Herbaria

Gayla Trail at You Grow Girl blog is curating a collection of twigs, leaves and blooms from her garden to demonstrate the diversity and beauty of a home garden.  Each box in the Herbaria has a story and description that follows.  With gardens changing state so rapidly, it's nice to stop and appreciate the sometimes overlooked beauty that exist within it.  Check out her blog here or make one of your own from treasures from your home or while walking down the street.   

Shi-so Nice!

Okay, my amazing friend Masami just left a package of homemade goodies on my front steps.  Shiso and sesame pesto, basil and walnut pesto and shiso juice.  I just finished off a selection of toast triangles with pesto and others with ginger pear jam and finished it off with a refreshing glass of shiso juice.  Thanks M!  I only recently became familiar with shiso from Masami this year when she offered me a leaf off her plant.  To my limited taste buds I felt like it had a really savoury flavour like a basil or curry plant.  It was really delicious though  and I could easily imagine it eaten raw and being roughly chopped and placed in a salad, sandwich or on top of a pizza.  With a little research I found out that shiso is the japanese name for perilla.  It's an annual herb with purple or green leaves that are slightly serrated.  It's from the mint family and is rich in minerals and vitamins and has anti- inflammatory.  I'm a fan! 

Beautiful Beans

Aren't these amazing? Some tri-colour and orca beans from my garden.  The purple splotched ones are from my C.S.A bin.  They look a little different when boiled though.  Do you have any good bean recipes?

Zucchini Cake with Crunchy Lemon Glaze

This is one amazing cake.  My friend Sarah made me this cake for my birthday last year.  It's from the David Lebovitz blog.  If you're not familiar with him, you should definitely check out his blog.  He's an American baker who moved to Paris motivated by his passion for French cooking. This is my second time making this cake.  I used the zucchini from my garden and it tastes like summer.  The refreshing sweet glaze on this spicy zucchini cake is a perfect August dessert.

Cake:
1 Cup almonds, pecans, or walnuts (toasted)
2 Cup flour
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. sea salt
2 tsp. ground cinnamon
1 tsp. ground ginger
1/2 tsp. nutmeg
3 large eggs
1 3/4 Cup sugar
1 Cup olive oil
2 tsp. vanilla extract
2 1/2 Cup grated zucchini

Glaze:
1/4 Cup freshly squeezed lemon juice
1/3 Cup granulated sugar
1 Cup powdered sugar

1. Preheat oven to 350.  Grease a 10 cup bundt cake pan.  Grease with butter and dust with flour and tap of excess.

2. Pulse the nuts in food processor until finely chopped.

3.  In a bowl; sift flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, ginger and nutmeg, set aside.

4. In the bowl of stand mixer, beat eggs, 1 3/4 Cup sugar, olive oil for 3 minutes on medium speed until light and fluffy.  Scrape sides then add vanilla.

5. Mix in dry ingredients, then stir in nuts and zucchini.

6. Spoon into cake pan and bake for 45-50 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean and cake pulls away from pan.

7. Make glaze by whisking ingredients together.  Let cake cool for 10 minutes, brush glaze or cake then cool completely.

Garden Fresh Rhubarb Crumble

Rhubarb crisp is one of my favourite desserts and I've always been excited when someone has made one for dessert and shared it with me.  But, I've recently learned how easy it is to make.  Since, I've made four batches in the last two weeks.  So tart and comforting.  Time to share the recipe.  It's that good.

(This is a really rough estimate.  I didn't measure anything and added additional rhubarb and flour.  And, it worked)

5 Cups Rhubarb

1 Cup Brown Sugar

2/3 Cup Regular Oatmeal (not instant)

1/2 Cup + 1-2 Tablespoon flour

5 Tablespoons butter

Preheat oven to 400. 

Pick rhubarb from garden 

7-8 stalks

Chop rhubarb and add flour and brown sugar

Mix

In separate bowl or mixer; add butter, sugar, oats and flour

Mix

Put chopped rhubarb mixture in casserole dish, pack down

Add rolled oats topping over rhubarb and pack down

Place in the oven for 35 - 40 minutes or until golden brown on top

Dish into bowl and serve with ice cream!

 

Garden Fresh Carrot Cilantro Soup

It was harvest time for my 'Jeanette' and 'Nutra Red' carrots.  I used some of them for a big pot of soup.

2 Tablespoon Olive Oil

1 Onion

3-4 cloves of Garlic

5-6 Cups of Chopped Carrots

1 Can of Coconut Milk

4-5 Cups of Vegetable Broth

1/4 Cup of Chopped Cilantro

pick carrots from garden

cut tips and ends off and save for broth

make broth from scraps from garden and garlic and onion

In separate pan, sweat onion, garlic, and ginger

chop carrots

mix carrots with onion mixture and cook until carrots are tender at medium temperature

add broth to carrot/onion mixture when carrots are soft

add coconut milk when broth is starting to boil

pick cilantro from the garden

add cilantro to soup 

mix and turn off the heat

mix in food processor 

garnish and enjoy! 

Cooking with Edible Flowers

My Mom wanted me to mention edible flowers in my blog.  It's a pretty great idea.  These are the flowers that I found in my own backyard.  Nasturtium, mustard green, rose, marigold and zucchini and chive blossoms.  I gave them all a taste test. They would all do well in a savoury salad (the chive in particular).  The nasturtium and mustard green were really peppery.   I actually enjoyed the flavour of the zucchini blossom the most though.   Perhaps, I'll give this Stuffed Squash Blossom Recipe a try.  Perhaps you should too! 

Stuffed Squash

• 2 squash blossoms
• 2 to 4 teaspoons cheese (goat, blue, fontina, cheddar, or cream cheese with a dab of grated parmesan)
• 1 teaspoon butter

To prepare squash blossoms, gently reach into the centre of each, pinch out the stamens or pistil, and discard. Rinse the flower carefully and invert to drain.  You can cook the blossoms with the stems or break the straight stems off first.  

Fill blossoms (1 to 2 tsp each), then loosely twist tips closed.  Cook stuffed flowers in melted butter in a frying pan over medium heat until wilted and tinged with brown.  1 1/2 to 2 minutes. 

For a variation, you can dip the squash blossoms in all-purpose flower, then in beaten egg, and brown them in olive oil with a few cloves of unpeeled garlic. 

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