Did you start off making one dish only to find that another evolves from the remnants of your efforts? My connection with the restaurant industry has been brief, but I always remembered that you do not let something go to waste. This adventure begins with my daughter, Katya, and I harvesting the galangal. This is the spicier cousin of ginger. We had quite a bit of work digging out them out, preparing the bed for the next year, and replanting some tubers for the next year’s harvest. We were left with about ten pounds of roots. I love using pickled ginger as a condiment, so I thought that the galangal may work well too. In the preparation for the pickling, I ended up making a soup stock and a version of my favorite bread spread, peasant’s caviar.
    After cleaning the tubers, I began the preparation to make pickled galangal. The process is the same for ginger. The galangal tuber does have thicker side roots that need to be snipped off. Peeling the skin is the same as peeling ginger. Use a spoon to scrape the skin off. Since I am working with several pounds at once, I place the cleaned pieces into a water bath. Once all has been cleaned, I thinly slice the galangal, placing these slices into fresh water. I have placed ginger slices directly into the prepared vinegar solution, but I thought of using an older recipe that I had. I do not taste much difference in the final product though. In the direct method, I let the ginger sit in the vinegar for a week before using he slices. In the second method (the one I decided to try today), the ginger (galangal) soaks in water over night. The next morning I clean the scum that forms on the top of the water. This is the white foam on top of the water. I pour the water through a strainer into a pot. This is the beginning of the stock. The galangal goes into a glass jar. The usual practice is to take rice vinegar,red miso, and honey for the pickling. You want the vinegar to have a sweet taste. These are boiled together, and poured over the ginger. Let this cool before placing the jar into the refrigerator. Do you have to use honey? I find that sugar gives me the same taste, but I like using a local. Do you have to use rice vinegar? Probably not. Vinegars do have their own flavors, and this will be imparted to the pickle, but I have always used the rice vinegar. I found quite a bit of red wine vinegar in the pantry, so I did use it this time. Why the red miso? I do not always use the red miso or any miso. The red color comes from tuber reacting with the vinegar. The red miso adds a certain flavor element. I have used a light brown miso. I have gone without miso. For this preparation, I added a little sea salt. I have used herbs or spices from the garden, but I enjoy the cleaner taste of little added. After a day, the ginger or galangal has a nice flavor. You may be thinking sushi for its use, but I like using this condiment on any meal where I would use other condiments.
    Making vegetarian stocks is a simple process. I do like making chicken stock, and every so often I may may beef stock. Stocks are great for soups and sauces, or you could braise items in stock, so having stock on hand is a great way to speed the meal preparation along. Wen in my pantry, I found a package of dried mushrooms. Mushrooms make a great darker soup stock. I went back into the garden to harvest some parsley and onions. I had about a cup of dried mushrooms, a cup of chopped parsley, and a quarter of a cup of chopped green onions. I let the ingredients simmer in the galangal water for forty minutes.  I wanted a lightly flavored stock that could be used for a number of dishes. More onions would help make a better stock for soups. I could have harvested some celery or carrots too. This stock was good for a vegetable stew that I was making that evening. I did add a little salt to the stock at the end. I completed the stock preparation by straining the stock into a storage container.
    Finally, I had the ingredients for a type of peasant’s caviar. I do not see people making these spreads much anymore. Eggplant is the common main ingredient used for this dish. I think if people like baba ganoush that they may like peasant’s caviar; however, maybe people stay away from the spread because of the eggplant. I have had other versions of this caviar, and I think the mushroom based version is great. I took the ingredients from the strained stock into a blender. The mushrooms came out to be two cups when reconstituted. I used a quarter cup of olive oil and two teaspoons of a dark soy sauce. This was blended together. I added a little salt and pepper to taste. I have added a little garlic to this blend as well in the past. There are different types of caviar that are quite inexpensive, and vegetable spreads may not sound to appealing, so maybe that is why peasant’s caviar fell out of favor, but I love this spread. If you do want to try the eggplant version, roast the eggplant first. I always add the garlic to the eggplant version, where this flavor is optional for me when using mushrooms. I may add a bit more onion. Sauteed onion goes well in this spread. As for herbs and spices, parsley is the standard for me, but I could have used any herb or spice. Tarragon would be good, as would thyme. I guess that I will use those next week.
   I still have more galangal. Maybe I should candy some? Maybe grate it into a paste to store in the freezer. We will see. I hope that you try the peasant’s caviar. I find that some people have problems with mushrooms in a meal, but they enjoy this spread. As you can see, harvesting one item can cause you to have more work in the kitchen, but that is not a bad thing.

From a Houston garden to the table - A site dedicated to gardening and cooking in Houston.

Do you realize that vegetables go in and out of favor? You may realize that they do, but most of us do not think about what those vegetables may be. I think that the local food movement is bringing back older vegetables.  In the spring, I was in the garden center buying more moss rose for my containers on the back porch. The assistant noticed my daughters munching on the leaves, when she asked if I knew that it was alright for them to eat those leaves. I told her yes. In fact the reason for the purchase was due to my daughters eating the plants that I had. She smiled saying that the plant was high in vitamin C. Moss rose, purslane, comes in many varieties, and I have seen them showing up in more gardens as a decorative plant, yet this plant used to be grown more as a vegetable or medicine. The wild varieties have a peppery taste.

    Purslane is good raw or cooked, and the leaves and stem are edible. I have noticed purslane for sale in Middle Eastern food stores, but I cannot remember seeing it in a dish in a restaurant. Even the cultivated varieties have a sharp taste. I like adding them to salads. I love the leaves in a soup. Pickling the leaves is a favorite in my home. I had not used them in sauces, so I decided to try them in a pasta sauce.
    For my sauce, I made a basic tomato sauce. I felt that the stems of the purslane may be a bit hard (they need a bit longer to cook), and that the stems could be more pungent (they have a stronger flavor). I stripped the leaves off the stem, and I threw them into the sauce for the last minute of cooking. The leaves did not seem to flavor the sauce, but they did pack a little punch when eating. You may want to taste these leaves before adding a large amount. I have not tried cooking these with a sauce from the beginning, but this might not be a bad idea. The texture of the sauce could change with the gelatinous interior of the leaf.  My five year old daughter was not expecting the leaf in her sauce, so after eating half of the dinner, she determined that she was not going to eat more of the green stuff. The other children had no complaints.
   I have better luck with purslane in containers. I moved all of my purslane from the shady porch to a container my wife wanted in the front yard. This container is in full sun for most of the day, and I have only watered it when I am permitted, so twice a week. This plant has done well with this drought. I found a volunteer purslane growing in my pot of society garlic. Mexican petunias also found their way into this pot. The combination of plants has been quite nice. I am not sure why the plants in the beds do not last, but they come and go around the garden. In the containers, they obtain controlled watering with potting soil.
   I like seeing more purslane in the gardens I pass by when driving through neighborhoods for my home inspections. They do have wonderful small flowers. Maybe more people will start eating this old vegetable again, since they are growing it anyway. I did not mention, but you can prepare purslane like you would cook spinach. However, maybe this vegetable is an acquired taste. 

From a Houston garden to the table - A site dedicated to gardening and cooking in Houston.

I have the tendency to call vegetables encased in dough a Beggar’s Purse. I am not sure if there is a proper name for these dishes, but you do find this idea for a dish around the world. My original conception was to make this dish as a steamed dumpling that had a sauce inside the dumpling with vegetables. One time I made this same dish fried. Last night I changed my procedure to baking, since I had another meal to bake. The dough is different, but the concept is the same: dough encasing vegetables with a sauce.

    For the dough, I always make it simple. There are wonderful doughs and machines to work those doughs  that can help you make something fantastic, but when you have the children running around, who has time for such extravagances. When steaming or frying, the dough is a variation on a pasta dough: flour; egg, oil, and seasoning. I usually take about a quarter of a cup of oil, with one egg, and two cups of flour. If the mixture is too dry, I may add more oil or a dash of water. The seasoning is often just salt and pepper, but I have added turmeric or other spices. When baking, the dough has flour, oil, water, and seasonings. I mix the oil and flour first, then add a little water till the dough comes together. When baking, I do like to add ground nuts for flavoring. To make forming the purse easier when baking, I use a muffin tin. The dough is pressed against the walls of the muffin tin. For steaming or frying, I roll out rough rounds, but I do like to use a tortilla press to obtain an even thickness quickly.
    The vegetables depend upon what is in season. With the drought, my garden has not been producing too heavily. I took my on bell pepper for the first layer. I diced it, and mixed the pepper with vinegar and oil. I pressed this into the base of the tin. On top of this layer, I sliced eggplants which were were mixed with a tomato sauce that had garlic. On top of this layer came the sliced onions. Finally, I placed sliced squash that had been mixed with a beaten egg and herbs. The top of the muffin depressions were covered by more dough, but you need to leave a hole for the steam.
    This was baked in the oven. I did this at a setting of 350F for forty minutes. I wanted the crust to brown. I pulled out the pan when done, setting on my cook top to cool. After twenty minutes, I placed a cutting board on top of the pan. I flipped the pan, and my muffins/beggar’s purses where ready to serve. These where big muffins. I served this with a salad.
     You might think that everything mixes together. In my steam or fried versions I use one sauce or flavor element. The peppers had marinated for ten minutes. This made them quite distinctive from the tomato sauce above them. The onions acted as a barrier for the egg and herb mixture, so this dish had separate layers. The family enjoyed this meal. If you wanted to add meat that is fine. Since I had a few different vegetables from the garden, his turned out to be a good way to show them off. The onions had been in storage, but they were from my garden. If I wanted fresh onions, I could have used the green onions, which are doing quite well. I felt that I could say this meal was accepted, since the children asked for it again.

From a Houston garden to the table - A site dedicated to gardening and cooking in Houston.

I had the chance to cook with my daughter Katya last night. I use to prepare meals all of the time with my son, but with the two girls, I have not done so as often. The problem has been that I have to be more cautious with my youngest, which makes the meal preparation take much longer. Sakura was asleep, and Katya was excited to be the assistant. They have never experienced macaroni and cheese from the box. My son, who is quite a bit older, went through a phase at one point where he wanted this meal. He had it at a friend’s house. This is not a hard dish to make from scratch, which I did for him, but he wanted that artificial flavoring. When Katya and I started the meal, I was not planning a specific meal, so this dish evolved as we were cooking.

    I knew that we were going to make a pasta dish. We began with sauteeing onions and carrots from the garden. Katya likes peeling the vegetables, but she was nervous about crying (the onions). I added the third part of the classic, which is the celery. Once these had some brown on them, we added the homemade chicken stock with salt and pepper. When looking for the pasta, I found the macaroni we had purchased. We dumped these into the pot. I did have to add a little more stock to cover. We let this come to a boil, stirring to prevent any sticking to the bottom of the pot.
    For a traditional macaroni and cheese, you cook the pasta alone, and make the cheese sauce in a separate pan. Cooking the pasta in the sauce reduces the cleanup. By using less water or stock, you can create a sauce from the liquid that was not absorbed. Katya wants cheese on all of her pasta dishes. I had a large block of quesedilla cheese, so I cut about a cup of cheese into cubes. Katya stirred in the cheese along with a pat of butter. We tasted for seasoning. We did have to add a bit more. At the last moment, we added cubed summer sausage (this having been made by son and father). This may have been a little more than a cup.
    This dish had the cheese sauce, although not the same as the traditional meal. We decided to add slices of avocado to the top. Mixed into the pasta, the avocado made the dish creamy. The avocado tree that I planted late last year has not produced yet, but I am hoping to have these from the garden for the meal. The children loved this pasta, and they did not ask for more cheese. They did want more avocado though. For me, there were two great parts to this meal. First, was that the vegetables were prominent in the meal, which is not the case in macaroni and cheese. Second, was the time spent with Katya in making the meal. 

From a Houston garden to the table - A site dedicated to gardening and cooking in Houston.

Everyone seems to want their home inspections on the weekends. On Sunday, I was already driving all over the area, when I had a call asking me to do one more inspection that day. I try to be helpful, but three inspections in one day with many hours of driving was not for me. Furthermore, the heat was a bit too much. Home inspectors have to work in environments that are inadvisable for health. Needless to say that I was worn out by the end of the day, yet I had to make dinner for the family . I wanted to do something simple, which often means a pasta dish for me. With so much okra available, I hit upon a baked dish that was easy to make.

    My wife loves okra. She says that it is her favorite vegetable. The children have been alright with okra dishes, but the slimy factor is not always to their taste. My solution for a dinner involving okra was to bake it. I sliced the okra into pieces a half inch thick. I diced an onion. These were placed in a cast iron skillet. A tablespoon of oil with salt and pepper was added. Then I dumped a package of ground turkey on top of the vegetables. This was partially frozen. The skillet went into a 350F oven for forty minutes. I also placed a casserole with rice and water in the oven at the same time.
    Baking the okra lessens the slime effect. Once the meat had browned, I sprinkled malt vinegar over the dish. I season the rice with salt and pepper and a pat of butter. The baked okra is stirred together. I top this off with garlic chives and diced tomato. The children liked the okra prepared this way, and I did not have to fuss in the kitchen. Preparation time was about ten minutes, so I did not have to much work after a long day. Besides, I can then spend the forty minutes reading with the kids. I have not tried roasting okra, but that may be something to cook. I could flavor them with lemon juice and sumac.
    Katya is crazy for asparagus, so I wonder if roasting okra would be a substitute. The flavor will not be the same, but it may pass the test. Okra is bountiful at this time, so I do need to find ways to make the family feel that they are getting something new on their plates.

From a Houston garden to the table - A site dedicated to gardening and cooking in Houston.

I was reminded again of the disconnect children have when it comes to knowing where their meal and their foods origins. My children see this fact on a daily basis, but I had a few odd looks when harvesting onions. The bulbs dangled from my left hand, dropping down in a waterfall style for more than two feet, as I pulled the onions from the ground with my right hand. My daughters, who do not like onions in their meals, were happily helping. One of my sisters-in-law pulled up, and my niece and nephew toppled out of the car to spend the evening with us. They rushed over to see what we were doing. They were baffled by this activity. Is it important that they know where their food originates? I am not sure, but I have found that my onion averse daughters will eat the bulb when they harvested the vegetable themselves. There is a greater appreciation for our food when we see it go from the garden to the table. Although the cooking portion might be their favorite activity.

    You can save onions by hanging them in a cool, dry place, but I do not have such a space available to me. Well, I do, but my wife would prefer that I do not hang onions there. I decided to prepare them for various meals. The simplest preparation was a sauce. Many of the leaves were still green. We do not see onion greens in the stores, yet they are good to eat. We pulled them off of the bulbs, and tore the greens into smaller pieces. Olive oil went into a blender (about two cups). The greens went next, followed by rice vinegar, salt, and honey. I usually portion the vinegar to oil equally, but this time was 1 to 2. The two year old had fun pressing the different buttons on the blender. You want the leaves to be pureed. This is a rich green sauce. I taste the sauce after the initial pulse to adjust the flavor. The girls like the tasting portion best. Once I have it to their satisfaction, I know that this sauce will be accepted at the meal.
    I bought pork tenderloins at Georgia’s Farm to Market (on the I-10 near Dairy Ashford). I thought that a different type of onion sauce may go well with this meal. I sauteed the onions till they were golden brown. I added a little flour to the pan, which soaked up the remaining oil. A cup of water was added, and then another. I scraped the bottom of the pan to have the start of my sauce. Two tablespoons of a raspberry marmalade came next. Maybe a tablespoon of soy sauce was added (I splashed it into the pan, so I think that I added less than a tablespoon). Lastly, I added a bit of pepper with a small pat of butter. This was stirred together till I had a smooth sauce.
    I will be harvesting bell peppers from the garden today, and probably the last tomatoes. Houston’s summers are too hot for those vines. I thought that the sauce for tonight’s dinner should be a salsa. I like roasting the tomato, pepper, and onion.  With an electric cooktop, I either do this outside grill or in the oven. I chop them up. I add a little minced garlic, a touch of olive oil, and vinegar (my lemons and limes are not ready to harvest). Then season. Why bell pepper? The children do not like spicy food ( I take that back; my son is eating spicier salsas). I chop a variety of hot peppers for my wife and myself to be added into the salsa on our own plates.
    I still have more onions, so other dishes will ensue. That is one thing about eating seasonally: you either have to preserve your harvest or eat a great deal from one vegetable at times. Pickled onions have never tickled my fancy, but I do like dried onion flakes. These can be used in hamburgers or soups, and as a seasoning. I guess that I should pull the dehydrator out to make some onion flakes.

From a Houston garden to the table - A site dedicated to gardening and cooking in Houston.

The great thing about eating seasonally from the garden is that you know the food is fresh, but you also gain more joy when you harvest the first crop of a certain vegetable. When you go to a grocery store, any vegetable is available to you. If you like cucumbers, you can have them whenever you want, and maybe this causes them to loose a little luster. If you always eat a tomato, what is special about a tomato. However, that first cucumber or tomato becomes a special prize in your mind. I think that many of the winter salads went over well, but now there is an excitement in the air.

    I have served cucumbers for the last week. No one recognized them when the had been baked with a fish dish. A simple salad of cucumber slices with a yogurt mint topping was refreshing. The first time that I added a tomato with the cucumber I had seen the others clean their plates I made a salad that added yellow and red tomatoes and parsley to the cucumbers. The dressing was a white wine vinegar, olive oil, salt, pepper, and sugar. A generous portion was on each plate. My wife spoke up after the prayers. She was so happy for that salad. I noticed that everyone was eating this side dish first. Had they been so deprived of these wonders that the flavors became a new revelation to them? Winter vegetables may cause interest, and they can be quite delicious, but the summer harvest inspires.
    I find that a store bought tomato does not have much flavor. If you leave that tomato on a sunny window sill, you will find that the flavor improves. Most of us though may throw the tomato into the refrigerator with the other produce. A chilled cucumber does feel better in the mouth. This pair does seem to team up in different dishes. Gazpacho takes on its flavors from this combination. I do like adding cucumbers into baked or pan fried dishes where a tomato is used. Salads may be my favorite use though. You can air them with a chili pepper for a little kick. They make a backdrop for different herbs (parsley and basil being my main choices, but try adding fresh mint). They also hold up to the creamy dressing as well as a vinegar with oil. What I do find curious is that dressings intended for cucumbers seem to have sugar added around the world. In Germany, this is done (I grew up with a salad made of cucumbers, parsley, and onions), but you will discover this sugar addition in dressings for cucumbers in the Middle East to the Far East. This touch of sweetness enhances the flavor.
    Growing cucumbers is easy. Have something for the vine to climb. Have a lot of sun light. Water when needed. I have not been watering my tomato or cucumber plants as much as others. Stressing them a bit appears to help with the production. The key has appeared to be a generous helping of sun. Like most home gardeners, I face the shade of trees. This shade is great for keeping my home cool, but it can effect the plants. I spread my cucumbers throughout the garden, and the ones which obtain the most sun (around eight hours worth) have been more vigorous in growth and produce. I have my tomato plants all in one spot, which helps with the bird control. I had to add the bird netting this year; however, I do have to look at this set up. I do not want to constrict the growth of the vine. My big concern with the tomato harvest is insect attack. The cucumbers have not faced any challenges in this regard.
    The salads have been a good change of pace in the meals. I should try a baked stuffed cucumber new week. A cooked cucumber does have a different flavor, and it does loose that crunch. As for now, these salads make for a nice little snack.

From a Houston garden to the table - A site dedicated to gardening and cooking in Houston.

At the store this morning, I felt a bit of sticker shock. The can of coffee that was selling for $6.99 not too long ago was priced on sale at $8.99, and are those cans becoming smaller? Most of my surprises have been with staples other than vegetables, because I have not bought many. I am obtaining about 95% of my fruit and vegetable consumption from the garden. Yet, this has not been a great year so far. The drought seems to have played havoc with my loquat tree. This fruit is usually available to me by March, but I do not think that I will have any this year. The plums are coming, but the birds have gone after the unripe green plums. Still these setbacks have not been so detrimental.
    The cucumber vines that were planted when the weather warmed have produced. My favorite cucumber preparation is to peel the skin; slice them; and marinate them in a rice vinegar/sugar mixture. This makes for a light salad. I also like making a more German style cucumber salad. The cucumber slices are salted. Later the water is drained off and the slices rinsed. The cucumber is mixed with onions, parsley, and a vinegar and oil dressing.
    The lettuce is beginning to bolt. Once the shafts arise from the plant to produce the flowers, the taste becomes more bitter. Lettuce does not like the warm weather. The red lettuce is holding out longer. Salads are becoming common place for meals right now at my house. I made a salad with blackberries and chopped peanuts last night. The blackberries were macerated with sugar. The lettuce was dressed quite popular. I wonder how long before the red lettuce goes to seed.
    The last of the peas were harvested. Peas are water hogs which prefer the cooler weather, so I was surprised that they lasted this long. Katya really took to the peas. The beans are starting to produce. Fresh young beans from the vine did not seem to need any cooking. A squeeze from an orange with a dash of sesame seed oil was great. A lightly boiled one collection of beans which were tossed with butter.
    I had moved my kale to a section of garden which is mainly shade. This has left the plants vibrant with a good flavor to the leaves. This will probably end soon, as kale looses its flavor with the heat. Then it is attacked by the bugs.  A few of my onions are large enough for harvesting, so I have done quick stir fries with the kale and onions.
    The tomato plants have only green fruit, and the pepper plants have had smaller specimens, but the eggplants are producing. I think some gardeners avoid eggplant, because they feel that it is too much work. The plant has to be staked like a tomato plant, and then there is the concern over bitterness. Fresh eggplant is not bitter (at least, I have never experienced bitterness from this vegetable when I pick it out of my garden). I broil slices; fry cubes, or throw shreds of eggplant into a stew. No salting and draining required.
    The squash has abundant blooms now. Maybe in a week this plant will give me my first zucchini or yellow squash. I planted the seeds when the weather warmed, so I have a good sized bush for many of my squash plants.  Otherwise, I have been using a good many herbs in my meals. I mix handfuls of parsley into my rice, cous cous, or bulghur. I like had this herb is treated like a vegetable or salad item in the Mediterranean diet.
    The best aspect for me is eating seasonally. The meals are changing over the course of the months. Yes, I would have liked a red tomato with my lettuce, but in Houston, these two plants will overlap in the fall. As a new vegetable grows, the smaller children have something new to excite them. What I did expect was for the family to become tired of winter vegetables. The two young girls became more fond of winter greens as the season for these vegetables progressed. Now, Katya asks if she will still be able to have her favorite kale for a meal. I wonder if she will feel this way about onions (if she can see the onion in the meal, she will not eat it).  I hope to add more plants in for the summer, but if this drought persists, then I will have to reevaluate my plans.

From a Houston garden to the table - A site dedicated to gardening and cooking in Houston.

I remember one of the first dates that I had with my wife. She ordered lobster. This will sound like a line, but she did later admit that she wanted it, because the lobster was the most expensive item on the menu. She had never eaten lobster before, and she did not eat much of it that night (why does he remember that fact after all these years- typical husband). Later, she did learn to love lobsters, and I loved preparing them. There was a point where I was preparing seafood every Friday night. Then a relative lived with s for a while; she was allergic to shellfish, so good bye to lobsters. Later, with the children, the seafood experience in the house has been a mixed bag, and I was not sure how they would take to my using shrimp for a meal last night.

   My father has been making sausage and schinken (a cured ham from Germany).  Since he came into town, he brought me a sampling of  his projects. Everything was well received (by the way schinken smoked with cherry wood is fantastic). He brought two types of summer sausage. I think my son was gobbling these up, since they went fast. I know that the turf in surf an turf should be a steak, but sausage goes over well in my family, so when I saw a bit of summer sausage was left, I thought of using it with my shrimp.
    Eating seafood is healthy. Bacon and shrimp is a great flavor combination, but I cannot sell that as healthy. I have always tried to make balanced and healthy meals, but if you have read a few other posts here, you may know that my wife is on a health mission due to her experiences with working at a hospital. I use little oil when preparing meals. I try to use only healthy oils. My wife really wants no oil. Since I bake and roast along with boiling, I do cut down on oil use, but pan frying makes wonderful dishes. This left me with the dilemma of how to prepare this meal.
    I harvested the last of my cabbage this week. I thought of baking the shrimp on a bed of cabbage. Not too exciting. I also wanted more color. I puled some green onions, which added color and flavor. I then sliced carrots and celery on a bias. This was looking like a stir fry. Instead, I placed these ingredients in a skillet with water. I also cubed the summer sausage.  Braised would be the apt description for my cooking method. The water simmered away. I added pepper and cumin to enrich the taste. Yet this was not enough. I dashed in some soy sauce and fish sauce. Fish sauce can have a horrible smell when cooking, but it certainly gives a wonderful flavor when it is in a dish. Once all of the items in the meal had cooked, I thickened the sauce with a corn starch slurry. Before serving, I added chopped lemon balm to the dish.

    This was served over rice. Everyone enjoyed the meal. All of a sudden, Katya announced that shrimp was her favorite (she only would eat shrimp if we bought it at the farmer’s market in the past).  My wife was happy that the meal did not use additional fats. Summer sausage may not replace bacon, but it worked well in this preparation. When my wife asked the name of the dish, I joked a poor man’s surf and turf, but maybe I should have gone with a more Asian sounding name? Soy sauce is used as a standard ingredient in many parts of the world. Fish sauce is the stranger item, associated with Southeast Asian cuisine. If you splash it into a stir fry, you do get a nose full, but in this preparation, you do not get that odor. My children love meals with fish sauce, which, to my mind, is that most people would like it in a meal. I guess I could have added galanga or ginger for a more Asian flavor profile. Using lemon balm felt Mediterranean to me. Lemon grass as a substitute? It is beginning to grow now in Houston. My family did think that this dish was a stir fry, so maybe this braising method could work for other meals. I say braising, because I used a little water in the skillet, but I did not brown first, which does happen in most braises. I could experiment with browning without oil. That does work, but a pan fry with a little oil works better. I have stuck these skillets into the oven to braise, and this does cause the top of the dish to brown. I think that if I experiment with this fake stir fry further, I may make my wife happy with her idea of healthy food. 

From a Houston garden to the table - A site dedicated to gardening and cooking in Houston.

My wife enjoys salad. She wonders why we do not eat a salad with every meal. She points to the fact that my aunt in Spain always served an elaborate salad at the beginning of each meal. I counter with the fact that I love soups, and I would love to have them with each meal, but that she would be happy with no soups at all. I do not have anything against salads. I make them often enough. I am not sure having them with every meal is the way to go.

    For dinner the other night, I headed out to the garden to see what I could prepare for a side dish. The girls came out with me, zooming in on the lettuce. We harvested a good deal of different types of lettuce from the garden. Then I went after the herbs: parsley, lemon balm, and cilantro. Although they do not like to eat onions, the girls picked a few green onions, knowing that this is a good addition to the salad. My tomato plants have set flowers, but I do not have any yet. Same goes for the pepper plants. I wanted color, so I went after a few red chard leaves; however, I wanted color that would pop on the plate. The dianthus was in full bloom next to a lettuce bed. This flower is edible. I prefer nasturtium with its peppery taste. I treat dianthus as a dessert flower, but I picked quite a bunch. Katya became worried that I may be going after all of these blooms, so she asked me to stop. Sakura and Katya were inspired though. They asked if they could harvest the flowers of the broccoli that I was letting go to seed. I said sure. With the vibrant pinks, reds, and whites, we added the pale yellows of another flower.
    Coming into the kitchen, I had already started the process of baking two loaves of bread, so I was wondering what I could do with the end piece of the last loaf. I was thinking croutons, but I changed my mind. I diced up the bread. I mixed it with a large can of tuna packed in water. For the adults, I added adobo )smoked jalepeno in a tomato sauce) and green onions. For the children, I had another bowl with green onions and tomato sauce. I mixed an egg into each bowl. I made burgers from these mixtures, which I fried up like crab cakes.
    For the salad, I made a miso dressing (miso paste, sugar, oil, vinegar, and soy sauce). The girls happily ate the meal. They even ate the onions. (Katya has taken to a no onion policy, and Sakura will follow her lead, when she remembers that Katya has this stance). I think that harvesting the greens themselves helped, but seeing all of the flowers to eat was new to them. They have eaten flowers before, but I had never used so many in a salad before this occasion.
    The children were rather aggressive in their harvesting, so I am hoping that I will get a second growth for another cutting. I like pulling off larger leaves, instead of snipping the whole plant down. I find that this careful harvesting gives me more produce from the plant. The one thing I would remind new lettuce growers is that your lettuce may not grow to be the big huge head that you see in the grocery store. I think people wait too long expecting to have these heads, when it may be that you have purchased a variety that does not grow to big. In any case, I never wait for a head to form, even in the varieties that do produce a head.
    When summer arrives, the lettuce will be gone. Maybe a salad with spinach leaves will appease my wife. I know a tomato, basil, and feta plate will make her happy. The one fact that makes me happy is harvesting the green stuff with flowers will cause the girls to eat aid dish. My wife laughs when little Sakura emphasizes how each meal has vegetables, but this is good for her.

From a Houston garden to the table - A site dedicated to gardening and cooking in Houston.