Sichuan-Style Eggplant

Adapted from Madhur Jaffrey’s World Vegetarian






1 ½  -2 lb eggplant (ideally the small, thin Japanese style)
2 tablespoons peanut or canola oil
2 scallions, cut crosswise into fine rings (both the white and the green sections)
3 thin slices of peeled ginger, cut finely
3 garlic cloves, peeled and finely chopped
4 teaspoons soy sauce
2-3 teaspoons chili paste (or finely chopped fresh chilis) adjust to your taste
2 teaspoons sugar
2 teaspoons red wine vinegar (or whatever vinegar you have)
1 teaspoon sesame oil
3 tablespoons chopped cilantro  or fresh scallions(optional, for garnish)

Slice eggplants into half inch rounds, then quarter the rounds (or cut into 3 inch by half inch strips) Steam eggplant pieces for 15-17 minutes, or until tender.
Put the oil in a large, nonstick wok or frying pan and set over high heat. When hot, put in scallions, ginger, and garlic. Stir for a minute. Put in the eggplants. Stir for a minute. Now put in the soy sauce, chili paste with soybean, sugar, and vinegar. Stir and cook for 3 minutes. Taste and add a little salt, if needed. Add the sesame oil and stir once. Turn off the heat. Sprinkle cilantro or scallions over the top before serving.

Unstuffed Peppers

1 lb ground beef, sausage, or a mixture of the two
1/2 cup chopped onion
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 14-oz can diced tomatoes, or 2 to 3 large fresh tomatoes, diced
1 diced bell pepper, any color, but red and yellow are best (about a cup)
1 large zucchini, diced (about 1 pound)
2 T chili powder
1-1/2 t ground cumin
1 t oregano
Salt and pepper to taste

Brown the meat in a large skillet. When it’s about half done, add the onion and garlic and cook until the meat is browned. Add everything else and cook over medium heat until all of the veggies are done and the mixture is getting dry, about 20 minutes or so. I always end up with some extra liquid in the pan, which I save in the freezer to use the next time I make vegetable beef soup.

Using Kroger’s ground beef, and veggies from the Farmers Market, this would cost about $4.00, or $1.00 per serving for four servings. A big zucchini is usually 75 cents, and sometimes the bigger ones are actually cheaper than the smaller ones. Because the veggies all cook together, the big zucchinis work just as well as smaller ones and are cheaper. I usually get large but oddly shaped red and yellow bell peppers for 50 cents each at one of the stalls. And “ugly” tomatoes, or seconds, for half price at another stall. Coleslaw would be good with this, or a green salad. Or use this to make a Taco Salad, by putting it on a bed of lettuce and adding some grated cheddar and a dollop of sour cream, with maybe a bit of diced fresh tomato. Any of these menus should cost less than $1.50 per person.

Roasted Cabbage

(from a recipe at this site)

1 small to medium head cabbage, about 1 to 1-1/2 pounds before trimming
4 tablespoons butter, melted
Salt and pepper


Cut the cabbage into 1-inch wedges, making sure to keep the core intact on every wedge. You may lose a few of the loose outer leaves that aren’t attached to the core. Place the cabbage on a baking sheet and brush with half of the melted butter. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Turn the wedges over and do the same on the other side using the rest of the melted butter. Roast at 450º until the cabbage is browned around the edges, about 20-25 minutes. You can try to turn it over about half way through, but it’s likely to fall apart, and while it still tastes good, it doesn’t look as nice.

Serve the cabbage with the pork chops, and put the sauce over both.

Building Soil for a Healthy Harvest

This week MHC garden volunteers pulled together gorgeous harvests for the food pantry and bike cart.  We collected ripe, nearly bursting cherry, Roma, and Green Zebra tomatoes, large red and orange bell peppers, red and green velvety okra, Swiss chard, basil, thyme, and tarragon, cucumbers, and handfuls of banana peppers.

It takes an incredible team of knowledgeable garden volunteers, newbie garden volunteers bursting with energy, youth gardeners full of curiosity, and a community of supporters to make that harvest possible.  It also takes the use of many trusty sustainable gardening techniques to build healthy soil and grow such robust plants.  Over the years, many gardeners have shaped the methods used to make the community gardens so successful.  In today’s blog we’ll talk about the central sustainable gardening technique we use to keep our soil healthy and our harvests bountiful, recycling organic matter from the garden and food pantry to build the soil in the community gardens.

Growing food truly does start with the soil, and the Hub builds garden soil through packing it full of organic matter.  MHC’s most plentiful input of organic matter is hauled by trusty compost volunteers, who mix rotting fruits and veggies from the food pantry with leaves or straw in compost bins and turn it into a rich, organic soil amendment you may know as compost.  Winter and spring compost intern, Jessica Sobocinski, goes into more detail about this process in an earlier bog post.  Check it out for more information.

We also add organic matter directly onto open beds in the form of sheet mulching, also called lasagna gardening.  When sheet mulching we begin with a layer of cardboard or newspaper laid directly on top of the soil.  We then continue layering whatever organic matter we have on hand. Here are some examples of what we might add into a sheet mulched bed in the garden:

• Leaves
• Manure donated from a local farmer
• Compost from our pile
• Comfrey leaves
• Rotting fruits and veggies from the food pantry
• Straw
• Chopped up plant matter from plants that are finished producing in the garden (ex. old corn stalks)
• Chopped up garden waste (ex. weeds that aren’t seeding and won’t propagate from their roots)

We let the sheet mulched bed break down until we have a bed full of dark soil ready for planting.

MHC community gardeners recycle all the organic matter we can get our hands on, from the pantry and gardens, whether it be cardboard, paper, vegetable matter, or plant matter, and turn it into healthy and fruitful soil!  We encourage all in the Hub community to do the same, save your vegetable scraps in order to make broth, feed your chickens, sheet mulch your garden or add to your compost.  Recycling organic matter builds soil and is good for the environment and your budget.  Keep up with the MHC blog to learn about more techniques we use to keep our community gardens thriving!

–Stephanie

Slow Cooker Pork Adobo

3 pounds pork shoulder (Western Style Ribs work fine)

1/2 c soy sauce
2/3 c white vinegar (or cider vinegar if that’s what you happen to have)
1 bay leaf
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 onion, sliced

Put everything in a slow cooker and cook on high for about 4 to 6 hours or on low for about 6 to 8 hours, or until the meat is done. It should be falling off the bone, like for pulled pork. Take the pork out of the slow cooker. When it’s cool enough to handle, carefully remove the bones and shred or dice the meat. Use the meat in PORK ADOBO SALAD, PORK ADOBO AND VEGETABLE STIR-FRY, or in other dishes. Or eat it as it is. The reason for using it in other dishes is to cut the cost per serving. This would cost about $7.00 for the whole batch this week.

Pork Fried Cabbage

1 lb pork shoulder, cooked and diced

2 T oil or drippings (bacon drippings would be great, or drippings from cooking the pork)
1 lb cabbage, sliced about 1/2” or diced about 1”
1 carrot, thinly sliced on the diagonal
1 onion, thinly sliced
1 t salt
1/2 t pepper
1/4 t red pepper flakes

You can use leftover pork for this, or, if you don’t have any, cut the pork into about 3/4” cubes and cook in a little water until done. Just cut it off the bone before cutting it up. Or you can cook it on the bone, and then cut it up later. If you’re cooking it just for this, be sure to save the cooking liquid.
Heat the oil or drippings in a large skillet, then add the vegetables and seasonings and cook, stirring, until almost done. Add the pork and continue cooking until the meat is heated through and the vegetables are done to your liking. Sometimes I like them tender-crisp, and sometimes I like them quite soft. It’s up to you. If you want them soft, add a couple of tablespoons of the cooking liquid about half way through cooking the vegetables. It should all cook off.
As always, you can change the vegetables around to suit yourself, depending on what you like and what you have. You can change the seasonings, too. Some caraway seeds would be good in this, for example.

This would cost about $3.00  at this week’s prices.
This combination of cabbage, carrot and onion is a common go-to dish for me in the winter, when there aren’t many fresh vegetables available. Cabbage, carrots and onions are always available, keep well in the fridge, and are usually fairly reasonably priced. Sometimes I cook meat in it, for a one-dish meal, other times I have it to accompany some meat.

Pork Adobo and Vegetable Stir-Fry

1 T oil
1 t minced fresh ginger (optional)
1 carrot, thinly sliced
1 medium onion, thinly sliced
1 c shredded Pork Adobo
8 oz shredded cabbage
2 T adobo cooking liquid

Heat oil in a large skillet. Add the onion and carrot and cook briefly. Add the cabbage and cook another couple of minutes. Add the Pork Adobo and the cooking liquid and cook, stirring, only until the pork is heated and the vegetables are all crisp-tender. This should cost between $2.00 and $3.00 for the batch and should make 2 to 3 servings.
You can, of course, vary the vegetables depending on what you like and what’s available.

Pork Adobo Salad

1/2 c shredded pork adobo

1 c thinly sliced celery
1/2 c sliced raw cauliflower
2 T mayo
1 T broth from cooking the pork

Combine the pork, celery and cauliflower in a bowl. In a small separate bowl, combine the mayo and the cooking liquid. Pour the mayo mixture over the meat and veggies and mix well. It looks fancier if you serve the salad on a lettuce leaf. Makes one serving as a main course salad. How much this costs depends in part on how much bone there is in your meat, but it should be between $1.00 and $1.50.

Variations –
Use shredded cabbage and a sliced green onion instead of the celery and cauliflower.
Add some diced red bell pepper and/or a sliced green onion to the celery and cauliflower.
Use diced zucchini instead of the cauliflower.

Eggplant Tempura

Enjoy with a coconut curry sauce and rice, or with your favorite Italian tomato sauce and pasta.



1 ½ lbs of eggplant (the small, thin varieties work especially nice here)
peanut or canola oil (enough to fill a heavy bottomed pan 3 inches deep, or a deep fryer, if you have one)
1 cup all purpose flour
½ teaspoon salt
a pinch of black pepper
1 egg, beaten
cold water, as needed

Wash the eggplant and slice into ¼ inch thick rounds. Pat them dry with a paper towel.
Mix the flour with the salt and pepper. Add the beaten egg, and stir. Add cold water until  a thin batter is formed.
Heat the oil. Try to keep the oil between 365 and 375F. Use a thermometer if you have one, otherwise just keep an eye on your heat, turn it down a bit once it is fully heated.
Once the oil is hot, begin dipping the eggplant rounds into the batter, (shake off the excess) and drop carefully into the oil. Work quickly to get them in the oil close to the same time. If you are not using a deep fryer, you will probably need to flip the eggplant to get both sides brown. Remove from oil when golden brown (2-4 minutes) and place on paper towels. Cook in batches to avoid over-crowding in the pan or deep fryer.

Crock Pot Ratatouille

2 large onions, cut in half and sliced
1 large eggplant, sliced, cut in 2 inch pieces
4 small zucchini, sliced
2 garlic cloves, minced
2 large green bell peppers, de-seeded and cut into thin strips
2 large tomatoes, cut into 1/2 inch wedges
1 (6 ounce) can tomato paste
1 teaspoon dried basil
1/2 teaspoon oregano
1 teaspoon sugar
2 teaspoons salt
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
2 tablespoons fresh parsley, chopped
1/4 cup olive oil
red pepper flakes, to spice it up

Layer half the vegetables in a large crock pot in the following order: onion, eggplant, zucchini, garlic, green peppers, tomatoes. Next sprinkle half the basil, oregano, sugar, parsley, salt and pepper on the veggies. Dot with half of the tomato paste. Repeat layering process with remaining vegetables, spices and tomato paste.

Drizzle with olive oil. Cover and cook on LOW for 7 to 9 hours.

A Compost Tale: Interning in the Garden with the Hub

I began working as a garden intern with MHC this past January when I was assigned command of the Hub’s compost bins at the Crestmont garden. Its been a crazy, smelly, and magical journey since then and I want to tell you all about it!!

Since January Haley (a Hub volunteer) and I have been taking turns riding in the idiosyncratic trucks of compost volunteers Jay and Tom, picking up food waste from Mother Hubbard’s Cupboard’s pantry and two local businesses, the Village Deli and Soma/Laughing Planet.

When our journey began we were in the depths of a fairly mild winter, so most of the food we were dumping and digging into was in varying states of frozen. It seemed as if the layers of coffee grounds, stale bread, rotting greens, and overripe berries were determined to maintain their state of being, never surrendering to the natural process of decomposition that makes compost magic.However, once spring came and the ground began to thaw the compost bins finally began to awaken. What was once dead became alive as the microorganisms, worms, and other critters began to break down the food waste with the help of the oxygen introduced to the process through the turning done by interns and volunteers. As excited as we were that our compost was maturing, we were very disturbed by the putrid stench it released when turned. IT WAS RANK. One of our interns actually started dry-heaving while turning the compost; others chose to wear bandanas over their faces to mask the stench. There was no love to be found for our beloved infant compost.

As the intern in charge of compost, I felt responsible for the misery and was frankly embarrassed that I raised such smelly compost! I immediately began doing research and developed a trifecta approach to solving the stench. A) Before adding things to the compost pile, I would, with the help of Jay, Tom, and other volunteers, chop all of the food waste into smaller pieces with a shovel to encourage quicker decomposition. B) Intersperse the bread waste among the layers of compost so it was better mixed with the other food waste (because it is so highly processed, bread is particularly difficult to compost). C) Make sure the compost is turned at least once a week.

The test came when we had to remove the compost from the old bins so that the city could tear them down and replace them with fresh wood (the wood in the old bins was rotting). Several layers of unfinished and semi-finished compost were spread on the garden beds as sheet mulch as well as in piles for the new bins. Miraculously, it DIDN'T SMELL AWFUL!! It actually smelled pretty good (as good as rotting food can, anyway). The real treat came when we got to the bottom of one of the first compost bins I ever added to. Sitting among all the spiders, worms, and rollypoly bugs, there was a mound of matter that was a deeper brown than the rest. After a moment of breathless awe, I picked it up, felt it in my hands, smelled it, and danced around like a new parent. It was finished compost, some of the healthiest soil on the planet. It had the texture of clay mixed with fine sand and smelled just like freshly tilled dirt. The compost had reached the end of its journey and it was BEAUTIFUL. I kept a bit of it in a tiny mason jar that I keep in my room to remind me of the journey and humanity’s ability to responsibly deal with our waste, giving it back to the earth like an offering of gratitude for providing life.

~Jessica Sobocinski

Russian "Korean" Carrot Salad

Russian Korean Carrot Salad (image from SheSimmers.com)

Russian “Korean” Carrot Salad
7 medium-sized carrots, grated into long, thin strands (julienne tool comes in handy here)
1 teaspoon of salt, or more  to taste
4 large cloves of garlic, peeled and minced into a paste
1 medium white or yellow onion, finely chopped
2 tablespoons groundcoriander seeds (optional)
4 tablespoons vegetable oil
3 tablespoons white vinegar
1 teaspoon of cayenne pepper, or to taste
1  tablespoon honey or 1 1/2 teaspoons of sugar
Natalia first sprinkled the salt on the shredded carrots, covered them and let them sit while she prepared the other ingredients.
In a small pan, over medium heat, saute the onion in one tablespoon of oil until slightly carmelized- remove from heat and set aside to cool a bit. In a large mixing bowl, mix everything together with your hands; adjust seasonings as needed.
Kept covered and refrigerated, leftover salad remains good for 24 hours.

Natalia and her daughter Olga

No-Knead Sourdough Bread

This is a great tasting bread made with “wild” yeast. There is no commercial yeast added. It is not hard to keep the sourdough starter alive, and you only need to store a small amount of starter in between baking sessions. There are several steps, and lots of resting and rising time, but the times are flexible and most of it is unattended.  It is not difficult to get into a routine of making sourdough.  Adapted by Alex Chambers and Kayte Young, from various sources. Makes 2 loaves, or one large one.

Step one:  Make the Starter

2 tablespoons flour

1 tablespoon water

1 tablespoon of sourdough starter (see below*)

Mix these three together and let it sit out for 3-6 hours**.

Step two:  Make the Leaven

1 cup flour

½ cup water

The Starter that you mixed and let sit for 3-6 hours

Mix these together and let it sit for another 3-6 hours*.

Step three: Save Starter for next time.

Take out 1 tablespoon of this mixture and put it in the fridge as a Starter for next time.

Step four: Make the Dough

6 cups flour (I use mostly whole wheat, ideally a finer grind than stoneground. I recommend experimenting with various proportions of whole wheat, white, rye, and anything else you think of.)

2½ teaspoons salt

2-3 cups water

The Leaven that you mixed and let sit out for 4-8 hours.

Mix the dry flour and salt. Add some of the water to the leaven and mix it, adding more of the water, until it becomes soupy. (Sometimes this requires squeezing it through your fingers, since the developed gluten has trouble absorbing water.) Mix the soupy leaven and the rest of the water into the dry ingredients. Add enough water to mix it all into a “shaggy mass” – a pretty wet dough.

Let it sit for 4-8 hours, until it has visibly grown and become airy and tender to the touch.*

Step five: Shaping and Proofing

Using just enough flour to keep dough from sticking to work surface or to your fingers, gently and quickly shape dough into a ball. Generously coat a cotton towel (not terry cloth) with flour, wheat bran or cornmeal; put dough seam side down on towel and dust with more flour, bran or cornmeal. Cover with another cotton towel and let rise for about 30-45 minutes. When it is ready, dough will be more than double in size and will not readily spring back when poked with a finger.

Step six: Bake using one of the two methods below:

Covered Pot (if you have a pot that will work, this method gives the bread great oven spring and a wonderfully crunchy crust)

At least a half-hour before dough is finished proofing, heat oven to 450 degrees. Put a 6- to 8-quart heavy covered pot (cast iron, enamel, Pyrex or ceramic) in oven as it heats. When dough is ready, carefully remove pot from oven. Slide your hand under towel and turn dough over into pot, seam side up; it may look like a mess, but that is O.K. Shake pan once or twice if dough is unevenly distributed; it will straighten out as it bakes. Cover with lid and bake 30 minutes, then remove lid and bake another 15 to 30 minutes, until loaf is beautifully browned. Cool on a rack.

Steamy Oven (if you don’t have a pot to use, or want to bake more than one loaf at a time, use this method)

Preheat the oven to 525 (or as hot as your oven goes), and pour 1 cup hot water onto a tray underneath the baking tray right after putting the loaves in the oven. After about 3 minutes I turn the temperature down to 450 and bake about 30-40 minutes, until the loaves are golden-brown and give a good hollow thump when I tap the bottom.

If you don’t trust your thumb and ears to determine when the thump is good and hollow, you can check the loaf’s doneness with a kitchen probe thermometer/meat thermometer. For a lean loaf like this one, the temperature in the center should be about 195-205°.

*Getting Wild Yeast Growing: You can often find someone with a starter already established, to share some with you. If not, it is simple to start your own, it just takes a bit of time. Here are instructions from Michael Pollan: making a starter: In a small glass or plastic container (a clear container allows you to watch microbial activity), mix 50 grams each of the whole grain and all-purpose flours until combined (if you aren’t using a scale, use ½ cup). . Add the water an stir until the consistency of a smooth batter. Leave the mixture open to the air, stirring vigorously for about 30 seconds at least once a day or whenever you think of it. If the mixture dries out, add a bit of warm water to bring it back to the consistency of a batter. The wild yeast and bacteria in teh air, on the flour and on your hands will eventually start to eat the sugars, in the flour and ferment.

As soon as you observe signs of microbial activity (lumps on the top, bubbles within the batter, or the smell of beer or yeast of ripe fruit)—which can take as long as a week—feed the starter daily: Discard approximately 80 percent of it and replace with fresh flour and water in equal amounts (about 50 grams of whole wheat flour, 50 grams (about ½ cup) of white flour and 100 grams (about 1 cup) warm water). Stir until smooth. Once it has become active again (bubbling), keep the starter covered at a warm room temperature. If you won’t be baking for a while, you can refrigerate or freeze your starter (see below).

Care and feeding of your starter: If you want to keep a starter longer than a couple weeks without feeding it, mix in some flour to make a stiffer dough, and freeze it; after you thaw it, add water and flour, to feed it and make it wetter. Better yet, find a friend who’d like to share it, and get some of their starter when you run out (or accidentally bake it all!).

**depending on the temperature of the room. Note that any of these steps can be slowed down further by refrigerating