i hope you eat good food, grow beautiful things, and have more love than you know what to do with.
I didn’t grow cucumbers this year but luckily a friend did (and what cucumbers they grew!) I traded them a jar of floral raspberry jam, and ferreted home a bag of cucumbers as thick as my wrist (I clearly came out on top in this …
My kids came in to give me the morning report–another flush of chicken of the woods had made its presence known on the lawn and so it was imperative that I harvested them before they got too tough. I made karaage style COTW a few …
This flatbread BLT recipe is literally “garden fresh” as my tomatoes have finally started to ripen, and spoonfuls of pesto from my basil pesto were drizzled on (although you can absolutely use dandelion pesto). This is quite late in the year, as I usually have tomatoes in the ground the first week of May, and are swimming in them by mid June. For whatever reason the tomatoes sat green and hard on their vines, and, although I did make delectable fried green tomatoes with them, what I was really looking forward to were sweet and juicy bursts of sunshine.
Finally, the day arrived. A perfectly red and plump tomato greeted me this morning and so my lunch plan was hatched. I haven’t been to the supermarket in a while (this often happens during the warm months as my garden booms and my chest freezer is stocked with meats) so I am out of bread in the house. Not that we miss it too much, but a BLT is a sandwich and thus some sort of carb loaded vehicle is needed to deliver it to my digestive system.
Flatbread is painfully easy and quick to make, and yeast is not necessary (although yeasty flatbreads are a joy on their own too). Everything I already have in the pantry, and as I was prepping the dough, the bacon fried in my air fryer (if you have never done this, it makes perfect bacon every damn time—like magic.) You can use ice water or not, I did it without and found it makes very little difference—the finished product is soft, fluffy, and pliable. Perfect for my sandwiching needs.
I don’t know how long this will keep as one of the things I try to do is make things fresh when I need it (unless I am actively canning/storing) so I don’t accidentally cause food waste by not finishing.
The name of this dish is actually Squid Ink Risotto with Lemon Garlic Shrimp, Pepper Slices fried in Bacon Fat, and Shaved Bottarga (Cured Mullet Roe) but that would have been too long for the title. I was going through my fridge as I am …
I’m very sorry I didn’t discover the joy of yucca flowers until just a few days ago, when I went crabbing with a friend. She’s an avid forager and wild-to-table chef, so her knowledge of edible wild foods is extensive and impressive (if not sometimes …
My berries and other small fruits have been coming in with the full force of summer—raspberries, blueberries, serviceberries, red and white alpine strawberries, gooseberries, currants, blackberries, nanking cherries, and goumi berries have been shoved unceremoniously into the freezer. It seems like every other week I’m bringing them out to make something with them to free up space…
This berry jam has hints of rose from some leftover rose syrup I had, and the subtle rose flavor makes it delightfully delicate for tea time and other jam snacking. You can replace it with orange blossom or lavender (as I have in the past) which is just as gorgeous.
I recently purchased a food mill, which made this jam beautiful and uniform—I chose a stainless steel one to last me a lifetime (hopefully). You can choose to use pectin (as I did here) or reduce and add a bit of lemon juice and apple to set the natural pectins in the fruit. I prefer it slightly more tart than the jams you might find in the grocery stores, using only 40% sugar by weight, but many jam recipes call for 50-60%. I sometimes use a hot water bath to preserve and sometimes I don’t, since I gave away much of the jam this time around, I didn’t—I imagine my remaining jam will keep until we finish it.
My tomatoes have gotten off to an extremely slow start this year, despite having had them in the ground since the beginning of May. They’re still green, and have made me impatient, so I decided to pull a few of them and make some fried …
There are loads of recipes for Japanese Steakhouse ginger dressings out there, and I’ve tried a lot of them… but unfortunately they always seemed to just be very slightly off to me and it drove me absolutely nuts since both myself and my husband love …
Summer is officially here and I took the kids (and one husband) down to the docks by our house for crabs. I live on the South Shore of Long Island where blue claws are bountiful between the end of June and the beginning of September. During the day, they stick to the side of the docks and wenet them up (or pull them in with some chicken legs on string.) At night, they float like creepy rubber duckies on the surface of the water and we scoop them up, one by one.
A half dozen or so later (all sweet and fat males), and we called it a day. Among the things I plan to make with crabs this year is Tenshinhan, a Japanese crab omelette that’s set over rice, with a sweet and sour tomato based sauced. The biggest issue is actually picking out the crab meat—it’s a lot of work for about a cup and a half of crab. I can see why it’s traditionally made with imitation crab instead.
My ducks are laying, and the chives in my garden are still going strong. I garnished it with a string bean that I grew in the garden, for some crunchy texture. Sometimes I find crabs kind of strong, so when I’m steaming them, I add a splash of sake which cuts down on the flavor and brings out the sweetness. I used all of the crab because I never do things by halves, but you can put as much or as little as you would like. If you’re going to use duck eggs, double the amount of milk to keep it soft and fluffy because duck eggs have less water content than chicken eggs. I like it while it’s still runny and custardy, so I take it off the heat before it’s set.
My Korean Bush Cherry gave me about a cup of fruit this year, and I had wondered what to do with them. They’re quite tart, but surprisingly has a bit of sweetness behind them, so I thought I’d prepare a compote with the rhubarb from …