Monday, April 16, 2007

Garden supper



Lovelies for supper: Lancelot leeks, Harris Model parsnips

It sure was a starch fest for dinner last night: the last(?) of the spuds with two of the last of the leeks for that lovely potato/leek soup (butter, water, salt and pepper are the rest of it; can't be simpler). And those overwintered parsnips! Sweeeeet heaven. I caramelized them in some clarified butter. And then there was this guy's bread. Yep. The bread everyone's been making. I confess something: he's a client. I confess something else: we have this bread weekly if not more often. And the whole damned loaf usually "gets et" at the table between the three of us.

7 comments:

rooster said...

i just picked up some parnsip seeds at the farm store this weekend. it was one thing i forgot to put in my big seed order. are they just like growing carrots?

i named our white donkey parsnip so i had to at least try and grow some for her this year.

yours look beautiful and tasty.

El said...

Hey Rooster

They don't LOOK like carrots when they come up; more like Italian parsley, so there's clue #1. They can be fussy in that germination rates drop horribly with older seed. They are supposedly easy to grow, but I haven't had the luck I have had with carrots, say. But their seeds are bigger and easier to plant so they ostensibly should be easier to thin out, etc. Mulch once the leaves are big and up and out to keep the weeds down; keep them under straw in the winter; harvest when it thaws in spring. YUM.

meresy_g said...

I really have to try that bread. Its the 24 hour thing that throws me off.

El said...

Eh, I do it when I am making dinner the day before; just throw water, yeast, flour and salt in a tupperware overnight. Then the only thing i have to remember is to do the second rise thing about 3 the next day.

Annie in Austin said...

He's your client, El? How cool - we've been making this bread occasionally since the NYT article appeared last year. The crust is so addictive. It might be made more than occasionally if I could remember to start it at the right time - or if there was some counter space available at the right time!

Annie at the Transplantable Rose

Robbyn said...

Yum...parsnip and potato soup? I havent had that since I was a kid!

Anonymous said...

Not willing to give up on sourdough baking ( got to keep that starter in use!) I used the baking technique of the cast iron pot and oh......the crust and chewiness of that bread.....it was quickly eaten and I was baking again. I'm hooked.

Thanks for the link.