Groceries From the Garden

This weekend marks the first time in Newburyport that we've been able to take a stroll around the garden before making the grocery list to plan our dinners (or at least side dishes) around what is growing. Here's what we saw and what we decided to make with it.


Radishes and Lettuce

Our first radishes are ready to go. We didn't plant that many because in the past we've ended up with way more than we could ever eat, but a few are nice — especially since they come up so quickly. We use them as a row marker between two rows of carrots, and when the radishes are ready, the carrots are big enough to be thinned out.

This row of mesclun is one of several rows of lettuce around the garden. This was planted later, but is ready to eat sooner than the lettuces in the background, because it's just a leaf lettuce. The ones in the back are our butterhead and redleaf, which take longer to mature because they are head lettuces. If you look really closely, you can see they are just starting to form heads. The mesclun keeps us eating until the heads are ready.

We will use these for, of course, salad. A good one we've been having lately includes our mixed greens, thinly sliced radishes and cucumber, tomatoes, walnuts, dried cranberries, and gorgonzola crumbles. The dressing is just a bit of olive oil and balsamic vinegar — a tiny bit at that, because when the lettuce actually has flavor, you don't need much dressing!


Spinach

With all of the rain from Hurricane Irene, our leafy greens are doing great. The first spinach we put in is past the "baby spinach" point, and is therefore ready to cook as well as add to salad. We'll use these to make spinach and ricotta calzones from another excellent Moosewood recipe. Really, go buy this book. But to tide you over if you want to try it out, this recipe is also at food.com.

Basil

We'll be having more caprese. With everything.

Arugula

Of course arugula is also excellent in salad, but for lunch this weekend we will make one of our favorite sandwiches. This is based on a special from the excellent North End Deli in Lawrence, MA. We'll have these for lunch tomorrow to channel a bit of the Feast of the Three Saints into Newburyport. For those who don't know, we lived in Lawrence for a decade before moving here in December of 2009. Lawrence deserves a nod on Labor Day weekend especially, so we'll do it with food. 

Anyway, the sandwich. It's prosciutto, mozzarella, roasted red peppers, and arugula dressed with a bit of olive oil on a baguette or some French bread. It's delicious, and is excellent well into the fall, after the joy of caprese salads and sandwiches has been killed by the frost.  

 Cilantro

We were going to have tacos anyway because it's a sure-fire crowd-pleaser, but now that the cilantro has filled in, I will definitely use some in the taco meat. I'll also probably make a salsa with it and the jalapeños the neighbors gave us from their garden. A green salsa will be great, because tomatillos from Market Basket aren't too terrible (as opposed to regular tomatoes, which we'd rather get from Tendercrop). 

Green salsa is easy if you can find tomatillos. Take about 6-10 and peel off the papery husks. Chop into quarters and then use a food processor to get a nice fine dice/semi-puree. Add a finely chopped jalapeño, a 1/4 to 1/2 cup of chopped cilantro, and a healthy pinch of kosher salt. Stir it up and it's done. I like it spicy and heavy on the cilantro, so you may want to go easy on those at first and add them in to taste. 

Mint

I'd say we have plenty to share, so good thing we're heading to a holiday weekend cookout tomorrow. We're providing the mojtos! I've browsed a few recipes, and this is how I think we'll make them (based largely on what we have on hand):

10 mint leaves smushed up with a heaping tablespoon of powdered sugar
1 1/2 shots Captain Morgan
juice of half a lime
ice and club soda to the top of the glass

We'll see how that goes, and if someone there has an amazing variation, I'll update you when I can see the keyboard again.