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Homemade Sauerkraut

Basic sauerkraut isn’t that hard. You just need sea salt, cabbage and some good glass or ceramic containers. And the patience to wait about two weeks.

coleslaw sauerkraut
This was my first kraut, which had chopped garlic and carrots in addition to the cabbage. Note the large cabbage leaf on top.

Ingredients and Supplies

  • Cabbage – any kind will do
  • Sea salt – a few sprinkles for every time you chop up some cabbage
  • 1 large glass jar
  • 1 small glass jar that will fit inside the large jar – I used a baby food jar.
  • Knife, cutting board, large bowl

How to Prepare the Sauerkraut

Put aside one or two large, outer leaves from the cabbage for later. Chop the cabbage. When the cutting board is full of cabbage, put it in the large bowl and sprinkle on some sea salt. Each time you fill the cutting board with cabbage, sprinkle on some sea salt. If you prefer amounts, in his book Wild Fermentation, Sandor Katz suggests 3 tablespoons per 5 pounds of cabbage.

According to Sandor Katz, you can’t use table salt, as it may not work in the fermentation process. More about sea salt vs. table salt on this article. You can buy sea salt in Highland Park at Anna’s Health Food Center for about $3.

Once the chopped cabbage is in the bowl, you press it with your hands until the water from the cabbage starts to leak out. In one video I watched, the sauerkraut preparer used a potato masher to hasten the process. In another, the person wore plastic gloves while pressing the cabbage. Next, press the cabbage into the large glass jar. Take the outer leave(s) and press them on top of your chopped cabbage. If the brine doesn’t cover the chopped cabbage, add a little water + salt to the top so it does cover. Press your small baby food jar bottle on top of the cabbage. If you can’t cover your large jar with the cap (and you probably won’t be able to until the cabbage has settled more or has been eaten a bit), cover it with a cloth and a rubber band.

Place your jar on a high shelf in your kitchen or in your basement or some other cool, dry place. Do not refrigerate yet – that will stop the fermentation process. Feel free to try the mixture every few days. We ate some after one week, and then we ate the rest after two weeks. If you have the patience to wait a month, maybe it will be even better then!

Benefits of Fermentation

Sandor Katz writes: “Fermentation not only preserves nutrients, it breaks them down into more easily digestible forms.” Some of you may have heard of priobiotics and its many benefits — think of fermentation as creating your own probiotics. A Finnish study found fermented cabbage could be even healthier than raw or cooked cabbage for fighting cancer.

For more information:

Radish Kale Almonds

Radish Kale Parsley Almonds
I am hoping to make this display of radishes, kale, almonds, parsley and walnuts into a watercolor painting. Meanwhile, I am pleased with this photograph. I was planning to use raspberries, but it turns out we had eaten all of them.

For more photos Straight Out Of the Camera:
Straight Out of the Camera Sunday

Purim Illustrated: Esther Points

Purim 2011

Purim, the Jewish holiday of costumes, festive food, hamantaschen and the Book of Esther, falls this year on March 20. We have begun preparing our annual oatmeal containers that we decorate, fill with edible treats and hand out to a few friends. My daughter created the scene above; I scanned it into the computer, and we plan to print it in a variety of sizes to paste unto the containers.

If you are celebrating, have you done anything to get ready? Any thoughts on the upcoming holiday? Questions?

Review with Fermented Cabbage

fermented cabbage
Here’s how my fermented cabbage, carrots, garlic and onion looked yesterday. You can learn more about fermenting in this post.

On My Blog

Jazz dancers begin their moves Why can't we always be on Vacation? ballet dancer with duck on head
cardinal in burning bush raspberry smoothie getting ready to dance tap on stage

Elsewhere on the Web

  • Rayna Elianna reviews The Same Sea, by Amos Oz.
  • Ilana-Davita writes: “I would love to know what Jewish thinkers and writers inspire you the most.”
  • Dr. Muli Peleg: Peaceful resolution requires compassion
  • Did you know that Rav Kook admired Rembrandt?
  • I wrote about slideshows on my tech biz blog . I included a Jewish woodworker, a dance studio that presented a New Jersey version of Beauty and the Beast, and some NASA space photos. My favorite is the graduate slideshow that I put together, in honor of a new graduate level program for Rutgers Jewish Studies.
  • Books I’ve Read, Books I’m Reading

    Gertruda’s Oath, Ram Oren
    Wild Fermentation, Sandor Katz
    Fear No Evil, Natan Sharansky

    I highly recommend all three of these books. What are you reading?

    Thursday Challenge: Movement

    Jazz dancers begin their moves
    Jazz dancers begin their moves

    Thursday Challenge‘s theme is “MOVEMENT” (Shaking, Falling, Bouncing, Jumping, Curling, Sagging,…).

    Next Week: CARS (New, Old, Sedans, Convertibles, Station Wagons, Sports,…)

    Fermenting Experimenting

    ferments in my kitchen
    I’ve been experimenting with pickling and fermenting vegetables. I tried a macrobiotic recipe that just called for sea salt, water and kombu (seaweed) with vegetables, but I didn’t care for the result. Then I found a video that shows Sandor Katz teaching how he makes fermented cabbage. I tried it. We will eat the results on Friday night or Shabbat (I don’t care to wait a whole month). Sandor Katz wrote a book called Wild Fermentation. I ordered the book, and maybe after I read it, I will be able to explain why fermenting vegetables is good for you.

    Notes: you do most of the work one day, and then a week or a month later you enjoy the results. That works well for those who like to plan ahead. Also, you will note both these videos talk about mold growing in the fermenting process (and Steve’s shows him throwing it away). Hmm, guess one has to get used to such things! My vegetables didn’t produce as much liquid as Sandor’s. But his recipe with cabbage, carrots, garlic and onion already tasted much yummier than the cucumbers in seaweed I tried last week. I hope to update you next week with photos of my finished product.

    Ballet Dancer and Egypt

    ballet dancer with duck on head
    A drawing by my daughter: what does this ballet dancer and Ancient Egypt have in common? Perhaps someone who knows ancient Egyptian history can help. Or maybe you are familiar with some midrashim related to parshat Shmot? (I’m not, but I gather that’s how my daughter got the idea).

    What do you see?

    Raspberry Banana Smoothie

    raspberry smoothie

    Ingredients

    • 1 banana
    • 1/2 pint raspberries
    • 1 Tbsp. oat milk or almond milk or rice milk

    Put banana, raspberries and oat milk in the blender or food processor and blend. You can double or triple the recipe if you have friends visiting.

    grape juice and seltzer
    When you have finished most of your smoothie, don’t panic. Add some grape juice and seltzer, and enjoy a new version of this treat.

    You can also use blackberries and/or blueberries, but then you can’t really use the photographs for Ruby Tuesday:
    Ruby Tuesday
    I was inspired by the Green Smoothie of Reluctant Vegetarian, but when I suggested the addition of kale to the smoothie, my daughter balked.

    Review with Tap Dancer

    getting ready to dance tap on stage
    Here’s my daughter getting ready to dance tap on stage last Saturday night. This is my entry for Straight Out of the Camera, hosted by Jan on Murrieta 365.

    On My Blog

    detail from painting by Elaine Wenger dancing ballet girl up close petunias
    cooking at Neot Kedumim ballet dances in purple dresses with sepia background rhododendron icicles
    Review: The Violin of Auschwitz

    Elsewhere in the Blogosphere

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