What to do with a Gallon of Green Tomatoes

My dear sister in law Julie is a vegetarian. She lives in Albuquerque and I've got to say, I'm a little jealous. Her parents have a cherry tree in their yard. And they get to go to the Balloon Fiesta with ease. Green chile and Sadie's hot salsa are ubiquitous. Julie comes to Atlanta in January for the holiday we call "Thanksmas." It was originally (before school schedules became an issue) the "holiday between Thanksgiving and Christmas for those of us too cheap to buy peak season airline tickets." So, in short, this dish was part of one of our festive "Thanksmas" celebrations. We try to vary what we serve so that it's not identical to either Christmas or Thanksgiving, and given the vegetarians in the audience, we serve an abundance of vegetable dishes.

That said, I'm usually at a loss with what to do with end of season tomatoes on the vine. The weather has gotten cooler, in sort of a roller-coaster sort of way. Today, it's 80; tomorrow it is supposed to be 60. I gathered the remainder of the tomatoes and set out to recreate Julie's recipe.

I used my Cuisinart's slicing attachment to uniformly slice the tomatoes. The recipe calls for a gallon of tomatoes.

I put everything in a really deep stock pot, and it took a few minutes to cook down enough to add all the ingredients. 

Canned for the season

Green Tomato Mincemeat

Makes 6 Quarts

Prep Time: About 30 minutes using Cuisinart for slicing

Cooking Time: 40 minutes

Canning Time: 1 Hour

In a large, heavy stock pot, add: 

4 Quarts chopped green tomatoes

3 Quarts chopped apples (peel them or not depending on your preference)

1 lb. dark raisins

1 lb. white raisins

1/4 cup minced citron (* see note below)

2 cups water

2 1/2 cups brown sugar

2 1/2 cups white sugar

1/2 cup vinegar

1 cup lemon juice

2 Tbsp. ground cinnamon

1 tsp. ground nutmeg

1 tsp. ground cloves

Cook over medium low heat for about 40 minutes. The fruit will cook down, so stir throughout the process. 

Prepare for canning. I use http://www.freshpreservingstore.com/detail/TCL+14400214001 Ball Canning's book as a reference for canning. This required a 15 minute water bath after sealing the jars. 

Use as a filling for "Mincemeat" pie. Would also work well as a side dish for a pork roast. 

*Citron is a citrus fruit and if you can find it, great. I used candied lemon peel http://www.paradisefruitco.com/paradise-candied-fruit/lemon-peel because it's what I had on hand. Each year, after the holidays, I buy the candied fruit I use in my Christmas Stollen because it's not available year-round. Plus, on the clearance rack, it's between 50-75% off! It keeps for a year, but use it! 

Po So Lay

Posole (pronounced Po-so-lay) is a New Mexico treat. The Pueblo Indians who inhabit the Rio Grande Valley consider it a feast day favorite. But it's great for a gloomy, rainy day (which today happens to be). This can be done in either a slow cooker or in a heavy pot on a very low, well watched stove.

My friend Kelsey (fellow Bates College graduate) at http://www.thenaptimechef.com/2011/10/costco-pork-deals-of-the-week/ mentioned in her blog this week that Costco has Boneless Sirloin Tip Roasts on sale. Down here, all I seem to find is pork butts for BBQ, so I was pleased to find this different cut of pork. I needed milk, so I went over to Costco after Zumba class and picked up some pork. 




Posole
By Tina Brickley Engberg


8-10 servings, takes about 40 minutes active time, and 4-6 hours in the slow cooker on low


2 cans of hominy http://www.bushbeans.com/en_US/products/details.jsp?upc=3940001723, drained
2 small cans of chopped green chile (if you can get larger cans where you live, rock on!) 
3 medium onions, chopped
4 large cloves garlic, peeled and crushed
2 Tbsp. canola oil
2 lbs. pork, cut into small chunks (preferably Boneless Sirloin Tip Roast meat)
1 tsp. dried thyme
1 tsp. salt (salt about an hour before finished)
2 bay leaves
1/4 tsp. ground black pepper
4 cups chicken broth
2 cups water (optional)
1/2 jalapeno pepper, minced


Cooked white or brown rice


Heat a heavy pot on the stovetop over medium high heat, place 2 Tbsp. of oil in it, and add pork in sections, to brown the meat. Take meat out of pot on stove and place in the bottom of the slow cooker. Add onion and garlic to the meat in the slow cooker (you may brown the onion and garlic beforehand if that's your preference). Turn off fire on stove. Add thyme, bay leaves, pepper, chicken broth and jalapeno peppers to slow cooker. Cook on low setting for 4-6 hours. We like our posole to be more like a soup than a stew, so if need be, add a bit of water to it as it cooks. In the last hour of cooking, taste the broth for seasoning. Some chicken broths can be overly salty, so check that first, and then add salt to your taste. Also add the two cans of green chile and drained cans of hominy at the end, so that they don't get mushy. 


Serve over 1/2 cup of cooked white or brown rice (optional). 

Layer the onions, garlic, thyme and bay leaves in the bottom of the slow cooker

Brown your meats so they caramelize and seal in the juices

Posole getting started in the slow cooker. Check back in a few hours!  

Posole is the ultimate Southwestern comfort food. 

Taqueria Del Sol's Green Chile Festival

I recently wrote a blog entry for a friend's great website, www.famouschilirecipes.com. Here's my report on the Second Taqueria del Sol Green Chile Festival, held in Atlanta on 9/11/11. http://www.famouschilirecipes.com/green-chile-festival-2011.html  Enjoy!

Pumpkin Granola

Every year I've had a garden at this house, a pumpkin plant has sprouted in the corner from the compost. I let it grow out, and train it to go away from the rest of the garden because the foliage is so huge and simply takes over. This year was no different, but instead of 10 or so little cooking pumpkins, this plant produced three medium sized pumpkins. That's it. Three. Not enough to get excited over. They ripen early, and I harvest them in mid-August, which renders them useless for Halloween. Oh well.

While I'd like to say that I cooked down the pumpkin this year as I have in the past, and used it in bread and pancakes and such, these got sent to the compost. So, maybe next year.

I've really been getting into making granola since I got this recipe from the amazing Tori Ritchie of Tuesday Recipe. I met her at the BlogHer Food conference back in May, and she's a supremely talented recipe developer and writer. This particular recipe is for Maple Almond granola, but what I really like about the recipe is the technique behind it. It calls for wet ingredients folded into the dry ingredients. Previous recipes I've tried didn't do such a good job of covering the oats before drying them back out. This works.
http://www.tuesdayrecipe.com/tuesday-recipe-archives/breakfasts/maple-almond-granola/

Since it's pumpkin-time, I decided to play around with the recipe a bit and focus on the pumpkin theme. I suggest that you get new pumpkin pie spice for this recipe. I know you have an old jar in your spice cabinet. I do.


Pumpkin Granola
Adapted from Tuesday Recipe

Makes about two pounds
Prep time: 10 minutes
Bake time: 40 minutes

5 cups old-fashioned rolled oats
(not instant, not quick cooking)
1 cup raw slivered almonds
1 cup toasted, hulled pumpkin seeds (a.k.a. pepitas)
1/4 cup canola oil
1/2 cup real maple syrup (Grade B if you can get it; do not use pancake syrup)
1/4 cup hot tap water
1/2 cup canned pumpkin (not pumpkin pie filling)
1 Tbsp. vanilla extract
1/2 tsp. sea salt
1 Tbsp. Pumpkin Pie Spice
1 tsp. ground cinnamon


Preheat oven to 300 degrees. Line two rimmed baking pans with parchment paper.

In a large bowl or pot, combine oats and almonds (conserve the pumpkin seeds for later). In a small bowl, or two cup measure, whisk together the oil, pumpkin, maple syrup, salt, spices, and vanilla extract until blended. Pour over dry ingredients and stir until oats and almonds are completely covered. Divide mixture evenly between parchment lined pans, spreading it out. Bake on the middle and lower racks of the oven for 20 minutes. Remove from oven to stir and re-spread the granola in each pan. Swap pan positions. Continue to bake 10 minutes more and add the pumpkin seeds (pepitas). Add these close to the end of baking so that they don't scorch. Bake for 10 minutes or so, for a total of approximately 40 minutes. Granola should be dry and golden brown.

Remove from oven and stir the pans one more time. Let the granola cool completely in the pans. Transfer to an airtight container. Store at room temperature for up to two weeks, or refrigerate for a longer time.

Liquid ingredients look like a lava lamp

This is before I spread it out, but you get the idea. Parchment is necessary to keep it from burning.

It just looks like fall.

Waldorf Schools, Statler and Waldorf, Waldorf Salad

Waldorf. Waldorf. Waldorf. I love Waldorf Salad. Each year, we go to our next door neighbor's house for a get together with the other neighbors on our weird little triangle. Most of the guests come in through the backyard and up the porch, and we get to visit with everyone whose houses are behind our own. It's fun not living in a typical subdivision. It's a potluck, with Chuck and Debbie cooking up tasty burgers to go with whatever everyone else brings. Chuck fries up the most yummy okra and serves it with a Siracha Mayo. Every year, I bring Waldorf Salad.

My grandmother Reta made the best Waldorf Salad. She had a way with apples. Her father was an apple-drier in Upstate New York, who made the rounds in a horse and wagon to the local apple farms, drying apples for the farmers at the turn of the 20th century. The advent of refrigeration killed his business. Apples for our family are a big part of our family lore. And now that it's apple season, it's one of my favorite times of the year.

Reta celebrating her 102nd birthday. That's not me, it's my cousin Suzanne. 

Reta lived to three weeks shy of her 105th birthday. She was a lover of food. When she cooked, she was insistent upon the best ingredients, simply prepared. She and Bapa, my grandfather, hosted the most fantastic Christmas dinner each year, inviting all of their Rochester, New York friends to their home in South Florida. It never felt like Christmas on the outside with pink lights on houses, but in that house, it really was. 

One of the things that Nana did so well was restrain herself when she was around lots of food. She never gobbled, rushed, or otherwise hurried with what she ate. If she wanted a cookie, she had a cookie. One. Cookie. Not a handful, not a faux-food cookie. One cookie. 

I have, in the interest of lightening up this recipe for the benefit of my husband, started making it with plain yogurt. It's not as creamy. Maybe a half-mayo, half-yogurt approach works best for you. 

Nana's Waldorf Salad

5 medium apples, cored and chopped (use an eating variety instead of a cooking variety)

2 stalks celery, destringed and chopped

1 cup raisins

1/2 cup walnut pieces, toasted

1/2 cup plain yogurt (or mayo, or half and half mayo-yogurt)

1 Tbsp. lemon juice

1 pinch of Kosher salt

Cut apples and celery and place in a large mixing bowl. Add lemon juice (keeps apples from browning) and stir. Add raisins, walnut pieces and yogurt. Put a pinch of Kosher salt (or half a pinch of regular salt) in and stir all together. Serve chilled. 

An Apple A Day

It's early apple season and I think it's going to be a good year for Georgia apples. I asked my mother to bring me some Jonathan apples after Labor Day, and she delivered. I originally thought perhaps I'd make plain applesauce, but remembered that I also had a bag of frozen cranberries, waiting to be used. So, I returned to this awesome recipe that my son's preschool teacher gave us last fall, after the Thanksgiving Feast held at school. The Pre-K class made the applesauce for the Feast, and it was a big hit.


Super Star Cranberry Applesauce

6 tart apples, peeled, cored and sliced
1 cup fresh, whole cranberries
2/3 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 cup water
1-2 Tablespoons lemon juice (depending upon tartness of apples)

Put all ingredients in a large, heavy stockpot and bring to a boil. Cover, then simmer over lowest heat possible until soft. Cool in refrigerator and serve either warm or cold.

Lovely North Georgia Apples

Apples ready to boil

Cranapplesauce

I will spare you the photo, but my husband actually used this applesauce as salad dressing the first night we had it. I don't have any idea why that appealed to him, but he gave it a big thumbs up.



Gettin' Figgy With It

I do like that Will Smith song. But I like figs better. They're not in season for long. They happen to grow locally in abundance, and they're just great! I bought a pint of them at Whole Foods on Tuesday; your local farmer's market may too have them right now. One of my favorite things to do with them is very simple. Sugar, cinnamon, a little butter and sliced figs. Let me show you. My friend Gene in Morristown, NJ showed me how years ago and it's still my favorite.

Figs on parade

Grilled Figs

1 pint fresh figs, washed and halved

2 Tbsp. sugar

1 tsp. ground cinnamon

2 tsp. butter

Put cinnamon and sugar in a small bowl or plate and stir so they mix. Heat butter in a skillet over medium-low heat until melted. Dip the fig half, cut side down, in the cinnamon and sugar mixture. Place face down in the pan. (You may want to run your exhaust fan, because it may smoke a bit). Keep adding figs until you have the pan mostly full (but not so full they don't fit face down; do it in batches if using a small pan). Cook for 2 minutes or so and flip over so they're on the skin side down. Cook another minute. Remove from pan and serve.

Grilled Figs that my camera can't seem to focus on