In a Pickle

"Giam Chye" fermenting in a jar

During a recent visit to Calgary, we were thrilled to visit the T&T supermarket there and stock up on a whole bunch of longed for Asian groceries and condiments.
Amongst them was "kiam chye" (hokkien, trans. "salty vegetable) which is in essence mustard greens fermented in a salty brine. That prized purchase was quickly cooked up into "kiam chey ark thng" (salty veg duck soup) using the carcass left over from our Christmas Roast Duck.
Thinking of that yummy warming soup made us hanker for more, but with no Asian supermart within 2h drive, we had to resort to making our own.
Scouring the internet, we found to recipes, one from a Singaporean Uncle and the other attributed to "Sonia, nasi lemak lover". Since we were not able to buy mustard greens, we resorted to "pak choy" which we felt was the next closest. (we pondered over Napa cabbage, regular cabbage, even curly kale). In the end, our recipe took pointers from both posts.

Veggies layered with salt, drying on a tray

Ingredients:

• 1 kg pak choy (use mustard greens if you can find them)
• 75g coarse salt (without preservatives, additives or anti-caking agents)
• 3 Tbsp coarse salt
• 1/2 Tsp rice flour
• 1 slice ginger (about 3mm thick)
• 3 L warm water
• Preserving jar

Method:

1. wash the vegetables thoroughly and shake off excess water
2. lay the vegetables on a large tray and sprinkle the 75g salt all over, making sure all surfaces are covered
3. set aside for 6-8h to draw out excess moisture from the vegetable
4. In the preserving jar add the remaining ingredients
5. After 6-8h, squeeze whatever moisture has come out of the vegetables
6. Place veg in preserving jar, making sure every bit is submerged, close lid tightly (the fermentation process is anaeobic)
7. Check every other day - Remove any whitish scum (if any- that forms. It should start having a clean sour smell from lacto-fermentation. Be careful when opening the lid; fermentation produces gas! If it smells putrid, then the concentration of salt is wrong - too much salt and the lactobacillus gets killed, too little and the veggies rot - see this reference.
8. After 5-7 days, the kiam chye is ready to be eaten. Remove from preserving jar, rinse and use or freeze till needed.

Waste not, want not ... a new dessert is born!
(or 2 for the price of 1)

Seeing as I was going to be serving in Church on Christmas Day, I thought it would be nice to give the rest of the crew some small treats as Christmas presents. I counted at least eight persons - and thought - some form of home made edible gift would go down well.

Jams? cookies? fudge? cake?.. After a bit of deliberation, I decided to fall back on good old Cabernet Wine Jelly. Inexpensive (it can turn a very mediocre / cheap wine into a scrumptious treat), quick and easy to make.

Cabernet Wine Jelly

Great! that settled the issue of what to give. Now, I had to find suitable containers. As it was such a last minute decision, it was too late to hunt around town for bottles (in any case,  I had no time, pre-holiday work being rather busy). Hmm. hmmm. hmmm .. What should I use... whizz up and down supermarket aisles thinking hard and doing the weekend grocery shopping at the same time.. Ah-ha! baby food bottles! Small and cute, with an estimated volume of 150 - 200ml, they would be ideal. As luck would have it, a range of Organic babyfood was on specials - 3 for $4. Grabbed a dozen - all fruit flavours - apple, pear, mango - and loaded them into my trolley.

Wine: found 2 bottles on specials as well, unbranded Cabernet Merlot, locally produced in Hawkes Bay. Can't be too bad.

Not wanting to waste food, I enlisted the help of a good friend to help me eat up some of that fruit puree. But as you might have guessed, 12 bottles is a lot of fruit puree to eat. They were surprisingly tasty (we had expected bland, bland, bland). After 2 bottles each, we gave up and decided empty the remaining bottles in a clean ice-cream tub to freeze. (with the initial idea to use them in smoothies) As we were doing so, it struck us that the pure fruit would make a rather nice sorbet - a light summery dessert for a Kiwi Christmas dinner.

Fruit Puree

Converting baby food into (an alcoholic) dessert:
What we did - to the fruit puree, we added a whizzed up can of mango slices, added icing sugar (to taste), zest and juice of one lime and a few shot glasses of cointreau and vodka (not too much, as the alcohol will make it difficult to freeze). Gave it a stir and chucked it in the freezer. Removed every 3-4h, used a fork to break up the ice crystals and mix in some air. Did this a couple of times and we got a half decent home made sorbet. We plan to serve it up in salt crusted glasses - like a Margarita.

Apple-Mango Margarita Sorbet

Whilst the sorbet was freezing nicely, the bottles (nearly forgot those in the excitement of creating this alcoholic dessert) were then washed clean and placed in a 110C oven for 30min to sterilise them.


Cabernet Wine Jelly

• 4 cups of wine 
• 4 cups preserving sugar (with pectin and acidity regulator)
• juice of 1 lemon

1. Warm the sugar and add all of it to the wine in a large stockpot
2. Add lemon juice
3. Stir the wine-sugar mixture over low heat until sugar is completely dissolved
4. Turn heat up high and bring the mixture to a roiling boil
5. Boil for 4-5min or until mixture reaches 105C, skim off any scum
6. Test for set point by placing a teaspoon onto a cold dish - place it in the fridge till cold
7. Set point is reached when the test jelly creases or wrinkles when a finger is run across it
8. Remove jelly mixture from heat
9. Bottle in warm sterilised jars 

Easy as!

Once jelly is cool and set (takes a few hours), enjoy it on crackers with a strong blue vein cheese!

Preserving the harvest

Tomatoes galore

Now that summer is in full swing, there is fruit aplenty and sometimes, an overabundance even. Rather than forcing oneself to eat yet another tomato fresh from the garden or letting fruit rot on the vine, the best alternative is to preserve the harvest.

In our eagerness to have fresh tomatoes, we had planted 8 plants, including several heirloom varieties, and beginner's luck would have it that all are producing more than we can eat. In case you are wondering - we have Black Krim, Purple Cherokee, Golden Nugget, Tommy Toe, Green Zebra, Red Roma and 2 heirloom ones, which we cant remember the name of.

Tomatoes and Apricots, all chopped up, ready to cook

Anyhow, we get about 250 - 500g of tomatoes everyday, that plus some apricots from the supermarket that refused to ripen (never buy stone fruit from supermarkets if you can help it) made me decide on cooking up a chutney.

The recipe is really simple, and you can add any fruit to the tomatoes - cooking apples, add body and texture, sliced onions do the same. Sultanas or raisins add some sweetness - anything goes really. The aim is to get a mixture of sweet, tart, spicy and slighty salty flavours that will slowly blend together as the chutney matures.

Aromatics

So here's the recipe:

Tomato - Apricot Chutney

• 0.5kg fresh tomatoes, roughly chopped
• 0.5kg fresh apricots
• 2 large onions finely sliced
• 4 cloves garlic
• 4 cardamom pods, peeled
• 1/2 tsp paprika
• 1/2 tsp ground ginger
• 1 tsp yellow mustard seeds
• 2 tsp salt
• 250g brown sugar
• 150ml malt vinegar

Put all ingredients into a non-reactive pot, bring to the boil, let simmer with low heat for about 30min or till fruit and onions are soft, stirring occasionally to prevent mixture from catching. Taste and season if neccesary. Meanwhile, prepare jars for bottling.
Once mixture is ready, bring rapidly to a boil (a.k.a. jam making) for 5min till silky and jammy.
Bottle while hot.

Chutney simmering away

The chutney may be eaten fresh but letting it mature in a cool, dark place for a week or 2 is better. (some things are better when aged a bit...)

Chutney bottled, ready for maturing

This chutney goes well with cold meats, especially pork and chicken and will do well as a sweet but tangy glaze for a ham. Enjoy!