Sauerkraut, Illustrated

I make sauerkraut about once a month, in cabbage season (about July through December).  Traditionally, kraut is only made in the cooler months- but since I ferment at room temperature, I'm not constrained by weather.

I put up 15 pounds for fermenting yesterday; here's the blow-by-blow:

First, I quarter and core the cabbages.  I like to quarter first because it makes coring easier.

Next, I weigh the quarters.  Typical kraut-to-salt ratio is 5 pounds of cabbage to 3 tablespoons salt.  Be sure to use canning salt, not table salt. 

Shredding is next.  Yes, it takes a long time, but this shredder works great.

 

It's a Japanese "Super-Benriner" shredder- fabulous artwork on the box.

Here's the first 5 pounds shredded in the crock.  It goes nearly to the top.  I shred 5 pounds at a time, add the 3 tablespoons of salt, then stomp away.

Here's my kraut stomper.  It's about the size of a baseball bat, but flat on the business end.  I found this stomper in an antique store last year, but you can get them new from Lehman's.

Stomping is absolutely the most important step of making kraut.  If you don't stomp it, you'll just have salty shredded cabbage.  I stomp for at least 20 minutes per 5-pound batch.  I stomp until it sounds really squishy and looks translucent.

Here it is after it's been stomped.  See how much the volume is reduced?

After all the cabbage is processed, "plate it and weight it" just as you would any lacto-ferment.  While cabbage (especially freshly picked cabbage) does release a lot of it's own juice, it's rarely enough for the one or two inches of liquid you need above the plate.  I usually add about two quarts of filtered water with 3 tablespoons of canning salt per quart- same ratio of salt you'd use in any fermenting vat.  FYI, this vat is a 4-gallon vat.  Some people don't spice their kraut, but  I use garlic and juniper berries. 

Be sure to cover the vat to keep out the critters and dust.  I use a piece of clean muslin (it needs to breathe) and a rubber band to secure it.  Store the vat in dim light or in the dark.

(After a couple of days mold will form on top of the liquid- and the mold re-forms every day or so thereafter.  You must skim off the mold and add more brine as necessary.  At room temperature, the vat is typically ready to eat in about two weeks.  It will take longer if the room is cooler.)

 I don't add any vinegar.  Once you add vinegar (and heat if you're canning), the beneficial bacteria die.  Instead, I store it in quart-sized canning jars in the fridge.  If I had a root cellar, I'd store it there.  But we eat it quickly, so storing is not a huge issue.

Now, there's always some cabbage left over- the finger guard that's supposed to let you get down to the nub of the vegetables doesn't really work for me.  So I make cabbage soup.  Typical Russian recipe, but instead of dill and marjoram, I use fresh sage and smoked paprika.  Those two are such a great combo with cabbage and potatoes.

That's all there is to sauerkraut.  It's a time investment- usually takes all afternoon- but it's so totally worth it.

"Do you mind if I smoke?"

Our glorious eggplant

Cue Blade Runner theme

Holly is making her famous eggplant lasagna. On this occasion, while flash-frying the eggplant on the stove, our condo takes on a dramatic, sci-fi noir appearance. The shafts of light beaming through our windows are thankfully not ruined by the screech of the smoke detector :)

Thanksgiving pic, 2008

(An intimate dinner for four)

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This is sort of late, being December and all, but this was a really good meal. Since our table is so small, I had to plate most of it in the kitchen. The menu was nothing out of the ordinary, but everything was from scratch. Here's the list:

Buttermilk-brined heritage turkey
Sage stuffing, made from spelt bread
Mashed potatoes
Giblet gravy
Candied sweet potatoes
Spinach sesame casserole
Roasted cauliflower
Stuffed baked mushroom caps
Whole cranberry sauce
Green tomato chutney
Fresh jardiniere ferment (root and cole mix)
Pumpkin pie with spelt crust

I must say a word or two about the buttermilk brine. Buttermilk brine is the magical prep method for turkey. From here on out, this will always be the way I prep a turkey. I hear it's amazing with chicken, too. This was the best bird any of us had ever eaten. It made truly amazing gravy too, and lots of it.

Buttermilk brine recipe
1 part brine: 1 gallon filtered water to 1 cup pickling salt, plus 1/2 cup brown sugar- stir well until dissolved
1 part buttermilk-- 1 gallon

Cover rinsed and dried bird completely with brine mixture (I used a 3-gallon pickling crock- the little 9 pound bird was a perfect fit). Soak for 8 to 24 hours in the refrigerator. Remove and rinse; roast to preferred instructions.

Wow, just... wow. Great turkey. Highly recommended.

Pumpkin pie with spelt crust

(My first ever pie crust, and the finished pie)

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The wife of my favorite farmer is an outstanding baker. A born baker. A baker's baker. She sells not-to-be-believed sourdough spelt bread. (Oh, and I should mention that her husband grows the spelt on his family's centennial heritage farm- they are living the dream.) I picked her brain for some tricks to spelt pie crusts and she had excellent advice. To you bakers out there, none of this advice will likely come as any surprise, but I'm a born pickler. What do I know from baking?

1) sift flour until you think you can sift no more.
2) cut cold fat in slowly, and in stages.
3) add as little liquid as possible.
4) work the dough as little as possible.
5) keep the pastry board well-floured.
6) chill, baby, chill! (the dough, that is)

And she loaned me a few books- crunchy little baking books from the 60's and 70's, when baking with whole grains was in vogue. Most helpful. The recipes do differ from the new recipes that call for all-purpose or white flour. The book I found most helpful is a tiny 1975 publication called "Making Homemade Apple Pies and Crusts" by Phyllis Hobson. Hobson has an amazing variety of crust recipes in this little book. I'd like to find a copy of this book for my own library.

The recipe I followed is this:

Flaky Pastry
3 C Flour
1 tsp salt
1/2 C butter
1/2 C lard
3/4 C ice water

Sift flour and salt together. Add butter and lard and cut with pastry cutter until mixture has texture of small peas. Sprinkle with ice water and mix with fork until dough forms into a ball. Place dough on floured board, sprinkle top with flour, and roll with a rolling pin until 1/2 inch thick. Fold both ends of dough towards the middle, making dough 3 layers thick. Roll again to 1/2 inch thick. Repeat folding process. Chill dough for one hour before rolling for pie.

The crust is spectacular. Though it is not flaky, it is very, very thin; a quality made possible by the leaf lard, and probably, too, my french rolling pin. The crust leaves not a trace of grease in the pie plate, cuts cleanly, and holds it's shape. I'm so glad I finally know how to make a decent crust.

And for the filling? I baked and processed the squash myself, but the rest of the recipe is good old Libby's. It really is the best recipe for pumpkin pie.

Come Friday, this same crust recipe will become a turkey pot pie. Can't wait for that.

Rendering leaf lard

(Cubing the lard)

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(Roasting the lard)
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(Rendered lard, before it cools)
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I went on a wild goose chase last week looking for leaf lard. What is leaf lard, you ask? Why on earth would I want lard? And, um, lard? Really?

Well, yes. Lard is real food. It isn't hydrogenated like shortening. (Hoists self up on soapbox.) There was a time when we humans ate real food. Then the "nutrition experts" --usually connected to the government, or corporations, or both-- stepped in and declared real food bad for you. Next, the chemists were hired to replace real food with food-like substances. Then we all started to get sick and fat. Think these things are related? (Falls off soapbox in a froth.)

But I digress, as I am wont to do. Leaf lard. Leaf lard is the interior lard that surrounds the organs, usually the kidneys. It is a finer grade of lard and doesn't have a pork taste or smell when baked, so it's much preferred for pastries.

Now, I'm not much of a baker. It's just not on my list of things to do, and even less so since I was diagnosed with celiac a decade ago. But, I decided that if I was going to bake this year for Thanksgiving, I was going to go whole hog (sadly, pun intended).

I looked for lard all week in downtown Detroit, in vain. It got to the point I was ready to order it online- for about $50.00, shipping included. That's an awful lot of dough for lard, even good lard.

But all along, all I really needed to do was wait for Saturday morning to go to our beloved Eastern Market in downtown Detroit. We go every Saturday, year in and year out, but our dear old farmer's market never ceases to amaze. If you can't find it at Eastern Market, you probably don't need it.

Certain vendors at Eastern are seasonal, meat vendors chiefly among them. The big old sheds that comprise the market are unheated, and the meat can't spoil in a Detroit winter. The pork vendor who appears in late November has an old portable glass butcher case with whole pig heads inside, among other impressively large pork parts. It's quite spectacular to see these whole, freshly butchered parts in what is essentially an outdoor market.

And wouldn't you know it; the pork vendor had leaf lard. For One Dollar and Forty-One Cents. that's a buck-forty-one. $1.41, people. That beats fifty bucks and airplane shipping any day.

Now I had to render it. And it was easy, and didn't take too long, either. Cube it up, toss it in a roaster (no lid), let it bake at about 325 until it melts. What's left will sort of look like soft pork rinds (but it's not what I'd call edible- I tried it, and it's darned nasty.) Strain out the solids, pour carefully and slowly into jars. Let cool. Voila, home-rendered lard, ready for baking. I cooled it outside; in a matter of hours it was solid and a beautiful snowy white. I will say that the smell during rendering was pretty strong- like I'd been frying chicken all day- and the smell stuck to my clothes and skin. But it diminished pretty quickly with the crack of a window. And personally, I don't mind smelling like I've been cooking something interesting.

I recommend this food adventure to any baker out there. It made for a fun, educational day. And I have my very own leaf lard, and also a source for leaf lard. Neat, huh?

First pesto of the season

(summer is now officially here)

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We made our first basil pesto of the season a few days ago. Holy moley, this was good.

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Here's the provenance and anatomy of dinner:

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From the garden:

Basil (Genovese and Sweet)

Wilted mixed greens

Nasturtium petals

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From the farmer's market:

Michigan onions

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From far away, dairy:

Parmigiano Reggiano (for pesto and top shavings)

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From far away, grain:

Organic spelt egg noodles

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From far away, protein:

Organic tempeh

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From far away, odds and ends:

Pine nuts

Lebanese olive oil

Balsamic vinegar

Celtic sea salt

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Basic basil pesto is really easy to make, and *vastly* superior to the store-bought stuff. Once you've tried your own, grocery store pesto will taste like soap. It just takes a lot of chopping- pine nuts, basil; and grating- cheese. Do use a knife for the basil, rather than a food processor- food processors tend to make a mushy green mess of delicate basil leaves.

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One thing about pesto... it takes A LOT of basil. We have about 20 basil plants growing this year, and we'll probably make basil pesto about once every two weeks. On pesto night, I go out and give all the plants a trim. My big honking pile of basil (with stems still on) overflows a 6-quart bowl. Once it's cleaned and chopped (leaves only), it will make about 4 servings.

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There are myriad recipes for basil pesto, but it's about 2 parts basil, 1/2 part grated cheese, 1/2 part oil, 1/4 part nuts, salt to taste, and a splash of balsamic vinegar. Some folks use Romano cheese, or use walnuts instead of pine nuts, or use lemon juice instead of balsamic, or add garlic. Use what you have, or try something new.

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Mix well. Pesto is finished when it looks and tastes right (helpful, no?). But there are three main keys to making good pesto.

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1) Use really good, really fresh, really clean basil.

2) Use the best olive oil you can find.

2) Use real Parmigiano Reggiano.

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Real Parmigiano Reggiano makes an enormous difference; if you've never tried the real thing from Parma, seek it out. It'll make you realize that American "Parmesan" cheese in that ubiquitous green can isn't cheese, but rather a salty, woodshop floor sweepings-like substance. The simpler the food, the better the ingredients need to be.

Lunch- Mexican spinach salad

(MMMmmmm)

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We more of less live on very simple variations of Mexican or Mediterranean food all summer. This was lunch for me today and dinner for us last night-- roasted beans and salsa with something I made up; I've dubbed it Mexican fried rice. It's all on top of a bed of fresh greens. I heated the beans and rice separately in the microwave- it's a nice foil to the cool, crisp greens and refrigerator-cold salsa.

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For lack of a better name I'm calling this dish Mexican spinach salad, but like everything else I make, it's open to lots of variation- namely, whatever I have in the garden and whatever I have in my pantry!

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A word about calendula petals- they are basically tasteless, but they are pretty, and with all that intense color, they surely contain some micronutrients. And they get a lot of OOoohs! when served on a dish. Just make absolutely certain that they haven't been sprayed with anything. I strongly recommend using only your own edible flowers on food.

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Here's the provenance and anatomy:

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From the garden:

Mixed greens

Asian mustards

Spinach

Lemon thyme

Cilantro

Calendula petals

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From the farmer's market:

Dried cranberry beans

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From far away, grain:

Rice

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From far away, dairy:

Shaved Parmesan cheese

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From far away, vegetables and fruit:

Canned tomatoes (for salsa)

Black olives

Garlic

Onion

Lemon

Avocado

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From far away, spices, oil, condiments:

Cumin

Cayenne pepper

Lebanese olive oil

Salt

Kelp (for cooking the beans)

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Bean Tips!

The cranberry beans I used were dried. I've made a pot of beans or bean soup or some beany thing probably every week for the last 20 years, mostly from dried beans. Here are four dried bean tips- #1 was the newest discovery for me.

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1) Some beans will never get soft no matter how long you cook them. This is usually attributable to age. Even if the beans are dried, local and recent is better than far away and old. Check your farmer's market- there is probably a farmer there who grows and dries his own.

2) Cooking beans with a little square of kelp really helps to soften them. Kelp contains enzymes that help break down the tough proteins. Lately, I've been putting a square of kelp in the initial soaking water, too. It seems to make a difference.

3) Never salt beans until they are cooked- salt inhibits softening.

4) After changing the soaking water and rinsing well, bring beans to an initial boil, but immediately reduce to a very low simmer. This helps with the softening process, too- and also reduces the 'side effects' of eating beans.

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Mexican fried rice

This is my new favorite rice dish- it added a lot of interest to this salad. I made it up after having something similar recently in a local Mexican restaurant. I think I'll take the "fried rice" theme further next time and add an egg and some different vegetables from the garden.

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2 to 4 cups white or brown rice, already cooked

1/2 to 1 cup hot water or broth

Cumin to taste (minimum 1 tbsp or so)

1/4 cup really good olive oil

salt to taste

cayenne pepper to taste

Chopped cilantro, handful

chopped garlic (optional)

chopped onion (optional)

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Put oil in pan, allow to heat up. Add garlic and onion at this point, if including. Once garlic and onion is well cooked, add cold rice- break up well with spatula or spoon. Coat thoroughly, reduce heat and cover.

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Heat water (or broth), add cumin, garlic, salt, cayenne, to liquid, stir well. Add to rice, combine well. Allow to simmer until heated through- if liquid is too much, remove cover and cook off.

Lunch- my favorite meal

(This was really good)

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MMmmm, lunch. The last of my lettuce will be picked this weekend, and I just might plant some (inedible!) Gerbera daisies in their place; we've had some hot weather lately and the delicious little lettuce plants are gearing up bolt. They are getting a might bitter.

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This salad combines mixed greens, tomato salsa, and homemade blue cheese dressing, with roasted chick peas and the last of the leftover quinoa pilaf. I love the combination of creamy blue cheese dressing and a spicy tomato salsa on salad- they are a nice compliment to each other.

Here's the provenance and anatomy of lunch:

From the garden:
Mixed lettuce
Spinach
Kales (Red Russian and curly)
Asian mustards
Parsley
Lemon thyme
Cilantro

From far away, canned veg:
Organic chick peas (roasted- see recipe below)
Organic chopped tomatoes (for salsa, see recipe below)

From far away; dairy:
Blue cheese Hormone-free-- (see blue cheese dressing recipe, below)
Organic goat's milk
Organic sour cream, or organic cream cheese blended with milk

From far away; fruit:
Fresh lemon

From far away; misc:
Tamari
Celtic salt
Bragg's apple cider vinegar
Lebanese olive oil
Pepper
California black olives

You might have noticed by now that I rarely do what the dear, brilliant Julia Child would have called "cooking". She hated Italian food- she claimed it wasn't cooking, it was "combining". While I love what Madam Julia did for the palette in the US, on this one point I completely disagree. My style of cooking definitely veers towards the Mediterranean, on all sides of that sea. And on that particular sea, it is all about combining. And, if your ingredients are fresh, seasonal, and at their best, combining is all food really needs.

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Simple homemade salsa (cheating with canned tomato)

1- 28 oz can of chopped tomatoes in sauce (I like Muir Glen organic- no HFCS)

2- medium, or 1- large white onion, finely chopped

3 or 4- cloves of garlic, finely chopped

1/8 cup of best olive oil you lay your hands on

Salt to taste

Cayenne pepper to taste (or chopped habanero, if in season)

Handful of cilantro from garden to taste, finely chopped- use stems, too

Splash of apple cider vinegar, if desired

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Combine the above. That's it. It makes double the amount of store-bought for half the price. And it keeps for a long time, not that it will last very long- in our house it's gone in 3 days. In season, this is amazing with garden tomatoes. That glorious day is least 6 weeks away for me, but since my cilantro is coming along, I've been craving salsa.

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Simple roasted beans (cheating with canned beans)

1 or 2- large cans of beans (I like Westbrae Naturals- no HFCS)

(Beans can be garbanzos, red beans, kidney beans, cannellini- any bean your little heart desires)
1/8 cup of the best olive oil you can lay your hands on (Good olive oil makes a difference)
Salt to taste
Splash or two of tamari
Cayenne pepper to taste (or chopped habanero, if in season)
1 to 2 cloves of garlic (optional)
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Combine ingredients in a bowl. Spread in single layer on cookie sheet (foil on cookie sheet is helpful). Broil in oven on med-low until desired crunch or consistency- usually about 15 or 20 minutes. The beans are already cooked so it's a matter of mouth-feel. I cook them until they aren't mealy anymore, which (tragically) involves a lot of sampling...

Simple blue cheese dressing (for 2-3 salads)
1/4 cup organic blue cheese, crumbled
1/4 cup organic sour cream
splash organic milk (optional- I use goat's milk)
lemon juice, until desired consistency
Crack of fresh ground black pepper, to taste

Sometimes I leave out the sour cream- I did this time. But it's better with it.

Combine. You know the drill. This keeps about 3 days, but it never sticks around that long.

Not-entirely-local, but low-on-the-food-chain lunch

(Nice red tray, huh?)

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This is another variation on my favorite Greek lentil soup recipe. What I love most about this thin-bodied lentil soup is that it can take so much variation. Today, it has potherbs from the garden (i.e., mustards and greens that are a bit overgrown and ready to bolt from the heat, so I cooked them into the soup to staunch their sharpness), some baby bok choi from the farmer's market, and a big dollop of quinoa pilaf in the middle.

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I'm a recent convert to quinoa; I had it before (years ago), but I never liked it much until I tried it as a cold pilaf when I was in an Oregon restaurant a few weeks ago. It's a *very* delicious partner with this soup. When lemons are more seasonal, a splash of lemon juice would certainly be a fine addition to this dish.

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The quinoa was rinsed very well (it has a bitter coating- rinse it several times) and cooked for 20 minutes. Then I put a half-cup of it into a bowl and added a pre-sauteed onion, a generous sprinkling of celtic salt, a dash of cider vinegar, a dash of cayanne, a dash of tamari, and some more olive oil as a top drizzle once it was added to the soup. It was pretty amazing. This will be my lunch for the week.

Local: it's what's for lunch

(yummy)

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Here's the anatomy and provenance, more or less, of what I've been eating for lunch over the past several weeks:

From my favorite farmer at our Farmer's Market--
White beans, in soup
Sourdough spelt bread- he grows the grain and his family bakes the bread- it is incredible!

From other sellers at the Farmer's Market--
Michigan potatoes, in soup
Michigan carrots, in soup
Michigan onions, in soup

From my garden- mixed chopped greens, early thinnings--
Mizuna mustard
Komatsuna mustard
Spinach
Red Russian kale
Curly kale
Happy rich
Vitamin green
Various leaf lettuces
Parsley
Marjoram
Skyrocket Arugula

(I just clip off enough for lunch and chop it stems and all. Sadly, there are no leftovers for the buns at this early stage.)

From far away--
Apple cider vinegar
Lebanese olive oil (from the farmer's market, grown on seller's family farm in Lebanon)
Celtic sea salt
Pepper
garlic, in soup

It's so simple, but so delicious. I must say, the greens done this way are even better with a Greek-style lentil soup. Olive oil and vinegar are lightly drizzled over the greens after they are on the soup.

Someone pointed out to me something vaguely disturbing about that amazing olive oil- how do I know that it's not blood olive oil? How do I know that profits are not being used to fund terrorism? Well, I don't of course. But it does weigh on my conscious just a little bit.