change of season in the garden

hard to believe but fall is creeping in.  the fact that it is still 90+ outside and humid does not help to convince me.  spring came so late this year that the garden is still in full production mode but there are some signs...

goldfinches are making quick work of the sunflower seed harvest

peppers are turning from green to red-these are ghost peppers

cucumber vines are dying off 

fall veggies planted in the garden

carrots planted in late winter are ready to be harvested.  summer lingers, thunderstorms pop up and the garden goes on.  when i see how late the sun comes up and how early it goes down, i know the change of season is upon us.  as hot as it is in nashville, i do not look forward to winter.  if we skipped it altogether, i would not be the least bit offended.  

pimento cheese; it's a southern thing

having lived in the south for a while, i have come to appreciate many "southern" foods.  sorghum has to be pretty close to the top spot on the list.  how can you not love hummingbird cake or homemade chess pie?  didn't think i could but when they are homemade using a good, handed down from generation to generation recipe, both are hard to pass up.  never mind the stuff that is mass produced and sold in the grocery store; we won't even talk about what they sell in the mini mart at the gas station...

where am i going with this?  pimento cheese, that's where.  for years, i would see the tubs of bright yellow/orange goo in the cheese section of the grocery store and wonder who could eat that-why would they eat that?  then i had my first taste of good homemade pimento cheese.  those of you who have lived in nashville longer than i have will most likely remember a little shop in green hills, clayton blackmon.  two ladies owned the shop, it grew out of their successful catering business, and if you ask me, they made the best pimento cheese, ever.  by using a blend of freshly grated cheeses, possibly mild cheddar or colby and monterey jack, and mixing it with pimentos and mayonnaise, it was amazing.  and until recently, i didn't think i could ever find something close to it.  

when my coworkers and i went to the beard house in february, we served the guests at the event pimento cheese made from a family recipe of one of our team members that had been handed down several generations.  that started me on a quest to find the recipe to make pimento cheese like the one that lives in my memory...

this batch was made from the recipe we used at the beard house.  it produces a spread that is almost like a dip.  it is dangerous-you can spread it on crackers or bread and before you know it, you've eaten the whole batch...to make this for yourself, visit the loveless website for the recipe.  to see pictures from the trip to new york city and the dinner, part 1, part 2.

being who i am, i had to try my own take on this recipe.  first stop was the deli counter in the grocery store; i had them hack me off a thick slab of the american cheese that they sell by the pound.  it is the american cheese i grew up with.  my mother never bought the stuff that comes wrapped by the slice.  then i grabbed a piece of smoked gouda.  first i shredded the cheese and then by using the food processor and pulsing it carefully to combine it with the buttermilk, i was able to get a chunky consistency.  while it isn't as creamy at first, it does soften and almost liquefy as it sits because the buttermilk does that to the cheese.  it was just as deadly to my waistline and cholesterol count as the previous batch.

then i made an open face grilled cheese sandwich with it.  need to step away from the cheese!  try making the recipe by substituting the amounts ounce for ounce with your favorite blend of cheeses.  you will not regret this, trust me.

like many others, once i get started on something, i cannot stop.  when i go to the monthly pot luck dinner held by the master gardeners, i asked a fellow member for her recipe.  she frequently brings pimento cheese sandwiches to the dinners and i almost always grab one.  katherine's recipe is rather simple.  half a pound of shredded mild cheddar cheese, a little minced raw onion, a small jar of diced pimentos with the juice and enough mayonnaise to hold it together which ends up being a few tablespoons.  mix it all up and let it sit a while.  then spread it on fresh bread for wonderful snacks or put it on crackers.  be warned, you may have to step away from the counter to prevent it from disappearing.

for my version, i went with some white cheeses; medium white cheddar and gruyere.  a jar of roasted red and yellow peppers from trader joe's came in handy since my garden was lacking bell peppers and  i used some unsweetened mayonnaise to hold it together.  this stuff was awesome and i am no longer wondering how they made it-now i have a small arsenal of recipes and a plethora of cheeses available to try out.  this could get dangerous...

katherine's pimento cheese 

8 ounces shredded, mild cheddar

1 (4 oz) jar diced pimentos,  not drained

1 tablespoon minced onions

1/3 cup mayonnaise

stir together just to combine.  serve with crackers or spread it on bread for sandwiches.  keep refrigerated, providing it lasts that long

tomato berry fougasse; tuesdays with dorie

 this week for our baking with julia challenge, we were given the choice of baking blueberry muffins or a sweet berry fougasse, sigh...as a former bakery owner, trust me, i have mastered the art of blueberry muffins.  whose recipe it is just isn't important, it's a blueberry muffin; eat one and you've tasted most of them.  that left the sweet berry fougasse.  a simple description is a plain focaccia with a few berries and a handful of crumb topping.  one mention of berries in focaccia, both me and my husband immediately wrinkled our noses up-can you hear the ewwww?  either way, i was determined to bake something and while standing in the kitchen staring at the small mountain of tomatoes on the counter top, sudden epiphany; tomatoes are berries.  that small technicality was all i needed.

to bake the recipe yourself, consider buying or borrowing the book and turning to page 194 and for the muffins, page 208.  or, for those of you not able to find the book, the recipe for the fougasse and the required focaccia can be found here.

to make my bread, first i cut the focaccia recipe in half.  with just two of us in the house, more than that would be a waste.  after the required 24 hour rest in the fridge, i cut the dough in half and formed two rectangular slabs.  i gave them a liberal brush of olive oil, a sprinkle of freshly chopped herbs from the garden (rosemary, oregano and basil) and topped the loaf with thin slices of tomatoes.  into the oven they went.

nice and chewy with a tang from the fresh tomato slices.  perfect for a lazy dinner of salad and bread.  to see what the other bakers came up with, visit the tuesdays with dorie page.

night market at the farmers market in nashville

the nashville farmer's market has been trying to increase the number of visitors to the market.  they have come up with an idea that should work; open the farmers market at night.  the plan includes food trucks, live music and even an adult beverage vendor.  the market also has a food court consisting of permanent vendors which is also open for the evening.  for someone like me who has to work on saturday mornings, this could work.  yes there is a but, and that but is only if all the vendors who show up on a saturday morning also show up to sell that evening.  since they schedule these nights throughout the season, the night gets rotated.  the most recent night market took place on a saturday evening and while many of the vendors were there, not all of the saturday morning vendors were there and open for business.  still, we enjoyed the trip downtown.  here are a few of the highlights of our trip.

the attraction of shopping at the farmers market, purchasing locally grown produce direct from the growers.

johnny howell has been growing tomatoes in west nashville for a very long time.  over the years we have lived here, we have visited their stands many times.  they used to have one off franklin road that we would visit regularly.  they are known for their tomatoes and they also can all of the juice and tomatoes in these jars.

normally, cucumbers are something i cannot pass up.  however, i have some vines in my garden that are producing them in quantities that i cannot eat fast enough.

the peach truck has had some of the best peaches all summer.  this was their last visit to the market since the season is over for them.

one of the local vendors

did you see these in the photo above?  cushaw squashes are huge.

it took me a minute to realize that this was a sign for peruvian potatoes-i honestly thought it was some new variety...

magic happening here.

kettle corn-food of the gods if you ask me!

it would not be summer without watermelon, these have orange flesh

and this is how you know you are in the south, muscadine grapes

yellow tomatoes and freshly picked beans

black eye peas by the scoop

and to finish off the trip, we had dinner in the market house at swagruha indian restaurant.  

my dinner was chicken tikka masala with dal and rice.  

darry opted for something he would not have at home, probably ever, curried goat.  and if you look at the photo, you can see that he was all business about eating-he wouldn't even give me a chance to take the photo!

the next night market is on september 21rst, we will make the trip downtown for a little shopping and dining.  my only question, why do they call it a night market if it only goes from 5pm to 8pm?

cooking the books: szechuan green beans and shrimp fried rice

i am a cookbook hoarder.  i'm not ashamed, it's a habit that i can live with and speak of out loud without fear of the consequences.  after all, i am a cookbook author, it's only fair that i collect the books of other authors if i expect anyone to collect mine.  my husband might disagree, he suggests getting rid of the ones i do not use on a regular basis.  i have become adept at getting around this.  my current strategy is to cook from the books that have gathered a little dust.  he is enjoying the results and asks when i will make something again, also asks "what did you cook for dinner today?" with a level of enthusiasm i am not accustomed to.  so you see, my plan is working, for now at least because men can easily be manipulated with food, sometimes.

long, long ago, before children, i bought a copy of irene kuo's book, the key to chinese cooking.  it was published in 1977 and i have had it since the 80's when i purchased it most likely from a book club-remember those?  oh how i have dated myself with this post...  this book has been lugged around, cross country twice and recently, i decided i needed to use it or lose it.  

while i have always enjoyed chinese food, it is not something i crave.  but i must admit, i have always loved the stir fries served in restaurants.  the texture of meat and poultry is always so tender and moist.  the secret is the velveting technique and using the recipe in this book works.  to test the theory, i made my husband cook a chicken stir fry using the recipe-after all, he was the one who said you have to velvet the meat to make it tender.  he is fussy about meals so when i see him getting cranky about food-i make him cook it.  but to be fair, i try to make meals that he will enjoy.  and recently, i picked up this book and made him a batch of szechuan green beans and shrimp fried rice.  the garden dumped a bowl of beans on me and it was the perfect recipe to use them in.

between our garden and the demonstration garden i work in, i had several types of beans to work with.  from the left; pole beans, royal purple beans, blue lake bush beans, haricot verts and asparagus long beans wrap around the bunch.  i cut them all to the size of the verts to make cooking them easier.

the first and most important step, deep frying them.  the purple beans lose the color and go green pretty quickly.  after frying them, the beans are set aside.  the remaining ingredients are quickly stir fried and the beans added to the mixture at the end.

i could eat these all day.  

the recipe calls for hot bean paste, something i did not have.  my solution was to add a small piece of finely diced cowhorn pepper.  it added more than enough heat!  the recipe also called for ground pork or beef and i opted to omit that completely-the dish was flavorful and filling without it.

to complete the meal, i used ms. kuo's recipe for shrimp fried rice.  it calls for cooked rice which is a great way to use leftover rice but who keeps 3 1/2 cups of cooked rice in the fridge?  not me!  so i cheated and used a multi-grain rice from trader joe's.  it is a frozen-cooked product but i know it will be better than anything i could have cooked on short notice.  i need to work on my rice cooking skills. for the purists, it takes about 1 up raw rice to make the needed 3 1/2 cups cooked rice.  and just to make it interesting, i added a few veggies for color; carrots and corn were what i a had available.

szechuan green beans and shrimp fried rice
both recipes are adapted from the key to chinese cooking by irene kuo

green beans
1 pound green beans, cleaned and cut in half
1 teaspoon minced ginger
1 scallion, finely chopped
1 clove garlic, minced
1 tablespoon minced cowhorn or other spicy pepper(can be omitted or reduced)
1 teaspoon sugar
1 tablespoon soy sauce

1 tablespoon dry sherry
2 cups vegetable oil
1/4 cup vegetable broth
1 teaspoon vinegar-cider or rice
1 teaspoon sesame oil
sesame seeds for sprinkling on top

the book uses a technique of preparing a working platter and it is very helpful so i will use it here as well.  place the beans on the platter.  as you prepare the ginger, scallion, garlic and hot pepper,  place them in separate piles on the platter.  in a small bowl, stir together the sugar, soy sauce and sherry and set it aside.  have a heat proof bowl with a strainer ready for the beans.  using a wok, heat the oil to 375.  add the beans slowly by scattering them across the surface of the oil a few at a time to keep the temp from dropping quickly.  stir them constantly to fry them until they look wrinkly, about 3 minutes.  dump the beans and oil into the strainer.  save the oil, you will need 2 tablespoons for the rest of the recipe, keep the remaining oil in the fridge and use it anytime you need oil for a savory dish.

over medium heat add the 2 tablespoons of saved oil to the wok and swirl it around to coat the surface.  add the ginger, garlic, scallion and pepper and stir a few times.  add the sauce, broth and the beans and quickly toss it to coat the beans.  finally, add the vinegar and sesame oil, stir a few times and dump out onto a serving dish and finish it with a sprinkle of sesame seeds.

shrimp fried rice
4 ounces raw shrimp-weight is without the shells, only the meat
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cornstarch dissolved in 2 teaspoons water
5 tablespoons oil (remember the oil you saved from the beans?)
2 large eggs
3 1/2 cups cooked rice
2 large scallions, chopped finely
1/2 cup cooked vegetables-frozen and thawed veggies will work here, i used corn and carrots
soy sauce and sesame oil to taste

if the shrimp are large, chop them into 1/2 inch pieces.  toss them in the cornstarch/water mixture.  heat the wok over medium-high heat and add 2 tablespoons of oil.  swirl it to coat the wok, turn the heat to medium and scatter in the shrimp.  stir them quickly to cook them and then dump them into a dish and set aside.

wipe out the wok, heat it again over medium-high heat and add the remaining 3 tablespoons of oil.  again, swirl the oil to coat the wok and heat the oil.  add the eggs.  as they cook around the edges, push them to one side of the wok to allow the still liquid eggs to run into the oil and cook.  tilt the pan if needed and continue to do this until the eggs are no longer runny but are soft and fluffy-almost like an omelet.  scrape them out into a dish and set aside.

reheat the wok over medium heat, no more oil is needed at this point.  add the rice and stir it to heat it, about 1 minute.  add the scallions and cooked veggies and stir rapidly to heat them.  add the shrimp and the eggs and using your spatula (bamboo works well here-it will not melt!), fold the sides into the middle to mix it and to chop the eggs.  drizzle in a little soy and sesame and stir to combine, pour into a serving dish.  

carrot-ginger dressing

back in june, i attended a food styling workshop hosted by the nashville food bloggers.  it was not only a fun way to spend a saturday morning, it was very informative.  we learned how to style a salad.  sounds easy doesn't it?  well, while it isn't rocket science, it is complicated in that you have to arrange things just right or it doesn't look appetizing and won't photograph well.

the class was led by teresa blackburn and she showed us two techniques.  first, how to plate an actual salad and all of the components in it and then how to tell the same story with just a forkful of food.  my photos below will tell my story.

when we go out to japanese restaurants, my favorite dish always ends up being the salad served while waiting for sushi to arrive.  more than once, our daughters, and sometimes my husband too,  have passed their bowls to me.  weird, isn't it?  what could be so wonderful about iceberg lettuce covered in pureed carrots?  well, for me, it's the dressing.  there has always been something about that dressing for me.  it must be the combination of fresh, raw carrots with ginger and soy sauce, some of my favorite flavors.  recently, i found a recipe for carrot-ginger dressing from saveur magazine.  after making a few subtle changes, our own honey for the sugar and a little sesame oil, i had more than a pint of dressing to  keep me fed for the next week!  then i realized it was a chance to try and photograph a salad using my newly acquired skills.

for the actual bowl of salad, i attempted to use props with an asian flair to them.  i carefully arranged the salad but left it undressed.  next i staged the shot, set up the bounce card on a tripod, put the camera on another tripod and began taking test shots.  finally, i dressed the salad and took some shots.  meh...so disappointing.  i fussed and futzed and so on and so forth.  nothing.  no matter what, it just looked blah.  the lighting was not very interesting either.  it was late afternoon heading to early evening and the light was bordering on harsh.  i almost gave up completely but then had a thought; what if i broke it down and told the story of the salad with just a forkful of food?

it was if the stars suddenly aligned.  the lighting changed and it made the tomatoes and the dressing glow.  the shot isn't perfect, but i didn't expect perfection-just a chance to practice the skill.  and of course, to eat a small boatload of salad with carrot-ginger dressing.

saveur carrot-ginger dressing
makes about 4 cups dressing

1 cup vegetable oil-i poured 2 tablespoons sesame oil into the measuring cup and then filled it with canola oil
1/2 cup rice vinegar
1/4 cup soy sauce
1 tablespoons sugar-i used wildflower honey from our bees
1 1/2 teaspoon freshly grated ginger
8 ounces carrots, raw-peeled and chopped into pieces
6 ounces onions, diced

the directions call for processing all of the ingredients in a food processor until smooth.  i did this but my food processor left it too chunky for me, i dumped it in the blender and blended it until smooth.  season with salt and pepper if desired.  serve over wedges of iceberg lettuce.  

a cake with tomatoes? absolutely!

you are not imagining this-i really am suggesting that you make a cake with tomatoes.  a spicy, moist cake studded with currants and pecans that is perfect for the extra tomatoes your garden is dumping on you hourly.  it is also good in late winter when dreams of a summer garden are all you have to keep you going in dreary weather.  honestly, it is good anytime; when isn't a bundt cake a good thing?  never, if you ask me.

it does not matter what type of tomatoes you use for this recipe.  they can be yellow, pink or red, even green.  what is important is that they taste good to you.  sweeter varieties will probably add a little to the sugar content of the cake but the tomato flavor really isn't detected in the final product.  the only exception might be that the redder varieties could give the cake a more golden-orange hue.  i haven't tried it with green tomatoes but i am thinking that the color may not be as pretty as the cake in my photos-i used deep red beefsteak tomatoes.

one final note, you can use your own homemade puree or if you do not have flavorful tomatoes to make puree, use tomato juice or canned whole or crushed tomatoes.  be sure to run them through the food processor to eliminate the chunks and be careful of using a brand with flavors added; no one wants garlic or onion in their cake.  

the tomatoes will need to be peeled first.  you could simply run them through a food mill to do this or mark an "x" on the bottom of the tomato with a paring knife and then lower the tomatoes into rapidly boiling water.  after 45 seconds to a minute, remove the tomato and check it by pulling at the skin where you cut it.  if it peels up easily, they are ready.  if not, put them back in the water for another 15 seconds and repeat the test.

the skin will peel off easily when they are blanched properly.  

cut the tomatoes in half, remove as much of the jelly and seeds as you can, roughly dice them and put them into the food processor.  pulse them to form a puree that has no detectable chunks of tomato.

so easy to make!  this is one of my favorite bundts.  

to see the recipe, visit my page on food52.com by clicking on this link.

go ahead, bake one, i dare you.  then send me a photo, i will post it here along with mine!