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| Friday, October 12, 2007 |
| Warning: prolonged cooking may elevate the temperature in your kitchen as well as your appetite |
I have spent the last 4 hours or so in the kitchen again. I did the same last night. Partially in an attempt to cook, freeze, can, prepare, etc four CSA boxes worth of veggies before they turn and partially out of the pure joy of having the house all to myself and the time these evenings (now that my job is more of a M-F daytime type) to participate in something I have long loved - culinary arts.
 Last night, I bottle my first brew of kombucha tea. I am impatient to let it do it's second fermentation, but I know in the long run it will be so so much tastier if I let it sit another week. I plan to get an additional jar this weekend so I can have two alternating batches brewing at all times. (oh and if anyone else wants a culture, mine seems to have the skill of making a new one each batch and I will soon have more than I know what to do with and will gladly give them away to loving homes.)
 I was going to buy fancy home brew bottles, but opted for a much more budget minded approach. Fuze drinks are on sale for $1 each at Lunds and I bought a dozen just for the bottles which are the perfect size and shape for my brew. Quite a savings since the home brew store sells a dozen of the 16oz grolsch bottles for $22! I probably won't feel as bad if one of us happens to break, recycle or loose one either. I would guess that each bottle of this brew cost about 25 cents (not factoring in the bottles which will be reused countless times). Now compare to about $3 a bottle at the co-op! Whoo, hoo!
 My next dilemma has been what to do with 4 large heads of beautiful purple cabbage (or red as it is technically named). One can only eat so much steamed cabbage and borscht isn't really something I want to spend time over a hot stove making. Matt's idea was to turn it into sauerkraut. I'd never thought about purple kraut, but I didn't see why not. He loves the stuff, and in cold storage, it practically lasts forever (there is a partial jar made this summer still in our fridge that is better than ever). Two heads (minus the 1/4 he steamed and ate) have been krauted and are awaiting their turn for cold storage.
 In our most recent CSA boxes, we received green top radishes. With so much food in our fridge, they lost their crisp edge before Matt got to eating them. Not wanting to waste them, I researched pickled radish (at his suggestion). I ended up with a very simple recipe i think might end up a little like something from a Kim chi spread at the Korean restaurant. They turned a little pink because of leaving the skin on and some of them being red. Actually, they are quite pretty. Hope they taste as good as they look.
My second loaf ever of honey oat bread is in the bread machine and should be done before midnight. I decided to use my bread machine to get a more consistent result with my bread. The kitchen heats up rapidly when the oven or stove are in use (both of which were and raised the temp to 86 degrees) so I had the window open and I just am not sure what the effects on yeast are with that kind of thing (seeing how it's a little wintry out). Not only that, the machine allows me to put in my ingredients and be free to do other things which the machine pays attention for 4 hours to bake my bread.
 Last, but certainly not least the stew: root vegetables with beef. Very simple and not really a recipe I could write down in proportions. What's it got in it? Well, let me just make a list. Parsnips, potatoes, onion, turnips (complete with greens), chiogga beets (the pretty striped ones), sweet potatoes, beef stock, a 2 pound beef round roast cut and browned in extra virgin olive oil, and some cornmeal to help thicken it up (a trick I learned a while back when I used some cornbread topped zucchini in a stew). It's going to be good eats for quite a while. I used my huge stockpot, the one that's probably 18 inches tall, and the thing is over half full!Labels: daily life, food |
posted by Jen @ 10:34 PM   |
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