They Were Supposed to be Artichokes

Two years ago I bought two pieces of what was sold to me as artichoke root stock to see if I could get artichokes to grow here. They took off well - 

   

But they were attacked by vicious snails plus the spot was too shady and eventually they crapped out and died, so I just left the area they were planted go. 

                        

Well, a couple weeks ago I was cleaning up that area and was raking out the dead leaves. And, found the artichokes had sprouted again! It's a miracle, maybe thanks to St Anthony!

So, I dug them up and...

  Moved them here, beside the fava beans, a much more sunny spot.

Will post more pics later showing how they are doing.

Well, here's how they're doing. This is not what artichoke plants are supposed to look like but they are exactly what horseradish plants are supposed to look like!  Ison's Nursery made a mistake and gave me horseradish root stock instead of artichoke!

But the leaves are very good sauteed in olive oil. And maybe we can make some hot Chinese mustard wit the roots.

 My helper.

How to make Italian Easter Bread and Pastiera

Here are two very good videos from Laura Vitale showing how to make two traditional Italian Easter treats - Easter Bread and Pastiera.

 

Buona Pasqua! 

 

Italian Sweet Easter Bread

 

 

Pastiera

 

 

Blueberry and Meyer Lemon Polenta Cobbler

Lisa made this wonderful dessert based on a recipe from a book my daughter Brittany gave her for Christmas - Maxine Clark's Cobblers and Crumbles. Served with a nice big dollop of vanilla whole milk Greek yogurt. That's right!

Ingredients

1 1/2 lb fresh blueberries

1 stick plus 1 Tbsp unsalted butter at room temp

1/3 cup superfine sugar

Finely grated zest and juice of one lemon - use a Meyer lemon, if available

1/2 cup sour cream

1/2 cup all purpose flour

1/2 cup polenta or fine cornmeal

1 Tbsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

2 Tbsp honey

1/4 cup superfine sugar

large shallow ovenproof baking dish

Preheat oven to 350.

Butter the bottom of the oven proof baking dish and fill with the blueberries.

   

Cream the stick of butter, sugar and lemon zest together until pale and fluffy, then beat in the sour cream.

  

Sift the flour with the polenta, baking powder and salt and fold into the sour cream mixture.

 

Dot the blueberries with the mixture in a random manner until the top of the dish is covered. Leaving a little space around each spoonful allows the fruit to bubble up through the gaps giving it a cool "cobbled" look.

  

Bake for about 20 minutes.

 

While the cobbler is baking, make the lemon butter mixture for the crust. Put the remaining tablespoon of butter in a small saucepan with the honey, lemon juice and sugar. Melt over low heat. Pour the melted mixture over the crust.

 

Turn up the oven to 375 and cook for 15 - 20 more minutes or until golden brown.

Zest a Meyer Lemon

 Butter, sugar, Meyer lemon zest, sour cream

Flour, polenta, baking powder and salt

 Fresh blueberries dotted with the polenta mixture

 Finished - NICE!   Great job Lis!

Favas, Garlic, Fennel and Grapes

So this morning I took these photos of what's growing in our garden so far this Spring -

The fava beans are looking good. They average 10 -12 inches tall now with just a couple runts. The empty spot, which would be third from the right front, was caused when one of our cats jumped down from the top of the fence behind the favas and landed square on one. It never recovered.

Garlic is very healthy. Three varieties - Tuscan, Siciliano and Italian Red.



The eleven year old fennel plant starting to wake up. I always thought fennel was an annual, but back eleven years ago we planted fennel with the idea of using the bulbs. I left this one in the ground when we took down the garden in the fall just to see what would happen and it has stayed with us all these years. Just cut it down to the ground at the end of the growing season and it has come back every spring. It grows about 7 ft tall! This one plant has produced amazing amounts of seeds - much stronger and sweeter in flavor than store bought in spice jars.

                                                             ***

These next three pics are our Norton/Cynthiana wine grape vines. They just started leafing out this week. Last year they started mid March but the long colder than normal winter we had let the vines sleep in a little longer.



Pan Roasted Gulf Pompano

We used to go to Panama City Beach, Florida for vacation regularly years ago. One of the things we always made sure to do was to have dinner at least one night at Captain Anderson's. The dish we looked forward to having was their Gulf Pompano. It was done so right that I still think about it. The pompano was grilled whole and served with an herbed garlic lemon olive oil. Yah!

Pompano has sweet, buttery flesh. It's a good fish to cook and serve whole because its bone structure is firm and compact with very few pin bones making it easy to filet on the plate. Plus it looks pretty damn cool served whole at the table.

We were able to get a couple nice fresh pompano recently. Here is how we prepared them.

Preheat oven to 375. Meanwhile score the pompano and season with kosher salt and fresh ground pepper. Make sure to rub some down into the score cuts. 

Heat 3 tablespoons of oil in a large heavy skillet over medium heat. Carefully add whole fish and pan sear for 5 minutes on each side. Make sure you use a timer so you don't over-cook the fish.



Put the fish onto a baking tray and into the oven to continue cooking.

Cook fish for 6 to 8 minutes - again use a timer.

We made cous cous with dried fruit and asparagus with shallots cooked in a grill pan as a side dishes but below is a recipe for a vegetable hash that would go very well too.

Spoon the herb oil over the fish

Herb Oil

1/2 cup fresh basil

1/2 cup fresh parsley

3 cloves raw garlic

Juice of one lemon

Pinch of salt & pepper

 

Preparation

Add all ingredients to a food processor

Blend for 10 seconds

Pour into a serving bowl

Home made sourdough bread

Vegetable Hash
1 cup yellow onion, chopped
3 cloves garlic, finely chopped
3 medium red tomatoes, chopped
1 small eggplant, diced
2 medium red bell peppers, diced
2 medium zucchini, diced
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 tablespoon fresh basil, chopped
1 tablespoon parsley, chopped

Preparation
Heat 3 tablespoons of oil in a large skillet over medium high heat.
Add onions, garlic and bell peppers.
Sauté onion mixture for several minutes.
Add zucchini and season lightly with salt and pepper.
Stir to combine and cook. Add the tomatoes and eggplant to the pan.
Cook vegetable mixture for another minute or two.
Add fresh herbs and lemon juice to the pan and stir to combine.
Adjust seasoning with salt and pepper.
Vegetables should be crisp-tender and seasoned well. Set vegetables aside to cool slightly
 

How Cooking Can Change Your Life - Michael Pollan

Author Michael Pollan argues that cooking is one of the simplest and most important steps people can take to improve their family's health, fix our broken food system, and break our growing dependence on ready made processed food.

Just a 20 minute video. Please watch. Very enlightening.