Ferments Including Sauerkraut

 

Fermented Sauerkraut

 

Yesterday I transferred my sauerkraut to other jars to put in our garage fridge. This past garden cabbage was bagged and put in the bottom of that fridge all this time. I was lazy and just did not get to it till last month.

My favorite fermenting book is The Complete IDIOTS Guide to Fermenting Foods, by Wardeh Harmon. My book is from 2012 and I have so many notes and post-it notes in it. I have other books as well and often consult them, but it all gets put into this book.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Over the years I've tried a lot of ferments and have narrowed down to my favorites. That being sauerkraut from our garden, fermented pickles (which I like way better than vinegar made pickles), and then Cranberry-Orange-Apple Relish. Once cranberries hit the store my mouth waters for this ferment. I like Dilly Green Beans, but don't make them every year. Since I grow turnips and beets I'm going to try that recipe again. I also usually ferment my garlic scapes. And I occasionally make Beet Kvass.

Now that I'm looking at the book, I realize I also often make the fermented Mayonnaise as well as Ketchup and Dijon Mustard. Instead of the Veggie Tomato Juice, this year, I canned my own version of V8 Juice. And too, we occasionally want the Ginger Soda. Sometimes I've added turmeric root with the ginger root.  

I didn't make the sauerkraut earlier because I still had some in the fridge from the previous year. Usually I pressure can whatever is left from the year before. But now that I have a freeze dryer, I often freeze-dry my older sauerkraut on a low setting to keep it's probiotic nutrients - I've reconstituted it and it tastes fresh.

It's funny, cuz at first when I started writing this post, I thought I wasn't fermenting many things, but as I kept listing them ... I guess I do! 

 

Kamut & Whole Wheat Sourdough Bread

 

Fresh baked sourdough loaves from fresh milled kamut and whole wheat flour I started two days ago. It was autolyzed (the grain flour soaked in the recipe's water). Then once the sourdough starter was added, it went through the folding process, and then was bulked a bit. Put into the cambro container, it was refrigerated (see that post from 2 days ago for the process). I did fold it a bit yesterday and shaped it into a nice boule, then back into the cambro and fridge. Today, straight from the fridge, it was baked! 

These are the containers I'm baking in. The long one is clay and the closest one is cast iron. They go into the oven to preheat to 500 degrees, so the pans get hot. 

I shape the cold dough on the counter and it sits while the oven and pans are preheating.

I typically do just one slash with a razor blade. 

 

Cambro

Once in the oven with the lids on, I turn the heat down to 450 degrees. Turn the timer on for 20 minutes. When it goes off, I remove the lids and have the timer go for another 20 minutes.  

 Because it is just the two of us I cut the cooled loaves in half and they store in the freezer. I have bread freezer bags I use for freezing the bread without plastic bags.

 I always have bread stored in a beeswax bag in our bread box in the kitchen. A breadboard sits near the bread box along with the sourdough knife. 

 

New Sourdough Book

 

A new to me book

When I was researching the nutrition in fresh ground whole grains, and moreso sourdough, I found this gal, Vanessa Kimbell. She's called the sourdough queen in the UK and started a sourdough school.

When reading Amazon's sample (and I read the samples of all three of her books) I knew I wanted them. Their Kindle versions were so cheap I got them first, but then realized I needed the physical books so I can flip back and forth to differing pages and even mark them up ...

(The mention of owning them and liking to mark them up reminds me of a series I'm reading. At Christmas my granddaughter was reading them and her mom eventually told me she'd give me the first two for my birthday, I am savoring them!!! I'm on book 5 of The Unselected Journals of Emma M. Lion series, by Beth Brower. I can't show you book number 1 because a friend came today for tea and borrowed it. I've already heard from her, that she loves it and is going to savor it! Anyway, Emma M. Lion LOVES books and likes to own them so she can mark them up. I periodically text my daughter-in-law to tell of a part I'd recently read that kept me chuckling!) 

The sourdough queen Vanessa, has really studied the 'chemistry' of sourdough and our gut. You can read about it in The Sourdough School book. Her first taste of sourdough was when 9 years old in a French bakery. By the time she was 11, she was working there. She moved to the UK and could not find any sourdough bread. She got sick. She ate gluten free for four years and then when visiting France, at her old bakery, she ate half a loaf and knew she'd soon be suffering ... but she did not get sick! At that point the trajectory of her life changed - she had to understand why/what was so different about sourdough. This book is about answering her questions and the knowledge of this magical fermentation process that is integral to making the most nourishing and delicious bread in the world!

I have a large collection of bread making books. I am going to work my way through this book and its recipes. I have friends who have had the experience of being able to eat bread in Europe, and my bread, and not gotten sick. 

The fresh milled Kamut, and Whole Wheat bread I started yesterday, I put in a Cambro overnight, I decided to make a lot of folds and form the dough into a nice boule and put back into the fridge. I'll bake it tomorrow.

 I read in her book that this method of getting the dough autolyzed and fermented, then leaving it overnight to proof (what I've always done), even to 48 hours, is the healthiest. It is more digestible.

And she takes it from the fridge, and puts it to bake in the hot oven. This too, is what I've done for years! She likes the spring of the dough from cold fridge to hot oven.

I bought another sourdough book that adds lots of veggie or fruit pastes into sourdough bread. It's a seasonal book, even adding mashed chestnuts, which I only see at Christmas, into the bread. I'll probably be mentioning it at some point. I have to start baking from it as well.

 This morning I ate not just oatmeal, but a mixture I'd ordered from Azure, that has lots of rolled grains. I mixed it with reconstituted freeze dried strawberries. It was so good. A 7-grain cereal. 

I've really missed, leaving by the wayside for awhile, all the whole grains I used to eat. After reading people's healing stories from eating fresh milled whole grain flour products, I'm starting to look at my health history over the past almost 15 years . . . 

The cereal bag is next to my ancient yogurt maker. It was already used when I bought it almost 40 years ago and is still working. I've made our 1/2 gallon of whole milk homemade yogurt all those years to this day still. 

Tomorrow I'll post about the bread baking. 
 

Fresh Milled Flour (FMF) From Many Grains!

I used to make bread, for almost 30 years with fresh ground flour - primarily hard white wheat. In one day I'd have 6 sandwich loaves, 4 french bread, and four dozen cinnamon rolls made. I'd freeze the majority of it all. That was when our kids were here. They were raised in this house, but now off raising their own families.

 

I started making sourdough bread. My research showed the nutritive value of sourdough, as well as its aid in digestion as a ferment. It's basically predigested.  It's also the way bread has been made forever. Yeast is new as of very late 1800, so from 1900 on our breads in the US have been made quickly and don't go through a ferment time using a starter culture. Anyway, I'm making everything sourdough from my almost 15 year old starter. I keep it in the refrigerator in between baking.

 

Fresh Milled Flours

 In the picture I've ground-

• 600g Kamut
• 200g Hard White Wheat 
• 200g Hard Red Wheat   
   

Sourdough starter proofing in the oven

I've got it soaking in 800g warm water while my sourdough starter, which I added some flour and water to, is proofing in my Breville Smart Oven Pro. It almost always takes 2 hours to proof from the refrigerator to a bubbly state.

 

Soaking (autolyse) grain flour in the water

The soaking of the grain, in my third picture, is an Autolyze step I now do with all fresh ground whole grains. It softens the bran, primarily. I was told in the beginning of my sourdough process that you cannot use whole grain for sourdough bread because the bran would cut the bubbles and you'd end up with flat bread, so I used store bought (or Azure bought) bread flour, which are basically sifted for removing the bran (and probably the germ of the grain, which goes rancid, thus not shelf stable) and adding about 10-30% fresh ground flour. Because I made the Tartine sourdough bread for so many years, I really have the sourdough bread process memorized and great loaves of bread. I kept the freezer stocked for the two of us. 

 

I've got the bowl in above picture sitting on a heating source set at 80 degrees, while the starter is proofing in the oven, which is also set at 80 degrees. Our house is generally cold so a warmer temperature for proofing is good.

 

 Once the leaven is bubbly, I measure 150g of the leaven into the soaking ground grain. Then I let it autolyse some more. I usually wait about 30 minutes before adding another 50g of water and 25g of salt. 

  

 

Ready to mix in extra water and salt

Now, in this picture I'm ready to fold in the water and salt. I often just use my wet hands. I like to work the salt and water into the dough well. So I mix it in with lots of folds, almost like kneading.

 

Then about every 30 minutes with my wet hands I'll do several folds for about 2 hours. Most times I'm really good about this and sometimes very irregular. Then you're supposed to let it bulk rise for awhile. And again, sometimes I'm good at doing this and other times when busy I forget. But in the end, once folded several times and maybe bulked for awhile I put it in a Cambro container overnight in my fridge in the garage.

 

So stay tuned for the formed and baked bread, most likely tomorrow. Sometimes I'll keep it refrigerated for 2 days before baking if it fits my schedule better. I'll show you what I typically bake 2 loaves in, and then other pans I don's use as often. I'll give you a clue tho, I prefer bread easier to slice to eat with our fresh cooked chicken eggs, or sandwiches.

 

 

Cultured Cranberry Relish and Veggie Dippers

Fermenting veggies for serving with a dip, and cranberry relish - for Thanksgiving Day

For several years now I ferment veggies for a platter with dip, and then a cranberry mixture for Thanksgiving. I ferment them for at least 24hours. The process breaks them down a bit for easier digestion, besides being healthy for our gut.

I by organic broccoli, cauliflower, celery, cucumber and carrots (and this year added red pepper). I slice and put them in a large bowl, along with some slivered fresh garlic. I sprinkled on about 3 Tb sea salt and occasionally stir to start the veggies juicing. I also add a couple teaspoons of pickling spices and then about 1/4-1/3 cup of liquid whey (from strained yogurt). Just make sure the veggies are covered with water, which with the salt becomes a brine. There's a glass weight in the jars to keep the veggies submerged. A brine is typically 3 Tb salt per 1 quart of water.

Pulsing cranberry relish ingredients

CRANBERRY ORANGE APPLE RELISH

4 - 7.5oz containers of cranberries (around 32 ounces)
8 tangelo type oranges, skin and all (remove seeds)
3 apples
1/2 cup sucanat (dehydrated sugar cane)
2 tsp cinnamon
2 tsp salt
1/2 cup raisins
1/4-1/3 cup whey
1/2-1 lemon

Pulse all but the whey in a food processor. Don't puree. This mixture filled my 1 1/2 Liter and a 1 Liter Pickle-It containers, with a glass weight, and airlock on top of jar. I squeezed some lemon juice on top of both for extra submerging liquid. You can do this in a regular fido jar or canning jar with a plastic lid. But I have tasted a difference in the foods fermented with the airlocks - better tasting!

I keep on making the cranberry relish thru-out their season in the store - on into February. I store the jars in my cool cellar. I like to eat this with yogurt, walnuts, shredded unsweetened coconut . . .

Any leftover veggies can be jarred up and stored in a fridge or cool cellar as well. I've opened a jar months later and they're still fairly crisp and yummy!

Cranberry-Orange-Apple Relish Ferment

"Pickled" brined sardines, Cranberry Relish Ferment

In my last post I said I had cranberries to make a ferment with. I'll give you the recipe. It's my favorite winter ferment, and while fresh cranberries are in the store ... tis the season to keep making it. I jar it up in pint-size canning jars and store it in my cool (wine) cellar. Then can keep eating it till gone. Like I just ate, finishing one up from last year. I like to mix in my soaked and dried crispy walnuts and sometimes mix it with yogurt.

I've mentioned it before, but my favorite ferment book is - The Complete Idiots Guide to Fermenting Foods. This recipe comes from it. The book has a lot of similar recipes as Sally Fallon's Nourishing Traditions - but a lot more, and more taste friendly to us (Sally Fallon's book has WAY MORE in another way - an encyclopedia of info, like my soaked, crispy nuts ... and why). Like I need to start another Ginger Bug for the Ginger Soda which we've been missing. The Pickled Herring (I did Sardines) is in one of the jars I'm showing you a pic of, is in the book too. I often make larger batches than she does. She, Wardeh Harmon, probably does too, but is making the book user friendly with quart canning jar sizes. So here goes with my 3 Liter size amount -

Pulse in Food Processor

Cranberry-Orange-Apple Relish Ferment

About 36oz of cranberries, rinse well
10 tangelos (usually no seeds), wash skins
4-6 apples depending on size (more is fine), washed
3/4 cup organic raisins
3/4 cup shy of sucanat
2 heaping tsp of cinnamon (I suppose I could just say 1 Tb)
1 Tb Real Salt
1/3 C Kefir or yogurt whey
1 lemon's juice to cover top of ingredients in jar

Combine first 5 ingredients, in batches, pulsing in food processor. You want to chop somewhat fine, not puree. Combine all in large bowl to mix well. I like to do all my ferments starting in a large bowl - both sugar or salt start breaking down the juices in the veggies or fruits for your "brine". Some people, like with sauerkraut will stomp and stomp with a maul, taking a lot of muscle, to break things down. As I said, I prefer the large bowl method. Plus, I'm getting older and don't like to do that, or can't do that, much muscle/ hand use! Mine turn out just fine. They do create more juices in the ferment container, so leave some head space. Also submerge whatever you're doing beneath the brine. Online shows lots of people's methods. I bought glass weights on EBay, and my Pickl-It jars came with glass weights.

Mix all ingredients in a large bowl

A lot of my ferments I leave out 2-3 weeks. This cranberry ferment I leave out several days to a week and then jar up and refrig or cool storage. The sardine "pickle" (it's not in vinegar, but a salt brine) was out 24 hrs and then refrigerated.

Sardines

I said in the last post that I'm smoking the rest of the sardines. I did. Yum. We froze what's left for pulling out to flavor stuff, kinda like canned sardines. I like mixing with avacado and spreading on toast, having with salad . . .

Masterbuilt Electric Smoker

Ginger and Turmeric Soda/ Ale

Left Ale has added turmeric root color

I've posted about making Ginger Ale before. I'm still regularly making it since it is a favorite of Monte's, as well as guests.

Turmeric root to the left and ginger to the right - they are related

I'm again posting the how-to. My health food store had a root looking like ginger next to the ginger - it was turmeric. So I tried adding half the grated ginger as turmeric last week. It was ready for drinking Sunday . . . And we like it!

See the turmeric color when grated compared with the grated ginger?!

Turmeric stained hands

GINGER ALE

First I make a ginger bug.
Scrub a fresh ginger chunk, no need to peel, and store in a baggy in the fridge.

Put some water about 2/3 full in a quart jar. Add- 
1 Tb of fresh grated ginger and
1 Tb of sugar

Stir vigorously to incorporate air and dissolve the sugar. Either rubber-band the top with a napkin or something breathable.

Continual Brew Kombucha crock, Dairy Kefir, and my brewing Ginger Ale Bug to the left on warm mat in back of my pantry. NOTE!: I love this picture BUT I no longer keep all these brewing side-by-side. Ferments need to be separated to prevent contamination. My dairy kefir is the one to suffer!

Keep this in a warm spot.
Every 24 hours add another-
1 Tb sugar and
1Tb fresh grated ginger
Stir well

I have a seed starting heat mat on a shelf at the back of my pantry that my Kombucha and Dairy Kefir sit on, and now my brewing ginger. By 3-7 days (mine's usually ready in 4 days) you'll hear it bubbling when you're stirring. This is your bug, or starter, for ginger ale.

1 Cup of the ginger bug will make 1 gallon of ginger ale. The rest of the bug can store in the fridge for more batches.

1 1/2 Cups sugar
1/3 packed cup of fresh grated ginger
1 Cup of the bug
1/3 cup lemon juice (usually 2 lemons)
Enough water to fill for 1 gallon of beverage

Either boil the sugar in some of the water to dissolve. Remove from heat and add ginger, cool and add the rest. Or just stir well till sugar is dissolved.

Ginger bug, lemon juice, sugar and grated root in jars

I don't have a gallon jar so I use two 1/2 gallon jars. I loosely put on white plastic lids rather than the rubber-banded cloth lid. They'll need to be tightened and shook, or stirred well, every 12 hours.

Enough "ginger bug" left to start another batch

Start tasting about day 3 to see if bubbling with a bit of carbonation and satisfying to your taste. It can brew longer, but it's usually ready to strain off and bottle. More starter and sugar could be added to a batch not brewing, or just a bit more sugar.

If you want carbonation, bottle to within 2" of top. Cap. Leave at room temp or warmer for 3-5 days to build up carbonation. It will also get less sweet as it "eats up" the sugar. When to your liking chill till ready to serve. Chilling slows fermentation. I've not let it sit out longer. I fill my refrigerator pitcher and store the extra in my cellar.

Our Cellar- Ginger Ale, Moroccan Lemons, Dairy Kefir cheese in olive oil, Kombucha, Fermented Salsa

Poured from stored jar in cellar and it really fizzed!

Additional notes:
Turmeric is very good for you. Look it up . . .

Your bug can keep going for further batches. Just keep adding a bit of sugar and grated ginger like above. Refrigerate when not using for a batch of Ginger Soda.

Current Note (10/20/2015): Our youngest son, now several years married, makes his own ginger-ale. But is making it in 5 gallon quantities. He keeps it in one of his Kegerator containers with it's own tap on the outside of the fridge!

Rhubarb Custard Pie

I'm re-posting this recipe I posted several years ago. We have guests staying here this week. I made it for dessert to go with a grass-fed chuck roast, mashed potatoes, and salad. Along with fermented veggies I made over Christmas and have stored in the cellar, and homemade wine. At the end of this post I'll add a few more tidbits of info.

This is a company and family favorite. It's in my cookbook. When I make something new, I often pull out several cookbooks to compare recipes, then pick and choose. This requires "knowing your ingredients" - which is a chapter in the Joy of Cooking cookbook.

RHUBARB CUSTARD PIE

First, I freeze the 1/2" cut-up rhubarb from our garden (see post here with daughter Heather helping with the harvest) in a heaping quart measuring bowl, so it's about 5 cups of rhubarb.


PIE CRUST
(for 2+ crusts)
2 C flour (could be sprouted grain flour)
3/4 C butter
pinch of salt
about 1/4 C water (depends on flour moisture)

I use my ground white whole wheat or pastry wheat I've always got in the freezer in Ziplock bags. Since I had kamut in there too, this pie is half wheat and half kamut. I always use butter, unsalted if I have it. I've used lard or the newer organic shortening which is palm oil. I never use shortening. It's vegetable oil heated so hot it's next step would be plastic. Our body does not know how to break this fat down - it's what's now called trans-fat. And labels that have partially hydrogenated anything I never get. It's the word "partial" that's killing people. It races around our body looking for a home and latches onto cells, hurting them, and today we have way more cancer, diabetes, and heart disease than ever.

Cut the flour, salt, and butter together till fine crumble. Mix in water till mixture forms a ball. It shouldn't be sticky. I use a food processor all the time now for the preliminary processing of the dough, unless I'm making a larger amount, then I use the whips in my regular Bosch bowl, putting the cut-up butter in first. But I always finish up both processes by hand with a pastry blender. Mixing the final bits of water in is when we often over-process pie dough, which makes it tough. Then I flatten the dough in plastic wrap and refrigerate it while putting together the filling. Keeping the dough chilled is another key to a flaky crust.

Filling -

the 5 cups cut up fresh or frozen rhubarb put in pie first.
Mix together -
3 eggs
2 Tb whole wheat flour
2 Tb tapioca
1/3 C honey
1 C organic sugar (we've been practically eliminating sugar, so I'm going to cut this back next time cuz it's too sweet for us now)
1/2-1 tsp orange peel
pinch of salt

Pour the filling over the rhubarb and cover with a top crust and make steam vents. I usually sprinkle it with a touch of cinnamon. Bake for 10 minutes at 400, then lower to 350 and continue baking another 45-60 minutes. We like pie crust well-browned and giving the bottom crust a chance to thoroughly cook too.

When I put on the top crust I knife off the excess dough before crimping the edges.

I roll out this excess dough for little cinnamon tarts. Sometimes I'll put pats of butter then sprinkle on lots of cinnamon. The very little bit of sugar added on these is Sucanat. It can't really be called a sugar, cuz by its very nature, sugar is processed. Sucanat is plain dehydrated sugar cane.

If you click on Rhubarb in my sidebar you'll find other Rhubarb recipes like Rhubarb Aid which is a company/family favorite, and a Rhubarb Crisp . . . Last summer I did a rhubarb ferment from Wardeh's Idiots Guide to Fermenting (my favorite fermenting book so far!)(And another summer fruit ferment from her book I'm going to do more of in the future is her bing cherry one. I'm going to leave nuts out tho, preferring to add my soaked and dried crispy nuts as I eat it. Like this morning I had some fresh frozen fruit with my dairy kefir with chia seeds, shredded coconut, a bit of the bing cherry ferment and added some walnuts.)

When we built our home here twenty nine years ago, rhubarb was seeded out into the meadow from an old homestead we still see the foundation of. We moved all the rhubarb to the back of a garden area we fenced in. It's a ways below our house on the edge of the woods. They'd also planted chokecherries on the edge of the woods (which I make into a great wine!)(rhubarb wine, by the way, is good too). All this to say, the rhubarb is probably 100 years old. It's mostly green stalks with some red and pink. I think today's all red stalked rhubarb has been bred as such. We still occasionally let some stalks seed into the woods, so we have babies to transplant and give to people.

The last note I want to add is that I made this pie - still with whatever ground flour was in the freezer, which was spelt this time - with Kerry Gold butter I'm now getting from Costco. Love it! A great pastured butter from Ireland. WELL . . . I could tell a difference in this crust with that butter. Excellent! And our company agreed, but then all men love a great meal of meat, gravy and mashed potatoes, with good wine, and pie for dessert!


Shared with: Frugally Sustainable, Food Renegade, Clever Chicks Barn Hop, Real Food Wednesdays, Simple Lives Thursday, Slightly Indulgent Tuesday

Fermented Onions and More

Fermenting Veggies, Red Onions, Cranberry Relish, Beets, and Pear sauce for dehydrating as a 'leather'

Did more ferments. I LOVE the veggie mixture for putting on a platter with some homemade dips. The first time I tried this was for Thanksgiving - only fermenting them a couple days. I thought they'd get soggy over time, but they don't. The ones I jarred up in smaller jars and put in my cold cellar are still crispy nice . . . And such wonderful flavor! So I did it again for the Holiday get-togethers, which always need more wholesome veggies available! as well as that taste variance over all the sweets (which I don't eat much of tho they are around).

I already posted about the Cranberry-Orange-Apple Relish. This is my third batch this season, and will probably do more till no more fresh cranberries are in the store. I mostly use it mornings with my dairy kefir or homemade yogurt, soaked and dried walnuts, shredded coconut, and sometimes adding a bit of my soaked and dried cold cereal (all recipes posted here).

I love beets and decided to keep making this version - sliced beets - over the kvass recipes. I still drink the brine. And I'm really excited about the red onions. I'm going to be adding them to all sorts of things. Like on salads, in egg and chicken salads, sandwiches . . . I do use whey in most of my ferments. I've read of using other starters or none at all. I have access to liquid whey whenever I want it. It's very nutritious, and I've not found any undesirable texture or taste! And I've not made an official brine either. I typically put all the ingredients in a large bowl and sprinkle on the salt I'd use if making a brine and keep stirring and tossing, to start the process before jarring up in my Pickl-It jars, and adding the water amount to cover.

Monte just mixed up some special canned tuna I got from I Love Blue Sea (and will keep getting cases from them - it's THE best!) with my cultured homemade mayo and the fermented zucchini with poblano chilies I kept making at the end of summer - serving it with my homemade sourdough gouda cheese crackers. SO GOOD!

Cultured Cranberry Relish and Veggie Dippers

Fermenting veggies for serving with a dip, and cranberry relish - for Thanksgiving Day

I posted earlier about wanting to ferment my typical raw cranberry relish I make for Thanksgiving. And I said I wanted to ferment the veggies for a platter with a dip. I put off fermenting them cuz I was afraid of them getting too fermented. Like would the veggies be soggy limp? So I fermented them for about 24hours. They were a hit!

WELL . . . I had two jars of each. So a week later I jarred them up to put in my cool cellar. The veggies were still delish with a crunch and the cranberry was great too.

I just bought more organic cranberries that were on sale and going to make up some more. I'll probably keep doing this till the cranberry season is done. Is that just after Christmas?

I bought organic broccoli, orange cauliflower, celery, cucumber and carrots. I sliced them and put them in a large bowl, along with some slivered fresh garlic. I sprinkled on about 4 Tb sea salt and occasionally stirred to start the veggies juicing. I must have wrote this down somewhere! cuz I'm pretty sure I added some peppercorns and possibly some cloves. And then some liquid whey. Just make sure the veggies are covered with water, which with the salt becomes a brine. There's a glass weight in the jars to keep the veggies submerged.

Pulsing cranberry relish ingredients

CRANBERRY ORANGE APPLE RELISH

4 - 7.5oz containers of cranberries (about 8 cups)
8 tangelo type oranges, skin and all (remove seeds!)
3 apples
1/2 cup sucanat
2 tsp cinnamon
2 tsp salt
1/2 cup raisins
1/3 cup whey
1/2-1 lemon

Pulse all but the whey in a food processor. Don't puree. This mixture filled my 1 1/2 Liter and a 1 Liter Pickle-It containers, with a glass weight, and airlock on top of jar. I squeezed some lemon juice on top of both for extra submerging liquid. You can do this in a regular fido jar or canning jar with a plastic lid. But I have tasted a difference in the foods fermented with the airlocks - better tasting!

Sharing at: Simple Lives Thursday, My Cultured Palate, Beyond the Peel, Real Food Wednesday, Fat Tuesday, Slightly Indulgent Tuesday, Pickle Me Too,  Monday Mania, Prairie Homestead Barn Hop, Farm Girl Blog Fest, Dandelion House, Food Renegade

Cultured Condiments

Homemade Cultured (fermented) Condiments

I was wanting to make egg salad (recipe under eggs label - thee best!) and realized I needed more mayo. I make mayo. I'll keep some store-bought around ... for some people ... but I prefer homemade.

Since reading Sally Fallon's Nourishing Traditions (have I read it all? has anyone read it all? what a resource!!!!!!!) I started making my own ketchup and mayo. I'd been making my own mayo occasionally, and mustard for years, but now culture it. By letting them ferment a bit with the addition of liquid whey (draining the liquid from my homemade yogurt or dairy kefir) their nutrients are boosted with more enzymes and vitamins (and dare I say 'organisms'? - like probiotic) and it helps preserve them for a long time.

MAYONNAISE
Have all the ingredients at room temp.

3 egg yolks or 1 whole egg and 1 yolk
Definitely use washed organic eggs, or better yet, pastured eggs.
I use my own chickens eggs which are fed organic non-GMO grains.
1 tsp dijon mustard (my homemade!)
1 1/2 Tb raw apple cider vinegar or lemon juice
1 Tb whey (not powdered)
1/2 tsp sea salt
1 cup extra virgin olive oil

Making mayo in a food processor

Combine all but the oil in either a blender or food processor. With it running, slowly drizzle in the olive oil and the mixture will thicken. Jar up and leave the jar with the lid on, on the counter for 7 to 12 hours to culture, and then refrigerate. This keeps for many weeks!

I love the flavor of extra virgin olive oil. If you don't, experiment with other oils. You can find all kinds of suggestions online. Unless you buy organic mayo, you are getting GMO soybean oil, etc.

For ketchup I use tomato paste and the vinegar and whey and spicing. There's lots of recipes out there. I use Sally's. And same goes for mustard. For years I've been using a mixture of dark brown and light golden mustard seeds.

Homemade mustard is fabulous. I'll often take it to gatherings, along with some cheese and homemade sourdough crackers (I've got cracker recipes posted).

I like mixing some mayo and ketchup together, equal proportions, for a quick kind of Thousand Island salad dressing.

Thanksgiving Tree Chart, and Ferments to add to the Menu

Well ... It's the week before Thanksgiving ... and all thru the house ... I'm planning the Thanksgiving menu, and Dawson is fixing our leaky kitchen faucet - actually going to replace it. Too often lately I've been finding the kitchen counter flooded, and this morning realized it leaks under the sink too.

I was going to just put a link to what I posted several years ago, but decided I'd copy and paste some of it here and write more. I like the Thanksgiving Tree idea, but where I usually put it is now covered in framed photographs. The first year I didn't put it up, one of our guests all of a sudden asked, "Where's the Thanksgiving Tree? I've been thinking all week about what leaves I want to fill out and put on the tree!". I'd figured, like my "First's of Spring" chart I've posted on before - by now, it's so ingrained, we automatically think about it - that I didn't need the Thanksgiving Tree chart either. Wrong! And now with Grandkids, it's going to remain as an ongoing tradition. I'll probably put it - the bare-branched tree drawing on paper - on the refrigerator door with colored markers nearby, as I ended up doing that year after Kristen's remark!

November Tradition for gratitude thoughts

I often got frustrated at the Thanksgiving table when I asked what people were thankful for. Usually someone would say something silly and then everyone else would. So that's when, on a large piece of paper, I started drawing a tree, with lots of branches and no leaves, to hang on the wall. I cut a variety of leaves from colored construction paper, leaving them sit on a counter with a pen and glue stick. If this is done a week or so before Thanksgiving everyone who comes to our house could write something they're thankful for on a leaf and glue it on the tree. Then by Thanksgiving, we've had time to think beyond tangibles like food, family, God, friends, pets etc to firemen, police, doctors ... and then beyond to intangibles like Truth, Love, Integrity ...


Two gals had heard me talk about it at MOPS years ago and brought examples of their trees. One drew the tree skeleton and they'd ripped brown paper bag pieces and glued them on, filling in the tree. Pieces were loose and it looked like bark. Another gal had gathered lots of colored aspen leaves and color copied them to cut out for the leaves - reminding me of an old one of mine, still in the garage, on cardboard with real aspen leaves we'd pressed dry.

It's shaping up to be a houseful for Thanksgiving: sons and families, and friends. Looking forward to friends coming from afar, over the rivers and thru the woods ... and yes, to Grandmother's House they'll go. I'm a grandma now!

Me scooping stuffing out of cooked turkey

I do a very traditional Thanksgiving meal. Since stuffing is one of my favorite dishes, I stuff my turkey for that taste contribution to the stuffing. The day before: I brine the turkey, and I cut up a loaf of homemade bread in small cubes to occasionally stir and let dry in a large bowl. First thing Thanksgiving morning I melt a cube of butter in a skillet and saute a chopped large onion and a few stalks of celery. In my mortar bowl I put a few Tb of home dried sage and thyme and oregano, and with the pestle I grind them fine to add to the bread cubes along with several tsp salt and pepper. I also start cooking the turkey organs and neck for broth - both to moisten the stuffing and to have later for the gravy. So once I've added the sauted onion and celery to the seasoned bread and stir to moisten, adding broth if needed, I pack both the turkey neck and body cavity. Then skewer and tie closed, tying in the wings and legs close to the body too. 

I cook my turkey covered the whole time - then there's no need to baste. It sits on a rack in the pan. I put the pan in a preheated 450 degree oven and immediately lower the temp to 325 degrees. Since I always do large stuffed birds, I always cook them 18 minutes per pound. They've always cooked through (stuffing should be at least 165 degrees) and browned well. We remove the bird to a cutting board. I make a paste of about 1/3-1/2 cup flour and water to start cooking the gravy in the same pan the turkey came out of. I'll add broth and potato water to the pan drippings for making a great gravy. This'll need to simmmer at least 30 minutes to rid any raw flour taste, and it'll need salt.

When you invite guests you have to let them bring food. So I let them do what they want with green beans, sweet potatoes and pies. I'll start cooking the potatoes just before the turkey is done. I save all the drained potato water. I let butter melt into the potatoes. The potato water will be used for mashing the potatoes (since I add in lots of butter, I don't use milk) and adding to the gravy. Sometimes I make rolls, or else let a guest bring some. My favorite pie is mystery pecan, so usually make a couple of them the day before.

I often make a fresh cranberry relish with a whole orange (someone will often bring traditional canned cranberry sauce), but this year I'm going to try a fermented version of the relish. And I'm wanting a veggie tray with dip for earlier in the afternoon snack. SO ... today I'm doing to make up the cranberry relish and start veggies fermenting as well. I've got cucumbers, carrots, cauliflower, and broccoli. I'll start tasting them all in a couple days to see if I want to refrigerate to slow the process or let them keep on fermenting till Thanksgiving. I'll take pics and post ... so check in later for a report!

One year I wrote 'gratitude' instead of 'thanks' on the tree chart. It's just something I'd been pondering ... It's an 'at the heart level' thing. Gratitude could change the world!

Linked to: Or So She Says, Food Renegade, Six Sisters Stuff, Frugally Sustainable, Farm Girl Blog Fest, Dandelion House, Simple Lives Thursday, My Cultured Palate, Beyond the Peel, Traditional Tuesday, Pickle Me Too, Whole New Mom, Fat Tuesday, Slightly Indulgent Tuesday,  Real Food Wednesday, Monday Mania, Melt In Your Mouth Mondays

Ginger Ale

I just posted about all my food pets needing feeding. I ended the post talking about a new pet I'll be keeping, thus maintaining, thus feeding - Home brewed Ginger Ale. Monte loves this, especially with meals. Guests have really liked it too. So it's a keeper.

Ginger Bug for Ginger Ale

GINGER ALE
First I make a ginger bug.
Scrub a fresh ginger chunk, no need to peel, and store in a baggy in the fridge.

Put some water about 2/3 full in a quart jar. Add- 
1 Tb of fresh grated ginger and
1 Tb of sugar

Stir vigorously to incorporate air and dissolve the sugar. Either rubber-band the top with a napkin or something breathable. I might even start doing it in one of my Pickl-It Jars (another past post).

Continual Brew Kombucha crock, Dairy Kefir, and my brewing Ginger Ale to the left on warm mat in back of my pantry

Keep this in a warm spot.
Every 24 hours add another-
1 Tb sugar and
1Tb fresh grated ginger
Stir well

I have a seed starting heat mat on a shelf at the back of my pantry that my Kombucha and Dairy Kefir sit on, and now my brewing ginger. By 3-7 days (mine's usually ready in 4 days) you'll hear it bubbling when you're stirring. This is your bug, or starter, for ginger ale.

1 Cup of the ginger bug will make 1 gallon of ginger ale. The rest of the bug can store in the fridge for the next batch. You might as well make a gallon (or more) -

1 1/2 Cups sugar
1/3 packed cup of fresh grated ginger
1 Cup of the bug
1/3 cup lemon juice (usually 2 lemons)
Enough water to fill for 1 gallon of beverage

Either boil the sugar in some of the water to dissolve. Remove and add ginger, cool and add the rest. Or just stir well till sugar is dissolved.

I don't have a gallon jar (ah, I should be using my 3 Liter Pickl-It - next time) so I use two 1/2 gallon jars. This time I loosely put on the white plastic lids rather than the rubber-banded cloth lid. They'll need to be tightened and shook, or stirred well, every 12 hours.

Start tasting about day 3 to see if bubbling with carbonation and if sweet enough. It can brew longer, but it's usually ready to strain off and bottle. More starter and sugar could be added to a batch not brewing, or just a bit more sugar.

If you want carbonation, bottle to within 2" of top. Cap. Leave at room temp or warmer for 3-5 days to build up carbonation. It will also get less sweet. When to your liking chill till ready to serve. Chilling slows fermentation. I store the extra in my cellar.

Our Cellar- Ginger Ale, Moroccan Lemons, Dairy Kefir cheese in olive oil, Kombucha, Fermented Salsa

Poured from stored jar in cellar and it really fizzed!

NOTE added 11/11 - I know I said to let sit at room temp after bottling for more carbonation, but I've been straining each 1/2 gallon that's brewed about 3 days with the bug into 1/2 gallon jars and storing in my cellar, which is consistently about 48 degrees. When I bring up a bottle to pour into my fridge container it is VERY fizzy!

3/11/13 Note - I'm still making ginger soda, dairy kefir, and kombucha as shown above. BUT I'm often adding turmeric root, which looks related to ginger, to the ginger soda brew. Click here to see that post.








This post Linked to: Fat Tuesday, Slightly Indulgent Tuesday, Traditional Tuesday, Melt in Your Mouth Monday, Monday Mania