Weekly Local Booty - Garden Grub, CSA, and Farmer's Market - July 4, 2009

This week's market fell on the 4th of July, but that didn't stop anyone from coming out - neither vendors nor patrons. It was an excellent market, albeit the weather was overcast, but it was also fairly cool so I won't complain. My grandparents, known as Nanny and Papa, came down on Saturday and went to market with us. After market we came back and went through wedding pictures and had a nice brunch served family style. We had veggies and scrambled eggs, spicy black beans, plain brown rice, roasted potatoes, sour cream and cheese for the dairy eaters, small tortillas, and Indiana salsa from the one and only Selina. I also made corn on the cob slathered with butter, chipotle chile powder, garlic, and cotija cheese. I had mine sans cotija and it rocked nonetheless. All around it was an awesome visit complete with good food.

We also got a tiny bit of garden grub this week, so let's start off with that.


3 more cayennes from the cayenne plant we refer to as "the Big Cayenne". We have three cayenne pepper plants, but one was started inside back in February and got a mighty head start on the others.

Check out this week's Danjo Farms quarter CSA share. We didn't have to get nearly as much from market after getting our CSA share, it had all sorts of needed goodies in it:


Starting from the bottom right: carrots (!!!!!), a yellow summer squash, 3 zucchini, 4 cucumbers, and 2 orange tomatoes.

And finally, this week's farmer's market haul. This ran us $32.


Starting from the bottom right: epazote (!!!!!), 2 black Hungarian peppers, 4 jalapenos, 2 gypsy sweet peppers, 2 Anaheim peppers, 6 ears of sweet corn, a pinto of yellow new potatoes, cilantro, 3 heads of green garlic from Chert Hollow Farm (one is Georgian Fire like we got last week, I cannot remember what the other two were called but it was a fairly "standard" variety in terms of flavor), Country Goodies zesty dill pickles, and 2 bunches of small, sweet red onions.

We tried the Georgian Fire garlic last week at the suggestion of Eric, from Chert Hollow. He suggested it as it was a spicier variety of garlic and we were planning on using it in Mexican food. I was a bit nervous as I know that some varieties of garlic, especially the strong ones, can have a bit of a bitter quality to them. Not this garlic, it is very, very good garlic. It is spicy, and the flavor is bold, but it is also smooth, and not bitter at all. It is even a bit creamy. We used it in both Mexican and Asian food (the Manchurian-ish Mushrooms) and we really enjoyed it. I'd like to try Georgian Fire out in refried beans, but we were only able to get one head of it this weekend and it is almost already gone. Eric informed us that the cured garlic, in all their varieties, will be available next weekend at market. I am really looking forward to that. So far, in our garlic tasting experience, our favorites are Music, Georgian Fire, and German Extra Hardy.

There is lots of good food to be made this week. Most of it will be cookbook related. Selina and I are very focused on making the cookbook a priority when we determine what we are going to make for our daily meals, so we've both been immersed in the world of Mexican. I hope to have a second cookbook teaser post up in a week or two.

I hope everyone has had a great weekend, any American's out there had a wonderful 4th of July, and everyone has a wonderful Sunday.

J's Song of the Day:
"Fever" - Kenny Burrell and Jimmy Smith

'Til next time.

Cookbook Teaser

There have been a lot of good eats around our neck of the woods as of late. Testing out new and perfecting old recipes for the cookbook has made for some fine meals both on my end and in good 'ol Indiana where Selina hails from. Below are some "teaser pictures" of some of the things we've been working on for the cookbook.

I apologize for the poor quality of any of the pictures.


Mexican breakfast tostada with egg and veggie scramble.


Spicy Potato Baked Flautas.


Simple Bean and Rice Burrito.


Hand crushed Tomatillo-Chile sauce. Oh man was this good.















Black Bean and Radish Soft Tacos - meal made by and picture taken by Selina.


Mexican Mole Brownies - meal made by and picture taken by Selina.


Beans and Greens Quesadilla (soon to be tostada).


Mexican Rice.


Spiced Beer Battered Mushroom and Rice Tacos.


Huevos Rancheros with Mulato Beans.

We've made some even better tasty delights since then, but I was too lazy to get them off my camera, justifying that I could then use those pictures as a start to the next teaser post. I have many ways of justifying my laziness.

For those who are interested in the cookbook and may want to be testers, our goal is to start a tester operation in spring of next year.

I hope everyone is having a great week so far.

'Til next time.

Manchurian-ish Mushrooms

We've been in "Mexi-mode" lately almost exclusively with my testing and restesting recipes for the cookbook. On Friday, I was looking at the website TasteSpotting and decided to do a search of the word "spicy", 'cause that's how I roll. One of the recipes that came up was for Manchurian Mushrooms. The picture was so drool-worthy that I had to go look at the recipe. I sounded absolutely amazing. I sent the recipe and picture to both Brett and Selina (she and I have very similar tastes). Brett, who claims to be "Asian-ed out" took one look at the recipe and agreed that we should try it and soon. Selina was on the same page as me and wanted to make it as soon as possible.

I started from this recipe here. I didn't have some of the stuff on hand and I wanted to make sure that the mushrooms were spicy to my liking and the sauce was sweet to Brett's liking so I tweaked the recipe and provided it below.




You may note some new serving ware here and there. My Nanny Beth (among others) wanted our food to look nicer since we put pictures of it online, so she got us these "rooster bowls" which look really cool with Asian food and some plates for us to use for our "Mexican presentations". Now all I have to do is learn how to use a camera and get some sort of eye for "food fashion". Hell, I am just the cook, Selina, PLEASE DON'T LEAVE PRESENTATION UP TO ME FOR THE COOKBOOK. It would just be bad. You've seen my titles for things and my lack of skill with the camera, you do not want that. :-)

Well, here she be.

The local booty legend (aka revealing my sources):
no asterisk = grocery store
+ = local produce from The Root Cellar
++ = The Peace Nook (will denote whether product is local or just from the Nook)
* = farmer's market
** = CSA
*** = Container or Community Garden
**** = the non-profit buying club, Blue Planet or Purcell Mountain Farms

J&B's Manchurian-ish Mushrooms
1 pack button mushrooms, rinsed and quartered
3-4 cups peanut oil for frying

Spicy Batter:
1 cup all purpose flour
2 tbsp corn masa
2 tsp (or more!) of chile-garlic sauce (I used Huy Fong)
4 Chiles Japones, crushed with a mortar and pestle (you could also use a food processor or coffee grinder, or just crush them up with your fingers)
1/2 tsp freshly ground black pepper
salt to taste
1 cup water

Combine all the dry ingredients in a medium sized bowl. Slowly add the water and mix well, making sure to work out all the clumps.

Sweet and Sour Sauce:
2 tbsp peanut oil
2 small red boiler onions, chopped *
3 banana peppers, seeded and sliced *
2 small green bell peppers, sliced into 1/2 inch pieces *
1 head broccoli, cut into florettes *
1/2 yellow summer squash, cut into large chunks **
1 head Georgian Fire garlic, sliced *
2 tbsp alfalfa honey *
3/4 cup organic ketchup
4 tbsp sweet chile sauce
3 tbsp shoyu (or other soy sauce)
4 tbsp fresh cilantro, chopped (for garnish, optional)

Heat the oil in a large skillet or wok over medium-high heat.

Add the onion, peppers, broccoli, and squash and saute stirring often for about 6-8 minutes.

Add the garlic and stir fry for another 3-4 minutes.

Turn the heat down to slightly below medium.

Add the honey, ketchup, chile sauce, and shoyu. Combine well.

Let simmer on low while you batter and fry the mushrooms.

To batter and fry the mushrooms and finish up the dish:

Put your peanut oil in a heavy bottomed small skillet and turn heat on the low end of high (does that make sense?).

Dip the mushrooms pieces in the batter and once oil is heated carefully drop them in the hot oil.

Fry for 6-8 minutes or until mushroom pieces are deep golden brown. Transfer to paper towels to drain the excess oil. Repeat this process until all the mushrooms are fried.

Put the fried mushrooms into the sweet and sour sauce and stir to coat evenly. Top with cilantro. Serve immediately.

This was really freakin' good. It tasted like something you would get from a restaurant. It isn't the least time consuming of the recipes here on Veg*n Cooking, but it is well worth the effort.

'Til next time!

Weekly Local Booty - Farmer's Market and CSA - June 27, 2009

We've been in the midst of a heat wave here in Mid-Missouri and today is slated to be no different - highs in the upper 90s, heat index well into the 100s, and humidity, humidity, humidity. Neither Brett or I are fans of the whole "early to bed, early to rise" mentality, but not wanting to have heat exhaustion or come home feeling like a hot oozing mass of sweat, we decided to get up early and hit the market first thing. Apparently we weren't the only ones with that idea as the market was really packed already at eight in the morning.

It was a mighty success at market this week and this week's CSA share is the best one yet. Only one oddity - there are some Amish folks who are at market every week and have some of the best tomatoes I have ever tasted. I actually can't recall them ever not being there. Well, today they weren't. We're not sure if it was the weather or what, but there were only two stands that I saw that were selling tomatoes and boy, were their lines long. We decided to risk it and get tomatoes right before we left. The wait in line was well worth it, we have a lovely haul of some very gorgeous tomatoes.

Anywho, check out Week 7's Danjo Farms quarter share veggie CSA:


Starting from the bottom right: red spring onions, beets with their gorgeous greens, a yellow summer squash, two cucumbers (I'm not sure what kind the curled one is, but whatever they are, they are really, really good cukes), a full sized onion (!!!!!), and a lovely head of tasty cabbage (!!!!!).

That cabbage isn't going to even last a day in our house, I'm using part of it for dinner tonight.

And here is this week's farmer's market haul. It ran us $47.


Starting from the bottom right: 1/2 pound Beau Solais oyster mushrooms (seriously, any folks in Columbia who like mushrooms, try these, we've tried the other oyster mushroom purveyor at market and this one is just hands down way better), 2 red bell peppers (!!!!!), 2 green bell peppers, a bunch of banana peppers, 7 gorgeous tomatoes (we meant to get 6 and ended up with 7 on the scale and decided to go ahead and get the additional one), Stanton Brothers eggs (again, the best eggs we've found in Mid-Missouri), 2 heads of Georgian Fire garlic from Chert Hollow Farm, 2 bunches of small red onions from "The Awesome Guy that I Always Forget to Look at the Stand Name but Get His Onions Every Week Because They Rock" (talk about an "Indian Name"), a bunch of cilantro from the Korean/Vietnamese stand Kea International Market, a box of locally produced Pasta Italia penne pasta, Yukon Gold potatoes from The Veggie Patch, and two Texas candy onions.

I used to be one of those people who thought garlic was garlic - it didn't really matter. That was until I was introduced to the beauty that is heirloom varieties from the farmer's market. So far, our favorite was the Music garlic we had last year, funnily enough, unbeknownst to us, that was from Chert Hollow Farm. We also enjoyed the German Extra Hardy as well, but that Music garlic, man it made some killer refried beans. Anyway, there is a difference in the flavors and qualities of different garlics and we are trying to figure out what our favorite varieties are.

As I metioned in last week's Local Booty Update, we missed the first of the year garlic from Chert Hollow Farm. Eric, the owner/operator of the farm offered to hold some back for us so we could make sure we got some this weekend at market (super cool of him by the way, something that again, makes the farmer's market stand out from the grocery store, you wouldn't get that kind of service and treatment from Wal-Mart). He asked what we planned on doing with the garlic (Mexican food, of course) and picked out a variety he thought would work well. He chose Georgian Fire garlic.


It is lovely garlic that smells amazing even through the skin. We only got two heads because it is "green garlic" meaning it hasn't been cured and thus isn't meant to be stored. It will keep in the fridge for about a week. I can't wait to try it with dinner tonight. We are some mad garlic eaters around here, so two heads should tide us over until next Saturday. However, if we make refried beans again, all bets are off. :-)

I will be back sometime this weekend for a "cookbook teaser post" with pictures of the things Selina and I have been working on for the cookbook.

J's Songs of the Day:

With Words:
"Tonight She Comes" - The Cars
"Crawling King Snake" - The Doors
"Puddin' Taine" - Primus

Without Words:
"Classical Gas" - Mason Williams
"Grey's Groove" - Greyboy Allstars featuring Karl Denson
"Loose Cannon" - Los Angeles Guitar Quartet

I hope everyone is having an excellent weekend, stay cool!

'Til next time.

Mushroom Stroganoff (Vegetarian)

As many of you know, Brett is an omnivore. Though he occasionally eats meat, he prefers vegetarian food most of the time. One problem? I'm allergic to dairy. I will occasionally endure the prescription haze of an antihistamine to either indulge on a bit of dairy, or when traveling to make finding vegetarian food for myself easier. But I have no problem with dairy - I just cannot eat it regularly. With my being employed and Brett still being a student, he is at home all day. He is not the biggest fan of cooking and thus would often go all day without eating if nothing convenient was at hand. He is a skinny boy as it is; the last thing he needs to be doing is skipping meals.

It took almost seven years, but I finally convinced him that not only do I not mind cooking something up for him to have for lunch during the week, but I actually really enjoy it.

He finally started giving me a list of things he'd like to have to eat, that would be convenient for him to make up for his meals during the week while I am at work. His first request was stroganoff. Not the kind with meat in it though, but a mushroom loaded vegetarian stroganoff. So, I made it for him and had him in the kitchen with me so he could taste it and let me know what it needed. It is strange cooking from the brain, sight, and smell only, but with Brett there to taste, it worked out quite well.

He loved this stroganoff. I'm actually not sure love is a strong enough word in this instance. Brett isn't one to give idle compliments, and especially not one to excessively compliment, but he did with this. Every single time he ate some of this, he would let me know how much he liked it. He'd send me an email telling me how good it was, he'd get on Google Talk and let me know he had it again and loved it, he would make a point to tell me when he talked to me at lunch or when I got home from work that he had had more stroganoff and he still really, really liked it. I wasn't originally going to blog about it, but then he went through the effort of photographing a bowl of it, and even taking the time to make a presentation, so I couldn't say no at that point. Really, it was pretty cute, and I am so happy he liked it as much as he did.

He had also trimmed a catnip plant right before eating and so used his small pruned bit of kitty-nip greens as the "pretty-pretty" for his picture. He enjoyed his stroganoff over Indiana made egg noodles from Selina. I haven't had the pleasure of trying them yet, but Brett loved them.

A little aside - Selina got us the coolest wedding gifts ever: a tortilla press, corn masa, a tortilla warmer, all sorts of salsa, pickled peppers, chow chow, fruit butters, she got Brett chocolate covered Oreos, dark chocolate covered cherries, tzatziki spice, and even locally produced egg noodles. It was so sweet and thoughtful; I only hope that our gift to her was even half as appreciated. Oh, and I have now officially made tortillas! Corn tortillas to be precise. Brett and I made them a few weeks ago when testing out a spin on our J&B's Huevos Rancheros and they were so good. And easy to make too! Thanks Selina, you are too awesome.

Also, I'm not sure about veganizing this recipe. I tried making a stroganoff with tofu sour cream a couple of years ago, and I'm sorry to the folks who think it tastes the same as "regular" sour cream because it doesn't, at least not in any way, shape, or form in my humble opinion, and that tofu sour cream stroganoff was one of the nastiest things I have ever had come out of my kitchen. So be warned that if you try to make this vegan, it might not actually taste good. :-)

And now, here she be!



The local booty legend (aka revealing my sources):
no asterisk = grocery store
+ = local produce from The Root Cellar
++ = The Peace Nook (will denote whether product is local or just from the Nook)
* = farmer's market
** = CSA
*** = Container or Community Garden
**** = the non-profit buying club, Blue Planet or Purcell Mountain Farms

Mushroom Stroganoff:
2-4 tbsp canola oil
1/2 lb mushrooms oyster mushrooms, sliced *
small handful (5-6) button mushrooms, sliced
2 small yellow onions, minced *
4 cloves of garlic, minced
1 tub organic sour cream
2 tbsp veggie broth
4 tbsp Earth Balance
salt
black pepper

Heat oil in a large skillet on medium high. Add the mushrooms and onions, cook for about 10 minutes. Add the garlic and cook for an additional 10 minutes or until mushrooms are soft.

Reduce heat to slightly below medium and add sour cream, broth, Earth Balance, and salt and pepper to taste. Heat through so sauce thins out a bit.

Serve over hot egg noodles.

I have been cooking more than just things for Brett lately - lots of cookbook recipes that have needed to be created or tested. I think sometime soon I will do a brief post with some "teaser" pictures of the things Selina and I have been dreaming up for our cookbook.

Other than some cookbook testing and gardening duties here and there, Brett and I have been enjoying married life and each other's company. We have really broken that NBA 2k9 game in too - we are finally winning some games. I've been doing a lot of reading and other than that we're just trying to keep cool during this mid-Missouri heat wave. Right now it is 92 with a heat index of 105; it is supposed to get worse before the day is done. Anyone under the midst of a heat wave, do be careful, drink lots of fluids and don't stay out in it too long, heat exhaustion is lame and no fun at all.

'Til next time!