PlanterTomato Vegetable Gardening

The New Potato Chip Is Made From Kale

In this posting, I provide a delicious alternative to potato chips.  Don't tell the kids, but they are also very healthy.

King Potato Chip

According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the average American eats about sixty-five pounds of potatoes each year.  About fourteen pounds of these potatoes are used to make potato chips -- or about 4 pounds of chips per person after cooking.

I love potato chips and I'm not going to give up eating them anytime soon.  However, I want to make you aware of a healthier substitute you can easily make at home.  And the really amazing news is that you don't have to give up the yummy, salty crunchy taste to get that extra nutrition.

Enter Kale

Regular readers of this blog, know that I'm a big fan of kale.  This vegetable packs a power-punch when it comes to nutrition.  It's without question the most nutritious veggie you can eat.  If you compare the nutritional information for equal quantities of potatoes and kale, it's clear that kale is the champion; while delivering about the same amount of protein as the potatoes, Kale gives you 70 times more vitamin A and 7 times more vitamin C. 

Recipe for Kale Chips

Kale chips are incredibly easy to make and remarkably delicious.  These chips come out of the oven super thin and crispy.  I strongly encourage you to give them a shot.  Here's a basic recipe and a few variations on the theme:

Ingredients

• 1 head of kale. 
• 2 tablespoons of olive oil
• 1 tablespoon of sea salt or kosher salt

Basic Recipe:

• Preheat your oven to 275 degrees Fahrenheit.
• Wash and thoroughly dry the kale.
• Remove the ribs of the kale and cut the leaves into 2 inch pieces (you only use the leafy part in this recipe, no stems)
• Toss the kale pieces, olive oil and salt together in a bowl to coat the kale.
• Place onto a baking sheet and bake until crisp, turning once during the process. (About 20-25 minutes total cook time)

Some Alternative Recipes:

• Spicy Smoky Kale Chips
• Martha Stewart's Sea Salt & Lemon Kale Chips
• Sweet & Salty Kale Chips
  

Chicken Lovers Eggnog Recipe

This recipe for "Baltimore Eggnog" comes courtesy of House and Garden Magazine from the 1970's.  It's made better if you are able to include fresh eggs from your own chickens, so I call it Chicken Lovers Eggnog.

This recipe serves 30, so cut down appropriately.

Ingredients:

• 1 dozen fresh eggs (from your own hens is even more special!)
  
• 1 pint brandy
• 1/2 pint light rum
• 1/2 pint peach brandy
• 3 pints milk
• 1 pint heavy cream
• 2 cups superfine sugar (this is sugar that is more fine than regular, but less than confectioners) If you can't find it, use what you can have on hand)
• Nutmeg (will be grated on top of eggnog)
  

Recipe:

1. Beat the egg yolks and sugar together until they thickened.
2. Set aside the egg white which you will whip just prior to serving.
3. Slowly, add all the remaining ingredients to the egg  yolk/sugar mixture.  Refrigerate for at least 1 hour.
4. When ready to serve, whip the egg whites until they are stiff (like meringue).  Mix into the rest of the ingredients.
5. Serve in punch glasses and top with grated nutmeg.

Happy Holidays to All From PlanterTomato!

Four Reasons Why You Can't Really Use Homegrown Ingredients to Make Beer

I've been experimenting with growing grain in my suburban backyard.  It's fun to think of growing grain and then converting it to beer. In this posting, I provide information about the ingredients in beer and the four reasons why growing your own ingredients isn't practical.

Basic Beer Brewing

Beer is made from just four basic ingredients: water, yeast, barley and hops.  The later two ingredients can be grown by gardeners and this raises the tantalizing possibility of not only brewing ones own beer, but doing so from home grown ingredients.  Let's look in greater detail at barley and hops....

Hops

In beer production hops are used as a preservative and a flavoring agent, giving beer its classic bitter taste and aroma.  The female flower cluster of the plant humulus lupulus (hops) is harvested and dried.  These flowers are then added to the beer during the brewing process where they release alpha and beta acids.  The alpha acids give beer it's bitter flavor, while the beta acids add aroma.

As a plant, hops are a perennial vine that grow 12-15 feet high.  They are extremely cold hardy and can be successfully grown in zone 3 through 8.   Hops are fast growers and will wrap themselves around trees, telephone poles and anything else in your garden.  So successful are hops that many consider the plant to be invasive. Hops seeds and rhizomes can be purchased from both seed companies such as Jungs Seeds, Raintree Nursery and a number of stores that cater to home-brewers.

I've never grow hops, but fellow gardeners and home brewers who have, often report that while easy to grow, hops are not easy to grow in a way that makes their alpha and beta acids consistent from plant-to-plant or year-to-year.  Herein lies the first problem.

Reason #1 - To make good beer, home brewer needs hops that are consistent with regard to their  alpha and beta acid levels.  This is hard to achieve in a home garden.

I've been referring to hops as if there were only one type of this plant in the world.  The truth is that there are dozens of varieties and each of these differs dramatically in their bitterness and in the aroma that they impart to the beer.  (See the Wikipedia for a list of some common varieties) This highlights the second issue for those interested in growing hops for home brewing...

Reason #2 - Most beer recipes require two or more different varieties of hops.  If you want to drink several types of beers, this means a home grower will need to successfully and consistently grow many hops varieties.  For example, a recipe that simulate Sam Adams Boston Lager requires the addition of Hallertauer and Pearle hops.  A recipe that I have for Bear Republic Racer #5, a craft brew, calls for five different types of hops - Chinook, Cascade, Centennial, Columbus and Amarillo. 

 Barley:

The second major ingredient in beer is barley. Barley provides the sugars that are fermented by yeast into alcohol.  As grain, barley does not possess these sugars and the grain needs to first be malted for use in beer.  In this process, the barley seed is soaked in water so that it begins to germinate and starches within the grain are thereby converted to ferment-able sugar.  Germination is then suspended by air drying so the barley can be used by brewers.  In some cases, the grain is then further processed by roasting.  This malting and roasting the grain contributes importantly to the final color, taste and mouth-feel of the beer.  The longer the grain is roasted, the darker it's color and the stronger it's flavor.  For example, home-brew versions of Guinness Stout use British Crystal Malt (provides a reddish color and carmel sweetness to the beer), Black Patent Malt (has a very sharp flavor and is used to make Porter and Stout style beers) as well as English Pale Malt and in some recipes wheat.

It's certainly possible for gardeners to grow barley.  The issue is really that that beer recipes generally require more than one variety and more than one malting style.

To begin with, there are three major categories of barley  based on the number of seeds at the top of the stalk (two-row, four-row and six-row barley). Two and six row barley are the ones that are most frequently used in brewing.  They differ in the amount of protein they contain and therefore in the taste and mouth-feel of the beers they produce.  European beers are generally made with 2-row barley while American brewers tend to use six-row.  Within these broad groups, there are many different varieties and these differ in their flavor characteristics as well as the ease of which they can be germinated for malting.  Most professional malting companies will use several varieties of barley to try to keep their products uniform.  These grain and malting variations form a highly complex palette from which a brewer can choose to formulate a beer recipe.

Reason #3 - As with hops, if you want to grow your own barley for brewing you'll probably need to grow several varieties, not just one. 

Reason #4 - These grains need to be malted (a complex enough process to begin with) and most beer recipes require between 2 and eight types of malted grain; malting this many styles is probably beyond the scope of what any home gardener/brewer has the capability and time to do.  For perspective, Austin Homebrew, is a company that sells malt grains to home-brewerssells over 56 different varieties of malted grains on their web site.

The Bottom Line

There's a difference between creating a beverage that would be recognized as beer and one that would be enjoyable and worth the effort.  You can grow one type of barley and roast it, and one type of hops and dry it.  From these ingredients it is possible to create beer.

However, to make a beer that would be as good as commercially available beer, you'll need several varieties of malt (barley) and hops.  This is very really just beyond the scope of what can be produced from the home garden and processed at home.

Yummy Thanksgiving Side Dish - Roasted Root Vegetables

If you haven't decided what to put next to your Turkey this Thanksgiving, here's a side dish that is easy to prepare and delicious.

Roasted Root Vegetables

Roasting brings out the natural sweetness of the vegetables in this simple side dish.  We use carrots, parsnips and potatoes, but there's no reason you can't add or substitute  other root vegetables such as turnips or kohlrabi.  Of course, you can use vegetables that you've grown in your garden or those purchased from the store or farmers market.

Ingredients (serves 10-12)

• 10 carrots
• 10 parsnips
• 10 fingerling potatoes
• Olive oil
• Salt & pepper
• Thyme, rosemary or sage (This is optional.  Add two or three sprigs of one of these herbs to add a savory note to the dish)

Recipe

1. Pre-heat oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit
2. Wash and peel the carrots and parsnips.  Cut into 1/4" slices.
3. Quarter the fingerling potatoes
4. Place the vegetables into a large bowl and drizzle with 1/3 cup olive oil. 
5. Add 4-5  grinds of pepper and a tablespoon of salt.  If you are using herbs, add the sprigs now.
   
6. Mix with your hands so that the vegetables are evenly covered in olive oil.
7. Place into a baking dish(es) and cook 30-45 minutes.  Test with a knife - the vegetables should be tender when a knife is inserted into them. 
   

A happy Thanksgiving to all from PlanterTomato.

Awesome Pumpkin Pie from Galeux D'Eysines

Every Thanksgiving I make a pumpkin pie but my twist on the classic recipe is to substitute a winter squash grown in my garden for the pumpkin in the ingredient list.  In my opinion, a pie made with fresh winter squash leaves pie made with canned pumpkin in the dust.

In prior years, I've used Butternut and Boston Marrow squashes and have been very pleased with the results.  The Butternut produced the sweeter of the two pies and it was also closer in texture to "traditional" pumpkin pie.  If you don't have home-grown squash, you can find Butternut and other suitable varieties at a farmers market or even your local grocery.

Galeux D'Eysines Pumpkin Pie

This year, I'm going to use a winter squash called Brode Galeux D'Eysines.  This heirloom variety dates back to late 19th century France and the name translates to -- embroidered with warts from Eysines (a town in Southern France located just outside of Bordeaux).

As you can see below, it's unusual looking to say the least. (Darn homely in my opinion)  Galeux D'Eysines grow to 10-15 pounds in weight, are pinkish-orange in color, and are characterized by many peanut-shaped "warts" on the skin.  These warts are caused by sugars within the squash and are natural to the variety.  Galeux D'Eysines are famous for their smooth, almost velvety texture and are generally used to make soups.  However, the same characteristics make them excellent for pie.

I tried to do a little research on the Galeux D'Eysines but turned up very little other than the translation of it's name and the fact that this variety is mentioned in Les Plantes Potageres (A catalog of vegetables with magnificent illustrations published by Vilmorin's in France in 1850)

Illustration from Les Plantes Potageres as re-published by Taschen

Pumpkin Pie Recipe

This recipe is taken from AllRecipes.com.  Its very simple to make and the pie is truly wonderful. Just substitute whatever variety of Winter squash you like for the Butternut squash in the ingredient list.

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 cups peeled and cubed butternut squash
• 1 cup lightly packed brown sugar
• 1 tablespoon cornstarch
• 1 egg, beaten
• 1 cup evaporated milk
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1 pinch ground allspice
• 1 pinch ground cloves
• 1 pinch ground ginger
• 1 pinch ground nutmeg
• 1 (9 inch) unbaked pie shell

Recipe:

1. Place squash in a saucepan with enough water to cover. Bring to a boil, and simmer over medium heat until tender, about 15 minutes. Drain, and cool.
2. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
3. In a blender or food processor, combine butternut squash, brown sugar, cornstarch, egg, milk, cinnamon, allspice, cloves, ginger, and nutmeg. Process until smooth. Pour into the unbaked pie shell.
4. Bake in preheated oven for 50 minutes, or until a table knife comes out clean when inserted in the center.

Growing Galeux D'Eysines

If you would like to grow this unusual heirloom squash, you can buy seeds from a variety of sources including Territorial Seed and Baker Creek. Growing instructions for this variety are similar to that of other Winter squash and pumpkins:

• Sow 1 inch deep and about 3 feet apart.  Like other vining squash, Galeux D'Eysines need a lot of room to grow.
  
• Plant in full sun about 3 weeks after your last frost date.
• Water regularly.
• Seeds germinate in 5-10 days.
• Harvest in 100-120 days.  You'll know the squash is ready when the color of the stem connecting the squash to the rest of the vine turns from green to a tan color.
• Cure in a cool place for 2 weeks prior to using.

Warm wishes to you and your family this Thanskgiving from PlanterTomato.

How to Make Mead - Wine from Honey

Honey wine, known more properly as "mead," is probably the first alcoholic beverage created by humans, predating the now much more popular wine and beer.  While not commonly available as a commercially produced product, mead is very easy to make at home.  In this posting, I'll tell you a little bit about this ancient beverage and give you basic instructions on how to make it.

If you are a bee keeper and have plenty of "free" honey on hand, mead has one other advantage compared to other beverages you can make like beer or grape wine -- mead is incredibly inexpensive to make.  Honey is the only real ingredient, so outside of the initial equipment costs, the only expense to produce a batch of mead for a bee keeper is a few corks, some yeast and yeast nutrients -- These amount to less than $1 per bottle.

Different Types of Mead

Mead in it's simplest form is fermented honey and water.  This is the type of mead I make.  However, there are many different styles of mead produced around the world.  These add other ingredients including various fruits, berries and spices: 

• Acerglyn - Mead made with the addition of maple syrup.
• Braggot - A Welsh mead made with the addition of hops.
• Capsicumel - mead made with hot chili peppers.
• Cyser - mead made with apple juice.
• Metheglyn - mead with the addition of spices including orange peel, ginger and nutmeg.
  
• Myod - a Russian mead made with the addition of berry juice.
• Sima - a Finish mead made with lemons.
  

 Like wine made from grapes, mead can vary dramatically in it's sweetness depending on the amount of sugars that remains in the beverage after fermentation.  Mead can be dry like as Sauvignon Blanc, sweet like a Riesling, or super sweet like a Sauternes, Moscato or other sweet wine.

Mead Ingredients

The least complicated mead is made from just honey and water.    Sweetness in mead is driven primarily by the amount of honey that is initially added to the fermenter.  A good guideline for the amount of honey required to make a five gallon batch of mead is as follows:

• Dry Mead - between 9 to 12 pounds honey
• Off Dry Mead - 13 to 14 pounds of honey
• Semi-Sweet Mead - 15-16 pounds of honey
• Desert Mead - 12 to 22 pounds of honey (Not added all at once)

I'm not a fan of sweet wines, so my batch of mead is being made with just 9 pounds of honey.  This should produce a dry "white" wine with nice floral notes. 

The other ingredients required include:

• Mead yeast
• Yeast nutrients (Fermaid-K, Go-Ferm, Diammonium Phosphate)
• Preservative for sweet meads (Potassium Metabisulphite, Potassium Sorbate)
  

Equipment

The easiest way to get started is to buy a basic wine making kit from a local or on-line wine making store.  These kits normally cost $90-$150 and include everything you need to get started including the primary and secondary fermentation vessels, a corker to insert corks into bottles, siphon tubes, a fermentation lock (more about this below), cleaning equipment etc. If the kit does not include it, I highly recommend adding a hygrometer and test jar to your equipment list ($10).  This device will help you determine when fermentation has ended and also the percentage of alcohol contained in your mead.

Here are some sources you might want to look at for these beginner kits:

Midwest Supplies

Austin Home Brew

MoreWine

Basic Mead Making

The primary ingredient in mead is honey, but the magic is all created by yeast, single celled micro-organisms.  Yeast literally eat the sugar as food but in the process of doing so create alcohol (the stuff we want) as one of the bi-products of this fermentation.

Fermentation is a completely natural process.  If you leave honey water in a bowl on your kitchen counter, wild yeast cells in the environment would be carried to the bowl through the air, land in the bowl, and begin fermenting the honey.

What makes "mead making" different from the above mentioned "natural process" is that mead makers choose a specific yeast strain to do the fermentation based on the desirable characteristics of that strain and exclude wild yeast strains and other bacteria that can alter the flavor, or even ruin, the mead. 

Ten Steps to Making Mead

1. Since you don't want wild yeast or bad bacteria to spoil your mead, clean and sanitize your fermentation equipment.  A good cleaner used in brewing is called PBW. Once clean, sanitize the equipment using Iodophor, an iodine based liquid that kills bacteria and wild yeast.  PBW and Iodophor can be purchased along with your equipment.
2. Decide on the sweetness level you want (see above for the amount of honey required to produce dry to sweet mead) and add water to your honey to create a total of 5 gallons of honey-water.  Start by placing the honey in your primary fermentation vessel and adding 1 gallon of water.  Stir and then add additional water till you reach 5 gallons.  The water in my area is tastes good so I just use tap water.  If you live in an area that doesn't have good tasting water, use bottled water.
   
3. Add the yeast nutrients per your mead recipe.  This is normally a few teaspoons of various nutrients the yeast need to thrive but are not provided by the honey.  It's like giving your yeast a vitamin to supplement their diet.
   
4. Use your hygrometer to measure the amount of sugar in the honey water.  To do this, take a sample of the liquid and place it in the testing jar.  Now place the hygrometer in the jar so that it floats in liquid.  The higher the hygrometer floats, the more sugar there is in the water.  The hygrometer has markings on its side that allow you to measure sugar content precisely.  "Specific Gravity" and "Brix" are two competing standards for measuring sugar content.  I use specific gravity, but either standard works.  (If you are making a dry mead, the Specific Gravity will be around 1.090 while a sweet mead will have a specific gravity of 1.135 or greater.)
   
5. Add yeast to the mixture and then cap your fermenter using a rubber stopper and fermentation lock.  The fermentation lock is a one-way valve that lets carbon dioxide gas out of your fermenter, but doesn't allow wild yeast or bacteria in.   One uses a fermentation lock because, in addition to alcohol, one of the bi-products of fermentation is carbon dioxide.  The fermentation lock allows this gas to escape, but prevents the aforementioned airborne yeast and bacteria from getting inside your fermenter.  There are several styles of fermentation locks, but all work by filling the lock with some water. (see below photo and video showing fermented carbon dioxide escaping through the lock).
6. Within 24 hours you should notice carbon dioxide from fermentation escaping through the fermentation lock.  The first days of fermentation are the most vigorous and is called "primary fermentation."  During the primary fermentation, the yeast population explodes as they consume the sugar in the honey and reproduce. Primary fermentation is over when the specific gravity of the mead falls to about 1.018.  Primary fermentation takes 7-21 days to complete depending on the amount of honey you use, the strain of yeast and the ambient temperature which effects yeast activity.  
   
   
7. Once this vigorous process is complete, the liquid is siphoned out of the first fermentation vessel and into a second vessel where fermentation is completed.  This process separates the mead from dead yeast cells that will have collected in the bottom of the primary fermenter during the vigorous period and begins the process of clarifying the mead (At this point, the mead will appear very cloudy from all the yeast swimming in the liquid)
   
8. The mead is allowed to further ferment for 3-4 weeks during which point it will reach its finished specific gravity: Dry Mead has a final specific gravity of 0.990 to 1.006, Medium 1.006 to 1.015, Sweet 1.012 to 1.020, and desert +1.020. You'll know your mead has finished fermenting when the specific gravity readings you get don't change for three or four days. If you're interested in knowing the alcohol content of your mead, you can use one of many online tools to calculate this value as long as you know the starting and ending specific gravity.  The difference between these numbers represents the amount of sugar that has been converted to alcohol. 
   
9. At this point, certain additives are mixed into the mead depending on the specific recipe and type of mead you are making.  For example, more honey is added to dessert meads, an acid might be used to add better balance the flavor of the mead, and finally, inhibitors (potassium sorbate and potassium metabisulphite) are added to stop the fermentation process and prevent any wild micro-organisms in the mead from taking over while in the bottle.  The inhibitors are important because you don't want fermentation to occur once the mead is bottled.  Further fermentation would cause carbon dioxide to build up within the bottle and could cause them to explode.
10. The final step is to bottle the mead by syphoning it into clean, sanitized wine bottles and corking these with the corking device included in your starter kit.

Like grape wine, mead improves with age but can be consumed immediately.

For more detailed instructions, recipes and information about mead making, check out the following web sites:

• GotMead.com - There's a wealth of information at this site, but it's not always easy to find.  The amount of information can be overwhelming for newcomers.
• TraditionalMead.com - a web site for purists.  No adding berries or spices here, just honey.
  

Beware of Store Bought Honey: Another Reason To Keep Bees

My daughter is a big consumer of honey, using it to sweeten drinks and even to put on hamburgers instead of ketchup, if you can believe it.  Two years ago, I put bee hives in our backyard so I could keep her supplied with her favorite sweetener and as a family hobby. However, a recent article by Food Safety News provides compelling reasons for producing your own honey or buying it at the farmers market.

More Than 75% of Store Bought Brands Flunked the Test

According to tests done by Food Safety News, more than three-fourths of honey brands purchased at grocery and club stores had been ultra-filtered and contained no pollen.  Without pollen, these products do not meet the standard for what is considered honey in the United States.  Filtering out pollen from honey adversely effects both its taste and its nutritional content, but ultra-filtered honey is a tale-tell sign of more concerning problems; specifically, adulterated and contaminated honey.

Adulterated and Contaminated Honey

Most of the honey sold in the United States in now sourced from other countries including China and India.  In order to have a price advantage, some suppliers from these countries have been cutting real honey with cheaper sweeteners such as high fructose corn syrup, cane sugar, or one of  13 other illegal sweeteners.  Furthermore, the actual honey from these countries is often contaminated with antibiotics, pesticides and heavy-metals, making them a health hazard. 

The Pollen Connection

Natural honey contains pollen from plants that are local to the place where the bees produced it.  Samples of honey taken from different countries, or even regions within a country, will have different pollen profiles that can be used to identify the place or origin, much in the same way fingerprints can be used to identify individuals.

Suppliers of adulterated or contaminated honey know this.  To prevent adulterated or contaminated honey from being traced back to them, these suppliers ultra-filter it to remove the pollen grains. Since ultra-filtration serves no beneficial purpose, (doesn't improve flavor, perceivable clarity or nutrition of the honey) ultra-filtered honey should be viewed as highly suspicious and a "smoking gun" for potentially adulterated or contaminated honey.

Where to Buy Your Honey

The Food Safety News analysis showed that most supermarkets, drug and club stores carry brands that have been ultra-filtered.  If you buy honey from these retailers you have a 75% chance of getting ultra-filtered honey.

In stark contrast to this, samples taken from farmers markets and "natural" stores such as Trader Joe's, PCC and WholeFoods are likely to be safe - none of the samples tested by Food Safety News from these retailers were ultra-filtered.  My advice to those buying honey is as follows:

1. Your safest option is to buy locally produced honey at a farmers market or from a local bee keeper.
   
2. If you don't have access to a farmers market, buy honey from a natural food grocery store.

Produce Your Own

One final option is to produce your own honey. If you would like to learn more about bee keeping, see some of my other postings on the topic including:

• What Equipment You Need To Keep Bees
• Ten Steps for Installing Bees In A Beehive
• What You Get When You Buy A "Package" of Bees
  

You can be 100% certain that your homemade honey has not been adulterated with other sweeteners or doped with antibiotics.  Assuming you don't live near a toxic waste site, you can be pretty darn sure your own honey will also be free of heavy metals as well. 

In candor, you can't be 100% certain that your honey will not contain some pesticides because bees forage over a range of 6 miles and may collect pollen and nectar from neighboring yards that have been treated.  However, your home-made honey doesn't differ in this respect from honey sold at the farmers market because their bees may also be located in areas that are adjacent to land that has been treated with pesticides.  Unless pesticides are completely banned, this will be a risk for honey regardless of who produces it. 

That said, I feel our suburban neighborhood is still a safer place to keep bees than a foreign country where there are few to no controls on the type and amount of pesticides used.  

Delicious Pasta Sauce: Secret Ingredients Revealed

A few weeks ago, I was cooking for the kids and needed to create a red sauce for the pasta.  I don't know what possessed me, but I decided to try creating my own recipe on the fly.  Everyone loved it, so I'm going to share the secret ingredients.

Ingredients:

• 1 pint of home-canned or store-bought chunk tomatoes
• 1/2 stalk celery
• 2 cloves garlic
• A few tablespoons of finely chopped pancetta (you can substitute 2 strips of bacon)
• Olive oil
• Salt & pepper
  

Secret Ingredients:

• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg

Ok, the secret ingredients look more like the kind of things that belong in a pumpkin pie, but I swear these are an awesome addition to pasta sauce. 

The inspiration for this was a meal I had at a local Mediterranean restaurant.  The restaurant adds some nutmeg to their moussaka and I liked the dish so much that I decided to add both nutmeg and cinnamon to my red sauce to see what would happen.  I found that these two spices add a wonderfully warm flavor that people will love but they will be unable to identify the secret ingredients.

Here's how to prepare the sauce. Give it a try.  I think you'll like it.

Preparation:

1. Finely chop the pancetta/bacon, celery, and garlic.
2. Add the pancetta to a sauce pan and cook over medium heat until the bacon is cooked and some of the fat is left in the bottom of the pan.
3. Add a tablespoon of olive oil and the celery.  Cook till the celery is soft and translucent.
4. Now add the garlic and cook for a minute, but be careful not to burn it.
5. Add the canned tomatoes (including the juice) and cook for about 20 minutes.  Home canned tomatoes contain lots of water, if you are using store-bought, you may need to add some water or a little white wine to keep the sauce from burning.
6. Add the nutmeg, cinnamon and salt and pepper to taste.
7. Cook over a medium to low heat for 20 minutes to allow all the flavors to blend.
8. Serve over a pasta shape of your choice.

Puntarelle & Italian Sausage Pasta

This is a quick gourmet pasta dish that is a nice change from traditional tomato or cream based pasta dishes.

Earlier this year, a gardening friend visited and brought me some Puntarelle plants for my garden.  Puntarelle is a type of dandelion and a member of the chicory family.  It's easy to grow, very cold tolerant (zone 4) and has an upright growth habit.

The name "Puntarelle" means "little tips" in Italian and Puntarelle in various forms are classic Roman dishes that are eaten from November through February.  While Puntarelle are often eaten as a cooked salad, we used ours to make a pasta dish with Italian sausage.  To make this recipe, you'll need two pots of water and a skillet going at the same time, but the good news is that by juggling between burners, you can prepare the whole dish in about 20 minutes.  That makes it great for evenings when you don't have lots of time to cook and don't want to eat out or do take-out food.

Ingredients (Serves 4)

• 1 pound of dry linguine, spaghetti, or shaped pasta of your choice.
  
• 4 Italian pork sausages (about 12 ounces) - I use packaged, fully cooked sausages and find they work well and speed cooking time.
  
• 8 ounces of puntarelle leaves
• Olive oil
• Parmesan cheese

Recipe

1. Bring a large pot of water to boil to cook your pasta and a do the same for a second smaller pot ( 4 cups water) in which you will par boil the puntarelle.
2. While the water is coming to a boil, slice the italian sausage into pieces that are about 1/4 inch long and wash the puntarelle leaves.
3. When the puntarelle water has come to a boil, drop the leaves into the pot and par boil for 3 minutes.  This will both cook the puntarelle and also reduce some of the bitterness of the greens.
4. Remove the puntarelle and rinse under cold water.  Pat dry them with a paper towel or dry using a salad spinner.
5. Cut the puntarelle leaves into 1 inch pieces.
6. Heat 2 tablespoons of olive oil in a large pan and add the sausage links that you have already cut into 1/4 inch pieces.
7. Cook the sausage over medium heat until they are cooked through and have caramelized on the outside. 
8. Add the puntarelle to the pan of sausages and cook over medium heat for about 3-4 minutes, stirring periodically to prevent burning.  Remove from burner and set aside.
   
9. By now, the pasta water should have come to a full, rolling boil. Add two tablespoons of salt and the pasta to the water and cook per the instructions on the package - generally about 10 minutes.
10. When the pasta is done, drain and transfer it to a large bowl.
11. Add the sausage and puntarelle and some additional olive oil and toss together.
12. Serve immediately.  If you like, add grated parmesan cheese or salt and pepper to taste.
    

Artichokes: How To Grow Them And Two Recipes

In this posting I'll give you information on how to grow artichokes and provide you with a recipe I learned in Rome.

Artichokes

Artichokes are a perennial plant that are a member of the thistle family.  These flowering plants are characterized by prickly leaves and, in some varieties, prickles on the stem as well.  Although thistles can be quite pretty, they are often considered weeds because of the nastiness of those sharp prickles.

On the other hand, artichokes are a thistle you can love.  Originally grown in North Africa, Artichokes spread throughout the Mediterranean in ancient times and made there way to America during the colonial period. Thomas Jefferson is known to have grown them on his estate in Virginia as early as 1767.  Today, almost all artichokes produced in the U.S. are grown in California in an area centered around Castroville in Monterey County, just 90 miles south of my home.

Growing Artichokes

Artichokes are hardy from zone 7 and higher so they can be grown as perennials in the south and along the coast of California.  If you live in a colder region you can grow them as an annual but you'll need to grow a variety that can mature in one year such as Imperial Star (95 days to maturity).  Other common varieties like Globe require 180 days so this is only for those gardeners in warmer climates.

I was able to purchase my artichokes as a potted plants at my local garden center.  I don't know how widely available this vegetable is as a plant.  However, Artichokes can be grown from seeds and are available from Burpee, Cooks Garden, and other seed providers.

Here are growing instructions from the Burpee web site:

Wrap artichoke seeds in a damp towel and store in the refrigerator for two weeks before sowing, then plant 1/4" deep in individual pots 6-8 weeks before last expected frost. Grow in a sunny spot or under plant lights. Keep moist. Set artichoke plants out in the garden after the danger of hard frost is past. Mulch deeply to keep the soil as cool as possible. In hot areas, afternoon shade is helpful. Artichoke and Cardoon both prefer deep, fertile, well-drained soil.

Artichokes grow four feet high and occupy a similar diameter.  I found them very easy to grow.  Planted last year, my Globe artichokes went from a small plant in a 6 inch pot to almost full size in one year.  I did not get a harvest of artichokes the first year, but they are producing this year and I harvested one this last week end.

Harvesting is easy, just cut the stem about two inches below the flower.

Steamed Artichokes

Normally, we steam artichokes and then dip the bottoms of the leaves in melted butter and lemon.  Preparing artichokes in this fashion is very easy. 

• Cut the stem and the top off the artichoke with a heavy chef's knife.
•  Trim off a few layers of the bottom leaves that are normally too tough to eat.
•  Place the artichokes into a pot bottom side up and fill the pot with with 1 quart of water.
• Simmer for about 30 minutes till a knife inserted into the heart of the choke passes through with no resistance.
• If you want to speed this process up, rather than steaming the artichokes, you can cook them in a covered bowl in your microwave for about 12 minutes.
• Then just serve with melted butter and lemon

Carciofi Alla Guidia (Fried Artichokes Roman/Jewish Style)

This is also a very simple recipe, but you need to harvest the artichokes when they are small.  The recipe dates back to the time of imperial Rome.  My wife and I ate these on our first trip to that city many years ago and so this dish brings back fond memories.

Ingredients:

• 10-12 small artichokes (Get ones with stems that are 2 inches or more)
  
• 2.5 cups cooking grade olive oil
• 3 lemons
• Salt & pepper

Instructions:

• Trim the outer leaves of the artichokes with scissor so that you remove the top portion of the leaf that has the prickle.
• Using a peeler, remove the woody outer layer from the stem.
• After you peel the artichokes, place them in a bowl of cool acidulated water (water with juice of 2 lemon in it) This will keep the stems from turning brown.
• Let sit for 1 hour
• Remove and drain well.
• Flatten artichokes so that the leaves flatten out and look like a flower.
• Put artichokes into a pan of olive oil stem upwards and cook over a medium heat.
•  Turn the artichokes periodically so they cook evenly, including the stem. (check using a knife.  It should penetrate the heart without resistance)
  
• Cook for an additional 10 minutes pressing the flower side of the artichoke into the bottom of the pan with tongs or a spoon to flatten them out.
• Remove and drain.
• Serve with a squeeze of lemon juice, salt and pepper to taste.

Below a 1 pound 11 ounce artichoke from my garden.

Modern Potato Eaters

Starry Night is arguably Vincent Van Gogh's most famous painting.  It depicts a brilliant and swirling night sky with stars and a crescent moon shining their brilliant light on a small village.  It is a beautiful vision of nature and very different in both style and emotional impact than Van Gogh's early work.  The most famous of these early paintings is called The Potato Eaters.

The Potato Eaters was completed in 1885 and is not a pretty picture of peasant life.  It shows a grimey looking peasant family eating potatoes, lit by a single gas lamp.  They eats their potatoes with the same dirty hands used to harvest their meal.  Even their skin is, by Van Gogh's intention, the color of a dusty potato.  The painting reflects his ambivalence towards manual labor -- course and ugly but at the same time honest:

"You see, I really have wanted to make it so that people get the idea that these folk, who are eating their potatoes by the light of their little lamp, have tilled the earth themselves with these hands they are putting in the dish, and so it speaks of manual labour and — that they have thus honestly earned their food. I wanted it to give the idea of a wholly different way of life from ours — civilized people. So I certainly don’t want everyone just to admire it or approve of it without knowing why" -Vincent Van Gogh, 1885

Last weekend, My nine year old son and I planted four varieties of potatoes.  As we dug into the ground, I thought of this Van Gogh painting.  Sowing seed potatoes puts your hands deep into the earth and harveting potatoes is messier still since you need to sift through the soil to find the spuds.  It's definitely the kind of work that gets dirt under the fingernails.

I would not want a life completely dependant on agricultural toil to survive.  By the same token, a life divorced from the pleasures growing and eating your own crops would be very unsatisfying.  In a few months, I will go into my garden and dig through the soil looking for buried treasure -- Maris Piper, German Butterball, Yellow Finn, and All Blue.  If I do well, I'll harvest 10 pounds of potatoes for each pound of seed potatoes sown.  That would yield about 160 pounds of delicious potatoes for our family to mash, bake and make into crispy fries.  Plenty of food for us modern potato eaters.

Best Mac & Cheese Recipe

Traditional macaroni & cheese is a wonderful comfort food, but there's a way to make it more of a gourmet meal for those times when you want something a bit more special. 

Here's a recipe created by my wife that substitutes goat cheese for cheddar and uses fresh herbs that can come right from your winter garden.

This gourmet mac & cheese takes about 15 minutes to make and is simple to prepare.  The only catch is that you need to have some goat cheese on hand.  Everything else is pretty simple stuff.  I used parsley and green onion from my winter garden and a dried serrano pepper that I harvested and preserved in the Fall of last year.

Ingredients:

• 4 ounces of chevre (soft goat cheese)
• 1-2 tablespoons of fresh chopped parsley
• 1 tablespoon fresh chopped green onion or garlic chives
• 1 dried serrano pepper
• 1-2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
• Salt & pepper
• 12-16 ounces of dried pasta (whatever shape you prefer)
  

Recipe:

• Bring a pot of salted water to boil.
  
• Cook your pasta according to the directions on the package.
• As the pasta is cooking, prepare the cheese sauce.
• Put the goat cheese into a large serving bowl and thoroughly mix the olive oil and cheese together using a wooden spoon.
• Add the rest of the fresh ingredients and the dried serrano which you have crumbled into small flakes.
• When the pasta is done, drain and immediately add the hot pasta to the bowl of cheese sauce.
• Thoroughly mix together.
• Add salt & pepper to taste.

Bon Appetit!

Boston marrow pumpkin pie recipe & Boston Marrow Growing Instructions

Prior to Thanksgiving, I shared a recipe for pumpkin pie that is made with Butternut Squash.  I also mentioned that I would try the same recipe with Boston Marrow Squash.  Well the verdict is in.

An Outstanding Pumpkin Pie

This is a fabulous pie.  Flesh of the Boston Marrow squash is less sweet and less dense than that of Butternut squash.  In my opinion, this results to a much better pumpkin pie that is lighter and lacks the cloying sweetness of other pie recipes.  The recipe is available at the AllRecipes.com web site.  Just substitute Boston Marrow for Butternut in the ingredients.

By the way, this pie is so easy to make it's ridiculous.  Essentially, you just cut the squash into cubes and simmer it in a saucepan of water for 15 minutes. 

 

Then mix the pumpkin, condensed milk, brown sugar, corn starch and seasonings in a blender until you have a puree.  Bake for 50 minutes and cool.  If you like whipped cream, feel free to gild the lily. 

 

About The Boston Marrow

Accoring to the folks at Slow Food, the Boston Marrow is probably ancient in origin and has a well documented history of at least 200 years:

"The squash originated in the upstate New York area and its legend as a Native American vegetable gifted to European-descended gardeners links it to traditional American history. The seeds were later passed on to Salem, Massachusetts in 1831, where the Boston (or “Autumnal”) Marrow Squash was then popularized by Mr. J. M. Ives." -Slow Food, Arc of Taste

Boston Marrow Squash generally grow in the range of 10-20 pounds.  I harvested 3 squash in this range and one 28 pound monster shown below.  I cut this squash into cubes and we used 8 pounds to make pumpkin soup for guests to Thanksgiving dinner.  I used a small amount to make pumpkin pies and I am looking forward to testing some other recipes made with this marvelous squash such as pumpkin ravioli and pumpkin bread.

Growing & Harvesting Information

• Plant Boston Marrow seeds in full sun at least 3-4 weeks after your last frost date. 
• The vines will grow to about 15 feet, so you do need to give this squash room to grow.  
• Water regularly.
• It takes 100-120 days till the squash matures.  You'll know the squash is ready for harvest when the skin is a deep orange and the stem has begun to turn brown.
• Store Boston Marrow in a cool place for 2 weeks to allow it to cure.
• Like other squash, Boston Marrow are susceptible to cucumber beetle, vine borers and powdery mildew.  

You can buy seeds for Boston Marrow at Baker Creek Seeds or Seed Savers Exchange.

Have a happy holiday from PlanterTomato.

Sharon's Beet & Goat Cheese Salad Recipe

If you are looking for something other than the usual garden salad, you might like my wife's recipe for Beet & Goat Cheese  Salad with A Citrus Vinaigrette.

I love this salad and think it makes a perfect addition to the Thanksgiving table.  It combines the sweetness of roasted beets with the bright freshness of citrus.  And what really nice is that you can choose whatever citrus flavor you like best such as lemon, grapefruit or orange.

The salad is served at room temperature and can be prepared on individual serving plates in advance of the meal.

Ingredients (serves 4-6):

• 4 medium to large sized beets
• 4 ounces of goat cheese but feel free to adjust to your taste
• 6 ounces of extra virgin olive oil or grape-seed oil
• 2 ounces of fresh citrus juice of your choosing (lemon, grapefruit, orange etc.)
• Zest from citrus
• 1/2 teaspoon of fresh chopped thyme (optional)
  

Preperation

• Wash, but do not peel your beets.
• Wrap in foil and place the beets into a pre-heated oven (375 degrees Fahrenheit/190 degrees Celsius)
• Roast for about an hour.  The cooking time will vary based on the size of the beets so test for tenderness with a fork.
• Remove from the oven and let cool
• Remove the skin of the beets by rubbing them in your hands.  The skin should peel off easily.
• You now have the option to make either a composed salad or a diced salad.  The composed salad is one where you alternate thin sliced of beet and goat cheese on serving plates.  It's a more elegant presentation, but also more work.  If you want a less formal, but faster and easier salad, go with the diced version of this recipe.
• For a composed salad, cut the beets into slices.  For the diced salad, dice into 1/2 inch cubes.  Place beets into a mixing bow.
• Make the vinaigrette by mixing the oil and citrus juice together in a second bowl with a whisk. 
  
• Pour about 1/2 of the vinaigrette over the beets.  If you like the taste of thyme, add the chopped thyme and toss everything together with your hands.
• If you are making the composed salad, cut the goat cheese into thin slices and interleave the cheese and beets on individual serving plates. For the diced salad, place the beets onto serving plates and crumble goat cheese on top. 
  
• Sprinke some of the citrus zest on top of each plate.
• Allow friends and family to add additional vinaigrette to taste.

By the way, Crapaudine beets, are a very interesting and ancient variety, would be perfect for this salad but you can use any type of sweet beet you like.

Have a happy and healthy Thanksgiving.

Grandma Tertocha's Oyster Stuffing

I met my wife's grandmother when she was in her eighties.  Sharp as a tack until she died at 96, Grandma Tertocha passed down a number of family recipes which her children, and children's children, cherish.  Here's her recipe for oyster stuffing.

This oyster stuffing recipe is as good as it gets.  I think it's typical of the type of recipe that comes out America's midwest -- simple, hearty and delicious.

There are no super fancy ingredients in this recipe other than the oysters.  We've jazzed the recipe up a bit by using Chiabatta bread, but Grandma used white bread and you can do the same if you wish.

This stuffing is pure comfort food.  The day after Thanksgiving, I usually sneak into the kitchen early in the morning before anyone else in the house is up, and warm up a bowl in the microwave.  I then have it for breakfast with a cup of coffee.  To each his own.

 Ingredients:

• 1 Loaf of bread (you can substitute Chiabatta or French bread)
• 8 oz Pepperidge Farm seasoned stuffing mix
• 1 white onion
• 1 cup chopped celery
• 3 tablespoons butter
• 1 egg
• 1 teaspoon dry sage (or 2 tablespoons of fresh sage)
• 1 teaspoon of salt
• 2 Tablespoons fresh parsley
• 8 oz oysters (you can add as much as 16 oz if you really like oysters)
• Chicken broth

 Instructions:

• You want your bread to be fairly dry, so 12 hours before making the stuffing, lay the bread out and let dry in the open air.
• Pre-heat an oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit (175 degrees Celsius)
• Saute the onions and the celery in butter
• Place into a mixing bowl and add the sage
• break up the bread so that it is the size of croutons and mix it and the rest of the ingredients in a bowl.
• Add chicken broth so that the mixture is thoroughly moist but not wet.  The amount you add depends on the type of bread used, how dry it is, and whether you used just the oysters or added the oyster liquor.  
• Place the mixture into a baking dish and bake in your oven for 1 hour.  Check by inserting a table knife into the stuffing and seeing if the knife comes out clean) 
  

Tip:  Don't make this, or any other stuffing, by placing it inside your turkey.  Turkey is difficult enough to cook properly on its own; placing stuffing inside the bird means that the turkey will take longer to cook and you run the risk of having both undercooked stuffing and a dried out bird.

Tomorrow, I'll post a recipe for a beet and goat cheese salad I know you'll love.

Pumpkin Pie Recipe

Here's a pumpkin pie recipe for your Thanksgiving table.  But there's a secret....It's made with Butternut squash, not pumpkin.

Well think about it for a second.  Pumpkins are squash so it makes sense that other members of the squash family can be substituted for them in pumpkin pie and other recipes.  In my opinion, a good Butternut squash is often sweeter than a pumpkin and, arguably,  a better choice as the key ingredient in a pie recipe.

Here's a recipe for Pumpkin Pie from the folks at AllRecipes.com that uses butternut squash as the base.

I also plan to try a variety of recipes made from Boston Marrow Squash.  The Boston Marrow is listed in Slow Food's Arc of Taste and so I'm going to try it in pie, baked as a side dish, as an ingredient in soup, in pumpkin bread, and as a custard.  And I have plenty of it on hand with which to experiment.  The Boston Marrow I harvested a few weeks ago (shown below) weighed in at over 28 pounds. 

Come back tomorrow and I'll share our family recipe for stuffing with you.

Canning Tomatoes & A Quick Pasta Sauce Recipe

In this posting, I describe how to can tomatoes using a pressure caner and provide my wife's recipe for a quick, light pasta sauce you can make in about 25 minutes.

I consider this week to be the close of our 2010 tomato growing season.  This week we canned our last batch of tomatoes, bringing the total amount squirreled away for winter to 45 pints; that's enough to make a meal a week from now until the beginning of next year's season in late June.

While some gardeners prefer to make and can tomato sauce, we prefer to can the tomatoes themselves and use them as an ingredient in recipes.  This gives us the flexibility to use the tomatoes in a variety of dishes such as ratatouille, pasta sauce, lasagna, chili, etc.

Some tomato varieties such as Amish Paste and San Marzano are considered specifically as canning tomatoes.  They are meatier with less juice and therefore produce canned tomatoes that that yield a thicker sauce.

While we did grow some canning paste tomatoes (San Marzano), most of the tomatoes we preserved (Cherokee Purple, Brandywine, Black Krim etc.) are considered slicing tomatoes.  When used in canning, they produce a thinner sauce but one with a very wonderful sweet flavor.

How To Can Tomatoes

• Wash and stem all the tomatoes so they are ready to go.
• Measure out the amount of tomatoes you need for the jar you plan to fill.  I can the tomatoes in pint sized jars and find that starting with 1 quart of whole tomatoes yields just the right amount of tomatoes for each pint.
  
• Remove the skin from this batch of tomatoes by blanching --Cut a small "X" into the bottom of each tomato with a sharp knife.  Then drop the tomatoes in boiling water for 1.5 minutes to loosen the skin. Remove the tomatoes from the hot water and cool them to stop the cooking process and make them easier to handle. (Traditionally, blanching is done by placing the tomatoes in an ice water bath but I find that putting them in a colander and running cool tap water over them works just as well.)  Remove the skin.
• Using your hands, squeeze out some of the juice and seeds from each tomato so that you are left with large chunks.  (I do this over the sink to make clean-up easier)
• Put the tomato chunks into canning jars and add either 2 tablespoons of lemon juice or 1/4 teaspoon of citric acid (you can buy citric acid powder from a canning specialty store or online merchant)  The jar should be filled to within 1/4" of the top of the jar.
• Wipe the lip of the jar with a paper towel so it is free of any tomato juice and cap with a clean lid.
  
• Repeat the above procedure until all your tomatoes are in cans and ready to go into the pressure caner.
• Place the jars in your pressure caner and fill so that the water level is about 1.5 inches above the bottom of the caner. Cook for 10 minutes at 10 pounds of pressure.  Remember that you start your timer only after the pressure in the caner reaches 10 pounds of pressure.  For more detailed information about the using a pressure caner, see my posting on Preserving Your Harvest By Caning.
  
• Remove from the caner and let cool.
  

Sharon's Pasta Sauce

My wife Sharon created this recipe specifically for our canned tomatoes.   The recipe creates a lighter, thinner sauce that we prefer.   The quantities listed below are approximations; feel free to adjust the seasoning to your own tastes and the ingredients you have on hand.

• Mince 4 slices of pancetta (Italian Bacon)
  
• Add some olive oil to a pan and cook the pancetta until lightly brown over a medium heat.
• Chop one small onion and add it to the pan.  Cook til translucent, stirring so that the pancetta and onions do not burn.
  
• Mince 3 cloves of garlic and add it to the pan.  Cook about a minute.
• Add 1 pint of caned tomatoes to the pan along with 1/2 cup red or white wine.
  
• If you are using dry oregano, add a few pinches to the pan now.  If using fresh oregano, add it about 2 minutes before removing the sauce from the stove.
• Cook on a low to medium heat for about 15 minutes.  This allows the flavors to mix and some of the water in the to evaporate to thicken the sauce.

Bon Appetit.

Hmong Red Cucumbers & A Refreshing Cucumber Mint Cooler

A very unusual cucumber and an equally unusual drink that will cool you down on those hot summer days.

I love to try new things in my garden each year.  This year, when looking through the Baker Creek seed catalog, I noticed an unusual orange-yellow cucumber called a Hmong (pronounced Mah-ng) Red.  Intrigued, I decided to try them this year and I harvested the first one this weekend.

The Hmong Red cucumber is named after a specific ethnic group (The Hmong) who originate from Asia:  China, Vietnam, Laos and Thailand. About 200,000 ethnic Hmong currently live in the United States, many of them arriving in the mid 1970's as refugees from the Vietnam War. 

Although the Baker Creek catalog did not state this specifically, I suspect that these immigrants brought seeds for this unusual cucumber with them, and this is how they made their way into the Baker Creek catalog.

The Hmong red is as easy to grow as any other cucumber -- which is pretty easy.  They also grow to an amazing size; the one shown in the attached picture weighed 2 pounds 4 ounces.  When young, the cucumber is green, but it gradually turns yellow, and then orange. 

Many cucumbers are quite sweet.  The Hmong Red (when harvested at the yellow/orange stage) has a mild sour/bitter flavor.  You can use it as a salad cucumber, but I wanted to see if I could find a more interesting and authentic way to eat it.  And here it is....

Hmong Cucumber Mint Cooler

This recipe was developed by Andrea Nguyen, an author, freelance writer and cooking teacher who lives in Northern California. The below cucumber mint cooler recipe and drink photo are printed with her permission, www.vietworldkitchen.com.

Andrea has won high praise and a numerous awards.  Her cookbooks including Into the Vietnamese Kitchen: Treasured Foodways, Modern Flavors and Asian Dumplings: Mastering Gyoza, Spring Rolls, Samosas, and More can be purchased through Amazon.com or other book stores.

Cucumber Mint Cooler Recipe

The Hmong cucumber is halfway between a cucumber and a melon. It doesn’t taste like much on its own until you add sugar. Then it is transformed.  Without a Hmong cucumber, use honeydew melon.

Ingredients:

One whole or a half Hmong cucumber
Sugar
5 to 8 large mint leaves
Ice
Filtered Water

Instructions:

1. Halve the cucumber lengthwise, in needed. Use a spoon to scoop out the seeds.

2. Use the tines of a fork to scrape out the flesh, depositing them in a bowl. Try to get down to the cucumber skin. Discard when there is little flesh left. The flesh will be in pale green pieces. (If you want a smoothie-like texture, puree the flesh in a blender before moving on.)

3. Measure how much flesh you have. For every cup, stir in 2 1/2 to 3 tablespoons sugar and 3 or 4 mint leaves. Your stirring will dissolve the sugar and bruise the mint.  Don’t be alarmed as the cucumber flesh gives off some bubbles. Taste to make sure there is a pronounced sweet flavor.

4. For each 1 cup of flesh, add 1/2 cup water, stirring to combine. Serve over ice, stirring a few times to chill the mixture. (Alternatively, chill the mixture and then serve it over ice.) Present this cooler with a spoon for guests to eat the flesh. 

Cucumber Avocado Soup & Smoked Salmon Lunch

We are now getting into the hottest days of summer, so here's a quick light meal idea for those days when it's too hot to move, let alone eat.

Cucumber Avocado Soup

This is a delicious, refreshing cold soup and it only takes a few minutes to prepare.  It also uses some of those cucumbers that you've got growing in your garden.

Ingredients:

• 2 ripe avocados
• 1 cucumber that's been chilled in your refrigerator (If it's a variety that has a very tough skin, peel the cucumber)
  
• 1 cup plain yogurt
• 2 ice cubes
  
• Salt & pepper to taste
• Chopped chives for garnish

Recipe:

• Remove the avocado skin and dice the fruit.
• Cut the cucumber into large chunks.
  
• Place the ice cubes in the blender and blend till they are chopped into small bits.
• Now add the avocado, cucumber and yogurt and blend on medium until everything is smooth.
• You can eat this as is, or you can cool the soup further by placing it into a non-reactive bowl and storing in the refrigerator for 30-60 minutes.
• Serve with some chopped chives on top as a garnish.
• Add salt & pepper to taste.  (In my opinion, you really do need to add some salt to get the flavors to pop)

Smoked Salmon Plate

The soup recipe above is terrific but if you want to add a little more substance to the meal while still keeping things light, then I recommend pairing the soup with smoked salmon (also called lox or gravlax).  You can buy this in better super markets, bagel shops or delicatessens.  It's just cured salmon that has been smoked and sliced very thinly.

There's nothing to this dish.... You just plate the salmon and put out pumpernickel bread or crackers on which to eat it.  In our house, we also serve the salmon with diced red onion, capers and lemon wedges on the side.  You can garnish the salmon with the capers and onions if that's suits your taste, or just squeeze some fresh lemon juice on top of the salmon to brighten the flavor.  That's it.

Enjoy your meal and stay cool as we enter the dog days of summer.

If you have a favorite light summer meal, let me know by posting a comment this posting.

Top Ten Ways To Use Tomatoes

Ten great ways to use your tomato harvest.

Hopefully by now, you are beginning to harvest tomatoes or perhaps you are lucky enough to be rolling in them.

Homegrown tomatoes are so good, you wouldn't want them to go to waste.  And while you could preserve them by drying or canning, its more fun to eat them fresh at their peak of ripeness.

To that end, here are ten great ways to use those tomatoes.  In no particular order.....

Tomato Top Ten:

1. BLT - this is a classic sandwich.  Try kicking you sandwich up a notch by using the best ingredients.  Here's my wife's way of jazzing up a BLT while staying true to the traditional recipe -- The Ultimate BLT.
2. Pizza - The hardest thing about making pizza at home is making the dough.  After that, it couldn't be easier.  However, to get a really good crust, you'll need a baking stone for your oven.  If you try homemade pizza, I guarantee you'll never look at Dominoes, Pizza Hut or any of the other chain store pizzas in the same way.  Most recipes call for tomato sauce in the list of ingredients.  We ditch the canned stuff and use fresh cherry tomatoes which we slice and de-seed (this reduces the water in them).  Then just lay the tomato pieces on top of the crust just like you do with the cheese and other ingredients and bake.  Homemade Pizza.
3. Tomato & Mozzarella Salad - The fastest salad you could ever make.  On summer nights when we don't want to cook, this is a great light meal.  Just slice both ingredients and plate by alternating slices of tomato and cheese.  Drizzle with olive oil and add salt a pepper to taste. The Italians call this dish Insalata Caprese, an elegant sounding name for an elegant dish.
4. Salsa - I'm sure that you may have heard that American's now use more salsa than ketchup.  I checked on this and found that this is only sort-of true.  According to the Wall Street Journal (Sept 20, 2007), Americans eat more pounds of ketchup per year than salsa -- 330 million pounds of ketchup vs 185 million pounds of salsa .  But salsa is more expensive on a per pound basis, so from a spending perspective, Americans spend $460 million on salsa and only $299 million on ketchup.  I'll leave it to you to decide whether the salsa versus ketchup story is true or urban legend.  What I can say definitively is that salsa is great on chips, eggs and burgers.  Here's a salsa recipe from Alton Brown of Food TV Network.
5. Ketchup - speaking of ketchup..... here's a recipe to make your own at home.  In a spirit of full disclosure, I have not tried this recipe so I can't tell you how close this tastes Heinz 57.  Ketchup.
6. Gazpacho - this is a Spanish vegetable soup that is served cold.  Like the recipe tomato & mozzarella salad, this dish is particularly nice on hot summer nights. This particular recipe for Gazpacho calls for fresh tomatoes and canned tomato juice.  If you have lots of tomatoes and a juicer, you can use fresh juice and make this even better.
7. Ratatouille - A few years ago, Disney Studios produced an animated comedy about a rat that cooked gourmet food including this dish.   Pronounced "rat-eh-TOO-ee", this side dish from southern France features tomatoes, zucchini, eggplant and thankfully, not a bit of rat.  Give ratatouille a try.
8. Fried Green Tomatoes - For those that have not tried this, this dish tastes a lot better than it sounds. Here's a recipe for fried green tomatoes from Paula Dean.
9. Tomato Soup - Perfect for summer soup and sandwiches.  Tomato soup is pure comfort food. Here's a recipe from Martha Stewart.
10. Homemade Tomato Sauce -  There are so many recipes for tomato sauce that I won't even point you to a specific recipe.  Try your grandmother's favorite recipe, or cruise the internet and get one from Grandma Google.

By the way, I'm gathering consumer ratings on the best varieties of homegrown tomatoes.  If you have a just a few minutes, please rate your favorite tomato varieties by clicking here.

What To Do With All That Zucchini: Two Unusual Recipes

Recipes for Zucchini Carpaccio & Zucchini French Fries

Zucchini is notoriously prolific.  If you planted it this year, you're probably rolling in it by now and wondering what to do with it all.

The time honored way of disposing of excess zucchini is to leave it on a neighbor's doorstep, ring the doorbell and run away. 

But if you'd like another way to prepare it for your dinner table, I'd like to offer up two very different recipes that provides relief from the fatigue of steamed, grilled, stuffed or sauteed zucchini.

Recipe #1 Zucchini Carpaccio

Carpaccio is an Italian dish made of thinly sliced raw beef served with a vinaigrette and some grated Parmesan cheese.  I'm not really a fan of traditional carpaccio, but it was the inspiration for a vegetarian version of the dish created by my wife Sharon.  This recipe is easy to make, quick and is definitely a different approach to zucchini.  Here's how you make it....

Ingredients:

• Zucchini
• Olive oil
• Shredded or grated fresh Parmesan cheese
• Fresh or dried thyme
  
• Salt & pepper

Instructions:

• Preheat your oven to 300 degrees Fahrenheit on broil.
• Thinly slice zucchini so that you have rounds that are about 1/8" thick.  The ideal tool for this is a mandoline, but if you don't have one, you can use a knife.
• Place some aluminum foil onto a cookie sheet and lay down a row of thinly sliced zucchini so that they overlap each other like fish scales. Lay down another layer of zucchini in the same fashion overlapping each other and the first row.  Continue doing this till you use up all your zucchini.  You should end up with a large rectangle of overlapping zucchini rounds.
• Drizzle the top with olive oil and add a few pinches of fresh or dried thyme, salt and pepper.
• Sprinkle some fresh shredded or grated Parmesan cheese on top.
• Place into the oven for just a few minutes.  Because the zucchini is thinly sliced, it should cook in just a few minutes.  You want the cheese on top to bubble and start to go brown. 
• Serve using a spatula to remove the zucchini from the pan. 

Below is a photo of the dish made with a Zucchino Rampicante, a crookneck variety that I've posted about previously.  Since this squash is so thin, I cut the zucchini into long thin strips, rather than rounds.  The presentation is not as nice as the overlapping rounds, but still just as tasty.

The crispy, warm, salty Parmesan cheese on this zucchini makes for a really yummy and unusual side dish.

Recipe #2 Zucchini French Fries

This second recipe is more what you might call "comfort food."  It is the same preparation as with traditional French fries but you use zucchini in place of potatoes.

Ingredients:

• Zucchini
• Peanut Oil
• Salt

Instructions

• Cut your zucchini into thin strips.  (You can do this with a knife, but it is much easier to get consistent sized fries if you use a french fry cutter; this is a device which pushes a whole potato through a cutting plate to create thin, rectangular slices.)
• Heat your oil to 325 degrees Fahrenheit.  Ideally, this is done in a deep fryer, but if you don't have one, you can do it in a frying pan.  You just want the oil to be high enough in the pan that it will cover the fries.
• Dump a small batch of zucchini slices into the oil and cook for about 3 minutes.  Remove from pan or fryer and set aside in a bowl. Do this for all of the zucchini slices.
• Increase the temperature of your oil to 375 degrees Fahrenheit.
• Re-fry small batches of the partially cooked zucchini for 1 minute.  This second frying at a higher temperature will result in really crispy fries.  Repeat till you've re-fried all the zucchini.
• Salt and serve.

As with traditional French fries, zucchini fries are a great side dish for hamburgers.

The Ultimate BLT - Perfect For Independence Day Lunch

With gardening season in full swing, it's time to use those wonderful homegrown tomatoes and greens to make BLT's.

Any good cook will tell you that the secret to making delicious food is to use the best and freshest ingredients and a BLT is no exception.  In our house, we convert the "Classic BLT" to the "Ultimate BLT" by kicking the ingredients up a notch:

• Tomatoes - Let's face it, most tomatoes from the supermarket are hard and tasteless; they don't add much to a BLT.  But if you use a homegrown tomato, you have an entirely different experience because the sweet of the tomato compliments and balances the salty-fatty taste of the bacon.  If you are like me, you are beginning to harvest the first tomatoes from your garden, so now is a great time to make a BLT.  If you're tomatoes are not ripe yet, you may be able to get the next best thing from your local farmer's market.
• Lettuce - you can use any variety in your garden, but my wife and I actually prefer changing out the green component of the sandwich entirely.  We use either arugula or watercress to make our sandwiches.  Both of these greens add a spiciness not found in traditional BLT's.  Although, I suppose a Bacon, Arugula and Tomato sandwich should probably be called a "BAT" and one made with watercress a "BWT" .
• Bacon - If you follow my posts, you know we cure our own bacon using mesquite, alder, hickory and other woods.  I have to say, this bacon is sublime.  We use this for our BLT's, but if you don't have the time to mess with making your own bacon, just buy a good grade of bacon from the store or your local butcher.  One more thing.... fry your bacon on a medium heat so you don't overcook it.  (Burnt bacon tastes wretched and you and your sandwich deserve better)
  
• The Staff of Life - You can use white bread to make BLT's, but a tastier approach is to use a fresh baked bread like a ciabatta, batard or boule.  Don't worry if you don't recognize these names;  they are just different styles of bread with crusty tops similar to French bread.  We buy our bread at our from the store because we've found that commercial bakers do a better job than what we can at baking these loaves.  High quality, fresh bread is becoming more widely available these days and many of the better supermarkets now bake it on the premises or source it from a local artisinal. baker.  If you have the option, use a nice crusty top bread to make your BLT's.
• Mayo - Slather it on.  Yes I know it high in fat.  For Pete's sake, live a little.

A Recipe for Spicy Dill Pickles

If you're cucumber harvest is more than you can eat right now, here's a spicy pickling recipe that will preserve them for about a month.

A few days ago, I posted my wife's recipe for cucumber salad.  This salad was made with a variety of cucumber called Beit Alpha which is perfect for making a quick summer salad because it requires no peeling.  In this posting, I'll introduce you to a different variety of cucumber and also provide a more traditional way to preserving it.

Delikatesse Cucumbers:

Delikatesse cucumbers are a fairly rare heirloom variety from Germany.  The cucumbers have a thin, bitter skin on the outside and very firm, crunchy and sweet flesh.

Delikatesse produces abundant fruits which are paler in color than other varieties. (almost lime green in some cases) They grow 8-10 inches long and are considered primarily a slicing cucumbers, probably because they are a bit bigger than other varieties used for pickling.  That notwithstanding, we used Delikatesse cucumbers to make pickles and were very happy with the results. 

Growing Tips:

• Plant seeds about 2 weeks after your last frost date when the soil temperature is about 70 degrees Fahrenheit.
  
• Direct sow seeds 1/2 inch deep.  I grow my cucumbers hydroponically, but if you grow yours traditionally, plant them about 9 to 12 inches apart. 
  
• You'll get more fruit if you trellis your plants and trellising results in longer, straighter cucumbers.
  

Spicy Dill Pickles

Below is a recipe for a spicier version of dill pickles that comes from the Bon Appetit magazine (August 1993).  These pickles have that dill pickle flavor, but it's kicked up one notch by the presence of the red pepper which make for a slightly spicier version of the classic dill pickle.

Ingredients:

• 4-5 Delikatesse (large sized) or 12 traditional pickling cucumbers
• 2 cups water
• 1 3/4 cups distilled white vinegar
• 1 1/2 cups chopped fresh dill
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 8 garlic cloves
• 1 1/2 tablespoons coarse salt
• 1 tablespoon pickling spice (In the spice section of the supermarket)
• 1 1/2 teaspoons dill seeds
• 1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper

Recipe:

• If you are using Delikatesse cucumbers, you may need to slice these in order to store them in canning jars.  If they are small cucumbers, you can use the cucumbers whole.
• Combine all the ingredients except the dill in a large bowl.  Stir and let stand on the counter for 2 hours.
• Transfer the cucumbers to wide-mouth storage jars and cover with the pickling mixture.  Add a sprigs of dill to each jar.
• Cover the jars and refrigerate for 10 days.
• Yields between 2 to 2.5 quarts.  Stays fresh up to 1 month.

A Delicious Recipe For Cucumber Salad

A refreshing summer salad that takes just minutes to make.

With the weather heating up and cucumbers becoming available for harvest, I thought I'd share a simple recipe with you for a refreshing cucumber salad.  It takes only a couple minutes to prepare and is a real change of pace from your normal lettuce and tomato type salads.  On a hot summer day, this hits the mark.

This year, I'm growing a variety of cukes, but the first into harvest is a variety called Beit Alpha.  What makes this cucumber so nice is that its' skin is so delicate that you do not need to peel it.  Just slice it. Trust me, you won't be disappointed;  the flesh is crunchy and sweet with not a bit of bitterness.  If you live in a hot area or if you would like to grow your cucumbers in a greenhouse, this variety will work for you. 

I've got mine growing hydroponically on the roof.  For information on that mad experiment, check out my prior posting, A Fiddler on the Roof.

Recipe:

This recipe was developed by my wife and is a summer favorite.  To make the salad, you want to slice the cucumbers as thin as possible -- paper thin is best.  A mandolin slicer is the perfect tool if you have one.

Ingredients:

• 1 thinly sliced cucumber
  
• 3 tablespoons of rice wine vinegar
• 1 tablespoon of water
• 1 pinch of salt
• 1 tablespoon of sugar
• 1 teaspoon of fresh or dried dill, chopped up
• A grind or two of pepper

Recipe:

1. Peel, if not using a thin skinned variety of cucumber.  Then thinly slice.
   
2. Mix all of vinegar, water and other seasoning in a bowl.  Taste the seasoning using one of the cucumber slices and adjust to your taste.  If you like it sweeter, add a little more sugar etc.
   
3. Gently toss the sliced cucumber into the seasoning mixture.
4. Refrigerate for at least 15 minutes to allow the cucumber to marinate.

Curing and Smoking Bacon at Home with Mesquite or Alder Wood

An experiment in smoking bacon with non-traditional woods.

In a prior posting, I provided a recipe and instructions to cure and smoke your own bacon.  I really like this recipe because it provides a perfect balance of the flavors that make bacon so incredibly wonderful -- fatty, salty, and sweet.

As I also mentioned in that  posting, I am not a big fan of apple wood for smoking bacon and so for my first batches were made using hickory wood.

Hickory is the traditional choice and the wood used to make most store-bought bacon.  However, there are other wood options and I thought I would try some of these to see if I liked the results. When I made our most recent batch of bacon I smoked half in mesquite wood and the other half in alder wood. 

Mesquite Wood

Mesquite is a drought-tolerant deciduous tree that grows primarily in Texas and the Southwestern United States and Northern Mexico.

If you're from Texas, where barbecue is traditionally done using mesquite, you're going to love mesquite smoked bacon.  But you don't need to live in "The Lone Star State" to find mesquite wood or enjoy mesquite smoked bacon.  Mesquite chips are widely available at stores that sell barbecue grills. Mesquite gives a distinct and extra smokey flavor to bacon. 

Red Alder Wood

Alder is a deciduous tree in the birch family.  In the United States, red alder grows primarily in the Pacific Northwest. 

For making bacon, Alder is definitely the more off-beat choice of the two woods I tested.  Alder is recommended widely for smoking pork, but in candor, my prior experience with alder wood has been exclusively as a wood used to make salmon on the grill. 

I was a bit surprised at how well alder works for bacon;  it gives the bacon a slightly sweeter and more mild flavor than either hickory or mesquite. 

You can find alder chips at local grill stores, but it is less common, so you may need to hunt around to find a supplier.

In the future, I'm going to try cherry, pecan and other woods to see if I can arrive at a personal favorite.  But any way you smoke it, bacon is pretty terrific stuff.  I can't wait for fresh summer tomatoes to make bacon, lettuce and tomato sandwiches.

Recipe for Curing & Smoking Bacon

For the recipe and step-by-step instructions on how to cure and smoke bacon at home, see my original post "Bacon, Proof of the Existence of God."

Three Radish Varieites & A Pickling Recipe That's Great for A Vodka Martini

In this posting, I'll describe three radishes I'm growing this year and provide a very unusual recipe to pickle them.

Radishes are a great thing to grow in your garden because they are easy to grow, quick maturing, and among the first things you can harvest in spring.  I've already described how to plant and grow radishes in a my posting on French Breakfast Radishes, so I won't cover that here.  However, I did want to tell you about the varieties I'm growing and provide a novel way to pickle them which will allow you to store them for about 1 month.

Three Radishes Compared

Our old standby radish is the French Breakfast.  It's a beautiful radish with a white bottom and a red top.  We've planted these for years, so I wondered if other varieties would be as good, or perhaps, even better.  So I planted French Breakfast, White Icicle and Saxa to do a taste test.  All are heirloom varieties, but they have very different appearances.

The French breakfast is a oblong radish with a white bottom and a red top.  The White Icicle is shaped like a carrot but is pure white with a little green at the top.  Finally, the Saxa is a round, bright red European variety that is reputed to mature in just 3 weeks. (see photo)

I harvested my radishes when they were about 30 days old and did a taste test.  I found all the radishes to be mild flavored with a bit of a spicy, radish after taste.  In candor, it would be hard to tell these apart in a blind taste test.  The only real difference I noted, was that the Saxa radish was firmer and more crunchy than the rest. 

At this point, if I were forced to pick just one radish I could grow, the Saxa would win by a whisker.  One thing that I would mention, was that based on just one experience growing Saxa's, I did not find them to grow any faster than the other varieties and they produced smaller radishes.  

Now on to a really unique way to preserve your radishes.  This recipe comes from Jam It, Pickle It, Cure It by Karen Solomon.  I've shared some of her other recipes with you such as how to cure bacon, and I highly recommend Ms. Solomon's book;  it's fast becoming a go-to source for preservation ideas in our family.

Recipe:  Quick Pickle Radish with Lemon

Ms. Solomon's recipe calls for Daikon radish, but I found it to work quite well for all of the radishes mentioned above from a taste perspective.  I would concede that white radishes such as Daikon or White Icicle, make for a better presentation because they don't turn pink during the pickling process as do the French Breakfast and Saxa.  That said, all made for very good tasting pickles.

What makes this recipe so surprising is that the flavor profile of the pickle is dominated by lemon, so it's has a very bright taste.  You would not know you are eating radishes if I didn't tell you.  In my opinion, I would serve these to close a meal because of the nice, light, lemon flavor.  Or perhaps as a nice additive to a vodka martini.

The recipe is so simple, it's ridiculous.

Ingredients:

• 1.5 pounds radishes
• 1/4 cup kosher salt
• 1 teaspoon sesame oil
• 1 tablespoon honey
• 1 tablespoon rice wine vinegar
• 1/3 cup freshly squeezed lemons
• 1 cove minced garlic
• 3 (2 inch) pieces of lemon zest

Instructions:

• Place the radishes in a colander in the sink and toss with salt. Let rest for 15 minutes to extract some of the water.
• Mix the sesame oil, honey, vinegar, lemon juice and garlic in a bowl and set aside.
• Rinse the radishes and dry with a paper towel.
• Add the radishes to the pickling mixture you created.
• Add the lemon zest.
• Place into a Ball jar and let marinate at least 1 hour.
• Refrigerate to store.  Lasts up to 1 month.

These are really quite good and the lemon flavor is a real eye opener. 

Not Radishes, Again!

I just planted another type of radish called Watermelon Radish which has a green skin and a red interior.  I'll let you know if I like them in a subsequent posting.

Bon appetit.

Recipe: Preserved Lemon Roasted Chicken.

A simple and delicious roasted chicken recipe using preserved lemons from your garden.

I love roasted chicken.  It's one of the few dishes that scores rave reviews from both parents and kids.  So variations on the basic recipe are always welcome in our house.

We normally roast a chicken and season it with nothing more than olive oil, salt, pepper, paprika and garlic powder.   We then use the rotisserie in our oven to cook the chicken.  The rotisserie makes a world of difference in the cooking process; it keeps the chicken juicy while creating a very crispy skin.  (Regardless of the seasoning, use the rotisserie feature of your oven if you have one.)

Readers of this blog will recall that in a prior posting, I explained how to make preserved lemons using fruit grown in your garden or purchased from your local store.  I also mentioned that preserved lemons were a natural compliment to chicken.  So here's a simple recipe for Preserved Lemon Roasted Chicken that I know you will love.

Ingredients:

• 1 roasting chicken (generally about 4 pounds) Get the best organic chicken you can find.
• Sea Salt or Kosher Salt
• Pepper
• Hot paprika
• 1 preserved lemon
• Olive oil

Recipe:

1. Wash and dry the chicken.
2. Remove the peel from the preserved lemon and place the fruit portion of the lemon in a bowl.
3. Slice the peel into about long thin strips.
4. Place the lemon peel strips under the skin of the chicken by lifting up the skin and pushing the lemon peel under the skin covering the chicken breast.  You will also be able to place lemon peel under the skin of the drum stick and thighs by lifting up the skin at the back of the chicken.
5. Then coat the skin of the chicken with olive oil
6. Season the skin with salt, pepper and paprika to taste
7. Stuff the fruit of the lemon into the cavity of the chicken (It is just a flavoring agent.  You will discard this after cooking)
8. Put the chicken onto the rotisserie spit and place into your oven.
9. Roast at 350 degrees Fahrenheit.  Cook for 15 minutes for every pound of chicken.
10. After the chicken has roasted, increase the oven temperature to 500 degrees and cook for an additional 10 minutes to crisp the skin.  Watch the oven to make sure the chicken does not burn.
11. Remove from the oven and let cool for 30 minutes.  This prevents the juices from escaping when you carve the bird.
12. Carve and serve.  If you want you chicken hot, microwave briefly to bring up the temperature.  You'll find that the chicken has a wonderful lemon flavor imparted by the preserved lemons.  (By the way, I recommend that you eat the lemon peel.  It's really delicious.)
    
13. We like to serve the chicken with potatoes as our starch and either peas or carrots as a vegetable, but serve whatever your family likes as side dishes. 
    
14. Finally, reward yourself with a nice glass of white wine.

Bon Appetit.

If you want the recipe for preserved lemons, check out the original posting which describes how to preserve lemons

Making Sauerkraut At Home: You May Want To Hire A Professional Taster

Learn the results of my recent attempt to make sauerkraut at home and get the recipe to make your own.

In two prior posts, I discussed how I learned about lacto-fermentation and provided the recipe and tools I used to make my first batch of sauerkraut.

Well it's four weeks since I started the first batch, so I wanted to let you know the results.

The Eagerly Awaited Day

This was the first batch of sauerkraut I've ever made.  In fact, it's the first time I've ever tried lacto-fermenting.  So my wife and I were both eager and, a little anxious about the results.

The recipe I used says that the cabbage needs to ferment in a crock for four to six weeks.  We decided to open it at the earliest opportunity.  If a disaster occurred, we wanted to know about it as soon as possible.

I removed the heavy Harsh crock from the garage and set it down on the kitchen counter.  I then opened the lid and the unmistakable smell of sauerkraut floated into the air.  I then peered inside.

The sauerkraut had indeed become compacted under the weighting stones and the brine used to preserve the cabbage formed a 3 inch lake above it.  But.....

Gasp!  White colonies of mold had formed within the crock and were floating like little islands on the sea of sauerkraut brine (see below photo)

Let's Get Mikey To Try It

We had read in books that it was common for some mold to grow on the surface when lacto-fermenting.  The recommendation from these books is to just skim the mold off the surface, the sauerkraut would be fine.

Well, It's one thing to read advice like this in a book.  It's another thing to look down into a crock and contemplate whether eating what lies beneath is going to give you botulism. 

I should probably mention that I'm a bit of a germaphobe to begin with.  Add to that the fact that in our family, I'm the one that has to "go first." 

This is no exaggeration.  When we made preserved lemons and they needed to sit on the counter, unrefrigerated for several days, I was the first to try them.  Likewise, when my wife made gavlocks, a Swedish recipe that is made by curing raw salmon in a mixture of salt, sugar and dill (no cooking), I was the one who had to try it first.  Yes, on countless other potentially stomach-mangling eating experiences, I've been the one to go first.

As I contemplated the mold floating on the surface of the brine, I heard the words I most dreaded, "You go first"

What's the Worst Thing That Can Happen

So I skimmed off the mold floating on the surface, and reached into the crock with a set of kitchen tongs.   I removed the weighting stones and some of the sauerkraut floated to the top.

Removing this first sample, I placed it into a bowl and steeled myself for the first taste.

It looked like sauerkraut and it smelled like sauerkraut.  But would it taste like sauerkraut?  Would it send me to the hospital?

The first taste was like very mild sauerkraut.  Good, but a little less "sauerkrauty" then I would have expected. 

I took a second sample from lower in the crock; Darn if it wasn't the real thing!  Absolutely delicious fresh sauerkraut. 

I suspect that the lacto-fermentation process acts a little unevenly, with cabbage at the bottom fermenting faster than that above it. 

No matter, I filled six 16 ounce Ball jars with sauerkraut and topped them off using sauerkraut juice ladelled from the crock.  My strong suspicion is that the flavor will both intensify and even out over time.  Once filled this way, jars of sauerkraut will keep in the refrigerator for many weeks.

Oh, I'm happy to report that neither I nor my wife became ill as a result of this experience.  Quite to the contrary, it's inspired us to try our hand at lacto-fermenting other veggies like carrots, onions, cucumbers and squash.

I think you'll be surprised how easy it is to make sauerkraut and other pickled vegetables and you'll be impressed by the results.

Give It A Try

For more information about lacto-fermentation and the recipe and tools needed to make sauerkraut, check out my previous two posts on this subject:

Wagner Never Ate Sauerkraut from A Can

How to Make Sauerkraut & Other Pickled Vegetables

 

Bacon: Proof of the Existence of God

Want to eat the tastiest bacon ever?  Cure and smoke your own.  It's easier to do than you think, and I'll show you how to do it.

In the 17th Century, the famous French philosopher Rene Descarte, started his proof of the existence of God by first asserting the certainty of his own existence -- I think, therefore, I am. (Cogito ergo sum, if you prefer your philosophy in Latin)  And then, that certain innate ideas must also be true -- one of which was the idea of God.  And there you have it, proof of God.

Well, I say Descarte made his proof way too complex.

If you want proof of the existence God, you don't need any more evidence than a strip of crispy, salty, fatty, yummy, hickory smoked bacon.  A food given to us most surely by a loving and generous creator.

The bacon sold in the market isn't too bad; certainly good enough to make an atheist think twice.  But if you want the ultimate bacon experience, you need to cure your own.  And I'm going to tell you how to do it. 

As with all food ideas I post to this blog, it isn't hard to do or expensive to achieve great results.

Just follow these instructions and you'll make mind-blowing bacon that will make grown men weep.

The recipe comes form Jam It, Pickle It, Cure It, by Karen Solomon.  The book has lots of interesting recipes and I encourage you to think about adding it to your book shelf. 

What You Need

• 2 1/2 to 3 pounds pork belly (you can get this from a butcher)
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 tablespoon blackstrap molasses
• 2 tablespoons kosher salt
• 1 teaspoon curing salt*
• 1 teaspoon fresh ground black pepper
• Hickory wood chips
• A BBQ Grill
  

*Curing salt is a mixture of salt, sugar and sodium nitrate.  Your butcher may be able to sell it to you or you can order it online from a spice supplier.

Recipe

1. Rinse and dry the pork belly
2. In a bowl, mix the sugar and molasses and then add the salt, curing salt and pepper and mix together.
3. Rub the mixture on the top and bottom of the pork belly.
4. Place the pork belly into a zip lock bag and lay it down flat in your refrigerator for 7 days.
5. Turn the bag over each day. (After 7 days the pork belly should feel firm.)
6. Rinse and pat dry.

Smoking the Bacon

• Smoke the bacon over a low heat for 2 1/2 to 3 hours.  I found a temperature of 150-200 degrees Fahrenheit to be about right.
• Remove the bacon form the grill.  Let cool and then trim off the thick skin of the top side of the pork belly.
• Cut into strips with a sharp knife or a meat slicer if you have one.

Note on Grills

• If you're using a charcoal grill, try to use natural hardwood charcoal if you can get it.  Get the grill to the proper temperature and, right before putting your pork belly into the grill, place the  wood chips that you have previously soaked in water for 20 minutes directly onto the coals.
  
• I don't have direct experience using a gas grill for this recipe, but I suspect it will also work quite well.  With a gas grill, you place your hickory chips in a metal tray that is sold as an accessory to your grill.  Ask about this at your local grill store.

Storage

Place into a plastic zip-lock bag and store in the refrigerator for up to 10 days, or in the freezer for up to 3 months.  I generally break the bacon into three batches of equal size and place one bag into the refrigerator for immediate consumption, and put the other two bags into the freezer for future use.

A Promise Made

I suppose it seems like I'm posting this bacon recipe out of the clear blue sky.  But there is a connection to gardening.  This week I was planting tomato seeds, and tomatoes always make me think of Bacon, Lettuce and Tomato sandwiches.

My wife has a recipe she calls "The Ultimate BLT."  When we get into tomato season, I'll post her recipe so you can try it for yourself.

A photo of the cured bacon after slicing and before are shown below.

How to Make Sauerkraut & Other Pickled Vegetables

In my last post, I described how I discovered fresh sauerkraut and why I decided to make my own.

Before I march off and explain how to make sauerkraut, I want to mention that the same lacto-fermentation process can be used to preserve tomatoes, beets, green beans, cucumbers, cabbage, peppers, onions and carrots.  If you buy a special crock (recommended) you'll be able to use it for a variety of vegetables that you harvest from your garden, not just cabbage.

For a background on the process and for a a variety of recipes, you should consider buying Making Sauerkraut and Other Pickled Vegetables at Home by Klaus Kaufmann.  The book costs under $10 at Amazon.com and the author has a reassuringly German name (A sauerkraut book from someone named Hernandez or Dubois just wouldn't seem authentic)

While you can make your sauerkraut in other containers a Harsch Fermentation Pot is built for the process and is very convenient.  It's a stoneware crock that has a deep groove running around the rim. (See pictures below)

You fill the groove with water after placing the lid on the crock.  The water acts as a barrier to prevent bacteria and other airborne nasties from getting into your veggies during fermentation.  If you've made beer or wine before, you may be familiar with a device called a fermentation lock.  The groove on the Harsch works just like the fermentation lock.

The Harsh pot comes in sizes ranging from 5.0 liters (1.25 gallons) to 50 liters (12 gallons).  I purchased the 7.5 liter size which easily accommodates 2 cabbages.  Unless you run a catering company that serves ravenous Huns, the 7.5 liter size is going to be plenty big.

To make sauerkraut:

• Create a salt solution by boiling water and adding 4 teaspoons of non-iodized salt for every quart of water.  Let this come to room temperature.
• Remove any dirty or wilted leaves from the cabbage.
• Weigh the cabbage.
• Cut cabbage into shreds and place in large mixing bowl.
• Add non-iodized salt at a rate of 1 teaspoon per pound of cabbage.  Mix.
• Place cabbage in Harsh pot.
• Press down on cabbage with a tamper or your fist to crush the cabbage slightly so that it begins to juice.
• Place weighting stones on the cabbage (These come with your Harsch pot and help keep the cabbage compressed during fermentation.
• Add room temperature salt solution.
• Cover Harsh pot and add water to the pot's groove.
• Leave the fermenting pot in your house at room temperature (68-72 degrees) for 2-3 days.
• Transfer Harsch Pot to a cool place (60-65 degrees) for another 4-6 weeks. ( Keep groove filled with water during this time)

I put my first batch up a few days ago, in a month or so, I'll let you know if my first attempt was a success.

Wagner Never Ate Sauerkraut From A Can

My wife returned home from trip to our local farmers market and she had a treat for me in the shopping bag.

"What is it?," I said.

"Fresh sauerkraut," she exclaimed. "It's made by lacto-fermenting cabbage and it's supposed to be very healthy for you.  The man selling it at the market told me that it aids digestion.  People lined up at his stall and paid $1 a shot just to drink the juice."

In all candor, my first reaction to this "treat" was not entirely positive.

First, I tend to be suspicious of faddish health foods, and lacto-fermentation certainly sounded like the kind of thing that should be placed in the "Way too California" file along with Birkenstock sandals, mung bean sprouts and wheat grass juice.

Second, my digestion is fine, thank you very much.

And finally, $1 a shot for sauerkraut juice seems outrageous when you consider that Absolut Vodka can be purchased from any liquor store for less.

Don't get me wrong, I don't dislike sauerkraut.  It's just that we don't cook German style foods very often.  So the only time sauerkraut finds its way into my mouth is when there's also a hot dog in the general vicinity.

My "treat" sat in the refrigerator for several days until guilt and fear of spoilage finally caused me to dip a fork into it.

Oh my goodness....  The clouds parted and sunlight filled the room. Wagner himself appeared in the flesh, sang an aria from Tannhauser and then lectured me on what a sham my whole sauerkraut-eating-life had been.  

In retrospect, I shouldn't have been surprised by how amazingly good fresh sauerkraut tastes.  In fact, it bears no resemblance to the sickly white shreds that are pasteurized into submission, bottled and then sold at the grocery store as sauerkraut. Blah!

A quick search of the Internet revealed that sauerkraut is made using just three simple ingredients: water, salt and cabbage. 

Well I have plenty of fresh cabbage in my garden -- more than I can use , so I began thinking about making sauerkraut as a way to both preserve my cabbage and extend its use.  And fresh sauerkraut is yummy enough to be a side dish for a variety of foods, not just a hot dog topping.

My internet search also revealed that the same lacto-fermentation process used to make sauerkraut, can be used to preserve carrots, beets, cucumbers, onions and other vegetables.  In fact, lacto-fermentation predates pickling as a way to preserve foods. 

Now that got me thinking.  Before I knew it, I was on my way to making my own sauerkraut. 

In my next post, I will describe how my wife and I made our first batch and how you can as well. 

Preserved Lemons: Easy, Tasty & Cheap

My wife Sharon is a foodie.  She reads lots of cookbooks, watches Food TV Network, and uses cooking jargon like -- chiffonade, remoulade, and tisane -- stuff that's way over my head.

Sharon’s also the part of the marriage that pushes the edge of the culinary envelope. When she saw food writer Nigella Lawson make preserved lemons in an episode of her TV cooking show, the chase was on to make some of our own.

Preserved lemons have a mellow flavor and their saltiness adds a whole new dimension to the taste of citrus. They are generally used as a flavoring ingredient in many Moroccan dishes, especially, lamb and couscous.  I like them enough to occasionally fish one out of the jar and eat it on its own.

The lemons we used come straight from our back yard where we have a very productive tree.  Preserving the lemons is a great way to extend the season and, let’s face it, there only so much lemonade you can drink.

Did I mention that you only need lemon, kosher salt and olive oil to make these?  Yup, really easy to make.  If you buy preserved lemons at a food specialty store, you can expect to pay $13 per pound, so it’s better to DIY for a fraction of the price.

Here’s the recipe for preserved lemons care of Epicurious.com if you want to give it a shot.  Bon appetit. 

How to Make Your Own Lemon Liqueur

 

I first tried “Limoncello” (pronounced: lee-mo-n-chello) when my wife and I were traveling in Italy.  It’s a lemon-flavored after dinner drink that is served ice cold.  People say Limoncello aids digestion, but digestion aside, it is really yummy.

Almost any restaurant in Italy serves Limoncello, but sadly, it is not well known outside of Italy. I suspect that Italians have been shy about publicizing Limoncello for purely selfish reasons.  Let’s face it, Italian know a good thing when they taste it, and they’re probably keeping quiet to ensure a larger supply for themselves.

While you can buy Limoncello in some specialty liquor stores, it’s not widely distributed.  Fortunately you can easily make Limoncello at home. If you have a lemon tree in your backyard like I do, you’re already half way to making your own Limoncello.  If not, it’s easy to find lemons and the rest of the ingredients.

My wife, Sharon, found a recipe for Limoncello in Karen Solomon’s book Jam It, Pickle It, Cure It and I credit Sharon with doing all the work to make our home supply.

Below are the ingredients and instructions to make your own lemon hooch:

Ingredients & Equipment:

• 1 wide mouthed jar with lid
• 8 Lemons (use your own or organic lemons.  You will be infusing the lemons in alcohol and don’t’ want to use lemons that might have pesticides on the peel)
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 cup water
• 1 1/2 cups good grade vodka

Instructions:

• Peel the zest from 4 of the lemons with a zester or veggie peeler.
• Pour the vodka in the jar and add the zest.
• Seal the jar and let sit for 2 weeks, shaking daily.
• Remove and discard the zest.
• Make a simple syrup by combing water and sugar in a pan and heating till all the sugar is dissolved.
• Let this mixture cool to room temperature and then squeeze the juice of the remaining 4 lemons and into to the syrup.
• Add the syrup mixture to the infused vodka and allow to mellow for 6 weeks.
• Store in your freezer and serve well chilled.

I the next few posts, I will cover other simple delicious things you can make with lemons. I also have added 4 new dwarf citrus trees to my container garden and will post you on their progress as we get into summer. 

Till next post... Salute. Cheers. Zum Wohl. A Votre Sante. L'Chaim. Yung Sing. Kampai. Chin Chin.

Chard vs. Kale Challenge

I’m a big fan of chard because of its color and versatility as a cooking ingredient.  But my kids love kale.  So in this post, I’m doing a challenge to see which is better for you – Let’s call it a “Chard vs. Kale Challenge” or maybe the “Chard vs. Kale Throwdown” to take a phrase from Bobby Flay’s cooking show.  So how do the two contenders stack up?  No contest.  Kale wins on almost all dimensions with regard to nutrition.  A spreadsheet showing a comparison of nutritional information is attached here Download Chard vs Kale PlanterTomato.com