The Any Wonderful Food You Made From Your Garden Today Thread!

[Hattie the Hen]

obsessed

Try frying your cucumbers in a mixture of butter & olive oil. You cut them across into 1/8 th of an inch discs. Sprinkle with dill, parsley or chives. tastes great & will ring the changes a bit. Tastes good with fish or inside an omelette. Or you can get very cheffy & with a potato peeler make a pile of ribbons & fry these & have them over pasta with cheese, sour cream & fresh herbs.

Hope this helps with your CUKE GLUT!


:rose Hattie :rose

 

[Sylvie]

About 2 years ago I created a cucumber diet for myself.
I topped cucumber slices with everything I could think of.
My favorite was Red Lobster tartar sauce! Next I liked A-1 steak sauce on them. Spaghetti sauce was great, as was basil pesto.
I love cucumbers to begin with. Oh, yeah, Butterbuds were fabulous.
I lost 15 pounds.

 

[HiDelight]

I changed my whole plan yesterday when I realized I could pick some vine leaves!
I had just enough for a batch of dolmades!
...and they were to die for!

filled with lamb/beef combo (or for veggie friends cooked bulger wheat with lentils, lots of fresh herbs..mint, parsley and spring onions..a little cinnamon, coriander cumin, salt and pepper couple of eggs ..little bit of tomato in the filling ..roll them up layered with with rhubarb and tomatoes ...I put fig leaves on the top and bottom of the Dutch oven and they gave a wonderful flavor to those tasty little packages!

if you have grape vines and your leaves are coming on ..you must make some stuffed vine leaves ..or dolmades! so freaking good!!!

 

[GrowinVeggiesInSC]

if you have grape vines and your leaves are coming on ..you must make some stuffed vine leaves ..or dolmades! so freaking good!!!

Will any species of grape vine work? Do you eat the actual leaf or is it just for the flavor?

 

[HiDelight]

if you have grape vines and your leaves are coming on ..you must make some stuffed vine leaves ..or dolmades! so freaking good!!!

Will any species of grape vine work? Do you eat the actual leaf or is it just for the flavor?

YES! YES! you can use/eat any grape leaf as long as you pick them in the spring (they get really tough later) they are wonderful and very tender ..you stuff them like tiny stuffed cabbage rolls

to prep the leaves pick them put them in a huge bowl and pour boiling salted water over them ..then cut the stems off ...I found a YouTube for a friend that showed how to roll them...I will see if I can find it

the filling is as varried as a meatball can be but I do find that fresh herbs and fresh mint are always used
I will try to write my recipe down but let me see if I can find that youtube for how to do it

 

[HiDelight]

well I just looked at Youtube and none of the recipes are like the one I do

they all cook the filling first and I never do that! you can google how to roll them but basically just pour boiling salted water over your vine leaves in a big bowl ..leave it for a min or two then drain and put cold water on them to cool then drain ..spread out and stack them up on a plate ..cutting the stems off (you can freeze them at this point but I have never tried ..you can also can these in brine )

put them vein side up on a dish spoon a bit of the filling in and roll them up like a tiny burrito
my filling varies and I never cook anything first I just make it like meatballs and then stuff the leaves and let the filling cook in the leaves..

this time it was

2 lbs of half and half ground lamb and beef (or just beef or just lamb or cooked bulger wheat and cooked lentils if you do not eat meat)
3 spring onions minced with spring garlic
handful of flat leaf parsley minced
handful of mint minced
2 handfuls of fresh spinach minced
1/2 tsp each ...ground coriander, ground cinnamon, allspice and ground cumin
1 tsp cracked pepper
pinch of saffron
salt to taste
2 eggs
1/2 cup of raw soaked and drained basmatti rice
and 3 canned tomatoes (saved the rest of the can...use a big can.. for the sauce)

I lined a Dutch oven with fig leaves (but grape leaves are what you should use I was experimenting and it was great!) put a couple of cups of diced rhubarb on the bottom and half the left over tomatoes with juice...layer the stuffed vine leaves on top of that...then top with more rhubarb and the other half of the tomatoes ..put vine leaves or fig leaves on top ..cover the Dutch oven and cook at 300 for an hour then reduce the heat to 200 and let slow cook for a couple more hours until everything is fork tender!
the rhubarb and tomatoes makes a very wonderful sauce with the flavor of the grape leaves
enjoy

 

[big brown horse]

Yes, that is basiclly how my recipe goes. Thanks for writing it out because I cant find it...probably in an unpacked box or something.

I think I will try this tonight. I don't have grape leaves growing on my property, but I have the herbs you described. I'm making a list for the market right now. Thanks!! For those of you who don't have grape leaves either, you can buy them brined already at the grocery store, just rince them first, right HiDelight?

 

[tryingtohaveitall]

I made two batches of strawberry jam last night from my strawberry patch. This is the first year I've really had enough to make jam with, so yay!

 

[HiDelight]

I am embarassed I have never used jarred leaves but I imagine you have to wash them since they are in brine?

I saw Trader Joes has both jarred and canned leaves

maybe that half cup of rice was too much for lean meat try 1/3 cup raw rice ..if you do not have fatty meat it will not dry it out

my strawberries are LOADED!!! I have never seen so many in my life on plants I grew! I am watching them with a close eye so the birds do not get some before I do ...

home made strawberry jam ..I love to make runny jam it is more like syrup with strawberries in it

usually however I use pomonas (sp?) and make sugarless jam so I can eat it more often with out guilt (I am a sugar junky so I try to moderate!)

 

[tryingtohaveitall]

Ooh, I thought of something else I just made with garden foods, some from mine, some from others'.

Carmelized onion and spring asparagus pasta

2 large sweet onions, sliced and carmelized in olive oil (in oven or on stove top)
snap asparagus (approx 2 lbs) into bite sized pieces, boil for ~ 4min
1 pkg gemelli pasta, cook per directions

combine in 9 x 13" pans with olive oil, balsamic vinegar, cracked pepper and freshly grated parmesan.

Heat in 350 oven just long enough to melt the cheese and meld the flavors together. Delicious! My favorite spring food.