June 19, 2012
Arugula, Red
Butter Lettuce, Radishes, Salad Turnips, Yukina Savoy, Salad Mix, Mizuna –
Mustard bunches, Cilantro & Garlic Scapes
Last
week I watched a young moose wade through the wetland at the end of our
property. I had gone out for a walk at about 9 pm with the dogs when I heard a
lot of splooshing down the road in the wetland.
I could just make out a head going through the cattails. His antlers were just stubs, and it took me a
minute to realize he did not have four ears.
I watched him as he continued swimming and wading through the middle of
the wetland, disappearing into the trees.
Garlic Scapes: the immature flower stalks and buds of the
garlic plant. We snap them off so the
plant puts its energy into growing a bigger bulb instead of seed
production. To prepare, snap off the
bottom where it is tender same as asparagus, then use the rest. Later in the season I cut off the flower bud
and just eat the stalk, but right now the whole scape is tender so I would eat
the whole thing. I steam or sauté them
for about 7 minutes and served them with butter, pepper and salt. Garlic scapes can also be chopped up and used
in any dish where you would normally use garlic for flavour. I recommend chopping up a few and sautéing
them with the Yukina Savoy, or using them instead of garlic cloves in the
recipes below. You can also try adding a
few to your scrambled eggs or mashed potatoes.
Mizuna:
white stems and sharply pointed leaves, the purple variety has purple stems and
edges. Mizuna is tasty raw, but can be sautéed.
Mustard Greens: have a spicy mustard flavour. Add them to your salad or cook like
chard. They would go nicely with the
Yukina Savoy as a cooked green.
Salad Turnips: small, round, white turnips that taste fruity and
delicious. Eat them raw. Yum Yum.
Yukina Savoy: Tatsoi’s bigger, better, more nutritious cousin. With its white stems and deeply wrinkled dark
green, spoon shaped leaves it is a common ingredient in commercial salad
mix. It makes an excellent addition to
stir fries, but I like it best raw, and would mix it with some lettuce and
other greens for salad.
Yesterday as I walked through the
garden I was amazed how things had grown in the last week when we have had so
much rain. Everything should look
stressed from all the water but the plants are looking great. The chard will be ready for harvesting next
week, and all the peas are blooming.
When the rain stops everything is going to explode.
Our apprentice Derek is a trained
chef, and he has been making the most amazing salad dressings for us, so I
thought I would share a couple of his recipes with you.
Derek’s
Asian Salad Dressing
1 cup vegetable oil
½ cup white vinegar
¼ c soy sauce
3 cloves of garlic
1 Tbsp minced ginger
1 tsp sesame oil
1 Tbsp sugar
Chili paste or powder to taste
Raspberry
Vinaigrette
1 cup vegetable oil
½ cup white or apple cider vinegar
½ cup frozen raspberries
3 garlic cloves
1 tsp dried thyme leaves
1 Tbsp sugar
Salt and pepper to taste
For either recipe, blend all of the ingredients
together in a blender or use a stick blender.
Keep refrigerated.
Garlic Scape Pesto
2 cups chopped garlic scapes
½ cup pine nuts
½ cup grated Romano cheese
6 cloves garlic
1 tsp salt
½ tsp chilli flakes
½ tsp pepper
½ cup olive oil
Pulse all ingredients, except oil,
in a blender or food processor to form a coarse paste. Add the olive oil and pulse to blend. Keep refrigerated.
Arugula pesto makes a great
sandwich spread, cracker or vegetable dip.
Mix it with yogurt or mayonnaise
and a bit of lemon juice to make an excellent salad dressing.
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