Cooking 4 an Army: 'Big Family Cooking' is like cooking for an army.

Most recipes today are designed for a family of 4. We have 10 at the table every single night; often have visitors too. Besides that our boys eat hefty amounts. Quantities here are always going to be large! You may need to 1/2 or 1/4 … otherwise cook for the freezer or for someone sick, or plan a party! Happy quiverful cooking! Recipes are failsafe and gluten free (GF). Use your own flour if can (we cook GF). g = grams; kg = kilograms; t = teaspoon; T = Table spoon; c = cup etc.

Wednesday, October 5, 2016

Kambuchi

You need a starter plant
Brew x 4 tea bags, sit them overnight for x4 hours
Add 1/2 a cup of sugar, dissolve
add 5 1/2 cups of cold water
Use 1 cup of starter tea
Check day 7

If you want it bubbly, put it into a jar with no oxygen

Our Kambuchi plant is dead, so if you can split yours please could we have some again! Thanks

Brown liquid is your Kambuchi, again full of good probiotics

Fruit Kavass

This is absolutely delicious and refreshing, again - full of good pro-biotics!

Use your own choice of fruits, here are some suggestions

1 orange
1 apple
pineapple
lime
berries
grapes
ginger
mint
basal

Chop fruit into wedges
Add a couple of Tablespoons of honey
Fill up with water
Leave for 4-5 day
Swirl often
It should start to bubble
Enjoy

Ginger Beet Pickle

Beetroot Pickle is front right, the big jar

All the same rules apply, as with the carrot stick recipe below/before see http://quiverfullcooking.blogspot.com.au/2016/10/carrot-sticks-halffull-sour-asian.html . Please read the Carrot stick recipe carefully first and apply all the same rules/ideas, bar the actual brine making! Enjoy!

Beetroots peeled, and chopped to same size
clove of garlic and or ginger added
Pack tightly into jar
add brine
cover with a well tucked in cabbage leaf

Pineapple Vinegar

Bottom left is Pineapple Vinegar

Pineapple needs to be roughly chopped
Fill to about 1/2 or a 1/3 way up a sterilised jar
Mix 4 cups of water to 1 cup of sugar
Stir liquid until all sugar has dissolved
Cover with a cloth
After 2 weeks remove pineapple chunks
Leave to ferment for another two weeks
Seal and refrigerate.

Preserved Citrus

Preserved Citrus is in the front on the left

Cut into 1/4's but not all the way around
Work 2 T of salt into citrus
Add cloves, bay leaves, aniseed, cinnamon sticks as you please
Stuff into a jar
Add lots of salt
Leave out to preserve
preserving may take 4-6 weeks
When done it will be jelly-ish from the pectin
Use on chicken or Fish
Rinse before adding to food
Remember to make sure it is under brine and has enough salt!

Cucumber Pickle

Remember softer vegetables are quicker to ferment!

All the same rules apply, as with the carrot stick recipe below/before see http://quiverfullcooking.blogspot.com.au/2016/10/carrot-sticks-halffull-sour-asian.html . Please read the Carrot stick recipe carefully first and apply all the same rules/ideas, bar the actual brine making! Enjoy!

Use fresh crunchy, skinny cucumbers
Removes ends
Add peeled garlic gloves, mustard, pepper corns, bay leaves or coriander, even Chile, capsicum
Stuff into sterilised jars, packing tightly
Cover with Brine: full sour brine is 2T sea salt to 2 cups of water while half sour is 1 T sea salt to 2 cups of water
Leave for 4-7 days in hotter weather
Liquid should become cloudy
And cucumbers should turn to an olive-y green in colour.
Eat quickly, only last in the fridge for only a month
rinse off before you eat or add to cooking

Tuesday, October 4, 2016

Sauerkraut, Asian Style (no cooking)

Sauerkraut has amazing probiotic properties. A lack of the right good bacteria in the stomach is meant to be linked with all sorts of problems - type 2 diabetes, allergies and intolerances of food, immune disorders etc etc etc
And the good news is making sauerkraut is sooooo easy

I use jars with metal snaps and rubber seals.

Chop clean cabbage leaves finely and evenly. If two of you are working together and you chop with different sized fineness, keep your chopped cabbages separate. You want them to ferment evenly. I don't use a food processor as it is too fine and causes floaties which can cause rotting of your entire jar of kraut.
you don't make a separate brine for sauerkraut, you add 1T salt ( no iodized salt) to every 1 kg of cabbage
Use your hands to bruise your cabbage and salt mix, it can take a while but the cabbage should release water form it's leaves, enough to create a brine for the cabbage to sit in
If you add any other vegetable, technically speaking, as I understand it is then called Kimchi (vegetable ferment). We love to add extras, and the kids have free rain as to what they want in their jars.
Additions that we have tried: ginger, garlic, onion, turmeric, curry, chillies, or chilli power, capsicum, beetroot, apple, citrus zest, a little orange juice(half an orange squeezed worth in a few kg's of cabbage)
Add to already sterilised bottles
Add a cabbage leaf 'cover' tucked in under the sides of the jar, under the brine and then you can use a clean stone to weigh it down ( I keep forgetting to collect stones form the beach! and we so seldom go!)
Proceed as with Carrot Sticks re fermenting, storage etc, though I have never ever testing mine for x6 months in the fridge, as kids eat it with every single meal possible and no matter how much I make, it is gone too quickly ( doing x12 cabbages today!) ****Besides they make nice little gifts too!****

Sauerkraut, Asian Style (no cooking)

Chop clean cabbage leaves finely and evenly. If two of you are working together and you chop with different sized fineness, keep your chopped cabbages separate. You want them to ferment evenly. I don't use a food processor as it is too fine and causes floaties which can cause rotting of your entire jar of kraut.
you don't make a separate brine for sauerkraut, you add 1T salt ( no iodized salt) to every 1 kg of cabbage
Use your hands to bruise your cabbage and salt mix, it can take a while but the cabbage should release water form it's leaves, enough to create a brine for the cabbage to sit in
If you add any other vegetable, technically speaking, as I understand it is then called Kimchi (vegetable ferment). We love to add extras, and the kids have free rain as to what they want in their jars.
Additions that we have tried: ginger, garlic, onion, turmeric, curry, chillies, or chilli power, capsicum, beetroot, apple, citrus zest, a little orange juice(half an orange squeezed worth in a few kg's of cabbage)
Add to already sterilised bottles
Add a cabbage leaf 'cover' tucked in under the sides of the jar, under the brine and then you can use a clean stone to weigh it down ( I keep forgetting to collect stones form the beach! and we so seldom go!)
Proceed as with Carrot Sticks re fermenting, storage etc, though I have never ever testing mine for x6 months in the fridge, as kids eat it with every single meal possible and no matter how much I make, it is gone too quickly ( doing x12 cabbages today!) ****Besides they make nice little gifts too!****

Carrot sticks: Half/Full Sour Asian Ferment:

This, I think, is called a half/full sour ferment or a pickle, as we would call it, I think. The secret to success for me is to remember that everything has to be under the brine or else it goes rotten and can ruin your whole jar - if it smells fishy, it is off. It has been suggested to me that if I see any sign of going off, I can save it by sprinkling it with more salt and eating it. ( I hold not responsibly if illness should be caused by your decisions re this). If there is a white film it is ok but not as nice, scoop film and sprinkle with salt. Carrot are meant to taste tangy, when the process is finished - delicious and are used as side dishes in Asia.

Half sour = 1T salt to 2 cups of water
Full sour = 2T salt to 2 cups of water

It depends on the weather and humidity as to how long it takes to ferment. It takes maybe one too two weeks usually. Hotter it is the quicker it goes. I put side plate or saucers under my jars as they do bubble over. Open up your jars daily to check your ferments, and to release any built up pressure, unless you are just covering with cloth of course, that is easier. (The higher you fill things up the more messy the bubble over. Bubbles are good, that's making it tangy and super healthy for you, full of those marvellous probiotics so needed in our over processed western diet!)

Carrot sticks:

Peel and chop off ends
Cut into sticks
Sterilise glass jars, I just pour boiling water through them, lids included, I put lids into a bowl and pour boiling water over it
Add carrots and ginger and pack tight as tight as can be
Add cool brine and cover completely, never add boiling brine - I don't ever boil my brine water, just stir salt in at room temperature
Decorate with lime or with radishes
Remove any floaties
Weigh down with a clean rock, cabbage leaf (you can fold it into the sides, so they aren't exposed to the air) etc so carrot don't pop up
Store under 18 degrees
Once fermenting has been done you can store these in the fridge for up to 6 months ( I label and date all my products, permanent pen on glass, it rubs of after a while but stays on long enough to be handy.

Brine recipe:

2 cups of rain, spring or filtered water ( chemical free)
Add salt (sea or rock salt is best. Don't use iodized salt) It should be salty but not too salty

Starting blog again!

Okay so it is years since I have been organized enough to keep a record of our recipes in one place i.e. here. And as I am constantly losing my recipes books, hand written scrawls etc, and constantly being asked to share recipes with friends, I am going to revive this blog again. In the past years wee have gone ginger and turmeric and fermented food crazy! So I'll start of by sharing our Asian ferment recipes!