Month: August 2007

August 17, 2007

I owe the inspiration for this to cookiecrumb, who referred me to Becks & Posh based on the “Bolted Lettuce” post from the other day. The happy presence of duck broth in our freezer (they leave those giblets in there for a reason) made it even better, and let me clear out a large part of the lettuce bed for the fall crop. All the various bolted varieties went in: butterhead, red and green oakleaf,…

August 16, 2007

I pulled some organic chicken legs out of the freezer and made a sort of stew around them using only things from the garden: green beans, chard, tomatoes, kale, zucchini, carrot, celery, shallot, basil, oregano, parsley, and scallion all got added at different times so they could cook the right amount of time before serving. Finished with a dollop of tomato sauce from Milo’s pasta (normally he eats with us but today he needed something…

August 15, 2007

Tonight we went to Cris & Sirkka’s place, since he’s back from tour for a minute and their garden needed some grazing to get it under control (although we hardly made a dent; it’s at least as big as ours and has been going crazy in his absence.) Sirkka made ravioli with zucchini and feta filling, Chris smoked salmon on the grill, and they made chard and mash as well. I made a salad of…

August 14, 2007

Now normally this is the bane of the gardener, since it means it’s too hot to grow sweet, tender salad greens until summer is almost over. But the slight bitterness and firmer texture of bolted lettuces allow other treatments to offer themselves, (though I likes me some bitter in my salad too.) Mash makes good use of midsummer lettuce trees, and so does wilting or even braising; try it and be delighted. Plus you can…

August 14, 2007

We were in Vermont with family for the weekend, and it was perfect weather and good eating. We brought all the greens from the garden, and supplemented them with local bread, cheese, and sausages. I also lugged along the smoked duck carcass to make a broth on the second night, with soba and sliced filet of beef. The first course was salmon as sushi with brown rice and sashimi with the now-familiar sauce of hot…

August 10, 2007

Chris is on the road, so Sirkka and Nissa came over to hang out on a rainy, even chilly afternoon. A trip to the store yielded a bag of Cape Cod mussels, and some spinach fettucine. The garden gave carrot, fennel, celery, shallot, and green onion plus basil, parsley, thyme, and oregano. A few slices of guanciale got the pan going, and all the rest of the veggies sweated until soft. Then wine, mussels, and…

August 9, 2007

This time, two duck breast halves, salted overnight, then dusted with pepper and wrapped in cheesecloth went in the trusty wastebasket to hang for a week. When dried, they’ll be much like prosciutto. With any luck our melons will be ripe by then and we’ll have a feast.

August 9, 2007

Christine recently bought me Hamelman’s Bread book, and I tried his recipe for pizza dough. It came out well; using a biga, or pre-ferment, for taste and texture is the secret. Next time I will probably add half whole wheat for health and flavor. I made two- the first was guanciale and shiitake, the second endive/basil pesto with cherry tomatoes. Given our oven’s upper limit of 500˚, another important key to success is to get…

August 7, 2007

Indeed. So First off, I managed to pick a ton of green beans and kale, then blanch and freeze them while the duck smoked on our very own apple wood; its neck and giblets went in a pot with carrot, celery, shallot and parsley from the garden to make a broth for freezing until needed. The duck legs, breasts, and fat I ordered arrived, locally sourced, which means that tomorrow is confit and prosciutto day-…

August 6, 2007

One of our shortcuts to town goes right by Elijah’s, and we stopped in to give Kurt a pickle- they just came out of the crock and I must say I nailed them; they’re just like Grandpa made- and Kurt gave us some beautiful chicken-of-the-woods (yellow and orange) and chanterelles. With the guanciale ready for action, I grabbed some worthy companions from the garden and went to work turning all of it into a heavenly…