Food in the making

[magid]

A couple of photos of last month's food prep.

I had a lot of citrus, and decided to experiment with citrus liqueurs (I'd tried once before, and it was a failure, so I had a mental hurdle to getting this started, but needed to start using the citrus).

citrus booze in the making

From left to right, the quart jars have orange-vanilla, orange, tangerine, and lemon. The colors are so distinct that I wonder whether tangerines would have defined the color orange if they'd made it to England first. Interestingly, all the liqueurs are pretty much the same yellowish color; I'm glad I have the habit of labeling each batch immediately before starting on the next. Also, I might try squeezing the citrus a bit as I put it in the jars, since I ended up with less liqueur than I would have expected from juicy fruit. Apparently drupelets hold their integrity against vodka.


I also had much cabbage, and since the last batch of sauerkraut was just about done, it was time to start another.

sauerkraut in the making

This included most of three small heads of green cabbage, a small head of red cabbage, and some carrots and daikon. It was about a week after starting the fermentation process, and the red hadn't colored everything yet (I think I'd had a higher red : green ratio in other batches, so it colored quickly and completely); now it's redder, and in the fridge, since it had gotten as sour as I wanted. Perhaps next time I'll be more adventurous with veggies.

Comments

[(Anonymous)]

So pretty!

[magid.livejournal.com]

Thanks!

[hissilliness.livejournal.com]

Watch out for bitterness from the pith. You should probably taste the liqueur every couple days to make sure that isn't happening.

[magid.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the heads up. Unfortunately, those batches are already done, past any pithy concerns (sorry, couldn't resist), but I can pay attention for the next ones.

I have noticed that most of these age to a more mellow roundness after a few weeks; perhaps that will happen to mitigate any pith bitterness.

[magid.livejournal.com]

(I should probably zest then peel the fruit, but I'm too lazy.)

[powerfrau.livejournal.com]

Nice. They look delicious.

[magid.livejournal.com]

Thanks!

All those boozes turned out the opposite of piss clear, so for the next round of citrus liqueurs, I squeezed them just a little bit as I put them in the jar, and it looks like that will make a difference (I'll know more in a week and a half or so with tangelo-vanilla, lime, and pink grapefruit, which I ended up zesting and peeling, since the pith is so much thicker, and taking out just the fruit, no membranes between the sections). I think I'll want to do more with lemons and limes: lemon-ginger, lime-mint, lime-cranberry...

And I need to start being more aggressive about eating sauerkraut: I've got only 2 months until Passover :-)