Urban Gardening – Grow. Cook. Eat.

April 25, 2010

Spring Fever, Part I (Roasted Halibut with Aspargus and Morels)

My favorite produce market has begun stocking its aisles with little seedlings. I couldn't help myself, and loaded up my cart with the first of the summer/fall crops – leeks, broccoli and Brussels sprouts.

But before I can get these plants into the garden, I have to prepare the vegetable beds. There's not much left from last summer, just a few haggard leeks that survived the cold winter.

I harvest those, and then with a garden shovel, I turn the soil. I break up clumps of matted down dirt and pull out tangles of old roots that may interfere with the new plants. Once the soil is aerated, I mix in compost.

I didn’t have enough leeks for a side dish, so I opted for a little “vichyssoise” sauce for roasted halibut. I prepared a basic vichyssoise with less chicken stock and some asparagus stems. I added spinach for a bright green pop of color, and sautéed morels to bring out the sweet earthiness of the fish.

Roasted Halibut with Asparagus and Morels

2 halibut fillets
1 tbs. butter
1/4 pound fresh morels
1 small shallot, peeled and diced
2 garlic cloves, peeled and minced
1 tsp. fresh thyme
1/4 cup red wine
1 tbs. canola oil
1/4 cup red wine

salt pepper and lemon juice to taste

Asparagus Sauce

1 1/2 cups chicken or vegetable broth
1 tbs. butter
2 small leeks, chopped
1/4 cup potatoes, diced
1/4 cup white wine
14 asparagus spears, trimmed, tips reserved
1/2 cup spinach
salt and pepper to taste

1. Make the sauce: Heat butter in a small pot. Sweat leeks and potatoes. Add asparagus (except reserved tips), white wine and chicken broth. Simmer, covered for 15 minutes or until asparagus and potatoes
are tender.

2. Put spinach in the bottom of a blender. Pour the sauce base into blender
and puree. Season to taste with salt and pepper (and a spot of cream too)

3. Season halibut with salt and pepper.

4. Heat a large skillet over medium high flame. Add 1 tbs. butter. When melted, add the morels, shallots, garlic and thyme. Season with salt and pepper. Cook for 2 minutes without stirring. Stir a little and then continue cooking for a few minutes more. Add the red wine, and continue cooking until almost all the liquid has evaporated. Set aside in a warm place.

5. Heat a second large skillet over high heat. Add canola oil. Pat fish dry and gently press into the pan. Cook for 5 minutes on the first side or until golden brown. Turn over, turn heat to medium and cook for 2 minutes more. Remove fish from pan.

6. Serve halibut with sauce, morels and steamed asparagus.

April 23, 2010

Creepy Crawlies

I knew it was a mistake… I planted mint in the garden and I didn’t contain it. Mint tends to crawl unabashedly across the garden. Most (smart) people will bury a quart container of mint in the ground. By planting the container in the ground, the roots get protection during the winter months. And the container then contains the roots in the summer to keep the mint at bay.

I, of course, just transplanted the mint directly into the garden, with no means of controlling its growth. When it begins to creep out of control, I yank up the roots, and squelch it back.

If it was only mint that grew this way in my garden, it wouldn’t be a big deal. But now I have other things to contend with… the raspberries, the strawberries, and some lily of the valley. The strawberries went into the garden last year. I only got 4 berries for the entire season, and decided to give them another year to prove their worth. Now, I have potential for about a dozen berries, but they have spread into the tomato and kale patches.

If I let them grow out of control, they will take over the garden, with their roots suffocating other plants, depriving them of water and nutrients. As much as I like raspberries, strawberries and mint, I don’t like them enough to give up lettuces, tomatoes, and cucumbers.

My normal morning routine had been to grab a cup of coffee, head into the garden and take a survey… seeing what’s growing, what’s ready to harvest and pluck out the beginnings of new weeds. Now I head out with a trowel, digging up the roots that have shot up plants above the soil.

April 9, 2010

Trial and (a lot of) Error

If it’s true that you learn from your mistakes, I should be bordering on genius. As I begin my 8th season as an urban gardener, I recall all the things I’ve learned along the way. I’ve shared some key tips for the beginning home gardener on Katie’s site goodLife {eats}. She has a new weekly feature, titled “Grow. Cook. Eat.” I love the name, and since we clearly have so much in common, she invited me to write a guest post. Check it out here.

In general, I share thoughts on how to get started with your own garden. One of the specific questions she asked me to address was, “What are the best plants to grow?” This one I evaded, as it’s nearly impossible to give specific ideas. Grow what you like to eat!

Here are some of the bigger lessons I’ve learned over the years….

Don’t crowd the plants
I’ve made this mistake in various incarnations.

The first way is that I over-plant lettuces seeds. The seeds are so small that it’s hard to only plant two seeds per inch. This year was no different, and again, I will be out in the garden this weekend with my scissors thinning the lettuces.

The other is planting seedlings. The tomato label says, for example, plant seedlings 36” inches apart, and I’ll space them 24” inches, sometimes less. I’m trying to cram as many plants into the garden as possible. Then, I wonder why my tomatoes don’t grow very big. Over the years, I’ve gotten better about properly spacing vegetable plants. And what I’ve lost from having less plants, I’ve gained in larger vegetables and better yields.

I just purchased an injector seed-sower that should help me in the future.

I have micro-climates in my yard
I usually buy a six-pack of basil seedlings, and fit them into the garden wherever I can. Not all patches of soil are created equal, and the basil thrived in some corners and not others. I don’t know why the basil grows better in some patches than others, but I’ve made notes as to where it grows best.

Be Patient
On March 5th (this year), I planted lettuces, beets, kale and kohlrabi. I was heading out of town for two weeks and expected that when I came home, I would see tiny sprouts shooting up all over the garden. Instead, I found paw prints right along the rows I had planted. I assumed that a critter (or two) had come in and eaten every seed.

The next day, I bought some new seeds and replanted everything. And I decided to plant a few new things too – I had seen radishes at the garden center, and thought I should try those. I reconfigured what I planted where… decided the kohlrabi would be better where the kale was, and the kale would work better next to the garlic. The beets and radishes would go where the kohlrabi had originally been planted.

And the day after that…. A carpet of green sprouts spread across the garden. In fact, the seeds I had planted two and a half weeks prior had, in fact, sprouted!

Which leads me to my final point:

Label what you plant
I used to have a memory like an elephant. I’d plants seeds all around my yard and remember what I planted where. As my memory started to fade, I justified my lazy ways by telling myself “The plants will present themselves. When they grow big enough, I’ll be able to identify them, so it won’t really matter.”

Well, the plants don’t always tell you what they are, especially if they are root vegetables. And if you don’t know what they are, you don’t know when to harvest them.

And now with the current mess of plants in my garden, I don’t know what I have growing where. I know I need to thin the sprouts so they have enough room to grow… but am I thinning beets which need 6 inches, or kohlrabi that needs 12, or radishes that need 4???

It’s always an adventure, and I’m sure I’ll have plenty of vegetables to eat starting next month. I’m just not sure what it will be.

What have you learned from your garden?

Happy Gardening!

March 21, 2010

Garden Updates – First Day of Spring

It’s always a mad-dash to get ready to leave town for a week. In addition to the usual laundry and cleaning, I wanted to plant all my lettuces for a spring harvest before I headed down to the farm. Reading old posts from blog, I was reminded that the first week in March is a great time to get started. So I was quite proud of myself that I turned the soil, cleaned the yard and planted rows upon rows of lettuce before I left on March 8th.

As I was driving back last week, I was most worried about the state of my basement. I had heard horror stories about the torrential rains and flooding in New England — 7 inches in 3 days, road closures and most horrifically – raw sewage was being pumped into Quincy Bay because the treatment plant could not handle all the rainfall. I thought the bright spot in this rain was that my seeds would have sprouted. As I thought about taking pictures to share with you, I was quite excited.

Thankfully, when I came home, the basement was dry. The ceiling was dry. No water damage. Alas, I had damage of a different sort. Some critter, with 3 inch paws, ate every single lettuce seed planted. Can you see the indentations in the soil??

Today, I replanted everything, but with a different strategy. I went to the hardware store and purchased window screens to lay atop of the beds. They will allow the light and rainwater to penetrate, but hopefully keep the critters from nibbling at my seeds.

In other garden news: I had hoped that when the Brussels sprouts defrosted again, they would rejuvenate and I’d be able to harvest them. Alas, they did not survive. Totally bummed that I didn’t get a chance to harvest more sprouts before the deep cold of winter hit.

The scallions have resprouted again this year. I’m happy to have my garden supply again, so I no longer need to rely on the produce section of the grocery store for this staple.

The garlic is sprouting as well. I think it will still be a few months before that’s ready to harvest… though I’m tempted to dig up a plant just to see what it looks like at this stage.

January 20, 2010

Winter Break (Recipe: Brussels Sprouts ” Carbonara ” )

Perhaps my biggest gardening challenge is that I want to grow more vegetables than I have room for in my tiny little patch. The upshot is that I crowd my plants, trying to squeeze as much in as possible, and my vegetables tend to be smaller since they don’t have as much room to spread out and grow.

So my plants are smaller than the “supermarket size” benchmark. As I harvest throughout the season, I try to thin the plants so that the survivors will have more room to grow. And I try to hold out and wait until the vegetables get bigger. With Brussels sprouts, I have an additional challenge: the weather. I want them to get decent sized, but also survive a few day frost to help sweeten these petite cabbages.

This year, winter arrived with a vengeance, and I didn’t have a chance to harvest all the Brussels sprouts before they were buried in a layer of snow. And while the snow melted off the plants, they never fully defrosted so that I could cut them off the stock… until this weekend.

I had about a 5 hour window on Saturday, after the temperatures had been above freezing for 2 days and the plants had thawed, and before the next cold front passed through. I harvested enough for a delightful meal. The rest will wait until the next thaw.

Brussels Sprouts “Carbonara”
I had intended to make a carbonara style pasta dish, substituting Brussels Sprouts for the spring peas. But as I rummaged through the refrigerator, I discovered I had run out of bacon. I did have smoked chicken in the freezer, so I added that instead – giving the dish a meaty, smoky, rich flavor. And in an attempt to keep my diet healthy, I added just a few tablespoons of cream to keep the pasta moist, but didn’t make it rich and gooey as is more traditional.

½ pound pasta
2 chicken thighs, smoked, or two slices of bacon, diced
Brussel sprouts
2 tbs. olive oil
2 garlic cloves, ch
Pinch chili flakes
3 tbs. cream
Freshly grated Parmesan cheese – at least 1/4 cup, but use more if you’d like.
Salt and pepper to taste.

1. Preheat the oven to 425F. Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Season generously with salt.
2. Meanwhile, cut Brussels in half. Toss them with olive oil (or bacon if using), salt and pepper. But them in the oven to roast for 15 minutes.
3. Boil pasta for 1 minute less than the package instructions.
4. After the Brussels have roasted 15 minutes, toss them with garlic and chili flakes. Return to oven for an additional 5 minutes to toast the garlic.
5. Drain pasta. Toss with cream, Parmesan. Add chicken and Brussels. Adjust seasoning with salt and pepper (and lemon juice)

I'm submitting this to January's "Grow Your Own" round-up. Originally, started by Andrea of Andrea's Recipes, Nate and Annie have picked up hosting responsibilities.

November 4, 2009

Know Thyself (Recipe: Potato Crusted Black Bass with Leeks and Red Wine)

In the past few years, since started my urban garden, I’ve learned so much by trial-and-error. I’ve learned about micro-climates and properly spacing vegetables. I discovered how to spur Brussels sprouts to grow larger, and that my raspberry bush has two fruiting cycles a year – once in the early summer and again in the autumn. And I’ve learned that I can’t start seeds indoors.

When I began gardening, I tried starting tomatoes, basil and peppers indoors in early March with hopes of transplanting them outside as soon as the soil warmed up. I know that starting plants from seeds is far more economical than buying seedlings. I get more options in what varieties I want to grow. And I have less concern about an unsuspecting blight. Unfortunately, I’ve never succeeded in getting a single plant into the ground that was started indoors.

I’m not sure what my problem is…. Did they not get enough sun or too much? Did they get enough fertilizer? Or too much? Some years they did get enough water. I’ve given up.

So I only plant vegetables that can be direct-sowed or purchased as seedlings ready to transplant. This year, that included leeks – a surprise find at a random nursery.

I was a little suspect of the plant – dozens of threads shot out of the 2” pot. Given my propensity to sow seeds too densely, I sensed this would be a problem. When I got home, I tried to tease apart the seedlings, but the root structure was already a tangled mess. I managed to gently pull apart enough to plant 3 rows. The seedlings drooped and flopped, and were still too close together. I propped them up with mounds of soil and gave them plenty of water.

By some miracle, they survived. Still too densely planted, the leeks didn’t grow as large as they should. As I harvest, I try to cut out the larger ones without disturbing the smaller one – hoping to give them a little more room to grow. So far, I’ve cut out over a dozen leeks, and the remaining still look strong.

Try as I might to get out of my rut of simply cooking leeks in butter, I just can’t do it. They are too delicious. I changed it up a little the other night by using them as a base for potato crusted black bass with a red wine reduction. It’s a riff on a recipe from Daniel Boulud.

Potato Crusted Black Bass with Leeks and Red Wine
2 russet potatoes
5 leeks
2 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons flour
4 black bass filets
¼ cup plain oil
1 ½ cups red wine
1 cup rich chicken stock.
¼ cup heavy cream

Salt, pepper and lemon juice to taste

1. Shred potatoes. Soak in cold water for 10 minutes to remove excess starch. This will also prevent the potatoes from turning black.
2. Trim the leeks: cut off the dark green and set aside for another use. Cut the leek in half lengthwise, then into 1/2” slices. Soak in cold water to remove the dirt. Lift the leeks out of the water
3. Heat a large skillet over medium heat. Add the butter and the leeks. Cook, stirring occasionally until the leeks are soft. Set aside.
4. Drain potatoes from the water. Season with salt and pepper and toss in flour.
5. On a clean work surface, lay out some potato in a thin layer. Place the fish on top, season with salt and pepper. Wrap the potato shreds around the fish. Repeat with remaining fish and potatoes.
6. Heat a large skillet over high heat. Add the oil. Gently place the fish in the oil, and cook until potato is golden brown and crispy. Gently flip the fish over, and cook for 2 minutes more.
7. Remove fish from pan and set aside. Working quickly to hold onto the heat in the pan, drain off all the excess oil. Add a spoonful of the leeks (and a few mushrooms if you happen to have a few wilting in the fridge like I did). Add the wine and chicken stock and reduce by half over high heat.
8. Stir in the cream into the sauce. Adjust seasoning with salt, pepper and lemon juice
9. Put a mound of leeks on the bottom of each plate. Lay the fish on top. Spoon sauce around the fish.

October 23, 2009

Ms. Misinformation

I always thought that red peppers were merely ripened green peppers; true for both bell and chilies. All summer, I watched my jalapeno plant grow, and waited and waited for them to turn red. After a while, I stopped checking. The green foliage and peppers began to blend in with the border plantings.

When I was in the garden yesterday, checking in on the kale and salad greens, I spied the drooping plant, weighted down with a dozen green peppers. With evening temperatures already dipping into the 30s and 40s, any chance of a red pepper was lost. I snapped off the peppers to salvage what I could. But I wondered if the recent cool temperatures sucked out the heat from the chilies, as rumor had it? I cut one in half, nibbled gingerly on a seed, and confirmed that, in fact, they were still piquant.

To preserve the chilies for the winter, I sliced them into rings, smoked them on the charcoal grill and then packed them in oil in ice cube trays. They add a nice, smoky undertone to many recipes. Sometimes, if I’m feeling sassy, I pop popcorn in a “cube” of smoked chilies. This makes an extremely addictive and thoroughly satifying snack.

So to recap my misinformation:
– Not all peppers turn red when ripe.
– Chilies don’t lose their heat in cold temperatures.

And here’s some correct information about chilies: most of their heat is in the white membranes and seeds. To lessen the heat of peppers, cut these parts out.

October 16, 2009

Garden Burgers

I grocery shop at least 4 times a week; a pound of coffee here, a quart of milk there. Given that the Whole Foods is only 2 blocks from my house, I never plan my meals and provisions too far in advance. It’s much easier to shop one meal at a time because I know exactly what I need. Better still, I waste much less food.

By now, most of the Whole Foods staff knows me by face, if not by name. And they must think I have the most miserable diet. Aside from a bit of fruit and a random vegetable or two, my shopping cart is mostly filled with meats and starches. Why buy vegetables when I have a garden brimming with kale, lettuce, leeks, Brussels sprouts and celery?

Yesterday, I made garden burgers. No, not vegetarian patties. But meat patties topped with condiments from the garden. I purchased the ground meat at Whole Foods, and topped it with scallions (instead of onions), arugula in place of lettuce, and ketchup I made last month from the bumper crop of tomatoes. Since I don’t grow potatoes for French fries or cabbage for cole slaw, I just sautéed some kale as a side to the burger.

Total Cost: Meat: $2.25, Bun: .25, Cheese Slice: $.25
Taste: Priceless.

Homemade Ketchup
4 cups diced tomatoes or 1 (28-to 32-ounces) can whole tomatoes in juice
1 tbs. plain oil
1 medium onion, chopped
4 garlic cloves, chopped
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground allspice
Pinch cayenne
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup cider vinegar
1 tsp. salt

Purée tomatoes with juice in a blender until smooth.

Heat a stainless steel sauce pot (do not use aluminum because of the high acidity), over medium heat. Add oil, onions and garlic. Stir occassionaly, and cook for about 10 minutes, or until soft and lightly gold. Add spices and cook for one minute just to help them release their fragrance. Add the remaining ingredients. Turn heat to low and simmer for 45 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the ketchup is very thick. Let chill.

Purée ketchup in blender until smooth. Will keep for several months in the refrigerator.

October 14, 2009

Before the First Frost (Recipe: Raspberry Vinaigrette)

The weather forecast predicts near freezing temperatures tonight. I ran into the garden and made a last ditch effort to salvage what’s left of summer.

I picked a gallon of basil leaves.
Since I can’t possibly consume all of that in one week (when it would go bad), I pureed it with a little olive oil and spooned it into ice cube trays.
It’s a little depressing… first, I only got 1 ½ trays out of what seemed like a huge harvest. Second, it turned a dingy green. I recall this happening last year and I had hoped to avoid that with the oil. No luck. On the bright side, I know that pureeing it with spinach when I need it will bring back the vivid green. And if I stir it into a tomato sauce, no one will notice anyway.

The raspberries bush started producing again after Labor Day. I always think of berries as hot weather fruit, but this plant likes the cool of June, and then doesn’t produce again until September. Today, I picked enough to fill a 6 ounce ramekin.

If I wanted an appreciable raspberry harvest, I would let the plant creep further out from its northeast corner. But I want space for other crops (and a few flowers), so I keep the plant small. As a result, I never get more than a fistful of berries at a time – just enough for a snack, a garnish for pancakes or dessert, or a cocktail. But as the lettuces are just coming into full swing, I think raspberry vinaigrette is in order. The bright red will be preserved and will contrast beautifully with the green lettuce leaves (and perhaps bright white goat cheese).

The leeks are approaching supermarket size. I harvested a few today, but still have plenty more coming in. Leeks are a variety of onion, common in French cooking. They’re used to flavor soups and stocks. The French steam them, and serve them cold with vinaigrette as a little first course.

My favorite preparation is simply sautéed in butter, perhaps with a sprinkling of fresh thyme. They make a wonderful side to roast chicken or pork.

As much as I love “melting leeks,” I’m looking for new ideas to showcase them. What’s your favorite preparation for leeks?

Raspberry Vinaigrette
½ cup fresh raspberries
½ cup extra virgin olive oil
3 tbs. raspberry, sherry or red wine vinegar
½ tsp. fresh thyme
1 tsp. sugar or honey
Salt and pepper to taste

Combine ingredients in a blender. Puree until smooth. Adjust season to taste with either more salt, sugar, oil or vinegar. Will keep up to a month in the refrigerator.

October 1, 2009

Chocolate Endorphines

My regular running route takes me past the NECCO Candy factory and the aromas of Canada Mints and Necco Wafers fill the air. A few blocks down the road, I pass the Chocolate Factory… a condo-building aptly named because it used to be… a chocolate factory. When the streets closer to my house began to waft chocolate scents, I didn’t really think much of it, other than, “mmmm, heavenly aromas…. Much…. Better… than…. Mint……” It really made sense to me.

As it turns out, the chocolate scents were coming from my neighbor’s yard – in the form of Cocoa Shell Mulch. Essentially, expired cocoa bean shells are repackaged and sold as mulch. Brilliant, if you ask me! But I wonder, if the whole neighborhood used cocoa mulch… what would happen to all the neighborhood dogs?

And thinking to next year….