Preserving the Bounty

I have exciting news!! As many of you know I am on the board of Berkshire Grown. (www.berkshiregrown.org). Berkshire Grown has designated the month of September to "preserving the bounty" and many of the restaurant members and myself agreed to host workshops. My workshop is on September 17th and we'll be making corn and black bean salsa and, warm bath preserving kale or other fall greens. As part of the promotion, Channel 13, the NBC Albany affiliate, will be doing 2 segments. And, here's the news, I will be doing a 4-5 minute demo on air this coming Saturday, September 5th at 8 am.

I am gearing up and trying to hone in what I will do on the segment. I am most comfortable with tomato canning and was reminiscing about last year's tomato harvest and my jars of tomato sauce, salsa and ketchup so I thought I would share my tomato sauce recipe for old times sake:

Nana's Basic Tomato Sauce

Rule of thumb - 5lbs of tomatoes yields one quart of sauce.

Other tools: boiling water canner,canning jars, canning funnel, rubber spatula, jar lifter and/or tongs, fine sieve or food mill

Citric Acid (available where you buy canning supplies)

Wash and cut up tomatoes, place in stainless steel saucepan and bring to boil over medium-high heat. Using a slotted spoon crush tomatoes to release juices. Boil until tomatoes are soft and then remove from heat. In batches, press tomatoes through a fine sieve (what my grandmother used) or a food mill (what I use) which removes the seeds and skin. Return the skinless, seedless tomatoes to the saucepan over medium to high heat, stirring occasionally until the liquid is reduced to 1/2 for a nice medium thick sauce.

Meanwhile, you can be getting your cans ready - place cans on rack of boiling water canner, add water to until the pint jars are about 2/3rds full. Cover and bring to a simmer. This process kills any bacteria. In a small saucepan, place the lids - the flat, round piece, cover and bring to a simmer. The screw bands do not need to sterilized.

Now you are ready to start canning your sauce. One jar at a time, remove from canner, pouring hot water back into canner, place jar on flat heat-resistant surface. For a quart, add 1/2 tsp citric acid, then place funnel in jar, ladle sauce into jar leaving about a half inch of headspace, wipe the rim and threads with a paper towel. ( This is important to make sure vacuum seal can occur). Lift a hot lid with your tongs and place on jar and then screw the lid with your fingertips until tight. Place back in canner with tongs. Repeat until done.

Cover all jars with additional water by an inch or so. Cover canner and bring to a boil. The boiling must be continuous and rapid for 40 minutes. Remove lid, let sit for about 5 minutes or so. Remove jars without tilting, place jars on a towel in a draft-free spot and allow to cool for 24 hours. Store in a cool dark place for up to a year.

Invite friends as the process is fun but laborious. My grandmother used to say many hands make for light work. We didn't add seasoning as my grandmother liked to use the basic sauce as her blank canvas to embellish as she used it for different dishes.

....but what shall I do for the demo - beets? raspberries? Stay tuned!!

Broccoli Harvest and a Cool Day

Nothing like a raw, unseasonably cool day to make me want to make soup. And fortunately, I had every single ingredient I needed on hand AND it was farm fresh....broccoli we just picked from our garden, leeks, carrots and garlic from the CSA and High Lawn Farm heavy cream. I even had vegetable broth in the freezer awaiting just this confluence of events. So, I figure when the food gods line up like that then I have no choice.....

Here's the recipe for Cream of Broccoli Soup - out of my Mom's archives of recipes with a note on top that says, "excellent." Oh and Julia Child would be proud - I used butter and heavy cream :-)

9 tablespoons butter

1 1/2 cups leeks, minced

1 1/2 cups carrots, minced

2 garlic cloves, minced

6 cups chicken or vegetable broth

1 1/2 heads broccoli, cut into small florets

1 1/2 cups heavy cream

1 1/2 pinches cayenne pepper or to taste

1 1/2 teaspoon celery seed

salt and pepper to taste

In a pot, melt butter over medium heat. Add leeks, carrots, garlic. Cook until tender but be sure not to brown (about 5 minutes).

Add the broth and bring to a simmer. Add the broccoli. Cook 8-10 minutes until the broccoli is tender.

Pour the soup into a processor (may need to do in batches) and process until veggies are finely chopped but not pureed. Pour soup back into pot. Stir in cream, celery seed and salt and pepper. Reheat before serving or freeze in batches as you await another cool day!!

Enjoy!

Serves 8-10.

ps You can leave out the cream entirely or exchange it for half and half or milk. When using great ingredients it's divine any way you eat it. I've got my 13 year old step son that prefers the heavy cream!!

Blueberry Indulgence

These past two weeks are among my favorite - the pick your own blueberry farms are open and blueberries abound at most farm stands and farmer's markets.  And of course I stuff my face until my mouth is blue, reveling in all the antioxidants this dark super food is delivering to my body. But I also love to bake with them.  One of my favorite things to do when I was a kid in the summer was to bake blueberry muffins or blueberry coffee cake.

Here is one that uses yogurt for an even more healthful indulgence:

Blueberry Yogurt Coffee Cake

This recipe has been in our stable of recipes as far back as I can remember. My Mom and grandmother made certain there was always yummy homemade baked goods in the house. This was a special weekend breakfast treat.  I used to view it as breakfast dessert.  We were big yogurt eaters so it’s not surprising that we baked with yogurt. I now love the new flavors like banilla that add a special twist - but plain usually does the trick!

For the Topping

1 cup sugar

1 teaspoon cinnamon

2 tablespoons butter, chilled and cut up

For the Cake

8 tablespoons (one stick) butter, softened

1 1/2 cups packed brown sugar

1 egg

1 teaspoon baking soda

2 cups flour

1 cup plain yogurt

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 cups blueberries (fresh or frozen)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Butter a 9 x13 baking dish.  Using a fork, blend topping ingredients in small bowl and set aside. Cream the butter, brown sugar and egg (I do it by hand with a fork, but a mixer works wonders!) Add baking soda, flour, yogurt and vanilla and mix on medium speed for 2-3 minutes.  Pour cake batter into prepared baking dish. Sprinkle berries over top and gently push into batter and then sprinkle sugar topping over all.

Bake 45-50 minutes. Cool and cut into squares. Enjoy!