When life gives you courgettes.... eat 'em.

We end up with way too many courgettes every year. Courgettes (or zucchinis, whatever you want to call them) are always useful, and with a little effort can taste pretty good.

mini courgette

bigger courgette

They best part is that courgette plants require almost no work after getting them going. I think the hardest part is putting the seeds in some dirt. After that they just cruise through the season producing ridiculous amounts of food.

Between July and August we end up with so many of these things we have to give them away. We leave one or two on the doorstep of lady who lives in the apartment below us. Friends who come for a cup of coffee end up leaving with a big green parting gift.

It’s crazy how fast they grow. Two days too late means two times too big. The problem is that the bigger ones don’t taste as nice. So, it’s in your best interest to keep an eye on them. You can still use them, but the skin is thicker and takes a bit more work to get through.The insides are soft and feathery and only the outer 2 cm are edible. But they're good if you want to stuff them with rise and cheese.

The flowers can also be eaten and are supposed to be good. Battered, deep fried flowers stuffed with cheese and herbs are something we wanted to try but haven’t gotten around to it. This year we’ll give it a try for sure.

ready to be filled and baked

Eggplants: Third time's a charm

This will be our 3^rd year with the garden. 2 years ago we rented our little plot in mid-April. We were picturing some sort of idealized, fully functioning garden already cultivated and perfectly manicured into which we could gracefully step and spend the summer harvesting our fully functioning flora.What we got was a small plot with some weeds, grass, and a row of 5 tiny leeks barely alive. But no worries. It was great getting in there and working the ground. Planning what we were going to grow. Figuring out when and where it should be planted. Slowly, things started happening. We made some mistakes, but who doesn’t?

Anyway, where I’m trying to go with this rambling introduction is that the garden we got was not in very good condition. The soil hadn’t been tilled the year before, no organic additions, no compost. Nutrient-poor with bad soil structure. Heavy clay. That stuff was like stone at some points.

 Ugly little things

The aubergines we grew that first year we pitiful. Inedible, unimpressive little things. We’d started them too late. We didn’t even have seedlings going until late April. My garden neighbour had already commented that he didn’t think we’d get much on the plant since aubergines need some time to mature. Well, he was right.

Last year we started everything much earlier. I think we had seedlings started in the 2^nd week of March. Also, we moved last November to a bigger apartment with much larger windows, so we were able to get our plants going at home. We designated a corner of our living room as a plant nursery.

We also decided to plant the eggplants outside instead of the greenhouse. The primary reason was that it was easier in terms of watering. The greenhouse dries out pretty quick, and we don’t always have time to go over there (on the bicycle – this is Holland, remember) and give everything water. Rain makes things easier sometimes.

Getting better

The aubergines turned out quite well. They still weren’t as big as I had hoped. These turned out longer and thinner than what you normally see at the market. We also had a series of heavy storms in early August that knocked over a lot of plants (even being staked out), and that didn’t help.

But this year, we’re going to try again. I’ve definitely come to appreciate eggplants. I can still remember the first time I actually tried them, and how I really couldn’t stand the taste. I was having dinner at a friend’s parent’s house and out of politeness finished everything on the plate, but those eggplants really weren’t appetizing. These days though we eat them at least once a week in some form or other. They say you have to eat something at least 7 times before you actually begin to like the taste. I guess that seems to have worked for me.

We’re also going to grow Snowy Eggplants, the white coloured ones. They look really cool.  Hope it works out. This year I really want to get some new varieties in the garden. And I’m going to put plants in the greenhouse as well as the outside. The idea is to start them mid-february and really get ‘em going. Big, full fruit is what it’s all about.

Black Salsify and Parsnip Chips (schorseneren en pastinaak)

This week from the market: Black Salsify. Strange name.

We got a packet of salsify seeds from Leonie’s uncle for Sinterklaas (Dutch Santa Claus day). I’d never heard of them. They’ve been designated as a “historic vegetable” or forgotten veg. These ignored plants of the past are making a comeback in Holland as oer-oude (prehistoric) sentiments of the good-old days and golden years gone by return in Dutch culture. And local, fresh produce is becoming hip. Greens from back in the day are becoming popular, and lately you see some strange new items popping up at the weekend markets. The organic section of the market is also getting a lot of attention. Always interesting to see the notable difference in size and look between the organic and non-organic produce (the organic stuff is always smaller, but looks better).

Something different for a change

I always like going to the market on the weekend. Our favourite vendor gives you a big tray and you can choose exactly what you want and how many. You can also see a bit of a seasonal variation throughout the year. Plus we have the benefit that the market is literally 20 m from our door, which makes it quick and easy to fill the fruit basket on Saturday morning.

Since we’re going to try to grow some this year, we’d thought we’d give them a try this weekend. We picked up these Belgian Black Salsifies (it keeps on being a strange word) at the market and grabbed a few parsnips to go with it. We’re going to get some parsnips going this year in the garden as well.

Like eating a peeled stick

Schorseneren (Scorzonera hispanica) are long, woody roots. They’re quite thin with a dark, bark-like outer husk which can be easily peeled to reveal soft white insides. It reminds me of white asparagus with a thick outer casing.

We didn’t actually have any idea what to do with them, but after looking online found that you can just boil them for 25 minutes and add a nice sauce. We also decided to make some chips from parsnip, salsify and carrots. You can buy packets of vegetable chips at the store, and that stuff is usually pretty good. We used one of the salsifies as a side dish for dinner. The other one we peeled, and sliced thin lengthwise with a cheese slicer (kaas schaaf). The carrots and parsnips we just cut into little circles.

The chips turned out quite well. We fried them in vegetable oil for about 6-7 minutes until they just turned brown, and let them dry on some paper towels. The salsify chips turned really well, and they seemed to absorb the salt we sprinkled over them nicely, giving a strong salty flavour. The parsnip chips were also good, as well as the slightly sweeter flavour from the carrot chips.

As a side dish, the schorseneren works great. I was hugely surprised. They are super soft and tender, and have a mellow flavour, going great with the cream sauce. Again I was reminded of asparagus, but the texture is much less stringy or tough. I’d say that these things are definitely a winner, and I’m surprised that they’re more common.

I’m looking forward to seeing what happens in the garden with these things. Though I’m definitely going to have to dig down a bit deeper for these.  At 50 cm long, they’ll need some nice loose soil to be able to properly extend their roots. Especially since we’re growing on heavy clay soil, there’s a high probability or crooked roots. We’ll see what happens. In the mean time, I might buy these a bit more frequently from the market.

Like asparagus but better

Growing garlic (1): Winter update

Well, not really much to update about. There isn’t really anything happening at the moment. Snowy days. Cold ground. But I went past anyway just to check things out.

The garlic is just barely peaking out through the snow. Leaves patiently waiting for warmer days to make a move. These are from some large cloves I bought at the organic grocery store. I’m hoping that these cloves turn into huge bulbs in the spring. Very curious to see the results. This is the first time that we’re growing garlic, so I’m hoping for a good finish! Plus, I love garlic. Nothing like being able to breathe your colleagues half to death because of last night's meal.

In October I had already turned most of the soil over. I emptied our compost bin into the garden and worked it in as best I could. For the garlic section, I added a bit more and worked the ground as loose as possible. The cloves went in about 2-3 cm. In late November I covered it up with a layer of dead leaves for insulation.

Seems like its working out alright. Still going strong even through the cold. And when warm weather comes, I’m hoping for some good growth action as the plant bolts to form bulbs.

Bean sprouts (taugé)

We have one of those little sprout growing dishes. Add water, throw some seeds on top, wait a few days, and voilá. Sprouts.

Apparently these things are super healthy. All sorts of vitamins and stuff. And it’s amusing to watch ‘em grow.  Also, that little growing dish is good for Watercress. That mini-plant is like the healthiest thing ever. It does have quite a strong taste, and I’m not really a fan, but for all that antioxidant and cancer-preventative goodness, I don’t mind adding it to a salad every now and then. We once made a smoothie from it, using only watercress. Man, that tasted horrible, but you could feel it burning in your stomach, detoxifying everything. Powerful stuff.

Mung bean sprouts on the other hand taste pretty good. A good addition to a salad or stir-fry. < We also use the beans themselves in soup or as a filler in homemade veggie-burgers. Good for all sorts of stuff that ails you. You can buy big packages of 2 kg at the Chinese toko for 2 euros. It’s always amusing then when you see the tiny packages for growing bean sprouts being sold for 3.50 in high-end stores.

Plan 2011

We drew up a plan for what's going where this year. I put this together with SketchUp. Last year we stuck to our plan quite well and things turned out alright. Of course, things get moved and harvested throughout the season, so not everything is labeled here. Right now there are winter-leeks (prei) and garlic (knoflook) in the far left row. By the time the tomatoes are ready to go in the ground, the garlic should be done.

The dutch names are given in parenthesis. Next time you're in Holland you can impress the locals with your knowledge of dutch vegetables.

Cheers.

Lazy man's budget soup

Nice warm soup. Takes only 10 minutes. Costs almost nothing, especially if most of the ingredients are coming from the garden. The ideal leftover-greens snack.

Soup is one of the easiest things ever to make.  You can buy canned soup pretty cheap, but it usually doesn't taste very good. Plus if you have some odds and ends of vegetable lying around, just throw them into some stock and heat it up. No worries. You can get more creative of course, but for a quick Sunday lunch, you might as well take it easy.

This is just some chopped leeks, onion, celeriac in soup stock with some vermicelli. And of course, everything is better with sour cream and cheese.

Besides this, one of my favorites is celeriac soup. Thick and creamy, add lots of salt and some chili powder for a kick. Nice.


Cheers.

Banana bread

Banana bread is good.

I confess to not growing the bananas myself. But it's a bit cold in Holland.

Just mash up some overripe bananas, throw in some honey, baking powder, flour, water, oil, nuts, etc. Mix it up 'til its a thick liquid and throw it in the oven for around 30 minutes (or longer, depending on your oven). Good to go.