Archive for category Dips, Spreads, Condiments
Cmac’s Yummy Pickled Beets
Posted by Cmac in Dips, Spreads, Condiments, Food on October 22, 2009
One of my wife’s and my favorite preserves is pickled beets, that sweet taste with a little bite can’t be beat. In combination with my beets from a CSA, the farmers market and a friends garden I ended up with an overload of beets this year so I decided it was time to dive into beet making.
This recipe is for North American pickled beets, whereas through my reading I discovered in Britain they like them a lot more like a dill pickle, with less sugar and spice and more vinegar and salt. This batch made about 8 Jars you’ll have to play around with the measurements a bit to allow for how many pounds of beets you actually have on hand. Now lets get down to the recipe.
At last the BLT from Scratch
Posted by Cmac in Dips, Spreads, Condiments, Food, Other Stuff, Tofu on September 10, 2009
Ive been working on this BLT since July 10th 2009 when I first stumbled upon Micheal Ruhlman’s Challenge. Technically I’ve been working on it since I started my tomato seedlings back in may. Throughout the process I have been burdened by failed sourdough starters, unsuccessful bread experiments, and a horrible growing season. Finally with the extended deadline approaching I had a perfect lively sourdough starter, red tomatoes (2 to be exact), and some lettuce to make my BLT. I decided to challenge the challenge by making a completely Vegan BLT, you might want to call it a TBLT because the main ingredient is my Tofu Bacon. And in order to hopefully woo the judges into comparing a vegan BLT with one containing real bacon (which is something I have, and most vegetarians I know have missed since going vegetarian) I decided to use a wild yeast starter for the bread. Last but not least I decided to take it up one more notch and experimented with a Pita recipe I found, by turning it into a sourdough Pita and grilling it on the BBQ.
Cmac’s Vegan Dill Mayonnaise
Posted by Cmac in Dips, Spreads, Condiments, Food on September 7, 2009
As I slowly turn completely Vegan I’ve realized there are certain carnivorous parts of my diet that I still need to find a good Vegan replacement for. Mayonnaise is one of them, and I needed some for the BLT from Scratch Challengee. I found the original recipe for this Vegan mayonnaise at BabyFit.com but I thought it needed more spices to overpower the soy flavor. So here’s the recipe, I underlined the important ingredients, the rest you can play around with to your liking.
Polski Ogorki Pickles
Posted by Cmac in Dips, Spreads, Condiments, Food on August 27, 2009
It’s that time of year to make preserves, having a mother-load of fresh veggies from the CSA, my friends garden, and my own has really got me in the canning mood. Were going to start with pickles, I love Polski Ogorki pickles, and since I’ve moved to the U.S. I haven’t been able to find them. These pickles are salty and garlicky not sweet at all just how I like them.
Note: You do not need a pressure canner when your pickling because the vinegar lowers the PH enough to make it safe. Although you really have to make sure you keep things clean, sanitize your jars, tools, hands, counter space, and constantly wash-up after handling your veggies, and supplies.
It’s been a while since I’ve done a photo journal of the process of one of my recipes, so here it is.
Now on to the recipe.
Blueberry Pico de gallo
Posted by Cmac in Dips, Spreads, Condiments, Food on August 8, 2009
Blueberry Pico de Gallo - a little sweet a little spicy
When I first saw another version of this recipe online, it left me with a skeptical feeling about its flavor, and texture. But low and behold I just had to try it. This is a side dish or topping, not necessarily something you would scarf down all on its own. Blueberry pico de Gallo has a semi-strong onion flavor that quickly turns into a peppery sweet finish. Serves well with grilled tofu, tempeh, or as a topping on brown rice.
Pickled Sugar Pod’s
Posted by Cmac in Dips, Spreads, Condiments, Food on August 3, 2009
It’s that time of year things have starting sprouting in my garden and I’ve been getting an abundance of Sugar Pod’s, more than my wife or I can eat. After a little research I found a nice recipe for pickling them. Below is the recipe and method I used to make these. I added a small green tomato that had fallen off in a storm to see how it tastes pickled. I figure the tomato will have to sit in the pickling liquid longer than the sugar pods to get the full effect so the results will follow.
Enjoy.
Road Trip Snack – Sundried Tomato and Garlic Hummus
Posted by Cmac in Dips, Spreads, Condiments on July 18, 2009
Getting ready for the family road trip back to Canada we were in need of some snacks for the road. We had some produce to use up in the fridge so it didn’t go to waste while we were away. So Veggie sticks and hummus it is. healthy, filling, and cheap, just how I like it.
Sundried Tomato and Garlic Confit
Posted by Cmac in Dips, Spreads, Condiments, Food on July 9, 2009
Confit is a loose term used for immersing various foods in a substance for flavor and preservation. It is a specialty of southwestern France. Here well make Confit with sun dried cherry tomatoes and garlic. This is a pretty simple process that will allow you to have cooked garlic on hand all the time, and in the end flavored olive oil. I originally found the idea from Stumptown Savoury a cooking blog worth checking out. A great way to use this garlic is to mash a clove of it onto a cracker and serve.
Strawberry Rhubarb Jam
Posted by Cmac in Dips, Spreads, Condiments, Food on July 3, 2009
I like rhubarb, I like strawberries, my wife likes jam. So I made strawberry rhubarb jam. The idea started a week ago when I promised to make my wife jam. I purchased all the ingredients, new mason jars for jam, even the sur-jell. What they didn’t sell at the store and I didn’t happen to have lying around was motivation.
Lets jump off topic for a minute and start at the beginning of how I ended up making Jam. First I made yogurt when I should have been making Jam, the yogurt didn’t look so good when I first pulled it out of the incubator. I thought it had curdled so I threw it in the fridge and started looking up rescue recipes. Then I came across a recipe for Yogurt cheesecake, and got all set to make it until I pulled the homemade yogurt out of the fridge and saw it was in fact perfect, the best yogurt I ever made. So I threw that plan out the window. Unfortunately (or fortunately) I made a mistake I told my wife I was going to make yogurt cheesecake, and we all know once you promise your wife sweets there’s no backing down. So now I made the cheesecake and was deciding on a topping, in my fridge were strawberries that needed to be used and in the freezer rhubarb. Now as always I made too much of the strawberry rhubarb syrup for the cheesecake, in fact 4 cups more than I needed. The rest is self explanatory in the recipe.
Velvet Falernum Syrup
Posted by Cmac in Dips, Spreads, Condiments on June 30, 2009
I though I’d post this recipe since I seem to be using up my stock of Falernum Syrup in a lot of recipes I’ve been posting lately. This is a makes a great substitute for liqueurs in recipes and can be used to macerate fresh fruit.
-
You are currently browsing the archives for the Dips, Spreads, Condiments category.
Cmac's Gourmet Mac & Cheese almost from scratch
Western Pale Ale
Zesty Mexican Style Bean, Zucchini, and Cous Cous Casserole