Lots of Okra

This year the one crop that has done extremely well has been my okra. The plants are huge and beautiful and have been quite productive. So since it is doing so well I figured I would do a post about okra and provide a couple of recipes for how I like to cook it. Many people do not like okra because of the fact that it can be slimy, but that all depends on how you cook it. Here are two of my favorite ways to cook okra.



Okra Patties
Ingredients:
3 cups vegetable oil for frying
1 pound okra, finely chopped
1 cup finely chopped onion
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
1/2 cup water
1 egg
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 cup cornmeal

Directions:
Heat 1 inch of oil in a large skillet to 375 degrees or cook on a medium heat.

In a large bowl, mix together the okra, onion, salt, pepper, water, and egg. Combine the flour, baking powder and cornmeal; and stir that into the okra mixture.

Carefully drop spoonfuls of the okra batter into the hot oil, and fry on each side until golden, about 2 minutes per side. Remove with a slotted spoon, and drain on paper towels.

Note: You can also use some yellow squash or zucchini instead of okra. (3/4 pound okra, and 1/4 pound summer squash/zucchini)

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Okra Rice
Ingredients:
1 pound bacon
1 large onion, chopped
3 cups sliced okra
1 cup blended tomatoes
1/2 cup chicken stock
1 cup uncooked rice
1 1/2 cups water

Directions:
Place bacon in a large, deep skillet. Cook over medium high heat until evenly brown. Drain grease and set aside for later use. Crumble bacon and set aside.

In the same skillet, saute onion in a small amount of reserved bacon grease over medium high heat until tender, about 3 minutes. Add crumbled bacon, sliced okra, blended tomatoes, and chicken stock. Reduce heat and simmer until okra is tender and falling apart, about 15 minutes. Stir in rice and water. Cover, and simmer for about 20 minutes, or until fluffy.

Janurary- Herb of the Month- Rosemary

~Rosemary~ Topic of the Month
Just thought I would start out by saying, Happy New Year everyone!
2010 is here!

As I have mentioned in a previous post I choose so make rosemary the herb of the month since I have been using it lately and have really started to like the flavor it adds to dishes.

Here are some medical uses and health facts of rosemary that you may find interesting:

-It is thought of to be a memory stimulant so instead of just keeping your pot of rosemary in the kitchen, you could move it do a more useful spot such as your desk where you do your work of where your kids do their studying and school work.

-Studies done on animals have shown that rosemary has cut their risk in half of getting lung cancer, colon cancer and breast cancer.

-Can also help to relax muscles, rosemary tea has been know for calming nerves.

-If rosemary tea is gargled it has been known to aid in healing canker sores and ulcers.

These are just a few of the many know uses of rosemary.


Cooking:
Rosemary is best used fresh, since it looses most of its flavor when dried, although it can also be used dried if you wish.

Rosemary can be used in cooking so many things, and it does not take much to add quite a bit of flavor. So far I have used it in stuffing, chicken, stir fry dishes, and possibly some other things that I am unable to think of at this moment, but there are sooooo many more options for cooking with rosemary that I have not tried yet.

One thing that will probably be the next thing that I try with rosemary will probably be rosemary butter. Sounds good doesn't it?

Here is a link to a site that explains some good ways to use rosemary for barbeques and others cooking uses along with some recipes.- theherbspiral.com

How to use rosemary in your cooking- this site gives you alot of ideas of how to cook with rosemary. Lots of good ideas. I may just have to try some of these.

Here is a link to my Pumpkin Bread Stuffing with Rosemary


Nutrition Data:
From Nutritiondata.com:
"The good: This food is low in Sodium, and very low in Cholesterol. It is also a good source of Vitamin B6, Magnesium, Potassium and Copper, and a very good source of Dietary Fiber, Vitamin A, Vitamin C, Folate, Calcium, Iron and Manganese.

The bad: This food is high in Saturated Fat."
You can check out the rest of the nutrition data for rosemary here at Nutritiondata.com

Pumpkin Bread Stuffing

I was looking at Allrecipes.com for pumpkin recipes and ran across a recipe for pumpkin bread stuffing. I thought it was a really good idea, so I thought I would give it a try, and did. I think it came out really good. I do have some ideas for some changes that I will make next time, but first I will tell you how I made it this time.

Ingredients that I picked fresh for the stuffing, just before making it. Celery, Red Russian Kale, Leeks, Pumpkin Bread, and a stem of Rosemary (between Celery and Kale).

I basically used whatever ingredients that I had available to pick, that I thought would be good in the stuffing. So here it is:


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Pumpkin Bread Stuffing

4 cups pumpkin bread
1 medium size leek
3/4 cup celery
10 leaves red russian kale
8 tbls. butter
1/2 cup vegetable broth
2 eggs
1 tsp. pumpkin pie spice
1 tbls. fresh rosemary
salt and pepper to taste

I think it is best to make the pumpkin bread almost a week ahead, before you make your stuffing since pumpkin bread can be kind of moist just after it is made. That way it will be a little drier before you make the stuffing.

Cut pumpkin bread into cubes and let dry overnight, may have to bake in oven at 250 degrees to make sure bread is dry enough.
Melt butter in a pan over medium heat. Add celery, leeks, and kale, cook till tender.
Mix in rosemary, salt, pepper, and pumpkin pie spice. Fold in bread cubes. Add eggs and then vegetable broth.
Transfer to buttered baking dish. Bake for 35 minutes covered with foil, at 375 degrees.

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Once again I thought this came out really good the way I made it but here is what I am going to do differently the next time I make it.

• Will make it next time with at least 6 cups pumpkin bread instead of 4 cups
• May use 2 leeks instead of 1
• Will use a little less kale, maybe 8 leaves instead of 10
• If I make a bigger batch I am sure that I will probably have to add more vegetable broth also.
  
• Instead of drying the bread overnight and then putting it in the over to make sure it is dry enough, I will toast it in the toaster oven first and if I need too I will put it in the oven for the rest of the time.
• Since I will make a bigger batch next time I will probably be able to bake for 40 minutes covered and 10 minutes uncovered, which is what the recipe I found said to do.

I will definitely have to play around with this recipe for awhile till it is perfect. Anyway, I am sure I will be making this for Thanksgiving, for sure.

July- Vegetable of the Month- Collards

Before this year I have never grown collards before, nor did I ever cook with them. I decided to grow them this year since I wanted more kinds of greens that would grow will during warmer weather. Collards are most often grown by southerners because of their talerance to the southern heat. My collards are still producing really well, and hopefully will continue to do so for awhile.

Cooking:

Our favorite way to use collards is to make collard rolls, which is just like cabbage rolls except with collards. Here is our recipe that we have been using but can be changed depending on what vegetables are in season.

COLLARD ROLLS (In Crock-Pot)
Ingredients 20 collards leaves (reserve liquid from the slightly cooked leaves)

1-pound baby cut carrots (slightly cooked)

½ cup precooked rice according to package

3 Yukon golden potatoes (slightly cooked) Approximately

3 pounds ground meat (80% lean ground chuck beef) 2 cans 10-3/4 oz Campbell’s tomato soup 3 eggs

The following four ingredients are what I had available (in season) to add, you can add whatever you may have available that sounds good, instead of the following:

½ cup chopped broccoli raabs

1/8 cup chopped garlic scapes

1/8 cup chopped scallions

1/8 cup chopped beet leaves

1/8 cup BA Farm Seasoning Mix

1/3 cup breadcrumbs

1/3 cup ketchup

Cooking time in large crock pot – 6 hours on low

Prepare rice, carrots, and potatoes as above and set aside.

Trim off the thick back part of stem of the collards as you would the cabbage leaves to make cabbage rolls. Place the collard leaves in water and heat just a few minutes. Reserve 2 cups liquid from cooked leaves; to this mix add the 2 cans of tomato soup. Combine broccoli raab, garlic scapes, scallions, and beet leaves mix together and add 1/8 cup to the meat mixture, reserve remaining to be added in to liquid mixture in crock-pot at the end.

Place in large bowl ground meat and combine the following: eggs, BA Farms Seasoning Mix, breadcrumbs, ketchup and rice. Mix together. Add the above 1/8 cup (reserve) of broccoli raabs, garlic scapes, etc. and mix.

To form collard rolls place meat mixture on the large end of leaf and roll up set each roll aside until all leaves are used. If there is left over meat, roll as a meatball. Place some carrots & potatoes on the bottom of the crock-pot. Add some liquid mixture. Then place a layer of collard rolls. Keep alternating carrots, potatoes, and liquid mixture then the collard rolls until all are used up.

May also be cooked in oven at 375 degrees for 1-1/2 hours (approximately) until done.

Health Benefits:

The following site names and describes the different health benefits of collards, such as improving bone health, and can also aid in preventing certain diseases such as heart disease and cancer. Also mentions how collards can help to prevent some vision problems, and may also help to give you more energy. Of coarse like most vegetables and greens can help with weight loss.
How Stuff Works- Collards Health Benefits

NutritionData.come- Collards

Recipe: Whole Stuffed Pumpkin

Ok, I will have to admit that, for some reason, I have a hard time, finding the time to stop what I am doing to cook a good meal. Between my job, taking care of my many birds, two dogs and of course vegetables and everything involved with markets, I just have a hard time stopping myself long enough to cook. Don't get me wrong I love cooking with our vegetables, but I would really love to cook more than I do. I guess that is just something that I will have to continue to work on. That is the reason why whenever I provide recipes it is usually a link to some good recipes that I would love to try myself because it sounds good, and not a recipe that I have tried myself.

Anyhow, after all that rambling on and on and on (for some reason I like to do that), I will get to the actual point. I just thought that I would share with you a recipe that I have actually tried myself and that I liked very much. This winter I had a lot of pie pumpkins stored away in the basement. Last year we had a horrible pumpkin year and actually harvested only a few pumpkins that were not of the best quality. So I ended up getting a whole bunch from our friends over at The Apple Cabin in Lodi. I just had to have some for pumpkin pie and other things. I came across this recipe when I was trying to find new different things to do with the pumpkins. What do you know I am rambling on and on again, anyhow here is the recipe.


Whole Stuffed Pumpkin
1 small pumpkin
1 lb. Italian Sausage
1 cup chopped onion
1 cup chopped celery
1/2 cup sliced mushrooms
1 egg beaten
1/2 cup sour cream
1/4 tsp. salt

Cut the top of the pumpkin off and scoop out seeds, or cut pumpkin in half and scoop out seeds. Place the pumpkin in a large kettle and cover with boiling water. Simmer 30 minutes or until tender. Meanwhile saute sausage until browned, and onions, celery, and mushrooms, cook till mostly done. Combine egg, sour cream and salt. Mix with meat. Fill well drained pumpkin. Bake at 350 degrees approximately 30 minutes.


I wish I would have taken a picture but I did not. Oh well, maybe next time. I liked this recipe because it is something to do with pumpkin and winter squash that can be an entire meal, and does not involve a bag of brown sugar and stick of butter. Don't get me wrong, I love winter squash with lots and lots of brown sugar and butter. It is just something different for a change.

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I hope everyone has a wonderful, Happy Easter!

April- Vegetable of the Month- Beets

I have decided to have a different topic of the month each month. This month there will be a vegetable of the month (beets), but sometimes I will have and herb of the month, flower of the month, a particular variety of the month and sometimes maybe even item of the month. I will share with you my knowledge of the vegetable, flower or herb, how to cook with it, its health benefits, how it is grown, and any other interesting info about the particular topic.



So for this month the vegetable of the month is Beets:

• This year we will be growing the flowing varieties of beets:

Forono Beet: This will be our first year growing this variety. It is a red colored beet with a cylindrical shape. Which means that it has a long shape compared to the common round beets that you usually see. I wanted to grow this variety because I think these would be very easy to slice, and could get many more slices from these compared to the normal kinds.

Perfected Detroit Beets: This is an improved variety of Detroit Dark Red Beets. This is the kind that we have usually grown in the past. Very good variety of beet!

Detroit Dark Red: We wanted to try the common variety this year just to see how in compares to the improved version.

I am also thinking about growing another type of beet that is entirely different from the traditional dark red beets, maybe a golden beet, white or Chioggia (striped beet). It all depends on if I will have the room to add another variety. We will see.

I did pick up a packet of golden beets from the garden center the other day (you know what happens when I go there, I buy everything, I just can't control myself). There where not too many seeds in the package but I figured, why not give them a try to see what they are like. If I like them this year I can order a large pack next year. So I should have a very limited supply of golden beets available probably in the middle of the season.

• We usually have beets available the whole market season. This is one of the few vegetables that can be grown for most of the season. We usually make continuous planting throughout the our whole season. I does pretty well in most conditions, and is not very demanding.

• Cooking Beets: We have a lot of customers that like beets and would like to buy some of our beets, but do not know how to cook them. So last year I typed up instructions on how to cook beets, and had them available for anyone who asked how to prepare them. So here are my instructions on how to cook beets:

Rinse off beets. Leave on roots and remove all except 1-2 inches of the tops. Cover with water, and boil covered for approximately 40 to 50 minutes or until tender when pricked with a knife. (Cooking time will depend on size of beets, larger beets will take longer to cook then smaller ones.) When done place beets in cool water until you are able to handle them. While they are still warm, the skins should slide off easily, by rubbing them off with your hands. Beware of the red from beets, can stain easily. Beets can also be cooked the same way in a pressure cooker, which will cut the cooking time in half.

Here is a great link with lots and lots of recipes for beets: Just Vegetable Recipes

• Using Beet Tops: Make sure you keep your beet tops, because that make a very good cooked green. We use to just throw ours out, until one day our neighbor found out and yelled at us for doing so! We once used ours to make stuffed shells instead of using spinach since we did not have any spinach at that time but had beet greens. It was very good and I wish I had written down the recipe so that I could share it with you, but I didn't. I will have to make it again and make sure I write it down this time and take pictures. You can use the tops like you would other cooked greens, and can be substituted for spinach in many recipes.

I plan to use beet top greens during the summer in my bagged salad mix, since it is a green that can be grown when it is warm, in the middle of the summer. Most lettuces will blot (or go to seed) and become bitter when it gets too warm, but beet greens will be fine in the heat. My summer greens mix can be used for either a salad or as cooked greens, which ever you prefer. Some other greens that may be included in the mix are collards, baby swiss chard, kale, arugula and possibly some others.

• Storing Beets: I have found that the best way to store beets is in a bag in one of your fridge. If you leave the in the open (not in a bag) they may not even last a week before becoming soft. I put mine in a regular plastic shopping bag. You can usually keep the tops on for at least a week (check on it regularly), if you are going to store the beets for longer than that you should remove the tops, since they will not last as long as the beets themselves. You can always remove the tops and keep them separate from the beets in case the start to go bad and you do not notice, this way your beets will be fine. The beets themselves can last for months is stored properly, jus about as long as carrots, which also can be stored for a long time.

• Beets Health Facts: Beets are a very healthy vegetable and can benefit your health in many ways. They have been said to help prevent birth defects, heart disease, and some types of cancer.
  

These are just some of the good websites that I have found that explain health benefits of beets:
Nutrition Facts Analysis for Cooked Beets- From NutritionData.com
Nutrition Facts Analysis for Cooked Beet Greens- From NutritionData.com
The World's Healthiest Foods- Lot of good info here.
RawVeg.Info- Lists the different health benefits of beets, and gives links to read more about each benefit.
How Stuff Works calls beets a "Natural Weight Loss Food", read more about at this link.
The Many Health Benefits of Beets- Good site that describes each way that beets can help your health

There are so many more sites that explain the benefits of beets that I just couldn't list them all!


So as you can see beets are a very healthy vegetable. I makes a great side dish, and addition to almost any meal. It is a dual purpose vegetable because you can both the greens and the actual beet root. And as I have already mentioned it can be grown anytime throughout the growing season, so we should have them available at every market.