3 Sisters Dinner

12 years ago

It is really time for me to try the pole beans as a chili or soup. The beans were planted late and grew slowly in the Sisters garden. So, they required a late harvest. We actually had a light frost before I pushed my way into the Painted Mountain corn and stumbled thru the squash and pumpkins to get to the beans. But, this is how I'd planned it - only one meal with green pole beans and now, to make use of the dry beans. The pods have been drying on a greenhouse bench for a couple of weeks and should be ready to give up their seeds.

There are the smaller Buttercup squash left - the larger ones haven't been touched yet since I hope they will have a better storage life than the little guys. (Even the tiny ones that were obviously not fully mature were very suitable for baking so there's been no problem with the winter squash so far. ;o)

The Painted Mountain corn as an ingredient for cornbread is a big ? mark. I'll try another gardener's suggestion of running the soaked seed thru the food processor rather than milling the dry corn. This is necessary since . . . I don't have a mill, anyway. What I'm especially uncertain about is the milk required for the recipe. I think evaporated milk will be the best choice since there will be, at least, a modest amount of water in the corn meal from the start.

Anyway, I'm starting this thread as a way to commit to beginning the soaking process. That's always been a hang-up with using dry beans. It gets late in the evening, Sleepy Steve's brain doesn't work . . . he forgets to put the beans in a bowl of water.

digitS'

Comments (8)

digit
Original Author
12 years ago
It worked!!

But, I'll start with a cellphone picture of breakfast this morning (okay, there was a slice of Buttercup pie also ;o):

Painted Mountain Cornbread

Steve
digit
Original Author
12 years ago
I used Albers regular cornbread recipe. What I did differently was 3 things:

Since the seed was whole & then soaked, I measured it before soaking and decided to use 1 1/2 cups of corn and call that 1 cup of corn meal no matter what it amounted to after soaking and processing.

I sifted the meal thru the screen and ran the heavy stuff back thru the food processor, then sifted it again and discarded about 2 tablespoons of that.

Then, evaporated milk was used instead of regular milk, 1:1.

{{gwi:1228350}}

The corn and beans were both soaked for about 18 hours.

{{gwi:1228352}}

The beans cooked up nice and it only took 90 minutes:

{{gwi:1228354}}

The cornbread was very tasty, kind of nutty! I wish you could smell the bean soup! And, I was encouraged to make 2 Buttercup squash pies instead of just baking a squash . . . It didn't take much convincing:

{{gwi:1228357}}

Steve
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digit
Original Author
12 years ago
Here is the Painted Mountain corn after soaking:

{{gwi:1228359}}

With all the dark kernels, this won't make a cornbread that is just yellow!

digitS'
david52 Zone 6
12 years ago
Beautiful meal. I think I need *need* *NEED* to bake a squash pie today.......
digit
Original Author
12 years ago
Thank you for responding, David.

I appreciate needs like that!

I am tempted to be facetious about my need for a "backyard cow" and upgrading my flock of aging laying hens for the non-garden ingredients to the meal.

Steve ( ;o)
treebarb Z5 Denver
12 years ago
Steve,
Thanks for sharing. It all looks wonderful! I rarely get cornbread as I'm the only one in the family who likes it. You've been making me hungry for days now with this post!

Barb
digit
Original Author
12 years ago
Thanks Barb!

Not like cornbread? . . Why! Isn't that almost unAmerican??!

I was wondering if the wheat I usually grow in the garden could be soaked and milled just like the corn. Or, if those naked oats (Terra hulless) would be good in a Spanish Rice Casserole . . .

Trying to keep the spuds from either sprouting in a too warm basement or freeze in a too cold garage -- I'm beginning to feel like a squirrel with a winter supply of acorns!

Steve
treebarb Z5 Denver
12 years ago
Steve,

It is unAmerican!

You keep experimenting and sharing your results with us. With all the poster here, we're getting awesome additions to our recipe stashes!

I feel your pain on storage. I ended up losing an entire box of golden delicious apples last winter for the same reason. It was the best crop of apples my trees produced so far. I opted for the unheated garage and the apples froze. No basement here, just a crawl space with spiders and I don't willingly get down there for anything! I guess I should rethink that and reclaim the space.

It's good to be an ant and not a grasshopper in these times, Steve!

Barb