Thursday, August 2, 2012

Thursday's Kitchen Cupboard

I haven't been writing much as the Olympics are on and I'm spending way too much time watching them. But as it is Thursday I figured I'd better get off my butt and get writing. This episode of Thursday's Kitchen Cupboard has been brought to you by the mandolin. Ok so I've really been watching too much TV. But my mandolin has been really helpful this week. Some weeks it never gets brought out and feels lonely in the cupboard and some weeks it gets a real workout. If you have never seen a mandolin before it is the black thing in the above photo. It is great for making very even slices and as you can see above it makes great even julienne slices. And it is faster than Micheal Phelps in his prime. I used it to julienne my cucumbers for relish.

Usually people use this with a guard that grabs the food, but it always leaves part of the food unsliced as it needs something to grab. When I found the gloves above I dispensed with the silly guard and just used that. It is almost a chain mail glove. Basically it has metal fibers woven in so you won't cut yourself. I originally bought it to keep myself safe from the grater. I have a scar on my thumb from the evil grater and needed to find a way to protect myself and found the glove. I own two of them because they are just too useful to me. And I like the tips of my fingers to be attached to the rest of my fingers.

Those cukes were made into relish. I used the recipe from the Ball Blue Book, which is the same as Pat's Zucchini relish. I find it funny that they have two recipes. One for cukes and one for zucchini and they are exactly the same except a slight change in the quantity of spices and one recipe is double the quantity. I did make three little tweaks. I didn't use peppers as I can't eat them. I replaced them with more cucumber. I added dill seed instead of celery seed. And I added some turmeric for the pretty color.

Later in the week I had more cukes than I knew what to do with and made more refrigerator pickles. I made some in my pickle server. I'll bring them to a BBQ in late August. They ought to be well flavored by then.

Preserving basil was big this week. Two days ago I dried some. My spice jar is now full. And then today I picked the whole basil patch down as it was starting to flower. I usually cut it about halfway down. This gets all the flowering bits and is quick. I had to wash the basil since the rain had splashed dirt up. I usually prefer not to wash herbs as it lowers their quality, but you have to do what you have to do. Right now it is drying on a couple of kitchen towels. This big batch will be put in a food processor with some olive oil. Then frozen on a cookie sheet and broken up. I find freezing the best way to preserve the flavor of basil.

My dried garlic stash was low so I took three of the garlic bulbs that were not good for storage and peeled them up.

Then I used my trusty mandolin again on its thinnest setting to slice them up. The mandolin is perfect for this as each slice is exactly the same width as any other. It makes drying more consistent. Right now they are outside in the dehydrator. I often dry herbs inside, but on really hot days or with something like garlic that I don't want to smell in the house for days, I'll move it outside. Once it is dry I'll pulverize it.

And remember that huge zucchini I harvested and showed you on Monday? Well I grated it up. I froze four cups of it and made blueberry zucchini bread.

And I did another iteration of my zucchini casserole. I'm getting closer. This one was a touch dry and not enough for the pan. Good, but not great. My next iteration will be:

Daphne's Zucchini Casserole - Take 3

  • 3 cups grated zucchini
  • 1/3 cup grated onion
  • 1 clove garlic
  • 3 eggs
  • 1 cup cornmeal
  • 2 t baking powder
  • 1/2 t oregano
  • 1/4 t thyme
  • 1/4 t black pepper
  • 3/4 t salt
  • 1 1/2 cups grated cheddar cheese

Mix it all up in an appropriate way (you all cook right?). Cook at 350F in an 8"x8" pan. I might have to get rid of some of the cornmeal and add flour, but I was trying to make it flourless. Or I might have to add a touch of milk to make it right. I figured that corn, eggs, and cheese would make a good combo for adding grated zucchini. So far so good. It is amusing to try to create a recipe for something that only gives me fruit on rare occasion. I have to wait until my zucchini performs and it just isn't getting a medal this year. But eventually I'll have the recipe all set. And if you try my untested iteration, remember it is still a work in progress. But everyone was begging me for the recipe last time, so here it is in all its untested glory.

Head on over to Robin's place at The Gardener of Eden and link up to let others see what you've been using or preserving from your garden and pantry.

19 comments:

  1. You are a machine! Great inspiration!!!

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  2. Daphne, love you pickles. Have you ever made a cucumber relish with curry for a hot dog relish. An old farm lady gave it to me and I just love it. It was one of my first introductions to curry powder now wouldn't be without it.

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    1. Nope. I can't do it now either unless I make my own curry powder. I can't have the powdered peppers that are in the typical ones.

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  3. The casserole looks YUMMY. Great idea on the glove, since I'm afraid of my grater. I haven't even opened my mandolin yet.

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  4. I need one of those gloves! I love my mandolin, but hate that big chunk that's left at the end. Now you've gone and made me hungry for zucchini bread, and mine is all in the freezer. Too busy today to make a fresh loaf.

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    1. If the bread is frozen, microwave a slice of it. I keep all my bread in the freezer.

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  5. Look so delicious. Making me miss cukes and zuch :p.

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  6. Long-time reader, first-time commenter...how do you dry your basil? I dry a LOT of herbs for culinary, tea, and medicinal use, but I've always avoided basil because I figured it wouldn't be worth the trouble and wasn't sure I could get good quality when dried. But I would like to try it dried in some tea blends now, so figured I would give it a try. Do you do it in a dehydrator, and if so, at what temperature approximately? Thanks so much for any guidance you can provide--I love reading about your harvests and especially your adventures with dry beans and mustard! I want to try some mustard next year...

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    1. I have a dehydrator. It is a really cheap one that doesn't have a fan or thermostat. But basil can't get too hot. I have five trays. I put the basil only on the top three so it is farther away from the heat. Basil is really hard to dry. I had to throw a couple of trays away from last time I tried. But usually I get it right.

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  7. Wow, Daphne: you're such an inspiration and do SOO much with your harvests. Someday, I hope to get where you are.

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  8. wow you have been busy everything looks great

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  9. I do admire the way you work out a recipe. I don't recall ever making a squash casserole with cornmeal in it, so that sounds quite interesting. I made squash fritters last nite with a zucchini, and now I wonder if cornmeal could replace the flour for a little different flavor. I will stay tuned for future iterations on the casserole.

    Like Granny, I need one of those gloves! I cut my fingers so often at the soup kitchen that I keep a supply of heavy duty bandaids in my truck. It would really help on grating tasks at home. We have an electric mandolin but I don't like the small feed tube it has. It would be better to skip that and just use the blade like you do.

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  10. In australia we make a lot of what we call zucchini slice. Tried to copy and paste a recipe but wouldn't work, just google and youll find one called carrot and zucchini slice from taste.com.au which I make all the time and it also freezes well!

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    1. That looks very similar to what I'm doing. Not quite but very close.

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  11. It looks like you have been very busy preserving your harvests. That zucchini casserole sounds very interesting.

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  12. I have looked at the glove and debated whether to get one or not, since you like it so much I should take another look.
    Using the mandolin to julienne cucumbers for relish is such a great idea.

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  13. I wish I had a better place to store my mandolin where I could get at it easier. I really like to use it but it is a pain to pull out of the depths of the one and only storage cupboard I have for bowls and cooking gear. Your relish looks delicious as does the zucchini bread. I bet your house smelled wonderful while that garlic was drying!

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  14. Beautiful mandolin. I have a cheapie version, and really do like it, actually, but it's not adjustable.

    All of your prep is so nice.

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  15. Crikey! Look at all that produce and stashing away! Well done.

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