Saturday, March 14, 2009

Shovel-Ready

With the thaw comes the discovery of various forgotten or hidden treasures in the garden that have made it through the winter unscathed. A week ago, on the first nice Saturday of the year, I was out there turning compost into beds and unearthing a remarkable variety of things- not all of which were expected. We leave parsnips until March so there's something to enjoy before the first greens come up, and there were some carrots in the parsnip bed as well. A few of the deeper potatoes made it, un-mulched, and the leeks always soldier through in pretty good shape. Some red onions also survived alongside the leeks, there were a couple each of turnips and black radishes in another bed, and somehow I missed a chioggia beet that was also OK after a little trimming.



















Along with the last of our garlic- and some thyme and rosemary- I made a simple dish to celebrate all these noble survivors.





















While these roasted in the oven, I vacuum-sealed a couple of boneless ribeyes and dropped them into 52˚ water for an hour, then seared them in a little smoked duck fat.























And I also made a green mash with dandelion greens, ume plum, garlic, olive oil, and lemon juice- because nothing loves a steak like some bitter green mash with a little mustard on the side.

8 comments:

Brittany said...

You and your perfectly mauve-hued meatporn.

Those carrots are too fucking adorable. Looks like they have the
irish curse, ifyouknowwhatimean.

michael, claudia and sierra said...

brittany - hahaheehahhaahaheeheeee.

peter - in my next life i will write this exact post and it will be true.

Brooke said...

Now both you and Heather have gotten me hankering for a steak. Damn you both.

Roasted root veg is one of my favorite things in the whole effing world. I haven't turned my garden yet (it snowed last week...in Washington...in March), but now I wonder if anything made it that I can stick in the oven, and then my mouth.

Heather said...

What's up, steak-and-root-veg homie? Something about these last weeks of winter that make me steely-grip the cool-weather eating, but as soon as this rain lets up I'm headed down to the swamp for some nettles.

cookiecrumb said...

What a lucky find in your garden! All we've got left is one or two broccoli buds. The cauliflower is, um, flowering.

Zoomie said...

My Swiss chard is going great guns now but all other stuff was only warm-weather and quit last fall...

peter said...

Brittany: Well, I planted them kinda late. Do you think there might be a carrot enlargement cream or pill available on the intertubes?

Claudia: In my next life, I'll be a rockstar/spaceship captain.

Brooke: If these survived our winter, I have no doubt that some things survived your "winter."

Blanche: Our nettles are just starting to put out tiny little leaves, and a couple of ramps are just poking up now.

CC: Next time around I'm going to mulch the holy hell out of more of these so it's less accidental.

Zoomie: Sounds like it's planting time...

Chris Rywalt said...

Why the warm water bath? To bring the meat up to temperature or were you thawing from frozen?