We had an overabundance of cucumbers this year (they went a little nuts in our greenhouse), so aside from doing pickled cucumbers (we had a bit of a glut left over from last year as I couldn't bear eating them during pregnancy - I know, go figure!), I had to find something else to do with them. Along came this great cucumber relish recipe, which worked really well for us.
Cucumber Relish
6 lbs (about 10 cups chopped) cucumbers (we used a mix of Cool Breeze, Lemon and Suyo Long)
1 cup chopped white onion
4 cups chopped red bell peppers
3 cups chopped green bell peppers
1 cup chopped celery (about 4 ribs)
1/2 cup pickling or Kosher salt
3 1/2 cups pickling or cider vinegar
1 1/2 cups brown sugar
4 tbsp mustard seed
2 tbsp celery seed
1 tbsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp ground cloves
2 tsp ground allspice
2 tsp ground turmeric
Place all vegetables into an enamel lined or stainless steel pot and stir in salt. Cover & let stand 4 hours at room temperature.
Put vegetables into large colander and drain. Rinse with cold water, using hands to squeeze out excess liquids. Repeat rinse & squeeze.
Combine vinegar & spices & sugar and bring to boil. Cook for 10 minutes. Add drained vegetables and stir to blend. Bring back to full boil, reduce heat & simmer 10 minutes. Fill hot, scalded half-pint or pint jars to 1/2" headspace and process in boiling water bath for 10 minutes (up to 1000 feet altitude).
Tuesday, November 9, 2010
Cucumber Relish
Monday, November 8, 2010
Nose to Tail... almost
This year we did a much better job of using the lovely venison that Dave got. We've become a little more adventurous, so we saved the heart, liver and tongue, along with the meat and bones this year. With our fabulous pressure canner, we can do meat preservation. Last year was the first year we tried chicken stock, and that was hugely successful. This year, we tried venison chili as well as stock, and they were brilliant.
One of Dave's favourite blogs is Hunter Gardener Angler Cook. Here's his venison stock recipe, which we basically followed (maybe a little less salt, as we didn't add salt to the final product), plus an onion (skin on) and a couple of parsnips, so the result was quite a bit sweeter, likely, than the original.
We made a couple of batches (so far!) of venison chili with our own tomatoes, and while I'd like to use our own kidney beans, the recipe calls for 3 cups worth, and we didn't have enough for two batches as well as saving seed stock for next year. I started with the USDA's Chili Con Carne recipe, then went from there. I can't use chili powder (don't know what's in it that bothers me, but it does), so I added a lot of my own spicing to it. Star anise is just magic with rich meat; I've started adding it to most of my venison recipes.
Venison Chili
- 3 cups dried pinto or red kidney beans
- 5-1/2 cups water
- 3 lbs ground venison
- 1-1/2 cups chopped onion
- 1 cup chopped red & green bell peppers
- 1 tsp black pepper
- 2 tsp cocoa powder
- 1 tsp toasted ground cumin seed
- 1/2 tsp ground coriander
- 2 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1 tsp ground cloves
- 1 tsp paprika
- 3 to 6 tbsp chili powder
- 1 1/2 qts tomatoes, peeled & puréed
- 2 jalapeño peppers, chopped
- 5 cloves garlic, chopped
Please read Using Pressure Canners before beginning. If this is your first time canning, it is recommended that you read Principles of Home Canning.
Procedure:Wash beans thoroughly and place them in a 2 qt saucepan. Add cold water to a level of 2 to 3 inches above the beans and soak 12 to 18 hours. Drain and discard water. Combine beans with 5-1/2 cups of fresh water, and 2 teaspoons salt. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat simmer 30 minutes. Drain and discard water. Brown ground beef, chopped onions, and peppers, if desired, in a skillet. Drain off fat and add 3 teaspoons salt, pepper, chili powder, tomatoes, and drained cooked beans. Simmer 5 minutes. Caution: Do not thicken. Fill jars, leaving 1-inch headspace. Adjust lids and process according to the recommendations below.
| Recommended process time for Chile Con Carne in a weighted-gauge pressure canner. | ||||
| Canner Pressure (PSI) at Altitudes of | ||||
| Style of Pack | Jar Size | Process Time | 0 - 1,000 ft | Above 1,000 ft |
| Hot | Pints | 75 min | 10 lb | 15 lb |
Dave also got all the accouterments for sausage making this autumn, so we made some batches of venison sausage, too (with lots of meat in the freezer for making plenty more). We started off again at Hunter Gardener Angler Cook with this venison sausage recipe, tried it, then tweaked it for ourselves.
Venison Sausage
4 lb venison meat, ground
1 lb pork back fat, ground
1 tbsp Kosher salt
1 tbsp (heaping) dried juniper berries, chopped
2 tsp crushed dried sage (omit if canning the sausage meat, rather than casing & freezing)
1 tsp black pepper, ground
1/4 tsp (heaping) celery seed, ground
1/2 tsp cumin seed, toasted & ground
1 tsp coriander seed, crushed
1 tsp cinnamon, ground
2 star anise pods, ground
1/2 cup cold grape juice (the original called for gin; this is what we had on hand and it worked just fine)
Follow Hank's instructions for turning into sausages. It's usually suggested that you fry up some of the seasoned meat before you proceed much further, to make sure that you like the flavours you've added before you go to the bother of casing the sausages then find out you don't like it. Not a bad suggestion.
Finally, from one of my favourite cookbooks, Art of the Slow Cooker, comes a marvelous recipe for beef brisket that works just fine with venison cuts, especially big, juicy rump roasts.
Espresso Braised Venison
Rub:
2 tbsp finely ground espresso coffee beans
1 tbsp sugar
1 tsp garlic powder (or 1-2 cloves garlic finely minced)
1/2 tsp ground coriander
1/2 tsp cumin seed, toasted & ground
1/2 tsp coarsely ground black pepper
1/4 tsp Kosher salt
Mix above ingredients in a small bowl & rub all over the meat. Wrap in plastic wrap and let rest at least 1 hour (we usually let it rest in the fridge overnight).
2 tbsp olive oil, divided
3 lbs venison
1 large onion, chopped
1 1/2 cups strong brewed coffee
2 tbsp balsamic vinegar (we used our own fruit vinegar here, yumm)
1/4 cup dark molasses
1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
2 whole cloves
Heat 1 tbsp oil in large skillet over medium-high heat and brown the venison on both sides (about 5 minutes per side). Transfer to a 5 or 6 quart slow cooker.
Add remaining 1 tbsp oil to skillet, add onion & cook until browned (about 3 minutes). Add remaining ingredients except for the cloves and bring to a boil. Pour over venison in slow cooker and throw the cloves into the liquid. Cover the cooker and cook on high 4 to 6 hours or low 8 to 10 hours until meat is fork tender.
Remove cooked meat from cooker and let rest. Cut across the grain, and serve with the sauce.
Happy Pantry
One of my favourite chores at the end of the growing season, once the hectic pace of harvesting and preserving is over, is to take stock of what we've got on our pantry shelves and create a tally of our preserves for the year. This summer was quite the challenge, balancing looking after our new girl Kate with the work of the harvest. Dave, of course, did most of the work. I won't go into totals, but here are lists of what we put together last summer and this summer.
2009 Preserves Tally
- Spiced sweet cherries - great with pork
- Cherry pie filling
- Cherry conserve
- Cherry juice - this was fabulous
- Tomatillo salsa verde
- Tomato & pepper salsa
- Pickled carrots
- Pickled dilled cucumbers
- Dilled green beans
- Preserved baby figs
- Orchard fruit chili sauce
- Pears in juice
- Pear ginger conserve - another fabulous preserve
- Spiced pickled pears - weird but good with meat
- Blackberry juice
- Blackberry pear juice blend
- Apples in blackberry juice
- Lime & ginger tomatillo marmalade
- Apple pie filling
- Tomatillo/Green tomato mincemeat
- Grape juice
- Cranberry salsa - a fantastic condiment with poultry, especially on leftover sandwiches with mayo
- Cranberry juice
- Hot pepper jam - quite a bit like sweet Thai chili sauce, and an essential condiment with pot stickers
- Chicken stock
- Fruit vinegar - another essential condiment with pot stickers
No cherries this year; really unfortunate year for cherries, sigh.
- Dilled green beans
- Pickled dilled cucumbers
- Apple blackberry juice
- Blackberry juice
- Raspberry juice - check out the Basil Sorbet using raspberry juice, yumm
- Cucumber relish - we used our overabundance of cucumbers and golden zucchinis, as well as our unripe Ruffle peppers for this fabulous relish. I highly recommend this recipe!
- Tomato & pepper salsa
- Tomatillo salsa
- Orchard fruit chili sauce
- Ginger pear conserve
- Tomatillo ginger & tangerine marmalade - even better than with lime!
- Green tomato mincemeat
- Hot pepper jam
- Honey plums
- Basil raspberry syrup - was supposed to be jelly, but didn't gel. Makes great syrup for pancakes!
- Chicken stock
- Venison stock
- Venison chili
- Fruit vinegar
Wednesday, November 3, 2010
Halva... Sort Of
I don't have an enormous sweet tooth, but I do love dessert, and I adore halva, a Middle Eastern sweet. We had some fantastic tahini in the cupboard, and some local honey, so I figured what a great use for these ingredients. I've never made it before, so I followed this recipe; I didn't find that it went into the correct texture for halva, I don't know what I did wrong, it's more like fudge. But it tastes great so who cares!!
Tahini Honey Halva
2 cups honey
1 1/2 cups tahini (stir it well if it has separated)
1 cup blanched, roasted & chopped almonds
vanilla or other flavouring to taste
Bring honey to a simmer, stirring to keep from getting hot spots or scorching. Cook until soft ball stage (or 240F/115C). Meanwhile, heat tahini in a separate pot (to 120F/50C), and blanch & roast the almonds (want the almonds hot). Let honey cool a little, then mix in heated almonds, then fold in warmed tahini.
I poured the warm mixture into a very slightly oiled Tupperware container. You can use oiled cake pan, lined with parchment, or oiled ramekins, as long as you can extricate the cooled candy afterward! If you let it cool, then cover to keep air out, leave for 36 hours in the refrigerator to develop the texture of the halva. I wasn't successful with that, but I didn't let it cool enough probably first (it was about 10 pm when I was done cooking it), so I'll try again!
Handsome Visitor
We had a barred owl visit us this afternoon - he sat on our orchard fence at least long enough for me to snap some photos. I think he was looking for our meadow voles, I hope that he got dinner (and that he comes back for more)!
Monday, August 2, 2010
It's an Orchid!
Dave found this on our property in June:
We thought it was a False Solomon's Seal, but the inflorescence wasn't quite right. So we waited until we got mature flowers. Today, Dave declared that it was an orchid based on the flowers. I was skeptical (bad me), so we went in with our camera, and yes! it certainly was an orchid.
We think it's Epipactis helleborine, an introduction from Europe. There's a native version, but I'm pretty sure this isn't it. We'll wait for some more mature flowers and try again with a better camera.
Sunday, June 20, 2010
Basil Sorbet
It's been a few years, but we've finally successfully raised basil from seed. Probably not a major feat for most people, but we've never had any luck just spreading the seed and hoping for the best. This year, we used our under-heat propagators and had them started at the same time we started the tomatoes, then put them out into the greenhouse about the same time, and they are doing really, really well.
I wanted to do something different with the basil than just pesto (although I do love pesto), so I searched for a basil sorbet recipe. I found an intriguing sounding one and mostly followed it, with a couple of tweaks of my own.
Basil Lime Sorbet
• 4 cups water**
• 2 cups basil leaves, gently packed
• 1 cup fine sugar (we used organic evaporated cane sugar, and I'd use less next time)
• 1/4 cup fresh lime juice (I used three small fresh limes)
1. Bring water to a boil in small saucepan. Add basil leaves; cook 10 seconds. Drain and reserve cooking water, and immediately plunge basil into cold water. Drain again.
2. Return cooking water to small saucepan, add sugar, and bring back to a boil. Simmer until all sugar is dissolved, creating a simple syrup. Let cool a little, then place in refrigerator to cool completely (2-3 hours at least).
3. Puree lime juice and blanched basil leaves in blender on high speed for about 1 minute, or until you have a smooth, bright-green liquid. If you don't want leafy bits in your sorbet, pour through fine-meshed strainer; I didn't bother. Keep the juice in the refrigerator until ready to combine (see next step).
4. Once cooled, you can return everything to the blender together and reblend to mix the juice, basil & syrup properly. If you blend everything while the syrup is still hot, the basil loses its beautiful bright green; not that it changes the flavour, but it doesn't look as pretty.
5. Freeze in an ice cream maker until slushy-firm (about 25-35 minutes). You may freeze the results into a container separately in the freezer once at this consistency to firm up further, or just eat directly.
This recipe has a wonderful, unusual flavour; the basil is very much present but not overpowering. The lime juice provides a nice acidic hint, and the sugar seems to bring out the flavours of everything beautifully. I think another time that I'd like to try a watermelon sorbet recipe using basil as well... will let you know how that goes when I get around to it.
**EDIT - I highly recommend using 4 cups of raspberry juice (or, if you don't have your own raspberry juice, this might be a little pricey, so you can experiment with water and raspberry juice).
