#delishytown

[delishytown]

Sun Gold from back garden, volunteer mystery tomato in the front garden, growing wild all over the Rose shrubs. Both of these are completely delicious! #ediblelandscaping #tomatoes #garden #summer #delishytown

[delishytown]

Organic Red Lentil & Vegetable Soup 

I love this soup, it’s hearty, savory, sweet and delicious. It’s seasoned with tangy, lemony sumac, one of my favorite spices. This is vegan, gluten free, and non GMO, if you use organic ingredients to make it. I bought the organic carrots, sweet onions, and celery at our farmer’s market. The split red lentils are from my favorite company, Edison Grainery. They have a delicious taste and a wonderful texture

This is easy to make and only takes about 45 minutes of chopping and simmering until all the flavors come together. 

Chop 1 large sweet onion, 1 large organic carrot, 2 stalks organic celery, saute in 2 tbsp organic olive oil or your favorite cooking oil. Add 2 big garlic cloves, crushed, a pinch of kosher salt, a grind of fresh black pepper, and 2 tbsp tomato paste. Continue to simmer until the garlic and tomato paste become fragrant. Add 1 bay leaf, 2 cups water, 1/2 to 1 whole tsp soup base depending on how salty you like it, 1 small can diced tomatoes, 1 tablespoon dried parsley, 1 to 3 teaspoons sumac depending on how tangy you like your soup, and 1/2 tsp coriander powder. 

Simmer and stir on low until all the ingredients tenderize and become sweeter. For more sweetness, you could add a drizzle of honey, about 1/2 tsp. For more brightness, add a squeeze of fresh lemon.

I love to garnish this with lots of sumac, so that it’s nice and tangy. My husband doesn’t love sour flavors as much as I do, so I add the extra sumac just in my own bowl and leave his more savory / sweet. Serve with toasted croutons and a big salad. Yum!

[delishytown]

This is an “after” shot of a front strip, raised bed vegetable garden my crew and I worked on this week. The people who own this home have 5 kids and they’re all excited about the new garden. We planted tomatoes, peppers, arugula, beans, cucumbers (I still need to come back with trellises, and supports), Rainbow Swiss chard, basil, cilantro, lavender, mint, Walla Walla onions, marigolds, raspberry (container shrubs), strawberries, and corn (not pictured, it’s on the driveway strip adjacent to this one.) 

I love the way this came out, I hope it gets huge. It was a somewhat sad dirt patch before, with just a few drought tolerant flowers around the tree. We added a bunch more flowers, pink ice plant, around the tree. I love my job.

[delishytown]

Through the Garden Benedict

This is my new favorite; Poached eggs on avocado, goat cheese toast, with fresh fruits and vegetables. This is a fresh take on a Benedict, with no Hollandaise. The egg yolk and citrus juices act as a sort of deconstructed Hollandaise. It’s delicious! I didn’t make Hollandaise because I’m trying not to indulge in buttery dishes too often. That being said, I’ll make one of these with Meyer lemon Hollandaise soon, possibly this weekend, because we have many Meyer lemons on our tree. And because Hollandaise is so damn tasty. You can make this with any fresh vegetables, greens, pickled things, herbs and fruit you have on hand. It comes out delicious every time. You can use ham, bacon, sausage or make it vegetarian like this one. This particular combo was crunchy, savory, earthy and deliciously balanced. My hubby and I both loved the addition of thinly sliced celery, which seems like it wouldn’t be that great, but it was perfection.

This plate = Dave’s multi grain Killer Bread, thin sliced & toasted, goat cheese, sliced avocado, orange segments, apple slices, celery, sliced very thinly, celery leaf, tomato, kalamata olives, marinated artichoke, and fresh cilantro. The poached egg is placed on top of the cheese toast, then garnished with all the freshness, and an extra squeeze of orange juice on top. Try it, it’s so good. 

If you’ve never made a poached egg, it’s easy. Boil about 3 - 4 cups water in a sauce pan, add 1 tsp vinegar to the water. Once it boils, stir into a gentle whirlpool, crack an egg in the center and let it cook for 2 to 3 minutes. Remove with a slotted spoon to a paper towel lined plate. 

[delishytown]

Hard Root Beer Braised Brisket

This was a delicious experiment. Traditionally, red wine is used when cooking brisket. I’ve used beer before, mostly IPA’s, when slow cooking meats, and it always comes out yummy. So, I recently bought a six pack of the “Best Root Beer Ever” hard root beer, to make fancy, alcoholy, root beer floats, (so good). We still had a bunch of cans leftover, so I decided to try the hard root beer in this recipe to see if the sarsaparilla spices would give it a mysterious savoriness. It worked great! This was pretty dang delicious.

This is easy, cooking time is about 4 hours, with 20 minutes of prep. You could easily crock pot this and have dinner ready when you get home from work or school. 

Sear salted and peppered meat in butter and a small amount of bacon grease, or vegetable oil. Let it cook until browned, browning on all sides. Meanwhile, in a saucepan, 2 tbsp olive oil, 3 big garlic cloves, chopped, 1 med chopped onion, 1 large chopped shallot, 1 tbsp brown sugar, 1 can hard root beer, 1 Meyer lemon, juiced, 2 tbsp ketchup, 3/4 cup hot water, 1 tsp beef base, 2 tsp Worcestershire sauce, salt and pepper, and 1 or 2  bay leaves. Stir it around and let the sugar dissolve. Place the meat in a roasting pan, pour the aromatic mixture on top of it, and scoot some underneath. Cover tightly and bake at 325 for 3 to 4 hours. (For a crock pot version it would be about 8 hours, on low, I think.)

Slice against the grain, serve on a crusty roll and garnish with fresh slaw and jalapeño slices if you like it hot. For easy fresh slaw: Shred 1/4 of a small cabbage and 2 carrots, dress with a mixture of 1 tbsp mayo, 2 tbsp plain yogurt, 1/2 cup milk, juice of 1/2 lemon, sprinkle of salt, pinch of sugar or honey, a fresh grind of pepper, 1 fresh chopped shallot, and a sprinkle of fresh or dried dill. Yum!

[delishytown]

All Star Fruit Pancakes

Happy Saturday Tumblrs. It’s chilly here in California, and it’s finally raining! I love the rain. It makes everything so beautiful, the plants are green and happy and everything isn’t so parched anymore. With this cold ass cold weather, I wake up starving nearly every single day. I made these banana, blueberry, pomegranate, mandarin, golden raisin, blue cornmeal and buttermilk pancakes for breakfast, and they were so good. These are pretty healthy too, I used mostly organic ingredients, organic blue corn flour and organic AP flour. These can easily be made gluten free as well, by swapping in garbanzo flour for the AP.  The batter has one mashed banana and is full of blueberries. I topped them with sliced bananas, pomegranate seeds, mandarin oranges, golden raisins, chopped pecans, real maple syrup and a little bit of butter. Buttermilk acts as a leavening agent and makes these extra fluffy. Yogurt works the same way, but if you don’t have either one use whatever you have.

Here’s how to make this easy and delicious breakfast:

Mash 1 banana in a mixing bowl, add 1 egg, 1/4 cup sugar, 1 cup buttermilk (swap for any regular milk or almond milk if you don’t have buttermilk), 1 tsp vanilla, 1 tbsp melted butter or oil, (I used olive oil to add a little savory in all of the sweet). Mix well with a fork.

Sift in 1/2 cup blue cornmeal, 1/2 cup all purpose flour, (Or for a Gluten Free option, swap with 1/2 cup Garbanzo Bean flour), 1 tsp baking soda, 1 tsp salt. Mix with a fork until just combined, do not over mix. Add 1/2 cup or more organic frozen blueberries. 

Heat the griddle to high, add a little butter, pour 1/2 to 3/4 cup sized pancake batter using a measuring cup. Cook pancakes on first side until bubbles form, flip and continue cooking another few minutes. Top with all sorts of fruit and syrup. Strawberries would be great on this, Yum! 

[delishytown]

Turkey Mole Enchiladas with Rice and Beans! Yum this came out delicious! It took about 4 hours but I didn't rush it. I added a lot of extra sauce to this plate after I took this picture. #mexicanfood #food #turkeymole #delishytown #turkeyleftovers

[delishytown]

Mole sauce is in the works for leftover turkey enchiladas. Toasted ingredients include Ancho chilis, New Mexico chilis, organic pepitas from Edison Grainery, peanuts, almonds, black peppercorns, 2 cloves, 1 star anise, bay leaf, coriander seeds, cinnamon stick, celery salt, dry thyme. After toasting chilis soak them in hot water. Sauté onion and garlic in olive oil. Add tomatoes and let them sizzle a minute. Then add all ingredients to the stewing pot along with the liquid from the peppers you soaked & some chicken stock. Cook down and blend. Thin with more stock if necessary. Add 1/2 to 1 wheel Sweet Mexican chocolate. Yum! #food #mole #delishytown #turkeymole #mexicanfood