Monthly Archives: November 2013

Homemade Fresh Pesto

add basil leaves

Pesto is a such an easy thing to make and is so delicious that I don’t know why more people don’t make it. This summer I made fresh pesto with my mini food processor which I then froze for later use. I put some on pasta the other night and all the flavors of that fresh basil burst in my mouth just like when I first made it.

To make fresh pesto you can either grow your own plants or buy plants to use. I cut off all the leaves except the biggest to use in pesto. I keep the bigger leaves to add when making a pasta sauce to cook down. I do not use the flowers if there are any, as I think they give the pesto a slightly bitter taste.

fresh basil leaves soaking

Soak leaves for 15 minutes

I use Italian or Genovese basil to make my pesto and after I cut the leaves off, I soak the basil in bowl of water to freshen it up for about 15 minutes.

Blend salt. pine nuts, and olive oil

Blend salt. pine nuts, and olive oil

Put olive oil, sea salt, pine nuts, and garlic cloves into a blender or food processor and blend well.

Add drained basil leaves

Add drained basil leaves

Drain your basil leaves and add them and blend till smooth and creamy. If the mixture is really thick add more oil a little at a time till smooth. It should not look like thick chopped spinach but be a little thinner and smooth consistency!

Add parmesan cheese

Add parmesan cheese

Then add the grated cheese and blend again. Notice how it is finely grated and light and fluffy.

Finished pesto ready to freeze for later use.

Finished pesto ready to freeze for later use.

I like to put the finished pesto in freezer bags, taking as much of the air out of the bag as possible. Then lay the bags flat in the freezer. Be sure to not add too much to each bag as you want it thin enough to break off chunks of it later to use with your pasta. Above is the finished pesto ready to freeze. Here is the recipe:

FRESH BASIL PESTO
INGREDIENTS
1/2 extra-virgin olive oil (give or take a little) use a good grade
1/4-1/2 tsp coarse sea salt ( I use less as the cheese is salty)
1/4 pine nuts
2 garlic cloves
3-4 cups fresh Italian basil
1/2 cup Parmigiano-Reggiano Parmesan cheese, finely grated

Put olive oil, sea salt, pine nuts, and garlic cloves into a blender or food processor and blend. Drain your basil leaves and add them and blend till smooth and creamy. If the mixture is really thick add more oil a little at a time till smooth. It should not look like chopped spinach but be of thinner consistency! Then add the grated cheese and blend again. If you are not going to use it right away, put it in a bowl and add a small amount of oil on top of it to help keep the pesto from oxidizing.  This won’t hurt the flavor but will turn the pesto into a shade of Army green instead of its bright beautiful green color. I like to put it in freezer bags, taking as much of the air out of the bag as possible and lay it flat in the freezer. Be sure to not add too much to each bag as you want it thin enough to break off chunks of it later to use with your pasta. Never microwave the frozen pesto to soften it. I like to put it in a bowl on top of the stove (next to the pot of boiling pasta) where it will start to soften up. Then after I drain the pasta, I pour it over the pesto. The hot pasta will melt the pesto, then toss it to coat all the pasta evenly.  Add a little grated Parmigiano-Reggiano on top and enjoy.

Fall Honey Harvest-2013

2013-part of the fall honey harvest

2013-part of the fall honey harvest

This year I was able to harvest (13) 5 oz jars of honey from my hive. This was from the same hive that went on sharp decline in June when I lost my queen (she disappeared) and I had to re-queen for the hive to survive. I had bought a new queen to try to save the hive and the remaining bees in the hive had her lay an egg in a queen cell they built and then raised their own queen and killed the queen I bought. Oh cruel world! But they knew better, as the queen they raised has been an unbelievable egg layer and brought the hive back from the brink of disaster. (see story here)

Which brings me to my harvest. The hive with her leading, came back from 2 bars with barely any bees on them to 17 bars loaded with brood and honey-and all since June which is phenomenal! The rule for beekeepers is to always leave enough honey for the bees to get through winter and then we harvest the rest. In our cold climate in Santa Fe, my teacher, Les Crowder says we should leave 12 bars of brood and honey for them to get through winter but I left 14 bars this year in case we have a long winter, harvesting 3 bars of honey only. If they don’t use it all, I can take the honey after the flowers come in spring (assuming the flowers do come).

honey 2012

This is last year’s honey in 2012. It was lighter than this year’s honey.

This year’s color was very different from last year. Last year we didn’t get a lot of flowers because of the drought and I had to feed them some sugar-water to the end of August to subsidize them and the honey I harvested was very light in color because we only got mainly chamisa flowers in the fall. This year I fed them a little in spring but stopped once the rains came and we had many different flowers all summer than the previous year which resulted in an amber colored honey with slightly stronger taste than last year on my property.

3 honeys 2013

2013-Here is my honey on the left, Sara’s honey in the middle and Bob’s honey on the right

It’s interesting because my friend Sara had light-colored honey this year while another friend, Bob had darker honey-even darker than mine so where you live, even in Santa Fe, can affect what your honey will be like. We like to trade so we can taste each others honey to see how they differ.

Make tomato sauce the easy way!

2tomato sauce-making sauce

By now you’ve probably finished harvesting and making your tomato sauce but I have to share how I do it.

I grow many tomatoes each year and make LOTS of tomato sauce as a result. But canning it doesn’t happen until late fall after harvest season is done.

I use to make it the old fashion way of putting the tomatoes in boiling water until the skin splits, then putting it in ice water to stop cooking, then peel off the skin and squeeze the tomatoes and juice in bowls to freeze. Tiring—very tiring and it takes lots of time.

Now I make tomato sauce the easy way. I finally got a food strainer (sometimes called a food mill) that separates the skins and stems from the pulp, juice and seeds making an uncooked tomato sauce in record time.  My food strainer is from Victorio. It comes with one screen that is fine mesh. I also got the salsa screen because I want my sauce thicker. I can process about 20 lbs of tomatoes in 10-15 minutes. But let’s start from the beginning.

1tomato sauce-tomatoes ready

First you’ll need some tomatoes. Good and imperfect blemished tomatoes are perfect for making sauce. These had hail damage but tasted good.

4tomato sauce-tools

Here are the tools-a plunger to push to tomatoes through (comes with the food strainer), a ladle, and a serrated knife to cut the tomatoes in chunks to fit in funnel. This process is messy so cover your table!

3tomato sauce-putting tom in mill

Cut up and put the tomatoes in the food strainer funnel. No need to take off skins, the strainer will do it for you.

5tomato sauce-partially done

Here is some sauce partially done. The food strainer has separated the sauce out into this green bowl. You crank the handle and push the tomatoes into the funnel using the red plunger. The strainer reminds me of a meat grinder except it grinds up tomatoes instead. It also can be used to make grape juice from grapes and applesauce or apricot sauce.

6tomato sauce-skins out

The other side of the food mill spits out the skins. I also cut off the stems shown in bowl. The chickens will love getting this bowl!

7tomato sauce-finished in bowl

Here is the bowl full of rich raw tomato sauce ready to bag with more tomatoes in the background ready to make sauce.

8tomato sauce-in bag

I put about 12 cups of raw tomato sauce in a gallon size freezer bag. I don’t like to overfill them. I also squeeze out the air while I ‘zipper’ them up. Be sure you zipper it well or it could leak out when you lay it flat.

9tomato sauce-finished in bags

Here is the raw tomato sauce—bagged and ready to freeze. Notice I have different colors of sauce coming from different colors of tomatoes. Later I either cook the bags of raw sauce up for a recipe or I end up canning them when my freezer is too full and I’ve recovered from harvest season!

Tarbais bean/cassoulet part 2

cassoulet

Cassoulet is a hearty winter dish which was originally created by poor farmers or peasants in southwest France. Only god knows what the rich and royal were eating if this is what the peasants ate cause this is very rich! There are different types of cassoulets in France depending on the region you live. Some cassoulets made in mountainous areas might have lamb as their main meat, others close to the sea would have fish and the most famous cassoulet is made with duck but no matter, they all used the Tarbais bean (pronounced Taar Bay) as a main ingredient to make this famous dish. To find out more about my experience on growing Tarbais beans go here. I made cassoulet with duck and my Tarbais (cassoulet) beans that I grew.

Cassoulet is slow cooked in a ceramic dish called a cassole which is a basically a covered ceramic casserole dish that can go in the oven. It traditionally is made with sausages, pork, duck confit and Tarbais beans-not for the faint of heart and I mean that literally!

So on with making a cassoulet with duck. Don’t be in a hurry cause it takes several days to make this dish-yes I said days—like as in 3 days!

First, Whole Foods ran out of duck confit, so I had to go online and learn how to make it myself which was a blessing as duck confit is very expensive and evidently not as good if you don’t make it yourself. There are many recipes on the internet but here is the recipe for both the Duck Confit and Cassoulet that I use from: Cassoulet by Anthony Bourdain and Michael Ruhlman as presented by ‘The Daring Kitchen’: http://thedaringkitchen.com/recipe/confit-cassoulet . Here is their recipe as a pdf – Confit_Cassoulet_Jan_2011 which is helpful to print out as your computer will run out of juice before you can finish making the recipe in 3 days!

I wouldn’t want to go to all this effort all the time but once a year in the winter is great. Plus I did not line the ceramic pot with pork rinds-just seemed like overkill to me (literally).  Now don’t worry they also have several different versions of cassoulets at the link above for the more heart healthy conscious (like chicken confit in olive oil and vegetarian cassoulet) but I thought I’d try an original version once! Next time I will exchange the pork with smoked turkey necks (which taste like smoked pork) and the different pork sausages with turkey sausage versions as it has sooo much fat.

What was once a poor man’s dinner is now very expensive but oh so good. I like to eat this hearty winter dish on a cold winter’s night with a glass of red wine by the fireplace. I think the red wine cuts the fat, or least that’s what I tell myself!

Tarbais bean/Cassoulet Part 1

Here is what Tarbais (pronounced Taar bay) beans looks like on the vine and closeup, after dried but before shelling and when shelled in jars. I like to cook and wanted to learn how to make a french dish called ‘Cassoulet’ last year (2012) and had a heck of a time finding this particular bean that hails from France where I would have to pay $34.00 an ounce for heirloom Tarbais beans ! That’s because our USDA and the cost of their inspections drives up the price to get them into the US. The ones to grow can be different from the beans to eat. The ones you can purchase to eat might not be a true heirloom, mixing genetically with other beans but they will taste the same unless you try to grow them out.  The heirloom variety were not in any seed catalog last year but I finally found 4 people who offered their heirloom seeds through Seed Savers Exchange (SSE) in their Members Catalog ($4 for shipping only) and each gave a lot of beans (30+). Well worth joining because 1) you are supporting growing heirloom seeds and 2) many people grow unusual vegetables and offer their seeds through SSE. They were the only ones who had them in 2012 in the US. This year (2013) I saw them offered at Baker Heirloom Seeds in their catalog and got more although now I have my own supply of them as well.

tarabais and navy bean

Navy bean (top) and Tarabais bean (bottom)

So what’s so special about the Tarbais bean? I probably could have used a white Navy bean but I read that the Tarbais bean is slightly bigger and becomes creamy without disintegrating and becoming mushy like many other beans do and I wanted to be authentic and grow out that variety of bean.

The Tarbais bean originally came from the village of Tarbais, in southwestern France and is used in cassoulet dishes. Tarbais beans were developed by generations of farmers that lived in that area. The Tarbais Bean in 2000 obtained IGP status (Indication of Protected Geographical Origin). Only members of a small, closed cooperative in Tarbais are allowed to use that name for their beans, and production is tightly regulated. The original seed is a New World runner bean (Phaseolus coccineus) and most think it originated in Mexico.

That’s one of the great things about growing your own vegetables-you can grow something you might not find in the grocery store. That doesn’t mean it will taste exactly the same as where it originated from (like I doubt a New Mexico chili grown in New Jersey would taste the same as our conditions and soil are very different) but at least I could try. The beans are grown like any pole bean that you are going to leave on the vine until dried. They were harder to start as the birds liked the ‘bean sprouts’ when they popped up so I had to replant several times and cover them with row cover to protect them until they were about 3 inches tall. After that it was a breeze. Just water them regularly. They will produce many pods that you just leave on until fall when they dry on the plant.

Part 2 of this will be the about Cassoulets and the recipe I used.

Final Harvest 2013

final harvest 2013

Now that the harvest season is over, I have so much to catch up on with you all from this season. Seems when I am in the middle of the gardening season, I’m just too tired to write about all the things I want to share as I’m either in the glass shop or out in the garden during the day and come in at the end of the day ‘dirt tired’ as I say. So now I can catch up on maybe a particular vegetable I wanted to try, or how much honey I was able to harvest this year or a particular dish I cooked and enjoyed or something else I observed. I did take pictures all along waiting till I had the time to share.

Here is a photo of the last harvest of the season on Oct 21, 2013. I picked the Tarabais beans after they dried in the shell. They are in the baskets (on the left) waiting to be shelled, 3 heirloom Banana squash (on the right) which I left out in the first few frosty nights as they get sweeter if left out in the cold (but do bring them in when we get really cold), French Fingerling potatoes were dug out and put in the black box to cure and the very last of the tomatoes that I finished ripening inside that later became sauce and in the white bucket behind all of that was the honey we harvested just before putting the bees ‘to bed for the winter’. You always leave enough honey for the bees before harvesting any for yourself and some years you don’t get to harvest any. Here it is waiting to be put into jars after being strained in the white bucket. More on these individually later.

Fresh Pumpkin Recipes

pumpkin interior

Now that the 5th Annual Pumpkin Bash is over, what can we do with our fresh pumpkin pieces? Here are some ideas.

pumpkin steak cooked

One recipe I love is ‘Pumpkin Steaks’. You can find the recipe here: https://giantveggiegardener.com/2012/11/05/pumpkin-steaks/

pumpkin soup2

Here are 3 great pumpkin soup recipes you can find here: https://giantveggiegardener.com/2010/11/21/3-great-pumpkin-soup-recipes/

512px-Pumpkin_Pie_from_a_*real*_pumpkin,_November_2007

Of course no pumpkin recipes would be complete without a pumpkin pie recipe but this one is for FRESH pumpkin:

FRESH PUMPKIN PIE

1 unbaked pie shell
2 c. freshly prepared pumpkin
1  can evaporated milk
3/4 c. sugar
1/2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. ginger
1/4 tsp. nutmeg or allspice
1/8 tsp. cloves
2 eggs, beaten slightly

To prepare fresh pumpkins:
Use small to medium size pumpkins OR really giant ones like I do! Cut pumpkin into quarters or big pieces. Whatever will fit on a cookie sheet. Leave rind on. Put a little oil on cut edges to keep from drying out. Place cut edge down on foiled lined cookie sheet. I put foil loosely on top to keep edges from burning.  Bake at 350° for about 30 min-to over an hour depending on thickness. Pierce frequently with fork to check for tenderness after at least 30 minutes. When fork pierces meat easily, remove from oven. Cool first and then scoop out meat and drain in colander for about 30 minutes to release extra liquid. Then use wand, blender or food processor to puree. Use fresh or freeze in Ziploc freezer bags for later use. I like to freeze in 2 cup increments which is exactly what the recipe calls for!

To prepare fresh frozen pumpkin meat:
By now, if you are like me, you have some pumpkin you prepared as above and froze it. All I do is defrost it and if still a little watery, let it drain a few minutes then follow directions below.

Pumpkin Pie Filling: Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Mix the 2 cups of fresh pumpkin with rest of the ingredients. Pour into pie shell. Bake 15 minutes at 425 degrees. Reduce heat to 350 degrees and bake another 45 minutes or until an inserted knife comes out clean. If edges of crust start to turn too brown or burn, make a ring out of foil and put on edges of the pie crust.

2013 Pumpkin Bash Pics

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Here are some of the pics from this year’s Pumpkin Bash. Everyone enjoyed the camaraderie, sipping apple cider and bashing the pumpkin ‘Honey Boo Booo’—named because it was so small-only 176 lbs (which is teeny for a giant pumpkin). Who needs therapy when you can do this?!