Oatmeal Walnut Burger

Posted on February 02, 2010
My husband loves Garden Burgers. I like the convenience of taking a few patties from the freezer and tossing them on the grill for a quick supper. But I they always seem too processed to me, and who knows how far they traveled to get to my table. So I have been experimenting with all types of burger recipes looking for one we all liked and would hold up to freezing and grilling without falling apart. This recipe, adapted from "The New Laurel’s Kitchen" makes the cut.

burger mixture:
1 cup walnut pieces
1 cup rolled oats
2 eggs, slightly beaten
1/4 cup skim milk
1 small onion, chopped fine
1 cloves garlic, minced
2 tablespoon nutritional yeast
freshly ground black pepper to taste

for cooking burgers:
oil to brown patties
3 cups beef flavored stock
1 teaspoon vegemite

Coursely grind the walnuts in a food processor. Add the rolled oats a pulse one or two times. Transfer the walnuts and oats to a mixing bowl and combine with the rest of the burger mixture ingredients.

Let the mixture rest in refrigerator for about an hour to let the flavors meld together, and to help the mixture stiffen so that it is easier to work with. Form into patties. You should be able to make 4-6 burgers depending on the size.

Brown patties on both sides in a lightly oiled skillet, then pour the stock into the skillet and bring to a boil.

Reduce heat and simmer, covered, for 25 minutes.

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Clydes Garden Planner

Posted on January 29, 2010
I just received my first seed order for 2010 from Bakers Creek Heirloom Seeds, currently my favorite seed source. In addition to seeds I ordered this handy garden planner. It charts planting and harvesting for the most popular vegetables according to first and last frost dates. The chart consists of two sliding parts so you can adjust the planting schedule based on your frost free dates.

This year I had decided to be really organized about my planting, maximizing my garden space with succession planting and interplanting. To accomplish this I created a scaled drawing of my garden beds and a chart indicating when to start seeds and when the crops would be finished based on past experience. Then I saw this chart. Since it was only $2.75 I decided to get one, just to see how it compared to what I had done.

I wish I had had this planner years ago. While my charts are a little more fine tuned to my particular growing conditions, and the fact that I use covers and cold frames, Clyde's planner is very handy, especially for anyone new to gardening. You can get one here.

3 COMMENTS


Roasted Sunchokes and Carrots

Posted on January 21, 2010
This summer, I grew Sunchokes for the first time. It was amazing to watch one small tuber rapidly grow to a huge clump of sunflowers that towered over the garden shed. The best part, was knowing that this winter I could eat the fleshy tubers. So I have been experimenting. I sauteed them with mushrooms, made a soup, and last night I roasted them. They were great roasted.

The best place to store sunchokes is in the ground, so have just been digging them as needed.

Sunchokes
Carrots
Garlic cloves, chopped
Fresh Thyme
olive oil
Lemon juice
Salt and pepper

Wash and peel the sunchokes and carrots. Cut into bite size pieces. Place in a roasting pan with garlic and several sprigs of thyme. Drizzle with olive oil and lemon juice, and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Bake at 400 for 30-40 minutes until tender and beginning to brown.

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Making Pineapple vinegar

Posted on January 13, 2010
I must confess that I don't always cook seasonally and locally. This time of year when the garden is almost barren and the stores are full of tropical fruits, I am often seduced by oranges, clementines, grapefruit and pineapples. But to ease my conscience, I only buy Florida oranges and grapefruit and only in the winter, when they are in season. And Florida isn't THAT far from Tennessee.

I recently acquired a copy of Diana Kennedy's book The Art of Mexican Cooking. In it she has a recipe for making pineapple vinegar from the trimmings. Not wanting to waste any part of a pineapple, that had traveled several thousand miles to my table, I decided to try making vinegar from the peal and core.

So I put the peals and core and in the gallon jug along with 1 1/2 quarts water and a heaping 1/4 cup brown sugar. I shook the jug well, covered the spout with a cloth and let it sit. After 4 days a little foam begin to develop on the top. Fermentation had begun. Fermentation will continue for up to 3 weeks, until all the sugar is converted and the liquid becomes acidy. At this point the mother will develop. The mother is a gelatinous disk, that should become quite solid over the next 3 weeks. Once this happens I will strain off the liquid for use.

While I have made vinegar from leftover wine, I have never started it from the raw ingredients. So I am excited to see what happens.

Follow up--This was a disaster. The pineapple rotted. I assume it was because not all of the fruit was below the liquid. That was when I realized how stupid my choice of container was. I still don't know how I will get that pineapple out of the jar so I can recycle the jar. I think I will stick with making vinegar from leftover wine. That is a much simpler process.

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Yellow Lentils

Posted on January 07, 2010
It has been a week now since we have seen temps above freezing. As a result we don't have any fresh veggies from the garden. So now we will be eating more dishes like this.

1 medium onion minced
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 cups lentils
5 cups water
1/2 teaspoon whole peppercorns
1/2 teaspoon whole coriander seeds
1/2 teaspoon cardamon seeds, pods removed
1/2 cup dried tomatoes, chopped
2 cloves garlic
1 teaspoon minced ginger
1 teaspoon minced turmeric
2 teaspoons paprika
pinch cinnamon
salt to taste

Saute the onions in the oil until tender. Add the lentils and water. Grind the peppercorns, coriander seeds and cardamon seeds in a spice grinder. Add to the pot along with the rest on the ingredients except salt. Bring to boil and simmer until the lentils fall apart. Salt to taste.

Note: ground coriander loses flavor quickly and purchased ground cardamon often includes the pods. Therefor, I highly recommend grinding these as needed.

2 COMMENTS


Posted on December 06, 2009
Winter squash can often be a hard sale at my house, so I was thrilled at how yummy this turned out. I had a little roasted winter squash puree left over from baking Thanksgiving pumpkin pecan pie. Not wanting to waste anything I grow, but knowing the puree would not keep another day, I whipped this up on a busy weekday morning between getting kids off to school. The waffles were left from Sunday morning, so it all came together really fast. I just wish I had remembered to take a photo before we ate it all.


2 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons brown sugar
1 cup squash or pumpkin puree
seeds from 2 cardamon pods, crushed
pinch of cinnamon

In a sauce pan I melted the butter then added everything else and cooked until heated through and thick.

Spread over toast, waffles, croissant...

Note: I hate peeling raw winter squash, so most of the recipes I use call for cooked squash. Here is how I do it. Cut the squash in half and scoop out the seeds and stringy pulp. Lay face down on a parchment lined baking sheet. Bake in a 400° oven until tender when pierced with a fork.

1 COMMENTS


Pumpkin Pecan Pie

Posted on November 29, 2009
Every year I try to make my Thanksgiving meal, more seasonal and more local than the year before. I accomplish this in two ways. One, by continuing to grow more and more of the ingredients I need, or by finding local farmers who grow them. The second way is to change what I serve. Since Thanksgiving is a meal full of tradition, this step is harder than trying to grow my own wheat, grinding it into flour, baking it into corn bread to use in my stuffing and pie crusts. Over the years I have found that small adjustments to the meal are the easiest way change my family's expectation for this feast. For example years ago I stopped serving green beans, since they are not in season here in Nashville in late November. Now I serve whatever green thing is abundant in my garden at the time. This year it will be kale.

This year I decided to tinker with dessert. Instead of the Chocolate Nut Pie, I usually serve, I will be making Pumpkin Pecan Pie. I will use a buttercup squash from my garden, which is much more local than chocolate. And the pecans came from Georgia, which is a lot closer to Nashville than California, where the almonds for the Chocolate Nut Pie come from.

Note: While buttercup squash is not a pumpkin, I have found that any winter squash with deep orange flesh works fine in recipes calling for pumpkin.
For filling
1 single pie crust
2 eggs, beaten
3/8 cup brown rice syrup
3/8 cup maple syrup
1/2 cup sugar
3 tablespoons butter, melted
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
7/8 cup pecans chopped
1 cup pumpkin

For topping
3/8 cup pecans, finely chopped
1/4 cup brown sugar
2 tablespoons butter

Line a greased 9 inch pie pan with crust. Combine all filling ingredients except nuts, beat with electric mixed until blended. Stir in pecans. Pour into unbaked pastry shell. Cut butter into brown sugar, add 3/8 cup chopped pecans. Sprinkle over top of pie. Cover edges of crust with foil. Bake at 350° for 60 to 75 minutes, removing foil for the last 10 minutes. Allow to cool completely before serving.

COMMENTS


home made crystallized ginger

Posted on November 15, 2009
I love a challenge, maybe that is why, when my grocery store was out of crystallized ginger, I decided to make my own. And I am glad I did, because what I made was fresher, and better quality than what I would have purchased. And since it was so easy, I will not hesitate to make it again. Hopefully, by time I need to make more, the ginger plant sitting in a pot next to my desk, will finally be big enough to harvest. Then I can have locally grown crystallized ginger.

I followed David Lebovitz's directions. His are more detailed and include an option to storing the ginger in the syrup. Here are my simple directions.

Peel and thinly slice the ginger, but in a pot and cover with plenty of water. Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer for 10 minutes. Drain and repeat. Drain again, then return the ginger to the pan, adding 1 cup sugar and 1 cup water for every 1/4 pound of ginger. Add a pinch of salt and cook until a candy thermometer reaches 225F. Drain and dust with more sugar.

The great thing about making my own crystallized ginger is, I was left with two wonderful by-products, ginger syrup and gingered sugar. I saved the syrup from cooking and will use it and the sugar left from dusting in holiday baking.

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Wild Turkey

Posted on November 10, 2009
No I am not raising turkey, but I feel like I could. This flock wondered into my garden last fall.

I picked up the premier issue of a new magazine recently. The young man at Borders, who took my money, mentioned how thrilled he was to see so many people buying "Urban Farm". I was surprised to even find a copy at that Borders, given its location, and even more shocked to hear his comment. Wow, maybe these trends to eat local, know the source of ones food, and live more sustainably are really catching on. While I know tons of people interested in these ideas, I realize that we are in the minority.

Today as I was wrapping up a morning of running errands, I marveled at the contents of my car. Since two of my stops were to pick up gardening supplies at Home Depot and the feed store, my new acquisitions looked more like items that would be better hauled in a farm pickup than a car, that mostly transports kids to soccer practice.

It was at this point that it hit me, I have an Urban Farm. I guess that makes me an Urban Farmer. I think I like this new title. Maybe I should include it in my email signature, right under Web Programmer.

Now, I am off to change into my overalls and transplant Black-eyed Susans.

1 COMMENTS


Saffron flower

Posted on November 05, 2009
The three red stamens of this fall blooming crocus make saffron. I will carefully remove the stamens and dry them for later use. This tedious harvesting process is one of the reasons this spice is so expensive. But since I only use saffron a few times a year, I can painlessly harvest what I need. I have read that Saffron Crocus is only hardy to zone 6, but I successfully grew them in Illinois, zone 5.

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