I have a harvest!
This is one of the two beds in which I am growing "Asian greens". All of the plants here are from seed started since January ... except for the purchased Candy onion plants that I tucked in here and there...
This is what I harvested to go into our dinner tonight ...Joi Choi, Violetta Pac Choi, green and purple Mizuna, Tatsoi, Chinese cabbage Orange Mini, and some Merlot lettuce for our salads ... plus some bean sprouts that I started a few days ago. I'm joining other bloggers over at Daphne's Dandelions as we share our weekly harvests...it's fun to see what others are harvesting and what they are cooking up with it...check it out!
My husband and I are very fond of Asian cuisines (that would be why I have two garden beds devoted to Asian vegetables). Thai food is my favorite while Mike prefers Japanese. A couple of years ago we ate at Khu Larb Thai in Pt. Townsend and tried the Crab Fried Rice. It was wonderful! I've played with various recipes since then to come up with something similar and this is my version (Mike says he likes it better than the one at the restaurant : )
Deb's Thai Style Crab Fried Rice (printer friendly version)
1 Tbsp soy sauce (I like Yamasa Less Salt)
1 Tbsp Thai fish sauce
1 Tbsp Oyster Sauce
2 quarter size slices fresh ginger
2 Tbsp canola oil
1 large egg
2 cups cooked and cooled jasmine rice
2 garlic cloves, crushed
1 tsp toasted sesame oil
2 cups chopped mixed Asian vegetables (bok choi, mizuna, tatsoi, Chinese cabbage, etc)
1 cup bean sprouts
6 green onions cut into 1 inch pieces
1/2 red bell pepper, coarsely chopped
1/2 pound of cooked crab meat (Dungeness here in Washington)... rinse and drain well if previously frozen
2 more green onions, finely sliced for garnishing
1 lime, quartered
Cook the rice using a rice cooker or if you're cooking it on the stove, place 1 1/2 cups rice in a saucepan with 3 cups of water. Bring to the boil and then turn down the heat to low and cover. Cook for about 15 minutes or until rice is fluffy and all the water has evaporated. Place rice in a bowl and allow to cool to room temperature.
Mix soy sauce, fish sauce and oyster sauce in a small bowl, add the sliced ginger and set aside while rice is cooking/cooling
Heat the oil in a wok over a medium high heat. Add the egg to the wok and scramble until set (about 30 seconds). Add the cooked rice and stir fry for 2 - 3 minutes. Add the garlic and stir fry for about 30 seconds more. Push the rice mixture to one side of the wok and add the toasted sesame oil, the Asian vegetables, green onion and red bell pepper and stir fry for 2 - 3 minutes. Stir the vegetables into the rice mixture.
Remove the ginger slices from the sauce mixture (discard the ginger) and add the sauce to the wok and stir fry briefly to mix evenly.
Add the crab and gently (so as not to break up the crab too much) stir into the rice/vegetable mixture
Spoon rice onto a serving plate and garnish with green onions. Serve lime quarters on the side for squeezing over the rice dish.
Serves 2 to 4
I serve this with a salad on the side and spring rolls if I have time to make them. A first course of coconut-chicken or coconut-shrimp soup goes perfectly with this menu (I'll share that recipe in another post).
Enjoy!
What are those little coils around some of the plants?
ReplyDeleteI'm so jealous!
If there wasn't so much coconut milk in Thai food I'd probably like it better.
I read somewhere that mung beans were hard to sprout at home - they came out with too strong of a flavor. Where do you get the seeds?
Penny : The coils are copper wire...theoretically they will discourage slugs (I'm still using Sluggo,too...just in case). There are a lot of the Thai recipes that don't use coconut milk...check out "Simply Thai" by Wandee Young; you can probably get it through your library. I don't think mung beans are hard to sprout...they don't seem to get as long as the ones I buy at the store, but the taste better and are crunchier. I bought the seeds from Territorial Seeds.
ReplyDeleteOh that looks delicious. I love fried rice though I've never tried a crab version or a Thai version. I like Thai, but my husband prefers Chinese style. Since I like both equally Chinese style it is.
ReplyDeleteDaphne: You could do a Chinese version just by eliminating the fish and oyster sauces and using just soy sauce and a short grain rice (Calrose is my favorite). I make this with crab, shrimp or a mixture of the two... it's really good!
ReplyDeleteWe eat alot of asian inspired meals - including thai, chinese, korean, and japanese - and a strange blending of all of the above! (I think they call that fusion cooking?!)
ReplyDeleteYour bed of greens look great and gave you the bones of a good menu. We live just a short drive from Port Townsend and often spend a day in the area and that thai restaurant is one of our favorites. :D
For goodness sake...now I'm going to have to try growing Asian Veggies! My daughter cooks a lot of Asian food and I'm really in love with it...so I will have to build another bed just for the veggies! AND I'm making the crab fried rice: it looks so good...we're rice growers!
ReplyDeleteYour bed and greens look wonderful! I see you have your rope lights going. I just took mine out of the cold frames on Saturday.
ReplyDeleteI'm going to have to copy and save your recipe. "The Italian" just loves to cook asian meals!
Laura : I do a lot of "fusion" cooking, too. One of my favorites is a Thai/Indian curry...I'll post the recipe soon. Pt Townsend is one of my favorite places...my art work was in William's Gallery there a few years ago...
ReplyDeleteLynda : I started growing Asian vegetables after reading Eliot Coleman's "The Winter Harvest"...they would do well In Williams even during the witer fogs...I know the area (born in Roseville, lived in Napa and in the foothills near Marysville and graduated from Sac State :)
Robin : I'm finding that the rope lights add just enough heat to the soil to get things growing better with our "spring that isn't", and they use very little power...you'll love the fried rice!
Very tasty looking. If only I could cook asian. Tried teriyaki a month or so ago. I liked it well enough, but my wife wasn't thrilled. I'd love to try again, but she wants something to spice it up. /shrug
ReplyDeleteAs for chickens, what's not to like about them? They're great for your garden, their eggs are far superior and healthier than anything in the store, they keep down bugs, they're a natural composter, and are a great family pet. Send him my way and I'll turn him around, especially if you're willing to do most of the work!
Rick : Asian is easy to cook (click on the Cooking with Dog link on my cooking links list...great videos showing how to cook many Asian meals) and very healthy food. I like my food spicier than my husband so I sprinkle some Schichimi Togarashi on it. It's a Japanese red pepper spice blend. You can get it at Uwadjimaya...they also have cooking demos :)
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately DH has bad memories of taking care of the family chickens when he was a kid (They raised for meat as well as eggs and he had to do the offing and feather plucking) ...I'm going to keep working on him...I told him he could give the older hens to someone else when it's time for them to land in the stew pot...