Monday, January 24, 2011

Harvest Monday - January 24, 2011



The garden yielded just a couple of harvests last week, a bunch of cilantro and Golden Chard. I'm only counting the cilantro because there's enough to actually look like an impressive amount. I don't usually tally the herbs that I harvest since it's usually in small quantities and used as it is picked. In the winter I can always count on having fresh thyme, rosemary, bay, and parsley. My oregano plants also do just fine in the winter but that is one herb that I prefer dried, it tastes too "hot" to me when used fresh. Now it seems that I can add cilantro to that list. I've been letting cilantro bloom and set seed around the garden and as the seeds dry I pluck them off the plant and scatter them around. The plants grow when and where they choose and it seems that they've chosen to grow with abandon this winter. The bunch I harvested last week is destined for a batch of pesto.

The chard was used in a recipe from the A16 cookbook (my husband seems to be particularly attached to that book at the moment). The leaves and stems were cut up separately and blanched until tender and then braised with a sofrito of garlic (two heads!) and salt packed anchovies.  The sofrito was made by peeling the garlic cloves and simmering them whole with the anchovies in a generous amount of olive oil and a bit of water for an hour and then mashed to a paste. It was quite delicious, the long slow simmering mellowed the garlic and anchovies a lot, but the dish still wasn't for the faint of palate.

I've also been making good use of previous harvests. Frozen fava beans were used with pasta (another A16 recipe that my husband chose). Canned tomatoes were used to braise yet one more dish from A16, the Monday Meatballs - oh so good. Dried Petaluma Gold Rush beans, frozen green beans, frozen beet greens, and frozen tomato puree joined up in a pot of soup. Part of the head of Romanesco broccoli that I harvested the week before was used with some purchased brussels sprouts in a gratin topped with bread crumbs and pine nuts (the recipe is from epicurious). And the last chunks of Marina di Chioggia squash and Diamante celery root that I had been using over the last couple weeks were braised with more frozen favas to accompany some gnocchi. So there's been some good eating around here thanks to my efforts in the garden over the past year. A lot of my readers wonder if I manage to eat all that produce that I grow, so I hope this answers that question! Oh, I forgot, we also munched on preserved eggplant last night and I used some frozen grilled eggplant in a panini last week. And I should also mention that I used ground dried chile peppers in a number of dishes including the meatballs, the soup, the panini, baked into Taralli Pugliese (so addictive), on ricotta bruschetta.... you get the idea.

Here's the harvest totals so far:

Cilantro - 5.5 ounces
Golden Chard - 2 lb.

The total for the week was - 2 lb., 5.5 oz.
The total for the year is - 8 lb., 11.75 oz.

Harvest Monday is hosted by Daphne on her blog Daphne's Dandelions, head on over there to see what other garden bloggers have been harvesting lately.

10 comments:

  1. You certainly do eat well! The chard with garlic and anchovies dish sounds so delicious it has made me feel hungry even though I've just had my supper!

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  2. I'd probably have to eat that chard dish myself, since my wife hasn't yet developed a real taste for chard, and doesn't like anchovies unless I sneak them in something. But she loves garlic, so that might make up for the anchovies!

    I love to read about what all you do with your harvests. The only thing I like better than reading about food is, well, eating it! ;-)

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  3. Wow, two HEADS of garlic and a can of anchovies simmered in olive oil and poured over chard. You're a cook after my own heart. Sounds wonderful.

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  4. You always have such beautiful harvest pics and great ideas on making use of all that gorgeous produce - always come away inspired to go cook something wonderful!

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  5. what perfect coriander (I'm british and I can't get used to calling it cilantro!)

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  6. When I preserve my vegetables in the fall, I always wonder if I will be able to cook all of it. But somehow we eat it all just in time for next season harvest.

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  7. I love chard, but for some reason it doesn't grow well (at all...) for me. I do have a suspicion that the hens have been eating the seedlings right as they pop out of the ground...

    ~Mary

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  8. chaiselongue, That we do!

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    villager, the long slow precooking of the garlic and anchovies really mellows both flavors, the anchovy flavor wasn't fishy, it came out very savory tasting.

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    Lou Murray, Yes, heads of garlic. I was a bit shocked when I saw that in the recipe but I didn't cut back, I used two big heads. We don't fear big flavors around here!

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    kitsapFG, Thanks!

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    Funkbunny, it's funny that we call the green herb cilantro and the seeds of the same plant coriander, not sure why.

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    vrtlarica, It all seems like so much when you preserve it. My freezer was bursting just a couple of months ago and now there's already gaps...

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    Mary, those girls have good taste!

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  9. I used to have cilantro naturalized in my last garden. Like the dill and parsley it just came up everywhere. Which is great since I love it. This time I'm going to start over with a slower bolting one. Hopefully it will also get naturalized. I love cilantro.

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  10. That big bowl of cilantro look so good.
    Your yummy dishes make my hungry, garlic and anchovies are one of my favorite combination, I like them in pasta dishes.

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