Harvest Monday - January 30, 2012

Beets, daikon, radish, turnips, and tatsoi greens.

I pulled all the root crops today, they are putting out new leaves,
the bi-annual roots won't grow anymore due to longer daylight, 

but I'll start another batch of seeds for spring.  

Remaining overwintered greens:  chard, spinach, and kale.

Piracicaba Broccoli and Romano Broccoli.

There's not much going on in the gardening department, I started some seeds for green onions, broccoli raab, bok choy, lettuce, and chrysanthemum greens.  I'll be sowing peas, beets, kohlrabi, turnips, tatsoi, more lettuces, cilantro, and some other cold tolerant crops in the coming days.

Drop by Daphne's Dandelions host of Harvest Monday 

to see more garden harvests from around the globe.

Egg Tart 蛋塔

Egg Custard Tart (from April 2006 album)

 

This is a very popular item at dim sum restaurants or Chinese bakeries, you can easily make it at home, think of it as baking a mini custard pie.  The custard part is simple and straight forward, it's the flaky pastry that makes the difference in a good or bad egg tart. When I'm not lazy I make puff pastry crust for the tarts, but you can get away with a good store bough pre-made pie crust as seen from the photo.    

Click here to see a video on how to make egg tarts Hong Kong style. 



Ingredients for approximate twenty 3 1/2" egg tarts:

18-20 partially baked tart shells*

4 large eggs—slightly beaten

2 cups milk

1 tsp vanilla

1/2 cup sugar

1/8 tsp salt

Preheat oven 375F/190C

Directions:

1. Combine sugar, salt, and milk in a glass bowl, microwave for 2-3 minutes to dissolve the sugar and salt.

2. Add vanilla and beaten eggs to milk, stir and strain the mixture couple times to remove lumps and foam.

3. Pour egg mixture into partially baked tart shells and bake for 15-20 min. or until a toothpick comes out clean, if the tart browns before the custard is set loosely cover the tarts with foil.

4. Do not overbaked or the custard will be rubbery.

*Two 10" homemade flaky puff pastry or pie dough, roll the crust to about 1/8" thick, cut with a 4” cookie cutter to fit crust into tart mold. I managed to get 10 shells out of 1 pie crust, bake the shells at 375°F/190C for about 10 minutes prior to filling.

Note:  I'm baking at high altitude, my oven temperature might be too high for lowlanders, you might want to experiment with lower temp such as 350F/176C if your oven  tends to run on the hot side.


This post is linked to Thursday's Kitchen Cupboard, drop by The Gardener of Eden to see more preserving and cooking ideas.



 

Happy Lunar New Year 龍年快樂 花開富貴

Harvest Monday - January 9, 2012

Happy new year, sorry I've been MIA the past several weeks, I need someone to hit me on the head to snap out of winter doldrums.  I'm posting couple pictures from last year end and the new year harvests.

 2011 year end harvest -- green meat daikon, carrots, and napa cabbage.

 

 2012 new year harvest -- napa cabbage and piracicaba broccoli shoots.

 Garlic for 2012 -- Shangdong and Xian were in good condition, I finally got them planted, whew~

 the Spanish Rojas didn't keep as well as the other two, I will not be growing it again.

Harvest Monday is hosted by Daphne's Dandelions

drop by to see more harvests from other gardeners around the globe.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year

Napa Kraut 酸白菜

Wash and cut napa into halves or quarters and air dry for couple hours to rid of all water.

Weight the vegetables and calculate 2% of the total weight for salt,
(1 tbsp of salt = 1/2 oz;  approx. 5 lb vegetable to 3 tbsp salt)

There are 7.5 lb of cabbage here, I use 4 - 4.5 tbsp of Kosher salt, 

it's alright to use a little more or less salt, don't stress over the math.

Gently rub salt into the vegetables until the leaves are wilted, pack them tightly into a clean jar,  put a weight on top to keep the vegetable submerge in its liquid and seal the jar, if there's not enough liquid to cover the vegetables, dissolve 1 tbsp of salt in 1 cup of water and pour into the container until the vegetables are covered.
I'm using a glass pickle jar here to show you the water seal, there's a channel for water around the mouth of the jar and a bowl is inverted to keep air out.  You can use any large size glass bottle for the pickle, but you have to keep an eye out for mold and be diligent about releasing gas forming inside the bottle as the vegetables ferment.

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Here are some old photos from my last post 4 years ago.

 

 The napas have been cleaned and air dried ready to go into the 2 gallon crock,
2 pieces of stones are used to weight down the vegetables.

Put a layer of cabbage at the bottom of the crock, sprinkle some salt on top and press down, repeat

until all the cabbages are salted and pressed into the crock, it may take a while to do this.

After couple hours of salting the vegetable shrunk and exuded more liquid, its volume reduced by approximately 1/3 and I was able to fit both pieces of stones into the crock, the liquid covering the stones were from the vegetables, I didn't have to add any salt water to cover the them.

Approximately 10 days to 2 weeks of fermentation the kraut is ready to eat. Napa kraut is much milder than regular sauerkraut, and you can use it the same way.  I use it for soups, stews, hot pots, dumplings, stir frys, etc etc.....

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 For Lacto-Fermented Mustard Greens

 (Sorry Thomas, this post is VERY late)

Use 3 - 3 1/2 tbsp of Kosher salt to 5 lb of thick stem mustard, air dry the greens until slightly wilted, gently rub salt into the mustard, press and put a weight on top to release moisture from the vegetable, then pack tightly into a clean container, there should be enough liquid to cover the vegetable, otherwise add salt water (1 tbsp salt + 1 cup water) to cover it.

This post is linked to The Gardener of Eden host of Thursday's Kitchen Cupboard, drop by Robin's place to see more preserving ideas and cooking recipes.

Creamy Napa Cabbage 奶油白菜

 Baked Napa Cabbage

Cut Napa into halves or quarters, cook in boiling broth until tender.

 

Put the cooked cabbage in a serving plate or casserole and pour white sauce over the vegetable.

White Sauce or Bechamel Sauce

(makes 2 cups) 

4   tbsp   butter (or oil)

 2   tbsp   flour

2   cups    warm milk (or 1/2 milk + 1/2 broth)

1   tsp   minced garlic

salt and white pepper to taste

In a small sauce pan melt butter, add garlic, salt, and pepper,

stir in flour, add warm milk and cook until the sauce thickens.

Pour sauce over cooked napa, garnish with shaved ham, serve hot.

 Cream Napa cabbage is a popular dish serve in Zhejian (浙江) region of China.

I made 2 substitutions for this dish:  1)  I use butter instead of oil for the white sauce.

2)  I use prosciutto to garnish instead of the traditional Chinese ham (similar to Virginia ham).

Note:  The sauce should be very smooth, I didn't do a good job of tending to the sauce

while working on other things, but you get the idea.

This one was baked at 400F. 

Harvest Monday - December 12, 2011

Three different varieties of Napa cabbage.

The once tightly wrapped cabbage heads are now unwrapping themselves
due to stress in subzero temps, I have to pick them before they bolt.
These cabbages will be pickled and make into Napa kraut.

Green onions survived.

These carrots came through, they were somewhat under the patio cover,
another pot of carrots is still covered with snow and the soil is frozen solid.


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Veggies Growing Under Tunnels

Beets

Green meat daikon.

Spinach, chard, kale, and some chrysanthemu greens.

Mini cabbage won't head up when temp dips below mid teens.

Can't believe Piracicaba broccoli is putting out shoots in this weather.

Broccoli and cauliflower

This Napa wants to bolt, its head was tightly wrapped before the subzero temps,
the leaves are unwrapping due to cold stress.  Learn something new this time,
certain variety of Napa cabbage does not like extreme cold or hot weather.

This is a different strain of Napa cabbage, it looks a bit better than the previous variety,
I'm leaving it alone for now, curious to see how it fares in coming weeks.

Drop by Daphne's Dandelions host of Harvest Monday
to see what other gardeners are harvesting this time of year.

Brussels Sprouts Salad

Brusells sprouts (blanch 1 minute and shred), toasted pine nuts, and fried bean vermicelli.

Asian vinaigrette:  salad oil, sesame oil, soy sauce, rice vinegar, lemon juice, and honey.

Japchae - Korean Style Vegetable Beef Vermicelli

 

Japchae

Ingredients:

Sweet potato starch noodles

Flank steak - sliced, marinade in salt, pepper, soy sauce, and toasted sesame oil. 

Dried shitake mushrooms - rehydrated and sliced

Onion - sliced

Vegetables from the garden:  carrots, spinach, napa cabbage

Seasoning:  sesame oil, soy sauce, salt, pepper

Method:

1.  Soak and soften  noodles in cold water 5-10 minutes, at the meantime bring a pot of water to boil.

2.  Drop noodles into boiling water and cook until the noodles are translucent color, remove from heat and drain, rinse the noodles in cold water to stop the cooking.

3.  Pour some toasted sesame oil over the cooked noodles and mix thoroughly to prevent them from sticking together.

4.  Heat some oil in a frying pan on high, saute marinaded beef quickly, remove meat from pan when there's no longer red color, set aside.

5.  Saute the mushrooms with a bit of soy sauce and broth until cook through.

6.  Stir fry and season each vegetable separately and set aside.

Putting the dish together:

1.  Reheat the noodles in a non-stick frying pan - season with some salt and few drops of soy sauce for color. 

2.  Add cooked beef and vegetables, toss and mix thoroughly, garnished with toasted sesame seeds.