Fermentation Station

This corner of my kitchen is full of bubbling jars. Further prep for my seminar next week. Kimchi getting tangy and cukes on their way to sour. There's creme fraiche, corned beef and gravlax in the fridge. This weekend: yogurt, pickled grapes, cultured butter. I'm getting psyched.

Thoughts on NaBloPoMo will have to wait until tomorrow, but I do have some thoughts to share. Thanks for reading along this month, it's been fun for me and I hope you've enjoyed it.

Homework

Tonight I'm working on the lecture outline for a seminar I'm teaching the first week in December. I don't know if you can tell from this pile of research material (ha) but it's about pickles. There will, of course, be plenty of snacks and demos involved, but If you were going to a seminar about pickles, what questions would you want answered?

Pickled Cherry Pan Sauce

Serving duck with cherries isn't ground breaking; people have been serving fowl and fruit  together for ages. I wanted to show you, though, that I did something with my pickled cherries other than just eat them with cheese and crackers! I seared two duck breasts in my trusty cast iron skillet. When they were done I spooned out the excess fat and added two cups of duck stock (chicken stock would have been fine, too) and a sprig of rosemary. I let the stock reduce down to less than a cup, then I fished out the rosemary and added a handful of pickled cherries and a big pinch of salt. I let it simmer for another minute, just until the cherries were warmed through. I really liked how the sweet tart cherries cut through the richness of the duck breast.

Pickled Cherries

I spent half an hour at the end of last week sitting outside pitting a couple of pounds of these sweet cherries from Kimball Fruit Farm. This activity taught me that somebody needs to invent a functioning cherry pitter; I made it through about half of them before I switched to a paring knife.



The cherry halves went into a pie of sorts, but the whole cherries (well, except for the pits) took a bath in brine. The recipe comes from the June issue of Bon Appetit, the one with Gwyneth Paltrow on the cover. Did the celebrity on the cover of a food magazine bother anyone else? It's weird, I'm not a big fan of the new design of the magazine; to me it feels like they're trying way too hard to be hip what with all the letterpress styling and what not. On the other hand, I've been tempted by more of the recipes in the last couple of issues than over the winter... but that might have more to do with me finishing school and having time to read magazines again than Adam Rapoport's takeover.



ANYWAY, enough ruminating on the state of food publishing. Pickled cherries! Deliciously odd, peppery sweet, perfect with the last jar of duck rillettes we had in the house. If you've got cherries around, why not pickle them?

Pickled Cherries
Adapted only slightly from Bon Appetit

BA suggests pairing these with pate or as part of a salumi platter, which was great, but I think I'm going to serve some with seared duck breast later this week, too. I'd love to know how you would use them.

12 ounces (3/4 pound) sweet cherries
3/4 cup distilled white vinegar
3/4 cup water
1/4 cup sugar
2 teaspoons whole black peppercorns
1 teaspoon whole coriander seeds
1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes
1 sprig rosemary

First, wash and pit the cherries. If you use a pitter you'll end up with whole cherry pickles, but halves would work fine, too, if you'd rather use a paring knife.

Combine the vinegar, water, sugar, pepper, coriander and red pepper flakes in a medium sauce pan (use stainless steel or another non reactive pan, aluminum will react with the vinegar). Bring to a boil and reduce heat to a simmer for five minutes. Strain the brine through a sieve into a bowl to remove the solids, then return the liquid to the pan and add the cherries and rosemary. Simmer for a few minutes until the cherries are just barely tender.

Use a slotted spoon to transfer the cherries and rosemary sprig to a one pint mason jar. Carefully pour enough of the brine into the jar to cover the cherries. Let the jar cool at room temperature for a couple of hours, then cover and chill. Makes about 2 cups.

Friday Link Love: Canning Season!

I told you guys I made my first batch of jam this week... well, now I've got preserving on the brain. Last year I started in earnest May and ended up with quite a haul, and I feel like I've started so late this year! I know I need to do more red salsa this year since we finished that up before the tomato season came back around, and I definitely need to do dilly beans again because my friends can eat an entire jar of those in about five minutes.

I've been searching around for canning recipes to inspire me, and here are a few of them:

Tomato Jam from Food In Jars. I'm not really a ketchup person, but I love the idea of this on a burger.

I made jalapeno jelly last year, but these Pickled Hot Peppers from Well Preserved are definitely part of my can plan this year.

I'll probably pickle my walking onions using this recipe from Doris and Jilly.

As for things that get preserved but not canned, I'm definitely going to make more sauerkraut, but I really want to try making kimchi this summer. Anybody have a good recipe?

Momofuku's Soy Pickled Shiitakes

I pickled these mushrooms to go with a feast of sorts we had on Sunday. I needed a big project to kick myself off the couch and back into the kitchen, and since it was decidedly soup weather, it seemed as good a time as any to tackle pho. I used a mash up of Andrea Nguyen's recipe, and the interpretation of it over at Steamy Kitchen. (Aside: any Boston area readers know where I can find yellow rock sugar? I couldn't track it down at the Reliance Market in Union Square.)

The pho broth simmered for a few hours while I pleated dumplings and Adam put the leaf in the table. I whizzed raw shrimp in the food processor - not very pretty, but the shrimp toasts were delicate and crunchy, so it was worth the cleaning (ahem, Adam does the dishes). And then I pickled these mushrooms. They practically sing in your mouth, they are so flavorful and vibrant. I've been eating the leftovers out of the fridge every time I walk by, and I bet they'd be fantastic in a cold noodle salad.

Soy Pickled Shiitakes
Adapted, just barely, from Momofuku

Dried mushrooms at the regular grocery store can be pricey, but if you head to an Asian market you can get a one ounce bag for ninety-nine cents. Just be warned, once you start exploring the aisles you may not be able to stop at just mushrooms. 

4 cups (loosely packed) dried shiitake mushrooms - about 3 ounces by weight
1 cup sugar
1 cup soy sauce
1 cup white wine vinegar (or sherry vinegar if you can find it, I couldn't)
1 thumb-sized knobs of ginger, peeled

Re-hydrate the mushrooms in hot water (doesn't have to boil, just really hot) for 15 minutes or so or until the mushrooms are softened. Once the mushrooms are soft, lift them out of the soaking liquid; strain the liquid through cheesecloth or a fine mesh strainer to remove any sand or debris and reserve the liquid. Remove the stems from the mushroom caps and discard. Slice the caps into 1/4 inch wide slices.

Combine the mushrooms with 2 cups of the reserved soaking liquid, sugar, soy sauce, vinegar and ginger in a sauce pan. Bring to a simmer over medium heat, then reduce heat and simmer (gently, please) for 30 minutes. Allow the mushrooms to cool in the liquid.

Pack the pickled mushroom slices into a quart size container and add enough of the cooking liquid to cover. They'll keep in the fridge for a month or more, but they're ready to eat now, hooray!

Sunday Night Special: Canning

I thought about calling this post "What I Did On My Summer Vacation," but I actually only had two weeks off. Ah, but no, I didn't amass this many jars of delicious things in just two weeks. If you don't count the meyer lemon marmalade I made in January (citrus season: the highlight of the colder months), I starting canning in earnest in May with pickled asparagus, which we'll eat with hardboiled eggs like before or maybe as part of an antipasto platter.

In June I kept the momentum going with dilly beans, which we have already eaten a jar of, with cheese and crackers during a night of card games. July was the month for jam: apricot, plum, and blueberry (we picked the blueberries ourselves and added lemon verbena from our garden). We've been eating the jam on toast, and as part of a delicious pastry that I have yet to tell you about, and I've got my eye on this jam tart recipe, too. We also made a kosher-style dill cucumber pickle in July, using a method from the new-this-year canning book Canning for a New Generation. I want to make every single thing in this book, but I'm running out of pantry space. Oh and if I run out of ways to use all this jam, here's a great list of ideas.

In August I made one more batch of jam (peach) and I made jalapeno jelly for the first time. It was also my first time using commercial pectin. My dad just emailed me to say he's enjoying the jar I sent up to Maine on crackers with goat cheese, so I'm going to call it a success. Speaking of spicy, we also put up sixteen pints of salsa in August.

September has been tomato month so far: 8 quarts of whole peeled tomatoes, 9 pints of crushed tomatoes, and three pints of tomato juice as a byproduct of the crushed tomatoes. We'll eat the tomatoes as sauce or on pizza or in any of the many, many things we eat that call for a can of tomatoes. I bet the tomato juice will show up as in a bloody mary for our New Year's Day brunch party if not before. Last week I made my first ever batch of mixed pickles using cauliflower, celery, carrots, pearl onions, cucumbers and hot and sweet peppers. We like these spicy pickles in salad or with cheese and crackers like the dilly beans.

I took this photo the other day mostly to remember what I've canned this year. I'll probably still do a batch of peach chutney since we enjoyed that so much last year, and I can always find room for more salsa in the cupboard. It was also fun to get it all out and see how productive we've been all season!  So, what have you put up this year? And how are you going to use it?

Pickled Asparagus

Do not be frightened of the giant jar full of spices. This is my pickling spice blend. Yes,  you can buy it at the store in a tiny 1.5 ounce bottle labeled "Pickling Spices" with McCormick on the label for $3.99. But then you might end up with a blend you don't like. (McCormick uses way too much cinnamon and clove for my tastes; I do not want pickles that taste like Christmas.) So I mixed up a jar of my own. The recipe is down below, and though a few of these things were already in my spice drawer, the majority were purchased for about $14 in bulk baggies at my favorite spice shop, and I have tons leftover. Which is to say my pint was way cheaper than $4 per ounce and a half. 





Yes, I can hear you out there, asking what in the sam hill am I going to use all that pickling spice for? Do not despair my friends, for you can pickle just about any vegetable (and some fruits, too!). And you don't have to have a giant pot full of boiling water or deal with funny shaped tongs or funnels or any of that nonsense if you don't want to. Personally, I want to, because water-bath-processed pickles can keep for about a year on the shelf, which means I can eat these pickled asparagus in November when I'm just starting to get bummed out by the cold, and get a tangy reminder of what spring tastes like. 





I followed the pickled asparagus recipe over on Food in Jars for my shelf-stable pickles, except I skipped the lemon slice and used one dried red chile in each jar instead of adding additional red pepper flakes to the brine. The spears are quite spicy, but that's how I wanted them. Below I've written out the method for the first small batch I made- refrigerator pickles that will keep for a few weeks, getting more pickley each day. It's a good place to start if you've never made pickles before.





And once you do have spicy, sour, puckery pickled asparagus at your disposal, you can make this lovely composed salad, adapted (but not much) from Eugenia Bone's Well Preserved. A few spears of pickled asparagus, a sliced hardboiled egg, pepper, olive oil, and a bit of flakey salt. It's a very elegant (and delicious!) way to enjoy your pickles. Or you can just eat them straight out of the jar, standing in front of the open fridge when you get home from work... I won't tell.


What's the weirdest thing you've ever pickled?


Refrigerator Asparagus Pickles
You can use any jar you like for this, just trim the asparagus to fit, making sure the tips won't stick up above the brine level in the jar. If you plan to process these, you should double this brine and use 4 bunches of asparagus in 3 pint jars... or use Marisa's recipe. 


1 to 1 1/2 bunches asparagus, trimmed to fit your jar
1 1/2 cups white vinegar
1 1/2 cups water
1 Tablespoon kosher salt (make sure your salt contains only salt, no sulfites or anti-caking agents - these do weird things to pickles. Diamond brand is great.)
2 Tablespoons pickling spice (recipe below)
1 1/2 teaspoons red pepper flakes or 1 whole small dried chili pepper
1 clove garlic, peeled


Blanch the asparagus for about 15 seconds in a large pan of boiling water, then transfer it immediately to a bowl of ice water. Drain, then pack the asparagus into the jar, tips up or down (I alternated to make more spears fit in the jar). Tuck the chili pepper, if using, and the garlic clove in amongst the spears. 


Bring the vinegar, water, salt, pickling spice and red pepper flakes (if using) just to a boil in a small saucepan, remove from heat, and pour over the asparagus in the jar. Put the lid on the jar, and let it cool for a few hours on the counter before refrigerating. 


Let the asparagus stew in the brine for a couple of days before eating. Mine were pickly enough for me after 2 days.


Pickling Spice Blend
Adapted from all over the dang internet, and adjusted to fit my tastes. Which is to say, no cinnamon. I've seen recipes using cardamom, and I added the celery seed because I like it. Fiddle around with the mix until you find something you like, just make sure you write it down once you find it!

1/4 cup mustard seeds
1/4 cup dill seeds
1/4 cup coriander seeds
3-4 T red pepper flakes
2 T crushed bay leaves
2 T peppercorns
1 T celery seed
1 T allspice
1 T cloves
1 T ginger flakes* 

Stick this in a jar. Shake it up. Make pickles. 

*Adam brought home this odd flakey ginger from the spice shop, and I thought it was pretty perfect for a pickling blend. Ground ginger would be fine too, just use less. I also dumped in the last tablespoon or so of McCormick's blend, but that's just because I wanted the jar for something else. 

Turkey Meatball Banh Mi Sandwiches

I considered starting this post "so now that we've got healthy and resolved out of the way, let's make meatball sandwiches!" And then I thought better of it, because I don't want you to feel bad about making these, because guys. This is the best sandwich I have ever made.

It is hearty and spicy enough to make me sweat just a little (don't run away from that, there's a way to fix it!), and warm and satisfying. We had these for dinner, then constructed two more minus the pickles (so they wouldn't get soggy), and wrapped them in plastic. At work the next day I added pickles and it was delicious even cold!

The recipe is from Bon Appetit's January 2010 meatball issue, though I made a few adjustments. Adam generally avoids pork (and other animals in the top 5 intelligent animal category), so I used ground turkey. I also eyeballed the mayo recipe because I didn't know where my 1/3 cup measure was.

 Oh, and I couldn't find daikon so I used some regular red radishes we had in the fridge. I tried coarsely grating the carrots but all I had were baby ones, and I didn't want to smash  my knuckles to bits on the grater, so I julienned them. It was a bit of a pain, but I really liked the pickles so it was worth it. Don't forget to hollow out the bread!

If you think this is going to be too spicy for you, don't skimp on the mayo, just skip the jalapenos.

Turkey Meatball Banh Mi
adapted from Bon Appetit, January 2010
makes 4 sandwiches*

For the mayo:

2/3 cup mayonnaise
2 finely chopped green onions
1 tablespoon sriracha

Combine all ingredients in a small bowl and stir. Easy peasy! Cover and chill.

For the pickles:
2 cups carrots, julienne (or coarsely grated)
2 cups daikon, julienne (or coarsely grated) - I used regular red radishes because I couldn't find daikon. they were a pain to cut but they worked just fine.
1/4 cup seasoned rice vinegar (or 1/4 cup unseasoned vinegar + 2 T sugar)
1 teaspoon kosher salt

Combine all ingredients in a bowl and let stand at room temperature for about an hour, giving it a stir if you think of it a couple of times.


For the meatballs:
1 lb ground turkey
4 garlic cloves, minced
3 green onions, finely chopped
1 tablespoon fish sauce
1 tablespoon sriracha
1 tablespoon sugar
2 teaspoons cornstarch
1 teaspoon black pepper
1 teaspoon kosher salt

You also need:
4 very small baguettes (8-10inches long) or 4 8-10" pieces of baguette, cut from 2 baguettes
2 jalapeno chile, sliced as thin as you can get it, seeded
16 sprigs cilantro
grapeseed or other neutral oil
sesame oil

First, combine the pickle ingredients and set them aside at room temp. Then combine the spicy mayo ingredients and stick that in the fridge. Ok, great,  now let's make meatballs!

Line a large rimmed baking sheet with plastic. In a large bowl, gently combine all the meatball ingredients. Gently! Compact meatballs are dense and heavy and icky. We don't want that. If you have time, chill the meat mixture for 30 minutes to make it easier to form into balls. If not, press on.

Set out a little bowl of water, and moisten your fingers. Use a tablespoon measure to scoop up scant tablespoons of meat and gently roll them into 1 inch meatballs. It's more of a press than a roll, really, but gentle is key. Line them up on the plastic-lined baking sheet until you run out of meat. I got about 30 meatballs out of the mixture.

Heat a tablespoon or so of grapeseed oil plus a couple of dashes of sesame oil in a large pan over medium high heat. Saute the meatballs in two batches until browned all over and cooked through, turning frequently with tongs. Transfer to a paper towel lined plate to drain, or if necessary a 300 degree oven to keep warm.

Now to construct the sandwich: hollow out a length of baguette to create a little bread boat for your fillings. Slap a thin layer of hot chili mayo over each side of the bread. In one shell, place cilantro and jalapenos, then 1/4 of the meatballs, then a pile of pickles (drain them first). Top with the other bread shell.

The Can-o-rama Cantacular

Perhaps you've heard it? The hustle and buzz around the interwebs? America's plugged-in home cooks and food-obsessed are all talking about the Canvolution. It started in Seattle and it has spread east with a frenzy, culminating last weekend in canning and preserving parties all over the country. I was lucky enough to attend the Boston area event in Somerville on Sunday. Organized and led by Linsey of Cake and Commerce, 20 plus canvolutionaries gathered in a borrowed Thai restaurant to discuss boiling water canning, pressure canning, and lactofermentation. Things got hands on (and messy!) and we all went home happy with jars of tomato sauce, dill pickles, sauerkraut, and mixed berry jam. (Actually, I stuck around to help clean up and was rewarded with an extra jar of jam for my troubles, wee!). Linsey, who taught boiling-water canning, wrapped up the experience on her blog here; Nika, who demonstrated pressure canning, discusses the day on her blog, too. Oh, and if you're interested in the sauerkraut, check out Alex's blog as well.

Of course, now I've got the canning bug and I went out and bought a big ol' canning pot and some jars the other day. I can't wait to hit the markets this week, and I sure as heck hope my friends and family like jam, because I know what everybody's getting for the holidays this year!

So tell me, friends: Do you can? Have you got any favorite pickle recipes?What about drying? Freezing? How do you keep summer's bounty preserved for the chilly days of winter?

Pickles!

A few weeks ago at T^2's housewarming party, I had homemade pickles for the second time in my food-conscious life. I could have said adult life, but I think that would have been a lie. My aunt (Hi, Auntie Patrice!) makes her own pickles too which I had a couple of summers ago - my first time - and I'll bet my mom made them at some point (Mom? Have you made pickles?).


But since I only started getting 'into food' in the last couple of years, it wasn't until I had Tammi's pickles that I wanted to try making my own. Since then I've come across approximately 497 pickle methods and home-pickling stories on various blogs made from a plethora of fruits and vegetables. I wanted to start with a classic cucumber dill pickle, and I knew I would want them to be sandwich appropriate (Tammi's were delicious on burgers) so I sliced them into rounds instead of spears.


I poured in a pretty standard brine: 1/2 cup rice vinegar, 1/2 cup water, 1 1/2 tablespoons of salt. I added two garlic cloves and a bit of dill. I stuck it in the fridge.

The next day I gave the pickles a try. WHOA. SO vinegary. And maybe even too salty. And frankly, they did not improve with age, even though I poured out some of the brine and added more water. Next time I will go skew the ratio in the favor of water if I want to eat them out of hand. All is not lost, however! The extra tart pickles are DEEElicious on Hugh's turkey burgers with marmalade mustard glaze, Swiss cheese, lettuce and tomato.

My Too Acidic But Delicious on Burgers Pickles
Inspired by Tammi, who I think was inspired by Tom's Grandma

1 glass jar
1 large cucumber
1/2 c rice vinegar
1/2 - 1 c water
1 1/2 Tbsp salt
a few sprigs dill
2 cloves garlic

Clean the jar. Slice the cucumber into rounds between 1/8 and 1/4 inch thick. Slice the garlic cloves into a couple of pieces. Put the cucumbers, garlic and dill in the jar - you will probably have extra cucumber slices. In a large measuring cup or bowl combine the vinegar, water and salt, and stir to dissolve. Pour the brine over the contents of the jar. If there is still space fill it with water. Stick the jar in the fridge. Pickles are ready the next day but will keep for weeks in the fridge.