Cold Cucumber Soup

I learned this recipe from the late Billy Joe Tatum many years ago. I've made cucumber soup half my lifetime but Billy Joe's method completely changed my method.

Ingredients
 3 or 4 medium to large cucumbers
Half of one average-sized onion, sliced
3 tablespoons butter
3/4 cup plain yogurt
1 1/2 cups buttermilk
3 cups chicken broth
Fresh dill
Salt to taste

Start with 3 or 4 medium to large cucumbers. Peel if the skin is bitter, otherwise peel or don't peel. Remove the seeds if they are large. Slice cucumbers and set half aside.

In a skillet, melt about 3 tablespoons butter, then add in HALF of the sliced cucumbers and the onions. Simmer about 5 to 7 minutes.

Add approximately 2 cups chicken broth (canned or fresh, whatever you have on hand).

Continue simmering for another 5 to 8 minutes, just until the onion is nearly transparent.

Working in batches, put the simmered cucumber and onion in a blender with another 1 cup chicken broth and the remaining fresh cucumber slices.
Add the fresh dill, yogurt and buttermilk and blend well.

Chill several hours or overnight before serving. Add a dollop of yogurt or sour cream and some diced cucumber and dill as garnish on top.

Our pup Eli says you'll love it.

Mint, More Useful Than You Thought

When most people think of mint they likely think of mint-chocolate ice cream. Or dried mint leaves for tea. But hey, mint is way more useful than that. Consider Cold-Pressed Mint Tea. You'll find the recipe in several of my books on my website.

If you sort of, kind of like mint tea made from dried mint leaves or those disgusting mint teabags (which are leaves with mint flavoring added), you'll love this upscale, fresh version.

First, start off with a handful of fresh mint. Any kind of mint, peppermint, spearmint, apple mint, whatever you have. And don't obsess over what a handful is, just harvest a bunch. Double it over, then give it a slight twist like you were wringing out a dish cloth.

The goal is to crush it a bit to release the essential oils in the leaves and stems. And yes, use leaves, stems and flowers if the mint is in bloom. The whole plant has flavor.













Next, put the handful of mint in the bottom of a pitcher, this one probably holds 3 or 4 quarts, I just grabbed the first pitcher I saw in the pantry.

With the mint in the bottom of the pitcher, next, fill the pitcher all the way up to the top with ice. Don't skimp, the pitcher needs to be full of ice all the way to the top, with the mint on the bottom.

Now, with mint and ice in place, add water all the way to the top of the pitcher. Give it 5 minutes to steep and it is ready to drink. It's almost like instant tea - only way better. Pour yourself a glass of the freshest, best tasting mint tea you have ever had.

Variations: 
1 - Add several fresh or frozen strawberries.
2 - Add several slices of cucumber in the bottom with the mint.
3 - How about slightly crushed watermelon...
4 - Fresh raspberries added is another great flavor.


Bottom line, this is a no-calorie, refreshing summer beverage.

And if you are really adventurous, the next time you are hot and sweaty from working outdoors, pour some of this refreshing tea into a wash cloth and soothe your hot face and skin. You will be amazed at how much better this makes your skin feel.

 

Make a Cooking Wreath from Herbs

Copyright©Jim Long 2013

Herbs and pruners are all you need to make a wreath.

I wrote about this craft thing I used to do with groups of visitors, back in the 1990s for The Herb Companion magazine. Seems like a lot of herb groups around the country liked the idea and made lots to sell, so I'm reprinting it again here. It's pretty simple, a wreath woven together out of cooking herbs. I used to sell them in little cellophane bags with a couple of recipes attached. To use the wreath, you simply started a pot of soup or stew boiling and about 15 minutes before the end of the cooking, you simply drop the entire wreath into the pot for seasoning. The flavor is delicious!

Step 1

Step 1, pick a long sprig of rosemary. New, this year's growth is best simply because heavier wood is more likely to break than to bend. You can use any of the following to work into your wreath, all with good flavor: Rosemary, Thyme (any variety), Sage, Garlic chives, Chives (leaves and/or flowers), Oregano, Basil, Lavender (flower spikes), Hyssop, Parsley and Lemongrass (even if it's already brown it still have flavor).

Step 2, bending the sprigs to weave.

To begin your wreath, choose a nice, long sprig of hyssop or rosemary and bend it into a circle, twisting the ends around each other. Hold in place with your thumb and forefinger while you wrap another sprig of a different herb in the other direction (or tie the ends together temporarily with plain white string).

You want to weave each sprig in the opposite direction of the first so they hold each other in place. Don’t get discouraged, it gets easier as you work. (You may want to make several on your first try to get the hang of it).

Step 2, Weave each of the herbs into your wreath, using only the stems and leaves, no string. Tuck ends under and over an earlier sprig and keep adding more. You want to end up with a wreath that is about four inches across, or smaller. Use lemongrass or garlic chives as the last herb, wrapping  it around like a ribbon and tucking each end under another sprig to hold it in place.

Step 3, finishing.

Step 3, When your wreath is finished, trim off any extra ends that are sticking out and put the wreathes in a dark place, like a pantry, on paper and let them dry until crisp.
Attach a string and a recipe if you wish and your cooking wreath is ready to give to a friend.

To use the wreath, remove the string and drop into an already boiling pot of soup or stew. It’s best to add the wreath during the last fifteen or twenty minutes of cooking (this is true of adding any herbs, fresh or dried; add them too soon and the cooking removes the flavors, so add herbs in the last minutes of cooking for the best flavor).

2 finished wreathes; attach a recipe to give as a gift.

Recipes to choose from for attaching to the wreath:

Autumn Herb Wreath Chicken Soup

2 1/2 quarts water
2 chicken breasts
1 stalk celery, diced
1/2 cup diced onion
2 carrots, peeled, sliced
The entire cooking wreath
1/4 teaspoon turmeric
Dash salt and pepper, to taste
*Optional: 1/4 cup brown rice, rinsed

Bring water to a boil and add the chicken and vegetables. Cook until the chicken is tender, about 20 minutes, remove chicken and dice, then add back to the soup. Add the optional rice and reduce heat to a simmer, cooking 10-15 minutes. When you add the rice/pasta, also remove the ribbon from the cooking wreath and add the wreath to the pot of simmering soup. Simmer until rice is done, remove wreath and serve.

Vegetarian Herb Wreath Soup

A vegetarian friend would receive this recipe card attach to their cooking wreath:
2 1/2 quarts water or vegetable broth
Bring water to a boil and add an assortment of your favorite diced vegetables: celery, potato, carrots, a turnip, some cabbage, onion, garlic, 1 slice ginger, etc. about 3 cups total.
*Optional 1/4 cup brown rice, rinsed

Simmer vegetables and rice until tender, about 15-18 minutes. Add the cooking wreath (with the ribbon removed) after 10 minutes of cooking, and continue cooking until rice is tender. Remove the wreath and serve.

Three little cooking wreathes, before ribbons and recipes.

Kale, a Healthy Addition to Meals

Three kale varieties in the Bear Creek Farm gardens.

Kale is a very healthful greens plant with lots of benefits. It has taken me a good while to actually like kale, but over time I've come to really enjoy this leafy plant. I've been experimenting with new ways to use kale, and my recipe for kale stuffing and kale and pear salad are listed below. We had both last night for supper and I have to admit, both were darned good!

Here's what I served for supper last evening. It's flounder baked with kale and cornbread stuffing. Next to that on the plate is a kale and pear salad.

Flounder baked with kale and cornbread stuffing.

Start with 1/2 cup chopped celery and 1/4 cup chopped onion. I added 1/8 cup of zucchini squash and sauted all of that in 2 tablespoons of olive oil. After about 7 minutes and while still cooking, I added 1 1/2 cups chopped, fresh kale and let that wilt. I added 2 cups of cornbread cubes, some poultry seasoning (sage and thyme) and simmered that until the cornbread cubes had absorbed the liquid. I piled it atop the founder and baked it for 15 minutes at 350 degrees F.

Kale Salad

The kale salad was just as healthy and also quite easy. I used 2 cups of coarsely chopped kale (any variety, all kale is good). I added one fresh pear, cut in pieces, 1/4 cup seedless grapes cut in half, 2 tablespoons toasted sunflower seeds (or raw, both will work fine). The dressing was simply 3 tablespoons of yogurt - I had blackberry yogurt on hand, but any favorite yogurt works. The flavors were great, we had a healthy, filling meal and I'll make this again.

For Thanksgiving I'm going to add both chopped kale and zucchini squash to my stuffing. It cuts down on the carbohydrates, adds good flavor and gives a healthy boost to an otherwise bready stuffing. Click here to see my kale soup recipe (it's actually not mine, I learned it from Jim & Robbins Hail at Bear Creek Farm). It is outstanding and really easy, too. Here's kale to your good health.
Happy Thanksgiving!

Oh, and if you want the best pumpkin pie recipe, and our special seasoning, click here. Anne's Pumpkin Pie Seasoning is the best flavored seasoning we've ever found, and Anne gave us her very special pumpkin pie recipe - much better than that recipe on the side of the pumpkin pie can!

Squash Frittata, Beet Cake

Dennis, Betty, Josh and Art (checking  his email).

A newspaper editor came to the garden this summer for an interview. He asked me why I garden. "You've been doing this every year for most of your life, so don't you get tired of doing the same thing over and over?" I tried to explain no two seasons are ever the same, every year is a new challenge and every year I try new varieties, different vegetables and herbs. Not being a gardener, I don't think he ever quite understood. But the primary reason I garden is what you see above, getting to share what I grow and produce with good friends over pleasant meals. These folks are all friends from Hawaii, we always look forward to their visits and they love good food, so cooking from the garden is always a pleasure.

Fresh from the garden, directly to the kitchen.

Betty especially likes beets, fixed any way they can be fixed, so we had steamed beet greens with balsamic vinegar, buttered beets with orange juice and a beet cake (along with grilled salmon, and a squash fritta).

Frittata, grilled salmon, beet greens and beets, not especially pretty, but tasted good.

Here's the frittata recipe.

Squash Frittata

• 3 tablespoons olive oil
• 1/2 teaspoon grated fresh ginger
• 1 small yellow onion, thinly sliced
• 2 cloves garlic, chopped
• 1/2 teaspoon ground turmeric
• 2-3 medium zucchini (or young patty pan squash), in 1/4 inch slices
• 2 tablespoons flour
• 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 4 eggs, beaten

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.
Heat oil in a saucepan. Add onion and garlic and saute until soft. Add turmeric and zucchini, add a dash of salt and pepper and cook until tender, about 10 minutes. Stir in flour and baking soda and cool briefly.
Mix in the beaten eggs with the zucchini and pour into a greased 9" x 13" casserole pan and bake until set, about 25 minutes. Let cool for 5 minutes before cutting into serving sizes.

Apple pie - how did the crust get that way??

Beet cake. A leaf and powdered sugar created the design on the cake.

 For dessert we had either beet cake or apple pie so of course everyone had a small piece of each one. Here's the beet cake recipe, not mine, I was given the recipe by herb friends at Round Top, TX and I've made some adjustments to it over the years.

Beet Cake

• 1 15 oz. can of beets (not pickled, just plain, canned beets)
• 1 1/2 cups flour (I use 1 cup unbleached flour and 1/2 cup whole wheat flour)
• 2/3 cup vegetable oil
• 3 eggs, beaten
• 2 cups sugar (I use 1 1/2 cups granulated stevia or Truvia and 1/2 cup sugar)
• 2 teaspoons cinnamon
• 2 teaspoons dry ginger
• 2 tablespoons freshly grated fresh ginger
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup nuts, chopped (I used pecans or walnuts)
• 3/4 cup coconut

Heat oven to 350 degrees F.
In a food processor, empty the entire can of beets, juice and all. Blend it well. Combine the rest of the ingredients except for the chopped nuts, mixing well. Fold in the chopped nuts and coconut. Pour into a 9 x 13, oiled and floured baking pan (or 2 round cake pans). Bake until a knife inserted comes out clean, about 25-30 minutes. Let cool. Serve with real whipped cream. Or, if using 2 round cake pans, use this filling between the layers:

Cream Cheese Filling

• 1 (3 ounce) package cream cheese, softened
• 1/3 cup butter, softened
• 4 cups powdered sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 tablespoons milk

In a medium bowl, blend the cream cheese, butter. Gradually mix in the powdered sugar, vanilla and milk, mixing well. Spread on bottom layer of cake, then add the top layer. Let set up for an hour or so before serving. The cake can be made ahead and frozen, then thawed before serving.

Beet cake doesn't need frosting, just some real whipped cream on top.

 

Outstanding Green Tomato Pickles

Ozarks Gardening

Copyright 2013, Jim Long

Green Tomato Pickles

We’re at the end of the tomato growing season with lots of green tomatoes on hand.  There are several choices about what to do with the tomatoes before cold weather arrives.

You could wrap them individually with newspaper and put them in a box where they’ll ripen slowly over the next few months. A drawback to this method is you have to unwrap every tomato to see if it’s ripening. You could use my method and leave them on the windowsill over the sink, unwrapped, where they will ripen slowly and provide tomatoes right up to the Holidays. Or, you could make a batch or two of fish house green tomato pickles. Here’s my recipe, it’s easy, quick and provides a batch of outstanding green tomato pickles.

Quartered tomatoes.

Fish House Green Tomato Pickles

2 quarts quartered green tomatoes
2 large onions, chopped or sliced
1/3 cup chopped hot peppers
1/3 cup chopped sweet red bell peppers
1 3/4 cups sugar
2 1/2 tablespoons salt
3 cups white vinegar
1 teaspoon celery seed
1/4 teaspoon yellow mustard seed

Combine ingredients in a large cooking pan and bring to a boil. Let simmer for about 5 minutes. Ladle into hot, sterile jars, wipe lip edge of jars, screw on hot, new jar rings and flats and finger-tighten. Place jars into a boiling water bath, with at least 1 inch of water above the jar lids. Bring to a boil and keep slowly boiling for 15 minutes (for pints, 10 minutes for half-pints; if you are above 1,000 ft. elevation, increase processing time accordingly). Remove and cool on a towel. Don't tinker with the lids, they will seal in 30 minutes or so. Let cool overnight then label and store in the pantry. These are best after the flavors have matured, about 2 weeks or more, and will keep for one to two years in the pantry.

Fish House Green Tomato Pickles, ready for winter.

Salsa for Canning

Ozarks Gardening
Copyright 2013, Jim Long

Canning Salsa

This week I’ve been canning salsa. Like nearly every other gardener I’ve talked to this summer, I’ve had a lot of split and damaged tomatoes from the earlier rains. I don’t want to waste the tomatoes so I cut out the damage and turn the good parts into salsa. Over the years I’ve tried a lot of canned salsa recipes and this one has become my favorite. Using 2 jalapenos gives a mild sauce, 4 makes a medium and for a hotter sauce, use 5-6 jalapenos.

8 cups, peeled and quartered tomatoes
1 large yellow onion, sliced
8-10 cloves garlic, peeled
2-4 jalapeno peppers, seeded and sliced
1/2 cup fresh cilantro, chopped
1 tablespoon salt
3/4 cup apple cider vinegar
1/4 cup fresh lime juice

Combine the ingredients in a food processor and coarsely chop everything. Pour that into a cooking pot and bring to a simmer, about 10 minutes. Pour hot salsa into hot pint jars, leaving about 1/2 inch headspace. Seal jars with two-piece lids and process in boiling water for 15 minutes. Makes 4-5 pints.

If you want a simple fresh salsa, you might like this one.
Basic Fresh Salsa

3-4 medium sized tomatoes, chopped (about 3 cups)
4-5 green onions, chopped
1/2 cup red or yellow bell pepper, diced
Juice of 1 lime
3 tablespoons freshly-chopped cilantro
1/2 (or 1 whole for hotter) jalapeno, seeded and diced fine
2 garlic cloves, diced
1/2 teaspoon salt

Combine ingredients and refrigerate for an hour before serving with chips.

Visit my website to see my books which have lots more of my recipes and gardening information. Happy gardening!