Garden Update: First Harvest
Ah! That first harvest!! A joy that knows no bounds... a harbinger for that everlasting hope and a gentle sigh of relief that hey, it is all coming along ok. There is so much emotion when you pick the first few gems from your garden, be it a little or a lot! My first pluck was true to that. I felt so, so gratified, happy, elated, joyous... just precious!
This post has notes on harvesting cilantro, lettuce, spinach and caring for pea flowers and pods.
Garden Chronicles: March - April 2018 - The Beginning
When I asked on Insta Polls, I received overwhelming support for blogging about my garden! Thank you very much. I am really gratified by your interest. And, so I am starting this series to share my experiences and learnings!
This first post talks about starting seeds indoors before the frost goes away. Many of the seeds were started 8 weeks before the last frost in my region. I have included my experiences with germinating and seeding peas, tomatoes and peppers, as well as tips on how to keep them healthy, as I learnt through the process of the first 8 weeks.
A Chicken Story and A Summer Salad
It is natural that as the Summer haze sets in, there is less and less inclination to spend in the kitchen. Yet, the desire for tasting the splendor of the season does not abate. So, we all find ways to get around it - from barbeques to salads, outdoor fun and rooftop joys to easy dinners, cooking big and making the most of leftovers. Summer offers the best chance for making magic with mere leftovers.
Recently, I have taken a partiality to whole roast chicken.
The chicken giveth in spades and every bit of edible or can be made into something edible. A farm, pasture raised chicken typically weighs about 3.5 lbs and you can get a fair bit of meat from it, even though not as much as its larger industrial cousins. What I like is that the leg and thigh is about the same size as the breast and I have always the darker and juicier meat from here! The first meal from the roast is always the thigh with a side of vegetables.
Then, I peel every bit of the meat off the carcass and use it over a week in several dishes, from salads to tarts to sandwiches to curries to rice toss, oh, endless...! The carcass itself becomes ideal for stock with a bunch of vegetable scraps. The jus, becomes gravy or vinaigrette based on what I am making. All savored, nothing lost.
Not Your Ordinary Pasta Primavera
There is almost a feeling of full circle with this dish for me. As I have waxed a lot on Instagram, the last two summers have been very good in terms of nurturing a green thumb and my budding confidence in growing things.
Do you remember the cover of the Spring issue of my magazine? No? Look below and to the right, you have it there. By the way, you can also download it for free and access 20+ recipes for all meals. (Well... I could hardly overlook that native opportunity for self-promotion ;-)).
Anyway, the original pea shoots made the cover! And, now I have the mature plant that has been sending sweet, juicy, oh so tasty pods my way every so often. I planted about 5 of the sprouts and each one gave me approximately one plump pod a week. I collected, nay, hoarded them carefully in my fridge, warning everybody away from daring to nibble on them. When I had a handful, I decided it was time to feast...
Fresh Pea Spelt Tartine + Butternut Squash No-Knead Bread
A quick shout out to everyone who helped choose the cover image for this post. I had sent out a request to all email subscribers (if you aren't on the list, you can sign up on the right) last week to vote on whether they preferred the shot of this gorgeous boule on a dark background or light. Light was the overwhelming choice and here it graces the beginning of the post!! Thank you guys!
As you can imagine, for me the act of asking was more than just about this picture. It was as much to get an understanding of what you as readers were feeling, as also about learning to take feedback on my work. The truth is I preferred the dark one because of the high notes of contrast and how much it stood out. Also, I love pairing brown with black and just showing how glorious brown can be.