High Desert Garden: November 2007

Wednesday, November 28, 2007

Soybean Paste Starters 米麴豆麴

都是從東方店買的
省去不少麻煩
米麴在冷凍部門找到
豆麴在冰冷部門找到

想自己發麴的朋友
這網站有麴菌賣
http://www.gemcultures.com/soy_cultures.htm

Sunday, November 25, 2007

Winter Greens Experiment 嘿嘿，還活著

Top: yu choy 油菜芯
Bottom from L to R: baby bok choy & Chinese broccoli
小白菜 & 芥蘭

It snow on Thanksgiving Day evening and the following day,
these babies are marching ahead, no sign of giving up yet.
The real test comes in late December and January
when temperature dips below zero °F.
Current day time temp is in low 30s, and night temps in teens
The plastic cover seems to help, no damage from cold and snow so far.

晚上蓋被被，白天日光浴
兩場風雪都沒倒下去
乖啦

醃酸菜 Sauerkraut

開罈囉
才兩個禮拜已經夠酸脆了

The kraut is ready in 2 weeks
fermented at~70°F room temperature

泡酸菜 Sauerkraut

5 lbs Napa cabbage/regular cabbage/mustard green 大白菜/包心菜/芥菜

3 tbsp sea salt 海鹽

Vegetable weight and salt measurement are approximate, don’t get too hang up on them; a little more or less of either ingredients is fine, you won’t fail.

1. Line the bottom of a ceramic pot or glass jar with cabbage, sprinkle some salt on top, press firmly and pack down vegetables; repeat until all vegetables are done. If you cannot fit all of the cabbage into the jar at one time, wait until the cabbage softens and exudes more liquid.

2. Firmly press and pack the cabbage until brine covers the top of the vegetable. Put some weight (such as a jar of water, a brick, or a piece of rock) on top of the cabbage to keep the vegetable submerge in its own brine. In case there’s not enough liquid add some salt water to the brine.

3. Cover the pot or jar and let it sit in a cool place. The kraut will be ready in about 3-4 weeks.

Note: What you see on the picture is Napa cabbage submerged in its own brine, no water added. The 7.5 liters ceramic pot holds about 17 lbs (approximately 7 medium heads) of Napa cabbage.

簡單的泡菜，白菜不用洗，一層菜洒一點鹽，壓緊讓菜出水，一層層的放入罐裏，幾個鐘頭後菜水就會蓋過白菜了，如果不夠水可以加多少鹽水，放塊石頭重物之類把菜壓下水面, 封蓋好放陰涼地方3-4星期就好了。

照片上可看到白菜出水很多，我沒加鹽水，以後幾天也會繼續出水，白菜發酵成功就是脆脆酸酸的菜了。