Eliza’s in the kitchen
On Wednesday I was personally off pastries, their sweet garnishes and their inherent fat. I needed to get some vegetables into my body for a variety of health maintenance reasons. Luckily, the stars aligned for me that day as I drove back to Carlisle for a mid-week family fix. The CSA box (well, it’s a bunch of bags, really) had arrived, the Farmers on the Square Market was on and flourishing, and Eliza decided she needed to cook something.
Typically Eliza’s free-range experiments yield concoctions that she doesn’t dare try herself (but Andy’s such a good dad that he always wades into these uncharted waters and comes up with a compliment). That day, as she was standing in the 90-degree kitchen with the fridge door wide open declaring that she felt she “needed to create something”, I suggested that she might want to make something that she’d actually eat herself. This is not a new suggestion, I make it every time she ventures into her own culinary world, but this time she listened.
“Do we have any soft cheese?” No.
“These black beans already have spices in them?” Yes.
“What else are we having for dinner?” Pork loin with an oregano, garlic and lemon gremalata; spinach salad with roasted Asian turnips and cranberries (goat cheese would have rounded that dish out, but sadly, I forgot to buy it at the market); and, grilled spring onions with a balsamic reduction.
“Can I use these cut up tomatoes?” Maybe, let me smell them first, as I’m not sure how long they’ve been sitting in that disposable plastic container.
“What are these?” Garlic scapes.
“What do they taste like?” I’m not sure, I’ve only ready about them and the New York food crowd is currently gushing over them so I bought a bunch at the market to see what the buzz was about. Let’s try them together. The flavor profile of a scape — soft and garlicky on the front end with an onion finish — makes sense given that these long thin strands that look like the green bits of a spring onion but are actually the tops of garlic plants which get lopped off in the spring so that the garlic can save all its energy producing a pungent bulb.
“Yum, I’ll use these.”
Garlic scape salsa on toast
Garlic scape bruschetta
From there she created a salsa or bruschetta topping (you can pick your own cuisine of origin) as she put half of her mixture in the mini-chopper for the former and kept the ingredients in larger chunks for the latter. Both toppings comprised garlic scapes, minced oregano, chopped tomatoes, olive oil, red wine vinegar and salt and pepper. I helped her to thinly slice some sourdough bread. She brushed each piece with olive oil. And, together, we reminded ourselves not to forget them under the broiler.
She plated them (took pictures, of course, because I promised her some blog space) and proudly served them. We fought over who would eat the last one.
She got it.
As she chomped on her triumph, in my head, I couldn’t help but think to myself, also triumphantly: ”Yes, my kid can create a tasty dish from whatever she can find in the fridge. I’ve taught her that at least.”
Nothing better than a child who knows her away around a kitchen. Eliza sounds great!
Thanks for trying out my food52 Indian spiced potato salad. It was fun reading your comments and I so agree about the coriander/mint dressing…….we’ve had it with bread, rice and roast chicken! And kudos to your daughter – how wonderful to create something delicious which she liked!