Sauerkraut update

You may be wondering how the sauerkraut turned out.

Well, it did bubble out of the jar as it fermented so it swiftly got moved out of the cupboard to a dark spot where I could keep a close eye on it. However, the fermenting - or at least the frothing at the lid - stopped after about a week and I eventually moved the jar to the fridge.

By the end of last week I had plucked up enough courage to give it a taste which resulted in my running out to buy some sausages...

In case you can't work it out, the sauerkraut is at the bottom left-hand corner of the plate (top left being some mashed potatoes with leeks).

Not only have I lived to tell the tale but I am looking forward to the next portion.  And the next.... and the next..... (since I do have a litre of the stuff to eat!) Obviously, the photo is just a serving suggestion but if anyone has any others, please let me know.

The health kick continues... or does it?

I'd like to think that the healthy start to the year is continuing but I'm probably kidding myself. However, I did cook an entirely vegan and gluten-free meal last night that, even if I do say so myself, was delicious.

It was nearly all thanks to recipes I'd cut out and kept from various Sainsbury's Magazines. In fact, I don't think any of the recipes were at all recent. However, I'm very glad I did keep them and they will definitely be stored very carefully for future use.

The three savoury dishes were all from a Christmas buffet menu from many years ago. So long in fact, that the recipes aren't featured on the magazine website. Not that the overall buffet was vegan but these three dishes all were: spiced red lentils; cumin-spiced aubergine; and beetroot and coriander salad with preserved lemons and coriander. They all contained lots of herbs and spices and were very tasty indeed. 

As a nod to the fact that it was Pancake Day, I also attempted a pancake of sorts. To be honest, I had low expectations, but was very pleasantly surprised. It was a version of Farinata - an Italian chickpea pancake - and very easy to make. Mix or whisk together 330ml warm water with 100g of sieved gram or chickpea flour and a scant teaspoon of sea salt, then mix in 1 tablespoon of olive oil. Heat a further tablespoon of oil in a large frying pan and pour in the mixture. Sprinkle a good tablespoon full of chopped fresh rosemary over the top. Cook over a medium-high heat until the bottom of the pancake is golden. Meanwhile, heat your grill to a medium-high heat. Transfer the pan with the pancake to the grill and leave until the top is golden and the middle cooked. Cut into four and serve with a savoury dish of your choice. It's good at mopping up any juices.

All very delicious, but the most surprising dish was yet to come - a dairy-free chocolate mousse. Some time ago I had read about chocolate mousse made from avocado but never actually got around to trying it before last night. This is another recipe I will definitely be making again.

Actually, my nephew argues that it's not a mousse as a mousse should be light and fluffy and this is not. If I call it a chocolate 'pot' he is much happier. If you are brave enough to try it yourself, you can call it whatever you like. However, I do urge you to be brave!

You do need a food processor for this, or some kind of blender. I would say the hardest bit of making this dish is either removing the stones from the avocados or washing up the food processor once you are done so, even if you are the most incompetent of cooks, you can't use that as an excuse not to make it!

Take two ripe avocados, one large ripe banana, 40g cocoa powder, and 4 tablespoons of maple syrup or other type of plant syrup. Whizz together in the aforementioned food processor until smooth and spoon into 4 x 125ml ramekin dishes or small glasses. Chill.

The result is a smooth, rich, yet fresh tasting chocolate mousse - sorry 'pot'. Younger diners may prefer the other version of a simple chocolate mousse I featured last year but I think more sophisticated palates will love this (assuming they like rich chocolate desserts). I even felt rather virtuous eating it, although that may well be somewhat misguided!

A healthy start to the year

In early January I embarked on a knitting project, perhaps the first serious knitting I've done since 2014. I used to be able to knit whilst watching television but I must be out of practice. Either that or I am currently just watching things with subtitles and/or complicated plot lines, because I'm just not managing to combine the two. Or should I say, three, since there is invariably also a cat on my lap either wanting attention or trying to 'catch' my wool. It is for this reason that I have nothing yet worth sharing.

Meanwhile, I have begun the year trying to be more healthy. This means preparing food to take to work and so keeping me away from the, usually not-so-healthy, temptations of the cafe below my office. This has meant Sunday cook-ups of soup and snacks. Last week's snack was a delicious Apple and Raisin Quinoa Slice and I've just made some nut and date energy bars.

To make these, place 250g pitted dates, a 100g mixture of raisins and nuts of your choice, 50g cornflakes or gluten-free equivalent, and 50g nut butter of your choice into a food processor.

Blitz for a few minutes until everything is beginning to form a paste.

Line a 450g loaf tin with clingfilm and sprinkle with 1.5 tablespoons of sesame seeds before pressing the mixture into the tin and pressing down well. Sprinkle over another 1.5 tablespoons of sesame seeds before wrapping the clingfilm over the top and chilling until firm.

Slice into about 10 bars and place in an airtight container.

The sesame seeds give a wonderful crunch.

Meanwhile, I came across this article about gut health. Already a fan of kefir, which I have with nuts, seeds and fruit for breakfast, I was keen to try something else. And with dense, pale green cabbages arriving regularly in the veg box at the moment, attempting Sauerkraut seemed like a good place to start.

The recipe calls for 2kg of cabbage and makes 2 litres of sauerkraut. I opted to make just half as I'm conscious that it may go horribly wrong or I may not be that keen on the end result. 

Let me assure you, finely shredding 1kg of cabbage creates a lot of shredded cabbage! It says to place in a non-metallic bowl and 'massage' in the salt. I ended up using my largest plastic mixing bowl and my largest glass salad bowl to mix my meagre 1kg. I think I would have had to resort to a bucket if I'd opted to make the full recipe!

I was also worried that it wouldn't fit into the 1litre jar but I just kept packing it in. The key is to keep the cabbage fully submerged in the brine, which it produces itself. Any cabbage left sticking out of the liquid will go mouldy and contaminate the whole jar, so I'm going to be watching it like a hawk for the next week as it slowly begins to ferment. To say that I'm nervous about the whole venture would be an understatement.

My next blog post will either be a tale of woe - mouldy cabbage or of the jar exploding in the cupboard followed by an enormous clean-up exercise - or I'll be showing you pictures of delicious sauerkraut and, hopefully, making you all want to rush off and make some of your own. I really hope it will be the latter.