Farm to freezer

This moment of peak produce is of course the moment for peak preservation. So this post is a peek at the simpler of the two methods: freezing.  I'm sharing my all time favorite make now eat later dishes because they're simple to prepare, tasty and nutritious anytime, and definitely bring summer sunshine to a bleak winter day. In fact produce like peaches and tomatoes are sunshine "personified."

Provencal Tomato Soup
 I included this in my book Veggiyana, the Dharma of Cooking because it's a worldly vegetarian delight.

It's also possibly the easiest, fastest, tastiest recipe ever. You don't even have to bother getting the skins off the tomatoes if you don't want to. You just put everything in the pot and cook 20-25 minutes. It's an authentic recipe from a French housewife who grew up in Provence and took it from her Mom when she married a man from Normandy and I have treasured it since she shared it decades ago. Winter seems warmer when I have a few containers of it in the freezer. I drink it from a mug or spoon it from a bowl, sometimes adding garlickly buttered croutons. It came immediately to mind when I found a farmer offering two pound bags of ripe tomatoes at the bargain price of $5 a bag. That bag made 3 containers of soup, each good for 2 mugs. So it's also cheap nourishment.
This recipe makes about 3 bowls of soup.

2 lbs ripe red tomatoes
1 lg yellow onion, finely diced
4 tbsp unsalted butter (1/2 stick)

2 lb bag of tomatoes

1 tbsp dried thyme leaves
1 medium hot whole red chili pepper or 1 tsp Aleppo pepper or 1/4 tsp red pepper flakes (you want mildly hot)
Salt and freshly ground black pepper to your taste
1/4 c flat leaf parsley leaves, finely chopped

In a medium sized heavy gauge casserole, heat the butter and it melts. Stir in thyme and stir-fry 30 seconds. Add onions, bay leaf and a pinch of ground black pepper. Stir to blend and sauté over medium low heat until the onions are soft and glistening.

Add the tomatoes and mix well. Drop in the whole pepper. If the tomatoes aren’t juicy, add ½ cup water to avoid burning. Cover and simmer on low for 20-25 minutes, until the tomatoes become soupy. (If the soup is too thick and pasty, add either another ¼ cup of water or dry sherry if you’d like.) Remove the bay leaf and whole pepper. Remove from heat.  If you want a smoother soup you can puree it at this point. You can also just leave it as it is. In either case, to freeze add the parsley while it's still hot, adjust salt and pepper to your taste and either serve with or without garlic croutons or put into plastic containers and freeze. 

Persian King of Eggplants

 Eggplant stuffed with fragrantly spiced lamb, the whole thing topped with tomatoes, is a moveable feast. Small Italian eggplants work best: you can figure one per person, which is a lot. You can half them if you prefer. This recipe is my own update from the one i included in How to Fix a Leek...the 2011 book. It has more fragrant spices and some tomatoes mixed into the lamb.

5-6 small eggplants

½ c olive oil                              

1 lg onion, chopped                  

1 lb ground lamb                      

3 tbsp pine nuts

¼ c chopped parsley

½ tsp ground allspice

1 tsp ground cumin

¼ tsp ground cinnamon

1 tsp Aleppo pepper or chipotle chili powder

Salt and freshly ground pepper to your taste

6-7 med ripe tomatoes skinned and diced or 1  28 oz can chopped tomatoes

2 tbsp lemon juice

Preheat oven to 350º. Peel eggplants lengthwise at intervals to stripe. Heat enough oil to cover the bottom of a large skillet and sauté eggplants on all sides until golden. Arrange in a baking dish and salt. Slit lengthwise ¾” deep, without hitting the bottom to half them.

Add remaining oil to the skillet and over medium heat sauté the onion until soft, 4-5 minutes. Add lamb and nuts. Cook over medium heat until lamb is brown. Add parsley, spices, salt and pepper and half the tomatoes.  Stuff the lamb mix into the eggplant slits as much as you can. Cover them with the remainder. Mix the remaining tomatoes with salt, pepper and lemon juice. Pour over the stuffed eggplants. Cover the pan with foil and bake 45 minutes. Uncover and if there is too much juice cook 10 more. Now you can serve hot or you can cool and wrap each eggplant with as much stuffing as possible in foil and put the foiled eggplants in a large freezer bag for safe keeping. Defrost frozen in a 350º oven or defrost in the fridge and microwave to serve.

Peach and Pecan Crisp
 I know I said the tomato soup was the easiest, tastiest recipe ever but this one comes mighty close. For simplicity and speed, it beats pie and cobbler plus it's gluten-free. Sometimes I throw in a few raspberries for pzazz. To freeze, I use those disposal foil pie dishes. I let it cool slightly after baking, then wrap it tightly in foil and insert it into a large plastic freezer bag. An hour before serving, I heat the oven to 325º and when it gets there, I remove this from the plastic bag, leave the foil on and put it frozen in the oven to thaw and heat. Tastes absolutely freshly baked that way. It's all fruit and crunch, a real crowd pleaser and palette cleanser. I often serve one after Thanksgiving turkey.

for an 8" foil pie plate that will serve 6:
5 large ripe peaches, washed and dried
optional: 8-10 raspberries
1/2 lg lime, juice only
1/2 tsp ground cardamom
1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
2 tbsp light brown or raw/turbinado sugar
For the crisp:
1 c pecans
4 tbsp unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
1/2 c oats
1/2 c light brown or raw/turbinado sugar
pinch salt
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
 Preheat oven to 350º.
Slice the peaches into the foil pie dish, keeping them level as you get to the top. If using raspberries sprinkle them evenly around so every portion has at least 1. Sprinkle lime juice evenly over the peaches, then season with the spices and vanilla and 2 tbsp sugar.

with added raspberries

To make the crisp:
In a sm/med bowl, combine all ingredients. Mix with your hands to incorporate the dry ingredients with the butter until there are no masses of butter left. You want large lumps of sugar covered nuts and oats held together by butter.  Spread evenly over the crisp: try not to smother any area. If you have tiny gaps, that's fine: this is not pie. The juice will bubble up and make it look even more mouthwatering.
     You may want to put a baking sheet below to catch drips and save cleaning the oven. Bake at 350º 30-40 minutes until the top is golden brown and peach juice is bubbling along the sides.
     To serve now: get out vanilla or peach or butter pecan ice cream. To preserve, cool, wrap tightly in foil and slide into a large plastic freezer bag.

French Plum Torte

Another golden oldie that never gets old. I included it in the 2011 version of my book How to Fix a Leek... . You can also use this simple French butter cake recipe to preserve figs and pears. It's lovely coffee cake, a not sweet finale to a heavy meal, useful for quick breakfast and perfect as a hostess gift. Always handy to have in the freezer.

serves 8

12-14 plums, pitted and halved       

1 stick (8 tbsp) unsalted butter

½ c white sugar

¼ c light brown sugar                                  

1 tsp baking powder

1 c unbleached flour, sifted         

2 extra large eggs

Pinch of salt

1 tbsp milk

¼ tsp cinnamon                             

1 tbsp fresh lemon juice

1 tbsp light brown sugar

¼ tsp ground cloves

¼ tsp ground ginger

Preheat over to 350º. Butter a 9” springform pan. If yours is 8” or 10”, no worries.

Put the halved plums in a bowl with lemon juice, 1 tbsp brown sugar and spices. Stir to blend.

In or with a mixer, cream butter and sugars. Add eggs and beat to incorporate. Add flour, baking powder and salt. Beat just enough to incorporate everything. Fold in the milk to lighten the mix. The batter will be thick and it will seem meagre in the pan but it will rise!

Spoon batter into the buttered pan and level the top. Arrange the plum halves cut side down around the top. Bake 35-40 minutes or until tester comes out clean. Cool and release from spring form pan. This can now be frozen double wrapped in foil and sealed in an airtight plastic bag for later. Defrost and reheat in foil at 300º for 10 minutes.

Red Pepper Sauce

This is another old favorite --all that vitamin C and summer sunshine the red peppers bring to winter--I can't be without. The sauce beats ketchup any day on burgers, steak, fish, chicken, omelets or grilled veggies and it's divine pasta sauce to boot. A dollop brightens lentil or bean soup, especially if you got it from a box or can. I freeze this in small plastic containers because a little goes a long way.

This makes 1 cup so you can easily double it to store more.

 3 tbsp olive oil                          

3 lg/4 sml red bell peppers, seeded

4 garlic cloves, sliced               

1 mildly hot pepper (Poblano, jalapeno)*

1 tsp dried oregano                 

2 tbsp fresh basil OR coriander if you prefer more peppery taste

1 tbsp wine vinegar                  

1/8 tsp salt

 * to get more kick use a hotter Serrano pepper, seeded and diced

Slice red peppers into thin strips. Dice hot pepper. Chop your chosen herb.

Heat oil in a medium skillet over medium heat. Add bell peppers, garlic and oregano. Sauté 15 minutes on medium low heat. Stir in vinegar, hot pepper and salt. Sauté 10 minutes. Stir in the herb. Simmer 5 minutes. Purée in a blender or processor.