Susannah took a little of this and that from existing Peanut Sauce recipes and came up with her own version we absolutely love.  We use this sauce to top one of our favorite meals – a noodle bowl that begins with Udon noodles, then ground pork seasoned with a favorite Thai curry paste, topped with plenty of diced fresh veggies, shredded greens like Napa and finished with Bushel & Peck’s vegetable ferment.

Use Susannah’s sauce for dipping or to top your own personal noodle bowl.  We always double the recipe – there’s never enough!

¼ cup peanut butter
1 T fish sauce
3 T apple cider vinegar
1 T soy sauce
3 T lime or lemon juice
¼ tsp ground ginger
Black pepper
1 T sesame oil
¼ cup olive oil
1 ½ T honey

Blend all ingredients together. Enjoy!

Like pizza with all it’s various toppings, a quiche is a great opportunity to experiment with all kinds of veggies, meat, herbs and cheese.   With our fresh ingredients including our delicious eggs, a quiche doesn’t last long in our house!

In this recipe, we used what is fresh and available in early spring – tender young dandelion and nettle greens, fresh chives, onions and mushrooms.   Easy to prepare, quiche makes a perfect breakfast, lunch or dinner.  Give it a try!

Unbaked Pie Shell – single crust, use your favorite recipe

5 BBF Eggs

2 cups chopped raw Dandelion Greens, Nettle Greens or substitute any combination of spinach, kale or chard

1 small Onion, diced

1 cup Mushrooms, diced

Fresh Chives, diced, 1- 2 T

Cheese – we used Cedar Grove Organic Farmer’s Cheese but any favorite will work

Sauté diced onion and mushrooms in a bit of olive oil or butter until tender.   Add 2 c chopped fresh greens and cook until greens are just wilted.  Remove from heat.  Meanwhile, crack 5 eggs into a bowl and add the chives, a pinch of salt, pepper and 1/2 cup milk.  Using a fork, whip to combine.

In the bottom of the prepared pie shell, scatter a few thin slices of cheese.   Add the sautéed veggies and spread evenly over the cheese.  Pour in eggs.  Top with a few more thin slices or grated cheese.

Place in 350 degree oven and bake just until center is just set, approximately 40-45 min.   To check for doneness, gently shake the pie pan to see if the center seems barely firm. Slightly soft in the center is okay as the quiche will continue cooking after you remove it from the oven.  Remove and allow quiche to cool and continue to set up for 15 minutes.   Slice and enjoy!

This soup has just a few ingredients so it’s important to use the best.   Using homemade broth is a great way to make this soup over the top delicious.

We used beef broth, but you can easily make this with chicken.   If you’d like to make chicken broth, see our recipe here.

Your meat choice can be based on what you have leftover or you can use raw beef, pork or chicken.  We used Beef Stew Meat, diced, seasoned and quickly seared in a pan.

Making Beef Broth

We use a variety of beef bones and cuts to make our beef broth.  For this recipe, we used 1 – 5 lb. bag Beef Bones, 2 packages Beef Neck Bones and 2 packages Beef Soup Bones.    We could have easily added a Beef Knuckle or Beef Marrow bone as well.   More variety is good and including a cut with some meat, like the Beef Soup Bone, will give you the best flavor.

Place all cuts and bones into a large stock pot and fill with water using 1 quart water for each pound of beef bones/cuts.   Or, fill just until water covers the bones.   We did not thaw the beef and added it to the stock pot raw and frozen.  Also, we did not brown the beef cuts so we’d end up with a milder tasting broth.

Bring pot to a gentle simmer and skim off film as it forms on the surface giving the pot a stir every so often.   Once film is at a minimum, simmer for several hours partially covered.  Strain through a fine mesh strainer.   We use wide mouth Mason jars to hold our completed broth.  The fat will rise to the top and it is easily skimmed off.  This broth was cooled and afterwards, it gelled nicely from the collagen extracted from the beef cuts.  This was a gelatin rich broth.

Preparing the Soup Broth

2 qts. Beef or Chicken Broth

Fresh Ginger – thick, 1″ piece, peeled, cut in half lengthwise

Fresh Garlic – 1 large clove peeled, cut in half lengthwise

1 T Fish Sauce

1 T Soy Sauce

Place all ingredients into medium pot and bring to a gentle simmer.  Turn off heat, cover and set aside.

Vegetables, Meat & Udon

Fresh Spinach leaves, chopped

Carrot rounds, sliced very thinly

Hakurei Turnip, sliced very thinly

Thinly sliced mushrooms, Napa Cabbage, Bok Choy, scallions also work well

Udon noodles, prepared according to package, tossed with Toasted Sesame Oil

Meat of your choice –  diced chicken, beef (Stew Meat, Steak) or pork

Fresh Cilantro

Immunichi or Curtido raw ferment

Season diced meat with salt, pepper, garlic and quickly sear in a hot pan just until barely done, then remove from heat.  To make an individual serving, place cooked Udon noodles in a bowl and top with chopped spinach, thinly sliced carrots and turnip.  Reheat broth to a gentle simmer.   Ladle hot broth over vegetables and noodles and allow to sit for a minute or two until noodles and veggies are hot and spinach wilted.   Sprinkle sauteed meat over the top.   Top with fresh cilantro and raw ferment of your choice.   Serve with soy sauce close at hand.

It’s a shame not to make use of the bounty of green tomatoes left when cold weather comes in late September and October.  When a hard frost is imminent, we harvest all the tomatoes including the green.  The unripe fruit store for several weeks and can be added to soups, stews or used in the following recipe.   The 3-step breading recipe is great for other vegetables like big zucchini slices and eggplant.

Organic Ricotta Cheese, 15 oz container

Fresh Herbs – Basil, Dill, Parsley, Cilantro or any combination, minced

Green Tomatoes

Bread Crumbs

Organic Flour

2 Pastured Eggs

Shredded Cheese – your choice, we used Mozzarella

Place ricotta in medium bowl.   Add minced fresh herbs – about 1 T total – and mix well.   Add 1/2 tsp salt and taste for seasoning, adding more salt if necessary.   We find the ricotta we purchase needs salt to bring out the flavor.

Slice the green tomatoes no more than 1/4″ thick.   If you slice them too thick, the bread crumbs will burn before the tomato has cooked enough.   If you find your slices are too thick, just finish the pre-fried slices in the oven until tomato is tender.

Set up your 3-step breading.   You need 3 shallow but wide bowls or use pie or cake pans.   Place about 1/3 cup flour in the first, 2 beaten eggs in the second and bread crumbs in the third.   Flour and bread crumbs can be seasoned to your liking using salt, pepper, dried herbs.

Preheat your skillet.   While preheating, prepare a few slices of tomato by first dipping a slice in flour (brush off excess), then egg, then bread crumbs covering both sides of the slices.

Add fat to the hot skillet and then add breaded tomato slices.  Brown on both sides allowing tomato slices to cook through.

Add a good spoonful of herbed ricotta to each slice.   Top with shredded cheese.    Turn off heat, cover and allow cheese to melt.

Serve as an appetizer or serve on a bed of greens for a very delicious vegetarian dish.