Lovely dishes from the garden thread?

[ottawagardener]

Just made maple syrup cookies today: flour, maple syrup, butter, baking powder, salt in the amounts required to create cookie then bake. Yummy.

[heidihi]

there is nothing I adore more than maple syrup ..I grew up in New England ..oh man I can smell them ..I a wonderful cook suck at baking so I need a little more quantities please??? I would love to make those!

[ottawagardener]

I'm one of those cooks that doesn't use measurements often so here goes (an estimate)

2.5 C flour
a bit of salt
a bit more baking powder
Optional: sliverered almonds

1C maple syrup
3/4-1C butter

Sift the dry ingredients together
Cream, as best you can, the maple syrup and butter. It won't mix easily.
Add the wet to the dry and cut together with a pastry cutter or with two knives cutting across or whatever method you have handy.
If it's too dry to make balls, add more butter and maple syrup.
Once it will stick together (probably still be a bit crumbly), form into balls and put on cookie sheet. Flatten with fork.

Cook at 375 for about 10 minutes.

They were really yummy yesterday!

[sorellina]

Ciao Heidihi-

I love making Korean food, too. Try using rice flour instead of convential flour the next time you make them. There's a real difference in consistency. I love to use my "old" super-fermented kimchi for them, but I also make simple green onion pancakes as well. My Chinese Chives didn't germinate, so I'll be getting a small pot at Richters because I've been using them quite a lot for different things.

We just pulled the last of the leeks and put them into a fairytale pumpkin soup with apples.

Tomorrow, I'll make a rhubarb cake for breakfast with frozen rhubarb from last year's garden. For dinner tomorrow, I'll use some frozen chilies from last year's garden and homemade picante sauce for tamale pie.

I've been putting the frozen kale into various soups and it's quite good that way. It has lost some of its texture, but for soups, that's ok.

[heidihi]

how fun is it to wander to your garden or even your larder that you create from the garden ..and choose something then prepare a meal round it???
I can not imagine anything more exciting ..and now that food is coming in and my garden is working for me instead of visa versa ..I love to cook obviously

Ciao to you as well Sorellina!
I will for sure try the rice flour and would love to share more Korean food ideas ..Korean people honor the garden! Korean food and gardening go hand in hand for me ..(but so does most food and gardening to be honest) I am starting my parilla plants now so I can have those fantastic leaves to use ..I tried to overwinter my plants and lost them all but they are so easy to grow!
Rhubarb cake I hope you will post the recipe when you make it! YUM!!! I love to make a rhubarb coffee cake but my stalks are not quite there yet ..

Thank you so much for the cookie recipe I will try it!
I am from the school of pinch and toss for cooking but for baking (except bread and pie pastry those I do by feel) has to be sort of exact or I fail miserably ...I just do not bake as well as I cook.



Breakfast today is from the garden

Eggs Saratoga ..this is absolutely delicious and if you have chives and parsley and fresh eggs and do not make this ..well then you are truly missing out! I base my omelets on Julia Child and how she made omelets ..

here you go a simple breakfast that presents like a royal one!!!

Eggs Saratoga

this is your filling
mash together
1 oz cream cheese (more or less) per person
1-2 tablespoons of finely minced fresh chives and parsley half and half (do a bit extra to garnish)

a bit of salt and pepper for garnish as well

work the herbs into the cream cheese

make a fluffy rolled omelet with this filling inside

if you have not made a rolled omelet ..this needs to be a very pale barely cooked omelet ..you can Youtube or search" how to make rolled omelets" imaybe? ff you have not made a rolled one before it is just a matter of a perfectly heated seasoned pan you pour your eggs in and then just cook shaking the pan and moving the eggs with your spatula very carefully and slowly cook half way through ..add the cream cheese mixture and then roll it into a tube out of the skillet and on to your warmed (if possible but not necessary) plate ..top with a sprinkle of the fresh herbs a bit of salt and pepper ..and serve with a nice smoked ham and a sliced orange and you have a wonderful meal

there should be no brown on this omelet to get the right flavor it should remain soft and barely cooked through just fluffy


if this is a new recipe for you I hope you will try it and enjoy it as much as I do!

[mnjrutherford]

hmmmm... I adore parsley and onion omelets. What does the cream cheese do though? I find this VERY intriguing!

[heidihi]

well if you mash your herbs into the cream cheese then put it in the center of your omelet you will have a creamy herby center that is just to die for..is that what you wanted to know? the cream cheese gets soft the herbs permiate it with flavor!

try it!

[heidihi]

a huge portion of my holiday menu is flavored from the garden? anyone else have traditions they would like to share?

I make a really insane fried chicken that when it comes out the oil I pour a garnish of butter and crispy fried sage on
serve this with a Panama pink potato salad made from the last of our pickled beets..I always save a jar for this
a spring green cabbage slaw..
and Okanowan sweet potato pie

the rest others will bring

Passover/Easter/Pagan Egg day we share with our diverse grafted family

it is kind of a combo meal of last years larder and this years spring greens and herbs...

for dessert however I make this really good pie

check it out ..nothing comes form the garden but the chicken eggs
onokinegrindz.typepad.com/ono_kine_grindz/2004/10/okinawan_sweet_.html

I can tell you ..if you serve this beautiful purple sweet potato pie for Easter people will never forget it! I do add more eggs ..use heavy cream ..it is a very tweekable recipe! In fact today I just put the filling and the coconut pudding in a regular pie pastry and am taking four to work
I love to see folks eat purple pie
share if you like I would love to know what everyone is doing?

also we do include pototo guns in our festivities ..my husband is modifying his right now to assure he wins this insane need to feed the seals our vegetables!

we do pack up the above feast and take it to the beach rain or shine ..we have a pinic on Saturday ...there is always GoreTex and a fire ..tarps work ..they are our blue skies anyway

oh well to each his or her own ...I love potato guns

have a wonderful weekend everyone ...please share your traditions and food menus

[Joseph Lofthouse]

For flavoring I grow garlic, onions, mint, chives, dill, parsley, oregano, and horseradish. Nobody here likes horseradish so I might as well chop it out. (As if that would kill it.) Same with oregano. We use mint during the winter as a tonic for the blah's or for stuffy noses. I can sometimes slip some garlic into a dish. I can cook with as many onions we like. We commonly use dill in pickles. I guess the only reason I grow chives and parsley is because my grandmother grew them, and I expect that any proper garden must have them available.

I planted basil this year including Holy Basil by request.

I am planning to attempt growing sesame, and yellow mustard seeds this year.

Our holiday menu typically includes the following from our garden:

cut green beans,
frozen sweet corn,
pickled beets,
raw carrots,
mashed potatoes,
Hubbard squash,
pumpkin (actually butternut) pie,
dill pickles,
sweet pickles,
apple pie,

I was burning sage-brush yesterday, just put on my coat to go run an errand. Oh my gosh the smell of sage is strong on it.

[heidihi]

I think sometimes folks get stuck in the rhubarb as dessert idea..do not get me wrong I adore rhubarb pie!

I think rhubarb does savory even better than sweet and I am all about it with stews and anything cooked with tomatoes

This is my first really spring dish made with rhubarb ..I make it once a year ..and it just so happens I have enough rhubarb today! and have the day off to prepare this! ..best of all I have every single thing I need either in the garden or the pantry so YAY no distracting trips to the market where I chase shiny things then do not get any work done

This is based on a a Persian recipe my grandmother would make once a year in the spring as well so it feels good to share this one..spring lamb and rhubarb with fresh herbs??? how can you not like it?

I would love to think someone would actually try this dish and then get to walk in and smell it cooking after a long day in the garden ..euphoric I promise ..and EXACTLY my plan for the day!!!

I am thinking this recipe out so hang in
you can not mess it up if you follow the basics

Persian style Lamb Stew with Rhubarb

1/3 cup butter
2 tble olive oil
3 onions diced (or if you have them use shallots from he garden now!)
cook the above over medium to med high until the onions are golden brown and all the water is evaporated out of both the butter and onions
add 1/2 tsp coriander seed (grown last year)
1/2 tsp cumin (have yet to figure out how to grow)
add 2 lbs of cubed boneless completely dry iamb you have sprinkled with salt and pepper (if you do not like lamb and I can not even imagine that but use some goat, or beef ..pork as well but this is defiantly not a vegetarian convertible dish I am sorry
brown the meat a bit in the above mixture of onions and oil then add a quart of canned tomatoes if you have them on hand or a can of san marzano ..or if you want the pure experience leave out the tomatoes and just use water to cover the meat ..simmer until tender

several bunches of fresh herbs chopped
cilantro, parsley, mint, chives ..what ever you have chop it all up and set
1 tble of butter

when your meat is tender het a skillet and fry the herbs above in the hot butter then toss in the stew ...cook for about 10 min more while you dice up 2-3 cups of rhubarb and add them to the stew..cook at a simmer until the rhubarb is just tender

serve with basmati rice cooked with a little fresh mint a handful of raisins and saffron if you have it

or you can this in a pita and serve with sliced cucumber and yogurt with a mint chutney

[wildseed57]

All these recipes are making me so hungry, if I could master one dish I would be in heaven. I'm going to have to cut out meats and dairies for awhile, but I can base a meal totally on veggies, legumes and nuts, and maybe some yam noodles. It will be interesting to see how long I can stay at it, as I'm a big meat fan. I do like horseradish and have some in a place where it can't take over and I would like to start some rhubarb as its very good for your health. I will have to rebuild a bed for strawberries as last years summer killed all my plants in a eight foot long bed, and some type of relentless ground cover took over the bed, killing what few plants were left. Boy that stuff was really bad, during a warm up in march I burned out the last of it in the bed. I just have to have fresh strawberries, so I will be starting over with them in a deeper bed that I can cover with shade cloth. I love fresh strawberries dipped in dark chocolate. one of my failings or so I have been told.
George W.

[mnjrutherford]

FALAFEL!! For a long time, we incorporated vegan and vegetarian diet into our lives. We were a little odd (we still are but that is beside the point ;o). We would alternate "diets" by week. One week "normal" with meat, then 1 week vegan, 1 week meat, and 1 week vegetarian. We lost a good deal of weight that way and it forced us to explore a lot of cool cuisines that we had overlooked. Still, I've eaten falafel since I was a teen and it was during this period I discovered that it wasn't just powder from a box. I've loved it for years, but fresh made from whole beans is just crazy yummy!

Also, I made kale for the first time a couple days ago. I'm not keen on it. I want to try it in minestrone and in a risotto next.

[wildseed57]

Kale is a hard one for me as it is very strong tasting, I did take some and run it in a blender along with some spinach which I made some pretty good noodles from to add to my soups, today is my last day for meats, so I got some ground chicken to make up some patties with. During the winter I got where I was just frying everything and put on 30 pounds, but with me just making meals with veggies I should loose it again, since I quit smoking 7 years ago I put on over 40 pounds, and my blood pressure went up. I did get some mango's to snack on which is one of my favorite fruits, I need to look up some recipes using them as a vegetable. I know that when they are green the are often used that way, they do taste good lightly cooked when ripe and served a long with garlic, sliced sweet peppers, ginger and maybe a hot pepper or two with chicken, so I might use a couple that way with my patties along with some brown rice and a light salad.
George W.

[grunt]

Jo: To add kale to soups, roll the leaf and cut very thin shreds off of the roll. It's the way the Portuguese use Couves in soups. Work your way up for amounts, until you reach the right taste. Also, cut the shreds shorter than they come off the roll when you slice them. It makes it much easier to eat the soup.

[heidihi]

you can do a few things to make it wonderful ..but my favorite thing is to make some
Calde Verde (this is Portuguese as Grunt mentioned used well in soups!) ..here is Emeril's recipe for "exacts" but I pinch and toss this ...chicken broth is best I think when you cook kale in a soup as it mellows it

try this and you may change your mind about kale! www.emerils.com/recipe/7948/Emerils-New-style-Caldo-Verde
if not there are so many greens in this world you do not have to like it that is for sure

oh and I like to take the curly kale toss in a little olive oil and roast it until crispy it makes great "chips" sprinkled with a little sea salt and sesame seeds!


I also use it in Italian wedding soup of I do not have escarole ..that is my favorite green ..I like it far more than kale to be honest

I am not a huge fan of chard myself ..I like it but I prefer beet greens with the baby beets to chard ..I think it is pretty but tried it over and over and kind of find it lack luster while others just adore it!