New Foods or Don't Throw That Away, You Can Eat It!

So my dad and I were shopping at one of my favorite boutique grocery stores when I ran into a vegetable that I was unfamiliar with. Garlic Spears. Garlic spears or “scapes” are the seed pod of the garlic plant. The spears are cut off when they appear to allow the garlic plant to focus all it’s energy on the bulb rather than on the flower. Often this part of the garlic is just thrown away as a byproduct of garlic production. The spears also came with some instructions: drizzle them with olive oil, sprinkle with salt and pepper and grill until browned. The salesman in the store claimed that they were like french fries. I must say that I was intrigued by this new vegetable. So we made our purchase and brought them home.

 

We decided that we would try the “recipe” on the spears the first time we tried these new veggies. On the grill they went. After they were cooked they looked like this:

 

The flavor was slightly garlicky. The garlic was just a hint in the flavor. They had a texture closer to cooked asparagus, a little fibrous. They were actually very good. Something that we will definitely try again.

This got me thinking though. What other plants have edible parts that we usually discard or just don’t make it to the supermarkets? I started my research, it turns out that many of the leaves from the vegetables we usually eat are also edible and you can find someone on the internet that loves them. Squash leaves are apparently very delicious, as well as the leaves from broccoli and brussels sprouts. The winner in my research however was radish pods. Apparently, if you let your radishes go to seed (something no one does because when you grow radishes you harvest them before they go to seed) they produce hundreds of seed pods that are tasty when you eat them when they are green.

I have now decided that I will let a couple of the radishes that I have been growing go to seed and we will try out the radish pods. Who knew? Radish pods are used frequently in Indian cuisine, but are something that we don’t see here. Radish flowers are also edible. So I think some radish flower and pod salads are in my family’s future. I am sure that these will make it into a blog post in a couple weeks when the radishes mature.

Bread Baking or Stop! Don't Use That Yeast!

I have not bought a loaf of bread in over 10 months. This is not because I have put my family on a low-carb diet, nor is it because we have problems with gluten. I made a commitment that I was going to bake the bread for our family. I had always wanted to buy that 25 pound bag of flour at the store. (Don’t ask me why. I just wanted to have the giant bag of flour.)

 

I experimented with several different recipes, and I found a recipe for bread that was flavorful, without having so much flavor it wouldn’t work for both sweet and savory uses. It is also basic enough that you can make just about any type of flavored bread.

One of the coolest parts about this new commitment of bread baking was that I could now buy a 2 pound package of yeast to go with my 25 pounds of flour! I know that there are some people out there who are intimidated by yeast. First of all, if your reaction to a yeast bread recipe is to say, “I have some yeast in a drawer somewhere, not sure when I bought it...” Stop right there! Go buy new yeast, right now. You can finish reading this later. The most disappointing thing you can do is mix up your dough, wait an hour and....nothing. It doesn’t rise.

Baking bread is something I have always enjoyed. I started when I was a teenager. I would get up real early so I could make a mess in the kitchen without being disturbed by my other family members. Usually by the time anyone else got up I had my dough rising and the kitchen cleaned up. Now I have a fun time with my bread. I will try different spices and flavors in the bread. Sometimes they work and sometimes they get put into the “at least I tried it” pile of recipes.

The ingredients:

2 cups warm water, no warmer than 110 degrees F

1 ½ Tablespoons FRESH active dry yeast

⅔ cup sugar

¼ cup vegetable oil

½ teaspoon salt

6 cups flour

1. Combine the first 5 ingredients in a bowl (I use a stand mixer) and give a little stir. Wait 10 minutes. You must wait. After 10 minutes the yeast mixture will be bubbly. If it is not bubbly then your yeast was too old or your water was too hot.

2. Add 2 cups of the flour to the yeast mixture. Mix it with your mixer or a wooden spoon until combined. Add 2 more cups of flour and mix again until combined. Add the last two cups of flour and mix until combined. If you are not using a mixer you may need to use your hands to incorporate the last of the flour.

3. Knead the dough for 10 minutes if by hand, 4 minutes if you are using the dough hook in your stand mixer.

4. Grease or oil a bowl. Place dough in it and then turn it upside down so that the dough is covered on all sides with the oil. Take a damp kitchen towel or paper towel and place it over the bowl. If you are using cloth make sure it does not leave lint behind on your dishes. If it leaves lint on your dishes it will leave lint on your bread!

 

5. Set your bowl in a draft free “warm” place for 45 minutes to an hour. If it has risen properly it will look like this:

 

6. Grease or oil two loaf pans. Split the dough in two equal pieces. In your hands smosh it around a little. Then work the dough into an approximate rectangle 10” by 15”. Roll the dough up the short side and then fold the two ends under. Set the bread in the prepared pan and repeat for the second loaf. Cover with a damp towel.

 

7. Let rise another 45 minutes to an hour. During this time preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

 

8. Bake for 30 minutes.

9. Remove from oven and let sit in pans for 10 minutes. Turn out of the pans and let cool. I know the smell of fresh baked bread is unbelievable, but if you want to use this bread for sandwiches you need to let it cool.

10. At our house I slice a whole loaf of bread at once. It makes it easier for those who are used to grab and go bread. I keep it in a large ziploc bag and off we go. We eat a lot of bread and it is unusual for one loaf to last more than 3 days.The second loaf I wrap completely in plastic wrap. I need to find a proper reusable container, but for now it is the plastic.

Substitutions and additions for this recipe:

Honey White Bread

⅔ cup sugar = ⅓ cup sugar, ⅓ cup honey

You may need to add a little more flour at the end of step 2

Bake at 325 degrees for 30 minutes.

Olive bread

¼ cup vegetable oil = ¼ olive oil

Between the first and second flour additions add 1 cup chopped olives.

Bake as usual.

Dinner Rolls

2 cups water = 2 cups milk

¼ cup oil = ¼ cup butter, melted

When shaping bread after the first rise shape into 24-32 small balls and set in 1 or 2 pans just barely touching. Bake for 20-30 minutes depending on the size.

I have added spices to the mix as well. I add spices to the dough during step 1. I have used whey in the place of the liquid and I have used margarine in place of the oil. I have also made it with olive oil and added chopped olives to the dough for olive bread.