Harvest 2008

Just some examples of things I've harvested in the past month or so. The potatoes were from a while back, the tomatoes and basil were probably early August, the melon was last week and the corn/squash/tomatoes are from tonight. Potatoes:Yukon Gold, squash: Yellow Straightneck, tomatoes: Green Zebra, Roma, Brandywine, Rutgers, and Better Boy (I think), basil: Genovese, corn: Golden Bantam, and the melon, 'Arizona', is an heirloom variety of canteloupe that doesn't seem to be too well known. It is SO sweet and flavorful...everything was great! This is my first year of serious gardening and I am definitely hooked...

recent soups

So far we've been dealing with the Two Small Farms deliveries by making stock with everything that we don't understand, and then using that stock to make soup with the rest. Unfortunately, I don't remember the details of the second stock, plus it contained at least a few items that I'd never heard of anyway. 

The first soup contained turnip, onion, leeks, squash, and escarole. This was very good, which surprised me because I felt that the stock didn't turn out so well. A bit of salt and nutritional yeast did wonders with it. I know you think I'm weird for using the stuff, but it's pretty good. The second was a coconut curry with squash and fennel. I was rather fond of that one; it was pretty simple but came out very well. 

The third is in progress now; squash, golden beets, onions, bell peppers, oyster mushrooms, and possibly some escarole as well but it's might crowded in the pot as it is. 

Update, 9:43pm: This soup is excellent!

stock

I'm making stock for the first time. Who knows how it'll come out? But here's what I put in it, so I don't forget in case it comes out well. 

• 1/2 onion
• 5 carrots
• 1 large parsnip
• most of a head of cabbage
• 1 tangerine
• 1 small (6 inch) butternut squash
• 6-8 stalks of celery

I think that's it. Oh yeah, and lots of water. Basically, I just put as much of what was available in as would fit in the pot. 

Holiday stuffs

Nothing surprising here. Stuffed acorn squash much like last time, but substituting replacing the channa masala spice blend with basil, oregano, and sage from the garden. It was a hit at the party we went to! Today I'm making another veggie pie/tortiere with onion, carrot, fennel, and those same garden fresh herbs sauteed together. At the end, I added cashew butter and nutritional yeast to try to make it gooify, as a "problem" with this type of dish is that it tends to fall apart when serving. This stuff lined the bottom of the pan, with a middle layer of cooked green lentils and black beans and topped with mashed potatoes from yesterday. I smeared on a bit of olive oil in hopes that the top will brown a bit.

As for the fennel, I used both the bulb and one of the stalks, which took on a surprisingly different flavor once sauteed. I think this will be one of my best dishes yet.

another veggie pie/tortiere

This time I sauteed some thinly sliced onions and celery with herbs, then thinly sliced potatoes and sunchokes. I layered those in the pan, added a can each of kidneys, pintos, and corn, then covered it in baked squash and baked it all for 30 minutes. I've made this kind of thing lots of times, but this is definitely the best.

stuffed squash

Tonight's dinner was one of those "what can I make with what I have in the kitchen?" creations. It began with baking a squash of unknown variety. Then I decided to stuff the squash, so I had to see what I had. I ended up making a goo of:

• margarine
• channa masala spices
• red onion
• minced kale
• cashew butter
• chopped almonds
• raisins
• orange blossom honey
• salt
• nutritional yeast
  
• water

Sounds bizarre, perhaps, but I incorporated some ideas from some past squash stuffings and followed my taste buds, and it came out well. The last steps were to add cashew butter and nutritional yeast, then stir in water little by little until it took on kindof a creamy consistency.

Something different

I baked a couple of acorn squashes tonight for dinner, and reheated some mashed potatoes (made in a fairly normal way, but w/ almond milk instead of regular). We also had a bunch of green and white beans, so I sauteed those in a cast iron skillet with olive oil, minced onion, marinated tofu from the farmer's market, salt, pepper, and sesame seeds. I've done this kind of thing before and the beans never came out right, but this time I periodically deglazed the skillet with water and and put a lid over the top so the beans would get steamed. It worked well and I was pleased with how they came out.

I don't know what to call it.

For tonight's dinner, I sauteed a variety of summer squashes with dill and basil, steamed some spinach, and pureed it all with some tahini. The inspiration was a mixture of baba ganoush and palak panir, and it came out very well. I served it over rice.

Dosa

I felt really inspired tonight; I had some leftover squash and I wanted to make a dosa to have with it. I used a recipe from Madhur Jaffrey's book as a guide and it turned out pretty well, although not flawlessly, as I attemped to flip it too soon and it sortof fell apart... But it wasn't yet cooked enough that I couldn't stick it back together!

I combined equal parts all purpose flour, brown rice flour, yogurt, grated coconut, and water with a bit of salt in the food processor, toasted some mustard seeds and then blended it all again. I spread it around in my cast iron skillet and (should have) let it cook about 5-7 minutes over a medium flame, flip it and cook probably 3 or 4 more minutes.

When it was done, I folded it in half over the squash and ate it with some yogurt on the side. That's it! This one was a knockout success in the flavor department, and I'm anxious to make it again.

Pancakes, Pupusas, Soup

Quick post:

Saturday morning, I made pancakes for breakfast. Whole wheat flour, brown rice flour, baking powder, soymilk, vanilla extract. Awesome! Angeline chopped up mango and banana for the topping.

Made pupusas using masa harina and loosely following this recipe. For the filling, I made refried black beans and mixed them with leftover cooked acorn squash. Again, I felt it was lacking something, although the bean/squash mixture is extremely tasty on its own. I think cheese was the missing ingredient, so maybe I will try again in a few weeks and make an interesting sounding uncheese.

Finally, I made some soup. I boiled asparagus, broccoli, and chives until soft in broth with thyme and marjoram. Pureed that and set it aside, and made a roux with brown rice flour and olive oil, added almond milk and then mixed the puree back in. I thought it was too sweet at this point, because of the almond milk, so I added a bit of salt, more spices, and some basil. It was nice, a sweetish soup with an herbal finish to it.

Acorn squash, yogurt

Last night before bed, I baked an acorn squash for today's lunch. Split it in half, put it on a baking sheet, and bake for 45 minutes at 350. I brought some yogurt into which I stirred some channa masala spice blend, and dipped spoonfuls of squash into it. It was awesome!

The yogurt I brought today was Trader Joe's goat milk yogurt, which tastes OK but is another American style custardy pectin-y yogurt, which really doesn't do it for me. My commercial yogurt of choice is Pavel's Russian Style yogurt, but they didn't have it this time for some reason.

For a few months last year, I was making my own soy yogurt, and I plan to get into that again. I tried recently using Almond Breeze almond milk, but I wasn't happy with the result... Rather than a jar of yogurt, I ended up with a jar of water with yogurt-like pellets floating in it. It actually tasted OK, but was rather repulsive.

My quicky method for making soy yogurt:

1. Fill a clean, sterile jar with soy milk and microwave for two minutes
2. Let cool until luke warm
3. Stir in a spoonful or two of starter
4. Put lid on jar
5. Store in warm place for a few hours, then refrigerate.
   

Often I'd warm the oven to just over 100 degrees, turn it off, and leave the jar in there overnight. It seems to set more quickly and has a firmer texture if the temperature is higher, but beware of killing the cultures with too high a temperature.

That's all it takes... Maybe about two minutes of actual effort. My starter was Pavel's the first time, and from then on I'd reserve the bit at the bottom of the jar to start the next batch. Using Trader Joe's unsweetened soymilk, it produced a consistently good yogurt which tasted like Pavel's but was much easier on my stomach than any dairy product ever is.

Initially I followed the method from Vegan On A Shoestring then I relaxed&simplified my method a bit after reading Madhur Jaffrey's book.