Using Produce From the Garden: Making Salsa

Making Salsa

There is nothing more satisfying than being able to create delicious home canned produce from your garden (or grandma's), or the road side stand, and put it away for snowy days to come. I know those cold, winter days are fast approaching, but hopefully you can still get ahold of some luscious ripe tomatoes, some onions and peppers to create a batch of yummy salsa for yourself. 

In making Salsa, I've found a lot of it is "eyeballing" and tasting the mixture to make sure it has the flavor you want. This recipe can be easily varied to meet your own taste needs, including how hot you want it. So don't be afraid to add another jalapeño if you like it a little spicier, or take one away if you want it milder. Also, this recipe makes a lot of salsa--(about 10 quarts and ten pints total) so if you want less, just cut the amounts in half.

Step by Step How to make Home Bottled Salsa

Ingredients

1/2 bushel ripe tomatoes

2 large green bell peppers

3 large red bell peppers

2 jalapeño peppers

1 large yellow banana pepper

3 Anaheim peppers

15 cups chopped onions

20 cloves garlic, peeled

4 cups white vinegar

1/2 cup sugar

4 Tablespoons pickling salt

1 Teaspoon ground black pepper

3 Tablespoons dried crushed oregano

2 Tablespoons ground cumin

2 large cans (12 oz) of Tomato Paste

4 bunches of fresh cilantro 

In a large sink, rinse off your tomatoes. Then blanch them. You blanch tomatoes by putting them in a pot of boiling water for about 1-3 minutes (until the water starts to bubble again), and then plunge them into a second sink filled with cold water. This makes it super easy to peel them.

You can see in the picture how the skins are pulling away from the fruit. At this point, peel them, and cut them into chunks, and put into a large stainless steel pot. Mine is a 16 quart pot and this recipe fills it to the top.
So if you don't have a large enough stainless steel cooking pot, either borrow one, or cut the recipe down to fit your own pot. 

While speaking of cooking pots, I should mention that you never want to use aluminum when cooking with tomatoes. The acid in the tomatoes will actually pit the aluminum, and of course it will end up in your finished product. Not what you want. So--look for a large, stainless steel pot, and you are good to go.

Go ahead and add your vinegar, salt, pepper, dried oregano, cumin and sugar. Turn your stove onto medium low. Chop the onions and stir them into the mix. If you think 15 cups sounds like too many onions--stir in 10 and see how it looks. This is where I start to "eyeball" this recipe. If 10 cups looks about right, I go with that. However, if 15 cups looks too scanty--I may add an extra cup or two. You get to decide. 

Take your peeled garlic cloves (20 or more--depending on your tastes), and put in a food processor and blend them. Either that or you can finely chop them, or use a garlic press. I just found the food processor to be the quickest and easiest way to chop them up.

Now it's time to work with the peppers. If you like, you can chop them all up, and put them into the mix as they are. However, I really like the flavor of roasted peppers--so although it takes some extra time, I feel it is worth it. I fire up the grill, and roast them, until their skins are blackened or bubbly, them plunge them into ice cold water and peel the skins off. A word to the wise: Make sure you wear rubber gloves when you are touching the peppers, or you won't forget to next time. Especially when you reach up to rub your eye! Now, either finely chop them, or run through the food processor. Add to the pot.

By this time your house will be smelling oh, so good! Take a large spoon, and stir the pot every so often to keep things from sticking to the bottom. Let it simmer on low for about 1 1/2 to 2 hours, until the tomatoes are cooked and the onions a bit translucent. 

While things are cooking, get your bottles ready. Either hand wash in hot sudsy water, or run through the dishwasher your canning jars. Also, get your canning lids ready as well. As previously mentioned, this batch did about 10 quarts and 10 pints of salsa. Since my canner only holds 8 quarts (if I squeeze them in), there are 2 quarts of salsa in my fridge that I didn't process. We'll just use it them up first. 

At this point, I like to strain off about 1 or two pints of juice to thicken things up a bit. I will go ahead and bottle this, and use it to make chili with later on. If you like your salsa thinner, or if this batch seems thick enough you can skip that step. Also, about now you can add the tomato paste and stir it in to make even a thicker richer salsa. Yum! The last step is to rinse the cilantro, chop it up, and stir it into the mix. Do this right before you are ready to bottle the salsa so the cilantro is fresh and green. It will cook enough during the canning process. If you don't care for cilantro, you can just skip this step. Make sure, as you go along, that you take a taste here and there and tweak the recipe according to your own tastes. Add more salt or sugar or peppers or spices or whatever you think it needs. When you think its ready--time for canning.

Fill your canner full of hot water, and put onto boil. Fill each jar within a 1/2 inch from the rim with thick hot salsa. Run a clean cloth over the rim of each jar. In a separate small pan, put your canning lids in boiling water for a couple of minutes. Carefully remove with tongs or a canning wand magnet each lid, and place on each jar. Put canning lid ring over this, and screw down tight. Put bottles into canner of boiling water, and bring back to a boil. 

Process pints for 35 minutes, and quarts for 45 minutes. When done, cool on a towel on your counter. Listen for that lovely popping sound as each lid seals. Music to my ears!

Enjoy your slice of summer all winter long with chips, tacos, or however you like salsa! If you have a favorite way to use salsa, share your ideas below. 

A couple of web sites to check out for more canning information are:
http://www.pickyourown.org/allaboutcanning.htm

http://extension.usu.edu/canning/

By the way, this blog post is dedicated to my friend Amy C. She requested info on how to make salsa. If any of you have something you are interested in regarding food preservation, storage, or preparedness--just let me know and I'll see what I can do. In the mean time, just see what little thing you can do today to be prepared for tomorrow. Baby steps are all that are needed. 

The Ancient Art of Fermenting Food II: History, Health and more

The Ancient Art of Fermenting Foods II

After my last post, I realized there needed to be a little more added to this whole fermenting foods topic. Mainly history, health benefits, and a few more recipes. So for those of you who may be interested, read on.....

The art of fermenting foods is truly and ancient one. In my reading and research it appears that the art of food fermentation has been around longer than just about any other food preservation skill, at least 70000 years if not more. That stands to reason. The bacteria that is used to ferment vegetables is naturally in our healthy soils and on the food grown in the soils. (That is why organic produce works best for the fermentation process.) Our ancestors found that using the fermentation process not only gave flavor to their foods, but also allowed the food to be preserved for several months, especially during the colder seasons. Besides being tasty, this method of preserving foods also kept the foods safe for consumption. I suspect food poisoning was known and avoided in old times as well as now. 

It is also interesting to note that each culture had their own favorite type of fermented foods--so this method was "discovered" and used 

by different peoples independently and successfully. A few examples of fermented cuisine include yogurt, kefir, kimchi, chutney, sauerkraut, cheese, natto, kvass, pickles, wine, sourdough, and so on.  The list of foods fermented could include vegetables, fruits, meats, grains, and dairy. Depending on they type of food and method of fermentation used, diets could be tasty and varied and enjoyed by the common man.

The question does arise of how fermentation is able to preserve food? I found several sites that go into the science of fermentation, with big words and lots of chemical explanations. However, I like to keep things simple, so here is my short version:

• Bacteria, molds, and fungus are naturally in our environment
• Food will naturally break down and decay if not preserved in some way, due to these bacterias, molds, and fungi
• When we allow the good bacteria (primarily they lactobacillus kind) to grow, it penetrates the food. This changes the ph of the food so it is inhospitable to bad bacterias, molds, and fungus. These good bacteria also become so plentiful, there isn't enough room for any pathogens to grow.
• Also, often salt is used. It preserves the cell wall structure of the plant--keeping the final product crunchy and tasty. It also acts as a preserver by mixing with the natural juices of the plant, creating a brine that favors the good bacteria, and prevents undesirable bacteria, molds, or fungus from growing.

Bacteria is an interesting thing. It exists all around us. In fact, there are more bacteria residing in your body than your own cells. Interesting thought.  If you want the science of the importance of bacteria in our lives, Bonnie Bassler, a molecular biology professor at Princeton University, gives an amazing presentation at a TED talk:

 https://www.ted.com/talks/bonnie_bassler_on_how_bacteria_communicate

Another recent news article links lack of good bacteria in the gut to food allergies:

http://www.kcet.org/living/food/food-rant/reason-behind-increasing-food-allergies-discovered.html

Now, for some of the health benefits of fermented foods:

1. Fermenting foods improves our digestion. Fermenting our foods before we eat them is allowing the good bacteria to partially digest them before we consume them. In addition, the lactic acid that is created in the fermenting process helps improve stomach acid and other enzymes in our gut, all necessary in the digestive process.
2. Fermented foods restore the proper balance of bacteria in the gut. Many conditions have been linked to a lack of good bacteria in the gut, including lactose intolerance, constipation, IBS, candida, allergies, asthma, and others. It is also true that specialized cells in the intestine make many of our neurotransmitters, including 90% of our serotonin. Low serotonin is linked to depression. There are several medical studies that point to having a gut populated with good bacteria improves not only physical health, but also mental health.
3.  Raw, fermented foods are rich in enzymes. According to the Food Renegade blog, “Your body needs [enzymes] to properly digest, absorb, and make full use of your food. As you age, your body’s supply of enzymes decreases. This has caused many scientists to hypothesize that if you could guard against enzyme depletion, you could live a longer, healthier life.”
4. Fermenting food actually increases the vitamin content, and allows for easier absorption of nutrients. Some of the vitamins produced by those healthy bacteria include B, K, A and D--along with the nutrients supplied by the food itself. For example, sauerkraut is rich in Vitamin C. For that reason, sailers often took barrels of sauerkraut on their voyages to prevent scurvy.
5.  Eating fermented food helps us to absorb the nutrients we’re consuming. You can ingest huge amounts of nutrients, but unless you actually absorb them, they’re useless to you. When you improve digestion, you improve absorption. Healthy probiotics assists in creation of enzymes which helps with the digestive process. In addition, the good bacteria have already started breaking down the food making it easier to digest and assimilate. 
6. Eating lacto-fermented foods regularly may boost your immune system. A John Hopkins website claims at least 70% of the cells that make up our immune system are in our digestive system. Studies have shown that a diet which includes regular intake of fermented foods improves ones immune system, making one less susceptible to illness.  

Now for a few recipes. 

 KIMCHI

2 heads Napa Cabbage
1 head Bok Choy         1-2 cups shredded carrots
1-2 bunches green onions 2 teaspoons salt

Optional veggies:         Marinade:
match sticks of Daikon radish 1-2 jalapeño peppers (use gloves)
rounds of red radish 1/4 cup honey
turnips         1-2 inches fresh ginger sliced
brussel sprouts                 1/4 cup apple cider vinegar
etc.                 1-2 teaspoons paprika
                1-2 cups of water

Coarsely chop Napa Cabbage, and Bok Choy. Cut green onions into 1 inch pieces. Put all veggies in large bowl and toss with salt. Blend marinade ingredients (may add a handful of veggies to blender as well). Pack chopped vegetables into mason jars, or a crock. Pour marinade over vegetables. If needed add additional water until covered. Cover with a cloth or paper towel. Secure with a rubber band. Swirl every day until done, about 3-7 days. Refrigerate until eaten.

 FERMENTED VEGETABLES

Brine:
1 glass quart jar with a plastic lid
1 to 1 1/2 tablespoons sea salt
2 cups filtered water

Any combination of Vegetables:
cauliflower, beets, green beans, bell peppers, radishes, daikon radish, cucumbers, turnips, broccoli, kale, onion, green onion, garlic, cabbage leaves.

Any Combination of Herbs and Spices:
dried chili peppers, black peppercorns, bay leaf, fresh dill, fresh basil, fresh tarragon, fresh mint, fennel seeds, caraway seeds, etc.

Dissolve your salt in water in a glass jar or 2-cup glass measure. Then place you favorite combination of vegetables into a quart jar (you can use a larger cylindrical jar or ceramic crock instead, just double or triple the salt brine keeping the same ratio of salt and water). Add a few layers of herbs and spices too. Make sure you leave about an inch from the top of the jar.

Then cover with your salt brine, leaving about an inch to a half inch from the top. Fold a small cabbage leaf and press it into the brine so the water floats above it and the vegetables are completely submerged. Cover with plastic lid. Don't screw the lid on too tight. You want some space for gasses to release. You should see a bit of bubbling and some liquid possibly dripping out after about day three, depending on the heat level in your home. Place jars into some sort of container, like a rectangular Pyrex dish, to catch any drips. Set your jars in an undisturbed place in your kitchen out of direct sunlight. After 5-8 days, taste. They are done when fermented to your liking. Remove cabbage leaf and store in refrigerator. They should last for several months.

CHOCOLATE MACAROON CAKE

CAKE INGREDIENTS
2 cups sugar
2 cups King Arthur Unbleached All-Purpose Flour
2 tablespoons Instant ClearJel® or cornstarch
3/4 cup Double-Dutch Dark Cocoa or Dutch-process cocoa
2 teaspoons baking powder
2 teaspoons espresso powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
4 large eggs + 2 large egg yolks, whites reserved for frosting
2/3 cup vegetable oil
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 1/4 cups water
2/3 to 3/4 cup drained, rinsed, squeezed-dry sauerkraut
2/3 cup chocolate chips

CREAMY COCONUT ICING
2 large egg whites, reserved from the cake
1 cup sugar
1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar
1/3 cup water
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon coconut flavor or 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 cups shredded or flaked coconut, sweetened or unsweetened

INSTRUCTIONS
Preheat the oven to 350°F. Lightly grease a 9" x 13" pan.
2) Whisk together the dry ingredients.
3) Add the eggs, yolks, oil, and vanilla, beating until smooth.
4) Gradually add the water, beating until smooth. Scrape the bottom and sides of the bowl, and beat again till smooth.
5) Combine the sauerkraut and chocolate chips in a food processor or blender, and process till the sauerkraut is no longer stringy. Stir the mixture into the batter.
6) Bake the cake for 35 minutes, until it's nicely domed, feels set in the middle, and a cake tester inserted into the center comes out clean.
7) Remove it from the oven, and set it on a rack to cool. You can turn it out of the pan after about 10 minutes, if you like; but it's much more easier to simply serve it right from the pan.
8) When the cake is cool, make the frosting.
9) Place the 2 egg whites in a large mixing bowl or the bowl of your stand mixer. Beat until the egg whites are foamy and thick; they should mound in the bowl, without holding a peak. Set them aside while you prepare the sugar syrup.
10) Combine the sugar, cream of tartar, water, and salt in a saucepan. Bring to a boil, stirring frequently; the sugar should be dissolved. If the sugar hasn't dissolved, cook and stir a bit more, until it has.
11) Begin to beat the egg whites, and immediately pour the boiling sugar syrup into the egg whites in a slow stream, beating all the while. As you beat, the mixture will thicken.
12) Once all the syrup is added, stir in the coconut flavor or vanilla, and continue to beat till the frosting is thick and will hold a peak.
13) When the icing is very thick and spreadable, fold in the coconut.
14) Spoon the hot icing atop the cooled cake, swirling it decoratively. Garnish with toasted coconut, if desired.
Yield: one cake, about 18 servings.

For more delicious cultured vegetable recipes, go to: 
http://www.culturesforhealth.com/cultured-vegetable-fruit-condiment-recipes

The Ancient Art of Fermenting Foods

Preserving The Harvest: The Ancient Art of Fermenting Foods

First--a bit of Reminiscing

Fall is one of my favorite seasons, and for good reason. It is the time of harvest, the time of gathering, the time of preparing for the long cold days of winter. There is something magical about putting away bottles of fruits, preserves and home canned vegetables on your storage shelves, stepping back, and feeling a deep level of contentment. Preserving the harvest has become one of my favorite things to do. 

I have early memories as a child, sitting on the grass next to my grandmother, mother, and aunts as they snapped beans preparing them for bottling. I loved to run to the storage room in our basement and choose one of the glowing bottles of peaches, anticipating the sweet treat as the cold winds blew outside. I suppose preserving the harvest represents a piece of comfort and security from those early childhood days. 

I was blessed to marry into a family who saw preserving the harvest as a way of life. My in-laws owned a Seed and Garden business, and grew an enormous garden. (In their 80's, they still do. Amazing!) My mother in law, who is an angel in disguise, taught me all the ins and outs of bottling all types of fruits, vegetables and preserves. The art of preserving was gratefully learned, and she gave me the confidence to try my hand at many other modes of preservation in addition to bottling. 

My husband loves sauerkraut. When we were first married, in the area we lived one of the churches held a yearly "Turkey and Sauerkraut Supper" fundraiser. We attended every year without fail, for it was the one place you could get fresh, homemade sauerkraut--something he loved, and something that was new to me. We had the store bought bottled sauerkraut for occasional meals, but nothing quite compared with the real deal. 

Fast forward several years, and I have a garden of my own, with more cabbage than I know what to do with. I decide its time to give it a try, and look up how to make sauerkraut, wondering how difficult it will be, and if I have the time or energy to pull this one off. Imagine my delight to learn it only takes two ingredients, a minimal amount of preparation, a waiting period, and you have homemade sauerkraut. I did it, it turned out delicious, and I make sauerkraut every fall now and love it! 

For those who are really into fermenting foods, there are all kinds of ins and outs to it. Because it has so many healthy enzymes and probiotics, eating home made fermented foods on a daily basis is fast becoming one of the healthier diet additions of our day (ironic, because only a generation or two ago, it was just a normal way of eating.) Whole books are devoted to the science of food fermentation. For those of you who are looking for more in depth information, here are a few links and references:

www.culturesforhealth.com  These guys seem to have it all. When you click on this link, you'll be taken automatically to their storefront. Don't let that keep you from discovering all the treasures of information in this site. Go to the top bar, and pass your curser over "Learn". A new group of information tags will appear below. Click on "Recipes" and a whole new world will appear for you to investigate. For the sake of the information in this blog, click on the "Cultured Vegetables" link for tons of recipes and ideas.

If you are looking for a book that incorporates fermented foods in the diet, two come to mind. "Nourishing Traditions" by Sally Fallon is a great book that has all kinds of scientific information, recipes, and history based on the studies of Dr. Weston Price. I found it full of sound advice, common sense information--backed by science. For more information go to www.westonprice.org.

Another book I really enjoyed was "The Body Ecology Diet" by Donna Gates. It also has some good, down to earth guidelines for eating healthy. Her website is www.bodyecology.com .

For the purposes of this blog--I plan to keep it simple. Lets just start out by making Sauerkraut. If that goes well (and it will, because its so easy!) then take the next step and try out some fermented vegetables, or the salsa, or chutney, or kimchi, or.........

Lets Get Started

How to Make Sauerkraut

You'll need a few supplies to make a good sauerkraut. Make sure everything is squeaky clean before you start, so that no undesirable bacteria are introduced to your mix. 

• Sharp knife
• Measuring spoons
• Scale
• A large bowl for mixing
• Something to pound your cabbage with. A meat mallet, potato masher, or even the bottom of a jar will work.
• Fermenting Containers, such as a crock, or plastic bucket.
• Plate or other device to push shredded cabbage under brine with.
• A weight to keep plate submerged.

Step 1.

Choose fresh, preferably organic, cabbage.

Step 2.

Core cabbage, then finely shred with a sharp knife. You can use a food processor, if you'd prefer.

Step 3.

Weigh Cabbage. For this recipe, we want 5 pounds of shredded cabbage.

Step 4.

Add salt. For 5 pounds of cabbage, we'll add 3 tablespoons of non-iodized salt. The salt does a couple of things. It helps the cabbage retain its crispness. You can make sauerkraut without salt, but you'll end up with a soggy, mushy product. Secondly, it inhibits the growth of undesirable bacteria, but allows the good bacteria (lactobacillus, etc.) to grow. Third, it adds to the overall flavor of your sauerkraut.

Step 5.

Pound the heck out of your cabbage. I used the blunt end of a meat mallet, but a potato masher or even pounding with a mason jar bottom would work. You want to break the cellular structure of the cabbage leaves, allowing the juices to be released. Pound for about 10 minutes, possibly pausing to work the cabbage with your hands to massage it, and fully mix the cabbage and salt together.

Step 6 & 7

This 3 gallon food grade plastic bucket
was also inexpensive, and worked well.
If plastic is used, make sure it has not
stored other foods which could harbor
undesirable bacteria.

Example of using a crock pot insert
for a fermentation vessel. They are
inexpensive and easy to find at the DI.

Put your shredded, salted, pounded cabbage into a container for fermentation. It needs to be glass, ceramic, or plastic. Metal will react with the cabbage and the fermenting process and give you less than desirable results. For this demonstration I tried a couple of things. A 3 gallon food grade plastic bucket, and the inside crock from an old crockpot. Both worked well.

Then cover the cabbage, juice and all, with a clean plate or other object that will cover the cabbage completely, and allow the cabbage to be submerged in the juices as it ferments. Hopefully these pictures demonstrate how to do this adequately. If, after 24 hours, enough juices have not been created to cover your Kraut, mix 1 1/2 teaspoons salt in a cup of water, and pour over the batch until it is covered.

Step 8.

Weigh your plate down to allow everything to be submerged under the brine of cabbage juice and salt.

This is an example of using a
zip lock bag filled with water as
weight

Here I used a very clean and very
heavy rock. It worked wonderfully.

You can use a rock or a brick (scrubbed clean, of course), or a full gallon container, or a gallon zip lock back full of water. If you 

use the last idea, make sure you double bag it, in case it springs 

a leak. You may want to cover everything with a clean towel to prevent undesirable dust or bacteria to enter your fermenting creation.

Step 9.

Put your fermenting vessel in a cool place. The ideal temperature is 65-75 degrees, or thereabout. I'm certain our ancestors didn't have a thermometer to measure things, and it turned out fine for them. You do want it warm enough to grow the bacteria properly, but not too warm. I find the basement storage room to be a great place. If you don't have that option, a closet, or cupboard may do nicely.

Check on your Sauerkraut every 2-3 days. If you find a film or scum on the top, simply skim it off. 

Step 10.

Wait.

How long? Depends on how you like your sauerkraut.

It takes anywhere from 7 days to 4 or more weeks to get your sauerkraut to ferment to the desired level. Personally, I begin tasting it around 10-14 days, just to make sure it is coming along. Usually I find mine done to my liking anywhere from 3-4 weeks. When it tastes "done" to you, put it in the refrigerator, which will slow down the fermentation process. Refrigerated, it will keep for several months. 

I added caraway seeds to this batch of sauerkraut. It
adds a nice bit of flavor, and goes well with a homemade
Reuben Sandwich.

Now your a pro! See, making sauerkraut was easy after all. Not only that, you now have a new tool in your "Preserving the Harvest" toolbox. 

Homemade Sauerkraut Recipe

5 pounds of fresh shredded cabbage

3 Tablespoons non-iodized salt (pickling salt, sea salt, etc.)

filtered water if needed(if chlorinated is all you have, let it sit for 30+ minutes to dissipate the chlorine out. Chlorine kills bacteria....even the good bacteria.)

Shred and weigh cabbage. Place in large bowl in layers, sprinkling with salt a layer at a time. Pound the cabbage with a mallet or other object for several minutes, until the juices in the cabbage are released. Massage with clean hands to thoroughly mix in the salt. Place pounded cabbage, juice and all, into an appropriate container for fermenting (a crock, glass or plastic container). Cover with a clean plate, and press down. The cabbage juices should reach the top of the shredded cabbage. Check back in a day, and if there are not enough juices to cover the cabbage, add one cup of non-chlorinated water with 1 1/2 teaspoons salt dissolved in it. To keep the plate pushed down, place a weight on it. A very clean rock, brick, or a filled gallon container on top of the plate works well. Place the batch in a cooler area and wait for 2-4 weeks. When it tastes like sauerkraut, its done! I place my finished kraut in glass mason jars, and store in the refrigerator. Enjoy!

Dehydration: The Time Tested way of Preserving the Harvest

Dehydrating: The Time Tested Way of Preserving the Harvest

When it comes to putting food away for the season, there isn't a more reliable or nutritional way to preserving your produce than to dehydrate it. Drying foods is a time tested method thats been used as early as 12,000 B.C. Ancient people used the sun and wind to assist in the evaporation of moisture from fruits, vegetables and meat. This allowed them to store food supplies for use during the long cold winters or between growing seasons in more moderate climates. Dried foods also were lighter in weight, and made it convenient for hunters, soldiers, and travelers to carry with them for the journey. 

Drying is still an excellent way to preserve foods that can add variety to meals and provide delicious, nutritious snacks. One of the biggest advantages of dried foods is that they take much less storage space than canned or frozen foods, and retain most of the nutrition of fresh foods. 

Drying or dehydrating foods can be accomplished using several methods. The sun is the oldest way used for this method of food preservation. If the air is dry enough, and the ambient temperature hot enough (98 degrees is ideal), the outdoor method is still a viable option.

Raisins drying in the sun

Using your oven, or an electric dehydrator is also an excellent method of drying your foods. Especially with the dehydrator appliance, one can moderate the temperature to get superior results. In the case of making beef jerky, controlling the temperature makes an easy way to get a tasty, safe product.

With the renewed interest in gardening and natural foods and because of the high cost of commercially dried products, drying foods at home is becoming popular again. Drying is not difficult, but it does take time and some attention. Although there are different drying methods, the guidelines remain the same. Since the information for safely and effectively drying foods requires several pages--a few basics will be outlined here, with references to additional information you can research online.

Foods that can be easily dried with minimal processing:

• Fruits
• Fruit leather
• Most Vegetables
• Herbs
• Baby food
• Kale chips
• Flax seed crackers
• Try Zucchini raisins!

Meat can also be dried into jerky, but does require pre-treatment with brine or marination, and proper equipment for drying. It is suggested you dehydrate jerky at 160 degrees to prevent spoilage. (However, it is true that the Indians and Settlers dried meat for years without electricity.)

Other pre-treatments which are suggested include:

• Blanching (this is one method I will use when drying vegetables such as beans, corn, celery, etc. Blanching will stop enzymatic action in the cells of the vegetables, which stops the food from aging. You will get a better end product, and makes the effort worth it. Since fruit has a naturally high sugar content, it does not seem to require this step. Some still prefer it anyway.)
• Ascorbic Acid pre-soak 
• Fruit Juice Dips
• Saline Dip
• Honey Dip
• Hot Syrup
• Do Nothing (my personal favorite for fruits)

Below are publications you can access which have excellent information for the home dehydrating enthusiast. These links have in depth information covering dehydrating different types of foods, and different ways to do it.

This is a booklet that has the “official” recommendations for dehydrating food. These instructions include pre-treatment methods such as blanching, and sulfuring foods prior to drying. However, keep in mind many foods, especially fruits, will dry just fine without pre-treatment. Even so, this booklet gives you excellent information:

http://extension.usu.edu/files/publications/publication/FN-330.pdf

If you are interested in knowing more about drying foods without electricity, this article gives guidelines on solar drying, and plans for building your own solar drying trays.

http://www.backwoodshome.com/articles/shaffer58.html

Here is an article titled:
“How to Store Home-dried Foods: 13 Tips for Safe Storage of Dehydrated Foods”

http://frugalliving.about.com/od/foodsavings/qt/Storing_Dried.htm

Here is a question and answer page on the basics of drying:

http://www.drystore.com/page/page/1346972.htm

Now, for the sake of simplicity, and to show you how easy dehydrating can be done, Lets do a step by step on dehydrating apricots. I've included both drying the fruit and making leather, as both are easy to do. I prefer my dried foods to be without preservatives, so I have chosen the "do nothing" method for pre-treatment.

For Dried Apricot Halves

1. Wash your produce. If needed peel and core (as in apples). For these apricots, I simply cut in half and removed the pits.

2. Place halved apricots face down on dehydrator sheets.

3. Turn on dehydrator. I usually dry at 120 degrees. Different books have different ideas of which temperature is best. Experiment to see what you like. 

4. Product is finished when fruit is dry with no moist spots. Ideally it will be slightly flexible. If it is potato chip crisp, you probably dried it too long (unless you like it that way.) 

5. Store in air-tight containers. The cooler the storage space the longer it will last. If it is properly dried, your apricots (or whatever you've dried) should remain good for 6 months to a year. Just in time to do it again!

Fruit Leather

Wash and pit your apricots. Then place in blender, and blend until smooth. You can add a little sweetener, or cinnamon, or other fruit if you'd like. I like a little agave or stevia with some cinnamon. Just remember your finished product will be sweeter after it is dried. Once again, experiment to see what you and your family will like.

 Pour your pureed fruit onto dryer sheets. I usually do a like greasing with coconut oil first. This makes it much easier to pull the finished product off the sheets. If your equipment does not come with the flat dryer sheets, you can use food grade plastic wrap spread tight over your dryer racks, and spread the pureed fruit on it. Make sure it is evenly spread. It will dry more uniformly and you'll have a better final product. Avoid areas that are too thin or too thick (if you look in the picture below, you can see where I have a thin area. This will dry faster and be crispy instead of nice chewy fruit leather.)

Once your leather is dry, it will not have any moist spots, and should pull off your dryer sheets rather easily. Once removed, I cut mine into fourths, and wrap in plastic wrap for individual snacks. These can be stored in plastic storage bins, or in large zip-lock bags. They last from 6 months to a year.

Other Dried Foods

Here are some dried tomato slices. These are some of my families favorite snacks. They also double for sun dried tomatoes and are so much less expensive. Simple slice your tomatoes (you can blanch and peel first if you'd rather). Place on dryer sheets. Sprinkle with salt, pepper, dried basil, oregano, and garlic powder if desired. Dry until done. Tomatoes will feel dry, but be flexible. I store mine in plastic zip lock bags in my freezer. 

When using dried tomatoes in a recipe that calls for "Sun Dried Tomatoes", soak in olive oil with garlic for an hour before using in recipe. Yum!

Beef Jerky was so easy to make, and so much less expensive than what you buy in the store.  I figure I spent about $8.00 a pound to make the finished product. That included the meat and all the spices for marinating. The jerky at the store is around $20.00 a pound. That is a big savings. I've included the recipe at the end of this blog. This is one recipe I would encourage you to use an electric dehydrator as it makes it much easier to control the temperature and time, thereby having a superior (and safer) final product.

This was a fun experiment. I blended fresh tomatoes, onion, fresh basil, garlic bulbs, salt, and oregano. Then I dipped sliced zucchini in the mixture. These dried up quite nicely, and reminded me of BBQ potato chips. They didn't last long. 

Drying food has been done for thousands of years, and still remains an excellent option for us today. It:

• Allows you to control the quality of food that is preserved through this method
• Gives you more variety with food storage
• Helps you preserve food which might have gone to waste otherwise
• Preserves most of the vitamins and nutrients
• Once completed, uses less space than other preserving methods
• Is often less time consuming to do than other preservation methods
• Is really fun to do, and delicious to eat!

The Basics of Sourdough III: A Few Recipes to Try

One more post on Sourdough seemed appropriate. No information on food production is complete until you have some recipes to go with it. So here are a few of my favorites.

Basic Sourdough Dough Recipe
(This recipe comes from my dear friend Kisi)

Makes 2 Loaves of bread

3/4 cups sourdough starter  (It should be fresh, bubbly and alive.)
2 3/4 cups Water
1TBS Sea Salt
6 - 8 cups Whole Grain Flour – freshly ground (approx 6 cups coarse ground flour or 8 cups finely ground flour – it should be about 950 grams by weight)

1. Add sourdough starter to warm water in a bowl
2. Wisk flour and salt, mixing thoroughly
3. Knead the dough by hand for 15 minutes, or with mixer for 10 minutes
4. Place dough in large bowel
5. Cover with plastic wrap and a dishtowel. Let sit at room temperature for 12-18 hours.
6. Shape into round loaves or place into loaf pans
7. Make a couple of slices into the dough with a serrated knife (optional).
8. Cover with moist cloth
9.  Let rise at room temperature until loaf doubles in size (1 to 2 hours). You can do this in a slightly warmed oven (less than 100 degrees). If cloth sticks to dough, spray cloth with water to release.
10. Preheat oven to 425 F. For Artisan crisp crust, place a pan of water in the oven for steam. Bake for approximately 40 minutes. (If bread appears to brown too quickly, I have turned the temperature down to 375 degrees after the first 10 minutes, then complete baking time.) 
11. You can also check for doneness by inserting a thermometer in the center of the loaf. It should read 198-200 degrees. 
12. Remove from oven and cool on rack (if you can wait that long!)

Pita Bread

After the dough has risen for 10 to 24 hours, preheat a baking stone in a 550 degree oven.  Tear off a piece of dough and roll to about 3/16” thick rounds.  Bake in the fully heated oven for about 5 or 6 minutes until the dough puffs up or is golden brown.  Remove from oven and allow to cool enough to handle.  Do not stack until pitas are completely cooled.  Cut in half and fill with veggies, hummus, or butter and honey.  Pitas freeze well.


Pizza Crust
Use this same recipe to make your pizza crust but add 2 TBS olive oil or butter and 1 TBS of honey or sweetener.  After the dough has risen for 10 to 24 hours, use as you would pizza dough.  Add toppings and bake.



Easy Sourdough Biscuits (these are wonderfully light and fluffy)

3/4 cup sourdough starter
3/4 cup buttermilk (or milk with 1 tsp vinegar added)
1/3 cup melted butter or oil (not hot)
2 cups flour (I use half whole wheat or other, half white)
1 tsp of salt
2 tsp of baking powder
1 tsp of baking soda
1 Tbsp sugar
Extra flour, if needed

Mix together starter, oil, and buttermilk. Combine dry ingredients and add all together to sourdough mixture, stirring together until moistened. Turn onto a floured surface and knead gently for a minute or two. If the dough is too soft, add flour 1 Tbsp at a time until desired consistency. Roll out and cut into rounds with wet glass or biscuit cutter. Place on a greased baking sheet and let sit for 30 min. Bake at 400 deg for 15 min or until lightly browned. Makes approximately 12 biscuits, depending on the size you make them.

Note: the preferred method of making these (to get the nutritional benefit of soaking the grains) is to mix together the starter, buttermilk, and butter.  Then gradually mix in the 2 cups of flour until it's a thick sticky dough. Leave that mixture to sit on the counter for 6-8+ hours.  When ready to bake, preheat the oven, then mix in salt , sugar, and baking soda/powder.  If needed, add more flour to get the right consistency.  You can also make "drop biscuits" by dropping a dollop of the dough directly on a greased baking sheet and bake as normal.


Sourdough pancakes

1 cup sourdough starter
2+ cups buttermilk, milk, or water
2 1/2 cups flour (whole grain flour is best--try a combination)
1/3 cup melted coconut oil, butter, or a combination
3 Tbsp sugar
2 eggs
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
3/4 tsp salt

Since you usually eat pancakes in the morning, start the night before by combining the sourdough starter, buttermilk or water, and flour. Let this sit on the counter overnight to soak the flour and ferment.

In the morning add the remaining ingredients. If the batter is too thick, add a little extra water or milk; if too thin, add a little extra flour. It will depend largely on the types of flour you use.

Make your pancakes as you would regular pancakes. These are deliciously light and fluffy!


Sourdough Chocolate Cake
1 cup sourdough starter (live and bubbly)
1 cup milk
2 cups All-Purpose Flour or half white, half whole grain flour
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
1 cup olive oil
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
3/4 cup unsweetened baking cocoa (not Dutch process)
2 large eggs

Chocolate Cream Cheese Frosting
8 ounces softened cream cheese
1/4 cup softened butter
4 cups sifted powdered sugar 
1/2 cup cocoa powder
4 Tablespoons milk or cream 
1 Teaspoon vanilla

With hand mixer, beat cheese, butter, and vanilla until smooth. Slowly add in powdered sugar and cocoa powder, alternating with milk one tablespoon at a time, until frosting reaches a creamy consistency. (You may or may not need all of the milk.)

Frost cooled cake, and enjoy!



There is another type of sourdough considered "instant" or "no fail". This type of sourdough is made using bakers yeast to inoculate the dough--rather than the natural yeast that comes from the air. It does not take as long to create, but may not have all the health benefits as the natural sourdough. However, I thought I'd include these recipes as well as they are easy to make and very tasty.

I wish to thank Christine Wilshaw from our class for the information contained on this page. She kindly lent me the book, “Sourdough Cookery” by Rita Davenport. I will include a couple of recipes from the book here, but there is much more information if you would like to research it out yourself.

INSTANT SOURDOUGH STARTER

2 cups all purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
3 Tablespoon sugar
1 Tablespoon yeast
2 cups lukewarm water

With a wooden spoon stir dry ingredients together in a large mixing bowl and gradually add lukewarm water. stir until mixture resembles a smooth paste. Cover with a towel or cheesecloth and set in a warm place to sour. Stir mixture several times a day. In 2 or 3 days sourdough will be ready. Store in a heavy plastic container, and a hole punched in lid to allow gases to escape.

To make a batter for a favorite sourdough recipe, take out 1 cup sourdough starter and combine with 1 cup all purpose flour and 1 cup lukewarm water. Mix well with a wooden spoon. Don’t worry about lumps in mixture, fermentation will dissolve them within a few hours. Cover with a towel or plastic wrap and set in a warm location several hours or overnight. Before adding additional ingredients to recipe, return at least 1/2 cup of mixture to sourdough container stored in refrigerator to replenish starter.

If starter is not replenished in this manner at least once a week, add 1/2 cup each of lukewarm water and all purpose flour to container of sourdough. Mix together; leave out of refrigerator overnight, covered with a towel or plastic wrap. Next morning stir down mixture, cover with lid and return to refrigerator until needed.

Occasionally pour all of sourdough starter out into a mixing bowl. Wash container to remove flour buildup. To replenish, add equal portions of flour and water, cover, let stand in a warm location overnight.

OLD FASHIONED SOURDOUGH BISCUITS

1/2 cup sourdough starter 3/4 tsp salt
1 cup milk         1 Tablespoon sugar
2 1/2 cup all purpose flour 1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda 1 Tablespoon cooking oil
1 Tablespoon butter 2 Tablespoons corn meal

Mix sourdough starter, milk, and 1 cup of flour in a large bowl. Let it stand overnight or all day at room temperature to allow it to rise. When ready to make up the biscuits beat in 1 cup of flour. Combine salt, sugar, baking powder, baking soda with remaining 1/2 cup of flour and sift over top of mixture. Mix together. Turn out onto floured service and knead 10 to 15 times. Roll out to 1/2 inch thickness. Cut out biscuits and dip in mixture of melted butter and oil. Place close together on baking sheet sprinkled with corn meal. Cover with a cloth and allow to rise free from drafts 30 to 40 minutes. Bake at 375 degrees for 30 to 35 minutes. Best when served hot from the oven. (These are really good.)

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One last thing to mention, many of these recipes are super delicious made with grains such as kamut, spelt, or einkorn. These are ancient grains that have, in recent years, become available to the general public. They have not undergone the hybrid or other genetic changes that our present day wheat has.  Many people who have difficulty digesting wheat find that these grains are often easier on their system--particularly when used in a sourdough starter. One great place to find these grains is with Greg Hall at khorasanmills@gmail.com. I mentioned him in my first Sourdough post, but thought I'd mention him once again. He does frequent group buys, so his prices are the best around. Plus he buys directly from the farmer, so quality control is excellent. Send him an email, and ask to be put on his list for group buys. 

Basics of Sourdough II: The Health Benefits

Sorry its taken a while to get this second post out. Life has a way of keeping me busy..... Anyway, as promised, this post is meant to outline some of the health benefits that come from using the natural leavening sourdough provides for your bread, pancakes, and other baking needs. To address this, we need a little biology lesson, and to look at things from the seeds perspective.

In order for grains and other seeds to be protected from sprouting before their time, they have a protective coating in their outer shell made up of phosphorous called phytic acid. This works really well for each kernel of grain, protecting it from digestion in non-ruminating animals, so it can pass through in its whole form and grow. Due to this ingenious built in protectant,  the seed does not germinate until it is in the right conditions. Ideally for the seed that means warm, moist soil. In the mean time the seed does all it can to lock its nutrients away, waiting to feed the embryonic seed when the time comes for it to grow.

From the human bodies point of view, the protective coating of the seed can create a few problems, especially if that human consumes a lot of food from grains, beans, corn, or other food from seeds that have not been properly prepared. That phytic acid in an effort to protect its ever-loving seed, acts as an enzyme inhibitor in our digestive system. This can cause several digestive problems, including the gas people experience when eating beans not properly soaked. In addition, the phytic acid binds with minerals such as calcium, zinc, magnesium, iron and copper, as well as some proteins. This includes the nutrients in the grains as well as other food we may eat with it. This is why some nutritionists refer to phytic acid as an "anti-nutrient".

Some of the health problems listed for those who regularly consume too much phytic acid  may include:

• Digestive issues, such as IBS
• Impaired Imune Function
• Allergies
• Rashes and Skin Irritations
• Bone Loss and Tooth Decay
• Hormone Disruption

Now to be fair, I am also finding information stating that some phytic acid is good for us if not taken in excess (seems like that is true for so many things, like chocolate--which incidentally is quite high in phytic acid.....but I digress....). Some of the health benefits listed include:

• Anti-inflammatory action
• Decrease abnormal cell proliferation (ie. Cancer)
• Cardiac Protectant

So what does this all mean? I suspect that it means we follow the Word of Wisdom, and all will be well. In my reading of Section 89 of the D&C, it mentions using herbs (ie. plants or vegetables) and fruits in the season there-of first. I'm no expert, but those who are emphasize that eating vegetables as the main part of our diets will give us much better health.  Fruit next. Then grains, then meat (just how it is listed in section 89. Wow!) Of course the season we are in dictates what foods work best for us as well. Common sense and wisdom go a long way in healthy eating. I suppose that is why it is called the "Word of Wisdom"! Ha!

Getting back to the grain question and phytic acid--our ancestors actually did things right without even knowing it. They did not have pre-made quick rise yeast or massive bakeries to buy their bread and grain products from. For generations leavened bread has been made using what nature supplies....the yeast from the air and what is naturally on the grains. We call it sourdough. 

Remember the three things the grain seed needs to germinate and release its phytic acid? Warmth, moisture and soil. In the soil are micro-organisms that benefit the seed. When soaking your grains (even after grinding the wheat) the phytic acid is released when moisture, warmth, and the micro-organisms of the natural yeast in the starter are put together. Isn't Mother Nature wonderful?! Also, the acidity of the sourdough adds to the breakdown of the phytic acid and improves our bodies ability to absorb the nutrients in the bread. Here are a few possible health benefits of eating sourdough:

• By soaking the grains, it helps break down the gluten content. You could even say those little bacteria and yeasts "pre-digest" the gluten for you. For those who are gluten sensitive, this could make the digestive problems you face a thing of the past. (Those who are truly allergic to gluten it still may not be enough. Proceed with Caution.)
• Improved availability of nutrients for absorption. These include vitamins B1-B6, B12, folate, thiamin, niacin, riboflavin, vitamin E, selenium, iron, manganese, calcium, magnesium, phosphorus, zinc and potassium–in addition to uniquely balanced proteins and fatty acids
• Lower glycemic index--really nice for those with blood sugar issues.
• All natural preservatives. The acetic acid produced during the soaking process acts as a natural preservative, keeping molds at bay.
• Neutralizes the phytic acid and enzyme inhibitors, which again, will allow for better nutrient absorption and digestion.
• Sourdough products are a natural source of many of the healthy bacteria our bodies need to maintain good digestion, immune function, and general good health.

One last, and favorite reason, for using sourdough for your baking needs.....taste. Hot sourdough bread or pancakes are absolutely delicious! Our forefathers didn't really worry about phytic acid or enzyme inhibitors. They simply did what came naturally to prepare their foods with what nature gave them to work with. 

If you are still wondering, just give it a try. It will put one more self-reliant skill into your tool-box, and a delicious one at that.