Our final batch of salsa that we canned for the year, Chunky Peach Salsa, was definitely our best.  And maybe that is because after canning 3 other batches we learned a couple things.

One thing we learned was not to cook the peaches very long or they got lost amongst the tomatoes.  Basically we now just add the peaches to the salsa right before we’re ready to start canning.

Second was that if you don’t want to add tomato paste to thicken the salsa then you’ll have to cook it for a long time.  This could mean simmering the salsa for 1-2 hours….

So our final canning session for salsa leaves us with a total of 56 pints of 4 different kinds of salsa (including the homegrown salsa I wrote about earlier this week).  And while 56 pints may seem like a lot it’s essentially 1 pint a week for the next year with 4 extra for sharing or larger eating events.  Yes, we eat a lot of salsa.  Well, my family eats a good amount of it, but without me around they’d likely only need about 20 pints for the year.

Here is the recipe and it is loosely based on our friend’s (non-peach) salsa which we refer to around here as “Mr. Dan’s.”  When we made this the other day we did a double batch which produced 18 pints.  A single batch will likely produce 9-11 pints, but results will vary based on the variety of tomatoes used and how long they are cooked down.

For one thing we have a huge bag of tomatoes on the floor, another full of peppers, and peaches are covering our hutch.  Luckily eventually I find the right attitude and energy and I get back to feeling good about all this cooking and preserving.   Plus everyone here works really hard:

Yesterday my young assistant and I tackled the homegrown tomatoes by turning them into an entirely homegrown salsa.  Well, it was entirely homegrown until we realized that it was way too runny because we had thrown several Brandywine tomatoes into the mix.  Thus there was an addition to the recipe of a small can of tomato paste.

Ahhh well, we can’t always be purists and that’s probably okay.  Luckily there is no rule book when it comes to eating local, just a desire to eat as close to home whenever possible.

Although this salsa is for canning we’ve also been enjoying lots of fresh salsas with whatever ingredients we have on hand.  The most obvious thing of course is the peaches, but we’ve found that most fruits work well in salsa as do many unconventional vegetables.

Cucumbers, as pictured above, are an amazing addition to a fresh salsa.  They bring a light fresh flavor of their own but also soak up all the flavors of the foods around them while adding a nice crunch and color to the final product.

Radishes are great too, for the combination of spicy flavor, color, and crunch.  Recently we added kohlrabi to a salsa, which was great too!  It turns out that as long as you meet a few requirements pretty much any fruit or vegetable can go in a salsa.  Here are our guidelines for creating unique original salsas:

1. Some crunchy things, like any of the following, nicely diced in small pieces: onions (any colour), sweet peppers, radishes, cucumbers, apples…
2. Some sweet things, also nicely diced: peaches, plums, nectarines, apricots, apples, pears, watermelon, cantaloupe, honeydew, strawberries, tomatoes, sweet corn…
3. Some fillers, (diced if necessary): black beans, cucumbers, extra tomatoes, fruit…
4. For some spice and zing: hot peppers (diced, or dry crushed red peppers if you don’t have anything fresh), cilantro, lime juice (or local options would be cider vinegar or verjus if you can find it), garlic, a dash of cumin, and salt and pepper.

I recently shared 5 salsa recipes on the Bailey’s Local Foods blog so check those out for more inspiration.  Today’s recipe is for an (almost) all homegrown salsa for canning.  You’ll need a pressure canner for this recipe because there is not enough added acid (vinegar or lemon/lime juice) to make it fully safe for water bath canning.  If you added a whole cup of vinegar it would likely be safe for water bath canning, but we didn’t want that much vinegar flavor in this recipe.

This recipe yields 7-9 pints, depending on how much you cook it down.

This dish can be assembled up to 12 hours in advance. Prepare through step 2, but don’t add the lentils. Cover and refrigerate overnight. The next day, stir in lentils, place stoneware in slow cooker and proceed with step 3.

Tips

If you have any leftovers, this stew stores very well in the refrigerator for up to 5 days. Store in an airtight container and reheat as necessary, adding a little water if the stew is too thick.

Broth (or stock) is one of the most indispensable pantry staples. Commercial broth cubes and powders are loaded with salt and just don’t deliver the flavor of homemade stock or prepared broth. I like to keep 32-oz (1 L) Tetra Paks on hand, especially the sodium‑reduced variety. They come in handy when you’re making soups and stews.  Alternatively, you can make your own broth in a large batch (using a slow cooker!) and can it using a pressure canner.

Tomato paste is now available in tubes in many supermarkets and delis. It keeps for months in the refrigerator.

Orzo is a small, rice-shaped pasta. You can substitute any small pasta for the orzo or break spaghetti noodles into short pieces.

Win a copy of Easy Everyday Slow Cooker Recipes!

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This post is shared at Real Food Wednesdays.

It has taken soooooooooooooooooooo long!

None of us has any memory that compares to this past Winter.  Even the old timers seem a bit shell shocked.  And yet Winter is quickly forgotten on a wonderful sunny Spring day when the kids in the neighborhood all emerge from their homes at the sound of other kids’ voices, and the parents watch happily while chatting on the sidewalk.

We’re tapping our lovely neighbor’s sugar maple tree and so far have collected about a 1/2 gallon.  Not bad, but it will never be enough to make any maple syrup with.  That’s okay because we bought three 4-liter jugs (3.8 liters = 1 gallon) of syrup from the Mennonite farmers at the Elmira Maple Syrup Festival on Saturday (a day in which we had no doubt that Winter still wanted to have the last word).  Last year we purchased three jugs and they lasted us until about February.  That’s an average of a little over a liter of syrup per month.  “Do you guys eat pancakes all the time?” my father-in-law asked us.  Yes, but we also use it for baking, granola, hot cereal, beer-making, homemade soda…. you get the picture.  It’s much more expensive than sugar, but somehow doesn’t seem to come with the same baggage.  Plus since we buy it in bulk we get a better price, around $10 a liter.

But on to my original point for this post.  Since Spring is finally appearing around here it reminds us that it’s time to get serious about the garden.  We started our tomatoes, peppers, and a few greens back in January and February, which was a good idea for everything but the tomatoes—they’re huge now, about 12 inches tall!  We’ve transplanted them 2 or 3 times already and are not sure what we’ll do, but at least we ought to have some early tomatoes this year!  Now we’ll need to get everything else in order and start putting things in the ground….

I think it’s worth looking back at:

Last year’s post on starting seeds.

Building a simple hoop-house cold frame.

Acclimating seedlings.

Building a cheap shelf cold frame.

And when bad things happen to good people plants.

So, happy gardening season!  Around here we are all glad it’s finally arrived.

Making ketchup has been at the back of my mind for quite a while now.  I had read about a girl in our community who makes her own and I was like I can do that!  So now I did.  Turns out it’s not much work, you just need to have an afternoon where you can leave a couple jars or cans of tomatoes slowly cooking down on the stove.  My recipe is fairly standard, and similar to the one linked above.  However, I use only local ingredients in my ketchup, and allow it to ferment a bit, taking inspiration from Sandor Katz:

“The revival of fermentation at the local and regional scale goes hand in hand with the revival of local agriculture in the movement toward relocalization of our food and our economics.”

-Sandor Katz, The Art of Fermentation, p.369

Of course projects like this raise the question of “why bother?”  Well, I bother partly just because I can, but also because I like knowing what’s in my food and where it came from.  I know the farmer that grew the onion, some of the tomatoes came from our backyard, the vinegar is from apples we pressed into cider last fall, the maple syrup and honey are from local farms, and there are no mystery ingredients!  But ultimately it’s about taste, this ketchup is really super tasty.  Sadly I didn’t make a huge batch, so maybe next time I’ll double this one.

The Process:

Cook the canned tomatoes for a long time over low heat, stirring a few times every hour.  You can use a slow-cooker, I just used a Dutch oven over very low heat.  Let them cook for 4-8 hours, however long it takes to get them thick.  If they are not sufficiently uniform puree them in a food processor or with an immersion blender.

While the tomatoes are cooking dice the onion and soak it in the vinegar to infuse it with some oniony goodness.

After the tomatoes have reached your desired thickness cook them a bit more.  Then add 1 cup of the onion-infused vinegar along with the honey, maple syrup, garlic, mustard, salt, and cook 15-20 minutes more.  Remove from heat and allow to cool.

When the ketchup is cool mix in the rest of the vinegar and the whey.  Transfer to a jar and allow to ferment at room temperature for 1 or more days.  Then store in the fridge.  You can even transfer it to a store-bought ketchup container in hopes of fooling your kids who may have a preference for how ketchup “should” taste….

“No worries,”  I thought, ”I’ll just make dutch babies.”  Alas, no all-purpose flour, and they just aren’t good with 100% whole wheat.

“Okay, so what then?”  Then I saw the jar of grits from Georgia.  Yes, from Georgia, where we lived more than 10 months ago.   And then the idea of polenta floated into my head.

So I decided I could make polenta with those grits.  Polenta is so easy and delicious, and topped with a simple sauce it tastes wonderful.  I decided to make a sofrito, which is like a cooked salsa, and added an egg, sunny-side-up, on top.  Very quickly I had a simple, delicious meal, made without much prep or cooking time.  I had forgotten how much I love the creamy taste of polenta and we all finished off everything in no time, leaving us without leftovers (which was sad because we all wanted more!).

These eggs are from “Silky” hens, from the same farm where we got our apples pressed into juice.  They were definitely free range, seeing as the chickens were wandering about all over the place!  Can you spot the double yolker?

Polenta

• 1 small onion, diced
• 1-2 Tbs. oil or butter
• 4 cups water
• 1 cup polenta (or coarse grits)
• 1/4 grated Parmesan cheese
• (a few spoonfuls of milk)

Heat the oil in a pot over medium heat and add the onion.  Fry for 2-3 minutes then add the water and bring to a boil. Add the polenta and lower the heat to a simmer for 20-30 minutes, until the polenta is soft and the water is all absorbed or evaporated. Add a bit of milk if you like along with the Parmesan and season with salt and pepper.

Sofrito

• 1 small onion, diced
  
• 1-2 cloves garlic
• 1-2 Tbs. oil
• 1-2 sweet peppers, diced
• (1 jalepeño, diced)
• 4-10 tomatoes, diced (the number depends on the size of the tomatoes and how tomato-y you like it)
• dash of ground cumin

Heat the oil in a large pan over medium heat, add the onion and garlic.  Saute for 2-3 minutes then add the peppers and continue cooking for 2-3 minutes more.  Add the tomatoes and cumin, and season with salt and pepper.  Simmer over medium-low heat for about 20 minutes , stirring occasionally until it begins to turn into a thick, chunky sauce.

Fried Egg

• 1-2 eggs per person
• oil
• salt and pepper

Heat oil in a cast iron pan and when hot crack the egg into the pan and sprinkle a bit of salt and pepper.  If it’s a large pan add multiple eggs.  For soft, runny yokes do not break the yoke or flip the egg.  For a slightly runny yoke flip the egg after the egg white has mostly solidified and cook briefly on the other side.

Finished Product

Taking the three parts above start with a base of polenta, spoon on the sofrito, and top with the egg.  Finish your plate quickly to get seconds before everyone else….

Last night my Young Assistant and I made three pizzas for dinner.  Here are pizzas one and two, both featuring garden-fresh pesto and produce.  I will follow up with a post soon about the third pizza.

This event also marked the first pesto-making of the season.  Well, that’s not completely true. but this was the first all-basil pesto!  My young assistant was very helpful with the making of the pesto and especially the peeling of garlic.

Wonderful Basil.  Blanch it by boiling then cooling to preserve its amazing color.

“Garlic doesn’t sting, does it, Dada?”  He is less fond of peeling onions.

Is it bad his fingernails are so dirty, I mean, he is a 4-year-old boy….

Walnuts make a great local substitute for pine nuts.

Pesto Margarita Pizza

(This style of pizza normally doesn’t have pesto, but since we had lots of basil we really wanted to feature it!)

• ½ large tomato, sliced into wedges
• 5-6 cherry tomatoes, halved
• 1-2 scallions or very small onions, chopped
• 3-5 small cloves garlic, chopped
• Fresh basil
• 2-3 Tbs. olive oil
• Salt and pepper
• Fresh mozzarella, sliced into pieces similar in size/shape to the tomato wedges
• ¼ cup pesto
• Pizza dough

Zucchini Pesto Pizza

• 1 small zucchini, sliced fairly thin (or 1 quarter of a huge zucchini)
• 1-2 scallions, chopped
• Fresh herbs (basil, thyme, oregano), chopped
• 1 clove garlic, thinly sliced
• 2-3 Tbs. olive oil
• Fresh mozzarella, sliced
• ¼ cup pesto mixed with ¼ cup pizza sauce
• Pizza dough

1. Prepare the vegetables, herbs, and seasoning by mixing them together in a bowl and tossing with the olive oil.  Refrigerate until ready to top pizza with them.
2. Stretch out the pizza dough to your preferred size and shape (typically a circle, but maybe a rectangle if that’s what fits your pan).  Try to resist the urge to use a rolling pin which will rob your pizza dough of many of the bubbles that the yeast have been hard at work creating!
3. Spread the pesto/sauce and then arrange the rest of the ingredients on top.  You do not need your cheese to cover every square inch!  (Pizzeria secret – a sprinkle of extra salt on top of the pizza before baking).  Bake as hot as your oven will allow (I preheat to 550, then lower the heat to 500 when I put the pizza on the stone).

Be sure to check out my dandelion greens pizza, as well as the rhubarb and asparagus pizzas.  Oh and then there’s the one with beets, which ought to be in season again!  Mmmmm, thinking about those other pizzas makes me want to make some pizza as soon as I can.   Strange that I might have to convince the rest of my family to eat it again so soon, who wouldn’t want pizza right now?!

This week featured several meals from Martha Stewart’s Everyday Food magazine.  Don’t judge.  We had a one-year subscription to this magazine when we were first married and it was great.  We’ve held onto the issues and use them as monthly seasonal cookbooks as many of the recipes featured use fresh, seasonal ingredients.  In fact I would enjoy getting a subscription again… if anyone’s thinking they need gift ideas por moi.

This particular meal was what we ate for One-Dish Wednesday.  Thus we ate it on Wednesday.  I thought I had come up the name “One-Dish Wednesday” until I search engined it and found a Pinterest page with the same name….  Anyways, the original version is called Brazilian Black Beans but mine seemed more Central American by the time I had finished making it, partly due to the diced grape tomatoes and crushed red peppers I added.  I also halved the amount of dry beans because 1 pound is actually a lot of beans.  Or is it Alot of beans?

I would also like to point out to my family that this is a meal that all of us can enjoy in spite of our varied food/diet requirements! Oh wait, not if you’re paleo….

Beet Black Beans with Rice – PDF

Adapted from Brazilian Black Beans

Ingredients:

• 3 medium beets, scrubbed
• ½ pound dry black beans, soaked the night before
• 2 tbs. oil
• 2 garlic cloves, peeled and finely minced
• Coarse salt
• 1 green onion, chopped
• ½ cup fresh cilantro, chopped
• 1 tbs. crushed red peppers
• 1 cup grape tomatoes, diced
• Cooked rice for serving

Place the beets in a large pot with the soaked beans, adding enough water to cover everything.  Bring to a boil, lower the heat, and simmer for about 1 hour.  Remove the beets and allow to cool before peeling and dicing them into small pieces.  Continue simmering the beans until they are soft.  When the beans are finished cooking drain off most of the liquid, reserving a ¼ cup.

Heat the oil in large pan.  Sprinkle coarse salt on the minced garlic and using the flat side of large chef’s crush them together to form a paste.  Fry the garlic with most of the green onion and cilantro, reserving some of both to add on top later.  Add the crushed red peppers and fry for 3-5 minutes.  Add the beans and their saved liquid to the frying pan and cook over medium for another five minutes.

Serve the beans next to the rice and top with the diced beets, tomatoes, and diced onions and cilantro.  Top with a crumbled or shredded cheese if you like.

My contribution was a meal consisting of Parmesan Asparagus with Poached Eggs and Couscous Salad and fresh bread (or toast).

Having not made this dish in quite some time we were excited to eat Eggplant Parmesan again, so we jumped the gun on summer and bought some Ontario greenhouse eggplants and tomatoes.  We had some red and yellow peppers a friend had given us so it seemed right to make a sauce from scratch and use it for the Eggplant Parm-Awesome!  (Haha, sorry, that seemed like a good name but when I wrote it down it looked absurd.  Oh well, I’m sticking with it from here on out!).

We also made Abundance on a Dime’s Cucumber Salad with an Ontario greenhouse cucumber, some more of the red and yellow peppers, and chickpeas.  It was a nice fresh-tasting side to the Parm-Awesome!

Eggplant Parm-Awesome

Based on Mollie Katzen’s Eggplant Parmesan recipe from The New Moosewood Cookbook

Ingredients:

• 2 medium sized eggplants
• 1 cup wheat germ and/or bread crumbs (mixture or just one)
• 1-2 eggs, whisked
• ½ – 1 cup flour
• 1 cup mozzarella, grated
• ½ cup parmesan, grated
• 1 jar of pasta sauce or the following ingredients:
• 1 onion, diced
• 1-2 Tbs. oil
• ½ cup peppers, chopped
• 1 can crushed tomatoes or 4-6 medium sized tomatoes
• 3 Tbs. tomato paste (optional)
• 1-2 garlic cloves
• 1-2 Tbs. Italian seasoning
• 1 Tbs. honey
• Salt and pepper

If making the sauce begin here, if using a jar of sauce proceed to the next paragraph.  Heat the oil in large pot.  Add the onions and fry until translucent.  Add peppers and garlic and fry for 3-5 more minutes.  Add the tomatoes,( tomato paste), Italian seasoning, honey, and salt and pepper, bring to a boil, lower the heat and simmer, stirring occasionally for 30-60 minutes, until the sauce has thickened.

Preheat the oven to 350.  Slice the eggplants into ½ inch thick disks.  Lightly coat one or two baking sheets with oil.  Fill a bowl with flour, coat the slices of eggplant with the flour and set aside*.  In a second bowl whisk the eggs.  You can stretch your eggs with a bit of milk.  In a third bowl put the wheat germ and/or bread crumbs.  Dip each floured eggplant slice in the eggs, then in the wheat germ to coat it.  Place on an oiled baking sheet.  When finished coating the eggplant slices bake them for 20-30 minutes, until they are turning golden brown on top.  Sample one, it should be crispy on the outside and creamy soft on the inside (at this point try not to sample more…).

Cover the bottom of an 8 x 12-inch glass baking dish (or similar sized baking pan) with your sauce.  Add a layer of the crispy eggplant slices and top with grated mozzarella.  Repeat 2 more times with more sauce, eggplant, and mozzarella (or until you run out of ingredients).  Bake uncovered for 30-40 minutes, until it is bubbling and the top is golden!  Allow the dish to cool for 5-10 minutes before serving.  Serve with a salad and red wine.

* Note: Katzen omits the egg and flouring, simply dipping the eggplant in milk and coating in the wheat germ.  For a gluten free option use a gluten free bread crumb.