foodierudy

A little while ago, I pickled some veg. Finely sliced white and red cabbage, flavoured with some onion, garlic and salt were firmly pounded with my trusty beech rolling pin and pressed into a preserving jar. I kept pressing it down from time to time the rest of the day, until enough juice had escaped from the veg to cover and seal them. Then I left it out on the bench top for a few days, making sure the veggies were submerged in their own juice. It started bubbling quite soon, and developed some acidity. About 3 days later, when it had slowed down a bit, I put the seal on the jar, and popped it into the fridge. I kept tasting once a week, both to release the pressure in the jar, and to check it was maturing nicely.

Now 5 weeks later, we’ve broken into that first jar. It has turned a nice shade of pink, and the taste of the onions and garlic have mellowed. I was surprised at its taste - tangy, but not too sour, and much less salty than the commercial stuff you buy in supermarkets. It makes a nice accompaniment to meals, and we’ve been enjoying its fresh taste and crunchy texture. M, who’s usually not too keen on Sauerkraut, even had some, and liked it! Success!

I have made another 2 jars, sans onion, to see what plain cabbage will taste like. I will keep using a mixture of red and white cabbage, because the red’s компютриanthocyanins might be good for us. Anyway, it makes for a far more interesting colour! I plan to keep us fully supplied with health-giving pickled veg every winter from now on!

Next project - Kimchi…

This entry was posted on Saturday, May 31st, 2008 at 5:26 pm and is filed under Cooking, Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.