Finding Asian Herbs and Vegetables for Your Garden

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June 05, 2013Finding Asian Herbs and Vegetables for Your Garden

My father loves to garden and my mother loves to cook. I enjoyboth as they pretty much go hand in hand. However, I have to admit that Ipretty much neglected my garden for most of last year. We hired a nice mannamed Ricardo to help us keep things tidy but his construction skills wereunderutilized by the simple tasks that we asked of him: weeding, trimming, andspreading mulch. He went on vacation, promising to check in with us when hereturned. Alas, he never called. We got the message. Ricardo let us go asclients.

That said, my husband and I realized that we needed toreclaim our yard ourselves, like we used to back in ... 2011! We spent a coupleof weekends filling our greencycle bin and then I attacked my little vegetablegarden. It’s nothing fancy, just about 4 feet by 8 feet wide and constructed asa raised bed when we redid our backyard. Every year I plant Asian herbs and afew summer vegetables. After preparing the bed, I went shopping for plants. Isn’tshopping the reward for lots of hard work?

Finding starters for Vietnamese herbs and other Asianaromatics is not as difficult as it used to be. Over the years, I developed alist of places that I hit to source plants. This time of year, you never knowwhat you’ll find at:

Local nurseries andhome improvement centers – I’ve found the darnest plants at ourindependent, local nurseries as well as places like Home Depot and Lowes. Withthe large big box stores, it helps to shop at one located in an area with a sizeableAsian community. I bought a Thai Kaffir (Makrut) lime tree at Home Depot twelveyears ago. The Chinese garlic chives purchased 8 years before continues to be astalwart, volunteering in various places.

People who garden love to tinker and try new plants and thisyear, I was rewarded by lots of chile plants. They seem to be hot these days. (Ha.)I basically shop by name – like Thai Dragon and Super Chile, then I read thefine print to see whether or not they’re actually hot. Some, despite theirAsian provenance, lack spicy heat. This year, I planted 5 kinds of chiles justto see what would happen. We lack consistent hot temps in coastal NorthernCalifornia so my back up is buying chiles from the Hmong farmers and freezingthem for the long haul.

Note that common herbs such as mint and even sorrel are employedin Asian cooking. Those seedlings may be available at mainstream nurseries andgarden supply shops.

Farmers’ markets –Small nurseries sell starter plants at our farmers’ markets, and I mine theirstalls for interesting plants. In Santa Cruz, for example, Upstarts Organic Seedlingsalways has new varieties to explore.

Last weekend, I chat with Sarah, theowner, about growing Southeast Asian long chiles and she suggested trying Joe’sLong Cayenne. She also had starters for rau ram (Vietnamese coriander), Thaipurple basil (rau hung que) and Mrs. Burns basil, which she said seems to beeasier to grow in our climate than Thai lime basil. I’ve had problems with Thailime basil so I’m switching to Mrs. Burns. I’ll keep checking back with Sarahbecause later on this season, she’ll have Thai holy basil.

Asian Markets –One of my favorite places to source Vietnamese herbs is a tiny market in SanJose called Thien Thanh. The man who tends to the makeshift nursery speakslittle but his plants are always healthy.

My Vietnamese balm (rau kinh gioi) didn’t reseed this yearso I started with a new plant. I always need a new purple perilla (rau tia to,an earthier kin of Japanese shiso). He promised me that the black chile plantwas spicy hot so I bought one. The fourth plant I purchased from him was a ricepaddy herb (rau om), that I have to keepin a plastic bag where things will sweat to mimic super humid growingconditions. Prices are not marked but I was charged about $4 or $5 for each. Whata deal. What a steal!

Indian grocery stores are also a great source of plants.Five years ago, I bought a curry leaf plant for [gulp] $35 from Bharat Bazaar, asomewhat sad Indian market in Santa Clara that happened to sell the plant. TheIndian customers asked me why I was buying it because the market sold theleaves by the bags for about $2. I was curious, I said, and want a super freshsupply at my home. The $35 investment was a baby, no taller than 12 inches, butlook at it now – a bona fide little tree on my patio.

Berkeley’s Tokyo FishMarket is an excellent source for Japanese seedlings, as well as seafoodand groceries. The market displays the plants right outside the doorway.Eggplant, shishito peppers, various kinds of shiso, are among the seedlings I’veseen there. They often sell Asian seed packets too.

You don’t need much space to cultivate a few herbs toenhance your cooking. Yes, you can buy the stuff but growing even a tiny bit ofyour own food is immensely rewarding and tasty to boot.

Related information:

If you can’t source Asian herbs and seedlings in person, tryone of these onlineseed sources.Need a refresher or introduction to Vietnamese herbs? Checkout the VietnameseHerb Primer. Posted in Asian Ingredients, Gardening | Permalink

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My father loves to garden and my mother loves to cook. I enjoyboth as they pretty much go hand in hand. However, I have to admit that Ipretty much neglected my garden for most of last year. We hired a nice mannamed Ricardo to help us keep things tidy but his construction skills wereunderutilized by the simple tasks that we asked of him: weeding, trimming, andspreading mulch. He went on vacation, promising to check in with us when hereturned. Alas, he never called. We got the message. Ricardo let us go asclients.

That said, my husband and I realized that we needed toreclaim our yard ourselves, like we used to back in ... 2011! We spent a coupleof weekends filling our greencycle bin and then I attacked my little vegetablegarden. It’s nothing fancy, just about 4 feet by 8 feet wide and constructed asa raised bed when we redid our backyard. Every year I plant Asian herbs and afew summer vegetables. After preparing the bed, I went shopping for plants. Isn’tshopping the reward for lots of hard work?

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Garden at Dusk & garden recipes

 

The late afternoon hours were always the pups playtime. Even in Dante’s grey muzzled years, after the full warmth of the day had past and the air began to soften, Dante and Sierra would become puppies again. Playing tug-o-war. Chasing each other around with the randomness only the youth possess.

If you dared to step on the central lawn you were fair game for playtime. 100lbs of wheaten red muscle would come bounding up, simultaneously followed and circled by a white wiggling scamper.

During the hours surrounding the departing sun, as photographers we tend to wax poetic over the quality of the light, but in the garden it seems to go beyond that. The scents are a little sweeter. The air soft. Birds flit about more as they gather their evening’s meal. There isn’t a time in the day we crave to be in the garden more than at those setting hours.

For the longest time it wasn’t an option. We only saw the garden on our one day off, except for the morning glimpse and the nighttime strolls. But now we’ve been able to change our schedules. To get out of retail driven business.  And now we finally get to soak in the last rays of day and the opening embrace of night. Quality of life.

When friends come over, this is the time we try to set up the gathering. It isn’t always easy, especially for those driving down from LA, but it is worth it. It is as if every drop of sweat, bruise, and scrape that has gone into the garden has transformed exponentially into something more beautiful. From a many legged fuzzy worm-like caterpillar to a floating butterfly.

It isn’t just the pre-dusk hours which give a special tingle, but also the hour or so after. That is when the dinner conversations sink into your soul. Night’s blanket begins to wrap you up. The moment of a deep breath slowly released.

This is our garden in its magical hours.

- Todd 

Some previous Spring garden recipes you might enjoy: 

Kumquat Marmalade Recipe 

Orange & Fennel Salad with toasted Fennel Vinaigrette 

Margarita with Bitters 

Grilled Artichoke Stems w/ Tarragon Garlic Butter 

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Fried Minted Artichokes – A new addition to the Spring garden

Every spring, Diane and I go through the annual “What veggies are we going to plant?” ritual.

First the weather starts to warm and we begin to crave more than leafy greens, sugar snap peas, radishes, and carrots.  We’ll hit Home Depot and nearly buy a bunch of boring varieties which we don’t really want but that is all they have because is it too early in the season. We’ll barely hold off on purchasing, then two days later the weather will drop winter cold again and we congratulate ourselves on not buying too early.

Repeat two more times.

Finally we can’t take it anymore and the inevitable excursions to our favorite nurseries and farmers’ markets takes place.  By now the cool stuff is available and we buy twice the amount of varieties of what we originally intended. Mostly tomatoes, bell peppers, chilies, and eggplant.

Good nurseries and growers are dangerous. The 3? pots costing a mere $2-4 each. We’ll find some of our favorite varieties: tomatoes like the Anna Russian, Kentucky Beefsteak, Sun Golds (which we don’t even need to buy since it always reseeds itself, but we do anyway), chilies like the padron, shishito, a medley of habaneros.

Of course in searching for the favorites, we’ll discover a bunch of new-to-us types and have to get a few of those.  Somehow the bill ends up being $70-$80 of $3 or $4 items by the time we hit the register. Then a couple days later we think of a favorite we forgot to get and head back to the nurseries.

Repeat two more times.

One veggie I always want, but we never buy, is to grow artichokes. They just take up soooo much room and I can’t convince Diane to sacrifice some of her radish or beet soil allocation. I’m not giving up my arugula space either and it is unthinkable to reduce any of the tomatoes or chilies growing room.

But this year we’ve added a couple more raised planters, and I finally badgered Diane enough that she relented one corner to artichokies. Especially after reminding her that she could use the blossoms for styling and table decorations!

The main reason I want to grow the artichokes is for the baby artichokes. I love them.  So cute and tender I could just eat them up.  Wait… I do eat them up. Strip them, then slice, fry, salt, and devour them.  Sounds a little S&M like, but it sure is tasty.

Here’s a recipe for one of our favorite ways to cook up the baby artichokes, Fried Minted Baby Artichokes. Tasty little tidbits we tend to eat much more than we intend to. One note on making them, be very liberal in stripping away the outer leaves.  As a general rule, the darker the color the leaf, then tougher it will be after frying. Usually I’ll strip almost half of the leaves off of store bought baby artichokes.

If you like the crunchy outer leaves feel free to strip a little less.  You can always strip more leaves off after frying if you change your mind. You can also make this with the “adult” artichokes, but you might want to scoop out the choke (the little hairs over the heart.)

We’d love to hear what everyone else is planning for or excited to grow this year. What’s your favorite varieties or what are you trying to make room for. Garden Geeks Unite!

-Todd

crispy crunchy tender baby artichokes

 Print This Recipe
Fried Minted Artichoke Recipe
Be very liberal in stripping the leaves off of the artichokes when prepping.  The outer leaves will fry up tougher. If you need to, you can always strip more leaves off after frying. Make sure oil is hot before starting to fry, and pull garlic just before it reaches golden brown, as it will become bitter if overcooked. Serves 2 or 3. 12 Baby Artichokes10 cloves Garlic@ 40 large Mint Leaves, finely sliced1/2 Lemon, cut into wedgesSea Saltoil for fryingPrep the Artichokes. Strip away the outer leaves until they are a very light green (usually about 1/3 -1/2 of the outer leaves). Trim the end of the stem and the top of the artichokes. Slice in half.Fry. Pour enough oil in a large saute pan to fill 1/4? deep. Heat over med-high heat. When oil is hot, place artichokes cut side down in a single layer (fry in batches if necessary) scatter garlic cloves between the artichokes and add half of the mint.Fry until garlic and artichokes until lightly golden (about 2-3 minutes) then flip and fry until just done (about another 2 minutes). Make sure to pull garlic out just before being it is fully golden as it will continue to cook a bit more after being removed from oil and will become bitter if overcooked.Drain on paper towels, squeeze a little lemon juice over artichokes, season with sea salt and toss with remaining mint leaves.  Plate with additional lemon wedges. Serve warm or at room temperature.

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