses fingers and hopes*

On the bright side, everything else looks good, and one of the watermelons is now the size of one of those bouncy balls. YES. (: And there is more zucchini and pattypan squash coming. The strawberries were totally unaffected by the water mishap, since they’re on the front-yard system, and I got nearly half a pound of those when we got back, *after* my folks came by and got some the day before!

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Jun 21
2010

I did promise a post about that too, didn’t I? Last post for the night, and then I’ll be mostly caught up. (: Thanks for bearing with me!

So like any crazy person who plants zucchini, we’ve already got plenty growing off of just one plant. And of course, there’s some in the CSA box. Well, no offense to the nice folks who run our CSA, but we’re going to eat the home-grown stuff first, ’cause you just can’t get fresher than that.

It was pretty hot this afternoon in sunny SoCal. I really didn’t want to do a lot of cooking after all the out-in-the-sun pruning tomatoes and tying up cucumbers and doing small amounts of helping out with fixing our drip lines and picking fruit and squashes and so forth. (Especially ’cause this morning was also spent being hot out on the roller hockey rink. Whoof. Thirty pounds of goalie gear and 80+ degrees … that’s warm.)

So aside from making the peach-ricotta sandwiches I blogged about earlier, I made a raw zucchini salad. This is actually kind of unusual for me. Typical zucchini side dish in this household is: slice zucchini, chop onions, sauté in olive oil with a couple minced cloves of garlic and a generous sprinkle of oregano until nicely caramelized. I don’t usually like raw zucchini, to be honest — there’s this bitter-slimy flavor that a typical raw zucchini has that’s kinda nasty. But I remembered seeing Giada deLaurentiis doing a raw zucchini and asparagus salad, ages ago, and I’ll admit, I like her style. Everything I’ve ever seen her make has looked fantastic. So I figured … why not? The worst that can happen is I don’t like it raw, and I end up cooking it up anyway.

I’m pleased to note that the zucchini, pattypan squash, onions, and basil all came from my yard. No homegrown garlic — I used the last of it making barbecue sauce for Father’s Day. I am definitely looking forward to planting more garlic this year.

I trawled the web for several zucchini salad recipes, and this is what I ended up making, as kind of a combination of all of the ones I thought looked cool:

Zucchini-Pattypan Salad

Serves 4

  • several baby zucchini and pattypan squash, sliced as thinly as possible (I think I used about four of each — the zucchini were no bigger than two fingers and the pattypans no bigger than an old-school silver dollar)
  • 1 clove garlic, minced fine
  • 1 green onion, finely chopped
  • zest of half a lemon, minced
  • a couple springs of basil, chiffonade
  • juice of half a lemon, plus a little squeeze from the other half
  • really good extra-virgin olive oil — use the best you have
  • sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

You can slice your zucchini paper-thin with a veggie peeler or a mandoline or a knife, whatever you prefer. I used a knife; my mandoline tends to be wasteful. Combine the zucchini with the garlic, green onion, basil, and lemon zest. Drizzle with lemon juice and olive oil, and season with salt and pepper. Cover and chill for about half an hour to allow the flavors to blend.

Raw Zucchini Salad

Light and refreshing!

I was pleasantly surprised! The salad was cool, refreshing, full of flavor, and none of that icky slippery-bitter raw zucchini taste. I’m pretty sure using baby zucchini is a huge part of that; I wouldn’t try making this with the typical big zucchini.

I’d definitely make and eat this salad again. (And I probably will, given that I think I counted four more baby zucchini out there today … ) There were some leftovers, so I’m looking forward to seeing how they turn out, and if it marinates up nicely or if it doesn’t hold well overnight.

I also think this would pair just as nicely with a Japanese meal as it would with an Italian one, though you might want to season it slightly differently. Perhaps with rice vinegar and sesame oil like a cucumber salad. Well, depending on what you’re eating. I think it’d go fine with an unagi rice bowl as-is.

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Jun 21
2010

Nope, that PB doesn’t stand for peanut butter. It stands for parsnip and bacon. The C is for carrot, and together, they make a pretty awesome sandwich. We’ve been doing a lot of sandwiches lately in the Pasto household — they’re tasty and quick to put together, but you can still dress them up to be something more interesting than your typical … well … PB&J. (:

You’re probably wondering where I got the crazy idea to put parsnips and carrots in a sandwich. I blame it on Apicius. The Romans wish they had thought of this. It is so good.

This is a variation on a vegetable side dish found in Apicius. I’ve folded, spindled, and mutilated it into something totally different, but it still has its roots deep in the heart of Rome.

PB&C

Makes 2 sandwiches

  • 4 strips bacon (preferably thick-cut)
  • 2 parsnips
  • 2 carrots
  • 1 tsp. ground cumin
  • 1 Tbsp. honey
  • 1 Tbsp. Marsala
  • 1/2 Tbsp. Thai fish sauce (unless you happen to have garum, the traditional Roman fish sauce, around the house. I don’t.)
  • freshly ground black pepper (or alternatively, Balinese peppercorns, which where what the Romans used)
  • a generous handful of fresh cilantro
  • olive oil
  • 4 slices rustic Italian bread (I used pane Pugliese, because that’s what I’d baked this past week)

Cook up your bacon in a skillet. Nice and crispy!

Cooking bacon

Mmm, bacon.

Use a splash guard if you have one, while your bacon is cooking. When it’s done, set it aside on a plate covered with a paper towel to help drain the grease. Pour off most of the bacon drippings out of the skillet — there’s no way you’ll need that much! Leave somewhere between a half-tablespoon and a tablespoon in the skillet.

Bacon drippings

Extra bacon drippings. Save 'em for other meals!

(As a side note, I often use my bacon drippings in my pie crusts. Yeah, I know, that’s kind of weird, but it’s really not much different from using lard. You just get an additional smoky flavor. This works *great* with apple and pumpkin pies! Also, it makes the pie crust way easier to handle.)

Peel and chop your carrots, and peel, core, and chop your parsnips. Parsnips have a spongy core, that in the words of Alton Brown, “is definitely not good eats.”

Parsnip core

See the core in the parsnip? Take that part out.

Add the carrots and parsnips to the skillet, along with the ground cumin and black pepper (or Balinese peppercorns), and sauté them in the bacon drippings until they’re close to tender. When they’re almost ready, add the honey and wine and cook until you get a nice glaze. Add the fish sauce and use it to deglaze the pan. Your final result should look like this:

Carrot-Parsnip Mixture

Delicious carrot-parsnip goodness

While your carrots and parsnips are cooking, brush a little olive oil on both sides of your bread slices and grill them up or toast them.

Tear your cilantro into sprigs. Did you know the Romans didn’t eat basil? Seriously. They thought it attracted scorpions, and used it almost exclusively for medicinal purposes. Cilantro was a much more common herb choice at the time.

Now you’re ready to construct the sandwiches!

For each sandwich, top a slice of grilled bread with two strips of bacon, a generous scoop of the carrot-parsnip mixture, and some fresh cilantro. Top with the other piece of bread, and chow down. You may want a fork for the carrots and parsnips that try to escape. There is NO ESCAPE! (: Yum!

Completed sandwich

Savory, smoky, crunchy, herbal, and just a touch sweet. Deee-licious!

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Jun 21
2010

A few months ago, I read a cookbook called ‘wichCraft, by Tom Colicchio and Sisha Ortuzar. It’s based on the menu of the restaurant of the same name. The book’s pretty cool — the pictures are gorgeous, and what recipes I’ve tried out of it have been tasty. The emphasis, obviously, is on sandwiches and all the nifty things you can put between two slices of bread. Check it out. You may like it.

This particular recipe is adapted from ‘wichCraft. I don’t typically keep star anise in the house, as I don’t have a use for it frequently enough to keep the leftover stars from going stale. So I substituted five-spice powder for both the star anise and the stick cinnamon. It colors the fennel and fruit some, but that’s OK as far as I’m concerned, and it’s darn tasty. I lessened the amount of sugar, since Uncle Pasto is a diabetic, and the recipe really doesn’t need as much sugar as called for. I’ve made the recipe both with white peaches and regular peaches, instead of the original apricots. I can tell you without hesitation that I’m certain it would work beautifully with any stone fruit, including plums and possibly even cherries, if you wanted to take the time to pit that many.

Peach-Ricotta Open-Faced Sandwiches

Adapted from ‘wichCraft. Makes four open-faced sandwiches, to serve two.

  • 4 slices whole-grain bread
  • 2 large regular or white peaches, pitted and cut into eighths (alternatively, 3-4 small to medium peaches, 4-6 apricots, 4-6 plums, or quite a lot of cherries, pitted and halved)
  • 1/2 of a medium bulb of fennel, fronds removed, cored, and thinly sliced
  • 1/2 c. sugar (you can increase or decrease this depending on how sweet your fruit is)
  • 1 c. water
  • 1/3-1/2 lb. ricotta cheese (about a third of a small container)
  • 1/2 tsp. five-spice powder
  • roasted pistachios
  • sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

Combine the sugar, water, and five-spice powder in a small saucepan over medium heat. Stir to combine, and bring to a boil. Lower the heat to a simmer, and add the peaches and fennel. Simmer for eight to ten minutes, until the peaches are quite soft and the fennel is just barely still crunchy. Strain away the juice. (You can save the juice for later, and serve it over ice cream. MMM.)

Cooking peaches and fennel

This is about what it should look like when it's ready. White peaches shown here.

While the peaches and fennel are cooking, grill or toast the bread, and prepare the pistachios. If you’re grilling the bread, you may want to spread it lightly with a little olive oil before grilling, as seen here.

Grilling bread

I love my grill pan. Totally recommended if you have a gas stove. It's a griddle on the flip side.

To prep the pistachios: Get about 1/4 c. unshelled pistachios. Shell them, and lay them in a single layer on one half of a clean towel. Fold the rest of the towel over the pistachios, grab a meat mallet or a small heavy skillet, and smack the pistachios into bits. Shake the pistachios out of the towel into a bowl.

Spread each piece of grilled bread with a generously thick layer of ricotta. Sprinkle with a little salt and pepper. Top each piece with the drained peach-fennel mixture and the crushed pistachios, then sprinkle on a little more salt and pepper. Eat immediately. You will probably want a knife and fork, unless you don’t mind getting messy.

This stuff is FABULOUS. YUM.

Peach Ricotta Sandwiches

They were so good, we didn't even think to take pictures until after we were halfway through eating them.

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Jun 21
2010

Sooooo, this is what I got in my CSA box this week:

CSA box contents for June 18

They call this a SMALL?

Uh, yeah.

Now, the blackberries have mostly all been eaten already. The last of them are baking in a cobbler in the oven right now, and the rest of them were eaten fresh. The snap peas and some of the carrots went to our family Father’s Day celebration as part of a veggie tray. (For the record, the dip for the veggies? Super-easy. Mix pesto with whipped cream cheese, taste and adjust as you see fit. Done!) The peaches got turned into sandwiches (yes, sandwiches!) tonight — I’ll post that recipe shortly.

So what do I have left? Spring mix (well, that’ll get eaten anyway, we like our salads around here), avocados (probably on the salads), carrots, leeks, kale, beets, and rutabagas. Oh, and lemons, but lemons are one of those things that just seem to disappear around here. (:

I’m the first to admit I have no clue what to do with rutabagas. My mom suggested putting them in stew, but it’s not really stew weather. So I’m planning on using one of them as part of a ravioli filling. That’s where the beets are going too. It’s a souped-up version of a recipe I found in La Cucina. The beet-and-rutabaga-stuffed ravioli will get a brown-butter sauce with frizzled leeks.

To be honest, we mostly eat beets as roesti; Uncle Pasto likes them that way. I’ll post a recipe for roesti the next time I make it, along with pictures. I’m branching out deliberately into the ravioli arena this week because much as I love the roesti recipe, it’s nice to have multiple ways to eat things. That particular meal is going to be lamb chops, ravioli, and salad. Here’s hoping the ravioli do well.

The kale’s going into a chicken sausage stew thing (yeah, I know I said it wasn’t stew weather) to be served on Thursday for my game group. Maybe I’ll sneak the rest of the rutabagas into that. Don’t tell anyone. Shh.

Carrots are carrots; they’ll get eaten for lunches. The zucchini … well, we already got enough from the yard that we haven’t touched that batch yet. I’m thinking about making marinated zucchini, but since I have leftover zucchini salad from this evening, it probably won’t get made for another few days. If I get overrun with zukes, I’ll possibly make pickles — I have some pickling salt and plastic jar lids for my Mason jars inbound.

That’s my plan for this week!

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Jun 21
2010

I am SO backlogged on posting. To be honest, the summer is the busiest time of the year for me — and not just because of the yard!

Here are pictures of how my garden’s grown from the last time I posted to … er … about a week ago when I took these photos, but didn’t have time to blog them. ^_^;

Pattypan Squash

Pattypan squash -- baby squashes and blossoms

Zucchini flowers and squashes

We are going to have more zucchini than we can eat. And we only planted one!

Golden Summer Bell Pepper

Golden Summer bell pepper -- waiting for it to turn yellow

Eggplant Flowers

Fairytale Eggplant flowers

Peanut flowers

We bought peanuts on a whim. Aren't they cute?

Baby watermelons

This watermelon is about the size of a grape.

We have five watermelons growing — two on one plant and three on another.

The garden today

This is what it looks like today -- I just went out and took this photo.

Now, I know, I know. You haven’t seen the boysenberries, blueberries, strawberries, or fruit trees yet. Um. Those are coming? The sun is going down and I didn’t think I’d get good pictures. I’ll take pix of those next time.

Here’s the crazy thing. Those tomatoes? I … er … I had to prune them. Now I’ll wait while everyone cringes in terror and tells me that’s a terrible idea. Thing is, there was no air circulation or sunlight in there, and I’d heard about pruning tomatoes over at Sustainable Eats. So I figured — why the heck not, I’ll give it a try, and see how it goes. I can tell you one thing for sure — I discovered easily a dozen tomatoes I hadn’t seen before by doing that! I also discovered that one of my pots of tomatoes included two totally different tomato plants … guess I’ll have to wait to find out what they are! So hopefully they’ll survive and be fine. I’ll let you know.

I picked half a pound of zucchini and half a pound of strawberries today. Also some pattypan squash and blueberries, and a bit of basil and a green onion. Tasty, tasty stuff. I have a strawberry-blackberry cobbler in the oven, and I made a zucchini salad I should blog about in a few minutes. (:

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