Wholesome Wednesdays: Garlic

It's garlic time! This year's softnecks are braided and hanging in the kitchen, some hardnecks that weren't quite ready are bundled and drying despite being immature, and a few more hardnecks and elephant garlics are still out in the garden getting nice and big. It's a good time of year to repost last year's Wholesome Wednesdays: Garlic. Enjoy!

Garlic, how do i love thee? I love thee very much! I've heard friends recently say "that recipe calls for 4 cloves of garlic, and that's just too much!" NEVER! NEVER TOO MUCH! I may be sweating garlic from my pores and panting from the mouth, but there's never too much garlic for me!

According to nutritiondata.com:

This food is very low in Saturated Fat, Cholesterol and Sodium. It is also a good source of Calcium, Phosphorus and Selenium, and a very good source of Vitamin C, Vitamin B6 and Manganese.

Caloriecount.com agrees and neither website can say ANYTHING bad about garlic at all:

Like onions, i put garlic in just about everything i cook. It adds flavor, spice, and when roasted a real decadent creamy element. I usually put at least 3 cloves garlic in everything. Vitamin C, Calcium, and Iron are all things my body needs a lot of, especially since i don't eat a lot of citrus, dairy, or red meat. I planted as much garlic as i could fit into my gardens this year, but am still disatisfied with the yield. So far i've only been able to harvest the whips, or immature garlic that you eat more like a scallion. But their leaves are browning and the bulbs are finally expanding a bit, so i think in about a month or so i'll be harvesting and setting out to cure and then braid for storage. Store garlic in a cool, dry place: which doesn't exist in my house. But i use it up so fast, it generally doesn't have time to rot. You can't store garlic in the ground like onions, it will rot if you're not diligent.
These are last year's garlic braids. Hard necks don't like to be braided. This year's are much prettier. I'll have to take some photos soon.

Some garlic growing/cooking facts:

• Each green leaf you see above ground equals a 'paper' on the clove and eventually a bulb. Wait for the leaves to brown, but not completely or you risk rotting. Check below the soil a few times until you see a nice plump bulb, harvest one and assess the situation. you want the papers to be pretty developed to protect each clove.
• Garlic gets meaner with more abuse: if you put garlic cloves through a garlic press or bash to a smoosh with a knife, the garlic will be spicier. For milder tasting garlic, only tap the clove to remove the paper, then dice carefully.
• The greens are edible when the plant is young.
• The scapes and flowers of garlic are very tasty, almost like oniony broccoli. Saute and enjoy!

Pickled Eggs and a Kimchee State of Mind

Firstly, I must apologize for not posting these past few weekends. It has been project crunch time around the homestead: the hubby prepping and crafting his beautiful gourds, me working on decadent body product for my upcoming event. If you'll be in Austin this wednesday, come by and check it out. Some great jewelry by Schatzelein and bent on design, as well as $1 Lonestar beer at Thunderbird Coffee. I'd love to meet you.

Anyhoo, Sunday was a full day of farmers market patronage, cooking, and finishing up the last touches on my portion of the Mother's Day event. My kitchen tinkering included a first for me:  pickled eggs. Strange sounding, I know. Pickled eggs came to be when folks needed to travel with their protein and lacked sufficient storage to keep eggs fresh and unjostled. When pickled, the eggs can be kept for a few months unrefrigerated. I found a recipe on my local poultry meetup group and will experiment with it using only 4 or so eggs. No idea if i'll like them, so i'd rather not waste The Ladies' hard work.

Fresh eggs are hard to peel!

My other decision today relates to sustainability, seasonal eating, and my enjoyment of kimchee. I've posted my recipe here a few times, and still plan on trying the marinating method (versus the pound it to death method). But today i will only mention my new approach:

Kimchee is a condiment of versatility and self expression. You can use just about any vegetables and spices you like. I have decided that from this point forward, i will be preparing my kimchee with entirely seasonal produce. I stopped by the Hope Farmers Market today and purchase a locally grown cabbage (i tried to grow cabbage, but the snails beat me to the harvest) and then wandered my garden to pick some spring onions and garlic whips (which i dutifully followed by planting some basil seeds in their stead, it's about time!) Today's kimchee will be made with:

• Local cabbage
• Homegrown spring onions
• Homegrown garlic whips
• Homegrown carrots
• Homegrown dried chillies
• Homegrown coriander seeds
• Homegrown nasturtium leaves
• Homemade whey from local raw milk
• Salt - sourced from far away, i'm sure

Pickled eggs (very reduced recipe to serve 5 eggs):

• Malt and cider vinegar
• water
• 1 whole clove
• Small cinnamon stick
• 1/4 teaspoon or so of pickling spice
• Dash mustard
• Some hot peppers and cayenne powder
• 1/2 T rapadura
• pinch sugar
• 1/2 T pickling salt
• Garlic cloves

Bring to boil, simmer 15 minutes, cool and pour over the eggs. I know this is supposed to be non refrigerated, but it wierds me out, so into the fridge it goes.  I'll test them out next weekend and see what i think!

Great productive weekend for us, onward to a new week, and hopefully a successful (or at least informative) market event on Wednesday.