By Charity Shumway |

Spring Sneaks Onto My Terrace

Right now, my terrace is a vision of windswept desolation.

The plants have been drab, brown-grey for months now, the blooms and vines of 2012 blown into tangles and dried into rattling husks.  The only big excitement for the last long while has been when the gusts get so strong that the trees tip over, and I have to put on my coat and scurry out to mount a rescue mission.

I keep meaning to get out there for a proper spring cleanup. You know, trim back the dead, ready the soil for the new, maybe even plant an early crop of sweet peas. But each and every morning I’ve felt ambitious and stepped out into the wind, I’ve started shivering and quickly decided: another day.

Even without me, though, the garden has been quietly getting ready on its own. The delphinium, spotted today, is my first verified sign of green:

New leaves! Truly, I am amazed. It’s called spring, I know it happens every year, and yet I never quite believe it’s going to come.

And then there’s the parade of buds. Peach:

Viburnum: (they look like sloth claws, don’t they?)

 

And my super exciting flowering plum:

That one looks like little peppercorns about to explode. I can’t wait.

Spring, keep a comin’. Please!

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By Charity Shumway |

Seed Catalogs: My Winter Saviors

Nadia may have a bit of the January blues, but I have to confess my dissatisfaction is not as time-limited. Winter, the whole thing, every single month of it, I hate it all. I look outside at my garden and there’s so much gray. So much sad, dried-out brown. The few bits of green that are left are shivering, and when I go out to get a closer look at the forlorn scene, I’m shivering too. Fortunately, I have one consolation, a consolation that started arriving in the mail a few weeks ago, just in the nick of time. Seed catalogs!

They’re full of pictures of plants in full bloom, fruits and vegetables in ripe abundance. The exact opposite of the winter world I’m living in. I can’t help but fall into the pages.

The names of the endless plant varieties featured in the catalogs are enough to cheer me up in and of themselves. Just try forming these words with your mouth and not feeling a tiny thrill of sensual pleasure: Royal Chantenay Carrots; Pearly Gates Morning Glories; Tigerella Tomatoes. See? Amazing.

My favorite seed catalogs so far this year, in ranked order, are:

1) The Territorial Seed Company. (All the links take you to the catalog request pages, should you want your own copy). This catalog is fat. The heft of it in my hands alone feels like a promise that spring is real and coming. It’s full color, with a nice balance of fruits, vegetables, and flowers, plus fancy garden supplies like cold frames and compost thermometers that make me imagine becoming a much gadget-ier gardener. I bet you’ll like it too.

2) John Scheepers Kitchen Garden Seeds.  This is a surprise favorite, because it doesn’t contain any of the luscious photographs I’ve been raving about. It’s all line drawings. But they’re elegant and evocative, and the descriptions of the varieties are unbeatable. Take their write-up on Turkish Orange Eggplants: “This showy gem yields small, egg-shaped fruits that mature from green to flamboyant, shiny orange-red….Best harvested early when they are still green so that you may enjoy their mild, ambrosial flavor and sweet fragrance.” How lovely is that? Flamboyant orange-red? Mild ambrosial flavors? Yes please!

3) Seeds of Change. This one is pretty, with bright photos throughout. It’s also peppered with charming garden quotes (for example: “Much Virtue in Herbs, Little in Men” — Benjamin Franklin) and full page “mood” photos of things like mountain views and potted herbs. All their seeds are 100% certified organic, and the whole catalog has a tone that makes me feel virtuous, just for flipping through the pages.

4) Spring Hill Nurseries. Flowers, flowers, flowers. Sometimes a sexy description of an eggplant does the trick, but sometimes you just need to look at big photos of peonies in full bloom.

5) Gurney’s Seed & Nursery C0. Seed catalogs have a long tradition of featuring cheesy photos of kids holding turnips the size of their heads or butter-smeared toddlers chowing down on cobs of corn. The other seed catalogs on my list are a little too slick and fancy to stoop to such hokeyness, but not Gurney’s! And I love them for it. Sometimes when it’s January and the world is cold and gray, you just want to see a smiling baby in overalls sitting on top of a giant pumpkin. No shame in that.

Did I mention that all those links take you to free catalog request pages??

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By Nadia Arumugam |

Defy the January Blues with Bright, Zesty Flavors: Lemon Pepper Swordfish with Citrus Basil Aioli

Happy New Year, dear reader!  We do hope you had a relaxing, rejuvenating break, and are looking forward to attacking 2013 with gusto, zeal and bucket loads of energy.

Hmmm. Yes, that’s how I feel too. I’m not sure quite how it happened. After all, I really didn’t do too much over the holidays, well unless there’s such a thing as too much lounging around – no, surely not. But one week into the New Year, and I’m exhausted, sun-deprived, and just about ready to admit defeat.

Damn these January Blues.

I do know of one tonic though to beat off these feelings of doom and gloom and world weariness. You’d be forgiven if you think I was going to say chocolate (you know me too well), but actually I mean to suggest filling your days with zesty meals packed with bright colors and fresh flavors.  It’s not just an aesthetic thing either, bright foods, I mean vegetables (not M&Ms) are typically filled with all manner of nutrients. And citrus as we’ve already established in an earlier post is full of anti-oxidants, so enjoying a Mediterranean-style diet of fish, olive oil, citrus and verdant salads and bright vegetables is bound to lift your spirits, boost your energy levels and perk up your immune system.

The first recipe of the year then to ease you out of your doldrums, is a lemony grilled swordfish marinaded with freshly cracked black pepper and lots of extra virgin olive oil. To up the ante, I accompanied this with an aioli- that’s a fancy word for a flavored, homemade mayonnaise, that gets its zing from fresh lemon, lime or orange juice  and fresh basil.  If you don’t have time to make the aioli form scratch you can use a good quality store-bought fresh mayonnaise and just stir in extra citrus and shredded basil.

You can serve the fish on top of toasted, garlic-rubbed ciabatta “bruschetta,” and hey presto you have a swanky open-faced fish sandwich, or you can go down the healthy route and settle for an arugula and baby tomato side salad instead.

 Lemon Pepper Swordfish with Basil Aioli

Serves 4

For the Lemon Pepper Fish
4 x 6-ounce swordfish steaks (you can use tuna or mahi mahi, instead)
2 Tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
Zest of 1 lemon
1 teaspoon freshly cracked black pepper
1/2 teaspoon salt
4 cups packed arugula
1-1/2  cups halved baby tomatoes

Citrus Basil Aioli
1 large clove garlic, crushed
1 large egg yolk
1-1/2 Tablespoons fresh lemon, lime or orange juice
1/2 teaspoon Dijon mustard
Pinch of salt
1/2 cup olive oil
3 Tablespoons shredded basil

Garlic Bruschetta (Optional)
1 ciabatta loaf
1 clove garlic, halved
1 Tablespoon extra virgin olive oil

Place swordfish steaks in a shallow dish.

In a small bowl combine all the other ingredients for the fish then pour over the swordfish. Using your hands, rub the mixture all over the steaks until well coated. Set aside.

Make the aioli: Place all the ingredients for the aioli except the basil and the olive oil in the small bowl of a food processor. Start the motor running and process for 10 to 15 seconds, then add the olive oil in a slow, steady stream until the sauce has emulsified and thickened. Transfer to a bowl, stir in the basil then taste and add salt, and extra lemon, lime or orange juice, if necessary.

Heat a ridged griddle pan on the stove until very hot. Place the swordfish steaks, two at a time (or all four at once, if your pan is large enough),  on the hot pan. Cook for 3 to 4 minutes on either side until well marked on the outside and medium on the inside. Remove from the pan and leave to rest.

If serving the fish on the bruschetta, wipe down the griddle pan then place the bread pieces, cut side down on the pan, and toast for a couple of minutes  until golden. Rub the toasted surface of the bread with the halved garlic and drizzle with the olive oil.

To serve, divide the arugula and cut baby tomatoes over the ciabatta, if using, and place the swordfish on top. Spoon a little aioli over or serve it separately. If not using the bread, simply arrange the fish alongside or over a mix of the arugula and tomatoes.

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By Nadia Arumugam |

Going Nuts for Candied Spiced Pecans

If you’re in charge of the spread this holiday season, you’re probably becoming increasingly nervous as the big day approaches. No doubt it’s of no help whatsoever  that people like me needlessly point out that Christmas is indeed only a week away. But, here is something truly valuable, a little recipe that might win you some much-needed extra minutes for those final moments of cooking, plating or…panic.

Nuts. Yes, nuts. Everyone loves them, and there’s so many to choose from. A bowl of pistachios or lightly salted peanuts or just-cracked walnuts can go a long way to appease a growling belly. But it’s the festive season and unadorned nuts just aren’t going to cut it with demanding guests expecting an elevated level of culinary execution. With this in mind, I have the perfect tidbit offering that will happily occupy  and satisfy the extended family, Candied Spiced Pecans. They are ridiculously easy to make, and can be whipped up days, nay weeks in advance. And they serve another purpose too. If anyone turns up unannounced and you don’t have a present in hand, simply bottle up these decadent nibbles, and hey presto, instant gifting.

I’ve tried several different methods for these pecans over the years, and I like to think of the recipe below as my ultimate opus…the final word on candied pecans. Technically, of course, they’re not really candied. Technically, candying something entails messing around with boiling sugar. I’ve messed around with boiling sugar before, and have the scar to prove it. Instead, I coat my pecans in whipped egg white which acts as a kind of adhesive. Combined with a sugar and spice mix the egg white becomes a gummy, sweet-savory coating that, almost by magic, turns into a crunchy, candy-like glaze after baking.

These pecans are quite simply irresistible, so make double what you think you might need!

Candied Spiced Pecans

 1 egg white
2 teaspoons vanilla extract plus 1 teaspoon water
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1/4  teaspoon ground cayenne
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup white granulated sugar
1/2 cup light brown sugar
1 pound pecan halves

  1. Preheat oven to 250 degrees F. Line one large baking sheet or 2 smaller ones with parchment paper.
  2. In a large mixing bowl, beat together the egg white, vanilla extract and water until it resembles fluffy mallow and you can create soft peaks when you lift up the beater. In a separate large bowl, mix together spices, salt, and sugars.
  3. Add the pecans to the beaten egg whites, and stir to coat the nuts evenly. Remove the nuts, and add them to the sugar and spice mixture. Toss until all the nuts are evenly coated. Spread the nuts out on the prepared baking sheet(s) in a single layer.
  4. Bake for about 1 hour and 20 minutes, stirring every 20 minutes.
  5. Remove the pecans from the oven and leave to cool for 10 minutes. Transfer the nuts to a cooling rack taking care to carefully separate them if any are stuck together. Leave to cool completely – they will become crunchier when cool. Store in an airtight container for up to 1 month.
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