Bryanna Clark Grogan’s Vegan Feast Kitchen/ 23rd Century Table

Denman Island corn and our own tomatoes and basil for lunch...




BC blueberry pancakes (made with my vegan pancake mix)


Zucchini Bisque-- delicious and uses up 2 1/2 lbs. of zucchini in one recipe!

MAKING APPLESAUCE THE EASY WAY:
I use a food mill or mouli. There are a variety of them on the market-- mine is this one. Here's an all-stainless-steel one.

For smooth applesauce, you just wash the apples and cut them into quarters-- no peeling (unless there are bad spots), not coring, not stemming, even! Toss them in a big pot with a little water and cook until soft.

Then you place the food mill (I use the plate with the larger holes) over a large pot or bowl and feed the cooked apples through, cranking the handle (it's not hard). When you're done, you have the seeds, stems (if any) and skins left in the mill and a big pot of smooth applesauce! Sweeten if desired and can or freeze. (I freeze mine in little containers to use primarily in low-fat baking.  (In recipes that call for oil, you can use use approximately 3 parts smooth unsweetened applesauce to 1 part oil, but be sure to use pastry or cake flour, or low-gluten or GF flours, for best results. This doesn't work as well in recipes calling for solid fats, but you can experiment. You can also experiment with using no oil, but sometimes the baked goods come out a little too chewy that way!)






What's left behind...


The results!

Here's one of the recipes I mentioned in my blog the post before last:



Printable Recipe

SUMMER BULGUR AND GREEN BEAN SALAD (with my changes--BCG)
by Tyler Florence for Food & Wine magazine
This was a lovely salad and simple to make. I made some changes according to what I had in the house.

2 cups boiling water
2 cups medium (#2) bulgur (11 ounces)
1 pound thin green beans
Juice of 2 lemons
1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
1 cup red and yellow cherry tomatoes, halved (I just used slightly larger red tomatoes, cut in half-- BCG)
1/2 cup roasted salted almonds, coarsely crushed (I used toasted unsalted slivered almonds--BCG)
1/4 cup coarsely shredded mint leaves (I had no mint, so used fresh basil instead-- BCG)
Salt and freshly ground pepper

In a large, heatproof bowl, pour the boiling water over the bulgur. Cover the bowl and let stand until the water is absorbed, about 20 minutes.

Meanwhile, bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Add the green beans and boil over high heat until just tender, about 4 minutes. Drain and refresh under cold running water, then pat dry. Cut the green beans crosswise.

In a small bowl, stir together the lemon juice and olive oil. Fluff the bulgur with 2 forks. Add the green beans, tomatoes, almonds, mint (or basil) and lemon dressing. Season with salt and pepper and mix well. Transfer the bulgur salad to a large serving bowl and serve lightly chilled or at room temperature.

The salad can be refrigerated overnight. Add the tomatoes, almonds and mint (or basil) just before serving.
Servings: 8

Nutrition Facts
Nutrition (per serving): 237.8 calories; 37% calories from fat; 10.2g total fat; 0.0mg cholesterol; 12.1mg sodium; 371.0mg potassium; 33.9g carbohydrates; 9.4g fiber; 2.1g sugar; 24.5g net carbs; 6.8g protein; 4.8 points.

Hope you're having a good summer!

Italian plum jam with some of the tiny plums and the leaves of the tree

I'm not big on canning or jam-making anymore, but I recently made a small batch of beautiful, tangy Italian plum jam.

We have a volunteer plum tree with little tiny plums. This is only the second year that we've had any plums from it. Last year we had lots and I made Chinese plum sauce and plum chutney. This year we only got a few. The racoons, new to Denman Is. in the last few years, got alot of them I think-- at least we chased off two fighting in the tree early one morning! I happened to see a recipe from vegetarian cookbook author Anna Thomas for an Italian jam using tiny plums, so I had the perfect material for this recipe!

You can see how small the plums are in this picture

I think the kind we have are "Hardy Plums". See this page for information on plum varieties. It says: "these are selections of native American species of wild plums, or hybrids between these species. These plums are hardy, late blooming, usually small or very small plums adapted to the rigors of northern continental climates where most of even the more winter hardy European plum are not successful."

I changed Ms. Thomas' cooking method a little. My method eliminates the time-consuming task of pitting all those little plums by cooking them whole for a few minutes with the other ingredients, and then running them through a food mill.

The Food Dictionary at epicurious.com describes a food mill as: "A kitchen utensil that can be best described as a mechanical SIEVE. It has a hand-turned paddle that forces food through a strainer plate at the bottom, thereby removing skin, seeds and fiber. Some food mills come equipped with several interchangeable plates with small, medium and large holes."
© Copyright Barron's Educational Services, Inc. 1995 based on THE FOOD LOVER'S COMPANION, 2nd edition, by Sharon Tyler Herbst.


This is the one I have, a 2 qt. capacity model.

Kitchen and cookware shops carry them, and they are handy for applesauce, tomato sauce, and many other kitchen tasks.

As another vendor states: "This timeless, hand-operated, kitchen tool is a multi-function wonder that removes objectionables, like tiny seeds, skins, fiber and cores from almost any fruit or vegetable." And: "Outstanding for homemade sauces, purees, jams, soups and natural baby foods."

I've had this one for many years, and, though I don't use it often, I wouldn't be without it. Besides the obvious advantage of being able to cook fruits and veggies without first removing the skins, seeds, stems, etc, and then being able to remove them with a few cranks of the handle, if you want to puree something without causing alot of bubbles (as electric machines do),this is the way to go. (I'm thinking, for instance, of the Italian pureed soup called "passati", or, literally, "passed through"-- in other words, passed through the mill.)

Printable Recipe
Anna Thomas's ITALIAN PRUNE PLUM JAM (small batch, with my variation in technique)

"This is made from the plums that become prunes when they are dried. In some markets I've seen them called prunes, and in others Italian plums, or prune plums, but they are the very small plums with the egg-like shape and the dusky purple skin." Anna Thomas

Note from Bryanna: My jam was not really thick, but spreadable.

1 1/2 lbs small dark plums or Italian prune plums (see Cooking Tips)
3/4 cups organic unbleached granulated sugar
3 Tbs fresh (or bottled organic) lemon juice

Wash the plums well, and combine them with the sugar and lemon juice in a medium stainless steel pot. Stir slowly over very low heat until the sugar is completely dissolved.

Raise the heat and boil the plums gently for about 5 minutes, or until the plums soften and split, skimming off any foam that forms on top. Pour the plums into your food mill (balanced over a pot) and turn until all of the pulp goes through and only the pits and a few skins are left behind. (Scrape all the pulp off the bottom of the food mill into the pot with the rest.)

Return the strained mixture to the heat and bring to a gently simmer again. Cook about 3 or 4 minutes more. When the fruit seems to be thickening slightly, turn off the heat and put a tablespoon or two of the jam on a small plate, then put the plate in the freezer. After a couple of minutes, check the test batch. If it has a jam-like consistancy, you're done. If it's too runny, boil the jam for a few more minutes and test again.

Ladle the jam into clean half-pint jars and keep it in the refrigerator. It should last for a couple of weeks, but it will be eaten before then.

Yield: about 1 1/2 cups

Nutrition Facts
Nutrition (per 2 Tbs.): 75.4 calories; 1% calories from fat; 0.2g total fat; 0.0mg cholesterol; 0.0mg sodium; 94.0mg potassium; 19.3g carbohydrates; 0.8g fiber; 18.2g sugar; 18.5g net carbs; 0.4g protein; 1.4 points.


Enjoy!