Tuesday, March 4

Best of 2013

Each year, when I'm getting antsy for spring, I start planning a garden and what I want to preserve in the upcoming months.  In 2013, I did a LOT of things right!   I made useful winter-long amounts of really useable stuff for day-to-day eating.  Mainly, the things I liked about this year's preserves were that they helped me to cook fresh, interesting foods in a fraction of the time, and way cheaper / localer than I could have any other way. I have bought minimal produce this winter, even though I eat a veggie-based diet, and have not felt like I was missing out on anything!

I'm not a recipe follower, for the most part, but I do like to take photos, so here are regular ol' things I cooked for mostly weeknight quick meals using stuff I preserved from the garden and farmers market.

In no particular order, because I've used all of them, weekly, all fall and winter:

Pinto bean tacos with chile garlic relish
Southeast Asian Chile Garlic relish.  I made at least 4 quarts of this. I bought the red jalapenos by the bushel at the farmers market in the late summer/early fall. Its pretty much Sriracha without all the sugar, and so much brighter and fresher.  It lasts in the fridge for a full year, making everything taste better.  It can be used so many ways; I use it more days than not.

Cherry pepper garlic
Lactofermented hot peppers.  I did several batches, and types of peppers, and prefer this recipe. Depending on the peppers you use, and how much vinegar, its a nice tobasco-y sauce to be used on everything. The pureed version (sauce) lasts better than the peppers in the brine, because the peppers can peek out of the brine and get moldy.  


Squash gnocchi with lemon-dill compound butter cream and veggies
Frozen compound herb butters.  I grew a LOT of herbs last year.  More than I could cook with, for sure.  I made several batches each of: dill with lemon, lemon-basil, and Thai basil Chile garlic (with oil instead of butter). I froze them in mini muffin tins, and super tiny ice cube trays. I used them to saute and season everything, all year.  Fresh herbs are crazy expensive, and you always end up with not enough or too much, and this is such a good solution.  Also, I'm sure oil works just as well as butter.

Carrot soup with parsley lemon pesto
Frozen minced parsley. With just about every thing I cook, its nice to have some color.  Specifically, bright, summery, fresh, green, color.  Parsley has a nice fresh taste and goes with most cuisines.  So, throwing a cube of minced parsley in at the end of- whatever- makes it look nice, adds vitamins, and is really just a great way to add harvested-in-season green foods to your plate.

Dried herbs.  It doesn't get much easier.  I dried 2.5 pint jars of parsley, and 2 of sage, on cookie sheets with the heat of the light of my oven, or on super low in my toaster oven. I've finally used them all up. More drying will be happening in 2014.
Herbes de Provence bread

Oven-roasted (half-dried) tomatoes, frozen on sheets.  I grew too many tomatoes last year.  The heirloom choices at the garden store just were too appealing, and I planted too ridiculously many.  Out of season tomatoes are gross, though, so its worth it to save 'em up for the rest of the year.  Freezing plain fresh tomatoes seems like you're paying to keep water frozen, so the half roasted / dried works well.  They're good in sandwiches, soups, savory pastries and pies, with hash browns, and just generally.  Super good.
Small red peppers before freezing


Frozen (unblanched) red bell pepper strips. There is one or two weekends a year where red bell peppers are cheap at the farmers market.  I mean, really inexpensive.  I bought 1 or 2 bushel baskets, washed them, sliced them, froze them on cookie sheets and then put them in bags, and we have enjoyed them all winter long.  5.99/lb for "Stoplight peppers" shipped all the way to MN from Chile, Argentina, or Holland?  No. Way.  $20.00 for all the peppers I can possibly cook with all year, and minimal labor.  I use them in stir fries, soups, egg bake things, savory scones, and fajitas.
Ravioli with red peppers, dried tomatoes, and herbs

My major takeaway this year is that the easily preserved stuff is just as useful (or more) as the fancy canned condiments I was making, and is truer to my cooking style.  I still will make some of the fancy stuff, but knowing how useful the easy stuff is will help me better prioritize and enjoy more of the summer when it arrives
Drunken noodles, tofu, and peppers


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