Urban Gardener Salt Lake City

Easter truffle experiments

Kat Audette — Sat, 23 Apr 2011 18:19:46 +0000

I’m supposed to be attending an Easter dinner tomorrow night, and in addition, this week marks the birthdays of several of my friends. So I thought it might be a good idea to polish off my old chocolate truffle recipes and try some new ones as well.

Chocolate truffles are deceptively simple. The basic recipe, for chocolate ganache filling, is only two ingredients: 1 part heavy cream (some use sweetened condensed milk, or coconut milk for vegan truffles) to 3 parts semi-sweet chocolate. Bring the cream just to a boil, then pour over the chocolate. Give it a moment for the chocolate to melt, then stir it all together until fully blended. Using a melon scoop, form small, bite-sized truffles out of the ganache. Chill the truffles if they are very soft, then coat them in tempered chocolate or roll them in sugar, cocoa powder, coconut, nuts, or whatever you are inspired to try. Then, chill the truffles in the refrigerator or freeze them (they keep well this way), bringing them to room temperature just before serving.

For help, check out Ree Drummond’s recipe for sea salt truffles, which has lovely photographs (although I will tell you from bitter personal experience, disregard her instructions for melting chocolate in the microwave – I once burned an entire batch of chocolate that way, so I recommend using the double-boiler method).

I like to make several different types of truffles at once, then dividing up the ganache in different bowls and mixing in various flavors. The last time I made these, I flavored them with:

Fresh grated ginger (just a tiny bit goes a long way, but it’s truly excellent – I’ve also made them plain and then coated the truffles in chopped, candied ginger, which is lovely.)

Chipotle and cocoa powder (these were excellent but the dark, earthy flavors would be better balanced by adding white chocolate to the ganache for a lighter sweetness.)

Nutmeg, cinnamon and cardamom, coated in cinnamon sugar (simple, and very, very good).

Here are some new flavor combinations I am curious about:

Carrot, cocoa nibs and grains of paradise (inspired by this dessert)

Garam masala or just cumin (although one blog described garam masala truffles as having an undertone of “sweaty gym sock” due to the cumin, other recipes describe this as an excellent, although earthy, flavor. I’ll let you know how it goes.)

Mandarin orange (or blood orange), coated in dark chocolate and garnished with sea salt

Limoncello, coated in milk chocolate and garnished with lemon zest

Fresh mint, coated in white chocolate (probably, it would be best to steep the mint in the cream as it’s heated, then strain before mixing.)

Vegan lime and coconut truffles

What are your favorite truffle recipes/flavor combinations? Please share!

Quiet winter days

Kat Audette — Wed, 02 Feb 2011 18:17:33 +0000

It’s been a while – I know. These quiet winter days just haven’t led to much inspiration on the blogging front. With the return of spring, I’ll be back with more recipes and stories. But for now, I wanted to share something completely different.

My second cousin, A.J., who is an extraordinarily talented musician, was recently featured on the BBC. I think you’ll enjoy this:

A.J. Roach is joined by Nuala Kennedy to perform The Poet at Celtic Connections 2011

serendipity!

Kat Audette — Thu, 23 Sep 2010 23:37:48 +0000

This has been a beautiful, if odd, summer. Not having a car limits my ability to go hiking as much as I like, but there have been a few memorable trips regardless.

an incredible backpacking trip in San Juan County, UT

But oddly enough, there are some benefits to getting everywhere slowly.

The other day, I’d spent the morning by the shore of the Great Salt Lake on what I assumed was a date with a friend, trying valiantly to appear cool and confident, while madly pedaling my incredibly heavy, 90s-era mountain bike. I was trying desperately to look cheerful while straining to keep up. My date was swiftly leaving me behind on his road bike – sailing right past me, saying “This is fun! Let’s bike faster!”

I tried to smile but I was breathing too hard.

An hour or so later, I was looking like I’d been hiking through the Amazon rainforest – horribly sweaty and completely flustered. Then my friend casually mentioned to me that he’d reconnected with his former girlfriend – so then I was disappointed as well as really, really sore.

Now for the serendipity part.

After we drove back to the city, I hopped on my bike again for the ride home, feeling the need for some space. But I was still hot and tired. I thought I’d run by the community garden and get a sip of water from the spring.

I leaned my bike up against the fence and stood on the sidewalk a moment to catch my breath, feeling dizzy and very sad. Right then, I heard someone call out behind me – “Oh, great, you came!”

I had completely forgotten that there was a potluck going on at the garden at that very moment! I had nothing to offer but my friends pushed cold drinks and food into my hands, and within moments I was resting in the shade, laughing about life’s ups and downs, and remembering again why I so love this city.

And community gardening.

And my amazing friends.

It was a good day, after all.

Eating locally in Salt Lake City

Kat Audette — Fri, 27 Aug 2010 01:22:35 +0000

Last year’s gardening efforts were great fun and very rewarding. Unfortunately, in the last few months I had to relocate to a new apartment which lacks any space for gardening. It’s been a process of giving up and letting go of certain things, while realizing that there is some joy in living a simpler life. Somewhere along the line, I gave up my cell phone, my computer, and my car.

The beautiful thing is, there is no lack of amazing local food here in Salt Lake City, so even though I’m no longer producing my own, I can still enjoy it. I buy my produce through community supported agriculture – my friend Sharon’s B.U.G. Farm’s CSA.

There are also several new farmer’s markets this year, so there’s almost a market every day of the week for me to find wonderful fresh ingredients:

Tuesdays

4 p.m. – dusk, Aug. – Oct.

Salt Lake City Farmers Market at Pioneer Park, 379 S 300 W

5 – 8 p.m., Jun. – Sept.

Tuesday Farmers Market at Pioneer Craft House 3271 S 500 E

Wednesdays 5-8 p.m.

9th and 9th Farmers Market on the north side of 900 S, between 950 and 1050 E

Fridays

9 a.m. – 2 p.m.

University of Utah, Tanner Plaza, 201 South 1460 East

3 p.m. to dusk, Jul. – Oct.

Sugar House Farmers Market, 1100 E 2100 S

Saturdays, 8 a.m. – 1 p.m., Jun. – Oct.

Salt Lake City Farmers Market at Pioneer Park, 379 S 300 W

Sundays, 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Jun. – Oct.

The People’s Market at the International Peace Gardens, 1000 S 900 W

What to do with leftover cucumbers!

Kat Audette — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 05:23:44 +0000

I’m getting to the end of the summer produce – dehydrating the remaining tomatoes, and cooking the last bits of summer squash in casseroles. But tonight I found myself with several Armenian cucumbers and luckily, some crab meat as well. So I made this really great crab and cucumber salad – it’s simple and tasty!

Afterwards, I realized that I still had a massive amount of leftover cucumber. So I combined it with a canteloupe that one of my fellow gardeners had shared with me (along with an odd, half-cucumber and half-melon sort of fruit that grew in his plot), a bit of fresh mint, some leftover lemon juice from another dish, a hot pepper, a banana, and some sugar. Blended together, it was supposed to be a cold soup but I felt it might be best as a popsicle, so I froze it. It’s fairly tasty, if I say so myself. I based the recipe on this original one, for Cucumber Melon Soup with Mint.

Pesto and summer squash extravaganza!

Kat Audette — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 03:23:38 +0000

Well, I’m sorry that I neglected my little journal here, but I intend to start building it again. I had a somewhat difficult gardening summer, with the least successful project being my porch-grown tomatoes. Their foliage was lovely, but did not seem to produce much at all compared to my community garden plot. I did get quite a few Cream Sausage and Black Cherry tomatoes, but the others were sporadic in comparison. The Aunt Ruby’s German Green and Great White tomatoes in my garden were extremely prolific by comparison, although the green ones took literally months to ripen.

Zapotec Pleated, Yellow Brandywine, Cream Sausage, Aunt Ruby's German Green and other heirloom tomatoes

The biggest successes of my summer included my lacinato kale, which was beautiful and stood all summer without bolting – I harvested some practically every week – and the beets, which were tasty and beautiful in salads. I was also pleasantly surprised by the sweet flavor of the “strawberry spinach” (Chenopodium sp.), although the harvest wasn’t very large.

Beautiful beets

Last week, just prior to the killing frost, I pulled up all of my basils – lemon basil, purple basil, and the others – and made huge batches of pesto, combining the spinach with garlic, olive oil and sunflower seeds in the blender. I also made batches with sorrel and parsley – basically, one part parsley to three parts sorrel is the recipe, and it’s delicious. I then froze almost all of the pesto, for a winter of tasty pasta dishes. I also made lemon-basil sorbet, which was scrumptious.

Kale, beets, kohlrabi, strawberry spinach, etc.

But the biggest success of all was my corn – although, thanks to funky corn genetics, all three varieties basically grew the same! Instead of being Oaxacan Green Dent, Anasazi, and Triple Play corn, all of it came out as one big batch of Triple Play (with an exception here and there of beautiful green cobs of the Oaxacan). Which was fine, because Triple Play is a beautiful yellow and blue fresh eating heirloom sweet corn. It was beautiful and delicious.

Triple Play heirloom sweet corn

Using my corn, patty pan squash, hot peppers and tomatoes, I’ve been cooking tons of colache, and making squash casseroles. I’m drying pears, apples and tomatoes in my dehydrator. I may try to make a green tomato soup. And now, with all of my winter squash, I’m beginning to make lots of baked dishes and soups. Yum.

The key to life is proper soil preparation!

Kat Audette — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 20:00:00 +0000

I used to have this neighbor when I was a little girl that would always say to me, “Remember, the most important thing is proper soil preparation!” He was a veteran and a recluse, but he had studied horticulture in college and he was a wonderfully talented gardener. I absolutely took his advice to heart and kept it in mind throughout four years of horticultural education and soil science classes; however, over the years it seems that I’ve forgotten this key bit of advice. And this year, it’s been to my detriment. In the east, we just didn’t have clay soil – it was always well-drained and easy to deal with. We did have lots of rocks, but poor drainage or a hard crust forming on the soil was never a problem.

However, in my community garden plot this year, the combination of very clay soil that is poor in nutrients and the heavy rains we had for a few weeks are causing problems for me. I just did not add enough compost or prepare the bed as well as I could have. My plants are slow-growing and I’m sure need more nitrogen.

Next time around I’ll do things better and also try growing a cover crop, but in the meantime I’m hoping that side-dressing with worm castings and a light foliar feeding of fish emulsion will help save the day.

I also have tomatoes coming in my container garden, so all hope is not lost as far as the crops are concerned. So far, Cream Sausage, Nyagous and Tigerella are almost ready for picking, and the others are healthy and vigorous.

Satisfaction!

Kat Audette — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 01:51:54 +0000

I harvested maybe 10 lbs of spinach, kale, radishes, beets and sugar snap peas today. It’s just about the end of the season for these veggies, but I wanted to grab them before they were entirely gone. I’m thinking a big soup with the spinach & beet greens, radishes and radish greens in a salad and baked-’till-crispy kale chips.

So very satisfying.

Anyone have tips for eating radishes that are a little too old and spicy? I’m thinking that grating them into the salad would be the easiest solution.

Flower salad

Kat Audette — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 22:21:34 +0000

This week, I’ve had visitors from out of town here, and it was wonderful to be able to feed them part of our harvest already. I picked radishes, orach, spinach, chives and pansies from the garden and made a lovely salad. I did note that some of my other radishes are bolting, but the French Breakfast ones are still going strong. The orach, which is a native plant here in the southwest, has a peppery flavor and is excellent for a salad, especially when paired with a light, citrus dressing – we used olive oil, lemon juice and a dash of salt and pepper.

A rhubarb correction; vermiculture

Kat Audette — Fri, 22 May 2009 00:56:00 +0000

I forgot to update you on the “rhubarb incident” from the other day; I thought that someone’s rhubarb had been stolen from their plot. As it turns out, the hack job had been perpetrated by no one else than the plot’s owner. However, this was still a disappointment, because it turns out that the owner had simply composted all of the rhubarb, instead of cooking it. To me, this is a crime, which ought to be punishable by flogging with rhubarb stalks until one realizes the tastiness and value of this wonderful plant. Of course, the leaves are poisonous, but those red stalks make simply heavenly pies and other baked goods! What a shame.

I also wanted to mention that I have a “vermiculture composter” in my apartment, which is fancy-speak for a big plastic container with air holes that holds a bunch of happy little red worms that devour my food scraps. And the other day, I had quite a “harvest” of worm poop from it – a wonderful fertilizer. It’s a nice way to convert waste into something useful, and it doesn’t smell or attract nasty bugs. If you’re interested in this, check out the book Worms Eat My Garbage by Mary Appelhof.