Peach Butter

Its peach time! Our lovely peach tree blessed us with abundant peaches again this year, so I am on the look-out for ways to use and preserve all that wonderful bounty. My efforts to make peach jelly last year did not turn out too well, so instead this year I decided to make peach butter. I figure if they love apple butter, they will love peach butter too.

After picking some ripe peaches, we sorted them out into two piles. The perfect ones got put in a pretty bowl on the counter. The not so perfect ones - the ones the birds took one bite out of - filled up a colander. These were the ones destined for the peach butter.

Usually recipes for peach butter have you boil and peel the peaches, cut them up and sieve them. That is VERY messy and time consuming. We simply pitted the peaches cutting out any bad spots or bird pecks, and blended them skin and all (in a Vita Mix.)

 

Delicious Pumpkin Soup Recipe

I was feeling in the mood for some pumpkin soup the other day, so I did what I usually do if I am not sure of a recipe - I googled it, then combined what I liked best about each recipe into a new one of my own. I was looking at Asian soup recipes and if I didn't have the ingredients they asked for (or didn't know what they were!) I improvised. The resulting soup was so good!

I put all these ingredients in my vitamix (I used the canned pumpkin and sweet potatoes just because I didn't have fresh) then blended. A vitamix will cook the ingredients right in the container, but if you do not have one, place all the ingredients in a sauce pan and blend after it is all heat through, or if you are using fresh pumpkin and sweet potatoes, you have to cook them through before you do any blending, obviously. See below for the best way to cook fresh pumpkin.

5 cups chicken broth
3 cups cubed and peeled pumpkin, or one 15 oz can pumpkin
2 sweet potatoes cubed and peeled, or one 15 oz can sweet potatoes, drained
1/2 of a 15 oz can coconut cream (Not coconut milk, get the one with the least amount of sugar)
2 Tablespoons coconut oil
2 Tablespoons minced fresh ginger - use fresh! You can get it in tubes if you want.
1/2 tsp dried onion powder (or saute some fresh onions - I think I used fresh?)
Dash of dried garlic powder
1 Tablespoon lemon juice
2 Tablespoons lime juice
1/8 tsp chili powder
1 tsp ground cumin
1/2 cup of fresh basil (don't leave this out, it is awesome)

If you are making this in a pot, simmer until all the pumpkin and sweet potatoes are tender, then blend and serve. Makes about 8 cups of soup.

It is so delicious! This does not taste like pumpkin pie! The sweetness combined with the ginger, basil, lime, and spices - just great! Everybody loved this soup, even the doubters : ) Hope you enjoy!

Here's how to cook fresh pumpkin easily. Using a sharp, heavy knife, chopped the pumpkin into large chunks very carefully. Use a spoon to scrap out all the seeds and membrane. Steam the pumpkin chunks, with the rind still on, for about 30-40 minutes until it is very soft. Wait until the chunks are cool enough to handle, then use a spoon to scrape the cooked flesh away from the rinds. It's messy, but easier then trying to peel a fresh (hard) pumpkin. We cook all large squash varieties this way too.

Green Pumpkin Recipe, Last Harvest Chicken Soup

Since we have had a few frosts that mainly affected the tender pumpkins and squashes, I have chickened out and picked all the tender vegetables from the garden. This time of year you truly play a game of chicken with the last tender tomatoes and peppers and the first freeze. When will it be? Do I want all those green tomatoes in my house or can I wait a bit longer and let some of them ripen? If you wait too long and get caught by a freeze you will lose them all. (Not really because you can go ahead and make green tomato relish right away. The green tomatoes just wont keep and ripen if they have been touched with freezing, they will quickly rot in your house, so you really do want to get them before freezing weather.) Other vegetables like cabbage and broccoli can be left in the garden here in North Texas for a good while longer as our freezes usually only dip a few degrees below 32 over night.

The tomatoes green and red, the peppers, cucumbers and squashes are all safely in my house now waiting for me to decide what to do with them. Most of the broccoli has been picked and eaten. The cabbages, Brussels sprouts, carrots and mustard greens will be fine in the garden for now, but what about all those green unripened pumpkins sitting out there on their shriveled vines?

I wasn't sure of you could eat a green pumpkin so I did some research on line. I found out two things. The light green pumpkins that still had soft skin could be eaten just like any other squash. The dark green pumpkins with hard skins were fully mature and would turn orange if they got enough sun. One site suggested that you pick the green pumpkins and put them in a sunny dry place, such as a porch, while another site said you could leave them in the garden as long as it didn't freeze hard. Since that end of the garden tends to be wet I decided to pick my green pumpkins. Of course since last night was supposed to be the first freeze I had to bring them inside for the night - I am over run!

Green Pumpkin Stir-fry
Soft skinned small green pumpkins cut up. Do not skin or seed.
Several onions cut up in rings.
butter
Olive oil
Cinnamon
Salt and pepper

Add olive oil, butter and onions to a large frying pan. Cook on medium heat stirring frequently until onions are translucent. Add the cut up green pumpkin and spices. Cook stirring frequently until pumpkin is tender.


Last Harvest Chicken soup

Its really hard to go wrong with soup. You dont really need a recipe - just start with good broth and add whatever you have on hand.

I started with a whole chicken and boiled it up in a big pot. We had half the chicken for one dinner, then the pot was put in the fridge overnight. Next day the solidified fat was removed from the top of the pot and the rest of the chicken was de-boned. This gave about half a pot full of good broth and chicken. To that was added the last butternut squash picked from the garden along with several of the last green peppers. This was allowed to simmer until the squash was getting soft. I added water if the soup was reducing too much. Next I added some of the last broccoli, about four or five tomatoes rescued before the frost (skinned by poking them with a fork and dipping them in the boiling soup for 10 seconds. The skin comes right off), and a good two handfuls of chopped mustard greens. I added salt and pepper and Cumin. This was served as soon as the broccoli and mustard greens were soft. It was delicious.

Pumpkin Quiche

I am still on a quest for pumpkin recipes to use our fresh garden pumpkin in. I combined several recipes to make a pumpkin quiche. Since we are gluten free we made ours crustless, but you can make yours in a crust if you like.

Pumpkin Quiche

One Onion, chopped
3 cups fresh cooked pumpkin (or one can) drained well
4 oz cream cheese
1 cup cheddar cheese, grated
1/2 tsp fresh thyme leaves
6 eggs
Salt and pepper to taste

Place all ingredients in a blender and blend on high for one minute. Pour into a greased quiche dish and bake at 375 for 35 to 45 minutes until set and golden.

It was very good.

Processing Pumpkins, Pumpkin soup, Pumpkin Seeds

We processed our first garden pumpkin this week. It was 12.5 pounds and from it we got a big batch of pumpkin soup, 4 quarts of pulp for the freezer, and a couple of cups of pumpkin seeds.

Our first pumpkin.

The pumpkin was pretty easy to cut up and get ready for cooking. I cut the pumpkin up in wedges with a butcher knife, and carefully scraped away the stringy pulp that contain the seeds. Its easiest to remove the seeds if you dont jumble this pulp up as you remove it. The seeds come out easier and are cleaner.

Pumpkin subterrania

Next we roasted the pumpkin in a turkey roaster in a 375 degree oven for an hour and a half.

This looks like a lot of pumpkin, but since it is mostly water it cooks down a lot. We got about 5 quarts of pulp.

Once the pumpkin cooled we scraped it off of the skin in chunks. Some we made into soup, the recipe will be below, and some went into the freezer.

The seeds and seed pulp.

The seeds we mixed with a tablespoon of butter, a pinch of salt, and roasted them on a oiled cooke sheet at 300 degrees for half an hour. Keep an eye on them and stir occasionally. When they start to brown, they are done.

Pumpkin Coconut Soup

This is adapted from the vita-mix recipe book.

2 Cups Chicken broth

1/2 cup unsweetened coconut milk

3 cups fresh pumpkin cooked

1 cup diced onion sauteed until soft

3 garlic cloves sauteed with onion

1/4 tsp cayenne pepper

1/2 tsp nutmeg

salt and pepper

Place all in a blender and puree until smooth. Heat and serve. Its delicious!

Masala Stuffed Okra Boats (No slime!)

Clemson Spineless Okra

Marmalade under the okra.

I like the Okra I grew this year, Clemson Spineless. It doesn't grow as tall as okra I have grown before, but is bushier and consequently has more blooms and pods. I pick the okra every day and store it in the fridge in a tupperware container lined with a paper towel. I only  have four okra plants, since it is not a family favorite, so it takes about three days to get enough for a family meal. I like it myself and have been trying to find ways that my family will eat it - other than breaded and fried.

The main objection to okra most people have, if it is not fried, is that it is slimy. I did some research and got the advice that if you do not want your okra to be slimy you have to carefully dry each piece before you cook it. I guess excess moisture contributes to the slime.  If you cook the whole fresh okra pods in a pan on top of the stove over low heat, with just a little oil, you will have no slime.

Most of the recipes I found on the internet for okra, that were not your traditional southern deep-fried, were from India! When I look for a recipe on the internet I usually find two or three for the same thing, then combine them into what suits my kitchen and ingredients on hand. I found a bunch of recipes for masala stuffed okra boats and came up with this recipe for me: (Masala is a paste made of a little tomato and a lot of spice. The mixture is first cooked to make the spices all fragrant, then it is used in various dishes.)

You need about 30 okra pods for 4 people. Cut your pods when they are 2 - 4 inches long.

Combine in a large fry pan on top of the stove:
One can of diced tomatoes and sweet onions, drained.
One-inch piece of ginger, peeled and chopped.
One tsp each of ground cumin, ground coriander, and tumeric
1/4 tsp of red pepper flakes

Stir until thick, hot and fragrant.
Add one Tbls of lemon juice.
(The lemon juice is taking the place of one tsp of amchur powder (dried green mangos) because we did not have any! The amchur powder is for tanginess, so the lemon juice is O.K. Also missing is garam masala. Is this even masala without garam masala? I dont know, but it sure tasted good! When I get these ingredients, I will try this properly, but for now you can make it too with common ingredients.)

Take the pan off the heat and let the masala mixture cool a little. While this is cooling cut off the stems of each okra pod, and make a slit from the stem end up to the tip. Don't cut through the tip or the pod will split in half. Hold a pod in you left hand with your thumb holding open the slit you made in the pod. With you right hand use a butter knife to scoop up a tsp of the masala and fill your pod slits from wide (thumb) end to tip.

Beware! If you dont want yellow fingernails, wear some thin latex gloves! (Believe me.)

Save any left over spice mixture to season your main-dish meat. Put a little ( one Tbls. ) oil in the bottom of your same fry pan so as not to waste any of that spice. Turn the pan on medium low heat and add your okra. Cook covered, stirring carefully occasionally, for 15 - 20 minutes. Dont let the oil get sizzling hot. You dont want to brown the okra, just cook it until it is tender, but not mushy. No slime! This dish is sweet, tangy, flavorful and just a little spicy. Delicious! (And my family ate it, even though they are prejudiced against okra.)

Masala stuffed Okra Boats just starting to cook.

Squash blossoms For Dinner

A few days ago we tried something new - squash blossoms for dinner! It has been a dream of mine to create an edible landscape. One in which most of the plants are not only good looking, but good for something - either producing edible fruit or leaves, or useful as a medicinal herb, or for tea. Most people are familiar with rosemary and thyme, but did you know that the flowers of nasturtiums, daylilies, borage, and all kinds of squashes are edible?

Well since we are planting an edible landscape we had to be brave and eat some flowers. (You already eat one flower even if you didn't realize it - yes broccoli!) Not my daylilies since they are too pretty, but we had plenty of squash blossoms out back. Squash vines have separate male and female flowers on the same plant. You can tell them apart by their stems. A male flower has a long stem, a female flower has a very short stem and has a round bulb at the base of the flower which is the immature fruit. Since there are many more male flowers on the vine then female, you can sacrifice a few of the male flowers for dinner without reducing the chance that your female flowers will be pollinated.

Squash flowers open for only one day, in the morning, and are usually closed by noon. Take a glass of water and a pair of scissors out into the garden in the late morning - after the bees have finished with your flowers, but before they have closed up. Look for the male flowers with the long stems and check inside for any bugs hanging out. Beetles and such like to hang out in the flowers, and since you dont want to take them inside or eat them, evict them now. Cut your flowers with the long stem intact and put them in your glass of water. Your flowers will keep for one day so use them up for dinner or breakfast.

When your are ready to use your flowers (which will probably close up within a few hours of cutting) the preparation is simple. Cut off the base of the flower where the stem is attached and the anther part (that holds the pollen) will fall out. This part doesn't taste good. You will only be eating the petals.

Squash flowers are used mostly in Italian and Mexican cooking. Most of the recipes I found for them involving stuffing the closed blossoms with an herb and cheese mixture, dipping them in flour or batter, then frying them. They are also used in both Mexican and Italian soups, and chopped up in Mexican quesadillas, or you could chop them and add them to a salad.

The way we ate ours was to add them to the pan we had cooked our ribs in and let the moisture of the blossoms (they are mostly water) deglaze the pan. We served them over the meat. Twelve blossoms reduced in size to a couple of tablespoons, so stuffing them and frying them might give you a little more to bite into.

I'll be giving you more info on edible landscaping as we try new things. We had a blast eating our flowers for dinner and trying something new.

Fresh Bread in Five Minutes a Day

I recently found a wonderful bread recipe on-line that is super economical, easy, no knead and is really supper fast. It tastes like expensive artisan bread, and my family loves it. Of course I cant eat it because I am gluten free right now. 

Rather than duplicate all the instructions I will give an overview and you can go to the web site for the recipe. There are only four ingredients, water, yeast, flour, and salt. This makes it economical (no expensive honey, no oil, no eggs, no milk) and fast to mix up. You mix a batch of this soft, wet dough in a large bowl with a spoon (no kneading), let rise for two hours, put on a lid, and store the dough in the fridge for up to two weeks. As it ages it takes on a sour dough taste.

When you want to make a loaf you just oil your hands, pull off a hunk of dough, shape it a bit, and throw it in an oiled loaf pan, or shape a round boule and plop it on a cookie sheet - no kneading! Let it rest 20 minutes and bake. Ignore the directions to use corn meal and a special pizza peel to put the dough in the oven - its not necessary. Instead I would oil the loaf well and it will brown nicely.

The small batch recipe is:

Three cups warm water

1 1/2 Tbls dry yeast

1 1/2 Tbls salt (I just used 1)

6 1/2 cups white flour (less for whole wheat )

Makes 4 1 lb loaves

The large batch recipe is:

Six cups warm water

3 Tbls dry yeast

3 Tbls (or less) salt

13 cups white flour (less for whole wheat )

Makes 8 1 lb loaves

Five Minutes a Day for Fresh-Baked Bread

Enjoy!