Curry with Butternut, Sweet Potato, and Carrot

We had a lot of butternut squash in 2019. And they lasted a long time. This is what one of them looked like in July of 2020.

With only 4 plants, we got nearly 40 squash, not counting the ones I gave away.  I was trying to think of something interesting to make with butternut, and my husband suggested curry.

I love curry.  It's food you can play with! I am a huge fan of condiments. When I was growing up, my midwestern, farm-raised mother would make curry sometimes. I think she got the recipe out of a magazine. The recipe suggested all sorts of condiments, and we pretty much had them all: chopped cashews, sliced bananas, chopped apples, raisins, chutney, pickles, coconut. Such a variety of flavors and textures.

When my husband and I took a class on Indian cooking, the instructor said that in India, a balanced meal is one that contains all the flavors: salty, sweet, sour, bitter, and umami.  You can see that the condiments balanced the meal.

I didn't have a recipe for butternut curry, but that very day, on PBS, one of the cooking shows showed how to make curry with butternut squash, sweet potato (which we also grew too much of), and carrots.

They made the curry much like I have been making curries for the last 20+ years. I tried to write the recipe down as they made it, but of course they cooked faster than I could write, and I couldn't record the show, so I couldn't blame the show if it didn't turn out. (Also, I failed to write down the name of the show, so I couldn't blame them if I wanted to.)

Fortunately, the recipe turned out just fine. I've made it several times since then. In this picture, you can see that I used white sweet potatoes, which I liked for this recipe because they aren't quite as sweet as the orange ones, and there was plenty of sweetness coming from the butternut.

Curry with Butternut, Sweet Potato, and Carrot

1 small butternut squash, peeled and cubed

1 large or 2 medium sweet potatoes, peeled and cubed

1 large or 2 medium carrots, peeled and cubed

1 onion, chopped

4 cloves garlic, minced

1/4 C coconut oil

2 Tbs curry powder

2 Tbs flour

2 C vegetable broth

1 C coconut milk

Instructions:

1. Parboil the butternut, sweet potato and carrot for 10 minutes.

2. Saute the onion, and garlic in the coconut oil, for 5 - 7 minutes until the onions sweat

3. Add curry powder and flour to the onion. Blend over medium heat for 1 minute.

4. Add the vegetable broth. Stir into the curry powder and flour to make a sauce.  Stir over medium heat until it thickens.

5. Drain the butternut, sweet potato and carrots, and add to the sauce. Simmer 10 minutes to let the flavors combine.

6. Add the coconut milk.

Serve over rice, with lots of condiments!

Grammy's Potato Salad

 My mother-in-law, Gertrude (who her 20 grandchildren called Grammy), was famous for her potato salad. Everyone loved it at summer parties. And everyone else was afraid to make it. As my sister-in-law, Mary, said, "Some people have a knack for potato salad. Some people don't." 

Gertrude was not big on writing recipes down.  When I wanted to learn how she made something, I followed her around the kitchen with a pen and paper.

Put since my mother-in-law passed away last year, I've been trying to replicate this simple recipe. This is the recipe, written by Gertrude, and expanded slightly by me for clarity, although it still takes a little creativity to understand. (And she didn't mention the eggs, which were apparently obvious.)

Grammy's Potato Salad

5 pounds new potatoes

1/2 - 3/4 C onion, chopped

3-4 stalks celery, chopped

1/2 jar mayonnaise

salt and pepper

hard-cooked eggs, sliced

1. Boil the potatoes with skins on.

2. Cool to handle, peel and cut up

3. Place in a bowl and mix in onions, celery, mayonnaise, salt and pepper.

4. Decorate with sliced hard-cooked eggs

Spiced Tomato Preserves

My mother used to make spiced tomato preserves in the summer, when the garden was overflowing with ripe, red tomatoes. The preserves were tangy and sweet, with hints of cinnamon and cloves. My mother no longer has the recipe, and I can't find it on the internet. I've looked everywhere. (You'd be surprised what falls between the internet's couch cushions....)

So I am making up a recipe based on my memories and the several recipes I've found that seem close, but not quite.

This tastes just like I remember.

Spiced Tomato Preserves

3 cups granulated cane sugar

3 pounds tomatoes, peeled, cored, and chopped

1 lemon, sliced fine, then chopped coarsely

1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon

1/2 tsp. ground ginger

1/4 tsp. ground cloves

1.75 ounces powdered pectin

Prepare 1/2 pint canning jars and lids according to directions.

Measure out your granulated sugar and set aside.

Put the chopped tomatoes in saucepan and heat slowly to a simmer, stirring constantly to prevent burning. Cover and simmer 10 minutes.

Add the lemon, cinnamon, ginger, cloves, and pectin. Stir well.

Bring to a boil over high heat, stirring constantly.

Add sugar all at once. Stir constantly. When the mixture comes to a boil that can't be stirred down, boil hard for one minute. (Yes, still stirring constantly. Black, burnt flakes from the bottom of the pot will ruin your beautiful preserves.)

Remove from heat. 

Ladle hot jam into hot jars, leaving 1/4" head space. Put the lids on and place in water bath. Process for 10 minutes (15 for altitude adjustment).

This made 4 1/2 pint jars.

My favorite way to eat tomato preserves is on top of a cracker with some goat cheese or brie.

Laurie's Grandma's Tsimmes

Laurie's Grandmother's Tsimmes

Ingredients:

2-3 medium to large sweet potatoes, peeled and cut into chunks
2-3 decent sized carrots, peeled and cut into chunks
½ cup of pitted prunes
½ of a can of pineapple chunks
1/3 of a cup (approximately) of frozen orange juice concentrate
honey
1 tablespoon of butter
cooking oil (expeller-pressed is better for you)
½ teaspoon of cinnamon

Cook carrots and sweet potatoes in boiling salted water, covered, until tender but still firm. (You can also steam them in the microwave – I used the same casserole dish that I cooked the whole recipe in. Add a little bit of water and check for doneness at three-minute intervals, stirring so they cook evenly.)

Put carrots and sweet potatoes into a baking or casserole dish. Add prunes, orange juice concentrate, pineapple chunks and cinnamon. Stir very gently. Dot the top of the dish with butter, then drizzle over some honey (the amount you use is to your preference) and some canola oil (ditto.)

Bake, covered, in a preheated oven at 350° for about 30 minutes. Bake uncovered for another 15-20 minutes. Or as Grandma used to say, cook until done.

Vegetarian Chili with Home Grown Vegetables

I usually think of chili as something that pretty much comes from the pantry. My recipe used to be 1 onion, 1 garlic, 1 pepper, 1 pound ground meat or protein of some sort, 1 can beans, one can chopped tomatoes, 1 Tbs. chili powder. Everything (with the possible exception of the "meat") came out of the pantry. It was very quick and easy, but of course, nothing was home grown.

Here's how I make chili now:

Vegetarian Chili with Home Grown Vegetables

• 1 Tbs. olive oil
• 1 medium onion, chopped
• 3 garlic or 1 elephant garlic, chopped
• 1 sweet bell pepper, any color, chopped
• 3 cups dried beans, cooked (I use a mix of whatever is handy. Black beans, chick peas, kidney beans, pinto beans, cow peas, navy beans all work, and it's nice to have a different colors. I cook the beans in the pressure cooker.) If you don't have dried beans on hand, you can use 3 cans of beans instead.
• 1 cup barley (or rice), cooked (again, I use the pressure cooker to speed things up)
• a couple of jalapeno peppers, minced
• 1 1/2 cups corn
• 1 pound red tomatoes, blended, or 1 15 ounce can crushed tomatoes
• 2 cups vegetable stock
• 1 tsp. cumin powder
• salt and pepper to taste

Heat the olive oil in a large skillet or Dutch oven. Add the onion, garlic, bell peppers, and cumin and cook until the vegetables are soft. If you are very brave, you can add the jalapeno peppers at this point. Otherwise wait until the end, and add them a little bit at a time and taste frequently until you have the chili as spicy as you like.

Add the rest of the ingredients.  Heat to a simmer. Taste, and add salt, pepper, and more jalapenos, if you would like. Let the flavors blend for 20 minutes or throw into the crock pot for a couple of hours on low.

Serve over brown rice, or baked potatoes, if that sounds delicious to you. Garnish with salsa, sour cream, chopped chives, cilantro, grated cheese, or whatever suits your fancy.

Cucumber Lemonade

True confessions time.  We have too many cucumbers. I meant to plant a 50 foot row, and I had more seedlings than I intended, so I ended up with a 100' row of cucumbers. I know.  I should have just stuck with the plan, but I couldn't just murder the poor little dears.  Cucumbers are sort of a problem.  They need to be harvested at LEAST every other day. And the plants are prickly, so you have to wear long sleeves, no matter how hot it is. We grow cucumbers, but they are less fun than other crops. And one member of the family doesn't even like them.  But the first thing he said when the first uber-crop came in was, "Are we going to make cucumber lemonade?"

Oh, heck, yeah! Working in the greenhouse in the heat of the summer requires us to have cold beverages available at all times. And yes, we have to have something other than water available.  I may write a blog on why, at  some point.

Cucumber lemonade is delicious, refreshing, and a little unusual. The original recipe called for juicing fresh lemons, which is even more delicious than the way I make it with bottled juice.  But I make this EVERY DAY during cucumber season, so you will have to excuse me if I take a few short cuts. (Also, I doubled the original recipe, because of the quantities that we drink.)

One nice thing about this recipe is that you don't need to peel or seed the cucumber. Let the blender to all the work.

Cucumber Lemonade

2 Cups boiling water

1 Cup cane sugar

1 large or 2 medium cucumbers

6 Tbs lemon juice

1. Dissolve the sugar in the hot water, and let this cool in a half gallon pitcher or mason jar.
2. Chop the cucumbers and liquefy them in the blender. You can add water to the blender if you need to.
3. Strain the cucumbers into the pitcher (or a large measuring cup, if you are using a mason jar). This will leave you with a pile of cucumber pulp (or foam, depending on how enthusiastic your blender is). You can toss the cucumber foam into the compost, but I usually just eat it with a spoon, since it seems a shame to throw all that goodness away. Add the cucumber juice to the sugar water.
4. Add the lemon juice and stir. 
5. Fill the pitcher (or mason jar) with water. (The original recipe didn't do this, but it assumed that you were pouring the lemonade over ice, which would dilute it. We mostly drink it straight.
6. Refrigerate.
   

Pickled Cucumbers

My mother's grandfather immigrated to the United States from Sweden.  When I was in junior high school, my mother decided to connect with her Swedish roots, and one of the ways she chose to do this was through food.  One of her favorite recipes was Pickled Cucumbers, or Inglada Gukor, as it says in the Swedish cookbooks.

Pickled Cucumbers

1 Cup cane sugar
1 1/2 Cups cider vinegar
1 large or 2 medium cucumber
salt
pepper
fresh minced parsley

1. Dissolve sugar in cider vinegar. Add a little salt, pepper, and some parsley for color. 
2. Peel cucumbers. Score the cucumbers lengthwise with a table fork, all the way around. Cut the cucumbers in thin slices. The marks from the fork will make a pretty scalloped shape. 
3. Put the sliced cucumbers in a 1 quart mason jar (or you can use a casserole dish, but my mother always used a mason jar). At this point I added some thinly sliced red onion to add a little color, but that is not original to the recipe.
4. Pour the vinegar mixture over the cucumbers. Put the lid on, and refrigerate for 2 or more hours before serving. (Some of the cucumbers will float out of the liquid, so I shake the jar every so often to make sure all the cucumber slices get in the brine.

Usually, we just had pickled cucumbers as a refreshing summer side dish. But they are also fun on a sandwich. Here is my new favorite lunch. This is toasted french bread, topped with hummus and sliced tomatoes, sprinkled with sea salt and freshly ground pepper. Add sliced pickled cucumbers, and garnish with microgreens.