Monthly Archives: August 2009

Eggplant and Zucchini Caponata

Posted on August 19, 2009 by Annette Cottrell| 2 Comments

Nothing says summer to me quite like caponata. You know if you have all the ingredients growing in your own garden that summer is cresting and you’d better pull out your hammock, brew some ice tea and kick back to enjoy it before the mad flurry of Labor Day happens.

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We’ve had a few eggplants now so I decided to stop savoring the pure and simple flavor of grilled eggplant and do something a little more exciting with it.

My husband is the grill meister and excels at grilling summer veggies. Today I picked twice our usual number so we would have leftovers. I vertically stacked the leftover grilled slices and cubed them up, making short work of what can otherwise be a cumbersome dish.

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I sweated some chopped onion and celery from the garden until just soft, then removed them from the pan into a non-reactive bowl to cool.

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To the pan I added about a cup of my homemade, homegrown tomato sauce, 1/2 cup red or white wine vinegar, 1 tablespoon of organic cane juice, 1/4 teaspoon black pepper and a few red pepper seeds for zip.

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I brought this mixture just to a simmer then poured it over the eggplant and zucchini in the bowl, mixing gently.

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If you had green olives or capers you could certainly add some but I think it was fabulous without them. I was planning to pickle my narsturtium seeds to make narsturtium capers this year but the chickens put an end to that hair-brained idea.

Along with fresh raddichio, chard and mizuna topped with spagetti from Azure Standard in turn topped with my amazing tomato sauce and Italian sausage from Skagit River Ranch this made for one amazingly fresh from the garden meal. The image may be blurry but the flavor was not!

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Posted in Eggplant, Recipes for Seasonal and Local Foods, Zucchini

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Canning Tomato Sauce

Posted on August 17, 2009 by Annette Cottrell| 6 Comments

Have you ever seen Willi’s gardening blog?

It’s a great local blog with some terrific recipes for eating local produce. I was perusing one night since my friend Justine wrote a post on her prolific honey bees which are in next year’s plans for me. I scanned the recipes and the Red Gravy one caught my eye, or more technically speaking, caught my stomach.

With a crazy bounty crop of saucing tomatoes this year I was on the hunt for a good tomato sauce recipe. I tried out the one for DiAgostino’s Red Gravy over the weekend and it was amazing. I did make a few adjustments to it (doesn’t every cook?) and everyone swooned when they tasted it.

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The tomatoes are so fresh, the flavor is so pure, that it’s like eating a sun-kissed tomato fresh from the garden, even after 2 hours of simmering. I used it to sauce some fettucine noodles from Azure Standard’s organic Oregon-grown durham wheat then topped it with fresh chiffonade of basil and grated parmeson from Rubiano in California. It was crazy good.

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Here is the link for the recipe for DiAngostino’s Red Gravy.If you can’t get that link to work click on “recipes” then “main dishes” and it’s in the top right hand corner. I’m not sure why that link isn’t working.

The only changes I made, knowing we would eat it fresh rather then can it, was the addition of one finely chopped carrot for sweetness. I won’t make that change next time since I’ll be making several gallons of it to can and I don’t want to change what I know to be a safe canning recipe.

I’m pretty adventuresome where food is concerned but botulism is not your friend under any guise.

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Now that I’ve broken down and started purchasing dried pasta I have another quick option to get dinner on the table – in the form of spaghetti sauce with noodles. Because this tomato sauce is so simple you could also use it to make a quick tomato soup or add it to any recipe that calls for tomato sauce. If you want to spice it up you can easily do that by adding more dried herbs or other vegetables then simmering for 30 minutes just before you serve it.

Just don’t change the original recipe if you plan to can it using a water bath process. And when water bath processing tomatoes, you should always use heirloom varieties. The new hybrids may not contain enough acidity to give you the correct pH to stave off botulism. You should always purchase heirloom varieties anyway, grown sustainably by someone who cares.

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Posted in Preserving Food, Recipes for Seasonal and Local Foods, Tomatoes

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Canned Homegrown Tomatoes

Posted on August 17, 2009 by Annette Cottrell| 6 Comments

Just about every recipe I use in the winter seems to include a can of tomatoes. Since taking our locavore pledge on January 1 the only canned food I’ve purchased, and by the case I might add, is tomatoes. Tomatoes, tomato sauce and tomato paste. Granted they are organic tomatoes but I don’t know a thing about where they are grown or the condition of the soil (if any since many winter produce is grown in water with liquid fertilizer boosters.)

The whole point of this experiment is to improve our nutritional intake by ensuring our food is grown in real dirt with real nutrients, and that I steward that dirt by returning nutrients in the form of compost.

Just because I’m crazy and we eat more tomatoes year round then any other thing (which makes no sense whatsoever in Seattle) I planted 30 tomato plants. Most of them were “saucey” so that I could can them. Last weekend I started that process.

First I scored the bottom of the tomatoes with a shallow “X”.

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Then I dropped them into boiling water for about 30-60 seconds until they began to peel and put them in an ice bath to shock them.

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When they were cool to the touch I peeled them. The skins should slip easily off if the tomatoes are ripe.

I cut the tomatoes in half, filled sterilized quart sized mason jars and packed them in as tightly as possible. I filled the jars up to within 1/2″ of the tops with a small amount of boiling water and sealed and processed them in a water bath for 40 minutes.

They looked beautiful on my counter but due to lack of space I had to move them downstairs into my pantry where they look equally beautiful and out of the way. And next winter they will look even more beautiful in the dead of winter as we once again eagerly await something besides the overwintered kale and collard greens to eat.

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Posted in Preserving Food, Recipes for Seasonal and Local Foods, Tomatoes

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Quick, Convenient and Frugal

Posted on August 17, 2009 by Annette Cottrell| 4 Comments

Since starting our local, seasonal kick I haven’t had many luxuries when it comes time for getting dinner on the table pronto and frugal isn’t necessarily something I’ve been able to be. I haven’t gone over what we used to spend but I certainly haven’t been spending way less either.

I was so excited tonight when I sat down to eat my delicious black bean burger and realized how much the entire dinner actually cost to make. And even more excited when I realized I could make up a huge batch of these bad boys to freeze and later grill or fry in a flash. And then the possibilities of some adaptations for a quick and easy breakfast or lunch box fare made me more excited yet.

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Of course it would have tasted even better with a slice of Skagit Ranch bacon on top but I had just used up the last of my pre-cooked bacon making bacon and cheddar scones for breakfast.

Delicious? Yum! Quick and Easy? You bet! Frugal? This whole meal for 4 cost me less then $3 to prepare and if our chickens were laying eggs yet it would have only cost me $1.24. For a family of four. Crazy, isn’t it?

Here’s the low-down:

  • 3 cups cooked organic black beans from Azure Standard, used about 70 cents worth
  • 4 local organic eggs $1.67, if ours with feed would have cost $0.37
  • 4 Tablespoons full of grated Tillamook cheddar cheese about $0.17
  • Other ingredients were from the garden, spice rack or stale bread heels
  • 2 Tablespoons of olive oil, one for frying and one in the mix I didn’t include the cost of but it couldn’t be more then pennies

I adapted the recipe from Heidi’s lentil bean burgers to include black beans, celery, scallions, cumin, chili pepper and roasted garlic. The buns were left over from our vacation, otherwise I would have used homemade pita bread or foccacia bread buns, both of which cost next to nothing to make when you buy the grain in 25 pound bags and grind it yourself.

The side fixings were grilled corn on the cob, cherry tomatoes and jalapeno from my own garden with a sprinkling of chili powder and salt and a splash of sherry wine vinegar to round out the meal.

With their high protein content from the beans & eggs you could easily adapt these to breakfast patties by using breakfast sausage seasonings. I’m sure my soon to be kindergartener would love to find these in his lunch as well – a great finger food (minus the bun and fixings) that can go a few hours without refrigeration. I’m already racking my brain for lunch ideas for him that don’t include nuts (Seattle Public School rules) or lunch meat since there is none that’s local and organic that I know of. This fits the bill perfectly!

Before cooking these are really mushy so you couldn’t pop them in a toaster oven or on a barbecue but by cooking them up and freezing them you have a great soy-free and incredibly frugal version of veggie burgers at your disposal. Finally – some fast slow food in the freezer!

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Posted in Beans, Meatless Entrees

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All the Gear

Posted on August 15, 2009 by Annette Cottrell| 7 Comments

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As I spent the better part of the week washing dishes and equipment only to turn around and dirty them again it occured to me to post a list of all the things that I find indispensible. At some point I’ll come back and link them to Amazon images so you can see what they look like and read descriptions in case you are interested. Here is what I use all the time right now:

  • Grain grinder
  • Kitchen Aid Mixer
  • Cuisinart Food Processer
  • Hand stick blender
  • Water bath canning pot
  • Dehydrator
  • Ice cream maker
  • Tortilla press
  • Roma food strainer

I have a dinky kitchen with zero cupboard or counter space yet I either find a way to cram these thing in or I run up and down the stairs constantly retrieving them. I would rather have every one of these things even then a dishwasher right now. I’m still fighting with my husband to get rid of the microwave so that I can use that space for cabinets, counters or any of these appliances. I’ve never trusted the microwave and I hardly ever use it. He’s very attached to it though.

If you are considering any of these feel free to ask me how I use them or what type I have. I’ve researched them all pretty thoroughly and tried to get the middle of the road unless I’ve already had the middle of the road and have upgraded.

The only things I don’t have now that I would like to are a meat grinder and sausage stuffer but for now I’m buying ground meat and forming patties with it. Someday though I’d love to get into making salami and other cured meats. Hopefully this winter! Right around when I start brewing beer again…

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Posted in Recipes for Seasonal and Local Foods