Monday, October 25, 2010

Oven Roasted Beets

Back in late August we put in some radishes and beets. The radishes have all been harvested and eaten, and I have a few beets waiting to be roasted.  Simple is best.

Preheat oven to 350F.

Beets, salt & pepper, a splash of olive oil. wrap it up and put into hot oven.



















50 Minutes later...



















Slice them in half, slip them out of their jackets. Plate. Olive Oil. A grind of pepper.



















Serve and enjoy. Simple, but oh so good!

Until Next Time, Eat Well & Keep Digging!

The Gastronomic Gardener
Garden blog http://amidwestgarden.blogspot.com/
Cooking blog http://ihopeyouarehungry.blogspot.com/
Twitter - www.twitter.com/DavidPOffutt
http://www.facebook.com/TheGastronomicGardener

Tuesday, October 19, 2010

Giardiniera by the numbers

The link to this was sent to me by a reader,  it's super easy and very delicious. The article says it's a Chicago thing but anyone who wants a little spicy crunch on a sandwich or salad, this recipe is for you.

Here's the link from the Paupered Chef!

His pics are excellent as  are the instructions. Follow them, be amazed!

 After soaking the vegetables in salt water, rinse them and put them in sterile jars.



Add the oil vinegar mix, refrigerate for up to 3 weeks. Mine won't last that long!



















Here's what I ended up with. Yes, I used his perspective because it was good.



















Until next time, Eat Well & Keep Digging!


The Gastronomic Gardener
Garden blog http://amidwestgarden.blogspot.com/
Cooking blog http://ihopeyouarehungry.blogspot.com/
Twitter - www.twitter.com/DavidPOffutt
http://www.facebook.com/TheGastronomicGardener

Monday, October 18, 2010

Lamb Chops, Brussels Sprouts and White Beans

One of my favorite meals is lamb chops.  I started these yesterday. 

Let's start with the marinade. Olive oil, rosemary, garlic, Calamata olives.




Chop the garlic.


Strip the rosemary.




Place the olives, rosemary and garlic in the food processor. 



Process ingredients, while adding olive oil until it becomes a smooth fragrant purple paste.



Nice Racks!


Place Racks and marinade in large ziptop bag.


Massage marinade into lamb. Place into refrigerator until an hour before cooking. Refrigerate for  several hours or overnight, up to a 24 hours.



One of the nice things about this meal is you can prep most of it the day before. This is the case with the Brussels sprouts.



Trim and halve sprouts.


After steaming  (yes I forgot the picture) for about 6 minutes, put steamed sprouts in  cold water bath . At this point they may be drained and stored in the refrigerator before final prep.


Cut two bacon strips into lardons.



Brown in pan.




Remove lardons and drain all but 1 tablespoon of fat. Add sprouts, cut side down.



















Cook until a slight char on the cut side and sprouts are heated through.



















Now to get the beans going.

Ingredients
2 cups cooked white beans
2 tbs olive oil
2 carrots finely diced
2 celery ribs finely diced
2 small onions finely diced
2 cloves garlic diced
2 tbs butter
bay leaf







Breakdown the vegetables.



Oil, onions carrots celery, garlic.



Add stock butter and bayleaf. 



Simmer and stir uncovered until creamy.



















While beans are cooking roast the chops. 425F for 18 minutes.



Remove and tent with foil for 5 minutes.




Sadly they were just overcooked. I like them a little pink.





Finally we can plate them up, a bed of tender beans, two double cut  lamb chops, and Brussels sprouts.



















This was a lot of steps but nothing difficult.

Until next time, Eat Well & Keep Digging!

The Gastronomic Gardener
Garden blog http://amidwestgarden.blogspot.com/
Cooking blog http://ihopeyouarehungry.blogspot.com/
Twitter - www.twitter.com/DavidPOffutt

Saturday, October 16, 2010

Freezer Soup

We're busy on this beautiful day and needed a quick lunch. When in doubt I often turn to freezer soup.

This is not a glamorous soup, but it is a great way to practice a little frugality while serving something satisfying.

I believe it is closer to the origin of soup than lobster bisque (no matter how delicious that is!) will ever be. It starts with discipline, just freeze and save the edible scraps from your leftovers. Vegetables, pasta, rice are all perfect. Also small amounts of meat, cooked sausage or ground beef can go into the bucket. I store mine in a quart plastic container in the freezer. When it is full, I make soup. You may add any small amounts of vegetables or green that might be in the fridge, or really whatever you want!

Ingredients
1 qt chicken, beef or vegetable stock
1 small onion diced
1 clove garlic minced
1 tbs oil
Frozen “Bucket of leftovers”
Anything else you might have on hand, today I had a half a bag of baby spinach.
Salt and pepper to taste

Directions
Add oil to a soup pot over medium heat
Add onions and cook until softened, stirring often – about 10 minutes
Add garlic and cook stirring often 3 minutes
Increase heat to medium high
Add Stock and Leftovers
Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer for 10 minutes

Taste test and season with salt and pepper.

Enjoy!




















Until Next Time, Eat Well & Keep Digging!


The Gastronomic Gardener
Garden blog http://amidwestgarden.blogspot.com/
Cooking blog http://ihopeyouarehungry.blogspot.com/
Twitter - www.twitter.com/DavidPOffutt
http://www.facebook.com/TheGastronomicGardener

Monday, October 11, 2010

Tortellini with Chicken and Pesto

Monday - back to work but still need a quick dinner. I have some frozen basil that I just put up a week or so ago, a grilled chicken breast, tortellini, and garlic. Seems obvious to me! I don't have any pine nuts but do have some pecan pieces.



















Get the water boiling, chop the chicken breast.




















Add basil, garlic to food processor, whiz it up, scrap down  bowl, turn on drizzle in olive oil, add Parmesan, nuts, process until smooth. Taste! - I added two more cloves of garlic.



















Drain pasta, add chicken and pesto, toss to coat.  Enjoy! It was delicious!




















Until next time, Eat Well & Keep Digging!

The Gastronomic Gardener
Garden blog http://amidwestgarden.blogspot.com/
Cooking blog http://ihopeyouarehungry.blogspot.com/
Twitter - www.twitter.com/DavidPOffutt
http://www.facebook.com/TheGastronomicGardener

Sunday, October 10, 2010

Dehydrating Apples

Still putting up apples, thought it was time to try out the dehydrator.

Here's the setup. Dilute lemon juice, apples, peeler.















The peeler certainly makes short work of the apples!







 After a bath in the dilute lemon juice, the apples go into the trays.


Last tray ready to go.



All assembled and dehydrating.



















Per the instructions,  5-9 hours from now I'll have nice dehydrated slices.

Later this afternoon, the apples were done at about 4.5 hours. The book said 5-9, but it was warm today, perhaps the sped things up.

It's pretty cool that 4 big apples fit in a quart jar!







Until Next Time, Eat Well & Keep Digging!




The Gastronomic Gardener
Garden blog http://amidwestgarden.blogspot.com/
Cooking blog http://ihopeyouarehungry.blogspot.com/
Twitter - www.twitter.com/DavidPOffutt

Tuesday, October 5, 2010

Snacks

A late season harvest of radishes provided  a nice snack before dinner tonight. Left over baguette, a touch of butter, sliced radish. a crunchy chewey treat. 



















Last night for Monday Night Football, I decided to have some special treats.



Clockwise from upper left, Grapes, homemade apple butter, baguette,  cured duck sausage ( it was quite ducky!), cheese, stone ground mustard, Bosch pear.

Sometimes I like snacking more than a full meal. Ever go into a restaurant and just order a few appetizers in lieu of an entree?

So for this post, I produced the radishes and the apple butter.

The Gastronomic Gardener
Garden blog http://amidwestgarden.blogspot.com/
Cooking blog http://ihopeyouarehungry.blogspot.com/
Twitter - www.twitter.com/DavidPOffutt
http://www.facebook.com/TheGastronomicGardener

Sunday, October 3, 2010

Canned Apple Pie Filling

We got all those apples last week. We've done apple butter, now we'll do Apple Pie Filling.

This recipe is from allrecipes.com

Ingredients:
4 1/2 cups white sugar
1 cup cornstarch
2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp  ground nutmeg
2 tsp salt
10 cups water
2 drops yellow food coloring (I skipped this)
3 tbs lemon juice
6 lbs apple
In a large pan combine sugar, cornstarch, cinnamon and nutmeg. Add salt and water and mix,

Bring to a boil and cook until thick and bubbly

Remove from heat, add lemon juice and food coloring.

Prepare canning jars, lids and bands.

Peel, core and slice apples, Pack the sliced apples into hot jars leaving a 1/2" headspace.
This thing makes peeling apples a breeze!


I soaked them for a bit in a diluted lemon juice.





Fill jars with hot syrup, and remove air bubbles with a knife (I recommend a plastic knife).

Adjust 2 piece lids and process in a watter bath canner for 20 minutes.


This should be good in pie, over ice cream, hmm how else can I enjoy this?

Until next time, Eat Well & Keep Digging

The Gastronomic Gardener
Garden blog http://amidwestgarden.blogspot.com/
Cooking blog http://ihopeyouarehungry.blogspot.com/
Twitter - www.twitter.com/DavidPOffutt
http://www.facebook.com/TheGastronomicGardener

Saturday, October 2, 2010

An abundance of Basil!

I had just finished putting the hoop house up for a late season crop of lettuce. In order to do so, I had to harvest the "last" of the basil.



















There is no way I can use that up,  I like the fresh taste better that dried so I decided to freeze it.

First, pick off the leaves, it took a long time but sure smelled good!




















Next I needed  to puree  it. The blender did not work very well, so into the food processor it went.



A little water to thin it,  the smell is heady!



Hard to believe it all broke down into a big freezer bag.





Squeeze out the air and lay it flat. It'll go into the freezer. Once set, I'll cut it into chunks. I suppose I could have used ice cube trays, but I only have one.





















The Gastronomic Gardener
Garden blog http://amidwestgarden.blogspot.com/
Cooking blog http://ihopeyouarehungry.blogspot.com/
Twitter - www.twitter.com/DavidPOffutt
http://www.facebook.com/TheGastronomicGardener
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