Garden - Week 20, July 29

We put up a fence! The deer have been getting progressively worse in Southampton and have started really attacking our garden. It's so sad to see plants just chomped off and missing little baby tomatoes. The whole process took about an hour, if even. I really hope it works! There are still some more steps - like pulling up the grass inside and replacing it with gravel or mulch or something. Any suggestions? Is anything weed resistant?

It's actually super low profile. It was hard for me to get a picture where you can really see it. We're thinking of tying some bring orange ribbon or something to parts of it so people (and animals) don't walk right into it.

Pretty Summer Salad

This is so simple but so fresh and pretty. We had our first cherry tomatoes in the garden and some cucumbers and nasturtiums. You can eat nasturtiums and they add such a nice pop of color and fancy touch to a salad. I just sliced up cucumbers, topped them with sliced tomatoes, ripped up some nasturtium petals and sprinkled them around, sprinkled on salt, drizzled balsamic and olive oil, then topped with a whole nasturtium. Yum!

Garden - Week 19, July 19

Garden is good! That's our harvest - Swiss chard, radishes, cherry bomb pepper, snap peas, cucumbers, tomatoes, and fairy tale eggplant. 

Here are the peas. We took them down right after because they were on their way out. 

The fairy tale eggplants are going well. 

There's some rhubarb, too!

Rhubarb Chicken

This is amazing! I can't believe I've spent 27 years only eating rhubarb in sweets. This sauce is incredible and tart and flavorful and I'm making it again ASAP. The New York Times had a great video to go along. I used just chicken thighs and modified it for 2. I recommend you go pick up some rhubarb and chicken and whip this up tonight. 

Serves 2

Ingredients:

3 chicken thighs

olive oil

Salt and pepper

1/2 tsp thyme

4 scallions, thinly sliced (dark green parts reserved)

1 clove garlic, ideally fresh spring garlic, finely minced

1/4 cup white wine

2 tsp honey

1 cup chopped rhubarb 

Directions:

Salt and pepper the chicken and sprinkle with thyme and a little olive oil. Let it sit all day/overnight if you have time (refrigerated). 

Heat a little oil in a skillet on high and brown the chicken all over, about 10 minutes. 

All Butter Pie Crust

Summer is the best time for pies (in my opinion). I've been on a pie kick. Strawberry Rhubarb, Gooseberry, Cherry... Here is a great pie dough recipe from Four and Twenty Blackbirds. I recommend doing it by hand with a pastry blender. The whole thing takes 15 minutes and you can really control the butter size and dough consistency. 

Makes a single-layer pie crust (just double recipe for a double layer for pies like apple and rhubarb)

Ingredients:

1 1/4 cup flour

1/2 tsp kosher salt

1 1/2 tsp sugar

1 stick cold, unsalted butter cut into 1/2" pieces

1 cup ice

1 cup cold water

2-3 tbsp cider vinegar

Summer Dinner: Grilled Steak, Fairy Tale Eggplants, and Garlic Scapes

Isn't that so pretty? I bought garlic scapes and fairy tale eggplants at the Union Square farmers market Monday night for dinner. I love eggplants and these little guys are so pretty and aren't bitter at all. Dinner was simple and summery and delicious - I'd love to have people over and serve the exact same thing. The eggplants were soft and tender and the scapes were sort of like a garlickly asparagus.

Fresh Strawberry Ice Cream

I've never been a huge strawberry ice cream person. I usually go for mint chocolate chip or Oreo or something with chocolate in it before this, but wow, it make a huge difference to make it yourself with in-season strawberries. Did anyone else see this ice cream base recipe in the Times? I couldn't wait to try it. The strawberry ice cream is fresh and tart and delicious, and Jamie remarked on how fruity it was. Try it before they're gone!!

Strawberry Rhubarb Pie

This is my favorite pie (as documented here). We had tons of rhubarb in the garden last weekend and my mom picked up some farm stand strawberries, so of course, we had to make a pie. I used the all butter crust recipe from Four and Twenty Blackbirds, but I realized part way through making the dough that we didn't have enough flour - we were short half a cup. We did have cornmeal. I subbed in cornmeal for the missing flour and it was great! It added this nice texture and extra crisp to the dough. I also subbed balsamic vinegar for the usual lemon juice which was a great, subtle difference. If there are still strawberries near you (I just snagged some this morning at the Union Square market) I suggest making this ASAP, and maybe making three.

Ingredients:

Crust

2 cups flour

1/2 cup yellow cornmeal

3 tsp sugar

2 sticks cold butter, cut into 1/2" pieces

1 cup cold water

Garden - Week 17, July 4

The garden is great! Still collecting peas and now we have beans! The purple beans are the most prolific, then we have a few wax beans and green beans. They are so fresh and firm and crunchy. We also have swiss chard.

I at the first little yellow tomato. The rest are still green but I'm getting excited. There was also a teeny tiny eggplant growing. 

Chopped Salad

I love a good chopped salad. I spent last week eating pretty poorly, so I was craving a lot of good, raw veggies and this is the perfect way to get a ton of them at once. It's very easy. Just pick out your favorite veggies, chop the bigger ones into slices or chunks, add some nuts or dried fruit, add some lettuce, and pulse it in a food processor until it's finely chopped. Then add some dressing. That's it.

I used cucumbers, radishes, craisins, snap peas, grape tomatoes, cannelini beans, broccoli, shallots, cashews, and carrots (and lettuce). You can use whatever veggies you like, but I recommend a mix of textures and flavors. Carrots and snap peas add a good crunch, and usually I like putting in avocado because it kind of binds it all together but there were no ripe ones at the grocery.