Food – Page 4 – Beautiful Chaos

First time fermenting vegetables

And I have neglected them

After reading and watching several videos, I am convinced that fermented vegetables are healthy and I wanted to make ferments my self, also as a way to preserve our own produce. My first attempts went wrong and I trough them away, but after watching more videos and reading tips over making ferments I realized that a lot is a matter of taste. We live in Germany at the moment and here sauerkraut gets fermented for at least 6 weeks or more. It is a way for long term storage. As of a lot of videos I watched are from America and many only ferment sauerkraut for only a week. For us it tasted very salty and not as anything we would want to eat.

The first time I made carrots, which I shredded and salted. I made these without extra liquid, just like you would make sauerkraut. This should ferment a number of days. At this moment I did not realize I could just leave it fermenting longer, so I tried it and it was just so salty and I gave it to the chickens. Even the chickens did not want to eat it. Wondering how this should be so healthy for you I searched for more information, also in German, and I realized I should just leave it much longer.

Than I tried Sauerkraut. I like to use red cabbage, but that is just a preference. I made a large glass and put it on the counter. After a few days I wondered about all of the fluid on the counter. I checked the glass and noticed a large crack, so I put the sauerkraut into other glasses. Apparently I did not work clean enough by doing this, or I had too little fluid covering the cabbage, but this started to mold and I had to throw it away. I was somewhat disillusioned and forgot about it for a wile. After our own produce started coming from our garden I thought about trying to ferment again. I started with carrot which I just cut into long stripes and topped up with salty water (1 tablespoon of salt to 400ml boiled and cooled water). Next thing I tried was a cabbage for Sauerkraut again. I made only a small amount. I put everything in our barn in storage. Since this would have to sit a wile and I do not have counter space to use for this. After several weeks I went to check. I forgot how long I let it, but I leave things fermenting for at least 6 weeks. We tried the carrots and the sauerkraut. My son, very much to my surprise, loved the sauerkraut and the glass was empty within 2 days. The carrots I made with onion and garlic and my husband and I loved these as well. My son liked the carrots as well, but our two girls did not want both. Positively inspired by this success I started a lot of different ferments from our own produce. I did more carrots, zucchini (which I had a lot), sauerkraut, green beans, broccoli, chili, paprika, cucumber normally for pickling and also kimchi with different compositions.

I all put it up in our barn to ferment and I more or less forgot about it. I had a glass of carrots and a glass of kimchi in the refrigerator and I usually forgot to take it out with a meal. After about 6 months I started trying to really think about it and take out these ferments with our lunch meals (We eat the main meal at lunch time). Our son still loves the carrots and ate almost all by him self, the kimchi he does not like. The girls still did not want to eat the carrots nor the kimchi. So I eat the kimchi, but after some time my daughter wanted a bite of kimchi from me and of course my other daughter then wanted a bite from me as well. As if the food tastes differently from my plate as from theirs, they all of a sudden seam to like it. Meanwhile the carrot glass is empty and the kimchi almost and I made myself on getting all of my ferments out of storage to check on them. I also had some zucchini pickled and the children wanted from these as well, so we took a glass of those inside as well.

After checking I found that most of the kimchi and the sauerkraut hat too little fluid, so I topped these with some boiled and cooled water. I think I made the glasses to full and because of that to much liquid could escape wile fermenting.

The smell of the kimchi and one glass of sauerkraut was as it should be. The sauerkraut of a later date was all bad. It smelled like it is rotting, so sadly I trough these glasses all into the compost. This was the last sauerkraut I made from our own cabbages. Unfortunately these cabbages sat to long in a not very ideal storage for to long before I found the time to process them. I assume that has been the problem with these glasses of sauerkraut, since I did not do any thing differently as I did before.

There is another glass of carrots, which is still good as well. It smells nice like carrots.

I also had some chilis out of the garden last year and cut them and took out the seeds. Poured up with salty water I let them ferment. We tried them on a pizza and my husband and I loved it. My husband complained that I did not put enough chilis on the pizza. It wasn’t as hot as I would have expected it to be. Maybe this year I should leave the seeds in. Just cut of the tops and ferment them like that. I will let you know if it makes a difference.

I had a lot of green beans last year, so I decided to try to ferment these as well. I had filled up one glass. I had put some green beans in a kimchi and had noticed that this was not a good idea, so I sorted the beans out as we used the kimchi. I figured with this glass of beans I could just rinse them and cook them as if they where fresh. When I opened the glass I noticed that it had a vacuum, which surprised me, and the smell was a bit sweet and a bit alcoholic. It did not smell like something I would want to eat. After cooking I tried a piece and it was disgusting. It was just so extremely salty. That landed on the compost.

After the beans experience I had been busy and forgot about the ferments for a few weeks. Meanwhile it has been very cold this winter, so in our barn the temperature dropped to almost freezing. Then finding time to try another ferment again we unfortunately found all ferments gone bad. We assume that the extreme cold have killed the good bacteria and then the vegetables have started rotting, because we found the white layer the good bacteria cause.

The smell was terrible when we emptied out the glasses. What a shame so much food gone to waste. We really need a house with a root cellar, or build something root cellar like to store our produce properly over winter.

So now I am going to buy a cabbage and carrots to make new ferments, so we will have new ferments in about 6 weeks. I look forward to make new ferments out of our own produce again, but I will not make so much at the time any more until I am sure I can store them properly.

What I make out of 2 chickens

How many meals can you make out of 2 chickens?

I always buy organic whole chickens from free range. At the moment we unfortunately do not have chickens our selves and whole chickens are cheaper then parts of chicken.

To start of with I always make roast chicken. Unpack chicken, wash chicken and check if everything that should be removed is removed. Put 2 chickens side by side on a backing sheet and brush with olive oil. Back at 160°C for about 2,5 hours for a chicken of about 2 kg in the oven.

And this gives the first meal. This is the children’s favorite, even unseasoned, just plain chicken meat. We had it with peanut butter sauce and the children hat ketchup. This day we hat home made bread and paprika with it, but another time we do rice and some other vegetables.

Then all the meat is taken from the bones and nicely packed for some other days. We only had meat for 3 more meals this time. Everything that is left, bones, skin and fluid on the backing sheet is put in a stockpot with onions, carrots, garlic, celery root, celery, salt & pepper. Ad water so everything is covered. I ad the parsley the last 10 minutes, that is when I don’t forget it. This is allowed to simmer for about 24 hours. That is, with only 2 hobs, the pot is put to the side for cooking now and than, but with that mass that does not matter. The result is 2 large and 4 smaller glasses with really good home made chicken bone broth for soups, cooking rice, etc.

The first thing I made after the bone broth was finished was a chicken soup. I removed the fat swimming on top. I know the fat can find good use in the kitchen, but I gave it to our cats. They love it. The soup is easy to make. What was left from the cauliflower and onions from lunch, carrots, celery, celery root, one portion chicken meat and a large glass of the bone broth. Bring this to a boil and let it simmer for about 20 minutes, or until the vegetables are soft. Season to taste with salt & pepper. Tastes wonderful with some whipped cream. Even the children wanted to have a second; only the cauliflower was sorted out. The vegetables vary to what I have on hand on the time I make the soup.

The next thing I made was a risotto with a portion chicken meat and a large glass of bone broth. The other ingredients where an onion, risotto rice, coconut milk, a glass of pineapple, garlic, ginger, salt, pepper, chili powder, peanut butter, peas from the freezer. It is easy to make. Chopping up the onions and braise, add the risotto rice to braise, add bone broth & coconut milk and let this simmer for a while. Than add the pineapple with the fluid and add the seasonings. Add the chicken meat, peanut butter and peas at the end. Simmer until the peas are done. Don’t forget to stir now and than to prevent the food from burning at the bottom. The girls did not really like it, but my husband and son liked it very much.

Then I made rice boiled in bone broth with red beets and shrimps. There was enough rice left for another meal which gave a chicken fricassee. Braise a portion chicken meat with some onions; add cream, garlic and seasoning. Let this thicken and add the leftover rice. I also made some sweet potato fries and warmed up some red cabbage. This might be an unusual combination, but I was using up left over’s.

With the rest of the bone broth I made another soup. I still had some chicken meat in the freezer from the previous chickens I roasted and added following vegetables to fill the soup. Onions, garlic, celery, celery root, carrots, peas & parsley. Again some whipped cream and finished is another meal.

Whit these meals all of the 2 chickens is used up well. The 2 chickens gave 6 meals and the left over’s gave another meal for our family of 5.

Lasagna

How I make lasagna

There are so many different ways to make lasagna and now I just want to share with you how I make lasagna.

My lasagna has following ingredients:

Ground beef
Onions, chopped
Garlic, minced
Tomato sauce
Coconut milk
Heavy wiping cream
Pumpkin puree
Lasagna sheets
Chili (own fermented)
Parmesan cheese (grated)
Gouda cheese (grated)
Salt & pepper
Paprika powder

First of all the onions get backed in some olive oil or some butter. Then the ground beef is added and backed until nicely browned. Now I ad in the tomato sauce, coconut milk, heavy wiping cream, salt & pepper and paprika powder. Normally I would ad some home made broth (chicken or beef), but I forgot to tau this. Therefore I have to ad some water instead. This needs to get warm and don’t forget to stir. Finally I ad the pumpkin puree and some chili. This should get nice and warm and when the pumpkin puree is dissolved the sauce is ready.

Now to fill the oven dishes. Starting with the sauce on the bottom and then covering with the lasagna sheets. Then another layer of sauce and then sprinkling on the parmesan cheese and covering with lasagna sheets again. And some more sauce and sprinkling with some Gouda cheese and covering with lasagna sheets. Now go on with sauce and lasagna sheets finishing with the sauce on top until the dishes are full or the ingredients are used. On top comes a layer of Gouda cheese. It could have been more cheese on top, but it was good anyway. Put this in the oven by 200°C for about 40 Min.