What are you eating from your garden?

[imafan26]

I put the zucchini in a casserole. It is called High Heaven. Potatoes, carrots, and onions are layered. I added a layer of the zuchhini. Cooked ground turkey with taco seasoning and added some hot chili sauce I made from my hot peppers instead of tabasco for a little spice. Added 1 1/2 cups uncooked long grained rice on top of that. Layered with more sliced carrots and potatoes. Added a 29 oz can of whole tomatoes on top and baked for an hour at 350 degrees. I usually use short grain rice, but I had a little long grain left. It takes longer to cook the long grain and it uses more liquid than short grain rice.

[pepperhead212]

I made a bean salad, using a lot of things from the garden - fresh beans, garlic, basil, jalapeño peppers, garlic chives, and all those cherry tomatoes.
Bean salad, with garlic and basil, as main seasonings. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

[imafan26]

Is that tofu or cheese in the salad?

[Gary350]

I made salsa, 3 tomatoes, 1 onion, 1 garlic clove, 1 jalapeno, in pan of boiling water. When water boils turn off heat wait 20 minutes, puree everything, add salt, sugar, lime, cilantro. About 1/2 tsp salt. I used our garden cilantro wow frozen cilantro works great.

[Vanisle_BC]

Today; broccoli shoots, turnip, & potatoes - our first Kennebec, which will be parboiled & deep-fry roasted to go with "Chicken BPC".

BPC = Bonnie Prince Charlie. He supposedly held the recipe for Drambuie, which is part of the creamy sauce the butter-browned chicken breasts will be cooked in. But actually we'll use Glayva which is not quite as sweet as, and a little cheaper than, Drambuie.

Oh, and I picked some gooseberries to have with ice cream.

Wish we could be eating more from the garden but everything's about 3 weeks late owing to a cold wet spring. Now it's suddenly too damn hot. Upper 30s to 40C (104F) for days - weeks! - on end. No rain. We have one lonely tomato with a bit of color and the already retarded plants aren't setting more fruit in this heat.

But the asparagus was great while it lasted.

[imafan26]

Cucumber, tomato, hot peppers, eggplant, Tokyo Bekana, Swiss chard.
I have been making cucumber and tomato salads for days.
I made fenadene with the hot pepper. It was deceiving. It started off sweet but it took a few seconds for the heat to hit.

Tokyo bekana and chard get the usual treatment oil, garlic, stir fry. with a tablespoon of port , a splash of vinegar, and a little truvia to cut the bite from the vinegar. Actually last time I used honey instead. I like it better that way. It has a few more calories.

I gave the eggplant away, but there are more left.

I used some parsley and green onions for garnish from the garden. Green onions went in the fenadene as well as on top saimin. The italian parsley went in some spaghetti sauce for for french bread pizza.

I have been picking the smaller calamansi and limes to add to my ice tea. I add mint once in a while, but the mint is stronger in the heat.

[pepperhead212]

I didn't eat it today, but I made my own version of a V8 juice, and pressure canned 7 qts of it today. Used a lot of those tomatoes, plus some cukes, peppers, and garlic scapes, plus some parsley, and some greens, all ground up 2 qts at a time, in the Vitamix. The last 2 qts I put basil in, as the herb.

[imafan26]

Looks good. I have most of that stuff except for the bottle gourd and my okra isn't ready yet. But, it is something I could make. It would just be a little chunkier because I only have canned or fresh tomatoes, and nothing dried. But, I think I can work it. I have zucchini, and it isn't that hard to get a bottle gourd or okra around here.

I have seven okra plants, in a few weeks I will be swimming in okra.

[pepperhead212]

Here's a snack I had today, the recipe I got from a guy on another forum. The original recipe called for baking 15 minutes @400°, then tossing, and baking 10-12 minutes longer, but I didn't want to be firing up my oven in this weather, so I heated up my pizza stone in my grill! And last night, I started the dough for a batch of rye bread, to bake in the grill, since I'd be heating it up.

It is super easy, since I had some red curry paste in the freezer.

4 c okra, cut into 3/4-1" pieces
1 1/2 tb oil
1 tsp minced ginger
2 tsp Thai red curry paste
salt to taste

Preheat oven or grill to 400°. Combine all ingredients in a large bowl, and mix thoroughly, to coat the okra. Spread out in a shallow 10x15 pan, and bake/grill 15 min, then stir, to turn over as much as possible. Bake another 10-12 min, until well browned. Taste for salt - will depend what's in the curry paste, what it needs. Serve immediately.
Okra tossed with Thai curry paste and ginger, half cooked on grill. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

Finished grilled okra and Thai curry paste. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

[imafan26]

Still eating cucumber and tomato salads almost every day. I just harvested the first red noodle beans. I am cooking that with some onions and bacon and it will be the side to my boneless pork chop. I will harvest a few more of the Sunglow Corn; steam it and roll it in honey butter to complete dinner.

[Gary350]

Garden chicken salad for dinner. Tomatoes, cantaloup, water melon, cheese, onion, lettuce, fried chicken pieces, dressing.

[pepperhead212]

I made a sort of gumbo dish tonight, using many things out of the garden, plus a few things from Aldi's. I started by liquifying a lot of tomatoes with some fresh marjoram and thyme. Then starting a sauce, in the Instant Pot in sauté, with a large chopped onion in olive oil, followed by a large chopped bell pepper and 6 finely chopped jalapeños and a few stalks of celery, chopped. Then I added about 1/2 c finely chopped garlic scapes, and 3 tb tomato paste, and cooked about 2 minutes, then added the tomatoes. I also added 6 fresh bay leaves, some ground cloves, some more thyme, and let it simmer while getting all the rest of the things ready - peeling and cutting up the bottle gourd, cutting up the okra, and cleaning and pre-cooking the pound of cremini, and pre-cooking the pound of sausage (did those in a wok, so this wasn't a one pot dish). The gourd is added on slow cook high for about 10 minutes, then the okra was added and cooked for 10 minutes, then the mushrooms and sausage was added, and about a half cup of red lentils, to thicken the sauce, and cooked about 20 min. I also stirred in the 2 c of Mizuna, that I chopped up and spun dry.

The night before I had cooked 1 1/4 c of brown rice, with 5 bay leaves, then cooled, and refrigerated it. That was broken up, and added to this, and I let it sit for about 10 minutes, before serving a bowl of it.
A type of gumbo started up, with bottle gourd, okra, and eggplant added to the tomato sauce. Cooked mushrooms and sausage go in last. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

Added about 1/2 c red lentils to the gumbo, to thicken - cooked rice goes in last. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

Hard to believe that this mizuna still hasn't bolted, in this incredible heat this summer!
Mizuna, chopped up and added to the gumbo, to cook at the end. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

Finished gumbo, after resting the stirred in, cooked rice for 15 minutes. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

[Gary350]

Another garden salad, tomatoes, onions, lettuce, cabbage, carrots, cheese, melon, chicken, dressing.

[applestar]

I was falling behind processing tomatoes, so I gathered up all the fully ripe medium “salad” and “slicers” that, when eaten fresh/raw, turned out to be not comparable to the GREAT tasting meaty large tomatoes… and made tomato “juice” concentrate.

Simply trim, cut up, and cook over medium-low heat in covered heavy pot with a bit of salt until all the juices run out and starts bubbling. Then strain through medium strainer, pushing through softened flesh and retaining all the seeds and skin. (Intending to turn the left over scraps into tomato paste later)

No water added so it’s super rich and bursting with flavor — could easily be made into tomato soup or a drink.

I just had some mixed with coconut milk. It’s too intense to drink more than about 4 oz. at a time.

[imafan26]

I harvested 8 semposai leaves and I made cabbage rolls. It is cooking now. I kinda threw in a lot of stuff I would normally put in meat loaf so I will see how it turns out. The leaves are a lot bigger than a cabbage. I picked a red bell pepper ( a very small one) to put in the filling. I was too late, the birds already ate part of it. The worms got the remains of the semposai, so at least the trimmings did not go to waste.

Addendum: The cabbage rolls are done. The leaves could have used a longer time blanching, but it worked out just fine.

[pepperhead212]

Today I halved over 3 lbs of cherry tomatoes (there are a bunch more ripe, out there, so I had to use these!), and made a large batch of that pasta dish I make many varieties of every season - the one where the hot pasta is mixed into the cold tomato mix. This time, besides the garlic, basil, and olive oil, I stirred in some of that kalamata olive paste and a bunch of chopped up anchovies. I also cooked about 3/4 c kamut berries, and 2 c of dried Northern Beans (which I soaked about 5 hrs), both together in the Instant Pot, and it worked out well (I cooked 16 minutes, let pressure release 15 min, then let the rest of the pressure out, and drained). I drained them, then cooked the pasta, and poured it over those, so all would be hot. When well drained, I poured it all on top of the tomatoes, and mixed well. I got a 4 qt bowl of it, plus 2 more cups of it, plus the bowl I had for dinner.
A variety of that favorite raw tomato pasta I make several times each season. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

[Gary350]

Corn, tomatoes, relish, cantaloupe, sweet peppers, from the garden.

[imafan26]

Okra. I just nuke it and eat it with some citrus juice and soy sauce. I have just tossed one or two in with whatever I have for dinner. The plants have just started to produce, so I am only getting one or two a day.

I harvested the Tokyo bekana for the last time. It was starting to bolt. I made a stir fry with bacon, onion, garlic, bekana and a little bit of oyster sauce, soy sauce, a little water so it would not burn.

I still have a lot of cucumber, so I am still eating cucumber salad almost every day.

I pick a couple of calamansi or a lime every day for my ice tea.

I made tortang talong for breakfast with the satsuma eggplant. This eggplant is seedy, but it is not bitter, yet. Tortang talong is a filipino eggplant omelette. You basically char the eggplant on a burner or you can broil it in the oven. Put it in a sealed container for a few minutes to steam. Peel off the charred skin. Beat eggs with a little soy sauce and sugar ( I use truvia) or oyster sauce. Dip the eggplant in the egg and fry it in a pan. Actually, I fried the eggplant in the pan for a minute or two then poured some of the scrambled egg on the eggplant and fried it until the egg was done on both sides. I have to turn the eggplant and blanket it with the egg. This recipe often has ground pork as well. the stem is normally kept on the eggplant to use as a handle to turn it.
https://www.liveeatlearn.com/tortang-talong/

[pepperhead212]

This has some things from my garden, plus my friend's garden, that I got hooked on growing things to eat!

I didn't have a hot dinner, for National Hot and Spicy Day, but definitely a spicy one! I went over to my Indian friend's house, and we had a dinner with a dal, which she made with things from the garden - eggplants, a squash, and tomatoes, and spices, though she doesn't put as many in as I do! I made up for it with a thoran I brought over everything for - like that one with the okra I made a few days ago, but with a bunch of Thai red beans, along with a huge green pepper, cut up to about half inch pieces. This one I put no heat in, but I made the coconut/garlic paste, and got the spices I needed for the dish, and cooked it there, in a large CI skillet, which worked great. I also took over one of those green chutneys, made with mint and cilantro, which I left the green chilli out of, but separated some, and put some in that, for those who needed heat. The son made some roti - a flatbread, in which he put a little nigella and ajwain seed. We had some rice on the side, but nobody even ate any! Definitely filled with spices!

Oh yeah, I almost forgot - she opened that pickled melon I made almost a week ago, and loved that, as a side with the dinner. It wasn't hot at all - had some whole black pepper, but that's all. I told her it was something I made using a recipe for watermelon rind, so she could probably make that, and get something similar, instead of waiting to grow this stuff.

[imafan26]

I made a cucumber and tomato salad with mozzarella balls. I also added some Italian parsley from the garden. The dressing was a simple vinaigrette of olive oil and red wine vinegar. I added some dried dill as well. I will be eating this for a couple of days. I have more cucumber and tomatoes to pick.

[applestar]

tomato and cucumber are great combination in salad and sandwich. I made a pasta salad.

Also eggplants, peppers, zucchini, shiso, basil, smattering of beets, beet greens, and carrots … and watermelon and chamoe melon for snack.

[Gary350]

Wife made stew, corn, beans, carrots, onions, garlic, celery, peas, maybe other things I don't see. Sliced tomatoes. Garlic cheese bread.

[pepperhead212]

I used a bunch of things from the garden today!

I made a delicious, one pot sambar masala, with 3 vegetables - beans, okra, and eggplant - plus 3 dals, and some barley. I cooked an onion in some oil in the IP, then added 4 cloves of minced garlic, to cook briefly, then added a couple of large tomatoes, chopped up fine, and let cook down with some sambar masala powder. Then some toor dal, chana dal, and masoor dal were added - about 1¼ c total - and 2/3 c barley (I soaked all this about 2 hours, while getting beans and okra ready, and doing some other things), plus 6 c water. I added a little tamarind, then salted to taste, and put the lid on, and set it to pressure cook 12 min, then let the pressure release naturally.

After this, the thickness was a little thin, but it thickened more with the next cooking. I added the beans and okra, but it seemed like it wasn't enough for all the dal, so I cut up a small eggplant, and it seemed about right. I simmered that about 15 minutes, and prepared the tarka, for tempering, and stirred that in, with about 1/2 c cilantro.

That tarka, which can add a lot of heat, using the usual Thai type peppers, can be mild, using the Kashmiri peppers, clipped up. I did that because I knew I'd be sharing some of this with my friend, who loves these flavors, but has had problems with heat lately. I put a couple of fresh kanthari peppers in my dish, which more than made up for it!
Red and green beans and okra, to go into a type of Sambar Masala. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

The first part finished, started with onion, garlic, tomatoes, sambar masala powder, barley, and 3 dals, pressure cooked 14 minutes. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

Beans and okra not quite enough, so I cut up the smallest eggplant, and added that, to cook together by pepperhead212, on Flickr

Ingredients for the tarka at the end -mustard seeds, cumin seeds, Kashmiri chili, asafetida, and curry leaves. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

Finished tarka, ready to add to the sambar. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

Tarka, ready to stir in, followed by the cilantro. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

Finishing with a generous amount of cilantro. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

Finished sambar masala. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

[imafan26]

Okra, nuked with soy sauce and lime juice

Swiss chard and perpetual spinach. I cooked it with bacon, onion, garlic, soy sauce vinegar, Worcestershire sauce, pepper, and a little sugar to cut the acid of the vinegar. I had younger Swiss chard from my two tower gardens. I must admit the younger greens are more tender than the older ones. I usually wait until the leaves are large, because it seems such a waste to harvest the leaves small and lose all that potential. It is cut and come again so they will grow back. I forgot to weigh them.

[Gary350]

Tacos with garden, tomatoes, onions, taco sauce. I should have planted more Pack Choy I need Lettice.

[Gary350]

This morning I made another country style omelet. We have several bags of sliced & dices frozen garden vegetables in zip lock bags.

Turn stove on high, put olive oil & diced onions in cast iron skillet. Puree 2 small eggs with French mixer. Toss in left over diced General Chicken & left over Chinese rice. Stir well then pour into hot skillet cook with lid. Egg is golden brown in 90 seconds, flip omelet over & turn off skillet. Cook another 60 seconds with lid on skillet. Sprinkle in cheese, fold omelet, sprinkle on more cheese, wait 30 seconds for cheese to melt with lid on skillet. Move omelet to plate, add salt & pepper plus real Maple syrup.

I make this every morning for breakfast, left overs are great filling, lots of variety. 1 filling I like best is about 1/2 cup of diced Pac Choy.

[Gary350]

We made garden Chili today, 1 quart of tomatoes, 1 large onion, 8 garlic cloves, 2 slices of Jalapeno, salt, pepper, cumin, oregano, beans.

[applestar]

Had some extra zucchini, eggplants, and peppers in the fridge taking up space, so I made tempura with them — in 1/2 inch of oil.

Zucchini and eggplants were cut into 1/2 inch 1/2-medallions, tossed in potato starch, then dipped in batter made of whole white wheat flour, a little potato starch, one beaten egg, seas salt, nanami seasoning, and shiitake powder + cold water.

I also thought of making some with a blushed but not ripe tomato but didn’t have enough potato starch left and had to do straight tempura batter, and only managed to make from one tomato to share.

I didn’t have any bottled tempura sauce, was too lazy to make some from noodle sauce, let alone from scratch … so the two choices were soy-free teriyaki sauce + harissa mayo, and yuzu ponzu soy sauce.

Both went over well, and everybody ate more fried vegs than we were supposed to…. Haha

(no, I didn’t get the chance to take a picture )

[applestar]

I’m going to try harvesting and cooking sweet potato leaf stems tomorrow—

How to harvest and cook sweet potato leaf stems

https://youtu.be/5LE1ubCnen8

She said the leaf juices stain your fingers black so “young people” wear gloves when peeling the stems.

She doesn’t like to put the trimmed stems in bowl of water right away, as they are peeled as often recommended, but prefers to wash them together once they are all trimmed, then soak in cold water for about 20 minutes, then drain.

Recipe 1 Kinpira— sautée in roasted sesame oil, add soy sauce, mirin, sugar, and sake; finish with sesame seeds

Recipe 2 Boiled with fried tofu or chicken — (sautée meat and stems in sesame oil, then) add dashi (usually flying fish, sardine, or amberjack/bonito), 1 Tbs sugar, 2 Tbs soy sauce, and enough water to just barely keep stems under. Don’t cover the pot. Turn off heat when cooked but still crunchy. Cover pot and allow flavors to soak into stems and meat.

[imafan26]

She is so kawaii. It is interesting. We eat sweet potato leaves but there are different kinds of sweet potatoes. The one like the okinawan purple or Molokai white sweet potatoes have both edible roots and leaves. If you want sweet potatoes, you cannot eat too many of the leaves.

There are other varieties of sweet potatoes that are grown mainly for the leaves. They don't make many tubers. The leaves have different shapes. I only know two kinds but there are more.

We usually don't use the stems of the older leaves. We usually would pick the tips. the more tips you pick, the more it branches. Sweet potato patches can easily cover the my front yard. I would actually rather grow that but the HOA would not allow that.

The tips are much more tender so it does not have to be peeled. If older leaves are used, the stems are discarded or it will be fibrous. We usually blanch the tips for about 30 seconds until they are wilted. I only know how to make Filipino salad with kamote (sweet potato leaves). This same recipe works with NZ hot weather spinach as well.

I have okinawan sweet potato, but I planted it late so it is growing so very slowly and I have a table sweet potato leaf that is grown just for the leaves.

https://panlasangpinoy.com/sweet-potato-leaves-salad/

[imafan26]

Not much just some green onions on my jook. And cucumber salad, but that is just about everyday. I might nuke some okra tonight. Those are piling up as well.

[applestar]

It’s really interesting that the recipe you posted specifically instructs “sweet potato leaves, stems removed”

I gathered some for both recipes, but really wanted to try the leaf stems — the thumbnail for that video says “ You’re missing out in life if you are not eating something THIS delicious!” LOLOL — and made some yesterday.

Since “Hirochan” said she prefers to gather long stems and not the shorter ones near the leading end of the vines, I simply cut and gathered leaves with longer/larger diameter leaves. Her son asked about older leaves, and she said those would be too fibrous… and I found out what that meant when I sat down in front of the TV to start peeling the stems after coming back inside.

I assumed that the “snap the leaf and pull to peel” may not work well if you let the leaves get limp too long after picking them, so I started right away.

It was pretty tedious, but the leaves at just the right stage did “snap and peel” easily. Older, tougher leaf stems bent without snapping — think asparagus — and if a stem wouldn’t snap for the entire length, I discarded them. The stems could be peeled more thoroughly by snapping them into shorter pieces along the length of the stem and by also snapping from the opposite end — think celery and also de-stringing snap beans and snow peas.

I made the dish with boneless center cut pork chops sliced thin against the grain, marinated in sake, and sautéed the peeled and snapped short stems in sunflower oil + a little roasted sesame oil first, removed them then sautéed the meat, then added the sake marinade and added back the stems and more water to just below the tops of stems. a little dashi powder, white namashoyu ( my soyless soy sauce substitute ) and cane sugar. No hot pepper to let everyone in the family try the new dish.

Hirochan touted how the sweet potato stems have a distinct crunchy texture that is addictive — I think she’s right. It is unique — despite being boiled for longer than I thought would make the skinny stems turn limp and soft, they maintained the crunchiness, and the hollow tubes in the stems soaked up the broth so that you get a burst of flavor as you chew.

This went over well with most of the family, wanting seconds and all … except the one finicky eater who said she liked the texture, would even help peel the stems next time, but didn’t like the flavor of the broth … she liked the pork…. ( ??? A challenge, to be sure. )

I remembered too late to take a pic of the finished dish — the pot was pretty much empty by the time I thought of it

[Gary350]

It’s really interesting that the recipe you posted specifically instructs “sweet potato leaves, stems removed”

I gathered some for both recipes, but really wanted to try the leaf stems — and made some yesterday.

Since “Hirochan” said she prefers to gather long stems and not the shorter ones near the leading end of the vines, I simply cut and gathered leaves with longer/larger diameter leaves. Her son asked about older leaves, and she said those would be too fibrous… and I found out what that meant when I sat down in front of the TV to start peeling the stems after coming back inside.

I assumed that the “snap the leaf and pull to peel” may not work well if you let the leaves get limp too long after picking them, so I started right away.

It was pretty tedious, but the leaves at just the right stage

I use to grow sweet potatoes for the leaves because lettuce is hard to grow in TN. I learned new leaves on the end of each vine have a lighter green color, they are the best leaves to eat. Once leaves turn dark green leaves get tough. Sweet potatoes love hot dry weather they are easy to grow in TN. I learned to plant sweet potatoes in a location where they get early morning sun then shade from 12 noon to dark to keep leaves from getting too tough. Lots of sunlight makes leaves turn dark green quick.

[imafan26]

I used Pepperhead's idea, but used chili as a base instead. I pretty much emptied my frig. I browned a pound of ground beef , sauteed all the vegetables together, garlic,onions, celery, and from the garden I added okra, eggplant, tomatoes, red noodle beans, and one Big Jim pepper. Added some no salt herb ox bouillon, my homemade taco seasoning, sazon, and cajun spice, a can of diced tomatoes ( I probably could have left it out, I had so many tomatoes from the garden.) Seasoned with pepper and no salt, and a two packets of splenda. Added 2 cups of water and simmered for an hour and then added a can of chili beans ( well that one is salted) , Worcestershire sauce ( I am pretty sure that has salt too), and a can of rinsed red kidney beans. I also added about a half cup of sherry. Simmered for another 30 minutes. I have chunky vegetable chili. I made a pot of rice to go with it.

I used the small cans of beans and half the beef the recipe called for, but three times the vegetables it called for ( the original recipe only uses okra, garlic, onions, and bell pepper. ) It still filled my dutch over 3/4 full. So I will be eating this for a few days.

[pepperhead212]

I made another large batch of that "no cook tomato sauce", which I make a lot in the summer, this time with just over 3 lbs of cherry tomatoes, halved, with garlic, basil, olive oil, kalamata olive paste, and even more anchovies than last time, with some fish sauce. This time I cooked 1¼ c dried Navy beans (I used to put 2 cans of cannellini beans or kidney beans, but canned beans have almost doubled in price!), and 2/3 c freekeh, in the IP, in separate batches, to use as the legumes and grains I always put in with a pound of pasta, for this dish. After I had a large bowl of it for dinner, I had a packed 4 qt bowl left over, so I'll be eating leftovers for a while, though a couple friends know I was making it, and I know they'll be over.

I always put the legumes and grains I use for this in the pasta pot when it is ready, just to heat them all together, then drain them well. Then mix that with the tomatoes, and fold it all together.
Pasta, Navy beans, and freekeh, ready to mix it with the tomatoes, basil, olive oil, garlic, anchovi by pepperhead212, on Flickr

Finished pasta dish, with minor changes from the usual recipe. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

[applestar]

From the garden — a bunch of just blushed and fully ripe tomatoes that had split from the heavy rains, sweet potato leaves, zucchini, green sweet peppers (both long yellow when ripe [Doux Long d’Antibes] and bell — probably red and not chocolate [Chocolate Cake X]), long Asian eggplant [Shoya Long], a small nub of fresh turmeric root and soft white stalkbase … along with storebought carrots, onions, and frozen rosemary french fries … embellished the chicken breast (and a handful of salted virginia peanuts … didn’t quite have enough chicken for the protein in recipe) in storebought tikka masala simmer sauce. (eaten over basmati brown rice made in rice cooker).

I need to work on learning to make the sauce….

…Hubby’s reaction when I asked if I should put away the approx single serving in the pot — “There’s some left!? I’ll take it — do we still have naan from the other day?”. He happily settled down with the pot and the naan.

[Gary350]

chicken breast in storebought tikka masala simmer sauce.
I need to work on learning to make the sauce…. :

Store bought Tikka Masala in a jar use to be better before they watered it down with tomatoes and doubled the price. I know a lady from India she says, Tikka Masala is so easy to make. I'm sure it is for her she has probably been making it 40 years and has good spices. I have best luck taking my recipe to Sprouts where I can buy fresh herbs, 1 tsp of this spice, 2 tsp of that spice, 1 tsp of another spice, correct size container of yogurt, correct size container of cream, fresh ginger, go home make 1 recipe, marinade chicken 4 hours, then cook it for dinner. Wow it turns out good but a lot of time spent getting everything together to make it. Here are some good videos. There are lots of videos, find a recipe that looks good and make it. Each family recipe is not the same.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cr5dn48vER8

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HMfUsS9zeuw

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VzbtszEzUdM

[imafan26]

I still have cucumbers (sigh). I made an oriental dressing (sugar free and low sodium). I used the somen dressing recipe I have. It is not as sweet as using sugar, but it wast o.k. The low sodium soy sauce has salt, so it is enough for me. Truvia was used as a sugar substitute. It cuts the vinegar, but not really sweet.

Many of my tomatoes were already over the hill and then some. I gave over 2 lbs to the worms and I have three left. Almost a pound. I am going to make beef tomato with it today.

I was going to make roasted vegetables, but I have too many left overs in the frig I have to finish off first. I finished the mandarin chicken last night, and this morning I finished off the corned beef hash for breakfast. I froze the remaining beef and chicken I bought yesterday. I still have one more meal of the enchilladas and some jello. And there are more cucumbers, eggplant, zucchini, and okra as well.

I am taking out the older cucumber vines now, so I will have a break from cucumbers for at least a couple of weeks. The tomatoes will be coming out next. The worms are getting the extra eggplant.

[imafan26]

I harvested more tomatoes and okra yesterday. I combined it with the tomatoes and okra I harvested earlier and use them to make roasted vegetables. I also picked 2 zucchini but I forgot to put them in the dish. In the end, I roasted 3 heads of garlic, onion, celery, a couple of potatoes, carrots, the tomatoes and okra from the garden. I cut a slit in the okra so they would not explode in the oven. No Salt, pepper, Mrs DASH garlic and herb blend, and cumin. Splashed it with some olive oil. It was a thick layer so it took almost and hour at 400 degrees.. I have leftovers for a couple of days.

[pepperhead212]

I made a one dish meal in the Instant Pot tonight, sort of - started it yesterday, cooking 1 1/2 c dried chickpeas, to have them ready for today. I made sort of a chole masala, but with a bunch of vegetables added, not just the chickpeas. I put the last of my eggplants and okra, and almost the last of my Thai red long beans, plus a diced up green bell pepper. I also took most of the tomatoes I had, and made a purée, of maybe 3 cups, and cooked it down, with the rest of the vegetables, before adding the chickpeas. This mix was pressure cooked for just 3 minutes, then last, tempered with the tarka (not traditional, ..but I like this in many things, with those curry leaves), and a little cilantro stirred in.
One dish meal, a sort of chole masala, with eggplant, okra, bell pepper, and Thai long beans added. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

Tarka ingredients, ready to go into the oil. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

Fried tarka, added to the chole. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

Finished Chole, with a little cilantro topping it. by pepperhead212, on Flickr