Chorizo, chickpeas, poached eggs, FFF

Choizo w/ chickpeas & poached egg

This Friday's food forage dish was chorizo with chickpeas topped with poached egg.

The eggs came directly from our own chickens.

I used Mexican chorizo from Pine Street Market.




The chickpeas were our one cheat this week since there isn't a local source for them. We used dried beans and let them soak for a few hours first. Then into boiling water with one cinnamon stick.

Saute a diced onion and then add in the chorizo. Let this cook for a while before adding in the chickpeas. Then top the chickpeas and chorizo up with chicken stock. Let simmer for about an hour.

When ready to serve top with a poached egg. Each egg takes four minutes so don't forget to allow for the correct amount of time.

The greens are going pretty well in the raised beds now. They are on the eastern side of the house and it is about the only place that gets full sun.

Salad with truffle vinaigrette

I made a salad from lettuce growing in a raised bed we have here. This is a very good light and tangy vinaigrette for hot weather.

Truffle vinaigrette:

1 - tspn Dijon mustard
2 - tblspn honey
1- tspn white truffle oil
1/4 cup lemon juice
1/2 cup olive oil
salt
pepper

Combine Dijon, honey and lemon juice in a measuring cup

While stirring, drizzle in some good olive oil to form an emulsion. Add truffle oil.

That's it!

I topped the salad with Goat's Milk cheese crafted locally from Capra Gia.

It isn't local but it's worth getting, Edmond Fallot dijon mustard, nothing can compete.

You can get it from iGourmet.com.

Georgia Olive Oil is made here in Georgia and is available from their online store if you cannot find it locally.











You can always find out what is available to you locally at Local Harvest.

Forest Garden

Now that it's finally spring, here is a short tour of some of the trees in the young forest garden.

Boston Butt w/ poke and turnips

Pork Shoulder w/ Poke Weed

The poke is really getting large now and they won't be worth eating if they get too big, zero food miles.

I boiled them first in a large pot.

Turnips were from Freedom Farmers Market at the Carter Center.

I roasted a boston butt in the dutch oven on 250 for about seven hours with carrots from Straight from the Backyard.

The meat comes from Gum Creek Farms.

I sauteed the turnips and poke in garlic and bacon from Pine Street Market.


Salad with balsamic vinaigrette

I made a salad from lettuce growing in a raised bed we have here.

Balsamic vinaigrette:

1 - tblspn dijon mustard
1- tblspn good balsamic vinegar

Combine both in a measuring cup

While stirring mustard and balsamic, drizzle in some good olive oil to form an emulsion.

That's it!

I topped the salad with Goat's Milk cheese crafted locally from Capra Gia.

It isn't local but it's worth getting, Edmond Fallot dijon mustard, nothing can compete.

You can get it from iGourmet.com.

Georgia Olive Oil is made here in Georgia and is available from their online store if you cannot find it locally.

Strippaggio of Atlanta sells olive oil and balsamic vinegar in their online store, it's very good.








You can always find out what is available to you locally at Local Harvest.

Burgers with poached egg, FFF

Earlier in the week we visited the Spotted Trotter's location in Krog Street Market and bought some of their special secret burger blend. We used this to make patties with for the grill.

They wouldn't say exactly what was in the blend but I'm pretty sure it's ground beef with some pork blended in. There was lots of flare ups from grease. I just had to watch it extra closely. They came out fantastic.

We used eggs from our own chickens and poached them to put over the burgers. We didn't use any bread at all just some Dijon mustard. It was very simple but very delicious.

Krog Street Market is a very happening new market on Krog Street, home of the scariest tunnel in America. Not cookie cutter and not overrun with posers yet it's a cool place to visit.

I even paid $10 for a chocolate bar from Xocolatl! It was good but I'm not sure how anything that has thousands of embodied food miles can be labeled sustainable.

And by the way, Ford Fry's newest restaurant Superica ain't bad either!

Bees

Yesterday about ten thousand new arrivals showed up.

Bees!

In February we attended a beekeeping class and ordered some bees. They let me know they were ready and I drove over there yesterday and picked them up. It's about an hours drive out in the country.

I'm beginning to think that the apple trees didn't get pollinated and I'm positive that's the case for at least one of them. Hopefully having bees on the property will mitigate that. (I should have done it by hand though)

Transferring frames from the nuc

The bees came in what is called a "nuc". So they were bees that already had a queen and had been together. I drove them home in the floorboard of the truck, per the beekeepers directions. They were taped in with a piece of screen. They came with five frames that already had honey and brood.

Today they were coming back loaded with pollen that was bright yellow. I don't know what it is but it might be poplar because I see them going up.

These bees are adjusted to this climate since they are from very close by so hopefully they will do fine. As far as I can tell there aren't anymore honeybees nearby so they have pretty much free reign right now.

Food movies

We've watched a couple of good documentaries lately about food. Eating Alabama and Urban Fruit. They are both available on Amazon Prime.

Swale tour