Recipes

This page is more for inspiration than for exact recipes.  Use these “recipes” as guidelines for your own creativity.  Sometimes it’s best to not actually name something until you have it completed.  For instance, if that soup you were making comes out thick, call it stew.  If you had intended to make blackberry jam and it is rather soft and runny, call it sauce or syrup and use it on ice cream and in other suitable ways.  The date following each “recipe” is the date it appeared in a post. 

 

Dried Jerusalem Artichokes   Jerusalem artichokes are the same as sunchokes.  I coursely grated them and dried them in a dehydrator.  They are stored in a jar, ready to add to soups or stews.  4/19/11

Corn Patties   I use cornmeal that I grind from my homegrown Bloody Butcher corn.  I mixed corn and water at the rate of two measures of corn to one measure of water, adding more water if necessary.  I formed it into patties and cooked them on a dry cast iron skillet.  Usually I make this using oil or lard in the skillet, which weren’t an option for Homegrown Fridays.  4/19/11, 4/3/12 (sorghum)

Fall Ferment    Just before the last frost, I dug Jerusalem artichokes and picked the last of the green tomatoes.  I put those in the fermenting crock whole, along with oilseed (Daikon) radish,  garlic cloves and whole tiny onions.   I chopped up some sweet red peppers and added that.  This is a mix of anything suitable from the garden at the time.  Of course, the garlic and onions were harvested in June.  The most time consuming thing about this project is peeling the garlic cloves.  Make sure to scrub the vegetables well.   I covered everything with a brine of 6 tablespoons sea salt per 1/2 gallon (2 quarts) water.  Proceed as if you were making dill pickles in a crock.  You can begin using this after a few weeks.  Pull out enough for a jarful and chop the vegetables.  Use as you would a relish, but be creative.  Add it to cooked greens, cowpeas, or top mashed potates with it.   Refer to Wild Fermentation by Sandor Katz for more wonderful fermentation inspiration.  4/19/11

Soup Using As Many Dried Things As I Could.  Here’s how I made the soup.  Hopefully it will serve as inspiration for your own version.  Combine 1/2 c. dried onions,  1 c. dried tomatoes, 1 1/2 T. dried green peppers, and 4 cloves garlic in a blender with 2 cups water.  After blending, add 2 T. dried okra, 1/4 c. dried zucchini, 1/4 c. dried cabbage, 1T. dried sage, 2T dried parsley, 1/2 c. dried  cowpeas, 1/2 c. dried Jerusalem artichokes, 1/2 c. dried collards, and 5 c. water.  Bring to a boil and simmer for 45 minutes or until the cowpeas are done and the flavors are blended.  4/3/12

Tomato Sauce from Dried Tomatoes   Pour boiling water over dried tomatoes at the rate of twice as much water as tomatoes.  Or, combine the tomatoes and water and bring to a boil.  Depending how much of a hurry you are in you can let it set for about 15 minutes to reconstitute the tomatoes or simmer to make it happen faster.  Along with the tomatoes add any or all of the following:  chopped onion, garlic, dried or fresh basil, parsley, celery and sweet peppers.  You might think of other ingredients for your own special sauce.  At any point, throw it all in the blender and give it a whirl.  If you are doing that when the mixture is very hot, put a towel over the top of the blender so it doesn’t spurt out and burn you.  This doesn’t take much cooking for a fresh tasting sauce–only enough to reconstitute the ingredients.  Less water gives you a thicker sauce, add more water for a thin sauce.  You can dry any tomatoes, but I have the best luck using paste tomatoes.   4/19/11,  4/3/12

Tomato Soup This is the rcecipe I use to can tomato soup. For 5 quarts of tomato juice you need 3 onions, 14 T. flour, 14 T. butter, and parsley. The amount of parsley is up to you. If I have it in the garden, I prefer to use celery instead of parsley. Chop the onions and parsley and add to the juice. I put the coarsely chopped onions and parsley in the blender with some tomato juice, then add it to the rest of the juice. Melt the butter and add the flour to the melted butter to make a paste. Cook this for a minute. Add some juice to the paste and stir until smooth. Add this mixture to the rest of the juice/onions/parsley, being careful to stir out any lumps. Heat to boiling and can in a pressure canner for 20 minutes at 10 lbs. pressure. Or process in a boiling water bath for 45 minutes. 8/7/12 

Butternut Squash Leather   Follow standard directions for cooking winter squash (cut in half, remove the seeds, and bake until soft).  Line a dehydrator tray with waxed paper, unless you have a sheet especially for making leathers.  Mash the cooked flesh and spread on the tray.  Two cups could cover an area 14″x14″.  Use less if your trays are smaller.  Once dry, fold up the leather and put into a wide mouth canning jar.  Close tightly with the rubber sealed lid and store in your pantry.  This makes a great soup base cooked with water.  4/19/11 

butternut squash & dried greens soup, corn patties

Squash Leather Soup.  For soup for one person for lunch I used 1-1/2 cup water, about 3/4 cup squash leather, and about 1/4 cup dried greens (kale or collards).  You could use leftover cooked greens instead of dried, and add leftover cooked cowpeas.  Bring to boil and simmer until reconstituted, maybe 10 minutes.  Stir well.  4/19/11    

Zucchini Leather  Peel and chop zucchini.  Add chopped onion and sweet peppers and cook until soft.  Give it all a whirl in the blender and spread it out on wax paper (or special sheets for leathers) on your dehydrator trays.  When fully dry, fold up and store in wide mouth canning jars.  Close tightly with the rubber sealed lid and store in your pantry.  You could add this to home canned spaghetti sauce to thicken it if necessary or use it as a soup base.  4/19/11