It’s been a super crazy week. I know people say that all the time but this week was truly overwhelming. Everything converged and I felt like the phone was ringing, or I was answering emails, or I was trying to solve some (albeit relatively minor – let’s face it) problem, during all my spare moments between work, school, refinancing my mortgage, and working on my website – not to mention cooking, yoga, running, meditation, hanging with friends, and all the “me-time” activities I try to make a priority.
Big Breath in. And Exhale. Big Smile. Sheepish smile. These aren’t really problems. My life is good. Not just good. Pretty dang good.
I also had a big bowl of green tomatoes just sitting on the kitchen counter doing nothing and I’d been thinking about preparing something new with them for two weeks. Everybody and his horse has been writing a blog about green tomatoes this past week. And I guess that I shall not be the exception. I mean, we are writing about them, because there they are, just sitting there, on the counter, calling our name, wanting to be cooked. Or at least that’s how it can feel….
Here goes with revealing a reality I dare say I share with many others. We cook because we love it and we wish we had more relaxed time to do it. More often that not we are busy, hectically running around with our mind going in a million directions, and the cooking we do occurs in a state of relative chaos as we juggle many other priorities and happenings in our lives. So, like everything in life, sometimes we just have to roll with it. Here’s what happened with those green tomatoes……
……..In reverse.
Day 3: Pasties are super fun to make. I just love cooking projects like this where you use your hands to shape beautiful little morsels that you can freeze for the future. This time around I was initially challenged by the whole wheat pastry flour which was difficult to roll out. I was using a recipe for white flour and should have made adjustments to the proportions of flour, butter, and chilled water (note to self for next time). Instead I just mixed it up without thinking about it too much and threw the ball of dough into the fridge on Day 2….it was rock hard on Day 3 when I removed it and nearly impossible to work with. I thought I might have to leave it out for hours (time I did not have) to soften but instead I warmed it in the oven (I don’t have a microwave) and then churned out, with only the force of my own sheer will to help me, some VERY rough/rustic pastry dough. But you know, sometimes when things go wrong they make “happy accidents”. I quickly adjusted and realized that I had the opportunity to make some cool rustic looking pasties that were new and different. I layered them with all the ingredients, sprinkled each layer with Real Salt and pepper, and then put a nice dollop or two of green tomato catsup on each one before closing them up.
Day 3: Whoops, I realized I’d forgotten an important binding ingredient inside the pasty. Potatoes soak up all the nice flavor from the meat as well as the juices that the harder vegetables release so that you don’t end up with a soggy, too-juicy pasty. I made a quick run to the Seward Coop even though I had just been there the day before (silly silly me) to get some local potatoes.
Day 2: I made a pastry crust with whole wheat pastry flour and Hope Butter. I should have done some more research for a better recipe that actually used whole wheat pastry flour. Oh well! Next time. Watch an awesome video about Minnesota’s Hope Creamery here.
Day 2: I made a pork stock with the pork steak bones and odds and ends from my carrots, onions, rutabega, and the addition of some celery and parsley. I figured I’d make a posole style soup with it later and by the time I’m posting this blog said soup has been made. It’s delicious!
Day 2: I used the Vitamix’s “wet-chop” feature to chop up carrots, onions, and rutabega in 2 seconds. Here they are draining in the sink. To “wet-chop” with your Vtamix put veggies into a Vitamix full of water and run it for a second or two, then pour the whole lot of it into a colander and your veggies are chopped. This was a great time saver as I didn’t have to spend 2o minutes chopping all these vegetables.
Day 2: The ingredients are assembled. (All but the potatoes which I realized I was missing as I took the photo)
Day 2: Time to grind up the pork steaks for the meat filling.
This is quality pork from a friend who raises his own pigs up in Bemidji, MN.
Day 2: Yahoo! It actually tastes like “Ketchup”!
Day 2: The Vitamix is just the BEST. Rather than worry about green tomato skins and having to strain them out of the mixture before pureeing, I simply used my Vitamix. Tomato skins disappeared and I had a silky smooth catsup.
Day 1: I’d been contemplating green tomato catsup because I’d made a green tomato relish once that basically tasted like catsup. There are a gazillion green tomato catsup recipes on the interwebs. I chose a pretty typical one and used honey and black strap molasses for sweetener.
Day 1: And here they were in all their glory. I’d been holding on to them for about two weeks and was excited to do something new. I like fried green tomatoes but just wasn’t feeling them this year. Sometimes you just gotta roll with it, you know?