Smithy

2015: * Shelby (2015):--The Everlasting Garden...Canning...Canning...Canning: August 10 - 17, 2015

I'll get in a last word of thanks and admiration. Your schedule this week would have been strenuous enough without having to document and write about it all; you went an extra mile or three . Speaking as someone who has trouble talking and cooking at the same time, I'm especially impressed. I've picked up some nice tips and recipes this week, seen some great photos, and thoroughly enjoyed the visit. Many thanks for bringing us along!

Your sizzling eggplant looks lovely and delicious, but raises the same question I face when I fry eggplant: how much of that oil is left after frying the eggplant, and what do you do with the oil afterward?

I've been to a PF Chang restaurant once, maybe twice, and enjoyed it. I think I picked up one of their frozen dinners on the strength of that experience and enjoyed it well enough. Haven't tried their frozen egg rolls, but maybe I will.

You make enchiladas look so easy! Every step you mentioned (salsa, roasting, marinade, sauce) sounds small, but I manage to make a huge production of it whenever I try. Kudos to you. I'm a flour tortilla person as well. :-) Kudos also on making jelly from the trimmings of the peaches. I don't think my family ever did that; if we skinned the peaches before canning, they went out to the garbage pile. Other critters enjoyed them, but the peach jelly is a great idea to extract extra flavor. We're working our way through a lug of Palisade peaches purchased at the grocery store here in Duluth. They're excellent. I too am trying to remember where Toliver's mother lives, but I can tell you that things have changed drastically in the San Joaquin Valley where Toliver lives now and where I grew up. We used to get wonderful summer fruit either from our own trees or from the produce stands. After I moved out to Minnesota I suffered for several years before discovering a 2-week window when Nectarines That Taste Like They Should would hit the grocery stores here. Since then the season has extended, the occasional Real Peach can also be had (from the SJ Valley)...and none of them seems available in the grocery stores in their home counties. During my last couple of visits 'home' I learned to go to the Farmers' Markets or the neighbors, because the grocery store produce was a bust...and yet, the good stuff from California and Colorado can be had here in northern Minnesota, far from its source. Go figure.

I leave 'em whole. That's part of the charm: they're so easy to prepare this way, and the flavor and texture are still great. Very impressive! Whenever I see something like that, I remember my friend in southern Minnesota who, at the heyday of her farming life, had such a storage area on the bottom floor of her house. A raccoon got in somehow. You can imagine the carnage. Decades later, she still hates raccoons.

"Surface Drag Crab"...sounds to me like the reason boaters and pilots keep their craft clean. Does it refer to dredging the meat in this case?

This is so much fun! I love your attitude about the garden spiders, and I've never seen a zigzag like that. Very cool. I realize now that I've also never seen an eggplant blossom. It's interesting that it looks more classically nightshadesque than the tomato blossoms I see. Re cherry tomatoes: I like to toss them in olive oil, maybe add a sprinkle of salt or herbs, then roast them until they collapse and caramelize slightly. That makes the start of a great pasta sauce, chicken addition or bruschetta topping. Covered with olive oil to keep the air off, it keeps well in the fridge and even better in the freezer. I've never tried canning it.

I am no expert on heirloom tomatoes, so don't let my question dissuade you from thinking those are Brandywines. It was a genuine question. :-) At any rate, your tomatoes look beautiful.

How you're managing to post while all this is going on is beyond me, but I'm glad you're doing it. A couple of comments and a question: Is that gargantuan tomato of this morning a Cherokee Red? I've never thought of including smoked eggplant in a pasta sauce, but I'll bet it's good. Did you strain out the seeds? Finally, I agree that the reason to add acid for canned tomatoes is the lack of natural acid in the newer breeds. When someone tells me 'this is a sweeter, less acid tomato' my mind translates the phrase to 'this tomato has no taste' and I shop elsewhere.

I thought I was an old-timer until this topic! Like Andie, I joined in April 2004. I found eGullet during a fit of pique at the rearrangement (essentially destruction) of the forum associated with The Splendid Table. Kept the friends I'd made there (and still love that radio show) but moved on and made new friends here.

Metric is fine, thanks. I had missed the fact that Mandarin Fish is a species, despite your note at the start. How would you describe it in terms that would help me find a substitute, or is this something that probably wouldn't work with another fish?

"Double Happiness Arrives at the Door" has a lovely poetic lilt! What makes the noise in "Noisy Oil Eel Paste?" Please tell more about the Pineapple Mandarin Fish, when you have the time. That might be something I'd like to try making.

"So few stomachs" is never a problem in our household when the ripe tomatoes (cherry or otherwise) are rolling in.

Those look delicious!

I've never seen an okra flower before. It's very pretty! Would it lend itself to stuffing and frying like a squash blossom? Add me to the list of readers who are staggered by the size of your garden. I'm looking forward to seeing how you handle it all! :-)

I love the creative names. Exploding Stomach, indeed! What is Brake (Good luck Vegetable)?

Huiray, you shop the way I want to. I end up overly challenged to use it all in time, and have been working toward more realistic quantities (for our household), but it's difficult to restrain myself at the height of the season. I *think* your photos give me vicarious satisfaction instead of leading me into temptation, but I can't be sure. What did you think of the Saturn peaches?

They are indeed pretty! Rancho Gordo has information on cranberry beans here, including a video snippet on Pasta e Fagioli, a description of Sopa Tarasca for a Mexican take on them, and another suggestion to serve them up with poached chicken. I'd expect that with fresh beans you could play up their creamy texture and flavor nicely with minimal cooking, but I don't have direct experience with them. I think I'd try lightly cooking them, tossing with olive oil, parsley, a touch of lemon and some sage. In your part of the world you might prefer a less pricey oil.

Chris, does the book talk about the region in which a particular flavor profile might be found? I'm curious about the artichokes.

Darienne, that is an amazing photo sequence. Thank you for posting it! Franci, I hope your parents are duly impressed by your accomplishments. If I lived near you, I'd be hangin' 'round your doorstep like some perpetual trick-or-treater, hoping you had extras.

Thank you both for another lovely trip, with inspiration as as well as laughs. I'm going to be boggling for a while over that last shot of the Closet o' Fun Stuff! :-D

From the article: "By classifying kimchi as pickled goods, the Chinese government basically blocked all imports of the product from South Korea. Kimchi is fermented and has high levels of bacteria. As such, it did not pass the hygiene standards normally applied to pickled goods, which are sterilized and have low amounts of bacteria." Are pickled goods normally sterilized, at least in China? If the kimchi were to be sterilized, how would that affect the flavor and/or texture? Is the fermentation finished by the time of packaging? I'm missing something here.

Getting back to Chris' question, I suspect it has to do with the solubility of CO2 in tonic water as opposed to soda water or typical soft drinks. What factors (other than temperature) would affect that?

That looks old, Shel. And very useful. I take it there are no identifying marks as to company or even country of origin?