Vegetables

Beets are Deadly Serious

15 January 2012 by Jean Johnson
Feel like a poem picture? Here are lines from Tom Robbins fleshed out with my photos.   "The beet is the most intense of vegetables. The radish, admittedly, is more feverish, but the fire of the radish is a cold fire, the fire of discontent, not of passion.     Tomatoes are lusty enough, yet there ...

First Summer Squash of the Year & the Last of the Sugar Snap Peas

21 July 2011 by Jean Johnson
Letting the seasons change what's on your plate is such a groove. Tonight it took the form of flash cooking a just-pulled cippolini onion from last fall's planting, a minced clove of garlic, whole sugar snaps, a green and yellow zucc sliced off on the diagonal, and a chop of ...

Peasant Food Doesn’t Get Any Better Than This

19 May 2011 by Jean Johnson
One bowl meals. It's how to turn gorgeous food out on a dime. A dime of both time and money. In this case, there were leftover French lentils and quinoa in the fridge--so into the bowl they went with some jarred roasted red peppers, a pear from the season's end, and ...

On a Roll with Spaghetti Squash

4 January 2011 by Jean Johnson
Mainstream food writers at the Oregonian dismissed spaghetti squash as bland and boring in an article on winter squashes. Too bad they missed the point, but then that's what happens as long as you're looking at things from the Standard American Perspective--which in the case of food is widely known ...

From the Garden to the Table, During All Four Seasons–Mostly

20 December 2010 by Jean Johnson
So far so good. I've still not bought fresh produce (except pomegranates, lemons, and some Clementines) and since the slim garden days of last spring. It's getting to be slim pickins' for sure given Portland's November snow storm that way laid my broccoli and gave the kale and cabbage a ...

Lasta-vera Frittata with Blue Corn and Hopi Memories & Music

20 October 2010 by Jean Johnson
Yes, I know the lastavera doesn't quite work since vera means spring in Italian. But hey, it's close, and it conveys so well the idea of using vegetables the fall harvest brings through the door. A few posts ago I was lastavering with a grain salad. This time it's with ...

Turned On Eggplant Pizza

10 September 2010 by Jean Johnson
Not too much longer to revel in the world of harvest, so I hope you can score on some eggplants for this great spin on pizza pie. It's a great way to use the last of the coals after you've grilled, and the next day it's a breeze for the ...

Hippie Primavera, Video on Flash Cooking

16 June 2010 by Jean Johnson
Flash cooking continues to attract people to my work. I'm glad because it's the heart of what my measure free, seasonal, sustainable message is about. So here you go. In these vids I show how to Turn the burner on high with a puddle of water. Put your rustically chopped veggies in, ...

Fava Bean Season is Upon Us

30 May 2010 by Jean Johnson
If you have Hippie Kitchen you'll see this picture on page 52. I choose to show off the fava beans in their pods rather than the actual dish because they have been so maligned. Typical instructions in American cookbooks are to do not pass go and double peel the beans--first ...

Laurel & Carol’s Astonishing Salad

6 May 2010 by Jean Johnson
This is verbatim from Grow Your Own, the third in my measurefree kitchen companion trilogy that comes out this November. Laurel Robertson, who wrote Laurel’s Kitchen with Carol Flinders, is some kind of woman. This salad is adapted from their pages where they titled it “Astonishing.” I’ve made it many ...