Garden Recipes: Green Peach Salad

Sometimes there are so many peaches on your tree, you’re eating and drinking the beautiful fruit, but you’ve got to have something for lunch that is not quite so sweet.  Have this:

Green Peach Salad (for 4 to 6)
2 ½ lb. unripe peaches, peeled and sliced like you’re going to make a pie
Scant ¼ c sugar *
½ t salt
½ t freshly ground black pepper
2 T excellent, flavorful olive oil
2 T fresh mint chiffonade
A handful of arugula for each plate

Toss the peaches with the sugar and salt and let them sit for ten minutes. Add olive oil, mint and pepper and refrigerate for 30+ minutes.  Put a handful of arugula on each plate and then the peach salad. You can also add small or medium shrimp, some garlic mayonnaise and sliced scallions. That’s good too.

*Scant means “just barely.”

Photo Credit: Peach Salad, Creative Commons, Peach salad by viamarisol, is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0. 

Garden Recipes | Bye Bye Seasonal Citrus Salad

Here’s a recipe for a last hurrah of the citrus season.  But, no tears now…spring fruit is on the horizon!

Citrus Salad with Some Spice

¼ cup sugar
½ tsp red pepper flakes
¼ cup (packed) cilantro, plus more for serving
4 blood oranges
4 clementines
2 navel oranges
2 tangerines

Combine sugar, cilantro, red pepper flakes and ¼ cup water in a small saucepan.  Heat and stir until the sugar is dissolved.  Strain cilantro syrup through a sieve into a clean jar and set aside.

Using a sharp knife, remove peel and white pith from all of the fruit and slice crosswise into ¼” thick rounds.  Arrange on a platter, drizzle with the cilantro syrup and top with additional cilantro leaves.

Photo Credit: Image in Public Domain, CC0 Public Domain

Mike and Jean Ryan live in Oregon on a farm that has been in the Ryan family for generations. We are now related to them as our daughter married their son. This makes us fortunate in uncountable ways, but this is about the filberts grown on their farm. Some people might know them as hazelnuts, but for our intents and purposes, these are filberts. For the last few years, a heavy box of filberts (two varieties!) and a discrete amount of walnuts arrives and then we bask in the abundance.  It’s also Bosc pear time and, of course, persimmon time so here’s a way to use them that does those Ryan filberts justice.

RYAN FILBERT SALAD

• 1 ½ T minced shallot
• 1 medium minced garlic clove
• 2 T Sherry vinegar
• Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
• 6 T hazelnut oil, or if you can’t find it, olive oil
• 3 med Bosc pears, sliced
• 3 med Fuyu persimmons, peeled, cored and sliced
• 6 handfuls of arugula
• ½ cup roasted filberts
• ¼ c crumbled Roquefort
• ¼ c pomegranate seeds (optional)

Combine the shallot, garlic, vinegar, salt and pepper and allow it to steep for at least an hour.  Whisk in the filbert oil and taste for seasoning.

Just before serving, divide the arugula between six salad plates, artfully assemble the pears and persimmons on the arugula, drizzle with the dressing and scatter the hazelnuts, Roquefort and pomegranate seeds.
Photo Credit: Filbert, Hazelnuts is in the Public Domain 

GARDEN RECIPE FOR SPRING: EAT YOUR FLOWERS

April showers bring May flowers, right?  Though the selections of lovely spring blooms may be limited by a paucity of water and we didn’t really have April showers this year, the nasturtiums running wildly up and down my hill are plentiful and make a simple, peppery salad with bright red, yellow and orange  flowers and miniature lilypad-like leaves.  And from a favorite Flower Fairies book:

Nasturtium the jolly,
O ho, O ho!
He holds up his brolly
Just so, just so!
(A shelter from showers,
A shade from the sun;)
‘Mid flame-coloured flowers
He grins at the fun.
Up fences he scrambles,
Sing hey, sing hey!
All summer he rambles
So gay, go gay-
Till the night-frost strikes chilly,
And Autumn leaves fall,
And he’s gone, willy-nilly,
Umbrella and all.

NASTURTIUM AND ARUGULA SALAD

2 C nasturtium leaves
2 C arugula leaves
12 nasturtium blossoms
4 T really good olive oil
1 small clove garlic, minced
2 T cider vinegar
1 t honey
1 T finely chopped chives
Salt and pepper to taste

Combine nasturtium leaves, arugula and nasturtium blossoms.  Whisk remaining ingredients together and lightly toss with the leaves and flowers.  Swoon.

Photo Credit: Flowers, Creative Commons, Nasturtiums by Andy Wright is licensed under CC by 2.0 

Garden Recipe: TOMATOES FIGS CHEESE

We have had a tiny fig tree in our back yard for seven years…so maybe we are graced with four or five velvety, crunchy, voluptuous figs each summer.  This year it is veritably FILLED with figs.  It’s still a tiny tree, but it’s trying harder this time. Daydreaming of my favorite garden fruits and vegetables (figs and tomatoes) makes me want to eat this until October.

Ingredients

• 1 T Balsamic vinegar
• ¼ t fine sea salt
• ¼ c really good olive oil
• 3 T pine nuts
• 1 perfectly ripe large tomatoes
• ½ lb (or more!) ripe figs, cut in quarters
• 1 oz crumbled Roquefort cheese
• 1 t fresh thyme leaves
• Black pepper

Whisk the vinegar and salt together, then slowly whisk in the olive oil.  Toast the pine nuts in a small skillet until light golden.  Spread tomato slices on a large plate and scatter the figs and pine nuts over the tomatoes.  Sprinkle with the cheese and thyme then drizzle with the dressing and finish with freshly ground black pepper to taste.

Photo Credits:
Roquefort Cheese, Creative Commons, Roquefort Cheese by Cyn Furey is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0
Figs, Creative Commons, this year, i have discovered an appreciation of figs by snickclunk is licensed under CC by 2.0
Tomatoes, Public Domain Dedication, Tomatoes by Image Party is licensed under CC0 1.0

ESSENCE OF SUMMER SALAD

You’re going to need something else from your garden to go with your cocktail, by the way.  Gardens are so wonderful…

• 1 lb tomatoes, large,  small and tiny, yellow, pink, red, black, green.  Large ones cut in quarters or eighths.
• 1 med. cucumber, sliced or cubed, peeled or not
• Pickled onions from following recipe, drained
• 1 pkg good feta, crumbled
• 2 c. cubed, perfect watermelon
• ¼ c. chopped mint
• ½ c. whole basil leaves

Toss all ingredients except feta together, pour on ½ the dressing, toss then taste.  Add more if you wish.  Strew feta.  Eat.

Dressing

• ¼ c. rice vinegar
• 2 T fresh lime juice
• ¾ c. peanut oil
• Salt and pepper to taste
• 1 t sugar

SHAKE IT UP OR WHISK IT UP.

Pickled Red Onions

• 1 sm. Red onion, halved then sliced thin
• 1 c white wine vinegar
• ¼ c sugar
• Pinch of red pepper flakes

Bring vinegar and sugar to simmer until sugar dissolves, pour over onions and add red pepper flakes, let it sit at least 30 minutes then refrigerate and cool.  These will last in your refrigerator forever.

Image Credit: Watermelon Salad by Eric Petruno is licensed under C.C. 2.0