For the second week in a row we have been blessed with a good amount of cherry tomatoes in our CSA box. Last week, my wife got her hands on them and I never saw them again, so this time I made sure I grabbed them before she did. My goal was to place them into our dehydrator and turn them into little flavor bombs. Freshly picked, perfectly ripe cherry tomatoes, on the own, pack a hefty amount of flavor, but dry them out a bit and you can up that flavor to epic proportions.

It’s important to note that what I am acheiving by this is not a way to preserve the tomatoes; I don’t remove enough moisture for that. I am merely trying to remove enough moisture to concentrate the flavors and provide a bit more texture to them. Once finished, these tomatoes will need to be refrigeratored or they will go bad. Even then, this procedure will only buy you a bit more time than you would have with competely fresh tomatoes.

While I use a dehydrator for this, you can do these in your oven also. Hopefully, your oven’s lowest setting is 150°F. Preheat the oven to 150°F. Place the prepared tomatoes on a rack, covered with cheesecloth, cut side down and place in the oven. check after 1 1/2 hours and every 20-30 minutes afterwards, removing tomatoes as they are done. Doing it this way is a little less forgiving, but still not very difficult. Just keep an eye on them.

Dried Cherry Tomatoes

1 quart cherry tomatoes (or any small variety of tomato)
1 clove garlic
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. finely ground black pepper
1/2 tsp. dried basil
1/4 tsp. dried oregano
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil

Finely mince the garlic then, using the edge and side of your knife mash it into a coarse paste. Grind the dried oregano and dried basil into a powder and mix with the garlic, salt, pepper and olive oil. Remove any stems from the cherry tomatoes and slice, in half, through the stem end. Toss with the olive oil mixture. Lay out on your dehydrator racks, making sure that none the the tomatoes are touching.

Set dehydrator to about 140°F, cover and allow to dry for 2 hours. After 2 hours rotate your trays, if necessary and continue to dry for another 1 1/2 hours. Rotate trays again and start checking the tomatoes every 45 minutes to 1 hour, removing any tomato that is done. Tomatoes are done when they have loss about 1/2-2/3 their size, are starting to feel firm to the touch, and are just slightly dry around the edges. It will take anywhere from 3 1/2-6 hours to dry. I can’t be any more specific as lots of factors affect the drying time; type of dehydrator, size of tomatoes, humidity in the air, etc. Mine took approximately 4 1/2 hours to reach the moisture level I wanted.

Once they are done place in the fridge for storage. They will last a week or 2. For longer storage you can cover them with olive oil, but you will still want to keep them in the fridge.

These little flavor bombs make a great addition to simple pastas, salads, or vegetable medleys, but really my favorite way to eat them is to simply pop them into my mouth, right out of the jar, although it is easy to get carried away and consume an afternoon’s work in just a short time!!

I’m not sure whether it was the cool weather or all the rain we had in late spring, but our rhubarb took off like crazy this year, as you can see from the picture above. Luckily, we love rhubarb…well at least my wife and I do. My 4 year old daughter isn’t so sure about it. A little too tart for her taste, but I have confidence that she’ll come to her senses and learn to love it like we do. I use it drinks, in all sorts of desserts and in sauces for both savory and sweet dishes, but I came to a realization. We tend to use rhubard as a “fruit” although it is a “vegetable.” I guess that’s because rhubarb is usually pretty tart and requires copious amounts of sugar to tame that tartness.

I wanted to try to use some of our rhubarb in a more traditional “vegetable” preparation so I decided to try and make some rhubarb pickles. I consulted various sources (numerous cookbooks and the web) and didn’t find many recipes for rhubarb pickles. Sure there were some, but not many. Maybe they know something I don’t!!! Well, I decided to go ahead and try to create my own anyway. I’m happy with the recipe I ended up with, but I will admit this recipe isn’t for everyone. You definitely have to like tart foods to enjoy this pickle, but since I am a fan of “tart” these were perfect for me. My wife, on the other hand, wasn’t so enthusiastic about them. She didn’t dislike them, but wasn’t overly thrilled with them. If you are a huge fan of rhubarb and/or like tart foods then I suggest you give these a try.

Before I get to the recipe though I have a couple of thing to make you aware of. First, these are meant to refrigerator pickles. They are not “processed” as I think the processing would turn the pickles to mush. Secondly, in the picture I provide, the rhubarb it cut into long strips. I found that this doesn’t work out well. Pouring the hot liquid over the raw rhubarb leaves them with a bit of crispness without overcooking them and turning them to mush, but it also doesn’t soften the fibers of the rhubarb. It is noticable trying to bit through a long spear of these pickles, but I found if you cut them into 3/4″-1″ chunks you don’t notice the fibers at all, so the recipe states to cut the rhubarb into chunks while the picture shows spears.

Rhubarb Pickles
makes 2 pints

2 pounds rhubarb
2 cups sugar
1 1/2 cups cider vinegar
1 tsp. ground ginger
2 tsp. mustard seed
6 each cloves
1 each cinnamon stick
8 each allspice berries
2 each bay leaves
10 each black peppercorns
1 Tsp. salt
4-8 each Dried red chiles (optional if you want a bit of heat)

Wash the rhubarb and cut into 1″ chunks. Pack into 2-1 pint canning jars that have been sterilized first. Add the dried chiles to the jars also, if using. Combine the remaining ingredients in a nonreactive pot. Bring to a boil and simmer for 5-7 minutes. Strain to remove all the spices and pour the hot liquid over the rhubarb, covering completely but leaving at least 1/4″ of headspace. Cover with a sterilized canning lid and ring. Allow to cool to room temperature then place in the refrigerator. The pickles will be ready in about 5 days.

It’s been quite a long time since I’ve been this excited about a project, but my recent endeavors at making bacon really got me pumped up. I mean, what’s not to love about bacon. It’s sweet, it’s salty, it’s smoky, and it’s got lots of crispy, chewy pork fat, Add to that, the fact that this bacon was made completely at home, from pork that a good friend raised, and you can’t go wrong. I have to admit though, I was also rather nervous. The last thing I wanted to do was to destroy the pork belly I had received with the half pig we had purchased. I’m not one to get overly philosophical about my food (though sometimes it seems like I do), but the last thing I wanted to do is ruin a good piece of meat that some animal died to provide me with. It might sound kind of “corny” but that thought went through my head a number of times during the bacon making process.

Making bacon isn’t all that difficult, but it does take considerable time, at least a week or more to do it right. In fact, about the hardest part of the whole process can often be finding a butcher willing to provide you with pork belly. Chances are, you will need to special order it unless you have a local butcher who makes his/her own bacon.

In the days before refrigeration curing bacon was a way to preserve the meat for long term storage. The bacon of yesteryear was heavily salted and smoked and didn’t much resemble the bacon of today. Today, modern refrigeration makes bacon a luxury, not a necessity. As such, we have been able to swap preservation with flavor. Today’s bacon doesn’t require numerous soakings in water to draw out salt to make it more palatable, and while still heavily smoked, it is not smoked to the point of almost being jerky-like.

Besides salt and sugar used in the curing of bacon, the cure also often contains sodium nitrite and sodium nitrate. These salts act as preservatives, helping to keep the meat pink and free from botulism. These chemical salts can be difficult to obtain and usually need to be ordered online or through the mail unless you are friendly with a butcher. Unfortunately, these salts can also be dangerous if used in higher amounts than needed. While I sometimes use these salts personally, I find it often easier, and less dangerous, to use Morton’s Tender Quick. It is a curing salt mix that can be found in many grocery stores and already has the nitrite and nitrate mixed into regular salt, removing the danger from the hands of novices. I developed this recipe using Morton’s Tender Quick and am quite happy with the results. I think you will be also.

As for the pork belly, you can either leave the rind on or remove it. You will hear proponents of both ways. I don’t think it makes a difference and I prefer to remove the rind (skin) before making my bacon. It saves a step later on. Also for easy of storing, during the curing process, I cut my pork belly into 1-2 pound chunks. I just find it easier to handle this way and it takes up less room in the fridge.

Maple Cured Bacon

1 whole pork belly (8-10 pounds) cut into 1-2 pound chunks

Curing Mix (per pound of meat)
1 Tbsp. Morton’s Tender Quick
1 Tbsp. brown sugar
1 Tbsp. maple syrup
1/4 tsp. granulated garlic
1/2 tsp. cracked black pepper

Weigh out each piece of pork belly and make up a batch of Curing Mix using the ratios above per 1 pound of meat. Rub the belly with the cure making sure to evenly distribute it over the entire surface of the belly and place in a zip lock bag. Remove as much air as possible and seal.

Repeat with remaining belly pieces. Place in the fridge and allow to cure for a minimum of 7 days per inch thickness of belly. Flip the bags once every day and massage the meat to ensure even distribution of the cure. At the end of 7 days test to see if belly is cured. The pork is done curing when the flesh no longer feels “mushy” and feels tight, like a well done steak. If not fully cured give another 24 hours and check again. Continue until pork is fully cured. Once done, remove from bags and give a good rinse in cold water, washing off all the excess salt and cure. Place on cooling racks set over cookie trays, place in fridge, uncovered, and allow to dry for 24 hours. The following day prepare your smoker or kettle grill and cold smoke bacon for 3 hours. Increase heat to medium and continue to smoke until you get an internal temperature of 150°F. In all, it should take 6-8 hours to fully smoke your bacon.

Chill the bacon overnight then slice to desired thickness, package and refrigerate and/or freeze.

When cooking this bacon, cook over medium heat or just a little higher. You don’t want to cook at too high of a heat due to the high sugar content of this bacon. Cooking over too high a heat will cause the bacon to burn before it is rendered crisp.

I’ve been having fun playing with my new food dehydrator, thanks to Chef Talk. I don’t know that the infatuation will last but it is fun right now, and, at the very least, I think it is something that I will pull out occasionally and play around with, even if it never becomes a “vital” appliance in my kitchen.

This weekend I got a chance to play around with making jerky, and I have to say, I was rather pleased with the results. It sure beats out most of the big name brand jerkys out there and is a heck of a lot less expensive than buying any of those “gourmet” jerkys you see at fairs and festivals. I made both a Spicy Asian jerky, marinating it in soy sauce accented with Chinese 5 spice powder and Siracha (a spicy chile garlic sauce). I also made a Southwestern Chipotle Lime jerky, using ground chipotles to add a nice light smoky accent to the jerky. Of course you can always smoke your jerky before drying it in the dehydrator. I can be smoked afterwards but the meat will take up more smoke, more readily if you smoke it while still raw.

A couple of things to remember, if you are making jerky. First off you will yield about 1/4-1/3, by weight, of the original amount of meat you purchased due to the drying process so purchase accordingly. Secondly, it’s very important to remove as much outer fat as possible and choose meat with as little interior marbling as possible as the fat as a tendency to go rancid sometimes. For longer term storage I suggest placing in the refrigerator. I did not use any curing salts (nitrates or nitrites) in the making of these jerkys so long term storage, at room temp might be problematic. I wouldn’t worry about leaving it out for a day or 2 but for longer storage, play it safe and refrigerate.

Spicy Asian Jerky

1/2 tsp. salt
1/8 tsp. ground black pepper
1/2 tsp. Chinese 5 spice powder
2 Tbsp. brown sugar
1 clove garlic, crushed
1/4 cup soy sauce
1 tsp. Sriracha (chile garlic paste)
1 lb. lean beef (I used an Inside Roast roast)

Chipotle Lime Jerky

1 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. ground black pepper
1 tsp. chipotle powder
1/2 tsp. garlic powder
1/2 tsp. dried oregano, crushed
1 tsp. paprika
1/4 tsp. ground cumin
1 tsp. lime juice
1 lb. lean beef (see note above)

For each recipe, combine all the ingredients except the beef. Slice the beef so it is approximately 1/4″ thick then into strips about 1 1/2″ wide. Toss the beef in to the marinade and mix to coat. Because the Chipotle marinade is more of a paste you will really need to work at getting it distributed evenly. Tightly cover and allow to marinate for 10-12 hours in the refrigerator, stirring it every few hours.

Spicy Asian Jerky in marinade

Chipotle Lime Jerky marinating

Place meat in dehydrator, blotting off excess moisture from the Asian Jerky. Dry following the manufacturer’s directions. You will want to dry somewhere between 140F and 160F.

Drying time will be anywhere from 3 1/2 to 10 hours, depending on several factors, but if you made sure to cut your meat 1/4″ thick it should take 3 1/2 – 5 hours. To test for doneness remove 1 piece of jerky and let it cool to room temperature. It should crack along the grain when bent but it shouldn’t break apart. When done remove to a cooling rack, blot off any excess fat that rendered out and allow to cool completely before packing it way.

I’ve recently be playing around with dehydrating as a form of preserving food, and making tasty treats thanks to my new dehydrator from Chef Talk. In the past, dehydrating hasn’t held a lot of allure for me, but I am the curious sort (for both better and for worse) and am always looking to try new things and experiment with new, at least to me, techniques.

Of course, one of the first things I’ve tried is fruit leather (beef jerky will be this weekend) as I have always loved those fruit roll ups. I wanted something a little more sophisticated, flavor wise and remembered the numerous bags of cranberries that were sitting in our freezer. Cranberries alone weren’t going to make a good fruit leather so I decided to pair them with apple, a classic paring and to spike it with just a hint of cinnamon. The resulting leather reminded me of those classic fruit roll ups but with a more complex, less overly sweetened flavor that adults would enjoy.

Apple Cranberry Leather

1 pound cranberries, fresh or frozen
4 pounds apples, peeled, cored and roughly chopped (choose apples that are both good baking and eating apples, I chose Braeburn this time)
Apple juice, or cider
corn syrup
1 1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon

Puree the cranberries, in a blender, until smooth, adding just enough apple juice to get the cranberries blending. Repeat this process with the apples, again using just enough juice to get the puree started. You want it to be thick enough still that you will need to stop the blender occasionally and push the contents down. Combine the cranberry and apple purees, stirring to combine. Add the cinnamon and just enough corn syrup to sweeten the puree to your liking. Use corn syrup as opposed to sugar as sugar tends to recrystallize making the fruit leather brittle. Flow the manufactures suggestions for making fruit leather in your dehydrator, making sure that the puree is no more than 1/4-3/8″ thick. Do yourself a favor and lightly oil the tray you make the leather on. It will help in removal when done. Dry at 130F for approximately 6-9 hours. The length will depend on a lot of variables including humidity, ambient room temperature, how much juice you added, etc. The leather is done when it is still pliable, but no longer tacky to the touch. Remove trays from dehydrator and allow to cool slightly. Remove fruit leather from trays and roll in plastic wrap.

I have no idea why I decided to make Lime Marmalade today. The idea popped into my mind yesterday though I don’t know why. I think the idea first took seed last Friday (New Year’s Day) as we were sitting at our regular breakfast place, waiting for our food to arrive. On the table were those little packets of jelly, one of the flavors being Orange Marmalade. I’ve seen it there many, many times but that day for some reason it caught my eye and stuck with me. The funny thing is, I don’t even really care for marmalade all that much. I don’t dislike it, it’s just not my first, second, or even third choice when choosing a preserve to slather on toast or bread. Raspberry jam is always my first choice (well actually Spicy Raspberry Jam is even better), along with strawberry, and apricot, though my wife makes a killer spiced grape jelly. Again, though, I am not overly particular, and can’t remember coming across a preserve that I couldn’t stand.

For whatever reason I latched on to marmalade this week, I knew I didn’t want to make orange. It was either grapefruit or lime. I love the flavor of both, but ultimately decided I was in the mood for something lime flavored. I have made numerous jellies and jams before, but can’t remember ever making marmalade so I headed to my bookshelves and the internet to study up on making marmalade and to develop a recipe.

I have found 2 schools of thought when it comes to making marmalade. Some recipes call for a 3 day process where you boil the citrus in water for 10 15 minutes then let it sit overnight, repeat, and then on the third day you finish the marmalade. The other school of thought is to do it all at once, but with a long cooking time to ensure that the peel is tender and that all the pectin is extracted. I chose to do the one day method, though in the near future I want to try the other method and compare the two.

I was very happy with the way my first batch of marmalade turned out. Sweet, tart, with just a bit of a bitter edge this marmalade makes a great spread for toast, english muffins, scones (especially berry studded ones) and a whole host of other “breads.” And I expect it will make a great ingredient in a whole host of other dishes and applications.

One thing about this marmalade; it has a slightly soft set to it. It definitely is not as thick or as tight as many jellies and jams you might be used to eating. That’s the risk of not using store bought pectin. If you want a firmer set you can try adding some liquid pectin, towards the end of cooking, but I rather like the slightly looser set of this preserve.

Lime Marmalade

2 pounds limes, washed under warm water to remove any wax if not using organic limes
4 cups water
3 pounds sugar

Zest all the limes. The easiest way to do this is to invest $7-$10 in a citrus zester. They come in handy quite often so are well worth the few dollars. If you don’t have a zester the thinly peel the limes with a peeler trying to avoid as much of the white pith as possible. After peeling the limes cut them into very fine strips. If you had a zester, you would have been done 15 minutes ago!

Cut the limes in half and squeeze all the juice into a nonreacative pot along with the lime zest. Finely chop the remains of the limes, including all the membranes and pith. You can also roughly chop them and put them in a food processor to finish the job, just don’t turn it into a puree. Place the finely chopped lime into a cheesecloth or muslin jelly bag.

Tie it closed and toss into the pot along with the juice, zest and the water. Bring to a boil, reduce heat, cover and simmer for 1 1/2-2 hours. During the last half hour remove the lid. Remove the pulp filled cloth and carefully squeeze out all the liquid that remains the in pulp. Add the sugar to the liquid in the pot, increase heat, bring to a boil and cook until a thermometer reaches 220. Remove from heat and allow to cool for 5 minutes. Remove all scum that has floated to the top and pour into jars. Cover, and if not processing, place into the refrigerator once they have slightly cooled. If you want to process the marmalade then place in a bath of boiling water that comes at least 1 inch above the tops of the jars and process for 10 minutes. Remove from bath and allow to cool. Check seals on jars and if one didn’t seal properly, move to the refrigerator.

About 3 weeks ago I made my own sauerkraut for the first time. You can find the post about it here. For the last week, I have been checking and tasting it daily to see if it was ready. Today I decided it had fermented enough so I packed it up into smaller containers and refrigerated it. In hindsight, the next time I make sauerkraut I will let it go just a little further and get a touch more sour as I really like sour things, though my wife thought it had just the right amount of sourness. Either way I am very happy with the results. My homemade stuff is so much better than the store bought stuff, and it is so easy to make. I don’t know why it took me so long to attempt to make sauerkraut, but after this experiment I think it will become, at the very least, a yearly thing. Maybe next year I will make a larger batch and attempt to can some when it is done.

Of course, once the sauerkraut was ready I couldn’t wait to cook with it so I threw together one of my favorite dishes, Choucroute. Technically what I prepare is not truly choucroute as I use beer in my dish as opposed to white wine (usually Riesling) and I skip many of the traditional spices such as juniper berries, mace, nutmeg, etc. in favor of caraway seed, but choucroute sounds so much better than Sausages Braised with Sauerkraut. This dish can be made up pretty quickly, but I prefer to cook it slow and low for 1-2 hours as I find this long, slow cooking yields a depth of flavor that quick cooking just can’t achieve. (continue reading…)

I’m sure there was a time in my life when I didn’t like sauerkraut, but I can’t remember it. I do remember, in my distant past, not being overly fond of it, but I can’t remember ever disliking the stuff. That is not the case today nor has it been the case for many, many years. Topping my hot dogs and brats, served as a cold salad similar to cole slaw, or even as an ingredient in chocolate cake, it is one of my favorite ways to eat my vegetables. My favorite way to prepare sauerkraut though is to slow cook it with numerous pork products (sausages, bacon, salt pork, pork chops) onions, apples, caraway and beer. Pork and sauerkraut are a match made in heaven, as far as I’m concerned, the kraut’s sharp tang a perfect foil to pork’s fatty richness.

I realized, not long ago, that as much as I enjoy sauerkraut, I had never made it from scratch before. I knew that I would have to remedy that this year so this past week I headed out to our local farmer’s market to pick up some cabbage. At the stall of one of my favorite farmers there I found a giant head of cabbage, weighing in at 13 pounds. I had my doubts about a cabbage that big the farmer assured me that it was sweet and tender. Deciding to place my trust in him, I bought the cabbage for a whopping $2.50 and brought it home to turn it into sauerkraut.

Kraut making is a rather easy task. At it’s most basic you shred the cabbage, you salt the cabbage, you pack the cabbage into a container, cover it and let it ferment for a few weeks. That’s about all there is too it. Well…..almost. There are a few things to keep in mind, but trust me making sauerkraut is a pretty easy process. (continue reading…)

It’s hard to believe that it’s October already. This year seems to have flown by. I’m still trying to figure out where summer went. Some would argue that we never really had summer due to the unseasonably cool weather we had. I wouldn’t disagree with that sentiment, but I am glad to see fall arrive. With the advent of Fall, I start to think of the holidays that are just around the corner. Yes, I know that they are still a ways away, but some preparations need to be made now. My family often gives “homemade” gifts for Christmas, and in my family that usually means food, and more specifically home canned goods and homemade cordials. These are items that need to be started now as they often take months to cure and/or mature. This also gets me to thinking of our holiday meals. Our meals tend to be traditional, but elaborate affairs complemented by a number of pickles and relishes, most of which take a number of weeks between initial preparation and the time they are ready to eat.

One of my favorite of all these relishes are the homemade pickled beets and the purple pickled eggs made using the liquid from those same beets. Normally these are prepared using standard red beets, but this past Saturday, while perusing the local farmer’s market I came across some beautiful golden beets.

These were too nice to pass up so I decided to use them instead of the traditional red. I imagine that later this month I will also pickle some red beets also, as Thanksgiving and Christmas just aren’t the same without purple pickled eggs. I also plan on using the liquid, from the golden beets to try and make some yellow pickled eggs also. Don’t know how it will work, but I’m sure I’ll share my attempts here. (continue reading…)

It’s been a week since I last posted, an unusually long time for me, but I had a good excuse.  For the better part of last week I have been on Isle Royale, or traveling to get there and home again.  If you are not familiar with Isle Royale-don’t be ashamed, most people aren’t-it is a large island in the middle of Lake Superior.  To access the island one must travel to the northern most tip of the Upper Peninsula of Michigan then take a 3-5 hour ferry ride out into the lake.  It is truly one of the remotest places in the continuous 48.  As such it is the least visited National Park, making it a haven for those seeking solitude and nature.  It is also an important research center for many scientists wishing to study wildlife, their interactions with their environments and mankind’s impact on that environment.  It is also amazingly beautiful!  It is no wonder that, although it is the least visited National Park, it also has the highest return rate. So what prompted this journey to this remote island?  A wedding of course!  Both my brother and wife have spent numerous summers working on the island as park rangers.  They met on the island, got engaged on the island and felt that the island was the most appropriate place to exchange their vows.  It was a small, intimate wedding held on the shores of one of the 400+ smaller islands that surround the large one.  I’ve been in weddings large and small, extravagant and simple, but this one was one of the most perfect ceremonies I have ever had the pleasure to witness.  For those of you thinking what a great idea for a wedding, please realize that the park discourages larger groups due to their impact on the environment and you won’t find any amenities.  Remember this is first and foremost a nature reserve and everything they do revolves around that. (continue reading…)