Mk Neal

Eino Kenttä wrote:My mother-in-law has a wonderful recipe for a chestnut and pumpkin soup.  It's a blended soup, containing nothing but chestnuts, pumpkin/squash and vegetable stock. Cream can be added, but is optional. She mainly uses canned chestnuts, so if you start from fresh they'll have to be precooked in the oven (20 minutes at 220 degrees C apparently, cut a slit in the shell before so they don't explode) and then peeled.

Use about half a peeled mid-sized winter squash or pumpkin (my mother-in-law tends to use butternut squash) for about 500 grams of peeled chestnuts. Chop the squash, put in a pot with just enough water to cover the pieces, and boil until soft. Add the chestnuts, boil another 5-10 minutes. Blend the soup and season. The recipe comes from the Ardèche region in France, where chestnuts are traditionally a staple.

I am going to try it this week, because I have both squash and chestnuts! I love traditional recipes that actually use crops that are in season at the same time. I may go off script and add some sage…

New apple recipe I made up today, I call them apple "biscwiches" :

1. Make your favorite (American) rolled biscuit dough, but use apple cider for at least half the liquid.

2. Roll dough thinner than usual, about 1/2 inch.

3. Top one half of dough with thinly sliced apple and sprinkle with cinnamon sugar.

4. Fold the other half of dough to make a "sandwich." Press chopped nuts onto top of sandwich.

5. With a large knife, cut into serving-sized rectangles.

6. Place on cookie sheet and bake at 425 degrees for 12-15 minutes.

High levels of salt are safer for fermenting and storing the sauerkraut, but that does not mean you need to *consume* all the salt. Many traditional recipes that use sauerkraut or other salt-preserved foods call for soaking or rinsing to remove excess salt as the first step.

I made apple butter this year out of “seconds” from an orchard trip. Started on the stovetop like apple sauce; just simmering chunks of apple with peel on. Added whole allspice, cloves, and cinnamon stick.

Once it was all soft and aromatic, picked out the whole spices and rant it through food mill to strain pout peels.

Then left it in 300 degree oven for several hours, stirring occasionally until it was all a thick, spreadable consistency and browned.

Back when I had oyster mushrooms in my backyard, I foraged them. They are gone now; I guess they consumed the best of the tree stumps and now other fungus predominate.

I enjoy spotting other mushrooms in local parks and forest preserves, but it’s not allowed to forage there. Which I agree with, because the wild areas are quite small compared to the population visiting them, so it would not be sustainable.

Love them almost any way. The last few years, I’ve gotten to like them in more savory dishes. Through blueberries into wild rice pilaf at the end of cooking, for example.  A relative of mine often brings an arugula-sweet corn-blueberry salad to potlucks. It’s amazing.

Some helpful tactics:

1. Wipe down the walls and counters where they walk daily, with your favorite cleaning solution. This disrupts the pheromone trails that they follow.

2. Bay leaves wedged in window and wall cracks and crevices where they enter. The ants in our area don’t like that smell.

3. A fine layer of diatomaceous earth in the areas they frequent. A vinyl applicator bottle like they sell at “beauty “ supply stores works great to blow the powder into crevices.

Hi Julbug! Pawpaws are a fun backyard crop, if you have the space. One reason seeds are hard to come by, thought, is that the seeds can’t be dried and stored. They only sprout if kept moist. If you want to start from seed, best to get your hands on a pawpaw fruit. You may be able to find some at farmers market in fall, like end of September.

Also, you need at least two trees to get fruit. Stark Brothers sells pawpaw seedlings, that’s where I ordered mine some ten years ago.

Ok, I am going to give this a try next season. My blackcap raspberries are out of control.

I got a couple of chefmate stainless steel pans with copper bottom for $1 each at second hand store. Practically nonstick if used properly, lightweight, and oven friendly. I actually like them better than my cast iron for most uses, which I did not expect.

Only downside is that while the copper bottom is great for gas stove, it makes them unusable on induction cooktop.