Green Tomato Ketchup

The leaves are mostly gone now, but the very early morning outside my window looks like this when the sun rises.

Its not always cold but the cooler temperatures and shorter days cause the tomatoes to stop producing and as a kid we gathered them all to make green tomato ketchup.  I haven't made this since my mother died 30 years ago.  My uncle shared the recipe and I made a batch.

First you grind up a mess of tomatoes.  Doesn't matter how many because its all done by eyeballing and taste.  Put on a kettle of water to boil.

 Add salt.  How much?  Well since this is my grandmother's recipe I'll use her words.  Add a "right smart" of salt and stir it up good.  Then you grind up the same amount (total) of apples, onion, pepper and cabbage.

Add salt to this and mix.  By now the water should be boiling and you scald the salted tomatoes rinsing them well.  Put them in a big pot then scald the apple, pepper, onion and cabbage mixture.  Mix everything well.

To this  mixture add pickling spices.  Make sure you bind them with cloth.  Otherwise the suble taste of the vegetables will be overwhelmed and you'll have pickle relish.

 Then add vinegar, maybe a cup per gallon of relish.  I add sugar to taste.

Cook this mixture until done.  In this case you want to cook it past the blanched stage.  Taste it.  The relish will sweeten and sour with age so err on the side of not too much.  It will be a bit bland but with time the spices and vinegar and sugar will pickle the tomatoes.

I wash jars and  put them in a hot (200 degree) oven and boil the lids.  Then I pack the jars and wait for them to seal.  If they seal I'm done, and if they don't I can give them a hot water bath or stick them in the fridge to eat first.  These all sealed.

In my family we ate this green tomato ketchup on beans and we used it instead of pickles in deviled eggs.  I will be very popular this Thanksgiving sharing this with my brothers!

I have many lovely memories working with my family.  I can still remember how we scalded the vegetables then hung them in an old pillowcase on the  clothes line to drain before we added the pickling ingredients.  I used a colander this time.

What was the last thing you put up from your garden?

Peppers Peppers and More Peppers!

This summer was a hard one for tomatoes, but everyone has had a bumper crop of peppers.  A co worker gives me all of his.

These are sweet bananas.  The brown seeded ones have been in the fridge awhile.  Rather than throw them into the compost I decided to dry them.  I had great success with the sweet bell peppers I diced so these were cut into rings by my trusty helper.

I rescued this dehydrater from a friend's basement.  It was going to be thrown away and I can't stand that!

Next are the jalapenos.  They will be dried this evening.

I let the peppers swim while the water boils for their bath.  The blanching kills all the micro organisms that will cause mold.  Then they get sliced.

They are waiting in the fridge for me to get home and start drying them!

I've also started some sourdough with Rose over at Greening The Rose.  My conversion from metric didn't look like her batter, but I got up this morning to (drumrollllllllll please...........)  BUBBLES!

The little black dots are bubbles.  I figured the starter was hungry and I couldn't remember if I fed it yesterday so I fed it again.  This is what it looks like now.

Paste.  But I have high hopes there will be bubbles this evening when I get home!  This evening I plan on racking some wine, drying peppers and having a quiet night alone.  My idea of heaven on earth.

Have a great day!

Okra Dental Floss

Although my little okra patch in the yard has quit producing since Fall is upon us, the dogs still seem to enjoy it.

Peabody, in particular, is partial to it.

Sometimes he lies there in his own little okra forest. 

Then he will forage for a discarded okra pod. I usually just toss them on the ground when they get too big and tough to eat.  Okra grows very quickly.  Sometimes an inch per day!

First he crushes the pod and eats all the seeds.  Okra is very fibrous and if it is fresh it has a (excuse me) snotty gelatinous liquid inside.  This is why most people don't like it.  They, obviously, don't know how to cook it.  Frying it or adding some vinegar to the stew transforms the offensive slime into a thickener.  Today Peabody got an old pod but he still enjoyed it.

You talkin' 'bout me?

Yes I am.  I am telling the world how you use okra for dental floss!

After crushing the pod and eating the contents Peabody starts at the tip and  begins to shred the pod into its fibers.

He pulls it through his teeth from one end to the other!  It must feel good to his gums.

I snapped this shot (above) while he left to chase Uno who had a toy.  Then after much chewing and pulling it looks like this:

Uno traded his toy for a go at it.

If you have ever had an old dog you will know they teach the pups!

Hey!  I want the toy and the okra!!
At the end the okra pods look like this:

How is that for getting the optimal use out of okra?  Eventually it will be composted but there is still a couple of half hearted flossings left!!

Gundru Tasting ~ An Adventure in Kale

Now that my dining room table has newer fermentation projects bubbling I decided to taste the Gundru.

Around the first of September I mashed kale leaves and stuffed them into a jar and covered them with water.  Then I left the jar on the front porch where it would get the afternoon sun.  In Kentucky the nights can be cool dipping down into the high 50's or low 60's and the days approach 80 degrees.  Apparently, Gundru likes this weather because after a couple of days it oozed and started fermenting.

At one point I had worried about the air bubbles in the jar.  Oxygen is wine's enemy.  Pickling usually uses a brine at the least and/or vinegar.  Introducing air can cause vegetables to rot.  That is why you keep pickles submerged in the brine.

These new gallons of wine would quickly turn to vinegar if I took the airlocks off.  You can see the yeast eating the sugar causing the juice to become cloudy. 

While Gundru's new companion ages on the table I decided to pop the top.  When I opened it the Gundru started fizzing and this dark green juice bubbled over onto the counter.  I pulled a big pinch out and gave it a sniff.  It had a distinctive sour, aged, fermented aroma.  The first taste was very chewy with a strong sour kale flavor.  I rinsed the next bite and the sourness was lessened.  The juice definitely has character!  However, there is no hint of salt or vinegar.  The sour is total fermentation due to the wild yeasts.

I decided to have some with my supper of rice and vegetables.  After all, the Tibetans use this to add flavor to their bland diet that consists of lots and lots of rice.  Like most pickles they are meant to be a condiment and not the main dish.

Next I will add some Gundru to soup.  I think the distinctive fermented sourness will be a very nice addition to a simple soup of vegetables with a delicate broth.  Or add it like you might use soy sauce.  I think chopping a couple of tablespoons fine and adding it to a stir fry of chicken would be delightful.  We shall see!

If you have excess kale and some free countertop space this winter try some! 

Kim Chee

I'm in a fermenting mood.  I finally got around to actually getting my own copy of "Wild Fermentation" and getting all the ingredients together to make kim chee.

I chopped up some carrots and napa.  You can add turnips, radishes and probably whatever else you like.  I let it soak in brine overnight then the next afternoon I started with the real ingredients that make kim chee so good!

The ginger jammed up my little grater so I decided to use the larger one  as well.  I trimmed the "beard" with scissors when necessary.  I hate those little strings!

Next up are onions, peppers and garlic.

Do you see the gun dru or whatever that fermented kale is called lurking in the background?  I'm going to taste it soon.

Mmmmm garlic.  The house smelled great with the ginger and garlic.

Everything is chopped and ready to go.

Into the bucket to mix it goes!

The napa and carrots were a bit salty, but I decided to leave them and I can always rinse the kim chee before I eat it or dilute it later. 

I tamped the kim chee down forcing the brine to the top.  This is so simple I can't imagine why I haven't done it before.  Its as easy as pickles.  After reading how healthy the little microrganisms are for you I'm excited to start eating it.  I will have a happy digestive system for sure.

I didn't make this batch very spicy.  I figured I could add peppers to it as needed.

In one week the kim chee will be ready to move to the fridge where it will keep indefinitely.  I will take the pint jar to work. 

The wine is fermenting slowly, the kale is ready, kim chee will be ready in a week, I thought I would take all the leftover squashes, green tomatoes, onions and add an eggplant, basil and maybe some cabbage and make a mixed pickle bucket.  How I wish I had my mother's crocks!  They are most likely sitting in my sister in law's house as decorations.

The weather is cooling off here and it will be nice to have some homemade pickled vegetables this winter.

For those of you whose blog I stop by blogger hasn't saved my messages lately.  I have been busy so remember I'm still here!  I am just not online as much as usual.  I have 3 projects in the works, one at work, and two personal.  I hope to blog about the latter two in a week or so.

I will leave you with a pretty picture.

Angus.  I love cows.

On My Mind

Joining Rhonda at Down to Earth

It is hot here!

And I have had hot tasks to do as well.  At least most of it is inside in the AC.

I ended up with 7 quarts of zucchini pickles, 5 quarts of bread and butter pickles, 9 pints of green beans, and 11 pints of kale.  I will relish it all this winter and think about the heat too!