Summer Harvest Beef Stew

Beef stew isn’t really the first thing you think of having for dinner in summer. But when everything is in season, why not? I’ve been making this version of beef stew for about 10 years now and it is my absolute favorite. Maybe it’s because it’s completely devoid of peas and carrots (oh, I do hate cooked peas and carrots so) or maybe it’s the surprising plot twist at the end of the recipe, but I have yet to meet a better beef stew recipe.

Without further ado, my favorite beef stew recipe:

Summer Harvest Beef Stew
1.5lbs. stew meat
3 bell peppers, diced
1 onion, chopped
thyme, bay leaf & red pepper flakes
2 c. chopped tomatoes + 1 T. tomato paste (or 2c. tomato sauce)
2 cloves peeled garlic
1 c. really good red wine
1 c. chicken stock

Coat beef in flour and brown in a large hot pan. Take beef out and put aside. Add a bit of olive oil to pan and then add garlic, herbs, pepper flakes and onion. Saute until tender. Add meat back in the pan along with wine. Reduce wine by half. Add stock, tomatoes and tomato paste (or tomato sauce). Simmer for an hour covered and 30 minutes uncovered.

Surprise Ending
Heat 2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar with 2 tablespoons sugar in small saucepan. When sugar is dissolved add into stew. Then add 1 t. unsweetened cocoa powder to stew. Stir well. Serve over roasted, quartered potatoes, egg noodles or rice.

Eating Purslane is *so* Trendy

Who knew that our little lowly weed purslane is getting so much press these days. Maybe it hired a new publicity agent, or maybe it has a new movie coming out, but whatever the reason, I’m seeing it in all sorts of fantastic magazines. It was in last month’s Sunset magazine and now it’s in this months issue of Gourmet (by the way, does the photography in Gourmet make you swoon too? I adore each and every beautiful page. I won’t get into how their recipes don’t follow the seasons hardly at all, I’ll just hush up and admire.).

I posted one recipe for it a few months back. I loved that Purslane stew and I’ve made it again since I wrote about it. But I decided to try out Sunset’s Purslane & Cucumber & Yogurt salad. I like it okay, but if I had to make it again here’s how I’d do it:

Kendra’s Version of Sunset’s Purslane & Cucumber & Yogurt Salad:
Mix Together:
1 Cucumber, seeded and diced
2 c. chopped purslane
2 Tbs. chopped mint
1 garlic clove mashed to a paste with 1 tsp. salt
2 c. plain yogurt
2 tbsp. olive oil
zest of 1 lemon
freshly ground black pepper

Oh, by the way, did you catch Scott’s Pesto Manifesto the other week? He’s worth listening to when it comes to cooking techniques. Although he works for the illustrious Chez Scott at the moment (a lovely little one table family-style joint in Sonoma) he used to cook for Piatti’s in Mill Valley and Left Bank in Larkspur (which I used to live in the apartments above before we met) so he knows what he’s talking about. His tip on blanching the basil or whatever leafy green you choose is the best. He didn’t have time this weekend to blanch our pesto and it turned out it’s usual shade of dark, gray green. Blanching it will really keep it’s lively green color.
Thanks also to Brittney of Eye on the Bay for featuring it on your blog!

How to Make Fruit Rollups

I thought we had used up all of our nectarines in our recent canning spree, but Scott walked in the backdoor yesterday with another basket full (the last of them). Hmmm, what to do with them? I thought I’d try my hand at fruit leather again. Nectarines are a perfect candidate for fruit leather because they aren’t as juicy as peaches so they dry faster. Plus I like their tangy flavor.

I had tried making fruit leather in the past and was never very satisfied with my results, but I think I got it right this time. Here’s how I did it:

Pit the nectarines and place in a pot. Turn the heat to medium/high and mash the fruit with a potato masher. You can add sugar at this point if you like, but I chose not to for this batch since the nectarines were pretty ripe already. Bring the fruit to a boil for about 15-20 minutes. Blend (carefully–it’s hot!) with an immersion blender.

Once the fruit reaches a jam like consistency, spread it onto parchment lined cookie sheets.

Place in oven and turn the temperature to the lowest setting. Once the oven reaches temperature, then turn it off. You may have to keep turning the heat on and off for the next two or so hours until the fruit has become tacky to the touch.

Once it’s cooled, roll it up in the parchment paper and slice into one and a half inch lengths. Store your homemade fruit rollups in an air tight container.

You can use the sun to dry the leather, but you will need a breathable cover such as cheese cloth to spread over it. Or else you’ll get bug and lint covered leather (that’s what happened with a previous batch, not so tasty!). I’ve found that even in our arid climate it takes a few days to dry, which is why I went the easy route and used the oven.

Overall, it was an easy process and I would totally recommend trying it if you are overloaded in fruit.

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Scott finally chimes in - A Pesto Manifesto

One of the great things to enjoy summer all year is to make and freeze pesto. Pesto is fairly simple to make but there are a couple tips I’ve learned over the years that I’d like to share.

The first tip is that you can add other herbs or greens. Pesto doesn’t necessarily have to be made from only basil. You can add with basil or replace it completely. Parsley, cilantro, spinach, kale, amaranth leaves all make great additions or replacements for the basil. They have great flavor and can bulk up your recipe if you are short on basil. My favorite is half spinach and half basil basically because I can add more sauce without getting overwhelmed by the strong basil flavor.

The second tip is to blanch the basil and or greens before you make the pesto. This makes a huge difference in the color. It stays vibrant green instead of dulling or browning. Blanching is easy. Have a bowl of ice water or cold water ready. Get some water boiling in a pot. Toss the basil or other greens in the boiling water for 30 seconds making sure you give it a stir or two. Pull the greens out with tongs or a spoon and quickly get them in the cold water to stop them cooking. They are now blanched and ready to use.

The third tip is to freeze the basil in ice cube trays. Then when frozen, pop them out into a freezer bag for later use. This is so handy because the cubes are easy to use for portioning - about 1 per person depending on what you’re making. Just take a few out thaw them in the microwave or toss directly in a hot pot and toss with noodles.

Here is a good basic basil recipe but remember the variations are only limited by your imagination…

Makes about 1 full ice cube tray
Blanch 2 loose cups of spinach and 2 loose cups of basil
In a blender place
- the blanched spinach and basil with
- a couple table spoons of the blanching or cooling water
- two peeled garlic cloves (more or less depending on your taste for garlic)
- a hand full of nuts (pine nuts are classic but I like walnuts)
- a quarter to half a cup of good extra virgin olive oil
- a quarter cup of grated parmesan cheese
- salt to taste (too little is better than too much because you can always add it when you use the pesto later)

Blend it up to to a loose paste. The amount of olive oil varies due to the moisture of the other ingredients. I add it until everything in the blender starts to churn.

Enjoy
-Scott

My favorite section

The center section, at this slice in time, is my favorite part of the garden. (here’s where it was in April) It’s lush and over flowing and producing like crazy. Our breakfast, lunch and dinner plates are full of zucchini, cucumbers, herbs, kale, lettuce and now plums from this section. And very soon tomatoes, beans, melons and peppers.

This new raised bed is bursting at the seams with cucumbers, both pickling and japanese, and bush beans. Amazing, this is how little they all were exactly a month ago. The flowers from the bush beans are gorgeous:

Moving back a bit, if you use your hands to part through all of the vines:

You’ll find a few cantelopes growing along with some crenshaw melons:

And onto the next bed are the tomatoes, big growth since last month. Yes, the irony is not lost on us that the shortest tomato plant we have is placed in the 10 foot cage.

And lastly, we have those three new raised beds that have given us all the spring spinach and lettuce they could and are now blessing us with kale, cilantro, parsely and a volunteer tomato and melon….who knows what they’ll be.

The Russian Red kale seems to be the healthiest we’ve every grown it. It’s just beautiful.

Have you ever roasted kale? It’s one of our favorite ways to eat it. Cut the leaves up roughly, toss with olive oil, salt and pepper and bake in a 350 degree oven for about 20 minutes until the edges are crispy. Drip a little aged balsamic vinegar on them and it becomes an incredible side dish. So easy too!

my house is gone

Oh my dear blogging friends, my dream house sold yesterday. I knew it would happen someday, but I was hoping beforehand that the 1.3 million dollars I’d need to buy it would magically appear in my lap. Alas, it didn’t, so someone else will get to enjoy my little piece of paradise.

It’s a good thing I lost the recipe for these cherry revel bars that I made last week with the last of our cherries. Because if I had them, I’d pull out the frozen cherries and make it all over again and eat away my disappointment. See? It’s cookies like this that mess up my ‘eat mostly plants‘ philosophy. Because all I want to do is ‘eat mostly cookies.’

Melinda has a great post on 10 Steps to Living Locally today. Check it out if you have a moment.

purslane stew

I have this thing for weeds. I really like being able to eat them. I don’t know why. Maybe it appeals to my scrappy nature because they grow so easily that its truely like free food. Or maybe it appeals to my inner nutritionist because of all those extra antioxidents they carry to defend themselves. Or maybe it makes me feel like a pioneer in making do with what you have. But I like them. When I was my older sons age and in preschool our teacher would take us through her wilderness like backyard on exploritory walks and she would find the minors lettuce and let us eat it. Ever since then I never pass a grove of minors lettuce without picking some and enjoying it’s fresh taste.

So imagine my delight when I found out that our biggest weed bully, purslane, was edible. Purslane only comes out when the weather heats up and then it comes out with abundance, taking over every last inch that it can penetrate. Its one of the most common weeds in the world and I’ve heard that the one growing in our neck of the woods (or valley should I say) is called golden purslane. I like to eat it earlier in the spring when it’s taste is light and lemony. I find that as the plant matures it takes on a kind of soapy taste. It has high levels of iron and Omega 3s. And in Turkey they make a stew out of it. As soon as I read that recipe, I took our salad spinner basket (our favorite harvesting basket) and headed out to pick some. The recipe calls for 2 pounds of purslane and after picking a half basket full, I was only at half a pound. So you can really get rid of some weeds this way.

I washed it well followed the recipe, made the yogurt garlic sauce to go with, Scott poached a few eggs to go with and we had ourselves an incredible Sunday dinner. Really, it’s worth trying. And if you don’t have purslane where you live you can easily substitute spinach.

Purslane Stew Served with Yogurt and Garlic Sauce
from Classical Turkish Cooking

2 lbs. purslane
3 T. butter
1 c. chopped onion
1/4 lb. ground lamb or beef
1 tomato, chopped
1 c. stock or water
1/4 c. uncooked rice
salt & pepper

Heat butter in a large heavy pan and cook onions until lightly brown. Add meat and cook until it browns. Add tomato and cook for a minute longer. Then add purslane, cover the pot and let cook for about 10 minutes until the leave wilt. Stir in the stock or water, bring to a boil and add the rice. Season to your taste, cover and cook for about 20 minutes. Serve with Yogurt Garlic Sauce (2 cups of plain yogurt mixed with 2 t. crushed garlic, salt and pepper mixed together).

Enjoy!

fast food the local way

One frozen ziplock full of last years nectarine slices + Two stalks of this springs Rhubarb + One ziplock full of frozen crisp topping = A quick crisp of backyard fruit for dessert.

Crisp Topping Recipe: (Make extra to keep in the freezer next to frozen fruit for last minute sweettooth cravings)
1 c. flour
6 T. brown sugar
1/4 t. salt
1/2 t. cinnamon
2/3 c. pecans
1 1/2 sticks of cold butter
Mix dry ingredients, cut the butter into it. Sprinkle over pie pan full of fruit and bake at 375 degrees for 50 minutes.

Chinese Mustard

Isn’t this beautiful? This is Chinese Mustard called Gai Choy which we grew last year and let a few plants to go seed. This year we have been delighted to find them growing in all sorts of spots around our yard. They are a cool season crop which means that they sprouted in late summer and are now reaching maturity in early spring. They are gorgeous plants. They can be cooked like spinach or chard when young.

Yesterday I picked a large handful and cooked them for dinner. I diced two pieces of bacon into one inch strips. Cooked those until almost crispy, added the spicy (since our plants are quite mature, they have a spicy flavor) mustard greens until they wilted. Then added a couple of tablespoons of chopped rosemary, a quarter cup of sherry vinegar and a healthy seasoning of salt and pepper. They were delicious!