Culinary Adventures: A Trip Around the World After a Walk in the Garden

There’s not much in this world more satisfying than turning a pile of ingredients into a delicious meal, side dish or dessert. This summer, I’ve been reaping the benefits of a Community Supported Agriculture (CSA), which has provided me with a bountiful quantity of fresh, local produce each week, and hence has been pushing my culinary boundaries in order to use everything up before the next week rolls around. I’ve also been learning the arts of home preserving, in the form of canning and freezing, in order to save the summer’s fresh bounty for the winter when not much is available. Below, I’ll take you on a cultural food journey with two examples of using up massive quantities of CSA vegetables with cultural food!

CABBAGE!

For two weeks in a row we received gigantic heads of green cabbage. I mean, the biggest heads of cabbage you have ever seen. I put the first one on the food scale just to see how much it weighed – 6 pounds, one cabbage! So, what the heck was I going to do with it all? I decided to try my hand at sauerkraut – one thing I absolutely love to eat and have never made! I assumed that it was made in a similar fashion as pickles, with lots of vinegar, or maybe cooked for a long time in a crock-pot with broth? Nope. Sauerkraut originated in Germany and is made by a process of lacto-fermentation.

The shredded cabbage is placed in a crock-pot with nothing more than salt, which draws out the natural juices from the cabbage, and naturally-occurring bacteria grow in the brine creating an acidic environment. I found an excellent website for a resource, Wild Fermentation, where I learned that the process takes up to 4 weeks, which mine did.

You can buy a fancy ceramic crock-pot with a perfectly fitting wooden disk, but considering it was my first venture into the art of home fermentation, I went with an oldcrock-pot insert and a medium-sized plate. After shredding the cabbage, it was layered into the crock-pot a few cups at a time adding salt and packing each addition in as tightly as possible. The plate is added after the last of the cabbage, and something heavy – I used a couple of heavy cans inside a Ziploc bag – to weight it down on top. Now, the waiting game begins. I checked my ‘kraut after 24 hours to make sure enough water was pulled from the shredded cabbage to cover the plate, and since I didn’t find that enough had been produced, I added a few cups of water. After about 4 weeks, the sauerkraut was finally finished. It was nice and salty and tangy, and the cabbage had softened to an easily chewable texture.

So, now what to do with a giant crock-pot full of sauerkraut? Well, I decided to preserve my ‘kraut by water-bath canning. If you’re intimidated by this process, knock it off right now. It is so easy and a lot of fun – not to mention healthier and more economical – to preserve your own home-made goods. If you can boil water, you can CAN food at home. The jars boil for about 10 minutes before filling, and the lids have to simmer in a separate pan. Carefully remove the hot jars from the pot, filling within ½ inch of the rim, place the lids and screw-on tops and put them back into the boiling pot. Because I was canning a cold substance, the filled jars needed to be boiled for a good 25-30 minutes to ensure they would be shelf-safe.

The ‘kraut will be able to be stored in the pantry for up to a year, but there’s no way mine will last that long. We already killed one jar with grilled hot dogs, and I have plans for pork chops. These are the traditional uses for the delectable stuff, but I’ll be sure to push the culinary limits once the boring, dark winter rolls around. I’ll keep you posted!

EGGPLANT!

There seem to be very mixed-reviews out there for our purple friend, the eggplant. It happens to be fondly consumed in my household, and there are so many varieties of the fruit as well as ways to cook with them, it’s hard to believe that so many people can’t find a way to like them. We’ve been grilling up thick slabs for veggie sandwiches, chopping and simmering with tomatoes, onion and other veggies for pasta sauce, and chopping and freezing several quart-size bags for soups or stews this winter. The newest incarnation of eggplant that I’ve whipped up lately is the silly-sounding yet scrumptious Baba Ghanoush. Baba ghanoush is not, as I also once thought, a term of endearment to be hollered at your friends like in “Wedding Crashers,” but rather a delicious, smokey, tangy dip made from roasted eggplants and other seasonings.

Originating in the Middle East, there are versions of this delightful dip in Lebanese, Egyptian, Pakistani, Turkish, Greek and Romanian cuisines. The preparations vary between being an appetizer, spread or side dish, and have differing ingredients added ranging from tomatoes, onions, garlic, tahini and spices. My favorite of these is the smooth, creamy consistency of the Lebanese/Egyptian preparation. As I usually do with most of my culinary adventures, I read a bunch of different recipes – usually found via Google search – and then freestyle based on what I learned, so I won’t offer a specific link to a go-to recipe. I also really like it when things come out a little differently each time.

First, grill two medium eggplants (poked all over with a fork) turning every 5-7 minutes until the skin is wrinkled and the inside is obviously very soft. Then, slice the skin a few times with a knife and let the roasted eggplant sit in a colander to let some of the liquid drain out. Meanwhile, chop up a couple of garlic cloves, some fresh parsley, grate the peel off a whole lemon, juice the lemon and measure out about ¼ cup each – or however much you need to get the texture you want – of olive oil and tahini (sesame seed paste). Once the eggplants have rested and drained, slice them in half, scrape out as many of the seeds as possible (you can’t get them all, trust me) and then scrape the rest of the flesh out into a small chopper, food processor or a plain old mixing bowl. Add all the rest of the ingredients and blend or mash until smooth or combined to your liking. Of course, add salt and pepper to taste and cumin or coriander if you like.

This stuff is amazing. Smooth, creamy and delightful with pita chips, tortilla chips, carrots, celery, cucumbers or any other crunchy vehicle for dip. Bring it to a party, you will be the star – in fact, I did just that during Labor Day weekend. It also makes an excellent spread for sandwiches or burgers, and can save you some calories too. I hope you’ll give those plump, purple pretties another chance, and if you do give this Middle Eastern delight a try, be sure to shout it from the rooftops: Baba Ghanoush!!!