What are you eating from your garden today?

Today is Eid ul Adha and yesterday was Indigenous People’s Day. So lamb stew/borscht is on the menu. To further continue this idea of a melding of Old and New World tonight I will bake a pumpkin filled with apples. All ingredients are home grown or by a neighbor.

How are you going to serve/present that apple-filled pumpkin?

I thought as a side dish for the stew. Or maybe I will sweeten it and have as desert? I could sweeten it a tad with some local honey and a dash of spices from around the world.  

I mean, like, are you going to use the pumpkin as a bowl and just scoop the apples out with a ladle, leaving the pumpkin flesh behind? Or are you going to serve pumpkin slices or chunks, skin on or skin off, mixed with the apples, or topped by apples?

Sometimes I like to serve things in the "bowl" of a squash or melon or loaf of bread, but then there's the question if whether I can scoop out much volume and still have the sides stay up. Or in the case of a squash, sometimes the outside collapses. It can be a little tricky, so I'm curious about the actual physical presentation on the plate (or bowl?).

Cherbear, which Joy of Cooking did you find the chutney recipe in?  Looks like  the recipes for green and/or red chutney changed from 1975 to 1997 versions, and I don't have more recent versions.  Inquiring minds want to know.  Nonna

Evening meal tonight
Pork casserole ( cubes of pork )  in a heavy cast iron lidded casserole
 Add in were three really small SFG  aubergines about as big as my thumb nail ( waste not  .. want not ). A SGF carrot & some SFG herbs & some shop celery .
.
 Side veg were all SFG save for potatoes. they were a large  carrot, a big green leek top ( we ate the white body yesterday with roast chook ) 1/4 of a massive kohlrabi and the tiniest of things that could be reasonably described as a cauliflower, harvested before it became any more blown.

The three of us  ended up with about a heaped teaspoon of the cauliflower each ... it was that big .

Oh, Plantoid, you crack me up.  How does one measure out a "teaspoon of cauliflower"?  On to serious question: do you brown the pork cubes before adding the veggies?  Any onion?  Or just the leeks?  I have a chunk of pork in the freezer and an aubergine (eggplant) in the fridge, so would like to do something tasty with them.  What seasonings did you use?  Thanks, Nonna

Tonight we had this made with our baby bok choy, sugar snap peas and bell peppers. YUM!

http://www.eatingwell.com/recipes/spicy_beef_with_shrimp_bok_choy.html

It always surprises me how much bok choy cooks down! I pulled 1 1/2 squares, which weighed about 20 ounces untrimmmed and looked like enough to feed eight or more people. After stir frying, it wilted down to look more like 4 servings. Here it is just before chopping. The darker ones in the upper left corner are a mini baby bok choy. It would probably take four squares of those!



We have not had a frost as yet this autumn here in the mountains of WV. My oriental greens have doubled in size the last two weeks. Although I spaced my plantings 2 weeks apart, it looks like everything is the same size now.
.

pattipan

I love those things steamed. They stay incredibly juicy and crisp that way.

Pattipan, I love bok choy lightly sauteed, whether it's baby or large bok choy. The recipe sounds delicious with the shrimp and oyster sauce. I just wanted to make sure you know you can eat all of it, all the way down to that little stem/stub. I've seen Asian cuisine where the whole bunch is steamed or cooked in broth. I pick the outside leaves so that the plant continues producing.

That's how I had it in Chinese restaurants -- the whole thing steamed (or cooked in broth?). I would love to see a recipe for treating it in that kind of light way with a very delicate sauce. When eating it that way, I had had no idea it could be presented so incredibly simply and deliciously. I plowed through it with almost a frenzy, the way I have done with few other new discoveries. But I have no idea how they did it. The sauce was clear and not assertive, but it made the natural flavor of the baby bok choi spring out all the more. I don't know if eating it raised me to an epicure or reduced me to an animal, but it was probably a little of both. And my expectations going in (for a cabbage?) approached zero.

Nonna.PapaVino wrote:Cherbear, which Joy of Cooking did you find the chutney recipe in?  Looks like  the recipes for green and/or red chutney changed from 1975 to 1997 versions, and I don't have more recent versions.  Inquiring minds want to know.  Nonna

I have a brand new Joy that includes a lot of old recipes. The chutney recipe I have uses either apples or green tomatoes. I may do like you and have a bit of both. I will post the recipe later when I get it from home around lunchtime. 

sanderson wrote:I just wanted to make sure you know you can eat all of it, all the way down to that little stem/stub.  I've seen Asian cuisine where the whole bunch is steamed or cooked in broth.  I pick the outside leaves so that the plant continues producing.

What you see in my photo is what went into the stir-fry. I did chop it into large pieces, as per that recipe, and so that I could fit it all in the wok.

It's not my first time with baby bok choy, I've been growing it as a spring and fall crop for years in my SFG. Note that I have been a SFG'er since before the "All New" books came out. I wouldn't dream of cutting any part off but the root tip of these babies. The larger baby bok choy is called Ching Chang. It is sooooo tender and mild it's also good in salads. I'll post a couple of my favorite bok choy recipes later today in the recipe forum here.

pattipan

Marc, the following recipe for bok choy comes from a cookbook my mom brought me from Taiwan: "Chinese Cuisine Wei-Chuan's Cook Book" copyright 1974.  The bok choy (or Syau tsai syin) in the picture is baby bok choy. 

Ingredients: heart of green vegetables (the bok choy)
2 Cups stock*
3/4 teaspoons salt
1/2 teaspoon MSG
1 teaspoon cornstarch
1 teaspoon water
1/2 tablespoon melted chicken fat

1.  Remove any old leaves from heart of green vegetables, precook stalks in boiling water for 1 minute, remove and drain...
2.  Place 2/3 of the stock, salt and MSG in a pan and heat until boiling; add heart of green vegetables...cook 2 minutes.  Arrange green vegetables on platter and thicken remaining 1/3 of mixed stock, salt and MSG with the cornstarch/water mixture.  Pour it over the vegetables; sprinkle melted chicken fat on top and serve.

The full recipe in the cookbook is written to use more than just bok choy: small, barely red tomatoes; and baby corn, where it makes sense to discard the 2/3 portion of the stock after boiling, first, the bok choy, then the tomatoes.  When I fix just bok choy, I alter the stock amount to just enough to cook the bok choy, then thicken the cooking liquid.  On the occasion when I have homemade chicken stock on hand, I reserve the fat from the top of the broth and use it on the vegetables.  It really does make a difference.  Nonna

The old Wei-Chuan cookbook also had, as the last recipe in it: Bird's Nest Soup, which begins, "Choose a bird's nest with a white color and no feathers..."

Nonna.PapaVino wrote:Oh, Plantoid, you crack me up.  How does one measure out a "teaspoon of cauliflower"?  On to serious question: do you brown the pork cubes before adding the veggies?  Any onion?  Or just the leeks?  I have a chunk of pork in the freezer and an aubergine (eggplant) in the fridge, so would like to do something tasty with them.  What seasonings did you use?  Thanks, Nonna

S'easy  you scrape all the tiny bits together with the back of a knife and ever so carefully slide the cauli crumbs onto a teaspoon . 

Yes , brown meat to a light gold in a few spoons of very corn hot oil to seal the moisture in the cube , otherwise it ends up like trying to eat the sole of a leather shoe.

Yes we used  fine chopped onions  .... lots of them.. Eschalots  a very strong shallot type looking onion but a lot bigger that grows as single bulbs from this years seeds  )

 The herbs were a bit of dried parsley & some fresh chervil ( not a lot ) & two bay leaves with a couple of twists from the pepper mill .

When brown take out the meat asap to stop it cooking/drying out put it on a cold plate,  spread it out to stop further cooking  , now very lightly  brown the onions and garlic in the same casserole dish , then  add meat back into dish & add  the veg   , add liquids stir and bung on the lid & put it in the oven .

 The seasoning is a secret ....  well that's what it said on the packet  

 " Colmans pork casserole mix "

Pattipan, Sounds like you are a good, experienced resource! Just makin' sure you knew about bok choy. So many folks trim away perfectly usable parts of veggies.

Nonna, Your recipe sounds close to what I have eaten in Chinese and Filipino dinners. No MSG anymore in most Cal restaurants.

Nonna.PapaVino wrote:Marc, the following recipe for bok choy comes from a cookbook my mom brought me from Taiwan: "Chinese Cuisine Wei-Chuan's Cook Book" copyright 1974.  The bok choy (or Syau tsai syin) in the picture is baby bok choy. 

Ingredients: heart of green vegetables (the bok choy)
2 Cups stock*
3/4 teaspoons salt
1/2 teaspoon MSG
1 teaspoon cornstarch
1 teaspoon water
1/2 tablespoon melted chicken fat

1.  Remove any old leaves from heart of green vegetables, precook stalks in boiling water for 1 minute, remove and drain...
2.  Place 2/3 of the stock, salt and MSG in a pan and heat until boiling; add heart of green vegetables...cook 2 minutes.  Arrange green vegetables on platter and thicken remaining 1/3 of mixed stock, salt and MSG with the cornstarch/water mixture.  Pour it over the vegetables; sprinkle melted chicken fat on top and serve.

The full recipe in the cookbook is written to use more than just bok choy: small, barely red tomatoes; and baby corn, where it makes sense to discard the 2/3 portion of the stock after boiling, first, the bok choy, then the tomatoes.  When I fix just bok choy, I alter the stock amount to just enough to cook the bok choy, then thicken the cooking liquid.  On the occasion when I have homemade chicken stock on hand, I reserve the fat from the top of the broth and use it on the vegetables.  It really does make a difference.  Nonna

Thanks Nonna! Do you liquify the chicken fat first, or sprinkle it on cold?

And do you cook the bok choy in vegetable stock, or chicken stock? Is the original recipe intended to use a particular kind of stock?

Picked a lot of the odds and ends left in the garden today. Sautéed the eggplant, tomatoes, tomatillos, onions, peppers, garlic and mixed it with some whole wheat pasta. Then added our homemade canned pasta sauce and the ricotta and mozzarella I made last night to make a nice "baked penne a la end of the garden" for company coming over tonight. They are coming over to sample some of the fruits of our gardening/canning efforts. The sauerkraut is ready to eat and so it will be an appetizer along with some of our pickled items and savory jellies on crackers. It's an odd combination of yummies but all home grown or homemade.

Ooooooh Lyndee, it sounds so good! I picked the last of the aubergine and tomatoes this afternoon. Clearing out the garden and prepping beds for garlic and leeks. I am going to try over wintering as I would love to have some early season leeks next year.

We cut jack-o-lanterns yesterday for the great pumpkin festival and the flesh that was scooped out has been cooking down on the stove all day. I may make some pumpkin soup for tonight and if I have everything in the pantry to do so, I will make a pie this evening.

Marc Iverson wrote:I mean, like, are you going to use the pumpkin as a bowl and just scoop the apples out with a ladle, leaving the pumpkin flesh behind?  Or are you going to serve pumpkin slices or chunks, skin on or skin off, mixed with the apples, or topped by apples?  

Sometimes I like to serve things in the "bowl" of a squash or melon or loaf of bread, but then there's the question if whether I can scoop out much volume and still have the sides stay up.  Or in the case of a squash, sometimes the outside collapses.  It can be a little tricky, so I'm curious about the actual physical presentation on the plate (or bowl?).

It got too late to do anything baked, for the whole week. Then a friend gave me a bag of chantrelles she picked on the Olympic peninsula. So yesterday I put an Australian Butter pumpkin whole into a casserole dish that it happened to fit. I cut out the button and hollowed it. Stuffed it with chantrelles, onion and chicken broth and set it to bake. We scooped out the chantrelles and broth onto rice and took chunks of the pumpkin on the side. It was delicious. The walls were so thick there was no possibility of the sidewalls collapsing and the casserole dish would help support them anyways. I had the left over pumpkin with the left over rice and some Dublineer cheese for lunch just now. I still want to bake apple slices in a similar fashion but that would be drier because there would be no broth..... ummmm unless I pour a custard in it to bake with the apples......   

Chicken with tomatillos (a couple of them store-bought), serrano chiles, garlic and onions (home-grown), and cilantro. I'd say the dish is about half-and-half.

wow Turan
that sounds delicious. Twas a time we picked a few hundred pounds a year of chantarelles, they do not have them here, but they have morels... spring.
So you just put all that stuff in the AB squash and then baked it? Or did you do anything before that
I think I am going to try that.

I think my Australian butters crossed with other things.. so perhaps I need to find the squash that looks closest to an australian butter.d

I cooked the Turks Turban tonite, just roasted it and the scooped it out cooked it with some roasted veggies then pureed the whole works...
It was good, but me thinks that the way you did it would not only save a step, but would make it richer as well.

I just put it in and baked it.  Very simple.  I covered for half the time.

I am thinking of developing a landrace winter squash. Grow my favorite types and save a couple seeds from each and replanting. They will all cross and recross. The results will be variations on my favorites. I figure as long as they are all some what similar (no spagheti or i guess summer squash) it would work well. Problem is to protect them from crossing with summer squashes. I don't think that would be tasty.