Thursday's Kitchen Cupboard - Turnip Kimchi and Roasted Turnip

Couple weeks ago I pulled all the Japanese turnips, some are quite small but tender and delicious, I didn't have the heart to through them away so I made these two side dishes for lunch.  You can use any vegetable to make the Korean kimchi such as cucumber, summer squash, winter squash, radish, daikon, napa cabbage, bok choy, and mustard etc...The basic ingredients for the recipe are more or less the same, feel free to add or take away any ingredient and adjust the seasoning to your taste.

 

Baby turnip kimchi - most of the red color came from paprika, it's not that hot.

Sprinkle salt over turnip (or radish), mix and set aside for about 5 minutes; rinse and drain.

Seasoning:  minced garlic and ginger, minced Korean brined shrimp (or few drops of fish sauce),

pinch of salt, sugar, and Korean chili pepper (use more if you like heat), add some paprika for color.

Toss vegetable with seasoning and set aside for an hour or two before serving, good with BBQ. 

The kimchi can be kept in the frig for long time, but it never lasted more than 3 days at our house.   

Roasted baby turnip - olive oil, salt, pepper, and few drops of maple syrup.

Thursday's Kitchen Cupboard is hosted by The Gardener of Eden, go visit Robin to see what other gardeners are cooking from their gardens around the globe.

Harvest Monday - June 25, 2012

Italian Costoluto Heirloom Tomato

Asian Cucumbers, Thai Basil, and Blenheim Apricots

To beat the birds for apricots I harvest the fruits a tad under ripe, 

they will ripen in a day or two off tree.

Garlic (pulled 2 weeks ago), first tomato, green pimentos, and Asian cabbages.
This year's Shangdon garlic head is much smaller that last year, don't know why,
I pulled the Xian garlic yesterday and is curing, the heads are bigger than this batch.

 

Drop by Daphne's Dandelions host of Harvest Monday to see more harvests around the globe.

Beginning of Summer Garden

Here are some of the fruits and vegetables I'm growing now, more later.

First ripening tomato, Chinese bush variety, don't know the name.

2nd place in the race is container grown Italian Costoluto.

BER on Costoluto grown in ground, this is the only plant I have problem with right now.

I don't think is moisture issue, all tomato plants in the same bed receive same amount of water,

I probably forgot to mix in bonemeal/eggshell for this one while transplanting, lesson learned.

 Costoluto again, lots of catface fruits.

Tomatoes, eggplants, and pimento peppers.

 I harvested some garlic couple weeks ago, here are the rest of them, 

the tops are falling over quickly in scorching heat. 

Pimento peppers are crowding and growing on top of each other, I'm picking them green, 

I should thin them out sooner to allow the fruits ripen on the plant.

Pointed head Thai cabbage, this is the biggest one and seems to escape cabbage worm damage,

there are several smaller heads still growing in scorching heat, don't know how long they can take it.

Taiwanese Li San flat head cabbage.

Karibou kabacha pumpkin, I hand pollinated this baby, 

just want to make sure I get at least ONE winter squash,

because it's the only yellow meat pumpkin I'm growing this year.

In the upper left corner is Kwintus Romano pole beans, and the shorter Rolande French filet bush beans.  There were some problems with the Rolande beans this year, I have to reseed them 2X as you can see from the photo some seedlings are rather small and some are just beginning to sprout.

The yellow Rolande bean seedling never photosynthesized,

it stayed yellow for about 10 days then withered and died.

Melons -- uzbek, hami, charentais, and silverbrite.

 Kabacha winter squash in the front, Avocado summer squash climbing trellis in the back.

Hilda Romano pole beans and scarlet runner beans for the hummingbirds.

What's growing in your garden this summer?

Thursday's Kitchen Cupboard - Celtuce Salad

Celtuce and roasted sweet mini peppers with sesame ginger dressing.

Mini sweet peppers roasted with a tad of olive oil for about 10 minutes until slightly brown.
Celtuce salted for about 10 minutes to remove moisture or bitterness if any, rinsed and set aside.
Toss peppers and celtuce in a salad bowl with your favorite dressing, serve cold or at room temp.

Following pictures are from last year's celtuce salad post.

 

Celtuce salad with homemade miso dressing, this photo is from last year's post.

 Peel and cut off tough skin.

Slice and cut into bite size, sprinkle salt and mix thoroughly, 

set aside for about 10 minutes then rinse off salt.

The celtuce is ready to be tossed into a salad or stir fry with other vegetables (or meat).

Thursday's Kitchen Cupboard is hosted by The Gardener of Eden,
drop by Robin's place to see more idea for cooking from garden harvest around the globe.

Harvest Monday - June 18, 2012

I've been slack in taking photos, this is very late in turning in the harvest report.  There is not much going on in the garden, it is in transition phase from spring crops to summer crops, all the springs crops are pretty much harvested except some cabbages.  The summer crops are finally blooming and setting fruits. I should do an update of the garden for record keeping and to help in placing crop rotation later.  Anyways here's what I harvested earlier this evening.

    Asian eggplants, Japanese turnips, Swiss chard, and Blenheim apricots.

I also harvest some garlic scapes, chive scapes, and a cucumber, but they didn't make it to photo opt.

We've been having high temps in the 90s, I pulled all the Harukai turnips before they bolt.

The apricots were rescued from hungry birds, they have been pecking at the ripening fruits.  I'm freezing them for jam making later, they are not ripe and sweet enough for fresh eating.  The eggplants are blooming and setting fruits, this is the first harvest, I'll be using them for cold salad dishes in these hot summer days.

Harvest Monday is hosted by Daphne's Dandelions drop by to see more harvests from around the globe.

Harvest Monday - June 4, 2012

Celtuce, garlic scapes, beets, and green corriander.

Green cilantro seeds.

Took notes from Michelle, I'm going to collect these green seeds until I get enough to make a pesto.

I've made a Thai pesto before using dried corriander seeds, fresh cilantro roots, white peppercorns, and garlic, it was delicious with shrimp and pork ribs, I think the fresh seeds would work out just fine.

Harvest Monday is hosted by Daphne's Dandelions, drop by to see more harvests from around the globe by other gardeners.