Preservation – Harmonious Belly

November 10, 2015November 10, 2015

Sparkly Concord Grape Lacto-Fermented Whey Soda

Each year I get concord grapes in my CSA share, and I never know what to do with them aside from just eating them fresh (I once tried pickling grapes—never again). This year I decided to expand my solo repertoire with these intensely flavored and deeply purple fruit bombs and try making a lacto-fermented whey soda with them. I am happy to say, it was seriously tasty.

For my culture, I used the whey I collected from making yogurt cheese—this kind of cheese is basically the result of hanging plain yogurt (full fat without stabilizers, pectin, or gelatin) in butter muslin for a day or so. They whey drips out and what remains is a thick and tangy spreadable cheese. The whey contains cultures that usher along the lacto-fermentation process. Here’s a shot of the delicious cheese hanging with the whey at the bottom of the container.

To start, I washed and picked all the grapes off their stems, discarding any that were overripe, damaged, or in generally bad shape; firm, ripe, and unblemished grapes were what I was looking for. In the end, I had 6 cups of grapes. I added 2 cups of water and 1/2 cup organic sugar to the grapes and brought it all to a boil, and let that simmer for about 30 minutes. I cooled the mix and then put it through a sieve, discarding pits and skins; what was left was a thick juicy liquid. Continue reading “Sparkly Concord Grape Lacto-Fermented Whey Soda”

December 17, 2013

Making Meyer Lemon Marmalade

Meyer lemons from the Lemon Ladies

It’s citrus season! I love all the delicious citrus fruit that shows up this time of year, and one of my favorites is Meyer lemons.

Back in November, I got my yearly email from the Lemon Ladies, announcing the start of their harvest. Lemon Ladies are a group of women who tend and manage a Meyer Lemon orchard in Emerald Hills, CA, a small community near San Mateo in the greater SF Bay Area (map). Their groves are 100% dedicated to Meyer lemons, and I have been extremely happy with the quality of the fruit I’ve received from them. This year’s lemons were fantastic—gorgeous sunny yellow oblong orbs that smell amazing. And they taste wonderful!

I’ve done a variety of things with Meyer lemons over the years—they are perfect for preserved lemons, make amazing lemon curd, and I’ve even dried them (dried Meyer lemons are really good added to a glass of water). But what I really wanted to do with them this year was to make marmalade. I almost made it a couple of years ago, but got scared off, thinking the process was too difficult. I couldn’t have been more wrong—at least with the recipe I used this year, it was a breeze! It just took a little planning. Continue reading “Making Meyer Lemon Marmalade”

December 3, 2013December 15, 2013

Slow Cooker Apple Butter is Easy and Delicious

The other day a Facebook friend of mine posted an update stating he was going to make apple butter in his slow cooker, with a link attached. I am always interested in learning about new slow cooker recipes, and I thought that making apple butter this way was a brilliant idea! Turns out it’s pretty awesome—delicious and easy, which is always a super combination. And I have a bunch of apples from my CSA, so this is a great way to use them.

I made a half recipe, since that’s what fit into my slow cooker. It starts with peeling and coring apples—I core my apples with a melon baller, which does a fantastic job of scooping out the seeds and stiff parts of the apple. And since I just got my knives sharpened, it was a breeze to peel the apples, though I would love to have one of these apple peelers; when I was younger, my grandmother had one and I thought it was magic! Continue reading “Slow Cooker Apple Butter is Easy and Delicious”

November 29, 2013December 15, 2013

Making a Root Vegetable Ferment

Lately I’ve been feeling like my gut and digestive system could use a tune up (not to mention dealing with a recent bout of heartburn/GERD), so I decided to make a nice root vegetable ferment. My body loves lacto-fermented foods, and I had some beautiful carrots and rutabagas from the CSA this week, plus onion, garlic, and ginger were in the house. I also added some red pepper flakes to make it a little spicy.

I washed off the vegetables (and got rid of the carrot hairs), but didn’t peel them, since there are microbes on the outside of the vegetables that help in the fermentation process. I grated the rutabagas and carrots, chopped the onion into small pieces, and minced the garlic (2 peeled cloves) and an inch chunk of (unpeeled) ginger.

I added a good shake of red pepper flakes—maybe 1/2 a tsp. Then I added 1 tbs of kosher salt, which doesn’t have iodine (that also interferes with the fermentation process). Continue reading “Making a Root Vegetable Ferment”

January 24, 2012January 24, 2012

Salt Preserved Lemon Peel

Recently, I’ve seen a bunch of posts on the interwebs about citrus and citrus peel – since it’s citrus season, that makes sense. I’ve been preserving lemon peel in kosher salt for a few months now – yes, that’s just the peel, not the entire lemon (I’ve preserved entire lemons, too). It’s a way to reduce waste as well as turning it into something delicious.

Usually when I use preserved lemons, it’s all about the peel; more often than not I discard the pulp, though I’m sure someone could show me what to do with it (I’m interested!). So, I got the idea of just preserving the peel in salt – each time I juiced an organic lemon, I’d get rid of the leftover lemon innards and reserve the peel. I slice the peel into strips and store them in salt.

I use the peel in things like chicken dishes or with couscous. It gives a kind of North African flavor to things. I love it! And it’s super thrifty. Organic lemons aren’t cheap.

After the peels stay in the salt for a while, they start to change color – it goes from a bright yellow to a kind of yellow orange. I think it’s beautiful.

Continue reading “Salt Preserved Lemon Peel”

October 3, 2011October 7, 2011

Summer Preservation Review

What a summer of preserving this was! Now that’s it’s officially fall, I thought I’d review the preservation methods I used this summer (and late spring). It was so fun to learn new ones, and refine my skills with the ones I’ve used over the years. And now I have a pantry (and freezer) full of delicious summer food to be used in winter.

There’s something very satisfying to have a pantry full of food you preserved yourself. It’s gathered when in season, so the flavor profile is going to be the best it can be. Having the taste of summer tomatoes, corn, and peppers will no doubt give us a boost when it’s dark and cold outside.

So, here is what I accomplished this year, and what you can accomplish next summer, too.

Continue reading “Summer Preservation Review”

September 27, 2011September 29, 2011

Dehydrated Tomatoes

This summer I processed 50 pounds of tomatoes – 25 pounds a week over two weeks The first week I canned beautiful organic plum tomatoes and the second week I canned beefy organic romas, and chose to dehydrated five pounds of those. It was a breeze to do this in the dehydrator compared to the oven, which I’ve used in the past.

It’s a very simple recipe: I cut each tomato in half and tossed them all with organic extra virgin olive oil. I placed the tomatoes, cut side up, on the dehydrator racks and then sprinkled salt on them. They spent time in the dehydrator for about 12 hours at 195 degrees, mostly overnight.

They didn’t dry out totally, which is what I wanted; they are soft. I ended up freezing them individually, then bagging them. This means I can take them out and use them as I like. They will be great on top of goat cheese, or chopped up into tomato sauce. Their flavor is concentrated and sweet. The epitome of a summer tomato.

I’ve preserved a lot of food this summer. I will write about it, so stay tuned for that!