House of Roses

Beef Stir-Fry

First CSA meal: Stovetop Pepper Steak from Rhonda Laurent Parkinson’s The Everything Stir-Fry Cookbook. (I absolutely detest the title of this cookbook but everything we have made out of it so far, with possibly one exception, has been good, if small.) We used the sirloin tip steak from the CSA, alliums from Debby’s farm share bulk, peppers from Whole Foods.

The ingredients were rather pretty, all my alliums on one cutting board:

And the finale was very tasty:

Grub | Comment (0)

February Meat CSA

The haul this month was a real disappointment.

No chicken; in fact, the gentlemen who hands out the meat said that he “hadn’t figured out a way to get them into the smaller shares” which bothers me for two reasons:

• Last month he said there would be chickens.
• There is no indication on their website that not all the types of shares will get all of the types of meat.

What we did receive:

• 2 x 1.5 lb ground beef
• .75 lb pork chops
• .75 lb bacon
• 1.5 lb sirloin tip steak
• 2.5 lb lamb bones

Not a lot of meat-for-eating.

I believe that the soup bones were optional but I’ve already put them to use making beans, so that’s nice.

Grub | Comment (0)

Pinks

Grub | Comment (0)

Keep the Broth

I had meant to mention each piece of meat from the farm share as we used it (which is a goal for the next haul) but we’re down to two left and I’ve clearly failed. (Well, we haven’t eaten the soboro, that’s in the freezer, waiting.) However, this episode is noteworthy because it’s the first time I’ve been disappointed in the meat from the farm.

We have the pork chop left over. (It turns out, as they defrosted, it became clear there were two pork chops; each at least an inch thick and about the size of a deck of cards.) Since it was so thick, I decided to braise it and put it in a stew, specifically Fragrant Cinnamon Pork with Sweet Potatoes from Nina Simonds’ Spices of Life. I hadn’t made this particular recipe from the book but I had made plenty of others, so I expected that it would be tasty.

The recipe preparation resulted in an unexpectedly pretty sight, the aromatics for the braising liquid:

including a cinnamon stick, sliced scallions, sliced garlic, sliced and pounded ginger, one smashed star anise, and a crushed Thai hot pepper.

The seasonings looked pretty good once they were seared and the braising liquids were added to them:

In fact, the resulting broth was exceptional; we slurped it with udon. The sweet potatoes were an extraordinary contrast to the deepness of the broth. The pork was nothing special, nearly exactly the opposite of how I would have described every other piece of meat we’ve had from the farm.

Everything else was so good, I plan to make this again. I’ll try it with beef, though, since I suspect next week we’ll get beef stew meat from the farm.

Grub | Comment (0)

Thai Basil

I love Wild Boar Basil and Drunken Noodles, both of which contain Thai Basil and both of which, I am convinced, I could make with less sugar (= slightly healthier) than our favorite restaurants, if only I had Thai Basil leaves.

So: Seed Savers to the rescue.

I hadn’t started anything from seed before. Well, nothing that I didn’t sprout before putting in soil, so I was hesitant about “sowing directly”. Especially into a pot (trash picked from a neighbor) on my kitchen counter. Especially since germination time is 5-31 days and would the kitchen be warm enough? (it is winter here) and would there be enough sun? (it is winter here) and would I overwater?

After a week, I had nothing and was convinced that I’d pushed the very tiny seeds too deep and they hadn’t gotten the message to sprout. So I scattered some on top of the soil and pushed very gently, just to nestle them, not to really break the soil surface.

After nearly 10 days (from my first attempt) I had little tiny sprouts. Today (nearly 14 days from my first sowing) they are nearly large enough to photograph well:

Today I also noticed that my first attempt probably succeeded, at least with one or two seeds, because this large basil sprout also unbent out of the soil:

You can compare it to the smaller, gentler-seeded size of sprout on the right to see just how much difference 5 or 6 days makes in the life of a seedling.

At this rate, I’ll have more seedlings than can survive in the pot (probably a foot and uh half diameter) so when I thin, some of them may go into their own small pots but some of them will have to go to friends. Anyone interested in a Thai Basil seedling?

Gardening, Grub | Comment (0)

Tonight’s Dinner

Graphics, Grub | Comment (0)