Businesses that sell produce sometimes use the phrase garden-fresh, but the way to get truly garden-fresh food is to grow it yourself.
We are lucky to have the space and good health that permits us to grow some of what we need. I only planted short rows of leafy greens in my vegetable garden this year and the garden is patchy with lots of misses (and many weeds), but it still provides lots of good food for the two of us.
Heat and moisture have accelerated growth, and we are harvesting mesclun greens, a tiny bit of spinach and baby kale, green onions, sweet basil, scarlet runner beans and both pickling and slicing cucumbers this week.
The mesclun greens, a mixture of leafy salad greens, allows us to have fresh salads daily. With a little thought, I can make each one unique, adding different combinations of other vegetables and herbs, such as cucumbers, basil leaves, or sliced green onions; protein, such as either hard cooked or soft easy-over eggs or cubed cheese or fruit, such as halved local strawberries.
Using a different dressing each time offers more chance for variation. A basic homemade vinaigrette can be flavoured with chives, crushed garlic, Dijon mustard, balsamic or apple cider or wine vinegar, or it can be sweetened with honey or a little sugar, and poppy seeds added for texture and colour. I also like to make a creamy dressing by whisking mayonnaise with a little sugar, evaporated milk, and vinegar to add at the very last minute, so that it won’t make the leaves wilt.
Salad toppings can determine whether the dish will be a light first course or the main dish for a summer lunch. You can cut sliced bread into cubes, and make it brown and crisp by cooking gently with a little olive oil or butter in a nonstick pan. Chopped nuts also make a great topping for salad, as do little cubes of cheese. I got a great tip that came from another shopper at the cheese booth at the Farmer’s Market on Saturday morning. Use shavings of the Basiron Black Lemon Gouda – a delicious lemony cheese that is coloured jet black with charcoal – for a dramatic salad topping.
You can have an indulgent topping for a salad containing fruit by making candied seeds. I am sure there are recipes for such things, but I didn’t measure. Sorry, that makes it more difficult to describe how to make it. I think there was slightly more sugar than butter involved. Inspired by the candied pecans sometimes used in similar salads, I melted butter and brown sugar together in a nonstick frying pan until the mixture was glossy, bubbly, and browned (but not burned), stirred in a mixture of pumpkin seeds (pepitas) and sunflower seeds to coat, removed from the heat, and quickly spread the mixture into a single layer on a plate. After it had set, it was easy to break up and sprinkle on a salad.
Baby spinach and kale, crushed garlic and minced dill leaves (not from my garden), and chopped green onions were the basis of a dish that used some leftovers in my fridge to good advantage last week. After sautéing the greens in olive oil just long enough to wilt them, I cooled them slightly, stirred them into about ⅔ of a 475 g container of ricotta cheese along with a beaten egg and a sprinkle of salt and pepper. This made a filling to stuff 12 jumbo pasta shells, cooked al dente. After spreading half a bottle of commercial pasta sauce into a shallow 17 x 28 cm (7 x 11 inch) oven-proof dish, I arranged the stuffed shells over the sauce, sprinkled grated Parmesan over it all, and placed it, uncovered, in a 180°C (350F) oven. In the time it took for the pasta dish to heat, I made a salad and set the table for our fresh and easy meal.
Summer is a great time to sample whatever fresh Island produce is available and let the ingredients at hand inspire you. Try cooking familiar ingredients in different ways – stir-fry, roast, grill, steam. Tweak an old recipe to give it new flair. Use your imagination and create something beautiful and delicious.
Margaret Prouse, a home economist, can be reached by writing her at RR#2, North Wiltshire, P.E.I., C0A 1Y0, or by email at i[email protected].
