Tomato-Rama: Part 4: What the Hell do I do with all these TOMATOES?!

To begin with, we used up the leftover MAMMOTH zucchini by making zucchini bread (again, inspired in part by Dr. Stonielove, and partly from How it All Vegan). We fudged recipes and approximated (mostly because we ran out of both sugar and cinnamon and don't have any soft tofu or eggs in the house right now). The resulting loaves were excellent! I think we ended up using 4c. whole wheat flour, 1c. oat flour (which we just figured out how to make. god bless food processors!), applesauce, 4 c. shredded zucchini, cinnamon, nutmeg, raisins, walnuts, and other odds and ends.
Excellent with coffee for breakfast, and excellent for luring little black cats into photographs.
Okay, so the hundred-plus tomatoes from yesterday added to the forty-plus tomatoes from earlier in the week need to be dealt with. We started off blanching, peeling, and freezing some for the future (but our freezer is sadly running out of space!)

We also found out about making fresh tomato juice. After blanching (1-2 minutes each), and peeling them (and after a while we even quit peeling or coring them), throw your tomatoes into your food processor or blender and whiz up until pretty well liquified

Following some recipes, we threw in a small onion, a couple ribs and leaves of our garden celery, and a squirt of lemon. Then we poured the juice through a sieve. I saved the leftover tomato pulp. I'm convinced I can make something with it. The JUICE has been employed in two ways so far:

Makes a bloody marvelous Virgin Mary:

(I'm not sure, but I think I just made up that name. I don't fancy the Bloody Mary, but I do like the IDEA of Bloody Marys..)

Then, after whizzing up a TON of tomatoes, we ended up with about 2 quarts of juice which then made a rather gratifying Garden Vegetable Soup!!

The whole peeled tomatoes, tomato juice, onions, cabbage, carrots, green beans, corn, and potatoes are all either fresh from our garden, or from our CSA. We also added some frozen edamame (although we WILL have some fresh ones soon), and some frozen mixed veggies for good measure.

We've also frozen a large batch of salsa. The JUICE, though, will totally be done again to stock up for soup for the fall!!!

Tomato-Rama: Part 3

Baked Oats with Blueberries for breakfast. Inspired by Dr. Stonielove (see her "branch platter"), but meddling with recipes, this batch turned out a tad mushy. I've since burned a batch. I'll post a recipe when I've figured out how I like it. Here's another unfortunate victim to melon splitting. I cry when there's too little rain. I can hardly complain when there's a little too much at once!And the GREATEST TOMATO HARVEST SO FAR THIS SUMMER.
Here's 38 Early Girls, 69 Romas
A handful of cherry tomatoes, a couple of tomatillos and various peppers.
Stay Tuned for What the Hell do I do with all these TOMATOES!!

Tomato-Rama: Part 2

Here's a more recent tomato haul. We got a ton of basil to dry too. And the baby watermelons are splitting from the erratic rainfall. We've lost four or five now, but we've tried to ENJOY what's been left of the split babies. This one was delicious, crisp, sweet. I can only imagine how it would have been if it grew larger.
Here's the LOAD of basil. I have to document it now, because the cruel Indiana winter will make this all seem like a pleasant dream!
Here's our cantaloupe (?) hiding in the straw. I figure the longer I ignore it, the bigger and more beautiful she will grow.
And we're finally growing EDAMAME!!!!!
And an even more recent tomato (plus bell pepper, jalapeno pepper, tomatillo, and basil/cinnamon basil) harvest.

Tomato-Rama-Lama-Ding-Dong: Part 1

Zips' favorite breakfast item: breakfast tacos!
Our garden has totally spoiled us this summer. It's still astonishing to me that I can just go out and eat tomatoes to my heart's content, and not have to hand anyone any money for them!
Here's a haul from about a week ago. The plants have since yielded SO MANY that we can barely keep up. Nightly arabic salads, daily salsa batches, and occasional insalata caprese cannot dispose of as many tomatoes as we are producing. We have had to resort to other, more creative tactics.

But first, the blueberry U-pick opened for one more day, before being completely cleaned out. We did our part, picking approximately fifteen pounds. Here's Zips' big brother Bijoux, and Mini's tail checking out the haul. Some of them (the berries, not the cats) made it into our happy bellies, and two thirds made it into freezer bags for blueberry pancakes and pies in the future.

And speaking of pies, here's our veggie "chik'n" pot pie. The crust turned out better than usual, I hope to have the hang of it now, after absorbing some Paula Deen and Barefoot Contessa and Martha Stewart tips. The "chick'n" is thawed, cubed Quorn "chicken breast" style "Naked Chik'n Cutlets."


Veggie Pot Pie:
3 Quorn Chik'n Cutlets (cubed)
1 c. frozen mixed vegetables (corn, carrots, peas, green beans)
1-2 small potatoes, cubed (I used yukon gold)
1 can condensed cream of mushroom soup (cream of celery also works)
1 c. soy milk
2 9" pie crusts

mix the soy milk with the soup mix.
mix cubed chik'n, mixed veggies, and cubed potato together and pour soup/soy milk mixture over it.
pour it all into a crust lined pie plate, top with crust and crimp the edges.
Poke holes in the center of the top crust to let steam escape.

Bake for 45 minutes at 350.

Abbondanza!! Part 2

Let me preface this by saying I have never gardened before this summer. I have killed unkillable mint plants. I have nursed potted cilantro past when it should have been eaten. I have watched beloved herbs die in beautiful terraced pots. On and off in my life, I have loved the IDEA of gardening, but have never been motivated to action. I have known people whose idea of a good weekend is to re-pot fifty baby tomato sprouts from peat pots to larger pots. I have not joined those people in their dirty idea of fun.

I now know that I just needed to find my soulmate in order to appreciate all the joy that sinking your hands into nature and cultivating living things brings me. Now that we are mid-July, I realize that it's mid summer. School will begin again in six or seven weeks. We'll have the garden until mid-October, but I know that one day too soon I'll be kicking myself for taking this kind of abundance for granted. After all of our time hacking at the dirt, getting eaten by chiggers, weeding, crying for rain, and getting sunburned just above where my waistband, today yielded our first real recolte. Because of the dry spell and the multiplying weeds casting our fledgling onions in shade, we harvested quite a few of our baby yellow onions.

We also got a nice haul of tomatoes (17 early girls, 8 romas, 15 cherry), tomatillos, some of our struggling cucumbers, and we pulled up one of the celery plants to give the others a little more breathing room. It's just astonishing to me that we've gone for weeks without purchasing a significant amount of tomatoes in a grocery store.
I also cut some of the mint and basil that's flowering . From L to R, thai basil, sweet basil, spearmint, and the surreptitious cinnamon basil (I thought it was thai basil until I realized it smelled totally different! The nursery got it wrong!)(That same nursery also sold us some cabbage that has turned out to be cauliflower!) I've been looking up how to freeze herbs (rather than dry them)-- I'll try it and provide the link if I like the results.
Here Mini scrutinizes the sweet basil... she approves!
Oh, and our neighboring gardeners who gave us celtuce last week graced us with three beautiful chinese cucumbers, each as long as my forearm!
It's going to be a happy time making arabic salad, maybe tabouleh, and even pickled cucumbers, all from non-store-bought produce. I can begin to understand those foodies who won't eat tomatoes out of season.

As long as they're in season, and I have good french bread and fresh mozzerella handy, Zipper's caprese panino will always be on the menu.

Today's Tomatoes & Tempura

(Not together, of course)... First off, a quick swing by the garden gave us this lovely handful of tomatoes and herbs: Zips has her sights set on another arabic salad before the night is over. I grabbed some sprigs of parsley and mint and basil just for good measure.

Here are some of the happy melons we have growing in the melon patch. The watermelon is a crimson sweet. We refer to her as "Mama," as she has taken the lead in size. There are also two growing at the edge of the garden we call "the twins," and a small sugar baby we call "baby."
I hope it's not too weird to name fruit as it's growing. We also have several honeydew melons in the works (4 of 'em), and a lone cantaloupe growing that Zips has just dubbed Canaloupe. Because the cantaloupe CAN. Here's Canaloupe now. Growin'.

We did some yakisoba for dinner, and I tried tempura for the first time. I used a tempura batter mix (dynasty, I think), and panko crumbs. We made green bell pepper, broccoli, onion, green onion, carrot, snow pea, yellow squash, and zucchini squash tempura. Of course we used the lovely ginger sesame sauce. I also improvised a tentsuyu sauce with 1/4 c. mirin, 1/4 c. soy sauce, 1 tsp. sugar, and some water to taste (I didn't have any broth or dashi). It was very mild compared with the ginger sesame, but I really liked it. Tempura action shot: I think that's an onion cooking away. Zips was also the genius who figured out that the semi-circular wire thingy was probably made for this exact use.

It's the best kind of battered, deep-fried food around. I am seriously re-thinking my stance against fry-daddies.

Aguas de Frutas y Amigos

Part I: Agua Fresca

New developments coming out of my kitchen this afternoon include Agua Fresca with the leftover cantaloupe and watermelon from a great weekend sale at the local supermarket-- Because our apartment is so hot right now, the cantaloupe got REAL ripe overnight, so I had to chop it up and refrigerate it, and promptly forgot about it. Blending the fruit pieces and then straining them does an amazing job of retaining the sweetness and bouquet of the fruit, while removing the gross texture of borderline overripe melon. It's totally delicious. Zips, who prefers watermelon to any other melon, and who is ambivalent about the delights cantaloupe has to offer, DOWNED the cantaloupe agua fresca in two gulps. The watermelon was excellent too. It was a wonderful GIGANTIC seeded melon. I added sugar as the recipe called for, so it ended up being a tad on the sweet side. Easily counteracted, though, with a couple ice cubes.

I got the idea for Agua Fresca earlier in the summer with a so-so not-quite-in-season watermelon. It made a horrid watermelon gazpacho, so the rest of it was an experiment. The remainder of the melon needed to be used, so I found this great site with recipes. Zips hated the first attempt at agua fresca. Probably because I cut the melon on the same board as the onion for the gazpacho-- not so tasty in juice.

Anyway, today, since I was only working with a portion of each kind of melon and only half a lime (other recipes call for as many as 2-3 limes), I fudged the measurements. Here's what I did:

Agua de Melon (Cantaloupe)

4 c. chopped cantaloupe
2 c. water
1/2 c. sugar

blend until smooth. strain. refrigerate.


Agua de Sandia (Watermelon)

4 c. chopped watermelon (remove seeds as you put it in the blender)
1 1/2 c. water
1/4 c. sugar
juice of 1/2 lime




blend. strain. refrigerate


Seriously, how can you resist? Have you no heart?


Part II: Arabic Salad

FINALLY, with the fruits of our labors! One of Zips ALL TIME favorites is arabic salad. I clipped some of our flatleaf parsley, some crazy abundant spearmint (about 1/4 c. of each, chopped), a green onion (chopped), two early girl tomatoes, and a cuke (each diced), the juice of a lemon (not from our garden, alas...I'll have to wait until we live in a different climate!), a drizzle of olive oil, and some salt and pepper. Refrigerate for about 30 minutes when you've mixed everything together to let the flavors meld. Then grab a couple of spoons and dig in! (Of course, you could eat it in a bowl or plate, alongside some lovely tabouleh or couscous...but Zips can't wait that long).

Part III: Sesame Ginger Dipping Sauce

In the continuing quest to replicate a Veggie Tempura dipping sauce (that I've never tasted) from a restaurant in Richmond, Virginia (that I've never been to), I tried out this recipe that's attempting to copy a Asiatic lettuce wrap served at Chili's (that I've also never tasted). I love it when home chefs try to figure out restaurant recipes (and of course share them). One total success I've had is the KFC cole slaw that's out there. Anyways, Zips says this sauce is very very close to what she ate:

1/4 c. water
1 Tb. cornstarch (I added even more when all the ingredients were incorporated to thicken it up)
1/3 c. sugar
1/4 c. soy sauce
1/3 c. rice vinegar
1 tsp. minced ginger (I am usually prone to add more ginger, but I stuck with this measurement. I might add a little more next time)
1 tsp. sesame oil
1/4-1/2 tsp. minced garlic (I used my microplane grater for both this and the ginger. I grated about half of one clove of garlic)

Heat the water and cornstarch to dissolve it. Add the rest of the ingredients and simmer for about 2 minutes. (And if you're me, use those 2 minutes to dissolve more cornstarch in water and add to the sauce until you achieve the desired consistency.)

Thumbs up. I think I'm going to try tempura tonight, so I'll let you know how it goes!

The Best of Times...the Worst of Times

I was going to call this post "abbondanza part 2," but a visit to my garden tonight dampened my spirits a bit. Saturday we went blueberry picking at a local U Pick. We picked nearly five pounds of blueberries with plans to make more freezer preserves (god bless pectin!) and Zips' favorite kind of pie. We went in the late morning, although I had every intention of getting up early-- on a Saturday morning with a nice cup of coffee, I just couldn't get a move on... We were told that the Easter frost this year made it a smaller crop, and their website said they'l be closed for a bit to let more berries ripen. We'll be there when it opens again, because we found the BEST pie recipe EVER!
Again with the before and after...mmmm. our favorite way of getting our antioxidants...
Okay, so the pie recipe is totally adapted from this great Vegan Photo Blog and one of our favorite veggie blogs, Vegan Lunch Box (hers is linked to a pie contest winner on an episode of Emeril Live). Vegan Photo Blog also links to the Emeril recipe ("Polly's Perfect...") and gives excellent detailed instruction. I nixed the nutmeg, cinnamon, and lemon juice for the berry mixture. Here's what I did:

Excellent (Vegan!) Fresh Blueberry Pie

preheat oven to 375 (the recipe says 350, the electric stove I used runs cold, so I cranked it!)
Crust:

2 c. flour
2 ts. sugar
1 ts. salt
1/2--2/3 c. vegetable oil
3-4 Tb. soy milk (I used unflavored Silk)

mix dry ingredients together
whisk oil and soy milk together
add the wet mixture to the dry mixture

press most of crust dough evenly into 9" pie plate and up the sides. set aside remaining crust crumbs (should be 1/4 to 1/3 of original amount)

Filling:

1 qt. fresh blueberries washed & drained
3 Tb. cornstarch
3/4 c. sugar
4 tsp. margarine

mix cornstarch into sugar, combine well.
gently mix berries into sugar/cornstarch
place berry mixture into pie crust
dot evenly with margarine (1/2 tsp. per dot)
crumble reserved pie crust crumbs over top of berries.

Bake 45-50 minutes

I've never made a blueberry pie before, let alone a vegan one, let alone from scratch, but THIS one takes the cake! I hope to do it again with the tart Michigan cherries I bought at the farmer's market. I've got a recipe for the cherry filling, I'll post it if I have good luck with it!

In other, less satisfying news, the garden has been great, on autopilot and hanging in there for the rain we're expecting on Tuesday. We popped out there on the way home tonight to grab some of our amazing basil, when we noticed that something has totally ravaged our corn stalks. Two or three ears were half-shucked and picked clean, presumably by birds, and the remainder of the ear had been taken over by little black bugs. We picked off seven ears of otherwise beautiful bicolor sweet corn that would have been the pinnacle of our summer gardening experience. Several had been drilled into by those bugs-- just a tiny black hole that buggers spilled out of like that scene in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom :( We still have two or three baby ears growing. We'll just have to pay extra close attention to how they're growing and pick them before the birds do.
I'm going to see what I can salvage and work the rest into black bean salsa. I'll take a picture if it works.

Favorite New Discovery: Patrick Daughters

Departing from my focus on foodiness, I have to write about music video director Patrick Daughters (who was born the same year as me.. what have I been doing with my life?!), who I had to look up after linking to Feist's video for 1 2 3 4 (see side bar). It's so cool that this one dude has directed videos for several of my current favorite songs by several of my favorite singers like "Maps" by the amazing Yeah Yeah Yeahs and Feist's "My Moon My Man" and "Mushaboom":


(Flying Toast!!) It's so magical and cinematic. I can see influences by Michel Gondry whose credits include not only my favorite film Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, but virtually every one of my favorite songs from Bjork to Kylie Minogue, from the White Stripes to the Chemical Brothers, and Spike Jonze (especially Bjork's "It's Oh So Quiet"). And then it seems like Daughters may have been influenced by Ok Go's wonderful video for "Here it Goes Again" (my favorite is the guy with the navy blazer. At one point he adjusts the blazer with a dramatic flourish). It's not a far leap from treadmill choreography to airport moving sidewalk choreography.

In any case, I love it all, and I had to share it.

Favorite Thing: Panino Caprese a Zips

It's like Insalata Caprese.. with bread.. and avocado. As my cooking philosophy goes: Too much of a good thing is Even Better! I first ate Caprese when I went to college in northern California and worked in a shi-shi (I am being corrected. It's chichi. It's French!) restaurant. Totally became one of my favorite luxury foods. Fresh baked baguette, fresh mozzerella, garden tomatoes, lovely amazing garden sweet basil, and some delicious fruity extra virgin olive oil. (On a budget, Bertolli's is excellent. When being totally indulgent, perhaps after tax returns or something...Lucini's is divine). And one day the clouds opened up and a light shone down from the sky and I thought "avocado would be SO good on this." Must stop. Drooling on keyboard.

Abbondanza!!

It's been a wonderful foodie week. Today tons of tomatillos were finally ready to be picked, along with a couple of jalapenos, a nice bunch of cherry tomatoes, a bell pepper, and our very first real Early Girl tomato of the season. Our roma tomatoes are struggling more than the early girls for some reason. We lost more than twenty tomatoes to flat, black molded bottoms. I went through and picked them all so that the plants' energy can go into ripening the rest of them... still sad.

Today's picks:We completely glutted ourselves on salsa verde crudo. I love the tomatillos so much! They're so cool with their papery husks. Zips was so happy to finally have enough to bust out the 12 cup food processor, instead of the mini chopper. I used to put cilantro in the salsa, but since Zips loved the last two batches I made with just onions, jalapeno, lime and a little salt, that's what I stuck with.
Here she is investigating the finished product:

We were saddened when we learned that the local farmer's market was cancelled Wednesday for the 4th of July, it meant no csa share for the week. But, then we got an email saying that they still had plenty of produce ready to be picked, if anyone wanted to pick some up at their farm, they were certainly invited.

They had no idea what they were in for! At one point, after picking a bushel of snow peas, and immersing myself elbow-deep in grape tomato plants, I had an epiphany: inviting a couple of vegetarians to "whatever you want" in a greenhouse and produce farm is literally like letting kids run loose in the candy store. We finally carted ourselves out of there after collecting the aforementioned bushel(!) of snowpeas, a couple of pounds of freshly unearthed Yukon gold potatoes, eight cucumbers, a yellow squash and zucchini (although, I passed on the larger ones, several zucchinis were the size of my thigh!), three small heads of broccoli, a brandywine heirloom tomato, two heads of freckle lettuce and a tiny sprig of swiss chard discovered in a corner of the greenhouse, and some cherry and grape tomatoes.

Can you believe it??!