Spring Garden Club

 Week 1

I hope you are all as excited as I am as we begin our 13 week culinary adventure! Just off the top of my head I can think of dozens of yummy ideas for this collection of vegetables. I'm interested in hearing what amazing dishes you folks will come up with too, please share them with us here on this blog.

Bon appetit!

Contents: First greens of spring

Loose leaf lettuce mix
Oriental greens -- stir fry/salad mix
Spring onions
Herbs:  Chives or Parsley  (or both)
Microgreens: Gourmet Blend
1/4 pound Shiitake mushrooms (Om Gardens)
3/4 pound Black Rice (Native Roots Market)
Bonus: Bob's Red Mill Gluten-free Hot Cereal (Thanks, Bob!)

Here's what I'm thinking for my meals this weekend.
Friday night: Easy Stir Fry with Oriental greens, mushrooms, and green onions over black rice (see recipe below)
Saturday morning: Scrambled Eggs, Fritattas, Quiche or Omelets (using local cage-free eggs) with remaining mushrooms, onions, chives, and microgreens served with Bob's hot cereal
Saturday evening: Loaded baked potatoes with microgreens, herbs, and Wagon Creek yogurt cheese. Served with a big salad

Helpful Hints

Black Rice: Rinsing and soaking the rice before cooking will help to bring the cooking time down. As a general rule, black rice should be cooked with two cups of water to every one cup of rice, and it will need to cook for 20 to 30 minutes after soaking, or 60 minutes if you cook unsoaked rice.
Source: http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-black-rice.htm

Microgreens: Microgreens are tiny plants, usually with only their “cotyledon” (first) leaves developed  are no more than 8 to 14 days old.  The stem and baby leaves are all that are consumed... not the roots as is the case with alfalfa and bean sprouts. Microgreens are smaller and more tender than baby lettuces, yet more robust and flavorful than sprouts. Microgreens are delicious and ideal for enhancing salads, main dishes, soups or as a garnish. Have fun with these flavor and nutrient packed little babies!
Source: http://microgreensusa.com/

Stir-Fry:  So there's a million stir-fry recipes out there, here's one that I found online. The great thing about a stir-fry is that you can add whatever vegetables or proteins you have on hand. This one happens to contain some of this week's vegetables so I thought it would be a great starting point.  Feel free to mix and match vegetables! Of course, you can go even simpler than this is you wish. I'm personally fond of just lightly stir-frying oriental greens in some coconut oil (YUM) and then tossing it with soy sauce. When you've got the best freshest vegetables available, I like to eat them as minimally tinkered with as possible!

Stir-fried Vegetables with Garlic, Ginger, and Lime

Prep Time: 10 minutes, Cook Time: 10 minutes

Ingredients:

• VEGETABLES: (OR choose your own combination of fresh veggies for this dish)
• 1 medium-size carrot, sliced
• 1-2 cups baby bok choy, or other Chinese cabbage (leaves left whole if not too large, otherwise cut in half or thirds)
• 1 red pepper, cut into bite-size pieces
• 5-6 shiitake mushrooms, sliced, or left in halves or quarters
• 3 spring onions, cut in thirds
• 1 small head broccoli, cut into florets
• 1 thumb-size piece of galangal (or ginger), sliced thinly (matchstick-like pieces)
• 3 Tbsp. white wine or sherry (or cooking wine or sherry) for stir-frying
• STIR-FRY SAUCE:
• 1/3 cup good-tasting stock (vegetarian or chicken stock)
• 2 Tbsp. fish sauce (or substitute 2.5 Tbsp. soy sauce)
• 1 Tbsp. lime juice
• 5-7 cloves of garlic, minced
• 1 tsp. liquid honey (or substitute brown sugar), plus more to taste
• 2 tsp. corn starch dissolved in 4 Tbsp. water
• 1 red chili, minced, OR 1 tsp. chili sauce, OR 1/2 tsp. cayenne pepper

Preparation:

Source:  http://thaifood.about.com/od/quickeasythairecipes/r/stirfriedveggie.htm