Archive for April, 2011
First Farmers’ Market Menu
Posted by castironidaho in Uncategorized on April 29, 2011
The farmers’ market is back in business! Global Gardens doesn’t have any veggies ready yet, but I was down there this weekend selling CSA shares, and picked up some things from the skilled farmers who had them. Rhubarb and herbs came from Marty’s garden. We came home and did a nice big bar-bee for all of Marty’s housemates.
Here’s what we had:
- Mutton Burgers with Rhubarb Barbecue Sauce (you could use beef!)
- Grilled Asparagus and Parsnips
- Wild Honey Rhubarb Cake with Strawberries and Cream
Mutton Burgers
- 1 lbs ground mutton
- 1tbs chopped sage
- 1tbs chopped parsley
- 3 chopped garlic cloves
Make patties and smash into herb mix. Grill!
Wild Honey Rhubarb BBQ Sauce
- 2Tbsp honey
- 1 cup chopped rhubarb
- 1 onion Juliane
- 1/2 pint BBQ Sauce (prefer Katie’s Homemade)
Saute onions and right when they start to turn brown add rhubarb and honey cook until rhubarb is broken down then add BBQ sauce and let simmer 5 minutes.
Grilled Asparagus and Parsnips:
Easy. Chop them, toss in olive oil, and throw them along the edges of the grill. Season with salt and pepper. Asparagus is perfectly in season now, and Rice Family Farms had some Parsnips overwintered from last year. Have you ever eaten a parsnip? I hadn’t, so I decided to try them! They’re kind of like carrots, with a tang, very good flavor.
Wild Honey Rhubarb Cake with Strawberries and Cream
Posted by castironidaho in Recipes on April 29, 2011
I am crazy for both Strawberries and Rhubarb, which are often served together. The problem is that rhubarb has to be cooked, but I HATE to cook fresh strawberries. I like them fresh and unaltered. So, while in the process of making our favorite strawberry shortcake recipe, we decided to solve this problem by putting the rhubarb IN the shortcake. It came out very moist and took forever to cook, so I’ve adjusted the recipe a little for you.
Ingredients:
- 1 cup softened butter
- 1 1/2 cups sugar
- 4 eggs
- 2 tsp. vanilla extract
- 2 cups flour
- 1/2 tsp salt
- zest of one lemon
- 1 cup rhubarb
- 1 Tbsp. honey (wild if you have it)
- juice of the same lemon
- Fresh strawberries
- Whipped cream
Cream butter in mixer. Add sugar followed by eggs, beat well after each addition. Add vanilla, flour and salt, and lemon zest. In a separate bowl, combine rhubarb, lemon juice, and honey. Stir into cake batter. Bake in a round cake pan at 325 for about an hour and 15 minutes, or until it seems done. Ours took a long time. Serve with fresh strawberries and whipped cream. A small slice of this one will do you, it’s rich and sweet.
To make the original version of our favorite strawberry shortcake, eliminate rhubarb and honey, and use 2 cups of sugar and 5 eggs. For a crowd, double the recipe and cook in a bundt pan.
Fish with Sorrel Cream Sauce
Posted by castironidaho in Farm and Garden, Recipes on April 27, 2011
Sorrel is one of the first spring greens to appear in the garden! I have a wonderful little herb bed right outside my front door. Which is where the herb bed should be, really, as close to the kitchen as possible! The sorrel has been hanging out there for a few weeks now, just waiting for us to figure out what to do with it. Sorrel has a fairly strong lemony taste. It’s good added to a green salad in moderate amounts, and is good in soups or with eggs.
This time I combined it with chives, also ready very early in the spring, and some fresh beet greens from the first farmers’ market of the year, to create one of the first garden-fresh dinners of the season!
Ingredients:
- 1 bunch sorrel
- 1 bunch chives
- 6 shallots
- 1 Tbsp. butter
- 1 cup heavy cream
- salt and pepper
- fish (we used Steelhead, a Northwestern delicacy that looks like salmon but is actually trout!)
- bed of fresh or cooked greens for serving. We used steamed beet greens but thought about spinach.
Heat the broiler and broil fish on a pan with salt and pepper, until done.
Meanwhile make the sauce. Chop sorrel, chives, and shallots. Melt butter in a pan. I found an old NPR story (I research my articles, people) that says DON’T use cast iron to cook sorrel. Apparently it turns it black and makes it taste bad! Saute shallots until softened. Add herbs, stir a couple of times, then add the cream and heat through. Add salt and pepper to taste.
Steam greens or put fresh greens on a plate. Arrange fish on greens and top with sauce. Delicious!
Here are my sorrel and chives, before picking! Like lettuce and many herbs, these will grow back after cutting. You could plant sorrel or chives in your garden now, using a plant from a greenhouse, and they will come back to your garden every year. My oregano is peeking up too, you could plant that now, as well as cilantro, parsley, fennel, sage, and thyme! All except for the cilantro are perennial and will come back next year, as long as you have a good, sunny spot. Store-bought herbs, even farmers’ market herbs, can’t match the ones growing outside your front door. If you’re only going to plant one thing this year, I recommend a few herbs.
– Katie
Caution, Meat.
Posted by castironidaho in Food Preservation, Handmade, Hunting and Fishing, Randy's Corner on April 24, 2011
Despite the love and pleasure food has brought me, it’s a conflicted affair. When I don’t eat I get grumpy. Bob Marley said, “a hungry man is an angry man.” I believe him. The closest thing to my heart is my belly. I hate being hungry. When I am really famished a salad and steamed veggies won’t do. When it’s been a long hard day of work, it’s meat I crave.
The yearning, I believe comes from my belly (or is that my hearty?). The meat comes from an animal and that’s the hard part. To satisfy my hunger an animal must die, it’s so primal. The factory food system has hidden this reality. In an attempt to learn what it takes to feed me and my friends I have ended up slaughtering a few animals. It has never been easy. One thing for sure there is nothing tastier and more satisfying than meat with a name.
Before you go out to confront the alienation between you and your meat and start killing your pets, I suggest you find a mentor. One who has experience with raising animals and slaughtering them. My first killing was some old hens. My teachers were a couple of 80 year old Basque women. For sheep and other wild game, Randy is my connection. For the kill, gutting and skinning it takes practice and should be done under tutelage.
Butchering on the other hand (well is a butchering). When you are good at it it can take 30 minutes. The first time I butchered a lamb, I did it alone, half one night and the other half the next. Bucky tasted awesome, but the cuts weren’t the best. The second time I butchered two deer with a friend. It took us all day to cut and wrap.
For Old Momma we took the whole carcass into Meats Royale on Overland and had them do the butchering. Well worth the money.
… Here’s Randy’s How to Butcher a lamb.
Dutch Oven Sourdough Carrot Cake
Posted by castironidaho in Events, Recipes, Road Trips on April 24, 2011
Marty and I made this Carrot Cake for the Dutch Oven Potluck. The truth is, Alex’s Pineapple Upside Down Cake was better. This is the second time we’ve made this one, and we’re still perfecting it. It was actually better the first time, burned a bit on the bottom this time, so be sure not to use too much bottom heat. But this is a wonderful, fragrant cake, so we haven’t given up.
Ingredients:
- 1 1/2 cups flour
- 1 1/2 cups sugar
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp cinnamon
- 1/2 tsp ginger
- 1/2 tsp nutmeg
- 1/2 cup chopped walnuts
For camping, we like to mix all these dry ingredients at home and transport them in a ziplock or a sealed container. Then, when you get to your campsite, add:
- 1 cup grated carrot
- 3/4 cup oil
- 8 oz can crushed pineapple
- 3 eggs
- 1 cup sourdough starter
Add to the dry ingredients to make cake batter. Pour into a greased and floured 10 inch Dutch Oven and place over 12-13 charcoal briquettes with 10-12 briquettes on the Dutch Oven lid. (These directions are according to an ancient booklet of recipes Marty has, “Dutch Oven Cooking with Sourdough,” published by the Idaho Wheat Commission. We might recommend a little less bottom heat, and burning does seem to be a problem. Also, we used a 12 inch Dutch Oven, resulting in a thinner cake, which might be easier to cook without burning)
Bake for 40 minutes and enjoy. Great with whipped cream or cream cheese frosting!
– Katie
Dutch Oven Pineapple Upside Down Cake!
Posted by castironidaho in Randy's Corner, Recipes, Road Trips on April 20, 2011
And the winner is………….Alex Neiwirth, with his fancy delicious Dutch Oven Pineapple Upside Down Cake!
While the Dutch Oven Potluck was a great success, and a good time was had by all who attended, attendance was a little lower than we’d hoped! What’s wrong, people? Is Celebration Park too far away? You missed out, but we might try it again sometime.
Anyway, the Pineapple Upside Down Cake was amazing! Because the Dutch Oven has a little bit of a tendency to burn things such as cakes on the bottom, this idea works really well, because the wet delicious fruit, rather than the easy-to-burn cake, is what sits against the bottom of the pan.
Here’s how Alex did it:
Ingredients:
- One yellow cake mix (Normally I don’t allow cake mix, but can make exceptions for camping and for Ghiardelli brownie mix. You could substitute any yellow cake recipe. For camping, you can pre-mix the dry ingredients at home, and add the liquid at the campsite, just like cake mix.)
- One can pineapple rings
- 10 Maraschino cherries
- 3 Tbsp butter
- 1 cup brown sugar
Heat Charcoal and let it burn down to hot coals for using. Meanwhile you can prepare the cake mix. Follow the directions which will likely include eggs, oil, and water, but replace a cup of the water with the juice from the pineapple can.
Alex used a ring of just a few charcoal briquettes to start off. Set the Dutch Oven on the ring of charcoal and slowly melt the butter. Then add the sugar, like this:
When that is all melted together, arrange the pineapple rings and Maraschino cherries. Pour the prepared cake batter over the top of it. In true outdoorsman style, Alex used a Nalgene bottle.
Put the lid on, put coals on top, and bake. I’d say Alex baked it for around an hour.
Take the top off, carefully remove from Dutch Oven, and voila! You can test to see if the cake is done by sticking you pocket knife in the center. When it comes out clean it’s done. Alex say’s its best not to open the oven while cooking, don’t play with it.
If you’re not cooking over coals, you can just put it in the Dutch Oven and cook it inside your oven at home, following the directions for the cake mix.
Thanks for the treat, Alex! Marty says you cheated, by being a son of the talented Randy.
–Katie
Halverson Lakes @ Celebration Park, ID
Posted by castironidaho in Road Trips on April 20, 2011
Celebration Park sits on the bank of the Snake River inside the Canyon. It’s Idaho’s first archeological park. The Eagle scouts have really out done themselves on the picnic area around the vistor’s center. The big attraction at Celebration Park is the atlatl range and the petroglyphs.
Highly recommend calling the park to find out when the tours are held and when you can throw darts at the range! I also recommend going in very early spring before it gets hot. They host all kinds of great stuff for kids. But a little further down the road is the true red neck destination – The Halverson Bar and Lake Trail.
Very easy hike through a field of basalt boulders covered in moss and lichen. The waterfall is in full rage this wet season and almost immediately visible. The lakes are in a sand bar up against the south canyon wall. Keep your eyes peeled there are lots of birds and white tail bunnies, damn the desert is gorgeous in April. Take as long as you like on this hike, there is plenty to explore. These lakes are seasonal and natural. Homesteaders and farmers through out history have dredged and diverted water to make them bigger and last longer.
You are bound to see a number of rednecks fishing the lakes during spring run-off. The are fishing for small mouth bass. I hear the fishing can be awesome on the right day. But I wouldn’t eat anything out of the Halverson Lakes. Although the scenic waterfall takes your breath away, and the lakes almost look clear. The water is not. The lakes are filled from diverted irrigation waste water. This dairy is not far from the rim of the canyon and this isn’t only one. There are a number of commercial cattle operations in the drainage also. So look, but don’t touch.
To get to the trailhead, follow the road past the visitor’s center and past the camp ground until you can’t drive anymore. Get out of the car and keep walking up stream. At some point the road is gated and you’ll see the sign at the trail head.
–Farmer Marty
While hiking in the desert, be prepared for extreme changes in temperature.
Blueberry Oatmeal Pancakes
Posted by castironidaho in Recipes on April 13, 2011
These pancakes are best made and eaten on a lazy weekend morning. I sure don’t seem to have many of those anymore, but maybe if this cold winter weather decides to hang on for one last weekend….these could fit the bill for somebody’s weekend. Would also be great out in the woods, cooked over hot coals on your Cast Iron Skillet!
This ingenious recipe is courtesy of my mom. You make your own batch of pancake mix out of dry ingredients, and when you want pancakes, just add eggs, oil, and water to your pre-made mix, and voila! Plus, they are some of the best pancakes ever.
Pancake Mix:
- 4 c. oatmeal
- 2 c. white flour
- 2 c. whole wheat flour
- 1 c. brown sugar
- 1 c. dry milk
- 3 Tbsp. baking powder
- 2 Tbsp. cinnamon
- 4 tsp. salt
- 1/2 tsp. cream of tartar
Mix together and store in a large ziplock bag or a tightly sealed container. When you’re ready for pancakes:
- 2 c. pancake mix
- 2 eggs
- 1/3 c. oil
- 1 c. water
- frozen blueberries (optional)
Beat eggs in a bowl. Add oil. Alternately add pancake mix and water, mix well. Spoon onto a heated cast iron skillet. Drop blueberries onto the batter-up side of the pancake, then flip. Makes about a dozen 4 inch pancakes. Enjoy with maple syrup and/or whipped cream.
My mom says that you can also make waffles with this mix, just add less water. I don’t know the exact measurement, maybe 1/2 or 3/4 cup?
– Katie
Dutch Oven Potluck — You’re invited!
Posted by castironidaho in Events on April 10, 2011
Remember that box out in the garage with all your camping stuff in it? It’s time to break that thing out. Find your dutch oven, wipe the dust out, salt and grease it. It’s time for the Cast Iron Dutch Oven Potluck.
April 17 at Celebration Park. Have your Dutch Oven dish ready by 6. We’re going to make a day of it and go early for some fishing and canoeing, hope you can come and join us early! If people are interested, we could do a float trip from Swan Falls to Celebration Park that day.
While other food contributions are welcome, the Dutch Oven is highly recommended and there will be prizes for the best Dutch Oven concoctions. Sweet and savory categories.
I can give you some tips or recipes if you’ve never used a Dutch Oven before. If you’re going to go out and buy one, get one with legs! (Check Boise Army Navy, or D&B Supply).
Bring your own firewood, coals, and raft!
Info about Celebration Park: http://www.canyonco.org/Parks/Celebrartion_Park/
All of our Boise readers, and friends new and old, are invited. Hope to see you there!
Marty and Katie
Blackened Salmon on a Salad
Posted by castironidaho in Recipes on April 6, 2011
We wanted to test the blackened seasoning that Paul sent us, so I prepared a blind taste test: Paul’s seasoning on one piece of salmon, and the blackened salmon concoction I usually use on the other! This recipe originally came from a magazine, and I’ve used it for many years. Both were actually great, maybe mine was a little spicier but they were pretty similar. You can try this recipe, or try a pre-made blend from a local food artist near you.
Ingredients:
- Salmon fillet
- 3 Tbsp. chili powder
- 1 Tbsp. oregano
- Salt and Pepper
Mix chili powder, oregano, salt and pepper in a shallow bowl. Cut salmon fillet into desired size pieces and drag through spice mixture, coating on all sides. Fry all sides in cast iron skillet until blackened and until fish is cooked (it will become flaky), or cook on the grill. Use a tiny bit of oil to fry, if your pan isn’t well enough seasoned.
Serve over a green salad, or with a side of any kind of green veggies!
Our salad layer included:
- Mixed greens or spinach
- Strawberries
- Avocado
- Goat Cheese
- Almonds
So easy, and slightly fancy….enjoy!
– Katie
