Summer’s Bounty, part 3

Last stop on the summer preservation tour, ripe tomato catsup.
This is different than the red stuff you squirt on a hot dog at a picnic. It’s chunky, spicy, and oh so delicious. I’ve been making this for years, but it recently joined others in my family in making it part of tomato camp. For the past seven years, my daughters have met at their aunt’s home to have a tomato canning marathon. I joined them a couple of years ago, and it’s lots of fun but a tremendous amount of work. We canned salsa, pizza sauce, chopped tomatoes, catsup, and gallons of juice. This year’s count was 275 jars of assorted product totaling  33.3 gallons.
I didn’t get enough catsup for gift giving, so I’m making some today.
You can use any variety of red tomatoes, but I prefer Romas because they are so meaty. I bought 5 dry quarts of Romas at the Farmers’ market.

Here’s the catsup recipe
1 peck of ripe tomatoes*, peeled, seeded and ground*if you are not into the bushel/peck measurement system, 3 quart jars of peeled, seeded, chopped tomatoes is just about right.
2 tablespoons of cinnamon
6 onions, ground
2 teaspoons allspice
1 tablespoon ground hot pepper
1 tablespoon salt
2 cups vinegar
2 pounds brown sugar
1/4 teaspoon celery seed
To facilitate skinning the tomatoes, drop them in boiling water for a few seconds.

The skinning is easy, but the seeding is labor intensive. It’s a lot more fun to do it with friends or family.
After the tomatoes are skinned and seeded, grind tomatoes and onions using a vintage food grinder


Don’t have a vintage food grinder? a food processor will work just fine. Be sure not to process too much, you want the finished product to be chunky. You may want to grind the onions and tomatoes separately as they will process differently.


Drain ground tomatoes and onions for about an hour, then mix in other ingredients. Bring to a boil stirring constantly. Reduce heat and simmer at least 40 minutes until thick.  This recipe will make about 7-8 pints

No need to use a pressure or water bath canner, just fill clean hot jars with the catsup, screw on the two part lid and wait for the ping that indicates the jar has sealed. Patti Wagon describes the process here. She’s making salsa, but the process is the same for the catsup.
Ready! I found some 4 oz. jars; just perfect for a sample.

How do I  use the catsup?
On home grilled hamburgers, my favorite way!
Meatloaf. Make this humble entree sing by adding a dollop of catsup to each serving. Tom’s favorite way! Hmm. need to make some meatloaf for him
Pour over a block of softened cream cheese when you need take an hors d’oeuvre to a party. The hostess would love to have a jar as a gift.
Enjoy!

Summer’s Bounty, Part 2

Next stop on the summer preservation tour, peach honey.
I have often said that if I had to live on just one food, it would be peaches. I love them any way they are prepared. If you can still get peaches at your local farmers’ market, here’s a recipe for yummy peach honey.
I went from this step

to 14 half pints of delicious peach honey

By following the directions at the Patti Wagon blog.
Other than giving it to friends, here are some of the ways I plan to use it.
Mix with mayonnaise and a bit of curry for a chicken salad dressing, yum, add red grapes and slivered almonds
Glaze grilled pork or chicken
Use as a topping ice cream or pound cake..add rum
Add to Dijon mustard and olive oil for a honey mustard salad dressing
Pour over a block of cream cheese and serve with crackers

If you still have some fresh peaches left over, make this salad for dinner
1 cup sliced peaches (if you don’t have peaches, use melon)
1 cup chopped tomatoes, any variety
1 avocado cubed
1T olive oil
½ lime, juiced
Salt and pepper
Combine all ingredients and toss until juices combine

Summer’s Bounty, Part 1

Preserving the fruits and vegetables of summer is a family tradition. I have always had a garden, sometimes large enough to grow a lot of produce, other times just a pot or two of herbs. In our current house, we have not been successful in growing tomatoes, but our herbs are doing well.

First stop on the summer preservation tour: Pesto

I don’t make pesto by any of the recipes that call for pine nuts and parmesan. As delicious as that sounds, I use pesto in a variety of ways and may not always want those ingredients. You can always add them at the time you prepare your dish. (Think pasta tossed with pesto, walnuts and parmesan cheese)

Here’s how I do it

Snip, wash, and dry the basil in a salad spinner. Pick the leaves and shoots off the woody stems Stems smaller than a coffee stirrer are good. Buds are good, but don’t use the flowers. And don’t put any brown shriveled leaves in there.





Pack the basil leaves into a 1 quart measure, and put in a food processor along with 6-8 cloves garlic. Start the processor and add olive oil as the processor whirls. Stop occasionally and scrape the sides. Add more oil as needed. Your goal is to have a product about the consistency of hummus. It will be a beautiful green shade. Spoon into small jars, cap and freeze.  If you want more explicit instructions, click here, just remember I skip the parmesan and pine nuts. When I want to use it, I put one of the jars in the microwave for 20 seconds or so and scrape off what I need and refreeze. You could put it in ice cube trays and freeze. The amount pictured below was made from four quarts of basil. I use it as an alternative spread for pizza, I add a couple of tablespoons to vegetable soup, I add it to omelets, I stir it into pasta. It makes a fantastic sandwich with tomatoes and fresh mozzarella. (especially yummy when grilled on a George Foreman grill) You can add more oil and drizzle it over fish or chicken. It makes everything taste so fresh and wonderful. Click here for an abundance of ways to use it.

Technorati Tags: Pesto,Recipes

Beau - ootiful Soo - oop!

When I put this combination of beets, and carrots in the pot today, I couldn’t help but sing the Mock Turtle's song.

Beautiful Soup, so rich and red,
Served tonight with crusty bread!
Who for such dainties would not stoop?
Soup of the evening, beautiful Soup!
Soup of the evening, beautiful Soup!
Beau - ootiful Soo - oop!
Beau - ootiful Soo - oop!
Soo - oop of the e - e - evening,
Beautiful, beautiful Soup!
Apologies to the Mock Turtle and Lewis Carroll for adaptations.
It’s a dose of anti-oxidants, perfect for a winter evening, Beet, Carrot and Ginger Soup. After it simmered for a couple of hours, I whirred it with my new immersion blender. Yum!

Hail to the Chef!

Tom has become an expert with the gas grill and cedar planks. His crowing glory has been salmon cooked on a plank over a bed of herbs. Delicious!

To duplicate, soak a cedar plank in water for several hours. Preheat the grill to 375 degrees. On the plank, prepare a bed of fresh rosemary, thyme and lemon slices. Lay the salmon slices on top and sprinkle with olive oil and an herb or fish rub. Take to the grill  and cook for about 20-25 minutes or until salmon flakes easily.  We find we can use our planks several times.

Carter’s Oatmeal Cookies

It just wouldn’t be Christmas without these cookies. My mother came up with this recipe forty-five years ago, and it is still my family’s favorite cookie. The original recipe included raisins, but when my children came along, they turned up their noses at anything with raisins in it, so I substituted dried cranberries.

Carter’s Oatmeal Cookies

1 Cup Crisco (don’t even think about a substitute)
1C brown sugar
1C white sugar
2 beaten eggs
1t. vanilla extract
1t. baking soda
3/4 t. salt
1/4 t. nutmeg
1 t. cinnamon
1 1/2 cup all purpose flour
2 1/2 cups quick cooking oatmeal (not instant)
2 cups goodies (I use 2/3 cup each of chocolate chips, pecans, and dried cranberries)

Directions

Cream sugars and shortenings, add eggs. Add vanilla and mix well. Add soda, salt, nutmeg and cinnamon. Mix, then add flour. Mix again, then add oatmeal. After more mixing add nuts, chips and fruits. Drop on cookie sheet and bake 12-15 minutes at 375 degrees. Forty five years ago, it made 60 cookies, but along with everything else, they have been supersized, so you might get 45-50 cookies.

My New Favorite Condiment

Last weekend we were with friends in Santa Fe, New Mexico and a group of us attended a class at the Santa Fe School of Cooking. One of the recipes our chef Rocky made was a cream of tomato soup with Chipotle en adobo, which means Chipotle peppers in marinade.

Santa Fe Tomato Soup

4-6 Roma tomatoes

4 medium onions

4 garlic cloves

Olive oil

1 t. ground oregano

2-28oz cartons tomatoes with no citric acid (I used Pomi)

1 carton low fat silken tofu

2-3 t. chipotle en adobo

Slice Roma tomatoes in half, peel and quarter onions, peel garlic cloves. Toss all with olive oil and roast in 400 degree oven for about 40 minutes.

Toast ground oregano in pan on cook top, add tomatoes and stir until mixed. Set aside until vegetables are roasted.

Put tomato mixture, and roasted vegetables in a blender or food processor and blend until pureed. Add 2/3 carton silken tofu to mixture and blend well. This may need to be done in several batches. Return pureed mixture to pan, stirring to mix thoroughly. Heat just to a simmer and stir in chipotle en adobo. Assess, adjust, proceed.

Comments:

I added about ½ t. salt since the tomatoes I used had no salt. I did not skin the tomatoes either before or after roasting. I used tofu, but you used cream you would probably use about 1/2-2/3 cup cream. Just be sure to not boil it after adding the cream. Making it with tofu did not produce the same result as making it with cream, but we liked it enough to repeat it. The Chipotle en adobo is my new favorite condiment. We’ve put it in black bean soup and chili, and the results are delicious.