Aunt Kiki's Kick-Arse Chowder and Sierra's Can't Beat'em Beets

The winter is fast approaching, so it's time to buckle down and get the pantry stocked with fabulous food for the cold days ahead. I decided to do a double whammy of the most amazingly delicious chowder of all time and the best tasting beets known to man (and beast). For all you skeptics out there, you are only skeptical because you haven't eaten them yet and if you do try out these recipes and don't agree they are the most fabulous foods in the universe...you made them wrong.

Aunt Kiki's Kick-Arse Chowder

  • 1 pound of bacon
  • 4 tablespoons of butter
  • 2 medium onions
  • 4 celery stalks
  • 6 small garden leeks OR 2 big store leeks
  • 4 garlic cloves
  • Sprigs of thyme
  • Salt and pepper
  • 15 small potatoes or 8 bigger potatoes
  • Diced halibut and salmon or other kinds of good fish
  • 4 cups of clams
  • Other assorted seafood (scallops, shrimps, octopus or anything else you want)
  • Approximately 12 cups of broth (clam juice, chicken stock or any other kind of tasty broth)
  • 2 cups of heavy cream

Please note: if you have a heart condition, are on a diet or don't like to butter your bacon...PLEASE do not try this recipe. It is designed to tickle your taste buds while clogging your arteries. Start off by getting a really big pot, you'll need it! Chop up your bacon into 1/2 inch sections. Fry the bacon in your sauce pan. When it gets fairly brown and crispy add the butter (don't drain the bacon fat). Chop up onions, celery, leeks and garlic and add to the bacon. After the vegetables get soft, add thyme, salt and pepper. Cook the vegetables for 5 more minutes and then add chopped up potatoes. Stir in the potatoes and add your tasty broth. Just keep adding the broth until it seems like there is enough. The vegetables and potatos are really tasty, so if you want to add some chicken broth make sure it is very diluted. Cook the potatoes for about 30 minutes or until they get soft . Use a fork to smash up about 1/3 of the potatoes...this will make your broth nice and thick. By the time your potatoes are cooking, the broth should be boiling and you can add your fish. Cook for about 5 minutes then add whatever other seafood you are using. Add the clams LAST, they will only need 2 minutes to cook. After 2 minutes, take the soup off the stove. Add your 2 cups of cream and serve with parsley and sourdough bread. I like to make a lot of this soup (hence the huge portions) and freeze or can the extras. If you are doing this, do not add the cream. Wait until you are warming up the soup and then add in the cream.

Sierra's Can't Beat'em Beets

Ever wonder what 50 lbs of beets looks like?

  • 15 lbs of beets
  • 4 cups of white vinegar
  • 2 cups of water
  • 15 cloves
  • 2 teaspoons of salt
  • 2 cups of white sugar
  • 2 cinnamon sticks
  • 2 Tbl of orange peel
  • Juice squeezed from 1 orange or 3 Tbl of orange juice

Pickled beets are one of my favorite treats. This year, Lisa and I canned about 65 lbs of beets which gave us around 40 litres of pickled beets. It's hard to figure out how much brine you will need, so my strategy is to keep making brine as needed. To start, boil water in a giant pot and add beets. Boil for around 15 minutes. Then strain out water and put beets in the coldest water that you can. This will make the beet skin super easy to peel off (either with your fingers or a knife). Cut up your peeled beets into bite size portions. Prepare the brine by pouring water, vinegar, salt, sugar, orange peel and orange juice into a sauce pan. Add the cinnamon sticks and cloves (I put the cloves in a tea ball so that they don't get acidentally eaten with the beets). Boil the brine for 3 minutes and remove from heat. Take out your jars for canning and sterilize in boiling water for 10 minutes. Now add the beets to the finger-burning cans, leaving about 3/4 inch at the top. Pour brine on top (still leaving about 3/4 inch). Wipe the tops of the cans clean and seal with lids (which have, of course, been sterilizing in 85 degree water). Screw on the lids and process in a water-boiler for 35 minutes. Hope and pray that all your cans seal (listen for the happy pop of the lids) and store until your friends come and raid your pantry. Guess what everyone's getting for Christmas '07 (and possibly '08)...

Sierra posted this on Sep 12, 2006 from the kitchen | | permanent link