This Week’s Episode of Co-Op Chopped In Prescott!

It’s Saturday, so this morning at 7:00am, before getting to work at 7:30 am, I was at the co-op for the weekly fruit  & vegetable baskets pick up.  With a flat fee paid on Mondays via the internet, you get 2 baskets, one with fruits and one with vegetables, that are in season, beautiful, and at a fantastic price to help stretch the budget. However, you never know WHAT you will receive.

This week’s baskets contained 1 celery, 1 romaine, 1# strawberries, 1# baby heirloom tomatoes, 7 plums, 7 mangoes, 10 peaches, 2 large onions, 7 sweet potatoes, 1# green beans, 1 cantaloupe, and 4 bananas.  Once home, they were placed under refrigeration or in the big basket I keep on my kitchen sideboard. And it was a good thing that grandson Zachary was here visiting to help polish some of it off.  Bananas on cereal, a couple plums, a few peaches---so delicious fresh and dripping juices down your chin. Summer’s bounty in all its glory!

The celery was used in salads, soup, Chicken Tarragon Chicken Salad Sandwiches, and just for munching. Romaine was mixed with the wonderful greens and tomatoes and herbs from the garden for delicious bountiful salads and as garnishes on sandwiches. Onions never have any trouble finding a recipe in this house, and were used in Kung Pao Chicken along with zucchini, patty pan squash, peanuts, carrots. Green beans were blanched and cut up into the vegetable soup, and as a side dish for meatloaf served with Cajun fried potatoes.  So far, so good.

However, it was a busy week also, so all of the goodies didn’t get eaten and were beginning to lose their freshness. So, what to do now?  Well, here’s where the creative mind of a foodie goes crazy…I am the newest contender of Chopped!  Well, not really but that’s where my weird mind went!  It’s a great show on the Food Network, where chefs are given baskets of things that may or may not work together (pusulane, rabbit, lemon heads, etc.), and they have to make appetizers from one basket, main course/entre from another, and dessert from the last one. The chef who does the best job wins $10K, but along the way any one of them messes up and makes something disgusting, they are chopped out of the competition at that stage and cannot go on.

So first things first, instead of beginning with the appetizer, in true form of my mantra “Life is uncertain, eat dessert first” I go to the bananas and  I make….Banana Bread Pudding with With Warm Whiskey Sauce! First I make the banana bread, and then make the bread pudding out of it (just in case there are not already enough calories in the butter, sugar, etc. in the banana bread!!), and then the fabulous warm bourbon sauce over it.  This would, in my humble opinion, keep me in the running for the $10K prize if I was truly on the show!

The appetizer portion used the mangoes and onions, along with some cilantro and tomatoes, Thai chilis, and garlic chives from the garden, for a delightful mango salsa enthusiastically scooped up into fresh fried corn tortilla chips. Extra mangoes were diced and frozen to be used at a later date.

Strawberries were sliced into salads, and sliced into pancake batter where a few drops of vanilla rum emulsion and powdered vanilla brought out the flavor even more. Sweet Potatoes are still awaiting their fate, but thinking maybe Curried Yam Fries with BBQ Ribs for dinner tomorrow night. And the plums are made into Easy Peazy Plum Preserves (recipe at the end).

Now for the peaches. Well, I admit that I not only purchased the 2 baskets, but also a case of large round sweet and juicy peaches that day too.  After 3 days, they were ripend to perfection, and so at 2:00am I got up, blanched and skinned them, sliced them up, made a light syrup with agave nectar and water, and water bath canned 15 pints of sliced peaches, 7 with cinnamon and cloves added to spice them up. Also 5 half pints of peach jam was made.  This was all accomplished prior to my going to work at 7:30 a.m.  Why?  Because I awoke at 1:45a.m. realizing  I was going to lose their delicious peak-of-the-summer freshness and the peaches themselves if I didn’t get them canned that morning. By the time I got home that night, they would have been too ripe and too mushy to do anything but make preserves out of them, and we just don’t eat that much jam! So they are now lined up on my pantry shelves, with their little home made “Peach Slices”, “Spiced Peach Slices” and “Peach Preserves” labels intact.  Puts a big smile on my face!

So cheers to the bounty of summer, cheers to the affordable co-op prices, and cheers to creative cooking for everyone.  Go out, get some stuff, and come home and do your own version of Chopped and see what you can come up with to surprise and amaze friends and family!!!

Easy Peazy Plum Jam

2 # halved, pitted prune plums

1 ½ c. sugar

1 t. grated lemon zest

2 T fresh lime juice

Pinch of salt

Mix all ingredients together in large saucepan and bring to a boil, stirring frequently so it doesn’t scorch. Cook, stirring often, until mixture has the consistency of thick honey.  Pour all into blender (some people like to remove the skins at this point with a fork and not process, but I find it tedious and time consuming so blending takes care of them), and whirl just til all skins have incorporated into the jam. Put back on the stove and under medium low heat bring up to simmer to take out some of the air bubbles that make it turn a creamy colored when blended.  Remove from flame, skim any foam from the top. 

Pour into sterilized jam jars, put on lids and seals and make sure they are screwed on tight. Put into boiling water bath and process for 15 minutes. Remove and cool to room temperature, making sure all lids have set (you will hear a “thump” sound when they seal). In case one or two do not seal, just keep them in the refrigerator. The others can be stored at room temperature in your cupboard or pantry. Be sure to label.  Makes 3 half pints.

BANANA BREAD PUDDING with WARM WHISKEY SAUCE

Instead of the usual white bread used for bread pudding, try this rich decadent overwhelmingly banana version.  Stands alone, but with the addition of the Warm Whiskey Sauce, it’s over the top stupendous!

1 loaf banana bread….use recipe below

2 ½ c. milk

1 c. cream

5  eggs, beaten

½ c. banana chips

1 ½ c sugar

1 t. vanilla powder

½ t. butter vanilla emulsion (optional)

1 t. brandy extract

Cut baked banana bread into 1 inch slices. Brush with melted butter on eachside. Bake at 350 degrees for 35 minutes, or until bread is crispy on the outside of the slices.  Cool and cut into 1” squares.

In a large mixing bowl mix together milk, cream, sugar, vanilla powder, and extracts. Beat well to dissolve sugar and incorporate ingredients.  Mix in banana chips and let sit in refrigerator 20 minutes. 

Grease 12 qt square glass baking dish well with butter.  Put bread squares into bowl with liquids and let sit 30  minutes.  Pour into greased baking dish and arrange into a flat layer. Some liquid should come over the top of the bread pieces.  Place in large pan with water ½ way up the sides of the square baking dish. Put all into oven and bake 1 ½ hours.  Middle should be soft but not liquid, and top should be slightly browned.  Remove from oven and cool.

Warm Whiskey Sauce

2 cups heavy cream

1/2 cup whole milk

1/2 cup granulated sugar

2 tablespoons cornstarch

3/4 cup bourbon or other whiskey (for rum sauce, a nice spiced rum could be substituted)

Pinch salt

2 tablespoons unsalted butter

In a 1-quart saucepan set over medium heat, combine the cream, milk, and sugar. Place the cornstarch and 1/4 cup of the bourbon in a small mixing bowl and whisk til blended. Pour into the cream mixture and bring to a boil. Once the sauce begins to boil, reduce the heat to a gentle simmer and cook, stirring occasionally, for 5 minutes. Remove the sauce from the heat, add the salt, and stir in the butter and the remaining 1/2 cup of bourbon. Serve warm.

BANANA BREAD

8 T unsalted butter (1 stick)

¾ c granulated sugar

2 large eggs

1 c flour

1 t. baking soda

½ t. salt

1 c whole wheat flour

3 large ripe bananas mashed

1 t. vanilla extract

1 t. brandy extract

½ c. walnut pieces

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease a 9x5x3 bread pan liberally. Put in strip of parchment the width of the bottom, leaving pieces extending over each end.

Cream butter and sugar until light an fluffy. Add eggs and beat well until mixture is light and completely incorporated.

Mix flours, baking soda, and salt together, stirring and mixing all ingredients together well.  Pour a bit at a time into the wet ingredients, beating well after each addition. Fold in mashed bananas, vanilla, brandy extract and mix well. Add walnuts and incorporate into batter.

Pour mixture into the prepared loaf pan.  Bake for 50-60 minutes or until toothpick inserted in middle comes out clean.  Cool in pan 10 minutes then remove to cooling rack and cool completely.