Garlic Scape and Sorrel Soup

I love Garlic Scapes. I love Sorrel. Naturally, I must combine the two. And obviously, I have to combine them in my favorite mode – soup.  I don’t care that it’s the hottest day we’ve had this year.  I want soup. It’s still soup if it’s served cool, right? Or does it have a different name?

Garlic Scapes

Garlic Scape and Sorrel Soup

• 1 cup(ish) chopped Garlic Scapes
• 1 cup(ish) chopped Sorrel
• 1 chopped garlic clove (or more if you really love garlic)
• 2 chopped medium potatoes
• 1 quart chicken broth (make your own 🙂 it’ll taste better)
• butter
• salt, pepper, any other herb that strikes your fancy
• Milk – enough to thin out the soup or to taste

Saute the garlic scapes for a few minutes, then add the garlic clove and saute a few more minutes. Add the chicken broth and bring to a boil and add the potatoes.  Cook them until tender.  Add the sorrel and let it wilt for a bit and then blend everything until smooth. Add milk. Taste and add seasoning as needed.

Extra delicious with a slice of fresh bread with butter.

Scape and Sorrel Soup

pac choi (I finally like it!)

So I finally figured out what to do with pac choi. By the way – I do realize that I have spelled it differently almost every time I talk about it. But however it is spelled, I haven’t figured out how to use it in a way that I really enjoy it.  I’ve tried a few things, like stir frying it whole. It wasn’t the greatest.  Imagine a romaine(ish) flavored celery stalk warmed up with a droopy spinach like leaf attached to the top with an oil garlic ginger dressing.  As you can image, the dressing was my favorite part.  I know, I know, I probably did something wrong and all of you who know how to cook pac choi or bok choi or pak choy can (please) teach me at some point.

The next time, I just added some chopped up to a salad…. Not a winner.

The third time, I just hid it in something else.

This time though, I actually went back for seconds.  Yes, seconds.  Not for the meat. Not for the rice. But for the pac choi.

This is what I did

You’ll need

• Onion – I used a red one
• Pac Choi
• Olive Oil or Butter
• Salt, Pepper
• Teriyaki sauce

Dice the onion and saute in the oil or butter for a few minutes.  Season with Salt and Pepper.  Chop up the pac choi.  It’ll look like celery pieces and chopped spinach.  Add it to the onion and saute for a few more minutes and then add about a tbsp of Teriyaki sauce.

It’s just about perfect.

More Greens

I’m going to guess here and say that Greens are one of the easiest vegetables to grow.  I am guessing that because I have been getting greens every week for the past few weeks.  I have been assured that there will be plenty of other types of vegetables coming, along with… more Greens.  Which leaves me in my kitchen organizing more greens than one person needs in a week, even though I signed up for a one person share.  Oh, and 6 eggs 🙂

CSA Greens

What that doesn’t include is the romaine that is already in my fridge or the peas I got at the market last weekend or the garlic scapes.  They deserve their own post.

All of the greens need to be eaten, or saved in some way to be eaten later and that means I have to figure out how to use them all.  Ok, easy.  Salad greens get washed a cut up with the romaine for salads (with every meal – I now understand why salad greens are only in season for a few months… you eat them, and lots of them and lots more of them until 1) you cannot handle another salad 2) it’s too cold to grow them anymore at which time you move on to the greens that DO grow in cold (ish) soil.)

After the salad greens are taken care of, that leaves sorrel, mustard greens and pak choi (bok choy depending on who you talk to).  I have grown to love sorrel in the past few months and have special plans for another pseudo soup later this week.  Solution?  Put Greens in EVERYTHING:

Mac and Cheese with Pak Choi

Mexican Casserole with Mustard Greens

Pea and Mozzarella Panzanella

Fat Tuesday

Come see me and many others at Fat Tuesday by Real Food Forager!

Old Testament Sauce and Pork Butt that isn’t

I had a bit of everything left over that needed to be used up.  Like ground lamb left over from spaghetti sauce and olives left over from pork and olives over potatoes.  Oh, and the figs that were on sale. Don’t forget about the chicken stock and rice that are almost always around my house.  How about we put it all together and see what happens.

I’ll tell you what happens, you take the olives and figs, saute them in some olive oil with garlic and onions.  Add the ground lamb, some chopped tomatoes and enough chicken stock to make a sauce.  Pile on top of some rice, top with Kosher feta and sit down to dinner.  While contemplating your dinner, realize that all of your ingredients are somewhat Biblical and dub your dinner Old Testament Sauce.

Use up leftovers, done.

Cook the most amazing piece of Boston Butt I’ve ever seen, up next.

I recently discovered that you can cook meat in a crock pot without adding any liquid.  I ‘roasted’ a chicken in the crock pot, so I thought I could do the same with the Boston Butt.  So, dry rub with cayenne, garlic, salt, pepper, mustard, paprika, and chili powder all over, let rest overnight in the fridge and into the crock pot.  You know I had to take a  picture before cooking though…

Sorry for the large picture of raw meat… BUT look at it! Doesn’t it look amazing.  AND there’s a secret about Boston Pork Butt, that I’m going to tell you now.  Boston Butt isn’t a piece of the butt, it’s a piece of the shoulder.  It’s also really good.  Especially with, well, just about everything.