Artichokes

We planted artichokes a couple of years ago, and we’ve enjoyed having them right outside our door. Unfortunately, the plants are exceedingly large and really don’t fit well into a suburban garden. We bought two plants, and the artichokes are quite different—one roundish and the other cone-shaped. Usually we just steam them, but occasionally I do them “Roman-style,” where you eat the whole thing. This works best when they’re not too big. One of our plants fell down in a big wind-storm, so I’ll definitely take it out—maybe move it, if that’s possible. If not, I may start with a small new one, in a location that can handle it when full-size. Take a look!

Celery Gone Wild!

When I planted 6 small celery plants by mistake last summer, little did I dream what monsters they would become. I have added celery to everything I can think of, made braised celery and celery soup (twice), and still there’s more. It’s now taller than I am (but in raised beds). Last weekend I got rid of most of my winter vegetables to plant summer ones: 5 new tomatoes, 2 squash, a small mixed pot of green and yellow beans, a Japanese eggplant, and three basil plants. I’m still looking for lemon cucumber but am skipping peppers this year.

Yesterday, we finally had to take the celery out, so that the squash plants and other things in the bed would have some room to grow. We cut off a couple of bunches and tossed the rest—much of it had gone to flower, and some of the stalks were 3-4 inches thick.

Julia Child’s recipe for celery soup (Volume II) couldn’t be simpler, and it doesn’t even call for heavy cream. You simply sauté about 1½ cups of onions or leeks with 3 cups of celery stalks (I added some leaves, too) until tender but not browned, and then cook for 30 minutes with 4 cups of chicken or vegetable stock (I made my own, with more celery!) and 1/3 cup of rice.

While the vegetables are cooking, cook 1 large or 2 medium chopped (and peeled) baking potatoes in 2 cups of salted water. Drain the cooking water into the leeks and celery, then mash the potatoes with one cup of milk (I tend to avoid the food processor with potatoes). Purée the leek and celery mixture using either a blender or food processor, then add to potato mixture with about a cup more milk—or more if needed. Serve with chopped tarragon or parsley and croutons, if desired. The soup is great cold—but it will thicken up, so you will need to add more milk—or buttermilk!

Whole Wheat Muffins

This recipe by Mark Bittman is pretty good, and it uses all whole wheat flour (most recipes call for half and half.) However, he recommended pastry flour, and that’s what I used; I’m not sure it would work as well with regular whole wheat flour. For my muffins, I used two bananas, one very ripe, so ¾ cup of sugar was more than enough. I added about ½ cup of chopped walnuts, but you could use dried fruit or a combination of fruit and nuts; Mark suggests about ½ cup altogether.

½ cup melted unsalted butter, more for greasing tins
2½ cups whole wheat flour, preferably pastry flour
¾ to 1 cup sugar, depending on sweetness of fruit
2 teaspoons baking powder
¼ teaspoon baking soda
¼ teaspoon salt
1 cup mashed or puréed banana, sweet potato, apple, zucchini, cooked or canned pumpkin, or other fruits or vegetables
1 egg, beaten
½ cup buttermilk

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees and grease two 6-cup muffin tins or fill with liners. In a large bowl, mix together the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt. In another bowl, whisk together the melted butter, banana, egg and buttermilk. Fold wet mixture into dry mixture and stir until just combined.
2. Fill muffin tins or liners; bake for about 25 to 30 minutes, or until muffins are puffed and turning golden brown on top. Serve warm if possible. Yield: 12 muffins.

Hot Cross Buns

Every year around this time, I make Hot Cross Buns. We had them every year when I was growing up, and when I first moved to New York, I looked everywhere for authentic ones. I never found any I liked, so eventually I started making my own. I’ve never figured out to make the custard-like crosses I remember from my youth, but I keep on looking. This year I substituted about 1½ cups of whole wheat pastry flour for some of the flour, and it worked out fine. This is the best recipe I’ve found, so I've been using it for 20 years. It makes about 20 buns.

Combine:
3/8 cup sugar and 2 eggs and mix until frothy.
Add ¼ cup melted butter and 1+1/8 cup lukewarm milk—then sprinkle 1 Tb. Yeast over mixture.
Sift together:
2 cups flour (+2 additional cups, added later)
½ tsp. cinnamon
¼ tsp. nutmeg
1/8 tsp. cloves
½ tsp. salt
Add flour mixture to egg mixture. Stir in ½ to ¾ cups candied fruit and ½ cup currants.

Add enough additional sifted flour ½ cup at a time (up to 2 cups) to make a manageable dough. Kneed in bowl for 2—3 minutes and if dough seems sticking kneed briefly on floured board.
Cover and let rise until doubled—about 2-3 hours.

Roll dough to ½ inch and cut with 2 ½ inch cookie cutter. Form balls and brush with 1—2 Tb. Melted butter. Let rise about an hour (more if room is cool). Brush with egg glaze made with 1 egg yolk and 1-2 Tb. Half & half. (Make a cross on top with a sharp knife or razor blade; save the egg white for egg-white frosting below.) Bake 25-30 minutes at 375¡. (Try 350¡, and check after 15 minutes—switch shelves half way through.)

When cool, frost crosses with a sugar glaze frosting (powdered sugar, cream and vanilla or lemon juice), or try an egg-white frosting, with an egg white (or part of one), powdered sugar and 1 tsp. lemon juice or vanilla. You will need a pastry bag for the crosses.

Broccoli

Some of the broccoli in our garden is almost ready to eat, maybe even this weekend, when we are celebrating Cousin Peggy's birthday and eating the last of our pig. Our fennel is also looking pretty good, so maybe we'll have some of that soon too.

Closet Project

The guest rooms in our small ranch-style house are REALLY small, though each has a fair-sized closet. Unfortunately, the closet doors are mirrored sliders, not a look we care for, so when Laura visited at Christmas, I prevailed upon her to undertake a small closet “makeover” in our primary guest room (the smallest bedroom in the house). I had been thinking about this project since we moved in: removing the sliding doors and their hardware and replacing them with curtains. Of course the shelves in the closet also had to be rearranged if the curtains were to remain open.

A quick trip to Ikea on Christmas Eve (a terrific time to go—no shoppers!) got us everything we needed except for some baskets for the shelf: a long cotton tab curtain, curtain rod and some hooks. Taking off the doors made it possible to open the drawers of the chest already in the closet, and we gained a couple of feet of air space in the room itself. Half of the closet is still available for hanging clothes and bedlinens for the room. And the overall cost, including some baskets purchase later at Target, was less than $40. Next time Laura is here, we may tackle the second guest room. Her carpentry skills are much better than mine!

Here's what it looked like before the makeover: kind of scary, with those doors practically right next to your face!

Venison Stew

I’m cleaning out my freezer, so I can order my next pig, so I finally got around to making venison stew from the venison I helped cousin Don cut up last fall. The resulting dish turned out to be pretty similar to my oxtail stew recipe, with a few differences.

1. I had about two pounds of venison, since it was boneless.
2. I used a cup of red wine (instead of white) to marinate the venison overnight, along with one sliced onion, a couple of bay leaves, rosemary, thyme, crushed garlic, a bit of olive oil, and lots of ground pepper.
3. After browning the meat, I deglazed the pan with the red wine marinade and tossed out the vegetables. Then I browned an onion, two carrots and celery in about 2 Tb of olive oil.
4. I used red wine vinegar, eliminated the orange peel and brown sugar, and added about 2 Tb of tomato paste.
5. In addition to the marinade wine, I added about 1½ cups of venison stock, another ½ cup of red wine and the mushroom soaking liquid to cook the stew. It took about two hours.

I served the venison stew with a mixture of mashed potato and mashed celery root—I cooked them together, which worked out fine (though others suggested different pots), and Tim mashed them with butter and half and half, but olive oil would work too. I thought about adding some more mushrooms and will probably do so when we eat the leftovers. It would also be great with polenta or wide egg noodles.