Staycation All I Ever Wanted

Last week's staycation at the farm was just what I needed after a hectic quarter (the week before I had no less than 3 students crying in my office!).  Rather than commute back and forth from my condo to there,  I decided to stay overnight for a few days in order to be able to work on the garden in a more leisurely manner.  I also wanted to take a break from the usual routines and to be able to wake up and sleep surrounded by nature.  And I got just what I asked for.

One of the first things I usually do when I get to the farm is to make the rounds and to see what is blooming, pickable, or in dire need of weeding.  This time around, I saw that all the garlic had grown scapes that were  getting ready to bloom so off they came so that the garlic would expend its energy into growing its bulb rather than flowering.  Garlic scapes have a mild garlicky flavor (surprise!) and are great sauteed or stir fried with some other veg.

I also had a few projects in mind besides the usual non-stop weeding.  Linda, the queen of DIY, had given me a few milk jugs when I had told her my theory that the reason why my tomatoes had been doing so dismally year after year was the lack of consistent watering.  She suggested I use the jugs to create self-watering reservoirs for the tomatoes, which I thought was a great idea.  "How hard can it be?" is my inherited motto but sometimes it doesn't quite prove true.  These containers were a bit trickier than anticipated as I was apparently overzealous with my poking on the first two jugs.  When I went to check on them the day after I filled the jugs, they were already completely empty.  So round two had me poking only two tiny holes on the side facing the tomato. This time around, the jugs seemed about a third full when I checked the next day but it was a little hard to judge the depth of the water, so I'm going to leave them be and see how the tomatoes fare this summer.

My other project of which I'm rather proud is this bean trellis that I constructed out of twine and the bamboo poles from my dad's back yard.  When I initially told him my plan, my dad wanted to give me 5' poles, saying that they'd be hard to fit in the car otherwise, but I was pretty sure that bean trellises were usually around 8 feet tall as I had seen them towering over other people's backyard fences.  We compromised at 6' and he trimmed up the poles he had harvested from his bamboo trees.  Once they were in the ground, they were a little under 6' with the horizontal pole just high enough to not be eye-poking height (at least for me).  I wound the twine around the top and bottom, then immediately put my scarlet runner beans, which I had started at home and were ready to climb, in the ground.  I had put some squash in the space between the poles but on second thought, after seeing some photos of how full the vines get, I moved them to more open space.

Dad came to visit me out at the farm and did a whole lot of weedwacking, which spiffed the place up quite a bit.  We picked the first of the favas and shelling peas, though he kept protesting that the favas were still too small but I was glad we could enjoy the young tender beans which didn't have to be shucked twice because the inner membrane was still tender enough to eat.  For my next harvest, I want to try grilled fava beans, which I'd also heard praises about from Ms. Foodie herself, Vicky, when she went to Kyoto in the spring.

Finally, I was able to make several bouquets of flowers for friends and family from flowers that I had grown from seed (which is its own small thrill) and which have been blooming so wildly these last few weeks.  The Sweet William along with cuttings of sage flowers just smelled fantastic and I also learned the name of the bell-shaped mystery flowers, campanula or bellflower, as well as these delicate blue flowers with the fern-like leaves: love-in-the-mist.  Isn't that just an absolutely fantastic name?

I could've stayed there longer but duty called and it also started raining and raining, so with reluctance, I packed up and returned to reality.  But I'll be out there again.  That's the lovely thing about staycations--you don't have to travel anywhere to go on one.  You're already there; you just need to make that mental switch to begin one.

I'll finish with two quotes from Simone Weil about what it means to pay attention.  It seems that often the victim of busyness is our attention and most of the time, we need to get away from it all to open up the space to pay attention again.  However, once we return to "reality," that attention diminishes or disappears again.  Staycations can be little portals to paying attention again, to each other, to the beauty around us, and to the things that matter, and I can't wait until I can go on another one.

"[Attention is] a suspension of one's own self as a center of the world and making oneself available to the reality of another being."--Simone Weil

"Attention is the rarest and purest form of generosity."--Simone Weil

Fresh From the Farm This Week!

It's asparagus season out at the farm with these lovely green spears growing skyward.  Each time I go out there, I get to gather a handful or so.  Two of my favorite ways to cook asparagus is sauteed with garlic and lemon butter and most recently, simply roasted with olive oil and salt and pepper.

Due to all the rain and cool weather, the lettuces and Swiss chard have also been doing well.  I cut two heads of lettuce this week, leaving the roots so that they'll grow back again.  The rhubarb is also still flourishing.

The kale and collards that wintered over seem to be bolting already, so perhaps it's not such a good idea to try to keep them going another season.  I harvest what leaves are left, cutting down the flower stalks as well, and have been pulling up the plants that have gotten too spindly and replacing them with seedlings that I planted earlier in another bed that were getting too crowded.  So fun to have fresh, homegrown veg again! 

Asparagus with garlic and lemon butter

1 1/2 pounds asparagus,with any tough parts snapped off
2-3 cloves of garlic, minced
1 tablespoon butter or olive oil
1 teaspoon grated lemon zest
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
salt & pepper

Put enough water in a saucepan and add salt and bring to a boil.  Place asparagus in boiling water and cook until tender.  Drain and in the meanwhile, put butter or olive oil in a pan on medium high and briefly sautee garlic until fragrant.  Add the asparagus to the pan and add the lemon zest and juice.  Season with salt and pepper.

Roast asparagus

asparagus, with tough parts snapped off
olive oil
salt & pepper

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.  (I use my toaster oven when I just have about a half pound or so to cook.)  Clean and snap off tough ends of asparagus and dress with the olive oil and generously season with salt and pepper.  Roast for about 15 minutes or check when you begin to smell the fragrance of roast asparagus.  It doesn't get any simpler than this!

Fresh From the Farm Begins Again!

I was super excited this week to harvest my first crop of the season: curly kale and some lovely rhubarb!  The kale I planted last winter and the rhubarb I inherited from the previous owners.  Definitely signs that spring has sprung.

I chopped up the kale and sauteed it with some olive oil, garlic, and red pepper flakes, my standard for these kinds of veg.  Because it was so young and tender, the kale didn't have any of the bitterness that is usually associated with the more mature leaves.

As for the rhubarb, it's a funny plant.  It puts out these huge, luscious leaves which are poisonous to human consumption, so the only parts that we can (and should!) consume are the stalks.  

Strawberries and rhubarb are a natural pairing and so pretty (and tasty!) together.  I decided to put together a fruit crumble, which when eaten warm and topped with vanilla ice cream, is just a spectacular combination of textures and flavors--sweet and tart, and warm and cool.

Strawberry Rhubarb Crumble (adapted (barely) from Smitten Kitchen)

This is a simple recipe that uses melted butter so you don't have to spend a lot of time cutting it into flour.  Also, the use of baking powder cuts down on the need for additional butter (many recipes I looked at took 11/2 - 2 sticks) so with the fruit inside, this can almost be considered health food! :)

For the topping:
1 1/3 cup flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
4 tablespoons sugar
Zest of one lemon
1/4 pound (1 stick or 4 ounces) unsalted butter, melted
1/2 cup chopped nuts (optional--I used walnuts but any kind would do)

For the filling:
1 1/2 cups rhubarb, chopped into 1-inch pieces
1 quart strawberries plus a few extras, hulled, quartered
Juice of one lemon
1/2 cup sugar
3 to 4 tablespoons cornstarch
Pinch of salt

Preheat the oven to 375°F and chop the fruit.  Mix the rhubarb, strawberries, lemon juice, sugar, cornstarch, and salt and put the filling into a deep pie pan or oval baking dish.

Prepare the topping by mixing together the flour, baking soda, sugar, lemon zest, and melted butter until you get small and large clumps.  Pile the topping evenly on the fruit filling and pinch together some crumbs for variation in size on the topping.  Put into oven and put a baking sheet in the tray underneath to catch any bubbling fruit juice.  Bake until the crumble is golden brown and the fruit is bubbling beneath, about 40 minutes.

Serve warm with French vanilla ice cream.  It doesn't get much better than this!

Green Risotto with Winter Vegetables

The other day I received some parsnips in my CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) box from Full Circle.  I had started getting a CSA box about a year ago when I was investigating how to eat more locally and organically.  Full Circle is a pretty big one as CSAs go; in fact, some people may define it as really having expanded beyond the original concept of CSAs because their produce isn't all local (they source organic food from other states and countries, especially in winter).  However, the plus side is that their network enables customers to have more choice in what they get in their boxes (and not have to eat potatoes and apples all winter) all the while supporting organic farmers, which in itself is a good thing not just for our health but also for encouraging sustainable farming practices.  I like participating in a CSA because I get my "Sprout" sized box every other week full of fruits and vegetables grown in a sustainable manner and which I don't have to go out and shop for, so it's more likely I'll be willing to cook something fresh and healthy rather than just make do with whatever I have in the pantry.

Now, some people may not like getting vegetables that they've never tried before but this sort of thing is right up my alley.  So when I saw parsnips (even the name parsnip is fun to say--pars-nip!), I got right online to see what sorts of things are out there in terms of cooking this albino-like carrot.

A lot of recipes seemed to call for roasting the vegetable to bring out the sweetness, and I finally decided to try out a recipe from the NY Times that called for the use of any winter root vegetable and hearty green to be paired in the risotto for a comforting winter dish.  In my case, I had my parsnips (pars-nip!), some green beans, and kale in the fridge, so that's what I used.

Green Risotto with Parsnips (adapted from the NY Times recipe)

1/2 pound parsnips, not too large (about 2) or other root vegetable
Salt and black pepper
Olive oil
1/2 teaspoon rosemary or thyme
1/2 pound kale or other hearty green like broccoli rabe or mustard greens
1/2 pound of green beans, ends trimmed and in 1/2" pieces
1 large onion, finely diced
1 1/2 cups arborio rice
1/4 cup dry white wine
4 cups unsalted chicken or vegetable broth, or more if necessary
1 tablespoon butter
3 garlic cloves, minced
8 sage leaves, roughly chopped
Grated Parmesan cheese

Preheat the over to 400 degrees and prepare the parsnips for roasting.  Peel them and remove the tough core, cutting the parsnips into 1/2-inch squares.  Drizzle with olive oil and salt and pepper as well as some spices like rosemary or thyme.  Roast until tender and lightly browned, about 15-20 minutes.

Meanwhile, remove the stems from the greens and bring a pot of salted water to boil and cook very briefly.  Scoop them out with a slotted spoon, rinse with cold water to stop the cooking, and squeeze dry.  Then you can give them a rough cut; this makes the risotto more green when you mix the kale in, which I like.  Throw the green beans in the same boiling salted water and blanch them as well.  This time you can drain them and rinse with cold water to stop the cooking.

Warm the broth in a pot.  Saute the onions in about 2 tablespoons of olive oil until soft, about 5 minutes, seasoning with salt and pepper.  Add the rice and cook until rice is slightly translucent.  Add the white wine and cook until it evaporates.  Add 2 cups of warm broth and bring to a simmer.  Cook for about 5 to 6 minutes, stirring well with a wooden spoon every minute or so, until the broth is absorbed.  Then add another cup of broth until that too is absorbed.  Stir in the last cup of broth and cook for another 5 minutes of so until the rice is al dente.  Taste and add seasoning and turn off the heat.

Heat 1 tablespoon of oil oil and 1 tablespoon of butter.  Add the garlic and sage and let sizzle without browning, about 1 minute.  Add the roasted parsnips and chopped greens, season, and cook until heated through.

Add the mixture to the risotto and watch it turn a lovely green.  Serve with grated Parmesan on top and voila!  A perfect dish for a rainy, cold day.

Bread with Tomato

Photo by Andre Baranowski

One of my favorite breakfasts while in Spain was as simple as simple could be: tostada con tomate y aceite, or toasted bread with tomato and olive oil.  Notorious night owls, the Spaniards don't eat a lot at breakfast.  Most of the time it's half a baguette with some olive oil and a coffee, and then they're on their way.

In Seville, the cafe around the corner from where we stayed only served toastada in the mornings, but they had a little breakfast bar where you could spread all sorts of fixings on top of your bread including the usual butter and jam, but also tomato, various pates, and of course, lots of lovely Spanish olive oil both flavored with garlic and peppers or au naturel.  Add a cup of cafe con leche, and you've got one satisfying breakfast.

Saveur, which is one of my new favorite food blogs, focuses on world cuisines, and their site describes tostada or pan con tomate thus:

The name translates as bread with tomato, and that's basically all it is. But what a combination! Pan con tomate originated in northern Spain, in the region of Catalonia. There, it's known as pa amb tomàquet, and it's usually eaten at lunch or dinner, as a light side dish. But down south in Andalusia, where I discovered it while working as an English teacher in the city of Cadiz, it's more often eaten in the morning, and it's a hearty and luscious food. When I make pan con tomate Andalusian style, I use the largest holes on a box grater to get at the juicy meat of a beefsteak tomato, discarding most of its skin as I go. I rub pieces of toasted baguette with a clove of garlic and drizzle them with olive oil, and I spoon the sweet grated tomato onto the bread and sprinkle sea salt over the top. Then I sit down with my cup of café con leche and enjoy. I can't think of a better way to start the day. 
—Tamar Romero Marino, San Sebastián, Spain

Pan con tomate (from Saveur)

1  6" piece of baguette,

 
   halved lengthwise

1 clove garlic

2 tbsp. extra-virgin olive oil

1 very ripe large tomato

Coarse sea salt, to taste

Heat the oven to 500˚. Put bread on a baking sheet and toast until golden brown, about 8 minutes. Rub garlic over cut surface of bread and drizzle with oil.


Put a box grater into a large bowl and grate tomato over largest holes, discarding skin. Spoon grated tomato onto toast and sprinkle with sea salt.  

I can't wait to make this in late summer when all those ripe, juicy tomatoes are in season.  Come on, summer!

"She eats gluten free."

The lovely Ingrid's nephew was telling his friend about her the other day and in describing his aunty to his little friend, Nathan described her as "eating gluten free."  Clearly if a 4 year old uses this descriptor, then it's kind of a big deal.

For those of us who are still gleefully (and thankfully) devouring bread, pastries, and practicing all sorts of gluten-laden gluttony, going gluten-free seems virtually unimaginable.  But the other day, I made a flourless chocolate cake, sans gluten, that made me think that if ever I had to practice non-gluten gluttony, that it might be survivable....

Flourless Chocolate Cake (adapted from Martha Stewart)

This is a Martha recipe and it does take a bit of work to create but the results are fabulous.  The cake isn't much to look at but it is decadent and delicious!

6 tablespoons unsalted butter, plus more for pan 8 ounces bittersweet or semisweet chocolate, finely chopped
6 large eggs, separated
1/2 cup granulated sugar
Confectioners' sugar or Dutch-processed cocoa, for dusting
Sweetened whipped cream, for serving (optional)

Preheat the oven to 275 degrees with the rack in the center. Butter the bottom and sides of a 9-inch springform pan. Set aside.

Begin by beating the egg whites until soft peaks form.  Gradually add in the sugar and continue beating until you have glossy stiff peaks.  You really should use a stand mixture here.

Once you have that done, put the butter and chocolate in a large heatproof bowl and microwave it in 30-second increments (the first time you can do about a minute to a minute and a half) until it's completely melted.  Whisk in the egg yolks but let the chocolate butter mixture cool down a bit so you don't cook the yolks.  (The original recipe says to do this step first but I found that when I started with the chocolate mixture, by the time I had the whites beaten, the chocolate mixture had cooled and hardened, which then resulted in all sorts of shenanigans to get the whole things softened again without having the heat it in the microwave so as to not cook the yolks.)

At this point,  whisk 1/4 of the egg whites into the chocolate mixture; then gently fold in remaining egg whites. 

Pour batter into the prepared pan, and smooth the top with a rubber spatula. Bake until the cake pulls away from the sides of the pan and is set in the center, 45 to 50 minutes. Cool completely on a wire rack; remove sides of pan. Serve at room temperature, dusted with confectioners' sugar or since I didn't have any, I used cocoa powder, which was also nice. Serve with whipped cream, if desired.

The Last of the Fresh from the Farm

Here in Seattle, autumn and winter are doing their final dance together, trying to decide whose turn it is to lead and switching around just when I think I've figured it out.  We still get a few gorgeous, pale sunshiney days but the drizzly wet stuff is definitely making itself known.  There's a chill in the air, and I saw frost on the grass today; all signs that winter is coming.  Ah, well, at least I can look forward to hunkering down and building up my winter fat stores as my evolutionary instincts compel me to by eating all those hearty stews, participating in hot pot parties, and doing some baking! 

To bid adieu to the season of harvest, here are the last of the fall harvest from the last few months:

Gorgeous flowers from the Grandmother's Garden Mix, especially the Cosmos with their bright happy pink faces, stand out against the colors of fall.  The rainbow chard love the cooler wet weather and grow big and glossy leaves, perfect for stews and stir fries.  The last of fingerling potatoes have been dug up for now though I've realized that once you've planted potatoes, you'll usually continue to get them since they're impossible to dig up completely.

The last of the summer tomatoes are also harvested along with fresh-tasting apples.  For those tomatoes that haven't had a chance to ripen before the cold weather returns, pulling them out by the roots and hanging them upside down in the garage will allow the nutrients to continue ripening the fruit.  Or if you get a chance before pulling them up, put some rotten tomatoes next to the green ones and they emit some ethylene gas that gets their green brothers to mature.

The following is Thom's Ginger Apple Bread Recipe, for those extra delicious apples abundant everywhere this time of year.  Trust me, it's good!

Ginger Apple Bread

4 cups baking apples coarsely grated (3-4 depending on size)
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp ground cardamon
1/2 cup butter
1 cup granulated sugar
1 cup brown sugar
2 eggs
2 tsp vanilla
2 cups flour
2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup toasted walnuts
1/2 cup chopped candied ginger (optional)
1/2 cup raisins

 Begin by preheating the oven to 350 degrees.  Season the grated apples with the cinnamon, ginger, and cardamon and set aside.  Cream together the butter and sugars until fluffy.  Then mix the eggs in one at a time and add the vanilla.  In a separate bowl, combine the flour, salt, and baking soda and sift.  Add the dry mixture to the wet in two batches, being careful not to overmix.  Scrape into a greased and floured 9x13 pan* and bake for 45 minutes or until a toothpick comes out of the center clean.  It's fall in bread form!  Enjoy!

*I decided to put my batter into a loaf pan instead and had enough batter left to make several muffins as well.  The muffins were done after about 35 minutes and the loaf took about 55 minutes. 

Savoring Summer

As we go from 80 degree days to 60 degrees, we have another guest post by Thommy reminding us to gather ye rosebuds (or zucchinis and figs!) while ye may!

The fact that the majority of people in America live in the setting of urban modernity shows that the (post) industrial world has provided many great things to its citizens.  The world’s urban centers are great concentrations of activity that allows for progress and prosperity.  But clearly there is a great expense for all of the benefits this world provides.  This resource-intensive system is also ridden with poverty, pollution, and an ironic isolation that can only be experienced in suburbia.  Another tradeoff is the homogenization of culture and a disconnection with the natural world.

I remember listening to a program on NPR while driving years ago. Some high school students were given the phrase “Everything that’s unique” as a point of departure for a poetry assignment.  Predictably, many of the resulting poems were of the cliché, tediously heartwarming type that breeds rainbow-colored flying horses with unicorn horns (as far from unique as this creature can transport someone).  One poem, however, stood out in a way that made me pull my car over to stop and listen.  The young man read his poem that bemoaned the coming of big-box stores to his rural town.  “All we sacrifice is everything that’s unique,” was the poem’s conclusion.  It is clear that the young poet was painfully aware of the shortfalls of the urban setting.

So what can we do to reclaim what is lost to industrial anonymity?  A very direct way of accomplishing this is through food.  I can sum up my favorite meals with the acronym SLIF.  I praise foods that are Seasonal, Local, Idiosyncratic, and Fresh.  A simple way of doing this is to keep a garden.  Even the smallest addition of homegrown food will enrich the experience of eating and resurrect seasonality.  But if it’s impossible to grow your own food, look to the region for ingredients: go to local farmer’s markets, partake in community sponsored agriculture programs, or shop at places that feature local foods and the staff gets to know you personally (why shop at a place where you can’t get a hug?).

I feel very fortunate to live in the Puget Sound region of Western Washington where local flavor is abundant, and seasonality can be smelled in the air.  Even in the city, it’s difficult to ignore the resinous fragrance of the alders as they break dormancy in early spring.  This is followed by salmon runs, Walla Walla sweet onions, fresh garlic, and a plethora of garden produce.  As the year continues, fall is filled with the candy sweet smell of the katsura trees commonly planted here, and of course, the mushrooms that are the gifts of the autumn rains. 

Late summer is a spectacular time for SLIF.  Vegetable gardens are bursting with the abundant fruition of the year’s toil.  Grilling is a great way of bringing out the best of the season.  The following is a step by step description of how to make one of my favorite meals:  Salmon grilled in grape leaves served with fresh, seasonal vegetables. 

The Primary Ingredients:

   

Fresh wild-caught sockeye salmon and freshly picked zucchini.

I prefer sockeye salmon in this case because it is manageable in size and comparatively economical.  A side of sockeye filet typically weighs about 1.25 lbs and can be found for as little as $7.99 when on sale.  Use what’s available, but avoid farm-raised salmon because it s less tasty, nutritionally inferior, and environmentally damaging.  The portions pictured are about a third of a pound each.

The zucchini I grew this year is the “Piccolo” variety.  It forms striped ovoid fruits just larger than my fist. One makes a two great portion sizes.  Romano or scarlet runner beans are also great summer grilling vegetables because their flat pods are less likely to fall through the grill.

Seasonings and accompaniments:

In addition to the lemon pictured with the salmon, here are small sweet peppers,  fresh basil, ripe yellow tomato, ground Korean chili pepper and olive oil.  Salt will is another important ingredient, but is not pictured.

Preparing the peppers:

    

Roasting peppers on a grill is a very easy process.  I’m a low-tech cook, and strongly prefer charcoal to propane.  It’s a little less convenient, but imparts a depth and fragrance to the food.  Simply place the peppers on a hot area of the grill for a couple of minutes until the skin starts to blacken.  Flip and let the other side char as well.  Move the peppers to the cool part of the grill and cover to let them cook through. Remove them from the grill when they are soft.

The seasonings:

    

Peel and chop the garlic coarsely. Slice the basil to a fine chiffanade.  This is done by stacking leaves on top of one another, rolling the and slicing them into fine ribbons.  Add the garlic, basil, and ground chili to olive oil and mix gently.  This seasoning mix will be used on the salmon and the zucchini.

Gad Zuchs!

    

Slice the zucchini into wedges, salt them lightly and coat with the seasoning mixture.  Place them on the grill and mark them.  Flip and repeat.  As with the peppers, move the zucchini to the cooler periphery of the grill and cover to continue cooking.

Finally, the fish!

My first step with almost any seafood is to squirt it with lemon juice and salt it.  These two ingredients are crucial as they impart brightness and depth to the flavor.  They also preserve freshness and cut down on cootie action.  Salt and acidity are two of the major ingredients in food preservation.

After the lemon and salt, apply the seasoning mixture. 

At this point, the salmon can be cooked by grilling, baking, or broiling to make a satisfying main course to a great meal, but a couple more steps can make it an a wonderfully nuanced SLIF experience.

The Grapes of Wrap!

An often-overlooked summer food that is in abundance throughout the region is the grape leaf.  Grape vines twine their way through many neighborhood gardens.  In very fortunate years, they actually produce edible grapes.  But even in the years with the worst of weather, the vines are bedecked with lush green leaves with great culinary value.  These can be used fresh through spring and summer, or preserved for later use (see the SAVING SUMMER essay for further details).

To continue this recipe, blanch several grape leaves by holding them by their stalks and dipping them in boiling water (with a little salt for good measure).

    

Remove the stalks and flatten out the leaves.  Two good-sized leaves should be enough to cover the salmon.  Place the fish in the center of the leaves and cover thin tomato slices.  In this case, I used yellow tomatoes because great ones were available, but any flavorful garden fresh tomatoes will do.

I sometimes omit the tomato step, but end up regretting it.  The tomato helps to prevent the fish from drying out while cooking.  Good tomatoes also provide the elusive umami taste (see the Umami article for further details).

Wrap the salmon by bringing the ends and forming a tight “envelope.”  The wrapping helps the salmon cook evenly, remain moist, and stay intact on the grill. 

     

Place on the grill and cover.  Check every five minutes or so.  When the salmon is cooked, it should be firm to the touch and the leaves should have slightly charred edges.  Because the fish is wrapped, it can be picked up with tongs or easily scooped up with  a spatula.  Charred grape leaves also impart a subtle yet flavorful smokiness to the salmon.

Serve the salmon, peppers, and zucchini with a little bit of steamed rice.  Any extra basil leaves or lemon wedges make a great edible garnishes that will add flavor as well as visual interest to the plate.

It must be noted that the grape leaf is fully edible and quite tasty. When sliced, the salmon will be pink and opaque and topped with roasted tomato goodness. 

So what’s for dessert?

As long as the grill is hot, why not enjoy another example of the Seasonal, Local, Idiosyncratic, and Fresh, and grill up some ripe summer fruits?  Grilled figs make a great sweet treat to follow the salmon, and are among the simplest things to pepare.

I always admire the mysterious beauty of fresh figs as I slice through them. When properly ripe, they taste of honey and butter.  I had to purchase these figs because unfortunately, my tree is still a toddler and won’t produce fruit until next summer (at the soonest). 

    

To prepare these figs, simply cut them in half and put them on bamboo skewers.  Using two skewers will keep the fruits from rotating, and make them easier to handle.  Place the skewered figs face-down on the grill.

.

In just a few minutes, the figs will brown and caramelize.  Simply remove them from the skewers.  They can be served with goat cheese, ice cream, or my favorite way:  Plain. 

Enjoy the bounty of the season.

Saving Summer

These next series of posts are written by guest blogger Thom Lee, who doth protest too much that he's just a regular guy. Now Thom claims he's a Luddite who cannot figure out how to use a blog but I think he's just affecting a learned helplessness in order to get some dumb schmuck (ahem!) to do the dirty work for him. But since he's getting paid no peanuts (at least that would be something!) no nothing for his lovely photos and informative posts, it's the least I can do . He's also got a steel-trap for a mind so enjoy his essays on food preservation!

Late summer is a time of great abundance in the temperate world. Freshness is the flavor of the season and as the full spectrum of the sun is reflected in the rich hues of the garden. A great joy of this time of year is picking fruits and vegetables directly from the yard just before preparing it and tasting the time and effort invested in the throughout the year. 

Unfortunately, this season is short in the Pacific Northwest. To some, it seems that the region goes from spring to fall without a season in between. So it’s important to take advantage of the season by savoring its entire flavor. But in some cases, the season can be extended by preserving the bounty. 

I am heartened to note that many people still engage in traditional food preservation techniques such as canning, pickling, and making jams and other sweet preserves. These methods yield wonderful foods, but the result is a new flavor that is a distortion on the reality of the season, sort of a culinary equivalent of the shadows on the walls of Plato’s cave. But there is one summer flavor that can remain intact throughout the year: The grape leaf. 

Growing grapes in Western Washington is an iffy endeavor. The summers are too short and mild for most of the standard wine grapes, but there are several cultivars of table grapes that occasionally fare well. Most people think of grapes solely for their fruit, but the plant has many other uses. The canes can be used in basketry or burned to make drawing charcoal; seeds can be pressed for their valuable oil; moreover, the leaves are an excellent food source. 

Possibly the most common culinary use of the grape leaf is the Dolma: leaves stuffed with rice, meats and/or various vegetables. In America, these are most often associated with Mediterranean food, but they are common throughout the Arabic world, Eastern Europe, and South Asia. 

Grape leaves, however, can also be used as an edible wrap for other foods. In fact I love using them on the grill as a protective and flavorful cover. The leaf holds the contents together, allowing them to be manipulated on the grill. For example fresh goat cheese can be wrapped in grape leaves then grilled until the leaf starts to char. Scoop it up with some fresh bread, and enjoy with olives and sun-dried tomatoes! Perhaps my favorite way of enjoying them is to wrap them around salmon (see the “Savoring Summer” essay for further details). Now THAT is the taste of summer for me. 

In the summer, grape leaves are abundant and can be blanched and used immediately, but what about the rest of the year? Fortunately, they can be successfully preserved. Commercially, they can be purchased pickled in brine containing salt and citric acid. Of course this can be done at home, but this would cast them as images on the walls of Platos cave. A much easier way is to preserve grape leaves is to blanch and freeze them. They freeze beautifully and retain their fresh summery flavor. Here is the process: 

Start out by collecting grape leaves. If you don’t have your own grape vine, chances are there is one in your neighborhood. People are generally generous with their leaves because they are usually available in abundance.

Select leaves that are fairly round, and not deeply lobed. This will assist greatly in wrapping. The leaf should also be mature and firm and not young and flimsy. Any size leaf will work, but I generally select the larger ones because I’m a big-portions kind of guy. Make sure that the petiole (stalk) is still attached.

Holding the leaf by the petiole, dip it in boiling salt solution (1/4 cup salt to a quart of water or so). The leaf will wilt and relax and turn a deep olive green in about ten seconds. Set these leaves aside in a bowl to cool. If tasted at this stage, they will be tough, salty, and slightly sour.

Remove the petioles (using a knife, kitchen scissors or teeth), and make a stack of ten or so. Fold into thirds and seal in locking freezer bags, making sure to press out any excess air.

Make lots and freeze. They should keep well until a new crop of fresh leaves is available. To use, thaw, rinse, and wrap! Enjoy!