Methods that I use include:
- Drying - vegetables, fruits, meat (jerky), turmeric, wild mushrooms
- Freezing - tomato products, broths, mango, banana, pineapple
- Pickling in vinegar - beetroot, cucumbers, new guinea beans, chutneys and pickles.
- Pickling in brine - cucumbers, beetroot, carrot, garlic
- Fermenting - cabbage and other veg, cheese, yoghurt, turmeric (paste), garlic in honey, mustard
- Water bath (either in vacola jars or regular jars) - brawn, fish, tomatoes.
- Sauces - chili, tomato, mushroom
- Jams - star fruit, rosella
- Mead and fruit wines (I need to do more of this)
Mead - it was even sparkly and drinkable!
Tomatoes are probably the most common thing I like to preserve. I puree them and freeze in containers; I puree them and then cook them into a simple passata sauce or pasta sauce and either freeze or water bath; dry them in the dehydrator to then preserve in oil with herbs (smaller tomatoes are used for this); tomato paste - the easiest method I've found so far is to do this in the thermomix. This recipe for tomato paste only made a small amount, so I just froze in small containers, but you could water bath them too. I also make a lot of tomato sauce (ketchup). I use my thermomix for small amounts (1kg) but if I can buy a box, I'll make up 6 litres and bottle them into wine bottles or other sauce bottles. This lasts for months in the pantry.
I pickle vegetables, both in vinegar and brine. Beetroot and cucumbers I do both methods, depending on how much time I have (I roast the beetroot first with both these methods, if I'm doing sliced beetroot). Carrot is yummy to have - just grate it and put it in a brine and ferment for a few days. And every year I make up a big batch of sauerkraut. Last year I did two cabbages, which has gotten me through to this year - with the addition of a couple of smaller batches of kimchi. My kimchi is not like a traditional Korean kimchi, it's really just a spicy mixed vegetable one, with fish sauce added!
Fermented Carrots
Ingredients for Kale Kimchi - I would've added fish sauce and salt
After our trip to Melliodora, I learnt a simpler version of preserving fruit. I thought that you always needed to do a water bath after boiling up fruit in sugar water, but all their fruit is simply prepared by peeling/chopping etc, bringing to the boil in water and then placed into clean hot jars, leaving as little room for air as possible and then screwing the lid on tight - the lid sucks in and that's a sign that it's sealed correctly.
This is 3 pears and 3 apples sliced, boiled and then bottled into the jar, no sugar, no water bath. Not sure how long it'll last because it'll be eaten before winter ends as we like it with our porridge. But I'll eat the Fruit and Nut Kimchi with our porridge first.
This is a mix of apples, dates, brazil nuts and walnuts, with whey and salt added and then left to ferment for a few days. I forgot to take a photo when it was finished, but there was no visible liquid left and we had it with our porridge this morning (after scraping a little bit of mould off the top)
I also dry lots of things - herbs and vegetables mostly, but during mango season I dry (and freeze) a lot of mangoes. Dried vegies are great - I dry them really crispy and then process into a powder. This is used to add flavour to soups or stews. I often dry a mix of vegetables and then this is used as a stock powder. Herbs are easiest to dry in a cloth bag - just leave to hand somewhere airy. If I'm doing lemon grass, I cut it first, but most other herbs I just dry and then process finer in the thermomix.
We had so many snake beans so we dried some. I'll add these to a stew or soup.
And I haven't even started on some of the other things I like to preserve, like fish, dairy and meat.
Caerphilly cheese in the making - 8 litres of milk and this cheese will be over 1kg when ready.
We get fish from my brother-in-law and while it's not the most premium fish fresh, it goes pretty well as a preserved fish.
If you cover pate with enough melted butter, it will keep for a month or two.
Google is a wonderful tool if you want to know how to do any of these things. I've learnt from either an online search or from some other good cook books. One of these days I will put some more things on the recipe tab of this blog.
Nourishing Traditions - This book is amazing
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