Last weekend, he hosted a picnic at this ridiculously idyllic place. Now, let me just say... my parents were and are pretty enthusiastic gardeners, and when I was growing up in Minneapolis, in the summer we had tomatoes, green beans, sugar snap peas, carrots, radishes, squashes, maybe strawberries... plus, local farms had loads of amazing sweetcorn and apples... but a garden in southern California is a whole other thing. At the risk of playing into so many myths about the American West, this place at the end of the world does feel like an immanent or incipient (albeit often ill-managed) paradise... limitless potential... blah blah blah...
Really, I just mean that almost everything grows here. Artichokes, grapes, passion fruit, citrus, avocados, more.
Anyway, continuing with this thin excuse for a blog post...
It was a potluck, and I made hummus with harissa. Why I didn't do this sooner is beyond me. After all, I've been known to stir my harissa into my baba ganoush... and I can't recommend harissa's introduction into hummus highly enough. I love the crazy mixture of flavors in this harissa (chipotles, caraway, mint!), but it usually ends up being too spicy to really immerse oneself in said flavors. Here, they're spread out enough through the hummus that you can really bask in them.
I used this hummus recipe (minus the green goo). I stirred in some harissa and then topped it with an additional dollop.
Hummus with Harissa
Finally, as is the case on every visit to Wattles, Sina sent me home with a bunch of strange vegetables. I'll soon be posting about some of them.
oh, stop! you're making me jealous!
ReplyDeleteNice garden!!
ReplyDelete