i hope you eat good food, grow beautiful things, and have more love than you know what to do with.
My kids love sushi. Actually, let me amend that. My kids are crazy about raw seafood and raw red meat–like ceviche, sushi, sashimi, carpaccio, tartar. Sometimes when I am too lazy to cook, I’ll set a pot of rice, grab some frozen salmon or frozen …
Everyone hates garlic mustard, generally. I know I wasn’t a big fan even after turning it into pesto because there really is only so much you can eat of it before you can’t. It’s considered a noxious and invasive weed, crowding out everything in it’s …
It’s kind of hard to explain the flavor of indian aster, Kalimeris indica, also known as Ma Lan Tou (馬è˜é ), herby and little cooling on the tongue, a hint of bitterness that you’re almost not quite certain is there, but refreshing and somewhat addictive. Most of the time it’s served as a cold Shanghainese side dish (or an egg drop soup, or dumplings) that exists for only a short period in spring while the leaves are tender, blanched quickly and finely minced and dressed with tofu, sesame oil, sugar, and soy sauce. Eyeball it so that it just lightly coats everything, you can’t really go wrong there. Start light with the soy sauce and add more if you’d like it saltier, same with the sugar if you want it sweeter. I sometimes don’t have tofu, but on it’s own is quite delicious too. If you do use tofu, you can do dried five spice, firm, silken, tofu skin, whatever strikes your fancy in the moment.
You can serve with rice, or with some scallion pancakes to wrap with.
The reason I’m showcasing it is because it is a rather attractive perennial creeping groundcover in my garden, staying low and growing no higher than an inch or two but slowly and steadily spreading. It flowers into light purple with a yellow center in the fall, and was one of my grandmother’s favorite dishes–fresh was unheard of here in the states when she was alive, so now that I get to enjoy it right from my backyard is an homage to her memory. It’s pretty hardy, from zones 5 – 9 with some varieties capable of surviving zone 4. Sun or shade, and relatively drought tolerant although it spreads quicker with regular watering.
It also easily propagates in just water, growing roots in days, so my oldest spent one year propagating a bunch for fun, as she enjoyed seeing them grow and then plopping them into a new location.
My parents had given me a huge bag of plums about two years ago that I had layered in syrup until all the liquids leeched out into a runny syrup, which I used for cooking anything that needed a bump of sweetness. From teriyaki sauces …
I keep frozen ahi tuna blocks in my freezer for hot days when I have no energy to turn on the stove. A simple carpaccio paired with some bread is always a hit with the family who like raw fish in all shapes and forms. …
Sometimes simple is best! When I have cured meats at home, like some pastrami my sister brought to me, I like to pretend I’m in a medieval fantasy game and make an old timey tavern spread. I’ll boil up some eggs (from the chickens of course), bake some crusty bread, buy some nice cheese, pull out any jams or preserves I’ve made, and make a dip for the bread–it could be a gravy or an olive oil dip depending on what mood strikes me.
Currant tomatoes are a PAIN to collect and when I do they can’t really be used much except for salads so I end up with a lot of these tiny pearl sized tomatoes. In a desperate attempt to store them, I dehydrated them and realized they make for a really nice addition to herbed olive oil dip. They also naturalized in the garden, coming up unprompted every year. I leave them alone and they become bushy monstrosities with thousands of itty bitty tomatoes in drooping clusters. I don’t grow them on purpose any more but won’t say no to free.
I also grow a lot of herbs which makes this the perfect and easy garden to table fare: marjoram, oregano, basil, parsley, rosemary, sage minced with course salt and pepper, and then some dehydrated tomatoes and peppers (if I have.) Drizzled with olive oil and it’s bursting with the flavor of adventure. It’s a fun thing to do for picnics too, or for fighting dragons.
Chickweed is a common plant found in my garden, and it has a crisp, mild, and refreshing flavor, making it great for salads and sandwiches. The only problem tends to be that it’s a bit of a pain to collect. Early spring and fall is …
To the surprise of both Adam and myself, the pond was built and the fish stocked! This has been in my dreams for a very long time but I was never able to fully realize it because I had very little confidence that I could …
Myoga ginger (Zingiber Mioga) is a Japanese species of ginger prized for its edible shoots and flower buds. I first had it on my honeymoon to Japan over chilled tofu as a garnish, and must admit the flavor was a bit strange to me–like ginger but with something floral in it. Unprocessed is not my favorite way to eat it but it is absolutely divine as tempura or pickles, known as tsukemono in Japanese.
I stuck some shoots in a shady corner of my garden, underneath some plum trees along with a patch of musk strawberries. I interplant heavily, and the shoots that come up looking almost like a miniature bamboo forest that reaches about hip height for me. It spreads steadily via rhizomes and thrives in full shade. I often pluck some up and plop it into a new shady spot, to crowd out unwanted weeds.
They are quite cold tolerant which is surprising for a ginger (its cousins require hot tropical climates to grow well in), and where I am in zone 7B, have hit -16 windchill and still come up unbothered the next year.
July into early September are when the flower buds start poking out of the ground at the base of the shoots. They are easy to miss but adorable when you find them: plump, reddish, and fragrant. The flowers then erupt from under each cuticle of the bud, white and for some reason attracts ants. They must love it as well.
You pick them, snapping them off at the base, right before they flower, a quick wash and blanche to remove some astringency, and into a pickling solution base of sugar, salt, and rice vinegar. It turns a gorgeous pink color. From there you can experiment with different flavors–I have made yuzu kosho flavored, peach flavored, blackcurrant flavored, and shiso-ume flavored all of which have been received quite well by friends and family! Those flavoring are from my garden but you can purchase the ingredients in store too.
Served with white rice or in rice balls, on udon or soba, they’re a delicious side dish that you can easily store into winter.
The leaves of myoga can be used to wrap rice cakes and grilled, and the young green shoots are sometimes steamed with rice in the early spring. It’s a wonderful perennial edible to add to your garden!
On this past Sunday, I did the same thing I have always done every night after everyone else have been tucked into bed: I make my rounds to check on all our household denizens, from the big ones to the little ones. On this particular …