Grow your own? Bought some good stuff? Tell us what you cooked.

[kimble]

 I am interested in life very much. The whole thing of life being a march to death - Vishnu the protector, Kali the destroyer, Juggernaut crushing all before it, under its great wheel, to arise new again after passing.

 

 And this is food, we plow, grow, and then harvest - and spring the cycle begins as fresh again. It is The Great Wheel, one we will not escape, as we should not. Food is to be appreciated. It is our physical reminder three times a day of life and existence, growth, and moving on for the cycle to repeat. Hopefully it reminds us of some beauty in nature as well.

 

 I grow a portion of my food, all my life I have had a passion for creatures and plants, even microorganisms. Where ever I lived in a fixed place I would have pot plants, a tomato growing in buckets, and usually pets. I have always fished, most of my life I hunted. I am driven to nature, even in the city.

 

 Last night I had a bacon cheeseburger though - all bought, but the starter, soup, was heavily garden based. Mixed soup veg from the summer, frozen in bags for winter. Okra and peppers I grew, local sweet corn, and dried redbeans cooked.

 

 I must run, but would love to hear about fine local products, the recipes, your dinner and how it was to cook and have it. And anything you may have collected, locally sourced foods, grown, canned, pickled, dried, fermented.

 

 I am off to the last day of the book sale, all picked over and being packed up - but who knows what has been overlooked.

[kimble]

OK - I worry this will be one of those horrible threads with my posts one after another, "Three Post Ment" was the saying on one Forum, where you were thought a bit mad and talking to yourself if you posted the three consecutive posts.

 

 But I am in again, and have a bit wile waiting for the wine - I am making a Coq Au Vin and my wife is bringing the wine and a can of chicken stock. This dish was once a favorite but I have forgotten the recipe I liked - the ones on line seem poor. I also am using a three year old rooster, I had a bit of a cull there, the two old cockerels retired and the junior ones now in charge. Old roosters are so stringy even pressure cooking does not work - so this.

 

From menory I used to saute 1/4 pound bacon in bits and remove, brown the bird in the bacon fat. Bring to boil 1 l wine, 1 pint chicken stock and reduce by half. Add bird to pot, add reduced wine mix and cook 3 hours - add 10 oz pearl onions (peeled and par boiled - I buy them frozen and ready so skip that), salt, some dark jam, the bacon, 8 oz sauteed half mushrooms and cook another hour. Drain stock and thicken with some flour, put back on bird - serve.

 

 I am serving with a mash of white potatoes, carrots, and white sweet potato (which I grew).

 

 Soup - crab corn chowder

 

 Dessert berry pie (garden) and whipped cream.

 

 This from memory - anyone make Coq Au Vin? It is basically the same as Beef Burguignon but with the bacon. (old picture below - the wine colour fades but the flavor remains, although changed too.)

 

 

 

Edited February 4, 2016 by kimble

[Hayley]

I've never tried Coq au Vin but it sounds (and looks) like it would be very nice.

 

I don't have my own garden so the only thing I can really say I bought and cooked with is a potted basil plant which I used on pizza. Not exactly on the same level

 

I think the nicest local thing I've had was honey from a man who lives just a couple of roads away from me. I really love honey though so it would have been unusual if I didn't like it

[kimble]

 Hi Haley, thank you for responding, and nothing bad about growing basil in a pot, it is great. I do a lot of Thai cooking where basil is king. There are bad honeys, I had one from something like 'sour wood' tree and the taste was really different, the honey almost black. But I love honey and have it on my grits. (local food.)

 

 The Coq au vin was good, but foodie food, and my wife is not a proper foodie. The old rooster meat very dark, almost black for the legs, and very white for the breast - like a game bird. The flavor also like game, and not stringy as they end up being cooked without the wine.

 

 I used 1 l of wine, 1/3 pound bacon, 10 oz pearl onions, a heaping T of blackberry jam, mushrooms, chicken broth - the liquids boiled down half way before assembling the casserole and baking 3 hours.

 

 A powerful dish. I had it with rice, kale from the garden as a side, blackberry pie to finish.

[kimble]

Pies, I always have one in the refrigerator, as well as a quart of whipping  cream ($4.13 at Walmart, I would guess I make whipped cream for 2, eight times from one quart, well worth it, it even makes a pie 'pop' more than ice cream) I can make a pie in 15 minutes start to finish. As the seasons change I will use different pears, apples, peaches, plums, necterines, figs, berries, lemon, coconut, chocolate,  (blackberries a Lot as I grow 15 gallons of them a year, canning most, a very simple process). (edit also - garden veg in basket, I make soup most days as a starter and use any garden veg, in warm months I make a kind of gumbo soup with okra, peppers, corn, beans, and seafoods I catch)

 

 Here is a typical one being made, blueberry nectarine (edited to say those round pears will go in too, from a friends tree, very good ones) (I pick from friends groves, or trade, I trade fish or blackberries, with people - mostly fish as I catch it in large amounts and have a commercial license.) I use deep pie shells from Walmart again - I am not for Walmart food, but their store brand pie crusts are very good, and $2.28 for 2, so not bad.

 

 

 

 I can blackberries 4 ways, as syrup, which is used in pies just as fruit would, berries with half the seed removed, and complete berries, and jam - which I also use in cooking, as well as on toast. They will be shelf stable for years once canned. This stops having to keep a freezer full. The syrup is also excellent in summer when one has to drink a gallon of water if working outside (hard work in summer heat requires drinking gallons) and added to some lemonade for a nice flavour. This is blackberry syrup in my kitchen window.

 

 

Edited February 10, 2016 by kimble

[kimble]

 Made a blackberry, apple, pie last evening for tonight. No stone fruits fresh and affordable so it is the canned blackberries and apple.

 

 So how does a Rooster Rogan Josh sound? The acid for the long baking to tenderize being tomatoes instead of wine for 2 hours. Then in with onion, cardomon, jeera, cassia bark whole, ton of garlic, some ginger, some fennel, Madras curry powder, some really aromatic Garm Masala and some home made marmalade from my trees.  - back in for another hour.

 

 The coq au vin is based on reduced chicken stock and wine - maybe reduced tomatoes and coconut? I think just a l of whole canned tomatoes - and thoughts? Big pieces of carrot, small whole purple potatoes - yes, I think so. Veg goes so well in a curry - 2 roughly chopped poblano peppers I have too.

 

 So what about it - I have a rooster to kill, hopefully today, he is so loud.