Categories
Cooking Gardening

Fresh Apple Cider

Fresh Cider 2009
Fresh Cider 2009

Fresh cider, apple juice or sweet cider.  Anyway that you name it, it is truly a sign of the fall harvest.  This year my wife bought a cider press from Happy Valley Ranch.  We have our own small apple orchard, so we were planning on pressing apples from the backyard.  However, when you have a nice cider press, you start looking around for other sources of free apples.

Tina has a friend that has a large apple tree in their front yard.  For the most part these apples get tossed to the horses.  When Tina hold her friend that we had a cider press, the next thing that I knew, we had 7 bushels of apples in our garage waiting to be turned into cider.  Two weekends ago we processed enough apples to press about 14 gallons of apple juice.

This weekend we picked a pickup truck load of apples.  We pressed about 30 gallons.  Most went into the freezer, but some was consumed fresh and 6 gallons when to my friend, Andy, for some hard cider.

I remember as a kid that there were a few houses that we would go trick-or-treating to that had fresh cider.  I can now understand the pleasure of sharing a cup of fresh cider.  I don’t think that I an quite ready to try to bring that tradition back for trick-or-treat, but many of my neighbors will look forward to cider season.

Cheers!

Categories
Cooking

Fall Harvest Recipe #3 (Curry)

This variation for sweet meat squash takes its inspiration from India.  I am not an Indian cook.  This is a cuisine that I am just starting to learn about.  Since the sweet meat squash seems to lend itself to vegetarian cooking, I wanted to see how a spicy curry would work.

Curry powder is a generic term for a collection of spices.  Each curry powder is different from different manufactures.  I have a spicy curry powder from Sharwood’s.  The jar I have is labeled “Sharwood’s Tandoori Spice Curry Powder”.  It is a blend of ginger, cinnamon, fenugreek and other seasonings.

Ingredients:

  • 1/4 Sweet Meat Squash cut into 3/4 inch cubes (about 3 to 4 cups)
  • 1/2 medium yellow onion, diced
  • 2 tablespoons minced garlic
  • 2 – 3 tablespoons vegetable cooking oil
  • 2 tablespoons Sharwood’s Tandoori Spice Curry Powder

Directions:

  1. In a wok or large non-stick pot, heat vegetable oil.
  2. Add garlic and onion and saute until tender.
  3. Add sweet meat squash and continue to cook.  We are just trying to bring a little browning to the squash.
  4. Add curry powder to taste.  The squash takes on a beautiful red hue on top of the the orange flesh.
  5. Place into 9×9 dish and cover with foil or parchment.
  6. Bake at 350 F for 45 minutes, or until tender.

Serve with steamed rice.

Categories
Cooking

Fall Harvest Recipe #2 (Teriyaki)

The first half of the sweet meat squash turned out fairly well.  I wanted to see what else I could do with this new (to me) vegetable.

First thing that you should know about the way I cook.  It is mostly a improvised experience.  I don’t have any hard and fast rules in the kitchen.  A lot of my cooking is a dash of this and and pinch of that.  With that in mind, the recipes that I provide are mostly my guesses of what I did after the fact.  The amounts listed are estimates.  If you are unsure, you can start with my “guestamates”, but don’t try to hold me to them.

This next recipe I wanted to see how sweet meat squash would handle a teriyaki treatment.

Ingredients:

  • 1/4 Sweet Meat Squash cut into 3/4 inch cubes (about 3 to 4 cups)
  • 1/2 medium yellow onion, diced
  • 2 tablespoons minced garlic
  • 2 – 3 tablespoons vegetable cooking oil
  • 3 tablespoons soy sauce (approximate)
  • 1/4 cup teriyaki sauce, oyster sauce, ginger marinade, etc
  • 2 – tablespoons sesame seeds

Directions:

  1. In a wok or large non-stick pot, heat vegetable oil.
  2. Add garlic and onion and saute until tender.
  3. Add sweet meat squash and continue to cook.  We are just trying to bring a little browning to the squash.
  4. Add soy and teriyaki to taste.  I have also used some oriental marinades or oyster sauce.
  5. Add sesame seeds.
  6. Place into 9×9 dish and cover with foil or parchment.
  7. Bake at 350 F for 45 minutes, or until tender.

Serve with steamed rice.