A German pickle for ripe cucumbers, ones that have sat on the vine a little too long. I accidentally used Japanese cucumbers to make these but I hope they will still be okay. The salting is always a cool process to me, pulling out all that water. I let these set overnight in the fridge. This is from the Joy of Pickling. If you’re at all interested in pickling go buy this book. I love looking through it. Next for me is an Indian Cauliflower pickle.

5 pounds of ripe cucumbers, peeled
1/4 cup pickling salt (There’s a reason to use this pure salt. If you don’t have it run to Food City and buy a bag which will last you for more than 1 pickling season if you’re not putting up a ton of pickles.)
3 cups cider vinegar
1 1/2 cups of sugar
1 1/2 tablespoons whole yellow mustard seeds
2 teaspoons mixed pickling spices (I bought some at the Co-op.)

Slice the cucumbers in half vertically and scrape the seeds out. Slice each half into strips. Mix the strips in a bowl with the salt. Cover and leave at room temperature for 4-12 hours.

Drain the cucumber strips well; do not rinse them. IN a nonreactive pot, stir together vinegar, sugar, mustard seeds and spices. Add half the cucumber strips and bring mixture to a boil. Reduce the heat and simmer for 1 minute.

Ladle cucumbers into mason jars and cover with the hot liquid, leaving 1/2 inch head space. Repeat the cooking of the cucumbers with the second half of the cucumbers.

Boil the jars in a hot water bath for 10 minutes. Store at least 3 weeks before eating.

Seems like peaceful Sundays are rare but yesterday was just that. After painting the walls at the Public House a cool steel gray, I picked up some supplies at Three Rivers and headed home. I had no real plans but bread pudding, gazpacho, and pickling. After a glass of wine and some debate on what to cook for dinner, I defrosted a leg of lamb from my family’s ranch in Oregon.

The bread pudding was quick and good. I used some leftover biscuits from Tupelo Honey in Asheville. Tomato Head provided the recipe. Biscuits are not usually the best for bread pudding because they kind of fall a part but these were hearty enough to hold up.

I always have an internal debate over fast/high heat cooking and slow/low heat. Generally I do not have the patience for the low heat but yesterday it seemed to make sense. So I threw the leg of lam, coated in a little olive oil, salt, pepper, and herbs de provence,  on the grill at 200-300 degrees for two and a half hours. It was off direct heat most of the time and I cooked it to about 145 degrees. It was amazing. I don’t know if was the family lamb or the slow heat or the mixture of herbs but it was seriously the best lamb I’ve ever had.

I also made gazpacho. It was  such a good summer dinner, light fresh soup and then a meaty meat! The gazpacho was tomatoes, cucumbers, a jalepeno, browned leeks and onions, white wine vinegar and olive oil.

All in all it made for a great Sunday at home. Relaxing and rejuvenating!

Sorry these pictures are not awesome. I feel like my phone camera gets worse with each use….

We are lucky that tomatoes are everywhere right now. It’s one of my favorite times of the year. There is a lot to do with tomatoes canning, juicing, sandwiching, salting. On Saturday at the Riverplains dinner we topped the burgers with this amazing, incredible, craving-inducing tomato chutney from Full Moon Feast: Food and the Hunger for Connection by Jessica Prentice. It was great on the burger and perfect with scrambled eggs (my test for any new sauce or chutney). It has a salty, mustardy flavor. This recipe makes enough, 1/2 gallon, to can. If you don’t want this much just divide it down.

3 teaspoons of fenugreek seeds
3/4 cup boiling water
4-5 tomatoes
1.5 lemons juiced
1.5 tablespoons whole cumin seeds
3 teaspoons black or brown mustard seeds
1.5 tablespoons fresh basil minced
1, 6 inch piece of ginger peeled and minced or grated
1.5 teaspoons tumeric
1.5 teaspoons sucunat
1/3 cup of whey (if you don’t have whey strain out whole fat yogurt)
2 tablespoons sea salt
1/3 teaspoon or more of cayenne pepper

Pour boiling water over fenugreek seeds in a small bowl. Let them soak for at least 6 hours or overnight.

De-seed the tomatoes and cut into a small diece. Put tomatoes in a large bowl, drain the water from fenugreek seeds, and add to tomatoes.

Squeeze lemon juice over tomatoes.

In a small skillet, toast the cumin and mustard seeds until they begin to smell fragrant.

Add toasted cumin and mustard seeds, ginger, basil, tumeric, sucunat, whey, salt, and cayenne to the tomatoes. Stir thoroughly and taste. Mixture should be salty but delicious!

Today’s field trip did not take me far. Just down to Gay St. to the French Market, which has been open a couple years now. Despite it’s central location to most of my life, downtown, I hardly ever remember to stop in. They serve brunch and have savory crepes in addition to pastries and other goodies.

The inside of the shop/creperie is really beautiful, marble counter tops and lots of natural lighting. The couple that works behind the counter are super nice. I’ve eaten here once before for lunch and was surprised by the extensive menu. For lunch I remember having a buckwheat crepe filled to the brim with vegetables and cheese. Today I did the traditional sugar and butter crepe.

The crepe today was really well done, it was light and airy and browned evenly. There was, however, way too much sugar and butter, which one may argue is not possible. On one hand I tend to agree with this argument, on the other hand in my mind the point of a sugar and butter crepe is to have something a little lighter than say Nutella or another heavy filling. My memory of these in Paris (which granted could be totally turned around…) is a light dusting of sugar rather than what seemed like a dumping of sugar. Either way it was really yummy.

I will say that between the sugar and the crepe and the coffee this is the first time I haven’t felt tired in weeks!

The French Market
530 South Gay Street
Knoxville, TN 37902
(865) 540-4372
www.thefrenchmarketknoxville.com

Tuesday Field Trip coming soon, in the meantime a few more pictures from my brother and sister in law.

Here’s a first round of pictures from last night. Thanks to everyone who came out and the Niceleys for making the event utterly amazing.

This week: dying table clothes, stamping napkins, tweaking the menu based on availability because some items just aren’t ready yet, making lanterns, getting flowers, all for the sold out dinner on Saturday. Today Mockingbird will go out to the farm to help the cooks. This is my favorite time of the event, pulling all the planning together! Can’t wait to see everyone!