Green Blog Project: Summer 2007

Garden 2007

Summer gardens are always fun. We did most of the planting in late Spring for the Summer garden. We sectioned off a portion of our backyard for vegetable gardening.

Usually, unless it is something exotic and needs special care, we just get seedlings from local nurseries. As to tips for growing, it is not easy to jot down here - each year/season is different.

One thing that helped when we first started the backyard garden a few years ago is to have the soil tested. There was a free soil testing organized by the county, I think, and we took a sample and got it analyzed and followed the recommendation of the experts there - mainly pH was too low and we put some lime to add some alkalinity to help neutralize, and they recommended adding bone meal as needed as it contains some nitrogen and a lot of phosphorous as well as calcium.

Since then we didn't do much to the soil... except common things like rotate the plants each year, plant peas in Spring so it prepares the bed for summer garden by encouraging nitrogen-fixing, enrich soil with organic compost etc. Composting has been easy as we got this Earth Machine for home composting ($35) as soon as we moved into this house and have been throwing our organic waste in there pretty much daily.

This year, we went to local nurseries and got some seedlings where appropriate - like eggplant, some varieties of tomatoes, raspberries, strawberries, grape vines, greens, and chilies. A few varieties of tomatoes, okra were germinated at home. And, of course, corn and sunflowers - we just threw the seeds on the ground and they sprouted fine.

Basically, just talking to the experts at the nursery, sprinkling water as needed, adding compost from home-composting, and weeding is all we did. No pesticides, no fertilizers. We read up a bit on the web to see what common bugs affect the plants we have. If needed, we were prepared to get some praying mantis or other bugs to keep the plant invaders in check, but, we didn't need to this year, just like last year.

Most of the plants did well. The Okra didn't. We just got a handful from 4 plants. I think it never got warm enough for the okra to thrive.

Although I cook several of my favorite recipes over and over, it makes sense to post them only once unless I drastically changed something... So, some of the recipes listed here were already posted at an earlier date even though I cooked them over and over this summer so we could use the fresh garden goodies...

Instead of sending individual entries, or meshing all my garden photos and recipes haphazardly, I decided to list my recipes relevant to Green Blog Project Summer Event hosted by Deepz

Eggplant: Sautéed Eggplant, Ennai Kathrikkai, Thai Red Curry, Godhsu, Eggplant Rasavangi

Greens: Ethiopian Meal, Creamy Chards Soup, Chards Masiyal

Potatoes: Potatoes Lyonnaise, Swiss Rösti

Summer Squash: Summer Squash and Eggplant dish

Raspberries: Raspberry Chipotle Chicken

Tomatoes: I ended up canning most of the tomatoes as sauces, stewed whole, thokku and salsa; made some tomato rice, green tomato koottu, and stuffed tomatoes, plus of course, used tomatoes in many of my recipes as one of the ingredients...

Herbs: Some perennials like Rosemary, Lavender, Mint have been around from last year, and we planted some cilantro, oregano, basil, fennel and chives and they all did well, thankfully.

It is getting chilly already, so we dug out most of the plants. Tomatoes are still fruiting, so we have left it on for a few more weeks. Brussel Sprouts is just getting ready, so, in about a few weeks we might be able to harvest it as well.

We finally laid a major portion of the summer garden to rest. It was not easy to say good-bye, but, we are not planning on any winter gardening as we are not set up for any sort of greenhouse arrangement.

The few indoor plants we have are well out of the kitties' and baby's reach, so they are surviving fine. But, to grow any more indoor vegetables and herbs this winter would have to remain a dream. Even if we can teach our baby to stay off, the kitties stay home when we are gone for the day and end up messing with the plants, even if out of curiosity or by accident...

So, dear garden, Au Revoir!

Potatoes Lyonnaise

We had a few varieties of potatoes in our garden this year. We picked as many as we needed over the last two months. Now that it is getting quite chilly, we dug up all the remaining potatoes. If left in a cool dark place, these should stay fine and usable for a long time. But, I have a feeling we will probably use it up before Halloween.

Rather than the usual hash browns or potatoes au gratin or roasted potatoes, I decided to make Potatoes Lyonnaise a few days ago - a simple, earthy, wholesome French style potatoes smothered in onion and topped with some herbs.

As I understand it, this dish came about as an easy way of using up cooked potatoes, but later was adapted to become a classic French bistro cuisine. In its simple form, it is sliced potatoes browned in a skillet, intermingled with sweet caramelized onions, with perhaps a touch of parsley and salt. Just a four ingredient dish.

I started out with all sincerity, as this was a simple dish, and decided to serve some home made corn bread muffin for the mid-week dinner. I took the easy way out with corn bread muffin: I used Marie Callender's™ just-add-water, ready-to-bake corn bread mix. It was a weeknight dinner and I wanted something quick :)

The potatoes were par cooking in the microwave, the onions were caramelizing on the stove over medium heat, the cornbread muffin was part-way done in the oven with about another 15 minutes to go, when my little toddler announced that she had to go to the potty.

Now, she is just getting potty trained and I didn't want to ignore it... so, I walked her to the bathroom, turned on the bathroom light, made sure she got her pants and underpants down and out of the way, helped her sit on her little potty, and left her with a few books... forgetting the beautifully caramelizing onions on the stove! So, by the time I got back to them they had turned a little dark at the edges... Oh Well.

Anyway, here is my version of the basic Potatoes Lyonnaise. The classic recipe calls for quite a bit of butter, but, used a combination of olive oil and a touch of butter as I didn't want to slather butter on to potatoes and have it for dinner...

Ingredients
4 medium potatoes, medium-starch variety or even baking potatoes works fine
1 large sweet onion
1 Tbsp butter
3 Tbsp Olive oil
salt to taste
water as needed
fresh herbs I used*: rosemary, chives
*grassy green parsley is classic, but, I didn't have any handy; however we have a fairly big rosemary bush and the chives are still doing fine, so, I decided to improvise. Besides, there is something about the combination of rosemary and potatoes that makes it irresistible for me :)

Preparation

1. Onions: Slice the onions thinly, heat 2 Tbsp olive oil in a pan, add the onions, a pinch of salt, stir to coat and cook for a few minutes, turn heat down to medium, cover, and allow the onions to caramelize, deglazing with water part way as needed
2. Potatoes: While onions are getting ready, skin, clean and slice the potatoes (I used a mandolin slicer), toss them with a hint of oil (or butter), and par cook them for about 3-5 minutes (exact time depends on microwave power settings) till potato slices are mostly opaque and bend little but don't break or remain stiff when bent
3. Remove the caramelized onions from the pan, keep handy; add 1 Tbsp butter and 1 Tbsp Olive oil to the same pan, when the butter bubbles and subsides, add the par-cooked potatoes, some salt, shake the pan gently to coat with oil and form a single layer, and leave it alone for a few minutes till bottom browns a little, without stirring, on medium-high heat; using a spatula, gently turn the slices over to brown the other side
4. when potatoes are nicely browned on both sides, return the caramelized onions to the pan and heat through; add chopped herbs and pepper if using, taste and adjust salt

It took less than 30 minutes to cook these Potatoes Lyonnaise and the muffins, and that's about the ideal duration in which I prefer to have a weeknight meal ready :)

p.s: adding this to GBP: Summer 2007 event listing as I used garden potatoes.

Ennai Kathrikkai (stuffed eggplant)

We had four varieties of eggplants in our garden this year: Ichiban, Neon, Cloud Nine and "Red Ruffled" eggplant (it bore orange-colored fruits)... We had a good yield of Ichiban and Neon, moderate yield of red ruffled, but only a few Cloud Nine. The plants are preparing to give up as the weather is getting quite chilly already.

Over the summer, with the Ichibans and Neons, I had made several delicious meals of my favorite eggplant dishes:
Eggplant in Miso Sauce
Eggplant Rasavangi
Sautéed garden eggplant
Eggplant and Summer Squash
Eggplant Parmesan
Eggplant and Tofu
Thai Red Curry
Eggplant in Garlic Sauce
Eggplant Rice
Sambal Terong
Chutta Kathrikkai Pachadi
Baba Ghanouj and Baingan Bhartha (recipes to come).

I was trying to think of something different to do with the last few Ichibans from the garden as I lazily skimmed through my treasured copy of Dakshin by Chandra Padmanabhan searching for something that we have not had lately when happened upon the Ennai Kathrikkai recipe therein.

Now, this is a dish my mom used to make a lot when we were little. In fact, eggplant and okra were featured liberally in our meals in those days. But, while I love Stuffed Baby Eggplant in curry and have made it often, I feel like I have not made this South Indian style stuffed eggplant often enough.

Ennai=Oil, in Tamil, and the name suggested that this is an oily eggplant dish, but it is not really - just a few tablespoons of oil and pan sautéing gives it a great taste and texture.

Ingredients
4-5 medium (5" long) Ichiban eggplants
2-3 Tbsp canola oil
cilantro and fresh grated coconut for garnish

masala stuffing:
2 Tbsp chana dal
1 Tbsp urad dal
3 Tbsp coriander seeds
¼ cup dry grated coconut
3-5 dry red chilies
1 tsp tamarind concentrate
1 Tbsp brown sugar
salt to taste

tempering: 1 Tbsp canola oil, 1 tsp mustard seeds, 1 tsp chana dal, 1 tsp urad dal

Preparation

1. masala stuffing: dry roast all the ingredients except tamarind, brown sugar and salt; then combine all the ingredients including the tamarind and brown sugar and grind to a coarse powdery paste; keep handy for stuffing
2. assembling the eggplant: slit the eggplant lengthwise, keeping the stem end intact; stuff with the masala stuffing made above
3. tempering: heat oil in a pan, add the chana dal, when it turns golden brown add the urad dal and when it turns golden brown add the mustard seeds and lower heat when mustard seed pop
4. cook the eggplant: Add a few Tbsp oil to the same pan, gently place the stuffed eggplants in the pan, add a few Tbsp water, some salt, any remaining masala stuffing, cover and cook over medium low till eggplant is cooked through but not mushy; turn them around once or twice carefully; remove cover and allow to cook till all the water is gone and eggplant looks "perfect" ;)
5. Garnish with grated coconut and cilantro

Serve warm or at room temperature with rice or roti.

p.s: need to add this to the Green Blog Project GBP:Summer 2007 event.

Raspberry Chipotle Chicken

I was skimming through some old food photos to see if I missed posting any recipe, and found this one I had made for D to commemorate Cinco de Mayo. It turned out quite fiery and delicious, and went well with some cold and delicious Dos Equis, some mango salsa and rice.

Mango Salsa is sort of thrown together, not really well planned. I love mangoes so I try to buy a few each week during the mango season and try to find ways to use them in recipes rather than eat them up as-is (which is great too!).

Mango-Avocado Salsa:
2 firm and ripe mangoes, skinned and diced
1 small red (or yellow) onion, diced
1 jalapeño, diced (seeded if preferred)
2 Tbsp chopped chives
1 ripe and firm avocado
1 Tbsp olive oil
1 tsp cayenne pepper powder
½ tsp coriander powder
1 Tbsp lemon juice (adjust to taste)
cilantro for garnish
salt to taste

Combine the ingredients, adjust flavors and enjoy!

Chicken recipe is very simple. I thawed, brined and marinated the boneless skinless chicken breasts. But chicken thighs can work just as well. Made a raspberry+chipotle+tomato sauce. Pan seared the chicken breasts and then smothered it with the sauce and cooked till chicken was done.

Marinade I used: raspberry vinegar, cider vinegar, yellow mustard, minced garlic, lemon juice, rosemary, marjoram.

We had a bunch of raspberries in our garden and were quite excited. It has been yielding consistently this season, dwindling down to maybe a dozen raspberries once a week now that the season is almost over.

Raspberry Chipotle sauce:

2 cups loosely packed fresh raspberries
¼ cup chipotle chilies in adobo sauce (I used the store-bought canned variety)
4-5 garlic cloves minced finely
1 medium red onion, minced finely
1 medium red tomato, diced finely
1 Tbsp Agave nectar, OR, brown sugar
1 Tbsp lemon juice
1 Tbsp raspberry syrup (optional)
salt to taste
2 Tbsp canola oil

Preparation

Heat the oil in a pan and pan-sear the chicken breasts on both sides till brown; remove from pan

in the same pan as above, add the minced onions and sauté till caramelized; adding a little more oil if needed

add the rest of the sauce ingredients, slide in the chicken breasts, add some water (or broth) as needed, and simmer gently till sauce reduces to desired thickness and chicken breast is fully cooked

Alternately, finish the chicken in the oven and smother it with the sauce to serve.

And since I got to use my garden raspberries in this recipe, I am glad to add this post to the Summer 2007 GBP event hosted by Deepz.

Swiss Chard Masiyal

Keerai (aka greens) masiyal was not a big favorite when I was little as it was mushy, thick, bland and usually served with some pickle or pappadam.

Over the years, I have fallen in love with this and have added a few variations to make it more appealing to me. So, this recipe is not quite traditional in that sense. This chard masiyal recipe is very simple, quick to whip up on a weeknight and quite nutritious.

My mom usually makes it with spinach, but I use a combination of spinach and chard here. We had a bunch of chard in our garden and I decided to use it up.

Ingredients:
1 bag frozen chopped spinach (or fresh)
1 bunch swiss chard
3-4 green chilies, chopped
1 Tbsp grated ginger
2-3 Tbsp Madras Curry powder
salt to taste
¼ cup finely chopped fresh coconut for garnish (optional)
Tempering: 1 tsp canola oil, 1 tsp mustard seeds, ½ tsp cumin seeds, 1 Tbsp chana dal, 1 tsp urad dal

Preparation

Chop and wash the chard and spinach (if using fresh) well. Drain. Steam in the microwave till wilted and tender, using very little water. Squeeze out excess water. Allow to cool a little.

Combine the steamed greens, chilies and ginger and grind to a fine smooth paste, adding very little water, preferably none.

gently simmer this greens paste, adding a Tbsp of water at a time as needed, add the curry powder, adjust salt to taste

Tempering: In a small pan heat the oil, when it shimmers, add the chana dal, when it turns golden brown add the urad dal, lower the heat, and when urad dal turns golden brown add the mustard seeds and when they pop, add the cumin seeds, and turn off the heat. Throw in the chopped coconut ,if using.

Garnish with the tempering. Serve warm with warm rice, papapdam, vegetable curry, or even rasam and indian pickle.

p.s: thanks to Ashaji's comment, I am now aware of the Green Blog Project event (GBP) and this will be an entry for my Summer 2007 GBP event hosted by Deepz.

A few plant facts: The chard in our garden were from a local nursery, we just transplanted the seedlings in  early summer. This is Zone 5, with an average of 200+ days of growing season.

Cut off the outer leaves 1 1/2 inches above the ground when they are young and tender (about 8-12 inches long). Be careful not to damage the terminal bud, at the center of the bottom of the growing rosette of foliage. Maintain sufficient soil moisture to keep plants growing well.

Nutritional facts

Chard packs a huge amount of vitamin A and it is naturally high in sodium. One cup chopped chards contains Vitamin C 32 mg, Folate 15 mcg, Calories 35
Protein 3 grams, Carbohydrates 7 grams, Calcium 102 mg, Iron 4 mg among other goodies

sautéed garden eggplant

Anytime I feel a little under the weather, my favorite comfort food is rasam and rice with some vegetable curry on the side. I had a bit of a stomach flu last week and didn't cook anything much as I couldn't stomach anything much, and a simple pepper-cumin-garlic rasam was all I could stand.

Finally, when I felt strong enough to have some solids, I wanted to have rasam+rice with some vegetable curry. The dozen Ichiban and Neon eggplants we harvested from our garden last week came in handy to make this sautéed eggplant side dish...

Nothing could be simpler, really - this eggplant curry is easy to make, yet tasty.



Ingredients:
6 Ichiban eggplants, chopped (or any other favorite variety, adjust quantity as needed)
1 medium yellow onion, sliced thin
salt to taste
1-2 Tbsp cayenne pepper powder or red chili powder (lesser if preferred)
2 Tbsp canola oil
Tempering: 1 tsp mustard seeds, ½ tsp cumin seeds, 5-6 curry leaves (optional)

Preparation

Heat the oil in a pan, when it shimmers add the mustard seeds, when they pop, add the cumin seeds and curry leaves, then the onions; sauté till onions turn translucent; then, add the eggplant, salt, chili powder, toss around a bit, leave on medium high and stir every once in a while till eggplant is cooked and gets a little crispy on the skin.

Serve with hot rice and pepper rasam.

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p.s: thanks to Ashaji's comment in another post, I am now aware of the Green Blog Project event (GBP) and this will be an entry for my Summer 2007 GBP event hosted by Deepz.

A few plant facts: The eggplant varieties in the picture are Ichiban and Neon, long fruits - about 6-7 inches long and about 1½ inches wide. This is Zone 5, in Portland Wilamette Valley, with an average of 200+ days of growing season.

We planted it early Summer/late Spring after the frost was gone. We still had some chilly nights, but warmer days, so these survived. It takes about 70 days to harvest, but this seems an early variety so we started getting a few fruits within 8 weeks of planting. Here is some information that helped us decide on when to plant these in our garden.

Eggplant is a cold-sensitive vegetable that requires a long warm season for best yields. The culture of eggplant is similar to that of bell pepper, with transplants being set in the garden after all danger of frost is past. Eggplants are slightly larger plants than peppers and are spaced slightly farther apart. Eggplant requires careful attention for a good harvest. Small-fruited, exotic-colored and ornamental varieties can be grown in containers and used for decorations.

rotini with squash, rosemary and chives

There's rosemary, that's for remembrance.
-- Shakespeare's Hamlet to Ophelia

I came across Green Blog Project at Ahaar today and wanted to write about two little perennials we have in our garden: Rosemary & Chives.

This pasta recipe came about as a result of trying to find Various Ways To Use Up Squash From Last Year, that we grew in our garden.


Rosemary (Rosmarinus officinalis) is a perennial evergreen shrub, having pine-needle like leaves, and a strong aroma, which is an effective memory stimulant.

Some medicinal uses, sourced from garden guides:

• Rosemary helps to relax muscles, including the smooth muscles of the digestive tract and uterus - and can be used to soothe digestive upsets and relieve menstrual cramps. When used in large amounts it can have the opposite effect, causing irritation of the intestines and cramps.
• A tea made form the leaves is also taken as a tonic for calming nerves and used as an antiseptic: use one teaspoon of crushed dried leaves in a cup of boiling water and steep for ten minutes.
• Use an infusion as a rinse to lighten blond hair, and to condition and tone all hair. Try mixing an infusion half and half with shampoo to strengthen hair.
• An infusion can also be used as an invigorating toner and astringent. Rosemary added to a bath strengthens and refreshes, especially when used following an illness.

Chives (Allium schoenoprasum) belong to the onions, leeks, garlic family. Chives are hardy, draught tolerant, perennials, eight to twenty inches tall, and they grow in clumps from underground bulbs.

Ingredients
2 Tbsp chopped fresh rosemary
2 Tbsp finely chopped chives
2 cups cooked rotini pasta (or, any other favorite pasta)
salt to taste
2 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil
4-6 cloves of garlic crushed
¼ cup grated cheddar
¼ cup grated mozarella
¼ cup grated parmesan
steamed broccoli florets, squash, peppers, yellow tomato (or red)- as much veggies as preferred

Preparation

heat oil in a pan, sauté the garlic and the cooked vegetables; add the chopped herbs (reserving some for garnish), adjust salt to taste; off heat, stir in the cheese

transfer to a casserole or baking dish and bake in a 350°F oven for about 10-12 minutes

Garnish with fresh chopped rosemary & chives, serve warm.