Tuesday, November 4, 2008

Tuesday's Harvest

Today I harvested what was left of the swiss chard and a few leeks. I left the plants in the ground with a few little leaves because I'm curious if they will make any progress in the next month.Here's the rather dirt-filled chard I harvested and the leeks before and after a clean up.
Both went into a Spanakopita pie with some baby spinach. Last time we made it in a pie pan and found that it was too much for just the two of us. Since it's never as crispy and good as leftovers, this time I divided it between two bread pans. We baked one tonight and then other went uncooked into the freezer for another evening. As usual, we forgot to take a picture of the finished product before we served it. Here's one slice on a plate and what was left in the pan. Baking it in the bread pan was a success, and was just the right amount for dinner.
I found a recipe for No Waste Leek Stock and decided to give it a try with the dark green parts of the leeks. I washed them well and chopped them with kitchen shears. I didn't have potato peelings to add and I thought that would make the stock cloudy. Instead I added a bay leaf and some rosemary as well as one peeled chopped carrot. I put 8 cups of water in the pot with them and simmered for over an hour. It reduced to closer to 4 cups and seems to be a good tasting stock. I'm not sure yet what we'll use it for. Here it is before we strained it.

1 comment:

Dan said...

Cool leeks and good looking pie! I also divide things up and freeze them. It seems to make life much easier when you can just fire homemade food into the oven like you would with icky processed food.