Organic gardening and its sorrows

Since I moved to the US one of my new enterprise was to start a vegetable garden, since for the first time I have a big enough garden and sufficient time to dedicate to it. With the help of my great neighbor and friend P. I am slowly getting up to speed, not to mention the tips given by my Dad an avid gardener who has been working the earth for as long as I can remember.

I have started all my vegetables from seeds, back in March/April and in early May I planted a few of my seedlings in the outside garden beds hoping that by the time I would return from Europe 6 weeks later mother nature would have done its work and I could look forward to a bountiful crop.

Well mother nature had other plans in store for me, it stayed cold and rainy until I came back and when I did in June nothing really took off except a few lettuces, the rest simply died or went into seeds as soon as the good weather finally settled in. So upon my return mid June I started seeding again and finally after a month I am a very happy apprentice gardener with greens in my 3 raised beds.

From the May plantation I had some leeks that P. gave me and they had not been doing so well until the past couple of weeks where they were really growing due to the fantastic summer weather we are experiencing for the past 3 or 4 weeks.

That is until yesterday... My other half calls me out to the garden and asks: what have you done to your leeks? me: nothing...??? Why? I look over and see the leeks lying on their sides, so I think they must have had too much sun and I had forgotten to water them that morning, then I took a closer look and horror! they were all chopped off just above the earth, very neat job.

I was besides myself wondering who did the dirty dead.

Well I have a couple of suspects: a chipmunk that I saw the previous day and then today I saw a mountain beaver doing the same thing to a tiger Lily and dragging it to it's hole. So I think no need to look further I have my culprit.

I will now post my valiant knight (that is Jewel the dog) in front of the beaver hole to keep watch over my garden.

"I know that beaver is in there!"

Perfect summer dessert

Time goes by very quickly and I find it hard to make 2 posts a week as I would like to. So before this week is totally over, here is a new recipe. This is a very easy dessert and totally in season and there is no baking involved. It's a recipe I got from my Mom on this last trip to France, the great thing about it is it's an ice cream so you can make it in advance and it won't spoil, you can have it in your freezer for this unexpected last minute dinner. With this dessert I can guarantee that your guests will be impressed, so simple yet so delicious.

Strawberry Vacherin / Vacherin à la fraise

For 8 people

Ingredients

3 egg yolks

4 Tbsp sugar (not too full)

350 gr Crème Fraîche (sour cream)

1 small bowl of fresh organic strawberries crushed

3 egg whites whipped

3 Tbsp icing sugar

5 or 6 small meringues (when in a rush I use Trader Joes's meringues)

Method

Hand mix Egg Yolks, 4 Tbsp sugar and crème fraîche, then add the crushed strawberries.

Whip the egg whites till they are firm then add the 3 Tbsp of icing sugar.

Fold in the egg whites to the mix of egg yolks/sugar/cream/strawberries.

Pour in a Charlotte mold (or Jel-Ring mold) a layer of the mix, then roughly break some meringue on top, then pour another layer or cream mix, then meringue, then cream mix, ... to the top of your mold, tap the mold a little to release some of the trapped air, close and place in freezer.

This can be enjoyed on it's own or with a fresh strawberry coulis.

Going bananas...

While visiting my friends in Cork I went on a cooking spree and made these mini Banana muffins, a recipe I got from my good friend SL.
This recipe is easily modified into a low gluten one using spelt flour.


SL's Banana Muffins
Ingredients
4 Ripe bananas
Half a Cup / 100 gr Sugar
1 stick / 113 gr / 4 oz Unsalted Butter
1 egg
2 Tbsp milk
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
¼ tsp salt
1.5 cup / approx. 230 gr unbleached white flour - when using spelt flour, add an extra in 3 Tbs of spelt flour
A handful of Chopped Walnuts

Method
Melt the butter.
Mash the bananas with the sugar.
Lightly whisk butter, egg & milk and add in the mashed bananas.
Add the flour, salt, baking powder, baking soda and mix lightly until just combined - it may look lumpy but it's ok.
Add in the walnuts.
Pour in normal size muffin pans or mini muffins pans and bake in pre-heated oven at 190˚C (374 F) for 15-20 mins (depending on your oven the mini muffins may take a little less time).
These freeze very well as soon as they are cool enough.

Veal roast with honey

After almost 2 months out and about it's time to settle back into life in the PNW and start publishing again! I have some real nice and easy recipes to share. Today it will be the main course I served at my Mom's party back in May:





Veal roast with honey
For 8
Ingredients
1.5 kg Veal Roast (count 180 to 200 gr per person)
4 tomatoes
2 shallots thinly sliced
200 ml of white wine
3 Tbsp honey
Salt, pepper to taste

Method
Brown well the roast in a large frying pan, then place in a roasting pan.
Degalze the pan with white wine and pour over roast, gently fry the shallots and place in roasting pan.
Wash and quarter the tomatoes and place in the roasting pan alongside the veal roast.
Salt and pepper then baste the top of the roast with honey.
Cover with lid or tin foil (seal well) and bake in pre-heated oven at 200 C for about 45mn (count half an hour per pound)
When cooked turn of the oven and leave the unopened roasting pan in for a further 15mn.
Take out, slice and serve hot with baking juices.

Fish terrine

The main reason for my trip to France was for my Mom's birthday, I surprised her with my visit and organised a party with 40 of her friends. By all accounts everyone had a great time, I was busy in the kitchen with my good friend SL who came for the week to help and enjoy France in spring.

We started the meal with a fish terrine, here is the recipe and ingredients for 8 people.

Fish Terrine

Ingredients

120 gr crab meat

400 gr salmon (cut as carpaccio, the fishmonger kindly offered to do it for me)

400 gr cod or other white fish

50 gr bread soaked in 10cl of milk (or so)

4 Egg Yolks

Salt, pepper, grated nutmeg to taste

1 TBSP freshly cut chives

20 cl heavy whipping cream

4 egg whites

Method
Soak bread in milk
Place cod in pan of boiling water and turn of the heat, let sit for a few minutes, then remove and dry fish, then break it in small pieces.
In a bowl mix cod + crab meat + bread/milk + 4 egg yolks + salt + pepper + nutmeg + cream + thinly cut chives then gently folled in the 4 whipped egg whites.

In an oven proof pan (I used both a silicone mold which was great for unmolding, and a well butter Savarin mold) place one layer of the thinly sliced salmon, then pour one layer of the mix, then place 1 layer of Salmon and one layer of mix and finish with a layer of salmon.

Bake in a bath of water (bain Marie) for 1h15mn at 110 C-120 C /230 F-248 F

When cooked remove from bath and let cool, then chill preferably overnight and serve with a whipped cream seasoned with lemon, chives, salt and pepper.

Giverny - Monet Gardens and House

Being a perfect tourists while in France I took the opportunity to go to Giverny to visit Monet gardens and house, it had been on my to do list for a long time and what better time than spring to go there! So off we went, what a wonder, everywhere you look there is one beautiful sight after another, as you can imagine my camera got quite some use on that visit, it was hot at the end of the day!
Here is a very small sample.
Enjoy and I wish you to discover this enchanting and inspiring place some day.

Yours truly :-)

The Emerald isle...

6 days into June and no post! What is going on? Well in 4 words: I'm enjoying Europe!

I have been here for a month now and still have a week to go, I wish it was another 2 or 3! But I have to go back to the PNW where home is for now.

So over the past month my adventures took me to Ireland, more specifically to Cork city and West Cork (South West of Ireland). I was blessed with relatively good weather (in Ireland that means no rain, with some sunshine too). I was able to take some (read: lots of) photos and would like to share just a few here.

Enjoy