senfkraut

It has been an interesting day.  About twenty minutes before I left for work, I started sneezing.  Allergies.  By the end of the day, my head was woozy dizzy from the allergies.  So woozy dizzy that I did not think I would be able to balance my bicycle on the way home.  My Beloved picked me up from work.

Monday evening, I broke my bone H crochet hook on Papaw's "kitchen" floor.  Most people would call it the breakfast area but in Papaw's house that is probably not the right word.  There is a room that is big enough for the whole family to sit down for Sunday breakfast.  One of the grandchildren said it needed to be built so it was.  My Beloved picked me up an aluminum crochet hook in his travels and I am using that one currently because the bamboo one just has too much friction.  I splurged on ordering a fancy one that is handmade so I will see if I like that.

The allergies are starting to get bad again so I am going to see if I can write faster then I sneeze and swell.  Sometimes witch hazel is my friend.

Before I left for MotoGP, I finished making kraut.  It was a request.  I was rushing to put it into the refrigerator before I left.

The first I made was senfkraut.  It was much easier then I expected.  Reading about making kraut is almost as mystical as reading about sourdough so I should have known better.  I also have better ideas about how to can it after talking with a cousin.  So many tricks can be learned around food with that many women cooking in a family!

My Beloved has been eating it on fish tacos.  One of the boyos has just been eating it.  There are brauts waiting to be cooked for it too.  Happy bellies.  Now, I admit it is not my cup of tea but I do not mind making it for happy bellies.

senfkraut

Note:  I used the recipe from Taproot  It was one of the most straight forward and unmystical descriptions I have read.  It worked well.

1 purple cabbage, rinsed, cored and thinly sliced.  Save about four of the whole outer leaves

1 tablespoon salt

1/2 onion, thinly sliced

3 - 6 cloves garlic minced

1 tablespoon fresh ginger, peeled and grated

1 tablespoon turmeric powder

1 1/2 tablespoons dill weed

3 tablespoons yellow mustard seed

1/4 cup filtered unchlorinated water

6 bay leaves

1/2 teaspoons peppercorns (I used multicolored because it was what I had)

In a large bowl, put the cabbage.  Add the salt and massage into the leaves with your hands.  The cabbages should start weeping brine.  Add the onion, garlic, ginger, and turmeric.  Mix thoroughly with the cabbage.

In a blender, mix the mustard seeds and water just enough to break up the seeds.

Add the mixture to the cabbage bowl and massage with your hands.  Taste for salt.  Add a bit more if you wish.  No more the 1/2 teaspoon.  There should be enough brine to cover the ferment but if not, cover and set aside for 45 minutes.  Massage again after this time.

In a quart jar or 1/2 gallon jar (or two pints like a used), place a few bay leaves on the bottom and the peppercorns.  Add the cabbage mixture a bit at a time.  Tamp down.  Brine should be coming up and there should be no air pockets.

Top the cabbage mixture with the outer leaves.  Weight down.  I used sarann wrap and lots of rice.  I tamped the rice down too and made sure the brine came up into the space around the rice.  A ziploc of water would work too.  Cover with a cloth and let sit in a cool shaded spot for 5 to 7 days.  Check daily to make sure the vegetables stay submerged.  It is done when it tastes pleasingly sour and like kraut and mustard.

Store in the refrigerator or can.

Like I said, happy excited contented boyos.  Not my cup of tea but an easy make.

from the dr. seuss garden (and as a reminder to me for another experiment)

My garden this year has been interesting.  We started with floods.  The ground got so saturated that it could not hold anymore water and I could not get into it to weed.  The grass took over.  Then, there was no rain and 100 degree Fahrenheit temperatures.  I could not dig the grass out, let alone pull it out.  Some of my flowers did well but there will not be a bumper crop this year. 

There is a bumper crop of amaranth.  Some of the plants stand taller then our neighbors' porch rail which stands probably twelve feet high.  The Dr. Seuss garden comment actually comes from them because when sorghum plants are added it does look like something Dr. Seuss would draw.

Amaranth leaves taste like a more intense flavored spinach then spinach when cooked.  You pick them before the plants seed.  I also heavily suggested that you cook them.  They have a bit of fuss and stiffness to them that breaks down with a nice saute.  Like nettle loses the sting when you cook it.

Now, what I need the reminder for, is on our way back from the races and family, we stopped in a Mexican resturaunt in Arkadelphia, Arkansas.  It was called Rosas Kitchen and it is a non-profit which feeds children.  Every meal served a child is fed.  It is amazing how little actual money that takes.  $.22  But outside the good they are doing by feeding children, their food is fabulous.  I have been eating more vegetarian meals lately and they had a spinach taquito that was fabulous.  I am going to do it with amaranth but first I am going to write down the pizza recipe for amaranth that I created to use as a guide.

Yes, I use my own blog.  My blog is up on my phone for most of the weekend as I cook.  I am such a nerd.

I have actually made this pizza twice now.  I plan to make it again and again before the amaranth freezes.

amaranth, feta, pine nut and pesto pizza

a large bunch of amaranth or spinach, washed well and chopped

5 to 6 cloves of garlic, peeled and sliced.  Used roasted if you have it.

2 to 4 tablespoons olive oil

1 teaspoon ground black pepper

about 1/2 cup basil pesto (or plain olive oil)

1 to 2 cups of feta

about 1/2 cup pine nuts

1/2 to 1 recipe pizza dough

Preheat oven to 500 degrees Fahrenheit.

In a large cast iron skillet, heat the oil over medium heat.  Add the amaranth and garlic.  Sauté the mixture until the amaranth is well cooked and the garlic golden.  Take it off the heat.

Roll out the pizza dough until it is the size of your pizza pan.  A half recipe is a thin crust.  A full recipe of dough is a thick crust.  Place on your pizza pan.  I have been using my cast iron pizza pan covered with parchment paper.  Spread with basil pesto.  If there is none in the house, olive oil will do.  Sprinkle with pine nuts and feta.

Once the oven is to heat, bake for 17 minutes.

It is very hot.  Be careful with cutting and eating!  I need to make this many more times this summer as I said but I now need to experiment with taquitos! 

I cannot type today and I also heard that there was hope for taquitos as I was complaining about my typing.  Life is so odd.

making my own mustard

The boyos got to talking about fermentation.  The boyos are just an interesting combination of men of all ages and ideas.  Three and a half to almost sixty.  The ideas just seem to go all over the place.  That is how fermentation came up.  And I presented recipes. 

I started with mustard.  After putting it together, I had to ask why we have ever bought mustard.  A blender is helpful.  I would not wish to make this with a pestle and mortar but it possible.  I like the modern convenience of blender. And I know exactly went into this mustard.  No allergy or sensitivity concerns.  The oldest of the boyos was tempted to sit down and just eat the jar for dinner.

Yes.  They are an interesting bunch.

This mustard is a Bavarian style and slightly sweet.  It goes well with all the different sausages.

Bavarian-style Sweet Mustard

Note:  I used the recipe from Taproot magazine, Issue 10.  I substituted a bit because I did not wish to special order.

1 cup filtered water that has sat for about open for about an hour or more.

1/2 teaspoon whole cloves

1/2 teaspoon whole allspice

3/8 cup yellow mustard seeds

1/8 cup (2 tablespoons) brown mustard seeds

1/2 large yellow sweet onion, peeled and chopped coarsely

2 teaspoons salt

2 tablespoons honey or to taste

1 pint jar plus a 1/2 cup jar is what I used for fermentation.

In a small saucepan, put the water, cloves, and allspice.  Bring to a boil.  Let boil one minute.  Remove from heat and let cool to room temperature.  Strain out the spices.

In a blender bowl, put the onion, mustard seeds, salt, and infused water.  Blend this for about ten minutes.  Yes, ten minutes.  The mustard will start out thin, but as the onion breaks down and the mustard seeds start to break up, the mustard will thicken to a spreading consistency.

Spoon the mustard into a pint jar, making sure there are no air pockets.  I had a large onion, so I also needed the 1/2 cup jar.  Cover with a lid and tighten.  Let sit on the counter for three days to ferment.

After three days, mix in the honey.  Without a little bit of sweet, this mustard bites back.  That might be the goal though so use what tastes right to you.  Also, do not be surprised if there is a bit of pop when you open the jar.  That is the yeastie beasties at work.

Store in the refrigerator unless you have a gang of boyos who eat things like this straight . . .

We are off to the races tomorrow.  I am experimenting with a sour cherry walnut rye.  I wonder how this will taste on that.

delivered for Miss W

I delivered this quilt last week.  

Friends of our had their fourth babe about four months ago.  I am slow.  Today is their wedding anniversary which in many ways is just amazing too me.  I was thinking about this when i delivered this quilt.  Eighteen years ago they got married.  I was in the wedding.  Seems a long time ago and just yesterday.

Congratulations!

to be used to stop a battalion of werewolves (or things said at my house)

I have had two summer interns to work with this summer.  I would usually groan but they have both been fabulous.  One brought in whole wheat cinnamon rolls with coffee icing one morning.  I almost cried the rest of the day because they made me homesick.

I have never been a big whole wheat fan, especially since my parents really like wheat berry bread.  I have come to realize that I do not like chunks in things that I do not believe should be chunky.  Brownies and ice cream should not be chunky.  Cookies should not have hard chunks in them.  Bread should not hurt to eat.  And since most of the whole wheat bread I grew up with either had seeds in it or could be used as doorstops, I was not fond of whole wheat bread.

That was until I found a whole wheat cinnamon roll as big as a plate in Bellingham, Washington during college.  It was light.  There were no nuts.  It was yummy.  There was probably white flour in it but I do not know.  But the cinnamon roll that Miss C brought to work was as good if not better then the cinnamon roll from my past.  I all but cried all day.  Just wanted to be home on the mountain, which is not far from Bellingham.

I asked for the recipe and tweaked it for sourdough.  The only thing that you need to do to make light cinnamon rolls with this is really watch how much flour is used.  I have already made this multiple times and I find that five cups is all you need.  Also, this is a dough that can be easily made vegan if you use something other then honey for the sweetener.

The werewolf quote is from my Beloved.  He loves these.  Dips them in frosting (I leave it in a bowl on the counter) and eats them out of hand.  They would stop a battalion of werewolves because they would need to stop to eat them as well as the first batch I made they rolls so large they had some heft.  I was going for dinner plates.  Feel free to laugh.

whole wheat cinnamon rolls

sourdough starter

1 cup whole wheat flour

1 cup water

2 3/4 cup water

1/2 cup walnut oil or an oil of your choice

1/2 cup honey or a similar sweetner

1 tablespoon salt

2 cups old fashioned (thick) oats

4 - 5 cups whole wheat flour

1/2 cup sugar, brown or granulated

2 teaspoons cinnamon

1/4 - 1/2 cup soft butter

powdered sugar

vanilla

milk, cream, or coffee

The night before, mix the sourdough starter, 1 cup whole wheat flour, and 1 cup water in a large bowl.  Cover and let sit overnight or until bubbly.  Remove a couple tablespoons of starter for next time and store in the refrigerator.

Mix in 1 3/4 cup water, 1/2 cup honey, and 1/2 cup oil.  Mix in the oats.  Mix in two cups whole wheat flour.  Cover with at cloth and let sit until bubbly like pancake batter.

Mix in salt.  Mix in 1 cup flour.  You may have stiff dough at this point depending on how the oats soaked in the water.  See if the dough can be kneaded.  Start mixing in or kneading one more cup of flour.  The dough should be silky and smooth, not to sticky but still very soft.  If the dough is stiff from too much flour the rolls will not be as light as they could be.  The extra cup of flour may be needed if everything is just that sticky.  Cover and let rise until double.

Turn the dough out onto a floured surface.  Roll into a large rectangle.  The larger the rectangle, the more swirl you will have.  You will also make smaller rolls.  Smear with butter.  Mix the sugar and cinnamon together.  I have been using granulated.  Sprinkle over the surface.  If you want smaller rolls, roll from the long side into a snake.  If you want larger rolls, roll up from the short side.  Pinch the edge into the roll.

Cover a baking sheet or a casserole pan with parchment paper or butter well.  Cut the rolls in 1 1/2 inch to 2 inch slices.  Place the cut edge up.  I plumb them a little to make a better shape.  Cover and let get puffy.

Turn the oven on to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.  Put in the rolls.  Bake for 35 minutes.  They will be golden on the edges, stiff to touch, and hollow if tapped.

I did not give you proportions for the frosting because my family lots.  I pour powdered sugar into a bowl, add a teaspoon to tablespoons of vanilla.  I then ask if vanilla or coffee frosting is wanted.  I mix a bit of heavy cream or milk in to make vanilla.  Brewed coffee to make frosting.  Start with a couple tablespoons of liquid until the frosting is the consistency you wish.

So good!  I have been asked to make another batch for travels this week.  We are gallivanting for motorbikes come mid week.  I am hoping I can sit in the grass and watch people go in circles.  Maybe add an adult beverage.  I will have crochet or spinning with me.  I always get looked at funny!