Category — Recipes

As I previously mentioned, I find horseradish to be a surprisingly elegant addition to our garden. Toward the end of the summer, however, the horseradish bed starts to appear a little worse for the wear. Some of the tall dark green leaves have become a little beat up looking. We usually trim those off and toss them in the compost up to the time to harvest.

This year we decided to harvest the horseradish on a balmy October day. I believe it might be the earliest date we’ve dug up the horseradish. One year the time slipped by and I found myself digging a couple of roots in December so that we could have fresh horseradish with the Christmas roast; fortunately the ground wasn’t frozen yet! That effort will not be necessary this year because we already have our own very potent horseradish sauce prepared.

We find it easier to dip up the horseradish roots with a two-person team. Jim likes to use a garden fork to loosen the dirt because there’s also less chance to chopping into the root and damaging it. I gather up the leaves in a bundle and pull. We try to get as much of the root as possible, but often some is left behind. That’s no problem because I think it likely grows up again next year.

The bare roots look a little unwelcoming but they aren’t really that much work. Outdoors is a good place to begin to clean them. I like to take off the leaves and rub down the roots to remove as much loose dirt as possible. Then put the roots in a bucket of water to soak. Swish them around and change the water a few times.

When the roots are reasonably clean, I bring them into the kitchen. Cut away the ends, trying to retain as much of the thick center part as possible. Then use a kitchen scraper to peel off the skin. It’s easier than you might think. You’ll end up with some crisp white roots like these:

Now comes the most challenging part of preparation: shredding. The roots aren’t all that hard to work with if you have a good shredder. My implement of choice is a handy stainless steel file type shredder. (Here’s an example of a nice one: Cuisipro Fine Rasp ) The fumes are the real hazard. Fresh horseradish is fragrant! This is a nice time to have a hardy helper or two to spell you off. Our daughter was very excited about the horseradish and so she was willing to pitch in. Shred as much as you can and then take a fresh air break!

We store our finished product in canning jars. Add enough vinegar to moisten the contents of the jar. Serve as is with roasted meats or on sandwiches. For a milder variation, you can mix the prepared horseradish with sour cream, in proportions to your liking.

This summer we have had a sizable invasion of Japanese Beetles in our garden. We’ve had them before, and, I thought at the time, a lot of them. It turns out that the number of Japanese Beetles of the past were small compared to this year’s visitors to our garden. I’m not exactly sure why but I figure it’s the cyclical nature of the garden. It’s a bad year for Japanese Beetles, from our point of view, and they are a well-designed pest.

Japanese Beetles are a perfect bug, from an insect point of view. They don’t have many natural predators in the US. They feed on the leaves of many many common plants, from beans to datura to sunflowers. They don’t fly well, but they don’t have much need to fly either: they eat, they drop their eggs on the ground, their larvae mature underground, they come up and eat. And they eat a lot. They leave a tell-tale trail of skeletonized leaves. They also hang around however and their copper-colored, beautiful/scary shells glisten in the sunlight. More information about Japanese Beetles can be found here and here.

I believe that yards with no pests aren’t necessarily healthy. That’s the garden equivalent of white bread: a substance so lacking in nutrition that not even mold will grown on it. The presence of pests indicates a diverse environment that sustains a lot of varieties of flora and fauna.

Still, there are limits to how much of my garden I want to share and with whom.

Since we are committed organic gardeners, our preferred method of dealing with Japanese Beetles is picking them off. Jim is hardy enough to pick them off and squash them with his bare fingers! I’m always amazed by that. My method is perhaps less humane, although I don’t really think so. I fill a small plastic container with a couple inches of water and a squirt of dish detergent and then knock the Japanese Beetles (or other pests) into the water. They die instantly. Like other insects, Japanese Beetles have an escape technique: when they notice shadow approaching from above, they drop from the plant leaf. If you hold your dish under the leaf and come at them from above, most of the time they will drop straight into the pool of death. Sometimes, if they are busy munching on your plants, they might not drop and you’ll have to encourage them with a prod of the finger.

I know we’re not the only gardeners dealing with the Japanese Beetle plight. A quick perusal of other gardening blogs reveals a sadly similar tale: we’re all under attack. See here and here and here. It’s nice to know we aren’t alone.

This summer I’ve disposed of far more Japanese Beetles than in previous ones. I’m hoping for a good cold winter to lessen their population next year.

One of the occupational hazards of solar cooking in Michigan is the weather. We really can’t count on sun every day. Nor can we depend on the brightly shining morning sun to stick around for the afternoon.

The other day, I prepared my so-easy-it-makes-you-blush Salsa Chicken. This dish consists of Salsa and Chicken. First I place the chicken in the round black pan. Then I add enough salsa or a can of tomatoes with green chilies to cover it. Put the lid on. Voila! That’s it. Into the solar cooker with the pan.

A half an hour later, the sun disappeared behind some substantial clouds, where I guessed it planned to spend the rest of the day. Potatoes, onions, garlic– I could have left in the cooker to eek out whatever rays they might capture. Raw chicken, I knew however, would not fair so well. So the chicken went into the refrigerator until closer to dinnertime. I then poached the chicken– not my favorite way to cook chicken, but a pretty good save under the circumstances.

The episode reminded me that, for me, solar cooking is an adventure, not a complete necessity. The almost invisible appliances of our kitchen are easy to take for granted. Having to resort to using the stove didn’t mean less fuel for heating or cooking over a fire because of a power shortage. Solar cooking is one option for us.

I came up with a new recipe today, based on this recipe for Grandmother’s Crustless Pie from solarcooking.org. Mine is actually very different, but the recipe collection from the site provided the inspiration. It’s not really a cobbler and not really a crisp either. I’m at a loss for the perfect name so Apple Oatmeal Crisp will have to suffice.

You’ll need:

4 apples, pealed and sliced

1/4 cup sugar

Cinnamon

1/4 cup butter

1 cup old-fashioned oats

1 cup brown sugar

Butter a round black roaster. Mix the apples and sugar in the pan. In a bowl, combine the oatmeal, brown sugar, cinnamon and butter and sprinkle over apple mixture. Cover and bake in solar oven. Cool and serve with vanilla ice cream.

This was an absolutely wonderful dessert for a hot, hot summer day with no extra heat generated in our kitchen.

Here’s another solar cooking idea that is so easy I would feel guilty calling it a “recipe.”

Wash 4 or 5 potatoes. Put them in a covered pot. (Do not poke holes in them. It’s completely unnecessary. Poking holes doesn’t help them cook faster. Plus it encourages oxidation, so your potatoes will end up with a series of little black dots in them. This is the voice of experience speaking.) Peel and quarter one large or two small onions and distribute them throughout the potatoes. Peel and add 2 or three whole cloves of garlic (or more, if you adore garlic). Cover the pot and place in your solar cooker until dinner time.

The result, depending on your family size and level of hunger, can be two meals accompaniments. We usually have a couple potatoes for dinner. They are moist and roasty, never mushy, with a lovely hint of onion and garlic.

For breakfast the following morning, we have potato hash. The cold potatoes are firm enough for dicing into neat cubes that are easily browned in a little oil. (Note Jim’s safe and efficient chopping technique.) When they are nearly done, add the onions and any garlic that wasn’t smushed on bread and eaten the previous evening. The onions are unbelievably sweet and almost caramelized. With a couple eggs, this is a wonderful meal to start the day.