It’s almost August and I’ve mentioned only a peep about my bucket garden. It has been growing strong since it last popped on the screen back in March. Time flies.

Back then, I planted my kitchen herb garden as I held out for weather to agree with my outdoor buckets (above). The update: A few noble patches sprouted. I grew excited. But they quickly retreated into the black earth. Just a quick tease. Hello. Goodbye. Not enough sun? Did I open the window for a cool breeze that hit them at just the wrong moment of development? We will never know.

Thoroughly jaded, I went to the local bodega to purchase baby herb plants: rosemary, cilantro and basil. I planted them in those same little death inducing containers and stuck them outside on the kitchen windowsill. (By this time May had slipped in and the weather was more agreeable.) They were going strong. The cilantro was a power house, added to guacamole, lime shrimp, fish tacos and as accents on salads. The basil grew and grew. The rosemary was forest-like. So what happened?

I entrusted these herbs to my mother… I returned from California and spotted a dry and whithered cilantro, a faltering basil, and a limp rosemary:

Didn’t you water them?

No, but… well… It rained today.

This from a woman who coos and mists her orchids nightly. I was able to nurture the basil and rosemary back to life. The cilantro’s charred skeleton remains on the windowsill. A testament to abandonment.

But the buckets… Ah the buckets outside. Those are another story.

I am a lazy gardener. But I prefer to call it survival gardening– for the plants, not me.

After last years garden died out it wasn’t until one of those 70 degree days in December that I got around to pulling the dead stalks and tilling the earth slightly. Come March, when seeds arrived, I was gifted some compost from a lovely friend, mixed it in, threw seeds on and sprinkled them slightly with water.

I haven’t touched the buckets since. No pruning, no weeding, no watering (okay, maybe 2 or 3 times I did drag buckets of water outside to water my bucket garden). See, survival gardening– only the strong plants survive.

Despite my lack of effort, for this, the third year of the bucket garden, I have a small, slow-growing colony. Left to their own devices for the bulk of the summer, through storm and sun, my plants surprised me. For weeks now I have been walking past my buckets running errands or catching appointments saying, “tonight I will weed you, no worries.” The night would come and go and I would promise the buckets tomorrow, tomorrow again. Finally, the weeds grew so tall and strong I could hardly make out the plants from the invaders.

I returned from the fish monger and could stand it no more. I plunkered down for some serious weeding. To my great surprise my plants pushed through: arugula, radish, endive, Swiss chard and mixed lettuce. I applauded my darlings, took a picture (above), then retrieved my shears to snip away for a salad of my delayed efforts.

With the abundance of zucchini came an abundance of cucumber from our CSA: cucumber and fennel soup, cucumber and avocado salad, salted cucumber sticks, cucumber water and finally, when there were just too many, pickled. But this simple recipe, pictured above, might just be the favored of all cucumber dishes.

D loved this dish so much that when we had watermelon for dessert the other night he asked what happened to the cucumber, accusing me of using up all his favorite foods when I went pickling. (Let’s just say he’ll bite his tongue when he tastes one of my pickles and wish I hadn’t left behind this one treasure for the watermelon!)

This salad goes great with fish or after the meal, cleansing the palate, or as a starter to a main. It’s vibrant color makes an artistic addition to most meals. I can see it at a BBQ too– being that unusually creative (yet so simple!) dish that little Sally made all by herself– why she’ll be a contender in the kitchen one day!

Red onions or avocado could be added to this. I could even see preserved lemons sprinkled over top. Or, make the salad with cantaloupe (and some prosciutto). Just be sure to keep it easy, fast and especially summer fresh.

Watermelon Cucumber Salad
Serving Size= 2. Active Time= 15 minutes.
1 small watermelon or 1/4 of a large watermelon.
1 large cucumber
2 tablespoons fresh dill
juice of 1/2 lemon
coarse sea salt (I used Black Lava Salt b/c the color contrast was desired)

1) Cut rind from watermelon and then cut into 1 inch cubes, place in a medium bowl.
2) Using a vegetable peeler, remove skin from cucumber and discard. Continue using the vegetable peeler to “shred” the cucumber pulp. This will create the “noodles” pictured above. Discard the core, add to bowl.
3) Chop dill and add to bowl along with lemon juice. Sprinkle with sea salt just before serving.

It’s more like falafel is making me crazy! But how can you resist the freshness of flavors in Middle Eastern cuisine?

I came to love and loathe Middle Eastern foods in high school when I took a three week tour of Israel with my youth group. There were many days eating on Kibbutz with comments like, “are you kidding?! Cucumber, tomatoes and hummus again?!” But despite all the hummus consumed on that trip, I still cannot forget the hummus I had at the main marketplace in Jerusalem. Sweet, nutty and full of paprika, to this day I search to perfect my own recipe to match this memory.

I found falafel as an undergrad. It was fast food that didn’t seem so unhealthy and best of all, it was cheap. I could often be found between classes grabbing a falafel, standing just outside the small storefront nibbling away with tahini coating my lips and dripping on the sidewalk down below. I took friends visiting from out of town to the little shop and I even took D on our first date for a late night snack. But I have never tried making it myself.

Walking through the grocery I often spot and am tempted to pick up a box of falafel mix. As much as I love falafel, I cannot get myself to purchase the boxed mix. Yes, there are chickpeas in there, but get down the list and sure enough those hard-to-pronounce unknowns appear. I can’t make myself believe that off in the Middle East, or even my Lebanese or Egyptian friends here in the U.S., folks are whipping up boxed falafel. Where do these boxes come from?

To my surprise and horror, my own cookbooks I checked for reference suggested using boxed falafel mix. Wait, really? A cookbook calls for a box?! Truth be told, I don’t own a Middle Eastern cookbook (since I usually just reference friends and their parents for recipes). I took to the internet and researched away. Recipes I found seemed fairly close to hummus recipes before frying. I had some hummus a few days old in the fridge so I figured this would make good falafel– dry enough to form balls and fry. I also thought that my desire to use hummus, no longer desirable for snacking, would make sense historically. (Instead of throwing away old hummus, why not deep fry it?)

So I chopped some parsley, folded it into the hummus, formed golf ball sized nuggets and D threw them into a pan of hot oil. They fell apart. When I say fall apart I don’t mean the little balls broke apart and were still okay to eat. I mean the balls fell apart, totally crumbling into nothingness. D had to fish them out with a sieve the added comment, “Wow, we haven’t failed like this in a while.”

And when he says that he really means a long time. I cannot recall a time we made something so horribly inedible we had to throw it away. Sure, maybe it didn’t look (or fully taste) great, but one of us (me) usually not wanting to waste food, would suffer through eating it. What we had here was fried powder that was impossible to eat and had to enter the garbage.

We both took to the internet to find recipes and compare our separate results. The one major difference in falafel to hummus is that no liquids are added. When D and I make hummus we often add olive oil and yogurt to create a creamy result (that keeps smooth for days). The more falafel recipes we found, the greater the number that excluded these ingredients, as well as tahini. This kept the batter as dry as possible. (Which is why I thought our 3 day old hummus (with no yogurt), nice and dry, would work perfectly.)

We combined our favorite recipes and went in for Round Two. We stuck one in to test. Same result. The pictures on the internet lied. These little nuggets also fell apart as well. No golden balls of falafel came to our plates.

Back on the internet D began typing in “Falafel falls apart.” To his surprise, he didn’t even get to the first “l” of “falls” when Google auto-filled his results and he found multiple comments from ornery eaters attempting to make falafel.

Who knew these little buggers could be so difficult?

We did find the most common suggestions for falafel that falls apart is 1) Refrigerate for a few hours (we were hungry now) or 2) Add flour.

Back to our falafel balls, minus one brave comrade, I threw them back into the bowl and added almost 1/4 cup flour. Mixed it up, formed balls, flattened slightly (so oil would cover them completely) and coated the discs lightly with a more flour. I quickly told D it was not too late. We could just eat this dry hummus-like batter on our Barbari bread and it would be just fine. We threw a tester in again. Finally!

We topped stuffed the falafel into our Barbari bread (a flat bread originally from Iran that is an arms length long. Once a portion is torn off, it can easily be stuffed), added a yogurt and herb dressing, fresh tomatoes and topped it with some lip smacking sticky tahini. The best part of this falafel is that they remain crispy on the outside, but are soft and creamy inside.

Falafel
Prep time (getting it right the first time)= 12 minutes. Cook time= 4 minutes.
1- 15 oz can chickpeas (garbanzo beans), washed and drained
1/4 cup loosely chopped parsley
2 cloves garlic
1/2 teaspoon cumin powder
1/2 teaspoon coriander powder
1/2 teaspoon paprika
2 tablespoons red onion
1/4 cup flour (set aside 2 tablespoons in a small bowl for coating finished falafel balls)
salt/ pepper to taste
vegetable oil

1) Begin heating vegetable oil on high heat in a deep sauce pan (oil should come about 1 inch up the side of the pan).
2) Place remaining ingredients (minus 2 tablespoons of flour) into a food processor or blender. Process until fairly even consistency is reached, leaving some larger chickpea chunks, if desired.
3) Form golf ball sized balls of batter and flatten slightly. Coat lightly in remaining flour.
4) Add falafel discs to oil when hot and fry about 4 minutes, until golden on all sides. Serve warm served wrapped in pita or other flat bread.

And the yogurt-herb sauce we topped it with (along with tahini and tomatoes):
3 tablespoons yogurt
2 tablespoons fresh dill, chopped
2 tablespoons fresh parsley, chopped
juice of 1/2 a lemon
pinch of salt
Mix until combined.

As summer pushes into full force, we all know how important it is to stay out of the kitchen. That, or simply keeping the stove off as long as possible is key. With these beautiful days (finally it’s not deathly humid) nobody wants to spend more time than is needed wrapped in an apron, laboring over dishes. With that in mind, in the coming weeks Just Braise will highlight easy, quick cooking recipes.

These past weeks have offered up an abundance of zucchini from my CSA. It is so much that I am almost running out of unique ideas. So much zucchini, let me count the ways I used them: there was grilled zucchini, broiled zucchini, zucchini bread, zucchini in salad, zucchini and eggs, pickled zucchini, visions of zucchini soup, and the above, zucchini “burgers.”

I have made similar zucchini pancakes before. It was a great way to get D to eat this vegetable he claims to not like (so far though, the bread, full of nuts and chocolate chips, was the best trick). This time, I bulked the zucchini pancakes up to make them more burger style. Topped with a basic raita (yogurt based sauce) this burger proved refreshing served warm or cold.

What I love most about this recipe is that it can be used in a variety of ways. A frittata was easy with most of the work done– just break apart the burgers over a pan, add eggs, cook and done. Ditto with veggie tacos (on a shell with salsa), a side (or base) for hummus, or a topping in salad.

Veggie Patties
Prep time= 15 minutes. Cook time= 8 minutes.
1- 15oz can black beans (or chickpeas)
2-3 zucchini, 7-9 inches long
1 carrot (also 7-9 inches long)
1 clove garlic, crushed
2 tablespoons tahini
1/4 cup breadcrumbs
1 egg
1 tablespoon olive oil

1) Wash and drain the black beans and place in a medium sized bowl. Using a potato masher, crush the beans until they form a paste.
2) Lay out 2 paper towels. Shred zucchini and carrot and place on paper towels. Cover with 2 more paper towels, pressing down to drain off water from veggies. If you find there is still a lot of moisture to them, repeat process. When they no longer release moisture, add to bowl with black beans, along with garlic, tahini, bread crumbs and egg.
3) Use a hand to incorporate all ingredients evenly, squeezing the batter to check stickiness. Add another egg if you find it is too dry, more breadcrumbs if too wet.
4) Warm a saute pan on medium high heat with olive oil in the pan. Once warm, create patties with hands of the vegetable mixture and place on pan. Cook about 5 minutes, until brown, flip, then about 5 minutes more, until brown on other side. Serve warm on burger buns, bread, cold, or as suggested above.
NOTE: The above photo is bread with olive paste, avocado slices, a veggie burger, arugula and topped with a homemade raita. This raita was a 1 cup plain yogurt mixed with 1/2 cup diced cucumber (chopped parsley or mint optional).

As summer progresses D and I are receiving a more varied selection of goodies from our Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) group. When I tell people about CSAs they are often horrified– you don’t know what you’re getting each week? You cook every night? Don’t you throw a lot away? (Admittedly, some ask how they too can join.)

On all accounts, no.

CSAs help a person think seasonally. While it has become second nature for most to eat tomatoes all year round, I will actually know when they are in season in my region when I see them in the share I receive. This also means that when I finally get my tomatoes they will taste worlds better than those gassed-to-look-ripe at the grocery.

I also know I can check my farmer’s newsletters from years past to get an idea of what might be coming each week (or at least each month). I can also check the predicted weekly share that gets posted by Tuesday (we receive veggies two days later, freshly picked the day before). Usually though, it is more fun to just show up, be surprised, and Iron Chef style, make meals for the week. D even noted this morning how the unpredictability is really changing up our diets.

I like it because instead of D being annoyed at me for bringing home something we normally would not have purchased: “What?! Kale?! What are we supposed to do with that?!” I can just say our farmers grew it, we paid for it back in March, and now you’re going to eat it [insert sinister laugh here].

Further, it has opened up a whole new library of local vegetables for us and forces us to try new preparations so as not to tire of a single vegetable while the season lasts. We have found that while pretty much all hearty greens are good with bacon (above) we have found that Swiss chard does not take readily to being creamed (a la spinach), sauteed kale is delicious in eggs and fennel makes a fabulous cold soup, to name a few.

And no, we do not cook every night. With one small air conditioner (in the living room) that only gets turned on when temperatures reach over 95 degrees, a kitchen gets way too hot to be cooking throughout the summer. Sure, we take to the grill a little more often, sure we eat a lot of salads. More often than not, we set up a kitchen sauna about twice a week and prepare food for the week ahead. Our veggies go great in salads, but D has proclaimed a “one salad a day” policy which leaves us to be more creative with our veggies– zucchini bread anyone?

Do we throw a lot out? Although our farmers suggested one share can feed 3-4 non-vegetarian adults, D and I have found we easily finish our weekly allotment each week. It helps that we rarely go out for dinner and we bring lunch to work everyday.

Plus. with large preparations, especially in soups, much can be frozen for later in the year. I have contemplated purchasing a separate freezer, just for soups, but unfortunately, we lack the space. This week, I am most excited that we received a bounty of cucumbers– it’s canning time!

With all our trials and errors in the kitchen this summer, I still think bacon with hearty greens to be the best. It’s simple and delicious and takes little prep time. A perfect side from breakfast to dinner: great with eggs or cornmeal crusted fish (as shown here).

Collards (or other hearty greens) with Bacon
Serves 2. Prep time= 5 minutes. Cook time= 10 minutes.
While collards are usually cooked to an extreme doneness, leaving them limp and soggy, this preparation holds some of their structure, leaving them crisp.

2 cups loosely packed chopped collards, leaves only
2 strips bacon, cut into 1 inch pieces

1) Cut the bacon into 1 inch pieces. In a hot pan set over medium-high heat, cook bacon until crisp (or desired doneness reached).
2) As bacon is cooking, prepare collards: Wash collards and pull off leaves, discarding stems. Chop into strips, about 1 inch thick.
3) Push the bacon to the side of the pan and using a papertowel, soak up some of the bacon’s fat, leaving a thin surface on the pan. Add collards, stir to incorporate ingredients and coat with bacon fat, and cover.
4) Let cook about 3 minutes, uncover, stir and cover again, about 2 minutes more. Serve warm.

My good friend, DR, married his love, L, last weekend. Despite the fact that the couple lives only a few blocks from us here in NYC, they decided a California wedding was in order (L is from the SF area). D and I flew out for the affair and added some wine tasting, visitations of friends and relatives, camping, mud baths and canoeing into the mix– not to mention some delicious food– nothing too extravagant.

We started the journey in San Francisco with one of my best of friends, A. I met A when I met DR and we’ve remained close through the years. I’ve travelled to Egypt and Lebanon with her and then she up and left me for grad school way out west. Such is life.

D and I arrived with visions of tacos on our mind. Instead, A had a feast of lentils prepared. All I could think of was D and his “weird girly mush” qualms. We ate the mush, which was truly delicious mush, then headed out to Baker Beach, up a 5-story (if not longer) sand ladder and took in the views. Later that night we met up with some folks at a local Mission district bookstore that is BYO as you browse (nothing like a little beer to loosen up your purchasing decisions). Post-book buying we grew hungry for tacos and ended at the sun-bright venue, Cancun, along Mission (convenient since A lives steps away).

I got a carnitas (slow cooked pork) super taco (super comes with sour cream and avocado slices). There is something about California Mexican food. It is too delicious. Is it their seasoning? Maybe it is the freshness of the ingredients, the closeness to home? Maybe it’s the water? The tacos out there are definitely good. Downed with a Pacifico and lime– A perfect end to the night.

The next morning we headed south along a fog heavy Highway 1 towards the vineyards of SCM– otherwise known as Santa Cruz Mountain Appellation. Turning off Highway 1, we headed down windy mountain roads and made our first stop of the day at Bonny Doon. Their wines are fun, interesting, and best of all, affordable. Highlight was the Monferrato, a blend of ruche, barbera and syrah. It had an intense rose petal nose, was round and fruity and a good price to boot. We bought a few bottles and headed to Hallcrest Vineyard and then to David Bruce (closed for restocking).

After driving those crazy roads we were ready to relax (at least our stomachs were). D and I headed out to meet my grandma, aunt and uncle for some beers at a local pub in Santa Cruz that brews their own. On to Marieanne’s for some of their top notch homemade ice cream after that. I tried the horchata ice cream (horchata is a cinnamon infused Mexican rice drink), but went with a scoop of Mexican Chocolate, also chock full of cinnamon. We slept happy with all that wine, beer and ice cream in our bellies…

Breakfast Latvian style was in order the following day. My grandmother whipped out her fresh apricot jam for her special apple pancakes and everyone dug in. These pancakes are everyday breakfast pancakes, slightly sweeter and with a little more elasticity than your regular American fare. The recipe lives in my grandmother’s head, she tastes as she goes until the recipe is “just right,” only she really knows.

My uncle happily showed off his garden, especially his “smart worms” who are on their way “to college” in Santa Cruz, but SCU apparently keeps killing his worms there and he keeps giving them more. We headed up his backyard hill and battled with the dogs as we picked and ate blackberries, warm and sweet, right off the bush. But the morning ended as we were on our way to a sunset wedding. A beautiful affair, but still, D and I had wine on our minds…

A few days later D and I departed the SF area, north on Highway 1, to our campground along the Russian River, just past Korbel. That night, we hit Gary Farrel, Davis Bynum, Belvedere and Rochioli. The two times we passed by my buddies at Arista they were closed. Arista makes a great pinot with some tobacco and wet leather in there. I was excited to stop by and check out their facility, but I guess that will have to happen next time. Rochioli and Farrel were disappointments, especially after all the accolades we’ve heard. I suppose Rochioli is more for their club members and they are not pouring their tasty bottles for passerbyers– why bother when you have a 7 year wait list for regular members? What they were pouring seemed to scream “members only.” Despite all this, Farrel did have the best tasting room views of the week.

Belvedere took great joy in their visitors. With Jazz on Saturdays, comfortable outdoor space, a down-to-earth demeanor, and heavy pours, they really welcome guests. Their Alexander Valley Sauv-Blanc was tropical and fun. Their Russian River Chardonnay had a great gravel nose with hints of oak.

At Davis Bynum we passed up the freebies for a flight of their pinot noirs. Highly enjoyable and each one grew more complex with deeper nose characteristics as the tasting progressed.

July 4th we made our first stop at Simi. Our friend M turned us on to the joy of Simi just over a year ago with a bottle of their Chardonnay and we have happily consumed more wine than we can afford from that day forward. It was then that we realized that not all California Chardonnays oaked so much that they produce a gag reflex. Simi is thick caramel on the nose, honeysuckle on the tongue, and pure joy all around. With that, we passed the freebie tasting and headed for a flight of their delicious Chardonnay.

From there, a surprisingly empty Ridge in Dry Creek Valley found our company. This didn’t stop us from diving right into their Zinfandels. The Lytton Springs was big and fruity and full of delicious berry complexity. I’m still a fan of their 3 Valley, but if I’m in the mood to put down some money, I’ll definitely spring for some of their higher priced bottles. I’m also on the lookout for their Ponzo, not on the tasting, but at a reasonable price, I’d be willing to try it. There Zins are solid and a great pairing for BBQ (or just a good steak).

We swung south on our journey into Napa and received a pleasant surprise and friendly welcome at Alexander Valley Vineyards. So much so that D and I are considering joining up as members (though I still feel vineyard membership is only worth it if you live in California or have the money to really spend on wine). Regardless, their Zins are delicious in taste and name. We especially enjoyed their Sin Zin and the Redemption Zin. The Cyrus blend also won us over. We polished off their Redemption with filet mignon over our campfire grill that night. True heaven.

We entered Napa more than overwhelmed at the Disneyfication of it all. Especially having come from the quieter off the road locations of the day before. Even on the off day (July 4th) with less people, we were still struck by the gaudiness of all the vineyards along Route 29. We attempted to stick to offroads as much as possible (but found most of the vineyards closed).

We finally swung into the organic and biodynamic Grgich Hills. A stellar panel of Chardonnays. I was pleasantly surprised with their Fume Blanc, a term Cali growers coined out of peoples’ negative reaction to Sauv-Blanc. When I see Fume I usually turn around running, but our tasting guide assured us this one was a winner. It was. Slightly oaked, it had a powerful grapefruit aspect that was totally mindblowing, without getting in the way. Their Old Vine Zin was great, stick anything with “Old Vine” in front of me and I’ll probably swoon. Winner of the day was the 2000 Cab Sauv. Complex, full and fruity. Compared to the 2003 we tasted first, you can really tell these wines want aging, even their Chardonnay.

We blew threw Mondavi just to get a look at a mega-producer and ran screaming.

Next stop, Peju, if only because our newlywed friends are members. I felt the atmosphere to be a little industrial, them carting us around in groups, but D said he didn’t mind it and half expected and appreciated it to keep order in the Napa craziness. The most interesting taste was their Provence, a red and white blend. Not a rose, but red wine actually blended with white wine. Different and fun and a good summer drink decision maker of the old, “oh, I can’t decide, red or white?”

We barely dragged ourselves into Stag’s Leap from there. A disappointment after all our friendly tasters of the day to be met with one tracking the last minutes of the day on his watch and busy scoring points on two drunk girls next to us. He was too busy working them over to really care to answer our questions. A horrible ending with a high price tag at $15 for a tasting. I wanted to enjoy their wines, but just couldn’t.

It’s amazing to to see that one negative part of a tasting room experience can really set you off from a wine. Have a great experience and heck, become members of the vineyard.

Vineyards we attempted to visit that were closed: Davis Family, Fritz, Jordan, Pride, Frank Family. All will have to happen in the next tour.

We spent our last day in true California style with a 10 mile canoe adventure down the Russian River, a quick visit and purchase at Korbel, a late lunch (with “champagne”) in the Redwoods and then mudbaths and massages in Calistoga.

A winey good time was had and we will definitely make it back for more, hopefully in the near future. How can you not when that California climate is all too perfect?

Just Braise was on vacation this past week. Until order returns, here is one of my pieces published in the Queens Chronicle while I was away:

Summer BBQ Season w/ rub recipe

I can’t seem to find the other piece online. It was a short review about the boys over at Wine Cellar Sorbets. If you see them in your area, give the sorbet a try. It’s some interesting stuff they’re doing.