Cardoon staus is: blooming. This is an entire month earlier than 2019 though the two smaller plants haven’t bloomed yet. I’ll leave this one for the bees that enjoy frolicking in the purple polen but will harvest the others.
I watched a local gardening show on PBS last night that had a feature on the garden centre the original plant came from. I was happy to hear they are surviving in the corona disruption.
It was only a matter of time before La Cuisine came down from the shelf. I was looking for cardoon recipes, but became distracted by the stuffed tomatoes. I had some large ripe tomatoes waiting to be used, so that’s what I made. To my delight, vegan cheese and oatmilk worked just fine.
I had homemade breadcrumbs to work with which is always nice. Filling hollowed out tomatoes with breadcrumbs and fresh herbs doesn't sound exciting, but I promise, it is!
After hollowing out the tomatoes I was left with the pulp. Rather than throwing it away I made a reduction and added sherry and olive oil. I used this along with chopped olives, capers, parsley, and preserved lemon to bake some cod fillets.
The finished meal had some puy lentils cooked with onions and herbs and finished with a splash of balsamic vinegar. It was lovely, and I enjoyed making a special meal from rather mundane ingredients.
This is kung pao seitan. It shouldn’t work, but it does.
The potatoes are harvested! We grew both yellow and purple this year
That’s quite the harvest from our little garden.I wanted to do something special so I roasted them with 4 tablespoons margarine, 2 tablespoons lemon juice, 2 tablespoons horseradish relish, and salt/ pepper. Baked at 350 degrees F for an hour.
Perfection. They’re shown here with lamb chops, mushrooms and grilled toast. I had some potatoes but passed on the lamb😁.
I also invented a mocktail of grape juice, lemon, and ginger ale. I had some paper umbrellas from a party a decade ago, so into the drinks they went. I mean, if you have cocktail umbrellas you might as well use them.
Following the big roasted chicken dinner last week, I put the leftovers to use in several meals. This Thai style curry with coconut milk, basil, and chilies was a hit.
The end of the chicken went into a sauce and was served with spaetzel ( from a box) and a bit of sautéed red cabbage and apples. No waste, and several good meals from a single roast chicken.
Tomorrow we are having a high heat warning with high humidity just for fun🙄. I’m planning to make some purple potato salad and serve it with vegan bacon sandwiches because there’s no way I am using the oven with 109 degrees coming in.
Still haven’t been able to see the comet, but maybe tonight will be lucky.
What’s cooking in your kitchens?
9 comments:
Wow, your purple potatoes are gorgeous! They glisten so much, I almost mistook them for fancy art glass beads.
All your recipes look so beautiful and creative. I agree that tofu and seitan work well with kung pao sauce (I always look for it in vegetarian-friendly restaurants), and your mocktail is downright intriguing.
My husband looked for the comet last night but couldn't see it. Too much light pollution, and possibly the wrong elevation for optimal views. He and I might try again in a different part of town some time, but if we fail, we still have plenty of great photos on the Internet to look at, so I'm not too worried.
I'm happy to see (via your comments in the previous blog) that your dentist appointment was so quick and easy and safe.
tomatoes are hervested! mine just blooming, one plant has tiiiiny fruits....
but on the other hand - no heat warnings.
your cooking sound sooooo delicious!! would love to come around to eat the leftovers. we have cardoon growing wild at the railroad track - but would not try to eat them because of all the maschine oil and diesel they get...... :-D would it work to burry one up and plant it in the garden for next year?
somewhere i have some cocktail umbrellas too.......... :-D
coincidence - if you come over you´ll see what i did in the kitchen lately!
xxxx
I grew cardoons in my garden in California, quite the striking architectural form in the background. I had a recipe from a Sicilian neighbor that involved roasting them in the oven with a drizzle of olive oil, fennel seeds, tomatoes, and garlic that was quite tasty & easy.
Those stuffed tomatoes with breadcrumbs are deelish, I have used a similar mix to stuff scooped out zucchini halves -yum!
Fresh vegetables are getting scarce this far along in the Monsoon, most have rotted before ripening. Okra, eggplant, green tomatoes, chilis, and long beans are about all we are down to for the next month. Lots of local mangoes and bananas though!
It is 85F/29C here with about 85% humidity -SWAMPY!
Was thinking about baking biscuits just to dry out the house.
If I never ate goat or rice again I would be very happy!
:P
The potatoes are astonishing! Everything you've made looks and sounds delicious. You seem to really love cooking - I hate it I'm afraid. A roasted chicken is such good value. In the winter the leftover get turned into a curry or a thick soup and sometimes we even have enough left to make a chicken and mayo sandwich filling!
Take care,
xxx
Those potatoes are a sight to behold, what a wonderful colour.
I'm liking the look of your stuffed tomatoes, I keep meaning to make some Greek-style ones but Jon keeps insisting on cooking!
All my artichokes were eaten by slugs and my toms, like Beate's are only just flowering. We need a week of sunshine instead of a bit every seven days! xxx
Here, life is just a bowl of cherry tomatoes. My SuperSweet 100s are producing as advertised on the packet, and they're winning the race: more are ripening than I can eat while watering the patio garden.
Audrey the cucumber plant has climbed atop the privacy fence and launched an assault on the soffit vents. The lawn crew has noticed. My Spanish is lacking key palabras, but I think they're admiring her efforts.
Meanwhile, back in the kitchen, when I do cook, it's a full English breakfast consumed at dawn. Otherwise, it's cold meats and salads. And gallons of ice tea -- which would go down very well with those tomates farcies au maigre. The herb pot looks like a jungle. Waste not, want not!
We've just been issued the first heat index alert in two years...woe is us.
Those purple potatoes look magnificent, almost good enough to eat! I love the effort you make in cooking imaginative meals. I'm not the best cook in the world - euphemism - and leave most of the cooking to Jos, but he's rather a traditional cook. xxx
@Emily
Thank you. I try to make dinner something to look forward to because at this point there's not much else differentiating the days.
@Beate
Thank you. If you catch the cardoons as they go to seed, the purple tops turn white like dandelions. Scatter them in your garden and they should grow easily, but make sure you want them because they can get invasive if let go. We have a similar plant in our area called musk thistle and I have to keep telling the landscaping crew that the cardoons are not weeds!
@Bibi
We've been hearing about the awful floods in India and Nepal and hoping you are safe. It sounds awful. I can see getting tired of the mono diet after a bit.
@Veronica
I don't like cooking but it makes the time at home go a bit quicker. I was the worst cook as a new bride because my mum never really cooked. There was a very steep learning curve before I figured out what I was doing.
@Vix
My tomatoes are store bought! The ones in my garden gave up as it was too hot for the flowers to set. The purple spuds are interesting-not starchy at all, so probably only good for steaming.
@Beth
If you get inundated with cherry tomatoes you can blanch them and then dry them out on parchment lined baking sheets in a very slow oven to make sun-dried style tomatoes. Sometimes I just roast them with herbs and oil and freeze them for winter sauces or English muffin "pizzas". I have recipes for tomato jam if you get desperate ;)
@Ann
If Jos is happy to cook, let him! There's a lot to be said for traditional cooking, particularly when well executed ;)
Those stuffed tomatoes with fish look really delicious.
I've veered between getting pizza deliveries and cooking fairly OTT meals on lockdown. Did three different Sichuan dishes (plus rice) last night. That was good! Dunno what I'll do when my storecupboard starts getting low on the more unusual ingredients, I guess I'll have to brave the train and go into Bath.
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