Sunday, July 22, 2012

When life hands you peppers...

We have eaten this many and have about 100 more ready to pick

No, you don't make pepperade! You DO have to start cooking.

Its harvest time at my house and even though I love vegetables that we have grown, I find it a bit overwhelming at times. This is our first vegetable garden at this house.
We look forward to stuffing these peppers with sweet Italian sausage and roasting them with olive oil and sliced onions every year. This garden seemingly produces watery peppers so that wasn't the killer treat we hoped. Its OK because a rough chop of peppers and onions roasted in olive oil served with a crusty baguette is easier.
On Saturday, I took out my behemoth food mill and processed tomatoes for sauce. I set aside some for my Tomato-basil granita ( think savory sorbet) and cooked the rest down to a paltry amount of sauce. I didn't know there were so many more ready to be picked so I get to do it all over again in the next day or two.
Today I made  a standard that I read about in Vogue back in the '80s. I had no way to write it down and noticed that the amounts in the recipe were 1-2-3.

This curried carrot soup was in an article about spa food. Remember when that was all the rage?
Anyway, I don't have the nutritional info but I ran the recipe through a calculator and there are less than 4 grams of fat, 55 calories per serving and a bagillion vitamins and minerals.

3 carrots peeled, rough chopped
2 ribs cellery rough chopped
1 medium onion rough chopped
3 cups chicken or vegetable broth
2 Tablespoons of curry powder (less if you can't take the heat)
1 Tablespoon oil

Add the carrot, celery and onion to a saucepan with the oil and "sweat" the vegetables, stirring occasionally for 10 minutes. Add the curry powder  and stir over medium heat for one minute. Add the broth and simmer for 30 minutes or until the vegetables are tender. Let cool and puree.

It is fabulous cold too.
I'll be back with design stuff once I get this mess cleaned up! *sigh*

5 comments:

Woodside Park said...

Hi Kerry - Nice! Enjoy your veggies :-) Do you make gazpacho? I love that!! We do not have a vegetable garden....maybe next year. Cheers, L

An Urban Cottage said...

Sometimes a bumper crop of something really pushes the limits of cooking creativity. I recall one year as a kid having zucchini almost every day for about two months.

Don't blow off your pepperade idea. You might just find lemonade infused with pepper on a cooler shelf one day.

Unknown said...

sounds wonderful! Hope you had a nice weekend Kerry! We painted trim and doors today :)
Nancy
powellbrowerhome.com

Kim@Chattafabulous said...

Wow, talk about a bountiful harvest. My mom and grandmother used to make stuffed peppers. I loved the smell of the peppers roasting in the oven!
www.chattafabulous.blogspot.com

Anonymous said...

Yep, it's that time of the year when the gardens yield a bumper crop and you are busy canning and preserving the fruits of your labor. HA How well I remember my mom and grandmother doing this in a kitchen with no air-conditioning and sweat pouring off of them. :)