Red Tomato Harvest.

September 22, 2020; the first day of autumn, the beginning of Mabon and celebration of the fall season.  Mabon is the Second Harvest; a reflection of the past, gratitude for the present, blessings for the future.  A week-long celebration in which the bounties of fruits, vegetables and grains are harvested for the final time.  Pickling, jamming, jellies, bread making, dehydrating, roasting, and food preservation are the major goals.  Winter, depending upon where one lives, can be knocking at the door at any moment.

In my previous article, we visited the taste treat of Fried Green Tomatoes.  I bet many of the home cooks tried it, but I bet many others pickled those green tomatoes for future use.  Since this is time for Second Harvest, consider this a second article to figure out what to do with all those extra red tomatoes.  While they can be canned or frozen whole, homemade pasta sauce and salsa are very much delicious options.   However, two other options are dehydrating and roasting. 

Dehydration is extracting all moisture from a thinly sliced food item, then sealing it in air tight packaging.  It can be seasoned before processing, but be careful as anything added will be greatly intensified in flavor.  Jerky?  Yes, this is made through the dehydration process, as is “fruit leather”.  Owning a dehydrator makes the process easier, less messy, more hygienic, but still time consuming.  Cutting the ripe, red tomatoes into one quarter inch slices, space them out on the dehydrator disks.  Cover, turn on the device and my three trays still took eight hours to completion.  If all five trays had been used, the time would have been ten to twelve hours.  Once completely dried, carefully lift the slices which have shrunk to 1/8^th of an inch thin.  I placed mine in a resealable plastic bag, making sure to, carefully, squeeze out the air, before sealing.  Yes, a container can be used, but it is air that will destroy all your hard work by creating mold on the tomato slices.  Keep them in a cool, dry, dark environment; heat and light are not friends to dried foods.  In a cabinet, they will keep for six months; stored in a freezer is a one year bounty!

Freshly sliced tomatoes in dehydrator.

Dried tomato slices.

Dehydrated Tomatoes

The other method for drying out tomatoes is to Sun Dry.  The tomatoes are sliced, placed on parchment lined trays and exposed to the sun until completely dried out.  This method takes days, leaves the tomatoes open to the air, and anything air borne.  While, in Utah, the red dust of our magnificent sandstone formations is nicknamed “seasoning”, do we really want it on our drying tomatoes?  Then there are insects, falling leaves, pet hair, and who knows what other non-tasty and unhealthy yuck that might get added in.  So, as you can guess, I am partial to a dehydrator.

What can dehydrated tomatoes be used for?  First, they can easily be rehydrated by soaking in hot water for thirty minutes.  Chop them up to add to salads, slices onto sandwiches, or anything else tomatoes are called for.  They can, also, simply be crushed or ground up to be added to soups, stews, dressings, and basically any dish calling for seasoning.  Dried tomatoes have intensified tomato flavor, so add a sweet/tart/tangy balance to a recipe.

Roasted tomatoes will not keep as long as dried.  Up to five days in the refrigerator, only six months if frozen.  Reason being is the cooked olive oil which can eventually turn rancid, even if frozen.  However, these little tidbits are so exquisitely delicious, they will not last long anyway!

Preheating the oven to 450F, slice the tomatoes, again, to one quarter inch thickness.  If using cherry tomatoes, simply cut in half.  In a large bowl, mix the tomatoes with a half cup of olive oil  (this is for 6-8 large Roma tomatoes), one quarter cup of Italian herbal mix, one tablespoon garlic powder, 1 teaspoon ground black pepper, one half teaspoon of fine sea salt. 

 

Place the tomato slices, or halves, in rows, onto jelly roll pans (the sides will keep the oil from leaking onto the oven floor).  Roast for 20-25 minutes in the oven; any longer and they will begin to turn too mushy.  Let cool for 15 minutes before placing in air tight containers or bags.

Roasted Tomatoes

You will be tasting them, I know you cannot resist!  Have any frozen pizza in the freezer?  Unwrap, place a few slices of the roasted tomatoes on it, and then rewrap.  Wait until you finally bake that pizza, the taste will make your eyes pop out!

How about some Bruschetta?  While the tomatoes are roasting, brush thick slices of Italian or French bread (even sub rolls will work) lightly with olive oil.  Once the tomatoes are done, space them out on the bread, top with shredded mozzarella and pop back into that 450F oven for 15-18 minutes.  One bite, and you will be totally in love!

Bruschetta and Roasted Tomatoes

Joyous Mabon, Welcome Autumn, Second Harvest is here, Celebrate and eat some tomatoes!

Mary Cokenour

Autumn Equinox and Harvest.

On or near September 21^st, the autumn equinox, or Mabon, is a celebration of equal day and night; as with its spring counterpart, March 21^st, or Lammas.  This will be the last harvest of fruits and vegetables before winter blankets the landscape with frosty whiteness.  Or, as the southwestern states hope for, tons of snow upon the mountains to swell up the creeks, rivers and lakes come springtime.

Celebrating the autumn harvest is centuries old and spans many cultures worldwide.  In ancient Greece, Oschophoria was a festival held to celebrate the harvesting of grapes for wine, and in honor of Dionysus, the god of the vine.  Oktoberfest, a 16 day beer festival (September to October) originated in Munich, Germany, 1810, to honor the marriage of Prince Ludwig to Princess Therese of Saxe-Hildburghausen.  What better way to celebration the harvest of hops and grains?  Originally, the American Thanksgiving holiday was celebrated on October 3rd to celebrate the end of the fall harvest.

With the fall and winter holiday season fast approaching, many cooks and bakers are thinking about what creations will come from their bountiful harvest.  Apples, pumpkins and other types of squash will take center stage; while the last of the fruits and vegetables will be canned or frozen.

Apples; even though they are available all year long, there is just something special about the fall apple.  Maybe it’s all in the mind; the clear, crisp fall breeze upon the skin, as one bites into a juicy apple and a scent of spice suddenly wisps by.  The most delicious apple I have ever eaten was from an orchard on Mount Penn in Reading, Pennsylvania.  The “Mutsu” was a specialty apple with the most delightful taste of spice in every bite.  I have tried to find a similar type of apple, but nothing has even come close.  That is probably because what the orchard growers called “Mutsu” was a name used by other orchards as “Crispin”, “Pipkin” or “Liberty” apples; yet they were still not the same.  Well I might not find that apple ever again, but I sure do have very fond memories of it.

Now I’m going to ask all those wonderful made-from-scratch bakers to forgive me for the recipe I’m about to write out.  I came up with this semi-homemade recipe when, during a past holiday season, I had surgery on one of my hands.  The hand was immobilized for 6 weeks, so I was very, very limited to what I could do with one free hand.  So please feel free to use your own cake batter recipe and freshly spiced up apple slices instead of the packaged goods I mention.  I used a Super Moist Yellow Cake mix; yellow cake mix can also be bland, so I umpped up the flavor intensity by adding apple pie spice mix and a bit of ground ginger.  You could also think of this as a type of "upside down" cake where the toppings are baking in the pan underneath the cake layer, but when you flip the finished cake out, you see all the lovely apples and caramel.  I will consider myself redeemed by that little feature of the semi-homemade cake. 

Caramel Apple Cake

Ingredients:

For the Caramel Layer:

8 Tbsp. butter, melted

1 tsp pure vanilla extract

4 cups brown sugar

1 Tbsp. ground cinnamon

For the Apple Layer:

1 (21 oz.) can apple pie filling

For the Cake Layer:

1 box Super Moist Yellow cake mix

1 tsp apple pie filling

Pinch of ground ginger

Preparation:

Preheat oven to 350F; spray two 9 inch cake pans with nonstick baking spray.  Cut out two circles from parchment paper to line bottom of cake pans; spray the paper with the nonstick baking spray.

In a medium bowl, mix together the ingredients for the caramel layer until it resembles coarse crumbs.

Divide the mixture up between the two pans pressing to the edges and 1/4 inch up the sides.

Divide the pie filling between the two pans, spreading it out up to one inch from the edges.

Prepare the cake mix according to packages directions, but add in the apple pie spice and ground ginger.  Divide the batter up between the two pans and use a spatula to smooth it out.

Bake for 35-40 minutes; cake will be golden browned and you might see some of the caramel oozing up the sides of the cakes.  Remove pans to a wire rack and let cool for 10 minutes.

When cooled, use a hot knife around the edges to make sure the caramel will not stick to the sides of the pan.  Carefully flip the cakes onto a serving plate and peel off the parchment paper.  Cut into 8 wedges and serve with a scoop of ice cream.

Makes 2 cakes, 8 servings each.

Mary Cokenour

Scents of Fall in the Air.

The time of final harvest has begun; the Fall Equinox occurred on September 22^nd.  How fitting was it then to see snow on the lovely Abajo Mountains the next morning?  The Horse Head outlined for all to see clearly; surrounded by warm colors of gold, red and orange from the changing leaves.  The temperatures have begun to change also with 30s during the night, 60s during the day, and maybe a 70 trying hard to hang on to summer.  Windows may be closed at night, but during the day opened to catch those clean breezes before the bitterness of winter winds. 

But wait, what are those scents that come upon those breezes?  It is not just the aromas coming from canning; peaches, apples, pears ready to be made into cobblers, pies and other tasty pastries during winter.  There are the last of the green beans, squash of yellow and green; tomatoes being made into sauces.  No, no, it’s something more; scents that have a heady aroma, a bite at the back of the tongue…cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice and cloves.  It’s pumpkin time!  Pies, cakes, breads, cookies and soups; all spiced up and ready to be devoured with joy.

When I decided to do a pumpkin recipe for an article, I went through “The Mormon Pioneers Cookbook”, but only found one recipe, that being for Pumpkin Pie.  Now I had to do some thinking about the pioneers coming to Utah from the Eastern and Midwestern states, and the only recipe was for pumpkin pie?  Then it hit me, the San Juan County pioneers came from the western side of Utah much later than the Salt Lake City pioneers.  Growing pumpkins out there, even from seeds was probably not a picnic in the least.  Bringing seeds, using the waters from the San Juan River, or runoff from the Abajo Mountains; it still would have been many years before the soil was properly cultivated for good crop yields.  Now the one recipe made more sense, but I sort of feel sorry for all the good pumpkin eating these folks missed out on.

Never fear though, according to an article, “Pumpkins in the Garden” by Rick Heflebower and Dan Drost, Vegetable Specialists (Utah State University), “Autumn Gold, Connecticut Field, and Spirit Hybrid are large (18-25 lb.) fruited orange pumpkins that can be used for pies and carving. Jack Be Little, Wee-B-Little and Baby Bear are small (0.5-1.5 lb.) orange fruited types suited for small children. Lumina is a medium (8-14 lb.) white skinned pumpkin used for painting. Big Max and Big Moon can produce fruits that weigh in excess of 200 pounds. There are many other good pumpkin varieties for sale at local gardening outlets and through seed catalogs. Most grow well in Utah.” (http://digitalcommons.usu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1279&context=extension_curall  for the full article.)

In these modern times, driving to the local supermarket and purchasing canned pure pumpkin makes it all so easy.  Then again, seeing those dark green leaves shading white, orange and yellow pumpkins kind of brings a sigh to the heart.  It’s beautiful, it’s fall, and it’s pumpkin time.

 

 

Pumpkin Bread

 

Ingredients:

2 cups cooked pumpkin puree or 1 (15 oz.) can pumpkin puree

4 eggs
1 cup canola oil
2/3 cup water
3 cups sugar
3 cups flour
2 tsp baking soda
1 ½ tsp salt
1 tsp each ground cinnamon, ground nutmeg and allspice
½ tsp ground cloves

Preparation:

Preheat oven to 350; lightly butter and flour (or use baking spray) three loaf pans.

In a large bowl, mix together well the pumpkin puree, eggs, oil, water and sugar.

 

 

In another bowl, sift together the flour, baking soda, salt and spices; add 1/3 of dry mixture into pumpkin mixture and mix well; repeat until all dry ingredients have been incorporated into the wet mixture.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Divide batter between prepared loaf pans; use a soup ladle to get three full cups into each loaf pan.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bake for 45-50 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in center comes out cleanly. Let loaves cool before inverting and removing.

Makes 3 loaves.

Mary Cokenour