Garden deliciousness

This really is the best time of year.  We have all kinds of fresh stuff available at the farmer's market, but we also have lots of tasty stuff available at home in the garden.  Given that we're renters, we focus on growing two things - herbs and tomatoes.  Herbs because we like to cook with fresh herbs every day, and the ones in the grocery store are often in rough shape when you see them, and certainly don't keep well in the fridge.

The other thing we grow is tomatoes.  (shown below, Green Zebra, Lemon Boy and Red Cherry tomatoes all harvested recently from the Dude garden).



The difference between garden tomato varieties and grocery store tomato varieties is much larger than with any other bit of grocery produce.  Grocery store tomates are tough and they're bitter in comparison to some of the varieties you can grow in your garden.  And there's a reason for that.  While some might attribute love or careful growing, it's not that at all.

Tomatoes are fragile.  If we're not careful, we can bruise a tomato, just carrying it the 20 feet from our garden to the kitchen counter.  The varieties that are grown by farmers have to be able to be handled in large numbers, and shipped long distances.  They get packed by the ton.  They have to survive that process without damage.  So plant breeders select for varieties that will be sturdy.  There are tradeoffs to be made, and in the end, a tomato that doesn't make it to market loses the farmer money.  So they have to be tough.

As a gardener, you can grow varieties that are fragile.  And you have fewer tradeoffs.  You can grow the varieties that are delicious.  Like my two favourites, Green Zebra.



And Black Krim.



Black Krim and Green Zebra are juicy and delicious.  They have no bitter flavour (indeed, these could almost be served as a dessert they're so sweet).  We often serve raw slices with a bit of sprinkled kosher salt on them.

Remember, if you can grow it in your home, get the varieties that have been bred to be delicious.  It's the same amount of work (mostly - some varieties are a little fussier in the garden), and the reward is soooo much more.  You'll want the awesome power of tomato genetics on your side.  You'll be glad you did.

Wordless Wednesday: Bratwurst

Farmer's market pizza

One of my favourite things about living in San Diego is the quality of the farmer's markets and the many ethnic markets in the city.  My favourite farmer's market in San Diego is the Little Italy farmer's market on Saturday mornings.  (Mrs. Dude prefers the Hillcrest one on Sunday).  The strength of the Hillcrest market is the selection of produce.  The strength of Little Italy is that it has a butcher, smoked fish vendor, Knight Salumi and a sea urchin vendor.  You can see how a bbq enthusiast would prefer Little Italy.



Saturday was a lovely morning to be at the farmer's market. The sky was blue. The weather was nice, and several musicians were doing their thang.



Clearly I wasn't the only one who thought so.

I picked up the pepperoni from Knight Salumi. Forgive the ragged edges, I'm still learning to use my new Sugimoto gyuto. This inspired me to make smoked pizza (I've made described this recipe before so I won't get into details here)



And I picked up some produce and goat white cheddar (those green zebras are from our garden).



Finally, on my way out of the market, I saw a vendor selling microgreens. When I told him of my smoked pizza plan, he pointed me towards the basil microgreens. I steered clear (seemed to obvious) and headed for the radish microgreens.



I made the pizza dough as described here. Laid it out on a screaming hot grill (prepared to have a hot area and a cool area).



In just two minutes, you can brown one side of the dough. And watch it bubble up.



When the bubbles get really large...



And the underside is browned...



You can flip it over, and bring it into the kitchen to be dressed with garlic oil and toppings.



Put it on the cool side of the grill and close up the grill for ten minutes or so (until the cheese has melted).



When the cheese looks good, slide the pizza over the fire to brown the underside of the crust for a minute or two. Slide off the grill, and put on any toppings that aren't heat friendly (like the microgreens, and fresh basil leaves from our garden).



Serve.  Fresh ingredients on pizza are a huge win.  The radish microgreens added a really nice, bright crisp element to the greasy/cheesiness of this pizza.  But really, it was all win.  And if you're organized, you can have 3 of these on the go simultaneously on the grill, at various stages of cooking.

Yum.

Lemonade

It's been *hot* in southern California the last few days.  To survive, homemade lemonade.

1 ¼ cup lemon juice (from 4ish fresh lemons)
4 ½ cups water
1 cup sugar

Mix one cup water with the sugar. Heat and stir to dissolve the sugar (this is simple syrup).

Mix the lemon juice with the remainder of the water and the simple syrup. Serve over ice.

Nothing beats homemade lemonade. Ridiculously more flavourful than purchased lemonade (and if you have homegrown lemons - even better).