Some Easy and Inexpensive Recipes….

I’ve been talking to a bunch of friends lately about recipes and food in general.  We all are affected by the economy, and those of us with families to feed are noticing that food bills are going UP not down.  I don’t know how stores can in all honesty charge MORE for food right now, because people have less to spend on these necessities.

Whatever….I think we can make out better with a bit of time and effort.  Perhaps these times will make us better cooks, too.

I have been thinking of our own diet.  I have cooking responsibilities for a husband and son.  The son will be going very soon off to the Navy…so it will be just my dear husband and I.  But I think we need to lessen the impact of meat on our bodies and health and I don’t feel so guilty doing that with the kid not around.

I have been making beef and chicken broths a lot lately.  It’s easy and formed the basis for a lot of good meals….and combined with a crockpot…what’s not to love?

I admit we have a rather wanky diet.  I cook Japanese a lot…or did until recently.  We do still make miso-based soups and we make sushi about once a week. But a steady diet of tofu is not to ‘the boys’ taste…though they will eat their way through rolls of sushi with no complaint.  It’ s just that the nova has become very expensive, and it’s the basis of our sushi.

So…back to the broths.  A good beef broth can’t be beat.  I use it for the basis of French Onion Soup and the guys like it a lot.

FRENCH ONION SOUP

5 large onions, sliced thinly,

2 teaspoons of olive oil

saute the onions until transparent.

Add thinly sliced carrots, celery, with s/p and 1/2 cup (or more) of sherry..not cooking sherry….DRINKING sherry.

a good two quarts of beef stock and simmer on very low for about an hour.  The usual toast rounds with Gruyere cheese or something compatible.  Under the broiler for a few minutes.

BEAN SOUP

I buy bags of red kidney beans/Navy or white beans/lentils/split pea/garbanzo beans/ and mix them together in a container.  It gives more for later and is actually cheaper.

I saute some sausage (link or kielbasa) and onions together until sausage browned, and then add  about 1 or two cups of bean mixture.  In goes about 3 quarts of pre-made beef broth.

In a crockpot this can be a leisurely simmer for hours.  In a Brown Betty on the stove top…about one and 1/2 hours.

Generally, it’s a good cook who keeps onions/garlic/potatoes/pumpkins, root crops in some quantity.  In a root cellar.  If we don’t formally have those, use a bin somewhere….a plastic one is fine with a cover…in the basement or cellar…where it’s cold or cool.

Oh..one of my favorite dishes from a friend in Australia…Nick:

ROAST PUMPKINS….GOOD FOR USING THOSE JACK ‘O LANTRENS

Cut up in chunks….(de string the inners)

Bake in a 350 oven with cinnamon/brown sugar/butter/s/p.

Until tender.  A great and different starch for a meal.

Cut up/raw pumpkin is frozen easily….just pack in ziploc bags.

Lady Nyo who is heading towards the kitchen for some roast pumpkin…taste tester here.

And from Berowne:

Here’s a favorite of our own creation:
RATATOUILLE

1 large onion, chopped coarsely
1/2 clove fresh garlic, minced
1 bell pepper, cut into squares
1/4 cup olive oil
1 large eggplant, cut into 1-inch cubes
2 medium zucchini, sliced into 1/2-inch rounds
1 cup fresh mushrooms, whole or sliced
1 15-oz. can stewed tomatoes
1 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon pepper
1/2 teaspoon basil
1/2 teaspoon oregano

In a dutch oven or heavy-bottomed saucepan with a lid, saute the onion, garlic, and bell pepper in olive oil until soft; stir in eggplant, zucchini, and mushrooms and saute a few minutes more. Add tomato and seasonings. Cover and simmer gently for about 20 minutes or until all vegetables are well cooked.

Uncover and allow liquid to evaporate, to taste; turn up heat if necessary.
Serves 4-6.
Variations include addition of a large potato cut in chunks, and carrot rounds.

Kudzu: The Vine that Ate the South.

I had a lot of fun talking to my neighbors and friends today, sharing summer recipes from the bounty of our gardens.

Kudzu came up, as it always does, because here in the South, it’s usually a question of eradicating it from  our fences and  creeping into our back yards.

I have tried a couple of things culinary with kudzu over the years, some recipes my family remembers and hopes I don’t.  One of them was using kudzu leaves instead of grape leaves or cabbage for stuffed cabbage rolls.  I think it would work out better if I had parboiled the leaves first and had picked TENDER leaves, not the biggest I could find.

Kudzu comes from Japan where it is widely used in both culinary and medicinal ways.  The root is boiled and dried, and it’s a starch that is eaten in recipes, used like arrowroot.  The leaves are juiced and boiled for a tea (haven’t tried this yet) and of course the flowers are a wonderful and clear, purple jelly.  It’s a delicate jelly, a bit like rose jelly, but even better.  If you like the smell of wisteria and the color, you will like kudzu flowers. If you like grape jelly, you will like kudzu jelly.  You have to search for them, because they grow near the top of where they flop over a fence or tree, or somewhere sometimes high and inconvenient, and they are covered over by the big leaves, but they are very much worth the gathering.

Kudzu vines are excellent for making baskets.  They are just like grape vines, but greener.  I confess that I have tried to make vine baskets years ago and failed miserably.  It’s a art form for a reason. Although, when I moved to the South many years ago, women still made baskets from kudzu.  They were used as storage containers in the kitchens and especially the cellars.  I haven’t seen many of them in the past few years except at craft exhibits.  I had a neighbor, Brin, who was part Cree Indian and could make baskets from pine needles…beautiful and closely woven small baskets.  She also made kudzu baskets.  Alas, Brin moved to Maine a few years ago, but we write back and forth on occasion.

Kudzu is excellent feed for cows, dairy, goats and sheep, but doesn’t take well to trampling.  You can graze goats or sheep for eradication for a while, but kudzu is tenacious:  the roots go down 2 or 3 feet and come the spring, they shoot up again, after being killed by a ‘killing frost’.  They grow over a foot a day, can smother trees in a woods, and cover abandoned cars, etc. fast.

I collect the leaves for my chickens who sometimes eat  when I’m not buying them collards.  They LOVE the sprinkled flowers that they can’t get to because they grow higher than chickens can jump.  I found this out when collecting the flowers in the back two days ago.

Apparently scientists are interested in using kudzu as biofuel.  This would be a great usage because corn biofuels have to be planted, and right now, the South is covered over with potential fuel supply.  We should be thinking going up amongst the greenery instead of down into the earth drilling.

We had a great dinner tonight with fresh French bread, basil pesto and Gazpacho Soup….all from (or mostly) our garden.  Yesterday we made a Tomato Tart.  I’ll post the recipe here, because it is a great summer time meal.  A lettuce salad with olive oil and balsamic vinegar (homemade) made this a good and easy meal.

TOMATO TART

Pastry first.  I make a butter/crisco pastry, but mostly butter.

King Arthur’s Flour, all purpose is best.  I can’t stand the White Lily flour of the south….too fine a flour for my baking.  But it can stand in as a cake flour. (This is for Margie a Northern gal)

2 cups of flour/shortening of your choice/ kosher salt (1/2 teaspoon) some cold water….and I put in Nature’s Season in the dough instead of Kosher salt because it gives a good flavor.  Your choice.

Roll out and line a pie plate.

Crush up and mince two cloves at least!!! of fresh garlic.  rub into the pie crust gently, or just push into the crust.

Cheese:  I use anything I have in the fridge, but a white chedder or camberert is good, any cheese except that orange cheese that is plastic.  You can also sprinkle Parmesan right into the crust.

Tomatoes:  cut into fairly thin slices and line the crust.  Use about 4 large tomatoes, be generous with the tomatoes.

Sprinkle with sugar (to taste because tomatoes can be acid) and bake at 400 degrees for about 25-35 minutes.  You bake at a high temp. so the crust doesn’t become soggy.  This tart is good hot or cold.

Since we have hens, good girls that give me around 4-9 eggs a day…we always have fresh eggs.  I love custard, and make it all the time when we have eggs.  I have made creme brulee before but I don’t usually have the heavy cream.  I do have the milk at hand.  And I don’t necessarily like using the blow torch myself to carmelize the sugar on the top.  My recipe is healthier and it’s good to go in the fridge at midnight and spoon out with fingers.  Gets better as it gets colder.

EGG CUSTARD WITH KUDZU JELLY

6 whole eggs well beaten

1/2 teaspoon of salt

3 cups of whole milk

3/4 cups of sugar

vanilla extract, (or almond)

cinnamon to taste or nutmeg…. your choice.

heat the milk to scaling.  In a ceramic bowl pour very slowly the cooled milk into the egg/sugar/salt/vanilla mixture.  Stir well.  You can strain into a fine strainer to get those eggy bits out but they don’t really bother me.

put into a glass (Pyrex) bowl and set that into a bain marie.  Well, put it in a larger pan of water and full one inch below the custard.

Bake at a low heat (I always bake mine too high and it doesn’ t do as well)  300 or 325 for about 45 minutes.  Let cool in fridge.

For that lovely sugar coating….sprinkle a raw sugar or a brown sugar over the top of the cooled  custard.  Strike up the blow torch and carefully attend to the sugar, staying away from the sides of the bowl.   Be patient.  The sugar will turn to a lovely dark brown, crystallizing and becoming a hard surface.

This custard is best served cold.

Of course, you can ditch the blowtorch and serve with a spoonful of kudzu jelly on top.

Lady Nyo