Kitchen Garden Journal

• 1 lb eggplant, cut into ½-inch slices
• 4-5 cloves garlic
• 1-2 medium sized fresh red or green chilies (or sweet bell pepper for the meek)
• 1 Tbsp light soy sauce or tamari
• 2 Tbsp dark soy sauce
• 2 Tbsp palm sugar or dark brown sugar
• 1 bunch Thai basil

Coat a large fry pan with about ¼ inch of oil and carefully fry the eggplant in batches until golden brown and melting.  Meanwhile, cut the garlic into slices and the chilies into diagonal rings.  When the eggplant is ready, remove it and add 2 Tbsp of fresh oil to the pan, add the garlic and half the chilies, and stir-fry until the garlic is golden.  Add the soy sauces and sugar, stir for about 30 seconds until the sugar starts to bubble, and return the eggplant to the pan.  Add torn basil leaves, stir and serve, garnished with the rest of the chilies (if you dare!)

Comment (0)

This season has been a great one for cucumbers. Last year the cucumbers didn’t exactly thrive in the wet conditions, and we hardly picked any. But this year’s harvest has been extremely abundant and it’s gotten me inspired to use them in some creative ways.

Continuing with my Asian streak that I’ve been on since last winter, I was trolling the internet for cucumber kimchi recipes when I stumbled on a couple of amazing Korean cooking channels starring some endearing and informative no-nonsense knife-wielding Korean ladies.

Anything Korean you ever wanted to know how to make is all right there in a series of crisply edited 5-10 minute videos. I followed the recipe for cucumber kimchi from Aeri’s Kitchen, and spent about an hour or so watching Maangchi to get some ideas for things to serve with it. So for crew lunch I served the kimchi along side barbecued beef (Whole Foods has been offering some very nicely marbled sirloin tips recently, as well as the amazing boneless short ribs—if cows made bacon these would be it!) marinated in soy, sugar, sesame oil and garlic. We ate the beef with rice and kimchi rolled into little packets of shiso leaves that I’m growing in a little garden of Asian herbs. I also served scallion pancakes and one of my favorite Korean side dished (banchan) of blanched zucchini strips marinated (again) in soy, sugar, sesame oil and garlic and sprinkled with sesame seeds.   

(Note: if you are seriously interested in making kimchi at home, it's very easy. But one thing you absolutely need to do is get yourself to a Korean market, like on rt. 9 in Hadley, to buy the right kind of chili powder. I would not recommend any substitutions.)

The other fabulous meal that I’ve made recently where the cucumbers played a central role in the inspiration—if only a supporting role on the plate—was satay, Southeast Asian grilled meat on stick served with savory-rich peanut sauce and blisteringly spicy cucumber salad. In the car on the way to Block Island we were able to catch, for once, “The Splendid Table” on NPR, and they were talking to grillmaster Steve Raichlen about his new book Planet Barbeque and this recipe came up. So I hunted it down online a few weeks later and actually followed the recipe note for note. I’ve made satay before but I have to say, this recipe is a keeper.

Satay is mainly eaten as a snack on the street in its native Indonesia-Malaysia-Singapore, but this dish has the entire pantheon of Southeast Asian flavors deconstructed into three parts that layer and build on one another to the eater’s taste: the meat laced with aromatic spices like cumin, coriander and black pepper; the peanut sauce enhanced with coconut milk, lemongrass, and the fishy-je-ne-sais-quoi of salted shrimp; and the cucumber salad bringing the crunch of raw vegetables and the punch of fresh chilies in a very sweet and very sour dressing.

In other words, it’s one hell of a snack. I encourage you to stock your larder with Asian goodies and try this one out.

Comment (0)

This winter while reading David Chang's Momofuku cookbook I pledged to myself to make pickling our vegetables a regular part of my repertoire. I have yet to do it, but I was inspired by his simple brine recipe and laid-back approach to the process (see recipe below, via Esquire). Pickling really can be an everyday activity; it doesn’t have to mean canning or some huge production. For a step-by-step with great photos, check out this blog.

I’ve also been noticing a veritable pickling obsession sweeping the food blogs (see photo, via White on Rice Couple). What better way than pickling to highlight individual vegetables, or to capture a moment in time in the frenzy of the season when crops come and go so quickly? Especially since so many of these fleeting vegetables lend themselves to the simple process. It’s not just cucumbers. Baby carrots, beets, sweet turnips, radishes, fennel, cabbage, garlic scapes, spring onions—what can’t be pickled? I’ll leave that one to you.

Momofuku's Vinegar Pickles

For brine:

    * 1 cup very hot tap water

   * 1/2 cup rice-wine vinegar

    * 6 tbsp sugar

    * 2 1/4 tsp kosher salt

    * (Optional: 1 tsp coriander seeds)

For veggies:

    * 2 lbs whole baby carrots, scrubbed, peeled, and trimmed

    * 3 bulbs fennel

Instructions:

Pack carrots (for larger ones, cut them length-wise, so they are snack size) and fennel (core and cut into 1/8-inch strips) into mason jars or 1-qt plastic containers, cover with brine, close lid, and refrigerate. They'll be ready in four days. Most will keep for up to a month.

Comment (2)

Having fresh herbs around really inspires me to cook. One recipe I always associate with the flavors of cilantro and mint are these Vietnamese Spring Rolls. This is a recipe that I have blatantly stolen from one of my favorite food blogs, Rasa Malaysia. View the original with all the gorgeous photos here. I recently made this for a crew lunch for 8 and served it do-it-yourself style (Candace took this photo), everyone soaking the rice paper and making custom fillings at the table. In addition to the pork I served fried tofu strips and blanched shrimp. It's also nice to have some nuoc cham on hand for dipping.

For the grilled pork:

1 lb pork chops, loin, butt or shoulder. Sliced thin.
2 garlic cloves, minced
2 shallots, minced
1 Tbs fish sauce
1 tsp sugar
2 tsp freshly ground black pepper, or to taste
1/4 cup peanut or vegetable oil

Hoisin Peanut Dipping Sauce Recipe

1 cup (8 oz) hoisin sauce (if sauce is thick, add about 1/4 cup warm water to reach desired consistency)
1/4 cup smooth peanut butter
1 Tbs rice vinegar
2 garlic, crushed
1 minced thai chili, or more for desired spiciness

For spring roll rice paper assembly:

About 10 rice paper wrappers
Lettuce
Cucumber, cut into long slices
Fresh herbs: mint, cilantro, basil, vietnamese coriander, balm or perilla
Bean sprouts

Method:

1. In plastic bag, combine all ingredients for the grilled pork. Let marinade for about 20 minutes. Grill both sides of pork for about 2-3 minutes, or until desired texture.
2. In blender, combine all ingredients for the hoisin peanut dipping sauce. Blend until everything combines smoothly together. If it is too thick, continue adding warm water until desired consistency.
3. In bowl of warm water, dip each rice paper wrapper for about 3-5 seconds (depending on rice paper thickness). Do not over soak your rice paper wrapper! Place on work service and allow rice paper to soak up water and become gelatinous and pliable (about 30 seconds to 1 minute, again, depending on the thickness rice paper).
4. On top 1/3 side closest to you, lay lettuce on the bottom for added strength to the wrapper. Then place meat, herbs and other vegetables. Roll up spring roll about 1/3 way through, then fold in the sides.
5. Serve with hoisin peanut dip.

Comment (0)

Lettuce is the invisible vegetable. It never seems to be the focus of attention. The most popular specimens have the "mildest," or most minimal flavor. There are few recipes where it features prominently. Most preparations using lettuce call for adding a dressing that is either pronouncedly sour, salty, sweet or all of the above. Why are people so intent on covering up the flavor of a vegetable that has very little flavor of its own? Could it be that maybe we are just taking the wrong approach? Misinterpreting the lowly lettuce?

(How and why a supposedly boring vegetable like lettuce is the number 1 vegetable in America and for our farm is perhaps a subject for a different post.)

Over the winter I rekindled my interest in Asian food, sparked by an escapist impulse and memories of our trip to Thailand a few winters ago (before babies), and also by the Momofuku Cookbook by David Chang, which Caroline gave me for my birthday. (I read the book back to front in one sleepless night, promptly lent it to a friend and haven't seen it since. In any case it left a lasting impression.) Cooking Asian inspired me to think about and use lettuce a little differently.

Asian food in general and southeast Asian food in particular is very intentional in the way it sets up flavor, textural, and even color contrasts, and lettuce assumes a very different role in these cuisines. In Thailand, which has an amazing tradition of hot and sour salads, called yam, the lettuce is served next to the salad, plain, undressed, as a fresh and bland counterpoint to the pungent main attraction, be it grilled steak, fresh shellfish, or any number of other things. You can wrap a small ball of rice in the lettuce and use it to sop up some of the dressing, of course.

In Korea, lettuce assumes an ice-cream-cone-like function in a class of wrapped foods called ssam. It serves as an edible vehicle (in lieu of plate) for different combinations of protein (grilled meat, shucked oysters), starch (rice), vegetables (kimchi), and pungent condiments, each diner constructing his or her own lettuce packet to their own tastes. (Read about it in Momofuku. Then just try to resist the urge to make it at home.) Get the recipe here. You can buy the book from one of our two favorite food bookshops, Kitchen Arts & Letters and Rabelais.

An identical tradition of lettuce wrapping is alive and well in Vietnamese cuisine. My FAVORITE restaurant in the valley is Bamboo House in Springfield and I seriously jones for the fried spring rolls. Not because the spring rolls are anything special per se (they are excellent), but because of that side plate they give you with lettuce, mint, and culantro. You take a lettuce leaf, add the herbs, put a piece of spring roll in there and dip it in the ubiquitous nuoc cham dipping sauce before shoving the whole package into your face. The act of constructing it adds so much to the experience of sharing the food with another person. And there's a whole world of flavor in that one bite: the crispiness of the fried wrapper, the unctuous pork-shrimp-noodle sausage within, the aromatic herbs, and the fresh, neutral lettuce leaf holding everything together for that final plunge into the chili-laced sweet and sour fish sauce.

None of it would be possible without the lettuce. So think about that the next time you mindlessly reach for that bottle of ranch.   

Comment (0)

This recipe is an adaptation for cabbage of Thai green papaya salad (som tam) and makes a refreshing and fat-free alternative to mayonnaise-based salads (not that there’s anything wrong with mayonnaise!). 

• 1/2 to 1 head cabbage, shredded
• 1 carrot, grated
• 2-3 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 small hot red or green chili, minced
• 1 bunch cilantro, chopped
• Thai basil, spearmint (optional)
• 1-2 scallions, chopped
• ¼ cup roasted shelled peanuts, ground or chopped fine
• Juice of 1 lime
• 2 Tbsp light colored vinegar
• 2 Tbsp sugar
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 Tbsp fish sauce (optional)

Mixed thinly sliced cabbage and grated carrot in a large bowl with the garlic, chili, cilantro and other herbs if using.  Add the lime juice, salt, sugar, vinegar and fish sauce and stir well (the volume of salad should decrease within minutes as the cabbage sheds its liquid).  Refrigerate until needed.  Just before serving garnish with the ground peanuts and chopped scallion. 

Comment (0)

• 4 Tilapia fillets
• Flour for dusting
• 6 Tbsp vegetable oil
• 2 cloves garlic, thinly sliced
• 1-3 small hot chilies, sliced
• 1 inch ginger root
• 2-3 scallions, in 1-inch pieces
• 2 Tbsp soy sauce
• 1 Tbsp fish sauce (optional)
• 2 Tbsp sugar
• 1 Tbsp white or rice vinegar
• 4 Tbsp chopped cilantro 

This dish is prepared using a method commonly used in Chinese cooking.  Heat the oil in a fairly large skillet. Cut the fish fillets into 1 inch chunks. Put some flour on a small plate or saucer and roll the fish pieces in it before adding them to the hot oil. Fry briefly (only a minute or two per side) as the fish cooks fast and you don’t want it to crumble. Drain the fried fish on paper towels and set aside. Drain all but 2 Tbsp of the oil out of the pan. Meanwhile, cut the ginger root into matchsticks by slicing it very thinly and then chopping the slices into  narrow slivers. Add garlic, ginger, chilies, and scallions to the oil.  Sauté for 2-3 minutes, stirring constantly to prevent sticking or burning.  Combine the sauce ingredients and add to the pan, stir once, then return the fish to the pan, stirring gently to coat with the sauce, about 1 minute. Turn off heat and garnish with the cilantro.  Serve immediately with rice. 

Note: this dish can be made with any kind of meat, tofu or eggplant, but fish is good luck in China.

Comment (0)

This dish evolved from Caroline's childhood memories of eating at Benihana and her attempts to reproduce their fried rice.  Since then it has evolved into something we eat all the time.  Use whatever veggies you have on hand.  It's great for breakfast lunch or dinner.

• 4 cups cooked rice
• 4 Tbsp canola oil
• 1 cup onion,  chopped 
• 2 cups broccoli, chopped
• 1 cup sweet peppers, chopped
• 1 cup zucchini, chopped
• 1 cup snap beans, chopped
• 1 Tbsp butter
• 2-3 cloves garlic, finely diced
• 1 egg
• 2 Tbsp soy sauce
• 1 Tbsp Thai fish sauce
• 1 Tbsp sesame oil
• cilantro for garnish

Heat the oil in your largest frypan or wok.  Sauté the onion until soft over high heat.  Add the rest of the vegetables and stir fry them for a few minutes.  Add the cooked rice and stir well, breaking up the rice so that all the grains are separate and coated with oil (you might want to add more oil).  Make an empty space in the center of the pan by scraping the rice mixture to the sides.  Drop the butter and garlic into the well and sauté 1 to 2 minutes, until cooked, not stirring the rice.  (If the rice burns a little on the bottom, all the better.)  Stir the garlic and butter mixture into the rice, mixing thoroughly, then make the well in the center again.  This time break the egg into the well and scramble until cooked, then mix into the rice.  Add the soy sauce and fish sauce, stir again and turn off the heat.  Drizzle on the sesame oil.  Serve garnished with chopped cilantro or Thai basil.  We like to have extra soy and Sriracha chili sauce on the table as condiments.  Add chunks of bacon, ham or salami with the onions for a more protein-rich version. Fried tofu cubes are another good addition.

Comment (0)

• 1 lb eggplant, cut into ½-inch slices
• 4-5 cloves garlic
• 1-2 medium sized fresh red or green chilies (or sweet bell pepper for the meek)
• 1 Tbsp light soy sauce or tamari
• 2 Tbsp dark soy sauce
• 2 Tbsp palm sugar or dark brown sugar
• 1 bunch Thai basil

Coat a large fry pan with about ¼ inch of oil and carefully fry the eggplant in batches, following the procedure described in Pasta alla Norma, above.  Meanwhile, cut the garlic into slices and the chilies into diagonal rings.  When the eggplant is ready, remove it and add 2 Tbsp of fresh oil to the pan, add the garlic and half the chilies, and stir-fry until the garlic is golden.  Add the soy sauces and sugar, stir for about 30 seconds until the sugar starts to bubble, and return the eggplant to the pan.  Add torn basil leaves, stir and serve, garnished with the rest of the chilies (if you dare!)

Comment (0)