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Perfect Zucchini Pickles

zucchini pickles

Zucchini is still coming from my CSA; last week, I got another pound of it!  I guess our hot hot hot summer helped to produce a lot of it.  I’ll be curious to see if we get it again this week.

It goes without saying, then, that I’ve eaten a lot of zucchini this summer; I wanted to find a new way to prepare it.   Fortunately, a recipe for pickled zucchini was recently posted on the 101 Cookbooks site, and it just sounded so good! The resulting pickles are better than I ever expected, too – perfectly balanced flavors of tang and sweet (and a little spicy) and zucchini that is still crunchy.  I am in love with these pickles!

Basically, the pickles start as thin sliced zucchini, onions, and shallots that are salted to pull out excess moisture, then flavored with two kinds of vinegar, a little sugar, with dill, hot peppers, and mustard seeds added to the mix.  I made a few adjustments to the original recipe and I’m ecstatic with the results!

These pickles are delicious by themselves, with eggs, on toast with goat cheese, and even on hot dogs.  I ordered some dogs via my CSA – beef franks made with pastured beef without nitrites – and these pickles were fantastic on them!  They elevated what is an excellent hot dog to something even more special.

hot dog

The hardest part of this recipe, I must admit, is waiting for the zucchini to drain.  I chose to let it drain for 24 hours, so get as much moisture out as possible.  The original recipe indicates a few hours, but I love the result I got from draining them for longer.  When it’s time to put them together with the vinegars and seasonings, it takes less than 10 minutes to combine everything.

My guess is that if you like (vinegared) pickles, you’ll love these.

Zucchini Pickles
Adapted from the recipe at 101 Cookbooks.

1 pound of zucchini, thinly sliced (about 1/8 inch)
1 medium white onion, thinly sliced
1 large shallot, thinly sliced
1 1/2 tablespoons fine grain sea salt
1/4 cup fresh dill sprigs
1 small fresh chile pepper, thinly sliced
1/2 tablespoon yellow mustard seeds

3/4 cup cider vinegar
3/4 cup rice vinegar
1/3 cup evaporated cane juice

Toss the zucchini, onion, shallots, and salt together in a colander and place over a bowl to catch the liquids. Cover the bowl and refrigerate for 24 hours. Toss once or twice along the way.  The point of this is to leech out as much liquid from the vegetables as you can.

When the zucchini has drained, shake off any water to make it as dry as possible. Place in a 1 quart jar along with the dill, chile pepper, and mustard seeds.

Combine the vinegars and sugar in a small saucepan over medium heat. Bring to a simmer, stirring until the sugar dissolves, and continue to boil for a few minutes. Pour the liquid over the zucchini and seal the jar. Let cool, then refrigerate. The pickles are good for a week or so.

Makes one large jar.

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Eggplant With Tahini

whole eggplant

I’m a big eggplant fan… that is, when it’s cooked properly.  There is nothing worse than undercooked, “green” tasting eggplant.  It tastes awful (usually bitter) and has a kind of chewy styrofoam texture. I think the texture gets to me more than the taste.  But the thing is, it’s really easy to undercook it, as the opposite is mushy eggplant that’s been cooked within an inch of its life, which is also unappealing, and desirable to avoid.

There is an Italian restaurant around the corner from me that cooks their eggplant perfectly.  It truly a delight to eat – the texture is perfect, almost creamy, with a little bit of a smoky taste.  I expect they grill it to get the taste and texture like that.

roasted eggplant

I get around all of this by cooking eggplant for purposes of a dip, which means the vegetable is very forgiving for this.  I roast it with olive oil for about 45 minutes, and that usually does the trick – the flesh turns nice and soft, and the cut side caramelizes, which adds a little sweetness to the mix.

Usually “dip” means baba ganoush, aka eggplant with tahini.  I love the combination of flavors – the roasted eggplant with buttery tahini, some garlic, lemon juice, and an unusual ingredient I’ve been experimenting with.

before grinding

I received one medium sized eggplant in my CSA share this week, so this recipe was created around that.  You can adjust amount as you like – I mean really, baba ganoush (as well as hummus) has always seemed to me as one without strongly defined amounts of flavoring.  It should be to your liking.  For instance, I like my baba ganoush to have a pronounced lemony-tart flavor, and a little spicy.  Others prefer a stronger tahini flavor. Recipes like this make it easy to adjust seasonings to one’s own taste.

eggplant with tahini

Baba Ganoush (Eggplant with Tahini)

1 medium eggplant
olive oil
salt
2-3 tbs tahini
1 tbs olive oil
1/4 tsp sumac
1/2 tsp aleppo pepper (red pepper flakes will work, too, but reduce to 1/4 tsp)
2-3 cloves garlic, crushed
juice of 1/2 lemon
salt to taste

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.

Cut the eggplant in half, coat cut sides with olive oil and a sprinkling of kosher salt, and cook, cut side down on a baking pan, for 45 minutes.  Take out the pan and let eggplant cool for 15-20 minutes. Remove cooked flesh from the skins and place in a bowl.  Discard eggplant skins.

To the eggplant, add the tahini, olive oil, sumac, aleppo pepper,  garlic, and lemon juice.  Grind everything in either a food processor or with a stick blender, until it achieves the texture you prefer (I like something fairly smooth).

Serve topped with olive oil and sumac, with bread of your choice.  Feta cheese is a very nice accompaniment to this, along with some fresh raw vegetables like carrots, celery, and bell pepper.

This is particularly delicious the day after, when all the flavors have had a chance to meld.

Makes 2 cups.

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Spiced Okra, Easy and Delicious

cooked okra

For the longest time, I wouldn’t even consider eating okra.

Mainly, it was because of its famous sliminess (or, “mucilaginous juice”, eh), which is a total textural turnoff for me.  I’d heard there were ways to avoid the slime – don’t cut off the stem tip, or pickle it in vinegar.  Still, I wasn’t convinced.

raw okra

However, this past week we got okra in our CSA share, and so I found myself in a position where I had an opportunity to find a way to eat it.  Additionally, the weekend prior I picked up the September issue of Food & Wine, which had a very simple recipe for okra in it, that assured a lack of sliminess.  I figured it was vegetable kismet, and worth a try.

To my delight, I found the recipe extremely easy to make, and even better – the cooking technique indeed did eliminate the slime!  I’m also a sucker for charred or caramelized vegetables, yum.  Plus the spice mixture contained some of my favorite flavors.  This is one delicious dish.

spice mixture

I made some adjustments, and will include them here.  If you are curious about okra, but are scared of the slime, this is an excellent way to try out this curious vegetable.

in the pan

Skillet-Roasted Spiced Okra
Adapted from a recipe from Food & Wine.

1/4 teaspoon cayenne
1/2 tsp chili powder
1/4 teaspoon ground cumin
1/4 teaspoon ground coriander
1/2 teaspoon fennel seeds
1/8 teaspoon turmeric
Pinch of cinnamon
2 tablespoons olive oil
1/2 pound small okra, halved lengthwise
Salt
juice of one lemon

In a small bowl, blend the cayenne, chili powder, cumin, coriander, fennel, turmeric, an cinnamon.

In a skillet, heat 1 tablespoon of the olive oil. Add the okra, cut side down, and cook over high heat for 2 minutes.

Reduce the heat to moderate and cook until browned on the bottom, 4 minutes longer.

Turn the okra and cook over low heat until tender, 2 minutes. Season with salt and sprinkle with the spice mixture. Cook, stirring, until fragrant, 30 seconds.

Drizzle the lemon juice over the okra and serve.

The okra is good with a little plain yogurt or a dollop of fresh chevre.

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Farro and Summer Vegetable Salad

farro summer vegetable salad

I did not plan this salad.  It just sort of came to be through improvisation; I like to cook in this way.  Recipes are great, don’t get me wrong, and I enjoy using them, but it’s also nice to take what you have and come up with something delicious, which this most certainly is. Or, was – I ate it all within a 24 hour period.  It was that good.

First, though – what is farro?  Farro is an ancient whole wheat grain also known as Emmer; it’s also related to spelt.  It looks like large barley or even a bit like freekeh, and is medium brown in color.  It has a toothsome texture and mild, nutty flavor.  It has slightly less protein than quinoa, but has almost twice the fiber. You cook it like most grains – soak then simmer in a pot til the water (or stock) absorbs.  My farro comes from Cayuga Organics via my CSA.

So, Tuesday morning I decided I wanted to cook some grains.  I looked in the pantry and the first grain I spied was the farro.  So, I brought it down, put it in my soaking bowl, added water and raw vinegar and let it soak while I was at work.

That night I picked up my CSA shares – the veggie share was full of summer vegetables, and I knew their robust flavors would go well with the farro.

I took what I had – red peppers, leeks, zucchini, tomatoes – and mixed it with the cooked farro, along with some feta and lemon juice.  The salad was so delicious!  It was hearty and satisfying without weighing me down.  The flavors were sharp and clear and they all mixed together to make an excellent dish.  It was wonderfully savory.

I would make this again… in fact, I probably will make it again next week!  It was fantastic the next day, too – the flavors had married and tasted a bit deeper.  Definitely a good dish to bring as leftovers to work.

Farro and Summer Vegetable Salad

1 cup dry farro
soaking water and an acid (I used raw apple cider vinegar; lemon juice would work, too)
juice and zest of 1 lemon
kosher salt
1 leek, finely chopped
1 small red, orange, or yellow bell pepper, chopped
1 small zucchini, julienned, then the matchsticks cut in half to the length of an inch or so
1/4 cup feta cheese (Bulgarian feta is my favorite), crumbled
2 tablespoons pine nuts (raw or toasted)
1-2 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil
1/2 pint cherry tomatoes, each cut in half

Put the cup of dry farro in a bowl, cover with water and a splash of acid, and let soak for 8-10 hours.  When the soaking time is up, drain the farro and put in a saucepan with 1 cup of water.  Bring it to a boil, then let it simmer until almost all the water has been absorbed, about 20-25 minutes.  Rinse and drain and set aside.

While the farro is cooking, cut up the leeks.  The way I do this is that I cut off the top fibrous green leaves, leaving the tender white parts.  Then cut off the root end.  Slice the leek in half from root to tip, and rinse the leeks in a way to be sure there is no dirt stuck between the layers.  Put the cut side down and slice thin half moons.  You’ll have a pile of cute skinny half moon leeks – then chop them until they meet your standard for finely chopped.

Add the bell pepper and zucchini.  Add the lemon zest and squeeze the lemon onto the mixture of leeks, pepper, and zucchini, sprinkle with salt (I used about 1/4 tsp) and let that macerate until the farro is ready to be added.

Add the farro and mix with the vegetable lemon combination.  Crumble your feta and add the pine nuts. Pour the olive oil over it all. Last, add the sliced-in-half tomatoes. Mix it all together.  Adjust seasonings as you like.

Serves 4-6, or two servings for some very hungry people.

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Orange and Pale Ale Marinated Steak

grilled steak sliced

The other day I wanted to cook the little pastured blade steaks I had ordered from the CSA, but wanted to add a little oomph to them beyond simply salting and peppering.  I know this particular cut can be a little tough, too, so I wanted to prepare them in way that would relax them a bit.  Right around that time, I had received the August issue of Sunset Magazine, which featured a selection of marinade recipes, one of which sounded perfect for my little steaks.

marinated steaks

This marinade called for orange juice and beer as its main ingredients, both of which help to tenderize meat.  It also included garlic and onion as aromatics.  I decided to try it.  The night before I wanted to cook them, I put the marinade together and poured it over the steaks.  By the next evening, they were ready to go!

Well, the marinade definitely helped to tenderize the steak – while not buttery in texture by any means, the meat sliced well and was delicious, cooked at medium.  The marinade gave them wonderful flavor, while allowing the inherent taste of the meat to come through.  It was well-received in my household and I would totally use this marinade again.

steak on the grill

It will come as no surprise to some of my friends that I would be a little lost at sea when it comes to cooking slabs of meat, having been a vegetarian for so many years.  I needed a little guidance, so I must give props to the instructions in Alice Waters’ The Art of Simple Food.  It has great basic info for a noob like myself!

Orange and Pale Ale Marinade
adapted from Sunset Magazine, August 2010 issue

1/2 cup medium-bodied beer, such as pale ale
Zest and juice of 1 large orange (2 large oranges would work, too, if you want more orange flavor)
1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
1 tablespoon naturally fermented soy sauce
1 large garlic clove, minced
1/2 medium onion, peeled and coarsely shredded on a box grater
1 teaspoon coarse sea salt

Whisk all ingredients together. Put beef in a nonreactive baking dish and pour marinade over, turning to coat.

Marinate for one day, then grill.  Makes enough marinade for 2 pounds of beef.

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Lacto-Fermented Salsa

lf salsa

This week I expanded my fermentation repertoire into lacto-fermented salsa.  I’d not fermented anything involving fruit (tomatoes are really a fruit) before, so this was a new experience.  I learned that fruit-based ferments progress quicker than vegetable-based ones, so I expected to see some results early on.  Additionally, it’s pretty warm right now, and that ambient heat also encourages a quicker fermentation.  I love salsa, and thought I’d enjoy a lacto-fermented one, but had no idea just how delicious it would be!

This is a timely dish because tomatoes are in season.  Summer tomatoes are one of the true joys of the season.  They taste so amazing right now. Canned tomatoes can be used, but they are nothing like fresh tomatoes.

peeled tomatoes

So why make fermented salsa?  Well, the lactobacilli helps to increase the digestibility of the salsa, plus the increased levels of vitamins and enzymes go way up.  The lactic acid helps it to not spoil, and helps promote a healthy gut with the natural probiotics that develop.

chopped tomatoes

This is a pretty easy recipe to prepare without a food processor, but if you have one (or a stick blender even), preparing this salsa will come together in a jiffy.  I like chopping things by hand, so I was fine with doing it manually, but if I ever get myself a food processor, I’ll try it that way, too.

ingredients pre mixing

This salsa tastes like summer and has a delicious tang to it from the fermentation.  I actually took it with me as an example item for my talk on traditional foods for Queens Holistic Moms, and it was very well received!  People loved it, and went back for second and third tastes.  I was really happy about that!

The whey works really well with it, too.

salsa in a jar

Lacto-fermented Salsa
Adapted from a recipe by Cheeseslave.  Directions for the salsa using a food processor can be found here.

1-2 serranos or 1/2-1 jalapenos (I used about 1/4 tsp dried Aleppo pepper flakes)
4 medium fresh tomatoes, or 2 pounds canned tomatoes, organic if possible
1 medium white onion, organic if possible
1 garlic cloves
2 limes, organic if possible
1 tablespoon sea salt
4 tablespoons whey (or, if you don’t have any whey, use an additional 1 tablespoon salt)
1 bunch fresh cilantro

If you are using fresh chiles, consider wearing gloves, especially if you are sensitive to the capsaicin, the stuff in peppers that makes them hot.   Cut open the chiles and discard the stems and seeds. Set aside.

If using fresh tomatoes, peel and de-seed them:  Fill a large saucepan halfway with water, set on high heat and bring to a boil. Cut an X in the bottom (blossom end) of the tomato, and carefully set them in the saucepan for 5-10 seconds, then remove with a slotted spoon or tongs and place in an ice bath. Cool and peel.

Cut tomatoes in half and gently squeeze out the seeds, or scoop out with a spoon, and discard.  Chop finely.

Peel and cut the onion into small dice.  Peel and mince or crush the garlic.

Rinse, dry and chop the cilantro, discarding the stems.

Squeeze the limes and add the juice.

Add the sea salt and whey.

Mix everything together.

Transfer to quart-sized mason jar. Add a little filtered water if necessary (if you like it more liquid and it’s too chunky). If you add water, put the lid on and shake it up so it’s incorporated. Make sure to leave at least an inch of space from the top of the jar.

Cover and keep at room temperature for 2-3 days before transferring to the fridge. Salsa will keep for weeks or months in fridge.

This post is participating in Fight Back Friday, hosted by Food Renegade.

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Lacto-Fermented Beets

One of the things I’m going to talk about on Wednesday is lacto-fermentation, that traditional method of preserving food with salt and/or whey, that results in a more nutrient dense food that is high in vitamin C, and full of probiotics.  I want to have an example to show everyone at the talk, and I had some beets in my refrigerator, so I chose to ferment them.

whole raw beets

I love beets prepared many ways, and fermenting them is just one way to make them delicious.  I first learned about lacto-fermentation from Andrew Faust, a permaculture specialist based in Brooklyn NY, but formerly lived 8 years off the grid in rural West Virginia.   He taught a fermentation workshop in Sunnyside (sponsored by Food Not Lawns) that was really great and I learned so much!  It got me really excited about fermentation.

To make these beets, I used my experience from this workshop with a little guidance from Sandor Katz’s Wild Fermentation, a wonderful book about, well, fermented foods.  These foods range from vegetables to dairy, to beverages, and more.  It’s an awesome book.

The first thing to do is find yourself a non-reactive bowl.  I use a large pyrex bowl when I’m doing any kind of fermentation, be it LF veggies, working with sourdough, or soaking grains/flours.  Another material to use would be ceramic – just don’t use metal.

Prepare your beets – rinse them off to get rid of dirt but don’t scrub the outside or peel the beets.  There are microorganisms living on the outside of the beets (and other vegetables, too), that you want to retain to help with the whole fermentation process.

I used about a pound and a half of beets for this batch.  It might seem like a lot, but it compresses quite a bit.

The next thing to do is to grate the beets.  Those of you with food processors, you can just put them through that, but a hand grater works great.  I use a box grater.  Be careful of those knuckles!

grated beets

After you grate the beets, add 1/2 to 1 tablespoon of sea salt; iodized salt is not recommended for this.  If you want your ferment to be saltier, use more salt.  I used a whole tablespoon because I’m going to use these beets as a flavoring for beans and grains, which I won’t salt.  Pound the beets with a wooden spoon, smashing them and mixing them together as you go.  Soon, the beets will start to break down and exude some liquid.

juicy beets

These beets got kind of foamy, probably because of the saponins within.

really juicy beets

Find yourself a very clean (sterilized is great, but thoroughly washed with soap and water works, too) glass jar with a lid – I like using canning jars with metal lids.  I also like to use a wide mouth funnel, which helps immensely when putting the beets in the jar.

the vessel

Put the beets in the jar!  As you put them in there, press down to exude even more liquid.

beets in the jar

This liquid is a kind of brine that will help protect the beets from exposure to outside air.

from the top

As you can see in this picture, there was space between my beets and the top of the jar.  So, I made a separate brine – 1 tablespoon sea salt to 1 cup of water. I poured it into the jar until there was about 1/4-1/2 inch left at the top.

pouring in the brine

After you’ve poured enough brine in, screw on the lid until it’s finger tight, but not too tight.  It’s good to turn the jar upside down a few times to let any air bubbles come up and release into the area just below the lid.

beets ready to ferment

Set your jar of beets in a dark, warmish cupboard.  After a couple of days, check the beets and see how you like them.  If you want them a little tangier, let them ferment for another day and check it, and so on.  If you like what you taste, store the beets in the fridge in the door.  The fridge is the best “refrigerator microclimate” for such things.

These beets – or any lacto-fermented food – are a living food.  Mine were so alive this weekend that they wanted to escape some!  Our warm summer no doubt has accelerated certain processes in the fermentation process; I doubt this would be the same situation in the heart of winter.

Apparently I tightened the lid just a tad too tight, so that the beets didn’t have any space to release their gas, so they pressed up against the lid as hard as they could!  The lid was slightly domed when I saw it on Sunday morning.  I had to release the tension so that I could check on them, and they exclaimed all sorts of fizzy sounds in the process!  I did spoon out a couple tablespoons of beets and added more brine to relax things.  They’ve been fine since then.

Of course, there are systems that are truly designed for fermentation.  The Harsch crock is one, regular crocks with a plate is another system, and there are fancy lids for mason jars.  My system has worked for me, and I’ve made some great LF foods this way.  Plus, it utilizes tools I have at home, at my fingertips.  One day I’ll buy a Harsch, I expect, but it’s not on my list for the moment.

I tasted the beets this morning and they are already tangy!  And a little salty, but they will be fantastic with black beans or millet.

Hooray for lacto fermented beets!  Yum.

holding beets