FERMENTING CARROTS TONIGHT

POST #824
Searching around the cabinets, I have found a 1/2 gallon jar and a quart jar, so I am back in business tonight.

I have a bunch of carrots.  I think they’ll fill the quart jar.  I’m thinking about a garlic/ginger/jalapeno mix for the brine.  If it doesn’t work out, well, worse things have happened. As a child, I liked carrots, but,  for some reason, I stopped being a fan.  This recipe sounds tasty to me, and,  if this can make me eat carrots, a new chapter will begin.

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WHAT WE GOT & WHAT I AM DOING WITH IT

Here’s the breakdown from Thursday’s share

Kohlrabi – 1 pc    actually we got several pieces
Fennel – 1 pce       I traded for a big kohlrabi
Carrots – 1 bun     the carrots were kind of small. I put them through the juicer
Cilantro – 1 bun    a big bunch
Escarole – 1 hd      this was a large head
Scallions – 1 bun    traded for more cilantro
Arugula – 1 bag       we got choggia beets
Green Romaine Lettuce – 1 hd    traded for more beets
Green Boston Lettuce – 1 hd

I put the carrots through the juicer and got a small juice glass of carrot juice. I froze the pulp for use in something later.

I’ve made a couple of different versions of raw ravioli, using the large kohlrabi.  I cut it in half and sliced it with my thin slicer (looks like a vegetable peeler, but it’s very wide).  I put my cashew-kale pate and cilantro in the raviolis, and I also made the “chicken pate” recipe from Ani Phyo’s first book and put it in the wraps with some cilantro.

I used the escarole in some wraps with the cashew-kale pate, onion, tomato, cilantro, and lentil sprouts.   I also made a soup with lentil sprouts by dehydrating chopped up  escarole leaves to tender, then adding garlic, olive oil, a little sea salt (!) and black pepper, cilantro, and some red pepper flakes, and dehydrating for a few hours until it was warm.

Well, the lettuce has gone into salads, duh. I also threw some of it, along with some escarole, and an apple, into the blender for a smoothie.  Yuck.  I drank it anyway.  It’s good for me, right?

The beets, you ask?  My beet salad (beets into the food processor along with olive oil, apple cider vinegar, onions, and garlic – with some cilantro!).  I also made a “slaw” with some kohlrabi, beets, apple cider vinegar, onions, extra virgin olive oil, garlic,  and – yes! cilantro! — I put the kohlrabi in the food processor first, and ground it to almost apple sauce consistency, removed it, then put the beets and everything else in, then tossed all in a bowl — the idea was to have white color, but the beets in colored the kohlrabi anyway

My room-mate and I are tentatively back on a two-day meal share plan, so I am planning some fancy kohlrabi raviolo (not sure what will go in them yet), with a sauce of some sort – likely sun-dried tomatoes with something;  a lettuce, escarole, seaweed salad with lentil or sunflower sprouts and a vinaigrette of some sort. I might make the escarole soup again, as well – I liked it, and I will have enough time on Wednesday to do all of the dehydrating.

I’m glad to be back to a one day a week meal share because it gives me a chance to use up stuff I won’t eat all of by myself (I mean, I have been eating all of my share because I have no money to buy other food, but it sure would be nice to have a helping hand, and my room-mate loves salads.)

Of course, we do expect the appearance of sauerkraut somewhere in all of this.  I still have 1/2 qt jalapeno sauerkraut.  I’ll be making more sauerkraut by week end.

CARROT/CUCUMBER BREAD

I’ve found another bread recipe. This one looks like easy and fast to make. I like easy and fast to make.  I found it at Hi-Rawkus a wonderful site that I don’t visit enough.

CARROT CUCUMBER BREAD
based on a recipe found at hi-rawkus.com

1 C carrot juice pulp
1/4 C cucumber juice pulp
1/2 C flax seed, ground
1 and 1/2 T dates, pitted and chopped
1 T raw coconut oil
1/2 t sea salt
1/4 C fresh water (optional)

• In a food processor, thoroughly process carrot pulp, cucumber pulp, dates, coconut oil, and salt in a food processor.
• Add flax seed and continue processing until a ball of dough begins to form.
• If the mixture is too thick, incorporate some or all of the fresh water to help loosen it up.
  
• On a teflex-lined dehydrator tray, spread the dough to about 1/2 centimeter to 3/4 centimeter thick.
  
• Dehydrate at 105 degrees for 2 – 3 hours, or until dough is dry enough to be turned onto a mesh dehydrator sheet.
  
• Score into bread slice-shapes.
  
• Return the tray to the dehydrator and dehydrate for 3 – 4 more hours, or until bread is firm but flexible.
• Remove tray from the dehydrator and separate bread slices.
  
• Refrigerate finished bread in an airtight container.

10/09/08 CSA SHARE: What I got

I could not report on what we were going to get because the farm would not tell us.  This is what I did get:

RED BATAVIA LETTUCE….1 hd
TOMATOES…………………2 pc
LEEKS……………………….2 pc
BUTTERNUT SQUASH…….1 pc
ACORN SQUASH………….1 pc
BABY BOK CHOI…………..2 hd
SAVOY CABBAGE…………1 hd
CAULIFLOWER……………1 hd
CARROTS………………….1 bunch

I also got a small bag of mixed apples and pears.

9/25/08 CSA SHARE: what they said we’d get and what I got

This is what they said we would get and what I actually got:

CHIOGGIA BEETS…….1 bun. got CARROTS
RED TOMATOES……..3 pcs.
CHIVES………………..1 bun. *
PARSLEY……………….1 bun. **
ACORN SQUASH……..1 pc.
BUTTERCUP SQUASH..1 pc.
POTATOES…………….4 lbs.
RED PEPPERS………….3 pcs.
BELL PEPPER…………..1 pc.   (yellow)

I chatted with the volunteer about the squash. I think they look like what they call pumpkin in Latin markets.  He said they were different, but they look the same to me. I’ll have to cut them and fool with them, and make something out of them to know.

* I traded the chives for more peppers
** I traded the parsley for beets — I got four small beets with iffy
greens. I want to see what these things look like before I shred
them

8/27/08 CSA SHARE: What I Got

I’ve been having an unusual summer, so I haven’t been posting as much as I think I should.

Anyway, here is what I got

RED TOMATOES…………………….4+ lbs! (About 4 tomatoes)
Plus, the woman who was emptying her box next to me just asked me if
I wanted her tomatoes, so that was 4 more, and then I found 3 in
the trade box
CHERRY TOMATOES …………….1 pint
CARROTS……………………………1 bunch
GREEN CRISP LETTUCE………….1 head
BOSTON RED LETTUCE………….1 head
EGGPLANT………………………….2 pieces
LONG GREEN PEPPERS ………….4 pieces
SUNJEWEL MELON – I traded this for a watermelon
BABY WATERMELON…………….1 piece
ZUCCHINI………………………….2 pieces
YELLOW SQUASH………………..2 pieces

Yum! I love tomatoes!!!!!

I should get around to posting some recipes…. I know the lettuce will go into smoothies with the tomatoes.

7/17/08 SHARE: Where will it all go???

They said I would get the items listed. The ones I got are colored.

CIPPOLINO ONIONS – 1 bunch
CARROTS | Qty: 1 bunch
apparently, in the end, boxes had either carrots or golden beets.
BEETS | Qty: 1 bunch
I got two bunches of beets: golden and regular, both with nice greens
CABBAGE | Qty: 1 head
this is a cute little head, about 5 inches in diameter.
BASIL | Qty: 1 bunch
GARLIC | Qty: 2 heads
ZUCCHINI — I got about 5 zucchini
CUCUMBERS — I got about 4 small but healthy looking cucumbers

HAPPY NOTE: I found where they were craftily hiding the discard/exchange bin, and, rummaging through it, I scored 2 bunches of carrots, 2 heads of garlic, 1 cabbage, and 1 bunch of basil, a radicchio, and another bunch of onions.

Oh! THE FRUIT SHARE!!!!!

I got a big bag of peaches and a pint of blueberries!

Where is all this going? Duh! the refrigerator!!! Seriously… i have recipes! Do I ever have recipes! I am prepared. Stay tuned for my next post, wherein I will divulge all!!!!

GOTCHA!!!! What about my CSA share while I’m on the Master Cleanse?

No, you won’t catch me sleeping (at least, not for long!)

When I started my Master Cleanse, I immediately worried about what to do with all the carrots, beets, turnips, rutabagas, radishes, garlic, celeriac, apples, and potatoes I was going to get on Thursday.  I did not worry long… I gave half of my potatoes to Mrs. Murphy, my next-door neighbor lady from Scotland, who is 79 years old and having trouble getting around — she just loves potatoes!!!   For the rest, I have a dehydrator (nyah nyah nyah nyah nyah!!!!)

I immediately went into the refrigerator and pulled out all of the beets, carrots, rutabagas, celeriac, radishes, and garlic that were still left in there from before, washed them, peeled them, cut them up, processed them to applesauce  texture, and dehydrated them… On Valentine’s Day, I got more.  Tonight I am taking care of that.  I only have some watermelon radishes left to dehydrate (I am debating whether to slice them to paper thin and dehydrate, or just process them finely.  I will probably go with the finely processed option.

Since I figured out , during the “summer CSA distribution” that I could dehydrate lettuce and mystery greens, to deal with later, and since I dehydrated  those 40 lbs. of  tomatoes in last summer, I have been a dangerous girl when facing down vegetables!!!  Now, what I cannot consume goes to the food processor post haste. (I can always  figure out what to do with it later– usually I just soak it and add it to sea vegetable salads, pates, crackers, pates.)

 So, I reckon I have dehdrated about 20 lbs. of beets (they all fit in one large ZipLoc baggie, and about 20 lbs. of carrots, (1 ziploc).  

I will give some more apples to Mrs. Murphy, and then I will dehydrate the rest , maybe making some fruit leather out or some of them, some rings out of some of them, and then powder for juices and sweetening from the rest of them. 

I need to look at dehydrating potatoes.  I have heard that soaking them will remove the starch.  I have not seen any information on dehydrating them.  I guess I will risk soaking them for 8 hours then dehydrating  them. Then I will find out if you can do that, and publish the results of my experiment.

I drink my lemonade while I am processing all these vegetables and fruit, so I don’t have the temptation to eat any of them.  I just think about possible recipes while I work.  I am excited about having a wide variety of ingredients to work with when I do get back to solid food.

NEW SNACK

I’m kind of slow on the uptake sometimes..

With all the carrots I got in my first Winter CSA share, I have been making carrot juice, and I decided to dehydrate the pulp for later use.  

Surprise!!!! The dehydrated pulp is a sweet snack all by itself.  

I can, of course, include it in other recipes, but….. what a yummy thing to grab a handful of from time to time!!!!! 

SON OF CSA: I got into the Winter CSA

There I was all worried that I would have to start paying a lot to buy vegetables between now and next May when the CSA starts up again.  When I heard that there was a possibility of a winter share, I was there!  Local seasonal vegetables? Need I say more?

I did not really think I would get into the Winter Share: they said there were only 30 shares available, by lottery, and, by my count, on the last night of the CSA, 76 people said they wanted in.  Of course, wanting in involved sending an email and praying– the selection was to be by lottery.  Intensely cynically, I figured there were about 8 core members, and add to that their good friends, which would leave maybe 8 real lottery  slots.  Lo and behold… only 21 people applied, so everyone who wanted a piece of the action got in, including me!!!! 

Okay, it is the wrong time for this girl who lives on a shoestring….but I will pull in the belt, make presents from what is already here, forego yoga for another month….  BECAUSE the $250 I paid will bring me organic vegetables, fruit of some sort (probably apples), and raw cider once a month for the next 5 months.

 The winter share is 20 lbs of “farmer’s choice”. 

My share today included a whole lot  of potatoes, about 5 lbs of really big carrots, several unusual-looking  beets of different sizes, 2 big celeriac bulbs, leeks, 2 “personal-size” heads of broccoli, 1 small bunch of kale, 2 bulbs of garlic, a small head of cabbage, and several lbs of parsnips.  

Getting home with all that in my bag on my back was a challenge — the streets were slick with slush from the “snowstorm” we were supposed to have today…  I walked the LOOOOOOONG block to the subway and opted to take the N train into town, walk across the platform at Lexington, and take my R train back home (still an incredibly lucky commute, considering I was doing rush hour and toting 20 lbs of vegetables.  That way, my actual walk with the vegetables on my back was only about 1 long and 2 short blocks. (halleluia!!!!)  This is the way life works here (if you live in “car-land”, try to imagine walking 1/4 mile with 20 lbs over your shoulder and wobbling around on your back)