Playing with Fresh Ginger in Ohio? {Friday Five}

Earlier this week, my friend Joseph, the farmer behind Swainway Urban Farm, gave me samples of his latest product. It's ginger. Fresh, pink Hawaiian ginger, planted early last spring and harvested now.

I went through my standard methods to try a new fruit or vegetable. I ate some raw and it didn't pucker my lips like grocery store ginger does. I cooked some gently and came away with tender slices, none of the stringy dry texture of the sat-on-the-shelf-too-long roots. Even the stems are tasty to chew on. In short, I played with an entirely new ginger.

Specifically, here are five ways I enjoy fresh Ohio ginger:

1) Candied in honey water - I simmered slices in a light honey syrup and then dried them. These will be perfect sore throat lozenges in the winter.

2) Ginger syrup - Don't waste what's left in the pot when the ginger slices are removed! I mixed the honey ginger syrup with rye whiskey and apple cider vinegar and served in a cinnamon sugar rimmed martini glass for a gingersnap cocktail. Yum!

3) Tops as decor - Ginger greens are spiky, adding interest to an arrangement or on their own.

4) Infused in vodka - you knew I would, right? Ginger flavor infuses in a mere three to four days.

5) Atop soba - This ginger is so fresh that it was a pleasant biting condiment to an umami-rich noodle soup. The amazing orange egg is from Cota farms!

You can pick up some of Joseph's fresh ginger (it's organic too!) from the Swainway booth at the Clintonville Farmer's Market tomorrow and every Saturday until the supply runs out. Or, come see the ginger in its 'natural habitat' at the Movie night & Terra Madre fundraiser at Swainway Urban Farm this Saturday, September 22 at 6:30 pm. I'll be there!

New & Improved Baked Apple {Recipe}

My favorite season is here! I love autumn for chilly mornings, the rainbow of changing leaves, and my birthday. I also love apples, the quintessential fall fruit.

Last night, Lil requested baked apples, a 'dessert' so nutritious that I had to indulge. The only apples we had on hand were the Freedom variety from Sippel Farm. These are tasty red apples but the skins are a little tough. I knew if I baked in my traditional way, the skins would become leathery but I had an inkling that a favorite kitchen gadget might help us out.

Apple Peeler Corer Slicer

Enter the apple peeler corer slicer. This gizmo is one I resisted purchasing for years because it has every marking of a unitasker. Indeed it only works well on apples, but it makes quick work of apples for crisp, jam, and sauce. We use it often enough to justify the $20 cost;  City Folk's Farm Shop has an apple peeler corer slicer to borrow.

Lil loves to operate the peeler, as do her friends. Some of them ask for an 'apple slinky' every time they are over. Even the chickens appreciate this tool because they get to eat up all the skins and cores, so nicely cut into beak-sized pieces.

Baked Apple Recipe

Back to last night - Lil peeled, cored, and sliced our apples. I sat them upright in a baking dish and we filled with a little bit of butter, oats, nuts, and sugar. Lil sprinkled with cinnamon. Actually, Lil covered them in cinnamon as she was so enjoying making the spice rain down on the apples that she forgot to stop. Oops.

They baked in a low oven for an hour while we prepared and ate the rest of our dinner. I tipped the rounds into a spiral for service. Our dinner guests agreed that this was an improvement to the typical baked apple, as pleasing to the eye as to the fork.

Baked Apple Makes: 1 serving Time: 1 hour

1 starchy baking apple per person 1/2 teaspoon butter per person (can substitute coconut oil) 2 teaspoons sugar or honey 1 teaspoon rolled oats 1 teaspoon chopped walnuts or raisins (optional) 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon

1. Peel, core, and slice apples. Place with core hole vertical in an oven safe baking dish. 2. Fill core hole with butter, 1 teaspoon sugar, oats, and walnuts or raisins. 3. Sprinkle cinnamon and remaining sugar over the top of the apple. 4. Bake in 300 degree F oven for 40 minutes. Check for doneness by poking at apple. If it does not yield easily, pour 1/2 cup apple cider, hard apple cider, or water into pan and cover with aluminum foil. Bake an additional 20 minutes or until apples are cooked to your desired texture.

Ketchup, For The Good Times {Recipe}

Some preserves are easy, some are drastically cheaper than store-bought, and some are tastier than anything you can buy. Alas, homemade ketchup is none of these things.

So I can't exactly explain why I make it every year.

I suppose I can ketchup because processing all the jars of regular sauce becomes boring. And when I'm in the midst of tomato madness, condensing a little puree with spices isn't any extra trouble - it is, in fact, a welcome chance to do something different.

Last year I improved my ketchup method by cooking the sauce down in a slow cooker. This prevents the bottom from scorching and makes it easy to leave the house or do other chores during the lengthy, oh so lengthy, cooking period.

While ketchup doesn't meet any of my traditional characteristics of a recommended preserve, HITK readers have ask for my recipe. Here it is:

Homemade Ketchup

Makes: approximately 5 pints Time: 12 hours cooking, 30 minutes active

1 teaspoon olive oil 1 whole onion, diced 2 quarts tomato pulp (most easily made with a food strainer and sauce maker tool, or made by stewing tomatoes and running through a manual foodmill to remove skins and seeds.) 1 cup brown sugar or honey 1/4 cup apple cider vinegar 1 teaspoon garlic powder sachet of whole aromatic spices (your choice of bay leaf, cinnamon stick, cloves, allspice berries, juniper berries, celery seeds - I use a little of each) 1 teaspoon salt 1/2 teaspoon white pepper 1/2 teaspoon lemon juice per pint

1. Heat a medium sized pot over low heat. Add olive oil and onions. Cook until translucent, approximately 10 minutes. 2. Add onions and remaining ingredients except for lemon juice to a slow cooker*. Turn slow cooker on high and allow to simmer for 3-4 hours. 3. Remove spice sachet and set aside. Puree mixture with an immersion blender. 4. Replace spice sachet and continue to cook for 3-4 hours. Taste (don't burn your tongue!) and adjust salt, pepper, vinegar, or sugar as you see fit. 5. Continue cooking and tasting until tomato is of ketchup consistency. This may take an additional 3-4 hours. 6. Ladle hot ketchup into sterile jars with one half teaspoon lemon juice per pint. Wipe rims, place on two part lids, and process in a water bath for 35 minutes/pints, 40 minutes/quarts. Remove from water bath, cool, and store properly.

*Don't have a slow cooker? Use a medium pot on low heat, uncovered, and stir frequently to be sure the bottom does not burn.

This post, with much respect for the A Prairie Home Companion, brought to you by the Ketchup Advisory Board.

Kousa Dogwood Fruit {Foraged Edible}

Last week, we walked the dogs past this house and this tree for the thousandth time when I spotted something new: pink spiked fruit.

Alex picked one up off the ground. The soft fruit was about the size of his thumb nail. With a little pressure, the skin split open to reveal bright orange flesh inside.

"It's edible," I said without knowing exactly what it was, nor having ever tasted it myself. I just knew I looked it up a few years ago. Ever the risk-taker, Alex licked a bit. "Tastes like mango." We passed around the fruit and agreed it was very sweet and tropical-flavored.

As soon as I returned home, I looked up the tree. It's a Kousa Dogwood, an Asian version of the ornamental tree species. Kousa fruits are indeed edible and sometimes used to make wine.

Lil and I ventured out later to collect some more. We observed the Rules of Foraging and rang the bell of the nearest house to ask permission. No one answered so we limited our picking to what was fallen on the ground.

I tossed our modest haul in the Foley food mill and pressed the gritty flesh from the tough skin. With only a few tablespoons of yield, I naturally mixed the puree into a vodka martini with a lemon twist.

If you happen to see a Kousa tree in your neighborhood, collect fruit in the fall to experience this taste of the tropics in central Ohio. And if you're a gardener, consider planting one - these Dogwoods are resistant to fungal diseases that often kill the more common Flowering Dogwood.

Pressure is On! Canning Sweet Corn

I finally did it. I bit the bullet and tried pressure canning. I chose canning corn for my first project because it is abundant right now and I generally like store-bought canned corn.

To begin, Alex and I husked 4 dozen ears of fresh, non-GMO corn from Bird's Haven Farms. I cut kernels off the cobs while a large pot water boiled on the stove and the jars and lids sanitized in two additional pots of boiling water. Yes, I'm glad that our heat wave finally broke and the kitchen stayed at sub-sauna temperatures!

I loaded the raw corn into the jars, pouring boiling water over top and released air bubbles with a sanitized thin knife. I read the instruction manual and adjusted the canner weight for 10 pounds of pressure. Then I placed on the two part lids, put the jars in the canner, twisted the lid closed and turned up the heat.

My sweet corn and I survived to report that pressure canning is no more trouble than water bath canning. The only difference, really and truly, is the annoyance of the sputtering canner sound. For sweet corn, you must endure the hissing for a full fifty five minutes. I recommend leaving the kitchen and doing something else during the processing, lest your ears bleed from the racket.

The canner had to cool for a full half hour before the seal released. All six jars sealed within minutes of being removed from the pot. Sweet!

Only time will tell if home canned corn texture is something I enjoy eating, but at the very least this batch taught me that pressure canning is nothing I should fear. Low acid vegetables, stocks, and meats - the pressure is on!

Have you ever pressure canned? What do you think about it?

Added to Simple Lives Thursday #110

Roasted Peach Boats + Yagoot Giveaway {Recipe}

Peaches in the summertime, apples in the fall, if I can't have you all the time, I won't have none at all. - Gillian Welch, Back In Time It's the height of peach season and my family is going through a peck a week. That's fifteen pounds of peaches!

We each eat several fresh peaches daily, I canned nine pints, and we cook them into pie and cobbler. Wanting a lighter dessert for a recent meal, I created these roasted peach boats.

Oven roasting peaches concentrates their flavor and reduces the flesh to a smooth, scoopable texture. Scoring the peel before cooking helps the skin break easily with the edge of a spoon. The small bowl holds a dallop of freshly whipped cream, portion of crunchy granola, or in this case, a scoop of Yagoot frozen yogurt.

Yagoot asked me to create a recipe with their new Yagoot@Home line of frozen yogurt. Filled with live active yogurt cultures, Yagoot is a tangy and low fat alternative to ice cream. Pints of seasonal flavors are available in their shops in Cincinnati and Columbus.

Yagoot Gift Card Giveaway

Yagoot is offering two twenty dollar gift cards for readers of Hounds in the Kitchen to try their yogurt. If you want a chance to win, simply leave a comment with your favorite frozen yogurt topping or serving idea.

Roasted Peach Boats

Makes: 2 Time: 30 minutes Ingredients: 1 fresh Ohio peach (I am loving the Branstool Orchard peaches this year.) 2 teaspoons brown sugar 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Method: 1. Cut peaches in half and remove pit. 2. Score a shallow 'X' on the rounded outside of each half. 3. Place scored side down in a oven-safe roasting pan. 4. Sprinkle flesh with brown sugar and cinnamon. 5. Roast in a 350 degree oven for 30 minutes or until peach is soft. 6. Allow to cool for five minutes. Top with whipped cream, granola, frozen yogurt, or ice cream.

NB: You can make a big batch of roasted peaches at once, cool, and store them in the fridge for up to four days. Bring them to room temperature or reheat before serving.

Music video for the song lyric above:

Giveaway details: Two $20 gift cards will be awarded at random to two separate commenters. Prize ERV – $20. Prize is provided and delivered by Yagoot; Entrants agree to not hold Rachel Tayse Baillieul or Hounds in the Kitchen liable for the prize. Entry open to US resident adults 18 years of age and older. Entries as comments on this site will be accepted from 2 pm EST Tuesday August 7, 2012 – 2 pm EST Wednesday August 15, 2012. Two winners will be chosen on Wednesday August 15, 2012 by random.org and notified via email. In the event that a winner does not respond within 48 hours, new winner(s) will be selected.

Disclosure: Yagoot provided me with gift cards to cover the ingredients of creating a recipe using their yogurt. All opinions are my own.

Roasted, Marinated Eggplant Antipasto {Recipe}

I am so uninspired by eggplant that I scarcely could believe enchanting, chewy, tangy nosh a friend recently served me was eggplant antipasto.

I mean, I should love eggplant. It is purple, picturesque, and easy to grow in the backyard. But the often spongy, slimy texture simply isn't worth the weak flavor to spend time growing or cooking it. Or so I thought until eggplant antipasto.

I recreated my friends' dish at home with some irresistible Wayward Seed eggplant and ate piece after piece. I served some to another friend and between the two of us and Alex we cleared the plate in no time.

The lengthy preparation hardly seems worth the quick consumption. First, sliced eggplant must sit in a salt coating to leach out liquid. Then, the cook must squeeze out any remaining water and bake them for a half hour in the oven. Finally, the slices soak in brine for a minimum of four hours.

I would rarely recommend a method that requires so much time and fussiness but I assure you that even eggplant doubters will enjoy this preparation. It converted me.

Roasted, Marinated Eggplant Serves: 6-8 appetizer servings Time: 20 minutes active, 5 hours draining/marinating As flavors are concentrated in this recipe, high-quality ingredients are key.

1 pound small to medium sized eggplant, sliced into 1/2 inch rounds generous sprinklings of salt, approximately 2 tablespoons 1/4 cup quality balsamic vinegar 1/4 cup quality honey 1/2 cup quality olive oil 1/2 teaspoon ground white pepper

1. Place eggplant slices in a large colander sitting inside a bowl to collect drips. 2. Generously salt eggplant on both sides. Leave at room temperature, uncovered, for 30 - 60 minutes. Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. 3. Squeeze each slice to remove the maximum amount of liquid, brushing off excess salt grains. 4. Place slices in a single layer on a cookie sheet. Drizzle with a few tablespoons of the olive oil. 5. Bake for 30 minutes or until slightly browned. 6. Whisk together honey, vinegar, oil, and white pepper in a small glass or ceramic container. 7. Add eggplant to the marinade and gently stir to be sure all pieces are covered. Let stand at room temperature for 4-8 hours. 8. Serve with toast points or bread rounds. Leftovers can be kept covered in the refrigerator for up to one month but always bring to room temperature before serving.

Inspiration from Veggie U 2012 Food & Wine

The Veggie U culinary education program has delivered 1800 classroom kits to over 26 states from its Milan, Ohio headquarters since its inception in 2003. Many of these kits are funded through the annual Food & Wine Celebration held at the Culinary Vegetable Institute. Alex and I attended the 10th annual fundraising event two weeks ago surrounded by great food and glorious gardens.

Encouraging Healthy Eating at Veggie U

Veggie U exists to "to promote the well-being of children through a healthy lifestyle." Farmer Jones and a team of teachers developed the Veggie U Earth to Table curriculum for fourth graders to give students a full-sensory experience growing plants and raising composting worms. The end result is an series of fun lessons that teach children where food comes from and why vegetables are an important part of their diet.

The Veggie U success naturally collects admirers among culinary celebrities. Robert Irvine, of Restaurant Impossible fame, was on hand during the 2012 event. He has used Farmer Jone's microgreens in his restaurants since 1997 and supports Veggie U because he wants people to eat better.

Our "eating habits have changed dramatically because we're busy," Robert shared with a group of reporters. He offered a potential solution: independent grocers could try marketing a selection of grab and go ingredients and recipes for simple real food meals to compete with fast food. And of course, educating children is key to changing habits. Robert, and Veggie U, operate under the principle that "if you make exercise and food fun, children will be healthy."

Great Gardens

The Veggie U Food & Wine Celebration is held on the grounds of the Culinary Vegetable Institute (CVI) in Milan, Ohio near Sandusky. The drive in to the CVI are lined with fields of asparagus, ancient grains, and flowers. The grounds surrounding the event center are richly landscaped with edibles.

As Alex and I admired the herb garden, we could not help but fondle and smell the plants. Our attention was noted by CVI sous chef Brian. He gave us a personal tour of his favorite herb oddities including dozens of varieties of common herbs and sweet aztec, a stevia-like sweet tasting plant.

The most surprising herbal introduction was to the eyeball flower. A small pinch of the tight tiny flower petals on the tip of the tongue causes a tingling and numbing sensation similar to licking a nine volt battery. Wow, plants are amazing.

Home Cooking Inspiration

What I most appreciated about the Veggie U event was the quality of the food samplings. This particular batch of chefs from around the country created diverse, local-focused cuisine. Alex and I walked away with a half dozen ideas to try in our home kitchen.

Salmon Skin Chicharron - The Greenbrier (on our life list to visit) combined old school charcuterie with neavou molecular gastronomy at their stand. Alex loved crunching on the salmon skin chicharraon, gently cooked then deep fried strips of salmon skin shown standing up in the metal cone.

Pickled Tamale - A Cleveland-area caterer offered a tamale with a twist: wild rice covered in corn masa, wrapped in swiss chard, and soaked in vinegar brine for a few hours before service. This preparation was reminiscent of a Greek stuffed grape leaf. Takeaway was both to attempt tamales with a chard wrapper and consider lightly brining almost anything.

Sauerkraut Cakes - Jonathon Sawyer can do no wrong in my book but he did something genius at this event: sauerkraut cakes. We didn't ask about preparation but guessed that the kraut was mixed with a little egg or flour and pan fried.

Stuffed Baby Pattypans - I cannot resist a 'cute' vegetable and little pattypans always end up in my market bag when I see them. One chef played on their shape by hollowing out the center and stuffing the squash with a sausage mixture, something I will surely make at home.

Pressed Pulled Pork - The dish we could not stop talking about was a lengthy charcuterie-like pork preparation. Not only did the pulled, then pressed, then seared ham and shoulder squares taste delicious, they are a unique stand-in for a meat patty in a burger or layered plating. We will be recreating this post haste and will share the recipe when we do.

Veggie U set the bar for the chef-tasting fundraiser season very high and I am thankful for having the chance to visit. If you are heading to a similar event like Taste the Future or the Columbus Food & Wine Affair, I suggest you check our CMH Gourmand's article about how to survive such a foodie buffet.