by Geoff | Aug 31, 2011 | CobraHead, Gardening, Recipes
This year I decided to finally grow papalo, Porophyllum ruderale, also known as quillquiña. This herb has a flavor somewhat similar to cilantro, but unlike that plant, it has thrived throughout a summer of triple digit days. Not having cooked with it before, it gave me an excuse to make a quick roasted salsa. Ingredients 1-2 tomatoes Several hot peppers, I used a mix of fresh and dried peppers 1-2 cloves garlic 1 small onion a handful of papalo leaves, chopped...
by Geoff | Aug 17, 2011 | Recipes
Last weekend I went to a wedding on the Lao side of our family. I took advantage of the trip to learn how to make spicy Lao style cucumber salad from my cousin Kristi’s husband, Sie. Ingredients 3 medium cucumbers 5-6 Asian hot peppers 1 garlic clove 1 ½ tsp sugar ½ tsp salt 3 small tomatoes 2-3 TBS fish sauce 1-2 lime wedges This salad can also be made with green papaya. If using papaya, peel it first. The cucumbers only need to be peeled if the skin is really...
by Geoff | Jun 17, 2011 | Recipes
With all of the sweet potato recipes that we like to cook, we’ve had yet to make sweet potato fries. So last week I had some friends over to test my oven-baked version of this dish. Per tray: Enough Peeled and sliced sweet potatoes to cover tray without touching each other ¾ teaspoon salt ¾ teaspoon cumin Black pepper Enough olive oil to completely cover potatoes thoroughly Preheat oven to 425-450 (depending on oven) Peel sweet potatoes and cut into ½ inch wide...
by Geoff | May 17, 2011 | Gardening, Recipes
This afternoon I made a cup of yaupon tea from the leaves of one of the shrubs that’s growing in my backyard. As I write this I think that the caffeine buzz has begun to hit me. Yaupon holly, a relative of Yerba Mate, is the only native North American plant that contains caffeine. Yaupon has the unfortunate scientific name of Ilex vomitoria. According to Charles Hudson, in his introduction to the book Black Drink: A Native American Tea, the scientific name...
by Geoff | Apr 19, 2011 | Gardening
Over the last few years I’ve been developing a pomegranate border along the north side of my vegetable garden. So far I have planted four pomegranate trees spaced tightly at 4-5 feet apart and plan on extending the border with another two to three trees. The initial plant that I put in three years ago is now about ten feet tall, with the second one already up to six feet. Unless pruned to take on a tree form, pomegranates grow more like a large shrub, putting...
