Some garden pics

The last two years seemed really long- first there was graduate school, then there was pregnancy and then came the baby. The full time job was present throughout. Not all pure delight! But I have now graduated and I am thinking of making cupcakes and roasting a chicken and making some kaalan.

Our garden has totally overgrown. Perennials have overtaken the whole garden. Weeds are flourishing. We are slowly reclaiming it. It’s not like we can go out an garden with abandon. The baby needs to be placed somewhere. We put him in the patio with his toys but can’t be left alone. Don’t get me wrong..it’s not like we were great gardeners before the baby, but we could garden at will. Even without any care, there are spectacular flowers on show. Imagine if they were cared for!!

My first attempt at a cupcake from here. Thanks Archana for the help.

If you have organic rose in your garden, make some gulkhand.

Pick of the evening: Salad Greens

Our first pick of the season from our little veggie patch.

Two types of lettuces, arugula and pea shoots.

Tossed it with some lemon vinaigrette. Arugula was my favorite.

Sending this over to the Grow Your Own (GYO) event at the Daily Tiffin.

Grow Your Own- Green Zebra

This year I was decided on planting some heirloom tomatoes. We planted Brandywine and Cherokee tomato. Along with these we also planted Green Zebra, a roma tomato and a grape tomato plant. The only plant that bore fruit so far is the Green Zebra.

Green Zebra is a tomato cultivar with characteristic dark green and yellow stripes, although there are newer variations that blush a reddish color instead of yellow when ripe. It is slightly more tart than regular tomatoes, and it is an unusually early breed.

Green Zebra was bred by Tom Wagner of Everett, Washington, and first introduced in his Tater-Mater Seed Catalog in 1983. Given its recent origins, it is not an heirloom tomato, despite often being mistakenly designated as one.  ( Link )

For lunch we made sandwiches inspired by this recipe. We used green tomatoes, basil and chives from our garden.

They were easy to make and so yummy. Since the Green Zebras were still not ripe, I did a quick saute in olive oil with salt and pepper before they went into the sandwich.

The ricotta spread was also a breeze to make. We had an assembly station and  from there the sandwiches went onto a skillet and I used a cast iron lid to flatten the sandwiches. We had fun making these!!

This goes to Jugalbandi who is hosting Grow Your Own event. Grow Your Own is a twice-a-month blogging event that celebrates the foods we grow or raise ourselves and the dishes we make using our homegrown products and is a brainchild of Andrea.

Related: Fried Green Tomatoes.

Click-Au Naturel: Lettuce

Weather is perfect outside and the time is right for gardening. We haven’t done much this year as far as gardening goes. We did get a patch ready and dropped in some salad green and radish seeds. Few days later we saw our neighborhood squirrels digging deep into our veggie patch. There were big holes in the carefully prepared soil bed. Despite all that some seedlings are popping up. Let’s see what happens.

These are lettuce from last year. Just dropped the seeds into some organic soil and we started harvesting them as soon as they were ready with few leaves. We transplanted a few into the patch and they grew to a decent size. Nothing like eating greens from your own garden.

The theme for click this month is Au Naturel. And this is my entry.

Sprouting Lettuce – Entry for Click

Spring 2008

Spring 2008 is here…

The crocus are blooming….

Snow drops are showing their heads…

More snow drop pictures…

More pics as more blooms happen.

A Summer Arrangement

Handmade Basil Pesto for GBP Summer 07

A recipe that mentions its source as grandmother or mother instantly attracts my attention. I have a sort of blind faith in such recipes. When Heidi of 101 cookbooks blogged this pesto recipe from her friend’s mother, it was instantly bookmarked.

Our basil herbs were fresh with new young sprouts after a recent harvest and it would be perfect with the grilled lamb chops that were making for dinner. And better yet, no food processor to clean.

Original recipe here

Young basil leaves – 1 cup packed.

Garlic- 2 cloves

Pine nuts – 2 tbsp

Parmesan cheese freshly grated- 1/4 cup

Good quality extra virgin olive oil- 2 tbsp

For mincing, you will need a sharp mezzaluna, but I replaced it with a crinkle cutter.

There is only one step. Mince till you get a fine mince of the ingredients. Heidi recommends starting with the garlic and 1/3 rd basil. Keep adding the ingredients in parts till everything is minced. Start with garlic, then basil, followed by pine nuts and cheese.

Once mincing is done, transfer the pesto into a bowl and add the olive oil.

At this point I kept it in the refrigerator. At dinner time, mixed it with some cold angel hair for a cold pasta side dish. It was delicious. Thanks Heidi for sharing this wonderful recipe. It was really relaxing mincing and mixing with hand and using the crinkle cutter.

As Heidi said, there is no salt and pepper in the pesto. So salt your pasta water generously.

This is my entry for Summer Green Blog Project being hosted by Deepz of Letz Cook.

GBP was originally born in the ever scheming head of dear Inji. Ever since many bloggers have discovered their green thumbs and have grown wonderful things. Join the fun!

Gulkhand- A real tasty way to preserve roses.

Last year I tried to make rose petal jam and what I made was not jam, more like rose glass candy. The concotion that I made was poured into a glass jar and hours later, it was solidified into a glass like mass and I needed a pickaxe to break into it : ) And for this year I was all ready with a new recipe.

Then, Anita came with gulkhand. That was my first real education about gulkhand. Armed with her recipe and rose blooms from our garden, I made my first batch of gulkhand.

The gulkhand station

I have to admit that I was pretty skeptical. I like the fragrance of roses, but to eat something that would smell like roses was not an easy concept to digest. After bottling the petals, I forgot about them for the next 2 days. As soon as I remembered I left them in the sun for a day. After a night out and some time in the rain the next day, they were remembered and brought inside. A week later I took a small bite. And then a bigger bite and then a whole spoonful. The next day half the gulkhand and almost a whole loaf of Italian bread was gone.

As of today almost all the gulkhand is gone and I made small tea sandwiches to present my home made gulkhand to all of you.

This is one of the best things I have tasted and I wish I had made more. Thank you Anita for introducing me to this elegant preperation.

Layering the petals:

Layering with sugar

I didn’t do exact measurements. For 3 roses, I used a tablespoon of sugar.

Layer rose petals and sugar till all the petals are done.

I poured honey on the top layer.

I used regular sugar for this batch. But the results were spectacular. Next time, I am using honey.

Want a serving of butter gulkhand?

T is for Thyme

For this years herb garden, we have thyme, basil and parsley. We also have shallots, chives , rosemary and curry leaf from the previous years.

Thyme doesn’t need a lot of water. This is ideal for gardeners like us who don’t like to water too much.

The flowers of thyme are white and as tiny and delicate as the leaves. This flower is my entry for Flower Fest and the current alphabet is T.

Image of thyme flower at the Bookmann. 

Thyme leaves are very fragrant and goes well with veggies, rice, seafood and meat. I remember a Cajun dish with shrimp and thyme from a long time ago. That memory was the inspiration for this dish.

Shrimp with chili-thyme marinade

Recipe:

Garlic- 2 cloves

Thyme sprigs- 3 sprigs ( As the sprigs were tender, I used them whole. )

Crushed red pepper- 1 tsp

Olive oil- enough to make a paste approx. 1 tbsp

Salt to taste.

Shrimp- 1o or 12 cleaned.

Using a mortar and pestle, grind garlic, thyme sprigs, crushed red pepper. After coarsely grinding the above, add olive oil and make into a paste.

Add the paste to the cleaned shrimp and marinate for about half an hour.

Grill or saute the shrimp.

Shrimp served over wild rice

Note: I cooked the shrimp stove top on a cast iron pizza stone. Since the marinade already had oil, there was no need to add any oil to the stone.

The shrimp was very flavorful. I served it with some wild rice. The shrimp would be great as an appetiser.

Happy Birthday, Meeta.

When summer comes, the roses in our garden steal the show. We have a climbing rose that blooms with a vengeance. Even better, once the summer blooms are gone, they bloom again around fall. What better flower to celebrate Meeta’s birthday. Her dishes are glamorous, her pictures captivating and sleek, and her writing is lots of fun. She has invited us over to celebrate, and I had to make something elegant! Got to keep up, right?

Original recipe: Here

I made this dish when I was really hungry, and so measurements are approximate.

Make the pasta according to package instructions. I only made enough for one serving.

While the pasta is cooking, you can assemble ingredients for the pasta. I took about 15 basil leaves, a tbsp of pine nuts, a garlic clove, generous splash of rose water and streamed in olive oil into the food processor to make a pesto. Then I added parmesan cheese (grated), salt and pepper to complete the pesto.

Once the pasta is cooked, mix it with the pesto and decorate the dish using rose petals. You can leave the petals as it is. I made confetti like pattern by just slicing the petals into thin strips.

I was very very skeptical about the dish, but I ate every bite of it and enjoyed it. The aroma of the rose water is not overpowering. I think the aroma of the basil leaves blends well with the rose water. A simple dish made elegant with the sprinkling of rose flower confetti!!

Meeta, I hope you enjoy the dish and wish you a very happy Birthday!!