Vegetable Garden - Week 21

I went out to the garden Saturday morning to pick off what I could before Irene. I had lots of tasty zuke blossoms, a few red tomatoes and one bright orange one, some Swiss Chard, a couple little zucchinis, and some herbs. Pretty good harvest. There are two eggplants out there, but I wanted them to get a bit bigger.




Jamie and the dogs were cuddled up on the couch during the rain.



 

Here is the ocean on Sunday morning. As Jamie says, "the sea was angry that day, my friend." I almost got blown away by the wind.

Ina Garten's Outrageous Brownies

The batter bowl after Jamie snacked on it

I love Ina Garten and have probably watched all of the Barefoot Contessa episodes. She and Mario Batali are my favorite Food Network chefs because their recipes are always great. I saw these brownies on her show a while ago and have always wanted to make them. I got a craving for some super chocolaty, home-made brownies the other day, so I whipped these up. It's a labor of love - much more time consuming that boxed brownies, but sooo tasty. I might cut back on the butter next time (they were a little crumbly) but they were so chocolaty and rich. Jamie and I each brought them into our offices - big hit. The coffee really makes the chocolate flavor stand out (a great Ina trick).

Outrageous Brownies
Ingredients:
1 lb butter (4 sticks)
1 pound plus 12 ounces semisweet chocolate chips
6 ounces unsweetened chocolate
6 extra-large eggs
3 tablespoons instant coffee granules
2 tablespoons pure vanilla extract
2 1/4 cups sugar
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
3 cups chopped walnuts

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Vegetable Garden Week 20

May garden was looking a litle downtrodden last weekend with the deer and all of the hot sun, but it looked a lot better this weekend. The Swiss Chard came back and there were lots of tomatoes and a big eggplant. There are a few little jalapenos growing and some zucchini that will probably be the perfect size next week. There was a beautiful yellow brandywine tomato that still had to ripen a bit, but I picked it to ripen in the city off the vine because I was afraid it would fall off during the week. I may make more Babaganoush with my big eggplant because it was so tasty last time, although I'm tempted to grill it too because it's so fresh and sweet. We had some Swiss Chard sauteed with garlic and chorizo last night - with a drizzle of maple syrup - and some crispy fried zucchini blossoms. Also some great August corn (not from my garden, but really really fresh and tasty).

Fresh Corn Sauteed with Chorizo

Jamie and I had this really tasty sauteed corn at L'Artusi the other day and I've been wanting to try it. It was sauteed with chorizo which gave it a great little kick and there were crispy, savory bits of chorizo to go with the sweet corn. Since Long Island corn is at its peak, we've been eating a ton of it and I thought I'd try to recreate what we ate. Honestly, I liked my version better. It was less greasy and the flavor of the corn really shone through. The corn was sweet and crisp and the chorizo added a great contrast with its chewy, crunchy texture. I think it would also be great with frozen or canned corn, but nothing beats fresh summer corn. A great side dish!

(served 4 as a side)
Ingredients:
3 ears of corn, cut off the cob
1 small (4 inch) piece of dry Spanish chorizo, diced
1/2 yellow onion, diced
1 tbsp olive oil
1 pinch red pepper flakes
1 pinch dried oregano
1 scallion, thinly sliced
salt and pepper
1 tbsp unsalted butter

Chorizo

Directions:

Add the chorizo to a large skillet and let the fat render and the chorizo pieces start to crisp. Add the onion and stir, letting it soften a little, then add the corn and olive oil and stir. Add the oregano and red pepper flakes and satuee until corn has softened a little but still has a nice crunch. Add salt and pepper to taste, along with the scallions, and stir in the butter, then serve!

And of course, after dinner, we finished up with some amazing summer tomatoes, spruced up with ripe avocado slices, thin red onion slices, salt, balsamic, and extra virgin olive oil.

Vegetable Garden Week 19

Although the deer have been chewing on some parts of my garden (the green grapes got crushed and one of the Better Boy plants got chewed on a fair amount), there were some amazing tomatoes!


This was the first of the yellow brandywine. Look how pretty and orange it is! I should have held it in the picture to show scale - it was huge and probably weighed almost 2 pounds.


Look how gorgeous the slices look - so meaty! We made the most amazing BLTs with these. Crispy bacon, good baby lettuces, and a thick slice of tomato that took up the whole width of the sandwich. It was sweet and tart and juicy. I could have eaten 5 of them.


Here are some other goodies from the garden. Some amazingly pungent basil, a delicious red tomato, and some zucchini blossoms just begging to be fried.


Here is the better boy tomato all sliced up. We ate it with some heirlooms and beef steaks from the farm stand and we were happy to know that the homegrown tomato definitely tastes better and is worth all the work! (The farmstand tomatoes were good too, just not quite as sweet or flavorful.)

15-Minute Fried Chicken and Pea Puree

I was in the mood for some comfort food last night and remembered a chicken I had made after reading the recipe in the times in 2009. It was Mark Bittman's 15-Minute Fried Herbed Chicken. I was daydreaming about it all day and couldn't wait to rush home to make the crunchy, herbacious chicken. I thought pea puree would be the perfect, homie side, also a pretty burst of color. It was a big hit. Jamie had two pieces of chicken and we devoured the peas. We followed with some delicious brownies (recipe to come). It's an easy dinner and the bright pea puree and the browned chicken are very tempting.

15-Minute Fried Herbed Chicken (served 4)
Ingredients:
6 boneless, skinless chicken thighs (cheaper to buy with bone in/skin on and debone/take off the skin yourself)
1 medium onion, chopped
1-2 tbsp chopped fresh herbs, I used sage and basil
2 tbsp tahini, or peanut butter
1/4 cup olive oil, more for frying
flour for dredging
lemon wedges for serving

Directions:
In a food processor, combine onion, herbs, and tahini. Puree the mixture and add just enough olive oil to make a smooth, thick paste (you don't want it too watery or it won't stick to the chicken).
Put flour in a small bowl. Smear the puree on the chicken and dredge in flour. Shake off excess and repeat, putting on more puree and dredging again - this makes it extra crispy.

Heat about 1/4" olive oil in a large skillet and heat until a pinch of flour sizzles. Add the chicken thighs and cook for about 4 minutes on each side. Serve with a lemon wedge.

Pea Puree
Ingredients:
1 box frozen peas
3 tbsp water
2-3 tablespoons butter
1 tbsp milk
salt and pepper

Directions:
Add the frozen peas and water to a small pot and cook about 5 minutes, or until peas are tender. Add to a food processor with butter and milk and puree. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Beecher's Mac and Cheese

Yum! I'd read on TastingTable or somewhere that Beecher's, a Seattle-based cheese shop, was opening a new location in New York. They're known for their Flagship cheese. I'd also read about their macaroni and cheese - a guilty pleasure. The store is on 20th and Broadway, just a few blocks from my office, so I ran over to try it out. Amazing! Creamy, thick, cheese sauce with a great kick (I think there were a few red pepper flakes in there) on perfectly cooked penne. It was unbelievable. They also have a glass room where you can see people actually making cheese. Pretty cool. They had all sorts of sandwiches and snacks etc, so I'll have to branch out next time. This macaroni and cheese is amazing - definitely worth a trip to the Flatiron to try it!

Tomatoes!

I was in Michigan last weekend, but Jamie stopped by my garden and there was our first red tomato - and several green grapes. I knew the juicy Better Boy tomato would be good, but I'd almost forgotten how good. Summer tomatoes, especially home grown, are so flavorful, tart, sweet, tender...I could go on. Also, another difference between home grown tomatoes and store bought is that there is so much more meat in homegrown - not as much gooey seed stuff. Dressed with a little salt, pepper, extra virgin olive oil, and Balsamic vinegar, these tomatoes are pretty much summer on a plate. Serve them up after some steak and corn - perfect.

Babaganoush

After picking a fresh eggplant from the garden, I'd already tried grilling one, so I thought I'd make babaganoush - I love babaganoush and always order it at Middle Eastern restaurants. It's a very similar process to making hummus, but it has the great tang of eggplant. It definitely helps to have a fresh eggplant, so give all the eggplants at the grocery a little squeeze and be sure to pick the firmest, smaller eggplants are usually firmer, sweeter, less bitter...

I grilled the eggplant cut in half and cut hash marks on the skin side which helped it grill evenly and helped dry it out (you don't want watery babaganoush). It's really tasty and has a wonderful, smooth consistency. Serve with warm or toasted pita.

Ingredients:
1 medium eggplant
1 glove garlic

juice of 1/2 a lemon

Fried Green Tomatoes

My wonderful little niece Grace accidenally picked a green tomato. At first my eyes went wide and I mourned the juicy, red garden tomato that was on its way, but then I thought about fried green tomatoes. I'd always wanted to make them, but I never had the courage to pull off a green tomato. These were super tasty and crunchy and a perfect remedy for any overeager little gardeners.

Ingredients:

1 green tomato

2 tbsp flour

Vegetable Garden Week 17

After being overloaded with zucchini last weekend, this weekend I only had one little baby! These are the fruits of the garden this week. There are still a few little rainbow Swiss Chard, although most of them have been smothered by the monster zucchini plants. The Green Grape Tomatoes are doing really well and taste amazingly sweet and delicious (I'm planning to make salsa tonight with the Green Grapes and the jalapeno - hopefully it'll carry the same kick as its predecessor.) The eggplant will either be marinated in olive oil and garlic and grilled in slices or made into babaganoush tonight, not sure which yet. This is the second eggplant I picked this weekend - the first was a little bigger and we tossed it with olive oil and salt and grilled it - tangy, fresh, and sweet. So much firmer than those you get at the grocery, but as I've said, watch out for the thorns up top!

I've also been having fun with my hipstamatic app on my iPhone and here is my adorable niece Grace proudly holding the eggplant (looks better on the small iPhone screen). I wish I had a video because she was waving it around in the air saying, "Robot robot, robot robot," for no apparent reason - so cute.