Archive For The “Mains” Category
What’s eating your crops? Do you have a slug problem? Do you hate cabbage worms making holes in the leaves of your brassica? Carrot fly? Birds? In our organic, very diverse garden, pests are usually not a huge problem. But our new allotment is surrounded by overgrown allotments-turned-forest where rabbits reside. And they apparently come [...]
On Saturday I sowed the first seeds directly in the ground – finally!- and spinach was the very first vegetable I sowed. So no, this quiche was not homegrown, but hopefully will be in about six weeks. Because I am definitely making it again. This is not your good old spinach quiche (though I definitely [...]
This dish is the culinary form of denial. I know it is cold and raining, and that probably means that the summer really is over. But I refuse to let go just yet. Soon enough it will be on to squash and pumpkin. I am prepared – I have a “pumpkin/squash” board on pinterest where [...]
Do you grow basil? And is your climate basil-friendly? I do, and it’s not. While growing Mediterranean herbs like rosemary or lavender is not particularly difficult here if you provide them with a suitable micro climate, basil is a lot more demanding. It wants more sun, more water and richer soil. Here in Northwestern Europe, [...]
So, after having confessed to my limited gardening success as far as growing tomatoes is concerned, I came back from vacation to … an ample tomato harvest. Though most of the varieties have suffered just as I expected, the partially blight-resistant “Losetto” did not. After finding out there was nobody around to keep them in [...]
My parents are more successful at growing tomatoes than I am. That, I would like to point out, is not because they are better gardeners. It’s because they have a better place to grow them. First, the climate in the Czech Republic is slightly less humid than in the Netherlands and the summers are a [...]
When summer, like now, really is summer and the sun is shining all the time and it’s really warm and not like last year when the only difference between summer and fall was the date on the calendar, you probably don’t really want to be in the kitchen. You want to be swimming, taking leisurely [...]
Summer typically brings a dilemma. On one hand the garden is brimming with wonderful produce to cook with. On the other hand one’s desire to cook typically diminishes as fast as the temperature rises. Luckily, summer produce usually doesn’t need a lot of cooking.
Broad beans (also known as fava beans) are the only hardy beans. That means that unlike other kinds of beans, they can be sown early. They can even be sown in November and left in the ground to overwinter, more or less successfully. I have found that the overwintered sowings produce a harvest only marginally [...]
Because I read cookbooks instead of bedtime stories, I have long known that the only correct way to make risotto is by adding a ladelful of stock at a time, stirring continuously. Interestingly, our Italian friends were not aware of this. When I brought it up, they assured me that they don’t make risotto this [...]
