Today’s Lunch: Artichoke

The Artichoke as it appeared in The Garden

For today’s lunch I cooked a garden artichoke, and served it to myself with mayonnaise, lemon, and home-made hummus on toast points. Artichokes are a variety of Thistle, and if you don’t pick them,

They flower a gorgeous, totally STAR TREK-looking light purple flower. I will look around for a photograph, I am pretty sure I have one from last year.

Artichoke flower, courtesy of Iris at Society Garlic

Depending on your soil, where you planted them, and whether it rained or not ALL YEAR, artichoke plants can and often do live through the summer and become perennials. I planted 7 artichokes last year, in a shadier and damper part of my yard, and I thought they all died over the summer in spite of the fact that I installed a drip watering system largely to sustain them (I L*O*V*E artichokes); to my delight two of them lived and have already begun pumping out the artichokes for my consumption.

Here you see St. Francis among the tiny artichokes

I also planted 8 more, in a very sunny part of the garden, and I fully expect them all to die once it gets super hot. But I didn’t know any had survived from last year. Usually artichoke root balls can be purchased from The Natural Gardener in the autumn, and planted at that time (they will grow leaves all winter, but must be covered in hard freezes. Ha! Like we will ever see a hard freeze again, what with The Global Warming and all!) But the Natural Gardener sells little artichoke plants in the fall as well, and I have had much bigger harvests from the wee plantios. If you call and ask them on the phone, they will DENY ever selling or stocking the wee artichoke plants, though. It is like they are secret.

THis is how big the wee plantios are now

Weeding

Broccoli Bed: BEFORE

Weeding is a topic not generally discussed at GREAT LENGTH because (I imagine) to dwell on it overmuch might discourage would-be gardeners. The word “weeding” brings to mind words like “Chore” and “Bored” and “Sweat”. But My Mom once confessed to me that the hour a day she spent weeding in the early morning (she had a Very Large Garden and Gorgeous Acre of Landscaping) was one of the most restful and pleasant of her day.  

Broccoli Bed: AFTER

“How much do you weed everyday?” I asked her once when she was describing her morning. “Oh, about three buckets full, everyday.” she replied. By buckets she meant those big white plastic buckets with a metal wire handle, that are free. (Fast food places use them. They are sometimes termed “pickle buckets” because they are what McDonald’s pickles come in.)

My third of an acre is NEVER weed-free like my Mom’s place; usually it is overgrown with horrible weeds that I attend to when I have time, and when there isn’t anything MORE IMPORTANT to do in the garden itself. (Like planting, or watering, or harvesting.) But one Weeding Joy is the pleasure of pulling out plants that are “done” (have I used enough quotation marks yet?)

Gone-to-Seed Arulula Bed: BEFORE

ANYWAY, it is ever so much more fun that picking weeds out from AMONG desired Plantios.  (In my head I always call plants “plantios”. In fact I have a secret set of terms and words that I use primarily with myself, but occasionally with others. Plants=plantios. Okra=oka. Similar=smilar, pronounced SMI-lar. Kitten= KIN-ton, and chicken= CHIN-kon. More on this fascinating topic in posts to come!)

Arugula Bed: AFTER

It is a complete razing, everything must GO.

Broccoli For Dinner Tonite!

Broccoli is Central Texas is to winter what Tomatoes are to summer: your most productive crop. I always plant too much ( I planted a dozen plants this year,which was insane.) What makes Broccoli so productive is that, after you harvest the initial, large, supermarket-looking head of Broccoli, it keeps making many little side heads in it’s desperation to flower. (If you leave a broccoli plant alone, the head of broccoli turns into a large, yellow flower.)

See the Bees?

My Mother always let the broccoli flower at the end of winter; she said, “there is nothing else for the bees to eat at this time of year!” which was true. It starts really trying around the middle of February. It is hard to stop it from flowering, actually, because by the end of winter you are so tired of broccoli that you can’t keep up with eating it. (It is a waste of time to freeze it, it loses all of it’s lovable characteristics when frozen.) 

It’s a little late to still have Broccoli, but I have a few plants that just keep on producing. What with The Global Warming and everything, my first planting of Broccoli (which is usually my only planting) came to head in December: super early (it used to make heads in late February). So I thought I had time to make a second planting, which I did, resulting in way too much Broccoli. I think I gave away all of the second crop of main heads. The plant pictured at the top is a second planting one; Here is  what  the FIRST planting  looks like now.

Cissi’s Market Swag Bag

As a respected member of the BLOGITARIAT, a person whose most casual observations serve as trend directives to the seething masses of humanity, I am occasionally given FREE STUFF in hopes that I will like it, and recommend it to to others. As in the Music Industry, this free stuff is referred to as SWAG.

Many critics of various types get quite satiated with swag and even decline to accept it; not I. I am still quite enthusiastic about a nice swag bag. I feel humble and appreciative. I even mistake the Swag Bag for a gift, and feel as though I am well-liked by others, popular and important!

This  very clever and distinquished SWAG BAG was given to me by Cissi’s Market. Well, not to ME. To Virginia  Wood, who passed it along to me because she is super-nice, and she remembered that I wrote a rave review of CISSI’S MARKET house blend Coffee in the Austin Chronicle.      

I quote myself:

“Cissi’s Kohana House Blend, which they use for their house drip coffee, is extraordinary. The coffee beans used to make it are entirely organic and grown in Hawaii, where the volcanic soil is ideal for coffee cultivation. All of the beans come from the plantation of John Alvarez, a former Longhorn, who sells exclusively to Cissi’s. The Kohana blend is gorgeous, made up of both light and dark roasted beans; it looks like an arresting mixture of creamy milk chocolate and dark-chocolate pellets. The aroma is divine before the coffee is even ground.

The flavor of the Kohana House Blend is rich and smooth, full-bodied, and utterly lacking any trace of bitterness. Cissi’s brews it fresh every hour, and a 12-ounce cup is only $1.35; 16 ounces, $1.70. “I have worked in dozens of coffee places all over town,” laughs coffee-bar manager Rico Peña, “and this is the best-quality coffee I have ever served and the least expensive.”

As you can see, this charming cardboard suitcase contained:

1) A piece of blue crepe paper I can use later to wrap a present in

2) A pound of Kohana Slow-Roasted Coffee

3) A little bag of Kohana “Rockin’ Like Austin” Dark roast Coffee

4) A Fancy Chocolate Bar:

5) A seashell

6) A Puka Shell Nacklace

7) A coffee mug that I will give away to the very first person who requests it in comments (I have too many. I am but a single man, people! I must have 30 coffee cups in my cabinet as I type this)

A Biscotti in a cellophane wrapper

9) A CD of a Hawaiian hippie chick’s music. Her name is ANUHEA and her music has “signature guitar rhythms and song writing that weaves soul, R&B, jazz and reggae to achieve a seductive pop sound”.

Overall, an excellent Swag Bag and compliments to whoever put it together! Thank You Cissi’s Market and I hope everybody drops in and tries your Kohana House Blend because it really IS a superior coffee.

Yogurt and Ape Grunts

Just so ya’ll won’t think that it is a never-ending Cholesterol Festival around here, today’s breakfast is the healthy Yogurt and Ape Grunts.  As you can see, a mixture is prepared using yogurt, a popular breakfast cereal which we choose to term “Ape Grunts” around our house (because that is just HOW MATURE we ARE!), a few almonds, and some fresh blackberries. Usually it is enjoyed without the fresh fruit, but I bought blackberries this week so I had some. (“Ape Grunts” by the way, is a perfect anagram of “Grape Nuts”. So  informs Mr.Thornberry, whose brain is constantly anagramming everything.) 

The yogurt I am preferring lately is Greek style. Essentially, greek style has less water in it so the texture is far firmer and creamier. (once you have had Greek Style, most people switch!)  I first tried this brand because it was on sale; now it’smy favorite, though I wish they made a few more flavors. (it comes in a variety of GREEK flavors: Honey, Vanilla, Pomegranate, and Fig.)

Wilted Spinach Salad

The instructions I give below will result in perfect hard-boiled eggs like these. I mean, if you like them this way!

Wilted Spinach Salad is a classic dish; the first time I ever heard of it was in around 1980 at English’s Restaurant on Guadalupe. THat restaurant was owned by a man named Bill English, who seemed to me to be a bit of an Alkie, a large man with a gin blossomed nose and (reputedly) millions of dollars. He got his millions (again, this is mere hearsay) by running guns to South and Central America. Which was, as far as I know, completely legal at the time, Mr. English certainly never denied it, and quite frankly bragged about it. He wasn’t the chef, merely the restaurateur, but he must not of liked hanging around with his family because he was always at the restaurant. 

ANYWAY, the point is, this dish has been around a while, I wouldn’t be surprised if it dates from the 19th century. To make it, you must have:

Raw spinach

A sweet red onion (you could get away with a 1015, I suppose, but NOT a WHITE ONION!)

Tomato (either a handful of tiny ones, or about one large one)

2 eggs per person

2 slices of bacon per person

Balsamic vinegar

a tablespoon or so of sugar

OPTIONAL INGREDIENTS: You can jazz up this salad with avocado, strawberries, or feta cheese if you have them sitting around. Today I just happened to have strawberries and a half avocado to use up, so I threw them in.

Wash you spinach until it is CLEAN. It may take more than one water. Spin it in the salad spinner. (No Spinner? Well you can dry the spinach with a towel, but consider getting a spinner, they are cheap and helpful)

Put your cast-iron skillet over medium heat, and while it is heating up, fill any handy saucepan with lukewarm water deep enough to cover the eggs. Place the egg- and water-filled saucepan 0ver high heat, and place the bacon in the frying pan. Simultaneously cook both.

While doing so, chop up a coupla tablespoons of red onion per person, and chop up your tomatoes, and anything else that requires choppin’.

When the bacon is done, remove from pan and set aside.

When the water boils, turn the heat off and let the eggs sit in the hot water until you are ready to peel them.

This is a lot of spinach; I wouldn't ordinarily use so much except I have a CUBIC YARD of spinach to use up

Place your spinach in a large bowl, and chop up your bacon over it with your kitchen shears. Turn the heat on under the frying pan again, and scoot the bacon grease around with a rubber spatula (I think they are really silicon, but you know what I mean.) Pour Balsamic vinegar into the pan and stir it around while it spits a little. Just eyeball it; you will want roughly three times as much vinegar as there is bacon grease.

Stir in a tablespoon of sugar. The dressing is done! Pour it over the spinach to wilt it. (The classic way is to put the spinach INTO the dressing in the frying pan, but my pan is too small)

Scatter the onion, tomato, etc over the spinach and bacon; then peel your eggs and chop them onto the salad. Grind a little black pepper over it and you are done!

IT’S DELICIOUS !!!!!!

It’s Raining!!

Nice heavy rain. North of here, they had golfball-size hail and people were having their car windows bust out as they drove along.

OH THE BEAUTIFUL RAIN! It won’t LAST long, it’s just a band of storms (a skinny one) but it is POURING down! YAY!

Water actually collecting on the ground

Poached Eggs Florentine

Eggs Florentine

In the eighties when I began my restaurant career, the places I worked were trying hard to impress the rubes, and anything that had spinach in it was called “Florentine”. I carry on this ignoble tradition, and call this breakfast dish Poached Eggs Florentine.

I promised spinach recipes, and I deliver! I mean if you can even call this a recipe. I am sure it can be made just by looking at the photo!

Poached Eggs Florentine:

Get out your egg poacher, you know, that pan that has the little removable cups and a lid. Fill it the requisite amount with water, and put a teaspoon of butter in two of the cups (take the unused cups out) and set over a high flame.

Then, wash an enormous amount of fresh spinach….honestly, a 2 quart pan full. Jam the spinach in your 2-quart pan without adding anywater, just the wash-water that clings to the leaves.

When the butter in the little cups has melted, break an egg gently into each cup (don’t bust the yolks!) Put the lid on, and alternately 1)stir the cooking spinach, and 2) check the eggs for doneness until both has reached the stage you prefer. I prefer my spinach bright green yet completely softened, and my eggs with jellylike bright golden yolks that just barely ooze.

Drain the spinach in a fine mesh strainer, pressing with a wooden spoon to reduce unneccesary wetness. Arrange the spinach on a beautiful plate, and dot with butter. Top with the poached eggs and sprinkle with Parmeson Reggiano. I added a few hothouse tomatoes from my $25 greenhouse, but I usually eat this without. Sauteed Mushrooms are also good on this!

Chef Tyson Cole of UCHI

UCHI is, as far as I know, the best restaurant in town, and I have gone there for my last TWO birthdays, even though there is only one thing on the menu (tempura vegetables) that my picky vegetarian husband believes to be edible. (Hey, it’s MY birthday! I get to pick!) I have appreciated the genius of Tyson Cole, and heard his name spoken with awe and envy for years and years. But at ADDIE BROYLES BLOGGER BASH, Chef Tyson was actually THERE and demonstrated to us how to make Japanese Children’s Lunchbox Balls!

One thing that really blew my mind was that Chef Tyson was so different from my imaginary mental picture. For starters, he is totally genuine and he comes across as an unusually humble guy. I had pictured him to be the archetype of the Hot Young Chef, Full Of Himself and Kind Of An Asshole. But no!

Chef Tyson Cole. Doesn't he look like a nice person? He is!!

Chef Tyson is like a friendly, furry brown animal with big soulful eyes. (He ought to have his own Japanese cartoon character.) He is completely the master of his subject (food) and he was more interested in teaching us about the Japanese Lunchbox Ball than in being a S*T*A*R. In fact, taking the kitchen-stage seemed to make him nervous and ill-at-ease. Only his zeal for sharing his passion for cooking got him through the ordeal of public speaking…..at least, that is the impression I got. Once he warmed up to his subject he was more relaxed.

Unbearably Delicious Rainbow Trout-stuffed Japanese Lunchbox Rice Ball with Pickled Radish Slices. I ate TWO even though I branded myself a Giant Pig Forevermore.

I learned many things from his presentation:

1) Japanese children eat stuffed balls of rice instead of sandwiches

2) The Japanese originally ate fish preserved with vinegar

3) That’s how sushi rice ended up having vinegar in it

4) In the Olden Days, the Japanese used to store fish encased in rice, buried in the ground

5) You can’t make sushi with fresh-water fish because it isn’t safe and you would for sure get worms

6) Real sushi chefs think cream cheese in sushi is an abomination (I suspected this already)

7) You can pickle radishes sliced very thin, and the result is not unlike pickled ginger. This is G*R*E*A*T  N*E*W*S for ME, because I always grow more radishes than I can eat, and now I have “something to do with them”. In fact, I have two bags of enormous Daikon Radishes in my ice box right now!

Radishes Pickled the Tyson Way!

In Japan, there is great respect for food and ingredients, and the cuisine hinges on the perfection of the raw materials. I am in Perfect Agreement with the Japanese, unsurprisingly. My heart applauds them.

GIANT GOSSIP NEWS: UCHI is going to open another location, up near the North Central Market in a house. You know, a converted house. They will take reservations there so you don’t have to wait an hour to eat like now. Also there will be a much bigger sushi bar. Maybe they will make a Pokemon Tyson Character to be their logo!

Addie Broyles’ Austin 360 Food Blogger Bash

Addie Broyles, in case ya dint know!

On Monday the 16th, Addie Broyles hosted the absolute B*E*S*T Blogger event to date! It was held at the Whole Foods Culinary Annex, which is a charming place, actually quite cozy which was unexpected (and I don’t mean CRAMPED when I say that, either! I mean warm and comfortable and home-like, especially for a “corporate space”.) The day was perfect, sunny and breezy and perfect temperature, and the minute you got past the totally strict security, glasses of free wine (or bottles of free ice tea, in my case) were there for the asking, along with a gorgeous long table of delicious appetizers.

Bruchetta with Heirloom Tomatoes

Bone-Chilling Security. Better keep those backstage passes, cuz the Promoter's got the muscle!

Inside, Chef Jesse Griffiths of Dai Due Supper club gave a demonstration of preparing stuffed flounder, during which we were served little plates of the completed dish, even as we watched the preparation. Griffiths was super-informative and comfortable onstage (on kitchen-stage?), and along with seeing for myself exactly HOW to cut a flounder open for stuffing, I learned:

1) Hunting for flounder is called “gigging”, as with frogs

2) This is because it is done with a forked spear called a “Gig”

3) Gigging is done in a flat -bottomed boat in muddy shallow water, such as is found in bogs and marshes and bayous because

4) Flounders, at a certain time in their life-cycle, go to the mud and bury themselves in mud

5) Unfortunately for the flounders, they are totally visible though the mud and easy to stab with gigs

6) it is good to bake your flounder on a pan saturated with olive oil or butter, because it makes the tail crispy and delicious

Dainty Wedges of Scalloped Potatoes, or "Praties", as they were called by the starving Irish of the 19th century

Sea Salt Encrusted Shrimp on Fennel Slaw