Sunday, June 22, 2008

Garden recipes

I thought it would great to have a section where we can put recipes up for the veggies and stuff we are getting out of the community garden and our CSA boxes..
I'm tagging them as Garden Recipes..

Recipes from a Flatrock Kitchen is for tried and true recipes that we would like to share from our own kitchen!
So please share!


Remember when I was looking for a refrigerator pickle recipe? Well I found this one and they are great! The only thing I didn't do is add the hot peppers..

Easy Refrigerator Pickles
7 cups, about

Ingredients

* 6 cups thinly sliced scrubbed cucumbers
* 2 cups thinly sliced onions, separated into slivers
* 1 1/2 cups distilled white vinegar
* 1 cup sugar
* 1 tablespoon salt (preferably kosher)
* 2 teaspoons mustard seeds
* 1 teaspoon celery seed
* 1/2 teaspoon ground turmeric
* 1-3 whole unbroken dried hot red chili pepper, long skinny oriental type,to taste (optional)

Directions

1. Toss cucumber and onion slices together in a large bowl.
2. Combine remaining ingredients in a medium saucepan, stirring well to dissolve sugar and salt.
3. Bring to a boil over medium heat, stirring occasionally until sugar dissolves.
4. Pour hot vinegar mixture over cucumber mixture, add red peppers if using, and allow to cool, tossing several times.
5. Cover and marinate in the refrigerator for several days, turning once or twice a day for four days.
6. Actually, the pickles are quite good after only a couple hours, but they just ain’t really pickles yet.
7. Pickles can be stored in the refrigerator for several months.
8. They will continue to get spicier the longer the hot red pepper (s) remains in the brine; remove when heat level reaches your preference.

We usually keep adding more onions to the brine, since we eat them faster than the pickles. Actual prep time is about 30 minutes; 4 days is time setting in the fridge waiting for flavor to develop.


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Did you know you can eat squash blooms? And they look easy to do!

Batter Fried Squash Blossoms
SERVES 4 -8

Ingredients

* 1 cup milk
* 1 egg
* 1 tablespoonflour
* 1/4 cup Parmesan cheese
* 2 dozen male squash blossoms
* 1/2 cup canola oil
* mint leaves for garnish

Directions

1. Blend milk, egg, flour, Parmesan cheese, salt and pepper with a fork; beat the batter until smooth.
2. Place flattened squash blossoms in batter, stir gently; allow 10 minute soaking time.
3. Heat oil in a cast iron skillet until hot; fry batter coated blossoms until golden; turn once, drain on paper towels, place on plate and garnish.

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Denise's "Refrigerator Blackberry Jam"

This is a combo of a couple of recipes that I've seen....
Like my Granny I don't measure stuff much lol .. so you have to work with the recipe until you get the taste that you like :)

1 quart of Blackberries ( or any type of berries or fruit)
water to cover
1-3 cups of sugar ( adjust for tastes , you can also use honey )

1.Wash and crush berries ( I like my chunky but you can even run them through a food processor or and blender to get what you like best ) .
Set berries aside

2. In sauce pan add sugar and water...bring to boil ..

3. Add berries and reduce heat to low..

4. Cook berries down until thick..

5. Taste. Add more sugar if needed. Jam should be very "thick" .

6. Pour into a container w/a lid . Store in refrigerator .. enjoy ! We eat it up so fast so I'm not sure how long it will last. We use it our PB & J sandwiches, on ice cream, in our yogurt and other recipes.




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