The Sprout Adventure - 5 days later

It's absolutely astonishing at how fast these little buggers grew. They grew so much that they were pushing the sprouter open after only a few days. I'm not entirely sure I agree with the seed measurements that the Sprout People recommended as the containers were overflowing so early. Perhaps I read the directions wrong, I re-read them a few times because I wasn't so sure about it, live and learn.

After soaking the seeds in water overnight on Monday, the seeds were placed in the sprouter Tuesday morning. Since then I have been punctually rinsing and draining the seeds 3 times a day (morning before work, evening when I get home from work, and night time before bed). It's definitely paid off as of Thursday I was already harvesting a small amount of alfalfa and clover sprouts (perhaps prematurely) and a small amount of the mixed batch of beans (even more-so prematurely). The biggest reason for early harvesting of the alfalfa and clover sprouts is that they were the main offender for pushing the lid off of the sprouter.

Thus far, we've been pretty inventive with integrating the sprouts into most of our meals (mostly as a salad topper), and there have been some epic failures as well (specifically the PB&Sprouts I made for lunch). Unfortunately, we haven't made Phở in a while, so the bean sprouts weren't utilized to their full potential. When I finally detox from all these sprouts and decide to grow some mung beans, I'm planning on making sure Phở is on the menu at least a couple of times.

I'm curious to see how well the sprouts hold in the fridge, I made sure they were dry before packing them (as per the directions). Not sure we'll be able to eat them all up before they go south, worst case scenario the compost bin should be happy with the bit of variety :)

Day 1:

Forgot to take a photo of the seeder

Day 2:


Day 3:


Day 4:


Day 5:

Recipe: Carpaccio with Sprout Salad

Thought I'd share a recipe from Alton Brown's Good Eats for Beef Capaccio. I've made it a few times now and it doesn't disappoint (even though the butcher's mangling of our tenderloin did). The original recipe can be found here.

One thing this recipe doesn't mention is quickly pan searing the roast before placing it in the freezer. Yeah I know, Carpaccio's supposed to be raw, but with the paranoia of today's consumer, it's better safe than sorry. Quickly pan searing all sides helps to kill off any bacteria that may be on the outside of the meat (surface area is typically where all the buggers are). I also find that after pounding it out, the meat has a more dynamic aesthetic with small ring of cooked meat around the edge (it's like the pink ring found on smoked meats). You can omit the searing if you'd like, if not, get out a heavy (preferably cast iron) pan, and heat up a bit of extra virgin olive oil (medium-high). Salt and pepper the meat on all sides (I'm pretty liberal with the salt on this particular dish). Quickly sear all sides (a minute or less on each side, even the ends). It shouldn't take much time to cool, and you proceed with the plastic wrap as per the original recipe.

Because we've had an over abundance of sprouts this week, I opted for a alfalfa salad instead of arugala, and because we had some left over aged provolone that was used instead of Parmesan. In addition to the sprouts, I added some carrots and green beans. I tried something different with the green beans, I used the vegetable peeler to create thin slices (ribbons?). It turned out surprisingly well.

My wife topped hers with a drizzle of olive oil, and I used a drizzle of Balsamic vinegar. We don't make 4 servings the way the recipe suggests, in fact, I just wing it when it comes to the amount of meat. It was about 3-4 inches of the tenderloin this last time. Keep in mind the sliced pre-pounded beef rounds were very small considering the crap cleaning job the "butcher" did. Still bitter, I suppose. From now on we're cleaning the meat at the house, at least if we mess it up we can learn from the experience.

Recipe: Cucumber Salad with Alfalfa Sprouts

So we've had more sprouts than we've known what to do with this week, so I've been getting inventive. Peanut butter and sprouts was a pretty significant failure, but I felt my cucumber salad turned out exceptional. It's a take on a recipe that my mother used to make, with the addition of sprouts and some fresh herbs (something I don't remember too much of growing up):

Ingredients:

• 1/5 peeled cucumber, thinly sliced
• 2-3 green onions, chopped
• A small handful (6 or so) of cherry tomatoes, chopped
• A small bunch of alfalfa sprouts (1/4 cup-ish)
• A sprig of fresh basil, rough chopped
• 2-3 sprigs of fresh dill, chopped
• 2-3 Tbsp of sour cream
• Salt & pepper to taste

Directions:

1. Combine ingredients in a bowl
2. Cover and refrigerate
3. Enjoy!

It's a pretty single recipe that packs a lot of fresh / cool flavor.

The Sprout Adventure - Unpacking and Setup

My package from Sprout People arrived yesterday, very exciting times. I documented unpacking it and setting it up with the first 2 batches of seeds. They had to soak overnight, so this is basically day one and day two.

Day 1 - Unpacking:

1. The goods arrived in a cardboard box with a bunch of non-biodegradable packing material, the contents included the Kid's Sprout Kit, 1 pound of mung beans and documentation on growing and care of the sprouts:
   
   


2. The Kid's Sprout Kit contained some kid friendly documentation, 4 pre-measured sprout mixes, a magnifying glass and 2 tiered sprouter.
   
   
   
   


3. After deciding what two packets to start with (Moo Mix and Beanie's Mix) I gathered two bowls and a measuring cup.
   
   


4. Emptied the contents into the bowls
   



5. And added 1 cup of cold water to each bowl and stirred up the mix gently
   
   

The beans soaked over night on the counter...

Day 2 - Setting up the Sprouter:

1. I forgot to mention that I covered the bowls with plastic wrap the night before
   
   


2. The next morning revealed that the larger beans soaked up almost all of the water
   
   


3. I proceeded with washing out the entire sprouter with warm soapy water and hand drying it
   
   


4. Next came loading the trays with the seeds and rinsing them. The seeds need to be rinsed 2-3 times a day and all of the excess water removed by shaking and tilting the tray around
   
   


5. Final step for the initial set up was to assemble the sprouter and wait...
   
   

Sprouts, Sprouts, Sprouts

I ordered the Kid's Sprout Kit from SproutPeople.com. It appears to be the same kit I saw on GardensAlive.com today, but it comes with 4 packets of seeds for just about the same price (61 cents different, pfft). If you're wondering why I selected the kid's kit as a 27 year old "adult", it's because I didn't want to completely inundated with sprouts at all times. It's two tiered and we should be able to grow a single tier at a time if need be, and the size of each tray seems to be a decent size to have sprouts available for a couple of meals and not be wasteful. I also ordered a 1 pound sack of mung beans (your most common bean sprout) because the Sprout People discourage single item purchases unless they come off of a certain list. I didn't inquire why that is, but I'm assuming it's to help keep their own costs down in some way. At any rate, the kit should be here next Monday, and we should be enjoying sprouts by my birthday (the Monday after)! After that, I'm hoping to have a post documenting the process from the initial set up to harvest time.