Bread and Butter Pickled Watermelon- Local Food- Summer 2011

 

I bought these from the lady who wears the big hat at the farmer's market.

The local food challenge is one I was very interested in.  I had several ideas.  I finally decided on pickled watermelon rind.  I’d never had it before, but the idea intrigued me.  I finally decided to do a Bread and Butter style pickle.  I don’t know why they’re called bread and butter, but if you’ve ever had bread and butter pickled cucumbers you know what they are.  Here’s the recipe:

• 8 cups cubed watermelon rind


• 2 lbs onions, thinly sliced


• 1/2 cup pickling salt


• 3 cups sugar


• 2 tablespoons mustard seeds (brown or yellow)


• 2 teaspoons turmeric


• 2 teaspoons celery seeds


• 1 teaspoon ground ginger


• 1 teaspoon peppercorn


• 4 cups white vinegar

Both the onions and watermelon were purchased at the local  farmer’s market.

Scrape out the watermelon until there is just a hint of pink left on the rind.  Then peel/cut off the green. Cut into one inch chunks. 

 Layer the watermelon, onions and salt in a bowl.  Cover with ice cubes and let sit for 2 hours.

In the meantime, sterilize your jars and lids.  Get your water bath ready.  Once the two hours is up, drain and rinse the melon and onion.  

  

Bring the remaining ingredients to a boil, add the melon and onion, return to boil.  Fill jars and process in the water bath for 10 minutes. 

Remove, let cool for 12 hours or so.  These get better with a few days of aging.  

Only made 5 pints.

I really enjoyed making these.  I think they turned our beautiful and was fun experience for my second canning endeavor. 

BUT the real test is in how they taste.  

 Terrible.  Absolutely terrible. 

If I made these again, I would triple rinse after the two hour salting.  And increase the sugar to 4 (maybe even 5 cups).

Bread and Butter Pickled Watermelon- Local Food- Summer 2011

 

I bought these from the lady who wears the big hat at the farmer's market.

The local food challenge is one I was very interested in.  I had several ideas.  I finally decided on pickled watermelon rind.  I’d never had it before, but the idea intrigued me.  I finally decided to do a Bread and Butter style pickle.  I don’t know why they’re called bread and butter, but if you’ve ever had bread and butter pickled cucumbers you know what they are.  Here’s the recipe:

• 8 cups cubed watermelon rind
• 2 lbs onions, thinly sliced
• 1/2 cup pickling salt
• 3 cups sugar
• 2 tablespoons mustard seeds (brown or yellow)
• 2 teaspoons turmeric
• 2 teaspoons celery seeds
• 1 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1 teaspoon peppercorn
• 4 cups white vinegar

Both the onions and watermelon were purchased at the local  farmer’s market.

Scrape out the watermelon until there is just a hint of pink left on the rind.  Then peel/cut off the green. Cut into one inch chunks. 

 Layer the watermelon, onions and salt in a bowl.  Cover with ice cubes and let sit for 2 hours.

In the meantime, sterilize your jars and lids.  Get your water bath ready.  Once the two hours is up, drain and rinse the melon and onion.  

  

Bring the remaining ingredients to a boil, add the melon and onion, return to boil.  Fill jars and process in the water bath for 10 minutes. 

Remove, let cool for 12 hours or so.  These get better with a few days of aging.  

Only made 5 pints.

I really enjoyed making these.  I think they turned our beautiful and was fun experience for my second canning endeavor. 

BUT the real test is in how they taste.  

 Terrible.  Absolutely terrible. 

If I made these again, I would triple rinse after the two hour salting.  And increase the sugar to 4 (maybe even 5 cups).

Pecan Upside Down Apple Pie- Pie Challenge- Summer 2011

As many of you may there is a 4^th of July Pie Contest here in Muncie.  The event is held at (fellow Cooking Challenger) Steph’s. Last year’s winner was (fellow Cooking Challenger) PK.  So, you can see why I was keen to tie in a Challenge with this event.  I also planned on winning.

Whippin' the cream.

I made an Upside Down Pecan Apple Pie and served it with some cinnamon whipped cream.  Here’s the details:

• 1 cup chopped pecans


• 1/2 cup firmly packed brown sugar


• 1/3 cup butter, melted


• 1 pastry for a 9 inch double crust pie


• 6 cups Granny Smith apples - peeled, cored and sliced


• 1/4 cup white sugar


• 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour


• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon


• 1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg


• 1/8 teaspoon ground clove

Prepare you crust.  No store bought crust here.  I use a 3-2-1 (flour,fat,water by weight) recipe.  I used lard this time.  I was very happy with the results.  As always, chill the fat and everything else before cutting it into the flour.  I also used the KitchenAid stand mixer (no surprise there).  It really does make homemade pie crust a snap.

Mix the butter, brown sugar and pecans together.  Cook briefly.   

Pour into the bottom of a well greased 9” pie pan.  I also lined the bottom with some parchment paper just to be safe.  

Put you bottom crust over the pecan mixture.  Mix remaining ingredients together and add to pie.  Cover with top crust.  Cook for 45 minutes in a 375 degree oven.  

 

 When done, let sit for 5 minutes then turn upside down and serve.

This pie came out great!  Looked good, tasted better, the whipped cream was awesome.  I added some pecan halves to the sides to decorate.  

 

I came in second.  Curse you Missmollys!!  Your peach ginger pie was the official winner of the July 4^th contest.  However, I did get a first place ribbon from M (5 yo) who said my pie was the best. 

I got 1st place AND 2nd place

So, there!!

Truth be told, this pie is best right out of the oven.  Try it, you'll love it.

Pecan Upside Down Apple Pie- Pie Challenge- Summer 2011

As many of you may there is a 4^th of July Pie Contest here in Muncie.  The event is held at (fellow Cooking Challenger) Steph’s. Last year’s winner was (fellow Cooking Challenger) PK.  So, you can see why I was keen to tie in a Challenge with this event.  I also planned on winning.

Whippin' the cream.

I made an Upside Down Pecan Apple Pie and served it with some cinnamon whipped cream.  Here’s the details:

• 1 cup chopped pecans
• 1/2 cup firmly packed brown sugar
• 1/3 cup butter, melted
• 1 pastry for a 9 inch double crust pie
• 6 cups Granny Smith apples - peeled, cored and sliced
• 1/4 cup white sugar
• 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1/8 teaspoon ground clove

Prepare you crust.  No store bought crust here.  I use a 3-2-1 (flour,fat,water by weight) recipe.  I used lard this time.  I was very happy with the results.  As always, chill the fat and everything else before cutting it into the flour.  I also used the KitchenAid stand mixer (no surprise there).  It really does make homemade pie crust a snap.

Mix the butter, brown sugar and pecans together.  Cook briefly.   

Pour into the bottom of a well greased 9” pie pan.  I also lined the bottom with some parchment paper just to be safe.  

Put you bottom crust over the pecan mixture.  Mix remaining ingredients together and add to pie.  Cover with top crust.  Cook for 45 minutes in a 375 degree oven.  

 

 When done, let sit for 5 minutes then turn upside down and serve.

This pie came out great!  Looked good, tasted better, the whipped cream was awesome.  I added some pecan halves to the sides to decorate.  

 

I came in second.  Curse you Missmollys!!  Your peach ginger pie was the official winner of the July 4^th contest.  However, I did get a first place ribbon from M (5 yo) who said my pie was the best. 

I got 1st place AND 2nd place

So, there!!

Truth be told, this pie is best right out of the oven.  Try it, you'll love it.

rustic golden raspberry pie

We inhereted our neighbor's wonderful golden raspberries this year. We have been able to fill a strawberry container with them every other day, so I wanted to find a way to showcase them and share them with my friends. What with this month's challenge and all, I decided to make them into a pie. They have a wonderful sweet/tart taste, so I wanted to do as little to them as possible and keep the berries as intact as possible, because they're gorgeous. (Plus, they look a little brownish as jelly.) I decided to use the filling from this recipe for raspberry pie, as it did not ask you to pre-cook the berries and added very little to them.

I don't know why I always have the urge to do something new and different when I make things for this challenge. Some day, I will stick to something I know I do well. For instance, I always make a good pie crust using my trusty Better Homes and Gardens recipe. It has never failed me. But I wanted to try something different. And I wanted my pie to be beautiful. So I did what anyone would do: I Googled "beautiful pie." Happily, nothing weird came up in the images and I was dazzled by the array. I particularly liked the rustic pies. I like how they scream "hand-made!" They seem like the pie equivalent to a round bread loaf. And I like those, too. It seemed perfect for my little-altered raspberries.

Also, as we would be entering a pie-baking contest with around 40 tasters, I wanted to make small pies for people to just grab without having to cut a pie into 40 pieces, which ruins its aesthetic. And little rustic pies sounded lovely. We made 3 for our trial run and used this recipe to make the crust.

~ turning the pie shell with my favorite kitchen knife ~
(Other tools would work well, too. Transfer these to a cookie sheet using a spatula.)

Raspberry Filling

• 3/4 to 1 cup sugar
  


• 1/3 cup flour


• 5 cups raspberries
  

Butter Pastry Dough

• 2 cups all-purpose flour


• 1 teaspoon sugar


• 1/4 teaspoon salt


• 8-ounces (2 sticks) cold unsalted butter, cut into pieces


• 1/2 cup ice water


• 2 tablespoons cold butter

We altered this by substituting about 2/3 c. whole wheat flour, because I always substitute some whole wheat flour and because I wanted this to really look rustic.

Optional:

• 1 egg white + a splash or two of water as an egg wash
  


• sugar to sprinkle on top

(I did both options, brushing on the egg wash and sprinkling with sugar about 10 minutes before the pie was done. I also brushed any juices that escaped during baking onto the crust, as that was the best part in our trial run.)

Bake
375 degrees for 25-30 minutes, or until golden brown

~ rustic mini pies ~

The trial run was wonderful. Our friends who came over to taste and offer suggestions only suggested ice cream. It was a great, unadulterated pie. The berries were still a wonderful sweet-tart...just how I like them!

But when the day came for the big pie competition, I tried to make the pies individual-sized in order to devote more of the party time to partying instead of cutting pie. THAT was a bad idea. It turns out that there is a tipping point for the crust to maintain its shape, no matter how much you refrigerate it before-hand. Apparently, it is somewhere well short of a 90-degree angle. When I peeked in on my miniature beauties, they were all discs! I hurriedly oiled and floured a muffin tin (not sure whether that was necessary...) and plopped the little pies in! They were good, but were weighted toward crust on the crust-to-fruit ratio. Micro rustic pies: cute, but impractical.

~the saving of the baby pies~

Party time was approaching and I had neither time nor sufficient muffin tins to make more personal pies. With time running out, it was time to make a behemoth pie! This was to be the mother of all rustic pies! (I don't know how much this was, but I do know I something like doubled the recipe.)

~mother of all rustic pies~
(before turning the sides up, obviously.)

And so it was. We entered the mother and her babies in an annual pie baking contest among friends. Ours was the only really tart pie. No one was in the mood for a tart pie that day, I guess. Even I had to send my vote elsewhere, but this is a great pie when you're in the mood for a tart one. Plus, it's great for spring and fall, as our raspberry bushes produce spring and fall crops!

~another look at the beautiful golden raspberry rustic pie family~

rustic golden raspberry pie

We inhereted our neighbor's wonderful golden raspberries this year. We have been able to fill a strawberry container with them every other day, so I wanted to find a way to showcase them and share them with my friends. What with this month's challenge and all, I decided to make them into a pie. They have a wonderful sweet/tart taste, so I wanted to do as little to them as possible and keep the berries as intact as possible, because they're gorgeous. (Plus, they look a little brownish as jelly.) I decided to use the filling from this recipe for raspberry pie, as it did not ask you to pre-cook the berries and added very little to them.

I don't know why I always have the urge to do something new and different when I make things for this challenge. Some day, I will stick to something I know I do well. For instance, I always make a good pie crust using my trusty Better Homes and Gardens recipe. It has never failed me. But I wanted to try something different. And I wanted my pie to be beautiful. So I did what anyone would do: I Googled "beautiful pie." Happily, nothing weird came up in the images and I was dazzled by the array. I particularly liked the rustic pies. I like how they scream "hand-made!" They seem like the pie equivalent to a round bread loaf. And I like those, too. It seemed perfect for my little-altered raspberries.

Also, as we would be entering a pie-baking contest with around 40 tasters, I wanted to make small pies for people to just grab without having to cut a pie into 40 pieces, which ruins its aesthetic. And little rustic pies sounded lovely. We made 3 for our trial run and used this recipe to make the crust.

~ turning the pie shell with my favorite kitchen knife ~
(Other tools would work well, too. Transfer these to a cookie sheet using a spatula.)

Raspberry Filling

• 3/4 to 1 cup sugar
  
• 1/3 cup flour
• 5 cups raspberries
  

Butter Pastry Dough

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 8-ounces (2 sticks) cold unsalted butter, cut into pieces
• 1/2 cup ice water
• 2 tablespoons cold butter

We altered this by substituting about 2/3 c. whole wheat flour, because I always substitute some whole wheat flour and because I wanted this to really look rustic.

Optional:

• 1 egg white + a splash or two of water as an egg wash
  
• sugar to sprinkle on top

(I did both options, brushing on the egg wash and sprinkling with sugar about 10 minutes before the pie was done. I also brushed any juices that escaped during baking onto the crust, as that was the best part in our trial run.)

Bake
375 degrees for 25-30 minutes, or until golden brown

~ rustic mini pies ~

The trial run was wonderful. Our friends who came over to taste and offer suggestions only suggested ice cream. It was a great, unadulterated pie. The berries were still a wonderful sweet-tart...just how I like them!

But when the day came for the big pie competition, I tried to make the pies individual-sized in order to devote more of the party time to partying instead of cutting pie. THAT was a bad idea. It turns out that there is a tipping point for the crust to maintain its shape, no matter how much you refrigerate it before-hand. Apparently, it is somewhere well short of a 90-degree angle. When I peeked in on my miniature beauties, they were all discs! I hurriedly oiled and floured a muffin tin (not sure whether that was necessary...) and plopped the little pies in! They were good, but were weighted toward crust on the crust-to-fruit ratio. Micro rustic pies: cute, but impractical.

~the saving of the baby pies~

Party time was approaching and I had neither time nor sufficient muffin tins to make more personal pies. With time running out, it was time to make a behemoth pie! This was to be the mother of all rustic pies! (I don't know how much this was, but I do know I something like doubled the recipe.)

~mother of all rustic pies~
(before turning the sides up, obviously.)

And so it was. We entered the mother and her babies in an annual pie baking contest among friends. Ours was the only really tart pie. No one was in the mood for a tart pie that day, I guess. Even I had to send my vote elsewhere, but this is a great pie when you're in the mood for a tart one. Plus, it's great for spring and fall, as our raspberry bushes produce spring and fall crops!

~another look at the beautiful golden raspberry rustic pie family~

Peak of Summer From our Garden Tomato Pie

I was thrilled to see the pie challenge extended since it brings us into peak tomato season in our garden and it brings me to a point in the summer where I am actually in the kitchen again!!!







Here's a look at our "local, down from the house and next to the creek" foods - a typical day from the garden right now (styled a bit for a good photo, but really, this is from our garden!!!!)



At the moment we are inundated with tomatoes and I am canning like a fiend!!! Mainly diced tomatoes and spaghetti sauce. But I am gonna be a wimp and do double duty with this pie - both local foods and pie.







Our favorite thing to do with big juicy fresh tomatoes (aside from just biting into them with salt shaker in hand) is to make fresh tomato pies. We tend to eat these a lot this time of year since they are only good with fresh ripe summer tomatoes (not those tomato look alike things you find in the stores in winter....) This is a southern classic taught to me by my mother, there are tons of variations and it goes great for lunch or dinner, can be eaten hot or at room temp, and makes a great late night snack!!! I have done lots of different things with this - different cheeses as well as adding black beans and cilantro (replace the basil) and some hot peppers for a mexican flare, veggie pepperoni and black olives for a pizza style pie, and also adding whatever other veggies we are getting from the garden such as spinach, sweet red peppers, squash and corn - the options to be creative with this are endless!!!



You will need the following for two pies - one for dinner and one for lunch and snacks the next day - or as we did today - one for lunch, then the other for dinner!!







4-5- large ripe summer tomatoes

1 large vidalia onion

6 cups grated cheddar cheese (we use veggie shreds - a mix of mozzarella style and cheddar style)

2 frozen pie crusts or crusts made from your favorite recipe (we have found the best organic whole wheat pie crusts locally and use them all the time)

1 cup more or less lite mayo

1/2 cup fresh basil - you can use whole leaves or cut them into fine thin strips (chiffonade) - or if fresh basil isn't handy you can use about a tablespoon dried italian seasoning.

Salt and pepper



(you will notice in the above photo the yellow squash and black beans - these are some "optional" ingredients I will use in one pie)



Preheat your oven to 400F. Pre-bake your crusts for about 10 minutes.







Cut your tomatoes into 1/4" slices and then into half moons (each slice cut in half). I don't peel these or remove the seeds but some folks may want to do them that way and that is just fine. Then slice the Vidalia onion into thin half moons. (Summer squash in to thin half moons as well)







Place the cheese in a bowl and add the basil and enough mayo to moisten the whole thing (about a cup or so) - mix well. If using whole basil leaves don't mix them in here - they will be layered in later.







Now to build the pies. Start with a layer of tomatoes, and top with a layer of onion. (Add a layer of basil leaves here if using whole leaves). Add any layers of optional ingredients as well. Sprinkle on a little salt and pepper.







Then top with a layer of the cheese mixture. Then repeat all three layers.







Bake in a 400F oven for about 30-40 minutes. Remove from oven and let sit for about 10 minutes - slice and serve.







Ahhhhhhhh!!!! Pretty Pies!!! Lunchtime!!!!!! And here is my very sexy broken legged hubby enjoying his pie (he can't fit around the table at the moment.......)







And the two wigglewugs gobbling up their pie!!







These pies are just not good using anything other than fresh local home grown tomatoes so get busy and try this NOW. Hurry before the impending end of tomato season!!!!