Boca Burgers with Pureed Mache and Sauteed Dandelion Greens

This was one of our quick dinners created after surveying the vegetable garden for ideas.  Mache and Dandelion Greens have both thrived this winter with no attention from us.  The mache is growing in our window box where it gets very little sun or water, but the plants are thick and full.  In the backyard, we are growing both Green and Red-Ribbed Dandelion Greens.  Both varieties have grown into large, full plants with the longest leaves reaching well over 18 inches.  We topped boca burgers with the mache puree, although it is tasty enough on its own to use as a vegetable dish.  For our side, we sauteed dandelion greens which were bitter and wonderful at the same time.

Pureed Mache

1 1/2          Tbs          sea salt
1                 lb            freshly picked mache, washed and dried
1/4              cup         vegetable stock
1/4              cup         half and half
                                  pinch of nutmeg


Sauteed Dandelion Greens

1              lb              freshly picked dandelion greens, rinsed
2              Tbs           salt
1/8          cup            olive oil
2                               garlic cloves, minced
1/8          tsp             red pepper flakes
1/8          tsp             sea salt
Procedure

Pureed Mache

1. Bring large pot of water to a boil, add salt and mache.  Blanch, uncovered, until just softened, about 2 minutes.  Drain and run under cold water to stop the cooking process.   Gently press out extra water.
2. In food processor, puree mache with vegetable stock and half and half until smooth.  Season with nutmeg and sea salt to taste.
3. Use on a sandwich like we did, or serve as a side dish.  This would also be fantastic tossed with some pasta and a wonderful cheese.

Sauteed Dandelion Greens

1. Bring large pot of water to a boil, add salt and dandelion greens.  Cook uncovered until ribs are soft, about 10 minutes.  Drain, then run under cold water to stop the cooking process.  Gently press out extra water.
2. Heat olive oil in large skillet over medium, then saute garlic and red pepper about 1 minute.  Increase temperature to medium-high, add greens and sea salt, and saute until greens are coated with oil, about 4 more minutes.  Season with salt and pepper.
3. Serve immediately.

French Breakfast Radish and Mache Sandwiches

While clearing out the garden for spring vegetables, we discovered a row of French Breakfast radishes we had forgotten about.  The plants have been completely ignored since we started the seeds last September, but they have thrived nevertheless.   If you think of radishes as nothing more than a salad garnish, this recipe will open your eyes to the potential of radishes as the star ingredient.  With a great peppery flavor, crunchy texture and beautiful color, our radishes are incredible.  Here we combine the radishes with mache from the garden, another vegetable that has loved our long, cold (well, Houston's version of cold) winter.  One bunch of radishes and their greens combined with the mache makes a wonderful salad and sandwich.  Eaten together, an amazing meal celebrating the radish.

French Breakfast Radish and Mache Salad and Sandwiches
adapted from Vegetable Harvest by Patricia Wells


Ingredients

Dressing

1/2       Tbs             fresh lemon juice
1/8        tsp             sea salt
1/4        cup            1/2 and 1/2 or light cream
1           oz              finely minced green bunching onions or chives

Salad and Sandwich

3          cups           mache (photo above) or butter lettuce
8                            french breakfast radishes, washed,
                              thinly sliced, and leaves reserved
2          Tbs            unsalted butter at room temp
                              zest of 1 lemon
4                            slices pumpernickel bread
                              coarse sea salt

Procedure

1. Make dressing:  Combine lemon juice and salt well.  Add half and half and onions and blend well.  Season to taste.
2. Tear mache into bite-sized pieces.
3. Slice radishes into thin rounds.  Set aside one quarter of the radishes, then cut remaining radishes rounds into thin strips.  Finely chop the radish leaves.  Place radishes and leaves on paper towels to absorb excess moisture.
4. Combine butter and lemon zest.  Add radish strips and chopped radish leaves and mash everything together.  Season with salt and pepper to taste.
5. Spread mixture on toasted rye bread slices.  Add radish rounds on top, sprinkle with a bit of sea salt.

1. For the salad, combine remaining radish rounds with mache leaves.  Add dressing to lightly coat the greens.  Season with sea salt and serve.

Garden Pu Pu Platter with Crunchy Baby Lima Beans

When David was growing up, his family dinners were very predictable.  Thursday was meatloaf night, Friday was spaghetti.  Perhaps as a reaction against that routine, he refused to cook us the same dish twice for dinner.  Each night was a new recipe, with results that ranged from the spectacular to the inedible.  One constant was that we rarely ate before 10:00 at night as David forged his way through yet another unfamiliar recipe.   By the time dinner was finished, David was usually exhausted and cranky, the kitchen was a disaster area, and I was ready to go to sleep.

While I appreciated his efforts and loved the variety, too many nights of gnawing hunger and late nights forced me to suggest that David create a repertoire.  Not the strict schedule he grew up with, but a collection of tested recipes that he could draw from when planning dinner.  For our restaurant, we use a software program called Living Cookbook to store our recipes.  When the chefs (inevitably) lose a recipe or it gets covered in grease, we just print out a new copy.

For the house, we decided to go low-tech.  We purchased a binder, and David filed all his favorite recipes inside.  We still set aside several nights each week for experimentation, but we have a few nights each week to enjoy our favorites and spend the rest of the night relaxing.  This routine has been complicated somewhat by the vegetable garden.  Other than eggplant (which is always in supply right now), it's hard to know what will be ready from the garden each night.  So the key has been to keep the kitchen well stocked with basics (which for us means things like tofu, feta, couscous, onions, and spices) so that we can harvest each night and design the dinner accordingly.

Sometimes this means edamame on the side, other nights we have fresh snap beans or senposai.  Even though we have introduced a bit of regimentation to the schedule, we still have amazing variety thanks to the garden.  Last night is a perfect example.   From the garden we harvested cucumbers, tomatoes, dandelion greens, arugula, lima beans and (of course) eggplant.  David decided to make a salad, with some cooked vegetables on the side.  The result:  a garden pu pu platter with Jerusalem Salad (part of the repertoire) using the dandelion greens, arugula, cucumbers and tomatoes, plus sauteed eggplant and crunchy lima beans on the side.   The eggplant harvest was a combination of thai long green, rosa bianca, cloud nine and black beauty.  Each kept its color, making for a beautiful side dish in shades of green, purple and white.

The baby limas were also a mixture of varieties -- Dixie Butterpea, Fordhook 242, Henderson's Bush, and White Dixie.  David prepared Crunchy Lima Beans -- crunchy on the outside, still soft and creamy on the inside.  Easy to prepare, with a flavor that can't be beat.

Crunchy Baby Lima Beans

Ingredients

1-2       cups       fresh lima beans (removed from pods)
                          sea salt
2           Tbs       olive oil


Preparation

1. Boil salted water.  Add lima beans and blanch 3 - 5 minutes.
2. Drain in a colander and run beans under cold water to stop the cooking process.
3. Heat olive oil over medium heat.  Add lima beans, sprinkle with sea salt, and saute until they are slightly shriveled and dry-looking on the outside (about 5 minutes).  Remove immediately to avoid over-cooking.  Serve right away.
   

Jerusalem Salad, Houston-Style

David and I love middle-eastern food. We have a great collection of cookbooks devoted to the topic. Our favorites include:

Silk Road Cooking: A Vegetarian Journey by Najmieh Batmanglij

The New Book of Middle Eastern Food by Claudia Roden

The Cooking of the Eastern Mediterranean by Paula Wolfert

Spice by Ana Sortun

The Arab Table by May Bsisu

The Foods of Israel Today by Joan Nathan

We cook often from these books, and have rarely been disappointed. Each book is particularly strong in certain areas. For example, Batmanglij's book has the best stews and Sortun's book is excellent when you want to focus on particular ingredients.

Our favorite recipe this summer has been the Jerusalem Salad from Bsisu's book. David has adapted it a bit to utilize the vegetables we have in our garden, with great results. The salad is very flexible, enabling you to change the salad components to accommodate the vegetables that you have on hand. But, you must not deviate from the dressing recipe. It's the critical component that pulls the salad together, regardless of which vegetables you choose to include.

Jerusalem Salad (Salatat Kudsiyeh) adapted from Mary Bsisu

1 1/2 pounds firm tomatoes, seeded and finely chopped (we use our cherry tomatoes)

3 small cucumbers or 1 large cucumber, finely chopped

1 medium white onion, finely chopped

1 cup feta cheese (this is not in Bsisu's recipe, but it's a great addition)

2 cups fresh greens, finely chopped (we use a mix of whatever greens we have, and always include our arugula; the original recipe calls for romaine)

1/4 cup fresh lemon juice

1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil

1/3 cup tahini

2 Tablespoons white vinegar

Salt and Black Pepper to taste

1. Combine all the vegetables and the cheese.

2. Whisk together dressing ingredients until creamy and pale. If too thick, add a bit of water. If too thin, add more tahini. Add salt and pepper to taste.

3. Add dressing at last minute or salad will become soggy

4. Serve with warm pita bread

Salad Greens in the Summer

While lettuces do not thrive in our hot, humid summer weather, I have learned that some will survive and produce enough to make a decent salad. That doesn't mean I'm growing Romaine in August, but there are several greens that have pleasantly surprised me with their heat-hardiness.

I've already written about Senposai and India Spinach Beet, two Asian greens that have been extremely productive in our garden. I have a long list of other Asian greens I'm growing right now. Most are crosses between Komatsuna and other vegetables, although I am also growing Tatsoi (a pak choy) and Chin-Chiang. They are still fairly immature, although growing well. The best true salad green from Asia for the summer is Mizuna. With it's jagged, feathery edges, Mizuna is familiar to anyone who has eaten a salad made with mixed greens. The Mizuna is growing quite well, and it tastes great. It is definitely not just a poor stand-in for lettuce, and is worth growing in any vegetable garden.

The other greens that have done quite well this summer are all European in origin: arugula, sorrel, and dandelion greens. It is recommended to grow arugula in cool weather, but ours has survived full sun without dying or bolting. The taste is strong and bitter, much better than any store-bought arugula. I'm curious if the taste will be more subtle when the temperatures drop, but we're loving the sharp flavor that it has now.

I planted the sorrel in the beginning of April, and kept urging David to hurry and make sorrel soup before it died in the summer heat. He never made the soup, but the sorrel has actually grown and thrived. It is not bothered by any pests, and has formed a nice thick cluster in the garden. David is still procrastinating on that soup, but we'll have lots of sorrel when he finally gets around to it.

Growing up in Maryland, dandelions were a garden enemy that ruined our perfect green lawn. They're not a problem here in Houston, but those bad connotations have lingered so I never thought I'd voluntarily plant dandelion. I have seen Italian dandelion occasionally at the market, and was happy to learn that it is quite different from the familiar weed. It is also rich in vitamins and nutrients.

Italian dandelion was quite easy to start from seed (perhaps the reason the other dandelion spreads so readily), and the seedlings are quickly growing in the garden. The taste is a bit bitter, but nothing like the arugula or sorrel, and the leaves have a pretty sword shape. These greens seem quite versatile, and will be tasty either fresh or cooked. I just started a red Italian dandelion seed from Johnny's which will look gorgeous with the green dandelion in a salad. So far, the experimentation has paid off with lots of tasty, interesting summer greens.