RED SAUERKRAUT!

Last Saturday, I went out to get a cabbage to start a new batch of sauerkraut.  Unfortunately, there were no regular, green cabbages in either of the two supermarkets in my neighborhood.  There was a nice big red cabbage, though, so I bought it.  I mean, It’s cabbage, right?  So, anyhow, I’ve got two jars of deep red/purple beet colored sauerkraut going since Sunday night.  I’m counting on it being good, but …… it sure is a funny color.  I guess I’ll have to work on developing my adventurous side some. I’ll have an opinion on it in a few days.

Meanwhile, I have an adventurous sauerkraut at 3 weeks right now!  I’ll have to open it soon, I figure.

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NEW BOOKS and SAUERKRAUT

I have been kind of busy lately.  I’ve had to put off a bunch of things I want to do, like finish up my Raw Vegan Nutritionist Centre of Excellence online course (hope they’ll give me some extra time on account of the virus or some other excuse – I really do want to finish the thing up. More about that later.)

My job went from brick-and-mortar English school to on-line virtual English school over one weekend.  We got about 5 minutes of training,  and then they handed me a computer and said, basically ‘go home and do the job’.  So I’m learning how to do that.

Meanwhile, I’m self-isolated in my building. So, what to do.  I accidentally found some raw vegan books when I answered a dumb question on Quora (have you ever done that?)… So, anyway, someone recommended this book, The Health Seekers’ Yearbook:  a Revolutionist’s Handbook for Getting Well and Staying Well Without the Medicine Men, and it’s by Victoria Bidwell, an author I had never heard of before.   This goes on my “early books shelf” – published in 1990 – how did I miss it?  Anyhow it is really seriously about food combining, nutrition, and lifestyle.  It’s kind of strict, but that’s not so bad.   There are some recipes, but not too many… it’s more about managing a very healthy lifestyle with exercise, positive thoughts, and la la la.  Once I’d found that one, I found another one which is pretty much an encyclopedia  (like 2 or 3 inches thick), again talking seriously about nutrition and raw vegan natural hygiene (food combining).

I’m looking forward to having time to sit down seriously and read through these books (I’ve just looked at the index and, yes, they are influenced by T.C. Fry’s work, among others.)

Then, too, I found Cherie Soria’s book Raw Food for Dummies.  How come I didn’t know about that?  Probably because I’ve been working my way to a minimalist approach toward raw veganism, where you don’t need an arsenal of expensive equipment to be raw vegan. (I’m back to my knife, and my cutting board. Okay, I do have a food processor and a spiralizer.  And a nut grinder.  I’ve always followed Soria, and liked her recipes.  Now I have a book full of them, plus lots of instructions for stuff I had forgotten about. This book was published in 2013.  I think that, by then, I had decided that all the great books had already been written.  Nope!  This is a fun romp, with lots of recipes I’ll be willing to make when I get some time (i.e., not everything is made using a dehydrator or a juicer costing hundreds of dollars and requiring gobs of space)

My other news is my new sauerkraut batch.  When I went in the supermarket and saw a head of cabbage for 59cents, I knew it was time.   So, the day before yesterday, I went into the kitchen, chopped up the head of cabbage, chopped like 4 jalapeno peppers, mixed it all with salt, probiotics, and water, and I am eagerly expecting some delish sauerkraut the day after tomorrow.

Oh, yes! I forgot to mention that I have been sprouting lentils like nobody’s business!  They’re so easy, so fast, so gratifying, and so tasty!  It only takes about 3 days to get a nice quart of lentil sprouts, and they’ll last in the refrigerator for 5-6 days!  Yum!  Now, I am a window farmer!

Now, off to teach another class.

7/8/14 CSA SHARE: What we got, etc.

We got pretty much what they promised. Here are the specifics:

Basil or sage………………….1 bun Basil
Cabbage or lettuce…………1 med. hd Cabbage
Collards……………………..1 bun Collards
Peas……………….……………..@ 1/2 lb. Snow Peas
Beets with greens………….1 bun beets, no greens
Yellow or green zucchini…1 big Zucchini
Cucumbers or onions……..1 big Cucumber
Cherries…………………………1 pt Cherries

I also got 1 quart of Cherries in the fruit share.  I think I have to find a new cherry recipe that is more than just pop a cherry in your mouth, savor it, spit out the seed, repeat.

The lady who prepares the featured recipe each week was making a raw beet salad. I loves my beet salad, so I was all ears and eyes.  Hers was much more designer than mine is,but I can definitely see myself adding some of the ingredients she uses to my own delicious recipe My Famous Beet Salad (you can find other beet recipes on that page, too). I will write a separate page with the CSA recipe – it is goooood!

PLANS
Basil – I am going to try to find something new with basil other than to use it as a main ingredient in a salad (yes, I like it that much). Maybe some in a cheeze?
Cabbage – this is a no-brainer. I need sauerkraut! (I made sauerkraut with the last head)
Collards – Easy would be to make marinated massaged collards but maybe I should try a wrap with them. Got it! 2 leaves go to wraps (that will be 4 or so), and the rest go to collard greens!
Snow Peas – right now, I have no clue. I should have traded them. Must meditate on this.
Beets – these are small beets, so there is really no point in trying to spiralize them. Okay, default to my famous beet salad
Zucchini – I haven’t had spaghetti in a while! The spiralizer probably thinks I’ve forgotten it. I think I’ll get out my old Ann Wigmore almond tomato sauce recipe!
Cucumber – I have had a hankering for something cucumber for a few days now. I could slice the cucumber thin and put it in vinegar with salt and pepper and have that old Southern summer salad.  I could. Or, I could make some jalapeno cheeze roll-ups.  Must think quickly! Cucumbers don’t last long in my fridge.

What the heck am I going to do with all these cherries?
Cherries

 

 

 

GRAND OPENING: SAUERKRAUT

POST #936
I opened the sauerkraut this afternoon – at 3-1/2 days.  The jar I made with probiotics was great, as usual, but I am not terribly crazy about the jar made with the kimchi juice.  It is okay, I mean, it isn’t off or anything, but I am not so sure I like the taste. It seems a little bitter to me. Perhaps it will grow on me (meantime, I can hope that the people at the meet-up do like it and eat it all up).  I’ve put what was left in the jar back on the board to ferment a little longer – that might help, too.  I was kind of surprised that, despite all the garlic and jalapeno I put in there, it doesn’t taste all that garlicky (at least not to me) nor does it seem overly spicy.

I put half of each jar into pint jars, identifiable by different lids, to take to the meet-up tonight.  I always hope the people will like what I have made.  This is my first time with this group, so it should be interesting.

WOW! WHAT’S THAT SMELL? Joys of fermentation

POST #934
I just started my two sauerkraut batches last night, but when I came home tonight, there was a funny smell … heck! I know I cleaned the kitchen last night, and I know I threw out the trash this morning…… 

When I checked the sauerkraut, I found where the smell was coming from!  Aha! That kimchi juice is working its magic!  (Will the sauerkraut made with the kimchi juice have a kimchi essence to it? I’ll know on Tuesday night, when I open it.

The happy note is that both jars are working hard – the bowls they are sitting in were almost full of expelled water!  That is always the first and best sign that things are going according to plan (I am suddenly curious as to whether this is the sauerkraut juice people speak of.. If you know, please tell me)

CABBAGE CHIPS – first try

So, I made up two batches of cabbage chips – one, just plain, sort of based on a recipe I’d seen, and the other, based on the recipe, but with Thai curry paste.

The basic recipe I followed was from Thecreativecaveman.com, but I changed it:

WASABI CABBAGE Chips
1 savoy cabbage
1 cup raw cashews
1/2 cup olive oil
1 tablespoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon wasabi powder
1 teaspoon sea salt
1 teaspoon paprika
1 teaspoon mustard powder

Tear cabbage leaves from stem, then tear them into pieces, and place in a large bowl.
Process remaining ingredients in food processor.
Add processed sauce to bowl and toss and “massage” until all cabbage leaves are liberally coated with sauce mix.
Spread cabbage leaves on teflex sheets over dehydrator trays and dehydrate for 10-15 hrs at 110 degrees

I used Thai curry paste instead of the wasabi/paprika/mustard powder, and I did not add salt, as I do not like salt much.
My first impression was that the taste is a lot like cooked cabbage, only with my chosen spices. What I did not like was the oiliness – if I make cabbage chips again, I will use a mix similar to what I use with kale chips, with no oil.
I guess the oiliness would appeal to people who really like that part of potato chips, but the chips do not come out crunchy like my kale chips do and I do not like having to wipe off my hands after every bite so that I can finish writing this review.  The only good thing about the oiliness was that, ultimately, I was not able to eat too much – the oiliness made chewing unpleasant for me (although the chips were initially crunchy, if I put more than one in my mouth at the same time, they bunched up and clumped up to an unpleasant chewing glob.  The oiliness also made my stomach decide it had had enough – is this an example of how fat makes you feel sated? Must file that one for further examination and thought)

I will make cabbage chips again, since I have some more cabbage, but I will probably just go back to a kale chip recipe and do that. I will probably add the Thai curry into one of the kale recipes I know and love, and see how that turns out, since that was the only part I really liked about these cabbage chips.

SUCCESSFUL TASTY SAUERKRAUT: why other people don’t like raw sauerkraut and how you can

POST #899
SUCCESSFUL TASTY SAUERKRAUT: Why Other People Don’t Like Sauerkraut, and How You Can

Swayze Foster recently posted a “low-sodium” sauerkraut-related video, in which she talked mostly about how she hates sauerkraut.

I’m a fermenter, and I do like sauerkraut, and I have been lucky that everyone who has tasted my sauerkraut has liked it (I do get lucky like that – people who say they are don’t like something that I am pushing  generally tend to like it once they have tasted it). 

Swayze says she put her sauerkraut in a jar covered by leaves, and topped  by cheesecloth to ferment for three days. That is, by me, the first mistake – if you are going to make “short-ferment” vegetables of any sort, you need to 1) press the vegetables down under the liquid, and/or 2)cover the recipient with a tight lid.

I’ve tried several ways to weight the vegetables, all of which involved putting a cabbage leaf on top and putting a weight on that, and then putting the lid on.  Each time, I have ended up with a slimy cabbage leaf, and an iffy batch of sauerkraut.

The sauerkraut I make is low sodium (I use a maximum of 1 T sea salt to a large head of cabbage — 2 1-qt jars worth). The sea salt is already low sodium, and it helps to draw the liquid/juice from the cabbage.  I find that the kicker, or the trick, to making a successful, tasty raw sauerkraut is the addition of 1 – 2 capsules-worth (or 1 teaspoon) of probiotics to the mix  (you could mix it in by hand, but I worry that some might get stuck on my glove and not remain in the mix, or you could mix it into the water you add to top off the jar)  The salt works to ferment, but salt wants a while.  The probiotics go to work immediately, and practically ensure that your batch of sauerkraut will succeed (when I first started making sauerkraut, I was warned that my first batches might fail – the only failed batches I have ever had were the ones where I did not use the probiotics)

I usually let my sauerkraut batches go for 3-4 days before I open them.  With the tight cap on them, I need to open them over the sink, as the probiotics will have created a fizzy pressure, and the cabbage sometimes pops out of the top of the jar.  I like the sweetness of the 3-4 day ferment, but I have left it as long as 7 days with no ill results.  My batches rarely last more than 7 days in the refrigerator, as, when I have a batch of sauerkraut, it goes into almost everything I make up (wakame seaweed and vegetable salad, raw tuno, crackers – you name it!)  I often eat it on its own, as I love the flavor (I most frequently simply add jalapeno pepper slices, but often I add garlic, dill, cilantro, curry powder, or kimchi spices).

The way I figure it is, if you don’t like raw sauerkraut, most probably, you have gotten a bad batch, or you don’t like the flavorings.  A simple, plain raw sauerkraut made with just sea salt and probiotics will be tasty, sweet-ish,  to almost anyone, even children, and will be a good addition to just about anything you want to make up.

One last thing about sauerkraut, or any other fermented vegetable: If you don’t like to chew,  or if you don’t like crunchy, process your vegetables to a fine grate (not applesauce texture, but more like if you chopped for 20 mins) and be sure to include probiotics in your mix (many people tell me you can use sauerkraut juice from an older batch, but I never have that much juice left, and I don’t trust commercial batches.  For my first batches, I used a Zukay salad dressing for the probiotic, but, since Zukay salad dressings are not available in New York City as of this writing, and the company refuses to sell even crates of their product to individual buyers, I have never used that since).

7/26/12 CSA SHARE: What we got

POST #767

Basil or Chives – 1 bun…………..Chives
Zucchini – 2 pcs
Cucumbers – 3 pcs
Green Cabbage – 1 hd…………… Savoy Cabbage – 2 sm. hds
Walla Walla Onions – 4 small
Asian Eggplant – 1 sm pc…………traded for 3 cucumbers
Bell Pepper – 1 pc
Green Long Peppers – 3 pcs
Red Potatoes – 1 qt…………………traded for onions

FRUIT SHARE:
Peaches – 1 bag
UFO Peaches – 1 bag

The eggplant was smaller than any of the cucumbers, so I traded it for more cucumbers (I figured it would be too much work on such a small eggplant to make it be a raw food dish)

I finally tired, last year, of trying out raw recipes for potatoes.  I used to give my potatoes to my next-door neighbor, Mrs. Murphy,  but she passed away last month, so I have no use for potatoes now.  I felt lucky to find onions to trade for.

I’ve never tried to make sauerkraut with Savoy cabbage, so I looked it up in Sandor Katz’s  Wild Fermentation: The Flavor, Nutrition, and Craft of Live-Culture Foods , my go-to book for info on raw fermentation, and found that I can use Savoy cabbage just as I would use green cabbage (I’m guessing the flavor might be different, but I’m going to put jalapeno peppers in it, so it will probably be okay).  I’m out of sauerkraut right now, because my jar fell out of the refrigerator and broke all over the floor (big mess!).  While I was reading Wild Fermentation, I noticed a recipe for fermenting turnips, and another for fermenting beets, so… there go my backed up root vegetables.  I have some time tomorrow afternoon, so I guess I’ll make some sauerkraut, and some fermented turnips and beets.

Stay tuned

RAW VEGAN HOT DOGS ON INDEPENDENCE DAY!

POST #761

Here’s what we did for July 4th – kind of simple, but still yummy.

RAW VEGAN HOT DOGS
http://thesunnyrawkitchen.blogspot.com/2007/10/autumn-n yummies.html
Raw whole food hot dogs
Makes 6-8
We put mustard and fresh-made sauerkraut on some of them, and mustard and cole slaw on the others. Both ways, YUMM!

1-1/2 c walnuts
¼ onion
¼ beet
½ carrot
2 clove garlic
2 T agave (to taste)
2 T soy sauce/tamari
2 t hickory smoke flavor*
1 t marjoram
½ t celery seed
½ t salt
½ t smoked paprika
sprinkle cayenne pepper

Blend till smooth in food processor.
Form dough into hot dog shapes on teflex (6-8).
Dehydrate 105 about 4 hrs.
Flip onto grid dehydrate to the texture you like. (Another hr or so.) Roll lightly into shape.
Serve warm.

*Carmella’s Notes:
~ Hickory/ liquid smoke can be found in health food store, usually alongside other savory sauces.
~ This is pretty intense stuff so I would recommend starting with less than what’s called for.

COLE SLAW

• 3/4 1-lb cabbage
• 2 T mayonnaise (more or less, depending on how soupy you like it. I don’t like soupy)
• 1/4 C finely chopped onions
• sea salt and black pepper to taste
• cayenne paper (to taste, if you choose)

 

( I also sometimes make my cole slaw with just extra virgin olive oil, instead of mayonnaise)

We also had sauerkraut (I served it as a side, but we put it on some of the hot dogs)
This was a 3-day sauerkraut, and it came out PERFECT!

MY BEST SAUERKRAUT RECIPE

This is the same recipe I posted last winter, but I have reworked it to make it a little easier to follow.

MY BEST SAUERKRAUT RECIPE

2 heads cabbage
2 serrano peppers (or jalapeno)
1 T sea salt
2 capsules acidophilus
1/4  C spring water
spring water as needed

• Grate cabbage in the food processor.
  Thinly slice serrano peppers
  Place cabbage and peppers in a large bowl, add sea salt and toss well.
• Massage the cabbage/serrano pepper mix until it becomes very juicy (As you massage, the cabbage will begin to release juice, and reduce in volume.  Keep massaging until the volume has reduced by at least 1/3).
• Place all of the cabbage/serrano pepper mix in a 2 qt. jar with a wide mouth. (I use the funnel from my Champion juicer — it has a wide mouth).
  Once all of the mix is in the jar, push it down with your fist  a few times to make the juice come out more.
• Empty the acidophilus caps into 1/4 C spring water and mix well, then pour the mix into the jar.
  Add enough spring water to bring the level up to 1 inch from the top of the jar.
• Cover the jar with the two-part “dome” lid and set aside, in a bowl, to catch the juices which will escape.
  After a day or so, pour off the juices which collect in the bowl.
• Leave the jar in a cool place in the kitchen for 3 – 4 days, then open and taste test.
• Once the taste is to you liking, store the jar, tightly closed, in the refrigerator for up to six months (the taste will change over time, as the sauerkraut continues to ferment slowly in the refrigerator)

NOTES:

• I suggest you wear a bib apron when you open the jar, as the sauerkraut usually pops out of it when you remove the lid.

• I enjoy the taste after three or four days (and I also enjoy the quick processing time), but I have left jars for up to 3 months before opening.  The taste is different the longer you leave the sauerkraut to sit.  Experiment to find your own favorite flavor.

• If you use smaller jars, mix 1 cap of acidophilus in 2 -3 T spring water for each jar. Do this separately for each jar to be sure that you get enough acidophilus in the jar.  Use the tamper from your VitaMix, or something strong and at least 1 inch across (I know someone who used a baseball bat) to mash down the cabbage in the smaller jar (your hand probably will not fit).