Gentlemen - Start Your Grills

It's been grilling season for a spell already; nevertheless, there is this.

Backyard venison - rare to medium rare.

Spargel from the kitchen garden, anointed with EVO -  grilled.

Baked tater with butter, sour cream and chopped chives from the kitchen garden.

Cracked pepper and sea salt over all.

Pretty good chow if you can get it….. 

 

You Are What You Eat

Growing-up in the 1960s this meal was a staple (and family favorite) in our household.

Mom would repurpose boiled taters leftover from a previous night's dinner, cut them-up and throw them in a fry pan with reserve bacon drippings from the crock in the fridge, toss a whole ring baloney in a pot of boiling water and empty a can of Campbell's Baked Beans in a saucepan on the stove top to reheat.  She would serve the baloney cut in one-inch chunks with the skin-on.

Yum!

I fixed a similar dinner yesterday with my own spin on it.  

Since there are only two of us, I cut a venison ring baloney in two (returning half to the freezer for deer camp), skinned the remaining half and sliced it on the bias. cutting the slices into four triangles.  I browned them lightly and set them aside on a paper towel.  Following that I put two cups of  homemade baked beans (from the freezer) in a foil-covered Pyrex in the oven at 400F.

I brought a couple of big teaspoons of duck fat up to speed in a clean fry pan and added an envelope of unseasoned Simply Potatoes and covered it.  

Flipped the taters, added another teaspoon of duck fat and put the lid on the pan.  Flip at least one or two more times as the taters brown. 

Before serving add back the fried baloney, stir, cover and hold on low burner for 5-6 minutes.

Serve.

Jill says this was a staple in their household so it's likely this has some sort of German influence.

We both agreed my version is better that what we grew-up with.  Easy comfort food and great chow if you can get it.  

We got leftovers too.

Recipe of the Day

If you're looking to amp-up your ordinary, pedestrian taters you need to try this.

Bistro-style potatoes sautéed in duck fat.

 

These are the absolute bomb.

 

Swamp Gas sez to take an extra statin at bedtime and get over it….

Kartoffelpuffer

Kartoffelpuffer        

Variations of potato pancakes are found throughout the world and this simple recipe brings this comfort food directly to your own kitchen.        

Classic potato pancakes are traditionally served with applesauce (consider making your own) or sour cream.  If you want to indulge your German ancestry add a dash or two of ground nutmeg to the mix.  Don’t hesitate to substitute white pepper for fresh ground pepper.  A dash of garlic power works too.  Need some color?  Add a fistful of sliced green scallion tops just before cooking.  My recipe calls for large russet potatoes but any starchy spud will work.  This is a very forgiving recipe and allows for improvisation. 

While this is commonly a meal by itself don't hesitate to go large with the inclusion of your favorite sausages, or fried eggs or fresh pan-fried yellow lake perch and coleslaw.  A frosty bock beer is an excellent accompaniment. 

I’ve been puttering with the recipe of late and Jill (resident expert) tells me I’ve nailed it.  It’s easy, fast and scalable as long as you maintain the proportions as follows.

Ingredients         

2 large russet spuds – peeled      

½ large onion       

2T flour – heaping       

2 eggs     

Fresh cracked sea salt and black pepper

Canola oil  

Directions     

On your stove top fill a non-stick fry pan with ¼ inch of vegetable oil.  You will want this to be up to temp as everything else comes together quickly.   

Cut your spuds into manageable chunks and using your Cuisinart shred half of the potatoes.  Set aside.  Swap-out the grater disc for the dough blade.  Add the remaining half of your potatoes, the eggs, onion, flour and seasonings and pulverize into a smooth puree.   

In a bowl combine the puree and the shredded potatoes.  Do not become alarmed if the mix begins to turn a bit brown - the spuds are oxidizing.  Just be quick about cooking!

Pour ¼ cup scoops (or thereabouts ) into the hot oil.  You don’t want your pancakes to be too thick and can easily spread them out a bit with a spoon.  

click on images for a closer look

When the edges are crispy brown, flip them and cook until browned on both sides.  Drain on newspaper covered with a layer of paper towels. 

Serve hot and enjoy!    

Leftover pancakes can be warmed-up in the oven the next day.  

Pro-tip - cook a tablespoon of the mix initially to confirm your oil is sufficiently hot.

Kartoffelpfannkuchen

In the interests of enhancing the domestic tranquillity I am on a quest for the perfect Kartoffelpfannkuchen. 

First round tonight. 

 

 

 

 

 

Simple recipe: two russet spuds (peeled), half a sweet onion, a couple of farm eggs, two heaping T of flour, salt and pepper. 

Put the whole shebang in the Cuisinart Food Processor and pulverize. 

Scoop 1/4 c portions into exceedingly hot fat and flip once. 

Drain on paper towels. 

Acceptable result for a first run at it. However, something is needed.  More onion?  A stronger Stuttgarter onion from the garden?  Garlic?  White pepper?  All of the above? Maybe even shredding some of the spuds for more texture. 

I used rendered duck fat for a high flash point resulting in crispy edges. Nice. 

Back to the drawing board so stay-tuned.....

Spuds

I take a great deal of pride in my gardening skills.  I practice appropriate crop rotation, keep it simple but with variety, early - middle - and late season crops and I freeze, can and share with the food pantry.  As good as I think my potatoes are they pale in the shadow of this report.  From the Door County Advocate archives of 50 years ago.

 click on image to enlarge

If you do the math that would be an average of 2.3 pounds per spud.  Yikes!  You have to wonder what this buy was using for fertilizer...

Spuds

click on the spudniks to enlarge

These are Yukon Gold potatoes.  

I only planted one row (instead of the usual two) because the yield has always been outstanding.  Not so much this year - they were just barely acceptable.

During the excavation I found that some of the seed potatoes planted this spring had rotted.  The cuttings I received from the seed supplier were sub-optimal and with all the rain probably a third of them simply decayed never to germinate.

It would be easy to lay this at the feet of the rains this growing season but a raised garden is a well-drained garden.  Better seed equals better results. Lesson learned. 

If you grow your own potatoes you prepare them for storage by digging them-up with a fork and letting them set for twenty-four hours on top of the newly-turned soil.  Do not allow them to set out in the rain.  The next day move them to a wheel barrow and leave them in the garage or a location where the mice won't nibble on them.  After a week gently rub the dirt-off with your hands (do not wash them) bag them and store them in a refrigerator crisper at 40 degrees. If it is cold, dark and humid they'll keep for up to a year.  With time the starches will gradually convert to sugar and your spuds will take-on a sweeter profile.

Gin Berries

Actually Eastern red cedar (red juniper) Juniperus virginiana.

I was hunkered down in a clump of these observing an active deer trail this afternoon before sundown. 

These berries are actually the cones of this tree.

You can use them to flavor neutral spirits to make gin.  This is useful to know when the Mayan apocalypse arrives in a week.  I can build a still to process my garden potatoes and use these cones to make gin.

Consider the Potato

Consider the humble potato.

It doesn't take much to grow a pile of potatoes.  A bag of seed potatoes from Fleet Farm might set you back a few bucks - but two rows of carefully-tended spuds will yield about three bushels of bakers.

These are Kennebec potatoes.  The Red Pontiacs and Yukon Golds have already been harvesed.