Fall Garden Salad

Broccoli, pea sprouts, carrots, red onion, persimmon, apple, farro, pine nuts, and bacon.

Vinaigrette dressing: Moscatel vinegar, white miso, Dijon mustard, maple syrup, salt, and pepper.

 

Harvest Monday - November 28, 2011

Red and white winter radishes, some of the white daikons will go into a savoury radish cake later.

Savoury Daikon Cake (aka turnip cake, radish cake, lok bok goh 蘿蔔糕).
This is one of the traditional Chinese New Year cakes I make every year for the holiday.

Serve warm: the cake is sliced into 1/2" thick and pan fry until slightly brown on both sides,

it is a popular dish at dim sum restaurants.

Visit Daphne's Dandelions host of Harvest Monday 

for more harvest from other gardeners around the globe.

Harvest Monday - November 21, 2011

Mini Napa Cabbage, Carrots, Chrysanthemum Greens.

Sugar snap pea is still hanging in there.

Lots of pea flowers and no pods, I decided to harvest the pea shoots for greens instead.

Fall and winter crops, a little bit of each:  various cabbages, mustard, chrysanthemum, 

spinach, kale, broccoli, turnips, daikons, beets, chards, carrots, lettuces, and radishes. 

Harvest Monday is hosted by Daphne's Dandelions, drop by to see what other gardeners are harvesting around the globe.

Butternut Chiffon Cake (Gluten Free)

My oven temperature was too hot, the cake center collapsed a bit,  

fortunately the cake turned out moist and fluffy (even after 4 days).

Ingredients:

1                 10” tube pan

8                 eggs            separated

120 ml         oil

160 ml         milk

1 tsp            vanilla

¼ tsp           salt

1 tsp            baking powder      

220 g          sugar           divided

110 g          rice flour*      sifted

70 g            butternut squash flour    sifted

½ tsp           cream of tartar

Batter

1. Combine:  egg yolks, milk, oil, ½ sugar, and vanilla in a mixing bowl--- stir & mix thoroughly,

2.   Mix together:  rice flour, butternut flour, baking powder, and salt --- add dry ingredients to yolk mixture.

3.   Set mixer speed at low then increase to medium high --- whip until the batter is creamy smooth, set aside.

Meringue

1.   Combine:  egg white, remaining sugar, and cream of tartar --- stir to mix at low, then gradually increase speed to high, whip egg white until glossy and stiff, do not overbeat.

2.   Fold meringue into the batter.

3.   Pour batter into ungreased tube pan.

4.   Bake at 325F for 40-45 minutes

Remove the cake

Invert the tube pan to stand on its legs to cool off, or insert a long neck bottle into the tube and let the pan hang upside down.

The cake is best when serve the next day.

About measurements in this cake

I was converting a regular chiffon cake recipe into a gluten-free cake, it is easier and more precise to measure in metric weight than in cups and spoons because gluten-free flours have different densities than wheat flour.

* you can substitute the same amount of all purpose flour for rice flour, but the cake won't be gluten-free. 

Visit Robin's Thursday Kitchen Cupboard for more cooking recipes and preserving ideas.

Harvest Monday - November 14, 2011

Napa Cabbage

Radish and Daikon

The cabbages weighted in at 3.0 lb and 3.50 lb after trimming.

I used one napa and three daikons for last night's hot pot dinner (similar to fondue).

 Click here for images of a hot pot dinner.

Drop by Daphne's Dandelions host of Harvest Monday 

to see more garden harvests from around the globe.

Butternut Squash Flour

There are seventeen butternut squashes steering at me in the storage room and I'm itching to experiment with something new.  Lately some of my friends are using winter squash flour to bake delicious chiffon cakes and breads, they purchased organic squash flour from an oversea specialty farmer, I'm not aware of any source for such product here in the states.  Generally I'm not a sweets person, most bakery items don't appeal to me, but those cakes and breads made with squash flour got my attention, I just have to grind my own flour and try to bake with it.


It's pretty easy to make the flour:  shred the squash, dehydrate, and then grind.
Butternut squash flour is high in sugar content, it will cake up and becomes lumpy over time, it's best to use the flour within 6 months or keep in freezer.

Dehydrated squash ground into flour for use in baking.

I use a VitaMix blender (dry grain blade) to do the job.
Two small squash yielded 6 oz (~180g) of flour, I'll make more if my cake turns out as expected.

Dehydrated squash.

The dehydrator was set at 145F for overnight drying.

Four trays for two small butternut squashes.

Drop by Robin's Thursday's Kitchen Cupboard to see more preserving ideas and yummy recipes.

Butternut Squash Fried Rice

Stuffing:  Fried rice with butternut squash, red onions, black olives, and toss with minced parsley,

garnish with saute pea shoots.