Making Chive Blossom Vinegar

The sunny days woke up the chives and suddenly the clump was full of pink blossoms. Since I needed to cut them out anyway to keep the chives producing, I figured I may as well do something with them. A few flowers went into our salad and the rest went to making chive blossom vinegar. It's super easy and quick and makes a beautifully-colored vinegar that's flavored subtly of onion. It's great in a vinaigrette and in marinades, especially for chicken or fish. If you have some chives in bloom, give this a try! I used my friend Theresa's honey for this and it made it that much more special. It's pretty cool having a beekeeper as a friend!

~ CHIVE BLOSSOM VINEGAR ~

12 oz. rice vinegar or white wine vinegar

1 1/2 c. chive blossoms

1 T. honey

& a pint-sized canning jar

Snip the chive blossoms from the stems. Rinse them only if necessary. Put them into a clean, pint-sized Mason jar. In a small saucepan, heat the vinegar until barely simmering. Stir in the honey until dissolved. Remove from heat and pour the hot vinegar over the chive blooms. Screw on the lid and turn the jar upside down on the counter and leave for 30 minutes. Turn the jar over every 30 minutes for a total of four times. You'll see the color changing soon. After 72 hours or so, you can strain out the chive blossoms, as they have imparted all their flavor by then, but I usually leave a few floating in the vinegar just because they're pretty and remind me of where the vinegar started :-)

~ Sangria on a Warm Evening and ... What's Old is New Again ~

Our New Old House

I've been on a bit of a hiatus from my food blog while buying and renovating a 1935 farmhouse these past months. But, now that things have moved into springtime, with all it entails on the farm and in the garden, I'm back and feeling so excited about all that's ahead. 

The new kitchen is gorgeous (still can't believe it's mine!) and the Verona Italian stove is an absolute dream. I've been putting it through its paces and still have several settings to try out. Don't worry, there are recipes, photos and stories to come! Last week I spent a full day of cooking with a friend, making big pots full of hot sauces and bbq sauce. We tinkered and tasted, wrote notes and came out with some amazing, unique flavors.  

One-half of the kitchen

When I'm not in the kitchen, I'm in the greenhouse - a new, 10 x 12 - and it's already filling up! Though I've had a greenhouse in the past for seed starting and overwintering plants, I've never experimented with growing food in it from seed to harvest. We've already had a batch of spinach, some napa cabbage and one ripe strawberry!  

The fuchsias do not impress him

The May weather has been unseasonably warm - in the 80's! - so I decided I needed a refresher one evening. I got out the libations, fruit and some lemon verbena ... oh, what a marvelous scent ... and muddled and poured my way to some sipping bliss. Serve it well chilled and don't drink it too fast or you may wake up in the flowerbed. 

Sangria Sipper - careful, it sneaks up on you!

~ Sangria Sipper ~

1/2 ripe ruby red grapefruit, juiced

1 ripe orange

1 lemon

1 lime

2 oz. Lemoncello liqueur, chilled

2 oz. dry Vermouth, chilled

12 lemon verbena leaves (or 6 bergamot leaves), plus some for garnish

1 bottle dry Riesling, chilled

16 oz. club soda, chilled

Pour fresh grapefruit juice into a pitcher. Slice orange, lemon and lime in half. Juice half of each one, adding the juices to the pitcher. Slice the other citrus halves. Add Lemoncello and dry Vermouth to pitcher, one slice each of orange, lemon and lime and the lemon verbena leaves. Using a muddler or the end of a thick wooden spoon, muddle the ingredients in the pitcher by bluntly bashing down on the fruit and herb leaves just to release oils and fragrance - about ten times. Pour Riesling and club soda into the pitcher and stir gently to mix. Put fruit slices into or on glasses, along with an herb leaf or two and crushed ice, if desired. Pour Sangria, cool and relax :-)

Serves 4

THE GARDEN IS GETTING SLEEPY

The last rose

The spider webs of the orb weavers, purple asters, ripening grapes, a perfect, cyan blue sky. Autumn's breath has whispered into the world, bringing me that particular energy for which I wait all year. That frisson of expectation ~ for preserving and canning, reading heavy books, getting back to my art projects as the rain falls, the rich flowers that bloom in early fall, mushrooms to forage ... lots of things.

I harvested the last of the borlotti beans today - more than I realized were out there - they'll be part of the vegetable salad tonight. Grilled fennel, roasted beets, steamed beans and zucchini, all bathed in a creamy lemon chive dressing on arugula. Tastes of the season.

I sat outside this afternoon, writing in my journal and playing around with some poetry. The sounds of clucking chickens and splashing ducks were the soundtrack. It cracks me up to see the chickens lying on their sides, wings spread, sunning themselves. Must feel good. Well, actually, it did. As I often do, I was out there topless, soaking in that same delicious heat.

A languid, beautiful day. Here are some more photos of it ...

Streusel Cake of Fresh Fruits

Sleepy Garden

Hänsel, watching for field mice

Food Traditions ~ Doughnuts at home

When my sister and I were kids, my Mom started a tradition of making homemade doughnuts with us for Halloween. The recipe is different from most, since it contains mashed potato and a lot of nutmeg. No other doughnuts taste like these! We all looked forward to the heavenly smell of frying doughnuts, glazing them while they were still warm, then going off with one in each hand to eat out in the autumn air.

My husband and I have continued the tradition and most years we make a batch. Jim has added more glazes, chocolate and sugars, but I still like just the glazed ones best.

Food histories, family, memories ... they change, but they stay the same.

JALAPEÑO FRENCH TOAST

Jim gave me a call ~ he'd decided it was his turn to cook dinner and said he wanted to make French toast. I grimaced at the thought, but said okay. Then he told me that a friend had given him a loaf of day-old jalapeño bread from a local bakery and he was going to make a savory version. Now he had me on board! 

He had some ideas, but said he wanted some technical help and we ended up creating it together. It was great for dinner but would be equally delicious for breakfast. Think huevos rancheros flavors. Many specialty bakeries and some supermarkets offer jalapeño bread. Great Harvest, which has many national locations, makes one and also makes "Popeye bread" with red pepper, spinach and Swiss cheese which would work very well, too. If you can't find anything like this, just add some minced jalapeño chiles to your egg mixture and you'll be there. 

The toast was particularly good with the chipotle based salsa on the left, but also good with a basic, store-bought salsa. Just depends what you like! 

JALAPEÑO FRENCH TOAST

One loaf jalapeño bread, sliced

3 large whole eggs

2 large egg yolks

2 Tbsp. minced onion

1/4 t. salt

1/8 t. ground black pepper

1/4 c. milk

Butter for pan

Cilantro leaves

Salsas or chile sauces of your choice

Combine eggs, onion, salt and pepper in shallow bowl and whisk completely. Add milk and whisk until combined.  Heat a cast iron skillet (preferably) or a non-stick skillet on medium high heat. Soak bread slices in egg mixture until saturated, about 20 seconds per side. Add a dollop of butter to the pan, swirl until sizzling, then place two to three slices of soaked bread in pan, depending upon how much room you have. Fry until browned on one side, flip and brown on the other. Serve with salsa and cilantro leaves on the side. Sour cream is nice, too. 

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¤ HERBAL SYRUPS ¤

I needed a cooking therapy day. With all that's been going on, I haven't had much opportunity to be in the kitchen. The herb garden is lush and fragrant. The sage is blooming, I can almost see the rosemary getting taller and wider, the lavender hums with bees and the lemon verbena perfumes the air with the slightest touch. Especially when the hot days cool into evening, the scents drift to find me and I want to do more than just inhale. I also want to taste.

I decided to make some herbal simple syrup. There are so many ways to use it - in cocktails and punches, lemon or limeade, drizzling on fresh fruit, mixing into whipped cream ... mmmm, cream!

The lavender is in perfect form. When cooking with lavender, use the unopened flower buds for optimum flavor. The lemon verbena plant has plenty of leaves to spare. There are so many herbs that can be used. Rosemary makes a complex-tasting syrup that makes great cocktails using gin. Beebalm (bergamot) leaves are one of my favorites - it's the distinctive flavor of Earl Grey tea. Mint leaves are great for mojitos. Pineapple mint is especially good. Lemon or lime peel can be added while making the syrup, if you like. 

The house smelled amazing while the syrups were simmering. The lavender syrup turned out a dusty purple color which makes drinks turn pink. Very pretty! 

Here is the basic recipe for infused simple syrup:

~ Herbal or Spiced Simple Syrup ~ 

1 1/2 c. water

1 c. white sugar

Fresh herb of your choice:

- 2 T. lavender buds OR ...

- 2/3 c. packed lemon verbena leaves

- 2/3 c. packed mint leaves of any type

- 4 6-inch sprigs rosemary

- 1/2 c. packed bergamot leaves

2 T. thyme leaves

Bring sugar and water to boil. Turn down to a simmer and add herbs. Simmer for 15 minutes, partially covered. Remove from heat, let stand 15 minutes. Strain into a jar. Can be kept in the refrigerator for about 3 weeks. Or you can put them in ice trays and then into a freezer bag. Use within 3 months.

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EXOTIC INGREDIENTS

Foods Around My House

We are so lucky in these times to have access to ingredients from all over the world. This thought comes to me as I make Indian Salmon with Grilled Potatoes, a dish of Indian spices in yogurt as a marinade for chicken or salmon which also coats potatoes and vegetables for grilling. I have all the spices here in the kitchen. 

For the photo above, I took some things off the shelves and out of the fridge. All of them are from another country or contain ingredients not found in the U.S. I know it isn't the usual array of stuff most people have in their cupboards, but I'm a foodie type (hate that term, actually) so that's what I have around here. 

When Madhur Jaffrey wrote her cookbook An Invitation to Indian Cooking, in 1973, many of the ingredients called for were next to impossible to find in America. Unless one lived in a big city, you were pretty much out of luck. She gave substitutions where she could, but it wouldn't have been the same at all. Same goes for Julia Child, Marcella Hazan and many other cookbook authors pre-1980 or so. 

We can't now imagine being unable to find mangoes, arugula, wild mushrooms, rice noodles, tamari, specialty cheeses, lemongrass any number of herbs and spices and on and on. In some small communities it's still not easy, but there's always the internet! Pick a cuisine and you can find recipes on the net, get the odd ingredients and get cooking, if you're so inclined. Even finding produce out of season (which I don't recommend) is possible with modern shipping methods. 

I'd hate not being able to make some of my favorites like Indian yogurt rice, risotto with porcini, spanakopita, sukiyaki ... well, just tons of foods I love. We're lucky to have all the variety from which to choose, even if we don't need to. So, what's your favorite "exotic" dish to eat or cook? 

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