Pickled vegetables

It’s summer, and with summer, comes more time to cook and more things to cook with: farmer’s market vegetables! Yesterday, I did a little experiment with my grandmother’s family pickle recipe and tried pickling some of my own vegetables. But here’s the catch: Paul hates pickles. So, I had to modify the recipe to make it taste like something Paul does like: our recipe for blanched kale with a dressing of sauteed onions and jalepenos in olive oil and balsamic vinegar. Here’s how I did it.

Spicy Pickled Vegetables

Step 1: Choose your vegetables

My choice of vegetables was heavily inspired by things I’ve had pickled successfully in the past: carrots, green beans, cauliflower, celery, red pepper, and cucumbers. I cut all of them into chunks that would pickle in roughly the same time and could also be eaten easily in one bite.

Step 2: Make your pickle juice!

The next order of business is to make your pickling liquid. My recipe was loosely based off my Grandma Martha’s pickle recipe, but modified to (hopefully) suit Paul’s taste. Here it is:

The page from my recipe book that I copied my Grandma's recipe onto before coming to Bloomington.

7 cups water
3/4 cup cider vinegar
about 3/8 cup balsamic vinegar
3/8 cup salt
2 tsp sugar
1 jalepeno, sliced into 1/4″ rounds
1/4 large onion, roughly chopped
1+ clove garlic, rough chopped

Heat all of the above ingredients in a saucepan, covered, just until boiling and then remove from heat and keep covered until ready to pour over vegetables.

Pickle juice on the stove

Step 3: Clean your jars.

This step is essential. Even though we’ll be pickling with the help of the refrigerator (and not the old fashioned way), it’s key that your jars (and tops) be extremely clean, because otherwise you’ll have mold growing in your pickles in just a few days and they won’t last for weeks like they will in clean jars.

Step 4: Build your vegetables.

Layer the vegetables into the jars in any order you please. You can do separate sets of vegetables in each jar, or mix and match. I like to mix because it looks pretty.

All in: green beans, carrots, celery, red pepper, and cauliflower.

All ready to be pickled!

Step 5: Pickle!

Pour the pickle juice over the vegetables, seal the jars, and put in the fridge. Test the vegetables every day or so, to see when they’re pickled to your desire of doneness. It can be anywhere from a day to a week, depending on the type of vegetables, the size of the slices, the temperature of your fridge, and your personal tastes. We’ll be trying ours tonight. I’ll keep you posted!

Sealed up tight!

Sitting tight in the fridge, pickling away.

Shrimp and spinach alfredo

Just some quick pictures and a recipe today. No story associated with this one. (Which I supposed is good, because it means there were no catastrophes worth reporting, yes?)

Shrimp and spinach alfredo (on a budget)

Makes enough for a meal for 2-3 depending on how hungry your eaters are.

Ingredients:
1/2 lb frozen pre-cooked shrimp (you can add more if you’re not on a budget; or use fresh shrimp, but cook them before adding to the sauce)
4 cups fresh spinach
2 cups chopped or sliced fresh mushrooms
Alfredo sauce:
3/4 stick of butter
1-2 tbsp flour
2 cups of cream or milk (Paul and I usually just use 2%, or whatever we have in the house – we’ve even used soymilk)
4 oz. shredded cheese of your choice (our favorite is gruyere)
1/2 cup grated parmesan
Salt and pepper to taste

Directions:
Melt butter in saucepan on medium heat (make sure to not let it bubble). Add flour and stir until a rich caramel color (I think I heard them say that on Food Network once). Add milk and heat while stirring constantly (bring to not quite a simmer but until you see steam coming off the pot). Make sure not to let the milk scald. When milk is steaming, add cheeses gradually, mixing as you do. Stir until mixture begins to thicken and is slightly thicker than the final consistency you’d desire your sauce.* Add (thawed) shrimp (tails on or off, your preference), and spinach, and mushrooms. (If you desire, you can saute the mushrooms in butter or olive oil and garlic first to draw off some of their liquid and speed up the whole process.) Stir until all ingredients are heated and cooked through. Ladle sauce over your choice of pasta and enjoy!

*Tips for sauce that won’t thicken: First, ALWAYS thicken the sauce before adding anything else, e.g., chicken, mushrooms, spinach, shrimp, veggies, chunks of anything. Otherwise it won’t thicken properly and the following solutions can’t be used. Second, BE PATIENT. It can take upwards of 30 minutes of stirring for sauce to thicken properly sometimes. Finally, you can add more flour to speed up the thickening process. This can be done two ways: (1) Sprinkle in sifted flour directly into the sauce in teaspoon increments until the sauce starts to thicken. Sprinkle in no more than 4 or 5 teaspoons, however, otherwise the sauce will start to taste doughy, like bread. Gross. (2) Mix up 3 teaspoons of flour with 1 teaspoon of water (or white wine, if you like that flavor in sauce), and pour into sauce slowly. Repeat up to 3 times until sauce has reached desired consistency.

More pictures of the sauce to tickle your taste buds. And some of the bread I made to go with the meal.

Eggplant Parmesan

Its been a while since I have done this.  I hope blogging is something like riding a bike, in that its something you don’t forget how to do.  Then again, I don’t particularly like riding bikes, though I don’t remember why.  I think I crashed once.  It probably hurt.  Anyways, it is enough to have kept me off a bike for the last 10 plus years.  But back to why we are here.  Jess has been on me for a long time to get something posted, but truth be told I am incredibly lazy and had trouble getting myself to do it.  But then Jess went home for Spring Break, and I ate frozen pizza and leftovers for a week straight.  After that, I am so excited to be eating fresh delicious food that I will gladly write about it here.

Today’s dinner put a serious hole in my “I don’t get full on a vegetarian diet” argument.  We decided to make eggplant parmesan, and it was fantastic.  We started with a tomato sauce made from tomatoes, garlic, a red onion, some red wine, and fresh herbs from Jess’ hydroponic AeroGarden.  We let these simmer all afternoon in our slow-cooker until we had a nice homemade sauce.  For the eggplant, we sliced them into 1 inch thick pieces and quickly browned both sides in a skillet with some oil.  It was then covered with a mixture of breadcrumbs, mozzarella cheese, and parmesan cheese, and placed in a bed of our tomato sauce to bake in the oven.  When it came out is was a beautiful golden brown, a lot more appetizing than the frozen leftovers I had grown accustomed to.  We served it over pasta, with a side of rainbow chard with some garlic, onion, and spicy peppers.

Now, when Jess and I discuss what meals we are having the following week, I always try to tell her I need a significant helping of meat to make sure I get full.  Unfortunately for a couple living off of loans and an AmeriCorps living allowance, meat doesn’t always fit into the budget.  So it is good finding vegetarian meals that bring me into food coma territory.  And this was definitely one of them.  One plate and I was stuffed, which is great because it means leftovers, and during my week of eating freezer food I had finished all of my lunch options, and was getting sick of peanut butter.

P.S. I will try to not let it get to be a whole month (maybe even more) before I post again.  and I wanted to thank whoever it was that periodically checked our blog for updates.  I hope it was worth the wait.

Beer Chops (with Mashed Potatoes and Applesauce)

This evening, after a beautiful fall afternoon in the field, I decided I wanted to create an equally beautiful fall meal for Paul and I. We’ve been really busy lately, and so most of our meals have been quick and easy, like chili and corn muffins, or hamburger casserole. But tonight, I wanted to have something nice ready for Paul when he came home from work.

I started by boiling some potatoes for one of Paul’s favorite foods: mashed potatoes. (Although I did realize after I started that given Thanksgiving is next week, perhaps I should have held off on the mashed potatoes, so we don’t OD before Turkey Day. Oh well.) Then, I began thinking about a vegetable side. Well, we didn’t actually have any vegetables, except lettuce, which would make a pretty boring salad all on its own. So instead of a vegetable, I decided to go with a fruit. I’d been wanting to try the idea of baked applesauce for a while, so I took out some fresh farm market apples, and quartered them into an oven-safe bowl. I added some pineapple juice for acidity and to help them keep their color (because I couldn’t find our lemon juice), a dash of nutmeg, allspice, and cinnamon, and a scoop of brown sugar, and covered the bowl and put the apples in to bake at 400 degrees.

Now, to think about the meat. I had up to this point been thinking chicken, but applesauce, mashed potatoes – what goes better with applesauce and mashed potatoes than pork chops? And we still had frozen pork chops in our freezer from when we bought them on sale a few weeks ago. So pork it was. After I got them out to thaw, I began looking online for inspiration. I read recipe after recipe, and nothing seemed particularly fetching until I came across a recipe courtesy of some brewing company. Brewing company, I thought. Beer could be good to marinate pork chops. So I concocted a pork chop marinated based on a bottle of Upland Brewery’s Black Lager, cinnamon, chili powder, and Montreal steak seasoning (see below for the full recipe). Don’t ask me how I thought of that combination of spices. I just smell and guess and hope it goes over well. (And most of the time, I think I get lucky).

Let me emphasize: these pork chops are awesome! I don’t really like pork, but these are good. The lager seeps into the meat, and combined with the cinnamon, black pepper and chili powder, yields pork with a killer sweetness and a little kick. Dad, if you’re reading this, you would love these pork chops.

When Paul arrived home, I had pork chops and baked applesauce in the oven, mashed potatoes with garlic and onion on the stove, Vince Guaraldi Christmas music on the stereo, and a beer in my hand. What a lovely fall Friday evening!

Here are approximate recipes for tonight’s dinner.

“Beer Chops” (Black Lager Marinated Pork Chops)

Marinade:
12 oz. Black Lager beer
1/2 teaspoon rosemary
1/2 teaspoon bay leaves
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon chili powder
1/2 teaspoon garlic salt
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
1/2 teaspoon Montreal steak seasoning
1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
1 tablespoon olive oil

Directions:
Mix ingredients for marinade and pour over 2-3 pork chops. Allow to sit for 30 minutes to an hour. Remove pork chops from marinade and place in baking dish. Bake in a preheated 400-degree oven for 12-15 minutes. Remove from oven, cover in tin foil and allow to rest for 10 minutes. Remove tin foil and enjoy!

Oven-Baked Applesauce

Ingredients:
3-5 apples, peel on, cut into quarters
2 tablespoons pineapple juice, lemon juice, or other acidic juice
nutmeg, cinnamon, allspice to taste
1/4 cup brown sugar
2 tablespoons butter

Directions:
Place quartered apples into oven-safe bowl or baking dish that has a top. Pour juice over apples and mix well to coat. Sprinkle spices and sugar over apples. Cut butter into pieces and place over apples. Cover and place in 400-degree oven to bake for 1 hour. Remove from oven and mix with a wisk to blend apples and spices. Serve hot or room temperature. Goes great with pork chops!

Garlic, Onion and Fontina Mashed Potatoes

Ingredients:
3-4 medium to large sized Russet potatoes (or your favorite potato)
3/4 cup finely grated fontina cheese
1/2 finely chopped onion
1 tablespoon minced garlic
4 tablespoons butter
olive oil
milk, cream or soy milk
salt and pepper to taste

Directions:
Cut potatoes into chunks and place in cold water in a sauce pan. Bring potatoes and water to a gentle boil over medium heat and allow to cook until potatoes are easily speared with a fork and fully cooked. Drain potatoes and return to pot on low heat to allow remain water to boil off. Saute onions and garlic in olive oil, salt and pepper until onions are translucent. Add butter, milk (to desired consistency), and grated cheese to potatoes and mash together while still over heat. Add onions and garlic, and salt and pepper and mix well. Serve and enjoy!