Roman Tomatoes

These are probably better made with ripe tomatoes from the garden, but I made them with greenhouse tomatoes. They are a classic Italian summer dish. Usually they are roasted with potatoes and served just warm or at room temperature, like so many Mediterranean dishes. 

 

Usually they would also be made in quantity, with a tomato risotto at least partially cooked to stuff them with before they are baked. They are usually not made at home but purchased from bakeries and trattoria, when the Italian summers make it unbearable to cook. 

 

When I first came across this recipe, in an old cook book, my first thought was that it would be a good way to use up leftover rice - that slightly annoying quantity that is too much to throw away, but not enough to provide us each with a normal sized serving. But it may be enough to be thrown into soups, salads, or casseroles - or used to make these tomatoes.

 

4 tomatoes (2 to 4 servings)

1 hour 45 minutes - 30 minutes prep time

allow time to cool

 

4 medium red tomatoes, firm but ripe

1 shallot 

1 small piece of celery

about 1/4 cup finely grated carrot 

1 clove garlic

salt

1 tablespoon olive oil 

2/3 to 3/4 cup cold cooked rice

1/4 cup fresh herbs, OR 2 to 3 teaspoons dried herbs 

Slice the caps off the tomatoes and set them aside. Scoop out the insides of the tomatoes. Salt the insides of the tomatoes and set them aside while you work on the other vegetables. Chop the tomato innards, and set them aside. Peel and finely chop the shallot. Mince the celery and grate the carrot. Peel and mince the garlic. Mince whatever fresh herbs you are going to add - mint is classic, as are basil and parsley. Rosemary could be used in small quantities. I don't think cilantro is traditional, but none the worse for that. I would certainly use some chives. It will really depend on what is available, and that's fine.

Heat the oil in a medium skillet over medium heat. Preheat the oven to 350°F. Cook the shallot, celery, and tomato for a few minutes, until softened and reduced in volume. Add the garlic and the leftover rice, and fry for a few more minutes. Then add the tomato pulp. Continue cooking, and stirring regularly, until the tomato pulp has cooked down. Remove from the heat. 

Rinse the tomatoes out and drain them well. Divide the stuffing evenly amongst them. Place the caps back on and put them into a snug-fitting, lightly oiled shallow baking pan. Drizzle in a little water around them; just enough to cover the bottom of the pan. Bake for about 1 hour and 15 minutes, until quite soft. Let them cool to just warm or room temperature before serving. (Refrigerate any leftovers; they can be gently warmed or brought back to room temperature again.) 

Last year at this time I made Experimental Pizza - Reduced Carbohydrate.

Spinach & Mushroom Salad with Warm Bacon Dressing

This is a classic German salad that's also long been popular here, as well it should be. You get to feel all healthy and virtuous about the spinach and herbs, but there's also mushrooms! And bacon!! And sour cream! Well, I'm using yogurt these days because I can't get a decent sour cream for love or money. Use a full-fat one for best results. I like to add toasted sunflower and pumpkin seeds for extra crunch. 

And here we seem to be, in salad season. 

2 to 6 servings
1 hour prep time

Prepare the Salad:
6 to 8 cups baby spinach leaves
8 to 12 small button mushrooms
a good handful of parsley, if available
3 green onions
1/4 cup unsalted sunflower seeds
1/4 cup unsalted pumpkin seeds

Wash the spinach very well in cold water, then pick it over, discarding any tough stems and damaged leaves. Rinse it well again, and dry it thoroughly - salad spinner is a good idea.

Clean, trim, and slice the mushrooms. Wash, dry, and mince the parsley. Wash and trim the green onions, and chop them finely. All of this, along with the sunflower and pumpkin seeds, should go into a salad bowl. You may, if you wish, keep the green onions out and cook them in the dressing instead - it depends on how mild your onions are, and how much you like them (or not) raw. Also, if they are not purchased roasted, you may wish to toast the seeds in a dry skillet for a few minutes over medium heat before they go into the salad bowl.

Make the Dressing:
1 clove of garlic
1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
freshly ground black pepper to taste
1/2 teaspoon sugar
maybe some salt
250 grams (1/2 pound) medium-lean bacon
1/4 cup sour cream OR thick yogurt

Peel and mince the garlic, and put it in a small bowl with the mustard, vinegar, pepper, and sugar. You MAY wish to add some salt, but it will depend very much on how salty your bacon is. Most commercial bacon is way too salty to need more added, but if you are getting good quality bacon a little salt may be beneficial - you will need to use your judgement.

Chop the bacon into pieces a little narrower than the width of the slices. Put them in a medium skillet over medium heat, and cook slowly until they have rendered quite a bit of fat and cooked to being quite crisp throughout.

Lift the bacon pieces out with slotted spoon and put them on a bit of paper towel to drain. Assess the amount of bacon fat you have in the pan. If you think there is more than the amount of oil you would use to dress the amount of salad you have, drain some of it off until it is the right amount. Otherwise, return it to the heat but turn the heat to medium-low. If you want to cook the chopped green onions, add them now and cook until well wilted, just a minute or so. Mix up the contents of the small bowl and mix them into the bacon fat. When well distributed, turn off the heat. Measure and mix in the sour cream or yogurt. Scrape the dressing over the salad. Toss well, then sprinkle the bacon bits over the salad. Serve at once.

 

 

 

 

Last year at this time I made Sweet Potato Starch Noodle, Spinach & Sprout Salad. 

Baked Trout with Creamy Leek & Dill Sauce

We actually got into a local specialty grocery recently, and I was able to get some lovely trout from Kolapore. This was a very quick and simple way to serve it, but after all good trout (and theirs is excellent) needs no distractions. The sauce is delicious and counts as a vegetable dish, so we just added some frozen peas for good measure and with a little rice had ourselves an amazing meal.  

Leeks, carrots, and frozen peas are all just about gone. Well, everything is just about gone. Fortunately new things are coming along every day!

 

4 servings

45 minutes - 20 minutes prep time

2 medium leeks

1 medium carrot

3 tablespoons unsalted butter

1/4 teaspoon salt

2 tablespoons barley OR other flour

freshly ground black pepper to taste

2/3 cup thick yogurt

2/3 cup light cream (10%)

2 tablespoons Dijon mustard

1/4 cup finely minced fresh dill

the zest of 1/2 lemon

the juice of 1/2 lemon

2 trout fillets, 325 to 425 grams (12 to 16 ounces) each

Wash and trim the leeks, and chop them finely. Peel and grate the carrot. 

Melt the butter in an oven-proof baking dish that can also be used on the stove-top over medium heat. Cook the leeks and carrot for about 10 minutes, stirring regularly, until softened and reduced in volume but not browned. Season with salt and pepper, and mix in the flour. Let cook for another 5 minutes or so, stirring regularly. 

Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 400°F. 

Mix the yogurt and cream together in a mixing bowl, with the mustard, dill, lemon zest and lemon juice. Stir it all into the cooked vegetables. (Remove them from the heat first.) Lay the trout fillets on top of the sauce, pressing them down slightly to make the fish and sauce level with each other. 

Bake for 20 minutes. Let rest 5 minutes before serving. 

 

 

 

 

Last year at this time I made Carrots with Sorrel & Spinach. 

Sorrel Soup

What an odd spring this has been - amazingly, I was able to scrounge a little sorrel and spinach in the second week of April! But since that early warm spell, it's been cool and things have come along quite slowly. Still, both those things will be much further along and available around now, with the usual proviso that about the only way sorrel is available is to grow it yourself. Highly recommended! 

This is a pretty simple and light soup, best as an introductory course to a larger meal, or served with a sandwich or some such thing. It won't be a meal in itself, and the servings indicated are fairly small ones.

 

4 servings 

45 minutes prep time

 

2 cups loosely packed fresh sorrel leaves

2 cups loosely packed fresh spinach

1 small carrot and/or 1 small parsnip

1 tablespoon chicken fat or unsalted butter

1 bay leaf

1/4 teaspoon allspice berries

1/4 teaspoon black peppercorns

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 tablespoon barley or other flour

2 tablespoons finely minced fresh chives

1/4 cup finely minced fresh parsley

1 cup finely minced raw spinach

4 cups unsalted chicken OR vegetable stock

1/2 cup light cream OR yogurt, optional

 

Wash the sorrel leaves - it's a good idea to soak them in cold salted water for a while to draw out any critters. Remove and discard any tough stems and damaged or discoloured leaves. Do the same with the spinach. Put them in a strainer and pour boiling water over them until they are well wilted. Let them cool, squeeze the water from them, and chop them finely.

Peel and dice or grate the carrots and/or parsnip. Heat the butter in the soup pot and add them, along with the bay leaf. Cook over medium-low heat for about 10 to 15 minutes, covered, but stirring regularly until softened.

Meanwhile, grind the allspice, pepper, and salt together finely. When the vegetables are ready, add them, along with the barley flour and the minced herbs. Mix in well, and after a minute or so to wilt the herbs, add the stock and the chopped, drained sorrel and spinach. Let simmer for about 10 minutes, then mix in the cream or yogurt, if using. Heat to the edge of simmering, but do not let the soup boil, and serve at once. It can also be served plain and a dollop of yogurt - or sour cream, if you can get any - can be added. Or not; it's fine as-is.

Chicken Pozharski

Way back many years ago I found a little cook book published by MIR, the official publishing arm of the Russian Communist government (yep, that long ago) at the library. I copied out quite a few recipes from it; this was one of them. 

 

Unlike a lot of the most famous Russian recipes, this one is not a creation by French chefs then named for Russian aristocrats; it has a fairly well-known origin in the 19th century, at an inn in Torzhok run by a family named Pozharski.  

Generally, these are fairly typical of the large family of Russian "cutlets", the defining features here being ground chicken enriched with butter and fried in a coating of breadcrumbs, then served with a creamy sauce enriched with vegetables. 

It occurs to me that these are the direct ancestor of the ubiquitous "chicken nugget". How the mighty are fallen.

 

4 servings - 8 to 12 cutlets

45 minutes prep time

 

Form the Chicken Cutlets:

2 slices of bread (about 2/3 cup of crumbs)

2 tablespoons milk or light cream 

500 grams lean ground chicken

2 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened

1 large egg

1/2 teaspoon salt

freshly ground black pepper to taste

2 tablespoons minced fresh dill OR 2 teaspoons dry dillweed

1 large egg white

1/2 cup fine breadcrumbs

3 to 4 tablespoons oil to fry 

The bread should be stale but not dessicated; crumble it up in a mixing bowl and pour the milk on it, mixing it to moisten it completely. Once it is, add the ground chicken and butter and mix well. Add the egg, salt, pepper, and dill, and mix again. 

 

Separate the second egg, putting the egg white in a shallow bowl and the yolk aside to go into the sauce. Whisk the egg white well. Put the fine breadcrumbs into another shallow bowl. Divide the meat into 8 to 12 equal portions and roll them into neat balls. Roll each one in the egg white, then in the bread crumbs. Flatten them into patties and set them on a plate as they are done. Set them aside (in the fridge, if necessary) until the sauce is on the way to being made. They will fry up quite quickly.

Make the Sauce & Cook the Patties:

1 medium turnip

1 medium carrot

1 medium onion

1 or 2 cloves of garlic 

2 tablespoons minced parsley

1 tablespoon barley or wheat flour

1/4 teaspoon salt

freshly ground black pepper to taste

1 tablespoon unsalted butter

1 cup unsalted chicken stock

1/2 cup 10% cream

1 large egg yolk

1 to 2 tablespoons sherry or madeira

Peel and finely dice or coarsely grate the turnip and the carrot. Peel and finely chop the onion. Peel and mince the garlic. Mince the parsley and set it aside in a small bowl with the garlic, the flour, and all the remaining seasonings. 

Heat the butter in a shallow saucepan or medium sized skillet. Once it is melted and foaming, add the turnip, carrot, and onion. Cook gently over medium heat, stirring regularly, for about 10 minutes until the vegetables are softened and reduced in volume but not much browned.

At this point, you should heat a couple tablespoons of oil in another large skillet over medium-high heat in which to cook the chicken cutlets. They will take 3 or 4 minutes per side, and you will likely need to do them in 2 batches, and add a bit more oil to the pan when you start the second batch. Keep them warm in the oven at 200°F until they are all done.

 

While the cutlets cook, finish the sauce. Add the little bowl of seasonings and mix in well. Once there is no visible flour remaining, mix the chicken stock in slowly, stirring constantly. Whisk the egg yolk and sherry into the cream. When the chicken cutlets are all cooked, whisk the cream into the sauce and let it cook for another minute or so until the sauce is thickened. Serve the cutlets with the sauce at once.  

Last year at this time I made Spinach-Spelt Spaetzle or Gnocchi.

Leek & Sorrel Quiche

I do like rye flour for pastry, as it turns out! This has also been an amazing year for sorrel; I started a few cautious pickings almost a month ago, and of course we have very good over-wintered leeks. The best ever, really. Throw in some eggs and cheese, and here it all is in a delightful spring pie. 

 

6 servings

1 hour 45 minutes - 45 minutes prep time

NOT including cooling time

 

 

Make the Pastry:

1 1/2 cups whole rye flour

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/3 cup cold unsalted butter

6 to 7 tablespoons very cold water

 

In a mixing bowl, mix the flour, salt, and baking powder. Grate in the butter, and mix in with a fork. Slowly stir in the water, a tablespoon or two at a time (start with a couple, and add less at a time as the dough is formed) until the mixture comes together as a fairly stiff, dry dough. Cover it and let it rest for 20 minutes. 

Preheat the oven to 375°F. On a clean, dry counter or sheet of parchment paper, roll out the pastry to fit a 10" pie plate; you will need to sprinkle it with flour to keep it from sticking. Place it in the pie plate and trim and even the edges. Poke it all over with a fork, and bake for 12 to 14 minutes until firm and lightly coloured.

Fill & Bake the Quiche:

2 medium (3 cups chopped) leeks

2 cups chopped sorrel

1/4 cup unsalted butter

salt & freshly ground black pepper to taste

2 tablespoons flour (I used barley flour)

3 large eggs

1 1/4 cups whole milk OR light cream

125 to 150 grams feta OR other cheese

1/4 to 1/3 grated Parmesan

Wash, trim, and chop the leeks. Rinse them again and drain them well. Wash, trim, and chop the sorrel, discarding any damaged leaves or tough stems. 

Heat the butter in a medium skillet over medium heat. Cook the leeks for at least 5 minutes, stirring regularly, until softened and reduced in volume - but don't let them brown. Add the well drained chopped sorrel leaves and mix them in until wilted. Season with salt and pepper - be mindful that the feta cheese will bring quite a lot of salt - and sprinkle the flour over them. Mix in well until there is no dry white flour left. 

While the vegetables cook, whisk the eggs and milk or cream in a small mixing bowl, and prepare the cheeses. 

When the crust and the vegetables are ready, spread half the vegetables in the pie crust. Sprinkle the feta cheese evenly over them, and top with the remaining vegetables. Carefully pour in the whisked eggs and milk. Sprinkle the Parmesan evenly over the quiche, and bake it at 375°F for 40 to 45 minutes, until firm and lightly browned. Let cool to room temperature or at least just warm to serve. 

Last year at this time I made Turkey-Quinoa Meatloaf.

Cipollata

Is this a soup? A sauce? A topping for bruschetta? Yes to all of those, and more. Adding one cup of stock for the final cooking will make it thick and saucy; for soup add the larger amount of stock. 

 

This is a very traditional recipe made all over Italy, with every part laying claim to their own particular version. Not surprising, given the extreme simplicity of the ingredients. Each place will also have their own particular recommended local onion to be used. Around here, Red Tropea(na) Lunga, Rosso di Milano, and Rosso di Firenze are most likely to be available as red Italian onions. By most likely available, I still mean you are going to have to grow them yourself, probably. But you can get the seed. 

However, any red onion will do, or even yellow ones in a pinch.

I've also served this in its simplest form. I made it vegetarian as it often is, but it does also get cooked sometimes with a little pancetta or with pork bones. It gets elaborated; with tuna or fried fish or squid, stuffed into pies or tossed with pasta, and put on top of bread, foccacia, or pizza. Other things too, no doubt.

I've listed it as something that can be made all year, although the old onions are running out and the new will not be here for a couple of months. A number of the versions I looked at were plainly made with freshly harvested onions, tomatoes and fresh basil. I took it as an opportunity, though, to use up some of the last onions of the season. They are getting a little soft and very inclined to sprout around now. 

As you slice you will think, what a big pile of onions. As you dish it up you will think, what a small pile of onions. If you leave it as a thick soup it will not serve more than 2, but as thinner soup or as a topping for bruschetta, it will go a little further.

 

2 to 4 servings

2 hours prep time

 

500 grams (1 1/4 pounds) Italian red onions

2 tablespoons olive oil

2 bay leaves

1/2 teaspoon salt

freshly ground black pepper to taste

1 cup crushed tomatoes

1 to 2 cups vegetable OR meat stock

2 tablespoons red wine or apple cider vinegar

 

Peel and trim the onions. Cut them in half lengthwise, and lay them flat; cut each half down the middle again. Slice them thinly into quarter-moons. 

 

Heat the oil in a large heavy-bottomed soup pot or skillet, over medium heat. Add the onions and cook, stirring regularly, until the onions caramelize - at least 30 and up to 45 minutes. Keep the onions just sizzling to prevent pre-mature browning. 

Add the crushed tomatoes and cook for another 10 or 15 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the tomato liquid evaporated and the remaining tomato pulp also fries/caramelizes slightly. 

Add the stock and vinegar. Simmer gently for another 10 to 15 minutes, until thick. Stir occasionally. 

Last year at this time I made Beets with Chervil.

Barley with Sorrel

Apart from needing to cook the barley in advance, this is very simple. Also apart from having the sorrel. I'm afraid you mostly get that by growing it yourself, but here is your annual reminder that if you have any space to grow it, it is well worth-while. It is such a nice thing to have early in the year, it needs so little attention, and it is really very tasty and versatile. Only the fact that it turns a discouraging army brown when cooked is sad. Close your eyes, or add a little spinach, leeks, or green onions to give the colour (and flavour) a boost. If leeks, they should be chopped finely and cooked in the butter a few minutes by themselves before anything else goes in; otherwise, with they would go in with the sorrel. 

You could sprinkle grated cheese over the top and put it under the broiler until bubbling, and serve it as a light main course, but we had it with some plain baked chicken. Fish would be good too.

 

4 servings

30 minutes prep time NOT including cooking the barley 

 

Cook the Barley:

1/2 cup barley

2 cups water

1/4 teaspoon salt

 

As ever, this is best done in the rice cooker. Put it all in, turn it on, cook. This can be done up to a day in advance. 

 

Finish the Dish:

2 cups finely shredded sorrel

2 tablespoons minced fresh dill

2tablespoons butter

1 cup chicken OR vegetable stock

1/3 cup cream

salt & freshly ground black pepper to taste

Wash and pick over the sorrel, discarding any tough or damaged stems and leaves. Drain it well. Wash and dry the dill. Shred them both quite finely. 

Heat the butter in a medium skillet or shallow saucepan, and add the sorrel and dill. Cook over medium heat until wilted and sorrel has turned a dirty khaki colour. Crumble up the barley and add it, then stir in the stock. Cook slowly, stirring regularly, until the mixture is thick. Stir in the cream and season to taste with salt and pepper. Heat through but do not let it boil once the cream is in. Serve at once. 

Last year at this time I made Wonton Soup, No Wontons.

Garden Update

 

 

This photo dates back to the middle of March, when we had 2 very warm days that melted what had been a good foot of snow over the garden before reverting to more seasonal temperatures. Immediately, the leeks looked amazingly good, which is what we are looking for with this particular strain of leeks. Of course, the past winter was a good one for plants coming through it in good condition, being consistently cold but not intensely cold, and with persistent snow-cover. April has been up and down (mostly up, but with a down that killed the apricot blossoms, as usual). At any rate, we've been digging out the ones we think a little too small to let them go to seed, and they have been entirely respectable in size. Very, very happy with the leeks this year. 

It turned out that the rabbit fence Mr. Ferdzy put up 2 years ago had some problems. The main one was that weeds could not be trimmed around the base with a weed-whacker; it actually destroyed the chicken wire. Also, it did not keep out deer which continued to be a problem. So this year, he is re-building it. It will now sit in a base of gravel, and be 2 rows of chicken wire high. This will make for a stressful spring; I help him with the building a little bit but most of it is his work. However, that will leave pretty much all the planting and weeding to me. 

We made a good start on getting this project going, but recently the weather has been slowing us down; either too cold or too wet. Hopefully that will change soon.

Haskap shrubs are already in bloom! Strawberries are only just starting to think about it, so it looks like the haskaps will be even earlier than the strawberries this year. 

Garlic is another one that doesn't mind the mostly fairly chilly (after the early warm spell) spring that we've been having. We're down to growing 4 varieties, from left to right: Tibetan, a local foundling, Bogatyr, and Azores (Portuguese). Tibetan looks thin and weedy compared to the others, and it is a smaller garlic. We continue to grow it because it is the last to sprout - last to come up in the garden which at first we interpreted as a bad thing, but then we realized it's also the last to sprout in storage, so we save it for use in the spring and early summer when the other varieties have all sprouted.

Here is how the leeks looks now. We harvested all the "losers" and they were of really very good quality for the most part; substantial and tender. I only had to peel off one or two outer layers which is not that much worse than what must be done with fall harvested leeks. The best have been left in the bed, which will contain tomatoes. We've been leaving more and more overwintered veggies in place to go to seed wherever possible, and plant the new crop around them. It's mostly been working quite well.

We've left a few Turkish celeriac in the tomato bed to go to seed in addition to the leeks, and I've replanted carrots for seed as well. The closer bed contains a few cabbages for seed and replanted onions for seed. This too will be a tomato bed this year. Beyond the third bed, which contains some overwintered spinach (much damaged by mice, but recovering) there are some stubs of Brussels sprouts. I am not sure enough of them will resprout and go to seed, but if they do we will pull the cabbages so they don't cross. We have lots of cabbage seed; the Brussels sprouts are a higher priority.

Sorrel has been early and prolific this year. I'm in the process of moving it out of this bed, which is really for peonies, but it's going into a bed with a long side against the new fence and until that fence is built it's a bad idea to move them there. Which means it may be the fall or next spring before that happens. In the mean time, lots of sorrel dishes are happening.

I didn't take a picture of all the pots of tomatoes, peppers, etc that we are hauling in and out as we usually do. They look like they usually do too. However, here are some of our potatoes, almost all (but the 3 on the tablecloth) grown from seeds. These are the survivors out of dozens, if not hundreds, of potato seeds planted over the last few years. I am particularly happy with the ones in the top left bowl. They have lovely pink skin, excellent flavour, decent productivity, and it looks like they keep better than most too. 

 

In general, I'm not impressed by how much these have sprouted, but I also realized they sprout worse than our eating potatoes because the spot where we've been storing them is next to an outside wall and temperatures fluctuate more than in the spot where we've been keeping the eating potatoes. Next winter I'm going to find a different spot and see if they don't do better. 

Once the fence is up along their bed - and it's the one being worked on now - these can be planted. Dandelions are in bloom, even if we are supposed to get sleet in the next couple of days. I really hope that's the last of it and we are on to another season in the garden.

Vietnamese Style Noodle Salad

It's not necessary to serve this with Nem Nuong, but we did, and together they made a complete and excellent meal. 

 

Bean thread noodles are also known as cellophane noodles, or glass noodles. You can now get them at the local grocery store, amazingly enough. They are a resistant starch so have a low glycemic load. I've always felt serene and happy after eating them, partly because I love them but partly because I think they don't mess with my blood sugar. 

 

4 servings

30 minutes prep time

 

Make the Dressing:

2 tablespoons fish sauce

the juice of 1 large lime

1 or 2 teaspoons toasted sesame oil

2 tablespoons mild vegetable oil

1 teaspoon sugar

1 clove of garlic

1/4 teaspoon hot red pepper flakes

 

Whisk or shake all the ingredients together is a small bowl or jam jar. 

 

Make the Salad:

2 rolls (100 grams) mung bean noodles

1 cup finely shredded cabbage

1 cup grated carrot

2 or 3 green onions

2 small greenhouse cucumbers

1/4 of a large red or yellow greenhouse pepper

1/2 cup chopped cilantro

1/4 cup chopped mint leaves

 

Bring a pot of water to a boil, then drop in the noodles and let them soak for 8 minutes. (If your package has other directions to prepare them, follow those directions.) Rinse them in cold water and drain them well. Snip them into shorter lengths and put them in a mixing bowl. 

Meanwhile, wash, trim, and shred the carrot. Peel and grate the carrot. Wash, trim, and finely chop the green onions. Wash, trim, and grate or finely chop the cucumbers. Wash, core, and finely chop the pepper. Wash, dry, and mince the cilantro and mint leaves. All of these go in with the noodles. 

Toss the salad, then add the dressing and toss again. Serve as-is, or with Nem Nuong; both can be wrapped in rice wrappers as spring rolls if you like. 

Last year at this time I made Gone-to-Seed Carrots.

Nem Nuong - Vietnamese Pork Loaf

Rice flour is the traditional ingredient for these, not too surprisingly, so I used the barley flour with a little trepidation. How much like actual Nem Nuong this actually is I can't say, but we thought it was delicious. Well - all that garlic; how not? The rice flour wasn't the only liberty I took. This usually has some meat curing salts in it, which I can't get and don't particularly want or need, so I just left them out. 

We ate it all quickly enough that I didn't freeze any, but I would think that you could.

 

4 servings

40 minutes - 15 minutes prep time

 

 

1 head garlic

2 tablespoons rice or barley flour

2 tablespoons fish sauce

1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper

2 teaspoons sugar

450 grams (1 pound) ground pork, not lean

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

2 tablespoons water

 

Peel the garlic, and pound it to a paste. (Grating it finely words well too.) Toast the flour in a dry skillet over medium heat, stirring as needed, until toasted to a paper-bag brown. Turn it into a mixing bowl with the garlic. 

 

Add the remaining ingredients up to the pork and mix well by hand. Dissolve the baking powder in the water and mix it into the meat. Put the seasoned meat into a seal-able container and refrigerate for 4 hours to overnight. 

 

Preheat the oven to 400°F. Bake for 15 minutes, then put it under the broiler and let it broil for 5 to 10 minutes, until browned in spots. 

 

Let it cool for 15 or 20 minutes or until completely cool, then slice and use to top salads or noodles, or as a component in spring rolls or banh mi. Obviously, keep leftovers well-wrapped and refrigerated. 

Last year at this time I made Crisp Fried Pork with Parsley Sauce.

Creamed Carrots & Belgian Endive

Slightly sweet carrots and slightly bitter Belgian endive team up here to make an elegant and well-balanced vegetable dish; quite French in style, not surprisingly. I didn't mean to present it as a disheveled Canadian flag on psychedelics, but the green beans and parsley accompaniments took it there.

 

4 servings

30 minutes prep time

300 grams (10 ounces) thin carrots

200 grams (7 ounces; 1 or 2 heads) Belgian endive

1 small onion

1 clove of garlic

2 tablespoons unsalted butter

salt & freshly ground black pepper to taste

1/4 to 1/3 cup water

1/4 cup sour cream, yogurt, OR 10% cream

chervil, chives, or parsley to garnish, if possible

 

Wash, peel, and slice the carrots fairly thin. Trim the endive and cut in 1/4" slices across. Peel and chop the onion finely, and peel and mince the garlic. 

 

Melt the butter in a skillet over medium heat. Add the carrots and turn them to coat in the butter. They should be just steadily sizzling. Add the onions, and mix them in. Cook for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. 

Add the Belgian endive, and mix in well; cook until just wilted. Add the garlic and mix it in. Season with salt and pepper. Add the water, and cook for another 5 minutes or so, stirring regularly, until the water is evaporated and the vegetables are cooked. (Add a little more water if you want them cooked more.) 

Mix in the cream and heat through, but do not let it simmer again. Serve at once, garnished with a sprinkle of chervil if you can get it, or chives, or parsley. 

Last year at this time I made Kaygana (Turkish Omelette).