November 15th, 2008 newsletter

Bardstown Road Farmers’ Market

Sarah’s Corner

From our friend Sarah Fritschner

Harvest season. Our final hours for canning, freezing, drying and otherwise putting up the harvest.

A farmers market shopper the other day was rounding up ingredients for her annual kimchee production, picking up cabbage and chili peppers to which she would add only salt and time to create a spicy, healthy, aromatic dish. I quizzed her at length about her process, and she cheerfully revealed all (recommending a book called “Wild Fermentation” by Sandor Katz). Still, I couldn’t overcome my dubious feelings hearing words like “scum” and phrases like “depending on the temperature.”

I have never been confident of my food preservation skills. I didn’t learn them at the knee of a mother or grandmother. I canned Trimble County peaches one year: high-acid fruits are a natural for novices because they won’t kill anybody if the process goes wrong. I’ve dried tomatoes in my oven, but the temperature isn’t low  enough for me to do a good job – the tomatoes get sort of dark and taste cooked, not fresh.

But sauerkraut and kimchee seem even more mysterious and perilous to me, though both are excellent ways to keep the overabundance of summer for a nutritious, palate-brightening dish for winter. Fermented cruciferous vegetables like sauerkraut tend to be high enough in vitamin C to have protected sailors from scurvy, and have more recently been discovered to have anti-cancer properties.

If you’re feeling adventurous, you can grab a book, an extension bulletin, or go on line for a plethora of recipes and advice for fermenting foods. In the meantime, I can highly recommend the recipe below for green tomato mincemeat, which uses another seasonal food and is easy to can with a water bath.

Easy pork and sauerkraut

4 pieces bacon

1 medium onion, sliced

2 bratwurst (about ½ pound)

4 pork chops

2 pounds sauerkraut, drained

2 cups (or so) reduced-sodium chicken broth

½ cup white wine, optional

In a large Dutch oven or oven-proof pot with lid, cook bacon until crisp. Remove bacon and all but 2 tablespoons of the bacon grease. Add pork chops and brown well over medium-high heat. Remove to plate. Add onion to pan. Cut bratwurst in short pieces and add to pan. Cook until onion begins to brown, stirring often. Add sauerkraut and cook 5 minutes. Add chicken broth, wine if using and bacon that you tear or cut into smaller pieces. Put pork chops on top of the sauerkraut mixture. Place lid on the pan and simmer over low heat 20 minutes, or until pork chops are cooked through (store-bought pork chops will probably take 10 minutes).  Serves 4 to 6.  Serve with mashed potatoes.

Green tomato mincemeat

4 cups chopped green tomatoes
3 cups chopped tart apples

1 orange
1 cup seedless raisins
2 cups brown sugar
1/4 cup vinegar

1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
½ teaspoon ground cloves
1/4 teaspoon powdered ginger
¼ cup bourbon, optional

Combine tomatoes and apples in a large pot. Cut up the orange and remove the seeds. Finely chop the whole orange, peel and all (easily done in a food processor) and put it in the pot. Add raisins, sugar, vinegar and spices and bring to a boil, stirring frequently, over medium-high heat. Reduce heat and simmer 45 minutes. Remove from heat and stir in bourbon, if using.

Makes about 2 pints. Mincemeat can be frozen or canned in a boiling water bath. You can use all the mincemeat in one pie, or combine it with chopped fresh apples to make filling for 2 pies.