Food: an exotic piece and a next piece
Sep. 5th, 2022 01:17 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
greenstormThe apples are a perfect template for how I think about the food I make.
I have an abundance of something, in this case apples. I want to use it to make a portion of my diet, across the year if possible, so more than just standing outside and eating apples after I get home from work and tossing the cores to the geese (which I also do).
Drying apples would be perfect, I could snack on them easily while doing other things, but it's too fiddly: my apples are small, and I don't have time to core and slice them, I only have one dehydrator, it's a low return for the amount of work.
Applesauce is easy: cut the apples in half (for a more efficient fit, and to see if there are huge worms in them or anything) and toss them in a pair of slow cookers. Eight to twelve hours later, come back and pour the pulp from the slow cookers into the chinois (does this thing have another name yet?) directly into my stewpot. Heat to boiling, with or without sugar or another flavouring, pour into jars, boil the jars 20 minutes, done.
But wait, this is kind of boring applesauce, I can't eat it that much. Does adding a couple vanilla beans make it into more of a dessert thing? So then I can eat it more? Or burning some sugar into caramel? Why yes, so I'll do that with some.
And adding more sugar and simmering makes it into jam, which I can then flavour with things I either don't have enough to make jam (the last saskatoons, a couple of limes) or that don't make good jam on their own (spruce tips).
But if I make jam, the next step is: can I eat it on anything I've made or obtained locally? Applesauce is good on my pork, or with my goose. Actually, the jam probably is too.
But if I make cornbread or some sort of hoecake from my corn, putting jam on that is a more satisfying experience. Then if I serve that with homemade breakfast sausage, that's even better.
So I'm always kind of thinking, is there an exotic flavouring I can buy to increase the value of what I have, like limes or vanilla? And then, where's the next piece down the chain where I can add something I grew or harvested to make this meal more completely from this place?
That's the basic philosophy underpinning the thought of raising 75% of my calories myself.
I have an abundance of something, in this case apples. I want to use it to make a portion of my diet, across the year if possible, so more than just standing outside and eating apples after I get home from work and tossing the cores to the geese (which I also do).
Drying apples would be perfect, I could snack on them easily while doing other things, but it's too fiddly: my apples are small, and I don't have time to core and slice them, I only have one dehydrator, it's a low return for the amount of work.
Applesauce is easy: cut the apples in half (for a more efficient fit, and to see if there are huge worms in them or anything) and toss them in a pair of slow cookers. Eight to twelve hours later, come back and pour the pulp from the slow cookers into the chinois (does this thing have another name yet?) directly into my stewpot. Heat to boiling, with or without sugar or another flavouring, pour into jars, boil the jars 20 minutes, done.
But wait, this is kind of boring applesauce, I can't eat it that much. Does adding a couple vanilla beans make it into more of a dessert thing? So then I can eat it more? Or burning some sugar into caramel? Why yes, so I'll do that with some.
And adding more sugar and simmering makes it into jam, which I can then flavour with things I either don't have enough to make jam (the last saskatoons, a couple of limes) or that don't make good jam on their own (spruce tips).
But if I make jam, the next step is: can I eat it on anything I've made or obtained locally? Applesauce is good on my pork, or with my goose. Actually, the jam probably is too.
But if I make cornbread or some sort of hoecake from my corn, putting jam on that is a more satisfying experience. Then if I serve that with homemade breakfast sausage, that's even better.
So I'm always kind of thinking, is there an exotic flavouring I can buy to increase the value of what I have, like limes or vanilla? And then, where's the next piece down the chain where I can add something I grew or harvested to make this meal more completely from this place?
That's the basic philosophy underpinning the thought of raising 75% of my calories myself.
