Category: Recipes and Tips

Early Frost Tomato Soup

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This season’s mid-September frost left me inundated with tomato “seconds” that needed to be used up ASAP- Kitchen-Aid mixer with mill attachment to the rescue!

Many cups of puree later, I just had to make something other than spaghetti sauce so I cobbled together a tomato soup recipe from what I found on several on-line sites. Farmer Gene, who has never been a fan of tomato soup said that the soup was “delicious” so I’m going to share it with you.       

One stick of butter

6 medium onions

1 medium celeriac root or 4 celery stalks

1 medium butternut squash or an equivalent ( acorn squash works as well)

4 teaspoons of Better than Bullion seasoned vegetable base (or similar bullion paste/cube)

8 cups tomato puree

1 teaspoon Jamaican allspice

½ teaspoon Hungry Bear Farm Garlic Salt

1 cup of cream

-Prepare and chop the onions, celery (or celeriac) and squash into small pieces (less than one inch each).

Place them in a large soup pan with the stick of butter and gently sauté them until the squash is soft. 

Add the tomato puree, bullion and allspice and simmer for 30 minutes.

Use an immersion blender or similar to blend the soup. Turn the heat off, add the cream, stir and serve immediately. 

Roasted Delicata Rings

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If you ask me, there’s not a more delicious or easy to prepare squash than delicata!

When roasted, delicata makes a side dish that is similar to sweet potato fries but without any of the hassle and mess of deep frying and as an added bonus, the rings look like little flowers!

We enjoy “mixing it up” by varying the seasoning that we use. We’ve tried each of the following at different times and all have been great:

  • Hungry Bear Farm’s garlic salt with freshly ground black pepper
  • chili powder with salt
  • thyme with salt and freshly ground black pepper
  • Italian seasoning with salt

Some recipes that I’ve read call for added sweeteners but I find that our fresh delicata is sweet enough on its own.

Directions:

Preheat your oven or grill to 425 degrees

Cut both of the ends off of the squash and, with a long, skinny knife (I use one of our serrated steak knives), reach into the center and knock out the seeds.

With a sharp knife, cut the cored squash into “rings” that are about 1/2″ thick.

Place the rings into a deep bowl and sprinkle a generous amount of olive oil over them (you want to use enough oil to really coat each ring on all sides).

Add your seasoning and then toss the rings to evenly distribute the oil and seasoning.

Place the oiled, seasoned rings in a single layer on a baking sheet in your preheated oven or directly on your preheated grill.

Roast until the bottoms are browned a bit an then flip each ring and roast the other side. The first side takes about 15-20 minutes and the second side typically takes a bit less time. Watch them carefully to be sure that they don’t burn.

Serve immediately.

Steamed Carrots with Hakurei Turnips

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This is one of those weeks when we’ll have Hakurei turnips AND Carrots at the same time!

Our wonderful neighbor and customer shared this recipe with us. It’s super simple and the two veggies make a wonderful combo.

Rinse and peel 4-5 carrots

Rinse and remove the top and bottom from 5 Hakurei turnips

Smaller carrots/turnips can be left whole but larger carrots and turnips may need to be cut so that all the pieces are roughly the same size.

Place all in your vegetable steamer and steam until they are tender

When they are done, mash them with about 3 tablespoons of butter and season with a dash of Hungry Bear Farm garlic salt and pepper.

Garlic Salt

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3 cups Diamond Crystal Kosher Salt 

20 med. to lg. cloves of garlic

any seasoning you wish to add

Put the garlic cloves and the salt in the food processor and process until there are no chunks of garlic left  Add the rest of your desired seasonings and process for another few seconds.

Cover a cookie sheet with parchment paper and spread the mixture on the paper, gently press the mixture down so that it is quite thin  (about 1/4”) and covers almost the entire sheet.  

Bake at 200 degrees and bake for at least 2 hours -longer depending on the humidity etc. until the salt is dry-you can feel the dryness if you pinch off a small piece.  Sometimes the edges dry faster than the center so you may want to remove the dry spots and let the center continue cooking for a bit longer.  DO NOT raise the temp of the oven or the salt will take on a burnt taste.  

Cool, break into smaller chunks (I have found it best to place the larger chunks between a few sheets of parchment paper or in parchment paper bags and break it up with a rolling pin prior to re-grinding) and then re-grind in in the food processor until fine.  Store in a jar with a tight lid.   

Ginger Beet Soup

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(with vegan options)

  • 1 cup onion, diced
  • 2 Tablespoons butter or Earth Balance for vegan version
  • 2 cups cooked, peeled, drained and sliced beets ( roasted or boiled)
  • 1 cup veggie broth
  • juice from one lemon
  • 1-2 tablespoons grated ginger
  • 1/2  cup milk (rice, cashew or almond for vegan version)

In a soup pan, slowly sauté the onions in the butter until they are tender.  Add the cooked beets, veggie broth, and ginger and simmer all until hot.  Remove from the heat and add the milk and lemon juice.   Mash a bit with a potato masher and then blend with a stick blender until smooth and creamy or blend in a blender.  

Vegan *KFC Cole Slaw

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-8 cups finely chopped cabbage (about 1 head)

-1/4 cup shredded carrot (1med. carrot)

-2 tablespoons fresh onion minced fine

-1/2 cup Vegenaise

-1/3 cup granulated sugar

-1/2 cup rice milk

-2 1/2 tablespoons lemon juice

-1 1/2 tablespoons white vinegar

-1/2 teaspoon salt

-1/8 teaspoon pepper

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1.  Chop cabbage  into very fine pieces (about the size of rice).

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2.  Combine the Vegenaise, sugar, rice milk, lemon juice, vinegar, salt, and pepper in a large bowl and beat until smooth.

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3.  Add the cabbage, carrots, and onion, and mix well.

4.  Cover and refrigerate for at least 2 hours before serving

*adapted from Top Secret Recipes version of KFC Cole Slaw by Todd Wilbur  

Carrot Salad

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1/2 lb carrots, shredded 

1/4 cup Olive Oil

2 Cloves garlic

1 tsps Thai curry paste

1 tsps caraway seed

1 tsps ground cumin

1/2 tsp Hungry Bear Garlic salt

1/4 cup apple cider vinegar 

2 tablespoons chopped cilantro if desired

In a med. saucepan, warm the oil; add the garlic, harissa, caraway, salt, cumin and vinegar stir for 2 minutes.  Add the carrots and simmer until most of the liquid is absorbed (5-10 minutes). Sever topped with cilantro if desired. 

Ginger Turmeric Egg Rolls

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Ginger Turmeric Egg Rolls 

makes about a dozen

modified from Crouton Cracker Jack’s video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_3zVcyfIheo

One small cabbage

1 carrot 

fresh ginger root

fresh turmeric root

One package vegan egg roll wrappers

1 Tablespoon soy sauce

about one quart of vegetable or peanut oil for frying

Shred/chop the cabbage into fine pieces, place in a bowl and add the grated carrot, grated ginger and grated numeric. Stir in the soy sauce.

Place about 1 tablespoon of the oil in to the bottom of a wok or frying pan and sauté the the cabbage mixture over a low flame for about 3 minutes, stirring constantly so that the cabbage does not burn.  

When the cabbage mixture is done, remove from the pan and set-aside to drain and cool a bit. 

Using a cast-iron dutch oven, or your favorite deep-frying vessel, start heating enough oil to float the egg rolls (this was about 1 quart in my 10” dutch oven).  When the oil reaches 325-350 degrees it is ready to start frying.  Heat it slowly, checking the temp. frequently so that the oil does over heat 

While the oil heats up, remove the wrappers from their package and lay one out on a cutting board with one of the points facing you.  With a dab of water, moisten the opposite triangle edges of the wrapper (this helps it stay closed once you wrap it).  Gently place a scant 1/4 cup of the cabbage mixture in the center of the wrapper and fold up the triangle closest to you and tuck under the cabbage.  Fold over the side corners of the wrapper over this and and then roll it closed.  Repeat this until you have made as many egg rolls as you want (the cabbage amount above will make at least a dozen)

Carefully place the egg rolls into the oil ( about three or four at a time) and fry them until they are golden brown.  

We served them with fried rice and a peach-mango compote.  I forgot the hot mustard this time but will be sure to remember it next time!  

Summer Squash with Goat Cheese

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2-3 Summer squash and/or zucchini

1 tablespoon olive oil or butter

2-3 fresh leeks

4 oz. goat cheese

1 lb rigatoni or similar pasta cooked

a few fresh basil leaves

salt and pepper and one jalapeño pepper (to taste)

In a large skillet, over low heat, gently heat the oil or melt the butter.  Add the squash. leeks and hot pepper and sauté until soft (about 30 minutes). As the squash cooks mash it slightly against the sides of the pan.  When it is almost finished, toss in ½ of the basil leaves then salt and pepper to taste. Place a serving of the squash over a serving of the pasta and top each serving with an oz or two of the goat cheese and a bit more basil.  This goes well with a side of sliced tomatoes that have been drizzled with some balsamic vinegar.

Beets n’ Bacon

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One bunch fresh beets (about 1-1.5 pounds)

1/4 pound bacon

1 cup mozzarella

1/4 cup grated parmesan cheese

1/4 cup chopped pecans

1 Tablespoon sugar (raw if you have it)

Remove the greens from the beets and save for steaming later, if desired.

Prepare the beets by washing and removing all but 1/4 inch of the tops and most of the root.  

Place the trimmed beets in a large sauce pan and add enough water to generously cover them. Simmer the beets until they are tender- watching them closely to be sure they don’t boil over (this can take about 30-40 minutes depending on the size of the beets).    

When the beets are tender, remove from the heat, drain the  liquid, rinse the beets with a little cold water and set them aside until they are cool enough to be handled but not cold.  Once they are cooled a bit, move the the rest of the tops, the rest of the root and then the skin and then slice each beet into 1/4 inch slices.  

While the beets are boiling, fry the bacon until crisp and remove it from the pan, reserving about a tablespoon of the drippings.

Use a small amount  of the bacon drippings to coat the bottom of a small casserole dish (I use my 9.5 x 7.5 pyrex baking dish).  Layer the sliced beets into the coated casserole and set aside.  

Toss the pecans into the pan that you used to fry the bacon in (along with the remaining bacon drippings) and toast the pecans in the pan for about a minute, stirring constantly so that they don’t burn, when they are lightly toasted, sprinkle the sugar over the pecans being sure to continue tossing the nuts so that they become covered with meted sugar.  Remove the toasted nuts from the heat, then break the crisp bacon into little bits and add it to the nut-sugar mixture.

Sprinkle 1/2 of the parmesan over the beets, sprinkle all of the mozzarella over this, sprinkle the remainder of the parmesan over the mozzarella and then top the cheeses with the candied nuts/bacon mixture.  

Bake on 350 until the cheese is bubbling and then crank up the oven to broil for the last few moments so the the cheese gets a nice brown top.