Putting up Summer
Yesterday I spent the day getting my roasted tomato passata put up in the jars for this coming winter. I use the recipe from The River Cottage Preserves Handbook, which I discovered a few years ago. I like this book because it has recipes that are different than many preserving books, including things for slo gin and other interesting ways of putting up fruits and vegetables.
Over the past couple weeks I’ve been slow roasting my tomatoes in the oven with shallots, garlic, and herbs. When I finish a double batch, which is the amount that fills up my oven, I have been putting them in the freezer to have a marathon canning day. I ended up making 6 batches of sauce and it took me all night to get them sealed into jars.
One of the things I like about this method is that it smells heavenly, unlike the smell up canning plain tomatoes, which isn’t my favorite. I also like the finished product, it works well for pizza sauce, pasta sauce or it makes a perfect soup if mixed with some chicken stock. If I only had one way to put up tomatoes this would be it, though my tomato soup comes in a close second!
What’s your favorite tomato recipe?
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Friday Favorite: Zucchini Noodles
I’m a big fan of zucchini and my favorite way to eat it is julienned into zucchini noodles. There are so many ways to dress them up it’s easy to eat zucchini every day and never get sick of it. Earlier this week we had zucchini carbonara and it was fantastic.
This is also a great way to reduce processed food and add more vegetables to your diet. These noodles are really great, but there are a few tricks to make them more like pasta and less like zucchini. You can use a mandolin or a knife, I purchased this julienne peeler last year and LOVE it. I’m not one for unitaskers in the kitchen, but this one I am glad I have. To make noodles simply run the peeler around the outside of the zucchini avoiding the center where the seeds are (this part gets mushy and falls apart). You can also cut zucchini into lasagna noodles with a knife, I love lasagna made with zucchini.
After cutting your noodles sprinkle them with a generous amount of salt, I usually use a half teaspoon for each zucchini I cut. Let stand in bowl for 15-20 minutes. This step removes excess moisture from the zucchini and helps the noodles retain their shape. They are less likely to be mushy. Then strain out the salty liquid. If you use sea salt don’t throw this away, dilute it and use it in the garden, the minerals in the salt are good for the soil.
Steam or boil your noodles for a few minutes and you’re done. No need to salt because they will be lightly salty already. Top with your favorite toppings, a few of my favorites are: lemon, feta, and rosemary, or olive oil, black pepper, and parmesan, it’s also great with basil and olive oil, or with classic marinara. You really can’t go wrong with these, they are a great way to incorporate more vegetables into your diet!
Have you ever had zucchini noodles?
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Baby Bells
This year I grew baby bell peppers from seed thinking they’d ripen before the big one, I was correct in my line of thought. When I checked on the garden after being away for 10 days, there were beautiful red baby bell peppers.
Look how cute they are, I’m thinking I might use them to make stuffed peppers because I always though big green peppers were way to big when stuffed. I have to admit, I didn’t used to be a pepper fan. The problem is more peppers from the store, I think it’s actually the preservative they put on them. When I eat store bought peppers I get indigestion, not so with homegrown ones. Now we eat them in the fall when they’re in season.
Did you like pepper?
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Souvenirs
Whenever I travel to try to buy a patch for my travel patch quilt, but that’s about a kitchy as I get when it comes to souvenirs. Typically I prefer to purchase a useful item that I can either display or something useful that I can use daily. Last time I was in Seattle I purchase a lovely hand carved spatula. It’s made of bird’s eye maple and it’s quite stunning, I use it almost daily and it brings back memories of that trip. This time I purchase a small sign for my garden.
I spotted it at Bloedel Reserve and knew it would be the perfect item since we spent the majority of our time touring gardens.
The script font and the tiny bird are lovely, the rusty finish is also fetching. No worries about it rusting or leaving it in the garden.
I’m not sure where I’m going to put it right now, perhaps in my small entry by the front door. When I get a fence and gate on the main garden in back I’d like to put it there, perhaps I’ll cut a special rectangle in the gate and showcase this inside.
What kinds of items do you purchase to remember your travels?
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The Inevitable
Well it looks like we may have frost on Thursday night. The gardens here are south facing and we are on top of a hill, so we get frost much later in the fall than many of the gardens in the area. I have a few melons and butternut squashes that I will cover just in case, but most everything else will be allowed to live or die depending on what happens that night.
I used to cover tomatoes and peppers, trying to eek out a few more ripe fruits, but realized quickly that my efforts were in vain. Now I will only cover things like squash that will continue to ripen for winter storage.
In some ways frost in welcome this time of year, particularly right now. It’s been a busy summer for us and I welcome the sense of finality that frost brings to the garden year. There’s still a lot to do to get the garden ready for winter, mulching and seeding cover crops are two big chores that will take a lot of time. It is nice to see the finish line up ahead, I’m really looking forward to a little rest this coming winter!
When is your first frost, does it seem early/late this year?
