Pasta Sauce Prep * Preserve your fresh Tomato harvest #GardenCuizine #HealthyCooking #PomodoroSauce

Pasta Sauce Prep
Whole Peeled Tomatoes

We make Pomodoro (tomato) Sauce from scratch most of the time. We do not always have fresh locally grown or homegrown Jersey tomatoes to use though, so we often use canned San Marzanos. At the end of the summer, when our homegrown tomatoes are plentiful, we make homemade sauce in batches as the tomatoes vine ripen. Once picked, if the tomatoes ripen too fast, we move them to the fridge until we are ready to cook them.

This year was a challenging tomato year for us. We got Tomato Blight really bad in our main garden. But, even so, we are surprised and thankful to be harvesting lots of fresh tomatoes.

Yesterday, Harry started preparing our first batch of sauce. We plan to save it for Christmas lasagna dinner. We all enjoy a taste of our garden in December. 

The first step to making homemade pasta sauce is to prepare the tomatoes. Sort through and pick out tomatoes that would make the best sauce. Meaty tomatoes such as San Marzano Plum and Goldman's heirloom make the best pasta sauce, or "gravy" as some Italians call it. We often add and cook down other heirloom tomatoes too; otherwise, we could never eat them fast enough!

Sauce Prep (can be done day or week ahead of cooking)
Gather all the ripe tomatoes you plan on using for your first batch of sauce. You will need one large pot of boiling water and one large pot of water with ice.  
Note: you do NOT have to score the tomatoes with an X on the bottom before blanching! This is very time consuming and not necessary when you are working with a lot of tomatoes.

1) Boil water in a large pot. In batches, blanch the tomatoes for about one minute in the boiling water
3) Remove with a slotted spoon to ice bath. The water just has to be cold; if your ice melts, don't worry about it. Let tomatoes float in the cold water until the skins wrinkle.
4) Remove and core the tomatoes. Harry likes his new Hullster Tomato Corer from Gardener's Supply Co.
5) Peel tomato skins. For sauce, place whole peeled tomatoes in a bowl; cover and refrigerate until ready to cook your Pomodoro sauce.

Besides high quality tomato sauce, peeled whole tomatoes can be frozen for later use in soup, stewed tomatoes, chili and other recipes.

Blog post and photos Copyright (C) Wind. All rights reserved.

Fine dining at home > Compound Butter adds a touch of elegance! @SmartBalance #GardenCuizine

Making Compound Butter

"Beurres composés", French for compound butters, are blends of butter mixed with other ingredients, such as fresh garden herbs and spices. Compound butters are traditionally made with pure butter, but a healthier version can be made using lower fat spreads like Smart Balance. Smart Balance makes different spreads. My favorite is Heart Right Light because it contains plant stanols, Omega-3 and Vitamin E. Compound butters are often frozen - they unthaw quick - making it all the more convenient to have gourmet butter pats available at any time.   

Compound butter blends can be used to flavor fish, chicken, meats, vegetables or in finishing sauces. I made my first compound butters with herbs and garlic at the Academy of Culinary Arts, in Mays Landing, NJ. We made rosettes and froze them until ready to serve. They really added a nice touch of elegance and flavor to the breads and dinner rolls that we served in Careme's, an upscale, fine dining restaurant.

  Compound Butter Ideas 

• Beurre au citron – lemon butter  
• Beurre à la bourguignonne – garlic and parsley butter

Herb Storage Tips
DILL Cut dill at its peak. Wash and wrap in a paper towel and seal inside an airtight plastic baggie and freeze. When you need fresh dill just slice off whatever you need. BASIL can also be preserved at its peak by whizzing it in a food processor with olive oil. Label and store in freezer. Use basil in oil just as you would fresh basil. 

  Special Occasions

Compound butter adds a special touch to holiday and special company meals. This is the recipe I used for Thanksgiving. You do not need to follow exact measurements for compound butter. Use this as an idea. Be creative and add whatever you have available.

Smart Balance Compound Butter recipe

Ingredients 

12 oz tub (340g) Smart Balance Heart Right Light buttery spread

garden herbs and spices -

• 1 Tablespoon fresh dill
• 2 teaspoons fresh parsley
• 2 teaspoons fresh basil (or garden basil preserved in oil)
  

Putting it all together  
Simply soften butter at room temperature, or if using Smart Balance buttery spread, it will be soft enough straight from the fridge. Mix in chopped herbs of your choice. Make rosettes or mold into logs or squares and freeze. To avoid clogging the tip in the pastry bag if piping out rosettes, try not to use stems or big pieces of herbs in your mixture.

  Smart Balance Rosettes
After mixing the herbs into your soft buttery herb spread, put the blend into a pastry bag with a large star tip and pipe out individual rosettes onto wax-paper-lined plates or sheet pans and freeze. Once frozen, the pats can be combined together in airtight freezer containers or freezer baggies. Smart Balance spread is softer than butter; serve them directly onto your guests bread plates rather than onto a separate serving plate, about 10 minutes before dinner is served.

  Smart Balance Herb Log or square
The soft buttery herb spread could also be formed into a log by rolling in parchment paper, wrapped in plastic wrap and frozen until firm. Or on a lined baking sheet press the spread into a smooth, even 1/4-inch thick square or rectangle block, cover with wax paper or clear wrap and freeze. When ready to use, slice and use in cooking or serve as you would butter. 

Related Links: Plant Sterols and Stanols
Homemade Butter and Compound Butter Ideas 
The Hungry Mouse blog - good step-by-step wrapping in parchment 
Photos and blog post Copyright Wind. All rights reserved.

Preserving Your Grape Harvest * Reduced Sugar Jelly @Canvolution @dgdave #GardenCuizine

Reduced Sugar Grape Jelly 

using home grown organic red grapes

Harry and I have been learning about and growing organic grapes for several years now. We have a few varieties, red Vitis labrusca and green Interlaken grapes, Vitis labrusca uva variedad Interlaken. The grapes grow along a split rail fence in full sun. In 2008, my online article with recipe, A Beginner's Guide to Making Jam or Jelly, was published on Dave's Garden. It's been popular, with over 17,000 people reading it so far. 

This year I added another sequel about our jelly making adventures. Our late summer red grape harvest inspired us to make jelly again, only this time we made it with much less added sugar. And...yes...it gelled! (yay, a big achievement for us). The lower sugar jelly tasted plenty sweet and delicious too.

We were able to cut half of the sugar from our original recipe by using a type of pectin that does not depend on using high added sugar. Read more about it.

Here is the link for the article and recipe:  

Homemade Reduced Sugar Grape Jelly by Diana Wind

I'm glad Connie Sumberg, partner in Workstead Industries (Pomona's Pectin) approves! 

***

Pomona's Pectin, For Jam & Jelly "I am very impressed with your article: lovely pictures & a well written, correct jelly making process. When using concord grapes, I would highly recommend letting the juice sit overnight & then pouring it off without the sediment. Crystals in your jelly are like pieces of glass."
~ Connie    Facebook - September 22 at 11:35am ·

Related Link 

Pomona's Universal Pectin

Photo collage and blog article Copyright ©2011 D.Wind. All rights reserved.

Passion for Pickles Video

Passion for Pickles 

If you think pickles are just cucumbers or beets soaked in vinegar, water and salt... think again. Alex Hozven opens our eyes to the wide world of pickling using alternative methods for food preservation. She has built a business using traditional Asian pickling techniques, which use sea salt and natural brine (drawn by salt) from fresh garden vegetables, versus pickling using a wet acid (vinegar) solution.

According to the Obsessive Video documentary caption, posted on CHOW, Alex craved pickles when she was pregnant with her first son. Her passion for pickles led her to opening a family pickling business called The Cultured Pickle, located in Berkeley, CA.

The Cultured Pickle shop makes everything you can imagine in pickles, ranging from a Vintage Sauerkraut with green cabbage, caraway seed, juniper berries, green apples and sea salt, to seasonal specialties, such as summer Armenian cucumbers with fresh turmeric. The Cultured Pickle produces a range of pickled products, including 'Super Sauerkraut Salad' made from green cabbage, beets, carrots, ginger and sea salt, and a house Kim Chee made with pickled green cabbage daikon, carrots, ginger, cayenne pepper and sea salt.

Alex takes pride using Japanese techniques to make her company's fermented vegetable creations. According to her website, she purchases their veggies from an impressive range of locally grown, organic produce suppliers. Green thumbs up from GardenCuizine!

Note: Pickled products are very high in sodium, enjoy their intense flavors in moderation along with daily exercise and home cooked meals. Cooking at home helps to control your daily sodium intake.
 
Related Links  
Pickles: Helping Preserve Memories of Home by Lucy Morris, author of Pickled
Sodium in the Diet

Special thanks to Jill Nussinow, MS, RD for posting about The Cultured Pickle Shop on Facebook. Jill is known as ‘The Veggie Queen’ -- Growing Vegetable Enthusiasm - Vegetable, vegetarian, vegan and pressure cooking expert and Food and Nutrition Strategist

Copyright © 2010 Wind. All rights reserved.

GardenCuizine Recipe: The Best Basil Pesto

Italian Basil Pesto 

with a Japanese secret ingredient

 

Pesto 

Preserving your garden harvest of Basil by making Pesto will provide you with the flavor of fresh basil throughout the year. We freeze our pesto in 16-ounce (473ml), or smaller sized containers. Small size containers defrost quickly when set out on the counter while you are preparing the meal. 

Fresh (vs. dry) Basil for Pesto 

Dried basil can be used in certain foods, but for the best garden pesto use fresh rather than dried. Growing your own makes the pesto even better. 

What is the Japanese Secret Ingredient? 

The unusual, non traditional, non Italian, secret ingredient is Umeboshi Vinegar. I got hooked on using Ume vinegar years ago, when I had my health food store and restaurant (Garden of Eden Natural Foods and Country Kitchen, Inc.). Ume Vinegar is made with Japanese Plums and Shiso leaves preserved in a salty brine. Using just a small amount imparts terrific flavor. And when coupled with a small amount of added grated cheese, you will not need to add any table salt to the pesto.

• For more information, see GardenCuizine's Umeboshi Vinegar Product Spotlight  

Sicilian Olives

Another key ingredient is good quality olive oil. Depending on the size of your basil harvest, you can end up using quite a lot of olive oil when making pesto. We purchase a large (101oz, 3L) can of Italian Olive Oil and use this as a good excuse for an excursion to the Italian Market in Philadelphia, PA. The organoleptic quality (taste) and my Sicilian heritage make extra virgin olive oil made from Sicilian olives my first choice. You can find many fine olive oils on the market from around the world including: Spain, Turkey, Greece, Croatia, Syria, Jordan, Tunisia and Morocco. Putting it all together The recipe can be easily doubled. Two times the recipe (double) fits nicely into a standard household food processor bowl, just blend down the first addition of basil before adding in the next batch and add the nuts last. Umeboshi vinegar can be found in Asian, gourmet and natural food markets.         Yields: one 16oz (2cups, 473ml) container    

Ingredients: 

4 cups (~120-160g) fresh Basil leaves* 

1 cup (237 ml) extra virgin olive oil 

¼ to 1/3 cup (~25+g) grated cheese (Parmigiano-Reggiano, Grana Padano, Pecorino or Soy) 

¼ cup (34g) toasted pignoli (pine) nuts (or other nuts such as walnuts) 

1 teaspoon (~5ml) Umeboshi vinegar (optional) 

1/2 teaspoon (~1g) fresh ground black pepper 

1 Tablespoon (~8g) minced garlic  

*We usually stick with basil, but you can mix in other edible, aromatic leaves from your garden too such as: Shiso, Mint, Arugula or Cilantro.

• First, sanitize a kitchen sink; then fill it with water to rinse the fresh cut basil. We put the basil in large pots with water like you would cut flowers to let the leaves air dry. This allows time to admire your gardening efforts. Sometimes we let it dry overnight. When the leaves are dry, hand pick all the good leaves from the stems and place into a large bowl. Reject any brown or bad looking leaves.

Toss the stems and rejected leaves (if any) into your compost pile.

• Toast the nuts, set aside. After all your ingredients are ready, begin filling a food processor* bowl with everything except the nuts and garlic. Mix and chop down the leaves, using your judgment as to how long to mix the pesto. You want to leave some texture to it.

• Add the garlic. Mix some more.Taste the pesto and adjust the seasonings if necessary to your liking. Add the nuts last and don't over mix. Pour the pesto into freezer safe containers, label and store.

*Pesto can also be made using a large mortar and pestle     Buon Appetito!

***

Related GardenCuizine Posts:   Pomodoro Sauce  GardenCuizine Product Spotlight: Umeboshi Basil, King of Herbs      Related Links: Health Benefits of Olive Oil by Katherine Zeratsky, RD, LD Mayo Clinic        A Stroll through Philadelphia's Italian Market by Jeff DiNunzio National Geographic Traveler         Basil, the King of Herbs by Diana Wind, Dave's Garden             GardenCuizine Nutrition Analysis: calculated from USDA nutrient values Italian Basil Pesto, 1/32 of recipe Good source: Vitamin K  Serving size: 12g, Calories: 73, Calories from Fat: 69, Total Fat 8g (12%DV), Saturated Fat 1g (6%DV), Vitamin A 163IU (3%DV), Vitamin E (Alpha Tocopherol) 1mg (6%DV), Vitamin K 15mcg (18%DV), Calcium 15mg (2%DV), Sodium 45mg (2%DV), Manganese 0.1mg (6%DV)

Percent Daily Values (%DV) are based on a caloric intake of 2,000 calories for adults and children age 4 or older

Photographs and Blog Article Copyright © 2009 Wind. All rights reserved. rev 8/27/11