garden update. 5/23

this stuff is starting to grow like crazy.  


our zucchini has had a couple haircuts, but is starting to churn out the veggies.  

baby zuke.  should be ready to pick in a couple days.

our first harvested zucchini.  grilled this on our new grill last night for dinner.  delicious!

our tomato plants seem to be doing much better since we added the support stakes.  

we have a couple buds that are starting to flower.  tomatoes are coming soon!

watermelon plant seems to be doing ok.  think the zucchini has pretty much killed off all but 2 or 3 of these.

carrots are going strong.  i'm thinking a few more weeks and these should be ready to eat.

again, i think the zucchini has killed most of the beets.  i think we have 2 left that will hopefully make it.

the pepper plant blooming like crazy on top.  the first pepper is probably 5" long now.  starting to mature to yellow stage.  maybe a couple weeks left for this one.

the lemon tree seedling is doing really well, though we won't see fruit for quite some time.

the orange tree seedling is starting to look better.  it was a little touch and go for awhile, but it's looking pretty healthy now.

the comeback award has definitely got to go to the corn.  with the help of some (ok, a LOT) organic pesticide, these guys are starting to look a LOT better.  i think i counted probably 10 baby ears this morning.

the corn is almost as tall as the fence now.  it looks a little rough from the caterpillars, but i think it'll survive.

basil goat cheese stuffed fried chicken breast, shoestring fries, pickled cucumber & onion, harissa honey.

i made this for my special last week.  i'm sorry i didn't get many pictures of the process, but it was kind of messy...and i forgot.  so here's the finished shots.

this was really good.  i'm not a fan of goat cheese, but i could eat this every single day.  the harissa honey really finished it off nicely.  the acidity from the pickled cukes/onions cut the fattiness of the fried chicken and potatoes.  a delicious and nicely balanced dish.

canapes.

this past week i had the pleasure of providing some canapes for a screenplay reading at the holocaust museum.  they requested vegan/vegetarian/kosher items.  here's what i did.


strawberry shortbread, basil goat cheese, preserved lemon.

these were awesome.  

cucumber cups with honey dijon and pickled radish. 

roasted potato chips, balsamic cherries, horseradish, chive.

these turned out way better than i could have hoped.

crostini, stilton, red onion jam, fried arugula.

so. freaking. good.  the onions were my favorite part fo sho!  think of an onion flavored gummy bear.  awesomeness.  

just a quick thank you.

once in a while, ok a lot, i like to check the stats section on this blog.  just to see the kind of traffic its getting.  it always amazes me that there are so many people reading this...and from places i wouldn't expect.  here's a breakdown.

United States 392

Germany 20

Canada 6

Russia 5

Singapore 5

United Kingdom 2

Croatia 2

Latvia 1

germany?  really?  i mean, how cool is that? singapore?! croatia?!

wow.  

this blog is fun, and i hope all of you enjoy reading it as much as i enjoy writing it.  so...thank you.

scotty nails it...twice.

i think it's very important to give credit where credit is due.


the last few weeks, i've been having my sous chef scott make some of his own specials.  the only involvement i really had was in the planning stage and maybe some of the prep via his direction.  i know that when i was working for someone else, when i had the chance to create things on my own it not only helped to boost my self esteem, but it taught me to be creative.  and to make mistakes.  without mistakes you will never learn.


last week, scott wanted to do a lancashire hot pot with the left over lamb shanks.  so as we talked through it, he decided to deconstruct it.  i think it was an excellent idea.  to deconstruct a dish, you take all the elements in the traditional dish and essentially tear it apart and put it back together.  a hot pot is traditionally stewed with lamb, potatoes, carrots and onions served with pickled cabbage.  so he took all those elements and presented them in a different way.  


first he marinated the lamb for a few hours in a mix of herbs (mint, chives and thyme if i remember correctly...) and olive oil.  then it was roasted low n slow.  i think 250 degrees for about 12 hours.

i have to say, when i arrived that morning the kitchen smelled freaking awesome.


for the potatoes and carrots he cut shoestring fries.  pickled his own red cabbage (again, mistakes lead to lessons learned.  now we BOTH know malt vinegar is NOT a good one for pickling cabbage.)  we needed a sauce for this to bring it all together.  so a caper mint cream sauce was decided.


here's the final product.

this week..scotty did an asparagus and goat cheese frittata with wilted spinach and an herbed aioli.  that stuff flew outta the kitchen.  i didn't get a lot of pictures of the process because...well, i don't know.  i just didn't.  either way, well done scotty.  well done.

so, giving credit where its due...  scott, you rocked this shiz out.  high five brother.  i'm proud of how far you've come since you started and i'm honored to work with you!

harissa stewed shrimp. roasted yellow pepper and goat cheese shortbread. minted pea yogurt.

i have a new favorite thing.  harissa.  its smoky, spicy goodness that comes in a tube.  not to mention, it's showing up all over the place.  harissa is the new bacon.  


first.  making the stewing liquid is simple.  all you need is onion, harissa, coconut milk and a ton of cilantro.  


caramelize the onion.

then add your harissa (i used a lot, but your personal preference wins), coconut milk and cilantro.

add your shrimp.  season and let reduce by about half.  set aside. (i did mine individually so i could regulate portion size at the restaurant, but you don't have to.)


next...  the shortbread is the most time consuming part of this one.  i roasted my yellow peppers myself, but to save time you could just buy the can/jar roasted red peppers -tho the yellow are sweeter.


if you have a gas stove, put the peppers right on the flame.  a grill will do the job too.  keep an eye on them, you just want the skin to get nicely charred, but not overly.  keep turning them.

once they are black all over, put them in a bowl and cover with plastic wrap.  let them sit for about 20 minutes.  this will lock in the smoky flavor and also sort of steam the rest of the pepper.

i forgot to take a picture of the next step, but all you have to do to clean the peppers is run them under some cold water, pop off the top and rinse out the seeds.  after thats done, throw them in a food processor and puree.  dump puree into a chinoise (pronounced shin-wah) or fine mesh strainer.  

let it sit and allow the liquid to separate.  if you are impatient like me, use a ladle to push the liquid out of the pulp.  (the liquid could be used for a stock for soup, so don't toss it!)  set aside the pepper pulp.

now.  this is the fun part.  (oh, and you may get dirty...you should have seen the mess i made making these.)  grab some butter and goat cheese.  i'd say about a 50/50 mix.  let them get to room temp and put them in a mixer with the paddle attachment.  cream them together.  

now grab your pepper pulp from before and toss it in there as well.  how much is entirely up to you and your personal taste.  i did equal pulp to goat cheese/butter blend.  

after the pulp is mixed in, start adding flour until it's not sticky but not dry and clumpy.  take it out of the mixer and roll it out to about a 1/4" thick.  put it on a cookie sheet and cook at 350 degrees for about 20 minutes, or golden brown. (sorry for the bad pic!)

let that cool and you can cut out cool shapes with cookie cutters or just crumble it.  either way.


i just realized i don't have any photos of the minted pea yogurt process, but its simple.  put some fresh peas, mint, yogurt and salt and pepper into food processor and puree the crap out of it.  done.


now here's the result.

garden update. 5/16

wow.  i can't believe its been 2 weeks since i posted last.  time flies...

well, i think it's safe to say that the big rain storms we've had over the last few days have helped out the plants in the garden.  i think its safe to say the zucchini is taking the lead...if only because the corn is being eaten by some kind of caterpillar. how about some visual aids?

the zucchini is easily taking up half or just less than half of the garden.  i think we may have made a mistake in planting...1-3 plants may have been sufficient in the alloted area... instead there are probably 20.   oops.

this thing is loaded with blossoms.  

the chili plant is doing awesome as well.  the first pepper looked like this last week.

and this is this week.  i can't wait for this bad boy to mature.  i'm drooling over here.

a couple more peppers have sneakily started growing also...

our tomato plants are starting to kick into high gear as well... hopefully in another couple weeks we'll start seeing some fruit on them...need to get some of those support cages for them though.

the corn is doing relatively well.  it still seems as though the bugs are having their way with it.  we got some organic insecticide that seemed to help a bit, but think it may need another dose soon.

carrots are looking pretty good.  for now they are far away enough from the zukes that they aren't being hindered in growth.

unfortunately, i don't think i can say the same for the beets...  we've been trying to redirect the zucchini away from beets to give them a chance, but the zukes are just seriously out of control.  i don't have a lot of hope for these guys.