Making my Green Salsa

 In 2021, Jennifer planted 4 Ground Cherry plants in the Community Garden.  As it turned out, these were not the ones she really liked.  This variety was large, the size of a tomatillo, and just slightly sweet - tart taste.  These began to pile up, and I hated to waste them.  I also didn't want another chop fest to make something of them.

So I invented this - a green salsa that is very easy to make, with a minimum of chop time, yet very tasty. 

Note - this can also be made with tomatillos or green tomatoes.

When I have a gallon ziploc bag full of ground cherries (or tomatillos), I will put the shucked fruit (a side note - storing the bag in the fridge doesn't seem to hurt the taste or texture of the fruit, but it does make slipping off the sticky husk much easier) on a sheet pan.   The fruit should occupy about half the pan, and the other half is covered with cleaned and halved peppers, and quartered onions.  Add in half dozen so garlic cloves, and roast in a 400 degree oven for 30-40 minutes.

Priot to roasting, the pan is full of veg.  I used green onions instead of yellow onions for this batch because I had some that needed to be used

What it looks like after 35 minutes at 400.

When the stuff has cooled down a bit, I just scrape the whole mess into the food processor.  I add 1/2 bunch of fresh cilantro, salt, and at least 2 tablespoons of lemon juice.   

After mixing, it will be a smooth, green puree.  Taste it now to see if the salt/lemon mixture is perfect.  If is too strong, add a peeled red tomato to the batch and puree again until smooth.  

If it tastes right, it is done.  I prefer to store mine in glass, and it will keep for quite a while in the fridge. 

If you want to can this in a boiling water bath, you want it to be quite tart - with at least 1 tablespoons of lemon juice per pint, or use Sodium Citrate additive (be be vary careful, this stuff is really easy to use too much, and you get a product that is almost inedibley tart).   I processed mine for 40 minutes.  And that is 40 minutes of boiling, NOT 40 minutes in the pot!  Read up on how to do a boiling water bath for canning acidic foods.

The Household Searchlight recipes for Canning

 These recipes are a from a 1936 cookbook that belonged to my Grandma Hatcher, and then my mon, and now me.  A lot of these items are no longer made, and some are pretty strange.  I will post first the ones I have made, or plan to.  After that, I will include the entire scanned section of the Household Searchlight.  

A compendium of Recipes

I have started putting recipes into an online album, storing the recipes as JPEG files.

Here are some vegetarian recipes, mostly variations of rice and beans - Veg

Chili! - Cookin Chili

The Main group of recipes - Recipe Collection

Breads and Desserts - Breads And Desserts

The Mystery Recipes I found on an errant SD Chip - MysteryScannedRecipes

Tofu "Cerviche"

More and more I find myself eating tofu - it just digests so well!  When staying with my friends Mike & Tami in Chattanooga, we went to a Peruvian restaurant 
http://www.ajiperuvianrestaurant.com/Aji_Peruvian_Restaurant/Home.html
and they had a Tofu "Cerviche" on the menu - which I tried.  Excellent!   I decided to make some for myself.  The serving I had at the restaurant was very simple - small tofu cubes marinated in lime juice, salt, chopped cilantro and topped with very thinly sliced red onion.  The recipe below is what I found was closest to the recipe I had at the restaurant.


Tofu “Ceviche” Peruvian Style


Ingredients:

5 limes, juiced (3/4 cup of lime juice)
¼ teaspoon kosher salt, or to taste
a few drops of Worchestershire sauce
1 clove garlic, smashed, peeled and finely minced
2 tablespoons onion, peeled and thinly sliced 
14 ounces extra firm tofu, cut into small pieces (somewhere between ¼ and ½ inch bits)
¼ cup fresh cilantro, finely minced (substitute parsley if you think cilantro tastes soapy)
freshly ground black pepper and/or cayenne, to taste - optional

Directions:

Combine the lime juice and salt and whisk to combine. Add the garlic, onion and tofu and refrigerate in a covered container. Turn the container often to make certain all the tofu has a chance to absorb the seasonings. You want to marinate the tofu for at least 5 hours, but 8 hours is not too much.


Here is another recipe, where the Ceviche is more like a chip dip.  It contains more chopped veggies.

Tofu Ceviche Dip

Ingredients:
Tofu (firm/extra firm/super firm)
Celery
A Tomato
A Mango
An Avocado
An Onion
Cilantro
Lime Juice
Salt & Pepper
Tortilla Chips

Directions:
Dice tofu into very small pieces. Likewise, dice celery, tomato, mango, avocado, onion, and cilantro into same size pieces. Gently combine in bowl and toss with a little lime juice. Salt and pepper to taste. Keep refrigerated. (Even better after it marinates together for a bit.) Eat as you would a salsa -- dipping with blue corn tortilla chips or pita chips. I dare you not to eat the whole bowl in one sitting!

Kayak School Lunch Soup

Here is a soup I make each year for Kayak School.  Proportions are changed for a normal sized batch of soup.



Kayak School Lunch Soup
INGREDIENTS:


2 parts tomato juice (I prefer Del Fratelli, avalable at Marc's supermarket)
1 part water or broth
1 bag frozen Pictsweet Seasoning Veg (onion, peppers)
fresh cilantro (chopped fine)
celery
scallions
lemon juice
minced garlic


PREPARATION:
Dump the (broth or water) in a big soup pot
Add cilantro to (broth or water) , and chop with in-pot blender 
slice scallions, add to (broth or water)
slice celery, add to (broth or water)
add in tomato juice
heat, but don't boil - the soup is best warm, with celery and onions still crunchy
Add lemon juice & black pepper for taste




for a more proteinaceous soup, add 1 pound of cubed tofu - I had of this soup tonight.

Greek Spinach Rice

And I tried another new recipe for dinner - with modifications.

I went to a couple of stores for ground lamb, and struck out.  I used ground beef flavored with rosemary and greek oregano.  This tasted fine.  Also, knowing Jennifers preferences, I passed on adding the feta cheese.  She pronounced the dish "Just Fine".


I will try this again, hopefully with the lamb and feta.

Stewed Garlic Mustard Greens

Stewed Garlic Mustard Greens



First, pick A LOT of Garlic Mustard. I probably had a bunch today that would have fit in a bushel basket.  The responsible way is to pull the entire plants, and there will be A LOT of plants.  Pull the leaves off, and discard the plant remains in the trash, NOT the compost heap!


Next, pull the leaves you harvested in a BIG stock pot, after you have all the leaves you need, rinse the entire pot of garlic mustard leaves (aka "Greens") in cold water.  Drain the water.


I added: 
a quart of chicken broth to the greens
2 chopped 2 medium onions
5 slices of chopped bacon
1/4 cup cider vinegar
2 tablespoons of sugar


Then I began to stew the greens, when they reached a boil, I reduced the heat to medium low and added a bag of kale greens to mellow out the pot.


I tasted the greens after a while, and added some Liquid Smoke for the good old southern BBQ greens flavor.


Then I turned down the heat to Low and them simmer for another hour.


These turned out very well!  A great way to rid the yard of garlic mustard and have a nice pot of greens.