I spent a day and a half cooking and freezing produce I got at the local farmer's market. The most time consuming was the tomatoes. I cooked a case of tomatoes into spaghetti sauce, peeled and sliced a case of peaches, bagged up two flats of blueberries, sliced a variety of peppers and made pesto.
The main ingredient in pesto is basil, which was either non-existent or very expensive in the big stores, but it was 1 dollar for a big bunch at the market. Making pesto is simple as long as you have something to finely chop the basil. A chef's knife that you can rock, and a cutting board would work but I use something called an Alaskan Ulu
, which is a curved knife that fits into a curved wooden bowl. In Italy this tool is called a mezzaluna (for the half-moon shape of the blade). The pesto I made is a combination of fresh basil, olive oil, garlic, parmesan and pine nuts.
I started the spaghetti sauce by sautéing a mirepoix (I fried some onion, carrots, celery in a little olive oil), added a lot of fresh garlic and basil, vegetable stock, dried oregano, garlic powder, sea salt, pepper and many sliced tomatoes into a sixteen quart stock pot. I let that cook for a couple of hours - then cooled it and froze it in quart size and gallon sized bags. Then I repeated it with the rest of the tomatoes.
Peaches are easy to freeze. I used Alberta's. The key is to blanch them (quickly submerse them in boiling water) so the skin comes off easily. Don't leave them in the hot water or they start to cook and get mushy. I cut them into slices for use in smoothies or the occasional peach pie.
Blueberries are even easier - just rinse them off, pick out any stems or leaves, and put them in freezer bags.
Peppers are easy too - just cut out the seeds and white membrane inside and slice them into cookable pieces. I love seeing all the different colors and varieties of peppers at the market this time of year. I'm growing some hot peppers in a container this year and am looking forward to using them for fresh salsa.
After I was done with my produce storage, I made some pizza dough using -
3 1/2 cups flour (approximately)
1 cup warm water
2 tablespoons yeast (one package)
2 tablespoons honey
1/4 cup olive oil
1/2 tsp. salt
The main ingredient in pesto is basil, which was either non-existent or very expensive in the big stores, but it was 1 dollar for a big bunch at the market. Making pesto is simple as long as you have something to finely chop the basil. A chef's knife that you can rock, and a cutting board would work but I use something called an Alaskan Ulu
, which is a curved knife that fits into a curved wooden bowl. In Italy this tool is called a mezzaluna (for the half-moon shape of the blade). The pesto I made is a combination of fresh basil, olive oil, garlic, parmesan and pine nuts.I started the spaghetti sauce by sautéing a mirepoix (I fried some onion, carrots, celery in a little olive oil), added a lot of fresh garlic and basil, vegetable stock, dried oregano, garlic powder, sea salt, pepper and many sliced tomatoes into a sixteen quart stock pot. I let that cook for a couple of hours - then cooled it and froze it in quart size and gallon sized bags. Then I repeated it with the rest of the tomatoes.
Peaches are easy to freeze. I used Alberta's. The key is to blanch them (quickly submerse them in boiling water) so the skin comes off easily. Don't leave them in the hot water or they start to cook and get mushy. I cut them into slices for use in smoothies or the occasional peach pie.
Blueberries are even easier - just rinse them off, pick out any stems or leaves, and put them in freezer bags.
Peppers are easy too - just cut out the seeds and white membrane inside and slice them into cookable pieces. I love seeing all the different colors and varieties of peppers at the market this time of year. I'm growing some hot peppers in a container this year and am looking forward to using them for fresh salsa.
After I was done with my produce storage, I made some pizza dough using -
3 1/2 cups flour (approximately)
1 cup warm water
2 tablespoons yeast (one package)
2 tablespoons honey
1/4 cup olive oil
1/2 tsp. salt
Pizza dough (or any yeast dough) is a little tricky - but not too hard once you get the hang of it. Dissolve the yeast, honey and salt into pretty warm water (not super hot or you'll kill the yeast) in a good sized bowl - one that's big enough to hold 3 1/2 cups flour and give you room to knead the dough. Let it sit for five minutes or so and watch for bubbles to start to form - if they don't you might have a bad batch of yeast; or the water was too hot. If the water is too cold it will just take longer for the yeast to get going.
Add one cup of flour to the liquid while mixing with a fork. Gradually add more flour until the dough just starts to come apart. Use your hands/knuckles to fold the dough over until it forms a skin. Make sure you knead the dough enough or it won't rise - it has to form gluten which is what makes the dough trap gas bubbles given off by the yeast. When the dough is smooth and satiny, form it into a ball, and you are ready to let it rise. Fill your sink with a few inches of hot water and put the bowl of dough in, covering it with a towel. I like using the sink with some hot water because the heat and high humidity make it a good substitute for a proofing box.
Let the dough rise for 20 minutes or so. Punch the dough down and do a little more kneading to form a ball, or a rectangle, depending on the shape of your pizza pan. Coat your pan with olive oil and push the dough into the pan.
I used my homemade Italian sauce, mozeralla (it didn't melt so good...maybe I needed to try grating it), sweet onions, fresh tomatoes, black olives and some of the fresh pesto (after the pizza cooked).
It's very tasty. This simple dough could be used for breadsticks, rolls or a loaf of bread if you don't feel like a pizza and want to smell that wonderful yeasty smell in your kitchen.
