"La tera l'e' basa"..the ground is very low...

..is what old people say in Northern Italy when somebody (me...) complains about how hard it is to "work the land".

I've been quite busy the past week ; victim of a sudden "I want to grow my produce" virus I started working on the garden and building beds.

IT IS hard work..specially if, like me, you do it with improvised tools! Dumb? Cheap? Maybe... hehe

Got my first salad made with my own arugula yesterday and yes, it tasted good.... been using my fennel sprouts to garnish delicate scallops carpaccios and peppers and cilantro sprouts to top Mexican fusion dishes...

Now I can't wait for the eggplant, squash, mustard, dill, bell peppers Roma and heirloom tomatoes to grow... of all these babies though, a very special place is occupy by the cutest, tiniest lavander sprouts I am trying to grow into gorgeous plants.

Also, to top it off, while I've been cleaning and organizing my old restaurant inventory I came across some pretty neat stuff I totally forgot about and that found its way onto my kitchen wall at home

Yes, I'm a sucker for old kitchen stuff..cast iron, terracotta, etc...

Fennel, beets and orange salad

Here's the recipe, as promised.
It's a great salad on its own or an even better bed for a chunk of grilled/seared fish....

So, very easy...

Slice very thinly  some fennel, beet and radish.

Also peel and slice an orange, collecting the juice in a bowl.

Make sure you remove the pits and the white peel from the orange slices.

Toss everything in the bowl, adding lemon juice, S&P and the best olive oil you have.

Don't forget the beets will tend to dye everything red, so be careful...

Place some sturdy lettuces in the plate and arrange the vegetables on top and the orange slices.

Drizzle liberally with the dressing and you're done...

Now, a nice addition to this salad would be dry cranberries and almonds, or toasted pumpkinseed.

Personally I would not add any cheese, but cooking is like rock'n'roll, so feel free to improv.

Enjoy!

Pan seared snook fillet with roasted turnip & lavender and sweet pepper & fennel

Down here in Baja Sur we have plenty of snook... which also makes for a great fishery. The catches are few and apart, specially with a fly, but they're BIG.

If you don't have snook handy, halibut, bass, striped bass, grouper will do as well, just leave the skin on.

Start by wrapping peeled and cubed turnips in a piece of foil along with a sprinkle of lavender seeds, S&P and a splash of olive oil. Place them in a medium hot oven until soft( around 25 minutes).

In a skillet saute in olive oil 1 measure each of thinly sliced bell peppers and fennel bulb and 1 measure of diced onion. Add a bit of garlic, a few fennel seeds to boost the flavour and season with S&P .
Once everything is nice and tender, blend the life out of it and add just enough sugar to balance the flavours. Check for salt and reserve.

Once the turnips are tender, in bowl, mash them like they were potatoes,add a liberal amount of room temperature butter (how much? Think Paula Deen....) and whip them nice and fluffy.

Season the fish fillet with S&P, rub a bit of vegetable oil on the skin and place it SKIN SIDE DOWN in a HOT skillet and leave it there undisturbed until you'll see the sides turn milky white.
At this point, flip the fillet over, shut the heat off and let the residual heat in the pan finish the cooking... for a 1 inch thick piece allow around 1 minute for medium... tough to say, so keep your eyes on the fish.
You're done! Assemble it like in the pic, if you like, and maybe serve a little fennel salad next to it

Recipe to come next...

.

         Buon Appetito!