So this recipe is dedicated to the vegetarians out there. If one is gracing your table this Thanksgiving, think about making this gratin. It’s creamy, roasty and crunchy, beats Tofurkey and the non-meat eater won’t feel left out not having green bean casserole with canned mushroom soup, stuffing, gravy and sweet potatoes with marshmallows. Yes, how observant of you, it only leaves mashed potatoes and cranberry sauce. See why we stay home.

ROASTED ROOT VEGETABLE GRATIN WITH LEEK/CELERIAC CREAM
ROASTED ROOT VEGETABLES
4 medium potatoes, preferably Yukon Gold, peeled and sliced
2 sweet potatoes, peeled and sliced
1 rutabaga, peeled and sliced
4 carrots, peeled and sliced
2 tablespoons olive oil
Salt and pepper to taste
LEEK AND CELERIAC CREAM
2 tablespoons butter
2 leeks, white parts only, sliced
1 clove garlic, minced
1 large celeriac (celery root), peeled and cut into 1″ cubes
1 1/2 cups water
Salt and pepper to taste
Pinch nutmeg
1/2 cup cream
1/2 cup milk
TOPPING
2 tablespoons butter
3 cups fresh bread crumbs

Preheat oven to 375F. Place the root vegetables in a roasting pan, sprinkle with olive oil, salt and pepper and stir to coat. Roast in the oven for 1 hour until the vegetables are soft.

Make the leek/celeriac cream while the vegetables are roasting. In a medium saucepan, melt the butter, add the leeks, garlic and celeriac and saute until the leeks are softened and starting to brown. Add the water, salt and pepper and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat and simmer for 20 minutes, until the celeriac is very soft. Remove from the heat, season with nutmeg and add the cream and milk. With a handheld blender or a food processor, puree until smooth. Taste and adjust seasonings. Set aside.



For the topping, melt the butter in a small saucepan, add the bread crumbs and stir to coat.

Assemble the gratin by layering the leek/celeriac cream, the roasted vegetables and then the bread crumbs on top. Place in the oven and bake until bubbling, 20-30 minutes. Serve hot.

Preheat oven to 350F. In an electric mixer, cream the butter, sugar and brown sugar and beat until fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time, beating until well combined. Add the vanilla. Sift together the flour, baking powder and salt. Alternate adding a third of the milk and flour mixture and beat until well blended. Add the walnuts and beat until just combined. Pour batter into a 10″ cake pan (I used a spring form pan) and bake for 50 minutes until a wooden skewer comes out clean. Cool on a rack for 20 minutes. Remove the cake from the pan, cool completely and dust with confectioners’ sugar.

There are many recipes out there that pair cream cheese frosting with this cake, but I chose to make it plain, only dusted with powdered sugar, to go with a strong cup of tea. Add an additional 1/4 cup of milk if you want a moister cake to slather with frosting.

Forcing Spring Flowering Bulbs
There’s nothing as singularly beautiful as bulbs blooming indoors during the winter months. With some planning, potting up and minimal attention to cooling, we can enjoy flowers for 3-4 months while the snow and ice wreak their havoc outside.  Of course, all you have to do is leave the house in late March and early April and every store, nursery and pop-up roadside stand offers Spring bulbs for sale, with a multitude coming to a crescendo the week before Easter. However, there are a few months between the poinsettia that is beginning to look out of place once the Christmas tree comes down and Palm Sunday. I want pink, blue, purple and yellow blooms in February and March to kick-start a frenzy of Spring fever! Also, if you really indulge yourself by ordering from the many excellent catalog companies, the varieties available far surpass the meager daffodil and hyacinth offerings at the local supermarket. Where else will you find fritillarias, if you don’t grow them yourself?

Here follows a list of the bulbs and corms that are suitable for forcing indoors, along with the chill times and planting depths:

Anemone                  Chill 8-10 weeks
Chionodoxa             Chill 10-12 weeks
Crocus                        Chill 10-12 weeks          1″ deep
Daffodil                     Chill 12-15 weeks          1″ deep
Fritillaria                Chill 12-15 weeks          1″ deep
Hyacinth                   Chill 12-15 weeks          1/2″ deep/water
Iris, Dutch                 Chill 12-15 weeks          1/2″ deep
Muscari                      Chill 8-10 weeks            1″ deep
Puschkinia                Chill 10-12 weeks          1″ deep
Scilla                            Chill 10-12 weeks          1″ deep
Snowdrops                 Chill 10-12 weeks          1″ deep
Tulip                             Chill 14-16 weeks          1/2″ above soil line
Winter Aconites     Chill 8-10 weeks             1/2″ deep

All of these bulbs, except for hyacinths and tulips, may be planted outdoors after flowering. Remove the flower stalk but not the leaves.  Then, be patient because it may take 2 years for them to bloom again. Don’t reuse for forcing.

Potting Up
Here’s what you will need to plant your bulbs:
Soil   (1 part soil, 1 part peat, 1 part perlite or sand)
Pots, pottery, vases
Plant labels
Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons playing in the background

Pot up mid-October to mid December, accounting for chill times.  Fill the pot or container with soil to a level that will allow for the height of the bulb, the depth of planting and another 1/2-1″ for watering and adding moss later.  Place the bulbs close, but not touching and cover with soil.  Do NOT press down on the soil or the bulb; just let the watering settle everything in.  Label with the plant name and the date to bring the pots indoors.  Place in a dark spot. Chill at 35-48F, keeping the pots watered as needed.  When the bulbs start showing shoots, bring indoors and place in a cool room with indirect sunlight.  Adding moss around the base of the stems really sets the bulbs off beautifully.  As the flowers start to appear, move to bright light.  Rotate the pots daily to keep stems upright.  If the stems become elongated and the flowers are toppling over, tie with a ribbon or some raffia to a stick or bamboo cane.

Tips:
If the bulb has a flat side (tulips and some daffodils), place that side facing out towards the rim of the pot, so that the leaves will form a border for the flowers.

Hyacinth bulbs can cause skin irritation, so use gloves when handling.

There are ways to chill the bulbs, such as burying them in the ground and covering with leaves and straw. The chance of damage from mice, deer and voles is great and requires protecting the pots with wire mesh. Also, if the bulbs freeze, they will not bloom. If you live in an area where the entire winter months remain between 35-48F, you are very lucky indeed for you can just store them in a shed or garage.  My solution is to chill them in the refrigerator (no apples allowed, because of ethylene gas!).

End Note: This is one of the first pictures I took with my digital camera about a year and a half ago. There’s some odd lighting going on but it does give a promise of future blooms.  The moss really softens the whole look!

We’re on the wild side again. I don’t know what it is about the cool weather of Autumn, but it makes me want to scurry along the roadsides and woods to gather like a squirrel. Now I can understand their annoying habit of darting back and forth in front of cars this time of year; their little brains are overwhelmed with hoarding for the winter and each cooler day brings worried thoughts of whether there are enough stores for the winter.

Wild Black Walnuts
You’ll notice them littering the roadsides. Just gather them up; the ripe ones are on the ground. That’s the easy part, for when you return home they must be cracked open to be enjoyed and that’s when the work begins.

Harvest nuts from the ground, choosing ones with yellowish-green, unbroken hulls. The nuts are ripe when the outer shell is soft and leaves an indentation when pressed with a thumb. These outer hulls need to be removed from the inner, dark shell. This should be done immediately. Wear heavy duty rubber gloves to prevent the natural dye from staining your fingers. Work on a surface that won’t matter if it gets stained; thick newspapers are a good choice. Using a small, sharp knife, cut around the entire outer shell from stem to tip and back up to the stem, then twist and pull the husk off of the inner nut. I found it even easier, but more time consuming, to make another score, quartering the husk and then if it didn’t come apart easily, I could use the tip of my knife and gently pry it apart. Scrape off as much of the fibrous covering as you can and place the nuts in a bucket of water. Wash the nuts, changing the water 6-8 times, by agitating and stirring them with a long-handled spoon or broom handle, until most of the fleshy outer husk is removed. Drain the nuts and place on screening or newspaper. To cure, dry in a shed or garage for 2 weeks, making sure to protect from any predatory squirrels.

When the walnuts are cured, they need more than your average nutcracker. Use a hammer or a vise to crack them open and then large wire snippers to break the membrane between the nut pieces. Black walnut nutmeats are much more difficult to extract than English/Persian walnuts. Just keep reminding yourself during this arduous task that they are worth the effort, for being much stronger in taste, a little goes a long way. Store in an airtight container in the freezer for up to 2 years.

Let’s meet back here in 2 weeks and try a recipe. I’m thinking a simple walnut cake to see what these “hard nuts to crack” really taste like. It might inspire me to do a few more next year!

Caution: Along with staining anything they touch, the husks and shells will kill earthworms, harm/kill animals and inhibit plant growth. Do Not Compost! Discard in the trash and keep away from pets and horses!

End Note: The husks of black walnuts have been used for centuries as a natural dye for fabric, wool, baskets, hair (I dare you!), wood and also as an ink. Use the husks immediately before they turn black and rot.

Gather the bark on the ground around the tree or gently remove the exfoliating bark. Wash with hot water and a scrub brush to remove dirt, moss, lichen and spider webs. Break up into pieces to fit into a stainless steel or enamel pot. Cover with water and bring to a boil. Immediately reduce the heat to maintain the water at a slight simmer. Cook for 30 minutes. Strain through double cheesecloth and return to the pot. Simmer to reduce the liquid by 15-25 per cent. Measure the liquid and for each part liquid, add 1½ times sugar. For example: 3 cups hickory water to 4½ cups sugar. Either white sugar, light brown sugar, demerra or raw sugar may be used. Simmer the water/sugar mixture for 3 minutes until the sugar is completely dissolved. Remove the pan from the heat and cool. Fill sterilized glass jars or bottles with the syrup and keep refrigerated for up to 3 months or freeze for up to 1 year.

Winter Squash Waffles with Hickory Syrup
2 cups flour
1/4 cup light brown or raw sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
Pinch ground ginger
Pinch ground cloves
3 eggs, separated
1/2 cup winter squash or pumpkin puree
1 1/2 cups buttermilk or milk
12 tablespoons butter, melted
Hickory syrup or maple syrup

Preheat the waffle iron. Whisk together the dry ingredients. In separate bowls, whisk the egg yolks until frothy and the egg whites until soft peaks form. Add the buttermilk, pumpkin and butter to the egg yolks and whisk to combine. Add the dry ingredients and stir to combine. Gently fold in the egg whites until just combined. Cook in the waffle iron following the manufacturer’s instructions. Serve hot with syrup.

End Note: My intrepid friend Kristen Perry from The Kitchen Potager used the syrup to glaze roasted chestnuts and also added it to an artichoke and fennel tart!

Winter Squash
Intimidated by winter squash? Once you become intimate with these cucubitae, there will be no stopping your kitchen antics. Baked, boiled, steamed, roasted or grilled, each variety, although similar, will serve up different tastes and textures. No more walking past these beauties at the market with a quick, fearful step. It’s time to divide and conquer!

The most versatile winter squash is the Butternut. Dense, rich and creamy, this one has it all. Great for salads, soups, stews, curries, tortelli, ravioli, lasagna, risotto, gratins, quick bread, scones, cookies, cheesecake, steamed puddings, ice cream, pickles, chutney, jam and fruit butter, waffles, pancakes and creme brulee.
Let’s start with the simplest of soups.

Roasted Butternut Squash Soup
You don’t even have to roast the squash, it can just be simmered in the broth, but the roasting gives a lovely depth of flavor. Provided is the base for the soup and then additions that can be chosen by personal taste or by what’s available in your kitchen. An extremely helpful kitchen tool is a good quality immersion blender. If you are without, a food processor or regular blender will do the trick. Be careful with the blender, though (and I speak from experience!). If blending hot, liquidy foods, remove the vent in the top, cover with a towel and hold tight.

Soup Base:
3 lb. butternut squash
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
3 tablespoons butter or olive oil
1 onion, chopped
5 cups vegetable broth or water
Salt and pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 375F. Cut the stem off of the squash and then cut in half lengthwise. Place cut sides up in a baking dish and coat with vegetable oil. Bake for 45-60 minutes until easily pierced with a fork. Remove from oven and allow the squash to cool slightly. Scoop out the seeds and remove the flesh from the skin.

Heat the butter and sauté the onion until translucent. Add the broth and reserved squash to the pot and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat, season with salt and pepper and simmer for 15 minutes. Remove from the heat and puree until smooth. Taste and adjust the seasonings. Add more salt if needed to balance the natural sweetness of the squash. Serve hot.

There’s the base. Now it’s up to you to spice it up.
Add an apple or a pear with grated ginger
Or add other vegetables such as parsnip, celeriac, leek, celery or potato
Or, after pureeing, stir in white beans and minced sage in brown butter
Garnish with croutons seasoned with olive oil, herbs and cheese

For the exotic:

Moroccan
Add the following after the onions have softened. Stir for 1 minute until fragrant, then proceed with the above instructions:
2 cloves garlic, minced
1” fresh ginger, grated
¼ teaspoon ground turmeric
¼ teaspoon ground cumin
¼ teaspoon sweet paprika
½ teaspoon ground coriander
¼ teaspoon ground cinnamon
¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper
Garnish with: Chopped preserved lemon, mint, parsley and cilantro.

Mexican
Add the following after the onions have softened. Stir for 1 minute until fragrant, then proceed with the above instructions:
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 jalapeno or serrano pepper, minced
1 tomato, coarsely chopped
½ teaspoon dried Mexican oregano or ¼ teaspoon Greek oregano
¼ teaspoon ground nutmeg
Garnish with: Chopped cilantro, grated cheddar cheese, avacado and Mexican crema or sour cream.

South Indian
Omit the onion, grind the spices below and sauté in the oil (substitute peanut oil, if available) until fragrant. Add the red lentils, extra broth or water, curry leaves and turmeric to the remaining base ingredients and follow the directions above. Simmer the soup for an additional 15 minutes, until the lentils are soft. Remove the curry leaves before pureeing.
1 dried red chile, deseeded
1 teaspoon coriander seeds
¼ teaspoon cumin seeds
¼ teaspoon fenugreek seeds
½ teaspoon black mustard seed
½” piece of cinnamon stick
Pinch poppy seeds
½ cup red lentils, rinsed and drained
1 extra cup of broth or water
2 curry leaves
Pinch ground turmeric
Garnish with: Chopped cilantro

END NOTE: Any winter squash or pumpkin may be substituted for the butternut squash. It’s all about using what’s available at the market or in your pantry.

Baked Peaches with Pistachios and Rose Blossom Water

It’s peach season and Baked Peaches is one of the most popular recipes from my Lebanese cooking class. This couldn’t be any simpler, just be sure to use the ripest peaches you can get your hands on.

4 peaches, cut in half and pit removed
1/2 cup shelled pistachios
4 almond biscotti
3 tablespoons butter, melted
2 tablespoon honey
1/2 teaspoon rose blossom water*
Pinch cinnamon

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Place peaches in a baking tray. Grind all of the ingredients in a food processor. Stuff peaches and bake for 20 minutes until lightly golden. Serve immediately.

*Available at The Larder in Doylestown and Wegmans.

Enjoy!

FROM AMARANTH TO ZUCCHINI:

SOLVING THE GARDENER’S DILEMMA

There’s nothing like growing your own vegetables, herbs and flowers, but it sure can become expensive if you like variety and lack reasonable self-control. Every January, gardeners make their wish list and then have to come back down to earth when the seed order totals hundreds of dollars! And what to do with the 988 leftover lettuce seeds after you’ve started your 12 seedlings? While cramming the extra seeds into a container in the fridge, the gardener assures her/himself that archeologists find viable 2,000 year old seeds all the time,  so these can be passed onto the great-grandchildren.

Here’s help with this perennial problem.  I’ll be teaching two new classes at The Kitchen Garden Cooking School, one in February for the hardy plants and one in March for the tender types.  Students will have access in each class to over 100 varieties of vegetables, herbs and flowers with all materials provided (except plant labels – BYO) including seeds, potting soil, flats, fertilizer and instruction on indoor growing and planting out.There’s a list of varieties on the class web-site.

For direct seeded crops like corn and zinnias, students will have to exercise their own self-control.

Sheila

Any questions whatsoever, call me at (610) 847-2853

Green Tomato Chutney (I know - looks like Lentil Soup)

The last of the green tomatoes have been harvested and I simmered them with apples, onions, shallots and spices for a chutney.  Now to be patient, for it’s best to wait 3 months for the chutney to develop its full flavor.  Just in time for the dead of winter…the sleet today was a foreshadowing of what’s to come.

Here’s the recipe for all of you that like it sour, hot, a little spicy and sweet!

GREEN TOMATO CHUTNEY
5 lbs. green tomato
2 lbs. tart apples
4 onions
4 shallots
2 1/2 cups cider vinegar
2 tablespoons salt
3 cloves garlic, minced
2 tablespoons fresh ginger, minced
1 teaspoon cumin seed
1 tablespoon yellow mustard seed or ground mustard
2 dried hot red chilies
5 whole cloves
1″ cinnamon stick
2 cups Demerara sugar
1/2 cup barley malt
2 cups golden raisins

Chop tomatoes, apples, onions and shallots into a 1/2″ dice.  Place in a large, non-reactive pot with the cider vinegar and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer for 30 minutes, stirring frequently.

Grind the cumin, mustard, chilies, cloves and cinnamon.  Add the spices and the remaining ingredients and continue simmering and stirring for an additional 30 minutes.  Fill sterilized jars and seal.  Store in a dark cupboard for 3 months; refrigerate after opening.  Makes 8 pints.

Found Demerara sugar at The Larder in Doylestown.  You can substitute any kind of sugar.  The barley malt was purchased at the health food store and adds a nice flavor dimension.  You could also use malt vinegar instead of cider vinegar but I couldn’t find it anywhere.

Here are the chopped tomatoes, apples, onions and shallots.

The two remaining cooking classes are full! There’s even a waiting list!!!

My Birthday Terrarium

Yesterday I attended the Terrarium Workshop at Linden Hill Gardens in Ottsville with Tovah Martin as part of her promotional book tour.

Jerry Fritz hosted this event and there were 38 eager participants that had the most glorious selection of glass domes and pots  along with an incredible selection of terrarium plants to choose from for our projects.

They have quite a few plants left over that are for sale at the nursery if  you are so inspired.

www.lindenhillgardens.com              www.tovahmartin.com

I brought my own container which quickly filled up with only 3 plants crammed in, looking very sad and claustrophobic. Then I remembered my 18″ hand-blown glass cheese dome I had bought years ago. Well, my birthday was the next day so I indulgently gathered up 20 plants and some moss in a box and called it my Terrarium To Go.