Blueberry-Chipotle Chutney

After seeing Tinky Weisblat's recent post on chipotle cranberry sauce, I was inspired to try a chipotle-fruit chutney. After the happy results I had with blueberry salsa, some of my frozen blueberries seemed like a good base. The resulting chutney is sweet and hot and savory all at once--delicious. Try it with chicken or pork, or perhaps with soft cheese and crackers or bread.

I canned some of this, but you could also freeze it. Or just refrigerate--it should keep for a few weeks.

5 cups frozen blueberries
2 medium apples, cored, peeled, and finely chopped
1 medium red onion, finely chopped
1 chipotle pepper in adobo sauce (2 if you really like heat), finely minced
1/4 cup apple cider vinegar
1/3 - 1/2 cup sugar
Salt to taste

Combine blueberries, apples, onion, chipotle, and cider vinegar in a Dutch oven. Bring to a boil, then lower the heat to a simmer. Simmer until the fruit is well cooked, then add 1/3 cup sugar. Taste and add more if desired. Continue simmering over low heat until the chutney thickens to desired consistency (it should be jammy). Add salt to taste.

Makes about 4 cups.

Post-Thanksgiving Turkey Pot Pie

After a couple meals of leftovers that were exact repeats of the big feast, it was time for a meal of leftovers that at least took a different form. This pot pie made a big dent in what remained in the fridge--though now we'll also be eating leftover pot pie for another day. I love dishes like this because they are so flexible - throw in whatever seems plausible.

Turkey pot pie with biscuit top

In this case, I managed to use leftover turkey (of course), green beans that had been thawed but didn't make it onto the table, the remaining gravy, the remaining parsley potatoes, and some carrots leftover from the crudite platter. Oh, and the leftover pastry dough from the pies. To that, I added some onion and celeriac. The results were great and made the leftovers feel at least somewhat like something new.

Since the whole point of this is to use up whatever you have, it seems silly to give a precise recipe. Basically, you just want to combine cooked vegetables with shredded turkey and either leftover gravy or a quick sauce (make a roux, add milk or stock and simmer, stirring, until gravy-like). I added a little dried sage, figuring it would go well with the seasonings already present. Then top with either pastry dough (rolled out to 1/8-inch thick) or a biscuit dough. You could even use leftover mashed potatoes, for a dish halfway between a pot pie and a shepherd's pie. Bake at 375 for around 30 minutes, until the pot pie is bubbly and the crust is golden brown and cooked through.

Pasta with Squash and Winter Pesto

I made this for dinner last night and it was incredibly good. Definitely exceeded expectations. Something about all the different flavors and textures just really worked. The recipe is an adaptation of this one from the New York Times.

1 medium butternut squash
Olive oil
Salt and pepper
1 lb kale or kale and spinach combined, stems removed (and center rib for kale)
1 lb cut pasta (such as penne)
4 cloves garlic, roughly chopped
Lemon juice to taste
1 cup chopped toasted walnuts (or use pine nuts)

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.

Peel the squash with a vegetable peeler, then cut in half and scoop out the seeds. Cut into 1-inch cubes. Place the cubes in a large baking pan and drizzle generously with olive oil. Sprinkle liberally with salt and pepper, then toss to coat. Roast for about 30 minutes, stirring once or twice, until squash is tender.

While the squash roasts, bring a large pot of salted water to a boil and prepare a large bowl of ice water on the side. Blanch the greens for about 45 seconds, then scoop out with tongs or a slotted spoon and dunk in the ice water. Drain in a colander and squeeze out as much liquid as possible with your hands.

Bring the pot of water back to a boil and cook the pasta. While you do that, make the pesto: Process the greens and garlic in a food process, then add lemon juice, salt and pepper, and olive oil to taste. Use enough oil to give it the consistency of pesto.

When the pasta is done, drain it (reserving a little of the cooking water) then toss with the pesto. Add a little of the cooking water to loosen the sauce as needed. Add the cooked squash and toss to coat.

Serve hot, topped at the table with nuts if desired.

Serves about 6.

Baked French Toast

This is an easy but festive breakfast/brunch meal to serve a crowd. Make the most of our local milk and eggs! To make the morning assembly easy, slice the bread and combine the other ingredients in a bowl the night before and store in the fridge.

This is fantastic with blueberry-strawberry sauce, but also great with maple syrup. This recipe is adapted from on in Didi Emmons's Vegetarian Planet.

Update, 9/15/12: I have made this with other types of bread with great success.  Any moderately soft loaf will do, and whole grain bread works fine.  I made this once with whole wheat cranberry walnut bread and it was fantastic.  Oatmeal bread is good too, as is buttermilk wheat.  Feel free to experiment, especially if you prefer something with some whole grain in it.

5 eggs, beaten
4 cups milk (I used a combination of whole and skim, but use whatever you have)
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
1/4 tsp ground ginger
1 baguette in 1-inch slices (about 24 slices), preferably slightly stale

Butter a 10x15-inch baking pan and preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Combine the eggs, milk, sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, and ginger in a bowl.

Lay the bread slices out in the baking pan, overlapping slightly. Pour the custard mixture over it. If you have time, let it soak for 30 minutes or so before baking. Bake for about 35 minutes, until custard is set.

Serve with maple syrup, butter, and/or fruit sauce.

Serves about 6.

Blueberry-Strawberry Sauce

We had friends over for brunch this morning and I made this sauce to go with baked French toast. Superb! The berries were all frozen - blueberries from The Benson Place and strawberries from Upinngil Farm.

3 cups frozen blueberries
3 cups frozen strawberries
1/4 - 1/2 cup sugar
Up to 1 tsp grated fresh ginger

Combine all ingredients in a wide-bottomed pan (such as a Dutch oven). Add a splash of water and simmer over low-medium heat until the berries soften and the sauce thickens to desired consistency (30-60 minutes).

Serve with French toast, pancakes or waffles, or over ice cream.

Cranberry Sauce Ideas

Cranberries available around here aren't strictly local, but it's not hard to find ones grown in Massachusetts at least. And Thanksgiving without cranberry sauce just wouldn't be right.

I like to make whole berry sauce, the kind where you dump fresh or frozen whole berries into a saucepan with a little water and some sugar and cook until they pop and become a chunky jelly. It's great just like this, but I have trouble resisting the urge to jazz it up at least a little. My favorite thing to do is add a little grated fresh ginger - maybe a tablespoon or so to a pound of berries.

Other ideas:
1. Add some other fruit(s), like blueberries
2. Cook the berries with some whole spices, like cloves and cinnamon sticks - remove the spices later. Or try whole star anise for something a little different.
3. Use orange juice instead of water or add some citrus zest.
4. Add chopped dried fruit and/or nuts.
5. Any combination of the above.

Our Thanksgiving Menu

This is the menu I have planned for Thanksgiving this year. We'll be serving 14. Nearly all major ingredients are coming from local farms or our garden.

Turkey and gravy
Sausage-apple stuffing (probably a variation on this recipe)
Sweet potato pone
Green beans almondine
Parsley potatoes
Mashed rutabaga and potatoes with roasted garlic
Mashed winter squash with cider vinegar and herbs
Rolls
Waldorf salad
Cranberry sauce

Plus pie, of course: apple, pumpkin, peach, blueberry, and cherry. With Snow's ginger and vanilla ice cream.

Before the meal, we'll munch on veggies and dip, along with some local cheese and crackers.