Category Archives: Fall

Make This Now: Tomato Jam

Posted on September 6, 2012 | 7 Comments

I haven’t posted many jam recipes recently.  Mostly, I hate writing down recipes.  Then, I end up feeling like I really prefer simple jams anyway and that the magic isn’t really about my recipe so much as the fruit itself.   Great jam isn’t because of my recipe, it’s because of the farmer/mother nature/ the peach tree.  Plus, to write it down implies that the peaches I’m using are the exactly same as the ones you’re using.

Ok, but really I’m just being lazy about writing down recipes.

At last, though, I realized I have a recipe that seems unique enough and delicious enough to warrant sharing:  tomato jam.

Before you can all of your tomatoes into sauce, you must make this.

“plum lemon” tomatoes

 

This jam is so simple to make and good on pretty much everything.  I’ve been roasting eggplant and then topping the slices with tomato jam and goat cheese, and it ends up being MAJOR.  It will make you think you adore eggplant, but really it’s just the tomato jam that makes it taste so damn good.

Put it in eggs. Put it in quesadillas. Toss it with some tofu and cilantro for stir fry. Brush it on grilled chicken in the last few minutes of cooking.  The other night we used it like a chutney and had it with this coconut-chana masala that’s one of my favorite weeknight dinners.  Put it on grilled steak fajitas.  Put it on a hamburger and you’ll forget you ever knew about a thing called “ketchup.”

Plus, I’ve made a few batches now and have had really good luck with it coming out with this perfect semi-runny jammy set, that’s thick but not firm, thin enough to use like a sauce or a glaze still, but thick enough to have some body if you want to spread it on a piece of bread. 

Black Dog Farm Tomato Jam

I’ve tried making this recipe with many different tomato varieties.  I’ve been enjoying keeping them separate, doing batches of just black cherry or just paul robeson tomatoes – you can really taste the difference in the characteristics of each tomato.  Yesterday morning, I harvested a box of plum lemon tomatoes, and I thought it would be pretty to have the bright yellow color in the finished product.  It doesn’t really matter, though, a mixture of whatever you have is fine too.  Just keep in mind that big heirlooms will have a lot of water and need to cook down for a longer time than paste tomatoes.

Cook Time: about 3 hrs.

Makes: around 12 half pint jars

Ingredients:

(This is a monster batch, because I don’t really do small batches when I’m trying to preserve hundreds of pounds of tomatoes, but I’m sure you could cut it in half or less –  just do the math for however many tomatoes you have.)

  • 20 c. diced tomatoes –  leave the peels on, but remove the cores before you dice them
  • 15 dried serrano chilis*
  • 1 c. water
  • 3 c. apple cider vinegar
  • 1 c. onion blossom vinegar - if you have it, or just do all apple cider vinegar
  • 2 bay leaves
  • 4 whole cloves
  • 1 tsp. sea salt
  • 1/2 tsp allspice
  • 10 c. sugar

In a very large pot, combine the tomatoes, vinegars, bay leaves, cloves, salt, and allspice.  Bring to a simmer and cook for ten minutes.

While you bring the tomatoes to a simmer, rehydrate the dried chilis: Put them in a small saucepan with about 1 c. of water and simmer for 5 minutes.  Transfer the chilis and the water to a blender and puree. Pour the blended chilis into the pot with the tomatoes.

Stir the sugar into the pot with the simmering tomatoes.  Turn the heat to medium high and cook until it gels, which will probably be several hours for a batch this size. (I didn’t use a thermometer, I just eyeballed for the tomato jam to start sheeting off the big metal spoon I use when I make all my jam). As the jam reaches the end of the cooking time, you’ll have to stir everything fairly often to make sure the tomato bits don’t stick to the bottom of the pot and burn.

Remove bay leaves and discard.  Ladle the hot jam into prepared half-pint jars leaving 1/4″ headspace.  Wipe rims clean, attach prepared lids and and process in a boiling water canner for 20 minutes.

*The chilis I was using didn’t seem very spicy at all, so I put in a lot.  Use your own judgement before you do anything crazy.

 

 

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Aubergines, Part 2

Posted on August 29, 2012 | 4 Comments

I’m still swimming in eggplant.  I feel like I’m doing an exercise in advanced level food preservation.  Putting up 500 lbs. of tomatoes is a challenge, but there are so many delicious possibilities: sauce, salsa, sweet oven roasted tomatoes… and the list goes on.  Blanching and peeling 100 lbs. of peaches is a hot, annoying chore, but peach pie filling and vanilla peach jam easily justify the trouble.

Eggplant, on the other hand….

I’m a compulsive preserver, and even though we have more than enough of our own eggplant, when my friends down the road asked me if I wanted all their “seconds” (these beautiful Japanese eggplants that have only the smallest of imperfections, certified organic, and their first quality ones get sold at the local co-op for an arm and a leg), since they didn’t know what else to do with them, even though my brain says NO NO NO NO NO NO MORE EGGPLANT, my mouth opens, and out comes:

“SURE!”

It’s FREE. How can you argue with free?

Here’s my solution:

EGGPLANT CAPONATA

This is wonderfully versatile Italian spread.  Serve it with sliced baguette for an appetizer,  use it as a filling for a vegetarian sandwich with some melted cheese on top, or toss it with some cooked pasta for a quick dinner.  Just like the Pasta Puttanesca I made the other day, it’s packed with olives and capers, and just like the other day, feel free to leave them out or reduce the amounts if you’re not as big of a fan. The recipe I’ve written here is my attempt at combining Mary Ann Espositos’ super authentic caponata recipe and a shelf-stable recipe from SB Canning.

Cook Time: about 1 1/2 hrs.

Makes: about 10 1/2 cups

Ingredients:

  • 4 tbs. olive oil
  • 4 cloves of garlic, crushed
  • 6 c. diced eggplant (1/2″ cubes)
  • 1 c. diced celery
  • 1 c. diced onion
  • 1/4 c. roughly chopped basil
  • 1/4 c. roughly chopped parsley
  • 2 c. tomato paste
  • 1/2 c. red wine
  • 2 c. red wine vinegar
  • 3 tbs. capers, drained
  • 1 5 oz jar of pimento stuffed green olives, roughly chopped
  • 2 tbs. cocoa powder
  • salt and pepper

(Bring boiling water canner to a boil.) Heat the oil in a large pot on medium high heat.  Add the garlic, onions, celery, eggplant, basil and parsley.  Stir everything together, turn the heat to medium, and cover.  Cook for ten minutes.   Next, uncover and stir in the remaining ingredients (tomato paste, red wine, vinegar, capers, chopped green olives, and cocoa powder) and then cook on low until the eggplant is tender.  Taste the caponata and season with salt and pepper.  (You may not need to add any salt because of salt in the capers, vinegar and olives).

Put lids and rings in a small pot of water and bring to a simmer, then remove from heat. Ladle the caponata into hot, sterilized jars,  leaving 1/2″ headspace.  Remove air bubbles and adjust headspace accordingly. Wipe jar rims clean and screw on lids. Process half pints for 15 minutes and pints for 20 minutes (adjust for altitude if necessary).

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Aubergines, Part 1

Posted on August 26, 2012 | 7 Comments

Eggplants always seem like the little lost vegetables of summer.  People dream about biting into a homegrown tomato, but I never hear anyone longingly wish for an eggplant.

I feel like if I started putting up a sign that said “aubergines” instead of “eggplant” at the farmers market, we might sell more of them.  It’s more romantic, right?

So, my goal today is to convince you to love eggplant.

First:

Have you seen all the specialty varieties of eggplant seeds that you can find these days?  The beautiful shades of dark purple to white and pale green are so enchanting.  I especially like this Listada de Gandia variety from Baker Creek Seeds:

(…true, I would probably buy a dead squirrel if it were advertised as having “lovely purple and white stripes.”)

Eggplants are so simple to grow, too.  Just make sure to start your seeds really early, with the tomatoes, and then give them good soil and nice spot in full sun.

And now, a recipe:

This is hands down, the best pasta sauce that I know how to make.  My mom made a slightly different version for me every year on my birthday when I grew up.  My parents had referred to this dish by a different name, a family friend who had given them the original recipe, and it was only when I was older that I realized that my favorite pasta sauce was pasta “puttanesca”…. which translates to “whore’s pasta.”  Which is amazing, and makes me think of renaming some of my other favorite dishes with more colorful language.

I’m not sure what the official story is behind the name- I’ve heard that it has to do with how quick and easy the dish is to throw together, since the ladies had to work at night and couldn’t spend forever working on dinner.  I’ve also heard that it’s because the smell of the sauce was so wonderful that it would entice the men who smelled it into the woman’s house. Whatever the story, this pasta’s delicious, and a great way to use up eggplant.

(This is the pasta after we already ate some for dinner and it sat in the fridge and then we ate some more after that.  I could have plated it nicely and taken a pretty picture, but, you know, I was busy eating it and didn’t).

PASTA PUTTANESCA

Even people who hate eggplant will like this sauce, since the eggplant melts into the tomato sauce to make this luscious, silky texture.  I like using Paul Robeson tomatoes for this sauce- their bold, spicy flavor goes really nicely with the capers. You can easily make this vegan by omitting the sausage and adding some extra olive oil.  

Cook Time: a couple hours

Feeds: a lot. 8? or 2 people with many days of leftovers (which are happily eaten)

Ingredients:

  • 1/4 c. extra virgin olive oil
  • 1 onion, diced
  • 2 cloves of garlic, minced
  • 1 lb.  Italian sausage links, sliced into 1″ sections
  • 6 c. diced eggplant, any variety, diced into 1/2″ cubes
  • 6 lbs. of heirloom tomatoes,* cored and cut in half
  • 2 cans of black olives, drained
  • 1 5oz. jar of capers, drained and 1/2 of the brine reserved
  • 1/2 c. roughly chopped parsley
  • salt & pepper

In a large, wide bottomed pot, heat up the olive oil on medium-high heat.  Add the garlic, onions, and sausage, and saute till the sausage is starting to brown.  Turn the heat down a little bit. and add the eggplant and saute until the sausage is browned on the outside and the eggplant is also starting to look slightly browned.  Add extra oil if necessary, to prevent sticking.

Add the tomatoes, olives, capers and reserved caper brine, and parsley. Stir everything together.  Turn the heat to low and cook for a couple hours.  The eggplant will completely fall apart and the sauce will thicken and reduce by about half.  You’ll need to stir the tomatoes a bit at first while they release their juices, and then you can walk away and stop paying attention to the sauce for awhile.  When the liquid has reduced off and the sauce is almost done, you’ll need to stand next to the pot and stir it to make sure it the tomatoes don’t burn on the bottom of the pot.

Taste the sauce, and then season with some salt and pepper.

Serve over pasta.  The leftovers only get better in the fridge.

A note about tomatoes:  We mostly grow thin-skinned, juicy heirlooms, so that’s what I usually cook with.  I don’t peel them because it takes forever and the skins don’t bother me.  If you’re motivated to blanch and peel yours, more power to you.

A note about eggplant: I don’t bother sweating eggplant with salt prior to cooking.  It tastes delicious without that step, and I am all about working less and sitting around more.  Maybe for something like eggplant parmesan it would matter, but not here, where the eggplant melts into the sauce anyway.

and one last P.P.S: I am a fiend for black olives.  If you’re not as excited about them as me, feel free to reduce the amount of them in the recipe.

(coming soon: my favorite recipe for preserving eggplant in jars…. stay tuned)

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Coconut Chana Masala

Posted on April 12, 2012 | 6 Comments

One of my friends makes the most fantastic Indian food.  I usually like to be the one cooking  for other people, but I would beg her to puhleeeezeeeee please please make Indian food again, pleeeeeze or I might actually keel over and die!  Then she moved to Los Angeles and I haven’t seen her in years now, let alone tasted any of her cooking.  It’s really tragic.   When I win the lottery, I’m going to buy a jet so that I can fly around the country visiting all my friends that have moved away.  This curry is my version of something my friend cooked a long time ago that I might not even be remembering accurately, but I think I’ve got it pretty close here.

This isn’t really an authentic chana masala at all, since chana masala doesn’t usually have coconut milk in it.  Coconut milk  ranks up there with butter, bacon and heavy cream, though, which means that you should put in everything and it will only make it better.  This also has some other spices in it that I think taste awesome but have nothing to do with authentic chana masala.

Oh, and anyone who talks smack about vegan cooking has never tasted this recipe.  The curry is wonderfully rich and creamy with a solid spicy kick from the cayenne pepper.  Serve it with basmati rice, some warm flatbread or tortillas and your favorite chutney for a seriously delicious meal.

Coconut Chana Masala 

Cook Time: 5 minutes plus 1-2 hours simmering on the stove.  This recipe is really, really, really easy and comes together super quickly.

Ingredients:

  • 3 cans of garbanzo beans, drained
  • 2 small potatoes, diced into 1/2”cubes
  •  1 can coconut milk
  • 1”section of ginger, peeled
  • 8 cloves of garlic, peeled
  • 1/2 c. loosely packed cilantro leaves
  • 3 tbs. tomato paste
  • 1 dried cayenne chili pepper (or less, depending on your spice preference)
  • 1 tsp. turmeric
  • 1 tsp. paprika
  • 1/2 tsp. garam masala
  • salt & pepper to taste

In a blender, combine all the ingredients except the garbanzo beans and potatoes.*  Blend until smooth. ( This is not the way you’re supposed to make chana masala but it doesn’t matter because this way tastes amazing.)

In a large cast iron skillet (or a pot works fine too), combine the garbanzo beans, potatoes and the coconut milk-spice mixture from the blender.  Simmer on low heat for an hour or two.  (If you make it too spicy, you can add yogurt and some honey to cool it back down, although it won’t be vegan then.)   Season with salt and pepper to taste.

Serve over basmati rice with a few sprigs of fresh cilantro.   This is one of those dishes that only gets tastier if you let it sit in the fridge for a day or two, so you’ll be happy if you end up with any leftovers, which you probably won’t.

*(and the salt and pepper…. that’s always last).

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Posted in Fall, Spring, summer, Vegetarian, What's For Dinner?, Winter

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There’s Flour Everywhere

Posted on March 17, 2012 | 2 Comments

Check off another resolution: the February Cook it 2012 challenge is done! Bread has been baked and our kitchens have been redecorated with flour.

I’m pretty sure you folks are better bakers than I am.   I made a bunch of edible loaves, but nothing was really stellar.  I got pretty close with a loaf of whole wheat bread with flaxseeds and herbs de provence, but the recipe’s not quite there yet.   I think I need to stop baking bread on cold, rainy days  - it doesn’t rise – and I need to get an oven thermometer since all the numbers are all rubbed off my oven dial and estimating isn’t really the best plan for bread-baking.

Look at all this beautiful stuff:

and the links to everyone’s bread posts:

Brioche from Homemade Trade: Aimee, your brioche looks perfect and that cardamom-rose french toast looks divine!

Gluten-Free Bread from Vonnie The Happy Hippie : these loaves look great… can we get a recipe? I’d love to give them a try.

No-Knead Bread & Slow-Roasted Tomato Bruschetta from Adventures of the Kitchen Ninja: Instead of buying an oven thermometer and baking it myself, can you just send me a loaf? It looks so crusty and wonderful.

Rosemary Bread from The Wholesome Epicure: I bet the kitchen smelled pretty wonderful while this was baking…

Rye Bread from My Pantry Shelf:  Reubens on homemade rye bread sound like something we need to be eating, asap.  That watercress soup sounds pretty elegant, too.  Basically, I need to make rye bread.

Sourdough Bread from Grow and Resist: Those pancakes sound really good. I admire your tenacity and I will be coming to your house for bread during the apocalypse.

Sourdough Bread from Oh Briggsy: This post has great information about getting a sourdough starter going. Also this post is hysterical.  I tried making a starter and it very much did not work (though I do have a really wonderful sludgy mess of flour, that’s always charming) so I’m trying again with this method.

Thank you all for cooking along. As usual, it’s really inspiring to see what other people are making.  I can’t wait to see what you guys do with the butter challenge! 

(Stay tuned for Butter Part 2…. post coming soon… )

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Posted in Baking, Cook It 2012, Fall, Spring, summer, Vegetarian, Winter

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Butternut Squash Bisque with Coconut Milk and Lemongrass

Posted on March 10, 2012 | 5 Comments

It’s looking like spring…It seems like it’s been spring for months now, though.The chickens are certainly happy about the mild weather, since they’d rather chase butterflies and eat grass than hang out in the frozen mud pit that is the Winter Chicken Coop.  Winter is such an important time of the year on a farm, though.  Without winter, when would I have time to watch all six seasons of Lost? To completely clean out the pantry and rearrange my canned goods in rainbow order? As much as it might seem like I enjoy hard work, there’s something to be said for sleeping in and doing nothing (which never, ever happens in the summer).  There’s nothing quite like a rainy winter day when all there is to do is keep a fire going in the wood stove and, you know, spend all afternoon experimenting with winter squash recipes.

The great thing: the weather forecast this week looks horrible! I was just about to  fully embrace spring, but it seems like we’ll still have a chance to do the whole winter thing for atleast a little while.  I have a bunch of recipes I haven’t gotten around to making yet, cold weather stuff, with ingredients like pork sausage, maple syrup, duck, butternut squash, pumpkins…. recipes like creamed winter greens, maple-chevre-cheesecake, roasted pumpkin with blue cheese and pecans.

This soup is one of my absolute favorite – best of the best – butternut squash recipes.  Before the winter squash is all gone and I get completely distracted by things like peas and radishes, I had to make it atleast once.  Butternut Squash Bisque with Coconut Milk and Lemongrass

This is an adaptation of the Winter Squash Soup from Deborah Madison’s Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone (p. 216).  Her recipe is more complicated and uses more ingredients (you need to make the Stock for Curried Dishes before you can do the main soup recipe).  I’ve followed the recipe out of the cookbook before, but this is my faster, easier version.

  • 1 1/2 tbs. unrefined peanut oil
  • 1/4 tsp. coriander
  • 2 green cardamom pods
  • 1 cinnamon stick
  • 1 tsp. turmeric
  • 1 tbs. ginger, minced
  • 4 2” sections of fresh lemongrass
  • 2 small thai chilis, seeds and all, minced
  • 1 red onion, diced
  • 2 celery ribs, diced
  • 2 carrots, diced
  • cilantro stems (the leaves are used as a garnish, the stems go in the soup)
  • 2 1/2 lb. butternut squash, peeled, seeded and cut into cubes
  • water (or vegetable stock)
  • 1 can of coconut milk
  • juice from 2 limes
  • salt & pepper to taste, and an optional splash of hot sauce if the peppers don’t do it for you
  • garnish: chopped mint and cilantro leaves

Heat the peanut oil in a soup pot on medium heat.  Add the coriander, turmeric, cardamom pods, cinnamon stick and lemongrass.  Saute the spices alone for a minute or two.  Then, add the ginger, onion, carrots and celery and saute for 5-6 minutes, until the onions start to look translucent.  Add the butternut squash and cilantro stems into the pot and then cover everything with water or stock (Not too much water, just enough to cover the vegetables.  You can always add more later, but it’s hard to fix a soup that’s too thin).   Simmer for an hour or two on low heat, adding water occasionally to keep the squash covered.

Remove the tough lemongrass stalks and the cinnamon stick and discard them.  Puree the soup with an immersion blender (or whatever appliance you use to puree things…)

Stir in the can of coconut milk and the lime juice.  Season with salt and pepper.  If it’s not spicy enough for you, feel free to put a splash of tabasco sauce to give it a bit more kick.  Garnish with chopped mint and cilantro leaves.  In the past I’ve also garnished with chopped peanuts, sliced cabbage, sesame seeds, fried tofu even…. whatever makes you happy.

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Posted in Fall, Vegetarian, Winter

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Top 10 Posts from 2011

Posted on December 30, 2011 | Leave a comment

Wasting time on the internet reading Top 10 lists is such a delightful tradition right before Jan 1.  I want to enable anyone else who enjoys it as much as I do, by writing yet another top 10 list.  You know you love ‘em.  Don’t go be productive, sit here on the computer, for just another few minutes.

1. How To Preserve 100+ lbs. of Tomatoes With Almost No Work

This is probably my favorite post too, detailing the massive amounts of tomato preservation that happens at the farm every summer.  Sometimes I come home from the farmers market with more tomatoes than I actually took, which is completely ridiculous.  At the end of the market, when vendors have unsold tomatoes, if I hear mutters of “ah, feed ‘em to the chickens,” I try to get in on the action before the hens.  End of summer, heavily discounted tomatoes are where it’s at.

2. Stout Beer Jelly

This is such a weird jelly.  It’s good and all, but…  This post made it to the front page of reddit, which hurt my brain, since there are so many other preserves I’ve made that I would recommend more than this one.  It’s a novelty jelly.  It’s definitely really tasty in certain situations, like on grilled lamb, or with toasted pumpernickel bread with cream cheese.  This is what happens if you, um, partake on St. Patrick’s Day and are a huge canning nerd, and then you decide to start making jelly out of random stuff in the kitchen.

So here’s the deal: I’m working on a new version, with tart cherries, some dried spices and bay leaves.  Please, I beg you, wait for the updated recipe before you make this. It’ll be worth it, I promise.

3. Vanilla Peach Jam

This jam is killer, and this post has step-by-step instructions for beginners.  Vanilla bean and ripe, juicy peaches is a pretty perfect combination.

4. Chocolate Plum Jam

I spent days and days and days canning in the commercial kitchen I use (that’s the door, in the picture below) for the National Heirloom Expo this September. The chocolate plum jam was a creation for that event, which you can make at home if you didn’t get to go.  It’s another winner, absolutely delicious.

5. Concord Grape Jam

What’s not to love about grape jam? It’s heavenly…

6. Pineapple Weed Tea

So…  I was all excited about how popular this post was, sitting in my living room going “gosh it’s so great that people are so interested in foraging these days”… and then I realized, after reading the search terms a little more closely:

There’s a strain of marijuana named “pineapple” and when I wrote “pineapple weed tea” a lot of people thought that I meant I was making tea out of marijuana and got really excited about my blog.

Am I naive? Yes. Is this post about getting high off your tea? Sadly, no. Is it still delicious tea? Yes.

7. My Grandma Molly’s Recipe for Pickled Watermelon Rind

Pickled watermelon was all kinds of trendy this year, and I saw recipes popping up all over the place.  Well, this is the exact recipe that my grandma from North Carolina was making, decades ago.  It’s a tedious recipe, true, but keep a jar in the fridge during the summer, and you’ll be rewarded with the most deliciously sweet, cold, crunchy pickle you’ve ever had.  People sometimes ask me what this pickle is for, exactly, and let me just say: Fried Chicken.  A big southern dinner is never complete without a little glass dish of pickles out on the table.

8. Pear Cardamom Jam 

This is my personal favorite jam, the one that I put on my toast.  Pears have such a bold, juicy flavor- I can’t get enough.

9. Candied Buddha’s Hand

One of the most exotic fruits you’ll ever see, chopped up in little pieces, cooked in sugar and turned into sweet little bites, perfect for putting in bread, cookies and fruitcake.

10. Kimchi

‘cuz kimchi is totally a thing now, like cupcakes and making jam…

This is a small batch recipe that ferments in the fridge, adapted from The Hungry Tigress, who adapted it from Tart and Sweet, which is a fantastic cookbook that I just got for Christmas! Funny how it works like that… (Thanks, my sweet little sister, you rock).

And that’s the top 10…

Thanks for reading this year, and here’s to another epic year of jamming pickling fermenting baking roasting braising gardening and all that stuff that we all love! Happy New Year!

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Posted in Fall, Foraging, Jam, Jelly, Marmalade and Other Preserves, Pickling and Fermenting, Spring, summer, Winter

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Menu Planning

Posted on November 21, 2011 | 1 Comment

I am super excited.

Black Dog Farm Thanksgiving Dinner Menu:

 Mendocino Organics Pastured Turkey- brined with bay leaves and roasted on the grill with lump charcoal and hickory chips

Olive Oil Mashed Yukon Gold Potatoes & Turkey Gravy

Cornbread Stuffing with homemade sage pork sausage

Roasted Winter Squash with blue cheese and pecans

Creamed Alliums and Winter Greens

Roasted Sweet Potato Casserole with Bourbon and Brown Sugar

Cranberry-Orange Marmalade & Cranberry Jam

________

Marlborough Pie

Pecan Pie

Poached Seckel Pears in Red Wine Syrup

Oh, and you can talk all you want about wine pairing with turkey, but you may have noticed that it’s going on the grill.   That means that we’re probably going to drink about 3,000 beers as the day goes on since it will technically be a barbeque, and that’s what you’re supposed to do for those.

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Posted in Fall, What's For Dinner?

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Marlborough Pie

Posted on October 31, 2011 | 3 Comments

I’m still laid up with a busted ankle today.  Hopefully this is the last day of this, but I’m still going stir-crazy in a motel room in town.  I’m going to try heading back to the farm tomorrow, but I’m not totally sure how it’s going to work.  I grudgingly let a bunch of boys come and watch the 49ers game on the motel tv since the other option seemed like it wouldn’t go over very well (which was this: ”… but how am I supposed to sit in bed and feel sorry for myself if I have a bunch of laughing, happy people around?”)

I finally unwrapped my foot this morning and poked it a little bit, which was exciting. It’s a nice blue-ish gray, a shade that might be called Weathered New England Beach House, and still pretty puffy . Other than poking at my foot, the only other productive activity I can think of is writing more blog posts.  I’ve already replied to e-mails and looked at new recipes and ordered some supplies for holiday craft projects…   I think writing about pie is a reasonable next step.
Anyway, this is such a delicious pie recipe that despite the fact that all of these pictures are old, from the Days Before The Blog, I’m going to share it.  I’m sure I’ll make it again this fall and update these pictures with something newer and fancier.

Marlborough Pie is a traditional recipe from New England. It may not look like much at all in the above picture, but it’s one of the best pies I’ve ever eaten. I heard a dude on NPR do a program about regional apple pies and  he said Marlborough Pie was his favorite.  The crust can be either a traditional pate brisee or puff pastry, and the filling is this wonderfully luscious and sophisticated, slightly lemony apple custard. It’s a perfect way to use home-canned apple sauce and fresh eggs to make a wonderful fall dessert.   It’s somehow rich and light tasting at the same time, and you could serve it after a big holiday meal without sending everyone spiraling into food comas.

My family has been eating this pie for as long as I can remember.  We used to go to Old Sturbridge Village in Massachusetts every Thanksgiving, a fantastically nerdy family vacation.  Looking back, it was actually pretty fun.  I remember the crisp November air while we walked to all these different houses and watched “costumed historians” do reenactments of Thanksgiving dinners from the 1800′s.  As an eight year old, I was always super annoyed that the actors were eating turkey and pie while I was walking around in the cold.

Eight Year Old Me: “Hey Lady, lemme have some of that pie.”

Grownup: “No.”

Later in the evening, though, we would go to the big restaurant in the village and have a wonderful dinner.  Another traditional New England dessert we’d have was Indian Pudding, which looks like a bowl of gross brown schlop, but is actually this steamy spiced molasses and cornmeal custard served with vanilla ice cream.  Everyone should also be eating this, it’s delicious.  As a child, I really thought our Sturbridge trips were so dorky and annoying, but as an adult, I think it’s pretty great that my parents took us there so many times.

Marlborough Pie

Sometimes I wonder if I shouldn’t call it Apple Custard Tart or something so it doesn’t remind me of cigarettes.

Serves: 8

Cook Time: around 2 hours, including baking time

Ingredients:

One single 9″ Pie Crust: Use whichever recipe is your favorite, or click here for instructions from Martha (please note that this recipe is for a double pie crust, not a single pie crust, so split it in half).

For the Custard Filling:

  • 3/4 c. unsweetened applesauce*
  • 1/4 c. heavy cream
  • juice and zest from 1 lemon
  • 1 c. sugar
  • 3 fresh eggs, beaten
  • 1/2 tsp. ground ginger
  • 1/2 c. butter
  • 1/4 c. sherry (optional)

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. In the bowl of a stand mixer, cream together the butter, sugar, lemon zest. Gradually beat in the eggs, lemon juice, applesauce, sherry, and heavy cream and ginger.

Lay out the pie crust in a 9″ pie dish. Pour in the custard filling.  Put the pie in the oven for 15 minutes at 400 degrees.  Reduce heat to 350 and cook for 45 more minutes or until a knife inserted in the center comes out clean.

This pie will set much better if you let it cool  and don’t serve it piping hot out of the oven.

*I use a chunky gravenstein applesauce from our pantry for this, but if you want to have a perfectly smooth custard you can puree the applesauce first or even run it through a chinois to take out any clumps.  I like leaving it chunky and calling it rustic.

 

 

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Posted in Baking, Fall

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Roasted Pumpkin, Cranberry and Polenta Casserole

Posted on October 29, 2011 | 7 Comments

This recipe is a complete revelation and a long story.  This is hands down my absolute favorite casserole right now, combining fresh cranberries, the rich flavors of roasted winter squash, sweet potatoes and brown sugar, and a topping of salty warm polenta and a liberal amount of melted parmesan cheese. The cranberries burst in the oven and have this wonderful jammy thing that they do with the brown sugar, and seriously, nothing says festive like fresh cranberries. It’s epic.  Vegetarians and carnivores alike will devour it happily, and it would make a main dish just as show-stopping as a Thanksgiving roast turkey.   Plus, it’s really simple and easily adapted to different vegetables. The basic formula is just to roast some winter squash, leeks and cranberries, top with brown sugar, and then top that with a really cheesy batch of polenta. Done. With me so far? At this point of the story, this is the second time I’ve made the casserole (the first time had no pictures), so the sun sets, I finish cooking the casserole, and I set aside a nice photogenic serving to take a picture of when the sun comes back up.Then tragedy struck. Well, not really tragedy, but a major roadblock in taking nice pictures and doing much of anything other than sitting around and watching tv.Damn.

So I was in the garden, just walking around, not doing anything exciting at all, and then *poof* my brain shut off and i forgot how to use my feet or something. My toe caught on something, my ankle twisted, made a really glorious popping noise, and then I ate it face first in the dirt.  I did my best damsel-in-distress voice and called for J. to come help me, and while I waited that long minute or so, I had plenty of time to think about how completely annoying this was going to be. I’m a workaholic, since my job is to do fun things like make jam and plant flowers.  If you saw my to-do list right now you might throw up, it’s huge. I have kale that needs planting, jam to make, tomato sauce to can, lavender to transplant, seeds to start…  All of which usually require the use of my feet.  Our farm is really not handicapped-accessible, which this is experience has made me feel very guilty about, and think about changing.

Turns out I ruptured a ligament in my ankle, an injury that’s supposedly just as serious as a break but with a much faster recovery time.  So for at least another few days, I’m holed up in a cheap motel room so I can have some creature comforts that we don’t have at the farm (like flat, crutch-friendly floors, indoor plumbing, and tv). Nothing like some Dr. Drew and trashy magazines. So I wish I had a beautiful picture of the finished casserole, but I don’t, and since I’m really bored right now, I want to spend my free time convincing the internet universe to roast some cranberries. I promise that when I’m back on my feet I’ll update this post with that one last picture, of the caramelized vegetables and cranberries topped with oozy gooey cheesy warm polenta, steaming hot and delicious out of the oven.  It’s coming, I swear. Until then, take my word for it! Bookmark this page for your holiday recipes– you won’t be disappointed.

Roasted Pumpkin, Cranberry and Polenta Casserole

Serves: around 10, depending on portion sizes. You could decide to serve this as a vegetable side dish as well, in which case the smaller portions would serve closer to 15 or even 20.

Cook Time: about 3 hours, a lot of which is just roasting time in the oven

Ingredients:

For the Vegetable Filling:

  • 1/2 a large butternut squash, peeled, seeded and cut into 1/2″ cubes
  • 1/4 medium pumpkin, peeled, seeded, and cut into 1/2″ cubes
  • 1 leek, rinsed and cut into thin rings
  • 1 large sweet potato, cut into 1/2″ cubes (skin on)
  • 3 c. fresh cranberries
  • 2 tbs. chopped fresh herbs (what do you have in the garden? parsley, sage, thyme, marjoram, oregano, and rosemary would all be fine. I used thyme and sage)
  • 1/4 c. extra virgin olive oil (this is the time to use the high quality stuff if you have it, but it won’t make or break the recipe)
  • 2 tbs. butter
  • sea salt and freshly cracked black pepper
  • 1/2 c. dark brown sugar

For the Polenta Topping:**

  • 2 quarts of vegetable stock
  • 2 c. coarse ground cornmeal
  • 8 tablespoons of butter, or earth balance if you want to make it vegan (shush, I know it’s a lot. If you’re on a low-fat diet, just reduce it to 2 tbs.)
  • 6 oz. parmesan cheese, grated
  • 1/4 c. mascarpone (if you have access to it, or just leave it out)
  • 1 tbs. freshly cracked black pepper
  • sea salt to taste
  • 1/4 c. chopped flat-leaf parsley

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Lightly grease a large casserole dish* with 2 tbs. of butter.  In a large mixing bowl, combing the prepared butternut squash, cranberries, pumpkin, sweet potato and leeks. Liberally season with freshly cracked black pepper, the chopped fresh herbs and sea salt. Pour the olive oil over everything and mix it together well, making sure all the surfaces of the vegetables are covered with oil and evenly seasoned.  Pour the seasoned vegetables and cranberries into the prepared dish and bake, uncovered, in the oven for 1 1/2 hrs. Pull the tray back out, give everything a stir to make sure it’s all cooking evenly, and sprinkle the brown sugar across the top. Put it back in the oven and cook for another half and hour. 

After the vegetables have been roasting for an hour, start your polenta. In a large pot, bring the stock to a boil.  Gradually whisk in the cornmeal a little bit at a time.  Turn the flame down to low and keep whisking the cornmeal and stock. The cornmeal will take 35-40 minutes to cook through, and you’ll need to whisk it pretty constantly to make sure it doesn’t stick to the bottom and burn (very similar to the process of making a risotto).  When it first starts cooking, you don’t really need to whisk it constantly, but you’ll need to whisk it atleast every few minutes.  The thicker it gets, though, the more you need to stand right there and keep whisking.  I’ve noticed that some brands of cornmeal cook much faster than others, so if it’s very thick after 20 minutes, turn off the heat and taste it.  When it’s done it will be thick and the individual grains of corn will kind of disappear into a more consistent, creamy texture.  If the polenta is thick but still tastes crunchy, just add a little stock and keep cooking it until it tastes smooth and creamy.

Once the cornmeal is cooked thoroughly and the mixture is creamy and thick, turn off the heat and stir in the butter, mascarpone, 3/4 of the grated parmesan cheese, black pepper and sea salt.  Taste it. It should taste cheesy and wonderful.  If it doesn’t, add some salt and pepper and taste it again.
Pour the hot polenta over the roasted vegetables and smooth the top out with a spatula.  Sprinkle the whole casserole with the flat leaf parsley and remaining shredded parmesan cheese, and put back in the oven for 20 minutes to melt the cheese and bring all of the flavors together.

Now, you can either serve this casserole right away, while the cheese is still runny and the polenta is soft, or you can make it a day in advance and heat it back up in the oven with great results.  If you make it in advance, the polenta will set and you’ll be able to cut out perfect little rectangles of casserole, but the various people that have tried this casserole have said that it’s better while the polenta is still soft.  Either way will work though- if you have a busy Thanksgiving cooking schedule planned, this might be something to make the day before and just heat up right before dinner. 

Pretend this is a picture of the finished casserole. If you squint hard enough, you can see cranberries, right? Squint hard for a week or so and I bet it will really come true. 

 

*Sitting in the motel room, I can’t remember what the exact dimensions of my casserole dish. I think it’s 9×14″? It’s one of those glass dishes perfect for making lasagna for a crowd….  Again, I’ll have to update this when I get back to the farm.

**This casserole can easily be made vegan by simply omitting the cheese and using Earth Balance instead of butter. When I do something like this I’ll make sure to add some extra fresh herbs and black pepper for lots of flavor.

P.S. Everyone seems to think making polenta is really hard and annoying. It’s not.  Just boil some stock and pour in cornmeal and stand there and whisk it til it’s thick.  Don’t be scared.

 

 

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Posted in Fall, Vegetarian, What's For Dinner?

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