My Garden: Wild and Weedy

With all the rain we've had this summer, my rambunctious garden is like a child only a mother could love - no matter how unruly, it's still the object of my affection.

Can this garden be saved?
My mistake here was mulching with hay. Apparently there's a big difference between hay and straw: Hay contains weed seeds and straw does not...oops.

Tomatillos and potatoes threatening to take over the strawberries.

I'm hoping the watermelon will crawl over and crowd out the weeds.
Wishful thinking?

The asparagus rises above all obstacles.

Cucumbers finally getting the long awaited summer heat.

It's time to harvest all the lettuce before they bolt.
When I have a lot of lettuce and fresh herbs, I serve Spring Roll Lettuce Wrap, and that's what I did at our monthly supper club. Six of us chowed down almost half this row, six heads of lettuce, a light meal with lots of moans and groans.

Thai basil, another good candidate for Spring Roll Lettuce Wrap.

Garlic and weeds

My favorite, Patty Pan, has the best texture and flavor of all summer squashes.

Swiss chard, onions and black turtle beans.
The brick mulch keeps Ben, our garden tiger, from claiming the garden as his own.

Lao Food Festival

Every year on the Fourth of July the Lao-American community from across the country converges at the Buddhist temple, Wat Lao Buddhavong, in Catlett, VA, to celebrate America and to recreate a bit of their homeland.

Food plays an important role in Lao society. Walk into a Lao home and the first thing you're asked is "Have you eaten yet?" Even religious offerings show respect by offering foods to the monks and this event was no exception.

Alm Bowls collect food for the monks, Catlett, VA.
See photo of alm giving during morning procession of Buddhist monks in Luang Prabang

A couple of my siblings and I drove ten hours, from New Hampshire to Virginia, to walk down memory lane and reminisce about our childhood in Laos. We were not disappointed. We were transported back by the sights and sounds, and most of all, by the food, too complicated to make in our own kitchens. That could now change, however. We were inspired by the experience and vowed to start making some of our favorite native dishes. So stay tuned and if you have a favorite Lao recipe, please email me or share it in the comment section below.

For food lovers interested in authentic Lao food, this is as close as you can get without a visa. There are two festivals each year--July Fouth and the Lao New Year, usually in April, according to the lunar calendar.

Here's a sampling of dishes typically found at festivals and celebrations from the old country.

Tum Mak Hoong - Green Papaya Salad - hot, sweet and sour

Savory and sweet coconut pancakes made with rice flour and coconut milk, fried in a cast iron mold.

Grilled meats infused with the ever present lemon grass, chili peppers, and fish sauce

Pickled mangoes, a sour and salty treat

Tropical Mangos and Lychee Nuts

Traditional Lao costume

Sweet drinks and desserts

Grilled coconut sticky rice in banana leaf

Sesame Balls filled with sweet mung bean paste

Kao Lam - bamboo logs filled with coconut sticky rice and taro or black beans

Kao Lam is enjoyed warm or at room temperature for snack or dessert.

Lao Links I like that you might enjoy:
Laocook
Lao Bumpkin

Jalapeno-Onion Relish, Fast and Flexible

Super easy and versatile, this relish, full of heat, is a must for your July Fourth barbecue. When I was a young bride, my brother in-law, Cameron, showed up at a family cook out with a a jar of his jalapeno-onion relish and it has not been absent from our fridge ever since. It is so good with hamburgers, hot dogs, sandwiches, grilled meats and fish, really it goes with everything. Take it to a barbecue and you'll come home with an empty dish.

It is simply sliced onion and pickled jalapeno with curry powder, ground cumin, salt and pepper. That's it. I slice an extra large onion, Vidalia is great in season, saute in a bit of olive oil, for about five minutes then add the pickled jalapeno with a splash of its juice and stir. Add about two teaspoon curry powder, a teaspoon cumin, salt and pepper to taste, sautee and stir until onion and peppers are tender but still firm, about ten minutes. This will make about a pint depending on the size of the onion and the amount of jalapeno.

Later in the summer when the garden provides fresh hot peppers, I'll use these and add vinegar instead of the pickled jalapeno and its juice. The amount of peppers controls the heat of course, I use one part hot peppers to 3 parts onion. Possible additions and substitutions abound. Sometimes I add ground coriander but when the garden has cilantro, I'll use it instead. You can add some chopped garlic and/or some hot pepper flakes when you don't have enough jalapeno or fresh hot peppers. Have fun and enjoy the heat.

Around the Garden

Peonies bowing to the rain

Blooming sugar snaps

Cilantro and shallots

Buds on spuds.

Heirloom in bloom

Red and green lettuce with purple onions

Baby beets

A Bird's eye view

Garlic Scapes - Another Seasonal Delight

Garlic scape is the flower stem of the garlic plant that, in my garden, emerges around mid June. It curls upward as it grows, ultimately straightening out and blooming. When the scape curls and forms a full circle, it is time to pick. After that, the stalk starts to get tough.


Farmers used to cut off the scapes and discard them so the plant would put all its energy into producing bigger and better bulbs. But scapes are starting to make an appearance at farmers' markets and CSA shares. The window of availability is brief, only about a week, so when you see them don't think twice. Take them home. They're versatile and delicious and have long been a part of Asian and Eastern European cooking. In most recipes, they can replace garlic, scallions and onions, but also asparagus and green beans because their flavor is so subtle.

The whole stem is edible except for the flower bud. The buds are quite tough and should be removed in certain recipes. For stir fry and pasta dishes, I cut the stems into 2" pieces, composting the flower buds. When I pickle, roast or grill them, I like the way they look with the buds attached. There are hundreds of recipes on the internet, mostly for garlic scape pesto. I haven't made the pesto yet but can't imagine it would be bad.

This week I harvested 3 lbs of scapes and, for a quick supper for two, made this dish with rotini pasta, about 20 garlic scapes, a handful of just picked asparagus, feta cheese and kalamata olives. Quick, easy and satisfying.

Pasta with Garlic Scapes, Feta Cheese and Olives

2 cups dry pasta (any kind)
2 strips of bacon, cut into 1/2" pieces
20+ garlic scapes, cut into 2" pieces, discard the flower buds
1/2 lb asparagus (or any other vegetables), cut into 2" pieces
1/4 cup Feta Cheese
1/4 cup Pitted kalanata olives.
1 TBS olive oil
1 tsp hot pepper flakes, or to taste
salt and pepper

Cook pasta until al dente, drain and save a cup of pasta water. In the same pan that you cooked the pasta in, add a tablespoon olive oil and bacon, cook until bacon is brown and crisp. Remove from pan and set aside. Add garlic scapes to the same pan, cook and stir for two minutes, then add the asparagus with a splash of pasta water, cook until vegetables are tender about 3 more minutes. Add hot pepper flakes, salt and pepper. Add the pasta and mix well, add pasta water if too dry, adjust seasoning, top with bacon and serve. Serves 2.

With the rest of the harvest I made Garlic Scape Pickles. I used my favorite Dilly Bean brine, added a little sugar (to take the edge off the acidity), ten or so chili peppers and cilantro with roots attached. Two weeks in the fridge and they'll be ready to eat.

Pickled Garlic Scapes with Hot Peppers and Cilantro

Here are links to more garlic scape recipes:
The Garlic Scape: Eat It or Wear It
Clagett Farm Notes
Down on the Farm

What to do with Bolting Onions

I planted 80 onion sets in late April and now some of them have started to bolt. Bolting means that the onion has stopped growing and will not bulb. It will put all its energy into making seeds and get tough and old. It should be harvested which is not a good thing if you are looking to grow onions for winter use. But, for now, we have an over abundance of green onions, a challenge I look forward to each growing season.

We love grilled garden vegetables so that is what I did with the first batch of green onions. I cleaned and cut them to about 6" to include just the white bulb and the light green part, saving the darker green leaves for the Mongolian beef below. I tossed the pieces in olive oil, salt and pepper and grilled them, over high heat, along with some asparagus that I'm still picking. I cooked them until just tender, then transfered them to a serving bowl and finished them with another splash of olive oil, red wine vinegar, salt and pepper. This was a delight: smoky and gently sweet with a slight crunch.

Grilled green onions and asparagus

The second dish I made goes back almost thirty years. My family will tell you it is one of their favorites. It combines tender slices of beef and green onions with a ginger sauce. The recipe came from an out of print Chinese Menu cookbook published in 1976. Through the years I have remained mostly faithful to the original recipe, only changing the amount of green onions. I've doubled and, last week, even tripled the original amount. They all just wilt down anyway, so use as much as you like.

Mongolian Beef with Jasmine Rice

1 lb flank steak

Marinade:
1 egg
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp black pepper
1 tsp sugar
2 TBS cornstarch
1 TBS canola oil

Seasonings:
1 whole green onion, bulb and leaves
1 tsp fresh ginger
1 clove garlic

Sauce:
2 TBS soy sauce
3 TBS dry sherry or good white wine
1 TBS hoisin sauce
3 TBS water

12+ green onions, bulbs and leaves

4 TBS canola oil

1 tsp sesame oil

First I pour myself a glass of wine, then I start the rice in the rice cooker, which is as simple as putting rice and water in the rice cooker and pushing "cook". The rice cooks and stays warm until you're ready to eat.

Cut flank steak in half lengthwise, then thinly slice across the grain. In a large bowl combine the marinade ingredients and add sliced beef. Set aside.

Cut green onions into 2" pieces. Set aside.

Finely mince seasoning ingredients, put in a small bowl. Set aside.

Combine sauce ingredients. Set aside.

Now you're ready to stir fry. It's important to have all your ingredients ready before heating up the wok, high heat is key to successful stir frying and food is cooked in a flash.

• Heat wok over high heat.
• Add 2 tablespoon canola oil.
• When oil is hot, add meat and its marinade. The oil is hot if it sizzles when you stick a wooden chopstick or wooden spoon into it.
• Stir fry until meat is just pink, about 2 minutes.
• Remove from wok to a bowl.
• Add 2 tablespoon canola oil to the same wok.
• When oil is hot add seasonings.
• Stir a few times until slightly fragrant, then add the sauce mixture.
• Stir and add green onion pieces.
• Stir for a minute until onion is slightly wilted, then return beef to the wok.
• Stir until beef is heated through .
• Stir in sesame oil.

Remove from wok and serve with jasmine rice.

Serves 2 generously and the recipe doubles easily.

I'm still trying to figure out why onions bolt but for now I'm wallowing in green onions.

What's Growing in the Garden 5/26/09

Sugar snap peas, planted April 2nd, are 2' tall.

Yukon Gold potatoes, ready for hilling

Red Rhododendron starting to bloom

Orange Azalea in full bloom

Red onions, Johnny Jump Ups and a new deck

Take a look at Amy's beautiful photographs of my garden.

Green Garlic: a culimary treat

Green garlic is the young shoot of garlic before it matures into the familiar bulb. It can be found at farmers' markets between March and May. Here in southern New Hampshire, in mid-May, my garlic bed is ready to be thinned out.

When I planted garlic last fall, I planted them closer than the recommended 4" apart, ensuring a surplus of the "weeded" out baby shoots, the green garlic that is much sought after by restaurant chefs.

The flavor of green garlic is definitely garlicky without the pungency of mature garlic. If you sometimes avoid garlic because of its strong lingering taste, green garlic will surprise you with its delicate sweet taste and mild manner. I use it as a substitute for regular garlic or, cut up into 1/2" pieces, in place of scallions in stir fries. I've used it in Beef with Asparagus and sprinkled over Homemade Naan right after it comes out of the oven. What you get is a mild unobtrusive taste of garlic.

Although the whole plant can be eaten, I use only the white and light green parts. The darker green leaves are a bit tough and strong and would be good to add to soups and stews but I haven't tried that yet, so stay tuned for more about garlic this summer.

Green garlic or baby garlic straight from the garden

Pasta with Shrimp, Spinach and Green Garlic

This is my go to pasta with greens, olive oil and garlic. Note that these amounts are approximate, I don't really measure anything when I make this, and I make it almost weekly with endless variations depending on what vegetables are on hand. Last week was the first picking of baby spinach and green garlic and so they came together in this super easy pasta

1/2 lb thin spaghetti, or pasta of your choice
1/2 lb peeled and deveined raw shrimp
4 TBS olive oil
4 - 6 cups baby spinach or any other vegetables
3 to 4 green garlic, minced, white and light green parts only
Salt and Pepper to taste
Hot pepper flakes to taste
Grated Parmesan cheese (optional)

Cook spaghetti in a large pot of generously salted boiling water for 4 to 5 minutes until al dente. Reserve one cup or so of cooking liquid and drain. In the same pot the pasta was cooked in, heat 2 tablespoons olive oil over medium high heat. Add green garlic and a pinch of pepper flakes, cook 30 seconds. Add the shrimp, salt and pepper and cook until shrimp is pink but not completely cooked, about 2 minutes. Remove from pan onto a plate. Add two tablespoons oil to the same pan and add pasta and a little cooking liquid if too dry. Salt and pepper to taste. Cook until heated through, about 2 to 3 minutes. Return shrimp to pan and add spinach. Continue cooking and stirring until spinach is slightly wilted and bright green, about 2 minutes, adding pasta cooking liquid as needed. Remove from heat and serve, topped with grated Parmesan. Serves 4.

Homemade Naan, It's Easy and Fun

A popular Indian flat bread, Naan is traditionally baked in a clay Tandoor oven, but with a pizza stone you too can make authentic delicious naan.

Adapted from a recipe from Manjula's Kitchen, the dough is simple to make and the timing is flexible. You can set the dough to rise in the morning and bake when you get home from work. Or you can let it rise over night and bake any time the next day. If you can't get to it right away, punch the dough down and put it in the fridge. When you're ready, bring it back to room temperature before shaping and baking.

Naan Recipe:
2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 teaspoon active dry yeast
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon sugar
Pinch of baking soda
2 tablespoons oil
2 1/2 tablespoons plain yogurt
3/4 cup lukewarm water
1 cup all purpose flour for rolling

1 TBS melted butter
Fleur de Sel (Kosher salt can be substituted)
Fresh cracked black pepper

Dissolve yeast in warm water and let "bloom" for 15 minutes.

Put flour, salt, sugar and baking soda in the bowl of a standing mixer and, using the dough hook, mix on low until combined. Add yogurt, oil and yeast mixture then knead on medium, for about 5 to 10 minutes. Add small amounts of flour if too wet, until a very soft ball of dough forms. Turn out onto floured board and knead lightly by hand, adding flour to the board to keep the soft dough from sticking.

Put dough back into the same bowl used for mixing and let rise, at room temperature, at least 2 hours or until it doubles in bulk.

When ready to bake, preheat oven, with pizza stone in the lower quarter of the oven, to 500 degrees. Punch down the dough using oiled hands and, on a well floured board, knead lightly and divide into six equal balls.

Roll balls out into a rectangle about 1/4" thick, using plenty of flour to prevent dough from sticking.

Gently place two or three naans directly on baking stone and bake 5 to 7 minutes, watch closely as they can burn quickly. When puffy with brown spots all over, they're ready and should be placed on a cooling rack. While still warm, brush lightly with melted butter, sprinkle with Fleur de Sel and fresh cracked pepper. Proceed with the rest of the batch. Makes 6 Naans

We love Naan with Indian curries and chutneys but it's equally at home with kabobs or even aged cheddar cheese. We eat it with everything but our absolute favorite is all by itself, fresh and still warm from the oven. There's nothing like it. Should there be any left overs, they toast up perfectly in the toaster oven, much like the sourdough waffles. I can see how this could be habit forming.

Tip:
My naans are never of uniform size or shape but don't sweat that part, they bake up perfectly every time, always delicious and they disappear quickly.

Here's a video from Manjula's Kitchen that I found helpful.

Beef with Asparagus

They're here! The asparagus have finally arrived. Having an asparagus bed in the garden is like money in the bank, the dividends come each spring like clock work.

Asparagus is a perennial, and that means it is planted once and will produce for 15 years or more. If you have a garden and don't have an asparagus bed, spring is a good time to do it. Growing asparagus is easy but only for the patient. Plant the roots this spring but no harvesting until next year and even then only very lightly. On the third year and every year thereafter they're yours for the pickin', forgive the pun. Here's more info on how to plant an asparagus bed.

We love asparagus in every which way--roasted, grilled, steamed, in stir fry and pasta dishes. An old family favorite is Stir-Fried Beef with Vegetables--asparagus, green beans, broccoli, whatever is in season and available, but for us this week asparagus has center stage.

Beef with Asparagus
1/2 lb flank steak, thinly sliced across the grain
1 tsp cornstarch
1 tsp soy sauce
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp sugar
oil for frying
4 scallions, cut in 1 1/2-inch lengths
Salt
1 lb asparagus cut diagonally in 1 1/2-inch lengths
2 TBS oyster sauce
1 tsp soy sauce
1 teaspoon cornstarch mixed with 2 TBS water

Marinate meat with cornstarch, soy sauce, salt, sugar, and garlic for 10 minutes.
Heat wok or large frying pan, add 2 tablespoons oil and heat. Toss in scallions and cook 30 seconds. Add meat and stir-fry over high hear for a minute until browned on the outside and pink in the middle. Remove from pan. Heat 2 more tablespoons oil in the same pan, add asparagus, sprinkle with a pinch of salt and stir-fry over high heat for a minute or two until asparagus is tender but still al dente. Add a bit of water if the pan is too dry. Return meat and scallions to pan, add oyster sauce and soy sauce. Add cornstarch-water mixture and give a quick stir until thickened. Serve over jasmine rice or short grain brown rice. This is a seasonal delight that will wean you from Chinese take-out forever. Serves 4.

Links to easy asparagus recipes:
Grilled Asparagus
Roastd Asparagus
Wok-Seared Chicken with Asparagus & Pistachios

Do you have a favorite asparagus recipes? Do share them below in the comment section.