Hello everyone and happy fall. Welcome back to routines and merino wool clothing! Yay!! There are lots of new faces walking around town. This makes me happy. A few years ago it seemed everyone was leaving this valley.
This is the time of year that a ton of stuff is ripening: apples, pears, zucchini, beets, chard, winter squashes, Lillooet tomatoes (yay!) and grapes. Also hazelnuts – which are my kind of harvest: no weeding or watering!
In light of the abundance of food ripe and ready at our farmers markets and our own backyards I have a seasonal recipe this month plus a few tips for newcomers.
First the tips:
In Pemberton, fall is the time that field mice want to find a warm and cozy place to call home for winter. They leave the fields and will set up nest in your home if they can. If you live near a field be extra vigilant. This is NOT the time to store cardboard boxes of granola bars or Stone Wheat Thins in your garage fresh from a Costco trip. Or for that matter, any paper towel or toilet paper. If a mouse and his or her relatives find a way into your garage, this nice supply of items will be destroyed. I know all about this from personal experience. Keep your TP in a dry and clean place in your house proper, not the garage. Keep cardboard packages of food in your kitchen cupboards, or, if in a pantry, you may want to consider storing these items in hard plastic salad boxes or Tupperware bins.
Second tip: If you keep a yard compost bin and put apple trimmings in it or other fruit waste, your yard may attract bears. So at this time of year I usually avoid putting fruit waste in the compost bin, and use the compost bin for coffee grounds and other non-bear attractant compost.
Finally: do not discard beet tops: Blanch them and freeze in Ziploc bags. They can be added to soups all winter – when you cannot face the depressing looking and expensive imported greens!
Recipes: Pemberton Fall Samosas
I recently made a fresh batch of samosas – this time using seasonal ingredients – any time I can use up large zucchinis I will. They were delicious.
Dough recipe can be found here.
Filling:
1 large onion, small dice
3 cups yellow zucchini, small dice
2 cups chick peas
2 cups cooked chicken, small dice
2 cups cilantro, finely chopped
½ can full fat coconut milk
2 tsp cumin
2 tsp coriander
2 tsp allspice
1 tsp turmeric
2 tsp salt
2 tsp pepper
Method:
Make dough according to directions in this post. I use spelt flour instead of wheat.
Make filling by sautéing all the veggies and spices, until soft and caramelised. After this has occurred, add your coconut milk, chick peas and chicken.
Stir and cool.
When dough is ready cut out 6-inch diameter circular squares of dough and fill with ¼ cup filling and fold dough over in a half moon shape and pinch the rounded side so it is sealed. You may have leftover filling to freeze for another batch later.
Bake in a 350C oven for 30 minutes.
These make great portable lunches and snacks!!
For dessert:
Track down Shelley Adams first cookbook: Whitewater Cooks, and make Joey’s Apple Cake. It is an amazingly moist and flavourful spiced apple cake.
Another one to try is Tarte Tatin. Recipes can be found online. I made it recently but the pastry was not flaky enough for my taste, so I won’t share that one, but I am going to attempt a Martha Stewart version soon and see if it is better. Tarte Tatin is an upside down apple tart baked in a cast iron fry pan.
Best of luck with your fall produce!!
Traced Elements 