Big Batch Cooking: A Recipe That Makes 12 Litres Of Morocan Spiced Vegetables And Beans In A Tomato Sauce

When you are first learning to cook in large batches, much of what you do, will be learned by trial and error. Eventually you will learn how many raw ingredients and how many spices that you will require (by volume) to fill your stock pot.

You'll notice two 14 litre  stock pots in the photograph. This recipe (that I have developed) will produce one big 12 litre batch of food, can be cooked in a large pot and be preserved in 500 ml, sealer glass jars for long term storage.

How big a pot will you need?

Generally the biggest pot that you have. Or, the 2nd or 3rd biggest pots along with the biggest pot that you have in your kitchen pot inventory. As noted, this recipe produces 12 litres of food, so you'll need to accommodate 12 litres of food, plus be able to stir the mixture without over-flowing it. Plan on being able to accommodate 14 litres of food (by volume) in your pot or collection of pots and you will have the working room you need to stir and cook everything consistently.

Does the quality of the pot matter?

Yes. A thicker bottom, proper stock-pot will transfer heat more evenly across the base of the pot. If you use a big pot, that's made of a thin gauge metal the chances of burning the mixture as it cooks, are significantly higher. A thin gauge metal pot will require you to stand at your pot and stir it frequently to avoid burning the batch. Yes, even on a low simmer flame or heat. If you burn the bottom of your batch, the whole mixture will end up tasting burnt by the time it's finished cooking because that flavour will transfer through. 

How long is long term storage, you ask... 

Well, most would say a year but technically as long as the seal (of the lid cap) is not broken after you process your jars through the pressure canning process, indefinitely. I still have chili sauce in storage in my cold room that was jarred in the summer of 2014. It's like fine wine and I'm down to my last 3 jars of it. (Saved to be placed as an offering on a table, laid-out for a special occasion brunch.) If the jar looks to still be in good condition, the colour of the food looks ok, you hear a pop-sound when you break the seal and the food doesn't have an "off" smell or taste, the food has been properly preserved.

Let's have a look at the mountain of vegetables and list of ingredients

1. 1/4 cup of coconut oil or butter (to saute the onions with); 
2. 2 medium size onions;
3. 8 cups of cubed sweet potatoes;
4. 2 whole medium size cauliflowers;
5. 2 1/4 kilograms of tomato paste;
6. 5 litres of water (or 1.3 gallons);
7. 9 cups of mixed beans of your choice (I used a blend that contained chick peas, red kidney beans, black eyed peas. white kidney beans, Romano beans and Lima beans );
8. 2 cups of chick peas;
9. 2 small turnips;
10. 4 cups of carrots (cut in rounds);
11. 4 1/4 cups of green beans (cut in 1/4 inch or bite size pieces);
12. 4 cups of beets (cut in rounds);
13. and 8 tbsp of Moroccan spices (I used a pre-made spice blend that contains paprika, ginger, cumin, cinnamon, turmeric, white pepper, ground clove and cardamon).  

Directions:

• Cut onions and saute them in a frying pan with coconut oil or butter.

• Measure 8 cups (or 2.5 kilograms) of tomato paste and blend it with 5 litres (or 1.3 gallons) of water in the stock pot. This will produce a tomato sauce. You can also substitute strained tomatoes or tomato sauce. If you do this, you will need 7 litres of tomato sauce or strained tomatoes..
• Add the sauteed onions and stir the pot really well. (My favourite part of the procedure is stirring the pot.)
• Set the flame or burner heat on your stove to a medium-low simmer

• Chop the sweet potatoes into bite-size pieces. Do the same with the green beans, the cauliflower, turnip and carrots.
• Stir as you add each vegetable and continue stirring the pot, every 15-20 minutes.

• Clean and slice the beets. I used a food processor to slice both the beets and the carrots, in order to make the prep work a little less labour intensive. Beets add a very distinctive flavour to this blend. If you don't like the taste of cooked beets, simply leave them out. These came directly out of the garden and I didn't want to waste the precious vitamins and minerals that they contain so I just incorporated them into the mix.

• Rinse the beans and chick peas thoroughly and blend them into the mixture really well.

• Add the spice last.
• Stir the spice into the mixture really well.
• Turn the heat down to a low simmer and cook for another 2 hours, stirring the pot every 20 minutes.

The next step is to put this mixture into glass jars and then into a prepared pressure canner for 90 minutes. I will show you this process in detail in my next post. :)

If you missed my previous post on the actual pressure canner that I am using, you can find it here: https://steemit.com/homesteading/@rebeccaryan/taking-a-model-921-pressure-canner-for-a-spin

I welcome your comments and invite your to follow me on my journey...CHOP CHOP.

~ Rebecca Ryan