Green Beans for a rainy day

With almost 2 lbs of green beans, I need to put them up for a later date. It's not really enough to can in a pressure canner, but I can freeze them.

First I washed, cleaned and sorted them into three sizes.

Boiling water,  blanch for 3 minutes.

Ice water plunge for 3 minutes.

We've had a vacuum sealer for years that has gone unused. I broke it out to see if it still works.

Perfect! 

All three done! This took less than 30 minutes to do, and now, in the depth of winter we'll have just picked greenbeans with butter, or in a soup or stew. I look forward to it.

Eat Well!

My garden blog  http://amidwestgarden.blogspot.com/
My cooking blog   http://ihopeyouarehungry.blogspot.com/

Ratatouille

We've been eating a lot of meat lately, and now the vegetables are starting to come in. Yesterday in the garden saw a nice harvest of bush beans. I love a good vegetable stew so let’s dig in the fridge and see what we can do.


Looks like I have enough to make some ratatouille based on Molly Katzen's Recipe from the Moosewood cookbook. Along the way I used the green beans from the garden and decided to skip a can of tomatoes that was slightly bowed on the ends. Better safe than sorry.

Nice ingredients: Salt, pepper, olive oil, tomatoes, green bean from the garden, sweet peppers, mushrooms, summer squash and zuchinni, onion, garlic, herbs from the garden, eggplant.

Twenty minutes later, it's all broken down and ready to go.

Look closely, the original one - on the right, appears slightly bowed compared to the one on the left. I discarded the one on the right.

Olive oil, add the onion and garlic and cook for about 5 minutes over medium heat.

Next add the eggplant, mushrooms, herbs, and salt. Cover and cook, stirring every 5 minutes for about 20 minutes.

Add the rest of the ingredients, cover, and cook for about 30 minutes or until vegetables are tender.

Plate and enjoy!

My garden blog  http://amidwestgarden.blogspot.com/
My cooking blog  http://ihopeyouarehungry.blogspot.com/

Vegetable Curry & Product review

 We had  some green beans from the garden,  I did not get over there but the wife did. More than enough for dinner.

Here are some strange radish pods or moolachya shenga.

A little chopped garlic and grated ginger.

The prepped vegetables.

Start with oil or ghee and mustard seeds.

When they pop, add the garlic and ginger. Lower heat and cook. When soft, add the rest of the vegetables.

 

We're testing Baji's Curry Simmer Sauce. It's from Aldi's. You add it to the vegetables plus 8oz of water and simmer. You can use meat, but tonight is vegetarian.

We had some spinach we needed to eat, so in it goes.

 

It sure cooks down quickly!

 

Dinner is served!

 

All in all the Sauce is pretty good, but rather middle of the road. It does nothing to offend, but not much to excite. Not a bad way to make a quick weekday dinner. I'd buy it again.

Eat well!

My garden blog  http://amidwestgarden.blogspot.com/
My cooking blog  http://ihopeyouarehungry.blogspot.com/

Bone-in Ribeye in cast iron skillet

 Salad? Who am I kidding?

I'll be honest, I'm not the best at grilling steaks on the BBQ. Some times I nail it, others times, I miss completely. I think it is the open flame that causes me consternation. So I was looking for a method that I would not ruin this gorgeous bone-in ribeye.

Brush with a little oil.

Salt and pepper.

 

Preheat both the grill and the cast iron pan for about 10 minutes on high. Get it good and smoking hot.

 

Flop in your steak. Don't touch it for a couple minutes.

 

After 2 minutes flip it.

 

After another 2 minutes, add a pat of butter and move to grill. Careful! It's very hot  and heavy.

 

Cook until 125F for medium rare. Remove and tent loosely for about 5 minutes.

 

Slice and serve, while I could have eaten the whole thing I split it with my wife and even have a little left over for lunch!

 

 Eat well!

My garden blog   http://amidwestgarden.blogspot.com/
My cooking blog   http://ihopeyouarehungry.blogspot.com/

Of salads and compost

After all the meat of the past couple weeks, tonight I'm craving a big salad.

Aside from making cake mixes, salad making  is where I started, with a small knife, standing on a stool helping my mother by chopping vegetables. She had enough to do trying to feed 12 people, so truthfully, by the time I was helping, a couple of the older siblings had likely moved away. But a big tossed/chopped was a mainstay of our dinner table.

Salad making is a lot like making soup. You root around in the fridge and pantry to see what can go into the bowl or pot.  Tonights' offering is romaine, carrot ribbons, mushrooms, onion, yellow bell pepper, chick peas, celery, tomato and avocado. I'll add the tomatoes and avocado later so as not to make the salad too soggy now.

When making a salad there are always scraps. Some are OK for eating, others I do not want to.

I keep a "soup bucket" which is just a quart container from yogurt or cottage cheese in the freezer, so usable vegetable trimmings, left over rice or pasta for example, may be saved to make a soup in the future. When the bucket is full, I make soup.  I don't like to throw food away so this works for me.

The material that is unsuitable goes into another bucket that ends up in the compost heap.

As I said the other day in my gardening blog, we pay to have our trash hauled away. It doesn't make any sense to me to have it in a landfill when I, with a little patience can improve the soil I am growing yet more vegetables in.

It keeps the circle intact, I don't have to pay to have it hauled away, and in the end it improves the soil. Conservation at every level!

Now about the dressing.....

Eat well!

As this post is pertinent to both  blogs I am double posting.


My garden blog  http://amidwestgarden.blogspot.com/

My cooking blog http://ihopeyouarehungry.blogspot.com/

Ribs - low and slow

Today is the 4th of July, Independence Day, a day of celebration, hot BBQ, and cold beer. To that end I'm going to make some ribs. Specifically pork ribs.

I have a rack of spare ribs  - cut off the sternum, as well as some baby back ribs which of course come from near the back. The spare ribs have more meat but many folks prefer the baby back.

The idea is to get the flavor on/in the ribs before cooking.
I made a quick rub:

RUB Recipe
1/3 cup brown sugar
1 TBS Coarse salt
1 TBS Sweet Spanish paprika "Dulce"
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp ground mustard
1 tsp oregano
1/2 tsp thyme
1/2 tsp black pepper
1/2 tsp chili powder

Here it is in smokey glory

Next unpack and rinse the ribs, then remove the membrane from the bone side, turn them over and dry them well so the rub & smoke will adhere. The baby back are in the back in the photo and the spare ribs in the foreground.

Put a generous amount of the rub on the meat side. Some folks like to put it on the bone side as well, I think it is a waste.

At this point you could wrap them up and put them into the fridge up to over night. I don't have that luxury so I'll get them in the "smoker" now. I'm not trying to cook them in here, just get some flavor on them.

Here is my rigged cold smoker in my gas grill.

A small inexpensive hot plate, caste iron wood chip box, and maple chips. I hope it works.

Add the ribs and smoke for about an hour.

 

Now into the oven at 220 for 3 hours

 

Plus 2 hours at 250 with a little water in the pan.  Here's what they look like out of the oven. - That bald spot? Well, I HAD to test them!

Double wrap in foil and take to the party.

Crisp them up on the grill with your favorite BBQ sauce or eat them dry!

My garden blog http://amidwestgarden.blogspot.com/
My cooking blog  http://ihopeyouarehungry.blogspot.com/

Steak in a flash

With the cooler weather we've had, meat on the grill has sounded more appealing. I think a ribeye is the best steak there is. Just my opinion.

Let's make one on the grill.

Start with the best steak you can. This really goes for any cooking. Always buy the best ingredients you can afford, you and your guests will appreciate it in the long run.

Let the steak come up to room temperature.

While it came up to temperature, I sliced some vegetables to saute, red onion, mushroom, and red pepper.

Season the steak, it can be as simple as salt and pepper, or you can use a rub, use your imagination.

Prep the grill. I turn both sides up to high and after 5-10 minutes I scrape it down, then oil it. That is probably the singularly best advice I ever got about grilling.

While the grill was heating up, I started the vegetables.

Someone asked why I use the cast iron. Simply put, I want something that I won't have to replace every few years.

Next the steak hits the grill, - 7 minutes a side, moving every 3.5 minutes

Take it off and let it rest.

Slice it up, top it off with the vegetables from the pan, some sliced tomato, and slaw. It was damn tasty.

 

Eat Well!

My garden blog http://amidwestgarden.blogspot.com/
My cooking blog  http://ihopeyouarehungry.blogspot.com/