Maple Baked Beans (Slow Cooker)

Baked beans are a classic comfort food especially in the north.  Here's my vegetarian version I lived on during university when I wanted a wholesome meal and money was tight.  Pretty easy and economical to whip up. In this vegetarian version you can also add any hard dense vegetables like carrots, parsnips, potatoes and/or squash.   I think they are best made in a slow oven but here is my slow cooker instructions.

		Ingredient
2 cups	500 ml	Beans, navy, raw
12 cups	3 litres	Water, cold
2 each		Bay leaves
1 cup	250 ml	Maple syrup
½ cup	125 ml	Ketchup
1 Tbsp	15 ml	Mustard seed, ground/powder
½ tsp	2.5 ml	Thyme, dried, leaves
½ tsp	2.5 ml	Salt (optional)
¼ tsp	1.25 ml	Black pepper, freshly ground
2 each		Onions, raw, large, cut in half, peeled
8 pieces		Cloves (spice), whole
2 Tbsp	30 ml	Apple cider vinegar, natural

* you can sub 1/2 cup brown sugar and 1/4 cup dark molasses for the maple syrup with good results

1.  Rinse beans and add to crock of slow cooker with the bay leaves.  Cover with 3 times as much cold water (about 12 cups).  Cover and cook on LOW overnight - 6-8 hours.  The beans should be tender but not falling apart.  Alternately, you can boil them on the stove for an hour or so until tender but not splitting.  I am using black eye peas for this batch in place of the navy beans.  Necessity is the mother of invention .... what I had on hand.

2.  Remove 2 cups (500 ml) bean water from crock.  You may use this later if beans are dry.  Keep in fridge.  Discard it later if you don't use it.

3.  Stir maple syrup, ketchup, dry mustard powder, dry thyme, salt and pepper into beans.  If you don’t like sweet beans add less maple syrup.  Also, I don't usually add the salt as the ketchup is salty.  You can always adjust later.  

4.  Cut onions in half and peel.  Push two pieces of whole cloves into each of the four halves.  Add to bean pot.  Push down to cover with beans.

5.  Cover and cook on LOW heat 4 hours.  Then cook one hour with lid off to evaporate liquid.  How you want the beans is a matter of preference.  At any time if you want them saucier you can add some of the reserved bean liquid.

6. Remove onions to cool and discard cloves.  Dice and add back to the pot.  Stir in the cider vinegar (optional).

You can also bake them in a bean pot or 16-cup (4 L) casserole. Cover and bake in 300°F (150°C) oven for 2 hours. Uncover and bake until thickened and beans are coated, about 1 hour.

Dehydrated zucchini I added to my veg baked beans

Makes approximately 15 x ½ cup -125 ml servings 
Nutrients (per 1/2 cup - with the salt)

Calories	170
Protein (g)	7
Total Fat (g)	0.5
Saturated Fat (g)	0
Carbohydrate (g)	36
Fibre (g)	5
Cholesterol (mg)	0
Sodium (mg)	180
%Daily Value
Calcium	8
Iron	10
Vitamin A	2
Vitamin C	6

I love Lovage (levisticum officinale)

Lovage is tall!  Very majestic.  Above it is shown in early spring.  It is an old country herb used frequently in Southern Europe but used rarely in Canada.  Lovage is a clump forming perennial with rhizome roots and thankfully it is very easy to grow.  It shoots up early in spring and produces well into fall and the cold weather where I live.  The plant is an umbelliferae producing greenish-yellow flowers in summer followed by ridged brown seeds.

Drink as an herbal diuretic - soothe a sore throat - flavourful salt substitute

CULTIVATION: This is a “hardy” perennial (zones 3-8) that needs light shade and a rich, moist soil to grow well.  I bought my plant years ago at Commanda Country Gardens on the Alsace Road near Commanda.  You can also start from seed.  Lovage grows up to eight feet (2.4 meters) tall and spans three feet (1 meter) so give it room to spread and plant it behind your shorter perennials. The herb likes at least six hours of sun a day but it can thrive in part shade.  Like other perennials, divide roots in second year.  I have lovage growing in three places now.


MEDICINAL USE: I am promoting the culinary use of lovage but I also find the medicinal and historical use interesting.  A tea, made from leaves and/or roots is said to be mineral-rich and aid in digestion, reduce water retention and flatulence.  Lovage is carminative (i.e., prevents flatulence or helps expel gas).  Some references talk about lovage root being used to treat menstrual disorders.  If this is an area of interest for you I recommend further exploration!  Visit this link to read a bit more....http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lovage.


CULINARY USE: Both the celery like leaves/stems and the large, aromatic roots can be enjoyed fresh or dried.  The leaves taste like celery and you can add a small handful to soups, stews, vinaigrettes and salads.  A small amount heightens the flavour in recipes allowing you to use less salt in the dish.  If you are new to this herb start off by using a tablespoon or so and see if you like it.  In soup and stew making I use a whole cup of the young leaves and stems and I do not find it too strong. I also add minced lovage to omelets, salads and even vinaigrettes.  


Roots can be peeled and eaten as a vegetable. Even the savoury seeds are edible.  The hollow stems (minus the leaves) can be fun to use as drinking straws for refreshing summer beverages. 

PRESERVING LOVAGE: 


There are a lot of ways to preserve lovage!  I like to dry it in my food dehydrator and use over the winter as a tea or in soups and stews.  I cut back the plant once or twice in summer so I get a continuous supply of young leaves.  The older leaves are stronger and not a pleasant tasting.  I simply slice leaves and stems, dry and store in glass jars.  I label and date my jars as I do end up with a lot of them... plus other people might want to know what is inside!  


Lovage also freezes well.  Chop it up and freeze in a container or bag.  Proper freezing techniques would tell you to blanch in boiling water and then freeze.  Blanching removes surface bacteria and enzymes which can cause flavour changes during freezing.  


You can also add chopped lovage to your chutneys and preserves when you are canning.  And finally, lovage preserves well as an herb vinegar.  Add it to a sterile bottle with organic white wine vinegar.  A nice flavour combination is lovage + garlic + black peppercorns.  Steep in a cool dark place.  I store all my home-made vinegars in the fridge so I don't have to worry about food safety.


Please try this recipe for Wild Leek, Lovage and Potato Chowder.  If you don't have the wild leeks and lovage you can still make it with leeks or green onions and celery.  


© Nancy Guppy, RD, MHSc
Visit me at http://nancyguppy.com/

Preserving the Garden Zucchini

Today I am dehydrating zucchini, putting them into homemade turkey soup and even pasta sauce!  Good rainy day projects.  I am starting to feel victorious having wittled down my rather substantial pile of garden zucchini on the back porch.   I made the mistake of going away for a week early August and came home to many medium, large and gigantic zucchini.  

The zucchini are slowly being made into soups and sauces that I am freezing for the upcoming winter.  True, I could "can" it but I do find freezing a lot easier.  My niece also grated and froze a bunch of bags.  Most people know about using grated zucchini in baking loaves, cakes and muffins.  Grated zucchini is also a great addition to soups, omelettes, stews and spaghetti sauces.  This is a link to my favourite chocolate zucchini cake recipe I posted last year.

Right now I also have 5 levels of zucchini in my food dehydrator.  It will take a few days until they are fully dehydrated... less if the weather was drier.  I wrote on my blog last April about the marvels of using a food dehydrator and you may want to check it out.  Dehydrating food is an ancient process which helped to sustain early people.  Heat from the sun or fires was used to preserve food harvested during seasons of plenty. Dried foods have been found in the pyramids and other burial tombs and centuries later some of it was still preserved in good condition.  

I enjoy the ease and economy of dehydrating garden herbs, vegetables and berries.  Foods are exposed to hot air which removes moisture. Bacteria and microorganisms cannot grow when moisture is not present. Thus dehydrated foods are preserved for long periods without refrigeration.  They also have far less weight and bulk than fresh foods.  So far this summer I have dehydrated high bush cranberries, peppermint, spearmint, thyme, sage and zucchini.  I am going to experiment with drying some tomatoes.  The herbs we use in dry form but the zucchini and tomatoes can be reconstituted in sauces or by pouring over boiling water.  Soups and sauces will be my main uses.

FIVE EASY STEPS TO DEHYDRATE FOOD

1. Slice most foods thin – about ¼” (1/2 cm)

2. Do not overlap your food on trays

3. Rotate and turn trays

4. Remove food when it looks and feels dry

5. Place food in air-tight containers – jars or Ziploc®™ bags

The zucchini in the garden are still producing but thankfully at a much slower rate!

My next class at Chapman's Landing is the Mediterranean Diet Canadianized!  This class is being held Saturday September 11th and will be both delicious and educational.  The topic is of special interest to those wanting gluten free, heart healthy and diabetic type recipes.   I hope to see you soon at a cooking class at Chapman's Landing soon.

Tastefully yours,

Nancy Guppy, RD, MHSc.
Chapman's Landing Cooking Studio

"How To" Dehydrate Food in a Dehydrator

Last summer I gave this beautiful lemon balm a serious haircut and then I dried the leaves and tender stems in my Ronco food dehydrator. They're a great tool, especially if you have a garden. I bought mine for $5 last summer at Value Village and unfortunately it didn't come with a manual so found a person online that had the manual in electronic format and they emailed it to me:)  I did go to Youtube and watch the Ronco food dehydrator promotional video on the website and that was pretty funny! They are for sale online for $40 US.

Now it is totally possible to dry foods without the electric dehydrator but it sure did come in handy last summer when it was wet and damp most of the summer and very hard to dry food using air method. I am posting this early in the season so you have drying food in mind as we go towards our growing season.  If it is hot and dry out you can use the trays without the electric heat to dry food.  Slower, but effective.

The video clip told me I can dry herbs and spices overnight. Then you crumble by hand and seal in a jar with lid. They were putting whole fresh herb bundles from the store on the trays. So, if parsley is 50 cents at the farmers market late in summer then you can stock up and dry them and use it throughout the winter. I also freeze herbs but dried is more green as you don't need a freezer to keep them.

The Ronco model dehydrator I have is heated with an element from the bottom but it does not have a fan or motor and therefore it makes no noise. It distributes gentle heat, but not hot and the heat is distributed by convection air flow. Mine doesn’t have a fan that makes noise and I have heard friends complain about how noisy their model is that has a fan.

A tray of herbs drys in 3 hours. When they said overnight they had stacked the 5 trays and were using store bundles of herbs. I removed big stems before putting them in.  Below is a tray of spearmint getting ready to be dried.  I use it in tea and punches and also as a crushed herb.

I can't say enough good about dehydrating garden vegetables and herbs and summer fruits.  By falls end I had dried basil, celery, choke cherries, dill (leaves and stems), high bush cranberry, lemon balm (Melissa), lovage, mint, oregano, zucchini ... and more.  They were part of our winter eating and cooking classes including  punches and teas, soups and stews.  This is way cool. I can see getting carried away dehydrating everything!

© Nancy Guppy, RD, MHSc
Visit me at www.chapmanslanding.com
for course information, menus and registration.