Nourishing Traditions

Sauerkraut, mmmmmm!

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I am popping in today to post the recipe from the little booklet that came with my Harsch crock, since I can never remember how much salt to add.

Never fill more than 4/5ths of the way up (the carbonic acid and the weighing stones need some space).

approx 5 – 8 kg of cabbage for the 10 L pot – I have the 5 L pot, so that means 2.5 – 4 kg cabbage (usually two big ones or three small ones fit nicely).

approx 5 – 8 g (max 15 g) salt per 1 kg of cabbage

If you need to add liquid (so that the stones are covered by 3 – 4 cm of liquid), use filtered and salted water that has been boiled and cooled (15g of salt for 1 L water).

FYI, my 5L crock makes about four quart jars of finished sauerkraut. Kent prefers the green cabbage over purple and he’s not a fan of caraway seeds, so plain green cabbage is what I usually make – and it’s delicious. Everett LOVES kraut juice when he can get it! I try to serve something fermented with EVERY meal. And, we found some real lactofermented kimchi at the commissary of all places. YUM!!!

 

What’s for Dinner? Brisket & Brie Soft Tacos with BBQ Sauce and Mango Chutney

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Holy Cow, this was soooooo good! Unfortunately, I didn’t think to take a picture until we had scarfed it all down, but this is pretty close.

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It was super quick and easy to make (less than 10 minutes total work tonight), but it does require some advance planning. I like this as part of “Save-a-step cooking” which is where you plan the leftovers as part of another meal. So, last night we made a brisket (slow cooked in a Dutch oven at 205 degrees for seven or eight hours, marinated and cooked in red wine – YUM!). And tonight, we used the leftover brisket for these tacos. Another thing you need to have in advance is the Mango Chutney. It’s a lacto-fermented recipe from Nourishing Traditions and it’s one of my favorite things!

So, you have to have mango salsa, brie, BBQ sauce, and leftover brisket. As long as you have these things, then it’s just an issue of assembly and it takes just a few minutes to make dinner.

Here’s the recipe:

Brie Soft Tacos with BBQ Sauce and Mango Chutney

Tacos loaded with shredded brisket, brie, BBQ sauce, and lacto-fermented mango chutney.

Ingredients

  • leftover brisket (we love it slow cooked 205 degrees for 7 or 8 hrs, marinated and cooked in red white, garlic, salt and pepper)
  • your fav Barbecue Sauce (we love the Sassy recipe from the Weber’s Real Grilling cookbook)
  • Lacto-fermented mango chutney (from Nourishing Traditions)
  • Tortillas (taco-size)
  • 8 oz brie, thinly sliced
  • butter, to warm up the tortillas

Instructions

  1. To assemble the tacos: Heat a griddle or large pan over medium-high.
  2. Heat up the brisket, then transfer to a bowl.
  3. Add some butter to the pan. Lay out the tortillas in the pan. Once warm, add the brie slices in a line down the middle.
  4. Then add brisket, BBQ sauce, and the mango chutney (all down the middle). The bottom should be a tiny bit browned and crispy.
  5. Fold over and place on a plate in a warmed oven while you make the rest.
  6. Sit down with your family while they sing your praises for this most delicious dinner!

I HIGHLY recommend you try this. If you do, leave me a comment and let me know how it goes.

Our Thanksgiving 2013 (pics, recipes, and my schedule)

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We had a wonderful Thanksgiving! We were thrilled to host Derm Dad’s parents, who drove down from Connecticut, and my mom, Mimi, who flew in from Kansas. And then, we also had our dear friends the P family for dinner on Thanksgiving day.

I didn’t actually take any pictures (bummer!), but here is one from last year (pretty much everything looked the same).

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Here are the recipes and the schedule that we used this year. I wanted to keep it simple, so we didn’t have a million different dishes, but it was still wonderful and even extravagant in its yumminess and abundance. If another busy mom of littles is reading this, you can do it! Just take a little bit every day and it’s really doable!

On Sunday, Kent and Adele made the Secret Ingredient Apple Pie (recipe HERE). He also made and baked a crust for the pumpkin custard pie. I also made my lactofermented apple chutney.

On Monday, Kent’s parents arrived and Grammy and Adele made a cherry pie.

On Tuesday, the 26-pound pastured turkey was delivered from our farmer, so I brined it (brine recipe HERE). I did modify the brine recipe a bit – I used Celtic sea salt instead of Kosher and blackstrap molasses (which I didn’t measure) instead of brown sugar. Don’t forget to bring the ingredients to a boil before dumping them in the bucket – it really brings out the flavors. I also made the fried onion rings for the green bean casserole (recipe HERE), but I didn’t use her instructions for the fried onion rings. Instead, I heated up some bacon grease and sliced some onions super thin on the mandolin slicer. Then I got two bowls and put an egg plus a half cup of milk in the first bowl and a quarter cup of flour plus a teaspoon or two of Celtic sea salt as well as some pepper. Then you dip some onions in the first milk bowl, then coat in the flour mixture, then drop in the hot oil until medium brown. Then scoop them out onto a towel-lined bowl or plate. Taste one from the first batch to see if the seasoning is right. My advice is to make more onions than you think you’ll need because they are soooo yummy and everyone wants some onions with each scoop of green bean casserole. – I snitched a few and they were VERY delicious! I also put the pie pumpkin and some butternut squash in the oven to roast for almost an hour. It stayed in there until I was ready to use in on Thursday.

On Wednesday, we were in Virginia for therapy all morning, so I didn’t get anything done except a few loads of laundry =). Next year I’d like to get both casseroles done on Wednesday.

On Thursday, I made the mushroom sauce and green beans for the green bean casserole (recipe HERE). Also, my mom made the sweet potato casserole and Grandy made his famous mashed potatoes. Kent also made the pumpkin custard pie and we baked the turkey in two hours (turkey recipe HERE) – we put it in at 11:30 and took it out to test the temp at 1:30. Grammy set the table (beautifully of course) with our wedding china and crystal goblets.

I even had time to make some calligraphy place cards! Of course, I forgot to take a picture until they were a bit soiled =) If you want to make something like this and you don’t really know how to do calligraphy (although I am hoping to learn how to do it the right way), just type the names on the computer and select a font that you like (I used Edwardian Script) then print it out and trace it so that your hand gets used to the shape. Then try to approximate the loveliness on your cardstock, making some parts thicker by going over it with your pen a few times.

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I HIGHLY recommend the turkey method we use because it results in a no-fail, delicious, moist, and extremely flavorful turkey that only ties up your oven for TWO HOURS!

I also tried a new recipe for the green bean casserole this year and I highly recommend it! It’s quite a bit more labor-intensive than using the onion topping from a can and the canned cream of mushroom soup (the method we always used growing up), but I have to say that it was worth it in flavor and also knowing that I wasn’t feeding MSG and other yucky chemicals to my family.

How we make kombucha

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While there are lots of posts on the internet about kombucha, I never found one that described exactly the method I use. I figured I would have to write up a post with pictures, etc.. But, I never quite got around to it. And, then, I read a post that looks just exactly like I had written it for you, but I didn’t have to! So, if you want to know how to make fizzy kombucha that tastes just like GT Dave’s (but you made it at home for pennies) and you want a method that is so easy you can handle it even if your life is cray-cray busy, then this method is for you! The blog post I didn’t have to write is HERE! peace out!

 

So that I won’t forget:

for 2 gallons of kombucha
2 cups organic white sugar15 g black tea

 

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I hope to have a root cellar to house my 2-gallon fermenting crock o’ Kombucha someday . . .

Planning a Nourishing Thanksgiving

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I am hosting Thanksgiving this year, and I am so excited for a holiday where the theme is eucharisteo (radical gratitude)!!! Just a few things I am grateful for right now: I get to plan the menu exactly how I want, I get to make all the food from scratch (no cans or jars or other industrial food) or purchase it locally (made by hand) – all real food!, I get to spend the day with family and friends and bless them with my cooking, I get to support our local farmer who is raising the turkey (I just love voting with my feet and my wallet!), I get to decorate the Thanksgiving table (I can’t wait!). It looks like we will have 19 people here (10 adults and 9 kids), so I’ve changed a few things around (like adding the ham). I hope we have enough food!!!

We will have:

  • root veggie curry bisque (frozen) for a starter with a yogurt garnish
  • 21-pound pastured turkey (Smockity’s recipe for moist and super-fast cooking turkey, Pioneer Woman’s brine recipe)
  • pastured ham (crockpot recipe here)
  • gravy (easy-peasy using drippings from the turkey sizzled with flour, then broth to thin or arrowroot powder mixed with milk to thicken as necessary)
  • stuffing (recipe here)
  • mashed potatoes with my CSA potatoes
  • sweet potato casserole with my CSA sweet potatoes
  • green bean casserole with homemade crispy shoestring onions (recipe here)
  • 5-spice apple chutney (recipe here)
  • raw Chocolate Mousse Pie (recipe here except sub sucanat for agave syrup)
  • pumpkin pie (recipe NT p. 562, or here)(I’ll be using Heavenly Homemaker’s pie crust recipe using palm shortening – it’s good for you!) 35 – 45 min @ 350 degrees
  • apple pie (NT p. 564) 45 min @ 375 degrees

This week, I need to buy raisins, 6 cups of apples and 1 cup pecans to make the apple chutney

Next week, I will be in VA for Everett’s therapy on Tuesday and Wednesday, so I’d like to get any prep I can on Monday, then hope for some very productive evenings (pray I don’t get stuck in traffic on the way home) on Tuesday and Wednesday.

Monday – grocery shopping and misc. prep

  • make ice in the deep freezer to add to the turkey brine
  • Grocery list:
    • 5 avocados
    • apple juice or cider
    • 5 oranges
    • fresh rosemary
    • arrowroot powder
    • sucanat
    • 15 tart apples
    • small pumpkins
    • green beans
    • onions
    • couple sourdough baguettes
    • back-up mango chutneys from Trader Joe’s
    • cranberry sauce from Trader Joe’s

Tuesday – Savory Dish Day

  • turkey will be delivered today, make brine and add turkey to the bucket
  • roast pumpkins & make puree for pie
  • assemble stuffing (one dish for in the turkey, one dish for the side oven) still need to add cubed bread and saute with broth
  • make fermented cranberry chutney YUM!
  • purchase blueberry and cherry pies from MOM’s

Wednesday – Sweet Dish Day

  • roast sweet potatoes, white potatoes
  • assemble green bean casserole in oval dish that fits side oven (prep, but don’t bake)
  • make 3 regular pie crusts and 1 hazelnut pie crust
  • prep pie fillings (apple, pumpkin) (have to wait on avocados for choc mousse)
  • bake assembled pies and remaining crusts
  • set the lovely Thanksgiving table
  • thaw soup in fridge

Thursday – Thanksgiving (dinner served at 2pm)

first thing in the morning

  • put ham in crockpot (add molasses, pineapple juice, maple syrup, and sugar)
  • simmer soup
  • make chocolate mousse pie
  • finish stuffing

11:30

  • put turkey with stuffing in the oven and extra stuffing in the side oven
  • herbed kefir cheese ball appetizer???

1:30

  • turkey out of the oven to rest, then carve
  • sweet potato casserole in the oven
  • green bean casserole in the oven
  • make mashed potatoes on stove
  • make gravy

What’s For Dinner? Nourishing Traditions French Onion Soup WOW!

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I know I sound like a broken record over here, but I’m serious – this was a high-fives-all-around meal!!! Kent said, “This is what French Onion Soup is supposed to taste like.” Then he talked about driving to Vermont as a child and eating French Onion Soup in a quaint little tavern on the way home. I love a meal that is super nourishing, evokes pleasant memories from your childhood, and even makes new memories at the same time. It’s THAT good!

Start with homemade broth

I make a batch of broth about once a week! A good homemade bone broth is THE non-negotiable ingredient in any good soup, IMHO. The Healthy Home Economist has a great video on making homemade broth here.

I order whole chickens, chicken carcasses, chicken heads and feet (which is where you get rich gelatin – a better-absorbed source of glucosamine and chondroitin than a supplement), and beef soup bones all from our farmer who raises his animals on pasture, which means they eat food that makes them clean and healthy with no added hormones or antibiotics. Last week, I don’t know why, but I mixed chicken and beef bones together in the crock pot. I also had some leek tops in the freezer that I had saved for the next time I made broth. I added my usual carrots, celery, and onion to the leek tops and let it simmer on low for a few days (maybe three). I also added some egg shells (for bioavailable calcium). The broth was a deep dark brown and soooooo rich! I thought it would be perfect for a French Onion Soup. After I strained the bits out, I put it the liquid broth in glass jars in the fridge and forgot about it. Did I mention things get crazy fast over here? A few days later, Kent said he was dreaming about having French Onion Soup and did we have any onions? I said, I have the perfect broth already made. Sidenote: I like to keep broth ready to go in the fridge (enough for a large batch of soup) at all times, but sometimes I freeze it in large yogurt containers (they pop out easily because there is no lip at the top of the plastic containers). This would have been just as easy to make from frozen broth, if you don’t happen to have any in the fridge. Also, when I pulled the stock out of the fridge, it was a thin liquid, not a jelly consistency, so I added two tablespoons of bovine gelatin (I bought mine here).

I mostly followed the Nourishing Traditions recipe, except that I used yellow onions instead of red, and I didn’t have any cognac. According to the recipe, you slice 4-5 onions (I used 4, but 5 would have been even better – they cook down A LOT!) and add to four tablespoons of butter in the cast iron pan on the lowest possible heat for two hours! Then raise the heat and cook for a few more minutes, stirring constantly – until the onions turn brown but are not burned. Then you add two quarts of broth/stock, 1/2 cup red wine, 1/2 cup cognac (I didn’t). Then bring to a rapid boil and skim off any foam that rises to the top. Then add two tablespoons arrowroot powder mixed with two tablespoons water (I shake it up in a mason jar with the lid on tight).

We put slices of sourdough bread in the bowls and ladled the soup on top of that. Then we put a thick layer of raw Swiss cheese (Baby Swiss from our farmer) and put it under the broiler for a minute or two until the cheese is nice and brown, but stay close because it’ll burn fast!

And then enjoy!!!

And then come back here and tell me how good it was in the comments =)