Garden Freestyle

Today's bounty

Wandering through the garden each morning with an eye toward what will be for dinner is one of the great pleasures in life.  Gardens often offer up bountiful surprises in some years and disappointment in others.  Zucchini seems to be one of those bountiful crops and so I ponder new ways to use this beautiful vegetable.

I love soup and it's something we sometimes don't think about as a summer meal, but this one will surprise you with it's light, savory, fresh from the garden flavor.

Garden Freestyle - Soup
 This recipe makes a good sized pot of soup and the variations are endless.

Start with:

Saute the onions in olive oil until translucent

3 quarts of chicken stock (you can use Better Than Bouillon Chicken or Veggie for the stock if you wish) 
2 cups onion chopped
2 tablespoons olive oil
4 cloves of garlic minced
8-10 slices of bacon cooked, drained, chopped
2 cups half and half or heavy cream


From the garden - co-op - farmer's market:
4 - 5 cups chopped zucchini (1" pieces) or cauliflower or cabbage or a combination
4 cups chopped kale or chard or spinach or a combination
1/2 - 1 cup of chopped fresh herbs - usually basil and thyme, sometimes a little oregano or sage. If you don't have fresh herbs, use about a teaspoon each of dried basil and thyme.

I wash, stack, and roll the kale and basil leaves and slice them.

If you have a few potatoes, a little corn or peas, let your intuition and garden dictate what you will make today.  I've tried a number of different combinations, but my favorite is still just the zucchini and kale which are always abundant.  The amounts are just guidelines.  If you chop up 5 zucchini and get 6 cups, use it, it's no problem with this Freestyle soup.


Step 1 - cook the bacon and set it aside to cool, drain, and chop

In the pot ready to simmer.

Step 2 - saute the onions in the olive oil until they become mostly translucent
Step 3 - add the garlic, chopped veggies, and the stock
Step 4 - add the bacon (additional meat is optional - in this photo you see a little chicken that I picked from the bones when I made my stock from a chicken carcass. 
Step 5 - add the herbs and simmer until the veggies are tender, about 15-20 minutes depending on the veggies you

are using.
Step 6 - stir in the half and half or heavy cream and season with salt and pepper to taste. 

Serve this Garden Freestyle soup for lunch or dinner with a crusty bread if desired. 

If you have left overs, they get even better the next day as the smoky flavor increases.  This is an amazingly delicious light summer soup, made with the freshest ingredients your garden or farmer's market can offer!

Enjoy!

 

It's Lemon Season!

We tend to think of lemons as a summer fruit, however now is harvest time for most varieties.  Isn’t it nice to get a bit of sunshine in the middle of the cold dark winter?

Lemons are definitely good for much more than lemonade.  They heighten other flavors and add a brightness to many dishes.  They are full of vitamins, fiber, potassium, and lemony goodness.

Look for small, heavy fruit without bruises, cuts, or blemishes.  If you plan to use them fairly soon, leave them on the counter, or for longer storage, loosely wrap them and keep them in the crisper drawer of the refrigerator.  If you store them in the frig, remember to take them out and let them warm up before using them.  Roll the lemon gently to loosen the juice sacks and then cut the lemon in half crosswise and remove the juice and pulp on a reamer or cut them lengthwise into quarters and squeeze out all the juice and pulp by hand.

I’m going to give you three favorite uses for lemons and another little secret is that it is also avocado harvesting time... can you beat the flavor of lemon and avocado too?

A delicious salad dressing is made with lemon and garlic.  I grow lots of garlic and I love using it all winter.  This quick little recipe for salad dressing will brighten up any winter salad.  When I say winter salad, I mean anything goes on a salad - except tomatoes.  To a chopped romaine, I add anything like cooked beans, grains, dried fruit like cranberries, or chopped apples, pears, or beets, carrots, or cooked potatoes, but never tasteless winter tomatoes.

Lemony Garlic Dressing

  
2-3 medium cloves of garlic - minced
3 lemons to make ½ cup of juice
1 tablespoon of fresh parsley - minced
1-2 teaspoons salt - to taste
1 tablespoon chia seed (optional, but makes a creamy dressing that doesn't separate)
 1 cup olive oil
½ cup water

Put all this is a blender and let it whirl until fully blended.  It will come out creamy and delicious.

Next, let’s make a simple and oh so delicious soup to go with that salad:

I had this soup years ago and never actually knew the name of it until recently when I was searching for just what it was.  Avgolemono is a classic Greek soup made with egg and lemon.  At first the pronunciation of the name might look a little overwhelming but it is Avgo (say - ah go (egg)) and lemono (say - lema no (lemon)) and there you have it.

There are some similarities to a Senegalese Lemon Soup, but the one I remember was Greek.

 Avgolemono

 8 cups chicken stock
 1 cup orzo pasta - this is Greek, or you can use rice
 4 large eggs, separated
 Juice of 3-4 lemons
 Freshly ground black pepper
Greek yogurt and lemon zest (optional)

Bring stock to a boil and add orzo or rice, simmering until tender, about 20 minutes. Season the stock to taste with salt, if necessary.

Whisk the egg whites in a separate bowl until peaks form.  Add the yolks and lemon juice, whisking continuously until it is all combined.

Temper the mixture by slowly adding about 2 cups of the hot stock into the egg-lemon mixture, while beating vigorously to prevent the eggs from solidifying.

With the heat turned off, add the beaten mixture back into the soup pot, whisking thoroughly to blend it all together.

Serve immediately with a nice romaine salad and a warm crusty bread.  I like to serve with a dollop of Greek yogurt in the middle with a little lemon zest and cracked black pepper on top.

I’m not through with lemons yet!  

I don’t necessarily recommend the soup and the following recipe together as that might be a bit much.  But, for that Sunday dinner, I have a local Hutterite chicken defrosted in the refrigerator and more garlic and lemons.  Here is a nice Mediterranean version of a roasted chicken.

                                                                                      Mediterranean Roasted Chicken

 
1 large, local roasting/frying chicken or about 4 pounds of cut up chicken

2 lemons - washed and chopped (skin and all) into about 8 pieces each

6-8 large cloves of garlic - peeled, smashed, and cut into ½" pieces




1/3 cup extra-virgin olive oil
2 fresh rosemary sprigs or 1 teaspoon dried rosemary or Italian blend
2-3 teaspoons of sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
4 cups of new or red potatoes, skins on, washed and pared into 2" chunks

Preheat the oven to 350°F.
Cut up the chicken into pieces if using a whole chicken.  Rinse and pat dry.
Place a couple of tablespoons of olive oil in the bottom of the roasting pan and arrange the chicken skin side down.  Add the lemon sections, squeezing each one slightly to release the juice and pressing them down in among the chicken pieces. Scatter the garlic cloves and rosemary or spices over the chicken and dribble the rest of the olive oil over the chicken and sprinkle it liberally with salt and pepper.

Transfer to the preheated oven and bake for about 30 minutes.

Raise the oven temperature to 400°F. Turn each piece of chicken over and add the potatoes to the pan, stirring to coat them well with olive oil. Return the dish to the oven and roast for another 40-50 minutes, or until the chicken and the potatoes are crisp and browned.

By now the smells of this roasting will have you a bit delirious, so serve it up with that salad and a glass of good red wine.

Enjoy!

The Glory of the Harvest

 It’s the time of year when we count every night that passes without a frost as a bonus.  Here on the side of the mountain northwest of Missoula, we live in a special little micro-climate that affords us many weeks longer growing season than our neighbors in the valley.  I’m grateful for every growing day I get.

I have a bumper crop of tomatoes that are ripening on the vine.  Soon I’ll be canning marinara, harvest soup, and eating them for breakfast - lunch - and dinner, knowing it will be a long dry spell for fresh tomatoes.  The onions and garlic are already harvested and drying, the potatoes and carrots will be next.

Beautiful Millionaire and Prosperosa Eggplant

Today I harvested a few eggplant, zucchini, tomatoes and some peppers to make my ratatouille.  Ratatouille is just another word for a vegetable stew.  Mine is simple and only takes a few minutes to prepare a big pot to enjoy for at least a couple of meals.  This stuff is so delicious that I also can it in quarts for use all winter.
   
Ratatouille
2-4 Tablespoons olive oil
1-2 Medium sweet onion
1-2 Medium eggplant
1-2 Medium red or green bell peppers

Large diced veggies

3-4 Medium green or yellow zucchini
4-6 Cloves of garlic
A handful of fresh basil and oregano
2 teaspoons salt
1-2 Tablespoons sugar
3 14oz cans of diced tomatoes (canned tomatoes are ok to use as they come in the can without draining) or 4-5 cups of fresh garden tomatoes that have been peeled, seeds removed, and excess water drained off.  If using fresh tomatoes, just do them first and let them drain in a 
colander while preparing the rest.

Begin to saute the veggies

Wash and dry the vegetables.  When it comes to the vegetables, there is no exact measurement, this is just a stew.  I say 1-2 Medium, but in general each vegetable ingredient equals about 3 - 5 cups more or less, when chopped. 

 Put the olive oil in a large pot and start with the onions.  Chop the onions and begin to saute them over medium heat.  As soon as they start to soften, turn the burner off and begin to add all of the rest of the vegetables that are chopped into large 1 - 1 1/2 inch pieces.

 

Mince the fresh herbs and the garlic and add that to the pot as well.  Turn the heat back on to medium and stir and begin to cook the vegetables together.  Add the tomatoes and salt and bring to simmer.  Simmer for 60-90 minutes until the vegetables are cooked through.

 

Add the chopped and drained tomatoes

Yummmmm!

As the ratatouille is ready, taste it for the appropriate amount of salt and sweetness and adjust to your taste with more salt or sugar.


I serve this over rice or pasta with a sprinkling of Parmesan cheese as a hearty main dinner dish.   Enjoy!

Got Basil - Got Garlic

Let’s make pesto!  

I've had no less than 3 inquiries about my pesto recipe in the last week, so it sounds like it's time. My basil and garlic are ready to go, so rather than wait another minute, here is my “not so secret” recipe.

Basil and garlic are among those Mediterranean medicinal herbs that are supposed to do great things for your health... and since they are so delicious, why not have them year round!

Traditionally, pesto is made with a mortar and pestle - thus the name pesto.  It is said to have origins in northern Africa, been domesticated in India, and perfected in Genoa, Italy.  Leave it to me to have to come up with my own recipe for the stuff, but I had some modern criteria I wanted my pesto to meet.

 


I wanted something that I could store and it would stay fresh throughout the long Montana winter.  I did not want to use pine nuts as I have had too many with an off/fishy taste.  A lot of the pestos I had tried were swimming in olive oil, thin and runny.  I thought mine should have less oil and more basil.  Also, with a food processor in my pantry, I was not about to use the mortar and pestle method.

This recipe is simple and only takes a few minutes to make, and you can enjoy it until the basil grows again next year.  (PS - plant more basil next year.)

PESTO
(makes about 4 - 5 cups)

4 cups packed (pack as many leaves as you can into a 4 cup measure), fresh picked, cleaned, and dry basil leaves 
(I use both the Genovese and the larger lettuce leaf varieties, The salad spinner makes quick work of the wash and spin, then I lay them out on a towel to dry, fluffing them a couple of times to assist in the drying process.)

6 large cloves of garlic, peeled
2 cups of walnuts
1 1/2 cups of shredded Parmesan or Romano cheese 
2 teaspoons of salt, or to taste
3/4 cup lemon juice
1 cup olive oil
       
I start with the garlic and the lemon juice in the food processor.  Once the garlic is finely minced, I add the 4 cups of basil leaves and mince those.
Add the salt, walnuts, and cheese and the mixture will be very heavy.
 

With the food processor running, I drizzle the olive oil into the tube and continue to let it work until the whole thing comes together into a beautiful, creamy, light green color.

I then taste to see if it meets my satisfaction.  You can add more salt, more lemon juice, or more oil to your taste and process again until it is well blended and creamy.

 

Then put the pesto into jars or freezer safe containers that will hold about ½ to 1 cup each.  I use half pints, the tapered jelly jars work fine too.   Put them right into the freezer.  The pesto will retain it’s beautiful, fresh, light green color while frozen.  

Before you plan to use it, move a jar to the refrigerator to thaw.  It will keep for weeks in the refrigerator.  Once opened it will gradually oxidize on the top.  This is normal and doesn't hurt anything.
 
Here are just a couple of suggestions for using your pesto, beyond the linguine that is...

How about spreading it on a loaf of french bread, top with a little mozzarella and broil, or toss it with some new potatoes or green beans, make a green pizza by spreading it on the dough instead of a red sauce - then top with chopped tomatoes and a little mozzarella for a different style Margarita pizza.  I have even known someone that spreads it on a turkey sandwich as a condiment.  Let me know if you discover any great new uses for it, and I will be sharing some additional pesto uses as time goes on.

(Just as I was finishing this post, my husband came in and told me our neighbor was recovering from a fall. I decided to make a casserole for him using the left over pesto and a cabbage I had sitting on the counter - see the next post.)