How Tempting the Carrot Can Be

10/5/11:  Cream of Carrot Soup

There's been lots of tempting fruits and veggies on the farm the last month or so. Lots of great baking apples, sweet potatoes, sugar pie pumpkins, and winter squash. These are the type of veggies I like: ones that take a long time to bake but end up sweet and comforting. And they warm up the house to boot!

Another vegetable that has been on my mind is the carrot. We planted numerous rows of these this year (500 feet long rows, I should add), and we've been harvesting bushel after bushel ever since August. 

Up to a couple days ago, I only roasted carrots in the oven with a drizzle of olive oil and s&p. Carrots, plain and simple. But during the last part of September I was looking for a different recipe, and I found one via one of our good customers at the farm stand: Suzanne. 

She gave me a recipe card for a Cream of Carrot Soup. Ah, very intriguing, don't you think? (She gave my sister and I a couple more cards which we will be giving a try soon!)

  

Suzanne was telling me that she came across this recipe when she was visiting the Fernwood Nature Center in Niles, MI. There she tried this soup for the first time and thought it was really delicious.

Before I get to my carrot soup experience, let me write out the recipe for you as Suzanne wrote it:

Cream of Carrot Soup

Serves 6-8

Ingredients:

• 1 ham bone
• 6 cups water
• 1-1/2 lb. carrots, peeled and diced
• 4 stalks celey, cubed
• 4 medium red potatoes, cubed
• 2 bay leaves
• 2 cups half and half
• salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

Place ham bone and water in large pot. Bring to a boil. Remove any scum, then add carrots, celery, potatoes, and bay leaves. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer 2 hours, or til vegetables are soft. Strain mixture and save water. Discard bay leaves. Puree vegetables using some reserved cooking water in blender, food processor, or using stick blender. Remove any ham from bone and puree if desired, (I would chop up and add unless you desire a very smooth soup). Add remainder of cooking water you saved, then re-heat to simmer. Add half-and-half and salt and pepper. Serve HOT!

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I planned on making this soup for two weeks but just couldn't find 2-1/2 hours of time to make it happen. But when last Wednesday rolled around and I needed to stay home to freeze some green beans, I thought I could work on the soup at the same time. 

I am very pleased to say that I followed the recipe precisely--I even had the ham bone, bay leaves, and half-and-half. Let me tell you, that doesn't happen too often for yours truly!

So the soup turned out to be wonderful; I could taste the carrot and it had a smooth texture because of the potatoes. And the ham bone gave it full-body, rich flavor similar to that of split pea soup. Since it was so good and simple to do, I think the humble carrot has found a new place to put up his feet. ;) 

Everything But the Kitchen Sink -- Creamy Chicken Pot Pie

5/2/10: Creamy Chicken Pot Pie

Meal details: I made a casserole that had traditional pot pie flavors, such as carrots, broccoli, potatoes, and chicken. And the casserole was topped with a biscuit layer, something like a cobbler.

Defining moments: First time using potatoes, carrots, broccoli, peas, and parsnips in one dish. Wow! What a line up of ingredients, huh?

Recipe sources: I was having an incredibly hard time choosing what to make this week. I wanted to select a Robert Irvine recipe (in order to continue with the FNCCC), but nothing jumped out at me and I was running out of time. So Annemarie gave me her recipe binder to browse through. Her binder is not your typical recipe book, it is huge and has the thickness of an encyclopedia set. :D Within five minutes, I found the recipe I wanted. It was a pot pie recipe from Sam's Club and here it is for those who are interested. . .

Creamy Chicken Pot Pie

Prep. 10 min. Total 40 min. Makes 8 servings Cost per serving = $0.90

What you need

1 pkg. (8 oz.) PHILADELPHIA Cream Cheese, cubed
1/2 cup chicken broth
1 lb. cooked Tyson boneless skinless chicken breasts, cubed (about 3 cups)
16 oz. frozen mixed vegetables, thawed
1/2 tsp. garlic salt
1 egg
1/2 cup milk
1 cup all-purpose baking mix

Make it

Heat oven to 400 degrees.
Cook cream cheese and broth in large saucepan on low heat until cream cheese is completely melted and mixture is well blended, stirring frequently with whisk. Stir in chicken, vegetables and garlic salt.
Spoon into 9-inch pie plate. Beat egg and milk in medium bowl with whisk until well blended; stir in baking mix just until moistened. Spoon over chicken mixture. Place pie plate on baking sheet.
Bake 25 to 30 min. or until golden brown.

What I learned: One thing stands out clear to me and it's this: I need to parboil (precook) all vegetables. I parboiled all my vegetables except for the carrots and they didn't cook all the way through when in the oven; they were still firm in areas. I should either precook the carrots or really dice them.

Any modifications? Yes. Instead of using a pie plate, I used our 6 quart casserole dish and a smaller dish for three times the recipe. It is a whole lot easier than trying to maneuver three pie plates in the oven!
And instead of purchasing a bag of frozen vegetables from the store, I used veggies from the previous farming season. They're considered free now, so why not? The parsnips and carrots were kept in a makeshift root cellar (a long box of sand) and I was very happy to see that they were nice and crisp!

How it tasted? When I first chose this recipe I thought, "It looks simple, we have all the ingredients. . . So why not?" Yeah, I wasn't overly enthused about it to tell you the truth! So you can understand why I was amazed by all the good feedback I got from the family. Everyone didn't just like it, they loved it. :D

How about a 2nd time? Definitely!

Freezing Carrots and Beets

10/16/09: Freezing Carrots and Beets

The first time in a very long time we had good crops of carrots and beets. So much so that we had even enough to sell! :) Since carrots are so good in just about everything and my two youngest sisters are beet fiends, I decided we need some during the long winter months.

So this is how the carrot preparation went:

I peeled and chopped the carrots into bite size pieces (something like 1" cubes), I poured them into a 6 quart pot of boiling water with a colander inside, waited until they came to a boil, had them boil for three minutes, lifted the colander and slid the carrots into a bowl of cold water that had a strainer inserted. Once they were cool I placed them in freezer bags.

I also did whole carrots. I chose carrots that were on the smaller side, cut them in half so they could fit in the freezer bags, and did the same procedure as I wrote above only I allowed them to boil for 5 minutes instead of 3. My family likes to place these whole carrots in our spaghetti sauce to add flavor. After they cook for a couple hours in the sauce we remove them and eat the carrots as a side dish.

I also did a few beets. I cut the stem and root off the beet, peel it, chop it into 2 inch pieces, and boil them until they are fork tender. I then place them in freezer bags.

So in the end I froze. . .
4 1/2 quarts of chopped carrots
1 quart whole carrots
1 gallon chopped carrots
2 1/2 quarts chopped beets

To achieve this amount I used about one five gallon bucket of carrots and approximately 1 peck of beets.