Garden Kitchen

We decided to live in the south of Portugal, the Alentejo, where you can garden all year round. Almost everything we eat is from our garden and luckily Jean Paul is very inventive.So here are the “recipes” from our garden.This blog is a translation of Lugar do Olhar Feliz “La Cuisine du Jardin” which began in 2004.

Tabbouleh

(Photo LOF- Tabbouleh with lemon in brine)

An excellent recipe of Michelle's for a summer salad for 7/8 people :
Soak  1kg of bulgur in the juice of 6 lemons for about 2 hours.
Gently use a fork to separate the grains of bulgur a few times during the 2 hours.
Add :
 5 big tomatoes skinned and seeded and diced.
 1or 2 small cucumbers peeled, seeded & diced.
 1 finely diced onion
 and a good sized bunch of chopped leaf parsley.
 1/4 of a lemon in brine cut into small pieces.(This is the secret ingredient that makes all the difference)
Don't add salt as the lemon in brine is salty enough. Add 2 tablespoons of olive oil toss, cool before serving.

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Harvest omelette (crespéou)

(Photo LOF - crespéou or harvest omelette)

When we have lots of friends coming for lunch at LOF we prefer to spend our time with them and not in the kitchen.
So here is a recipe that you can make the day before and serve cold. 
The crespéou is a dish made of omelettes stacked in layers with herbs and vegetables served with or without a tomaoe sauce. It originated in provence and was often made at harvest time for eating in the fields.

(For 15-20)

The day before make 9  omelettes (4 eggs, salt, pepper,  finely chopped parsley, chives, tarragon 1 teaspoon of water beat vigorously with a fork, lifting to air the mixture, then pour into a hot frying pan) and put them on 9 separate plates , on each one spread one of the following :
finely chopped sorrel cooked in butter,
crushed tomatoes cooked with thyme,
cooked spinach with cream,
sweet pepper compote,
simmered thinly sliced onions,
finely chopped mushrooms with chives,
grated emmenthal cheese,
diced black olives with capers,
the 9th omelette is the hat.

(Photo LOF - this is not a geological cross section but a Harvest omelette. On the 8th floor we have the olive -caper family, the 7th is the grated cheese and on the 6th floor Mr & Mrs diced mushrooms etc)

Now in a large buttered oven proof dish (the diameter of your omelettes), pour a raw 4 egg omelette and place the cooked omelettes on top one after another.
In between each omelette as glue spread a thin layer of tuna paste made with 6 anchovies and 400g of tuna preserved in oil mixed into a base made of finely chopped shallots, butter and a half a glass of white wine heated for about 3 minutes.
When your pile of omelettes, glued with tuna paste are all stacked, pour a final raw 4 egg omelette on top to fill the dish. Cook for 20 minutes in the oven at 165°C, serve cold the next day.
So thats 35 eggs.

Everyone enjoyed the taste they were most  attuned to and it was suprisingly light.

In the evening we ate the leftovers warm. Its better.
(Photo LOF - the harvest omelette is abig stack of omelettes for at least 10 people - count at least 3 hours of preparation - phew!)

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Horseradish salad

(Photo LOF - horseradish salad)

Its August and the horseradish is ready. Horseradish produces more than we can ever use in "pot au feu" or "boeuf en gelée".
So with the rest we grate and then let it soak in warm beef stock for about 10 minutes, drain it and let it cool.
The sauce is best with a kaffir lime vinegar (soak  zests in vinegar for a few weeks), olive oil and light cream.
The recipe is also good with winter radishs.

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Watermelon : fact or fiction

(Photo LOF - watermelon harvest)

The portuguese - and the brasilians both say that you should never, ever drink wine when eating  watermelon.
Odd.
And what happens if you do ? Well in the Alentejo everyone and I mean everyone knows that the walls of your intenstines turn into... into? - cork !
You often hear "No thanks no  watermelon I have just had wine" So much for serving watermelon as desert. 
It seems to be especially serious with red wine but then again no one in the Aletejo considers white wine - wine.
Yet in French you can find recipes for watermelon sangria or watermelon soups with red wine.
And as to the famous watermelon.org – THE reference when it comes to watermelon info, they mix watermelon with red wine from Spain, or Port, there is even a list of watermelon wines.
No nutrition expert would think of commenting on this serious subject that divides lusophones and the rest of the world.
Last night we really floated in the pool.

 (Photo LOF - a cross section of an alentejans intestines after drinking red wine and eating watermelon)

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Tomatoe quiche

(Photo LOF - innocent tomatoe quiche)

There must be a million recipes for tomatoe quiche.
After having tried several (anything to use up our tomatoes) I have decided that the most important thing is the ... tomatoes.
It doesn't matter which type of pie crust, liquid cream or crème fraiche, mustard or thyme, oignons or garlic.
Its the tomatoes that count - good tasty ripe tomatoes, best fresh from the garden. 
So my recipe is :
- buy a pie crust or make one if you are courageous.
- prick it with a fork and put it in the oven at 200° for about 5 min.
- take it out cover the bottom in lots of good dijon mustard,
- put in your diced delicious tomatoes and sprinkle LOTS of fresh thyme,
- wisk 2 eggs & cream, then pour on top,
- cover with grated emmenthal and bake at 200° for about 25 minutes.
I freeze them so as to have lots of easy meals I don't have to think about ahead of time.

(Photo LOF - a guilty tomatoe quiche behind bars)

Port with melon

(Photo LOF – Porto au melon)

On one hand there are the lovers of Port who think it a sacrilege to pour their favorite wine into a half melon, on the hand you have melon lovers who prefer their melons naked as the day they were born, untainted by port of any kind.
So - its a double sacrilege, the Port with melon that we serve at LOF with a  eirlöfel – small spoon designed to eat soft boiled eggs) – used to fish out the last little bits of white melon perfectly ripe at the peak of their delicacy and tenderness. 

There exists, between melons (not canteloupes but white melons such as Sucrine or Branco du Ribatejo) and white Port,  vintages with the flavour of prunes (not extra dry) or ripe grapes on their way to becoming raisins;  an affinty that is almost sensual - like two people dancing the tango.

(Photo LOF – Portuguese melon Manuel Antonio, blushing white - the closer you get to the middle the sweeter it is)

Cut the melon into small cubes and soak in white port.Prepare it a half hour before serving.
Let it sit in a cool place (wine cellar temperature)
Its best to drink Port with melon outside at the end of the day as the sun gets low in the sky.

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Watermelon with redcurrant syrup

(Photo LOF - Watermelon with redcurrant syrup)

Place a watermelon on the table and close your eyes.
In your minds eye are children playing in the sun.
Watermelons cry out for recipes that remind you of your childhood. the colour of candy apples, the smell of merry-go-rounds...
Portugal (southern) has, in this area a number of advantages : you can grow excellent watermelons and there exists a national monument to taste and smell : redcurrant syrup (Xarope Groselha) de Neto Costa.
This syrup is immediately identified by all children as good to drink.
(Photo LOF - Redcurrant syrup)

Cut the watermelon into bite size cubes, add a dollop of redcurrant syrup.
To make an after nap snack : put the salad bowl into a larger bowl filled with cool water or ice cubes, cover with a white cloth, place next to the hammock in the shade.
« When my maternal grandfather was still alive, he always had magnificient watermelons in the kitchen garden of the house I live in now. To cool the watermelons, we'd put them in a bucket and lower them into the well. Good memories... »  Elvira 

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Growing watermelons

(Photo LOF, random slice of homegrown watermelon / t=0)

Is it worth it to grow your own watermelons?
Most commercial watermelons have everything but taste.
Is it the same for homegrown watermelons?
Two possible methodologies :
  - comparative tasting in double blind randomized trials- Method rejected because its stupid : its much nicer when you can see what you're eating. Waterleons are pretty. 
  - opnion survey : Accepted method.
Each guest gets a watermelons ripe, fresh from the garden, without selecting varities beforehand (tested with 6 different varieties) random distribution.
Then we try to find out if they were better than supermarket watermelons. 
  - 1st reaction : everybody finds them heavy to carry.
  - 2nd reaction : everybody is happy, nowadays watermelons are expensive. 
  Survey results : 
     No opinion : 0%. 
     In anycase they all taste like water : 0% 
    Stuffed themselves while saying « this watermelon is really good, much better than the ones you can buy » : 100%
Nota : Paulo ate Ninas watermelon, Horatio said "not only are they good but they're enormous". "They're sweeter" (Eliezer), "they're really tasty " (Ricardo), "they're really good (muito bom)" (Bela).
Conclusion : This scientific study shows that you should definitely grow your own watermelons or get a friend to grow them for you. 
You need a rich soil and daily watering.

(Photo LOF, random slice of homegrown watermelon / t0 + 10')

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How to keep your watermelons

 
(Photo LOF - Early watermelon variety Sugar dragon –  Technisem « Tropica »)

Watermelons don't have a really strong flavour,but they are so sweet you can eat them anytime 
In fact they have a tendancy to compensate for their lack of flavour by taking on the flavour of anything near by.
Never keep an open watermelon near onions, garlic or cabbage. It will taste more like its neigbour than its self.
In the refrigerater always cover a cut watermelon with plastic wrap... or an even better solution - eat it all- right away.
Some watermelons can weigh up to 50kg, so Syngenta  has created a mini watermelon « Solinda ».
A commercial sucess in Switzerland where its known as the watermelons for singles.
No seeds, small, 2,5 kg easy to fit in the refrigerater. In short its been tamed - an urban watermelon.
But what is more fun in the summer than seed spitting contests when you are eating giant watermelon slices ? 

 
(Photo LOF -  Logone watermelon : Mother looking after new born baby- just a few days old)

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Eggs with iceplant

Eggs are incredible at revealing other flavours.
« L’œuf est à la cuisine ce que le blanc est à la peinture » Etienne Jambon. "Eggs are to cooking what white is to painting"

(Photo LOF - an ostrich egg, a present from Bela. Caroline would like to see someone develop chickens that lay eggs as big as ostrich eggs but as tasty as hen eggs) 

So... with scrambled eggs (electric burner on low, low heat or in a bain marie, a wisk in hand, slowly, slowly take your time wisk your eggs until they solidify to the consistency of jam (confiture Bonne Maman)
(Photo LOF - Scrambled eggs with iceplant blossoms, in the photo there are too many blossoms, you only need a few, be stingy)

...try adding at the end a spoonful of iceplant blossoms (they always taste a little salty).
Texture and taste - interesting.
Note iceplant tips are also good in a salad with small cubes of firm tomatoes. ex. Roma. 

Contrary to recent rumours, iceplants are not from northern Canada.



 
Photo LOF - Which of the 2 contestants will the iceplant choose? The ovoid tomate or the egg tomatoid ?)

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