Oct/091
Pickled Asparagus Experiment
I tried a pickled asparagus experiment. I purchased 3 pounds of asparagus on sale, and decided to pickle the hell out of it. I used a recipe from the blog Food in Jars. It’s a great blog, but unfortunately in this case, the recipe was not a success. I have a theory why, which may be as simple as a transcription error in the recipe, though I may have made a mistake elsewhere in the process.
For my own records, here is the recipe I used:
Pickled Asparagus, adapted from Putting Up by Stephen Palmer Dowdney- 4 pounds asparagus, trimmed to fit your pint jars and blanched in boiling water for approximately 10 seconds
- 3 cups vinegar (half apple cider vinegar, half white vinegar)
- 3 cups water
- 1/2 cup kosher salt
- 4 tablespoons Penzeys pickling spice
- 3 small jalapeno peppers
- 3 garlic cloves, peeled
I blanched the asparagus for 15 seconds before jarring. I added the spices, and poured in the brine mixture. I processed in a water bath canner for 15 minutes. After processing, the asparagus were shriveled, as though the moisture had been sucked out of them. In retrospect, the recipe seemed to have a lot more salt than the other pickling recipes, about 50% more. Perhaps the recipe should have been 1/4 cup of salt or something similar.
I’ll still try them when they have finished pickling, but my hopes for good texture are not high. A future experiment with a modified saline level should prove useful.
Sep/090
Pickled Brussels Sprouts – Experiment 1
For my own reference, and your potential amusement, here is the documentation of pickling Brussels Sprouts from the garden. I used a hot-pack canning method (read up on it for context) with water bath processing.Notes:
- 1 lb of sprouts fills about one quart canning jar.
- Sprouts were boiled in a light brine for 4 minutes before packing.
- Brine: 5 cups white vinegar (5%), 5 cups water, 5 oz. salt
- Flavoring for each quart jar:
- 1.5 jalapeno peppers, sliced, seeds in
- 4 cloves garlic, crushed
- 1/2 teaspoon cumin, ground
- 1/2 teaspoon yellow mustard, ground
- 1 teaspoon cumin, whole
- 1 teaspoon yellow mustard, whole
- 1.5 teaspoons dried dill
- Processed for 15 minutes
Results:
???Jul/090
Fettuccine Alfredo Recipe
To celebrate getting four fresh tomatoes from the garden, we made a traditional alfredo. Here is the recipe.
Fettuccine Alfredo
Ingredients
- 1 pound fresh or frozen Fettuccine pasta
- 6 tablespoons unsalted butter
- 1 cup heavy cream
- 1 shallot or small sweet onion
- 1 cup grated parmesan cheese
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground pepper
- 1/2 cup chopped fresh parsley
- Optional: A few small fresh chopped tomatoes
Process
Boil at least 4 quarts of water, and add a few tablespoons of salt to the water. Boil the pasta according to the directions on the packaging (usually 2-3 minutes for fresh pasta). Drain and rinse.
While the water is boiling for the pasta, melt the 6 tablespoons of butter in a small sauce pan over medium heat. When it is melted, add the shallot or small onion, and cook for a minute, or until the shallot is soft. Do not allow it to brown! Add the cup of heavy cream, and bring to a boil, reducing heat to low. Simmer, stirring often, for 3-5 minutes, until the sauce reduces slightly. Add the salt to taste, and remove from heat.
Return the pasta to the pot, and add half the parmesan cheese, the tomato and the parsley. Slowly pour in the sauce, tossing as you go. The residual heat will melt the parmesan. When tossed, add freshly ground pepper to taste (I like a lot). Serve with another quick grind of pepper on top, and a sprinkle of the remaining parmesan cheese.
Jul/090
Garden is Cooking
Today we removed the walls of water from the tomato plants, and wrestled them into their cages. We already had some ripe tomatoes hidden beneath the protective walls! I can highly recommend the walls of water, our tomato plants are huge and healthy, where most others are half the size. Plus, getting ripe tomatoes in the first week of July is a first for us here in Colorado.
We’ve also been making good harvests of Rainbow Chard, Collard Greens and Sweet and Snap Peas. Onions are producing well, and we harvest some tops as scallions here and there. Herbs of course are going strong, and my Cascade and Centennial Hop bines are going nuts. The East Golding Hops may not make it, however. All in all, this is the best start to a new garden I think we’ve ever had.
Jul/090
Gears, gears, gears
I love machines that do nothing. You turn them, crank them, operate them, all to no practical effect. That satisfies me. To that end, here is a device, about 8″ square, that I cut out of 1/4″ MDF board on the CNC router. You turn the outer gear, and the inner gears all parade around mindlessly. It’s a planetary gear arrangement, commonly used in your car’s transmission, only this one doesn’t do anything.
I cut it from some modified designs from the Thingiverse, where people upload designs for things they made. You can then make copies or derivative works, and post them as well. Its very concrete! Most of the participants so far use laser cutters, CNC routers, and 3D rapid prototypers, so the variety of “things” is pretty wide. These gears were originally intended to be laser cut out of cardstock and assembled into a tiny, machinated business card.
Rapid prototyping and machining is becoming so common for “regular people” that I think we are approaching a manufacturing revolution, wherein instead of buying things, you buy meta-things, things that make other things. Why buy plastic cups when you can print your own?
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