Jananas

The weather this past weekend wasn’t fantastic. Jason and I decided that we’d brave the threatening skies and make the drive from the cottage to Perth, ON anyway so that we could check out their annual Garlic Festival. It was amazing how many different types of garlic and garlic products there were – jellies, salsas, hot sauces, peanuts, and even garlic fudge… We wandered around a bit to check out all of the different types of garlic before finally purchasing sno cones to keep us going for the final garlic decisions.

We bought a lot, but it should last us for up to 10 months (crazy!). Right now the majority of what we got is hanging downstairs in our basement from some nails in the rafters. The furnace room is dark, relatively cool, and has little humidity (thanks to the dehumidifier running right now). Because the braids are hung up the bulbs get good air circulation which will help them keep longer. Now, to the garlic!

This first is one of three bulbs that a friend of ours up at the cottage gave to us from his own personal stock. Thanks Jack! Jack was actually the one who told us about the garlic festival, so we owe him doubly. My mom cut these bulbs off the stem, which bummed me out because she hadn’t heard the entire talk on how to do it properly. Oh well, it means that this guy’ll get eaten first.

The first braid of garlic we bought is Italian. Its supposed to be your basic garlic. I really like the presentation of these sorts of braids. The fact that they are easy to store (the twine to bundle them together ends in little loop) makes them that much better. Also, according to the garlic experts keeping the bulbs attached to the stocks helps them keep longer because the stocks draw in moisture.

Next up was a bag of Spanish Rojo. This is supposed to be a stronger, spicier garlic. I can’t wait to try it out!

After that we bought some Russian Red. This was probably the nicest looking presentation – the way they tied up the bundle shows the care they take in growing and selling garlic.

At this point we were almost out of cash on hand. We spent almost our last monies picking up some loose bulbs of Music, another basic porcelain garlic. These ones just looks so, well, perfect!

I’m really happy with our purchases. Making the drive to the garlic festival was totally worth it. The entire experience reinforced that I’d like to start growing my own garlic. Getting them started this fall is likely out of the question based on travel plans and timing. Instead I’ll think of it as giving me time to learn more about growing garlic.

After the garlic festival, we make a quick detour to hit up the Quilt Festival. We had to scrounge up the $6 admission (I had to use some American change to pay), but it was totally worth it. Some of the quilts were breathtaking in their beauty, artistry, and dedication. We were definitely the odd couple out (being young and tattooed), but we enjoyed getting to poke around. At some point in my life I would really like to have a nice handmade quilt. Maybe I should start saving my old tshirts and learn how to sew. I’ll get on that skill next year…

I had two mangoes left over from making mango chutney. I’m currently a little (just a little) obsessed with canning. I decided to see what else I could make with mangoes. I spent some time googling and started eying hot sauce recipes. I eventually found this one. I’ve looked in multiple stores over the last few days in my quest for habarenos to no avail. Instead we bought a mix of hot peppers – thai chillies, scotch bonnets, long hot red peppers, and so on. And, I doubled the recipe as I had two mangoes left.

I ended up with 5 bottles and a total of 1.25L of hot sauce. In our quick taste test, this hot sauce is sweet at first with a definite kick a few seconds down the road. I guess you could say it sneaks up on you. The true test will come when our friend Josh gives it a go…

My friend Breeze and I like to talk baking. She had mentioned her awesome one loaf vegan bread recipe in the comments for the post on no-knead, slow-rise bread. I gave the recipe a try and it was such a resounding success that I had to make a second loaf that day just to keep up with demand for it.

There’s a couple of things that I really like about this recipe. First, it only makes one loaf. Second, its versatile meaning that you can add what you want to it (in our case this normally means lots and lots of flax seed). Third, its damn tasty!

Recipe forVegan Whole Wheat Bread:

• 1 cup warm water
• 1/4 maple syrup or agave (or 1/4 cup honey for the beegans)
• 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
• 1 teaspoon active dry yeast (up to 1 1/4 tsp)
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup rolled oats
• 2 1/3 cups bread flour (or mixture of bread & whole wheat flour)
• Additional flour when kneading

Mix water, agave, and yeast together. Let sit for 5+ minutes, or until ‘foamy’. Add to dry ingredients, stirring until just mixed. Roll onto floured counter, kneading until smooth. Place in an oiled bowl, turning to coat dough. Cover with saran wrap or a damp towel. Let rise until doubled in volume (at least one hour). Punch down and knead briefly. Place loaf in an oiled 5×9 pan, covering and allowing to rise again.

Cook at 325F for 25-30 minutes. Done when you hear a hollow sound when you tap the bottom. You can also place a sheet of aluminum foil over the top of the loaf once its browned to prevent further colour from developing.

We took a quick trip up north of the city this past weekend to check out Dr. Flea’s (which sadly turned out to be more of a dirt mall than a flea market). They did have a produce place just outside that was a steal. I picked up a box of 9 mangoes for $6. The next question was, what to make given that we wouldn’t be able to eat that many mangoes in a short period of time.

I came across this recipe for homemade mango chutney. I substituted apple cider vinegar for white vinegar. I also added two scotch bonnet peppers to the mixture while it was simmering on the stove, removing them before canning. Here’s my big pot of mango chutney read to start cooking.

It took about 45-50 minutes on the stove until it boiled down to something that looked more like a chutney.

I then ladled it into little 250mL cans. It made 8 and a bit bottles. We’re going to use the little half bottle in the next few days – maybe with some of the brie we have in the fridge. This next picture is of the bottles before going into the hot water bath.

The cans spent 15 minutes in a hot water bath, before I transferred them over to some towels that I had laid out on the counter.

And done! Thankfully we don’t have to wait 8+ weeks to try this out, like we do with the pickles. I’m stoked to give it a try. Maybe with some tempeh and rice?

Two-ish weeks ago, I made two batches of homemade fill and (very) garlicky pickles. We’ve dutifully waited and so far have been able to resist the temptation to try some. I took a couple of jars out of their cool, dark cupboard yesterday to make sure that everything was still okay. I noticed that some of the cloves of garlic had gone a blue/green colour (see the middle clove in the picture below). I was pretty nervous that everything had gone wrong and that they were ruined. I was really nervous after a couple of friends gave me mini-lectures on the dangers of homemade canned goods or preserves. I was still game to try them, given that I take more a ‘free-range’ parenting approach to my food, but I didn’t want to subject my friends to potentially lethal food stuffs.

I did some research this morning on blue or green garlic in canning. On this website, I came across some scientific research (Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, Volume 54, Issue 3 (February 08, 2006), p. 843-847, Identification of Two Novel Pigment Precursors and a Reddish-Purple Pigment Involved in the Blue-Green Discoloration of Onion and Garlic, written by Shinsuke Imai, Kaori Akita, Muneaki Tomotake, and Hiroshi Sawada.). The gist is that the garlic goes green/blue because of a reaction between sulfur compounds in the garlic and amino acids. The reaction depends on the age of the garlic (how much sulfur compound it contains) and the type of processing.

In my case, the reaction can be prompted by copper compounds in vinegar or in the iodine found in table salt (which is why most recipes recommend using canning/pickling salt). I used sea salt and while the ingredients didn’t list iodine it is still possible that there was some present. The brine inside is a tad cloudy, again a problem often associated with the use of table salt. While they may not be as aesthetically pleasing, it does nothing to impact how edible they are.

The good news? They are safe to eat! The cans display none of the more typical signs that the food has gone bad – list becoming unsealed, mould on the top of the water, etc. Yay!