Prune Conserve

Hi Friends,

I don't know if I have any regular readers or not.  If I do, I would love to know you are there.  I know a lot of people pop in for recipes, and I wonder if you ever come back again.  If you are there, please do leave comments as you get a chance.

I thought I'd let you know what I made today.  Last year our favorite homemade jam was made out of prunes.  All the other jams we made were ok, but the Prune Conserve stood out above all the rest in many ways.  By the way, prunes are really a fresh fruit.  They are not just dried plums.  One common variety is Italian Prunes. They are purple/blue in color, and split easily in half, like an apricot.  Their flavor is sweet with a touch of lemon juice complexity, with no bitter.  There happened to be one of these trees on the property when we moved into this house, which made me really happy, because there were Italian prunes where I grew up also.  I think you could also make this recipe with some sweet plums too.

The original recipe had 6 cups of sugar!  So of course, I had to start tweaking.  Last year we figured out this recipe really does not need much sugar, and its thickness is not based on sugar or pectin either.  I also decreased the amount of orange peel in the recipe, because frankly, it is not one of my favorite flavors.

Another tip for the recipe is that if you have a food processor, use it.  If you don't, it will take you a bit more time for chopping ingredients, but that doesn't matter, if you aren't making mega batches.  Another tip is that it is ok to make multiple batches, as long as they will fit into your largest kettle.

Prune Conserve
wildflowermorningrecipes.blogspot.com

2 1/2 quarts chopped, pitted prunes or plums (about 4 pounds)*
2 cups raisins
1 3/4 cups chopped orange pulp*
1/3 cup thinly sliced orange peel*
1 1/2 cups sugar (you might try xylital or stevia)
2 cups chopped walnuts or pecans or other nuts*

* Use the S-blade of your food processor on these, if you have one.  Pulse them until they are as small as you wish.  The nuts and orange peel can be pulsed fine.

Combine the prunes, raisins, orange pulp, orange peel and sugar in a large pot.  Bring slowly to a boil, stirring until sugar dissolves.  Cook rapidly almost to jellying point, about 15 - 20 minutes.  As mixture thickens, stir frequently to prevent sticking.  Add nuts the last 5 minutes of cooking.  Pour hot mixture into jars, leaving 1/4 inch head space.  Adjust caps.  Process 15 minutes in boiling water bath.  Yield:  about 5 pints.

Thanks to William at Heavenly Light Photography for the photos.

Chili Salsa (As Mild as you Wish)

Here is the recipe for salsa that I made last year, and I am going to make again this year.

Chili Salsa
Yield 7 - 9 pints

10 cups peeled, cored, chopped tomatoes
4 cups chopped onions
1 cup lemon juice
6 cups seeded chopped chiles (use a variety of hot to mild peppers and some in between to desired heat level.)
3 tsp salt
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper (optional)

Combine ingredients in a large saucepan.  Heat to boil and simmer 10 minutes.  Ladle salsa into hot pint jars.  Leave 1/4 to 1/2 inch head space.  Wipe rims.   Adjust lids and process in a boiling water canner.  15 minutes 0 - 1,000 feet altitude, 20 minutes 1000 - 6000 feet altitude, 25 minutes above 6000 feet.

Low Sugar Homemade Ketchup from Garden Tomatoes

Here is my long awaited ketchup recipe. It is for those who don't want to overdue sugar in their food, and yet want a nice tasting sauce for potatoes. If you like it sweeter, feel free to add more of the sweetener of your choice, at your own risk. In my opinion, and the opinion of a few other people, it tastes a lot like a store brand in the refrigerator that doesn't have high fructose corn syrup, it is just a whole lot less sweet, though still tasty.

So grab some tomatoes and boil them down into sauce. (By the way, I blend whole tomatoes, skin and all for the base for my sauce. I put it in casserole dishes in the oven, at 350 degrees, and it seems to thicken faster there then on the stove top. But when I run out of oven space, I put blended tomatoes in a big pot on the stove, and boil it down. Once it is thick, I put it back into the blender until ketchup smooth.

Barbara's Ketchup

For every 4 cups of very thick, smooth, boiled down tomato sauce, add:

1 1/3 cups of lemon juice
1/2 cup honey or other sweetener of choice
1 Tablespoon oregano, dried
1 Tablespoon basil
2 teaspoons salt
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
4 teaspoons onion powder
1 teaspoon celery salt
2 teaspoons paprika
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon

Pour in jars and can like tomato sauce.

Garlic Collards and Carrots, Vegan and Gluten-free

I've been out of blogging mode for quite a few months.  I think I've been out of cooking mode too.  But the school year is over, and it is time to think about something else, like good food.  I made something like this yesterday, and it was so good, I had to make it again today, and even got out my camera to celebrate.  So all my faithful followers, you get a blog post to read.  Thanks for sticking around even when I haven't been so faithful.

So, I discovered that the collards are growing like crazy in my garden, so I went searching around on the web some collard recipe inspiration.  I made an awesome recipe with collards and spicy tofu on top, but I didn't get any photos of it.  I will have to try that one again soon.  It got good ratings here from my husband.

And I made this delicious Garlic Collards and Carrots Recipe.  The amounts are flexible, but I put the general idea down in recipe form for those of you who need a concrete starting place, or you can't cook.

Garlic Collards and Carrots
www.wildflowermorningrecipes.blogspot.com

1 large bunch (or two) of Collards
1 large onion, chopped
4 - 6 garlic cloves, mashed with a big knife and sliced, or pressed
2 stalks of celery, sliced
3 - 4 carrots, grated
1 - 2 Tablespoons (or to taste) Braggs Liquid Aminos or salt to taste

Wash your collards, and cut out the ribs and discard.  Stack the leaves in piles.  Roll up the leaves from 2 - 3 collards like a burrito, and then make 1/4 inch slices.  Roll and slice until you have cut up the whole pile.  Unroll the green strips.

Sauté the onions and garlic on medium heat.  You likely won't need any oil, or even water if you pay attention and stir them often.  When the onions are half done, add the celery and carrots and collards.  Sprinkle in the Bragg's Liquid Aminos to your taste and stir around.  If your pan dries out too much or starts sticking, put in a couple tablespoons of water, just enough to keep things free and movable in the pan.  Put a lid on and cook until the greens are wilted.  Stir, and cook a bit more until the vegetables are at your favorite level of tenderness.

Serve on a bed of cooked quinoa (my favorite) or brown rice.

I also served a quick raw veggie salad made of red pepper, green pepper, cucumber, sweet onion, and tomato.  I squeezed on some fresh lemon juice and sprinkled on salt.

My son, the boy who said he was starving, said he didn't want any greens tonight, they didn't look good, and he wasn't very hungery.   Hmm.... I said he needed at least have a "complementary sample," a 1 - 2 tablespoon serving.  He reluctantly tried it, then finished it.  He was about to leave the table when he said, "Actually mom, that wasn't too bad.  I think I could eat some more."  And he did.  It is actually possible to train kids to eat their greens.  Be patient, and make that the only food available to eat.

Carrot Cashew Loaf - GF, Vegan

We shared a meal tonight with some friends.  Everyone enjoyed this recipe.  It turned out wonderful.  I adapted it from several recipes, and made it gluten free. 

Carrot Cashew Loaf - GF, Vegan, 

3 cups of carrots, washed and cut into 1 inch pieces
1 onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, crushed
2 cups raw cashews
1 cup  raw sunflower seeds
2 cups cooked brown rice
1/2 cup brown rice flour
2 Tablespoons tahini
Juice of half a lemon
1 tsp salt
1 tsp basil flakes
1/3  - 1/2 cup stock from the cooked carrots or water

1.  Place chopped carrots into a pan with water, or in a steamer basket.  Bring to a boil, and cook until very tender.  Drain the carrots and reserve the cooking water. 

2.  While carrots are cooking, sauté onions and garlic in a little water until  softened.

3.  While carrots and onions are cooking, place cashews and sunflower seeds in a food processor and grind them until they are in small pieces.  Move them to a mixing bowl.

4.  Place the brown rice in the food processor and grind until it is in smaller pieces.  Move the rice to the mixing bowl.  Add the rice flour, tahini, lemon juice, salt, basil flakes. 

5.  When the carrots are soft, put them into the food processor until they are smooth.  Move to the mixing bowl, along with the onions and garlic.

6.  Mix in some of the cooking water from the carrots, or some warm water and mix well to make a thick paste.

7. Heat oven to 350 degrees.  Spray a loaf pan.  Spoon the mixture into the prepared loaf pan.  Bake for 1 hour.  Let the loaf stand in the pan for at least 10 minutes before removing.  Slice and serve.

Recipe from www.wildflowermorningrecipes.blogspot.com

Garden Squash Soup

I've got a yummy new recipe for fall gardeners and all who like fall vegetables.  The weather has changed.  Hot sunny weather is gone.  We've had some Indian Summer days, then a stretch of rainy weather brought on the need for a bowl of warm soup, made with the vegetables of the season.

We made this recipe yesterday when it was too wet to do anything in a garden, and we will likely make it again the next time it rains again.

Garden Squash Soup
wildflowermorningrecipes@blogspot.com
Yield: a full pot of soup for today with some left over for lunches tomorrow

Saute:
6 cups of peeled diced winter squash, butternut or other orange squash
3 carrots, chopped
1 onion diced
6 garlic cloves, minced
1 1/2 tsp ground cumin
1 Tablespoon of chili powder (medium to mild)
1/2 teaspoon cayanne powder (optional)

Blend until very smooth:
6 cups of water
3 stalks of celery
2 large tomatoes (for the blender)
1 cup cashews or other nuts (optional)

Add to the soup pot:
2 - 3 tomatoes diced (for the soup pot)
1/2 green pepper, diced
3 cans black beans, drained
4 cups frozen corn
6 cups fresh greens, such as spinach, beet greens, or kale, cut in small pieces
1/2 cup fresh basil or 1 Tablespoon dried basil
Salt to taste

In a large soup pot, sauté, in a little water, the first 7 ingredients for about 10 - 15 minutes.  While it is cooking blend the celery, tomatoes, and cashews until very smooth.  When the squash is tender, add the blended vegetable broth, and the remaining ingredients, and cook and stir until the greens are wilted and everything is heated through.

Watermelon - No Recipe Needed

 We've been eating out the garden for months.  

Simple food.  Simple recipes.  Simply delicious.

It's our first year to successfully grow watermelon.  All agree it was a true success.

We tried heirloom watermelon this time.  I think there is more life in those seeds.  They are huge.  In the photo below the white seed is from the orange melon, the brown and black speckled one is from the red melon.  The tiny black seed is from the grocery store melon.  The heirloom seeds are easy to find, easy to remove, and there aren't as many of them.  I like this recipe.

Beets and Zucchini - What to do I do with Them?

We have been having so much fun with the produce coming out of our garden, but at times it comes much faster then we can eat it.  

We have some pretty beets in the garden this year.  When sliced thinly with the mandolin slicer the Chioga beets look like peppermint candy, and the golden beets look like disks of sunshine beside them.  I am dehydrating them to put in soup, or to eat as little veggie chips in the winter.

 I keep this noisy dehydrator on the deck where it doesn't add heat to my kitchen.  My deck is almost like our summer kitchen, for that is where I do my canning also.

 If the zucchini is large, I grate it and make zucchini bread, or zucchini patties (recipe in my last post).  If they are smaller I cook them in stir fry, or I slice them and dehydrate them for use later in the winter.  I think these will be good layered in some tomato sauce in a casserole dish with onions for some zucchini "lasagne".

My mandolin slicer also makes little match-stick sizes.  So I made a couple jars of them too. 

What are you doing with beets and zucchini?

Zucchini Patties - Gluten-free, Vegan, for the Freezer

We have been having a great summer of camping, and cooking, and eating, and canning, and more.  We've made some great food, but I haven't taken the time to post about it.  Our garden is producing large quantities of food right now, and we are eating it as fast as we can, and preserving the rest.

Zucchini is a plant that some people have an easy time with, but up until this year the squash bugs have been killing my plants before we got more then a handful of baby squash.  So this year I decided to plant more squash then the squash bugs could kill. (I can't handle patrolling for the deadly killers and squashing them.)  And my strategy worked.  We have a giant row now of giant zucchini and yellow crookneck squash plants.  We also had some in another part of the garden, so many that we ourselves took out a few plants to make room for other vegetables.

We have made yummy stir fries with it.  I've cooked it with garden tomatoes and basil and onions.  I've made a zucchini casserole.  And I figured out how to make zucchini patties.  But I still had to start giving away the "dreaded" zucchini.  My friend took a large box of them off my hands, and then sent me a recipe of what she did with them.  She not only made zucchini patties, she made six batches of them, for her freezer.  Now this starts getting exciting to me.  I'd love to have a freezer shelf full of delicious gluten-free vegan patties.  The recipe she sent me wasn't gluten-free, but I've worked it over, and the results passed approval with every family member today, in sandwiches, with thick slices of garden tomato, sweet onion sliced thinly, vegenaise, ketchup, etc.  

Zucchini Patties - Gluten-free, Vegan

For the Freezer 

www.awildflowermorning.blogspot.com

1.  Get out your biggest bowl and start grating your zucchini and/or yellow crookneck squash to see how many batches you can make.  There is 9 cups of zucchini per batch.  Measure out how much you have.  I had enough for 5 batches.  I divided it between my two giant bowls that I use when canning fruit, so I would have room to add ingredients and mix.  Use an electric grater or food processor of some sort to get the job done quickly.  (You can also just make one batch at a time for immediate eating or for freezing, depending on your family size.)  The patties can be used in sandwiches, like a vegeburger.  Or they can be arranged in a baking dish, covered with gravy, and baked like a casserole.

One batch made averaged around 63 patties.  5 batches made 316 patties.

 Ingredients:

9 cups of zucchini and/or yellow crookneck quash, shredded in a food procesor
4 medium onions, or so, chopped in a food proceesor
4 cups of gluten free rolled oats
2 more cups of gluten free rolled oats, ground up in your blender, food processor or grinder until it is a flour consistency
2-3 cups of gluten free bread crumbs.  (I make bread crumbs with gluten-free Millet Bread, by Food for Life, from the freezer section at the store.  Thaw the bread in the oven or toaster, then use the S-blade in the food processor to break it up into tiny pieces. The Millet bread goes a long ways.  Two loaves was enough for 5 batches. Another kind of bread might work fine also.  You could also use more oats instead of the bread crumbs.)
4 Tbsp La Chikky Seasoning by the Vegetarian Express (or other chicken-style seasoning)
1 Tbsp salt (adjust this amount if you use a chicken-style seasoning with more or less salt, such as McKays, which has a large amount of salt.  Bills Best brand might need more salt.)
1 tsp garlic powder
2 tsp onion power
1/4 cup of Nutritional yeast flakes
1 cup raw cashew pieces, chopped or ground small (use different nuts or seeds if you desire)
1 cup raw sunflower kernels, chopped or ground small (use different nuts or seeds if you desire)

Directions:
Shred the zucchini and/or yellow crook/neck squash on medium shred.  Place in a very large bowl.  Chop or grind up the onions finely, and add to the zucchini.  Add all the other ingredients.  Mix thoroughly.  Use a wooden spoons or clean hands and keep working it until the whole mixture is quite wet and holds together well.  (It is ok to let the mixture sit overnight in the refrigerator to set up even more, and then bake the patties in the morning.)

Spray a baking sheet or two.  Use a 1/3 cup measuring cup as a scoop.  Place a wide canning ring on the the baking sheet.  Place 1/3 cup of the zucchini mixture in the ring, and flatted down into the ring with a spoon.  Move the ring and make another patty.  Repeat until the tray is full.

Bake at 400 degrees.  After the tray has been in the oven 20 minutes.  Remove and turn over each patty.  Then bake for another 20 minutes.  If you have enough baking sheets you can have them filled and ready when the first trays are finished.  This helps speed up the large batch baking process.

Place the baked patties on something to cool.  When cool place them in ziplock bags in appropriate numbers for your family.  Label the bags, and put them in the freezer to use through the winter months.

It took a little work last night and this morning, but it is going to be a real treat to have gluten-free convenience food in my freezer for months.  If I have enough time, I think I'll make some more before the garden stops making zucchini.

Easy Fruit Cobbler (Gluten-free, Vegan), With Raspberries

The raspberries are producing every day now with our sunny warm, but not too warm weather.   Twice I've made my favorite quick and easy fruit cobbler recipe with raspberries.  It is fruity like cobbler, but you can eat it in your hand like cake.  The recipe is gluten-free, dairy-free, low in sugar and fat.
 

Easy Fruit Cobbler (Gluten-free, Vegan)
www.wildflowermorningrecipes.blogspot.com

Oil to grease the 9 x 13 dish.

1/2 cup sugar of your choice, such as Florida Crystals or sucanat
2 cups Sorghum Flour*
2 Tablespoons Tapioca Starch
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 3/4 soy or rice milk, or milk of your choice
2 cups fruit, fresh or frozen, such as raspberries, blackberries, cherries, or peaches
1/2 cup walnuts or other nuts

1.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

2. Grease your baking dish.

3.  In a mixing bowl, combine the sugar, flour, tapioca starch, and baking powder.  Mix well.  Add the milk of choice and mix until smooth. Pour this batter into the baking dish.

4.  Arrange the fruit over the batter and sprinkle with the nuts.  Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes.

*If you can eat gluten, you may make this recipe with 2 cups of whole wheat pastry flour to replace the sorghum flour and the Tapioca starch.