purple asparagus

The Perfect Day…

October 27, 2011

… started with a bike ride to the Kilauea bakery for breakfast and cafe americano. Today we got after it in the garden. The results speak for themselves. Check it out:

Mark smiles in the face of defeat.

We took a long lunch and did a little body surfing at Rock Quarries. We got motivated with some maté and wrapped things up in the garden.

We finished the day with Carolyn Dumeyer’s restorative yoga class at Common Ground. Carol is an incredible yogi and physical therapist whose class runs on the donations of her appreciative students. After a full day spent hula hoeing and squatting over garden beds, we couldn’t afford to miss it!

Class schedule:

Sunday, 10 – 11:30 AM
Tuesday & Thursday, 9:30 – 11 AM
Wednesday, 5:30 – 7 PM
Friday, 8 – 9:30 AM

And a link to some directions

The evening consisted of a delicious meal that was harvested from our garden at Common Ground. We enjoyed a four course meal that consisted of micro arugula salad with citrus beet dressing, panang carrots, cashew shiitake polenta, and eggplant and joi choi stir fry.

Recipes

Panang Sauce:

3 tbsp ginger
2 cups vegetable stock
1/4 cup honey
1/3 cilantro bunch
1 handful cashews
1 pinch mac nuts
3 black peppercorns
1 lemon grass stalk
3 kaffir lime leaves
3 tbsp finger
1 tbsp red hot chili pepper flakes
1 tbsp nutritional yeast
1 tbsp sesame oil
1 cup hemp milk

Blend in blender until smooth, set aside for future use.

Panang Carrots:

Gather carrots.

Slice in half, cut on the bias.
Heat up a sauté pan with grape seed oil and add carrots.
Season with sugar and 1 clove.
Add panang sauce and cook until carrots are fork tender.
Adjust seasoning to your palate and serve.

Prepare shrooms:

Add desired amount of dehydrated mushrooms (we chose shiitake) to water and soak for at least 15 minutes. Set aside for future use.

Cashew

Shiitake

Broth:

blend:

2 cups vegetable stock
4 dried shiitakes
3 black peppercorns
1 garlic clove
2 handfuls of cashews
1 pinch of mac nuts
1 cup of hemp milk
1 tbsp nutritional yeast
½tbsp red hot chili pepper flakes
½ tbsp cajun seasoning
2 coriander seeds

until smooth.

Cashew Shiitake Polenta:

Heat up some grape seed oil in a sauce pot.
Slice up the bottom portion of some green onion (the bulbs)
Sweat the onions and garlic until the mixture is aromatic.
Add 1-½ cups polenta and toss in oil until evenly coated.
Add the cashew shiitake broth and simmer until the polenta is fully cooked (texture should be soft, not crunchy).
While the polenta cooks, thinly slice the rehydrated shiitakes.
Heat truffle oil in a sauté pan on low heat.
Add mushrooms.
Season with salt and pepper to taste.
Mix into the polenta and serve.