Growing & Cooking with Sprouts; Heavenly Soup from Leftover Collard Greens

Hello All!  It's good to be back.  As promised, today I wanted to start a conversation of what I know so far about a really delicious, healthy and easy food source that is going to be my new learning experience for Fall:  growing and cooking with fresh sprouts.

At the PA Horticultural Society's Fall Garden Festival a week ago, we met a man who was selling seeds & beans to sprout. We struck up a conversation with him, saw the wide variety of sprouts that are out there, learned the many ways that they can be used, and got started on sprouting our own the next day.

First of all, "sprouts" are not just the thin, squiggly entities with a brown tiny bean on the end that most of us are familiar with - there are, in fact, tons of varieties.  We started with a pretty traditional mix of Broccoli, Radish, Red Clover, & Alfalfa seeds (Spring Salad Sprouts), along with a less well known and much larger mix of Garbanzo Beans, Marrowfat Peas, and Lentils Beans (Crunchy Bean Mix).  The process is pretty simple and rarely varies, except for the time it takes the sprouts to be ready. You place a couple of tablespoons of seeds or beans in a 1/2 quart glass jar (canning jar), you top the jar with cheese cloth secured with a rubber band.  Then add cool water and soak the beans for 2 - 3 hours - some, like the Garbanzo mixture, require longer soaking - usually 4 - 8 hours.  In my case, I fell asleep and forgot about the two jars so they soaked overnight and seemed to be none the worse for the longer time!  Pour off the soaking water, keeping the cheese cloth in place, and shake to get as much moisture as possible out of the jar and off of the beans.  Invert the jar and prop at an angle in a bowl; twice a day refill the jar with cool water, swirl, and drain - and again, give it a good shake -  excess moisture during growing will kill off sprouts.  I used an early morning and last thing at night schedule. At day three, this is what we had:

Crunchy Bean Mix on the left; Spring Salad on the right

Today - day four - I took the cheese cloth off of the Spring Salad mix, put the lid on it and refrigerated it.  The jar is packed.  I am giving the Crunchy Bean Mix another day in "growing" mode.  I used a nice layer of the Spring Mix for a sandwich of Cashew Butter (from Green Aisle Grocery) on multi-grain bread.  It was an amazing, delicious, satisfying combination.  I have found a number of recipes for the Crunchy Beans too.  They make a great appetizer and snack, especially when you add a tiny bit of oil and your own favorite seasonings - sea salt, good pepper, oregano, basil, and thyme, with a sprinkling of Parmesan cheese makes a crunch mix that will stand alone or go with cocktails.  You get the idea - a mix of whatever flavorings are in your pantry and fit your mood will work. There are entrees and soups and breads using various types of sprouts that I will be trying out as I learn more and get my technique perfected.

Sprouts can be refrigerated for up to 2 weeks in a sealed container in the refrigerator.

My source for all things Sprouts right now is:  www.sproutpeople.org.   If you are interested, it's a great place to start. There's lots of useful information, recipes, and a wide variety of sprouts that you can purchase.  I will be searching out more sites and information, of course, and I'll keep you up to date on what I learn.

Sprouts of all sorts are incredibly useful to the human immune system - they detoxify and rejuvenate.  And they are delicious and very, very versatile.  Perfect!

A Simple Recipe for Leftover Collard Greens

As some of you know from my Facebook page, I made a big pot of collard greens the other night.  I do a very southern traditional recipe.  Ham hock, smoked turkey wing, chunks of smoked bacon, onions, some chili peppers, salt and pepper and the cleaned greens.  I cook the meats in the water with the onions for about an hour before I add the greens - this contributes to the development of fantastic "pot likker" - the nectar of the gods broth that develops after the greens have cooked for hours.

So, I was wondering what to do with the left over collards - obviously, we love them and are very happy to just heat them up and pour them over rice, but I wanted something different.

I found a recipe that merely requires pouring a can of tomatoes, their juices, some more sliced garlic, some drained canned white beans - and frankly, whatever else you want, into a pot of the collards and let it slow simmer.  Top it with some homemade croutons and freshly ground black pepper.  That pot likker makes a damn fine soup - the flavor, the richness and the aromas are amazing.  I can't really compare it to anything - if you get a chance, do not hesitate to do this with your left over collards!

Hope your Fall plantings are doing well!
Keep in touch.

My Wish for All of You: Il Dolce Far Niente

It's hard to believe it's August already!  I feel myself wanting to hold on to every minute of Summer - as I usually do at this time of year.  This is the "lazy" month of Summer - or it should be!  I still hold with the French and Italians who pretty much close down for August - their countries that is!  How perfect! It is time, my friends, for "il dolce far niente" - "the sweetness of doing nothing". Yes, we soon will be in the thick of cooling weather, longer work days, canning, freezing, tending our gardens, and otherwise getting ready for  Fall.  And, for sure, this Fall will be a challenging one!  But for now, be sure to wallow in the wonder of this season - and these days of this season.  Bite into a tomato right off of the vine; eat a raw cob of corn; slurp really good Italian Water Ice; play games - Board games even; eat lots of ice cream; sit outside way too long in the evening and watch fireflies; listen to baseball on the radio; wander around every Farmers Market you can find; stay in the water until you turn into a prune; read "junk"; walk on the beach with a dog; and wallow in the wonder of really cooling summer rainstorms and summer breezes after really hot August days.

That's all!  No food news. No rants. No recipes. Just my sincere wish for you. Despite what they may have told you, it is sweet to do nothing - even if just for a little while!

A Seasonal No Bake Tart

The last thing I want to do during these very hot days is fire up the oven.  Our temperamental Viking (don't get me started!) takes forever to come to temperature and sometimes when it does our exhaust fan decides to take a break!  Instant first floor heating - very effective.

So when I come up with anything wonderful that can be done on the stove top, outside on the grill or, best of all, with no heat at all, I am all over it!

This combines a couple of my favorite things:  fresh berries, my own mixed berry jam, and marscapone cheese.  The only waiting period you need is for it to set up nicely in your refrigerator.  It's a gem.  Easy and a great sweet treat in the heat.

Recipe:  Berry, Marscapone Tart - again, we're looking at a very versatile recipe; with the marscapone mixture you can try all sorts of combinations - like shaved chocolate on top, Nutella in the middle.  But for now, I'm going with Berries.  The recipe takes about 15 minutes, not counting the time in the refrigerator.

Ingredients:
Left over Angel Food cake - or just angel food cake if you don't have any left over! (The PA Dutch folks in the Reading Terminal Market make a great cake and it's reasonably priced); Your favorite berry jam; some fresh berries; 1 cup of Marscapone cheese; 1 cup of heavy cream; 3 tablespoons of sugar; a teaspoon of good vanilla extract; and a tart pan.  I use a long narrow tart pan - it's about 13 inches long and about 4 1/2 inches wide.  This pan makes just enough for our household, but if you want to make a bigger tart, I would double the ingredients.

Technique:
Take slices of the angel food cake and line the bottom of the - ungreased - tart pan.  Push the pieces down, you really want them to start to sort of meld together to create a bottom "crust".

Spread your favorite berry jam over the angel food in the tart pan - be generous! This is a layer of berry flavor.

Beat the Marscapone cheese, the heavy cream, the sugar, and the vanilla until it's the consistency of heavy whipped cream - you'll see when it's all incorporated and dense and delicious. I use a hand mixer.

Spread the cheese and cream mixture over the jam layer; again, be generous, you'll have plenty for a nice high layer of fluff.

Dot the top with some of your favorite fresh berries.

Put the whole thing in the refrigerator for at least an hour to firm up.

The result is a very light, fruity, creamy delicious treat!  Enjoy!

Smothered Okra - a little Louisiana in Philly!

Okra - you get a bit of a look from most folks here in the North when you talk about okra.  Some folks are familiar with it, pickled and spicy and floating in a martini (frankly this was my biggest use 'cause a friend of ours used to send them);  there's fried okra - a walk along snack at fairs and the like; and we know very often it's in gumbo - but it is usually cooked down and used as a thickener.  The most common criticism is that okra is "slimy" - and if it's used in certain ways, it is.

We decided to try making "Smothered Okra".  It's a Louisiana favorite and we've had it there as a side dish. Our decision came about as we studied some gorgeous, purple, young okra at the Fair Food Farmstand.  The following illustrates our first attempt at making smothered okra - it was very, very delicious.  We had it with a bit of left over sable fish, but you can add shrimp (most popular version in LA) or chicken or some spicy sausage or all of those for an okra gumbo.  Okra is full of things that are good for you; it's delicious when handled correctly; and it's easy to grow in the city.  In fact Burpee offers a "compact" okra plant that can be grown in a container.  Okra will definitely be growing in our garden next year - and yes, I'll be pickling some for those martinis!

*Recipe:  Smothered Okra - the making of this dish, like so many old time dishes, is really more of a technique than a recipe.  You can play around with the ingredients, but I do suggest trying this basic recipe the first time - the aroma and the flavors will hook you on Okra!  Do note that frying okra and using a bit of vinegar combats sliminess and gives the okra a great mouth feel in the finished dish.  Also, this is NOT the time to pull out your favorite cast iron pan - cast iron turns okra black!

Ingredients:  (we made this recipe for 2; it is common in Louisiana to make huge batches of this and freeze it in small batches - that's definitely going to be next for us, while we can get great local okra).

1 tablespoon of canola oil; 1 pound fresh okra, cut into rings, toss the end pieces/stems; 1 teaspoon of white vinegar; 2 tablespoons of bacon fat; 2 tablespoons of flour; 1/4 of an onion, chopped; 1 small stalk of celery, chopped; 1 clove of garlic, chopped; 1 small bell pepper, chopped; 1 bay leaf; 1 teaspoon fresh thyme; 1 lg heirloom tomato, chopped (for bigger batches, you can use canned tomatoes or more fresh ones; we also threw in some of our sun gold tomatoes and some of our sweet pea currant tomatoes - it really depends on how "tomatoey" you want it); a dash of hot sauce; two dashes of Worcestershire sauce; and a 1/4 cup of tomato juice or, in our case, of Clamato.

Technique:
Heat the oil in a saute pan.  Fry the okra rings over medium heat.  Add the vinegar as the okra fries - the vinegar eliminates the "sliminess" factor.  When the rings are browned, put them aside in a bowl.

Make a roux in the saute pan with the bacon fat and the flour - you want to cook the roux, stirring constantly, until the mixture is approaching dark brown.

Add the onion to the roux and saute until the onions are soft, slightly browned.

Then, add the celery, garlic, bell pepper, bay leaf and thyme - mix well.

Add the okra and the tomatoes.  Add the tomato juice or clamato, the hot sauce, Worcestershire sauce and salt and pepper.  Cover the pan and simmer the mixture for 20 - 25 minutes; if it appears to be getting dry, just add a bit of water.

Serve over hot white rice.  Enjoy!

*Recipe adapted from The Crescent City Farmers Market Cookbook, Poppy Tooker, ed.

A Delicious Tomato Salad; A Delicious Gazpacho! Same Tomatoes!

The picture just shows some goodies from the Farmers' Market, some citrus (important during summer cocktail season!) and some dried Hydrangea from our garden plants - I just like the way they look.  Dig those Heirloom Tomatoes - I hope to have some Brandywine Pinks in September, but these Heirloom babies are gorgeous, aren't they?

Without a doubt, we are lucky to live in a region with access to the best tomatoes in the country. South Jersey, Lancaster County, Northampton County, some areas of Delaware, and of course, our own urban farmers here in Philadelphia all grow amazing, delicious and very varied types of tomatoes.  The bins are beginning to fill up at all of our Farmers Markets and at Fair Foods Farmstand. I don't know about you, but it is so hard to resist these gorgeous orbs of juicy flavor.  In other words, I over buy!  Now, come September, we will be over in South Jersey buying our flats of Plum Tomatoes, which we will "put up" (can) for fabulous sauces all winter long.  And we'll freeze our own Sun Golds and other tomatoes from our garden, smashed in freezer bags - another great sauce base. But right now, as they sit there in front of us, and while it's a bit hot for big pots of marinara sauce, what do we do?

Here are two of my all time favorite summer tomato based recipes.  The first is courtesy of Jamie Oliver - it's in his great book about growing and cooking your own, "Jamie at Home".  The second is one I have been working on, using the left overs from Jamie's recipe.  I think you will find them both easy and delicious and a great way to satisfy your tomato cravings.

Recipes:
The Mothership Tomato Salad
Ingredients:  1 - 2 pounds of tomatoes, different shapes, sizes, and colors if you can; sea salt; freshly group black pepper; a tablespoon or more of dried oregano; red wine vinegar; extra virgin olive oil; 1 clove of garlic, peeled and grated; 1 fresh red chili, deseeded and chopped.


Method:
Slice, chop, halve your tomatoes.  How you cut them will depend on what types you are using but varying style, color and size just makes the recipe all that much better. Put the cut tomato pieces in a colander - I put the colander over a bowl because I love tomato water - salt the tomatoes, toss them once and salt them again.  They won't be overly salty, the salt will actually draw out the excess moisture.  Let them drain for about 15 - 30 minutes (I have let them drain for up to an hour with no problem).  
Put the tomato pieces in a bowl and sprinkle the dried oregano over top.
Make a dressing of one part vinegar to three parts of extra virgin olive oil, the grated garlic, and the chopped chili.
Drizzle the dressing over the tomatoes - use enough dressing to fully cover all of the tomatoes.
This salad is amazing and is even better with grilled bread and some fresh made mozzarella.


Note: now what pretty much always happens when I make the above salad is that there is some left over; I usually refrigerate it - even though I never actually refrigerate tomatoes, with this salad, I like to keep the whole mixture cold.  You don't have to refrigerate it if you are going to use it in a day or two.  The following is what I have discovered using left over "mothership tomato salad".


Easy Mothership Gazpacho
Ingredients:  Left over mothership tomato salad; red wine vinegar; a cucumber; extra virgin olive oil; Worcestershire sauce; hot sauce; and croutons and optional diced celery and cucumber. 


Method:
Peel the cucumber, chop it and add it to the left over tomato salad.  Add a bit more vinegar - you can add more at the end too, so go light the first time.  Pour the mixture into a blender or a food processor.  Add a few drops of hot sauce - really to taste. Add a few drops of Worcestershire sauce - again to taste.  Add some extra virgin olive oil to give the mix a bit more of a liquid nature.  Not too much to begin with, you can always add more later if it is not thin enough. Process the mixture until it is liquid.  I process it until smooth (it will be pink) - you can add diced celery and/or more cucumber diced, along with your croutons, to each serving.  Adjust seasonings to your taste.  Chill. To each serving, you can add a dollop of sour cream or creme fraiche along with the diced veggies, hot sauce and croutons. 


This is the easiest gazpacho you will ever make and you will not lose any of the fabulous tomatoes you enjoyed as a salad!

Try it.

Guilty Food Pleasures - Confessions of a Foodie

Over the weekend I was exchanging some of my favorite "bad" foods with a good friend.  His suggestion was that, as a self professed, very vocal Foodie, I should "come out" and tell people what guilty pleasures I engage in from time to time.  His point?  People think those of us who are obsessed with fresh, local, humanely raised, non-processed foods need to let the rest of the world know that there are some less than perfect, less than fresh, highly processed, food products we find comforting and good and that we eat once in awhile.  In other words, "get off your high horse".  So, OK, I am sharing here in the hopes that some of you will share your favorite bad for you/processed foods, too.  This could be interesting so don't hold back - let's hear from you too!

I have to start with probably the most offensive product and my all time favorite:  Stove Top Stuffing.  Yes, as much as I adore my own, and others, home made stuffing, I likewise adore Stove Top.  I will sit down to a plate of it - with nothing else.  The "by serving" container they came out with a few years ago is perfect for me too.  I can get a "fix" - in a small amount.

But wait, there's more:

Kraft Mac 'n Cheese (the original box) - which I don't eat so much anymore - it was an addiction I developed way back during the college/poor years.  I still look at their commercials with lust.

Lipton Dry Chicken Noodle Soup Mix - a bowl of this "soup" is a real comfort to me, especially when accompanied by Matzoh crackers with a bit of butter.  Lots of pepper in the soup.  Recently they came out with a "double noodles" version - heaven!

American Cheese (preferably Land 'o Lakes) - always in our 'fridge.  Cheese sandwiches, grilled cheese sandwiches, on 'burgers, and "straight up" with French's bright yellow mustard spread on each slice.  Frankly that last treatment is the one I eat the most.

Campbell's Cream of Tomato Soup (made with milk of course) - I sometimes throw a few dashes of Worcestershire sauce in a bowl of this, again, with lots of pepper.

Iceberg Lettuce/Russian Dressing/Bacos - It's the green with no food value - maybe that's why I love it so.  Tear up the iced cold lettuce, make a dressing of ketchup, mayo, and relish, glop it on the lettuce, sprinkle with Bacos and enjoy!  I tend to get heavy with the fresh ground pepper here too. What's with the pepper theme!?!

Bugles - How can you not love those crispy little snacks?  In my opinion, they go with everything or nothing at all.

OK, so these are my main offenders, I think. I was a serious junk food addict for years, even though I was buying fresh, local, well raised food products, I found a way to sneak in lots of the bad stuff.  I have gotten that under control for the most part.  The above represents most of what has remained - as an occasional Guilty Pleasure.

What are yours????

More Scenes from an Urban Garden; A Summer Pasta

Absolutely no argument with this!

I love that sign.  It was found by the folks at the Food Trust - apparently posted originally by the Maine Organic Growers Association.  Anyhow and whoever, it's very accurate.  I realized this morning, drinking my tea and doing my usual "inspection" walk around the garden, that this is what I truly miss in the winter months - and I miss it a lot.  I feel like I start the day without those calming, pretty moments, and it doesn't get me started at all in the right way, I have to admit.
That said, we ain't too Zen in our approach now are we?  Even during this accelerated growing season, we gardeners & mini-farmers still get impatient!  I can't tell you how many times I've been inspecting everything for just a sign of a squash or a cucumber or an eggplant or pepper.  And just how long are those tomatoes going to stay green!?!
Well, it seems like the ship is coming in!  In the past few days - and in some cases I swear overnight - there are tiny cukes and very cute little zucchini; we already harvested a few of the Fairy Tale eggplants and the Long Purple plants have little eggplants starting.  We have a wide array of peppers this year - some from plants and some from seeds and they are all displaying peppers - in the case of the Seed Savers Chocolate Beauty and Ancho Gigantea, we have some really big peppers and lots of starts.  And at last those green tomatoes are turning orange (Sun Golds) and various colors (Sweet Pea Currants).  The Brandywine Pink, an heirloom full sized tomato is a much slower grower, so we are being patient with those plants. The potato pots are looking good, too.  The herbs have been very very prolific.  I have cut and dried herbs now twice before the 4th of July.  It seems we will definitely be stocked in dried and frozen herbs over the winter!

The plant above, while not edible, deserves a special shout out.  This is our "Hibby".  The first time we went to Key West on vacation, we returned in love with the tropical hibiscus;  they grow everywhere in a gorgeous array of colors.  We especially loved the daily hibiscus flowers left on our pillows when we returned to our room at the end of the day.  So we decided to add a tropical hibiscus to our garden.  The key word here is "tropical".  This tree winters by a southern window in my office on the 3rd floor of our house - quite the job each year:  up in the Fall, back down as soon as the Spring warms up enough.  She is 13 years old this summer.  She is just starting to bloom but we will have these blooms all summer - and hibiscus flowers only last for a day - whether you put them in water or not.  So you can let them die on the tree, or snip them and lay them on the table, or in the house, or - maybe - on someone's pillow.  Lovely.  
Some other pics of what's happening in our urban garden, followed by a delicious recipe for those cherry tomatoes.

Recipe:  Spaghetti Con Pomodorini e Pecorini


1 pound of spaghetti; salt to taste; 4 tablespoons Extra Virgin Olive Oil; 3 garlic cloves, crushed; 25 or so cherry tomatoes, halved; a bunch of fresh basil; freshly grated pecorino cheese

Put the pasta in boiling salted water, stir it
While pasta is cooking, heat up olive oil in a chef's pan and saute the garlic until golden
Add the cherry tomatoes and cook until the tomatoes become soft, season them with a bit of salt (not too much pecorino is a salty cheese)
Right before the pasta is al dente - about two minutes before suggested cooking time, drain the pasta, keep a cup and a half of the pasta cooking water.
Add the spaghetti and pasta water to the chef's pan stir the pasta, the pasta water and the tomatoes and oil together - the water will "lengthen" the sauce - cook speak for making the sauce a bit more saucier, thicker if you will.

Turn off the heat!  Leave the pan where it is.

Add torn basil leaves and mix again for just a minute so that the basil gets incorporated
Mix a generous handful of grated pecorino over the pan, mix the pasta again.
Drizzle with more extra virgin olive oil
Transfer to a serving bowl, top with more grated pecorino, and a few basil leaves and serve immediately.

Simple and so delicious.  Enjoy!