How many of you guys here really, really enjoy cooking and planning meals?

[IslandTractor]

Here is a Bhindi masala (ocra with spice mix) recipe I tried. Very good and definitely different. You can vary the heat if you like by adding chopped hot peppers to the sauté.


bhindi masala - a semi dry lightly spiced north indian curry made with okra.
AUTHOR: dassana
RECIPE TYPE: side
CUISINE: north indian
SERVES: 3-4 servings
INGREDIENTS (measuring cup used, 1 cup = 250 ml)
200-250 gms bhindi/okra
1 medium size onion, chopped
2 medium size tomatoes, chopped
½ inch ginger and 2-3 garlic, crushed or made to a paste in a mortar-pestle or ½ or ¾ ginger-garlic paste
1 tsp coriander powder/dhania powder
¼ or ½ tsp red chili powder/lal mirch powder
½ tsp turmeric powder/haldi
½ tsp punjabi garam masala powder or any good garam masala powder
½ tsp amchur powder/dry mango powder
salt as required
2 tbsp oil for frying the bhindi
1 tbsp oil for frying the onion-tomato masala
1 tsp kasuri methi/dry fenugreek leaves crushed (optional)
INSTRUCTIONS
rinse the bhindi/okra well in water. dry them on a large plate on their own or wipe with a kitchen towel.
remove the base and stalk while chopping the bhindi. chop into 1 or 2 inch pieces.
heat 2 tbsp oil in a kadai/wok or pan.
add the bhindi and saute till they are completely cooked. you will have to keep an eye on them and stir in between many times.
taste the bhindi and if the crunchiness has gone and the bhindi have become soft, it means they are cooked. keep the sauteed bhindi aside.
all the oil will be used up. so add 1 tbsp oil to the same pan.
add chopped onions and fry till they become translucent.
add the ginger-garlic paste and saute for ½ a minute or till the raw aroma of the ginger-garlic disappears.
add the chopped tomatoes and saute till the tomatoes are soft and mushy.
if the tomato mixture becomes too dry add about ¼ or ½ cup water and continue to cook.
all the above cooking is done in a open pan and you don't need to cover the pan with the lid.
add all the dry spice powders one by one.
stir well and saute for a minute.
add the sauted bhindi, crushed kasuri methi & salt and mix so that the onion-tomato masala coats the bhindi well.
cook for 2-3 minutes. stir in between.
serve the bhindi masala hot or warm garnished with some coriander leaves and accompanied with chapatis, rotis or naan.

 

[DFB]

Here is a Bhindi masala (ocra with spice mix) recipe I tried. Very good and definitely different. You can vary the heat if you like by adding chopped hot peppers to the sauté.

You make it and I'm eating :thumbsup:

Nice array of spices...I just seen a video for that dish on youtube while doing an okra recipe search. :laughing:


This is similar to what I had described in my earlier post. I don't ever remember having tomatoes with the one from the bbq place though...but adding tomatoes sure cant hurt

Stewed Okra with Tomatoes and Bacon Recipe | MyRecipes.com

 

[txdon]

Here is a Bhindi masala (ocra with spice mix) recipe I tried. Very good and definitely different. You can vary the heat if you like by adding chopped hot peppers to the sauté.

Wow sounds good! There is some new ingredients there that sound exciting. I like all the indian food Iv'e tried. Since most of the ingredients cannot be found near here I will have to go to an Asian mart in Austin.

Right now I am baking cookies - I call them my - Chocolate, molasses, dates, cranberry, pecan, ginger, cinnamon, oatmeal, raisin, vanilla, cookies - or smorgasbord cookies for short.

I bake the cookies on a silicon baking sheet so there is no mess and no sticking, since I use no oils.

 

[IslandTractor]

Wow sounds good! There is some new ingredients there that sound exciting. I like all the indian food Iv'e tried. Since most of the ingredients cannot be found near here I will have to go to an Asian mart in Austin. Right now I am baking cookies - I call them my - Chocolate, molasses, dates, cranberry, pecan, ginger, cinnamon, oatmeal, raisin, vanilla, cookies - or smorgasbord cookies for short. I bake the cookies on a silicon baking sheet so there is no mess and no sticking, since I use no oils.

I'm sure you could get the spices via amazon or online Indian food shop too.

 

[tcreeley]

Here is a pic of our turnips. This is our second season planting these. Never ate one until last year.We just left them in the ground until late October. If I don't freeze them they start to send out new leaves and the root gets woody as it uses its moisture and nutrients for new growth. In the dark, cool area- still does it. If I had a room with 35 F right off- probably would do fine. Too big for the refrigerator, so I freeze them. I kept one last year through the winter and planted it in the spring. Grew fine and went to seed.

 

[IslandTractor]

Here is a pic of our turnips. This is our second season planting these. Never ate one until last year.We just left them in the ground until late October. If I don't freeze them they start to send out new leaves and the root gets woody as it uses its moisture and nutrients for new growth. In the dark, cool area- still does it. If I had a room with 35 F right off- probably would do fine. Too big for the refrigerator, so I freeze them. I kept one last year through the winter and planted it in the spring. Grew fine and went to seed.

Nice. I'd boil those puppies up, mash'm just like potatoes and add butter, salt and pepper....that's good eatin' food!

 

[tcreeley]

Nice. I'd boil those puppies up, mash'm just like potatoes and add butter, salt and pepper....that's good eatin' food!

I like them in stews along with the potatoes!

 

[IslandTractor]

I like them in stews along with the potatoes!

Great in turkey soup too after Thanksgiving. I also cut them into pieces about the same size as thick carrot rounds and cook them with carrots. Nice combo of flavors and they take about the same time to cook.

 

[buckeyefarmer]

We like anasazi beans. even grew them a few yrs.

 

[TomSeller]

I guess a lot of folks don't know about our esteemed local rutabaga (turnip) heritage here in Western Mass or Southern Vermont

My brother plants rutabagas in one of my gardens each year and must have not harvested all of them last year. When I first rototilled that garden a few weeks ago, my BCS tiller absolutely hung up and would not go forward. Eventually I raised the tines and went over the top of the obstruction. To my surprise it was a was a HUGE rutabaga like you have pictured with the top partially scalped off.

 

[DFB]

Here is a pic of our turnips. This is our second season planting these. Never ate one until last year.We just left them in the ground until late October. If I don't freeze them they start to send out new leaves and the root gets woody as it uses its moisture and nutrients for new growth. In the dark, cool area- still does it. If I had a room with 35 F right off- probably would do fine. Too big for the refrigerator, so I freeze them. I kept one last year through the winter and planted it in the spring. Grew fine and went to seed.

Nice harvest :thumbsup:

Yes +35F is very good storage temp. Our apple coolers are set for for 32F but nothing freezes in them. Worse case is slight coating of ice over due to moisture on the very top of the last open crate in the stack.

Tcreeley it's interesting you note how they regrow the tops when not in continuous cold storage...according to Gilfeather history the developing Vermont farmer John Gilfeather was said to have cut both top and root from his product at market to discourage others from planting them over and growing them out for seed!

 

[DFB]

My brother plants rutabagas in one of my gardens each year and must have not harvested all of them last year. When I first rototilled that garden a few weeks ago, my BCS tiller absolutely hung up and would not go forward. Eventually I raised the tines and went over the top of the obstruction. To my surprise it was a was a HUGE rutabaga like you have pictured with the top partially scalped off.

Haha funny story...they can get pretty big too.

Not too many folks want the big one but there are a few...softball sized or slightly larger seems to be the most popular. It is difficult, at least for us, to maintain a uniformity in the crop but we're getting better at it. One year my boss decided to side dress all the plants with additional fertilizer and we ended up with a field full of basketball sized rutabagas!

This is just one of our 3 turnip patches I tilled last spring

 

[tcreeley]

Nice harvest :thumbsup:

Yes +35F is very good storage temp. Our apple coolers are set for for 32F but nothing freezes in them. Worse case is slight coating of ice over due to moisture on the very top of the last open crate in the stack.

Tcreeley it's interesting you note how they regrow the tops when not in continuous cold storage...according to Gilfeather history the developing Vermont farmer John Gilfeather was said to have cut both top and root from his product at market to discourage others from planting them over and growing them out for seed!

That was an interesting story! I'll have to try some of this variety!

 

[DFB]

That was an interesting story! I'll have to try some of this variety!

I sure you will like it since you like the purple top turnip. Its mild with a white flesh.

Not too many have the seed.

We get our seed from FEDCO

Gilfeather

 

[OldMcDonald]

Swede, swade, neep, tumshie, turnip, turneep, bagie, snaggie, etc. etc. It all depends on where you live. Some people will argue all day who is right when what one calls a turnip the other calls a swede. To me a swede is yellow fleshed and purple topped. Aberdeen Green Top Yellows (ie yellow flesh) would be a turnip, despite the fact that most turnips have white flesh. There is at least one, Golden Ball, that has as you might guess golden coloured flesh. Most white turnips (and some give them that title to try to avoid confusion) grow very quickly, and can be ready to eat at not much bigger than gold ball size in a month. Swedes take at least six months, and are best after a frost.

That is today's piece of useless information for you.

The EU ruled, when formalising the DOP status of Cornish pasties that the yellow fleshed purple topped varieties, which Cornishmen call turnip, may be included in the ingredients list as turnip. Much of the rest of the UK knows these as swedes. A national UK newspaper ran an article and the reporter was adamant that a swede is white fleshed. There were letters to the Editor!!!

tcreeley, Depending on how severe your winter is, you might be able to store them in a clamp. Make a small heap on top of a layer of straw outdoors, cover with more straw and the soil from digging a moat around the heap. You can make one big one or several smaller. You need to cut the tops a lot shorter than those in your photo at #185. Leave just the crown. That is another tell-tale sign. Turnips tend to have dished tops and swedes have a definite neck before the leaves start. They should be OK down to about 20ｺF.

Alternatively, and just to show I am on topic. Cut them all into chunks and cook then freeze. My wife does this because our winters are too warm to leave them in the ground - which can be done in places that do not get more than 5 or 6 degrees of frost.

 

[DFB]

The Laurentian rutabaga we grow around here is yellow fleshed and taste slightly on the bitter side. Canadian heritage...Saint Lawrence river valley I believe is how the name is derived. Many of the commercially available ones in store in New England are grown in Quebec Province of Canada Its definitely what I would call a Swede.

There is a distinct difference in the color and taste of the Gilfeather variety.

Boiled, mashed, with salt/pepper/butter and celery salt and I'm good

And Neep. Haven't heard that one in a long time!


Subject change...

Those prehistoric looking monster sized OP Hubbard squash (save the seeds) make a great pie filling and rivals pumpkin for pie

I cooked one a couple of weeks ago had to freeze most of it :laughing:

 

[tcreeley]

RE turnips- Winters here get to -20F a few days every winter. The frost will be 4' down into the ground - frozen solid. we are thinking of a root cellar alongside an old unused 13'water well we have. But I don't think it would be cold enough in the fall fast enough. - cube, cook and freeze it will be!

I baked a loaf of bread tonight- artisan no knead crusty. 6 cups all purpose red mill organic flour, 1 teaspoon bread yeast (fast), 2 table spoon demara sugar, 3/4 teaspoon ceylon cinnamon, 1 cup walnuts, 1 cup currants, 2 1/3 water
mix and let sit 12-14 hours room temp covered.
dump out onto floured parchment, make a ball, flour and cover with cloth for an hour
pre-heat dutch oven for 30 minutes + at 475F
place dough (lift by parchment paper) in dutch oven and trim paper
score top
cover and bake 30 minutes
uncover and do another 15 minutes give or take more as needed
Let it cool before slicing

Delicious bread, store in sealed container and the crust will soften. (I like the crunch.)
My cockatiel has to get her piece everytime I cut one for myself!

 

[IslandTractor]

I've tried baking bread and love the idea but....we have several fabulous artisanal bakeries within ten to fifteen minute drives. One sells great baguettes and just happens to also have wonderful croissants. The other does a variety of European style breads from baguette to Russian rye and multigrains and also sells to die for pecan rolls. I often come home with bread but no croissant or pecan roll has ever survived the trip home.

 

[OldMcDonald]

Those prehistoric looking monster sized OP Hubbard squash (save the seeds) make a great pie filling and rivals pumpkin for pie

Now there is the start of another good argument. What is the difference between a pumpkin and a squash? Again, it depends on where you live. The only safe thing is that in my farming around the world they have all been Cucurbits - and there are several species of those.

 

[IslandTractor]

Now there is the start of another good argument. What is the difference between a pumpkin and a squash? Again, it depends on where you live. The only safe thing is that in my farming around the world they have all been Cucurbits - and there are several species of those.

I thought a pumpkin was just a type of squash.