From a Houston garden to the table

Archive for the ‘Cooking’ Category

Planning how you cook, can save energy. The savings in the utility bill may be slight for each meal, but that does add up.

Last night, I decided to try something new when preparing my meal to see if I could cook in a healthier style, but this may have been an energy efficient style. I was boiling ingredients to warm them up to imitate a stir fry served over cous cous. The result looked like a stir fry, even though texturally you could feel that the meal was not a stir fry. What I have wanted to do was save on the number of pots and utensils that I was using to save on clean-up. One pot meal are becoming popular with me. I do take conscious steps to reduce the amount of energy used in the kitchen on a normal basis, and I thought these tips may help others when planning out their meals.
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Sometimes you have to turn to canned goods to make a quick meal, but a few garden vegetables can bring the meal to life

My day begins at three in the morning, and last week I was getting home around 5:30 in the afternoon. My family was waiting for me to serve a meal, so I needed a quick dinner idea. I hit upon making a one pot dish to minimize clean-up: a pasta cooked in soup.
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This wonderful plant seems to be ignored by gardeners and home cooks, but it can be a big hit at the evening meal.

Kohlrabi does well in the Houston garden during our winter. After the freezes this past weekend, I found my kohlrabi standing tall, enjoying the cold. (My wife says that this is my season, because I love the cold so much). I did not plant too many of  these plants this year. In fact, I have not planted them for some time.
    I harvested half of my kohlrabi plants this week. I like having this vegetable on my winter table. I have experienced a problem lately with the children though. I can remember some mothers who came up to me at Whole Foods, amazed that my son was eating vegetables instead of junk food. How did I do it? Simple, I did not buy junk food. Now my life has changed. My son is a teenager, and my little daughters spend time with their cousins; their peers have been influencing them. On the positive side, they still eat a larger variety of foods than many others. They all enjoy going to the various farmer’s markets (in the freezing cold morning, I went to the market at Rice University on Saturday. The vendors were glad to see me, but all of them asked where are the girls, instead of greeting me- they are loved).
    I love root vegetables, so I have been serving them since they are in season. Turnips did not go down well. When the kids saw the kohlrabi, they had a flashback, and they refused to touch them. Once my son tasted one, he was pleasantly surprised, and they have asked for more. I am going to see if I can find them- well, I know that Canino’s has them on hand.  It appears that kohlrabi will be on the table again soon.
    Preparation: you can eat the leaves of kohlrabi. They are tough, so you do need  to cook them for some time to soften them up- think of using them like cabbage, with maybe a little bit longer cooking time. As for the base, you will have to peel it. As a note, kohlrabi is not a root vegetable. This bulge occurs in the stem above the ground. Because of this bulge, kohlrabi is frequently referred to as the space ship plant. I find that the skin can be hard to peel, similar to broccoli stems. Peelers can work, but I take my chef’s knife to cut off the skin. The softer center can be prepared like any root vegetable. Since I was roasting a chicken, I sliced the kohlrabi into quarter inch wedges. Lightly slated and oiled them on a baking sheet. Once they had browned (about a half hour at 350F), I took them out. I sprinkled some flavored vinegar on them for serving. I have boiled them, and used them in stir fry dishes. What surprises my kids is the fact that kohlrabi can have a sweet flavor, particularly when roasted.
   Herbs which go with kohlrabi: I have had luck with basil (if my basil lasts into this season); caraway; chives; rosemary; marjoram; oregano; parsley; and thyme. I think that dill or fennel go well too. 

Adding flavors to rice can change the meal. With oranges in season, why not experiment.

Rice became my main starch once I married. Growing up in a German household, I was used to potatoes. I was comfortable with a potato. I knew a variety of ways to prepare them. The easiest ways was just to add some chopped parsley and butter, or maybe some paprika. Rice was a blank slate to me. You had a fully flavored sauce that would seep into its edges, and then you could use the rice to mop up the remainder of the sauce. My perception of rice can from reading a book. Anne Rice mentioned adding garlic and butter to cooked rice, and I was liberated. I began to experiment.
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