Beachlover food review

[Whittler Kev]

As you may know, as it's Xmas, I decided to swap a spoon/crook knife for whatever anyone has to offer, to help with the spondolicks shortage we are all having lately. Pickles, booze or just about anything (even got an ash bow being made - can't wait and neither can the son-in-law) would be accepted.
Anyway, Beachlover sent a "food parcel". This is what I sent him in way of a review. If you get near him, ask for a taste & see if you agree

Good God it's arrived, what can I say
The pickled garlic looks lovely - very colourful
The sauerkraut - what a fantastic taste- Gherkiny
The chutney - almost knocked out of the way as SWMBO wanted at it. We both think its lovely, reminds SWMBO of the stuff her Gran made. She has lost the recipe so if possible can we have it. She WILL be making a batch up if you send it.
Sloe Gin. Never ever tasted sloe anything before. We chanced a nip although you said it would want decanted after letting it settle. Bearing in mind neither of us really like the bitter taste gin usually has, good job you said wait as This is the only way it will last tonight:You_Rock_. Absolutely, ruddy, gorgeous. As neither of us really drink booze, unfortunatelly we may well become alki's. How do I make it!! Lock your shed!! I have your address and I have transport.
More habit forming than smoking. SWMBO has now found the only booze she likes. The fruity taste is unbelievable. Thanks. I will try and make it last until Xmas

By the way, offer still open to any of you over 18's. Just PM me

 

[beachlover]

Glad you got the stuff in one piece to be honest. I think the secret was not marking it "Fragile"

All of them are easy to make. The pickled Garlic doesn't even taste like Garlic but is very addictive. I have a mate who spent years in the Ukraine and loves that Sauerkraut too.
As for the sloe gin, I only have 3 bottles of sloe gin and one of sloe voddy ready for Xmas, but that doesn't count the elderberry wine, beetroot wine, peapod wine, parsnip wine, etc etc.

End of the day, I'm glad you liked the stuff Kev - recipes by PM when I get a minute

 

[johnnytheboy]

Oh, any saurkraut or pickled garlic reicpes flying around could I have them as well please, pretty please

 

[beachlover]

Oh, any saurkraut or pickled garlic reicpes flying around could I have them as well please, pretty please

When I get a minute or two spare I'll drop you a PM

 

[scanker]

I'd be interested in them too Kev, if you didn't mind posting them in public.

 

[beachlover]

I'd be interested in them too Kev, if you didn't mind posting them in public.

I'll pop the Garlic one up tomorrow. The Sauerkraut is a bit of a mission and will probably involve pics, but I'll do my best.

 

[scanker]

Sounds good. Thanks.

 

[sapper1]

Kev , is that the chutney you had at RC when you made a curry?If so I can tell everyone they haven't tasted chutney 'til they try this.

 

[chickenofthewoods]

I'd deffo be interested in the garlic recipe as the last time I tried making some the garlic bulbs all turned an amazing shade of verdegris green. Not very appetising and probably not safe to eat either! (I wasn't tempted to find out).

 

[beachlover]

Kev , is that the chutney you had at RC when you made a curry?If so I can tell everyone they haven't tasted chutney 'til they try this.

That's the stuff Chris

 

[Tony]

I'm up for some recipes as well if you can Kev, this all sounds mouth watering

 

[beachlover]

Here are the recipes for the
Courgette Chutney, Pickled Garlic and Sloe gin that I use.

Courgette Chutney

Ingredients

* 4 lb courgettes
* 2lb 8oz onions
* 2lb 8oz brown sugar
* Large piece of fresh ginger
* 1/2 tspn pepper
* 2 pints malt vinegar
* 2 heads of garlic
* 2lb 8oz tomatoes
* 1 tspn cayenne pepper
* 2 tspn salt

Method

Chop all the vegetables, add vinegar, sugar and spices and bring slowly to the boil, stirring now and again. If the courgettes have a tough skin, you can peel them and compost the skins.

Simmer for about two hours (don’t forget to stir as it will stick) until thick. (I find that it takes much, much longer. I do it over at least a whole day, but tend to make it in bulk)

Pour into heated jars and seal.
Notes:

Needs at least three months to mature.



Pickled Garlic

INGREDIENTS

* 225 g garlic, peeled
* 1 large red bell pepper, chopped
* 475 ml distilled white vinegar
* 130 g white sugar
* 2 g ground dry mustard
* 1 g celery seed


DIRECTIONS

1. Place garlic cloves in a medium bowl, first cutting the large cloves in half. Mix in the red bell pepper.
2. In a large saucepan over medium high heat, place the distilled white vinegar and white sugar. Wrap ground dry mustard and celery seed in a spice bag, and place in the liquid mixture. Bring to a boil. Boil 5 minutes. Stir in garlic and pepper. Continue boiling 5 minutes. Remove from heat and discard spice bag depending on your own taste and preferences.
3. Place garlic and peppers in sterile containers to within 1 inch of the top. Fill with remaining liquid to within 1/4 inch from the top. Seal and store in the refrigerator approximately three weeks before serving.



Sloe Gin:

I buy a litre bottle of cheap gin and use two empty wine bottles – the cheap ones with screw tops.
I fill1/3 of the bottle with demerara sugar and another third with sloes. I freeze my sloes and use them when I get round to making the sloe gin. This seems to save the laborious job of pricking fresh ones and allegedly improves the taste. I do it because I am essentially lazy!
I then fill up the bottles with the gin, scew on the tops and shake to dissolve the sugar.
The bottles then need a shake every day or so until the sugar has totally dissolved and the gin a delicious pink colour.
The next step is the most difficult. You have to decide where to store it that is virtually inaccessible. This ensures it lasts until at least the next Christmas! Recipes say it needs at least 6 months.
Some people decant the end result and use the remaining sloes to make sloe cider and to get a debris free sloe gin. I rarely bother unless giving it away.

 

[Tony]

Thanks mate

 

[beachlover]

Sauerkraut

This is a bit of a mission and photo heavy, so bear with me.

Take three cabbages. The hard pale green – white cabbages are best. I think these were kilaxy from the lottie.

Then start chopping until the whole lot are finely chopped. I’ve tried a food processor for this, but in the end settled for the good old fashioned way. As a guide, no bit should be more than a couple of inches long and 1/4” wide.

This takes a while and the photo above was about half way through the process.

The next step is to find a container to “ferment” the cabbage in. I have two differently sized plastic buckets that I use depending on how much I am doing. The essential thing is that once in the bucket, the mix needs to be pressed down and effectively sealed. I have two plates that fit in the buckets almost perfectly for this. Trial and error is the only way.

Layer the cabbage into the bucket with liberal amounts of salt. I think the original recipe I had (and lost long ago) suggested three or four tablespoons full for this amount. I tried this and found mould growing in my first batch, so now I use about three times as much and I’ve had no trouble since.

I then mix it all up before bashing the hell out of the mix with a rolling pin. This breaks down the cell structure and allows the salt to more easily draw fluid out of the cabbage. This takes some time and you are done when the cabbage is “wet” enough to be submerged under the saline when pressed down.

Once the cabbage is ready, a muslin bag (notice I couldn’t find mine so used a net bag instead) is filled with a handful of your favourite herbs. I think in this case I used Bay, Sage, parsley, rosemary, juniper berries, garlic and chillies, but whatever you have to hand and like the taste of seems to work.

I then tie the lot in the bag and stuff it into the middle of the cabbage mix.

The next step before finishing this stage is to “seal” the mix. I use a plate and weight it down with a bag of water.

The whole thing now needs to go somewhere cool to ferment. I use my shed and leave it for anything up to a fortnight, checking it every now and again. Don’t be too worried about it looking quite off putting and seeing the liquid coming up over the plate as the cabbage softens and the pressure from the bag of water forces the plate down.

When you decide you ought to bottle it up, simply scoop out the bag of herbs, and squeeze handfuls into freshly sterilised jars (I heat mine in the oven and that way they seal better as they cool) until rammed full, top up with a little of the fluid and seal.

Those three cabbages eventually filled three curry sauce jars with sauerkraut.

Mine seem to keep for ages. I have some jars over a year old and even when opened seem to keep well in the fridge, but obviously common sense prevails.

This is my third year of making this and I’m still here, but then I am the bloke who tested a water filter using water from a wormery to see if it really worked, so on your own heads be it

 

[scanker]

Thanks for taking the trouble to post those, and with pics too. I'll definitely be trying them and will post my results. I've made my sloe gin already this year. I used white sugar for mine. How does the demerara effect the end product?

 

[beachlover]

Thanks for taking the trouble to post those, and with pics too. I'll definitely be trying them and will post my results. I've made my sloe gin already this year. I used white sugar for mine. How does the demerara effect the end product?

To the likes of my palate I'd probably not notice, but I read it does make for a richer taste. I just happened to have a bag knocking about so used it. I've made it using white sugar in the past and it was fine. If I detect a difference I'll let you know

 

[Toddy]

I've just found this thread while looking for something else entirely

Kev, I'm hungry

Cheers for the recipes, I'm going to try them

cheers,
M

 

[British Red]

I've got a boat load of garlic ready right now.....Thanks Kev (and Mary)

 

[beachlover]

I'd forgotten about posting this too, but remembered I hadn't used it all yet.
I have just opened the last of the three jars that had been in a kitchen cupboard since posting this up and it's still perfectly OK.
Well, at least it seems to be, but if this turns out to be my last post then it wasn't