Garlic – Grow. Cook. Eat.

August 10, 2010

Regeneration (Recipe: Roast Salmon with Tomatoes and Potatoes

Subsequent crops of garlic are generated from the previous year’s harvest. Farmers reserve the largest cloves and then plant them in mid-September. The following July, each clove will have sprouted a new bulb.

When I decided to grow garlic for the first time last year, I didn’t have bulbs which I could replant. I didn’t trust supermarket garlic as I know that some commercial varieties are bred to *not* sprout: fine for long-term storage, not fine for growing new garlic. Instead I ordered 3 bulbs from Seeds of Change for $15.

The yield was decent: about ½ pound of scapes and 20+ bulbs. Some of the bulbs were decent sized, but many were small-ish. Was this a result of inadequate sun and fertilization? Perhaps, the smaller, internal cloves produced smaller bulbs? Or maybe it was just the variety of seed I bought (it was rather random how I chose). I’m not sure the cause but I’m hesitant to replant the smaller cloves. And I don’t have enough of the larger bulbs to yield a sufficient crop for next year.

Yesterday, I walked over to the Central Square farmers’ market. I really didn’t need any veggies as my backyard is bursting with tomatoes, cucumbers and kale. But I was having guests for dinner and thought perhaps I would supplement my bounty.

A Dick’s Farmstead, garlic bulbs spilled out from the display. At $1.50 per bulb, this seemed like an economical solution to getting seed garlic. I confirmed with the farmer that his garlic was suitable for planting. I will store it in the basement until the timing is right in September. I put several bulbs (a bag of peaches) in my bag.

Feeling good that I supported my local farmer, I went home otherwise empty-handed. I decided to make do with what I already had.

Roast Salmon with Tomatoes and Potatoes

4 salmon fillets
1 tsp. aleppo chili powder
1 cup balsamic vinegar
1 tbs. honey
3-4 medium sized, ripe tomatoes
2 scallions
1 small chili
4 medium sized Yukon gold potatoes
3 tbs. butter
large fistful of fresh basil
1 tbs. olive oil
1 tbs. canola oil
salt, pepper and lemon juice to taste

1. Season salmon with salt, pepper and aleppo chili powder. Set aside (in the fridge) until ready to cook.

2. In a small stainless steel pot, reduce the balsamic vinegar until 1/4 cup remains. Mix 1 tbs. of balsamic reduction with honey. Brush glaze on top of salmon.

3. Dice tomatoes. Mix with basil (not all of it), scallions, chili and olive oil. Season to taste with salt, pepper and lemon juice.

4. Cut potatoes into a dice. Put them in a pot with cold, salted water. Bring to a boil over high heat. Reduce heat to simmer and cook for 5 – 10 minutes more. Timing depends on how small you cut the potatoes — smaller potatoes will cook more quickly. Drain the potatoes. Set aside until just before serving.

5. Put salmon on a sheet tray. Place under broiler for 10 minutes or until it the salmon begins to brown. Switch the oven to bake (375F) and cook for 5 minutes more.

6. Just before serving, reheat the potatoes with the butter. Toss in the remaining basil and season with lemon juice.

From the garden: tomatoes, scallions, basil, chili

From the farm: potatoes

June 23, 2010

An Old Favorite – Re-imagined.

The other night I used the garlic scape in a fit of desperation – wanting the garlic flavor but nary a clove to be found in the house. A delicious dinner to be sure, it wasn’t the best show case for this spring delicacy. So today, the experiments began in earnest.

I queried my friends for suggestions – most of the recipe suggestions in cyberspace are for pesto – and Daniel suggested stir-fried with kale, bacon and lemon. With the kale ready for its first harvest, this was a great variation of my favorite kale recipe, and a great way to pull together the flavors of the garden.

Kale Sautéed with Bacon, Scapes and Lemon

2 slices bacon, diced
½ pound kale, coarsely chopped
2 – 3 garlic scapes, chopped
¼ tsp. chili flakes (optional)
Juice of ½ lemon
Salt and pepper to taste.

Heat a large a large skillet. Add the bacon and cook until the fat starts to render, and the bacon begins to brown. Drain off excess fat.

To the bacon pan, add the scapes and chili flakes, and then the kale. Cook for 3 minutes, or until kale is wilted and tender.

Season to taste with salt and pepper. Squeeze lemon on top just before serving.

June 18, 2010

Garlic Scapes (Recipe: Hake with Tomato-Coconut Sauce)

By now, there isn’t much I haven’t seen… I recognize sprouting okra plants by their leaves, broccoli by its stalk and fennel by its fronds. I can distinguish budding kohlrabi from kale just by the shade of green in the leaves. And now I can say I recognize the garlic too!

I’m growing garlic for the first time this year… and even though I’ve seen fresh bulbs and scapes at the market, I had never before seen how it all comes together in the garden. I planted a row of bulbs right next to a row of leeks, the plume of the leaves distinguish the two.

The real tell-tale sign of garlic is the scape – the curly-q sprout that shoots out from the center. The sprout is thicker/denser than the other leaves, round instead of flat with a pointy tip. Garlic growers snip off this sprout to focus the plant’s energy on the growing bulb. And kitchen gardeners take advantage of this early shot of garlic flavor.

It should be noted that there are two types of garlic – hard neck and soft neck. The soft neck variety doesn’t produce the scape, but has longer storage potential. The hard-neck shoots the scape but only stores for 6 months. This year, I’m (trying) growing both.

A few weeks ago,I dug up one stalk to see if and how the bulb was developing. It just looked like a swollen scallion. And the taste was rather mild.

Now, I have the scape. The flavor is all garlic – without the lingering effect which prevents intimate conversation. You can use it in a recipe as you would scallions – cooked briefly or added at the end as a raw garnish.

The other night, I was out of garlic, so I chopped up a scape to use in its stead. I loved the added texture that is missing from chopped garlic. Though, you can’t see it on the fish (that’s a scallion garnish), I could definitely taste it.

From the garden: scapes, scallions and tomatoes (canned last summer)

Seared Hake with Tomato Coconut Sauce

4 – 6 oz. Hake Filets
1 tsp. fresh oregano, chopped
1 lime
1 tablespoon flour
2 tbs. plain oil
1 – 2 garlic scapes, chopped
1 jalapeno, chopped
1 can tomatoes (smoked if possible)
½ can coconut milk
Salt and pepper to taste

1. Season hake with salt and pepper. Sprinkle with oregano, and squeeze the juice of ½ the lime on top.

2. Dust hake with flour. Heat a large skillet over high heat. Add oil. Gently place hake in pan, and let cook for 5 minutes, undisturbed until a golden crust develops. Flip hake over to cook on the second side.

3. To the hake pan, add the scapes and jalapeno. Make sure they hit the bottom of the pan so they can brown a little. Add the coconut milk and tomatoes. Bring to a boil, reduce to a simmer, and continue cooking for just a minute or until the fish is cooked through.

4. Squeeze remaining lime juice on top just before serving.

May 17, 2010

Impatient Gardener (Recipe: Pasta with Young Garlic, Tomatoes and Basil)

I’ve developed a strategy for crop rotation that, up until this year, has been pretty successful. I plant lettuces and spring crops in half the yard and then the summer crops in the other half. When the spring crops wind down, usually in late June, I prep the soil and get it ready for the fall crops which go in in August.

This year, I have a problem. I planted garlic for the first time with the notion that I would harvest the bulbs in late May/early June, just in time for the summer crops to go in. The stalks were looking thick, so I thought I’d pull one up to see how it progressed. It looks closer to a leek than a garlic bulb. They will need at least a month more.

The garden is quite full right now. Summer veggies that are already planted: celery, leeks, kale, beets, broccoli, brussels sprouts. The spring veggies that will be harvested over the next few weeks: lettuce, radishes, strawberries and the questionable garlic.
If I want to plant tomatoes, cucumbers and eggplant, something has to go.

I’m not sure what I will do… which would you sacrifice?

In the meantime, I couldn’t let the young garlic go to waste… I rolled out fresh pasta and tossed it with tomatoes, arugula and shrimp.

From the garden: garlic, arugula, basil and tomatoes.

Pasta with Young Garlic, Tomatoes and Basil

1/2 pound shrimp, peeled and deveined
1 tbs. olive oil
1 stalk young garlic chopped, or two cloves chopped
1/4 tsp (or more) chili flakes
1 – 15 oz. canned tomatoes
1/4 cup white wine
1 tbs. fresh (or frozen) basil
1/2 pound fettuccine

Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Season generously with salt.
Season shrimp with salt and pepper.
Heat olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add garlic and cook for 1 minute until it softens. Add shrimp and chili flakes and cook for 2 minutes until it begins to turn pink. Add white wine and tomatoes, continue cooking until tomatoes thicken and shrimp cook through. If the sauce seems thin, but the shrimp are cooked, pick them out and set them aside.
Cook pasta according to package direction, but for 1 minute less. When pasta is cooked, drain and toss with tomatoes.
Mix in basil. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

September 23, 2009

Growing Garlic (Recipe: Garlic Soup)

Every spring when I see garlic scapes at the Farmers’ Market, I slap my forehead wondering how I could forget again to plant garlic. Garlic, like Brussels sprouts, has a 6-month growing season. But unlike Brussels sprouts, which I see at the market when I’m gathering my other spring and summer crops, the garlic goes in when I’m cleaning up the gardening in preparation for the winter. Specifically, it’s planted four weeks before the ground freezes.

This year, I put the date on my calendar. September 24th: Plant Garlic. Thankfully, I received an email reminder from Seeds of Change to order my garlic seeds.

Garlic bulbs grow from the previous season’s cloves. But, you can’t just pick up a bulb from the local market. Not all garlic will sprout. Nowadays, much of the supermarket garlic is bred to not sprout. And most likely it is not organic. So, I accept that I will order garlic “seed” on-line. That was an easy decision.

Hard Neck vs. Soft Neck
The hard neck garlic produces the scape – the garlic flavored green shoot that sprouts up before the bulb is mature. The bulbs, once harvested, can be stored up to six months.

The soft neck garlic doesn’t produce the scape, but they have a longer storage life – up to one year.

Beyond that, there are about a dozen varieties of each. Purple skin, white skin, large bulb, small bulb. Spicy, mild. Suitable for warm climates, cold climates. And it’s unclear if I’ll actually get what I order… Seeds of Change does not guarantee quantities of any variety, so I threw a dart to the wall to decide.

I ordered one “unit” of soft neck and one “unit” of hardneck. Each unit has 3 bulbs, totally approximately 20-30 seeds. I'll be safe of vampires next summer. Stay tuned…

For more tips on growing garlic, go here.

And to get in the mood for garlic, here’s a variation on the classic Spanish Garlic Soup.

Garlic Soup with Romesco

12 + garlic cloves
8 slices bread
1/4 cup olive oil
8 cups chicken stock
3 tbs. sherry fino
3 eggs
2 tbs. cream
salt and pepper to taste

1. Heat oil in a large pan. Add garlic and cook until it begins to brown. Remove.
2. Fry bread in oil. Set aside.
3. Return garlic to pan, add chicken stock and sherry. Simmer for 20 minutes.
4. Puree.
5. Beat eggs with cream. Slowly pour a ladel of soup into egg mix. Whisk into remaining soup. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Heat to just below simmer. Garnish with Romesco and Parsley

Romesco
1 red peppers
1 hot pepper
1 shallot, diced
1 garlic clove,
1/4 cup olive oil
2 tomato
1/4 cup almonds
balsamic or red wine vinegar
salt and pepper to taste

1. Seed peppers and cut into quarters. Cut tomato into quarters.
2. Put all ingredients, except vinegar, in a pot. Roast until peppers begin to brown.
3. Drain oil and reserve. Puree remaining ingredients. Drizzle in oil. Adjust seasoning with vinegar, salt and pepper.

That extra loving touch: In a skillet, add 1/4 cup olive oil. Fry almond slices, garlic slices and parsley leaves. When garlic begins to brown, drain on a paper towel and season to taste with salt and pepper. Garnish crouton with crispies.