My grandmaman's green tomato ketchup

By the end of August, I am eying my garden tomatoes.  How many green tomatoes?  How much green tomato ketchup can I make this year?

This ketchup is traditional French Canadian deliciousness served with tourtière or with meat dishes.  Store bought, when you can find it, will never be as good as homemade.  

If you double the recipe, you'll have enough for gift giving.

To make four 250 ml jars

Black Bean Soup- À la Cubana

As winter begins to settle in outside, my thoughts turn to warm summer breezes and hot beaches.  Cuba!  This vegetarian bean soup is many layered with flavour: peppers, spices and sofrito.  You'll love it!

It seems that many cultures have a black bean soup to call their own.  I have made Mexican, Creole and just plain old generic black bean soup.  Love them all!

I have based my version of the soup on a recipe from Leite's Culinary.  A website, I would highly recommend for its great recipes and helpful reviews.

To serve six.

Jamaican Pumpkin Soup- à la canadienne

I love soups- especially as I sit in my living room, watching the snow fall, in November.  A little too much snow, too soon.  I can look forward to the sweet smells of soup simmering on the stove.

If you cannot find Jamaican pumpkin, feel free to improvise- regular pumpkin or other orange squash.  Same for the white yam- carrots, regular yam or sweet potato.

You can also roast the squashes in the oven to make it easier to peel and dice.  Just wrap in foil and place in a hot oven for 45 minutes to an hour.

To serve about six...

Caribbean Goat Curry

Many, many years ago I remember having goat curry at a tiny West Indian restaurant in Ottawa.  It was delicious- lots of flavourful, tender meat.  This first taste of goat stayed with me and I was really happy to include goat on my Caribbean dinner menu.

This recipe is adapted from one found on the NYTimes Cooking website.  If you can't find goat (try a West Indian or African grocer) you could use lamb.

To make 5-6 portions

Too much citrus? Dehydrate!

What to do with four trays of lemons, limes, Meyer lemons, blood oranges, pink grapefruit- all sliced thinly and looking great?  Dried citrus fruit if perfect for infusing water, tea or adding to many savoury dishes, roast chicken.  Or, grind the dried fruit into a powder.  How about mixing the ground fruit with sea salt for a special citrus salt?

It should take about 10 hours to dehydrate.

Mandarin Orange Curd- It's all about the citrus

I love my Kitchenaid Precise heat mixing bowl.  While it is working heating and stirring my curd mixture, I am sitting in the living room blogging away happily.  Perfect!

Mandarin orange curd

 I had quite a few aging mandarin oranges needing to be useful- time to make a curd.  I juiced the mandarins and zesting and juiced one lemon to add more flavour.  The results were delicious.

To make 1 1/2 liters.

Meyer Lemon Olive Oil Confit

Another successful Kitchenaid precise heat mixing bowl project!  I program the temperature and the time and it does the rest admirably.

Meyer lemon confit

These lemons are perfect for adding lemony goodness to savoury dishes- pot roast, roast chicken, couscous, stews, - the sky is the limit.  Use as you would preserved lemons.

This recipe was inspired by Marisa McClennan's.  I added fresh turmeric and black and pink peppercorns to my version.

To make 2 500 ml jars.

More Citrus- Meyer Lemon Curd

Still "playing" with the new Kitchenaid precise heat mixing bowl.  I tweeked the method on this one and it came out thicker than the last one.  It sure makes things easy when I don't have to stand beside the pot to stir constantly.  Multitasking- nice...

Two curds- Orange Blossom lemon curd and Meyer lemon curd.

Meyer lemons are available in Ottawa stores around Christmas, into January and maybe February.  I love their bright colour and flavour.

To make approximately 750 ml.

It's Citrus Time- Orange Blossom Lemon Curd

It's time for citrus!

I have a new kitchen tool/toy!  It's amazing... a Kitchenaid precise heat mixing bowl.  Let the experiments begin!  Today was all about curds: Orange blossom lemon curd and Meyer lemon curd.

 Making curd can be a workout with all the stirring involved.  The heated mixing bowl puts an end to all of that.  I just set the temperature, set the whisk and it does it all.  I did adapt recipes for the new "method" and, I have to say, they worked out wonderfully.

Sunshine to add warmth to the minus 20C weather outside.  Baby it's cold outside! :-)

The Orange blossom lemon curd recipe was adapted from The Preservation Pantry.

This recipe makes 750ml of delicious curd.