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Kitchen Garden

Jeanne Kelley is well known for inventing easy recipes that frequently appear in magazines like Bon Appétit and Cooking Light. So it was a bit of a surprise when her first cookbook, Blue Eggs and Yellow Tomatoes: Recipes From a Modern Kitchen Garden, turned out to be largely about the pleasures of gardening and cooking with homegrown ingredients.

The focus becomes even more surprising when you learn that Kelley lives in Los Angeles, where steep granite hills hold big houses on little lots — not the sort of place where people typically plant vegetable gardens. Regardless of location or sweat equity, though, gardens have always been a staple of Kelley’s life: Her landscape-designer husband, in fact, once took a jackhammer to granite to make room for a fruit tree in their backyard.

Having a garden, however, doesn’t have to be that difficult, Kelley explains. “I always hear from people who think: ‘It’s going to take a lot of time to garden; I don’t have any time, it’s impossible.’” To the contrary, she says, there’s really only a day or two that takes a lot of time, and that’s when you first set up your plot, removing sections of lawn, building containers, preparing the soil and so on.

“If you give yourself a place to plant with raised beds and good soil,” she adds, “you’ll find that, once the garden gets established, all it takes is a little bit of maintenance and watering.”

Plus, the willingness to shift some priorities. “People obsess over the Internet, watch TV they don’t even enjoy, do all sorts of things they don’t even want to be doing,” Kelley says. “If you just shoved a few of those things out of your life and brought in nature instead, wouldn’t that be better?” It would, indeed.

During my interview with Kelley, I mention that I’ve always had a tiny flower and herb garden, but that I had lost track of it the year I seemed to do nothing but nurse a colicky baby. The next year, I was surprised to find that my toddler delighted in nothing more than playing with the hose to help water — and this year, I’m thinking of using that to my advantage and putting some pots of lettuce on my front walk.

“That’s how it starts,” she says, laughing. “First you think you don’t have any time and can’t do much, so you start with just a few herbs. Then you see how easy that is, so you think you might like tomatoes. The next year, you put in some lettuces, and when those are done, maybe some greens like kale. Then you find what you’re getting from your garden is so flavorful that it needs less preparation than store-bought vegetables — suddenly your cooking is easier and more delicious. You go to the market less, and that makes you feel good because you’re spending less money. Suddenly you’re a gardener!”

Maybe gardening is a trend — like yoga and antioxidants — whose time has finally come.

Even the smallest garden offers a multitude of benefits. In fact, just being in the vicinity of a garden can do good things for you. “Sometimes, I’ll just go down to my community garden where I have this beautiful arugula growing, and I just look at it and feel so happy,” Kelley says.

Gardening is a healthy thing you can add to your life: It’s mild exercise; it gets you outside. Even if you have only a single pot that’s 10 inches in diameter and you plant lettuce in it, you’ll get a couple of salads out of it. Other times, when you’re just making a sandwich and you need only a single leaf of lettuce, you’ll get it from your garden. All of your cooking starts to taste lighter and, I think, a little nicer. Even a simple pot of basil can make such a difference.”

To prove this, Kelley points to her Fresh Pesto Drizzle. It’s a loose pesto of basil, pine nuts, garlic and Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese that you can drizzle on tomatoes, goat cheese, burrata (a super-fresh cream-stuffed mozzarella), fried eggs or pasta.

Gardening, Kelley says, has “absolutely” changed the way she cooks. “It totally changes your appreciation for vegetables, partly because they taste better because they’re so fresh, but also because you become so involved with them, watching them grow.”

Twenty years ago, Kelley’s husband rarely installed a vegetable garden for his clients. Now it’s a common request, as more and more people want them for the relaxation and healthful eating they bring to their lives. Maybe gardening is a trend — like yoga and antioxidants — whose time has finally come.

Mexican Fruit “Gazpacho” Salad

Makes six servings

  • 1 1/2 pounds Mexican papaya
  • 3/4 pounds jicama
  • 1 large mango
  • 1 cucumber
  • 1 orange
  • 3 tbs. fresh lime juice
  • 1 tsp. ground chili (such as New Mexican or other medium-hot chili)
  • 1/2 tsp. kosher salt
  • 2 tbs. finely chopped cilantro

Directions

  1. Peel and dice (and seed, if necessary) the papaya, jicama, mango, cucumber and orange.
  2. Combine the diced fruit in a shallow serving dish or bowl.
  3. Mix the lime juice, chili and salt in a small bowl. Pour the mixture over the fruit, add the cilantro, and toss gently but well.
  4. Serve.

Grilled Fish Tacos With Cilantro and Lime Coleslaw

Makes four to six servings of fish

  • 2 tbs. extra-virgin olive oil
  • 2 tbs. minced or puréed canned chipotle chilies in adobo
  • 1 tbs. fresh lime juice
  • 2 tsp. ground cumin
  • 1 1⁄2 pounds red snapper fillets
  • Salt and pepper
  • 12 corn tortillas
  • 2 or 3 ripe avocados, peeled, pitted and sliced
  • Picante sauce, such as Valentina

Coleslaw

  • 1 small head cabbage (about 1 1⁄4 pounds)
  • 2⁄3 cup sour cream
  • 3 tbs. fresh lime juice
  • 2 tsp. ground cumin
  • 1 garlic clove, pressed
  • 1⁄2 tsp. kosher salt
  • 1 cup diced white onion
  • 1⁄2 cup chopped cilantro

Prepare the fish:

  1. Mix the olive oil, chipotles, lime juice and cumin in a 13-by-9-inch baking dish. Add the fish and turn to coat. (Can be prepared to this point up to eight hours ahead. Cover and refrigerate.)
  2. Preheat the grill to medium heat. Place the fish fillets on the grill and season with salt and pepper.
  3. Grill the fish until just cooked through, about three minutes per side. Transfer the fish to a platter.
  4. Meanwhile, heat the tortillas over an open gas flame or on a griddle. Wrap them in aluminum foil to keep warm.
  5. Breaking the fish into large pieces with a serving spoon, serve it with warm tortillas, avocados, coleslaw and picante sauce, allowing your guests to assemble their own tacos.

Make the coleslaw:

  1. Quarter, core and thinly slice the cabbage (you should have about 6 cups).
  2. Stir the sour cream, lime juice, cumin, garlic and salt together in a large bowl. Add the cabbage, onion and cilantro, and stir together.
  3. Refrigerate. (Can be prepared to this point up to one day ahead.)

Burrata Cheese With Fresh Pesto Drizzle

Makes eight servings

Pesto

  • 2 cups basil leaves, lightly packed
  • 1/2 cup pine nuts, toasted
  • 1/2 cup grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese
  • 3 garlic cloves
  • 1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
  • Salt

Assembly

  • 1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
  • Sea salt
  • 16 ounces Burrata cheese
  • 1 cup yellow and red grape or cherry tomatoes, cut in half
  • Basil sprigs
  • Baguette, sliced

To make the pesto:

  1. Combine the basil, pine nuts, Parmigiano-Reggiano and garlic in the bowl of a food processor. Pulse until the mixture is finely chopped.
  2. Add the olive oil and roughly purée. Season the pesto with salt.
  3. Can be prepared up to four days ahead.
  4. Transfer the pesto to a small container and cover with plastic wrap, pressed directly on the pesto; refrigerate.)

To assemble the dish:

  1. Combine 1/2 cup of the pesto with the olive oil in a small bowl.
  2. Thin with 2 to 4 tablespoons of water, 1 tablespoon at a time. Season with salt.
  3. Drain the Burrata, if necessary, and place in a dish. Gently break open the cheese and drizzle it with the pesto mixture. Surround it decoratively with tomatoes.
  4. Sprinkle with sea salt, garnish with basil sprigs, and serve with sliced baguette.

Recipes excerpted from Blue Eggs and Yellow Tomatoes: Recipes From a Modern Kitchen Garden by Jeanne Kelley (Running Press, 2008). 

Photography by: John Mowers; Food Styling by: Betsy Nelson

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