recipes – Page 2 – Planet B Gardens

concord grape harvest

Feels good to be harvesting fresh grapes in early November. After a couple days of October snow, we’ve had mostly rain and not too cold with brief glimpses of sun in between allowing the grapes to ripen on the vine. These are from a friend’s orchard. Fresh off the vine they have that iconic “grapey” taste — delicious. I’m making Concord grape jelly. Concord Grape Jelly First I washed, de-stemmed, and ran the grapes though a juicer. My juicer left a lot of juicy-looking pulp, so I put the pulp through a manual food mill to ring out the rest of the juice. I poured the resulting juice through a cheesecloth-lined

November 4, 2016

dark rye bread

A hearty, dark deli rye is hard to find in our neck of the woods, unless you bake it yourself. To do it right is an all-day job. Most of the time is hands-off — you just need to be around to manage the transitions. I highly recommend purchasing buckwheat honey for this recipe instead of substituting another variety. It adds an authentic malty flavor you’ll find in traditional dark deli rye bread. Dark Deli Rye Bread Recipe (PDF) Note that this bread is “dark” because the recipe uses dark rye flour. Some dark deli ryes add coloring and flavoring ingredients like instant coffee, unsweetened cocoa powder, or molasses to make the

October 24, 2016

montana chick pea stew

Last garden tomatoes of the year are going into my Montana Chick Pea Stew, inspired by the Indian classic, Chana Masala. Most of the ingredients either came from my garden or the farm of someone I know. First I sliced 10 cloves of the fermented garlic I started this summer. I warmed the fermented garlic in olive oil along with a chopped onion over low heat. To the fermented garlic/onion mix I added a tablespoon each of whole cumin seeds, crushed black pepper, sea salt, and ground cumin. Then I stirred in a minced tablespoon or so of fresh ginger and a half dozen dried cayenne chilies from last year’s garden. As those were sweating covered

October 17, 2016

scratch tortillas – 1st try

Grow your own. Buy in bulk. Make it from scratch. Those are the three guidelines I follow whenever possible, and in that order. My most recent DIY experiment is making tortillas the old fashioned way (here’s the whole grain corn tortilla recipe I used), starting from hard field corn and processing from there. I didn’t grow my own corn this year, so purchased a 25 lb. bag of organic field corn from Great River Milling. Ancient techniques for processing field corn call for simmering the hard kernels in an alkali solution first. From what I’ve read, processing the corn this way makes its niacin available to human body — in addition to other health benefits. I used food-grade

October 5, 2016

good salsa from so-so tomatoes

With the early frost a couple weeks ago, I had to pick all my remaining tomatoes while they were still very green. The best way to ripen green tomatoes is keep them in a cardboard box in a cool area — basement, garage, or shop — that stays between 55F-60F degrees. Once the tomatoes just begin to turn color, bring them inside to ripen the rest of the way at room temperature — 70F-75F or so. While this will get you ripened tomatoes, they are nowhere near as good to eat sliced as those sun-ripened on the vine. They do, however, make good salsa. For this batch I peeled the ripe tomatoes and

September 29, 2016

fresh horehound lozenges

Yesterday I got some beautiful, fresh horehound leaves from a herb farm near my place. Horehound is great for reducing the congestion of an oncoming cold, so making this batch into lozenges in advance of the winter season. To make the lozenges, put a packed cup of the fresh leaves into a heavy-bottomed medium saucepan with a cup of water. Cover, bring to simmer, reduce the heat to low for 20 minutes. Pour the finished leaf “tea” into a mesh strainer over a bowl to catch the liquid. Squeeze the liquid from the leaves into the bowl, and add the liquid back into the saucepan. Compost the spent leaves. Add 1 cup of

August 25, 2016

fermented garlic cloves

Fermented garlic cloves are supposed to taste like a cross between roasted and raw garlic. I decided to give it a try. Beside adding flavor to dishes, fermented garlic contains all the benefits of raw garlic (antioxidants, phytonutrients, minerals, vitamins, allicin — which reportedly lowers “bad” cholesterol — among others) while also containing healthy probiotics from the fermentation process. I peeled dozens of cloves from whole garlic heads I got from one of our local organic farms. That was the hardest — or at least most time-consuming — part. The rest is easy. Sterilize 1.5 pint wide-mouth mason jars, and the same number of 1/2 pint 1/4 pint (4 oz.) mason

August 23, 2016

sauerkraut 2nd try

Last time I made sauerkraut in 2014 I covered the jar with a cloth to let it ferment. One of the dicey parts of this method is it can allow in wild spores from the air as it’s fermenting. Sometimes those create mold on top of the mix and add their own flavors. That might be a good thing, or it might make the kraut taste a little funky. It’s still fine to eat. I didn’t care for the flavor last time, though. This year I’m taking a more controlled approach. I’m starting with freshly harvested cabbage from my garden this round. I shredded the cabbage thinly like I did before, and

August 23, 2016

preserving apricots

Apricots are in season! One of my favorite stone fruits both for eating fresh and preserving through the winter. Traditional Apricot Jam Apricot jam made the traditional way has so many uses. Chop fresh apricots into chunks. Add sugar and lemon juice to taste. You need enough sugar to create the jammy consistency, so err on the sweet side. Simmer until they’re a chunky jam consistency (don’t overcook or you’ll lose the fresh apricot essence). Put the cooked apricot mixture in mason jars, leaving 1/4″ headroom, put on the lids and rings Submerge in boiling water for 10 minutes. The resulting preserves are more runny than preserves made with added pectin. If you

August 17, 2016

cauliflower casserole

Lots of cruciferous veggies coming on right now. Cauliflower casserole is a great solution for making use of the veggies and freezing individual portions for eating later. Ingredients Garden fresh cruciferous and/or root vegetables you like Leeks/shallots/garlic/onion or other alliums you have on hand 1/2 cup dry white wine 1/4 cup heavy cream 1/2 cup asagio/romano/parmesean cheese (whichever you prefer) 3 cups Panko breadcrumbs 1/2 stick butter 1 cup shredded smoked gouda 1 cup shredded Swiss cheese Salt and pepper to taste Directions Slice cauliflower, broccoli (and any other crucifers/root vegetables you like) 1/4″ thick Put the veggies in a steamer basket and steam for 5 minutes While the crucifers are

August 14, 2016