Pickled Baby Carrots and a Wipes Warmer

Here is a great “cheater” recipe. By cheater, I mean I did very little prep. Sometimes I just don’t feel like peeling a ton of carrots and chopping them into carrot sticks.

• 1 lb organic baby carrots
• 1/4 cup fresh whey (from making yogurt cheese)
• 1 tbsp sea salt
• optional: dill, red chili flakes or pickling spices
• filtered water

In a bowl, mix carrots, salt, herbs/spices and whey. Stuff into a mason jar, leaving about 1″ head space. Fill jar with filtered water, cover and give it a shake to mix everything up. Make sure everything is submerged under water. Sometimes I’ll place a a small jar top that will fit inside the mason jar to keep the veggies under.

Set in a warm place for 5-7 days.

Warm place, eh? Not so easy here in the frozen tundra.

Our house gets cold in the winter. I’m a cheapskate and I hate spending tons of money to keep my house at 72F so I don’t. It’s closer to 65F here. We wear sweaters. The radiator in my kitchen doesn’t work well so that room can get quite nippy when it’s -40F outside. I once left a bowl of water on the floor and woke to found it frozen. Eek! Luckily the pipes are on the inside walls so they are safe.

So how does one ferment when it’s so cold. My counter top yogurts (piima, viili and kefir) don’t set when it’s that cold, even when placed on top of my refrigerator. So I need to get creative.

One day when I was going through baby stuff, I found a wipes warmer. Never used, still in the box. I’ve always thought those things were worthless. Boy was I wrong! It works great as an incubator for my lovely cultures. With the top open, it keeps whatever I place inside it around 80F.

Right now I have two jars of apple cider, one grape juice and one kefir all fermenting away.

Yogurt Fun!

I love making yogurt. This is one of those foods my husband says, “You know, you can buy that already made.” But what’s the fun in that. Homemade yogurt ensures no unwanted additives are there and if you are sensitive to lactose, you can incubate it for a longer period making it lactose free. I prefer to make mine with raw goat milk. Nothing better. Goat milk yogurt has the best texture. Just be sure not to use the ultra-pasteurized store bought yucky stuff. It won’t work and it’ll taste ultra-bad.
You can make it in any amount that you have room for. I usually make 2 qts at a time.
Tools needed:
Candy or meat thermometer
Food dehydrator (Excalibur is the best), crock pot, a yogurt maker or your oven with the light kept on.
Ingredients:
1 quart milk
1/4 cup commercial plain yogurt or yogurt starter
If you don’t feel safe with raw milk, heat your milk up to 185F. If using goat milk make sure it gets no hotter than that. Otherwise just heat your milk to about 110F, no hotter. Whisk in plain yogurt or yogurt starter. Pour into smaller containers, I just use tupperware.
If using a food dehydrator, set the temp to 110F.
For the crockpot, fill part way with water and set to lowest setting. Use a thermometer to check and make sure it keeps it at 100-110F before adding the yogurt.
For the over, turn the light on and close the door. Check to make sure it keeps it between 100-110. If it does, place your yogurt inside. If it gets too hot, crack the door.
Some have had luck wrapping up the yogurt container in a towel and placing it in a cooler to maintain the temperature.
Let set for at least 8 hours. To completely remove all lactose, let it set for at least 24 but no more than 36 hrs. The longer you let it set the more sour it will be but also the more good bacteria will be there.
Place in the fridge for at least 4 hours before digging in.
We sweeten ours with agave, honey or maple syrup with a bit of fruit spread.

Yogurt Cheese

I love this cheese on crackers or veggies and before I couldn’t eat wheat I devoured it on pita bread slices. It makes a great substitute for cream cheese or sour cream if you don’t let it drip too long. You can even press it to make a harder cheese.

• 1 qt yogurt, either store bought or homemade
• 1 tsp salt
• Optional: herbs like 1/4 cup chopped parsley

Line a colander with a tea towel (kitchen towel that is not terry cloth) or a flat, unused, cloth diaper or cheese cloth/muslin. Dump the yogurt in and let it drain for about 8 hours until it is a good thick consistency, almost like cream cheese. Be sure to catch the whey that drips off into a bowl. It’s great for lots of things. Fold in the salt and parsley if desired.

Lacto…ferma…what???

Lacto-fermentation. It’s my new obsession. I love looking down the produce aisle and thinking, “What can I ferment today?” As I was picking up a bottle of apple cider vinegar (which has nothing to do with lacto-fermentation), I spied a jar of pickled cauliflower and thought, “Wow, I bet that will taste awesome!” So I picked up a couple heads of cauliflower, one to eat and one to ferment. Unlike pickling, lacto-fermenting actually makes veggies better for you by adding probiotics, they’re more easily digestible and actually increase the vitamin content. And they taste good to boot. Woohoo!

Ingredients

1 small head of cauliflower

herbs and spices to taste (I used garlic and jalapenos)

2 tbsp sea salt, divided

8 tbsp whey, divided

filtered water

2 quart sized mason jars

I cut the cauliflower into medium to smallish sized florets and even cut up the stem, removing any woody parts. Stuff as much as you can into 2 quart sized mason jars along with any pickling spices you prefer (parsley, peppercorns, garlic, coriander, dill) leaving about 1″ of space at the top. I also put in a few slices of peppers to add a little kick. Add 1 tbsp sea salt, 4 tbsp whey (you can easily get whey by dripping yogurt) in each jar and cover with filtered water. Cover tightly and place in a warm spot for about 4 days or up to a week.

Crack open the jar, it should fizzle and smell good. If it doesn’t smell good, don’t eat it, haha! The fizzle is the best part. Like a party in your mouth! Pictured next to the cauliflower is a jar of pea pods, green beans and a mix of green beans and red bell pepper.

These should keep in the fridge or cellar for a few months but I doubt they stay around that long. I almost ate a whole jar yesterday!

Ranch Dressing

You ask, “Why make Ranch dressing when I can just buy a bottle at the store?”
Have you ever read the ingredients label on Ranch dressing. Eek! Nasty and no thank you.

My childhood favorite dipping sauce, Hidden Valley Ranch contains the following:

Soybean Oil, Water, Egg Yolk, Sugar, Salt, Cultured Nonfat Buttermilk, Natural Flavors (Soy), Spices. Less than 1% of Dried Garlic, Dried Onion, Vinegar, Phosphoric Acid, Xanthan Gum, Modified Food Starch, Monosodium Glutamate, Artificial Flavors, Disodium Phosphate, Sorbic Acid and Calcium Disodium EDTA as Preservatives, Disodium Inosinate and Disodium Guanylate.

Yuck.

Honestly, making your own is really not that hard. The hardest part is cleaning the blender/food processor when your done. But homemade Ranch dressing tastes so good, it’s worth it. Psst, it’s cheaper too!
ETA:  To make clean up a breeze, simply use a wide mouth mason jar and an immersion blender.

You’ll need the following:

• 1 egg yolk
• 1 tbsp apple cider vinegar
• 1/4 kefir, piima, buttermilk, yogurt or sour cream (sour cream or yogurt makes a great thick dipping sauce) most any cultured milk product will do
• 2 scallions, chopped
• 1 small shallot, chopped
• 1 garlic clove
• 1 tbsp dill, fresh
• 1 tbsp parsley, fresh
• 1/8 tsp salt
• 1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil

Place everything in the blender/food processor except the olive oil. Whirl around until very well blended. While the blender is still on, slowly drizzle the olive oil in a thin stream. The oil will emulsify it to a yummy creation.

Another ETA: I made this recently and added a roasted red pepper.  Delicious!  It gave the dressing a nice red tinge.  Or add 1-2 tsp chipotle chili powder for a Southwestern kick.

Pickled Pea Pods

Now these are good! I don’t know what gave me the idea to try lacto-fermenting a pea pod, but I’m glad I did. Because of this I have 2 good sized garden beds devoted solely to peas. I can’t wait until I can start fermenting my own home grown peas!

What is lacto-fermenting and why do it? Check it out here: http://nourishedkitchen.com/fermented-food-lactic-acid-fermentation/
My kids, who have a deep aversion to vegetables, devour these!
Utensils: wide-mouth mason jar, shot glass, small plate or lid that will fit inside the mason jar.

• 1 lb snow pea pods
• 3 cloves of garlic, peeled and smashed
• a sprig of fresh dill
• crushed red pepper (optional, adjust amount to your liking)
• 1 tbsp sea salt (non-iodized)
• 1/4 cup fresh whey (you can get this by dripping yogurt)

Fill mason jar with pea pods, garlic, dill and peppers (evenly distributing the herbs and spices). Sprinkle salt and whey over the pods and fill with filtered water to the top of the pea pods making sure everything is under water, no less than 2″ to the top of the jar. Cover and give the jar and good shake to dissolve the salt. Open up and put the small plate on top of the peas and the shot glass on top of the plate. Cover loosely. The shot glass and plate will help keep the pea pods submerged. The fermentation process will inflate the pea pods (making them fun to bite into!). Another option is to fill a glass or jar that will fit inside the mason jar with water to weigh the plate down.
My 12 month old loves these!