Edible Alchemy: Whey to Sauerkraut

What to do with that jar of homemade whey that was left over from making the soft cream cheese?  How about using  it as an inoculant for making sauerkraut? Me thinks this is a mighty fine idea.

This way of making sauerkraut from the Nourishing Traditions cookbook feels really accessible to me and has lip-smacking-good results.  The scale and details surrounding making kraut in a large crock have always seemed a touch daunting.  This one-quart kraut recipe  was squeezed in during a rainy twenty minute afternoon interlude.

I used a medium sized organic cabbage and sliced it thinly.  As it turns out all the pounding I did later in the process really broke it up so don't worry too much about how you slice it.  I put in in a bowl with 
1 tablespoon of carraway seeds
1 tablespoon of sea salt
4 tablespoons of homemade whey
and used my handy dandy pounding implement to punch down the mixture for ten minutes to get all the juicy goodness out.  I used a 1-inch dowel that we had lying around from mulling mojitos.  

After ten minutes of pounding, the cabbage was really broken down and there was a lot of juice in the bowl.  I transfered it to a quart sized mason jar and seriously packed in the cabbage, pushing it down to make sure the cabbage was covered by liquid.  It is important to leave about an inch of space above the cabbage otherwise during fermentation pressure will build up and push out liquid...ooops, it happened to me! 

 I covered my jar tightly with a plastic lid and left it out in a warmish spot for three days. Then I sent it off to my stash in the basement, dark and cool for as long as I could stand it.  The longer it stays in storage the yummier (up to 6 months) but for our household it only made it one month before we just couldn't wait any longer.  It came out fantastic.  Super delicious and so cheap.  I still feel the whole whey fermentation thing is a little elusive in concept to me but  it worked and we can't get enough.  


p.s.  Recent discovery - sauerkraut added to a bowl of broth or soup....ziiiing!!

Edible Alchemy: Yogurt to Cheese

The cheese that I have been making from yogurt is more of a "gateway cheese".  I have this sneaky suspicion that this simple cheese will lead me down the slippery slope of rennet and who knows what after that.   When that time comes, I will venture forth with culinary boldness into the unknown, but in the meantime this is where it starts....

I use a couple layers of cheesecloth that can easily be washed and reused to separate my yogurt into whey and cheese.  My set-up is to lay the cheesecloth in a colander over a pot to passively drain my yogurt.  I've used my plain homemade yogurt but any organic yogurt will work. 

The whey is the liquid that drains out of the yogurt and is a valuable ingredient in lacto-fermentation.   I've used it to make super yummy sauerkraut - stay tuned for my next blog entry on that.  Sally Fallon's Nourishing Traditions has great info and recipes for using whey.  Its "whey" cool.  

I drain my yogurt in the colander for just a couple of hours at room temperature, resulting in a type of creme fraiche or sour cream that is delicious as a dollop in soup.  I have also left it longer and made a yogurt "hammock" by simply tying my cheesecloth to a pair of chopsticks and suspending my little pillow of yogurt in mid air.  This works great for a firm cream cheese. Make sure to save the whey, it should last in the fridge for a couple of months.  


Basically, how long to drain the milk solids is a matter of taste.  It depends on what I want to use it for - a dollop, dip, or spread.
  
I like to leave my sour cream unflavored and tangy but I've really fallen for a cream cheese mixed with the zest of one lemon and some coarse salt.  Its a "real punch" of flavor as my friend exclaimed. Definitely going to experiment with herbs, garlic, and olives.  I imagine once I have worked my way through the savory pantry I will move on to sweetly flavored cream cheeses.  Is it berry season yet?

Edible Alchemy: Milk to Yogurt

I have noticed recently that the food we have been savoring at home has evolved.  A summer spent canning and preserving, started a rhythm of preparing and appreciating food from its most basic raw materials.  I am learning the difference between food that takes time and food that takes planning.   Fermenting results in some of my most favorite things to eat, and I know now that for most of these foods it takes me 5 minutes of active work and sometimes 12 hours or a week of waiting.  That seems really manageable to me on a busy schedule and (as a person who likes to receive birthday presents early so I can enjoy the anticipation of NOT opening them) this fermenting business gets me really excited.

I have had the time to experiment and to learn from Tressa Yellig, the amazing creator of  Salt, Fire and Time.  Tressa follows a style of cooking promoted by the Weston A. Price foundation and made accessible by the Nourishing Traditions cookbook.  It focusses on nutrient dense foods, rich with healthy animal fats and made digestible through fermentation.  I have been inspired by her boldness and her integrity as a person and a chef.

And so when a quart of farm fresh organic milk recently made its way into my hands I decided to venture forth into a world of edible alchemy.   It is not in my personality to understand the physics or chemistry behind these simple creations, instead I accept it as magic.....delicious, accessible magic.

Milk = Yogurt
Yogurt = Cream Cheese and Whey
Whey = Sauerkraut

What a tidy little sequence of events, wouldn't you say?  I could go to the store and buy each of these items quite easily, but I get such pleasure from having the building blocks at my fingertips.  I know that I save money, avoid packaging, and have complete control over what goes into my food.  And like I said...its magic and its a hoot.

Here's the first round.  I got this yogurt  recipe from Sandor Ellix Katz's Wild Fermentation book, an incredible and informative read.

Heat a quart of organic milk in a heavy bottomed pot until the temperature reaches 180 degrees, stirring gently the whole time.  If you don't have a thermometer look for the small bubbles starting to foam around the edges.  


Turn the heat off and allow to cool till you can put your finger in the milk without flinching. (110 degrees).  

At this point add only a tablespoon of organic yogurt that has live cultures.  This will be your starter culture but next time you make yogurt you can use a tablespoon from the previous batch.  Mix the starter in until its  dissolved in the milk.   Pour into a pre-heated quart jar and close tightly.

In the meantime you need to devise a way to tuck your  jar of yogurt-to-be into a warm and cozy spot for the night.  You could wrap the warm jar in towels and set the bundle in a toasty spot, but my favorite method is to fill a couple hot water bottles and snug them into a small insulated cooler.

Close the lid and surpress any desire you might have to peek and wiggle your jar of yogurt.  It likes to rest in its cozy nest for 8-12 hours.  

Our house runs cold this time of year and I often struggle with finding a consistently warm spot for my ferments and for my toes.  I have to say the hot water bottles given to me by my British nana are well cuddled around here.  In fact, for full disclosure, after I wrote that last sentence I got so inspired that I went and put the kettle on to fill up my hot water bottle for a bit of blogging warmth.

Soon enough, out comes yummy warm yogurt, sometimes with a thick layer of cream on top.  You know the rest.....

Falling

On my walk to the "friendliest store in town" I beheld glorious fall.

Dragging my feet along the way.....just to savor it.

Getting figgy with it.

Recently, a dear friend of mine (after eating about 75 figs all to himself mind you) shared with me the location of a neighborhood fig tree, heavily laden and cascading over the public sidewalk.   After knocking on the door to inform the residents of the house, we began to fill our basket with the  most perfectly delectable figs.  I had visions of  fig sauce on pork chops in mid-winter and immediately began pouring over the Complete Book of Home Preserving, where I was happy to find an easy fig preserve recipe and great information about canning in general.

My basket held about 30 figs and I added these to 8 cups of boiling water.  I turned the heat off, covered the pot and left the figs to sit for about 15 minutes.

In a different pot, I combined 2 Cups of sugar and one sliced lemon and boiled them over high heat with 4 cups of water to dissolve the sugar.

I removed the lemon slices and added 2 cups of figs at a time to the pot. I boiled them in the syrup until the skins became brown and transparent.  I set these ones aside and added more green figs until they were all brown and the syrup was thick and dark.  I combined the figs and syrup and left it to cool overnight.

The next morning I decided to chop up the figs before reheating them.

 I brought the figs and syrup back to a boil and prepared my jars and lids.  I filled my hot jars, making sure to leave 1/4" headspace and processed the jars in a boiling water canner for 10 minutes.

And here's the new addition to my winter stash.  I made four half pint jars of Fig Preserves.  That should last me until my dear friend tips me off to the location of another heavily laden and ambiguously owned fig tree.

Acknowledgments

"I thank the animal tenders and beekeepers, and the  ones with courage to slaughter.  I thank the bakers, brewers, cheesemakers, miso makers, and sauerkraut makers.  I thank the urban gardeners and the forest homesteaders.  I thank the seed savers and skill sharers.  I thank the dumpster divers, gleaners, and foragers.  I thank the co-ops, farmers' markets, and CSA farms.  I thank the crusaders, protestors, and watchdogs.  I thank the cooks, chefs, and kitchen magicians everywhere who find creative expression in keeping people well fed.  I also thank the dishwashers and those who do the grimy tasks that keep kitchens safe and clean. "  
The Revolution Will Not Be Microwaved  
Sandor Ellix Katz

Red wigs on bikes

Late last week my dear friend Der Lovett invited me to join him and a bunch of folks on a bike ride.  The bike ride being a fundraiser for his friends Amie and Harper and an act of love and support that brought me to my knees and has stayed with me in my thoughts.

Recently after being blessed with a new baby into their lives,  Harper was diagnosed with ALS or Lou Gehrig's disease.  ALS is a disease that hits people between the ages of 40-70, in which the person slowly looses muscle movement and control, leading to inevitable paralysis.  Meanwhile the mind is left completely unaffected.  The bike ride was organized to raise money to help support Amie and Harper, as time progresses and the family's challenges become greater.  The idea was that each person would donate $10.00 and join in this long meandering bike ride around NE Portland.. oh yeah.. and everyone wore RED wigs.  Lovett Deconstruction matched our "teams" donations to make a pretty substantial overall donation. The organizers were expecting about 300 people to show up and it was such a beautiful sight to see.  Amie, Harper, and their little baby joined us on the ride via pedicab.

I was deeply moved by being a part of this bike ride.  It was an incredibly creative and deeply heartfelt act by a community of friends and supporters.  It reminded me that by gathering together in large numbers we could raise a lot of money and provide  a tangible show of love.  There was a sweetness in the air, though I knew the seriousness of Amie and Harper's future, I also felt comforted by this simple act of human helping human.  It was humbling to realize that all  of us are always just a step away from loosing a loved one.  How precious all this is.....all the more reason to don a red wig and celebrate one radiant evening together.