cooking the harvest, and growing/catching it.

[george47]

I grow blackberries but get pears and blueberries from friends, and making desserts is something I do all the time. This is my main pie lately, a layer of lime curd at the bottom, then blackberry pie on top.

Very fast and easy to make. I do not remove the seeds so may not be for everyone.

And I will try a video - if anyone knows how to post flickr video I would like to know how - will try this.
edit - did not work

 

[george47]

trying again
Getting closer......



https://www.flickr.com/photos/35311573@N05/19972485872/in/photostream/lightbox/

Takes a bit to load, but shows making a pie - begins with my chicken food, small fish I net, and garden things - then they get natural feeds and free range in the forest.

 

[george47]

trying to learn the ropes of posting

Failed in the first attempt to do it simply so doing it like this:

This is pears from a friends garden with blackberries for a pie, from a couple days ago, and yesterdays pie was pear/blueberry from another friend's garden. I tend to keep pies on hand, or Pavlova meringues (which last months on the shelf in a zip lock bag), or sponge cake disks I make and freeze for fruit and whipped cream. We keep a quart of heavy cream in the fridge and have it with the fruit desserts.

 

[crosslandkelly]

Man they look good George.

The problem may be that you need more than 10 posts before you can upload video, it's a forum rule.

 

[dwardo]

Not a big fan of sweet things but they do look nice... About time you started posting recipes!

 

[george47]

I have to go do some work - but pies are the simplest thing in the world - 1/2 hour from start to finish.

This is frozen blackberries (I freeze 8 gallons, enough for the year) with an old nectarine and apple from the back of the fridge - then the big pears shown. Will have to do recipe later - got a work call............ Make pies from any old thing.........

 

[george47]

Last night was an experiment in Mexican baked fish. I catch more fish than I can use so give some away, and we eat fish at least 4 days a week. The problem is my wife does not really like the fish I catch anymore, and I am getting sick of it too - not sick of it enough to stop eating it regularly, but wanting to increase our recipe base. This is our main fish, it is a premium fish, and a game fish, called speckled trout, or 'specks'. (No relation at all to fresh water trout)

There is a flounder in there too - which we prefer, but are harder to catch so I do not go for them much lately. Speck meat is not very firm till over cooked, and has a fish flavor that is somewhat pronounced, and after years of eating them all the time I we are getting a touch weary of it. Mostly I Southern Fry them with a dusting of spices, rolled in cornmeal, and deep fried, or pan fried in a couple tablespoons of oil. I make a simple, oil free, remoulade sauce which covers up the natural flavor - so that I enjoy eating them often, but my wife will not use it. See, we eat fish all the time - so need some more ways to cook it. It is good fish - but any thoughts on things to try?

Here is the standard, rolled in cornmeal after a sprinkling of garlic powder, salt and pepper, and sautéed in a minimal amount of oil. I net large numbers of shrimp, and often add them the same way.

So last night I looked all over at Mexican recipes, and picking and choosing I put the trout fillets in a shallow pan, dusted with garlic, pepper, and sweet paprika. Baked till done (trout raw in a casserole makes it watery, so I precook it to reduce the water in it.) Then topped it with half a cup+ of tamitillo/tomato based salsa (from a jar), a good amount of three kinds of peppers from the garden, sliced thinly, 1/4 an onion sliced thinly, couple cloves garlic sliced thinly, some olives, and sliced canned tomatoes (no fresh left) and a handful of grated cheddar. This baked 35 minutes with foil.

I made brown, organic - high quality, rice. A salad (we either have a soup or salad to start every dinner) of mixed greens with artificial crab in Cajun sauce, topped with a pickled okra, hot corn tortillas. Dessert was pistachio ice cream, fallowed by pear/blueberry pie, warmed. The best part was discovering how to do corn tortillas.

My mother lives in London and uses corn tortillas all the time and she puts then, folded over, into the regular pop up toaster. I never believed this would work with my USA toaster so always did them various ways that are a bigger hassle - and Last night I tried it after talking to her earlier. (she cooks internationally - is a master at Persian and Italian foods) Amazing! toasty on the outside, warm and flaky inside. One uses them like a spoon/wrapper, Mexican style to get a bit of fish and sauce, fold it in one end of a tortilla, and bite - really good.

Anyway it was a success, not great, but we liked it. My sauce needs work. Certainly nothing like plain fried.

Edit, the box of Walmart Pastry is because it is "King Cake" marked down. This is the traditional Mardi Gras cake and Walmart makes a genuine one (millions of them, tables of them when you walk in during the season) - a gaudy ring cake covered in icing and three colors of sugar, gold, green, and purple - the colors of Mardi Gras, which is a huge thing here, massive, and the picture was taken then. I like the cream cheese and strawberry filled ones, mmmmm. Terrible, but wonderful in their time and place.

 

[nic a char]

Well done! Do you grow sweet/potatoes? MUCH healthier thatn pastry as a pie-topping/base.

 

[Everything Mac]

That pie sounds rather nice. I reckon my mum would like that too.

All the best
Andy

 

[george47]

Well done! Do you grow sweet/potatoes? MUCH healthier thatn pastry as a pie-topping/base.

I do. But this year I had an old potato I made slips from. (one sprouts a sweet potato and then cut off the sprout - slip - when it is six inches long and plant that. The problem is I think it was a hybrid potato as the ones I dug were white and not sweet - I do not know why, I grew the slips from an orange potato. May not be a good crop.

I like my crust on my pies though. I had a slice, warmed - cold pie is hard to get all the flavor. Excellent - the blueberry/pear one.

 

[george47]

The pear/blueberry pie was excellent because the pears were hard with lots of the stony grains, so they stood up to the cooking and still were solid where the berries just become one with the filling. Hard pears! Best thing to plant, keep well. My parents had the most wonderful espalier pears and apples across the back fence of their garden. Hard pears and apples, yet so sweet. They could wrap them in newspaper and keep them over winter in the garage, but never made pies with them much, mostly having them raw with cheese as dessert.

But here is a pie recipe as I had made it: Cut up 3 pears and some berries whole like the picture on the post below, it would be about 1 1/2 liter/quart of cut fruit, maybe a bit less. Add 1 cup sugar, 230g, if you wish the barest cinnamon. Thaw the deepest pie crust you can - I use the Walmart deep dish pie shells frozen, 2/$2.15 - which are very good. They are 9", 23 cm across, and deep. Thaw 1 and then ***** the bottom all over with a fork so they stay flat - some on the sides too. Bake them 11 minutes at 400f, 200C - till very brown. As dark and not burnt, this gives the crust flavor and texture.

Put fruit and sugar on low and soon it will begin to make a liquid, Mix 3 rounded Tablespoons of cornstarch with 3-4 T water and have it standing by. Before adding it will need re-stirring as it settles. Boil fruit 8 - 10 minutes till it is as soft as you like. Dump in cornstarch and water mix and stir till it is thick and looses any cloudiness. That means the cornstarch is cooked, about a minute or two.

Put pot in cool water till it is just barely hot (15 min), so it will still pour, and pour into shell. Cool in fridge for 3 hours to set. I then like to warm a slice in the microwave as it has more flavor when it is slightly warm, and whip some cream.

From getting fruit and a peeler to having the pie in the fridge should take half an hour max. Home made pies are fantastic, and you can use anything. I made one a wile ago with some canned figs I was given and blackberries from the garden that was excellent.

It should look something like this when served - but be pie. This picture is the princess of desserts - Pavlova. We love them, and the meringues can be made ahead by the dozen so quickly and easily. Then they are kept in a ziplock bag on the shelf for months. An incredible dessert - family and guests will be impressed, and it is delicious.

These are the Pavlova base, This size is for 4 people, now I make individual meringues like the picture above with the fruit and cream. 6 egg whites makes 12 individual ones. It gets its name from an Australian chef who created this for the dancer Pavlova - it is very classy, and a gorgeous presentation. Loves any fruit but especially the peach, nectarine, berry........

 

[4freek]

Geezus!
I shouldn't have looked at this thread.

Trying to lose a few,

Great work George47! Looks amazing,

 

[george47]

I bought some cubes of flavored butter to use on the fish. They were at closeout - or out of date, and priced down from $3 a box of 4, 1 oz cubes. I got Med. herb and garlic, and a box of Teriyaki. Got to be worth a 1$ try - I love flavor, and am tired of plain trout fillets. Last night I took 4 people and my wife fishing, I netted a couple hundred live shrimp and used a bait tank with aerator to keep them alive - and we had a great time. Everyone caught at least 6 fish, most small, but some nice ones. But I gave them all the fish I caught. I have a glut of it right now because my wife has not been giving it out like she usually does.

She is in charge of handling the egg sales. I like chickens so keep about 15 hens, although the number fluctuates, and they always seem to be going broody and stop laying - but it means selling 5 dozen eggs a week. Because our chickens live semi-wild in the forest, grazing on bugs and plants, and I net them sardines (pogies) and feed them the good, non GM grains and veg trimmings I grow, we get a premium price. The other free range egg growers around here just keep them in pens and feed them layer pellets and that is called free range - we are the only true free range flock. And she gives some customers free fish when I get too much. Naturally we keep friends in fish when they want some.

This is a redfish, one of our favorites. A game fish, they must be 18 inches to keep, 46cm. Where I fish people go with big rods and big baits for these in the 20-40 pound range, I do not care for them bigger than 15 pounds so do not set out rigs for the big ones. They are cooked in an interesting way coastally - I will talk of that when I get a nice one. And here are our eggs

So, any good egg recipes? I make several egg based desserts, and should get a good quiche recipe for a slice for breakfast or lunch. Cooked egg things last for ever in the refrigerator. And are healthy, and usually good.

 

[george47]

Fried trout!

My house is 13 foot in the air on marine pilings, and I have a fryer under it, on top of my washing machine actually, so the house does not get loaded with aerosol fish cooking oil. I do like to deep fat fry occasionally, Fish the most, but gar cakes, shrimp, and oysters too. This is under the house with a batch just out of the fat and going upstairs for the fish course. (we always have a soup, or salad, starter - then I fry the fish as it is so quick and better served right from the fryer, the side dishes all ready, and dessert to fallow.

 

[Trojan]

Thank you for this thread!

 

[george47]

Thankyou Silver trader.

Last night was the usual gumbo soup, Does anyone use a pressure cooker? It was always a family tradition, from our years in the Middle East, where meat was often tough, or of unknown quality, and dairy not so safe. And I still make the family traditional pressure cooker custard - I send a batch to anyone who is sick as it was what we would have when ill with the common gut ailments.

I still use it for dried beans, and like to keep some on hand, cooked, as they are both cheap and easy ($1.18 a pound bag) One boils a pound of dry beans in a half full pressure cooker of water, lid off, for 3 minutes and then let them sit a couple hours. (NO anything else or they could turn hard.) Then put lid on and pressure to 10 pounds. Cook to the times listed here - (add a T of oil to stop the beans boiling foam and plugging the vent !!)

https://www.gopresto.com/downloads/instructions/01264.pdf

Red beans 3-6 minutes, black beans 2-4 minutes. And then you have a pot of beans for anything. I have redbeans in the fridge now- and any getting old go to the chickens.

So my gumbo soup, we eat his all summer, almost a stew, and never the same twice as it just is what is on hand.

Seed and slice a bell pepper, a couple sweet banana peppers, or any that are not too hot for you (unfortunately my wife does not like hot) I also add some dried carrots from the garden, and get it boiling with a stick celery chopped. A bit later add any green beans or squash or okra - okra is traditional, anything, and boil it a wile. Then some stock powder - I use a powdered onion soup base, and some chicken stock powder base (Mexican Knorr, comes in a quart jar cheap; as Mexican cooking uses it a lot), and a cob of sweet corn sliced off the cob. Then a handful of peeled raw shrimp and sliced smoked sausage and some red beans, if handy. (or black beans, pinto, Great northern, Navy, Lima....)

Cheap, easy, uses up the odds and ends, very good and nutritious.

So it is garden veg with lots of peppers, okra, shrimp (could use chicken which is also traditional) and cheap stock powder and some assuage sliced, Polish Kielbasa say. Cajun/Creole cooking, the local cooking, uses 'The Trinity' as the base for their foods, onion, celery, peppers. Chopped and sautéed typically.

And dried collard greens but I am out. A fantastic veg to dry. Boil 5 minutes and put on the dehydrator. Mix around as they dry and they do not stick together. Look great and full of vitamins and fiber in soups, reconstitutes in an instant. I also dry carrots and peppers.

Yesterday's pie was frozen blackberries, 4 old golden delirious apples, all wrinkly, and some rains. My wife said to not add the rains again - but I liked them. We both had seconds with whipped cream. I had whipped extra cream knowing one slice would not be enough. I really do make good pies, and so very easy to make.

Gumbo soup veg - the big tough okra pods I slice open long way and pop out the seeds and add them.

 

[george47]

Spoiler alert, talks of killing wild animals if you wish to skip.




I keep going in and out as I type these posts and always time out at the site - and then the post is lost when I re-sign in because the posting fails. So I know to copy the post and then re-sign in and post it.

But my wife is angry. The last 'sugar baby' watermelon, of the second crop, all of the first were also lost, is an eaten husk. Even putting a milk crate over it failed, the raccoons just hurl the crate aside - they are strong. And my wife is adamant we will have raccoon for dinner this winter. We have an excess of opossums and raccoons, this being their perfect habitat. And this time of year the population is high with the new litters going their separate ways. Food is plentiful, but territory is hard protected. Life as a creature is very hard. In the fall as foods diminish and the population is higher than winter will carry they get going for the chickens, exploiting every weakness in the hen house - like foxes in England, but dexterous. Every winter we lose a couple, 2 winters ago lost 8! to raccoons at night.

When I was a young man in Florida I would do cross country running in the forest, and in the winter would carry a .22 and if I set off a opossum or raccoon would chase it till it ran up a tree and shoot it, and then cook it. I shot very few, but enjoyed the runs, and tolerated the cuts from the thorny vines, more for the chance. My usual was to make chili out of the carcase. And chill is planned for the fall. I have had to destroy some animals who would just not stop working to get chickens, but for one reason or another did not cook them. Now my wife insists we reduce the herd - which certainly would be a good thing for the wellbeing of the remaining, and eat them, both for natural foods, which my wife prefers, and for all the - quite large amount - of garden, and chicken, they have eaten.

One waits for the cold months to eat wild meat here. I just mention this as my wife is so annoyed that even our attempts at protecting the last watermelon failed!

Here is a raccoon that just had to go, it was relentless. I did something that is against all I believe in, and is bad, relocated it and let it go; that is less ethical than euthanizing it, as any wildlife person knows.. Every animal has its turf, all the habitat here has population of raccoons. To relocate it means it has to fight the locals there for resources and one or the other has to lose - and the displaced one has to try on someone's turf again.

I hope this is not depressing, but it is nature, a system where fecundity exceeds carrying capacity. It is the great wheel, and we all will experience it finally - but with an easier time on the way. I hunted extensively in my life but no longer do. But man has removed the top end predators leaving only lack of food, and cars, to keep the populations constant of these mid level predators/omnivores. And it is very ethical to take the responsibility to keep the numbers optimal. And I am pretty convinced we will give it a shot this winter. It is easier to just trap them and move them on to be someone else's problem - but I do regard myself as a bit of a steward of the land, and should do the best for all the natural things.........

 

[Robson Valley]

I guess that the old expression holds much truth: don't kill the goose which lays the golden egg.
That makes me a believer in sustained yield = plants & animals. Crop your needs, manage the population
for carrying capacity such that the niche isn't overloaded and they ALL starve.

I don't need all of them. Example: I harvest wild Saskatoon/Service berries. My consumptive experience
indicates that 20+lbs is enough for the year until the next harvest. I got into a good patch, picked like crazy
and thought: "this looks like enough." Washed cleaned, scaled and frozen, just under 25lbs. I quit.

 

[george47]

I am sort of Canadian too - would be fully if I did submit the paperwork I once got, but then decided to not as the tax thing - having to do both Canadian and USA taxes (although only pay one, as a credit is given by the other for that amount.) But I have spent lots of time in Canada, sort of living there a couple times. But Prince George I have known a good bit, my Cousin has a cattle ranch there. The mention of Saskatoons brought back memories - how do you use them? 12 years ago we took a school bus from New Brunswick to Vancouver Island staying as high North as possible, then spent the winter on Vancouver Island. But all my life I have visited BC, where I have lots of family.

Here is the bus on Vancouver Island where we split the winter in the woods and in Victoria. There is a wood burning cook stove in the bus - works excellently, a Norwegian Jotul, and will roast a chicken or pie and keep the bus warm in the cold without causing the humidity of a gas heat. The dogs always lay in front of it, it is a dog magnet in the cold wet places.

We actually would stay in Esquimalt and take our Zodiac across the bay to the Victoria docks to shop and hang out (no car, but a great boat), and to fish and crab, you would go right by the seaplane runway and have them taking off and landing by you

I have picked lots of wild berries in my time, the best being the little low bush blueberries of the Saskatchewan North. And I always remember the huge, gorgeous Salmon berries with the most inviting appearance and no flavor. I used to make my living in summers picking wild huckleberries for the gourmet market - and was in the wild mushroom business for years, picking Saskatchewan through Yukon and Alaska. I do love Canada - but the central North is really my favorite.

Morell mushrooms in one of our remote Alaska camps - we would try to pick 100 pounds a day on good picks, I was hard then, 16 to 18 hour days with the drying and picking and cooking over wood fires.

 

[Robson Valley]

How much we have in common. I've lived in BC for 45+ years. Prince George 31 yrs. Originally a Sask prairie kid, I grew up with Saskatoon pie.
Here, about the only way to get good Saskatoon pie was to learn how to make the crust and do it all myself.

I have access to a fantastic black currant bush, originally from a homestead ranch in the high country NE of Cache Creek. Picked 15 lbs one year.

Anyway, what's you thought on a pie, full top, layer of apple and a layer of black currant?