Problem: misters do not deliver enough water with the frequency that I can get round to using them;

SOLUTION: create a seedling waterer

Materials:

==>Small, mabe pint-size, take-out tub.  Preferably one of those ones that you never can find the lid for.
==>1/16″ drill

Method

Drill 5 or so holes in a rosette pattern around the bottom of the tub.  Now, hold it over your seedlings and pour water in from a pitcher or flask.  Watch raindrop-sized water droplets fall onto your seedlings.

As near as I can tell, the only problem is that when the tub is less than half full, the water pressure is about equal to the surface tension over the holes, so the water doesn’t flow out.  The workaround is to pour in more water.

Post is categorized “outdoors” even though it’s indoors, because the garden goes in that category.

Main Ingredients:

4 Swordfish steaks, deep-frozen
12 ounces frozen blueberries (“wild Maine” variety)
1 red bell pepper, slightly past its prime (orange or yellow will work just as well)
1/2 large yellow onion (any onion will do)
2 lemons

Adjunct Ingredients

Olive oil
(optional) malt vinegar or balsamic vinegar
Salt, pepper
Paprika
Fresh or dried basil

Equipment

Enough oven-safe skillet or skillets to hold all of your fish
An oven (or, see alternate campfire method)

Method

Do not defrost the fish!

An hour or so before you plan to serve, prepare the salsa:

Dice red pepper and onion.  Juice the lemons  In a large bowl, mix blueberries, onion, red pepper, lemon juice, and an amount of oil equal to the amount of lemon juice.  Consider adding a splash of malt or balsamic vinegar, if that suits you.  Toss with salt, pepper, basil, and paprika to taste.  Set aside at room temperature.

Twenty minutes before you plan to serve, prepare the fish.

Preheat oven to 400º F.

In a skillet or skillets (depending on size and number of fishes), heat olive oil until very hot.  Use enough oil to coat pan.

Add the still-frozen swordfish.  Cook 90 seconds on each side, just until browned.  Sprinkle each side with salt and pepper.

Move skillets directly from stove to hot oven.  Set a timer for five minutes.

When your timer goes off, turn off the oven and notify your party that dinner is ready.  Leave the oven door closed.  Set another timer for three minutes.

If your dinner party is not assembled when the three-minute timer goes off, crack the oven door ajar to retard the cooking while still keeping the fish warm.

Serve piping hot under chilled salsa

Alternate campfire method for fish

Required equipment: campfire, foil, tongs

Method: prepare salsa as above.  Rub fish steaks with oil, salt, and pepper, then wrap in foil.  Place foil packets in hot coals for 15-20 minutes.  Retrieve with tongs; eat.

Normally the best that I can say about a flight is that it was unremarkable.  These flights were really good.  The minute I boarded the Lufthansa flight from Boston to Frankfurt, I was in Germany.  The flight attendants greeted us with a <<guten abend,>> and those of us who can speak German were able to do so the entire flight.  They had a vegetarian dinner option that you didn’t have to pre-order, and free wine with dinner (along with free cognac after).  Of note in the in-flight magazine–LSG Sky Chefs has been doing tests in a hypobaric environment to determine how people experience taste differently on airplanes.  Commercial planes are pressurized to the equivalent of 10,000 feet and only 15% humidity, and apparently that changes a person’s sense of taste.  You can taste the difference–the LSG food that we ate was markedly better than the food on other flights.

We arrived in Frankfurt after a 3-hour volcano delay, which cut back my layover just enough that I chose not to explore the city before meeting the family and boarding my South African Airways flight to Jo’Burg.  SAA was also far better than any US carrier, but not quite as good as Lufthansa.  The cool thing that SAA does–when you board your international flight they give you a ziplock baggie with a travel toothbrush and paste, an eye mask, and a pair of clean socks.  No bad breath or stinky feet on arrival!  The best part of the SAA flight was my single-serving friend, a Canadian who was going to Botswana to volunteer in a local school there.  We talked for hours about comparative racial justice in South Africa, Canada, and the US–much to the amusement of the folks sitting behind us.

After we arrived we caught a cab to Hatfield, a suburb of the capital, Tshwane (formerly known as Pretoria).  After checking in, meeting my sister, and getting some Indian food, I promptly fell asleep at 4 in the afternoon.  The next day, we would go to Legonyane (my sister’s village) and meet her host family!

The ones in the back garden have been attacked by slugs; this specimin was container-grown.

The recipe is very nearly vegan.  You’d have to omit the fish sauce, but it would still be tasty.  If you don’t have access to a thai grocery you may not find bird chiles or brown beech mushrooms, but that’s okay.  You  can use any other small hot pepper, and any other culinary mushroom.  I imagine shiitake would work well.

Tom Yum Soup:

Materials:

2 cans coconut milk
1 cup vegetable stock
2 thai bird chiles
a small hunk of fresh ginger, cut into ten discs
3 stalks lemongrass
A handful of thai (holy) basil
A handful of cilantro (optional)
1 lime
Some quantity of mushrooms that looks like enough
1 tbsp fish sauce
1 tbsp sugar

Method:

Begin by doing violence to the lemongrass.  Smash it with a meat mallet, or if you don’t have one of those, use the flat back of a chef’s knife.  This releases the aromatic oils that will flavor your food.  After smashing, slice into slices two to three inches long.

Mix the coconut milk and vegetable stock in a medium to large sauce pan.  Add the lemongrass, ginger, and whole bird chiles.  Bring to a boil, then remove from heat.  Add the mushrooms immediately (they will cook in the hot liquid even though you have turned off the flame), and squeeze the lime juice into the soup.  Mix in the fish sauce and sugar.  Add the basil.  Serve hot or cold; garnish with cilantro immediately before serving.

Thai Salad

Materials:

A handful of green beans, washed, trimmed, and broken into bits
A cup or two of mung bean sprouts.
Another handful of holy basil
1 cucumber, julienned
3 more bird chiles
1/2 cup unsalted peanuts, lightly chopped
3 cloves garlic
1 tbsp soy sauce
1 tbsp fish sauce
1 tbsp sugar
1 package tofu and oil for deep-frying, or buy fried tofu

Method

If frying your own tofu, do that first.  Immerse the tofu in 400 degree oil until it is brown and crispy on the outside.

While the tofu is frying you can make the dressing.   Begin by stemming and deveining the bird chiles.  Dice them and put them in a bowl.  Go wash your hands.  Right now.  Don’t touch your face.  That burning you feel all around your mouth and inside your nostrils?  It’s because you didn’t listen.  I told you not to touch your face!  Now go wash your face with lots of soap.

Once your face stops burning, return to the dressing prep.  Mince or press three garlic cloves into the same bowl as the chiles.  Now put a tablespoon of oil in a small skillet over medium-high heat.  Add the fish sauce, soy sauce, garlic and chiles.  Once everything is sizzling stir in the sugar.  When the sugar is dissolved, remove from heat and stir in the peanuts.

Toss the vegetables together in a salad bowl with the dressing you just made, then top with the tofu and garnish with holy basil.  Go eat it outside!

1) I had a conversation with my landlady yesterday about how we might not have any more conflict about the garden. We agreed that I can plant anywhere that I want to, so long as a) I put a border around my garden, and b) I do not use the fence as a trellis again this year.

2) The hops are budding aggressively, so I am now thinking about what sort of trellis they might like this year. I have a few weeks before I have to decide.

3) Today I planted mustard greens and sage around the hops, as well as a few perennial wildflowers.

This may also be the meal that sealed the deal on my three-month vegan experiment. Recipe below the jump.

Total prep time: about an hour.

Materials:

1 package (12 oz) extra-firm tofu
1 can (or equivalent amount home-made) cranberry sauce. Whole-berry preferable.
Soy sauce, 2 tbsp
1 lime (juice and zest of)
1 stalk lemon grass (optional)
1 can coconut milk
1-2 tbsp Sambal Ulek (or genic asian hot chili pepper sauce)
2-3 leeks
1 onion
Asparagus, one bunch
Fresh ginger, 1 thumb’s worth, grated
basil, fresh or dried (copious)
Tarragon or cilantro
Whole-grain Fettuccine or udon noodles.
Olive oil for sautéing.

Method:

mix 1/4 cup cranberry sauce with 2 tbsp soy sauce, tbsp sambal ulek, and the zet and juice of one lime. Cut tofu into strips and marinate in this mixture from 30 minutes to overnight.

About an hour before you want to serve dinner, preheat your oven to 375 degrees. While oven is preheating, arrange the tofu strips in a single layer in an oven-safe baking dish with a cover. Or in a casserole dish, and cover with aluminium foil. Pour marinade on top of tofu. Bake for half an hour covered, then remove cover, bake for 15 minutes, and turn off heat until ready to serve.

Once tofu is in the oven, clean and dice the leeks and mince the onion. In a large skilled, heat a tablespoon or two of olive oil over high heat. On another burner, bring a medium saucepan full of water to a rolling boil. Add onion and leeks to hot oil, toss about, then cover and reduce heat to low for fifteen minutes, or until the alliums are well-steamed. Then add basil, tarragon, and ginger. Raise heat to high, and cook for one minute. Then add coconut milk and asparagus spears, and cover. Simultaneously add noodles to boiling water. When coconut milk is simmering, reduce heat to medium. After about ten minutes, asparagus should be well-steamed and tender. Remove from heat. Serve coconut cream vegetables over pasta, and top with baked tofu. Garnish with a bit more tarragon or a sprig of fresh basil, mint, or cilantro. Serve remaining cranberry sauce as a side.

I considered adding shiitake mushrooms, but forgot to put them in. If you do this (or make the chicken variant), post the results here?

It should be back to normal now. The blog got hacked, and in the process of fixing it I messed it up a bit in a totally harmless way. If you had an account at mostly plants and can’t log in anymore, I probably deleted it in the process of getting un-hacked. Unless you are a certain college roommate who can still log in, you’ll need to re-make your account. Sorry about that.