Just another Day on the Farm

Well its day two and my biggest challange has been to figure out what I want to highlight as the food today.. went in the kitchen to check something I have started last week and it was ready so its all about the Potato.. hold onto your seats folks.. lets see if I can use potato in ever single thing today with recipes included.

Breakfast- Frittata with Potato crust

• One large Potato-Peeled and Sliced very fine
• 2 Large Duck eggs or 3 chicken
• 1 tsp milk
• 1 tsp Diced Onion
• 1 tsp Diced Mushroom or peppers or bacon etc
• Salt/Pepper
• Touch of grated cheese

You can use either a small cast Iron Frying Pan or a glass dish, grease your pan, I used my homemade Lard, then layer your finely sliced potatos as the crust on the side and bottom. Then mix your eggs, milk, onion and one extra, pour into your potato crust and into a very hot oven at 400 and cook till the the middle comes clean with a knife, let cool for just a min or two, and then run a metal pie lifter to run around the outside and down the potato crust and either cut into portions or if using a small cast iron, just lift out and serve, which is what I did in the photo above

DH-Breakfast- 4 Homemade Waffles, Orange, High Bush Cranberry Syrup

DH-Lunch/snacks-Cream of Brocolli Soup, Rubarb Cake, Half a cup of mixed raw nuts/dried fruit, 6 cups of air popped popcorn with a little butter.

Lunch – FG-Cream of Potato Soup with Fresh Potato bread.

Cream of Potato Soup Recipe

• 4 Large Potato’s peeled and Diced -Cook but reserve water
• 1 Large Onion Peeled and Diced-Cook in a bit of oil till clear
• 2 cloves of Garlic-Peeled-Diced and Cooked with Onion
• 6 to 8 Mushrooms-Washed, Diced and Cooked with Onion/Garlic
• 1/2 cup of whole milk-Cow, Sheep or Goat
• Salt, Pepper, Turmic, Garlic Powder

Cook the potato’s first, drain/Mash/reserve the water, Then in your steel pot, put a bit of oil in it, I used bacon dippings about 1/2 tsbp, in which I cooked the onion, garlic and mushrooms, once the onion was clear, I put the mashed potato’s back into the mix and added the reserved water till I had a good thick soup, then I added my half cup of rich milk to it, and gave it another mash, at that point, I added in my Salt, Pepper, Garlic Powder, Turmic mix, and tasted it.. needed a bit more.. and done..

Now this soup just begs you to use up leftovers out of the fridge, got leftover veggies or meat or seafood, chop it into bite size peices and add it in, got old cheese that needs to be used up, grate it in and give it a stir, Switch out the milk for yogurt, sour cream, cream cheese or even blended cottage cheese that needs to be used up..

Supper – Chicken Shepards Pie Recipe

• One fresh Chicken Breast-Diced into bite size peices
• One Pint of Chicken Bone Broth
• 1 Large Onion-Peeled and Diced
• 3 cups of frozen mixed veggies

Brown your meat and the onion together with a bit of oil or lard, then add the broth and the veggies and simmer till cooked thought, thicken with corn starch.

In a second pot cook up a pot of peeled and diced potato’s for mashed (I want leftovers so I make a full pot) but if making just for this recipe, I would say, three large ones. Mash with butter or milk, salt and pepper them..

Take a glass dish, and pour your chicken stew in and then cover the top with your hot mashed potatos and then pop into the oven to simmer and heat though and brown the top, Oven at 350.

You can make a double batch if you want, allow to cool and then make up two serving dishes of this and then pop in the fridge till cold, then cover with tinfoil and then into big heavy duty freezer bags and put on your freezing flat board, once frozen solid, they can be stacked at that point, can thaw them in the fridge overnight and bake off for later use.

Bread- Potato Bread and Potato Starter

Raw Potato Starter out of my favorite Bread Book

• 1 cup of warm water
• 1 cup of all-purpose Flour
• 1 tsp each of salt an Sugar
• 1 med potato, peeled and grated

In a 2 cup measure, mix together the water, flour, salt and sugar, add in the grated potato

Put in Jar with room to expand, I used a glass bowl, cover with cheese cloth and let it go in a warm place for 24 hours, then stir and cover with a plate lid, they said it would take 2 to 3 days to become light and foamy and have that sour smell.. for me it was two days.. Pour the fermented starter into a glass jar with lid and store in fridge, let it ripen until you have a clear liquid collects on the top of the mixture, again this only took 48 hours for mine to do so, perhaps because I made it with homegrown spud, perhaps it takes longer with store bought?

Sourdough Potato Bread Recipe

Sponge

• 1 cup of raw Potato Starter
• 1 cup of flour
• 1/4 cup of sugar
• 1/2 tsp of ground ginger
• 1 cup water
• 1 cup of cold leftover mash potatos. or half a cup of instant mashed flakes

 Make this the night before and let it sit, it will be ready in the morning.. it should have a yeasty, slightly sour smell and look just a bit puffy

Dough

• 1/2 cup hot water
• 1/3 cup of Dry milk or buttermilk powder
• 3 to 4 cups flour
• 1/4 cup oil
• 1 tsp of salt

Make like normal, Rise twice, bake at 375 for 45 min, make sure you allow the bread to cool before slicing, its a wonderful sandwhich or toast bread.

Yes, I started planning to make this a week ago.. plus now I have both sour dough starter and potato starter in the house for bread making as well as yeast..

Snacks;  Morning Snack, One half egg sized fresh Bread dough stretched out thin, cooked in the Cast Iron Fry Pan, with a bit of butter and orange marmalade 

Dessert-Carrot Pudding with carmel sauce.

Drinks-Water, Tea

Extras-

Now lets talk Potato.. Did you know that 2008 was the year of the potato? This site has more info on a potato, its just amazing.. go over and give it a browse..

Flipping over to homesteading, if you have land and you are want to feed yourself, then at least in most parts of Canada (and the rest of the world) growing potato’s is a huge part of being able to do just that. The returns are amazing.. on averge for every 5 pds of seed potato’s planted I get between 60 to 100 pds of potato’s in return depending on the type and how good the year was.

Do you grow your own potato’s? What is your favorite Potato recipe? Do you make Potato bread? Have you ever used Raw Potato starter? What is your favorite color potato, I like Pinks, their flavor is amazing, and they make the most amazing homebaked oven fries.

The March Challange is here.. I promised to write up my meals, with at least one recipe used that day..

Breakfast- FG-Creamy Barley Pudding, DH-Four Homemade Waffles, with Orange Marmalade, and fresh WaterMelon.

Lunch-ABC Soup with soft wheat bread.

Dinner-DH’s B-day Supper, Deep Dish Meat Pizza, Greek Salad, Nine chicken Wings with Chocolate German Cake for Dessert.

Snacks- Current in the house, Homemade Oatmeal Raison Cookies and two pieces of Rubarb Cake

Drinks- Water, Tea, Hot Chocolate

Extra’s -Made the last of the war bread into dried bread crumbs

Recipe-Creamy Barley Puddin

This is best to make the day after you cook up a nice big pot of barley and have leftovers to use up, but if not, cook up a cup of Barley in six to eight cups of water for 30 to 45 min till its cooked though, it will still be chewy, you can save the water for use in soups/stews.

2 cups of whole milk-I have made it with Cow/Goat or Sheeps Milk, I have also make it with canned milk.

2 tbsp of Brown Sugar or Honey or Maple Syrup (I find I need an extra tbsp for the maple)

1/2 cup of dried Cranberries or any other dried fruit, (I really like black currents)

a pinch of salt,  I like to put a little homegrown Lemon Mint in a tea ball and soak it in the warm simmering milk/barley for about five min, This is a way to replace the typical lemon or orange zest, as these don’t grow locally.

So take above and gently simmer for ten min, then take an extra half cup of milk, blend it with one large duck egg or a large chicken egg or two med eggs, take pot off heat.. then slowly pour in while stirring to create a creamy texture, cook another one or two min (if needed) till the pudding thick’ns up, I find that the heat from the steel pots I cook in will do the job. Makes four big servings or six dessert servings.

This can be served warm as a filling breakfast meal or it can be served chilled as a dessert.

Lets Talk about Barley for a bit shall we.. most folks talk about it as nutty, but I have always found Barley to be a mild flour when used in baking. Its very low in gluten, but when cooked Barley’s soluble fiber becomes Viscous (just like chia seeds do), this viscosity is translated in our mouth to being a buttery or fat feeling, which makes this flour a great addition to most baked goods.

Barley is currently the world’s 4th largest grain crop but its one of the oldest cultivated crops, they say that it came along at the same time as wheat around 10,000 years ago. Canada is the 3rd biggest producer of Barley behind Russia and the Ukraine.

The Babylonians used Barley as their main currency, In Europe, Barley became the chief grain used for bread, at least until the 16th century, However since Barley has almost no gluten, it was made into trenchers, which were in fact edible plates to which the rest of the meal was placed on top.

Barley water (the water in which barley was boiled in) can be used to calm upset tummies, just sip it and if you have the ability mix it half and half with a bone broth for a true healing drink.

Health notes, Barley is high in protein, a cup has as much as a glass of milk, its low in fat and high in antioxidants and fiber, including soluble fiber which is proven to lower cholesterol.  Barley is digested quite slowly and has a very low glycemic index, it has nearly twice the amount of fiber as the same serving of cooked brown rice.

Do you use Barley in your meals, if so, how do you use it, soups? Stews? Baking? Side Dish? Porridge? Please share your favorite recipe with us..