Strawberry patience test

| Green Card Gardener

It made me cringe when I pinched off two handfuls of flower buds from the 70 strawberries I planted in the new patch in April. But that’s what you are supposed to do in order to get stronger plants and a good crop next year. Alas, no strawberries this year! For now I can only dream of Rote Grütze, one of my favorite German desserts. Later in the season I will make it with raspberries, red currants and blueberries. The recipe can be found in my cookbook Spoonfuls of Germany.

The word “Grütze” is anything but appealing in German, meaning something like “grits”. Hence as a kid because I loved the dessert so much but disliked the name, I renamed it “nostalgia pudding”, as it was a very old-fashioned dessert back then. Rote Grütze has since made a huge comeback in Germany and is now available in all types of weird concoctions such as Rote Grütze tea. I stick with the classic.

Vanishing seeds

| Green Card Gardener

As a gardener, you experience all types of failures. What just happened to me with the cucumber, summer squash and Charentais melon seeds qualifies for the funny category although it is also rather annoying, because I started the seeds late already due to cold weather, and now I have to buy seedlings in order to get an early summer crop.

After the seeds showed no sign of germination after more than a week, I put the tray with the jiffy pots in the oven with the light turned on, and a heating pad underneath to speed things up. A big red sign said, “Do not use oven and leave light on”. The oven smelled like a greenhouse but except for a couple of lonely melon seedlings, no results.

So this morning I decided to start all over again, emptying out all the pots and sifting through the soil. I found several melon seeds that had not germinated, I suspect due to lack of heat. But I could not believe my eyes when the rest of the pots contained no seeds whatsoever! Then it dawned on me – one sunny day last week, I had put the tray outside on the patio table, and the birds must have eaten them.

A small consolation: there is still one jar of Golden Zucchini Chutney in the pantry. I made it for the first time last year instead of the Zucchini Relish I usually make. The recipe is adapted from Preserving by Oded Schwartz. We eat the chutney with any type of Indian food.

Golden Zucchini Chutney

3½ pounds golden zucchini

3½ tablespoons kosher salt

1 teaspoon corn oil

3 tablespoons black mustard seeds

1½ tablespoons freshly ground coriander

1 dried medium-hot red chili

1½ tablespoons turmeric

4 large onions, halved I thinly sliced

7 large carrots, peeled and grated

8 ounces candied ginger, finely chopped

6 garlic cloves, finely chopped

1½ teaspoons freshly ground black pepper

5 cups apple vinegar

1¾ cups sugar

You also need:

A canning pot, or a very large stockpot

6 1-pint canning jars

6 bands

6 new (unused) lids

1. Cut the squash (do not peel if using organic) in half lengthwise and scrape out any seeds. Cut into ½-inch cubes.

2. Place the squash in a colander and sprinkle with half of the salt. Let stand for one hour. Rinse under cold water and drain well.

4. Heat the oil in a large non-corrosive pot. Add the mustard seeds, coriander and chili and fry until the mustard seeds pop and the spices release their flavors. Add the turmeric and stir.

5. Add the squash with all of the remaining ingredients except the sugar and the remaining salt. Bring to a boil, reduce the heat and simmer for 25 minutes, or until the vegetables are soft.

6. Add the sugar and salt and simmer for 1 to 1¼ hours, until most of the liquid has disappeared and the chutney as a thick consistency. Remove the chili.

7. Fill into sterilized canning jars and process in a boiling water bath for 15 minutes. Let sit for 2 months before opening.

Makes 6 1-pint jars

Blueberry haven

| Green Card Gardener

Because we have a berry farm in the area where you can pick your own, I don’t bother growing blueberries. The place is perfectly organized: on peak days, such as around July 4th, one family member greets you with a walky-talky alerting a second person, who leads you to your assigned spot. This way you don’t have to pace up and down the rows looking for ripe blueberries. One year, I spent 1.5 hours picking from a couple of bushes and came home with almost 20 pounds of blueberries. After we all have our fill, most of the blueberries go right into the freezer.

Today I used the last bag of those blueberries for a Blueberry Corn Coffee Cake. The recipe is adapted from Deborah Madison’s Sweet Corn Coffee Cake with Berries in Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone. Her recipe is based on an 8-inch springform pan but this one is for a 9-inch cake, therefore the amounts are a bit odd. If you use frozen blueberries like I did, bake the cake a few minutes longer, and if it browns too much on top, cover with a sheet of aluminum foil. Just make sure no ice crystals are clinging to the frozen berries, which might make the cake soggy.

Blueberry Corn Coffee Cake

7¼ ounces flour

3½ ounces yellow cornmeal

5 ounces sugar

2¼ teaspoons baking powder

1 1/8 teaspoon baking soda

½ teaspoon salt

6 ounces buttermilk

3½ ounces sour cream (reduced fat)

Finely grated zest of 1 untreated lemon

2¼ teaspoons vanilla extract

2 large eggs

2¾ ounces corn oil

2 cups blueberries

Light brown sugar

1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Grease and flour a 9-inch springform pan.

2. Mix the flour, cornmeal, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt.

3. In a separate bowl, whisk buttermilk, sour cream, lemon zest, vanilla extract, eggs, and corn oil.

4. Mix the dry ingredients with the wet ingredients until well combined. I find that a silicone spatula works best, as you can scrape over the bottom and pick up any lumps.

5. Fill the dough into the prepared pan. Distribute the blueberries on top and gently press them into the dough. Sprinkle with brown sugar and bake in the preheated oven for 45 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean.

6. Run a knife around the edge to loosen the cake from the pan and remove the rim. Cool completely on a wire rack.

Getting down to the bottom

| Green Card Gardener

Yesterday I used the last bag of frozen Swiss chard. Seeing the white bottom of the freezer is like seeing the ground again after the snow has melted – an unmistakable sign that it’s spring.

The Swiss chard went into a crustless Italian Swiss chard torte Venetian style, Tegliata di Biete. I based it on Marcella Hazan’s recipe from Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking but took several shortcuts. And, more importantly, I did not use pine nuts. I don’t remember the last time I bought pine nuts that did not taste rancid. Chinese pine nuts are quite awful, and the real stuff, pine nuts from the Mediterranean (Lebanese are viewed as the best), are expensive and hard to find. I sometimes food-fantasize about the delicious fresh pine nuts that were floating in the countless glasses of sweet tea I had when I lived in Tunisia. Back then, though, I did not have a garden where I could grow my own Swiss chard. If I had to choose between the two, I would always go for the garden – even if it means using walnuts instead of pine nuts.

Swiss Chard Torte with Raisins and Walnuts

2 pounds trimmed Swiss chard (leaves and small thin stems only)

3 tablespoons olive oil

1 medium onion, finely chopped

1/3 cup golden raisins

2/3 cup unflavored bread crumbs

1/2 cup walnuts

2 eggs

1 cup freshly grated parmesan (4 ounces)

1 teaspoon salt

Freshly ground black pepper

1 tablespoon cold butter

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Spray a 10-inch cake pan with oil.

2. Chop the Swiss chard finely. With a bit of water clinging to it (or partially thawed), place it in a large skillet and cook, uncovered, until the chard is fully cooked through and wilted, about 10 minutes, stirring often. Remove to a bowl.

3. Heat the olive oil and cook the onion until golden. Add the chard and cook for another 2 minutes. Remove both to the bowl.

4. Place the raisins in a small heatproof bowl and pour hot water over them to soak.

5. Lightly toast the breadcrumbs in a pan on the stove. Distribute half of them in the prepared cake pan.

6. Lightly toast the walnuts in the pan in which you toasted the breadcrumbs. Cool and chop coarsely. Drain the raisins and squeeze dry in a paper towel. Add walnuts and raisins to the bowl with the Swiss chard.

7. Lightly beat the eggs and add them to the mix together with the parmesan. Add salt and pepper and mix well. Spread the mixture over the breadcrumbs and even it out with a spatula.

8. Spread the remaining bread crumbs evenly on top. Dot with butter (I use a lemon zester to produce tiny strands). Bake in the preheated oven for 30 minutes. Serve hot or warm.