Ann's Air Gardens

Versatile Shiso

I am nuts about Shiso, but only recently started making tea from the leaves.  This happened as a result of a fortuitous experiment with a less than perfect mango.  I blended it with green Shiso leaves, ice, milk, and a wee bit of maple syrup.   It tasted really good and I was ready to make another one.

But first I got online to see if anyone else had tried anything like that, and was amazed at the enthusiasm with which quite a few bloggers described their experiences with Shiso tea.  

The only Shiso tea I have made so far was from fresh leaves of what the seed catalogs call Britton Shiso, also known as "tia to" (or beefsteak plant?) and it was instant love.  It turned out to be the only kind of tea I have ever made or tasted that I like all by itself, without sweeteners of any kind.  This is the variety that has leaves that are green on top and purple on the bottom.  I can hardly wait to try the red Shiso tea and was delighted to see Lowe's advertise red perilla on their app, but there is some question as to whether what they are selling is correctly named, and I haven't found it in the local stores yet.   What folks in the Midwestern USA called beefsteak plant was Coleus and decidedly not edible.  

Perilla frutescens seeds I bought to sprout myself gave mixed results.  First off, the seeds for the red variety did not sprout in my trial, not even one of them, and second, although the green seedlings sprouted and grew beautifully, I didn't think they tasted quite as good as the ones from Bonnie Plants at Lowe's.  My plants were impressive, however.  I took cuttings from one of my seedlings and grew a small plant to give to a friend.  After being away for a few months I came back and she showed me that plant growing in her garden and it was taller that she was!

WARNING:  Shiso is one of the many plants about which there is conflicting, incorrect, and misleading information online, particularly as to its suitability for use as food.  Take care not to mistake culinary Shiso/Perilla with similar plants that are toxic, hallucinatory, or simply unpalatable.  Be careful when buying live plants and/or seeds.  Coleus and perilla can be barely distinguishable, but are not the same.  Coleus may or may not be toxic to humans.  
 

Calabash Soup

 

Here is something I have never seen in a supermarket. The squash in this soup,  a gourd really, is cucuzza.  I didn't know that the seeds I bought on Etsy called Serpente di Sicilia needed to be scarified and soaked in warm water to sprout.   So when they had not sprouted in my vial after a month, I threw the seeds into a box of potting mix.  Just one plant came up as a volunteer alongside okra in August, but I wasn't sure what it was until it flowered in September.

I picked it when it was just starting to lose its fuzz and as 18" long with a diameter of 3" at the fat end, tapering off toward the stem.

I put a handful of garden greens in my soup in addition to the cucuzza, including its own leaves, scallion tops, and edible chrysanthemum leaves and buds.

 

 

The mums are hiding behind my melon.

 

 

DIY Beans

 

 

As much as I love crackers, I hardly ever made my own because it was just too much time and fuss.  Enter the Ninja Foodi, in which I can make just a few in just 6 minutes

Window Sill Soup

 

The best possible Christmas Eve treat this year was learning how to ake this soup.

 

I love egg drop soup, but even at nice Chinese restaurants I have found it iffy, whether or not the soup is up to my standards, and even if it is excellent there is usually not enough of it.  The few times I have tried to make it at home in the past, although it has been edible, were fails.

When I took a deep breath and try it again today, I scored a big win.  it was so good in fact that I ate the whole pot.

What was different?  For one thing my main ingredient was pea shoots from my indoor microgarden.   So easy!  I just threw a handful of sprouting peas in the E-Z Sprouter and rinsed them for a few days until they outgrew the Sprouter, then pushed the roots into a mound of potting soil in a cut open milk jug.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

These are cut and come again, so here you see them after their "haircut."

As you can see there are plenty left and will be more tomorrow.

My nice sister-in-law told me about an Android app called RecetteTek, so I put my recipe for this stellar soup on there, but not sure yet how to share it.

I want to spread the word about pea shoots because they are one of the most prolific microgreens as well as being delicious, nutritious, and versatile.  I also love that they are portable! 

Perfect Garnish for a Non-Alcoholic Cocktail

 

It has been four days since I put the cut off root end of a bunch of celery in water to see how fast it would grow.  I feel like everyone else who has access to a grocery store has probably done this except me, but better late than never.  I am not interested in cloning the plant, just in having a few fresh and tender stalks to use as garnishes.  

Tonight I put a sprig of it in my signature iced snow kombucha.  I used equal parts of tepache (fermented pineapple juice), kombucha, and guava tea, sweetened with coconut syrup.  The celery went well with this combination and I ate it after finishing the drink.  I think I will continue to grow celery leaves indoors just to use in these non-alcoholic cocktails.  I say non-alcoholic after having just read an excellent article called "It's Time to Ban the Word 'Mocktail' from Drink Menus."  As for the small amount of alcohol rumored to be in tepache as well as kombucha, it is my understanding that it is self-limiting.  In other words, the ethanol produced by the yeast in the kombucha is continually converted into acids which are organic and healthy.  

 

 

 

Pomegranates are Wonderful

 

No, I haven't planted a pomegranate tree yet, but they are selling these beauties at the 99 Cents Only store.

More Goodies from my Window Sill Garden

This is a detail from a leaf of the Asia Red Amaranth described in this article:

My Article on Amaranth Tea

There, if you are so bold as to look, you will see me cup in hand enjoying my latest fortuitous accident. 

The Asia Red Amaranth Breakfast Nog was good and before I forget what went in there, a list is in order:

• Several sliced amaranth leaves
• Two leaves of sweet basil
• Two leaves of Thai basil
• Two sprigs of oregano
• The sliced top of one scallion

And here it is again: 

Such a pretty color!

This experiment came about after my brother, who like me grows basil in his kitchen, mentioned making tea from fresh basil leaves.

We both have wisdom wands (heat-safe blown glass straws with holes in the bottom to strain the liquid out of this kind of tea) so I ran to the kitchen to pick a few leaves and dropped them in boiling water to steep for five minutes, not expecting to be thrilled with the flavor.  But it was actually good and so pretty, too.    So this morning, wanting a healthy hot drink, I looked to see what else might be tasty and ready to pinch back. 

The Asia Red Amaranth cried out "Pick Me!"  So I did.  Since the red amaranth is not as tender as the green, I boiled it a few minutes instead of adding to the already hot water and just letting it steep.  Then I looked to see what else wanted to become breakfast. 

Something Else to Do with Scallion Tops

When I started "growing" scallion tops on the window sill, it was because I like to float them in broth for recipes such as my Amaranth Soup.   It was frustrating to buy a whole bunch of scallions just to get a few and then wonder what to do with the rest. 

In my first experiment, I cut the tops off very close to the bulb and secured the roots in Hydroton rocks in a  little ebb and flow container and waited quite a while until the new leaves grew.  That works, but I have also learned that in a pinch we can just cut the leaves off part-way down and stick the rooted bottoms in plain water in a tall narrow glass.   With the second method, they grow so fast that we are back to square one--what to do with the rest?

They are good sprinkled over the top of fried rice, but today I decided to try this:

These whole grain rolls are made from Montana Seven-Grain Cream of the West roasted cereal flakes (hard and soft red wheat, white white, oats, barley, rye, triticale and spelt with additional wheat bran added).  I ground them into flour in the Magic Bullet blender along with a handful of instant oatmeal, some rosemary and flax seeds.  The leavening was rapid rise yeast.   My favorite version of these rolls is flavored with green curry paste.   I cook a diced sweet onion in a tablespoon or two of green curry paste, then add warm water and a little honey to supercharge the yeast. 

As suggested by the picture of butter melting over the top, these rolls are best served warm.

The rolls pictured above are the same recipe, but I left out the curry paste and used  fennel instead of rosemary...and added a handful of chopped scallion greens.   The greens turn sort of khaki colored from the baking but they still look nice and taste delicious in this bread.     I don't know how this works in a regular oven.  I bake mine for 15 minutes in the NuWave InfraRed Convection countertop oven. 

Beans with Verdolagas

A while back, cooks were cautioned never to make beans in the pressure cooker, but times have changed and technology has changed with them.

Good eating hasn't.  It used to be a lot harder to make this meal, but no longer. 

Step one:

I put a cup of clean pinto beans in the bowl of the multicooker along with enough water to fill the bowl half full and set the timer for ten minutes.  This is my substitute for soaking the beans overnight.

Step Two:

A while later, after the pressure has dropped, I open the cooker and add a chunk of meat.  Pork loin or shoulder is fine, or if you like the beans vegetarian, just leave the meat out. 

Step Three

Next, stir and add more water if needed, so that all of the beans are covered.  Then cook another 30 minutes and when the pressure comes down the second time add chopped fresh purslane (also known as verdolagas) as shown:

Then cook for an additional 10 minutes.  When the pressure comes down again, these are ready to eat.  Additional seasonings may now be added or the beans can be enjoyed as is. 

Here is what the purslane looked when it was still in the salad bar:

When it is still small like this we eat it raw in salads, but as the plant gets larger, and it does get very big, I cut it completely back and after saving a handful of cuttings to root to make new plants, cut it up to cook.  Until recently the search engines turned up very little about purslane and less about verdolagas, but recently recipes and even photos of the plant have started to appear. 

If you are interested in growing this plant, I recommend starting with the Golden Purslane seeds.  I have seen recipes that say you should wash the purslane and cut off and discard the red stems, but when you grow your own indoors this is not necessary.  The stems are quite delicious cooked up in beans as long as you slice them first, as shown my photo above. 

Finally, yes, purslane is the same "weed" that is invasive in gardens everywhere and often seen forcing its way up through the cracks in a dry sidewalk, and if you have some in your garden that is free from insecticides and other hazards, it can be eaten, too, but it is not nearly as tasty as the domesticated varieties that are now available, from which I have grown single leaves up to 3" long and an inch wide: 

NOTE:  To see another recipe and photos of the salad greens I grew to make it, look here:  Bitter Greens from my Garden.          

I also planted a few of the dry beans we had on hand, pintos, anasazi, and others and put them in hydroponic planters on our porch.