Homemade Ketchup

I found this recipe in a magazine a long, long time ago. I found it last month when I was unpacking some boxes down in my basement.  The tomatoes at Highcross Farm have been so lovely this year, I figured there was no time like the present to try it out.

This recipe is incredible. It’s got a nice hint of sweetness to it that you don’t get in store bought ketchup.

Supplies:

• 2 tablespoons canola oil
• 1/2 C chopped onion
• 1 tsp. minced garlic
• 1/4 tsp. dry mustard
• 2 lbs ripe tomatoes (4 med) peeled and coarsely chopped
• 1 tablespoon tomato paste
• 1/4 tsp. black pepper
• 1/4 tsp. cayenne pepper
• 1/4 tsp. ground nutmeg
• 1/4 tsp. ground cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp. ground allspice
• 1 1/2 tablespoon maple syrup
• 14 C cider vinegar

In a medium saucepan, heat canola oil and add onion, garlic, dry mustard and salt.  Cook for about 10 minutes, until softened.

Add tomatoes, tomato paste and spices.  Cook for about 2o minutes over medium heat, stirring often to prevent scorching.  Gently break down tomatoes with the back of a wooden spoon while cooking.

Add maple syrup and vinegar and continue to cook, stirring for another 10 minutes until mixture has a nice, thick consistency.

Cool briefly and puree in a food processor.  Pour into a jar and cool completely before using.

This recipe makes on pint jar full of ketchup.

Ground Cherry Hot Sauce

I’ve never really cooked with these beauties until I became a CSA member.

I’ve made a pie. I tried and failed at making preserves. This season I decided to go big or go home.  I had found an old recipe for a cherry hot sauce using Door County cherries.  Granted, ground cherries aren’t as sweet as a Door County cherry; they still have great flavor.

The recipe also called for a habenero pepper. I used the jalapeño pepper that was in my box.  This recipe is easy, quick and you can control how hot or mild you want your hot sauce.  This recipe calls for granulated sugar, but I find that honey gives it a richer under tone. Besides, honey is natural, granulated sugar is not.

Supplies:

• 1 C white vinegar
• 1/2 C cider vinegar
• 1 lb or so for ground cherries (give or take), husked, rinsed and drained
• 1 jalapeño pepper, seeded and cut up (I like my sauce on the hot side so I left the seeds in)
• 1/4 C honey (more if you want your sauce on the sweet side)
• 1 glass bottle, cleaned and dried

In a sauce pan add the vinegars, ground cherries and pepper.

Boil until the cherries and pepper are soft.  This took me on a gas stove about 15 minutes.

Let cool then add to a food processor and puree.

Put puree back into the sauce pan and add the honey and salt. Bring back to a soft boil and reduce until desired consistency.

Funnel into clean jar and et voila!

CSA Thursday!

It really doesn’t get much better than this. I wish you all could be Highcross Farm CSA members.

A close up of the cherry tomatoes in my box this week.

In my box this week:

Lettuce
Red Onion
Summer Squash – Assorted types
Tomatoes – Assorted types
Tomatoes – Cherry types
Pole Beans – Romano type
Green Peppers
Hot Peppers
Potatoes – Red Adirondack & Yukon Gold
Cucumber
Melons – Two
Ground Cherries
Fresh Sage

Fresh Tomato Lasagna

I first want to apologize for the low light picture. I don’t exactly have the most ideal lighting in my house.

With that being said… I found an amazing recipe here.  This recipe is a great way to use up your summer tomatoes.  This is absolutley delicious.

Recipe copied and pasted.

Makes 4 servings

2 pounds fresh ripe tomatoes (see note)

8 ounces fresh mozzarella, preferably buffalo

8 Barilla no-boil lasagna noodles

5 cups water at 150º

2 Tablespoons good olive oil

1 teaspoon dried oregano (I used fresh oregano that was in my box this week)

¾ teaspoon salt

1 ounce grated parmesan or grana padano

For the béchamel sauce:

2 Tablespoons butter

3 Tablespoons + 1 teaspoon flour

1 cup milk

¾ teaspoon salt

1/8 teaspoon finely ground pepper

1 large egg

 1. Preheat the oven to 375º.

2. Start the béchamel sauce (below) and do the next steps at the same time you’re working on it. Ideally, by the time you’ve finished the béchamel all the components of the lasagna will be ready.

3. Slice 8 ounces of Buffalo mozzarella (or other fresh mozzarella) into ¼ inch pieces and sprinkle lightly with salt.

4. Slice the tops and bottoms off of the tomatoes and discard or reserve for another use. Cut the rest of each tomato into ¼ inch rounds.

5. Put 5 cups of hot water (not boiling) into a loaf pan or casserole and slip the no-boil noodles in one at a time. Let noodles soak for 15 minutes.

6. In either an 8” square casserole (2 noodles wide, 4 high) or glass loaf pan (1 noodle wide, 8 high) build the lasagna in this order:

• A layer of uncooked tomato slices. Drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle with salt and oregano.
• 1 noodle (or 2 wide if building in an 8” square pan)
• ¼ of the mozzarella distributed on top of each noodle
• ¼ cup of béchamel distributed on top of each noodle
• Sprinkle with parmesan
• 1 noodle (or 2 wide if building in an 8” square pan)
• A layer of uncooked tomato slices. Drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle with salt and oregano.
• Continue the sequence with remaining noodles and filling, finishing with a layer of tomato slices drizzled with olive oil and sprinkled with salt and oregano.

 7. Bake at 375º for 40-45 minutes, until béchamel has puffed up and the edges are bubbling.

8. Let cool for 15 minutes before serving.

To make the béchamel sauce: Melt butter in a quart-sized saucepan over medium heat. Once the butter is barely melted add flour and whisk with a wooden spoon. Add a few tablespoons of milk, mix it in, and then add a few more. Now add small amounts of milk, an ounce or two at a time, and let the milk get hot before you work it into the roux. Be sure the previous batch is fully incorporated and the sauce is smooth before you add more milk. Once you have successfully added all the milk and the sauce is hot and smooth, add the salt and pepper. Cover tightly with a lid and set aside until ready to use.

Just before building the lasagna, beat an egg in a small bowl. Add a small amount of sauce, whisk the sauce and egg together, and then add a bit more sauce and whisk again. Now add a quarter cup of sauce and whisk it in. Add the egg mixture back to the pan and whisk thoroughly.

CSA

Not one, but two melons.  Heaven.  The pole beans are to die for.  Highcross Farm seriously has the best produce in the world!

CSA Box.

I almost forgot to post this. Shame on me!

Look at this week’s bounty!

In the box this week:

• Muskmelon
• Tomatoes
• Bell Pepper
• Pole Beans
• Grape Tomatoes
• Cucumber
• Zucchini
• Patty Pan Squash
• Potatoes
• Lemon Basil
• Red Onion
• Hot Pepper

Not pictured because they were eaten immediately: Lettuce and Raspberries.

Panzanella Salad

A panzanlla salad is comes from the Tuscan region of Italy and is basically a bread salad.  Typically a panzanella includes day old bread, tomatoes, basil, oil, vinegar, salt and pepper.  Since the wonderful HighCross Farm had some sexy lemon basil, cucumber and red onions in the box, I decided to throw those in as well. The best part was  I didn’t have to go anywhere near my stove. Score!

Since I used lemon basil, I decided to keep with the fruity flavor profile and made a vinaigrette with some orange olive oil and strawberry balsamic I got at  Oro Di Oliva.  Fantastic!

For the Panzanella:

• 1 large cucumber, peeled/seeded and diced
• 4-5 small-medium tomatoes, diced
• 1 medium red onion, thinly sliced
• 1 bunch of lemon basil
• 5-6 sliced of day old Italian bread, cut into 1 inch sliced and diced

For the Vinaigrette:

• 3 tablepoons, balsamic vinegar
• 6 tablespoons, olive oil
• 1 tablespoon chopped garlic
• 1.5 tablespoons, honey
• 5 lemon basil leaves, chopped
• S&P to taste

In a large bowl add the cucumber, tomato, basil, and onion.  Chill in the refrigerator for an hour to let the juices of the tomato draw out.

While that chills whisk together your vinaigrette.

Add the bread and vinaigrette to cucumber/tomato  mixture. Mix well. You want the bread to sop up the vinaigrette and juice from the veg.

Note: Make sure your bread is good and stale. If you use soft bread you will get nothing but mush. You want good hard, stale bread for this salad.

Let chill again for another 30 minutes.

Enjoy!

Minty Melon Soup

It has been unbearably hot in Wisconsin this month. Almost too hot; too hot to turn on my oven.  So I have been taking what is my CSA box and trying to make dishes I don’t have to cook.

I received a wonderful muskmelon in my box this week and wanted to try making a chilled melon soup.  I have an abundance of mint growing on my back porch and thought the two would pair nicely.  I was right.

What I got was a clean, refreshing cool summer soup that pleased my family to no end.  Better yet, I didn’t have to even go near my oven. Love that!

This recipe couldn’t be simpler.  All you need is a blender or food processor and 15 minutes of your time and you are done.

Supplies:

• 1 ripe melon, peeled, seeded and chopped into a rough dice
• 10 mint leaves
• 1 tablespoon. honey
• 2 tablespoons, lemon juice
• 2 tablespoons, heavy cream
• 1/2 teaspoon, cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon, ground ginger (use fresh if you have it)

Here are the directions, do try not to get lost.

Put it all in a blender or food processor and puree.  That’s it.

Put into a container and chill until cold. Garnish with fresh mint.

Enjoy!

Zucchini & Red Potato Frittata

I keep waiting for that glorious day I can quit my job and devote all my time to cooking.  I guess I will keep buying those powerball tickets.

With my frenzied work week schedule I find that I have to force myself to eat some kind of breakfast.  Normally it’s a bowl of cereal and some fruit.  But as the days get shorter and the nights eventually get colder, my body craves more sustenance.

A frittata makes perfect sense. I can make it ahead of time, it’s easily to reheat, and it freezes well.  I was inspired by a recipe found here. I just tweaked the recipe to suite my taste.

To stay true to my crusade of eating healthy and losing weight I used egg beaters instead of eggs. Now before you cringe, Egg Beaters have half the calories and none of the cholesterol regular eggs have and they really do taste good. But I digress…

I used the zucchini and potatoes I got from HighCross Farm because they are the best around.  I had some shredded mozzarella/provolone mix on hand as well as some low-fat ricotta.

This more than exceeded my expectations.  It fluffed up so nice in the oven and the potatoes and zucchini were cooked to perfection. And the ricotta, oooooooh the ricotta. When you get some ricotta in your mouth you get a bite of warm, velvety awesomeness.

Supplies:

• 1 16 oz container of egg beaters (or you can use 4 eggs)
• 4 slices of canadian bacon, diced
• 1 medium zucchini, sliced thin
• 5 baby red potatoes, sliced thin
• 1 medium onion, sliced thin
• 4-5 tbsp olive oil, more if needed
• 1 c grated cheese of your choice
• 5-6 dollops of low-fat ricotta
• S & P to taste

(directions copied and pasted from site)

Combine the zucchini and 1 teaspoon salt in a colander and toss well. Set aside to drain for 30 minutes. Heat 3 tablespoons of the oil over medium-high heat in a large, well-seasoned cast-iron skillet or ovenproof nonstick skillet. Add the potatoes and onion, reduce the heat to medium-low, and cook, flipping and stirring occasionally, until the potatoes are soft, about 20 minutes.

Increase the heat to medium-high and continue cooking, tossing occasionally, until the potatoes are are brown, about 5 minutes. Remove the potatoes with a slotted spoon but keep the skillet on the burner. Transfer the zucchini to a clean kitchen towel and pat dry. Add the zucchini and Canadian bacon to the skillet and sauté over medium-high heat, until the zucchini is just tender, about 4 minutes. Remove the zucchini and Canadian bacon with a slotted spoon.

Keep the skillet over the heat. Beat the eggs (or add egg beaters) and pepper to taste in a medium bowl until well blended. Fold in the potatoes, zucchini and Canadian bacon, and cheese. Dollop the ricotta over the top of the frittata so you get some in every bite. Preheat the oven to 350°F. Add 1 to 2 tablespoons of the remaining oil to the skillet as needed to lightly coat the bottom. Pour in the egg mixture, reduce the heat to medium-low, and cook without stirring until the bottom is set, about 10 minutes.

Transfer the skillet to the oven and bake until the top is set, 5 to 15 minutes, checking every 5 minutes. Place a serving plate on top of the skillet and carefully invert. The frittata should fall out of the pan. Cut into wedges and serve.

Enjoy!

Grilled Chicken with a Bell Pepper-Kale Sauce

Finding different ways to use Kale has been my challenge for the summer.  When I saw bell peppers in the box with kale the wheels in my head started turning.  I came up with a pretty tasty sauce to accompany my grilled chicken.

The bell pepper isn’t too overpowering and the kale is subtle.

I love when an experiment turns out awesome.

Supplies

• 2 bell peppers, seeded and chopped
• 1 onion, chopped
• 2 cloves garlic, chopped
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 small can chicken broth (I used lower sodium)
• 1 small bunch of basil, I used the purple basil in my box
• 2 cups kale, chopped (I used both varieties in my box)
• S & P to taste

In a deep pan sauté the onion, pepper and garlic until the peppers are soft.

Add 1/2 the can of chicken broth. Bring to a boil. Lower heat and let simmer until reduced by half. About 7 mins.

Turn off heat and let cool for a little bit.

Add to food processor and puree.  Add remaining chicken broth until you get a sauce-like consistency.  Add salt and pepper to taste.  Spoon over, under or on the side of desired protein. Tonight it was grilled chicken.

Enjoy!

Note: Please don’t mind my garnish fail. The purple basil flowers looked better in person than on camera.