Apple Curry Squash Soup

Autumn is here in Vermont. Actually, technically it's practically over. Peak foliage has passed. Leaves are on the ground and snow has already hit the mountain tops. Which means it is prime soup weather. I love soup. A bowl of it with slices of homemade bread is one of my very favorite lunches.

I also love to can. There is something about hoarding mason jars that makes me really happy. As I follow USDA regulations I don't can anything with dairy so the two soups I made this week are all vegan and very healthy as I also didn't use any oil.

You will need:

2 lbs (about 2 cups) roasted butternut squash (Check out my post on easily roasting a squash whole.)
1 lb of apples, sectioned but not peeled (Macintosh or another squishy saucing apple works best)
1/2 cup sliced red onions
1 clove garlic, minced
1/4 cup apple cider vinegar
1 1/2 tsp kosher salt
1/2 tsp black pepper
1 TBS curry powder
6 cups vegetarian stock (I use a Vegetarian "Chicken" Flavored powder, 1 tsp per cup)

Chop apples leaving the skins on. Slice onions and mince garlic. Put it all into a stockpot and saute using the cider vinegar. (If you wanted to you could substitute in a little oil here.) The apples will start getting a little squishy. This means you are ready to puree.

Puree the apples, onions, and garlic. Add 1 1/2 tsp of salt and 1/2 tsp pepper to the puree and mix. 

Return the puree to the pan and heat.

Add the 6 cups of stock into the apple puree. 

Puree 2 cups of squash until smooth and add to the pan. Stir in well.  

Add curry into pan and mix in. 

Simmer the soup over low until slightly reduced for about 20 minutes. Taste and add salt if necessary (curry usually has salt in it so I always undersalt then taste it to avoid a salt-tastrophe!). 

If you're serving it right away then dish it out and enjoy with some bread!

If you're canning it make sure to use clean, hot sterilized jars. Fill the jars leaving about 3/4" of headspace. Wipe the rim and threads and top with clean sterilized NEW lids and a clean ring tightened (but not cranked on too tight). The soup will need to be pressure canned at 11 lbs of pressure (I do 15 since I have a weighted canner) for 55 minutes. Store for up to a year to enjoy on cold winter days.

                                       

Pineapple Basil Jam

Nothing better than jam and fresh baked bread!

I have a Ball jar problem. I see them in the store and I have to have them. I have stacks of flats in my home and once they're staring me in the face I spend hours in the kitchen playing around with ideas until things work.

This isn't even all of them.

Our farm share has been yielding copious amounts of the most beautiful basil. Now I love pesto as much as the next girl (maybe more, I'm allergic to pine nuts so I have to make my own to ensure it's safe for me) but I wasn't feeling inspired to make some. So I left the basil in the fridge for a few days and was the creepy lady who pulled out the bag occasionally just to sniff it.

I had been toying with the idea of a pineapple jelly when I realized that the flavors would compliment each other. It was a huge hit. Yasmina licked it off of cracker after cracker at dinner and demanded more, I used it to glaze chicken one night, and the cherry on the sundae was that it won both a blue ribbon and a best of show ribbon at our regional fair. (My husband demands that I insert here the fact that I competed against and beat Amish people. Apparently, he is impressed with their jam making skills and this elevates my win.)

She is a big fan of the giant purple ribbon.

I hope you enjoy it! This is actually a great beginner's jam so if you're just starting out try it....

Pineapple Basil Jam
(makes 6 12 oz jelly jars) and a tiny bit extra to go into the fridge for snacking

1 20 oz can of pineapple (you can use crushed or food process rings or chunks)
1 1/2 cups basil, chopped (you can use unpretty basil that has a few spots since you'll be discarding the boiled leaves)
3 cups water
1.75 oz pectin powder (Make sure you weigh this out.)
3 cups sugar

Note: For this recipe you will need prepared canning jars. For instructions on preparing jars for canning visit the Ball website, 2nd question down. You will also need a prepared ladle so keep that in mind and boil it when you do the jars!

1. Boil chopped basil in water for 10 minutes. Take it off the heat, cover &  let it sit for 10 additional minutes. Strain into a bowl discarding the basil and reserving the water. Measure out 2 1/2 cups of the basil water for the jam.


2. Pour can of crushed pineapple into saucepan.
Add the 2 1/2 cups of basil water.






3. Add 3 cups of sugar and bring it up to a rolling boil. A rolling boil means that when it boils and you go to stir it it continues to boil. Stir the mixture with a wooden spoon to ensure that the sugar gets incorporated completely.




4. Add pectin powder to boiling mixture and stir well to mix in. Boil for 1 minute at a high boil.


5. Remove from the heat and use the wooden spoon to skim the foam off the top of the jam. Discard the foam. Using a sterilized ladle fill the prepared jars leaving 1/4" of room at the top (called headspace). I visualize my pinky finger on it's side as the amount of space I need to leave. There is usually about 4-6 oz extra of jam. I put that in a container in the fridge to eat right away.

I did my 1st batch in big jars, then wised up.

6. Process the jars in a hot water bath for 10 minutes. Remove them and put them somewhere where they can sit quietly undisturbed for 24 hours. You may here occasional pinging noises as the jars settle that is okay. The next day make sure all the seals are sucked down and discard anything that did not properly seal. Label and date them and store them for later use. Yum :)

Refrigerator Radish Dill Pickles

Radish Dill Pickles

Early in the CSA season there are an abundance of radishes and greens to use. We eat salads nonstop and even experiment a little. My husband was NOT a fan of the mustard green juice I made :)

The ginger juice did not exactly get a "Woo-hoo" response either. 

Radish dill pickles are a new item to my lineup this year but this is now the third batch I've made. They are super simple to make as they are just refrigerator pickles. This means that I don't process them in any way- no hot water bath, no pressure canning- just good old-fashioned vinegar. I'm going to run through the steps but there will be no exact measurements. If you follow the proportions you'll be able to do this with any quantity of radishes. I had a mixing bowl full and it made 3 pint jars and one small canning jar of pickles.

You will need:
Canning jars, bands & caps
Radishes
Fresh Dill
Kosher Salt
Water
Vinegar- I use white

Soak your radishes in water for 5 minutes to remove any loose debris. Agitate the water with your hand to get dirt off of them. Dump the water and carry the bowl over to your cutting board.

Chop the roots and tops off of the radishes and halve or quarter them depending on their size. I keep a little bowl nearby to put the ends in so I can run them to the compost easily.

If you see any black spots on the outside just slice them off. If the spot is on the inside too discard the radish.

Bring the radishes back over to the sink in the bowl and give them one more rinse. Then pack them into your jars. You want to leave about 3/4" at the top for the dill. Wash your dill and take stalks of it off. Curl them into the top of the jar over the radishes. 

Pour vinegar through the dill until the jars are halfway full. 

Sprinkle about 1 teaspoon of kosher salt on the top of each jar. Fill the jars the rest of the way with water.

I top off the dill at this point. I want a lot of dill flavor so I cram as much as I can fit in there. Once your done cap and band the jars. 

Turn them upside down for about an hour on the countertop so that the dill infuses into the vinegar. After an hour put them into the fridge.

Within an hour of making them the pickles will start turning pink. I try to leave them in the fridge for at least a week before we open them to eat. They keep 3-6 months in the fridge. As a fair warning, radishes make stinky pickles. They taste delicious but they are smelly. 

Lamb Sausage Bolognese with Polenta Cupcakes

We attended the 2nd Edible Vermont Food Exchange last weekend. This is a great Vermont food event that I dreamed up months ago and finally saw to fruition when my friend Sandy who owns Brown and Jenkins Coffee jumped in to co-host and provide the perfect space for it to happen. Basically a mix of home cooks and canners and some commercial companies come together. Everyone brings some of their favorite items and a food swap ensues. The goal is to walk in with your items and leave with a plethora of new things to try. I learned last time to bring my stuff in a container that was conducive to packing with my new treasures when I left, hence my laundry basket came with me. You can check out our event photos here.

Here's the before:

I brought freshly baked bread, cranberry onion jam, cranberry catsup, homemade dog treats, and apple chutney. I forgot to take a picture of my after but it included lamb sausage, ground venison, kettle corn, turkey rice soup, nut bars, cookies, coffee, eggs, and rice and beans. 

So after thawing my homemade lamb sausage which I got by trading apple chutney to Waiora Valley Farm, I decided a slow cooker bolognese sauce was the way to go. 

This recipe makes "tons". No it's not a technical term but you could easily serve this at a large dinner party. We ate it for a family dinner and I now have 3 large mason jars in my fridge. My parents will be the lucky recipient of one jar, my husband will demolish another, and one will be processed for storage for a later windy wintery day. 

Lamb Sausage Crockpot Bolognese with Polenta Cupcakes

(serves 4 plus leftover for canning)

1 1/2 pounds lamb sausage (you could use ground lamb if you wanted to- I would add sage & spices)

1 TBS olive oil

2 28 oz can whole tomatoes

1 28 oz can tomato puree

1 cup of red wine

3 carrots, peeled and thinly sliced. 

1 tsp onion powder

1 tsp kosher salt

1 tsp pepper

1/3 cup chopped fresh parsley (or 2 TBS dried, I used frozen cubes from last summers CSA share)

2 cloves crushed garlic

2 bay leaves

For the polenta cupcakes:

6 cups water

2 1/2 tsp salt

1 3/4 cup cornmeal

1. Lightly cook the lamb sausage in a frying pan using the 1 TBS of olive oil. You want it to change to a light tan color but don't overcook it. 

2. Dump the 3 cans of tomato products into the slow cooker. Add the wine (I probably put in more like 10 oz because I measured in one of the tomato puree cans.). 

Add the lamb and the bay leaves.

3. Peel and thinly slice the carrots. Add them to the crockpot along with the parsley, onion powder, salt and pepper. 

Smash the garlic cloves,

peel them and drop them in the pot.

 Start the pot, I cooked for 4 hours on high but you could also do 8 hours on low if you were starting it in the morning. 

4. About a half hour before you want to serve dinner preheat the oven to 425. Start 6 cups of water boiling on the stove. When it reaches a boil add 2 1/2 tsp of kosher salt (reduce amount if using table salt). Here's where I took the lazy approach. If you're going to use a whisk you need to gradually add the cornmeal so that it doesn't clump, you'll need to be whisking the whole time. I'm lazy, pregnant, and constant whisking hurts my back so I dumped in the whole thing of cornmeal, plugged in my electric hand mixer and mixed it on medium while it was on the stovetop. Voila, no clumps! Once the mixture comes together and is more like a batter than a liquid turn off the heat. This takes about 15 minutes with the whisk method and 5 if you use the electric hand mixer. At this point in time I deviate from standard polenta recipes. Most recipes will have you add butter. I don't feel like it needs it so I don't.

5. Spray two muffin tins with cooking spray. Fill the cups with the polenta and bake for 15-20 minutes until golden brown on top. They will still be creamy in the middle. I like the texture added by baking the polenta, crunchy and creamy makes me happy. 

Pale before being baked. 

Golden after coming out of the oven.

6. Serve the bolognese sauce over the polenta cupcakes. Polenta packs a punch- it looks unassuming but is extremely hearty and filling. If polenta isn't your thing you could also serve the bolognese over mashed potatoes or pasta. Enjoy!

Trick to Mincing Ginger & Homemade Ginger Syrup

I love ginger. And it's not just because my son is the most handsome ginger I know. 

Here he is patiently waiting for his food at a farm to table dinner at Half Pint Farm in Burlington. He wanted me to shave him a mohawk and the kid has a funny ridge in his head so we ended up with an abstract one :) 

Ginger is a great ingredient- it makes it's appearance on our table frequently and after googling and researching we will try to grow some this summer. For now I pick up copious quantities of it cheaply anytime I can make it by Haymarket in Boston. Apparently, it's also known to have inflammatory characteristics and can possibly prevent skin cancers. Wow, yummy medicine!

I'm a little lazy though. So one day I decided to put it through my garlic press, because mincing ginger is not a favorite task of mine. Perfection. Not only did I yield way more ginger juice in the recipe but all of the fibers stayed in the press. And for you visual learners here are the pictures to prove it:

Put the piece of ginger in the garlic press. Don't even bother peeling it. However, I'm not going to lie, it's  easier if you peel it.

Holy ginger juice! That would have been wasted all over the cutting board.  Now take a knife and run it over the ginger hanging off the press. Anything that comes off easily will be used in your recipe. The stubborn fibers will remain.

If it didn't come off easily then don't worry about it. It's too tough to use and you're better off without it. 

This dry compacted fiber is what I took out of the press and composted when I was done.

Hope this helps you in your culinary pursuits! Read on for a ginger syrup recipe to make your own ginger ale.

We own a SodaStream. It has changed our life (and our finances). My husband drinks seltzer like it's going out of style and I hate buying soda. We don't drink a lot of soda but this past week the warrior princess had chicken pox. Joy.

In the early 30 count phase. Pox covered doll was a family joke. 

All the memories I have of being sick when I was younger revolve around getting to have ginger ale, a big deal in our soda-free household. So while home caring for the pox-covered princess I decided to take the pound of ginger I had recently purchased and make soda syrup. 

I used about 6 oz of ginger which looks like this.

Peel the ginger.

Slice it lengthwise into thin slices. 

Start a pan of simple syrup going over low heat. Use equal amounts of water and sugar. I used 2 cups of water & two cups of sugar which yielded a pint of finished syrup- one pint jar & a little bit to sample.

Once the sugar has melted into the water add the sliced ginger & simmer for 45 minutes to an hour.

Store it in the fridge for up to two weeks. I love using a little of this in hot water with sliced lemon for a great cold-fighting ginger tea. You can also drizzle this over ice cream or over fruit.

Ginger-y delicious. Enjoy! We use roughly 1/3 cup per liter of soda- adjust to your taste.

Just be warned that this stuff is so yummy it may induce a happy ginger dance.