Two for the dough

Sunday, August 19, 2007

Unlike most vegetables, potatoes are made for long-term storage…if you have the perfect place to store them.  You know, some place dark, humid, and about 40 degrees.  Unless you have a root cellar, most of us do not have these ideal conditions.  My basement is cool, but not that cool!  As a rule, I maybe get about two months out of potatoes if they’re stored in my kitchen.  So what do you do if you find yourself with an overabundance of potatoes?

There are lots of things you can do - make mashed potatoes or cook up a mess of fries or hash browns, and then freeze it all up for a rainy day.  I decided to use up my massive store of potatoes from the CSA (about 13 pounds, by my last count) to make potato gnocchi.  It’s really easy, although slightly time consuming.  And in the end, you get a good supply of fabulous gnocchi!

Start with potatoes.  You need good, starchy potatoes, rather than waxy potatoes.  In other words, you want to avoid new potatoes, fingerling potatoes, round white potatoes, and round red potatoes.  Use Yukon Golds or Russets or something like that.  Preheat the oven to 350 degrees, cut the potatoes almost in half, arrange on a baking sheet, and bake for an hour.

As soon as you can handle the potatoes without burning the crap out of your hands, peel the potatoes.  The skin should just come right off.  Work fast - you need to get those babies through a potato ricer before they cool down!  Why a potato ricer?  You want nice, fluffy potatoes and no other way gives you just the right consistency.  After the potatoes are riced, you can let them cool down to room temp…just don’t throw them in the fridge.

Next is the question of eggs - to use eggs or not to use eggs.  I’ve made them both ways, and it’s fine either way as long as you don’t use too much egg.  You absolutely don’t need egg, and your gnocchi will turn out a little lighter without the egg.  The batch I made here has eggs.  Let’s say about one beaten egg per five pounds of potatoes. 

The real trick to making good gnocchi is getting the dough right, which means adding just enough flour but not too much.  Most recipes call for about a cup and a half of flour per two pounds of riced potatoes.  I just keep adding flour, a bit at a time, until the dough feels right to me.  Specifically, it should be pretty smooth and slightly sticky.  The longer you work the dough, the more flour you’ll need…and then your gnocchi will be like bricks.  But when you feel like the dough is good, put it aside in a bowl draped with a clean towel and let it rest for 20 minutes.

The next part goes pretty quickly - grab a hunk of dough, roll it out into a half-inch rope, and cut into inch long nuggets.  There are several opinions about finishing the gnocchi, but all agree on one thing: there needs to be some nooks or crannies to grab the sauce.  Some people score the gnocchi with fork tines.  Some do so while bending it over their thumb to form a little inner pocket.  I go the easy route and just make a little depression in the the middle of each dumpling with the end of a fork.

And then you can either cook ‘em or freeze ‘em.  If you opt to freeze, be sure to spread the gnocchi out in a single sheet on a baking tray and freeze them this way.  You can pack them into a freezer Ziploc or whatever when they’re frozen.  You just don’t want them sticking together, you know?  For cooking, just put on a pot of water to boil, toss in the gnocchi, and scoop them out as they float to the surface.

Best of all, you can make gnocchi entirely out of local ingredients - potatoes and eggs are easy to come by, and you can purchase Daisy pastry flour (made in Lancaster, PA) at the Fair Food Farmstand at Reading Terminal Market.  Hooray!

canning catastrophe

Friday, August 17, 2007

Well, not exactly a catastrophe. Mostly making lemonade when life hands you lemons.

I bought from my CSA 12 lbs of tomatoes this week in the hopes of canning pizza sauce. I looked in my recipe books about canning sauce and came up with what I figured was the most common method for canning. It boiled down to this (no pun intended): Chop, cook, puree and strain, cook down by half, can. I used 6 lbs of my tomatoes and got: soup. A wonderful, very yummy, entirely local (onions, garlic, basil and tomatoes) tomato soup. Which is a disaster if you can’t stand tomato soup. (I can’t, but I have someone in the house who adores it.. so mischief managed.)

So I tried again last nite. My theory..  I was blitzing the good stuff and straining it out. So last nite I rearranged my method and came up with this: chop, cook, strain out juice and reserve, cook down, can. I saved the juice for 2 reasons. It would make a good base for my next veggie soup stock (I make ALOT of vegetable soups) and I had it on hand to top off the jars. Jars need to be filled to 1/2 an inch from the top. I used about 1/2 a cup of the reserved juice to top off the 2nd qt of sauce. And I am much happier with the thickness and consistancy of the sauce.

Pizza Sauce for Canning
6 lbs of tomatoes (about 20 tomatoes)
1 cup of onions
8 garlic cloves
1 tbl olive oil
basil to taste

Chop the onions and garlic, set aside. Chop and seed tomatoes. (I left the skins on, they don’t bother me in sauce.)  Put the olive oil in a pan and add the garlic and onion. Cook until soft. Add tomatoes. Cook until they release their juice (about 25-35 minutes.) Strain. Reserve juice and return pulp to pan. Cook down until thick (about an hr). Place in clean qt jars (top off with liquid as needed to reach 1/2 inch from top) and seal. Process in a water bath for 35 minutes.

Pick your own

Wednesday, August 15, 2007

We took a field trip to Linvilla Orchards this morning. This was my first trip to Linvilla in a couple of years. The last time we went was on a weekend in the height of fall apple season and there must have been 10,000 people there. Today was lovely. Just an hour after opening in the middle of the week, it’s not crowded at all. Blackberry picking was excellent. Blueberries were pretty picked over so we moved on. Peaches weren’t quite ripe so we didn’t spend too much time there. The tomatoes were fantastic. We ended up picking a pound and a half of blackberries, enough blueberries for a small snack, about 10 pounds of tomatoes and two pounds of peaches. My son ran out of steam so we held off on the apples and grapes. Corn is cheaper by 25 cents an ear at my local farmer’s market on Fridays so I’ll continue buying my corn from the nice Amish family who treks out here once a week. I’m currently debating whether to freeze or can the tomatoes, which coincides quite nicely with Nicole’s post. I don’t have canning equipment, but it seems like it would be a worthwhile purchase, especially since my chest freezer is permanently out of commission. I’ll probably end up freezing most of the eggplants and green beans in my garden so it would be nice to can the Roma tomatoes to make room. I have a confession to make. I don’t particularly care for raw tomatoes. I love them roasted, grilled, and in sauces and salsas, but a slice of tomato, on its own or in a sandwich doesn’t appeal to me at all. I almost always pick the raw tomatoes out of everything I eat. I guess I’m just not a tomato person. But these Sungold Cherry tomatoes?

They’re the sweetest tomatoes I’ve ever eaten and it seems like it would be a waste to eat them any other way. With tomatoes like these I might become a tomato person after all.

Can it, Janet

The reaction to finding out that I can food is always the same: a funny look and incredulous, “You do what?”  Maybe we’ve all just become too attached to our freezers, or maybe canning food seems like an old-fashioned thing to do.  But canning food is not the sole province of little old ladies with too much time on their hands - those of us who care about the preserved quality and safety of our locally grown food are also well-served by knowing how to can.

So why would anyone can their food instead of, say, freezing it?  In many cases, I do prefer produce frozen instead of canned.  Take, for instance, green beans.  Beans that are blanched and frozen keep their color and texture so nicely it seems silly to preserve them any other way.  And lots of vegetables have that advantage.  So why would anyone can food?  Shelf life is a big factor.

Canned green beans - if they are canned and stored correctly - can be kept for up to five years.  Blanched and frozen green beans can be kept in the freezer for about 9-18 months, depending on how cold your freezer is and how the beans are packed.  And consider what happened to me this past January: my chest freezer went on the fritz and I lost every single bit of food I had preserved from the Summer prior. I definitely wish I would have canned a bit more food last year when that happened!

You could also look at the total amount of energy used in canning food versus the cost of running a chest freezer.  Or the convenience of not having to defrost food.  You might even consider the safety of food processed under high heat.

Obviously, I don’t can every bit of food I preserve.  I happen to prefer green beans that are blanched and frozen over those that have been canned - they keep their color better and I like the texture better.  Both freezing and canning have their advantages and disadvantages, but canning is my preferred method for preserving sauce, soup, salsa, and some fruit.  I will refer you here to learn all about home canning.  It’s a great way to preserve all that gorgeous locally grown food you seek out or grow yourself!

Garlic breath

Monday, August 06, 2007

The garlic I harvested out of my garden a few weeks ago has been drying on my back porch.  Last night I took it off the hook and trimmed away the stalks and roots, and wiped away the excess dirt.  Success! I now have more garlic than I know what to do with!

These pretty purple-streaked cloves are the Purple Glazer garlic - it’s a mid-season, hardneck variety.  Originally from the Republic of Georgia, the garlic is supposed to be great for baking.  The cloves are not supposed to be hot, but you could have fooled me - I accidentally cut a garlic bulb in half with my shovel while I was digging up the bed, so I popped a clove in my mouth.  Uh, yeah, the garlic is super spicy fresh out of the ground.

This was my first attempt at growing garlic, and I must admit that it was a little thrill to discover the cloves did actually grow into bulbs.  Our soil is pretty clay-ish, so you just never know what’ll happen.  The bulbs didn’t get huge - my guess is the clay soil kept them from getting too big.  I do plan to grow garlic again, so the plan is to build a raised bed so I can get the soil just right.

Do you grow garlic in the Philadelphia area?  What are your favorite varieties?  While I love the look of Purple Glazer, I think I might try something else next year - perhaps Music, Ontario Purple Trillium, Chinese Pink, or Chet’s Italian.

So now I’ve got all this garlic - what to do with it all?  I dried the garlic, so I can at least rely on it to last for a little while.  But in thinking of longer term storage, what then?  There are several different preserving methods that work for garlic -

• Freezing - freezing garlic will produce a slightly mushy clove, but retains the flavor really well.  Place peeled whole or chopped cloves in a freezer bag and, well, freeze it.
• Drying - You can dry cloves that have been cut in half in a dehydrator or your oven (140 degrees for two hours and then 130 degrees until the garlic is totally dry and crisp).
• Oil and vinegar - cloves of garlic (both whole and chopped) can be preserved in both oil and vinegar.  In refrigerated vinegar, the cloves will keep for about four months.  For oil, it’s best to freeze it - otherwise, you run the risk of botulism.  The oil will keep for a few months.
• Salt - dry a few cloves and then give a whirl in a blender until the cloves are a fine powder.  Add four parts sea salt for each one part garlic powder and process for just a second or two to combine the two ingredients. Do not process the garlic salt too long because it will cake. Store the garlic salt in an airtight glass jar.
• Pickling - Loosely fill a glass jar with peeled garlic cloves. Add enough red or white wine vinegar to cover the garlic and then add about one tablespoon of sea salt per cup of vinegar. Dried (not fresh) herbs such as red pepper flakes, bay leaves, and oregano may be added to taste. Cover the jar with a tight-fitting lid and shake to distribute the salt and herbs. Refrigerator garlic pickles will keep almost indefinitely in the refrigerator, as long as the garlic remains submerged in the vinegar.

I wondered, though, whether garlic could be preserved in other ways.  What about roasted garlic?  The answer is yes: it can be frozen!  Just roast the heads, squeeze out the garlic and mash - spread thinly onto sheets of wax paper and freeze it.  I also found a great recipe for garlic and basil pesto that can be frozen for a few months.

However I end up preserving my garlic, one thing is for certain: I’m going to have garlic breath for months!

 

Give me the kraut and no one gets hurt

Wednesday, August 01, 2007

I love sauerkraut.  Love it!  Growing up, we always had sauerkraut, pork, and mashed potatoes on New Year’s Day (for luck), a tradition I still continue as an adult.  And in college I admit that my breakfast of champions was a daily hot dog with mustard and kraut from Dave’s Dogs in front of Temple University’s library.

My family never served homemade sauerkraut, though, and I’m relatively certain that Dave’s Dogs didn’t exactly use the finest sauerkraut.  I’ve sort of wondered about the logistics of making sauerkraut at home, but it never really went beyond the wondering stage…until about a month ago.  I ended up with two rather large heads of cabbage through the CSA share.  Not knowing what I wanted to do with two heads of cabbage, it seemed like a good idea to try my hand at sauerkraut-making.

The first obstacle was finding a vessel in which to let the cabbage ferment.  Stoneware crocks are popular - the Harsch Fermentation Crock, for instance.  But I wanted something less expensive for my first time out.  I settled on a five gallon food grade plastic bucket with an airlock in the lid, one meant for homebrewing (which ensures that I try homebrewing at some point, as well!).

After that, it was super easy.  Using a mandoline, I sliced up the cabbage as thin as I could and tossed it in the bucket.  I sprinkled four Tablespoons of pickling salt over the cabbage, and used my hands to mix the salt in and squeeze the cabbage until liquid was released.  I poured some water over the cabbage until it was all just covered with water, put on the lid, and let it ferment in my kitchen for just over three weeks.

Most recipes I ran across for sauerkraut called for kosher salt instead of pickling salt, but sometimes you have to improvise.  The pickling salt worked just great, although I think it makes the sauerkraut slightly sweeter than kosher would have.  Regular old table salt, by the way, will not work.  Don’t even try it.  The ratio of salt to cabbage, by the way, is five pounds of shredded cabbage to four Tablespoons of salt.

If you use a crock that isn’t air tight, there’s this whole rigamarole involving cheesecloth and pressing and skimming scum off the top.  I’m not one for scum, so I took the easy route.  Also, the temperature of your kitchen (or wherever you might choose to ferment the sauerkraut) has a direct bearing on the length of time it may take to ferment properly.  The ideal temp is around 75 degrees, which takes approximately three weeks.  The lower the temperature, the longer it will take to ferment. 

All of that to get to the final product: last night I uncorked my fermenting vessel and checked it out - perfect, tangy sauerkraut!  I didn’t relish the idea of dragging out my pressure canner last night, so I packed it into freezer bags and threw it in my chest freezer.  Frozen sauerkraut will last just about a year.  Of course, my annual New Year’s Day krautfest is only about six months away.  Hooray!