Vegetable Garden Week 9

Look at my wonderful garden! Everything is growing well and looks happy and healthy. The peas have grown a foot since last weekend and have a few flowers on them, so hopefully pea pods will be soon to follow. The eggplant looks happier than it did, the zucchini grew a ton and has its big leaves stretched out. The green grape tomato and the yellow brandywine tomato have grown a lot - the green grape especially (right in the middle).

Jamie next to the peas (to show how high they've grown)

Pea flowers

I finished up the planting this weekend, so now it's just a matter of watering and making sure the herbs don't go to flower. I planted thyme, mint, nasturtium, amd marigolds. The nasturtiums and marigolds are good to plant near tomatoes and zucchini (and other veggies) because they keep bad bugs away. Apparently the smell of the marigolds along with a chemical they put into the soil keep bugs at bay. Plus they add great color to a vegetable garden. I watered the garden heavily and applied a layer of mulch which made it look much neater, and also helps the soil hold the moisture and keeps weeds from sprouting. The Swiss Chard looks about ready to start taking a few leaves off to put in a salad, but I'm going to let them get a little better. Of course, before I left to come back to the city, I doused the whole garden with heavy dose of the awful smelling (and miracle working) deer/rabbit repellent. Can't wait to see how big they are next weekend!

spruced up eggs benedict

People tend to find eggs benedict a little intimidating, but it's really not that hard. If you have butter, eggs, lemon, and bread of some sort, you're good. Last weekend I had a loaf of sour dough bread and got a few slices of prosciutto and hot sopressata at Faicco's. I also had some herbs (tarragon, thyme, and chives) in the fridge. With the great salty/spicy meat, the sourdough, and the fresh herb Hollandaise, this turned into arguably the best eggs benedict I've ever had.

Ingredients:
3 eggs
2 tbsp melted butter
lemon
fresh herbs (ideally thyme, tarragon, and chives)
2 slices hot sopressata
2 slices prosciutto
2 slices of sourdough

Directions:
Chop up the herbs (about 2 tsp). Separate the yolk and the white and put the yolk in a small bowl. Throw in a pinch of salt and whip up the yolk with a whisk. Slowly pour in the melted butter while whisking until it thickens. Squeeze in a little lemon juice (about 1/2 tsp) and the herbs and stir it up.
Poach the two eggs, drain them on a paper towel. Put the slices of meat on the toast, put the egg on the meat, and pour the Hollandaise over the egg.
Enjoy and impress!

Mussels with tomatoes

I love mussels. I make them all different ways and they are a quick, tasty, pretty healthy meal. I tried a slightly new way to make them this weekend on my seafood binge and they were a big hit. Almost every mussel recipe calls for shallots because they give such a great flavor to the broth. This time I used a mix of shallots and garlic--yum. These are almost just the classic mussels in white wine, but the tomatoes and the saffron add a new twist and give the broth a beautiful orange color.

(Serves 4 as a starter or main with a big salad or crusty bread)

Ingredients: 
4 pounds mussels
1 can whole tomatoes, juices drained, chopped by hand
3 springs thyme
2 large shallots, finely chopped
2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
olive oil
1 pinch saffron
about 1/2 cup white wine
fresh chopped parsley

Directions:
In a large pot, saute the shallots in a little olive oil until they start to soften and add the garlic. Stir until the garlic is fragrant and then add the tomatoes, thyme and saffron. Mix that all together, then add the wine. Cook it a little so all the flavors blend and the alcohol cooks off. If the broth looks too dry, add a little more wine and maybe a little water. Add the mussels and put on the lid. Shake the pot around so all the mussels spin and move a little. Do this every 30 seconds or so to make sure they are cooking evenly. Turn off the heat right when the mussels open--this is the perfect amount of cooking time so they'll be tender and juicy. Scoop the mussels and broth into bowls and garnish them with the parsley. Great to eat with a crusty piece of bread.

Salt Crusted Snapper

I went to the fish market in Hampton Bays this weekend and picked up a couple of things for a seafood fish. Mussels, calamari, and a beautiful red snapper. (Cor J fish market in Hampton Bays has an amazing selection of seafood and prices are great.) I'd been wanting to make a salt crusted fish since I saw someone do it on the Today show a while back. I love snapper, and their fresh snapper looked beautiful, so that was my fish. It doesn't take too much time, but it looks very impressive and is amazingly juicy and flavorful.

(This is for 4 people, but along with a few other things.)

Ingredients:
1 whole red snapper (cleaned, scaled and gutted)
2 lemons (1 quartered and one sliced thinly)
4 sprigs fresh thyme
2 1/2 cups kosher salt
6 egg whites
olive oil

Directions:
Preheat the oven to 350. Dry off the fish. Rub olive oil all over it. In a metal bowl, beat the eggwhites until the form soft peaks. Then gently fold in the salt. Spread a thin layer of the salt mixture onto a baking sheet (lined w/ foil or parchment for easier clean up). This should be just a little bigger than the fish. Put the fish on top of the salt spread. Put the herbs and as many lemon slices that fit comfortably in the cavity of the fish with a little olive oil. Now cover the entire fish so that it is encased in the salt mixture. Put the whole thing in the oven.
Let it cook for about 35 minutes, then take it out and let it rest for 15. The salt crust should be hard. Crack the crust off the top of the fish and peel back the skin. Chop of the head of the fish (so you can remove the spine to serve pieces from the bottom.) Serve the fish in pieces. There should be about 2 servings on top of the spine and 2 below. Serve it with a quarter of a lemon and some olive oil.