Category Archives: Recipes

Recipes for the cook. Everything from home, garden and wild game cooking

Apple Butter Slow Cook Recipe

Apple Butter

This apple butter recipe is an excellent way to use up all those extra apples that you bought at your local orchard or picked from your own trees. The apple butter is dark and delicious. Just be careful with the sugar. The sweetness depends a lot the the type of apple you use. A good idea is to just add 1/2 the sugar and then add the remainder depending on taste.

Ingredients

5 pounds apples – use a variety of sweet and tart apples
2 cups white sugar
3 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1/4 teaspoon salt

Directions

Peel and coarsely chop the apples and then place them in a food processor. Process to remove the lumps and then place the apples in a slow cooker. In a medium bowl, mix  1/2 the sugar and then all the cinnamon, cloves and salt. Pour the mixture over the apples in the slow cooker and mix well. If you want, you can add a 1/2 cup of apple cider to just get the process started.

Cover and cook on high 1 hour.

Reduce heat to low and cook 10 to 12 hours, stir occasionally to avoid any scorching and taste test for sweetness. Add more sugar as needed. Cook until the mixture is thickened and dark brown.

Uncover and continue cooking on low 1 hour. Stir with a whisk, if desired, to increase smoothness.

Spoon the mixture into sterile containers, cover and refrigerate or freeze. This will keep if frozen for at least several months.

For more apple recipes here at Traderscreek – apple recipes

Green Tomato Salsa Recipe

Green Tomato Salsa

Every year our garden is left with at least 10 lbs of green tomatoes. we pick all the tomatoes hoping they will turn red. After about a week any tomatoes that do not show signs of turning need to be handled differently. Green tomato salsa fixes the problem. Green tomato salsa is tasty and can, after being canned, be stored for up to 1 year.

Ingredients

5 lbs green tomatoes, diced
6 yellow onions, diced – should measure to 4 cups
3 jalapenos, diced. Keep seeds separate – should measure to 1/2 cup
4 large red bell peppers, chopped – 2 cups
6 garlic cloves, minced
1 cup fresh cilantro, chopped
1 cup lime juice
1⁄2 cup vinegar
1 tablespoon salt
1⁄2 tablespoon cumin
1 tablespoon dried oregano leaves
2 teaspoons pepper
1⁄4 teaspoon cayenne
2 teaspoons sugar

Directions

Combine all ingredients into a large stainless steel pot (do not use aluminum), mixing well. Bring to a boil, reduce heat to simmer, and cook for 20 – 30 minutes, stirring occasionally. Taste the tomato salsa, if you want it hotter, add some of the jalapeno seeds and cook a bit longer – taste again and adjust to your liking.

To continue canning, bring salsa to a boil.

Ladle salsa into hot sterile jars, leaving 1/2 inch headspace. Wipe lids and jar edges clean before finger tightening lids and placing them back in the boiling canning pot.

Process (boil) jars for 15 minutes.

Remove carefully and let sit for 24 hours. Check lids for seal, and refrigerate any unsealed jars.

This recipe makes about 8 pints. For those that do not like canning, you can ladle the salsa into freezer bags and store that way. Make no mistake, you will use up your salsa fast!!

Read more tomato recipes on Traderscreek’s tomato recipes

Blueberry Strata Recipe

Blueberry Strata

Make this blueberry strata for brunch it will be a hit with all parties! The only thing I want to specify is to use fresh blueberries if you can get a hold of them.

Ingredients

1 1/2 loaves of white bread
2 pints of blueberries
12 eggs scrambled
1 quart of heavy cream
1 cup of sugar
1 tbs of vanilla
2 tsp sugar

Directions

Making blueberry strata is close to a bread pudding and is rather simple.

First, preheat your oven to 350° F.

Next, cut the bread in pieces and place in a standard sized baking pan, roughly 9″ x 13X.

In a large bowl, place all ingredients, other than the 2 tsp of sugar, and toss. Once all is fully mixed pour over the bread.

Place in the preheated oven and bake until firm to touch. You can, and should, do the toothpick test. Before taking the strata out, push a toothpick into the middle. If it comes out clean and the strata is firm, it is done.

Take out of the oven. Sprinkle the 2 tsp of sugar on the top. You can serve warm or cold.

If you want to kick it up a bit, you can add a blueberry syrup.

Ingredients

1 1/2 cups white sugar
3 tbs cornstarch
1 1/2 cups water
1 1/2 cups fresh blueberries
1 1/2 tbs of butter

Directions

Combine sugar, cornstarch, and water in a saucepan. Bring mixture to a boil over high heat; cook for 5 minutes. Pour in the 1 1/2 cups blueberries; continue cooking for 10 minutes. Remove from heat, and stir in butter. Serve warm over slices of the strata.
For more blueberry recipes: https://traderscreek.com/category/recipes/orchard-recipes/blueberry-recipes/

Pickled Pepper Onion Relish Recipe

Pickled Pepper Onion Relish

Pickled Pepper Onion Relish is great to make when the peppers start coming during the summer. It is a quick but tasty recipe. We’ve used this relish on hot dogs, brats and sausages.

Ingredients

3 large onions, cut into thin slices
8 large green bell peppers, cut into thin strips
3 jalapeno peppers, seeded and minced (optional)
6 tablespoons pickling spice
2 cups white sugar
1 teaspoon salt
2 cups apple cider vinegar

Directions

Place onion, bell pepper, jalapeno pepper, pickling spice, sugar, salt, and vinegar into a large saucepan.
Bring to a boil over high heat, then reduce heat to medium-low, and simmer 5 minutes, stirring occasionally.
Look at other pepper recipes https://traderscreek.com/recipes/recipe-index/

Roasted Pepper Recipe

Roasted Pepper

This roasted pepper recipe is a great starting point for many Italian side dishes. Try layering the roasted peppers with minced garlic, breadcrumbs and grated Parmesan cheese.

Ingredients

1 large pepper – most commonly a bell pepper but hot peppers work well too
1 teaspoon of olive oil

Directions

This is a very simple recipe. You can use a gas stove burner or a barbecue grill even the broiler in an oven. If you use a stove burner, turn it on medium. Give it a few minutes to heat up. Take the olive oil and lightly coat the pepper and then place the pepper right over the flame, be careful, if the flame begins to flare up pull from the burner. Let the skin begin to burn. You will see the skin turn black, that is perfect. The trick is to not over cook. As a section burns turn the pepper to cook another section.

Once you have cooked the entire pepper it should be soft and burnt all around, pull it off the burner and immediately place it in a paper bag and then close the bag to seal up the pepper. This will allow the pepper to finish the cooking process and steam at the same time. Give the pepper about 15 minutes to finish cooking and cooling.

Now you just open the paper bag, take out the pepper and place on a cutting board. With a sharp knife, scrape the burnt skin off the pepper. Once complete, cut off the top of the pepper and slice in half length wise. Scrape out the seeds and the pith. You now have roasted pepper.

A great way to eat is to add to salads or just sprinkle with an Italian dressing and enjoy.

Look at other pepper recipes https://traderscreek.com/recipes/recipe-index/

 

Hot Pepper Relish Recipe

Hot Pepper Relish

This Hot Pepper Relish Recipe is great you can cut back on the sugar and added some hotter peppers for extra heat

Ingredients

1/2 pound hot green peppers (such as jalapeños or serranos), stemmed, seeds removed for a more mild relish
1/2 pound hot red peppers (such as fresnos or cherry peppers), stemmed, seeds removed for a more mild relish
1/2 pound yellow onions, roughly chopped
1 tablespoon kosher salt
1/2 cup cider vinegar
1/4 cup white sugar

Directions

Cut off the tops of the peppers and slice in half. Remove the seeds and inner white pith (where a lot of the excess heat is). Dice the peppers and onions on a cutting board to the thickness your desire.

Place in a bowl and add salt and let sit for 2-3 hours. After sitting, rince off the salt under cold water and strain off any water.

In a medium saucepan, bring vinegar and sugar to a boil over medium high heat, stirring to dissolve the sugar. Add in pepper/onion mixture, reduce heat to medium-low, and simmer for about 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Remove from heat and let cool to room temperature. Transfer relish to an airtight container and store in refrigerator up to a month.

Look at other pepper recipes https://traderscreek.com/recipes/recipe-index/