What’s for Dinner, Uncomplicate.

Super Easy Mason Jar Sauerkraut

October 13, 2020 Beth Comments 1 comment

This is another one of those things that when I finally did it, I wondered what had taken me so long. You guys, homemade sauerkraut so easy and so good. Like most things, I overthought it for too many years: I need to buy special equipment like a crock or something. I should buy a recipe book and learn more. I’m scared of fermenting food in my kitchen. What if I do something wrong?

Yeah, yeah, yeah. All of the above may be valid but are mostly just dumb excuses for not doing something that will make you happy (if you’re a kraut and pickle fan like I am!).

If you have cabbage, salt, a clean jar and something to weigh the cabbage down with (this could be a smaller jar with marbles in it, a clean nonporous food-safe paperweight, or a proper fermentation weight) and a reasonably cool spot to store the jar (I use a corner of my garage floor) you’re all set.

By now we’ve all heard about the gut-health benefits of eating more lacto-fermented foods, and for a minor time-investment (pretty much just 15 minutes chopping and squishing, then being patient for 3 days to a couple weeks) you can get a jar of fermented goodness that’s just as (or more) delicious than that pricey artisan kraut with the cute label you buy at your favorite fancy grocery store. Lacto-fermentation may be science, but it’s not rocket science. You really should try this!

I eat kind of a lot of it, but I’m the only kraut-fan in my house (I know, weird, right?) so I’ve been making it one small to medium head of cabbage at a time, in a quart size mason jar (or a few smaller jars). I love the flavor of caraway seeds so I usually just make basic/traditional kraut with that as my only extra seasoning, but I’ve really enjoyed kraut with garlic, peppers, even spring nettle added – this is something you can get creative with!

(Scroll down for the printable recipe/instructions)

SUPER SIMPLE MASON-JAR SAUERKRAUT

1 small to medium head of cabbage

1 to 1-1/2 tablespoons salt

1 tablespoon caraway seed (optional)

Quart jar with lid

Glass fermentation weights, clean non-porous food-safe paperweights, or a small jar filled with marbles or clean stones

Start with super-clean supplies and work area: I sterilize my jars and weights with boiling water, and make sure my hands/gloves are freshly washed too.

Wash cabbage well and peel off any soft or limp leaves from the outer layers as well as any damaged spots. Halve or quarter the head and remove the tough inner core. Thinly slice section by section and place in a large bowl.

Sprinkle salt over the cabbage and start to massage and squeeze it with your hands (I like wearing surgical gloves for this kind of thing). This is where the magic starts to happen! In 5-10 minutes, the cabbage turns from crispy-crunchy-coleslaw to juicy-translucent-kraut. I was really amazed at how much juice I squeezed out during this process the first time I made it.

Add your caraway seeds or other seasonings/extras now, and continue to mix it up completely, continuing to massage it a bit more.

Scoop it into your jar (or jars) with a measuring cup or large spoon, pressing it down as you go. Leave at least 1/2 inch or more head-room at the top of the jar. You’re going to want room for your weight(s) and it does “expand” as it bubbles and ferments.

Add your weight(s) and press down firmly, making sure the cabbage is all below the surface of the liquid. The cabbage wants to float (!) but it’s important that it stay covered to avoid mold and ensure proper fermentation.

I bought glass fermentation weights here (sponsored link) and have been really happy with how well they work.

Remove any floaters or bits clinging to the sides or rim of the jar that are exposed to air. Cover the jar (not too tightly, as gases will release during the fermentation process). If you use a second smaller jar as your weight, you can cover the whole contraption with a cheesecloth or tea towel secured to the big jar with a rubber band. Again: not rocket science.

Place your jar in a cool, dark location. I like to set my jars on a plate or tray with a paper towel on it, to catch any possible liquid that seeps out when it bubbles and ferments.

Now the magic really starts. This isn’t as scary or intimidating as it might seem to us nervous overthinkers. You just need a little patience and common sense, that’s all. Check your jar(s) every couple days for leakage or small bits of mold on the surface caused by exposed/floating pieces of cabbage (if you’re careful this probably won’t happen, but if it does, don’t be alarmed: scoop them off and let the rest keep doing its thing). Don’t be scared of bubbles or fizzing, this is the beneficial bacteria doing what they do! Change out the paper towel and wipe down the jar if it does overflow, to avoid odd smells or mold on the outside of the jar or surrounding area.

During the entire process it should look and smell cabbagey and pickley. The cabbage will change from bright green to gold. It should never smell rancid or rotted. If you notice at any point that it just doesn’t look or smell right, use common sense: toss it and start over. It’s possible your jars or weights may not have been clean enough or the environment is too warm. Lacto-fermentation is a safe and easy way to preserve vegetables but if what’s happening in your jar doesn’t seem right, it’s just not.

Your kraut may be ready to your taste in as little as 3 days! Just keep an eye on it, and taste it from time to time. When it gets to the look/taste you prefer, you can tighten the lid and store it in your refrigerator, or keep it in the same cool spot to continue to ferment.

That’s all there is to it!

It’s one of my favorite go-to snacks in the middle of the day,

and it’s heaven on a hot dog. So tasty I usually don’t even want a bun. Even easier when I’ve got pretty polka-dotted lettuce right out of the garden.

I hope you enjoy fermenting and eating your own kraut as much as I do!

Here’s the printable recipe/instructions:

Super Easy Mason Jar Sauerkraut

Print Recipe

Prep Time 15

Equipment

Sharp knife
Mason jar with lid
Fermentation weight (see notes)

Ingredients

1 small/medium head green cabbage
1 to 1-1/2 tbsp salt
1 tbsp caraway seeds (optional)

Instructions

Wash cabbage well and peel off any soft or limp leaves from the outer layers as well as any damaged spots. Halve or quarter the head and remove the tough inner core. Thinly slice section by section and place in a large bowl.
Sprinkle salt over the cabbage and start to massage and squeeze it with your hands (I like wearing surgical gloves for this kind of thing). In 5-10 minutes, the cabbage turns from crispy-crunchy-coleslaw to juicy-translucent-kraut.
Add your caraway seeds or other seasonings/extras now, and continue to mix it up completely, continuing to massage it a bit more.
Scoop it into your jar (or jars) with a measuring cup or large spoon, pressing it down as you go. Leave about 1/2 inch or more head-room at the top of the jar.
Add your weight(s) and press down firmly, making sure the cabbage is all below the surface of the liquid. The cabbage wants to float (!) but it’s important that it stay covered to avoid mold and ensure proper fermentation.
Cover the jar (not too tightly, as gases will release during the fermentation process).
Place your jar in a cool, dark location, on a plate or tray with a paper towel on it, to catch any possible liquid that seeps out when it bubbles and ferments.
Your kraut may be ready to your taste in as little as 3 days,depending on the temperature and the size of your jar(s). Just keep an eye on it, and taste it from time to time. When it gets to the look/taste you prefer, you can tighten the lid and store it in your refrigerator, or keep it in the same cool spot to continue to ferment.

Notes

This can be done in one large jar or a few smaller ones, depending on what you have on hand.

Always start with super clean containers and supplies. It's a good idea to sterilize your jars and weights like you do when canning.

You can weigh down the cabbage in your jar with glass fermentation weights, a clean nonporous food-safe paperweight, or a smaller jar filled with marbles or clean pebbles. If you use a smaller jar, you can cover your big jar with a cheesecloth or clean tea towel secured with a rubber band. You may need to change out the cloth covering during fermentation if it gets damp, to avoid mold.

Check your jar(s) every couple days for leakage or any mold on the surface (this doesn’t happen often, but if it does, don’t be alarmed: just wipe it off and let it keep doing its thing). Don’t be scared of bubbles or fizzing, this is the beneficial bacteria doing what they do! Wipe off the outside of the jar and change out the paper towel if it does get wet, to avoid odd smells or mold.

Keyword canning and preserving

Roasted and Smoked Tomato Goodness

July 10, 2020 Beth Comments 2 comments

After my late start this spring I’m still just in the dreaming-of-the-future stage with this year’s tomato harvest. They’re coming along nicely but it will be a while before I get that magical taste of late-summer I look forward to the rest of the year.

As I mentioned before, my old gardening habits from my small, shady city backyard don’t exactly fly here in my sunny country garden. In my old garden, I pretty much only ever had enough tomatoes to eat the day I harvested them. An already short season here in the Pacific Northwest is even shorter in the partial shade, so I had given up on growing larger varieties and focused on cherry and grape tomatoes that I could pop in my mouth and enjoy as they ripened, or throw in a fresh pasta dish that same evening.

Fast-forward to my first country garden: I planted as I always had before, and ended up with out of control cherry tomato vines with way more than we could eat fresh. I only grew 1 variety of larger tomatoes (gorgeous and tasty “Orange You Glad“) and had way more than we could eat of those, too. My answer to preserving much of this goodness was roasting and smoking them for sauce.

If you haven’t roasted tomatoes before you’re in for a treat. It’s been my go-to solution for years to use up those pale, flavorless off-season grocery store tomatoes (I’ve always called them “cardboard tomatoes”, you know the ones). Cut those icky old things up into chunks and stick them in the oven with a little olive oil, sprinkled with some salt, pepper, herbs and maybe a couple splashes of balsamic vinegar: you end up with sweet, caramelized tomatoey goodness.

Hit that with an immersion blender or throw it in the food processor and you’ve got a killer rich sauce for pasta, you don’t even need to peel the tomatoes first. Our favorite is to toss the puree with roasted spaghetti squash and top with generous amounts of Parmesan and cracked black pepper.

Roasting is awesome, but I’ve become even more obsessed the last couple years with smoking fruit in our little electric smoker, and tomatoes are excellent smoked. I like to use the smoked puree as an ingredient in soups and sauces more than a stand-alone sauce, as it can be pretty strong on its own.

Last summer I would roast and/or smoke a batch or two of tomatoes every few days and usually just freeze quart bags of them as I went. By September the kitchen counter was always full of tomatoes.

We ate a lot, I froze some, canned some, but mainly stuck with freezing the roasted sauce as I didn’t have an accurate feel for acidity (as in, canning safety) for each different roasted batch.

By the end of October we were overrun with green tomatoes that needed to be used right away.

I tried making some smoked green tomato salsa that wasn’t as exciting as I’d hoped (will be experimenting and tweaking that recipe this year and will keep you posted). The salsa was sort of meh on its own, but it and the roasted and smoked green puree has been an excellent addition to soups, chili, and other sauces this past year.

If you’ve got a little freezer space, or just want to try some roasted or smoked sauce now, it’s a simple way to enjoy your harvest, or even those icky cardboard grocery-store tomatoes if that’s what you’ve got!

Roasted or Smoked Tomato Sauce:

Scroll down for printable instructions/recipe!

Cut any variety/shape of tomato in medium/large fairly uniform size chunks (no need to peel them!). Size isn’t that important as long as they’re all around the same size so they cook up the same. I like to halve cherry tomatoes for this so they release the juices but it’s not necessary. Place in a single layer cut-side up in a deep baking sheet lined with parchment. The tomatoes may release quite a bit of liquid while cooking so it’s important to do this in a pan with edges so it doesn’t run all over your oven.

Toss a little olive oil, salt and pepper, and whatever herbs you prefer (I usually use basil and oregano, fresh from the garden or dried).

For roasted tomatoes: Roast in a 400 degree oven until their released juices get bubbly and caramelized and they just start to darken up. Depending on the size of your chunks and the moisture content, this is usually 20-50 minutes. Some tomatoes will appear very dry through this process, others get really juicy as they cook. These were all “eating tomatoes” rather than paste/sauce tomatoes but still the liquid content varied quite a bit.

For smoked tomatoes: I’ve only smoked tomatoes in a small electric smoker so I suggest you use the basic guidelines in your smoker’s manual (or previous smoking experience!) for the perfect smoked tomatoes. I prepare the tomatoes the same as for roasting and use a small pie pan or piece of foil lined with parchment to contain the released juices.

I’ve used alder and mesquite chips for tomatoes but still can’t decide which we like best! I’ve had the best success smoking them at a medium-high temperature (275-300) until they bubble and caramelize a bit. This won’t happen as dramatically as higher-heat roasting and a little more juice will still be present when they’re cooked.

If you’re going to eat the sauce right away, transfer the warm tomatoes to a heatproof bowl and puree with an immersion blender, or place in a food processor and pulse until smooth. Toss with your favorite pasta and top with cheese for a simple and delicious dinner.

If you’ll be saving the sauce for later, it’s all much easier to handle if you let the roasted tomatoes cool before pureeing/processing. Refrigerate the pureed sauce for up to a week, or after it’s completely cool you can fill freezer bags to enjoy the flavors of summer the rest of the year.