Pimenta Moida

Continuing with my interest in Portuguese cuisine, I noticed my Azorean cookbooks talk about a pepper paste called Pimenta Moida that is used as a condiment. You can find it at the small Portuguese shops around here but I have not seen it in the Portuguese food sections at the local supermarkets so I have never tried it. It is a fermented product and looks like a good way to preserve and use some of the peppers from the garden.

The local Azorean community used to make their year’s supply every fall, buying cases of Shepherds peppers from the produce markets and enlisting all family members to process them. I have never heard of this pepper but it is supposed to be a long, slender sweet red pepper, probably of Italian origin. Apparently it is very popular in Ontario, who knew? I have not seen this type of pepper in the stores around here, at least under that name. Checking seed catalogs, there is a “Super Shepherd” pepper which seems to be the right type: long, red, slender and of Italian origin. Another one is called “Shepherds Ramshorn”, described as originating in Spain but now commonly grown in Italy. This pepper is supposed to be very sweet, having one of the highest brix ratings. I may try growing one of these two next year, or maybe I will just grow some extra Carmen peppers.

Since it is far past pepper season here in New England and I do not have peppers from my garden, I checked out the supermarkets. What I found was mostly hothouse peppers, except for these. The peppers below are LeRouge Royale peppers. LeRouge is an elongated red pepper that was developed in Israel. It is commonly field grown in California, Florida, and Mexico. Mine came from Mexico. In addition, I picked up a few red Fresno peppers to add a little spice. Little spice? These Fresno peppers are hot! Since I can not believe that Pimenta Moida is not just a little spicy, I will make my paste spicy to taste by adding the Fresno peppers one at a time until I get a paste spicy enough for my timid tastes.



The preparation for making Pimenta Moida involves cutting the peppers into strips, removing seeds and membranes, and salting with sea salt.



The salted peppers are placed in a glass bowl. I covered them with a piece of plastic wrap and placed a plate on the wrap. The bowl was covered with a towel and set aside to ferment for a couple of weeks at room temperature.



After fermenting for two weeks, the peppers were limp and a lot of moisture was extracted from them, forming a brine in the bowl. There were a few small moldy spots I trimmed off first, then I drained the peppers and put them into a food processor. The result was a bright red paste. To spice it up, I started adding  the Fresno peppers, one half at a time. It turns out just one half pepper made it spicy enough for me. I can enjoy the intense pepper flavor of the Moida with a little added snap from the Fresno but without a lot of pain.



The three peppers only made a half pint of paste. It has a nice pepper flavor but is very salty, so it probably needs to be treated as a condiment and any additional salt in a recipe needs to be adjusted. I poured a thin layer of olive oil over the top to help preserve it and put it in the refrigerator. My first use of it was to coat some split chicken breasts. I let the breasts sit for an hour before baking them. The result was excellent. The Moida formed a nice peppery, salty crust on the breasts and added a lot of flavor to otherwise bland chicken.

I did eventually find a commercial Pimena Moida in the supermarket. Gonsalves is a New England based distributor specializing in Portuguese foods. Their Pimenta Moida was labeled “Crushed Red Peppers” and looked like any other jar of hot peppers. I was about to buy a jar until I read the ingredients. While actually sourced from the Azores, their product contained vinegar and a long list of preservatives and additives. The vinegar means it is not a fermented product and it is certainly not a “living” food, so that was disappointing and made any comparison pointless.

Pimenta Moida is a fermented living food and is another way to preserve the garden harvest in a way that is both tasty and healthy. I am reading two of David Perlmutter’s books, Grain Brain and Brain Maker. Grain Brain shows the research that gluten and carbohydrates negatively affect cognitive health. Brain Maker details how our gut biome (the trillions of organisms that live in our gut) also affect brain health. At the end of the book he has recipes for foods that will help restore the health of our gut biome, all of them fermented foods. So fermented pickles, salsas, sauerkraut, kimchi (yes, you kimchi skeptics, he considers kimchi one of the healthiest of foods!),  yogurt, kefir, pickled fish, pickled meats (e.g., corned beef), pickled eggs are all brain-healthy foods. I am really looking forward to the coming garden season and planning to try fermentation as a way to preserve more of my harvest.

Meyer Lemons

We had a balmy, 70 F (21C) Christmas day, but winter was not far away. On Tuesday we got the remnants of Goliath, which dropped an inch or two of snow and then turned into sleet and freezing rain. With a name like Goliath, is that all you got? Our first storm last year dumped 5 feet/1.5 m.. of snow. Best of all, we got an heating oil truck up the driveway during the storm so I now have a full tank to start off the winter. We are now having some sunny weather and my Meyer lemon tree is enjoying the light reflected off the snow/ice on the deck. The tree spends summer days on the deck and gets yanked inside before really cold nights begin. Note there are five lemons on the tree, which has been a fantastic producer given its small size. It is the holidays and time to use a few of the lemons, which are my Harvest Monday crop.



We picked two of the lemons, which are a little smaller than the first few lemons off the tree but produced almost half a cup of juice. The recipe we used is my mother’s, saved by my sister, Sharon. We used a little less sugar with the Meyer lemon juice because the juice is sweeter than regular lemons, about a cup. The recipe is included below and I apologize it is in American measure. I am not adept at converting recipes.

Lemon Meringue Pie

Filling
 
Ingredients
1 ½ c. sugar (less for Meyer lemons)
3 Tbsp. corn starch
3 Tbsp. flour
1 ½ c. hot water
Pinch of salt
3 egg yolks, slightly beaten
2 Tbsp. butter
½ tsp. lemon zest
1/3 cup lemon juice
1 9 inch baked pie shell
1 recipe meringue

Instructions
1. In saucepan, combine sugar with corn starch and flour; then stir in hot water gradually. Bring to boil stirring constantly to make a smooth mixture.
2. Add salt and continue cooking for 8 minutes stirring occasionally until thick.
3. Stir a small amount of the hot mixture slowly into egg yolks, stirring constantly. Return to pan and cook 4 minutes longer. Add butter and lemon zest; stir until melted. Slowly add in lemon juice. Cool the mixture.
4. Pour into pastry shell. Cover with meringue, and bake in 325º F. oven until delicately browned, about 12-15 minutes.


Meringue

Ingredients
3 egg whites
6 Tbsp. sugar
1 tsp. lemon juice
 
Instructions

Beat egg whites and lemon juice until stiff. Add sugar gradually (1 Tbsp. at a time), beating constantly until soft peaks form. Pile lightly on pie filling, sealing meringue to edges of pie crust.



It is the New Year and it is totally fitting that we start it off with all our/my plans completely blown up. The lemon pie was supposed to be dessert served with our New Years Day dinner but I forgot to make it. So we had it Saturday after the Osso Bucco that was supposed to be our New Years Eve dinner. That got put off while we stuffed our faces with the excess of appetizers I procured for New Years Eve (not to mention the Champagne).  Oh well, hopefully my garden planning goes better. Most of the seed catalogs are in and nothing better than to start planning the new gardening year.

That is my modest harvest this new year. Hope your year starts off wonderful. I do seasonal tax preparation and my season starts Monday, so my blog posts will become less frequent as I start my 75-hour a week work schedule. To see what other gardeners are doing, check out Harvest Monday at From Seed to Table, our host for Harvest Monday during January.

Punched Potatoes

While planning side dishes for the Christmas Roast Beast, potatoes naturally come up. My wife loves potatoes but I try to avoid them because of the carbs. So the compromise was I would buy a bag of the cute little mini spuds, since I do not grow them. The idea of preparing them as punched potatoes came to mind after recently seeing a recipe on the Internet. If you do grow potatoes, there are always the runts and this is a good way to use them.

Punched potatoes, or Batatas a Murro, is a Portuguese dish that is simple and delicious. I first encountered the idea of punched potatoes while planning a trip to a nearby Portuguese restaurant. We live surrounded by a lot of Portuguese Americans whose ancestors came from the Azores, so there are Portuguese bakeries and Portuguese food items in the stores. But other than the kale soup I make, which is Azorean in origin, I haven’t had a lot of authentic Portuguese cuisine.

So I researched the restaurant menu online and decided I was going to order Polvo à Lagareiro, grilled octopus served over a punched potato. The octopus is boiled for an hour, then tossed in olive oil and grilled over charcoal for a few minutes to char it a little. It is served over a punched potato that was crisped in garlic-infused olive oil, with the extra oil poured over the dish. The octopus was wonderful but the “punched” potato I received was half a huge restaurant-size russet potato, grey and gummy inside. Not the crisp, garlicky potato I was expecting.

Batatas a Murro are not hard to make and what I decided to do for our Christmas dinner. There are plenty of recipes around and there are many variations. What I will provide is simply a concept with some suggestions for variations. The basic idea is you cook (bake or boil, but baked is preferred) some small (golf ball or slightly larger)  potatoes until they are done. Let them cool a bit, then using your fist or the bottom of a glass or mug, slightly smash (“punch”) the potatoes to break their skin and slightly flatten them. Then heat a small frying pan and sauté some garlic in olive oil until the garlic is fragrant and just starts to brown.



The final step is where there are many possible variations. You can:

• Place the punched potatoes in a serving bowl, drizzle with the hot olive oil and serve.
• Put the punched potatoes on a foil-lined baking sheet, brush with the olive oil and bake until slightly browned and crispy. This is what I decided to do, putting them in the oven for the final minutes of the roast. Not a beautiful presentation but tasty.
• Sauté the potatoes in the pan with the garlic and oil until they are browned and crispy. This is what I expected to get with my octopus but did not get.
• Or, brush the potatoes with the olive oil and brown them on a gas or charcoal grill. If making the Polvo, you could grill the octopus and potatoes at the same time.

 Hope everyone enjoys their holidays. It is warm and balmy here, not typical for early winter. I am not that upset about it and the oil tank (and my wallet) is happy. But El Niño keeps pumping out winter storms and Goliath is on its way, so we will see. After last year, I can deal with anything.

Making Kimchi

Kimchi

There was nothing new from the garden this week but I used some of the Napa cabbage I harvested last week to make a batch of kimchi/kimchee, the Korean soul food. Kimchi is a fermented product and a good way to preserve some of the garden harvest. The kimchi I made is called mak-kimchi or “easy” kimchi, because it uses chopped cabbage leaves rather than whole cabbages and is simpler and faster to make. Napa cabbage is best to use because it has thinner leaves which will make the fermentation faster. This recipe calls for 2 pounds (1 kg) of cabbage.

In addition to the cabbage, there are a few other ingredients, counterclockwise from upper left:

• A bunch of scallions, including greens
• A small leek, including greens
• A carrot or two
• A 2 inch piece of fresh ginger
• A head of garlic, cloves peeled
• 1/4 cup Korean chili flakes (gochugaru), or more to taste
• A turnip or daikon radish
• An apple or Asian pear, peeled and cored
• 3 Tbsp. fish sauce or fermented shrimp paste

The first step is to chop and brine the cabbage. Cut through the root end of the cabbage to quarter it, then pull the quarters apart. Each quarter is sliced lengthwise in half, then chopped into 2 inch pieces. Place the chopped cabbage into a glass or earthenware bowl.

Prepare a brine using 3 Tbsp. of sea salt to 6 cups of water. Pour the brine over the cabbage, then place a plate on the cabbage to make sure the cabbage remains submerged. Drape a towel over the bowl and set aside for 3-4 hours. Another method just salts the leaves and leaves them to wilt. The leaves are then rinsed several times to remove excess salt. I used that method last year and found the leaves to be very salty. Mac commented that the brine technique produced a less salty kimchi, so that is what I am trying this year.

While the cabbage is soaking, prepare the other ingredients. The whites of the scallions and leek are cut into 2 inch lengths, then sliced lengthwise into slivers. The greens are sliced diagonally into small pieces. The turnip or daikon is cut into matchsticks, as well as the carrot. Or you can slice the carrot diagonally into thin slices as I did here.

After the cabbage is finished brining, spoon it into a colander using a slotted spoon and squeeze out any liquid. Place the drained cabbage in a bowl and add the diced fresh vegetables and mix thoroughly. Reserve the brine for later use. 

Prepare the pepper paste by putting the ginger, garlic, pepper flakes, fish sauce or shrimp paste, a teaspoon of sea salt and the apple or pear into a food processor and blend until smooth. Add some brine if you need to thin it. The pepper I used is gochugaru, the traditional Korean red pepper flakes. The gochugaru in the bag above from my local Korean grocery was grown in Korea. All the other bags in the store were of Chinese origin and I try to avoid Chinese produce if possible. The Korean pepper was only available in 1 kilo bags, so I probably have a lifetime supply.

Note that the Korean red pepper is flaked, not ground, and is seedless. Supposedly it is less spicy but more flavorful than other peppers such as cayenne. There really is no substitute for it so a search is worthwhile, or you can mail-order it. You certainly could use your own dried pepper flakes if you have them. Results will likely have a different flavor and heat from using gochugaru, but go ahead and experiment.

Spoon some of the the mixed vegetables into a large mixing bowl and add a scoop of pepper paste. Using disposable gloves, work the paste into the cabbage mix with your fingers until the cabbage is well coated. Continue with layers of vegetables and paste, mixing well, until all is done.

Pack the kimchi into quart canning jars, pushing down to compact the kimchi into the jars. Spoon reserved brine into the jars until the top of the kimchi is covered. My batch filled 2 quart jars. Cover the jars with a loosely-fitted plastic cap and set in a dark, cool place for 3-6 days. Taste the kimchi and when it is sour enough, tighten the caps and store in the refrigerator.

There is a lot of onion in this version which I found to be pretty strong initially. That strong onion flavor subsided as the kimchi fermented. I didn’t use a follower in the jars, but they could have used one. The kimchi was tightly packed in the jars and tended to rise as a mass from the gasses of fermentation. I used a spoon daily to push the mass down below the liquid level. After a week, the kimchi is now pleasantly sour and flavors have melded a bit. It is very tasty, not as salty as my previous attempt,  and the the amount of pepper I used adds enough bite without making it painfully hot (your taste may vary).

That’s my offering for Harvest Monday. Head over to Our Happy Acres, our host for Harvest Monday,  to see what other gardeners around the world are doing in their gardens.

Harvest Monday 28 September 2015

The dry weather continues and the nights are now colder, with night temperatures dropping into the 40s. We have had plenty of sunshine but the sun is dropping lower in the sky and some of the garden is now being shaded by the trees. The warm weather plants like the tomatoes are not happy, but the brassicas are liking it. And for some reason the lettuce in the container has decided to bolt now that cool weather has returned.

 

 

The tomatoes are spent, with just some cherry tomatoes and a few paste tomatoes left.

 

 

We are getting into cool Fall days and my interest in the kale crop has returned. The batch above was destined for a kale, sausage and white bean dish. The Crystal Apple cucumbers were slow to get going but are still producing a lot of fruit, which is welcome.

 

 

The Tronchuda Beira went into a pot of Portuguese kale soup. The version I make from the Victory Garden Cookbook turns out to be an Azorean recipe. Not surprising because most of the Portuguese communities around here immigrated from the Azores.  I tried the mainland Caldo Verde this year but found it boring in comparison to the hearty Azorean version. There are lots of recipes for it on the Internet (here is one: http://www.recipething.com/recipes/show/37153-portuguese-kale-soup).  I used kale, tomatoes, garlic, and onions from my garden. I may have to try growing some dried beans so I can use them in the soup. This dish is tasty, good leftover, freezes well, and can be made vegetarian by leaving out the sausage.

 

That is what happened in my garden last week. To see what other gardeners around the world are doing, visit Daphne’s Dandelions, our host for Harvest Monday.

Chili Sauce

Most of my Blue Beech paste tomatoes ripened and some were going bad, so I had to do something with them. If I had pecks of tomatoes maybe I would can them or make tomato sauce. I did not have that many and I wanted to make something special with them. I decided to make chili sauce using the recipe in Joy of Cooking that I used several years ago. The chili sauce I am referring to is not hot sauce, it is the ketchup-like, spicier condiment commonly used in cocktail sauce. All the commercial versions are made with high fructose corn syrup, a poisonous industrial chemical made from GMO corn. And its taste can not compare to the homemade version.

 

 

Besides, I would bet you commercial chili sauce is not made from the ingredients above, Blue Beech tomatoes, Carmen, Lipstick, Jalapeno and Revolution peppers, and Rossa Lunga onions, along with brown sugar, apple cider vinegar and spices. The recipe I used is below. I actually halved the recipe since I only had four quarts of tomatoes and it made four pints of sauce.

 

Chili Sauce

• 1 peck/8 quarts tomatoes
• 6 green peppers, seeded
• 1 Tbsp. dried red pepper
• 6 large white onions

 Peel and quarter the tomatoes. Put onions and peppers in a food processor and chop fine. Place all of this in a large sauce pan and add:

• 2 c. brown sugar
• 3 c. apple cider vinegar
• 3 Tbsp. kosher salt
• 1 Tbsp. ground black pepper
• 1 Tbsp. allspice
• 1 tsp. ground cloves
• 1 tsp. ground ginger
• 1 tsp. cinnamon
• 1 tsp. ground nutmeg
• 1 tsp. celery seed
• 2 Tbsp. dry mustard

Bring to a boil, lower heat and simmer slowly at least 3 hours until thickened. Adjust seasoning. Put sauce in small, sterilized jars and seal. I used pint canning jars with seals. The recipe does not call for processing because of the acid content, but I chose to process in a water bath for ten minutes. The full recipe should make 8 pint jars of sauce.

 

 

The chili sauce is not a bright red but a bit brownish because of the green peppers and brown spices, but it tastes terrific. It is good on hamburgers, steaks, or your morning eggs.

Allium Update

 

I finally finished cleaning the last batch of garlic. These are Red Chesnok, a Middle Eastern hardneck variety from Georgia. This variety is supposed to be especially good for baking (or how about a batch of Freddy’s Roast Potatoes). Each head has 6-7 large cloves and a few smaller ones. Last year when planting these, I got 45 cloves from a half pound of seed garlic. In contrast, the German Extra Hardy garlic has larger cloves, just 5-6 per head, and yielded 24 cloves from a half pound.

 

I harvested 2.5 pounds of Red Chesnok and 2 pounds of German Extra Hardy. That’s 4.5 pounds from a pound of seed garlic. A half pound of each was set aside for seed garlic for this fall. I did not weigh the Chesnok bulbs because there was such variability. But I did weigh some of the bulbs of the German garlic. The largest was 1.5 ounces, but most were 1.3 or 1.4 ounces. If you assume an average of 1.35 ounces per bulb times 24 cloves planted, I should have gotten 2 pounds, which is exactly what I did harvest. So knowing the average bulb weight and the number of cloves planted, I can roughly predict what my harvest should be next year.

 

 

Finally, I cleaned up the Copra yellow onions that were drying on the back porch. From 6 square feet I harvested 8.75 pounds of onions. That might last me a couple of months. Given how cheap onions are in the stores, I ‘m not sure it is worth the effort and space to grow them given my small garden. Maybe I should try growing a sweet onion instead. Red onions are another matter. They are more of a specialty item used for salads and certain cooking versus a utility item like yellow onions. I grew a few last year and it was a treat to have a red onion available any time I needed one. This year I grew 5 squares of Red Bull onions and they are now starting to fall over. Pulling them is on the task list for next week.

Milk And Honey Mousse Cake

 

My daughter, Kate, had her 23rd birthday last Tuesday. We went to Ixtapa Cantina in Lunenburg to celebrate. The food was excellent, the Margaritas tasty, but desserts were the usual Mexican  restaurant fare: flan, fried ice cream, and sopapillas. No problem, because we had a birthday cake waiting at home.

Kate wanted something different for a cake and she is a tough critic. On my way home from an appointment in Concord, I drove past Idylwilde Farms, a farm stand in Acton, Massachusetts. They had a Milk and Honey Mousse Cake which was so darn cute I had to get it. The cake was made from vanilla cake layers with a chocolate mousse filling made with rum and honey. The cake was covered with a chocolate ganache frosting and decorated with honey bees. The wings were made from slivered almonds. Everyone loved the cake and it made a sweet ending to a pleasant evening.

Harvest Monday–25 Feb 2012

 

The garden is under a foot or more of snow with a few inches more on Sunday, so anything from the garden is coming out of the basement or the freezer. Last week I used the next to last red onion from the garden to make Rouladen, a German dish similar to “birds”. The supermarket had some thin sliced sirloin steak featured, which prompted the idea of serving this. The beef was sliced into strips and pounded to make it thinner.

 

A slice of bacon was laid on each strip, the strip slathered with Dijon mustard, and then sprinkled with the chopped red onion from the garden and sweet gherkin pickles.

 

 

The strips were then rolled up and fastened with toothpicks. The Rouladen were browned on all sides and then braised in some beef stock and red wine for about an hour. The juices make a great gravy, rich with mustard, onion and bacon

This Sunday we had roast chicken. I used one of my two remaining  Meyer lemons to flavor it. The lemon zest was blended with butter and dried basil from the garden and inserted under the skin of the breast and the juice dribbled over the chicken. The chicken was then roasted for an hour with mini carrots and asparagus from the store. Spring asparagus is starting to arrive so we enjoy it while it is available. My daughter wanted to make a pumpkin cheesecake, but unfortunately the pureed pumpkin that was defrosted last week to make waffles was moldy, so we resorted to canned pumpkin, which has a totally different and stronger flavor from fresh puree.

To see what gardeners around the world are harvesting from their gardens or freezers, head over to Daphne’s Dandelions, our host for Harvest Monday.

Harvest Monday–Lemon Meringue Pie

Hard to believe I would have anything to report in January, but I do. My Meyer Lemon tree, safely indoors in a SE facing window, has ripened the last of its fruit. These lemons are destined to be made into a lemon meringue pie. I have my mother’s recipe, saved by my sister, below. This will be a little taste of summer for the family to enjoy in January.

Lemon Meringue Pie

My mother’s recipe, and one of my favorites, sent to me by my sister, Sharon.

Filling

 

Ingredients

1 ½ c. sugar
3 Tbsp. corn starch
3 Tbsp. flour
1 ½ c. hot water
Pinch of salt
3 egg yolks, slightly beaten
2 Tbsp. butter
½ tsp. lemon zest
1/3 cup lemon juice
1 9 inch baked pie shell
1 recipe meringue (below)
 

Instructions
1.    In saucepan, combine sugar with corn starch and flour; then stir in hot water gradually. Bring to boil stirring constantly to make a smooth mixture.
2.    Add salt and continue cooking for 8 minutes, stirring occasionally until thick.
3.    Slowly stir a small amount of the hot mixture into egg yolks, stirring constantly. Return to pan and cook 4 minutes longer. Add butter and lemon zest; stir until melted. Slowly add in lemon juice. Cool the mixture.
4.    Pour into pastry shell. Cover with meringue, and bake in 325º F. oven until delicately browned, about 12-15 minutes.

Meringue

 

Ingredients
3 egg whites
6 Tbsp. sugar
1 tsp. lemon juice

 

Instructions
Beat egg whites and lemon juice until stiff. Add sugar gradually (1 Tbsp. at a time), beating constantly until soft peaks form. Pile lightly on pie filling, sealing meringue to edges of pie crust.

 

Thanksgiving Menu

Thanksgiving is my daughter Kate’s favorite holiday. So the menu is very important and I have to get her OK on everything. Over the years we have always tried new recipes and some pass on and some become traditions. I bring my own prejudices to the process, a reaction to the cooking of the 50s and 60s. I won’t eat anything made with cream of snot soup, or miniature marshmallows, or canned green beans. So that precludes two Thanksgiving “classics”, the green bean casserole and cranberry sauce with marshmallows and canned mandarin oranges. Instead, this is what we will be serving at our place on Thursday.

Turkey, of course, roasted not fried. I use the neck and gizzards along with an onion and celery to make a brown turkey stock while the turkey is roasting. For the liver, I use a trick I learned from a Gourmet magazine article years ago. I put the liver in the food processor with some heavy cream and Madeira and liquefy it. The mixture is then added to the stuffing to enrich it.The stuffing recipe varies each year and I usually ad-lib it. This year it will probably be corn bread and sausage with sage and thyme from the herb garden. I like to add brown rice to add some chew to a corn bread stuffing, but this year I may try some Israeli couscous I have in the cupboard.

Gravy is just the traditional gravy made with the pan drippings and the turkey stock. Mashed potatoes this year will be made with Yellow Gold potatoes and rutabaga. I like to add some  rutabaga (or yellow turnip or Swede as it is called in New England) to the potatoes to give it a little bit of flavor and texture. Nothing like a bowl of mashed potatoes with a puddle of butter melting in the middle. And it will be our own home made butter which Kate and I made Monday.

The cranberry sauce recipe we usually make is from the Vegetarian Epicure Vol. 2 by Anna Thomas, unfortunately now out of print. It is a perfect bound paperback and is now falling apart but is just as loved. This cranberry sauce is a cooked sauce that uses fresh cranberries and a chopped up navel orange, with cinnamon and cardamom for spices. It is a fresh tasting, fruity sauce without any of the canned or candy flavors of “traditional” sauces. A copy of the recipe can be found on the Reluctant Gourmet blog.

The vegetable side dishes are just as important as the turkey and stuffing. After lots of experimentation, we have come to standardize on a few dishes. Creamed onions are a traditional dish that we love, although we use a real Béchamel sauce to make them. Sweet potatoes are another classic, but the recipe we love is a streuseled sweet potato casserole from the November 2002 Cooking Light magazine, which is fabulous and can be prepared ahead of time. This is more dessert than vegetable, but it is Thanksgiving!

For more “healthy” side dishes, we like and will be preparing Cider-Glazed Carrots from that classic issue, the November 2002 Cooking Light magazine; and Shredded Brussels Sprouts with Bacon and Hazelnuts from the November 2004 Cooking Light magazine. For both recipes, a lot of preparation can be done ahead of time, which is always important for planning a Thanksgiving dinner. The latter recipe is particularly amazing because my wife, a certified, genetically-tested hater of Brussels sprouts actually likes them prepared this way. And it’s not just her Mississippi-bred love of all things bacon, she actually likes the sprouts fixed this way. Since my daughter and I love Brussels sprouts, this is a win-win recipe.

Finally, there is the not so small matter of desserts. Yes, plural, as in desserts. My son is a chocolate lover so we will be making a chocolate meringue pie from my mother’s recipe. The family joke is that my wife would try year after year to make the pie following recipes from Joy of Cooking, Fannie Farmer, you name it, and the filling would not solidify. So we would have chocolate soup pie. Recently I have been making my mother’s recipe and it works quite well. In addition we will have a pumpkin cheesecake, based on Dana Carpender’s cookbook, 500 Low Carb Recipes. This is a satisfying and rich dessert that is also low carb and will substitute for the traditional pumpkin pie.

That’s our menu for this year. Hope you have a great Thanksgiving (if you celebrate it). My mother’s chocolate meringue pie recipe follows.

Chocolate Meringue Pie

My mother’s recipe, sent to me by my sister, Sharon.

Ingredients

• 3 oz. chocolate
• 2½ c. milk
• 3 Tbsp. flour
• 3 Tbsp. cornstarch
• 1 c. sugar
• ½ tsp. salt
• 3 egg yolks, slightly beaten
• 1 Tbsp. butter
• 2 tsp. vanilla
• 1 baked pie shell
• 1 recipe meringue

Instructions

1. Melt chocolate in milk in double boiler and blend with wire whisk.
2. Mix flour, cornstarch, sugar, and salt. Add to chocolate mixture and cook 15 min., stirring constantly. The mixture should be thick and smooth.
3. Stir a small amount of the hot mixture slowly into egg yolks, stirring constantly. Return to double boiler and cook a few minutes longer. Add butter and vanilla; stir until melted. Cool the mixture.
4. Pour into pastry shell. Cover with meringue, and bake in 325º F. oven until delicately browned.

Meringue

Ingredients

• 3 egg whites
• 6 Tbsp. sugar
• ½ tsp. vanilla

Instructions
Beat egg whites until stiff. Add sugar gradually (1 Tbsp. at a time), beating constantly. Add vanilla. Pile lightly on pie filling, sealing edges.

My First Meyer Lemon

The Meyer lemon tree I bought on impulse this spring spent its summer on the deck. It flowered profusely in the spring and set a lot of fruit. All but five dropped and the biggest of those is now ripe and the rest are starting to ripen. I will have to come up with a good recipe to use my first lemon. Any suggestions? I found the LA Times has an article on “100 things to do with a Meyer Lemon” which is giving me some ideas.

The garden is mostly done except for kale, chard, parsley and some remaining beets which can take the frost we had last week. My wife and son visited the garden the weekend before the frost and harvested what they could. I photographed it but didn’t post it last week. One remarkable find they made was three more of the Summer Dance cucumbers. I have never had cucumbers up to frost before.

I haven’t done a lot of work in the garden the last couple of weeks because I have been recovering from surgery I had the end of September. One advantage of being an “invalid” was I didn’t cook or clean. My daughter was bothered by the stack of zucchini and patty pan squash piling up on the counter, so she decided to work her way through the Victory Garden Cookbook section on summer squash. One of the best was a squash pie made by layering slices of zucchini, tomatoes and cheese in a pastry crust and baking it.

As soon as I can bend comfortably in the middle, I have to clean up the beds and get ready to plant my garlic and shallots. Unfortunately I didn’t plant my spinach and sprouting broccoli seeds, but I may try a few just to see if they germinate and take. You never know what the weather will be. I also hope to pot up a rosemary plant for the winter. Last winter was so mild my rosemary survived into January or February when the really cold weather finally killed it.

Another Sign of Fall

Certainly nights are now cooler and the sun is not as strong. The air is drier but also fragrant with the aromas of ripening fruit wafting from the orchards. A surprising aroma is the sweet perfume I encounter when I take a walk along the roads near my house. It is the smell of the ripening wild grapes that grow in the mass of brush along the roads. It drives the bees and the birds wild and explains some of the purple messes I find on the roof of my car this time of year. Another view of the vine shows it towering over and smothering the young sugar maples it is using for support. The South has its kudzu and we have wild grape.



The wild grapes that grow in the Northeast are Fox grapes (Vitis labrusca), a native North American species. Martha’s Vineyard was supposedly named for the wild grapes that grow everywhere. The Concord grape everyone knows is a cultivar of the wild grape developed in Concord, Massachusetts in the nineteenth century.The farm stands here all have baskets of Concord grapes for sale now. They are pretty and make good jams and jellies but are not so good for fresh eating. The skins are thick and tart and the seeds are large. One surprisingly good dessert you can make from them is grape pie. The pulp is separated from the skins and cooked in a saucepot, then strained through a coarse sieve to remove the seeds. The pulp is combined with the skins, sweetened and baked in a pastry crust.

On a road trip to Missouri one September a few years ago, I was driving along I-90 in upstate New York. I was running late and hoping to at least make Erie, Pennsylvania for the night. It was already dark as I turned the corner outside Buffalo and was heading south on I-90 along Lake Erie. Suddenly the car filled up with the a sweet perfume that reminded me of the wild grapes along the roads at home. Because of the grading of the highway and the brush growing along the sides, it was hard to see what the source of the aroma was. Eventually there were breaks and in the moonlight, I could see huge vineyards stretching off towards the lake. I later asked a tax client of mine who works at Welch’s if what I saw could be Concord grapes. She confirmed that area is one of their big producers, growing Concord, Niagara, and Catawba grapes for Welch’s.

The name you most often associate with Concord grape jams and juices, of course, is Welch’s. Welch’s is headquartered appropriately right here in Concord, Massachusetts, and the reason it has not been swallowed up by one of the mega food corporations is that it is a co-op. Welch’s is owned by the National Grape Coop, an agricultural co-op of more than a thousand grape producers located in Michigan, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Washington, and Canada. For me, Welch’s is one of the few feel-good products you can still buy in the stores, although I don’t use a lot because of the sugar content. These days, I prefer my grapes made into wine.

Lovey’s Brownies

This is not exactly a gardening topic, unless you want to consider chocolate a vegetable (it does come from beans, after all). But I wanted to share this recipe and put it out there for posterity. And the timing is right. Last weekend was the Bolton Fair, a two-day country fair. One of the features of fairs is always the pie and cake contests.Which reminded me, about ten years ago my wife submitted this recipe and won the blue ribbon. She not only won the blue ribbon, she destroyed the competition. It was enjoyable to read the judges’ comments on other entries, trying to console the losers: “this is very good and would be a contender, but this year the competition is unusually strong.” Yeah, right, you just had a taste of the world’s best brownie recipe, there is no competition.

This has been a favorite in our family since we discovered it in the March, 1990 issue of Food and Wine Magazine, a special edition on Chocolate. It was the cover story. And it could not be simpler to make. The brownies are mixed up in the sauce pan or bowl (if you microwave) used to melt the butter and chocolate. The only dishes dirtied are the pan (or bowl), a spatula, and the baking dish.

Be sure not to over bake the brownies. They are supposed to be very moist, not cake like. They develop a nice crust on top with a moist, fudgy center. An alternative serving suggestion is to use a large biscuit cutter to cut out rounds, which can then be topped with a scoop of vanilla ice cream and maybe a candied violet. Then you (or a young volunteer in the family) get to eat the little pieces in between. The nuts are optional but highly recommended, and I much prefer the pecans if you have them.

Lovey's Brownies
Makes about 2 dozen

2		sticks (8 oz.) unsalted butter
4		ounces unsweetened chocolate
2		cups sugar
1/2		teaspoon kosher salt
4		large eggs
1		cup all-purpose flour
1		teaspoon vanilla extract
1		cup coarsely chopped walnuts or pecans or ½ cup of each
1.		Preheat oven to 350°. Grease a 13- by 9-inch metal baking pan.
2.		Melt butter and chocolate in a large heavy saucepan over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until smooth; remove from heat. Whisk in sugar and salt, beat in eggs one at a time until mixture is shiny, and then whisk in flour and vanilla. Stir in nuts. Scrape into prepared pan.
3.		Bake 25 to 30 minutes in center of oven, until moist crumbs adhere to a cake tester inserted into center and brownies appear slightly crusted on top. Let cool completely in pan on a rack, and then cut into squares.

Harvest Monday–13 August 2012

Last week’s temperatures were more moderate but the humidity was awful, with dew points in the 70s. The air was so saturated that by the end of the week we started getting thunderstorms and even a tornado warning. When it did rain it poured buckets.The rain was needed but a lot of it just ran off. I didn’t do much in the garden but try to keep the squash and cucumbers picked, but I still got the occasional baseball bat. It was a pretty productive week and included my first beets and Brussels sprouts.

The tomatoes on the left are Black Krim. I had one left but it split badly after the rains. The plants are all dying from late blight so that is it for the Black Krims this year.



The three cukes on the left below are Summer Dance, which are proving to be very prolific. The tomato on top is my last Cherokee Purple (badly catfaced), which is also dying from the blight. The tomato below it is my first Pineapple.



More squash and cukes and my first broccoli from the second planting. The cukes on the right are my first Diva (one sort of got away hiding on the ground under the foliage). Diva is lighter (and thinner) skinned than Summer Dance and is now starting to climb and produce,



A neighbor in the garden asked me if I wanted some Brussels sprouts. I said no, I am growing sprouts, but usually don’t harvest any until September. I thought I better check and sure enough, the bottom of the plants were more than ready to harvest. Some were a little over the hill but still will be eaten.



I got my first (small) harvest of beets. The beets have just been sitting there and not doing much. I don’t know if they don’t like the weather or what. These are Red Ace. The Bulls Blood are nowhere near ready to harvest but the greens are getting large enough to cut if I decide to go that way.



I found a use for some of my accumulating Juliet tomatoes. It is summer in New England and that means bluefish, which is cheap and plentiful in the fish markets right now. This is a fish that seems to be limited to the upper Atlantic coast (I think it also is called sablefish in the UK and tailor fish in Australia). It’s not available on the west coast of the US and it does not ship well. Bluefish are a game fish that people love to sport fish because they are so aggressive and fight so hard. They swim in schools and feed voraciously on menhaden, which are very oily, so bluefish themselves are oily. I remember reading a news story of boaters in a marina on the North River south of Boston being startled when the waters of the marina started boiling and turned blood red. It was just some blues chasing a school of menhaden up the river.



Bluefish is strongly flavored and not to everyone’s taste but if prepared properly can be delicious. Above I put the fish on an oiled piece of foil and covered it (you barely see the fish, but its flesh and skin are indeed blue) with lemon slices, onion, and sliced frying peppers and Juliet tomatoes from my garden. I added some fresh herbs from the garden and drizzled white wine and lemon juice on the fish, closed the foil, and baked it at 350F for 30 minutes. Everyone liked it and there was none left. Too bad because it is great left over for breakfast.

More squash and cucumbers. The large tomato below is my first Big Rainbow, a yellow-fleshed tomato with magenta stripes. I have three more of these on the vine so I will have a few more heirloom slicers for salads. It nicely decided not to split from the rain.



Finally, on Sunday I remembered I had to cut the basil. The large pile below is a sampling of what I cut. Some is being dried in a paper bag but the rest was turned into pesto. At the bottom are some other herbs; dill weed, used in a batch of pickles; spicy globe or Greek basil; Siam Queen Thai basil, to be used in Monday’s curry; and tarragon for some chicken salad.



The pesto came in handy for pasta for my daughter, who doesn't like lobster (aw, too bad). It was too nasty to cook and for some reason (weather or the economy, I don’t know), lobsters have been ridiculously cheap. The local market had selects on sale for $6.99/pound with free steaming. While my wife was at the Bolton Fair, I stopped by the store and ordered up two of them. One was 2 pounds (obviously that was my lobster) and the other was 1.5 pounds. And they were hard shells, not the usual soft shelled ones you find in the summer. They were served with corn from the local farm stand and a tomato and cucumber salad from my garden. My wife scored a raspberry chocolate tart at the Fair which we had for dessert with a scoop of vanilla ice cream (totally blowing my low carb diet, but you only go around once). Pretty good finish to the week, I thought.

To see what other gardeners around the globe are harvesting from their gardens, head to Daphne's Dandelions, our hostess for Harvest Mondays.

Half-Sour Pickles

Half-Sour Pickles are an East coast deli item. I grew up in St. Louis and ate lots of pickles in my youth, but I never encountered a half-sour until I moved to the Boston area. They are my favorite pickle now, and are very easy to make. The pickles remain crisp and firm, much like a “raw” cucumber, but they are slightly pickled and pick up the flavors of the dill and garlic in the brine.

The recipe I use comes from the Victory Garden Cookbook by Marian Morash, which is now out of print but is the bible for using vegetables from the garden. Use pickling cukes 3-5 inches long (ideal is about 4 inches) and thoroughly clean them. They can be left whole, or halved or quartered into spears. Prepare enough to fill the crock you have. Remember the crock will have to fit in the refrigerator, so select your crock appropriately. The one shown above is 5 inches in diameter.

In the crock put 1-2 large cloves of garlic, 6-8 sprigs of fresh dill weed, 1 teaspoon of pickling spices, and 1/4 teaspoon of dill seed (or a dill seed head if you have one). If you can’t find fresh dill weed, use 1 teaspoon of dill seed. Make a brine from 1/4 cup of kosher salt, 1/4 cup of white vinegar (I actually use cider vinegar), and 2 1/2 quarts of water. Bring the brine to a boil and boil for a couple of minutes. Pour the hot brine over the cucumbers, adding enough to cover the cucumbers at least one inch. Cover the cucumbers and weight them down to keep them under the brine. Leave the crock on the counter overnight. The next day, cover the crock and place in the refrigerator. Pickles are ready to eat and should be consumed within a couple of weeks, if they last that long. They will continue to pickle slowly in the brine, picking up more garlicky flavor and becoming a little softer.

This is my go-to version of “refrigerator” pickles. What is your favorite pickle recipe?

Stewed Beans and Tomato

I have mentioned several times one of my favorite uses for green beans is stewed beans and tomatoes (or as Perla Meyers might call it, fricassee of green beans with tomato fondue LOL). The dish is easy to make, uses lots of beans and tomatoes, is good left over, and it freezes well. I like to make it in large batches for left overs and freezing.

My first attempt at making this dish was inspired by a recipe in Madhur Jaffrey’s Cookbook. The following is my adaptation of the recipe. This is a great recipe that uses large amounts of produce from the garden that is often in abundance: green beans, tomatoes, chilies and cilantro. It is a great use for beans that have gotten a little too large and are kind of stringy. Just increase the cooking time. It can be prepared ahead and kept warm. It is great left-over and reheated. And it freezes well, making it a great way to conveniently save some of the summer harvest for the colder months.

Stewed Green Beans and Tomato

Adapted from a recipe in Madhur Jaffrey’s highly-recommended book: Madhur Jaffrey’s Cookbook: Easy East/West Menus for Family and Friends.

•    3 Tbsp. Olive oil
•    I small green chili, chopped
•    4 cloves of garlic, minced
•    1 medium onion, halved and sliced into thin half-rings
•    1 lb. peeled ripe tomatoes, coarsely chopped (or use canned plum tomatoes if fresh are not available)
•    1 1/2 lb. green beans, trimmed and cut into 2” lengths
•    Salt
•    Fresh ground black pepper
•    4 Tbsp. chopped cilantro (optional)

1.    Heat oil in wide sauce pot over medium heat, add chili, onion and garlic and fry until onion and garlic just start to brown.
2.    Add tomatoes, green beans and the rest of the ingredients. Add a little water if needed. Bring the mixture to a slow simmer, cover, lower heat and cook at a low simmer for 20-30 minutes, until beans are tender. During cooking, check to make sure the mixture is not too dry and add water if needed
3.    Remove lid and raise heat. Reduce liquid to a thick sauce. Taste seasoning and correct if needed.
4.    Serve warm.

Serves 6

Smoked Salmon and Lemon Risotto

One of the luxuries we treat ourselves to occasionally is smoked salmon. I usually plan this for the Fourth of July. I am from the Midwest where barbeque (and folks, hamburgers and hot dogs on a grill are NOT barbeque) is the traditional thing to do on the Fourth. In New England, I learned that poached salmon with egg sauce is considered the traditional dish. I love poached salmon, but it seems a little too formal and it is not done outdoors on a grill so it misses the point.

My adaptation is to smoke the salmon on a grill, using a light smoke like alder or apple. I am using apple this week. The other thing I am using is a Smokenator insert for my Weber kettle, which turns the kettle into an indirect smoker. This is not a cold smoker and the salmon is not cured or brined before smoking. Salmon filets (I found some wild Alaskan Sockeye) are placed skin side down on a double sheet of foil, salted and then sprayed with cooking spray. Half the usual amount of charcoal briquettes are loaded in the Smokenator to keep temperatures down and plenty of wood is used to provide a heavy smoke.  If using filets the fish is smoked for about 1-2 hours until fish flakes when checked with a fork. Be careful not to overcook. It will be served with a lemon risotto (recipe below) and steamed and buttered snow peas. Strawberry shortcake for dessert.

Lemon Risotto

This is a versatile dish from the Piedmont region of Italy. Serve it as an appetizer or a side with fish, chicken or duck. You can also add peas or asparagus or tiny Maine shrimp and make it a main dish. The egg yolks give it a nice sunny yellow color. The recipe is from Perla Meyers’ excellent cookbook, The Peasant Cookbook: A Return to Simple, Good Food. The book is now out of print but if you can find a good used copy, it is well worth acquiring.

INGREDIENTS
•    3 egg yolks
•    ½ cup finely grated Parmesan cheese
•    1 ½ t0 2 Tbsp. lemon juice
•    5 Tbsp. unsalted butter
•    1 medium onion, finely minced
•    1 ½ cups Italian Arborio rice
•    4-5 cups hot chicken stock
•    Salt and freshly ground white pepper

PREPARATION

1.    Combine the egg yolks, and Parmesan cheese and lemon juice in a small bowl. Whisk until well mixed and set aside.
2.    Heat 3 Tbsp. butter in a heavy, two-quart saucepan. Add onion and cook until softened but not brown. Add rice and cook until well coated with butter and opaque white. Add ½ cup chicken stock and cook over medium heat, stirring constantly until all liquid is absorbed. Continue adding stock ½ cup at a time, stirring constantly and waiting until all liquid is absorbed before adding more.
3.    After about 20 minutes, taste the rice. It should be soft but still somewhat chewy. Add remaining stock ¼ cup at a time, stirring constantly, until rice is creamy but not runny. Be careful to not drown the rice in too much stock. Season with the salt and pepper.
4.    Remove the pan from the heat. Add the egg mixture and fold it into the rice. Taste the rice, correcting seasoning and adding lemon juice if you like. Stir in remaining butter.
5.    Serve immediately with grated Parmesan cheese on the side.

Freddy’s Roast Potatoes

 

 

OK, after weeks of watching everyone harvest their garlic scapes and garlic bulbs, I decided I will have to plant garlic this Fall. I figure I will use the squares on the ends of the squash box where I tuck in some onion sets every year. By the time the summer squash get big enough to need the space, the garlic will be harvested.

 

For those lucky enough to have a pile of newly harvested garlic bulbs, here is a great recipe that uses a lot of garlic. I found it in a book called Dining In Boston (copyrighted in 1980!), a collection of recipes from famous chefs in Boston. This one is from the very famous Lydia Shire, who at the time was chef at the Café Plaza. It is named after her boyfriend, Freddy King, who gave her the recipe. She considers it “the greatest roast potato dish in the world” and so does our family. It would definitely be on my last meal menu.

 

The skin of the garlic must be completely intact, or the garlic will burn and go bitter. Do not use cloves with skins which are split or cracked. The garlic can be discarded or eaten, The whole roast cloves look very pretty with the potatoes.You would be totally crazy to discard the cloves. Just press on an end and the buttery, roasted clove will slide out of the skin and should be eaten with the potato.

Freddy’s Roast Potatoes

• 4 Idaho or large Red Bliss potatoes, peeled and quartered
• Salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 10 cloves unpeeled garlic
• 1/2 cup unsalted butter

1. Preheat oven to 400°.
2. Boil the potatoes in salted water for exactly 10 minutes, then
   drain. This can be done up to 24 hours ahead of time.
3. Place potatoes in a roasting pan just large enough to accommodate
   them without crowding. Sprinkle liberally with salt and pepper. Add
   the unpeeled garlic cloves and dot the potatoes with butter.
4. Roast in preheated oven for 30 minutes or until well browned,
   turning the potatoes once or twice to assure even roasting. Serve
   with or without garlic according to taste.

 

Updated 11 Aug 2013 to work with new design template.

Lamb Patties with Mustard-Wine Sauce

One of the family’s favorite meals is lamb patties with a mustard-wine sauce. It is fast and simple to make but very tasty. We usually serve it with braised escarole and potatoes. Since I am trying to eliminate carbs in my diet, I don’t use the potato anymore. I did include the potatoes in the recipe for folks with better glucose tolerance than me. It does make it a complete meal. Both recipes are from the March 1982 issue of Cuisine magazine and we have been making it for that many years. This photo will not win me a job as a food photographer.

Lamb Patties with Mustard-Wine Sauce

•    1-1 ½ lbs ground lamb
•    ¼ tsp. salt
•    2 T Olive oil
•    2 T minced shallots
•    1/3 c dry red wine
•    1/3 c beef stock ( or use Bovril or Herb Ox beef stock concentrate diluted with water)
•    2 tsp. Dijon mustard
•    1 T butter

1.    Divide meat and shape into 4 patties each 1 ½ in thick. Keep at room temperature.
2.    Heat oil in skillet. Fry patties until red juices appear on top surface (about 12 min.). Turn patties and fry about 8 min more.
3.    Remove patties and keep warm. Drain off fat, leaving about 1 T in pan.
4.    Add shallots to pan and cook 2 min. Add wine, broth and mustard to pan, stirring to dissolve any brown bits. Bring to simmer, reduce by half. Remove from heat, stir in butter.
5.    Serve over lamb patties on warm plates, with sautéed escarole and potatoes.
The following recipe was my first experience with escarole. My dad used to grow endive, a related plant, which we used in salads with a hot bacon dressing. Escarole seemed more like a lettuce but tough and a little bitter. But just braise it with butter and garlic and it softens and sweetens and makes a great side dish. Mash in a few boiled potatoes and it becomes a substantial dish.

Escarole with Potatoes

•    4 medium potatoes (about 1 ¼ lbs.)
•    1 tsp. salt
•    5 T butter
•    1 T diced onion
•    1 clove garlic, crushed
•    ½ head escarole, washed, drained and torn into 2” pieces

1.    Boil whole potatoes and ½ tsp. salt about 30 minutes until tender. Drain and set aside
2.    In a large skillet, heat the butter.  When foam in pan subsides, add onion and the garlic clove and cook until tender.
3.    Add escarole to pan, cover and turn down heat to low. Cook until escarole is tender. Uncover and remove the garlic clove.
4.    Remove peel from cooked potatoes, cut into chunks and add to skillet. Mash potatoes and escarole together with the back of a form. Add salt and pepper to taste.