Polish Feast

For dinner last night my friend and I made a Polish feast of kielbasa, homemade sauerkraut and homemade pierogi.  I chopped up the cabbage for the sauerkraut about 4 weeks ago and it had been fermenting in the basement, and it was finally ready to be eaten.  It was my first attempt at sauerkraut, and it came out really well.  Making sauerkraut is fairly easy, I basically just added a bunch of salt to some chopped cabbage and put it in a pot for 4 weeks (tons of recipes available online).  We mixed the sauerkraut with a chopped onion and 6 thinly sliced apples then put the kielbasa on top and let it braise for about 30 minutes.  The kielbasa absorbs the moisture from the sauerkraut, and the sauerkraut acquires some extra flavor from the kielbasa- it was fantastic!  We also made pierogi dough and filling and stuffed about 24 huge pierogis.  Here is the recipe we used:

Pierogi Dough
Servings: 24 huge pierogis

1 cup yogurt
2 3/4 cups flour
1 tbsp melted butter
1 egg
1 tsp salt
1 tbsp vegetable oil

Mix all the ingredients until they form a soft, pliable, but not too sticky dough (add more flour if necessary).  Let rest covered for 10 minutes.  Roll out the dough until thin.  Use a circle cookie cutter or a drinking glass to cut dough into circles.  Fill with filling and fold over.  Press the halves together so it looks like a semi-circle.  Seal the round edge with a fork.  Cook in boiling water for 10 minutes or pan-fry in butter.

Cheese and Potato Pierogi Filling

1 pound potatoes, peeled and cooked until tender
3/4 cup grated cheddar cheese
1 tbsp butter
1/2 cup milk

Mash together until thick but not too dry (add more milk if necessary).

Garden French Lentils

Lentils are a fantastic little food.  These legumes are high in protein and fiber and very low in fat.  They are also packed with nutrients like folate and iron.  Their flavor is slightly nutty and they have a firm but smooth texture.  Lentils also cook quickly, without the need for presoaking, until other legumes.  I've been eating a lot of lentils lately, as they are a much healthier (for you and the environment) than meat. This is one of the best recipes I've tried yet!

Garden French Lentils 

Servings: 4-6

Time until finished: 45 minutes

1 1/2 cup french lentils (french lentils are also known as green lentils. Brown lentils will work too- but french lentils have a nuttier flavor)

1 tbsp olive oil

1/2 onion diced

1 clove garlic, minced

10-15 grape or cherry tomatoes, halved

3 cups of uncooked spinach or kale torn into smaller pieces

pinch of salt

1/4 tsp fresh ground pepper

1 tbsp lemon juice

10 basil leaves cut into small pieces 

1/4 cup parsley cut into small pieces

Put lentils in about 4 cups of water then bring to a boil and simmer, covered, for about 40 minutes (or until desired tenderness).  In the meantime prepare veggies- they will only take 5 minutes to cook so wait until the lentils are almost done to cook them.  If using kale steam for 3 minutes.  Once lentils are almost done put oil in a saute pan or saucepot and saute onions until almost translucent.  Then add garlic, tomatoes, spinach/kale.  Pour water off lentils and add to the pan with the veggies.  Then add lemon juice, salt, and ground pepper.  Next turn off the heat and add the basil and parsley.  Enjoy!

Blueberry Pancakes for Two

Pancakes for Two

Most pancake recipes serve 4-6 people.  This is a great recipe for couples or roommates.  Blueberries can be left out or chocolate chips can be substituted.

1 1/4 cups flour

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

2 tsp sugar

Pinch of salt

1 cup buttermilk (or milk with 1 tsp lemon juice added)

1 beaten egg

2 tbsp oil or melted butter

optional: 1 cup blueberries (or 1/2 cup chocolate chips)

Mix dry ingredients.  Mix wet ingredients in a separate bowl.  Add wet ingredients to dry ingredients slowly, stirring in between additions.  Ladle batter onto a hot griddle (grease griddle if it is not non-stick).  I usually ladle about 1/2 cup batter per pancake so they are easy to flip.  Cook on one side until you see little bubbles, then flip, then cook on other side until golden brown.  Serve immediately.

Blueberry Pancakes

Garam Masala Summer Vegetable Curry

Vegetable Curry Recipe

Servings: 4-6

Time: 25 minutes

Rice

Add 3 cups of water to 1 1/2 cups of rice (preferably basmati rice), bring to a boil then turn to low for 20 minutes

Vegetable Curry

5 new potatoes cut into bite sized pieces

1 tsp hot curry powder* (see note on spiciness below)

1 tsp sweet curry powder* (see note on spiciness below)

1 tsp garam masala

1/2 tsp powdered ginger

1/2 tsp garlic powder (unless using fresh garlic)

2 tbsp vegetable oil

1 onion, diced

1-2 cloves of garlic, minced (or use powdered garlic)

1 zucchini or summer squash, cut in half then in 1/4 inch slices

1 tomato, cut into wedges

1 quart green beans, remove stems and cut into thirds

3/4 cup plain yogurt

Put potatoes in saucepan, cover with water and boil until tender.  While potatoes are cooking mix spices (curry powders, garam masala, ginger and garlic powder) then add enough water to stir into a paste.  On medium heat, heat vegetable oil in a stockpot then add onions and saute until almost translucent.  Next add spice paste and stir for 1-2 minutes.  Then add garlic and stir for another minute.  Next add zucchini/squash, tomato, and green beans.  Once it starts simmering, turn the heat down.  Cook, stirring occasionally, until vegetables achieve desired texture (preferably "al dente"), about 10 minutes.  Stir in yogurt and cook for another 2 minutes.  Serve over rice.

* Spiciness: This recipe is "medium" spiciness.  To make it more spicy substitute extra hot curry powder for sweet curry powder, to make it less spicy, substitute sweet curry powder for hot curry powder.

Alternatives: this recipe can be used with any combination of vegetables.  Also cubed meat can be added after onions are sauteed and spices are added.  Add vegetables after meat is cooked on all sides.  

Heirloom Tomatoes

This week at the Phipps farmers market there were some fantastic heirloom tomato varieties.  There were black tomatoes, yellow tomatoes, yellow with red stripes tomatoes, a green one they called "green zebra" and a peach tomato (that is actually fuzzy)!  After trying them all, the peach tomato is definitely my favorite.  I'm going to have to buy some peach tomato seeds for next years garden.  The Seed Savers Exchange has a great catalog for heirloom vegetables.  I highly recommend checking out their catalog, you won't believe all the varieties of vegetables there are (and members have access to even more)!

Green Zebra and Peach tomato

Lamb Souvlaki on Homemade Pita

Lamb Souvlaki with Tzatziki

I used the Food Network recipe with lamb stew meat.  It was very tender after it spent 4 hours marinating.

Pita Bread

2 tbsp dry yeast

1/2 tsp sugar

1 1/4 cups warm water (105-115 degrees)

2 1/4 cups white flour

1 cup whole wheat flour

1/2 tsp salt

2 tbsp olive oil

1. Dissolve yeast appropriately, if using active yeast add to water and let sit for 5 minutes, if instant yeast add to flour.  

2. Mix flour and salt then stir in water and olive oil.

3. Turn out onto a lightly floured surface and knead for 15 minutes or until smooth and elastic.

4. Roll the dough into a ball and put dough into an oiled bowl and coat the dough with oil.

5. Let rise for 1 1/2 hours or until doubled.  Then punch down and let rest for 10 minutes.  

6. Divide the dough into 8 balls, and roll out each ball to form a circle that is about a 1/4 inch thick.

7. Cover flattened dough with dish towel and let sit for 20 minutes.  In this time set the oven to 425 degrees and put lightly floured cookie sheets in the oven to preheat.

8. Bake the bread for 5-10 minutes until puffy.  Then wrap the bread in a dry cloth to keep the crusts soft.

  

PASA's Western Region Farm Tour

Yesterday was the Pennsylvania Association for Sustainable Agriculture (PASA) Western Region Farm Tour.  There were a bunch of farms open to the public, with a $10 donation per car load of people to support the PASA.   Due to our late start, and long route map, we only made it to two of the farms on the list, but we also visited another farmer that we have become acquaintances with at the farmers market.

The first farm we went to was Wild Rose Farm, a wool farm about an hour west of the city.  It was fun to see the sheep, and I was hoping to learn more about the process of turning wool into yarn.  I got to see the wool at different steps in the process but I still don't know what they do to the wool in each step.

Next we went an hour north to Sonshine Farm in Mercer to visit our acquaintance from the farmers market.  It was really neat to see their farm because they have a lot of variety: chickens, ducks, geese, turkeys, guinea fowl, doves, bees, rabbits, cows, goats and sheep.  They started off just producing fiber from the special varieties of rabbits and goats, but they produce milk and meat now too.

The drive around this area was beautiful with lots of farms with rolling hills.  The area is also home to a large Amish population.  It was amazing to see the triangular piles of golden hay that were obviously cut and arranged entirely by hand.  We saw lots of horses and buggies and I also saw a man with a "ride on" lawn mower being pulled by a horse.

Our last stop was Burns Angus farm in New Wilmington.  They had free range chickens, sheep that shed, and of course black Angus cows.  They took us on a hay ride of their cow pastures, and it was incredible!  They have almost 400 acres fenced in and available to the cows.  They do rotate them between pastures so they always have plenty of grass but they were certainly never in cramped quarters!  There were no barns, just exceptionally happy cows.  It was really neat to see their property and all the land that the cows had access too, including wooded areas for shade, and streams for fresh water.  It was a really beautiful end to the day.  And I can't wait to taste the beef I bought from them!