What a luxurious working-day lunch. It’s casual and uncomplicated to make — an open-faced sandwich — but on top of this bread lies slices of home-cured wild-caught red Alaska salmon surrounded by jewels from the garden. Funny to think that cured salmon (not smoked, but similar in texture and taste, sans smokiness) was once a common luncheon meat for the working man before it became a delicacy. It’s produced through a quick and easy process of rubbing salt, sugar and other seasonings into the fish, and letting it draw out moisture over a couple days. So, fishermen of Scandinavia, or Native Americans of the Pacific Northwest, would use this method to make their fresh catches keep longer over time. Overfishing led to the rarity of this fish and now most salmon is farmed (and, to the connoisseur, tastes nothing like its wild brethren). Now, wild-caught salmon from the only sustainable fishery left in the world, Alaska, commands more than tenderloin on the market. So how did I get my hands on this stuff, and why am I sharing it with everyone for lunch? I caught wind of a wild-caught Alaskan salmon CSA, and signed up as soon as I could.
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It’s the last week of summer, so to speak, with Labor Day around the corner. Hope everyone’s had a blast. This is one of the plants I’ve been looking forward to eating the whole time, and it’s just about ready to harvest here. Know what it is? I won’t give up any clues, but the key to the answer is to try to name the specific variety. Guess away!
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It’s really just those four things, plus salt and pepper. But with this and so many other dishes lately, I’ve found that it’s not what the ingredients are, but how good they are that matters more. Sure, if you had “really good” horseradish and served it with “really good” bananas, it might still not taste that great. But every once in a while, you come across a gem like this. I’ll call it a combination of luck and a good growing season.
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I never thought I’d be saying this before, but I have too much arugula. I managed to have too much (too much?) of the most sophisticated of salad greens, a delicate and expensive ingredient that perishes quickly, so better get just a small amount at a time. At least, that was my understanding of arugula about a year ago. This summer, I can never seem to get rid of enough of the stuff because I’ve been growing it.
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At Sixpoint, we value creativity inside and outside of the tanks — and the kitchen. So there’s a contest going on to design your own poster for the brewery. Here are some of the ones that talented fans have submitted so far, and you can check out the rest of them here. Animal puns rule!
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It was so silly I had to do it. When I read that I would be getting a pint of donut peaches in the newsletter of my fruit CSA this week, the idea took hold of me: must make “donut peach donuts.” I just saw Inception like the rest of our society has, it seems, so I know more than ever now that when an idea is planted, it can grow and grow to take over your rational thought.
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This follows the same sort of principle as my fried rice post a while back: you take a stale grain (in this case, a loaf of bread), and revive it with everything and anything that’s ripe, or just around. It could be everything that’s past ripe, and needs to get used up soon. Works just as well, since you won’t be seeing them crisp and fresh here in the end.
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We haven’t spoken too much about herbs yet, and this one’s a real zinger. It looks a little bit like dill, except for its signature color (hint: this is a descriptor in the plant’s name), and it tastes distinctively like something else, something that is eaten commonly, too.

The first person to correctly the guess the name of this plant will win two free tickets to an event that I’m really excited about. It’s The Story of Sushi, an evening of expert discussion on the history and evolution of sushi, from Japan to New York, on August 24th. Trevor Corson, author of the bestselling book of the same name will be in attendance, as well as sushi chefs from the best restaurants in the city — a feast for the sushi-lover’s brain. Thanks to the Museum of the City of New York for this fun prize. Good luck!

I’ve been cooking and eating the potatoes that we’ve been growing on the roof all summer, usually dug up just a short while before. This has led me to discover the particular differences between these very young, fresh or “new” tubers and the kind you’d typically buy from a store. It’s a blessing, for sure, and one of the reasons I started growing food in the first place.
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Sometimes, one can fall into trap he or she smirkingly set. So it happened when I completely MIS-named my last Name That Plant plant! This Monday, I showed a photo of what I told folks soon after the guesses began was stevia; it was not. It was actually horseradish, which was right next to the stevia plant, and I got confused. Shows that I’m a first-time gardener, and from here out, I’ll warn there is a margin for human error in this contest!

This is what the super-sweet stevia plant actually looks like. I hope that settles any confusion from those who knew better. And since the photo I showed on Monday was actually horseradish, it looks like we have another winner of the tour of the roof! (I’ll be in touch.) Now that I’ve identified it, I’ll be working on what to cook with stevia next.