One of the things I wanted to explore this year, is making vinegar. Imagine my delight when I learned that it takes almost no time and starting it only takes a few ingredients: wine, water, and raw vinegar (for a starter).
Above is what I used to start my batch of vinegar – 1 cup of leftover wine, 4 Tbs raw apple cider vinegar, and a vessel in which to make it (wide mouth mason jar). I was sure to add very hot water to the jar and swirl it around to make sure it was a clean and sterile space. I also added 1 cup of water.
There’s now about 6 layers of cheesecloth over the opening, secured with a rubber band, and I’ve wrapped the jar in a tea towel. It’s now sitting on my kitchen counter in a far corner that gets no direct light.
I thought I’d update you a on my plum shrub syrup. It certainly has changed over the past couple of months. It’s gotten sweeter and less vinegary – that tang is still there, though, but it’s certainly mellower.
I really like how it’s changed – I think it’s much more balanced and actually more syrupy. It goes great in sparkling water; I haven’t tried it with alcohol. When I use it in sparkling water, I find that these days I want to use more syrup than I did at the beginning of its life. When it was younger, a little went quite a long way.
I would say to those who experiment with the shrub and find it way strong for their taste, just wait longer and the syrup will mellow out. And become more delicious, of course.
I’ll definitely be making shrubs again for many summers to come.
Lately, I’ve been on a preservation kick. So far, I’ve made jam/preserves, simple syrup, vinegar pickles, and now… shrubs. Actually, just one at this point.
Yes, shrubs. It sounds like a plant, but it’s a fruit syrup that basically consists of fruit, sugar, and vinegar in a 1:1:1 ratio. It’s another way to preserve seasonal fruit, hooray! And it’s easy to make.
My main reference in learning how to do this is this great article on Serious Eats, Cocktail 101: How to Make Shrub Syrups. Apparently the shrub was popular in Colonial America. They’d mix the shrub syrup with water, making for a refreshing summer drink. It pretty much got forgotten after refrigeration and products of the industrial food system became more and more popular in this country.
The shrub has been sort of “rediscovered” here in the 21st century – I actually first heard about the shrub at The Queens Kickshaw after our food swap. Ben, one of the owners, was experimenting with them. I tasted a few he had put together and they sure were vinegary and tasty, but I like the tang of vinegar, so it was all good with me. It wasn’t until I was poking around online that I came across the Serious Eats article that talked about making shrubs in more depth.
So, we got a lot of plums in last week’s CSA share, and by the beginning of this week, they were really starting to ripen. I wanted to do something with them to extend their life – I didn’t have enough for jam really, so the shrub was a perfect solution. I had a cup of raw apple cider vinegar in the fridge, too, and some organic sugar on the shelf. Everything I needed!
I decided to make my shrub with the cold-process method. This way, the raw vinegar would get to stay raw. There is a way to make a shrub by cooking the fruit, too, which is preferred by some people. With the cold-process method, the brightness of the fruit will shine through and be a strong match for the vinegar.
Yellow plums, washed, depitted, and quartered
I started by washing, pitting, and quartering enough yellow plums to make a cup of fruit. I then combined that with a cup of organic sugar. I stirred it together, put it in a glass bowl, covered it in foil, and set it in the refrigerator.
Plums mixed with organic sugar
I let the fruit macerate for 24 hours. At the end of the 24 hours, I was looking for fruit sitting in syrup created by its juices and the sugar, which is what I found.
Plums after 24 hours of macerating
Really ripe fruit would probably take less time to exude its juices and make a syrup, but even then you can leave the fruit in the fridge for a day. Even two or three days, it will be ok.
I then drained the fruit over a large stainless steel bowl, pressing the plums a little to get the last bits of juice out.
Draining the fruit
There was a bunch of sugar sitting on the bottom of the glass bowl, so I scraped that out and into the syrup.
Plum syrup
I then added a cup of raw cider vinegar to that, whisked it, then poured it into a bottle and capped it. Finally, I vigorously shook the bottle, attempting to dissolve some of the remaining sugar.
Plum syrup with raw vinegar added
I’ll likely have to shake the bottle more times to get the sugar to dissolve. The acids in the juice and vinegar will dissolve it all eventually.
I tasted it – it was tangy! And fruity. Reminded me of kombucha when it’s got a big tang. The shrub will mellow, though, and I’ll likely notice a substantial change in that direction after a week.
All in all, this is very exciting. I can see myself making shrubs all summer long. I expect the syrup would be great mixed with sparkling water, or make into this suggested cocktail from Serious Eats:
Pair a small amount of shrub (about half an ounce) with 2 ounces of vermouth or sherry. Top that with some seltzer or club soda.
It also might be good in wheat beer (just a splash) or with some gin.
Shrubs should last quite a while – at least a year in the fridge. Some believe you can keep it on the shelf instead, but I like my syruped drinks cold, so I’m just going to store mine in the refrigerator.
As far as the science behind the drink goes, here’s a great explanation from mixologist Neyah White:
When a shrub ages, it is like an ecosystem. The ambient yeast (yeast on the fruit itself and yeast from the air) turns the sugar into alcohol, and the acetobacter (the bacteria in unpasteurized vinegar) turns the alcohol into more vinegar. Eventually this will stabilize and not turn the whole shrub into fruit vinegar since the bacteria-induced pH change will stall out the yeast’s fermentation process (and thus the bacteria’s acetic acid-producing pathway).
Very cool. I like it when people talk about ecosystems in food.
So there you have it – shrubs!
This post is participating in Real Food Wednesday, hosted by Kelly the Kitchen Kop.
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.
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.
I’m a big fan of leafy greens – kale, chard, collards. I just love them! However, I’ve had a hard time warming up to mustard greens – they are often just too peppery-spicy for me, and eating a whole plate of them can be a challenge. We got mustard greens in this week’s CSA share, so I wanted to find a way to prepare them in a tasty way.
While searching the internet, I came across a recipe from a most unlikely source: the Fatfree Vegan Kitchen website. While I am neither a vegan nor a fan of fat free cooking, the idea of ameliorating the peppery mustard greens with balsamic vinegar was appealing. And I love chickpeas. I decided to see what I could do to take it out of the “fat free vegan” realm and make the dish healthier and more nourishing.
Turns out it was pretty easy! I replaced the vegetable broth with pastured chicken broth I had made earlier in the spring, added some olive oil, and made sure to use naturally fermented soy sauce. I also used coconut sugar in place of refined sugar, or agave (which I don’t use or trust).
The balsamic vinegar really does help out with the peppery-ness of the mustard greens. The garbanzos are sweet and mild, and the sauce was really yummy -tangy and a little sweet. The whole combination is really delicious. I would make this again for sure.
It was also great the day after – I took it for lunch topped with a couple of fried eggs. It was so tasty!
Balsamic-Glazed Chickpeas and Mustard Greens Adapted from Fatfree Vegan Kitchen
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
10 ounces mustard greens
1/2 large red onion, thinly sliced
4 tablespoons chicken broth, preferably home made
4 cloves garlic, chopped
1 pinch red pepper flakes
1/2 teaspoon salt (optional)
2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
1/2 teaspoon naturally fermented soy sauce
1/4 teaspoon coconut sugar
1 cup cooked chickpeas, rinsed and drained
Remove any large stems from the greens and discard. Tear the leaves into bite-sized pieces.
In a large skillet or wok, heat a tablespoon of olive oil. Sauté the onion until it softens, 3-4 minutes. Add the chopped garlic and red pepper and cook, stirring, for another minute.
Add the mustard greens, 2 tablespoons of broth, and cook, stirring, until greens are wilted but still bright green, about 3-5 minutes. Stir in the salt, if using. Remove greens and onions from pan with a slotted spoon and place in a serving dish, leaving any liquid in pan.
Add the balsamic vinegar, soy sauce, and coconut sugar to the liquid in the pan (if there is no liquid, add 2 tablespoons of broth). Add the chickpeas and cook, stirring, over medium heat until the liquid is reduced by about half. Spoon the chickpeas over the greens and drizzle the sauce over all. Finish by drizzling another tablespoon or so of olive oil over the dish.
Serve warm, with additional balsamic vinegar at the table.
