Cooking the Harvest from the Garden

Lily 'Satisfaction' ready to pop. Already a huge presence in my potager, I can't imagine it in full bloom!





Last night, I pulled the first of some carrots, most no more than my small finger in diameter from my garden. Also, in my strawberry bed there were a couple potato plants that had grown from potatoes that had escaped harvest last fall which I harvested as well. Sliced and pan-fried with chives they made an excellent side for the Panko crispy breaded and baked pollock I prepared for supper for my son and myself. Salads of 'Red Sails' leaf lettuce, dino kale, spinach, and mustard greens rounded out the meal.

I should have taken pictures. I didn't. I was in cooking mode. What seems like a couple lifetimes ago, I have done stints as a professional cook (hence my love for stainless!). What they don't show you very well on shows like "Hell's Kitchen" is it is all about the timing. Cooking has a rhythm. All the food for a plate has to come to completion at the same time, allowing for the "hot food hot, cold food cold" mantra, for the flavors to completely develop, for presentation to be the icing on the cake. So, when I am cooking, I automatically fall into the pro-chef mode and I'm not stopping to take pictures.

And when I am done cooking, I am definitely all about the eating. I could take a picture then, but no. Eating mode!

Enough to say, the meal was delicious!