All the great vegetables and fruits at the farmers market these days means it’s time to start putting food by. When we lived in cooler climes, canning was my food preservation technique of choice but here in the Sacramento Valley where it’s only slightly cooler than the bowels of hell, I like to freeze foods.

This weekend’s trip to the market had me buying a few pounds of Roma tomatoes and a bunch of hot Italian peppers. The tomatoes were peeled, sealed, and put in the freezer; the peppers were roasted and then frozen. I’ll do this several more times while tomatoes and peppers are in season and then use the veggies up over the winter. There is nothing quite like eating those tomatoes in the dead of winter…it’s like summer in your mouth!

Alas, I have no pictures of those beautiful tomatoes or peppers to share so here is a recipe for all you gardeners wondering what to do with all that zucchini you grew!

Note: this is an old recipe from my grandmother’s recipe box.

Zucchini Relish

6 lg. zucchini (about 4 lbs.)
4 lg. onions, peeled
1 green bell pepper, seeded
1 sweet red bell pepper, seeded
1/2 c. pickling salt (if you can’t find pickling salt, the best substitution would be kosher salt)
1 c. water
3 c. sugar
3 c. vinegar
1/2 c. water
2 tsp turmeric
2 tsp celery seed

Cut ends off zucchini but do not peel. Chip zucchini, onions, and peppers finely by hand. Place vegetables in a large bowl; sprinkle with salt. Cover with ice water; let stand for one hour. Drain then rinse well under cold running water. Drain thoroughly.

In a saucepan, boil together sugar, vinegar, water, turmeric, & celery seed for 3 minutes. Add vegetable mixture; bring to a boil then simmer for 10-15 minutes or until of desired consistency. Spoon hot relish into hot, sterilised jars; seal at once. Process in boiling water bath 15 minutes.

Makes about 8 pints.

Two years ago, I wrote about making ratafia with loquats from one of my trees.

That particular tree succumbed to fire blight last year but I was looking forward to making another batch of ratafia with fruit from the loquat tree at the back of the house.

I noticed fire blight on the remaining loquat about a week ago and, after reading up on it, the Spouse and I got right on it. Alas, when he went up on the roof to take care of the obviously dead branches, he reported that ALL of the branches were infected. The best laid plans and all that…

All the branches had to come down (we’ve left the trunk as it should put some new branches out eventually and some copper-based treatments should take care of the fire blight…I hope!) and so I was out in the back, harvesting the not-yet-ripe loquats.

I decided that I would try making verjuice (or verjus, if you’re in a Gallic state of mind) with the fruit. BBC Radio 4’s Food Programme had done an episode on verjuice and it seemed like a very interesting sort of foodstuff.

I quartered and seeded the entire haul of loquats (somewhere between five and ten pounds) and then ran them through the food processor, creating a pulp.

The pulp sat in a cheesecloth-lined colander (weighted) overnight in order to collect the juice itself. If I’d had a better press set up, I could have got much more liquid out of the mash but as it was, I ended up with almost a litre. Salt was added, to prevent any chance of fermentation, and into the fridge it went.

I left it in its initial container for a week, just to be sure that it wasn’t going to start fermenting. It’s quite salty (no, I didn’t measure the salt but obviously I put a wee bit too much in!) so I felt safe in transferring it to glass today.

The verjuice looks and smells quite a bit like unfiltered apple juice; not surprisingly, I’m sure, as the loquat is related to the apple. I’m quite looking forward to using it (judiciously!) as a deglazing liquid this winter.

This past weekend saw one of our awesome neighbourhood barbecues take place at the Germans’ house, giving us the opportunity to try making Maibowle, an herb-infused white wine concoction. Maibowle is a traditional German beverage made with sweet woodruff and white wine(s) and was apparently popular in the 70s (also the era of cheese fondues).

At first, we thought that we’d have to make an Erdbeerbowle (white wine infused with strawberries), as the sweet woodruff in the Germans’ garden didn’t fare too well over the winter. Luckily, M– came to the rescue, providing the herb from her city house garden.

K– prepped the herb by cutting it into small springs:

The next task was to assemble the sprigs into small bundles, tied with thread. Here is K–, working on that task. (T– and I also helped, once I put the camera down.)

The bundles were suspended from a cross-member (formerly known as a “wooden spoon” but renamed for its very important role in creating the Maibowle). It’s important not to submerge the cut end of the herb in the wine, as it contains a natural form of coumadin.

In no time, we had all the sweet woodruff sprigs bundled up and hanging from their cross-members:

After lightly bruising the herbs, a couple of bottles of fruity white wines were added to bowl, whereupon we discovered that the bowl was the wrong size or the wrong shape (or both!) or the thread was too short or something like that…the sweet woodruff wasn’t submerged enough in the wine for our liking.

A quick swap out of bowls remedied the situation and it was “everybody back in the pool!”:

The herbs steeped in the wine for about an hour, after which we added a bottle of sparkling wine to the bowl. After a shorter steeping time, a wee bit of sugar was stirred in and then it was time to enjoy!

And enjoy it, we did! The herbal flavour of the wine was a perfect accompaniment to the beautiful spring weather we were having. I’m inspired to try making other herbal infusions using just water or maybe even vinegar; I think when added to a carbonated beverage (tonic water? soda water? lemon-lime pop?), it could make for a fantastic summertime beverage.

And, in case anyone doubted it, we are at the forefront of cool in our habits. The very day after creating our own Maibowle, Spiegel Online ran an article on Maibowle: “Maibowle: Deutschland ist Waldmeister“. Okay, maybe their version is slightly more updated but I contend that we are still avant garde (when it comes to herb-infused beverages , if nothing else).

What a bargain!

With nothing else scheduled for this morning, the Spawn and I were able to hit the farmer’s market where I spent all of $18.55. Just look at all that good stuff! From the top, we’ve got a bag of organic kiwis, two small heads of leaf lettuce, cauliflower, Swiss chard, fresh onions, a head of garlic, broccoli greens, baby artichokes (the first of the season!!!), onions, red potatoes, and broccoli.

I’ve already got plans for some of it…

* baby artichokes: these are destined for tonight’s dinner. We’ll have pan-roasted baby artichokes with pasta (and lots of garlic and oregano). We stopped by Dianda’s in the village for lunch and left with a loaf of bread and some Italian pastries for dessert as well.

* the kiwis will be eaten by the Spawn as breakfast throughout the coming week

* broccoli greens: I’d like to cook these like collard greens as a side at some point during the week

* fresh onions: bundle these up along with a bit of Serrano ham in some puff pastry and you’ve got a fantastic savoury treat.

The rest is just “staples” for the crisper; the cauliflower and broccoli may or may not end up in a soup. Who knows?

Having resolved to ignore the plaintive mewling of my family and to start cooking “good stuff” again, I went looking for some recipes I developed several years ago (2005! where does the time go?).

Maybe it’s not such a surprise that I still have them kicking around as I am indeed a self-confessed (digital) pack rat. Sure enough, they were still in their directory on my hard drive, each file containing three recipes for healthy, tasty food.

My original plan for these babies was to sell the files at $1.00 each. I thought they’d fly off the Internet, destined for homes of people who wanted to lose weight without having to eat cardboard. My first attempt at marketing them garnered me tons of hate mail…apparently asking for a small token in return for the imagination, testing, writing, photography, and publishing of recipes is a no-no in the weight loss world. Who knew?

My dream of financing a weekly cup of coffee at Starbucks through recipe sales was crushed. And, as the response really just confirmed my initial impression of humans in general, I let the entire issue drop.

Now that four years have passed and I just happened upon the files on my hard drive, I’ve decided to fling them out there onto the great Interweb-thingie FOR FREE!

Menu 1:

* Blueberry-Yogurt Smoothie
* Curried Broccoli Soup
* Sausage and Potato Bake

Menu 2:

* Salade Lyonnaise
* Mashed Cauliflower
* Scallop Cakes

Menu 3:

* Mediterranean Omelette
* Sunomono Salad
* Lemon Chicken Skewers

Menu 4:

* Corn Pancakes
* Spicy Thai Asparagus Soup
* Shepherd’s Pie

Menu 5:

* Spiced oatmeal (or Do-It-Yourself Instant Oatmeal)
* Tuna Melt
* Stamppot

Any and all positive feedback would be greatly appreciated (I need all the help I can get re-motivating myself to cook “good stuff” again)!

Or…another reason why life is too short to eat crappy food.

A couple of years ago, I had a really bizarre set of experiences over a couple of weeks. Every few days, I’d awaken from a dead sleep by the smell of food. Not just any food, mind you; it was the smell of something I’d eaten the day before.

Lest you think this was just a rather bad case of dyspepsia, let me assure you that the experience was quite pleasant and had nothing to do with the release of any gastric gases. The first time it happened was the night following one of our “corned beef hash cook-off” dinners. There was one serving of hash leftover and, after we’d eaten, I wrapped it up, thinking it would make a fantastic breakfast the next day. I woke up in the middle of the night to the smell of the perfect corned beef hash. I could almost taste the crispness of the potatoes, the sweetness of the onions, and the saltiness of the beef. I drifted back to sleep, muttering to myself fuzzily that it wasn’t fair of someone to eat my breakfast in the middle of the night.

The next morning I pointedly accused someone of doing just that and was very surprised to learn that not only had no one been cooking up the leftover corned beef hash during the wee hours but my breakfast plans could go ahead unmolested, as the corned beef I’d smelled cooking the night before was still wrapped up in the fridge.

I put it off as an odd dream.

That is, until a few nights later, when I was awakened by the smell of the most buttery, rich, and (dare I say it) perfect caramel. If Plato had crawled out of his cave and had some caramel while out in the sunlight, it would have tasted how that caramel scent smelled to me. You guessed it…the day before I’d had a single caramel from a confectionery in Berkeley.

At this point, the chances that it was “just a dream” were dwindling. In fact, I was sure I was dying of a brain tumour.  (I’ve always thought that, if one is going to fantasize in a hypochondriac manner, one should “go big or go home!”)

Only one more nocturnal olefactory awakening occurred for me and, as I’d eaten nothing particularly fantastic the day before, it was the smell of coffee that woke me. Now, I love the smell of a good pot of coffee brewing but as I do tend to associate it with the smell of skunks, the experience wasn’t quite as wonderful as the corned beef hash or caramel hallucinations.

After that…nothing. If I’d had a brain tumour, I’d gotten better awfully quickly.

Until this morning, that is. Last night I’d braised some pork shoulder in sauerkraut and white wine and, sure enough, in the wee hours this morning, I was awakened by the archetypal smell of that meal. It smelled so good…

This time around, I’ve decided that, rather than wandering off in some sort of hypochondriac haze, I’m going to make the most of my brain’s synesthetic confusion. Until it stops, I plan on eating only the most wonderful things I can think of, in the hopes that I get to experience their essence the night following.

So far today, I’ve gone with carnitas (alas, this batch wasn’t as good as the usual carnitas from this source so I’m hoping that it’s not on the short list for nocturnal smells) and an orange and ginger-flavoured fruit gel.

I’m rooting for the fruit gel…

Alton Brown once said that pork wasn’t suitable for making broth as it was too “porky”. (Or something like that.)

I say, there ain’t no such thing as “too porky” and a pork-based broth can be heaven. Besides being the perfect starting point for Korean-style soups or ramen, I reckoned pork broth had to be a good addition to pork stew. (It makes sense, right?)

Yesterday I decided to try making a pork stew that did not include chiles, tomatillos, or hominy in the ingredients list. (In case it wasn’t obvious, my normal repertoire of pork stews is made up of: New Mexico-style green chile, chile verde, and posole.)

I wanted a stew that was all about porky goodness and so, with the help of some pork broth and a bunch of onions, I came up with this:

Pork braised in pork broth. Thickened with a roux made of bacon fat and flour. Caramelised yellow onions and sliced green onions for additional flavours. Served atop grits cakes fried in bacon fat.

There’s no such thing as “too porky”.

This past weekend was partially spent trying to save the flavours of summer.

It started with a trip to the farmers’ market on Saturday morning where I purchased (among other things) several pounds of Roma tomatoes and a variety of chiles, including jalapenos, habaneros, serranos, and sweet gypsies.

The plan for the tomatoes was to oven-roast them and then freeze them. I did this for the first time last year and, believe me, using them for a meal in the dead of winter is like serving summer for dinner.

To roast them, the tomatoes were first cut in half lengthwise and put in a glass baking dish. A few garlic cloves were smashed, peeled, and tucked in around the tomatoes then almost 500 ml of olive oil was poured over all.

After roasting in a medium-hot oven (375 F) for one hour, the pans were removed and the tomatoes were put on cooling racks to cool¹ and to drain. Once cool, they were put in the freezer until a miserable winter day…

While all that was going on, I also fired up the smoker and smoked about a dozen chiles. Some of the larger ones were still relatively fleshy after a day in their smoky sauna so they’ve been frozen too.

The sweet gypsy peppers were stuffed with a chicken/ricotta mixture, bathed in a homemade tomato sauce, and then covered with grated mozzarella cheese. After a wee bit in the oven, dinner was served:

Mmmmm…cheeeeeeese!

My next project will be roasting corn for freezing. I’m already dreaming about the roasted corn chowder I’ll be eating this winter…

Even though there was local racing this weekend, Rogie is in no shape to be running his little doggy heart out:

As you can see, he’s a wee bit on the chubby side these days…

¹ Yes, I have a keen sense of the obvious. Believe me, it’s a gift.

The Spawn and I watched a Bobby Flay show this morning in which he and his guest made bibimbap. As the Spouse has been muttering about bulgogi lately, I thought that bibimbap might be a good thing to make for dinner.

Never mind that I’ve never made it before.

Never mind that I didn’t bother to look at a recipe. I saw the show, right?

I have no idea whether it was authentic or not but, damn, it was good:

The rice is hiding underneath all that yumminess but you can see the other ingredients. Starting with the meat and moving clockwise, we have bulgogi, kim chi, marinated fresh zucchini, sesame bean sprouts, and then the fried egg and sauce in the middle.

I served it with a Bittman-inspired hack at a Korean-style cucumber salad:

All in all, it was a wonderful meal!

For those who didn’t know, my mum has been visiting since before (American) Thanksgiving. W took her to the airport this morning for her trip home.

What we’ve been cooking/eating

Besides the usual Thanksgiving fare, we had a goose last week, smoked in the electric smoker. Yum! Another memorable meal was had at the Anatolian Table out in Rocklin.

What I’ve been knitting

While continuing on with various Christmas gifts, I’ve been working on my Stockings with Clocks from Nancy Bush’s book, Folk Solks. One is finished and the second has about three inches done on it (photos to follow when both are done). Quick knits have been a pair of slippers for Mum from Interweave Knits’ Holiday 2008 magazine, a pair of guest socks (pattern by Raggi), and muffs for the tile guy’s headphones.

Yes, you read that correctly. Wayde was making jokes about my knitting and the young guy’s headphones and so I rose to the challenge, knitting up a pair of muffs for the headphones. His earphones (and hopefully ears!) will stay nice and warm now.