fall session: pot roast with honey roasted root vegetables

A rutabaga:

A cross between a turnip and cabbage.  The farmer's market is brimming with them and I found a recipe for making farm fresh rutabagas and multi-colored carrots meld into a pot roast with chuck roast.  Cook in the crock pot for 5-6 hours on high, perfuming the whole house.

Serve with a wheatberry salad and you have dinner.

TFT, BRAISE Pot Roast With Rutabagas and Carrots by The Family Table

in the garden: radish redux

We planted two types of radishes this year: cherry belle and pink beauty.  They were both delicious, the cherry belle a bit spicier.  I pickled them, just as good as the recipe from last year.  But as I was researching radishes and recipes,  I came across a recipe for roasting them that sounded intriguing.  So last week, with some ladies from Women out Walking, we roasted them, and sauteed them with their greens and lemon juice.  OUTSTANDING.  I do not think I have been as excited for a recipe in a long time.  Please try it before radishes are no longer at their peak....

Roasted Radishes and their Greens

in the garden: mustard greens

Mustard Greens have exploded at the YWCA Urban Garden.  They are the easiest thing to grow: very prolific, very fast.  The classic way to cook them is a long slow cook with onion, garlic, ham hocks or smoked turkey wings.  In more modern methods (where you don't cook things to death and omit meat when possible) they are great sauteed in a pan with olive oil and some diced onion or shallot.  They are great then thrown into a white bean salad, into a veggie soup or put on top of a flatbread. They can be added to a green smoothie and are also great mixed with lettuce in a salad.

Mustard Greens are the third healthiest green after kale and collards.  They lower cholesterol and are very high in vitamins K and A, great for an anti-inflammatory diet. 

Here are some recipes I have been experimenting with.  The first two are delicious and I hope to try the third one before my greens start to bolt! Enjoy.



Mustard Greens with Chorizo and White Beans


Vinegar Braised Chicken with Greens 


Spicy Mustard Greens with Asian Noodles

in the garden: spinach

The spinach came up in droves this year.  The beds were covered with cold frames and underneath the mountains of snow was spinach, hibernating, readying itself for a great spring arrival.  One of the coldest winters in the Chicagoland area, it was a huge surprise to see such beautiful plants emmerging.

We have a mixture of spinaches: bordeaux, a red veined type; a flat leaf spinach; and bloomsbury, a ruffled variety.  All of them taste great as a salad or sauteed simply and quickly in olive oil with salt and pepper (sauteed shallots or onions and fresh lemon juice can also add a lot).  The spinach is magic as the more you pick, the more it grows.

I have been cooking it weekly at Mary Lou's place.  Some tasty recipes are linked below.

Lemon Couscous Salad with Spinach and Dill:
http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Lemon-Couscous-Salad-with-Spinach-Scallions-and-Dill-11838

Spinach Quiche
http://smittenkitchen.com/blog/2008/09/spinach-quiche-revisited/

Wilted Spinach Salad with a Burst Tomato Vinaigrette
http://www.finecooking.com/recipes/wilted-spinach-salad-burst-tomato-vinaigrette.aspx

Asparagus, Tofu and Spinach Stirfry
I add many other vegetables to this, delicious, my go to healthy dinner recipe.  A crowd pleaser
http://www.101cookbooks.com/archives/asparagus-stirfry-recipe.html

winter soup session: ribollita

"Ribollita" means "reboiled" in Italian.  Typically, as a family would continue to eat their minestrone day after day, it would get to be more liquids than solids as people would favor the beans and vegetables over the liquid.  To thicken it up, cubes of stale bread would be added to the soup.  A new meal was created.

To make ribollita, canned beans can be used (healthy tip: if you rinse well your canned beans you can decrease the salt in them by 50%).  However, it is yummier and healthier to use your own simmered beans.  And on a wintery day in Chicago, bubbling beans is a great zen activity, it feels satisfying. Once your beans are cooked, you can put them in a tupperware, or a baggie and freeze them until you are ready to make soup.

Ribolitta can be made with any vegetables you have on hand.  I give you the recipe for what I used, but feel free to use what is on hand.  Any fresh vegetables will make a delicious soup.  Although greens of some sort are a necessity.

Ribollita Soup by The Family Table

in the garden: radishes

"Brassicaceae", "Cruciferae", names of the cabbage family of vegetables.  I was surprised that arugula was one of those members, along with bok choy, broccoli, brussel sprouts, cauliflower, kale, radishes, rutabagas, turnips, watercress to name a few.  They are all powerhouses of vitamins, fiber and are great for an anti inflammatory diet.

Radishes are rich in folic acid, ascorbic acid, potassium, vitamin C, vitamin B6, magnesium and calcium.

I have tried and tried to like radishes the french way: eaten with butter and salt.  It just does not do it for me.  This spring, we grew them in the YWCA urban garden and they came up so faithfully.  In only a few weeks they were plump and sitting on the soil, letting you know they were ready.  We sliced them and ate them along with our fresh lettuce greens tossed with a simple vinaigrette.  We also threw in some cooked french green lentils (great protein and fiber source) and some shaved carrots.

Vinaigrettes are easily made and stored in canning jars.  The simplest one starts with 1/3 part acid: lemon juice or any favorite vinegar (balsamic, sherry, cider, raspberry).  Then, eyeballing it, add 2/3 part olive oil.  Add salt, pepper, any chopped fresh herbs you have on hand (chives, garlic scapes, tarragon, parsley).  Shake vigorously so that you emulsify the dressing.  Drizzle on and toss well.  We leave our salad dressing out of the refridgerator for days...just give it a shake and you are ready.
 

With this crop, I tried pickling radishes, thanks to a suggestion of Courtney's.  They are so good! Good for fish tacos, good to put out with cheeses, good to eat alone to get the appetite going.  These are "refridgerator pickles" so they will not last forever like hot water canning jars, they need to stay in the fridge.  I guarantee they won't last long... we went through our jar in an evening.

Pickled Radishes by The Family Table

I leave you with a couple recipes I found, that I plan to try next batch of radishes: a roasted moroccan mint and brassica salad and a radish and orange chopped salad. 

Here is the lovely summer garden crew for the YWCA.  Amy, working in the shelter, Kim, tending the garden and the volunteers.  They are great.

winter soup session: tunisian soup with swiss chard, chickpeas and harissa

Swiss Chard is a beautiful, and nutritional plant.  It grows at the garden from May until November.  I like to describe it as somewhere between spinach and kale.  It wilts quickly in a soup like spinach, but you need to take the stems off as they take longer to cook.  Some mistakenly throw away the stems, but I just dice them and then throw them in when you saute the aromatics (carrots, onions and celery).  Swiss Chard is in the chenopod family along with beets, spinach and quinoa.  It is high in vitamins C, E and K.  Swiss Chard has anti inflammatory and anti oxident properties and contains lots of manganese, beta carotene and calcium. 

I adapted this recipe from Gourmet and cook it regularly.  The harissa gives it a richness, the chickpeas add protein, and the swiss chard adds color and vitamins.  Make the harissa first.  I took this harissa recipe from one of my favorite cookbooks "Sunday Suppers at Lucques".  It is possible to buy harissa in upscale grocery stores, but this is so easy and it makes enough so you can keep what you don't use in a canning jar or tupperware in the fridge.  It lasts for a while.  I swirl it into soups or toss on roasted vegetables.

Harissa by The Family Table

If you have some leftover beef brisket, shredded chicken, pork carnitas on hand, throw it in the soup pot.  I like using egg noodles, or farro, or barley, or israeli couscous...whatever is in your cupboard.

Tunisian Soup With Chard by The Family Table

in the garden...canning tomatoes

Last week, with the help of Laura Bougher of The Glass Rooster, we canned 24 quarts of tomatoes fresh from the YWCA's Urban Garden (supplemented by some beefsteak tomatoes from Ed, the generous farmer from Gast Farms-great sausages-at the Evanston Farmer's market).

Laura is a fantastic teacher, demystifying the process, making you feel equipped to tackle it on your own.  Actually, I have gathered some neighbors and we are putting up our own tomatoes tomorrow afternoon.  Fresh garden grown tomatoes, ready to pop into winter stews and soups, I am so excited.

Here is my summary of the canning process:

Clean your jars, wide mouth quart jars are great for tomatoes.  Either sterilize in boiling water, or put through your dishwasher on the sanitizing wash.

Fill your canner half full with water and start boiling (this part is very easy to underestimate and you can be watching a pot for a long time).  Place your cleaned tops and lids in boiling water to sterilize.

Prepare your tomatoes by cleaning them and then blanching them to remove their skins.  Get another big pot of boiling water, and a big bowl of ice water ready.  When the water is boiling, drop the tomatoes into the water for less than a minute, you just want the skins to loosen or crack a bit.  Then, scoop them out with a slotted spoon and put immediately into the ice water.  You should be able to peel the skins right off.

At this point, you can either leave the tomatoes whole, or halve or quarter the tomatoes.  I prefer mine quartered as since you are going through all the mess now, better to have them ready to pop in stews and soups later.  Once quartered, pop them into a stainless steel saucepan and bring to a boil over medium high heat.  Using a masher, mash some to get a good amount of juices.  Let them boil gently for 5 minutes.

If your tomatoes are ripe, you should use citric acid (a natural preservative) or bottled lemon juice to ensure their acidity level is safe for canning preservation. The bacteria that can produce botulism thrives on low-acid foods in an airless environment.  Tomatoes sit on the borderline of low and high acid foods, so adding acidification will make them safe.   For a quart of tomatoes, use 1/2 tsp of citric acid or 2 Tbl. of lemon juice, either works, depends on your personal taste.  Put the acidic ingredient in the jar before adding the tomatoes.

Using a canning funnel (wide enough to allow solids to pass through), fill your clean sterilized cans with your peeled and chopped tomatoes, leaving a 1/2 inch head space.  Using a butter knife or a chop stick, poke around in the can to eliminate any air bubbles,  topping off with tomato liquid to fill.  Clean the jar rims with a damp cloth.  Place a sterile lid on the jar and then screw on a band until it just gives but not too tight (finger tip tight).

Place the sealed jars in the canning rack and then slowly lower into the boiling water (letting the jars acclimate to the hot water temperature).  The cans should be covered by about an inch.  Bring the water back to a boil, cover, and continue boiling for 45 minutes for tomatoes.  Remove the pot lid, wait about 5 minutes, then remove the cans, let cool on dishtowels.

Once the jars have cooled (about 8 hours), check the lids: if it is concave and does not give when you press it, it is sealed.  You should have heard the cans popping as they sealed.  Wipe clean the jars and rims and store.

Some good books to further your canning knowledge: 

"Complete Book of Home Preserving" by Ball;

"Tart and Sweet:101 Canning and Pickling Recipes for the Modern Kitchen" 

"The Preservation Kitchen: The Craft of Making and Cooking with Pickles, Preserves, and 

Aigre-doux" by Paul Virant. 

in the garden...tomatoes

We can now get tomatoes all year round.  Even in January, bright red tomatoes are prominently displayed in grocery stores.  But, try and make a caprese salad with one of these tomatoes, not so tasty.

Nurturing tomatoes in a garden takes time and attention.  They shoot up, they sprawl, they need constant tying and staking, they need lots of water.  When you bite into that juicy, ripe, home grown tomato, you are rewarded for all of that coddling.
 Mid-August to late September is tomato time.  Farmer's markets are brimming with all shapes, all sizes, all colors.  I like trying different ones like Purple Cherokee, Green Zebra, Sungold, Brandywine, the list goes on.  My favorite way to eat a tomato: cut one up into chunks (chunks seem juicier than slices), drizzle with a decent olive oil, grind some pepper on top and sprinkle with kosher salt.  Amazing.  I could eat tomatoes every day of their season like this.  Mozzarella, Basil and Balsamic Vinegar are fine additions, but not necessary.  A B.L.T. (Bacon, Lettuce and Tomato Sandwich) is another delicacy.  Toast some bread, crisp up some bacon, whip up some mayo (or open the Hellman's/Best Food's, slice some colorful ripe tomatoes and layer them in a sandwich with some garden fresh lettuce.

If you want to get fancy with your tomato, I recommend this lovely tomato tart.  It gets oohs and aahs at a buffet and is equally delicious.  You can slow roast your tomatoes to bring out the flavor and use them in braises and soups, and you can can your tomatoes, more on this in late summer.

Tomatoes are excellent sources of dietary fiber, minerals and Vitamins A, B and C.  They are also rich in Potassium that helps control heart rate and blood pressure. The lycopene, an antioxidant concentrated in red tomatoes, provides protection from skin cancer.  Additional antioxidants in tomatoes protect against colon, prostate, breast endometrial, lung and pancreatic cancers. 

in the garden...the beginning