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By feral, on February 20th, 2012%
 I concocted this dish yesterday — following a sudden, unambitious inspiration — but people liked it and said I should transcribe the recipe. So, here you go, people:
Step 1: Boil some chickpeas. They’ll taste so much better than the canned ones. You will probably need less than 1 cup of dry chickpeas for this but since cooking them is a bit of a commitment, why not make more and use the rest to whip up some delicious homemade hummus?
To cook the chickpeas:
soak overnight rinse add new water (1:4), bring to a boil add 1 small peeled onion and 1-2 garlic cloves (and an herb of choice — I like bay leaf and oregano) simmer covered for 2 hours (I add salt to the water after 1.5 hours of simmering) drain (reserve some of that liquid if you’re also making hummus)
If you are not convinced this would make any difference, go ahead, use canned chickpeas (15 oz).
While chickpeas are simmering (or sitting in a can):
Wash 1 head cauliflower, dry, and cut into florets Pre-heat oven to 400F . . . CONTINUE READING → cauliflower & chickpeas salad
By feral, on January 5th, 2012%
Two months ago Murzik emailed me this recipe for sardine rillettes with the following comment: “made these a few times, total hit with everybody, especially served on some bread with a side of salad – perfect lunch! or makes pretty good little appetizers.” Even though I had no clue what the word rillettes meant, the recipe looked so appetizing that I bought a can of sardines, a pack of cream cheese and all other ingredients — but never got to mash them together.
Yesterday Murzik made them for lunch. The preparation took about 3 minutes, and I immediately regretted my procrastination. It was a love at first bite and an instant addition to my impress-in-5-minutes-or-less recipe list.
 Snooping around Murzik & Husband’s kitchen (and its garage extension) in El Granada, always results in new inspirations and useful culinary discoveries. To demonstrate, here’s the first thing I saw upon arrival:
 This is probably only about a quarter of their home-canned bounty and certainly puts my own feeble canning attempts to shame. These shelves deserve their own reality TV show: “Extreme Canning . . . CONTINUE READING → Sardine Rillettes and 5 more tips from El Granada
By feral, on August 25th, 2011%
I was away from the garden for long three weeks. Finally, we escaped the city, shaken up by yesterday’s seismic tremors, and safely arrived in Canaan late last night. (Although the earthquake was most noticeable in the neighborhoods of Twitter and Facebook, I did feel it in Soho and James, who was at home, says that 5.8 magnitude translates into quite an unnerving sensation on the 37th floor…) And if Manhattan, fortunately, did not sustain any damages, in the garden this morning I witnessed scenes of devastation.
The tallest sunflowers collapsed.
Tomato plants fell to they ground, many with their support structures.
 None of these catastrophic damages, however, were due to tectonic shifts. The sunflowers grew too tall for their own good and tomatoes too heavy, although I do take partial responsibility for a somewhat faulty deficient job staking the latter. In any case, it won’t hurt to get more earthquake-resistant varieties next year.
But it only looked dramatic. The was almost no real damage. Quite the opposite, actually — I spent the rest of the day . . . CONTINUE READING → Back in the garden – harvest time!
By feral, on June 17th, 2011%
I think it’s about time I introduced a new category to my blog — focusing on the subject of having your greens and drinking them too.
Because what do you do when the greens suddenly explode in your garden, and you just can’t eat them all? In my case, to take care of the current cilantro endemic — last year’s cilantro reseeded itself everywhere and is about to bolt — I pulled out about a basketful of the herb and turned our kitchen into an Iron Chef set yesterday.
Team Z was responsible for the appetizer and produced this Greek-yogurt-and-feta-cheese dip. It included garlic, olive oil, and, literally, every garden herb in addition to cilantro: dill, parsley, basil, thyme, oregano, green onions, and even some sage blossoms.
 Simultaneously, team J was working on a cocktail — a cilantro margarita, based on this recipe, with a slight modification… The recipe (for 2 drinks) involved muddling lots of cilantro leaves (1/2 cup) with sugar (4Tbs) and shaking them with lots of ice, lime juice (2 limes), triple sec (1 oz) and tequila (4 oz). James’ custom modification consisted of adding . . . CONTINUE READING → drink your greens!
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