For the love of Produce...
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What’s your favourite thing to do with daikon? I might buy one this week to make Vietnamese pickles to garnish a dish I am serving at Saturday nights dinner party. There will be a lot of leftover daikon and I don’t normally cook with it.0
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For today's lunch before I went paddling, I sliced three of my Berkeley Pink Tie Dye tomatoes and put a little salt and some fresh chopped basil on top. Oh yeah!
I'm still getting so many cherry tomatoes. I put a tray of them in the dehydrator today along with one tray of those heirlooms. I am still trying to get the first batch of prunes to dry. They take forever. My tree is very laden this year, which is a little bit of a surprise. I hope they turn out really sweet. I tasted a Chojuro today (my Asian pear). Really close to being ripe but not quite.
Based on what came out of the garden yesterday, I've got some eating ahead of me!
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Not sexy but it’ll do.2 -
What’s your favourite thing to do with daikon? I might buy one this week to make Vietnamese pickles to garnish a dish I am serving at Saturday nights dinner party. There will be a lot of leftover daikon and I don’t normally cook with it.
I like to Spiralize on the thinnest not-really-a-noodle setting, and toss in flavorful broth. Makes a decent rice noodle sub and soaks up flavors well.3 -
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🔥 My sister in law grew these on her patio — she knows I am a spicy foodaholic ....so these are my new friends! I learned the hard way not to wash cut habaneros under hot water ... it was like inhaling steamed embers lol 🥵 Maybe I’ll start a thread - what NOT to do with habaneros....
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This week's farmers market haul: Cherry tomatoes, Asian eggplant, kousa squash, sweet corn, long beans, baby bok choi, hakurei turnips, blueberries, little cabbagettes (side-stalk growth after main cabbage is cut), a cucumber; plus some tomatoes my neighbor brought over (with a whole lot of nice onions, not pictured - he bought 100 pounds of them because he wanted some good onions to eat with his tomatoes!😆). I also picked up goat gouda, and cow monterey jack from a local producer (not in photo), plus the eggs.
In the photo, the turnip greens are already missing: I had already cut them off to cook for dinner, later eaten in a dill-mustard vinaigrette with chickpea "rice" and baked tofu, plus caramelized onions.
I was especially happy to see the long beans: I enjoy them so much more than regular green beans.4 -
This week's farmers market haul: Cherry tomatoes, Asian eggplant, kousa squash, sweet corn, long beans, baby bok choi, hakurei turnips, blueberries, little cabbagettes (side-stalk growth after main cabbage is cut), a cucumber; plus some tomatoes my neighbor brought over (with a whole lot of nice onions, not pictured - he bought 100 pounds of them because he wanted some good onions to eat with his tomatoes!😆). I also picked up goat gouda, and cow monterey jack from a local producer (not in photo), plus the eggs.
Cabbagettes!! New to me!! 😍1 -
My sister’s partner came down from the ranch with a box of goodies. I got last pick Cuz I was the slacker (all of the figs and peaches were eaten out of hand!) but these peppers are straight CANDY. The funny wrinkley longer ones. I forget what kind they are. He said we should give them a light char. They’ll never survive that long. Super sweet.
Also eggplant (neighbor produce fairy left them) and some monster party pan that sister’s dude had to sell to me pretty hard. Oversized squash are tough to offload - he got me with ‘you can make chips!’
(I’d forgotten about dehydration in the furnace of hades-like summer that is this area.)
Likely to make chips of both the squash and the eggplant. I don’t love eggplant unless cooked slow and oily and with tomato/onion/garlic, and I’m still in minimal cooking salad mode.
Maybe I need to cook something real, maybe that would shake the funk
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Safari_Gal_ wrote: »🔥 My sister in law grew these on her patio — she knows I am a spicy foodaholic ....so these are my new friends! I learned the hard way not to wash cut habaneros under hot water ... it was like inhaling steamed embers lol 🥵 Maybe I’ll start a thread - what NOT to do with habaneros....
Last night, at the family pepper party (we crowded around a box of various gems and ate with abandon, sorta pepper roulette as most were sweet but a few hot-ish...) I discovered that I’ve over acclimated to heat (due to recent ranch99 pepper sauce binges I suspect.)
There was one bite, a smallish pepper we all took bites from, that had the sort of low slow post chew burn... wow.
I was ok till I put my finger near my eye.. scratched my nose and wound up in tears! Hah.3 -
Safari_Gal_ wrote: »purplefizzy wrote: »
My little brother is dog sitting and sent me the cutest text asking if he could eat my giant watermelon.
My pandemic garden results have been mostly misses.. but he reports it is good!
So happy. That would have been a huge amount of suck.
Garden envy —- that watermelon 🍉 is inspiring!
Going to go water my windowsill tiny baby basil now hehe. 😉
Update:
I got home and not a BITE remained.
Brother ate all gazillion lbs.
Two more on the vine.. and a whole lotta mushrooms crowded under the plant, more shrooms than melon!
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purplefizzy wrote: »
My sister’s partner came down from the ranch with a box of goodies. I got last pick Cuz I was the slacker (all of the figs and peaches were eaten out of hand!) but these peppers are straight CANDY. The funny wrinkley longer ones. I forget what kind they are. He said we should give them a light char. They’ll never survive that long. Super sweet.
Also eggplant (neighbor produce fairy left them) and some monster party pan that sister’s dude had to sell to me pretty hard. Oversized squash are tough to offload - he got me with ‘you can make chips!’
(I’d forgotten about dehydration in the furnace of hades-like summer that is this area.)
Likely to make chips of both the squash and the eggplant. I don’t love eggplant unless cooked slow and oily and with tomato/onion/garlic, and I’m still in minimal cooking salad mode.
Maybe I need to cook something real, maybe that would shake the funk
The other day it got cool enough out to turn on the oven. Good thing; I had bought a potato, and the cashier put it in the box I was using in a way that it sliced into it, so I roasted that. I also roasted a zucchini, but not an over-grown one. Sliced thick enough, it got a nice skin on the outside.
I also had two very small eggplants (Asian variety) that a neighbor had given me before vacation. They were too small to do much with, but I slice them and put them on the roasting pan not expecting much. To my surprise, they turned into crunchy little eggplant flavored snacks. I would do it again.1 -
i'm battling my brain over that heat/oven question, too, but it's got to be faced. I have some potatoes left that I need to roast, got a spaghetti squash for current eating, prefer the eggplant roasted, and roasting is one option for the big bag'o'onions from the neighbor. (I cooked down some in the cast iron frying pan last night for dinner and salsa ingredients, and boy, are they sharp onions. I only cut up one, and no tears then, but as soon as they started heating in the pan, I was crying!) Figure I'll caramelize or roast then freeze the onions, either one a hot process, especially in that I don't own a slow cooker, so it's stovetop or oven. (I do have AC but hate to use it more than minimum.)
The bigger deal, though, is that the primo delicious types of Winter squash are starting to show up at the farmers market. My favorites are not long keepers, so I usually roast and freeze at least enough 2C tempered glass freezer bowls of mashed roasted squash to eat at least every other week until next season. That's a lotta squash, and they're big'uns, so 2, maybe 3 at a time is all my oven will hold at a time, using both shelves.
The Fall Ball variety are coming in now. I had a quick convo with one of the growers, that I need to follow up more carefully, which made it sound like they'd have Georgia Candy Roaster again this year - my veryVery favorite - a bit later, so I need to save freezer space and bowls for that. These are both a bit sweeter than most of the long keeper varieties like the butternut my dad grew, but my addiction is more about the hearty (not watery or dry) texture, and a richer flavor than a lot of the common types (more comlexity than some of the modern sweet hybrids that come in small sizes). On top of that, they have very big, plump seeds - quite a lot though not a huge seed cavity in the meaty squash - that are amazing roasted (a little over-roasted by preference) with chili powder and popcorn salt.
This is the first Fall Ball I bought (probably not its official name, but seems to be what this grower calls it). Teaspoon on the table next to it for scale. The Georgia Candy Roaster are similar color, a little smaller diameter, but longer - banana squash shape. Usually it takes 5-7ish of these squash to get my 26 2C bowls filled.
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For your amusement value, my onion bounty from neighbor Bob, with my big paw in there to show you that they're softball sized: Just under 13 pounds of onions, not counting the one I ate last night. 🤣 Still planning to caramelize or roast, then freeze, mostly, but if anyone has favorite recipes involving a large amount of sharp onion, I'd welcome your thoughts.
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My CSA haul this week. Going to be BBQ that corn this long weekend that’s for sure! 🤤 Signing up for the CSA was amazing, will be doing it again.
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For your amusement value, my onion bounty from neighbor Bob, with my big paw in there to show you that they're softball sized: Just under 13 pounds of onions, not counting the one I ate last night. 🤣 Still planning to caramelize or roast, then freeze, mostly, but if anyone has favorite recipes involving a large amount of sharp onion, I'd welcome your thoughts.
I recently froze a batch of caramelized onion. I tried doing them in the rice cooker for first time, on the setting for congee (1.5 hours). I think I let it run 3 times on the congee setting, leaving the lid open some of the time to allow water to evaporate. If you have a rice cooker or slow cooker this is an easy way to caramelize onions. No standing and stirring. Just check on them every hour or so, giving a quick stir, leaving the lid off if the mixture looks wet or closing the lid when it looks dry. The only ingredients I used were sliced onions, salt and a tablespoon of butter and the resulting mixture came out incredibly sweet. It's easiest to freeze in silicon ice cube trays or silicon muffin tins, and then transfer to a ziplock bag once frozen.3 -
If anybody has space in their dehydrator and doesn't want it to be that way, come get some Italian prune plums. They are getting ripe, and they take longer to dry than pears (almost two days instead of ten to 12 hours). The tree has lots of fruit, so I probably won't be able to get to all of them. Some are already falling off the tree while others aren't quit ripe.
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I tried making Vietnamese pancakes for the first time. A nice meal for getting lots of greens. My pancakes were filled with chicken, mushroom and beansprouts. Easy to make this meal vegan as the pancake batter is just rice flour, corn starch, coconut milk, sparling water or beer, turmeric powder, salt and pepper. Just replace this fish sauce in the nuoc cham dipping sauce with soy.
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Acpgee this looks delicious. Do you have a recipe for the pancakes? Please post0
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Acpgee this looks delicious. Do you have a recipe for the pancakes? Please post
I liked the look at these two recipes online.
https://www.curiouscuisiniere.com/banh-xeo-vietnamese-happy-pancakes/
https://eatingrules.com/banh-xeo-vietnamese-crepes/
Things I did differently:
I bought ready made Vietnamese pancake mix from the Vietnamese supermarket. I won't do that again because the mix is easier than I thought, and I keep rice flour, corn flour and turmeric powder on hand. The package directions said 200g of instant pancake mix with some chopped scallion to 450ml coconut milk. After reading the second recipe I use 225ml coconut milk and 225ml beer. I used the pancake cooking method of second recipe but didn't bother with taking the lid on and off. The nuoc cham dipping sauce in the first recipe is more authentic.
My filling was diced chicken breast dusted with salt and cornstarch and sauteed until no longer raw on a dry non stick pan. I set the chicken aside, add a little oil and fried garlic with beansprouts and sliced mushrooms, flavouring with a ice cube each of grated ginger and caramelized onion that I keep in the freezer. I added a tablespoon of fish sauce when the garlic started to colour. If the garlic is in danger of burning add a little splash of water or liquid condiment and turn down the heat. Mix this up with the chicken. The veggies are nicest if left quite raw.
I added quick pickled carrots to the lettuce and herb accompaniments. Grate, spiralize, or julienne a large carrot and pack into a glass jar. Dissolve 30g of sugar in 90 ml of neutral vinegar (rice, cider or white wine vinegar) in a small saucepan over a low flame. Pour hot pickling liquid over the carrots. If there isn't enough to cover the carrots top up with water. Let sit at least an hour but up to a few weeks in the fridge, keeping in mind tartness will increase.
Things I will change next time:
I used the second recipe's construction technique, putting the fillings in first and then pouring over the pancake batter. Pancakes stayed a little soggy under the flling. Will use the technique of first recipe next time starting with batter only and scattering filling over half the cooked pancake before folding. I might try the technque I use for normal pancakes and mix a tablespoon or two of oil into the batter, whereby it is not necessary to add any oil while cooking if you use a nonstick pan.2 -
Thank you. I will try these out soon. As I have to be gluten-free, sparkling water not beer will have to do.1
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Has anyone ever made quick pickle from cherry tomatoes?
Before a couple days ago, I had never made "quick pickle." I've made salt-fermented pickles. I think once a million years ago I made and processed vinegar pickles. But never "refrigerator pickles." My friend gives me some from time to time, so I finally decided to try some. I actually had some jars of theirs I had been meaning to return, so I filled one of them as I was filling my jars. When I dropped them off, they were really excited, so that's fun.
I have been dehydrating some of my cherry tomatoes because I have so many. They taste great. I also have made pickled green tomatoes in the past (salt fermented). I am thinking about maybe doing some cherry tomato quick pickle. Has anyone done this? Any tips?
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I've made quick pickles from green cherry tomatoes using apple cider vinegar and lots of dill and garlic. They keep well in the refrigerator for a few months, but I prefer water-bath processed pickles for the mellower flavor and much longer storage life.0
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Well, I decided to just try it. I just now realize I forgot to go pick rosemary and add it; I can throw some on top. Basic recipe with a little lemon zest. Made two pint jars. They will be ready to sample tomorrow.
I set aside all the ones that split, but when I added the brine, a whole lot more split. If I were going to do green tomatoes, I'd ferment them in a salt brine. I just couldn't keep up with eating all the cherry tomatoes. I'm caught up. I put a half tray in the dehydrator with a quarter tray of a slicing tomato that had a little end rot (cut that off), and one Chojuro (Asian pear) that are just starting to get ripe, one tray of Bartlet pears that I have been ripening (left one out to eat fresh, and now I need to pull more out of the fridge to ripen, but I may wait until I process the rest of the prunes and some Chojuro), and four trays of prunes.
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Well, I decided to just try it. I just now realize I forgot to go pick rosemary and add it; I can throw some on top. Basic recipe with a little lemon zest. Made two pint jars. They will be ready to sample tomorrow.
I set aside all the ones that split, but when I added the brine, a whole lot more split. If I were going to do green tomatoes, I'd ferment them in a salt brine. I just couldn't keep up with eating all the cherry tomatoes. I'm caught up. I put a half tray in the dehydrator with a quarter tray of a slicing tomato that had a little end rot (cut that off), and one Chojuro (Asian pear) that are just starting to get ripe, one tray of Bartlet pears that I have been ripening (left one out to eat fresh, and now I need to pull more out of the fridge to ripen, but I may wait until I process the rest of the prunes and some Chojuro), and four trays of prunes.
Have you got anything against making a big vat of tomato sauce to freeze? Don't bother peeling, just break down the skins in the food processor.2 -
Two pints of cherry tomatoes wouldn't make that much sauce.
We used to do something totally unapproved by USDA. We would sanitize jars in a boiling water bath, slice and bake a bunch of tomatoes with herbs and spices, pack the jars, and process. Modern tomatoes don't have enough acid, but we somehow dodged a bullet and didn't get sick.1 -
Way back, there was a discussion about how to best keep fragile herbs like parsley, coriander and mint. I posted that I wrapped in a small tea towel before depositing in the vegetable drawer. Have since discovered that leaving them to sit like cut flowers in a glass of water they keep longer. Stem ends in contact with water need to be cut back a little with a sharp knife every few days, as in the case of cut flowers.6
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I took some of the cherry tomato pickles on the river today. Some lemon cucumber pickles, too. Yes, the tomatoes were a but squishy as the skins had broken, but they were really good.
I ate some more when I came home as an appetizer tray with a cocktail while the charcoal got hot.5 -
Parsley and coriander bought eight days ago. Refresh the water when you trim the stems.
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