Mango and Watercress Salad

Our local supermarket has been selling organic mangoes recently, and I can't resist buying them, eating them, and then planting the pits in hopes of growing a mango tree.

We mainly eat them in our morning fruit, but the other day I made this Asian-inspired salad with watercress picked from a pot on our patio (near the pot of soil containing yet-to-sprout mango pits) and a dressing of soy sauce and roasted sesame oil.

It sounded a little weird when I described it to Larry, but he was game, and we both thoroughly enjoyed it.

I think it would be good even without the mangos, although they do provide a sweet counter-balance to the heat of the watercress and the salt of the soy sauce.

Mango and Watercress Salad
1 tbsp vegetable oil
3 tsp roasted sesame oil
2 tbsp lime juice
2 drops tabasco
2 tsp soy sauce (preferably tamari)
salt and white pepper to taste
2 cups sliced romaine lettuce
2/3 cup loosely packed watercress, coarse stems discarded
1/4 cup grated carrot
1 tbsp cilantro, leaves torn
1 tbsp mint, leaves torn
1/2 mango, peeled, pitted and diced

In a small bowl, whisk together oils, lime juice, soy sauce, tabasco, and salt and pepper to taste.

Toss the romaine with a little dressing and spread on a large plate. Arrange the watercress and cilantro in layers on top, then scatter the herbs over top. Finish with the diced mango.

Serve the dressing on the side.

Serves 2

Vegetable Stock

I write often on this blog about the need for good vegetable stock.

I don't buy commercial stock or bouillon cubes because I'm not a fan of some of the ingredients. Plus it's so easy to whip up a batch of a superior stock at home in the slow cooker.

The secret to this stock is roasting the vegetables in a little olive oil before adding them to the pot. Just as it does with meat bones when making a meat broth, the roasting heightens the flavors and adds a caramelized taste that enhances the broth.

Parsnips are the other secret ingredient. Leave them out if you can't find them and the stock will still be good. But if you have one (and they last in the fridge for months, so if you find some make sure to buy a large bunch), add it and taste the difference.

I find this stock is so rich and good that I use only a quarter of what a recipe calls for, replacing the rest of the liquid with plain water. So the 7-8 cups this recipe makes actually extends to 3 or 4 times that much. I freeze it in 1 and 1 1/2 cup containers, ready to be added to soups and stews as the secret ingredient that makes all the difference.

You could make this same recipe on the stove instead of in a slow cooker. It would cook in a couple of hours. Make sure not to let too much water boil off - keep it at a slow simmer.

But honestly, even if this is the only recipe you use a slow cooker for, it's worth the investment.

Vegetable Stock
1 large onion, peeled and sliced 1/2 inch thick
2 large carrots, scrubbed and cut in 1 inch pieces
2 medium red potatoes, scrubbed and cut in 1 inch pieces
1 large parsnip, peeled and cut in 1 inch pieces
1 stalk celery, cut in 1 inch pieces
1 tbsp olive oil
3 cloves garlic
salt and pepper
4 dried shiitake or porcini mushrooms
2 bay leaves
1/2 tsp black peppercorns
1 tbsp tamari (or other soy sauce)

Toss the onion, carrots, potatoes, parsnip and celery in the olive oil. Crush the unpeeled garlic cloves with the side of a knife and add them too. Toss with salt and pepper, spread out in a roasting pan, and bake at 450°F for 30 minutes, stirring halfway through. The onions might get a little blackened - that's okay, it adds to the flavor.

Meanwhile, soak the dried mushrooms in 1 cup hot water until softened. Slice the mushrooms and put in the slow cooker. Strain the water to remove any grit - I use a paper coffee filter - and add the water to the slow cooker too.

When the vegetables are done, add them to the slow cooker along with the bay leaves, peppercorns and tamari. Pour in 7 cups water, turn the slow cooker to low, put the lid on, and leave it for 8 hours. Resist the urge to lift the lid and give it a stir. Also, you might want to leave the house. Slow cookers are safe - they use the same amount of energy as a light bulb - and the aroma of this stock cooking will make you very hungry.

Strain the vegetables from the stock and discard them on the compost heap. You can taste one if you like - all the flavor will have gone into the stock.

Use the stock right away in soup or a stew, refrigerate for a few days, or freeze in containers for later use. In theory it can last a year in the freezer, but you'll find you use it up long before then.

Fortunately it's easy to cook up another batch.

Sunday Shopping

Everything looks so good at the Hollywood Farmers Market that I have to keep reminding myself that our garden at home is doing well, so we don't need as many vegetables as usual.

Here's what we came home with:
snap peas
2 fuerte avocados
1 grapefruit
3 tangelos
broccoli
8 small red potatoes
8 cremini mushrooms
cilantro
strawberries
eggs
rapini
romaine
4 golden nugget tangerines
beets
carrots
3 pink lady apples
goat cheese from Drake farms

Greens and Beans

The other night I harvested some collard greens from the garden and combined them with other greens and some white beans for a simple, nutritious dinner.

I used a combination of collards, spinach, and some radish leaves. Arugula would have been nice to add, or a little dandelion for some bite. Whatever greens are around can go in the pot.

I started by sautéing a slivered red onion (for color) and a chopped clove of garlic in a little olive oil. I washed and chopped the greens, adding them to the pot as I went, sprinkling with salt and pepper after each addition and stirring well, then covering the pot to keep the steam and nutrients in. I also added about a cup of white lima beans I had previously cooked. (You could use a can of white cannellini beans instead.) Any bean would do, but I like the contrast of white and green.

When everything was warmed through and the greens were soft and tender, I tasted it and added a little balsamic vinegar.

This meal combines protein, antioxidants, fiber, healthy fats, minerals - and best of all it tastes good.

Purple Kohlrabi

We grew our own kohlrabi this year - first time ever. I grew it from a six-pack of little plants I set out earlier in the winter.

I love purple kohlrabi from the farmers' market. It's one of those plants where you get two vegetables in one - the greens are delicious sautéed in garlic and olive oil, and the root is great steamed or boiled and served as you would turnips.

The one essential is to make sure to peel off all the heavy fibrous skin of the bulbous part before cooking it. Otherwise you get mouthfuls of tough string.

This kohlrabi I pulled from my garden, however, was a revelation. As you can see, the bulbous part grows above the soil - you can see the small clump of roots below it still with some dirt on it.

When I started peeling off the purple skin, expecting lots of stringy fibers under it, I found instead crisp juicy flesh, similar to jicama. I don't know why it's so tender, but we're enjoying it. I peeled it and cut off any tough-looking parts. Then I chopped it in large pieces and steamed it until it was tender - under 10 minutes - and then tossed it in garlic butter for a yummy side dish.

I saved the greens and combined them with other greens later in the week in a simple sautéed greens dish.

It was another reminder that home-grown food really does taste best, and not just because of the satisfaction of helping nature create something beautiful.

Sunday Shopping

In the spring, being outside in the garden takes precedence over cooking. I know I won't feel much like cooking this week, so we bought less food than usual at the Hollywood Farmers Market this morning.

I do feel like digging in the garden however, so we came home with plants of poblano peppers, a fish pepper and an Italian gourmet pepper.

Here's the food we came home with:

1 red onion

feta

hummus

celery

eggs

2 fuerte and 2 haas avocados

cilantro

radishes

4 cremini mushrooms

strawberries

1 lb walnuts

12 oz pistachios

3 golden nugget tangerines

4 grapefruit

10 oranges for juicing

2 garlic

2 bunches asparagus

3 pink lady apples

Fava beans

My fava beans are growing quickly, and I picked some of them the other day to make a fava bean risotto.

I picked the pods when I could feel the beans had formed, but when they were still young. This meant that the beans inside the pod had not yet developed the thick layer that requires double shelling.

When I buy fava beans at the farmers market, I usually have to shell them, then blanch and shell the beans themselves. A lot of work, but worth it for the great flavor. However, growing them myself and picking them young cuts back on the work.

I picked a few which were a little larger. They are the beans on the right below which will need blanching and peeling before I add them to dinner. The thicker fibrous skin is whiter, so it's easy to tell whether that they need peeling.

Lunch at Tracie's

We did without our fresh-squeezed oj yesterday morning, and just ate bowls of granola for breakfast instead of our usual Sunday brunch.

Our niece Tracie had invited us to her new home for Sunday lunch.

And quite the lunch it was. Appetizers of heirloom tomatoes, mozzarella and asparagus with balsamic vinaigrette were beautiful as well as delicious. Much fancier presentation than she ever gets at our house.

Appetizer of Caprese salad with asparagus

The main course was pasta with spinach, feta and cherry tomatoes - an excellent stand-by that she remembers eating the first time we invited her to our new home more than a decade ago. I was touched. You can read my recipe for it here.

With the pasta, she served a beautiful Italian loaf spread with slices of red, yellow and green heirloom tomatoes - another beautiful presentation.

Dessert was homemade key lime pie with whipped cream and blackberries.

The whole meal was fabulous. We might never need to eat again.

Thanks Tracie!

Sunday Shopping

We once again had a short shopping list for the Hollywood Farmers Market today. A small spaghetti squash was an impulse purchase that sneaked into my bag. Plus the organic date growers announced it was their last week until the new harvest in August, so I had to buy 4 lbs of dates for the next few months of granola.

And Finley Farms had the first tiny zucchini of the year. I'll add them to a sauté of our homegrown fava beans and mint for a great side dish this week.

Here's what we brought home with us:

almond butter

1 dozen eggs

small spaghetti squash

white sweet potato

1 red onion

gingerroot

6 golden nugget tangerines

cilantro

4 lbs zahidi dates

chickpeas

white lima beans

4 pink lady apples

red sails lettuce

red butter lettuce

3 small zucchini

6 tangelos

blueberries

5 cups plain yogurt

4 grapefruit

Breakfast fruit

Blueberries are back at the Hollywood Farmers Market.

They add an extra sparkle to our breakfast fruit of tangelos, tangerines and grapefruit.

All this fresh vitamin C and bioflavanoids - what a delicious way to stay healthy!

Arugula and Millet

I forgot to take a picture until we had served
ourselves. But with a dish this good, it's hard
to fight off the eaters.

Millet is the one grain that is considered alkaline-forming in the body. All other grains - wheat, corn, rice - are considered acid-forming. Seeing that the body is mainly alkaline, it seems that eating alkaline is a good thing.

Unfortunately, millet is boring. If you buy mixed seed to feed the birds, millet is the grain that the chickadees toss over their shoulders. Budgies like it. But it's round and bland. What to do?

Well, I dress it up with arugula, specifically wild arugula - the peppery kind. Pepper perks up millet.

Of course, you can use other greens in this recipe, but make sure to use some with zest and personality like mustard greens.

Arugula and Millet
1 tbsp olive oil
1/2 large onion, chopped (1/2 cup)
1 small clove garlic, minced
1 bunch wild arugula, stems and leaves
1 1/2 cups water
3/4 cup millet
1 tbsp tamari or soy sauce

Warm the olive oil over medium heat. Add the onion and garlic and cook until lightly browned.

Wash the greens and chop coarsely. Add to the pot with 1/2 tsp salt. Cook, covered 5 minutes.

Meanwhile, toast the millet in a cast iron frypan over medium-high heat until golden, about 5 minutes. It will pop slightly. Remove from heat and add to the greens along with 1 1/2 cups water and 1 tbsp tamari. Cook, covered, over medium-low heat, until the millet is tender and the water is absorbed, about 20 minutes.

Serves 2-3

Sunday Shopping

It was cooler at the market this morning, but this week promises to be hot. We'll be eating salads from our garden - the lettuce is ready, as are the mustard and collard greens, sorrel and arugula. We bought some produce at the Hollywood Farmers Market to fill in the gaps:

1 white sweet potato
2 pink lady apples
4 grapefruit
1 avocado
9 satsuma tangerines
6 tangelos
2 pomelos
1 red onion
2 yellow onions
blueberries
strawberries
1 quart plain yogurt
1 dozen eggs

Red rice

I remember years ago hearing about the many colors of rice that used to be grown in Bali and Indonesia. Then foreigners moved in, bringing "superior" white rice and decimating the original varieties. This of course led to malnutrition and other problems.

Monoculture is always less healthy than diversity.

So when I saw organic pink Madagascar rice at Surfas, the cooking store in Culver City, the other day, I had to try it.

Dry, it looks like the rice served at Mexican restaurants that is white rice with red salsa stirred in. When cooked, it retains some of that pinkish color, although it can be confused with brown rice in low light. It has the texture of white rice, and cooks in only 20 minutes. I served it with leftover curried chickpeas, and it was great.

Plus I'm sure it has nutrients that white and brown rice don't have.

Spinach Salad

I was reminiscing yesterday about a salad I ate in Paris. It was a selection of crisp lettuces with hard-boiled eggs, cheese and a mustard vinaigrette. I requested it without the ham, so the waiter brought it with chicken instead. He was quite sad that I asked him to remove the chicken too. He thought a salad with no meat was not a meal.

Those memories made me hungry for a good salad with walnut dressing. So I made one for lunch.

I started by putting an egg on to cook. I put it in cold salted water, brought it to a boil, turned off the heat and let it sit about 8 minutes until I was ready for it.

I used Malabar spinach from Finley Farms as the base. Cherry tomatoes added sweet juiciness. Walnuts and radishes added crunch.

I made a simple dressing of one spoon of dijon mustard, 2 spoons of red wine vinegar, a sprinkle of salt and pepper, and olive oil to make it delicious (probably 3-4 spoonfuls, but I didn't measure).

I shelled the egg and tore it Jamie Oliver-style over the greens, then poured the vinaigrette over top and tossed it all together.

It was a very full and delicious meal. Pretty healthy too.