Roasted Potatoes, Homemade Ketchup, & Apple Crisp

The abundance of fruits and vegetables coming from the garden in late summer can be both thrilling and exhausting. This is the time of year when every day brings new piles of fresh produce to the kitchen counter. After a recent marathon of bean freezing and pickling, my friend Tom quipped that the lesson for next year is that 20 feet of pole beans is 15 feet too many. I've heard people joke that this is the time of year when you will find squash in your parked car if you leave your windows down. Or, maybe you will find bags of zucchini dropped off on your porch in the dead of night by someone who couldn't bear the thought of stuffing, baking, frying, or making yet another loaf of zucchini bread with it. While I've never gone quite that far, I will admit to occasionally being overwhelmed by the volume of produce coming out of the garden in August and September, but ultimately, I am thankful for every bit of it.

I believe that the key is to build as many of your meals as possible around the things that can't be easily preserved, and get creative with the rest. Right now, my fermenting crock holds the last four garden cabbages, slowly turning them into another batch of sauerkraut. The dehydrator hums its low, steady song as it dries five trays packed with herbs, garlic, and peppers which will be pulsed in the food processor and turned into a dry seasoning rub. The freezer is well stocked with beans and berries and collard greens have been on the menu most nights of the last few weeks. Yes, preserving food can be a demanding process, but I remind myself that by putting things up in large batches, there is an economy of scale that makes it worth every bit of the effort. Plus, the effort exerted up-front balances with the ease and effortlessness of pulling a meal together with those same things in the winter months. 

A hanging basket in my kitchen holds enough tomatoes that the hook suspending it from the ceiling threatens to give up and send them all crashing to the floor.  Over the last two weeks I made a giant pot of pasta sauce incorporating garden garlic, shallots, basil, parsley, oregano, and bell peppers. I also blanched, peeled, and  canned a few quarts. Today,  I have decided to use the most recent batch of ripe tomatoes to try making homemade ketchup. Ketchup without high fructose corn syrup can be purchased, but  it's pricey, so I love the idea of making my own, instead. The recipe comes from the thekitchn.com and will make about a pint. I'll keep one jar in the fridge and freeze the rest. The basic necessities for homemade ketchup are tomatoes, simmered with onions, garlic, vinegar and spices. Then pureed, strained, sweetened, and cooked again until it reaches the desired consistency. The spices can vary according to taste. Here is what I added to mine:

Homemade Ketchup

4 Lbs fresh tomatoes, cored and quartered
1 Tbsp olive oil
3 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 yellow onion, chopped
1/2 C apple cider vinegar
2 tsp salt
1 1/2 tsp fresh ground black pepper
1/4 tsp ground allspice
1/4 tsp ground cayenne
1/4 tsp Tabasco sauce
1/2 C brown sugar
1 Tbsp molasses

Begin by heating the oil in a large pot or dutch oven over medium high heat. Add the onion and cook until it begins to soften, about 3 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add the garlic and continue cooking for another minute or so. Add the tomatoes, skins and all, along with the vinegar, salt, pepper, allspice, cayenne, and Tabasco. Simmer for 30 minutes and skim the skins from the top of the pot with a slotted spoon. Working in batches, puree the mixture in a blender, then strain through a fine mesh sieve to remove the seeds and any remaining skins. Return the tomato puree to the pot, add the brown sugar and molasses, and continue to simmer until the ketchup reaches the desired consistency. The recipe suggested 30 minutes, but I decided to go much longer since I wanted it to be thick. I stored one jar in the fridge and froze the rest in freezer safe containers.

Now that I have a tasty homemade ketchup, I couldn't wait to try it on some roasted Mountain Rose potatoes that I dug a few weeks ago. I love roasting potatoes in fresh garlic and herbs until they are crispy and golden brown. It beats the heck out of a french fry any day, if you ask me.  Potatoes are easy to grow and store with minimal effort.  Growing them entails cutting the seed potatoes into sections so that each section has at least two sprouting eyes, planting them in clumps of 4 or 5, and mounding the dirt up around each clump of potatoes as they grow. Storing them is as simple as finding a cool, dry place. My basement meets those conditions, so I store them in a big, flat basket lined with a burlap bag.

Garlic and Herb Roasted Potatoes

6-8 small potatoes, quartered
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 Tbsp of fresh herbs of your choice. I like to use parsley, rosemary, thyme, and marjoram.
Generous drizzle of olive oil
Salt & fresh ground pepper

Toss the potatoes, garlic, herbs, salt, pepper, and olive oil until well coated. Pour onto a baking sheet in a single layer with a little room around each potato so that they can brown. Bake at 375 for 20 minutes, or until they are golden brown and crispy at the edges.

My final pile of produce begging to be transformed today consists of a mix of apples. Vermont is famous for its abundance of orchards growing a mind-boggling variety of apples. Before moving here, I never knew so many varieties of apple existed. Champlain Orchards in Shoreham, VT grows over 50 different varieties and I have yet to try them all. The pile on my counter represents a mix of apples from a small tree in the yard, plus a few that I got from Champlain Orchards. All are relatively firm varieties, with tart flesh that make them well suited for baking, so I decided to make an apple crisp. This recipe comes from one of my favorite cookbooks called The Farmstead Chef. This cookbook covers everything from soups, salads, breads, entrees, and deserts to drinks, sauces, and pantry-stocking staples like baking mixes; all with a focus on fresh, wholesome, seasonal ingredients. The recipe couldn't be much more simple and it is oh, so delicious:

Apple Crisp

4 C apples, sliced with skins on
3/4 C brown sugar
1/2 C flour
1/2 C oats
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp nutmeg
1/3 C butter, softened, plus 1Tbsp for buttering pan

Arrange sliced apples in a buttered 8 inch square baking pan. Mix sugar, flour, oats, cinnamon, and nutmeg in a bowl. Cut in the remaining butter and massage with your hands until it resembles coarse sand. Spread over the apples and bake at 375 F for 30 minutes, or until topping is golden brown.