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:

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):

You know me, I worry about things like that… Especially after hearing that the canals in Venice froze…  Yesterday I learned that the rest of the world is a big climactic mess too, according to this map (which I stole from this Huff Post article).

Except for Brazil, Tibet, and Kazakhstan… Those seem to be the only 3 places . . . CONTINUE READING → winter blues and greens]]>

I took down our Christmas lights yesterday — just got tired of waiting for the winter to come…  Seriously, I don’t think it’s coming this year.  I got seedlings to start and don’t want them to be confused. This weather has confused enough plants already. I’ve seen foot-tall daffodils and tulips around the city yesterday.  To me, this absence of cold and snow in February feels a little bit like the morning of a sleepless party night: even though it was fun to be able to run around in lighter clothes, to avoid gloomy and slushy days, and not to freeze my ears off, I’m a little worried — what if my garden didn’t get enough rest for the new season?

You know me, I worry about things like that… Especially after hearing that the canals in Venice froze…  Yesterday I learned that the rest of the world is a big climactic mess too, according to this map (which I stole from this Huff Post article).

Except for Brazil, Tibet, and Kazakhstan… Those seem to be the only 3 places in the world where everything is normal.

We haven’t gone Upstate since Christmas but according to witness reports there are only small patches of snow left on the ground. I just hope that my garlic is ok.

This is the first spring semester in several years that we didn’t have a “snow day”– and I could really use one… Ever since my classes started in January, it’s been an avalanche of work.  I’m teaching 4 courses this semester (Intermediate Russian 1, Advanced Russian, Russian Short Story, and Introduction to Russian Drama) — which is my normal load for the Spring but I don’t think I’ve ever spent entire weekends at the office.  Certainly, not enough time for blogging… The enrollments are up — it is a great thing (one of the classes is even over-enrolled) but also means more homework to grade!  Plus, there’s been a load of administrative work, recommendation letters, etc. etc.

Don’t worry though, this semester I’ve been uncharacteristically organized and everything is totally under control.  It’s just that sometimes, after teaching 4 classes (trying to explain verbal adverbs, perfective & imperfective aspects of the Russian verb, infanticidal tzars and runaway noses — all in one day), I feel like my only desire is to sit and stare silently at the wall for a couple of hours (like my former roommate Alex’s cat Ayavrik).  And that explains my antisocialism… I mean, antisociality… antisocial behavior. Something.

Despite the overwhelming work avalanche, I actually quite like my job this year and my students (or, at least, enough of them) are great.  Would you like to see what they look like?  Here’s a student of mine who graduated last Spring.  It turns out, he has been working on this cool start-up called GardenUp that develops units for vertical/urban gardening.  Watch him talk about it in this video:

Boris (my student) says they tested their systems on the roof of the Four Seasons in Philly last summer and their head chef was very impressed.  Did you know that hydroponics can be organic?  I didn’t realize that… I hope to write more about this soon but in the meantime, please check their KickStarter page.  I think their Science Herbie unit is the cutest.  Feel free to also like GardenUp (as well as The Feral Gardener) on Facebook.

As for me, it’s time to start making seed starter mixes and turning our windowsills into a nursery again. 

More about everything soon. (And that is my new motto!)

Links in this post:

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/ringme/vertical-food-gardens-small-space-lots-of-garden

http://www.gardenupnow.com/Garden_Up_Now/Products/Products.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Organic_hydroponics

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/paul-yeager/january-coolest-month-glo_b_1285165.html

https://www.facebook.com/garden

***

First of all, I created a Facebook page for this blog!  Please click here to like it!  All the future FG updates will be linked there from now on, instead of my personal FB page. Hooray!

***

Recipe of the year, so far:  Cara Cara Orange Prosecco Sabayon.  Made it in El Granada with Murzik, having successfully conquered our shared fear of double boilers.  We literally licked everything it touched. Instant enlightenment.  We’re both still raving about it.

***

The next recipe I haven’t tried yet but would really love to.  Doesn’t it look like an amazing idea for a dinner party?  Momofuku Bo Ssam – “a slow-roasted shoulder of pig, a meal that can be picked apart by a table of friends armed only with chopsticks and lettuce. A tight and salty caramel crust sits on top of the moist, . . . CONTINUE READING → Monday digest]]>

Here’s a new format I’d like to try out: a week’s worth of ferally noteworthy finds, forwards, shares, and recommendations, all dumped into one random post.  Let’s see if I can keep up with it…

***

First of all, I created a Facebook page for this blog!  Please click here to like it!  All the future FG updates will be linked there from now on, instead of my personal FB page. Hooray!

***

Recipe of the year, so far:  Cara Cara Orange Prosecco Sabayon.  Made it in El Granada with Murzik, having successfully conquered our shared fear of double boilers.  We literally licked everything it touched. Instant enlightenment.  We’re both still raving about it.

***

The next recipe I haven’t tried yet but would really love to.  Doesn’t it look like an amazing idea for a dinner party?  Momofuku Bo Ssam – “a slow-roasted shoulder of pig, a meal that can be picked apart by a table of friends armed only with chopsticks and lettuce. A tight and salty caramel crust sits on top of the moist, fragrant collapse of meat, and juices run thick to pool beneath it, a kind of syrup, delicious in its intensity. It is pork as pommes soufflé.” I’m adding it to my new recipe wait list section.

***

More about food — but for a different kind of a party… Quite a racy account of the Love Life of Fruit Flies in the New York Times… Here’s an excerpt:

When life is short, mating must be matched with a meal.

As with most animals, from squirrels to spiders, the males pursue but the females choose, and even the lowly fruit fly can be choosy.

Why the dinner date? Because Live Fast and Die is their mantra, and they need a handy food supply if their large new brood is to survive.

I first noticed a similar meal plan among the annual hordes of Japanese beetles that tat rose leaves into doilies. Gardeners often spy the iridescent scarabs perched atop favorite flowers, dining and mating simultaneously. “I don’t mind if you have sex on the roses,” I tell them peevishly. “Really. Knock yourselves out … I just wish you wouldn’t eat at the same time!” (Read the full article)

***

Speaking of life-is-short (ergo fly, eat, and spoil yourself), an Abu Dhabi based airline, Etihad Airways, Is Recruiting Chefs To Make On-Board Meals.  How awesome, Abu Dhabi!  First, an NYU campus, then Sex and the City 2 (which, ironically, got only 1 tomato), and now chefs on board who will be personally asking first-class customers about their gastronomic preferences prior to suggesting and preparing an individualized dinner menu.   I briefly considered applying for the job but the problem is that I find having to buckle up each time my stove hits a patch of rough air exceptionally annoying.  It’s really hard to perfectly time a medium-rare Fillet Mignon with my seat belt securely fastened around my lap and hot butter in my face.

***

Speaking of other ambitious flight designs, I am truly relieved that the failed Russian Fobos-Grunt station fell into the Pacific Ocean and not on some densely populated area (and even more relieved that it didn’t fall on my garden).  I’m still a little bit worried about what happened to the entire load of its highly toxic fuel — enough to take it all the way to Mars, obviously — but the Russians are now saying it is possible that most of the station could have burned as it re-entered the atmosphere.  Not sure if it’s good or bad, but here’s a hilarious Stephen Colbert segment about it:  A Molotov cocktail of doom known as Phobos-Grunt hurtles toward the Earth’s surface, threatening New York, London and Tokyo.

Grunt in Russian means “ground” or “soil” but I love Stephen Colbert’s linguistic take on it.

***

Speaking of linguistics, in case you somehow missed this on Facebook: How To Fake French when you don’t know how to speak it.

***

Possibly, the cutest viral video of all times that does not involve a polar bear cub — again, if you missed it making the rounds in your social networks: Bath Time for Baby Sloths.   Almost dangerously cute — don’t watch and drive!

***

Speaking of viral animals, the honey badger has published a book: Honey Badger Don’t Care: Randalls Guide to Crazy, Nastyass Animals. It could have made for a perfect Christmas present had it come out a little earlier…  But I’m sure it’ll do just fine. If, somehow, you have no idea what I’m talking about, this is your link.

HBDC!

***

And finally, some actually useful information.  I purposely saved it for the end.  Michael sent me this link for a podcast archive of this radio show hosted by Bob Tanem, “America’s Happiest Gardener.”

Much of the stuff on the show has to do with West Coast / California climate plants, but he also talks about general diseases, fertilizers, summer foraging, etc.

I can’t wait to download and listen.  Thanks, Michael!

According to Michael, the show “always recommends alfalfa pellets as a fertilizer. It’s organic. Plus it is slow release. Plus it’s as cheap as dirt.”

http://www.understanding-horse-nutrition.com/alfalfa-pellets.html

http://www.cheapvegetablegardener.com/2008/02/cheap-organic-fertilizer-for-your-lawn-and-garden.html

Who knew?! Not me.  But now we all do.

Aspen might be the only place in America where if you say you’re Russian, people assume you rake in the dough.  Sadly, I had to disappoint the gregarious Iowa lady — the only kind of dough I’m good at making involves flour and yeast.  And that’s what this post is about.

This dough recipe happens to be the answer to the last photo quiz.  If you ever want to bake a Russian-style pie (пирог = pirog) — like these two I made with cabbage filling for the Russian “Old” New Year party 2 days ago — it is simple, quick, easy, and really, really tasty.

. . . CONTINUE READING → How to make Russian dough]]>

From a recent aprés-ski conversation in Aspen with a lady from Iowa who thought I looked like Edward Scissorhands:

Aspen might be the only place in America where if you say you’re Russian, people assume you rake in the dough.  Sadly, I had to disappoint the gregarious Iowa lady — the only kind of dough I’m good at making involves flour and yeast.  And that’s what this post is about.

This dough recipe happens to be the answer to the last photo quiz.  If you ever want to bake a Russian-style pie (пирог = pirog) — like these two I made with cabbage filling for the Russian “Old” New Year party 2 days ago — it is simple, quick, easy, and really, really tasty.

I’ve been using this recipe for over 10 years.  My aunt Lora gave it to me and it’s traveled with me on a worn-out piece of paper… Finally, I decided to record it in cyberspace.

Quick Russian Yeast Dough

Ingredients

• 2 cups (0.5 L) lukewarm milk
• ~2 lbs all-purpose flour
• 2 eggs
• 1 stick unsalted butter, melted & slightly cooled
• 4-5 tablespoons sugar
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 packet dry yeast

1. In a large bowl mix 1/3 of the flour, sugar, salt & yeast; add milk (make sure it’s not hot or it will kill the yeast) & eggs, stir. Let it stand for 10-15 minutes (or longer, up to an hour – no big difference). The yeast mixture will begin to bubble.
2. Mix in melted butter (again, make sure it’s not hot) and start adding the rest of the flour, little by little.
3. When the dough becomes too thick to stir with a spoon, get ready to sink your hands into it. Make sure they are clean.  You’ll need easy access to the flour and olive or vegetable oil. Knead, adding more flour, until the dough stops sticking to your fingers. This is where exact measurements stop but the trick is not to use more flour than necessary — otherwise the dough might come out too heavy. Here’s where the olive oil might come in handy — just a tiny bit to help prevent the dough ball from sticking to your hands.  To me, kneading this dough is one of the most enjoyable kitchen experiences. It should feel light, soft, and elastic.
4. Dust some flour on the bottom of the bowl and on top of the dough, cover with plastic wrap, and let it rise for about an hour.
5. When the dough doubles in size, punch it down gently and let it rise again.  All done.
6. Roll it out, put the filling in, shape the pies, brush with the mixture of beaten egg with milk or water, and let the pies rest for 10-20 minutes before putting them into the oven.
7. Bake at 350F until the dough turns golden.

Filling options: blanched cabbage, hard-boiled eggs and fried onions (more details later); apple, meat, salmon (and fennel — my invention), spinach, sorrel, etc.

There are several options for pie shapes.

1. A big flat one: roll out 2 almost equal sheets of dough. Put the filling on the bottom one, cover with a smaller one, and pinch the ends together.
2. For the narrow ones I made here, roll out one sheet of dough, put the filling in the middle, pinch the sides together, fold the ends, and turn it over, so that the seam is at the bottom.
3. Little individual pies.

For large pies, make little holes with a fork or a knife for the steam to come out as it cooks.

If you end up with some leftover dough, it keeps really well in the fridge or even in the freezer.  I used my leftover dough to make some belyashi (pan fried individual pasty-like things with ground meat, poultry or fish) the following day.

But this is a slightly different technique that I’ll save for some other time.

salmon and fennel pie

mini pies

2 cabbage pies

And why?

The birds are constantly on alert for a fresh load of fish processing refuse that comes regularly. Here, I even took a short video of one such fascinating fish waste feast:

Pelicans feast on fish waste at Princeton Harbor

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]]>

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 in El Granada” or “Serial Canners of Half Moon Bay” would be just a couple of possible titles…

I got to try the New Mexico pepper salsa (bottom row, third from the right) and it was ridiculously good!

Another ridiculously good thing was Husband’s borscht we had for lunch.

Misha's Borscht with beet tops and collard greens

I learned about Husband’s signature borscht spices: basil (to catalyze borscht’s covert tomato base) and coriander.  So good.  One day I need to steal the rest of his recipe.

And here are 5 more useful secrets I got out of their kitchen:

1. Collard greens work great in borscht in place of cabbage
2. Don’t throw out the green parts of leeks: use them instead of onions for a soup base or stock
3. To preserve fragile fresh basil leaves, blend them with olive oil and freeze
4. When freezing dill, there’s no need to chop it up — just freeze the entire washed and dried bunch in a ziploc bag. Frozen dill will beautifully crumble up on its own when you add it to dishes
5. Fresh sage keeps very well in the freezer – I wish I knew this just a little earlier!

2011's celebratory cabbage pie

May it bring you, your loved ones and your garden (if applicable) many happy, healthy, and delicious things.

My 2012 began in Colorado and is about to continue in California (i.e. I’m writing this at Aspen airport). It’s been happy, super fun, and, miraculously, hangover-free. Here’s a glimpse of our NYE dinner — because I know that’s all that you really would like to know about and all that my better judgment permits me to share.

The menu was a collective effort and included a salad, brussels sprouts, pilaf, salmon-fennel pie, and a 7-pound roasted leg of lamb.

I’m particularly proud of our black caviar station complete with miniature potato latkes, crème fraiche and, of course, vodka shots. It was a masterpiece and I insist that it becomes a fixture of any New Year’s celebration. Unfortunately, I failed to take any photos of it because I was too . . . CONTINUE READING → Happy 2012!]]>

Happy New Year, my dear feral reader!

2011's celebratory cabbage pie

May it bring you, your loved ones and your garden (if applicable) many happy, healthy, and delicious things.

My 2012 began in Colorado and is about to continue in California (i.e. I’m writing this at Aspen airport). It’s been happy, super fun, and, miraculously, hangover-free. Here’s a glimpse of our NYE dinner — because I know that’s all that you really would like to know about and all that my better judgment permits me to share.

The menu was a collective effort and included a salad, brussels sprouts, pilaf, salmon-fennel pie, and a 7-pound roasted leg of lamb.

I’m particularly proud of our black caviar station complete with miniature potato latkes, crème fraiche and, of course, vodka shots. It was a masterpiece and I insist that it becomes a fixture of any New Year’s celebration. Unfortunately, I failed to take any photos of it because I was too busy making said mini potato pancakes (gotta have them hot!) and taking said shots.

I still haven’t done my 2012 resolutions list but will let you when and if I come up with one… In the meantime, happy new year once more and keep on reading and growing!

That’s why tonight feralgardener.com, understanding its responsibility as an infant media empire,  is introducing its own Yule Log video.  It is pretty short for now but at least you know it this fire was made with love and real, all-natural wood! By the way, did you know that you can burn your yule log and eat it too?  I did.  When I was a little kid, I saw pictures of something that looked like the most magically delicious thing in the world in my mom’s French magazines.  It was called Bûche de Noël and the chocolate-laden recipes that accompanied those pictures were, alas, so hopelessly unadaptable to the Soviet spectrum of ingredients…  Of course, I since forgot all about those childhood yearnings for the exotic French Bûche and never got a chance to taste it. But this Saturday we went to have breakfast with our neighbors Peter and . . . CONTINUE READING → feral yule (b)log]]>

Just as Christmas socializing is unthinkable without the help of Personal Digital Assistants (see my previous post) nowadays, modern-day Yuletide is incomplete without a Yule Log channel that fills the living room with cozy crackling, courtesy of your friendly cable company.

That’s why tonight feralgardener.com, understanding its responsibility as an infant media empire,  is introducing its own Yule Log video.  It is pretty short for now but at least you know it this fire was made with love and real, all-natural wood!

So, it does exist! I didn’t show it, but deep down I was very excited to receive this little greeting from my childhood. Perhaps next year I’ll even dig up one of those recipes and make one for the holidays?..

A Christmas Day face-off: Steve Jobs vs. Baby Jesus.