Roasted Spring Vegetables

Roasted Carrots Snap Peas Green Garlic with Saute Pea Shoots

Blanch snap peas before roasting, I'm surprised that the purple peas retain most of its color.

This dish is adapted from Nate Appleman's cookbook A16 "Roasted Carrots and Snap Peas with Green Garlic and Mint".   The recipe is quite simple, toss carrots in olive oil, salt, pepper, and roast until half cook, then add green garlic and blanched snap peas, roast few minutes more until the green garlic has lost the raw bite.  The original recipe calls for mixing in chopped fresh mint with the roasted vegetables before serving,  I don't have mint on hand and substitute saute pea shoots instead, the dish turns out fine without the minty flavor.

Harvest Monday - May 30, 2011

Shandong Garlic Scapes, Purple Snap Peas, Green Snap Peas.

Garlic Chives and Mibuna

I've been snacking on strawberries from the garden in the past 3 weeks, I get 2-3 fruits here and there, but they never made it to photo opt for Monday Harvest, I thought I should save one for show and tell this time.

I'm growing four different varieties of garlic this year, Shandong, Xian, Spanish Rojas, and an unknown name from Gilroy CA.  Shandong garlic was planted after Christmas last year, it appears to be an early variety, it took exactly 5 months from seeds to scapes, maybe the garlic bulbs will be ready for harvest in another month or so.

Some folks are confused about garlic chives and green garlic, here's the difference:

 Garlic chives grow in clumps, narrow flat leaves, it is a perennial, 

cut and come again, propagate by root division or seeds.

 Green garlic is immature garlic plant, each plant grows individually from a garlic clove, it has large flat leaves and grown as annual, harvest the entire plant or cut 1" above soil level, the leaves will regrow again but smaller and less tender than the first cut.

Drop by Daphne's Dandelions host of Harvest Monday to see more garden harvests by other gardeners.

Wordless

Kopper Kettle Itoh Peony

Harvest Monday - May 23, 2011

Baby Beets and Misome

Some of the Veggies Growing in the Garden Now

Red and blue potatoes in half barrel, I'm cutting back on potatoes this year.

 Tomatoes are in, I have 7 plants altogether, the celtuce on the right need to be thinned out soon.

Fava beans have been flowering the last 7 weeks
no pods in sight, wonder what they are waiting.

Check out Daphne's Dandelions host of Harvest Monday to see more harvests from other gardeners.

Roasted Japanese Turnip Kabu and Carrot

Roasted Japanese Turnips and Carrots.

Kabu, a Japanese turnip also known as Shogoin, Hakurei, and Tokyo Market in the US, a friend who lives in Japan told me this is the first time she heard of these varieties (names), they simply call it "kabu" (turnip) in Japan.

This dish is super easy to make and delicious, you might change your mind about how turnip tastes if you try this dish once, here we go:
Small JP turnips - cut into halves or quarters, some carrots (if using).

Seasonings: olive oil, sea salt, fresh ground pepper, and a dash of maple syrup.

Toss vegetables with seasonings and roast at 400F until tender.

JP turnip is very tender, it cooks fast, roasting time is quite short, probably 10 minutes or less, I was doing something else while cooking and forgot how long it took, sorry folks.

 

Harvest Monday - May 16, 2011

Kabu (JP turnip), mibuna, Shanghai bok choy, and dwarf white stem bok choy.

Lettuces, green onions, purple sugar snap peas.

Harvest Monday is hosted by Daphne's Dandelions head over there to see more garden harvests from other gardeners.

Harvest Monday - May 9, 2011

Edible Chrysanthemum Greens (Shungiku).

Large leaf chrysanthemum, a cool weather crop, 

often seen in Chinese, Japanese, and Korean hot pots. 

 Sugar Magnolia Snap Peas

Day 1 -- the pea pod is green.

 Day 2 -- the pod color darkens as it exposes to light.

I have a large harvest this week, but I won't bore you with my usual photos of Swiss chard, piracicaba broccoli, spinach, chives, and green onions. I pulled all the cool weather crops last week, and my daughter helped me planted tomatoes, eggplants, peppers and melons.  I still have a lot of seedlings to transplant, they may or may not make it to their final destination as I'm recovering from surgery, some will have to wait, and some will have to be abandoned, c'est la vie.

Harvest Monday is hosted by Daphne's Dandelions head over there to see more garden harvest.

 

Happy Mother's Day

Harvest Monday - May 2, 2011

Spinach, garlic chive, lettuce.

 Frittata -- garlic chive, bacon, mushroom, shrimp, and eggs.
Include some shredded cheese would be nice if you're not lactose intolerant.

Spinach side dish (or appetizer) with roasted almond butter dressing.

This dish is quite simple and easy to put together -- briefly blanch spinach and mung bean noodles (if using) in boiling water, drain and squeeze dry, season with salt, white pepper, and shallot oil, garnish with crispy fried shallots.  Serve warm or cold with roasted almond butter dressing or toasted sesame butter dressing.

Ingredients for almond butter dressing -- roasted almond butter (or toasted sesame butter), shallot oil (or sesame oil), rice vinegar (or balsamic vinegar), light color soy sauce (or salt), and a pinch of sugar.  Mix all ingredients together in a bowl, taste to adjust seasoning, if the dressing is too thick add 1-2 tbsp of shallot oil (or warm water) to the dressing.

Drop by Daphne's Dandelions host of Harvest Monday to see more harvests by other gardeners.