My New Roots - Sprouted Wild Rice with Pistachios and Spring Vegetables

With my last jar experience from last week I decided to make my first attempt at sprouting with this recipe.  For the sprouting I found some glass jars with two part lids that made it really easy to strain and rinse the wild rice.

The sprouting went extremely well and from there it was very easy to get the bowls together.  One thing I always forget to do is to prep the ingredients in advance.  Since this recipe requires very little cooking, once the sprouts were done and I started combining ingredients I didn't have any free time to prep the ingredients before they were needed.  As a result, my first attempt at julienned carrots took quite a while to get done halfway through the recipe and I had to call upon my wife for assistance with several of the ingredients while I chopped.

The end result was a huge success.  My wife is a big fan of this recipe and is eager for me to make some more.

My New Roots - Rooibos Ginger Sun Tea

Continuing the past week's trend of using jars, I decided to also give the book's Rooibos Ginger Sun Tea recipe a try.  This recipe is very easy and I found the tea to be extremely delicious.

I opted not to use the optional sweetener for this tea and find I quite like the flavor.  I enjoyed this tea so much last week that I whipped up another two jars earlier today.

My New Roots - Pick Me Up Pickled Turnips

I decided this past week to make my first foray into pickling with this recipe.  Several of the recipes I planned for the week required the use of jars so I picked some up and had some fun.  Unfortunately, my first batch won't be done for another couple of days but I had some spare ingredients and decided to pickle up some more turnips for the following weeks.

Here's a look at batch #1 a day or so after initial pickling:

When I made my first batch, the first thing I noticed was that the recipe seems to call for way too many turnips.  After trimming and peeling the turnips I had a lot left over when the jar was full.

The other issue I had with the first batch is that even after filling the jar with turnips, the pickling solution wasn't enough for the jar.  Now that I've done the 2nd batch I've realized that I missed part of a step.  The 2nd step of the recipe calls for you to mix several ingredients with 2 cups of water however the water is not listed as an ingredient and in hindsight I believe I may have forgotten to mix in the water.

Since I had an abundance of turnips and a shortage of pickling solution, I crammed extra turnips into the jar until the pickling solution rose high enough to cover them all.  This made getting the lid on extremely difficult.  I'll be curious to see how these turn out since I'm pretty sure I did something wrong.

On the 2nd batch, I definitely included the 2 cups of water in the pickling solution and ended up with an even larger surplus of turnips AND a surplus of pickling solution.  Since I didn't want to waste either, I mixed some extra water into the solution, grabbed some extra beet, garlic, and dill, and made a 2nd jar.  Hopefully this wasn't a mistake.

We'll have to see how the turnips taste when they're done but overall I'm a bit disappointed in this recipe already.  As someone who is not particularly experienced in the kitchen, it's incredibly frustrating having so much material left over at the end with no clue if it's just because the recipe sometimes works out that way or because I've done something wrong.

My New Roots - Socca With Grilled White And Green Asparagus, Dill, And Feta

My second attempt at a recipe turned out much better than the fist.  I didn't completely botch any ingredients this time.

This recipe was amazing and may be one of the best dinners I have ever cooked.  I made it for my wife and her friend and we all loved it.  I haven't done much cooking with dill but I found the combination of the dill and feta to give a very unique and delicious flavor.

It proved difficult to find the white asparagus so my version used all green asparagus.

The recipe was pretty simple and straightforward.  Now that I know how it's done, I'm looking forward to trying it another time and making enough for more leftovers throughout the week.

Some tips for anyone attempting to replicate this recipe:

1. The socca crepes didn't actually fill the whole pan for me (though I only let it sit for 45 minutes before making, longer might have helped).  I'd recommend taking your large skillet and dropping down a little bit in size.
2. The recipe isn't very clear on the right timing for adding the balsamic vinegar.  I kept waiting for the onions in the pan to start getting dry but that never happened so I eventually had to just add the balsamic vinegar all at once and finish cooking them.  The onions may have ended up a bit overcooked.
3. I found the timing to be just about perfect to start making the socca and the asparagus (in a grill pan) at the same time.  As I was pulling crepes off the batches of asparagus were finishing and I was able to plate them right up.

My New Roots - Oyster Mushroom Bisque

I just finished my first recipe attempt from the new cookbook I recently picked up (My New Roots).  I elected to begin with the Oyster Mushroom Bisque recipe.

I should begin by saying that I botched the recipe pretty badly.  The recipe calls for leeks and I had not realized that when using whole leeks, you should remove the green leafy end prior to cooking.  As a result, my version came out significantly more green than the recipe's version.  It also produced significantly more than I anticipated.

I find the soup to have a very good flavor, if a bit on the leeky side.  I attribute this primarily to my misunderstanding of leeks.

I also encountered some difficulty during the blending portion of the recipe.  The extra volume created by using so much of the leek resulted in a rather messy blender experience.  I would advise caution during the blending portion as the soup is quite hot at that point.

Overall, I really enjoy the soup and am looking forward to trying it again with a bit more experience under my belt.