Playing With My Food...

I’ve been bored lately & playing with food. I’ve been making bone broth, sauerkraut, & homemade yogurt. Very interesting! I didn’t slice the sauerkraut thinly enough & I didn’t use enough salt to really brine it good, but it turned out fine anyway. I took it out & re-sliced it (cabbage is pretty tough to chew in large chunks) & put it back in & it was just fine.

The most awesome thing that I made recently is Blue & Gold sausage-crusted quiche. The first time that I made it the quiche was effortless & perfect. The second time that I made it, the time that I took pictures, I really learned a lot (I screwed that shit up big time!) What I learned: if you bake the crust for too long it shrinks & all the fat cooks out & the eggs expand a LOT so if you overfill it, it will overflow.

(doesn't have to be perfect obvs)
(oops, a bit of overflow)
(see where the crust shrunk & the egg filled in the space)

Sausage-crusted Quiche: Press sausage into a cast-iron skillet to form a crust. You can prebake this a little, but not too much. Sprinkle some mozzarella in the bottom to help the eggs adhere. Mix 6 eggs, a good dollop of heavy cream, a bunch of mozzarella & parmesan, some garlic & onion & maybe other veggies like broccoli, spinach or mushrooms – whatever you have on hand or none at all. Pour into the crust & bake for about an hour at 350F until browned.

Sauerkraut: Very, very thinly slice a cabbage. Add a couple of tablespoons of sea salt, mix, pound gently with a wine bottle to release the juices & pack it tightly in a crock or large wide-mouthed jar. Place some sort of weight on top (a large clean rock or a jar full of water or something) to keep the cabbage packed. If the cabbage isn’t covered in its own brine by the next evening, boil a small amount of water, dissolve salt in it, let it cool & pour it on top until cabbage is submerged. Wait a week or so & then refrigerate.

Bone broth: Put your bones (& fat, skin, etc.) in a crockpot, cover with water & add a splash of vinegar. Simmer on low for a few hours, cool & strain into a large bowl. Put the bowl of gelatinous broth in the fridge. Fill the crockpot of bones back up with water, add vinegar & simmer on low for a long time (12-24 hours for chicken & 12-72 hours for large beef bones). Strain, add to the original broth, & put in mason jars. I freeze some of the jars without the lids until frozen then replace the lids after. I’ve heard that cooking broth for a long time destroys the gelatin but gets more minerals out of the bones, which is why I do it in two stages.

Yogurt: Heat a half gallon of whole milk (next time I’m going to add some heavy cream, too) to 180F (to kill any bacteria) & let cool to 115F (good temp to “grow” stuff). Add in 6 to 8 ounces of plain yogurt & stir well. Line a cooler in heavy towels, put yogurt container (I use my crockpot) in ice chest & wrap with towels. Don’t open or jostle cooler for 8 to 12 hours. Put some cheesecloth, papertowels, or a dish-towel (non-fuzzy) in a colander that is inside a large lasagna pan & pour the yogurt in to drain. Make sure the towel is completely inside the lasagna pan or the whey will wick off outside the pan. Freeze a small part of the yogurt for your next batch.