urbandryad: image of a city growing out of the branches of a tree (Default)
2023-01-03 02:08 pm
Entry tags:

Potluck recipe dump

"bisquick sausage balls" - modded for home biscuit/sausage
"Anna's fruit salsa and cinnamon chips"

World’s Easiest Shrimp Salad
1 bag frozen, peeled, deveined, cooked shrimp defrosted
1 jar marinated mushrooms, drained
1 jar marinated artichoke hearts, drained
No need for dressing, marinades do it. Refrigerate overnight.

Layer macaroni noodles, canned tomatoes, onions, and cheese in a casserole dish; fill the dish to the top with homogenized milk and bake in oven until the noodles are cooked. (this feels midwestern)

Caprese salad, but with cherry tomatoes that have been cut in half and either cut-up string cheese (which is just mozzarella cheese marketed differently) or smaller pieces of mozzarella ball, and with olive oil as well as the balsamic and basil, and everything mixed together in a casserole dish rather than layered nicely.

Dijon potato salad
3 pounds red new potatoes
¼ cup red wine vinegar
3 tablespoons whole grain Dijon mustard
½ cup olive oil
6 scallions, chopped
½ cup chopped parsley
¼ cup chopped dill
Salt and pepper
Place the potatoes in a large stockpot, and cover with water. Bring to a boil, and cook until the potatoes are tender, about 20 minutes. Drain and allow to cool. When cool, cut the potatoes in half.
Combine the vinegar and mustard in a large bowl. Slowly whisk in the olive oil.
Add the potatoes to the vinaigrette, and mix gently but thoroughly. Toss in the scallions, parsley and dill. Salt and pepper to taste.

I make a salad version of cassoulet: drained, rinsed, white beans, halved cherry tomatoes, sliced black olives, sliced or diced yellow pepper, very thinly sliced carrot, cut-up artichokes and/or thingy sliced fennel, a garlic vinaigrette of your choice, and mild crumbled feta or queso, or shaved parmesan. To make it a carnivore’s main dish, add sliced cooked sundried tomato sausages.

Dips. My go-to is a pound of sausage (browned) mixed with a can of Rotel (drained) and a block of cream cheese. Combine in skillet until mixed/melted through, serve with tortilla chips. – 10 minutes prep, you can chill it overnight or bring (and make!) it in a crock pot.

Buffalo chicken dip
2 cups shredded cooked chicken
1 package (8 ounces) cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup Frank’s RedHot® Original Cayenne Pepper Hot Sauce
1/2 cup ranch dressing
1/2 cup blue cheese crumbles
DIRECTIONS
PREHEAT oven to 350°F. Mix all ingredients in a large bowl. Spoon into shallow 1-quart baking dish.
BAKE 20 minutes or until mixture is heated through; stir. Sprinkle with green onions, if desired, and serve with chips, crackers and/or cut up veggies.

Brownie mod: Swirl the top with a mixture of 2/3 c peanut butter + 5 tbs powdered sugar + 3 tbs heavy cream and sprinkle over with mini peanut butter cups

I’ve made a Greek version of the layered Taco dip. It has olives, cucumber, tomatoes, feta, and hummus. Serve with pita chips.

https://disneyparks.disney.go.com/blog/2011/06/just-in-time-for-your-july-4th-picnic-big-thunder-ranch-barbecue-cole-slaw/

https://food52.com/recipes/40780-rose-levy-beranbaum-s-chocolate-oblivion-truffle-torte

? https://food52.com/recipes/29939-bill-smith-s-atlantic-beach-pie
urbandryad: image of a city growing out of the branches of a tree (Default)
2022-10-24 09:07 am

Canned pork al pastor

This is pretty good. In 500ml jars.

Mix until dissolved:
1 - 1.5 cups pineapple juice
3/4 cup whit vinegar
2 - 2.5oz achiote powder

Put in each jar:
1/4 tsp cumin
1/4 tsp very generous canning salt
1/4 tsp garlic powder
A big pinch oregano
A couple grinds of black pepper
1/2 pineapple ring

Fill each jar with meat

Put 2-3 tbsp of the liquid into each jar (basically distribute evenly).

Pressure can for 75 minutes at 12-15psi at my elevation.

Note: could use a touch of sweetness, or serve with pineapple. Fry in a pan to crisp up and serve.
urbandryad: image of a city growing out of the branches of a tree (Default)
2022-09-26 10:55 am

Fall preserving

Basic veg mix:

1 part cauliflower, 1 part sweet hot peppers, 1/2 part green hot peppers, 1 part green beans, 1 part carrots, 1/4 part celery (including leaves) all cut into bite-sized pieces

Brine mix:

Giardiniera hungarian pepper: 1:1 vinegar:water plus 1/3 cup kosher salt and 1/2 cup sugar into 3.5L brine (one pot), into each 500ml jar add 2 peppercorns, 1 bay leaf, 1 clove garlic

Lightly sweet mixed pickle: 1:1 vinegar water plus 1/3 cup kosher salt and 1 cup sugar into 3.5L brine, per 750ml jar add 1/4 tsp mustard, 4-5 coriander seeds, 1 bay leaf, 3 peppercorns

Giardiniera (plain): 1:1 vinegar:water plus 1/3 cup kosher salt and 1/2 cup of sugar per pot, 1/4 tsp peppercorns & 1 clove garlic & 2 bay leaves per liter jar
Water bath 15 minutes

(Also tried a no-sugar one)


Strawberries, macerate 2L with 2 cups sugar overnight, bring to a boil, add juice and zest of 2 limes, water bath 10 minutes, fruit will float
urbandryad: image of a city growing out of the branches of a tree (Default)
2022-09-07 01:15 pm

Fall canning

So far:

Apple sauce, 2 slow cookers of apples on low 12 hours, run through chinois, sugar added to taste (2.5 cups per pot, the pot makes roughly 3.5L)

One each of four kinds of vanilla applesauce, with 2 beans per slow cooker cut up and put in with the raw apples: tahitensis bourbon cure, madagascar boubon cure, madagascar mexican curem ugandan bourbon cure. 500ml jars, 20 min water bath.

Two caramel applesauce: boil sugar until dark brown, let cool slightly, add water to make a syrup, put into slow cooker with apples, finish as above. Roughly 1 cup of caramelized sugar per liter of finished sauce.

Two apple jams:

lime apple marmalade (chop a potful of apples with peel, chop 5 limes with peel, combine with 6-7 cups sugar, let sit so sugar draws the juice out until it's covered in liquid, simmer until it starts to gel, water bath.

saskatoon apple jam: chop whole apples and saskatoons (6 cups total maybe) and cover with 4 cups sugar. Let sit until sugar has drawn juices out and they're sitting in liquid. Simmer until soft. Put through chinois. Simmer until gels. water bath.

Dilly beans:

4 cups vinegar, 4 cups water, salt to taste. Boil to make brine.

Fill jars with 1 head of dill, 1 clove of garlic, 2 peppercorns, a sliver of horseradish, a hot pepper, and green beans (can blanch first). Maybe dill or celery seeds. Pour boiling brine over. Water bath.
urbandryad: image of a city growing out of the branches of a tree (Default)
2022-04-10 07:38 pm
Entry tags:

Egg Recipes

Kugel https://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/dave-lieberman/noodle-kugel-recipe-1946564 (or similar)

Vanilla cream pudding, maybe with maple (betty crocker)

Raw aged eggnog with Islay whiskey

Son-in-law eggs https://hot-thai-kitchen.com/son-in-law-eggs

Cilbir https://fromykitchen.com/2020/04/12/turkish-eggs-cilbir/

Vietnamese tomato rice:
white rice, fish sauce, sugar, whole tomato = cook in rice cooker. Mash tomato, mix in green onion and egg, let sit a minute, eat. As per https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7j2TRIKRQyc&t=41s

Eggs in korma or butter chicken sauce

Obvs benedict/poached

Momofuku soy eggs

Carbonara

Filipino butter mochi
5 eggs
3 cups fresh/whole milk
1 tsp vanilla extract
16 oz or 1 pound glutinous rice flour, about 3 2/3 cups when measured
2 cups sugar
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 cup butter, melted
1 cup coconut flakes

Preheat oven to 350 F.
Grease a 9 x 13 baking pan.
In a medium bowl, stir together eggs, milk and vanilla extract. Set aside.
In a large bowl, combine glutinous rice flour, sugar and baking powder. Make a hole at the center and pour the wet ingredients over the dry ingredients. Stir until full incorporated.
Add melted butter and coconut flakes. Stir to blend.
Bake for 1 hour. Remove from oven. Cool for few minutes and slice to serve.
Best served when warm.

Egg pie
1 pie crust, par baked
1 cup whole milk room temperature
4 tbsp salted butter, softened
3 large eggs, room temperature
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 1/2 tablespoon all purpose flour (to thicken)
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
Caviar from one vanilla bean (optional)

Preheat your oven to 425°F. In a blender add your milk, butter, eggs, sugar, flour, vanilla extract and vanilla caviar. Blend on low until smooth and your sugar has dissolved. Pour into your par baked pie crust.

Pour your filling into the pie and bake for 45-55 minutes or until pie jiggles just slightly. Allow the pie to cool and then chill before serving. Can be served plain or with whipping cream or with fruit preserves.
(this is too hot or too long)


Custard pie

1 uncooked pie crust in pan
6 eggs
1 cup sugar
1 tsp vanilla
Pinch of salt
1/2 tsp cinnamon or nutmeg
2 cups milk

Heat oven tp 475 degrees Fahrenheit.
Mix eggs, sugar, vanilla, salt, cinnamon, and milk.
Pour into pie crust.
Bake at 475 degrees for 10 minutes.
Lower the oven temperature to 350m degrees Fahrenheit.
Bake 25 to 35 minutes until set.
(this is a deep dish pie, not a bought pie crust, it's too much filling for a bought one)
urbandryad: image of a city growing out of the branches of a tree (Default)
2021-11-24 02:47 pm
Entry tags:

Time-Stepped Mixed Animal Northern System

Pigs/Geese: winter over in greenhouse and then move through fields

March/early April onto frozen ground as the greenhouse thaws enough to plant: field #1 from frozen ground to 1" thaw: barley, kale, cabbage gets planted when the pigs leave.

April till mid-May into field #2 for and tomatoes, squash, and corn go in after.

Mid-May into field #3, either perennial pasture or fall/very early spring plant of grain (rye?).

Quick sweep through haskap and apple pastures to pick up excess fruit. in summer/late fall as required.

Mid-Sept back into field #2

Oct back into field #1

Nov back into greenhouse.
urbandryad: image of a city growing out of the branches of a tree (Default)
2021-11-24 02:13 pm

Corn Variety Trial

Gaspe from Heritage Harvest seeds- this was my second year growing it. In 2020 I tried starting indoors and transplanted, which it didn't like, and spaced it a foot apart, which meant it didn't pollinate. In 2021 I put it on a dry sunny hill crest direct-planted with soaked seed and it went in May 26 and was mature Sept 7. I needed to have watered it more, it dried down to wilt stage several times. It was not complete full sun but it was close, and as warm as it gets. Second year I spaced it 2 seeds per hole in a 6" grid. I think one seed per 6", or maybe one seed per 6x12" space, would be good. I did increase my seed supply at least.

Cascade Ruby-Gold from PR seeds- this was my first year growing it, soaked it like Gaspe and planted it about the same time but it never got more than a foot tall. It was in slight shade and I later realized there were a ton of aspen roots in that bed stealing moisture, could use a second try I guess. I'm hoping it has cool-weather resistance.

Mandan parching lavender from adaptive seeds - this was a very short plant that started out promising: early vegetative growth, lots of tillering. It was slower to tassel and never ripened even into milk stage though. It did get a touch of shade but it was right next to starburst mana and there was a distinct difference. Not to grow again. Again presoaked.

Starburst mana and magic mana from snake river and adaptive seeds - the starburst mana was definitely quicker to ripen but I got some cobs off both. I think I'll order some more starburst mana and some magic mana from snake river, since theirs seemed earlier, to supplement my saved seed. Again seed was presoaked and then direct seeded. Nothing got fully dry-ripe but some made it past milk stage and were dried in the carport, I should run a germination test on them.


To try 2022:

Gaspe, starburst mana, magic mana, and cascade ruby gold again, including a reorder from Snake River seeds.

Maybe Advent Gulch Blue from Snake River seeds, it's longer season but apparently good in cold? Probably won't work though.

Saskatoon (not Saskatchewan) white from Adaptive Seeds. A good bet.

Morden, if I can find it. Also a good bet.

Ki:kam hu:n from Native Seed Search.

Alberta Clipper and maybe Darwin John from Oikos.

Maybe Baxter's Yellow from Sandhill.

Rumour of a small blue corn sold through a museum gift shop to track down.
urbandryad: image of a city growing out of the branches of a tree (Default)
2021-10-29 09:04 am

Fall Pickles

Put up roughly 10kg of turnips into pickles: matchsticked them, put in a couple sliced beets for colour, filled the container maybe 1/6 full of 7% vinegar, and then added water to cover and salt at 3% of total weight including veg and vinegar (it's a bit more complicated than that, I boiled the brine and poured it over warm, and some calculations needed to be made on that brine).

I also did carrot/jalapeno/garlic pickles (mostly carrots), about 9kg, with a 6% brine poured over boiling (not total veg + water weight, just 6% brine). I'm using vacsealed bags of water for air exclusion in the gallon jars, then there's an airlock on one and the waterlock fermentation crock as well.

I also canned some potatoes but haven't yet opened a can to test; I put in 3/4 tsp of Old Bay seasoning per liter jar.

The carnitas I made has been seeing a bunch of use. That recipe is a keeper even though I find the cumin smell offputting when I open the jar. When fried up and put into a burrito it's really good.
urbandryad: image of a city growing out of the branches of a tree (Default)
2021-10-07 04:48 pm
Entry tags:

Tomato seed list

Alright, here's what I saved seed from:

Green grocery store cherry - firm/doesn't get real soft, really good rich slightly acid flavour, relatively early

Karma miracle bicolour - green pointy saladette, tangy bright strong, one of my favourite flavours this year, ripened a little before frost but I might have missed it ripening earlier, I need to put the greens in their own row next year, some fused into doubles

Karma purple multi - slightly bigger than cherry tomatoes, really tasty sweet/rich, tended to fuse into doubles, variable size

Taiga multicolour heart - big, early ripening, about five per plant, greenish, gets very sweet but I like it a little earlier when still a bit tart, not many seeds per fruit

Ambrosia red - tasty easily splitting cherry

Bloody butcher red - one of the earliest, not a huge producer, ok flavour

Brad red - mid-ripening, I didn't sufficiently differentiate this from the other reds

Cabot red - one of the early ripening reds, ok flavour, fairly prolific, tidy plant

Cole red - one of the early ripening reds, fairly good flavour, fairly prolific, tidy plant

Glacier red - one of the early ripening reds, erratic size, fairly prolific, tidy plant

Katja red - late to fruit but all fruit sized up quickly and ripened at once right before frost, extremely prolific, taste ok, one of the bigger ones

Maya and Sion red - early, but not super prolific, very tasty

Minsk early red - winner of the reds, earliest and most prolific, not the tastiest though, tidy plant

Moravsky div red - one of the early ripening reds, fairly prolific, maybe a week later than minsk early, tidy plant

Silvery fir tree red - beautiful foliage, tidy plant, lots of fruit that ripened just before frost and right after I brought them in, acid flavour. No obvious difference between annapolis and heritage harvest one.

Sweet cherriette red - tiny red cherry tomato, nice small plants and pretty early, suitable for indoors, one of the earliest indoors, pretty ok flavour

Uralskiy ranniy red - dwarf tidy plant, fruited one fruit very early then all the rest were late, need to try removing fruit when I transplant this time

Matt's wild cherry red - tiny red cherry tomato, big sprawling plant, ripened a lot of tomatoes but needs lots of space, nice flavour

Ron's carbon copy black - really tasty mid-late cherry

Mikado black - early very tasty nicely shaped black, tidy plant, definitely a favourite

Rozovaya bella black - weirdly crazed/russetted this year, was very tasty last year, smallish plant

Kiss the sky purple - ripened very few in time, one of the best flavours though, may have mixed this up with some Karmas

Galina yellow - prolific tasty yellow cherry, a little later than some and a bit more of a sprawling plant

Northern sun yellow - it ripened later this year but I brought lots in to ripen, mild, relatively tidy plant

****

Exserted orange - tasty little orange tomato, I'm interested to see what pollen this has collected

"Late good beefsteak" - this is a couple red tomatoes that ripened indoors that were just really tasty so I saved the seeds

"Tasty firm bicolour orange/green berry" - this was from the promiscuous tomato row, it stayed relatively crunchy and had this great zingy flavour. Interested to see if it breeds true

"Late rainbow mix" - I brought in a ton of tomatoes green and have been collecting seeds from the tastiest and colourful ones. There is definitely galina, mikado black, ron's carbon copy, karma miracle, some of the better reds, some purples, just all sorts

"Fall mix" - I don't remember what was in this but I saved it because it was excellent, it's probably mostly reds

"Dark cherry mix" - this might be Karma purple multi or kiss the sky, it was another set that was so tasty I had to save some. Maybe Ron's carbon copy is also in here?

"Minsk and green cherry mix" - two of my favourites were knocked over by the cat so they are a mix now

"Promiscuous A" is some of the best tasting and size fruit from the promiscuous row. Hopefully they've picked up pollen from other tomatoes and done some cross-pollination. No idea what this will bring but I'm super excited to see.

"Promiscuous B" ripened but were for some reason not preferable - bland, or weird shaped. They'll still have crossed etc and honestly early ripening is still a nice trait to have.

(I might have small amounts of Old Italian Pink for myself but none ripened before frost)
urbandryad: image of a city growing out of the branches of a tree (Default)
2021-09-19 10:54 am

Tomato Trial 2021

I did a big tomato trial this year. These are the varieties worth mentioning from it.

Note: I planted things very close together with trap rows of promiscuously pollinated lofthouse and exserted orange so I'm not expecting 100% pure seed. What I am expecting is either the known variety, which I like enough to grow again, or a cross between that variety and something else early or tasty. I'm not expecting a high percentage of crosses, maybe 10-20%, but that's going to be based on variety, time of year (earlier flowers had more exserted stigmas), and actual data which I don't have yet.

So the trial is mostly done, we had our first frost on the 15th. Things went out mostly June 10th and were planted indoors March 7th. I brought in a ton of green tomatoes. The early indeterminates Cabot, Cole, Minsk Early, Mikado Black and Katja and Taiga made up a huge % of the harvest, especially of the harvest-when-ripe-or-nearly-ripe. Leaving a fruit on the plant when it was transplanted really did slow the plant down until that fruit was ripe.

Tomatoes and notes:

Alexander B: ripened one fruit, brought in a couple more green ones, not productive.

Ambrosia Red: fairly prolific, some splitting, ripened late Aug. Grow again to test against another red cherry.

Big hill (lofthouse): several big beefsteak type tomatoes that didn't fully ripen. Brought them indoors to ripen but probably not worth growing again.

Bloody butcher: big vines, early (one of the earliest) with a gap before ripening a bunch more, medium prolific. Sprawling is annoying. Will grow again in indeterminate patch.

Cabot: one of the mid-august producers, slightly less prolific than Minsk Early but not too bad, fairly uniform fruit, not a bad flavour. Grow again against the early reliables.

Carbon: I wasn't expecting to get anything from this and found one ripe-rotten fruit under the plant in mid-Sept and several other green-ripe fruit. Oh well.

Cole: one of the mid-August producers, pretty prolific, reasonably tasty. Grow again against the early reliables.

Cherokee chocolate: big sprawly vine, nothing ripened before frost, reasonably prolific but really takes over.

Czech bush: had some of the very first fruits but didn't ripen any past that before mid-Sept.

Exserted orange: not a heavy producer but somewhat reliable, tasty fruit, early. Grow again. Also probably has some nice crossed fruits in the saved seed.

Galina: didn't start ripening until late August but very tasty yellow cherry. Reasonably productive, probably the most productive cherry. Grow again.

Glacier: another mid-august/early producer but very erratically sized fruit and not much for production. Try a couple again against the early reliables.

Gobstopper: didn't ripen before frost.

JD's special c-tex: didn't ripen before frost. Has in the past.

Jory: some big tomatoes just starting to whiten/blush before frost, prone to blossom end rot.

Karma miracle: started to ripen early Sept, lots of fruit that should ripen indoors so very late for a normal year but sweet and tasty. Hard to see if fruit was ripe. Grow again.

Katja: didn't do much to start, but pumped out a lot of very large slicers that ripen mid-Sept; prolific and tasty enough to try again, may need to ripen indoors on cold years. Definitely do again. Most fruits ripened indoors by Sept 18th.

Kiss the sky: one ripened and tasted amazing, kind of purple/brown/black? Not prolific. Try again for fun.

Lime green salad: Just starting to ripen in mid-Sept this year, compact dwarf plant, prolific for the space it takes up. Try again.

Longhorn: didn't ripen, made a fair amount of fruit that I brought indoors to ripen here. Not worth trying again just for season length constraints.

Manitoba: didn't ripen but lots of big green fruit that will ripen indoors. Neat looking calyx. Mediumish high productive. Grow again in the early indeterminates just to check.

Martino's roma: just starting to turn red in mid-Sept, haven't tasted it yet, maybe try again but it's probably not a keeper.

Maya and Sion's airdrie special: earliest beefsteaks but kind of shut down after that, I was impressed with this last year but barely got anything this year. Maybe try again? Compact indeterminate.

Mikado black: early (late Aug), beautiful, tasty, plant so many of these next year.

Minsk early: productive, early (early Aug), not the greatest taste but ok. Plant lots of these.

Native sun: started ripening early to mid Sept but has done better in the past, was mild then. A fair quantity of fruit to ripen indoors. Try again.

Northern ruby paste: pretty productive but not ripened by frost, brought indoors to ripen. Try again next year.

Old italian pink: a fair number of green fruit on the patio. I just like this one and want it to work but it didn't ripen anything before frost.

Ron's carbon copy: ripened a handful of cherry tomatoes but they were really good. Probably sad to discard or for breeding work? Looked like it would have been more prolific with just a little more time. I did bring in a bunch to ripen and there were some just turning. Try again next year.

Silvery fir tree: big producer, started ripening early Sept but the bulk is coming in green in mid-Sept. I'll always grow this one. It's just pretty.

Sugary pounder: huge tomatoes, didn't ripen by Sept 15 but may ripen indoors.

Stupice: fairly compact indeterminate plant produced a couple clusters of ripe/blushing/white fruit before frost even when planted late. Grow again with indeterminates.

Taiga: ripened or near-ripened 5 big hearts per plant, grow again, tasty and not super productive but relatively compact and very early for a gorgeous bicolour. Definite grow-again.

Store green cherry: we know I love this tomato. A little sprawly, crunchy, sweet-but-good, ripened a bunch fairly early on (mid-late Aug?). Will continue to grow.

Sweet apertif: it ripened some, it's tasty, but it's not prolific. A little sprawly.

Sweet cheriette: not as early as I thought unless it was in a pot indoors, but prolific and very good for patio growing. Fairly determinate indoors. Will grow to the size of container. Tasty. Very small fruit.

Alpharora: didn't ripen but did blush before frost, was planted late, set a couple fruit. Part of the citizen seed trial project.

Uralskiy ranniy: this one may have got mixed up with some others, I think it ripened some. Grow again.

Van Wert Ohio: super bushy, just very lush indeterminate bush of tons of foliage. Started to ripen by frost, not tasted yet. Grow again. It just has so many more leaves than other tomato plants.

Violet noir: I didn't have a sign for this one, did I even plant it?

Wildling polyamorous needs its own post.

Siberian: This ripened well and set lots of fruit but is a bit sprawly indeterminate. Grow again.

Rozovaya bella: first black to ripen, had a ton of weird crazing/russetting on the surface, not sure what's up with that? Waiting on the second flush for serious tasting. I liked this a lot last year and it ripened so it's in for next year.

Lofthouse promiscuous: I got a landrace/grex of assorted promiscuous tomatoes from the experimental farm network. I planted these between rows of named tomatoes to capture pollen from them and saved seed into two categories: "A" tasted good and had good qualities, "B" did ripen but was nothing to write home about (but may also have captured pollen from other varieties). I didn't separate out the individual plants for seed collecting, just went by flavor of fruit. There were regular and potato leaf plants in there, and fruits were beefsteak to large cherry size.
urbandryad: image of a city growing out of the branches of a tree (Default)
2021-09-18 03:51 pm

Another round of harvest

My 5% carrot, jalapeno, and garlic brined pickled last year were great but got bad kahm yeast. This year I'm making a 6% mixed pepper, garlic, and tomatillo pickle that I'll blend into a pasta sauce. I made it in a 2L jar and put about 3/4 cup of vinegar in, in addition to the brine.

I did another round of Avi's dad's pickles, which was pickling cucumbers, garlic, peppercorns, bay leaves, hot peppers, mustard seeds. I did not have dill to put in this time, though I did last year when it was really good. Pour over 3 quarts of water mixed with 3/4 cup coarse salt, just off the boil.

I've made vanilla paste with a sugar base recipe, put 16 vanilla beans into the blender with a cup of sugar. Boil another cup of sugar with a cup of water for 2 mins, add the blended vanilla sugar, boil another 2 mins together, let sit till cool, strain it, and there's the paste. Use the bits that strain out to make some extract.

I've been dehydrating tomatoes and, surprise, zucchini. Both are tasty as is.

I made a bunch of "crack pork jerky" which was, in percentages:
Meat 100
Apple Cider 7
Salt 2
Liquid Smoke 0
Worcestershire (Lea & Perrins) 1
Brown Sugar 1.5975
Maple Sugar 1.1
Maple Syrup 1.0
Cure #1 0.3
Garlic powder 0.1
Fermented pepper solids 0.3
Fermented hot sauce 0.5

I also canned Ellen's carnitas recipe, which looks like this:
Pork Shoulder

Oranges ( ¼ for each pint )

Ground Cumin ( ½ tsp for each pint )

Oregano ( ½ tsp for each pint )

Canning Salt ( ½ tsp for each pint )

Bay Leaf ( 1” piece for each pint )


Remove bones and excess fat from pork butt or shoulder roast and cut meat into suitable sizes for the jars being used. Do not remove all the fat but leave well marbled pieces. To each pint jar add the juice of 1/4 of a medium orange, half of the squeezed quarter orange, 1/2 teaspoon ground cumin, 1/2 teaspoon leaf oregano, 1/2 teaspoon canning salt and about a 1-inch piece of bay leaf. Fill jars with raw meat pieces, leaving 1-inch headspace. Do not add liquid. 75 minutes for 500ml jars or 90mins for 1L at 12psi at my elevation.


I've also remembered to freeze slabs of pork belly and thin ramen slices of pork.
urbandryad: image of a city growing out of the branches of a tree (Default)
2020-10-30 03:16 pm

Liverwurst

Currently making liverwurst. It went like this:

1kg pork liver, soaked for an hour in cold water
1.1kg belly trim

28g salt (1.6%)
5g cure #1 (0.25%, I think I went a little lower than this)
4g pepper
1g nutmeg (again, a little lower)
1g dried ginger
2g dried marjoram

I forgot to put in 120g onion, and liquid smoke

I liquified the liver in the food processor until it was bubbly, and added the spices and mixed it until they were evenly distributed

Then I put the fat in the food processor until fluffy and homogenous

Mixed liver and fat in food processor in two batches (because it wouldn't fit in one) until homogenous, and put in 250ml jars

Currently sous vide-ing jars at 160 until the centre comes to at least 155, I'm giving it 2 hours

This made 10 cups.
urbandryad: image of a city growing out of the branches of a tree (Default)
2020-10-30 03:10 pm

Lard Adventures

I have a ton of leaf lard, so I've tried two things. One is biscuits with home-ground flour (per cup of flour, 1/2 tsp of salt and 1 tsp baking powder). Cut in lard like you would butter, add milk, bake as you would regular biscuits. I quite like these, they're differently textured from regular biscuits and a little more savory, but good.

The other is Lard Sugar Cookies
1 cup lard
1.5 cups sugar
1-2 eggs
1 tsp baking powder
1.5 tsp vanilla
A splash of sweet cicily liqueur, because why not?
1/2 tsp soda
1/2 tsp salt
2 cups flour

Cream lard and sugar. Add egg, vanilla, sweet ciciley and beat until light and fluffy.

Mix baking powder, soda, and salt into flour. Add a cup at a time to lard mixture.

I formed this into cookies and then chilled it for half an hour or so before baking at, um... 350 or 400 for 12 minutes. The cookies rose way more than I was expecting!
urbandryad: image of a city growing out of the branches of a tree (Default)
2020-10-23 01:48 pm

Fall Rush Part Ten Million

Okay, let's see. Last I had done canned carrots.

I canned a lot of the tomatoes as just tomatoes: roasted at 400 for long enough to get the skin to come off, fill jars, pressure can.

I also worked on ready-to-eat meals:

Chili con carne:

3kg ground pork, 1kg dried beans, 300g chopped onion, 400g chopped jalapeno, 4L tomatoes (mostly ones I'd canned but also a can of store bought whole), 1/4 cup lime juice, some cilantro (more next year), some berbere powder, a trace of cocoa powder, and some salt

Soak beans overnight, rinse, cover with fresh water, simmer for half an hour until firm but not crunchy, discard water.

Brown pork and add veggies till soft.

Mix everything into a (very large) pot, bring to a boil then simmer 5min. I added 2L of pork stock.

500ml jars, 1" headspace, 11lbs for 75min.

This needs a hit of... sugar? Umami? Cilantro? But it's perfectly servicable.

Bean soup Edit: I don't like this, it's too dense and beany and not soupy or bacon-y
1kg dry beans, soaked ovenight
2 ham hocks
2 small carrots
1 onion
Bay leaves

Put in a pot wih fresh water or water/stock covering the beans by 2" (should be 3-4"). Cook everything together until the beans are soft (should be relatively firm). Cut meat off bones and put back into soup. Boil, then into jars: 500ml jars, 1" headspace, 15(?)lbs pressure for 75 min. This is a bernardin recipe and the pressure is missing. The beans ended up being a little too soft in the jars, they should be more firm when canned.

Salted caramel pears

Cook the pears in a little water until they are soft and can go through the food mill or chinois. Add some brown sugar and a little salt to the sauce. Mine was pretty liquid and needed to be cooked down by 2/3. Water bath.

Really really tasty.
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2020-10-08 09:19 am

Sauerkraut time

I had 50lbs of cabbage.

9kg is in the crock, sauerkrauting. 2% salt this time, last year was 2.2 and just fine but I'm playing. I added roughly 4lbs jalapenos to the whole thing, seeded, and put through the food processor to shred just like the cabbage.

The fermenting garlic is pretty fragrant right now.

I'd like to try the canned vinegar coleslaw recipe but I need my jars to arrive first.

I have 25lbs of tomatoes and 25lbs of pears to process, and a small bucker of apples gifted to me. I want to dehydrate some of this stuff but I also hate dehydrating. We'll see what happens.

It's been tough to find chamber vacuum sealer bags lately, my go-to place is well back-ordered so I tried ordering from a different place this morning. Fingers crossed.

I also did a bunch of canned carrots, mostly in 1-cup portions. I modified the glazed carrots recipe as follows: 4 cups brown sugar, 3 cups orange juice, 6 cups water. Boil syrup, peel and pack carrots, pour syrup over carrots, pressure can 30 minutes at 10psi.
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2020-10-06 08:37 am

More Preserving

Pulled the lacto cucumber pickles out of the crock. They're really great, not too salty, lots of flavour, not hard-sour and a little bit fizzy. The recipe was: a handful of garlic cloves, several bay leaves, some black peppercorns, and many dill heads. Brine poured hot (just not boiling) over them at (half cup canning salt to 3 quarts water, imperial measurements bother me, what % brine is this?). They were in the crock 2 weeks at fairly warm (woodstove heated) temps.

I made a brandied applesauce, just applesauce with brandy and a trace more sugar than usual.

I also made an apple muffin recipe out of applesauce:
Cream 1/2 cup butter and 3/4 cup sugar. Add an egg and vanilla. Add 1 cup applesauce. Add 1/2 tsp soda, a bit of salt, some nutmeg and 1/2 tsp cinnamon, and 2 cups flour (I used whole whear). 350F for 20-25 minutes. They're pretty good, even without baking powder. This is a half recipe, the whole recipe made something like 30 muffins.

Then mom came up and I canned 25 lbs of tomatoes: roast at 400 for 40 minutes, slip skins off, pack, add citric acid, pressure can @ 5lbs for 40 mins or 10 for 25. They don't seem to have separated, which is nice. There was a little siphoning.

I also was given a bunch of peeled garlic. I put a jar of it to ferment with 10% salt brine. Again brined hot, it's bubbling away.

Then I put up three jars (2 1.5L and one gallon jar) of carrots, jalapenos, and some garlic in a 5% brine (note this is a pickling 5% brine which does not factor in the weight of the veggies). Hopefully they'll start bubbling away soon.

My intention with the fermented things is to pasteurize them at 180F if I run out of fridge room.

Then I have 25 kgs of cabbage and another 6lbs of jalapenos, I'm going to mix cabbage and "some" jalapenos for my sauerkraut. I'll definitely have cabbage left over.

I also will have a bunch of carrots left over, the plan is to eventually can them as glazed carrots (2 cups brown sugar, 2 cups water, 1 cup orange juice, carrots go into the jars cold, pour the syrup over them hot, pressure can 11lbs for 30min.

Desert Hills, the farm market I've been buying from, makes me pretty happy.

Then this coming weekend will be a butcher, so I'll be canning some chili and some pork in wine sauce (adapted from beef in wine sauce) or Italian sausage and putting up more bacon, coppa, and prosciutto. I have a bit of spruce syrup to go in that. I also should do some pork jerky with the syrup from cowboy candy. That would be amazing smoked.
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2020-09-16 11:02 am

More Fall Canning

We've had our first frost, so I suppose it's fall canning now.

More things I've completed:

6kg of tomatoes' worth of Salsa Ranchera. I used my bolting cilantro and canned instead of fresh lime juice. It's really excellent, and the ovening is a good way to peel the tomatoes. It had a bit of trouble sealing, like many of these thick tomato sauces.

Crock full of lacto pickles using A's recipe.

Eggplant pickles - 6 kg worth.

Marinaded peppers using the national center for home food preservation recipe. This was hard to get to seal, maybe because of the oil.

Zesty pickles. I did the first 4 jars of spears in a water bath; the other 14 jars of pickles (12 slices, 2 spears) were done using the pasteurization method.

Eggplant puttanesca (3kg tomatoes), out of the healthy canning website. This is... better than expected from all the discussion about whether it's too vinegary on the website, though of course not as good as fresh puttanesca. Nice to have ready-made pasta sauce though.

Chicken wing sauce, 1 batch: tastes too spiced right now, we'll see how it settles. May be a good pork sauce?

Creole sauce, 1 batch: this is tasty, I'll need to remember to use it. As they say in the recipe, shrimp/seafood would be a great combo with rice.

I'm currently doing a double batch (8kg) of stewed tomatoes and veggies, altered a touch: roasting the tomatoes to de-skin, halving the onion, using a touch of lovage instead of a bunch of celery, and using jalapeno peppers and poblano peppers instead of green peppers.

Still to do: lacto jalapeno pickles, apple jalapeno hot sauce, lacto mixed peppers, and a lacto apple pepper sauce.

Not many jars left so let's hope this works out. I think I'm going to try some of the lacto ferments in vacuum bags (!!!)
urbandryad: image of a city growing out of the branches of a tree (Default)
2020-09-13 10:58 am

From Last Year

I don't seem to have recorded these in Oct 2019 but:

15 kilos of sauerkraut is crocked. 2.2% brine, a small batch with jalapenos and a larger bath mostly plain.

2 kilos of jalapenos are crocked, 5% brine with a couple onions.

Both VERY successful.
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2020-09-13 10:40 am

Jalapeno Carrot Pickles

The jalapenos are pretty spicy, so I pickled them cut with carrots in my zesty pickle brine: 1/3 jalapenos and 2/3 carrots, hot packed in the brine consisting of 1L vinegar, 1L water, 1/3 cup (coarse) salt, 1/2 cup sugar. I pressure-canned it quickly, but water bathing would have been better.

Pickled eggplant is done too. Eggplant is lightweight and compresses quite a bit while cooking. Basically peel and french-fry the eggplant, cook for 2 mins in a brine of 500ml white wine vinegar to 2tbsp salt and some oregano and garlic. I think I added a touch of chopped jalapeno to one jar. Hot pack, then top with the vinegar, debubble, and at my altitude 15min in a water bath.

Today: chicken wing sauce, creole sauce, marinaded peppers, pickles and jalapenos into ferment.
urbandryad: image of a city growing out of the branches of a tree (Default)
2020-09-10 12:43 pm
Entry tags:

Produce List and 2020 Plan, plus canning to date

Planning to get as follows from Desert Hills in Ashcroft:

Poblano - 1 box like tomatoes and eggplants come in ($40)
Green jalapeno - 1 box like tomatoes and eggplants come in ($20)
Roma tomato - 3 cases ($16 ea = $50)
Eggplant - 1 case ($10)
Pickling cucumbers - 1 case ($40)
Carrots - 20lb bag ($10)
Red onions - 20lb bag ($10)
Cantaloupe melons 3 large or 4 small ($4)
Garlic 2lbs ($4)

=$190

If it won't fit in the car, remove:
1 case tomatoes
Pickling cucumbers

The goal is to make a bunch of things that can:
1) go on no-cook charcuterie plates (marinaded eggplant, peppers, mixed jalapeno-carrot pickles, sauerkraut, cucumber pickles)
2) pretty close to open-and-serve or open-put-on-pasta-serve (ranchero sauce, pasta sauce, eggplant puttanesca)
3) Hot peppers to go with every meal (pickled jalapenos)
4) Assuage my curiosity (cantaloupe jam, apple ketchup)
5) Tomatoes as a staple
5) Jars of something I can throw in the instant pot with a chunk of meat

Planning to make:
Canned:
Marinated peppers (nchfp site) from a mix of anchos and jalapenos
Pickled eggplant (healthy canning site, recorded here)
Pickled mixed jalapenos and carrots (zesty pickle brine)
Eggplant puttanesca (healthy canning site, recorded here)
Ranchero salsa (healthy canning site)
Pasta sauce (Homemade Italian sausage, tomatoes, pressure canned)
Tomato sauce (tomatoes, acidified and cooked down)
Cantaloupe jam
Zesty pickles (my old recipe recorded here)
Chicken wing sauce
Cajun sauce?

Fermented:
Jalapenos and carrots
Jalapenos
Cucumber pickles

Plus, from home stuff later in the month:
Apple ketchup
Apple rhubarb sauce
Fermented sauerkraut with jalapenos
Canned potatoes (maybe lemon-oregano or with jalapenos)

Already made this year
Pizza sauce
Veggie pasta sauce
Tons of apple sauce (I can dehydrate it and make fruit leather! It's free from my tree) including flavoured apple sauce
Candied jalapenos (delicious but a little too hot for everyday hot peppering, great for making pork jerky or in instant potted meats)
Chicken stock
Pork stock
Canned chicken
Grape jam
Spruce rhubarb orange marmalade
Rose rhubarb orange marmalade
Lemon curd
Asian plum sauce
Tomato jam (replaces ketchup, I don't like homemade ketchup normally)
Turnip pickles
Peach BBQ sauce
Rhubarb caramel sauce
Candied rhubarb (canned)
Sweet ciciley syrup and candied seeds
Pickled spruce tips