SUN-DRIED TOMATO KRAUT RECIPE. YEP.
I am perpetually looking for alternatives to canning tomatoes. Not that I don't love me some tomato soup come wintertime, just that I wish canned tomatoes still had the life they had before we canned them. Fresh food is what I miss most in winter––heavily cooked tomatoes simply don't quite fill that void like, say, a kraut or kimchi. And of the many tomato ferments I've read about, I've been underwhelmed. So I've been tinkering.
Sun-Dried Tomato Kraut RecipeIngredients:1 small (organically grown) cabbage1 or 2 large tomatoes (organically grown, and heirloom preferably)Sea saltMake half a quart of kraut (chop, salt, massage and stuff one small cabbage into a quart mason jar with some garlic and hot pepper if desired). Plenty of liquid should have formed, enough to at least cover the cabbage. Top the rest of the jar within an inch of the top with thick slices of tomatoes and make sure everything is submerged (add lightly salted water if needed). Weight the tomatoes down with a bag of water (or however you can keep the solids submerged). Leave covered with a cloth (to keep bugs out) for a few days to ferment on a plate for spillover (as you would kraut). Strain and remove contents (cabbage and all) after five to ten days and sun-dry. Once dried, chop and mix together.What you have is more seasoning than substance, but this bit of dried kraut/tomato can be mixed into soups or pastas, salads or vinaigrettes. The flavor is bright and acidic and should be a little salty. Think of it as potentized tomato that you can simply add to the water in which you cook rice, or a spice you can throw into your meal or just eat as a healthy little snack. The sky's the limit.Variations:I've fermented and dried the tomatoes without cabbage, and I've also cold-smoked the sun-dried tomatoes (for flavor). I think the drying is the key here. I love the flavor the sun adds, but I also like the texture. In fact, alongside many of my fermentation experiments this year, I've simply sun-dried many tomatoes without fermenting them, and I look forward to having these lively little treats around all winter. Oh, and tomato wine. That's a great fermented tomato variation as well––especially for cooking wine.Tips for sun drying:Most sun-dried tomatoes are not actually sun-dried. They are oven-dried or dehydrated in a dehydrator. We are lucky to have a greenhouse to sun dry them in, placed on wax paper or a non-galvanized grate for two sunny days, brought inside at night. You can dry them without a greenhouse, but it takes a few very sunny days, sometimes a whole week covered with cheese cloth and brought inside at night to avoid dew. Otherwise, use the dehydrator or an oven at 150 degrees or less until dry (several hours). Remember, however, truly sun-dried tomatoes always taste best!- Jesse.
BANNOCK BREAD.
Jesse and I have been having some serious adventures in cooking lately. We cook entirely with wood, and we cook three meals a day....so we are learning a lot about cooking on a fire! It is mostly quite enjoyable, especially when we are able to use the grill outside instead of the wood stove INSIDE (not so fun in the summertime!)The one thing we have not been able to figure out: bread. One day, we will have a real wood cook stove (as opposed to our box stove), and maybe even an outdoor earth oven. But for now, we have been relying on this recipe for Bannock Bread - an easy, biscuit-like treat that we can cook on the stovetop. It is from this AMAZING AMAZING OHHMAZING book that is so beautiful I can't even believe it- Home Made Winter.So, if you want a lovely treat, rustic farmstead style, try this recipe! We love it with some spicy jalepeno jam we got at the farmers market.BANNOCK BREAD
- 2 cups flour
- 1 tbsp sugar or honey
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 3 tbsp butter
- about a cup of buttermilk or sour milk
I literally just mix all of this together with my hands. It is that easy. Or you can follow the recipe and be all clean and tidy about it (mix dry ingredients, add tiny pieces of the cold butter until pea-sized clumps form, then add the milk). But hands work, too. Get your skillet REALLY hot, add some butter and then the dough, shaped into an oval. Cook for about seven minutes on each side and ENJOY!- Hannah.
MORELS, MORELS, MORELS!
Morels are a type of mushroom - and they have been consuming all of our time and energies these days. If you have never tasted one, then you can't possibly understand how these little fungi can distract the attention of busy farmers in the spring. We literally will drop whatever important task we are working on and spend an entire day hunting for them after a good rain - and we have had great success so far this year.
As soon as Ira started finding them in the woods a few weeks ago, Jesse and him have been having a little competition, with delicious results. Last week, we enjoyed a meal of morels, stuffed with freshly ground lamb and asparagus. The luxury of farming at its finest.
- Hannah.
HOMEMADE PIZZA DOUGH WITH HONEY.
easy honey pizza crust
ingredients:
- 2 1/4 teaspoons of active dry yeast (or one package)
- 1 tablespoon of honey
- 1 cup of warm water (105-ish degrees)
- 1 tablespoon of olive oil
- 2 1/2 cups of flour (plus a little extra for kneading)
- 1 1/2 teaspoons of salt
Dissolve honey, yeast, and 1/4 cup of the water in a small bowl, letting it proof. Meanwhile, in a large bowl, combine the flour and salt. When the yeast has proofed, add to your flour mixture the yeast, the olive oil, and the remaining warm water. Mix until it comes together, and add flour if it seems to sticky. At this point I usually end up just mixing it with my hands inside of the bowl, eventually pulling out the dough and kneading on a floured surface (only 2 minutes, don't over-knead). When the dough is stretchy when you pull it (doesn't tear apart), shape into a ball and place in an oiled bowl. Cover and let sit for 45 minutes or so.When dough has doubled, divide into balls if you are going to make multiple pizzas (This recipe makes 1 deep dish or 2 thin crusts. I usually triple the recipe as the dough can keep in the fridge for a few days). Let dough sit, loosely covered with a damp cloth, for 30 minutes before baking it or storing it in the fridge.Bake at 450 for 12 - 16 minutes. We don't have a pizza stone, so I just sprinkle some corn meal on a baking sheet.For this recent pizza, we used a cream sauce base with roasted fennel, kale, and goat cheese. It was definitely a winner.- Hannah.
