Gardening

Count your blessings

| Green Card Gardener

Things are not going too well in the garden. The cucumbers, zucchini, and possibly also the Charantais melons have been struck by the striped cucumber beetle, the squash vine borer, and who knows what else. Last year my entire harvest of winter squash was wiped out and I had to dump 80 beautiful, perfectly shaped little Delicata squashes that did not ripen because the plants suddenly wilted and died.

While I am anxiously awaiting the arrival of the organic pesticide I mail-ordered, the line-up of canning jars from this summer reassures me that it already has been a successful gardening season no matter what lies ahead.

When I first made the spiced gooseberries a few years ago, it initially looked like a complete failure. The kitchen smelled like a pharmaceutical lab, and the concoction tasted like the worst kind of cough syrup. I was mad at myself for wasting a large basket of gooseberries, several bottles of rum, whole vanilla beans, and quite a chunk of time on this. But the original recipe said to let the jars sit for two months.

When I opened the first jar in September, I was stunned. This was absolutely delicious! A very subtle spice flavor, and just a hint of rum. It is a treat on vanilla ice-cream, which is the way I have served it to numerous guests (I have tweaked the recipe a bit over the years). Everyone loved it although I always make sure that whoever comes for dinner likes gooseberries, or is at least eager to try new things. Because while gooseberries do well in this climate and I always get a good harvest from my three bushes, I am not willing to waste my treasures on culinary ignoramuses…

Spiced Gooseberries in Rum

4 to 4½ pounds (1.8 to 2 kg) slightly underripe gooseberries

4 cups (800 g) sugar

2 cups (500 ml) water

2 handfuls fresh, organic bee balm leaves, washed and picked over

2 handfuls fresh, organic lemon balm leaves, washed and picked over

1 bottle (750 ml) white rum

2 whole vanilla beans

You also need:

A canning pot, or a very large stockpot

4 1-quart (1 l) canning jars

4 bands

4 new (unused) lids

1. Remove the blossom ends from the gooseberries with small scissors (cuticle scissors work best), or a small knife. Wash the gooseberries.

2. Bring the sugar with 2 cups water to the boil in a large saucepan. Add the bee balm and lemon balm leaves. Turn off the heat and let steep for while you prepare the jars.

3. Fill a canning pot with enough water to the cover the jars with about 1 inch and bring the water to a boil. If you do not have a canning pot, place a couple of kitchen towels on the bottom and between the jars so they don’t bang together and crack. When the water starts boiling, place the jars, bands, and lids into the water to sterilize them. Remove the jars, bands and lids and dry the bands and lids thoroughly with a clean kitchen towel.

4. Fill the gooseberries into the canning jars. Slit the vanilla beans open with a sharp knife and place ½ bean into each jar in the middle of the gooseberries.

5. Strain the syrup and return it to the pan. Bring to a boil, then reduce the heat and simmer for 10 to 15 minutes until reduced to a light syrup. Add the rum and bring the liquid back a boil.

6. Pour the boiling syrup over the gooseberries, leaving about ½ inch headspace. Wipe the rims of the jars with a damp paper towel, then wipe them dry (this is to assure a good seal). Place the lids on the jars and screw the bands on tightly.

7. Process the jars in a boiling water bath for 20 minutes. Carefully lift the jars out of the water and place them on a damp kitchen towel.

8. Let sit undisturbed for 24 hours, then store the jars in a dark cool place. Let the gooseberries sit for two months before opening. If the jars are properly sealed (the lids should not give when you press them down), the gooseberries will keep for more than a year.

Makes four 1-quart (1 l) jars

Whipping up dinner

| Green Card Gardener

A frantic Monday at work. Honestly, if I did not have veggies in the garden that need to be picked and that took so much time getting to this stage, I would have fetched takeout (don’t get me wrong, we do have takeout pizza every now and then), or I would have made something else, definitely something with much less veggies.

While the dough was rising, I picked and prepared the vegetables for the filling. It took me a while to switch gears, but then I thoroughly enjoyed being in the kitchen and improvising this vegetable torta. I also found use for an almost full container of ricotta that was nearing expiration. The recipe for the yeast dough is from my favorite cookbook, or I should better say: my cooking bible, Deborah Madison’s Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone.

Tonight was another proof, cooking can be great relaxation. And what I like about this blog is that before, I rarely wrote things down when improvising, so that very often I could not remember how much I used. Now I can because I am taking notes!

Summer Vegetable Torta with Zucchini, Eggplant and Tomatoes

Dough:

2 teaspoons active dry yeast

½ teaspoon sugar

½ cup warm water

1 egg

3 tablespoons olive oil

Pinch of salt

1¾ cups flour

Filling:

1 medium zucchini

1 medium eggplant

20 cherry tomatoes

2 garlic cloves

2 tablespoons olive oil

2 eggs

12 ounces ricotta

½ packed cup fresh basil leaves

Salt

Pepper

1. Mix yeast with sugar and water and let stand for 5-10 minutes until it foams. Lightly beat the egg and mix with the olive oil in a bowl (I use the KitchenAid for this). Add the yeast mixture and the flour and knead on low until the dough is smooth and elastic. Shape the dough into a ball.

2. Spray the bowl with olive oil and turn the dough over so the upper side is coated. Cover with a kitchen towel and let rise 45 minutes.

3. Halve the zucchini and remove the seeds with a small spoon. Cut into thin slices. Peel the eggplant and quarter. Cut into thin slices (I use a mandoline for slicing). Quarter the tomatoes. Chop the garlic.

4. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.

5. Heat the olive oil in a large skillet and cook the garlic until translucent but not browned. Add the zucchini and the eggplant and cook for 15 minutes until soft and browned in a few spots, stirring often. Add the tomatoes and cook for 5 minutes more. Remove from the stove and let cool for a few minutes.

6. Lightly beat the eggs and whisk in the ricotta until smooth. Chop the basil leaves and add to the cheese.

7. Roll out the dough on a floured surface to fit a 9-inch springform pan plus a good 2 inches coming up the sides. Line the pan with the dough and smoothen out the sides so the crust is evenly high all around.

8. Mix the veggies with the cheese and season with salt and a generous amount of black pepper. Spread the filling evenly onto the dough.

9. Bake in the preheated oven for 30 minutes, or until the torta is lightly browned on top and the crust is golden brown. Remove the springform rim and let the torta cool off completely.

Garlic: Tell me where the flowers are

| Green Card Gardener

If I had listened to the lady from customer service at Burpee, the garlic I planted last October would still be sitting in the ground shriveling up in the summer heat. I’ve grown garlic successfully for the past years but something strange happened this year. The garlic did not develop any flower tops, aka scapes. So I called Burpee where I bought the planting garlic last fall to find out whether this variety, Early Italian Garlic, might be a non-blooming kind (just like the rhubarb I have in the garden). The lady at Burpee first didn’t know what scapes are, and when I told her “The garlic doesn’t bloom,” she said “Don’t worry, just wait until next year.” – as if garlic was a perennial, which usually starts to bloom only in its second year. That much for help from the pros. It was hilarious.

But the garlic was fine. We harvested about 50 nice, plump heads. Now that they have cured for a few weeks in the shed, I need to think about storage. I am debating with myself whether I should keep a small supply for a couple of months and freeze the rest as unpeeled cloves, like I’ve done in previous years. Frozen garlic is not good to use raw, but that’s not a problem for me because I use most of it for cooking anyway.

Hardneck garlic, the type that is the best to grow in this area, does not store very well. By Thanksgiving, it is light as air. Storing garlic in oil is not an option because it can produce botulism, a serious food poisoning that can paralyze or kill.

I think I will compromise. Half of the garlic will go in the freezer right away, and the other half I will hang up in bundles in the basement until I find that the garlic does dry out too quickly – or until someone complains about the strong garlic smell in the basement.

Cake on wheels

| Green Card Gardener

With the early raspberries almost gone, and just a handful of ripe blackberries, there is not too much to harvest for sweet splurges right now. But I had set my mind on making a cake for my parents-in-law, and I wanted to use at least something from the garden.

So I settled on a lemon pie with blackberries only for garnish. The forgotten half-empty jar of English lemon marmalade in the fridge, for which I had tried to find a use (the parsimony mantra “do not waste food” was fed to me with the baby bottle) came extremely handy – it gave the top a nice shiny finish.

Yet looking at the cake now, I am starting to wonder if and how it will survive the five-hour car ride. At least I have the photo to show if it arrives all mush, and I can always make it again for on-site consumption – if my tasting panel likes it.

Lemon Cake with Blackberries

Crust:

1 cup all-purpose flour

1/3 cup shortening, at room temperature

¼ teaspoon salt

¼ cup + 1 tablespoon cold water (as needed)

Filling:

3 tablespoons cornstarch

2 cups milk

1 cup + 2 tablespoons sugar

3 egg yolks

Juice of 3 lemons (at least two of them organic)

Grated zest of 2 organic lemons

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Garnish:

24-30 blackberries

½ to 1 cup lemon marmalade

1. Mix flour, shortening and salt thoroughly in a bowl with a pastry blender. Add just enough water to hold the dough together in a firm ball.

2. Roll out the dough between two large pieces of wax paper to fit a 9-inch springform pan plus about a 1-inch edge.

3. Grease the springform pan and fit the dough into the pan. Even out the edge with a knife. Place in the freezer while you prepare the filling.

4. Mix the cornstarch with a bit of the milk to a smooth consistency. Put the rest of the milk with the sugar in a double boiler. Beat the egg yolks and add them to the milk. Whisk the cornstarch mixture into the milk and cook over boiling water until it thickens and coats a spoon, about 10-12 minutes, stirring constantly (you might wonder if that coating ever happens, but you know unmistakably when you’re there).

5. Preheat the oven to 350 F.

6. Juice the lemons and chop the lemon zest of the two organic lemons very finely.

7. When the mixture thickens, stir in the lemon juice, lemon zest and vanilla. Pour the mixture into the pie crust and carefully transfer to the preheated oven. Bake for 25-30 minutes, or until the filling is set. If the crust gets dark but the filling is still too liquid, place a sheet of aluminum foil on top and bake a few minutes longer. But note that the filling will set more when it’s cold.

8. Remove the cake from the oven and let cool completely on a rack. Carefully run a knife along the edge and remove the rim of the pan.

9. Heat the lemon marmalade in a small saucepan and strain through a fine sieve. Brush a thin coat of marmalade on the cake.

10. Place the blackberries with their blossom ends down in a circle around the edge of the cake. Coat the blackberries and in-between the blackberries with marmalade. This works best with a small brush. If you have any marmalade left, brush the side of the cake. Refrigerate until serving.