Don t laugh, but a few years ago I had a hard time getting dill to grow in my garden. My digging dogs were the problem. I d get dill from neighbours wherever I could, using it amply in soups and stews, and stashing away the rest fresh in freezer bags. It thaws smelling nearly as aromatic.
Now dill would take over the garden
BEET AND BEAN BORSCHT
There are many versions of this traditional soup and all are delicious. This one is found on the website of Pulse Canada at www.pulse canada.com/recipes
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1 large white onion,
chopped
3 tbsp. vegetable oil
3 c. beets, chopped
2 medium carrots, diced
3 stalks, celery, diced
1 bunch parsley, chopped
or bunch dill chopped
3 c. white cabbage,
shredded
1-19 oz. can white
kidney beans
1/2 c. tomato juice
2 tbsp. lemon juice
1 garlic clove, minced
10 c. vegetable or beef
stock, low sodium
1 tsp. ground black
pepper
Saut onions in one tablespoon of oil until golden and soft. Set aside. In a big soup pot, saut carrots, celery, and cabbage for about three minutes. Add stock and beets and cook about one hour or until beets are slightly tender. Add onions, beans, tomato juice, pepper, lemon juice and parsley or dill. Bring to a boil and serve.
Recipe Swap
We re love hearing from readers and we re always glad to get your favourite recipes. To contact us by mail write to:Manitoba Co-operator Recipe Swap Box 1794 Carman, Man. R0G 0J0 or email: [email protected] if I let it. And from the looks of it, dill has really spread all over the world. Europeans use it widely. So do cooks in the Middle East and Asia. Wikipedia tells us the Arab word for dill means cricket eye. In India it s added to curries and dal. It s used in fish dishes in Thailand and Vietnam.
Garden root vegetables are now at or near maturity. Add a bit of dill and butter to steaming mashed potatoes or a cool cucumber salad for a delicious flavour of fall. Here s a few recipes for this week, all having dill as an ingredient.
FRED S CHOWDER
This recipe is found in the Supper-in-the-Field Cookbook produced as a collection of best recipes from Manitoba s Parkland by the Parkland Tourism Association.
3 medium potatoes,
peeled and diced
1 large onion, chopped
1 or 2 carrots, peeled and
diced
4 stalks of celery,
chopped
1 can baby clams
1 can shrimp or frozen
raw shrimp
Any firm fish
(salmon, jackfish or cod)
1 large can
evaporated milk
2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. pepper
1 tsp. dried dill
1/2 tsp. dried thyme
2 tbsp. dried parsley
2 to 3 tbsp. butter
water
Drain can of clams into a large pot. Set aside clams. In the pot with clam juice, mix potatoes, carrots, onion and celery. Cover with water. Simmer until vegetables are tender. Add clams, shrimp and/or fish. Simmer until fish is cooked (about 20 minutes or so). Add spices and undiluted can of evaporated milk and butter. Heat gently. Do not boil. Serve hot with brown bread or crackers. Even better the next day if there is any left.
THINKSTOCK
Sendyourrecipesorreciperequeststo:
ManitobaCo-operatorRecipe Swap
Box 1794, Carman, Man. R0G 0J0
or email [email protected]
DILL BUNS
This is a recipe out of Sandy Lake s Shevchenko Dance Ensemble s 30th anniversary cookbook. These savoury buns will please anyone with a taste for dill! This recipe makes a lot of buns so cut it in half if you have a smaller household.
2 pkg. yeast
3 c. warm water
1 tbsp. sugar
4 eggs
1/4 c. sugar
2/3 c. oil
1 tsp. salt
1 c. finely chopped dill
1 medium onion, finely
shredded
2 -3 cloves garlic,
minced
8 c. flour or more to
make a soft dough
Dissolve yeast in 1 cup of water and 1 tbsp. of sugar. Let rise 10 minutes. Beat eggs; add sugar, oil, salt, dill, onion and garlic. Add 2 cups water. Add yeast mixture and mix well. Add 3 cups flour, mix well. Add remaining flour. Knead well. Let rise until double in size. Punch down. Make buns and place in muffin tins. Let rise to double in size. Bake at 350F for 20 minutes. When baked, brush with melted butter.
SWEET MIXED PICKLES
This is an old-favourite pickle recipe submitted by Lillian Deedman of Killarney.
1st day
Cut up small three-to four-inch cucumbers to make two gallons of cucumbers. Add one large head of cauliflower (cut into pieces), and one pound of silverskin onions. Make a brine of one gallon of water and one cup of coarse pickling salt. Bring to a boil and pour over pickles in a crock. Cover with a tea towel and leave for one week.
8th day
Drain well and make another brine of one gallon hot water and one tbsp. alum. Pour over pickles. Repeat for three more days with fresh water and alum. Each time drain the pickles well.
12th day
Drain well and make the following syrup.
6 c. pickling vinegar
5 c. white sugar
1/3 c. pickling spice (tied in a cloth bag) Bring to a boil and pour over pickles.
For each of the 13th and 14th days: Drain off syrup and bring syrup to a boil. Add
one cup sugar each day, using the same spice bag. Pour back over pickles. Pack pickles in jars, pour on syrup and seal. Process 10 minutes in a boiling water canner.