2008 Devil Dog

A few weeks ago, my friend Julia said that she wanted to know more about the Devil Dog Wine. Here you go, Julia- way more detail than you probably wanted. I remember from our college days that you liked wine, but not with food.

When we moved into this house in 1997, there was a 20 year old Concord grape vine in the side yard. Chuck decided he wanted to make wine. We knew nothing about making wine, other than it came from grapes and people crushed them with their feet. It took us a few years, but in 2002 we harvested grapes and gave it a try.

In 2002 and 2003, he tried making a dry wine because that's what I like. It was not successful. The 2004 batch had an accident and went bad. In 2006, he decided to make a sweet wine. He was looking for a taste like Wild Irish Rose, or MD 20-20. He decided to label it Devil Dog 50-50, and put a picture of our dog in a devil costume on the label. The slogan that year was "Odds are even you'll get bit." The sweet wine was successful. We took bottles home with us for Thanksgiving, and family members seemed to like it. In 2007 we made a sweet cherry wine, that was also very popular. He continues to use the Devil Dog label, and changes the slogan. This year he made a pseudo Limoncello, the slogan was "Bad as a Junkyard dog."

The process for making wine is this:
Pick grapes: This past fall we picked approximately 45 pounds of concord grapes.









Stem and sort: In the past we have left the stems in, but found gave the wine some bitterness we didn't like.

Crush: We have tried using hands to crush, a feet to crush (very bad idea) and a method using two 2 liter bottles. This year we ground the grapes with the meat grinder- it worked very well, and we'll continue to do this.












Put juice into a 7 gallon plastic bucket. Check with a hydrometer for sugar content, called a Brix test. Certain yeasts provide certain amount of alcohol, and require certain levels of sugar to do so. We use a champagne yeast that yields a 19% alcohol, so Chuck adds sugar until the hydrometer shows 19, then adds a packet of yeast.

Cover the bucket, put in a warm dark place for several days. A crust made of dead yeast cells and grape skins and seeds will form on the top- It must be punched it down everyday- The house gets a vague yeasty smell.

After about a week, he checks again with the hydrometer, and keeps checking daily until it registers 0- at that point all of the sugar has been changed to alcohol. Usually the crust sinks to the bottom by this point. We let it sit with the skins in for another week because we like the dark color, but we don’t stir after it has reached 0.

Siphon the wine out of the bucket into a 5 gallon glass jar (carboy) leaving the dregs in the bucket.
Add 1 Campden tablet (potassium metabisulfite) per gallon to stop any yeast growth. An air trap on the top of the bottle lets the wine breathe but doesn’t let anything come in from outside. Chuck then lets it age and clarify a month or so.
Siphon over to another carboy, leaving any dregs in the first one. Add more sugar to taste, and 1 Campden tab per gallon to stop additional fermentation. (This is how we lost the 2004 batch- we added more sugar, didn't stop the fermentation and the bottles popped their corks. It was a mess.) Some people do this several times- over several months, Chuck doesn't bother. One month of fermentation is OK with him.
Bottle, cork and seal. I have short videos of these processes. I apologize for the sideways orientation- I didn't realize when I made them that I wouldn't be able to rotate the screen without distorting the sound.
Filling bottles. We got 3.5 gallons of wine from 45 pounds of grapes. This was the first year Chuck didn't add any additional water.

Corking bottles

Sealing Bottles


When offered a glass of wine, Boodles revealed that she is a tee-totaller.

A Google search on Making Wine will yield lots of results, if this has inflamed your imagination.

Apple Upside Down Cake

Ever since posting about the cast iron skillet last weekend, I've had upside down cake on my mind. Since I don't live in Hawaii, though, I can't claim pineapple as local. However, a quick look through The Joy Of Cooking by Erma Rombauer, found a recipe called French Apple or Peach Cake. We still have stored apples, a little soft by now, but still excellent for applesauce or baking. I adapted the recipe rather heavy-handidly.

French Apple or Peach Cake
Joy of Cooking p. 661
Preheat oven to 425 degrees F
Grease the bottom of a deep 8 inch pie pan or ovenproof dish and cover the bottom well with:
2 cups or more peeled, sliced apples, peaches or other fruit. (I used 3 apples, unpeeled but sliced very thin, and a #10 cast iron skillet)
Sprinkle the fruit liberally with:
2/3 cup sugar
cinnamon or nutmeg (No nutmeg here)
grated rind and juice of 1 lemon (I did not have a lemon. However, I did have some dried lemon peel, and a jar in the refrigerator full of the ground lemon left over from Chuck's experiment making a Limoncello-like liquor this fall. I used 1 Tablespoon of the dried peel, and 2 Tablespoons of the ground lemon)
Dredge with:
1 Tablespoon all purpose flour (I just sprinkled this over the top)
Pour over surface:
2-4 tablespoons melted butter (What if you used a half and half mixture of coconut oil and butter?)
(I also sprinkled 1/2 cup chopped pecans, and 1/2 cup shredded coconut* over the apples.)
Prepare the following batter. Sift together:
1 cup all purpose flour (I used 1/2 cup unbleached white, 1/2 cup white whole wheat)
1/2 cup sugar
1 teaspoon double acting baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
Beat and add:
2 egg yolk (I used 1 whole egg)
1 Tablespoon melted butter
1/4 cup milk. (I used 1/2 cup plain nonfat yogurt, thinned to a milk-like consistency with water)
Beat these ingredients with swift strokes until blended. Cover the fruit with the batter. Bake the cake for about 30 minutes. Reverse it onto a platter. Cool slightly.

This was marvelous- there was a delightful light lemon flavor. The texture was doughy, sort of like a big pancake.

*No, the coconut is not local. However, my local structure is: grow it myself->buy from the farmer->buy from a local independent store->buy from a local chain->buy from a national chain.
The coconut came from my local Mennonite bulk store- a local independent store as did the flour, baking powder and sugar. So it's not too far up the scale. The lemons are not local, either, but came from the farmers market earlier in the fall.

Another cool tool

Recently a friend gave me a 10.5 inch cast iron chicken fryer. When she told me about it, I was expecting a frying pan, maybe one that was higher in the center of the pan, like an old teflon chicken fryer I used to have. What she gave me was a really cool frying pan with another frying pan for a lid.

The lid is hinged on the back with a little hinge that unhooks. I've never seen anything like it. I've looked at the new cast iron skillets, and they all have regular lids- this one is so much more interesting.

This skillet had belonged to my friend's mother, and she brought it home after closing her mom's house up and selling it this past fall. It was made by the Griswold Manufacturing Company, an old Pennsylvania company. She said she knew someone would want it because Pennsylvania people love Griswold cast iron. I had never heard of it, but then, like the Plain people who are "in the world but not of it", I am in Pennsylvania, but not of it. But I was so honored that she thought of me to be the new owner or the pan. I was worried about depriving her of her family heirlooms, but she assured me it wasn't an antique. We know the pan was made after 1957. Pans made before 1957 said "Erie PA" under the Griswold makers mark, pans made after that did not.

I know it's a chicken fryer because the pan tells me so...
Cast iron cookware has been around for a very long time- since the 1700's here in America. Because they are so durable, pans and dutch ovens were often handed down from one generation to the next. However, when non-stick coatings like Teflon became available in the 60's and 70's, cast iron lost some of it's popularity. It is heavy, and if not properly seasoned, food can stick.

However, many cooks are turning back to cast iron. Concern about health risks with non-stick coatings is one reason. Bird owners know not to leave their birds in the kitchen when cooking with non-stick cookware- gases released at high temperatures can kill a bird. A 2007 study done at Johns Hopkins in Baltimore recorded levels of perfluorooctane sulfonate and perfluorooctoanoate, both chemicals used in making non-stick coatings in samples of newborn infant cord blood. The study found a correlation between higher levels of the chemicals and lower birthweight. Most interesting to me is that there WERE levels of the chemicals in the cord blood.

According to a February 2009 Kansas City Star article,

In 2008 Americans spent more than $28.5 million on cast-iron cookware. That figure is up nearly 10 percent from the previous year, with consumers spending less money on stainless steel and aluminum cookware, according to the NPD Group Inc., a leading global market research company.

Beyond the health concerns, there are other reasons for using cast iron. The heavy metal is an excellent heat conductor, allowing the pan to heat evenly- no hot spots. Cast iron moves from the stove top to the oven easily (Pineapple Upside Down cake is best in a cast-iron skillet). There are also health benefits for those who tend to anemia- cooking acidic foods (like tomato sauce) in cast iron leads to an increase of iron in the finished food.

Seasoning cast iron is not that difficult, either. Rub your skillet with a vegetable oil, and heat it for 30 minutes to an hour in a hot oven- 300 to 500 degrees. Let the skillet cool. If you do this a couple of times, the skillet should be well seasoned.

Caring for cast iron after use is also easy. Opinions are split as to whether or not to wash your cast iron with soap or not, but all experts agree that you should never leave liquid in your cast iron. What's Cooking America has a wealth of information about seasoning and caring for your cast iron, as well as how to clean up old cast iron.

Chuck fried chicken in the skillet Sunday. It was just the way I like it- juicy and not dreadfully crispy. I know other people love crispy fried chicken, but not me.



He likes to keep some fried chicken in the freezer to grab on those nights we don't get dinner ready before he goes to work. He's certainly well set up now!

Making Milk Myself...

For those of you who arrived here expecting a post on breastfeeding, sorry. Been there, done that and the moment has passed. This is actually about making a vegan milk out of grains and nuts.

I have never liked milk. One of my worst childhood memories is of being served milk in anodized aluminum glasses much like these. It was awful- the metal of the glass had a scent that didn't go well with the milk, I would put off drinking it, the milk would get warm and the scent would get worse. Yucky all around. I would complain, and my mom would tell me I had to drink it until I was 12 years old, and then I could quit. Let me tell you, I never looked back once I passed that milestone. The only glass of milk I have had since that day was once during a pregnancy. My husband told me a glass of milk would settle my stomach. He lied.

My sister A told to me that she makes a breakfast smoothie using almond milk. I immediately wanted to do that too- why should she have a tasty treat and not me? Actually, just the thought of almond milk was entrancing. I also remembered, from our abortive experiment making tofu two summers ago, that we could follow the same technique to solidify a tofu from almond milk. I don't know about you, but almond tofu sounds unbelievably good to me.

I could buy almond, oat, hemp, rice or soy milk at the store. But I always like to make things myself, and this is no exception. I looked online, and found recipes. I decided I would make my own barley milk (since barley is a Miracle Food!) and almond milk. At the Mennonite store I bought a pound of rolled barley, a pound of raw almonds, and because they had them, a pound of raw cashews.

The process is similar whether using grains or nuts. For the barley milk, I used this oatmilk recipe from Recipezaar:

Ingredients

1 cup cooked oats (i use thick rolled) (Substitute barley here. I also don't know why you couldn't use any grain.)
4-5 cups hot water
1-2 teaspoon cornstarch (I would leave this out next time to see what happens)
1 tablespoon sugar (I used honey)
1 dash nutmeg (I left this out)
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1 pinch sea salt
Directions
To cook steel cut or thick rolled oats, bring 1 cup of water to a boil in a small sauce pan, add 1/2 cup of oats and turn the heat down to med/low, they just want to gently simmer for about 10 minutes. Give it a stir to check to see if the oats have absorbed all of the water.

Bring 5 cups of water to a boil.
As you are waiting for the water to boil, add the rest of the ingredients to a blender.
As soon as your water is boiling add 3-4 cups to the blender. Be sure that there is room left in the top of the blender and that the lid fits securely or you could risk splashing yourself with hot water when you flip the switch.
Turn your blender on low and increase to high speed, blending for about 20 seconds or so. Check the consistency, add more water as necessary to achieve the desired thickness. The mixture will thicken a little as it cools off and eventually chills.

The barley milk was a little thick and gelatinous- it didn't make a difference when making smoothies, but I can't imagine chugging a glass of this. I'm not sure how it would work with other cooking.

I used this recipe for the almond milk, also from Recipezaar:

Ingredients

1/2 cup almonds (I used 1 cup)
1 1/2 cups boiling water(I used 3 cups)

Directions

Soak almonds for about 12 hours, rinse. I added this step
Throw the almonds and the boiling water into the blender and blend for about 3 minutes at high speed.
Strain through muslin or cheesecloth.
The remaining pulp can be used in vegetable/nut loaves or burgers.

Shake milk well before serving.

The nut milks were terrific. The almond had a lot of residue that wasn't ground up by the blender. I saved it and toasted it for later use. The cashews completely vanished- there was nothing left. I didn't even bother to strain.

Almond milk	Almond milk
leftover almonds after blending	leftover almonds toasted
cashews after soaking	cashew milk
cashew milk

I think next time I will combine a nut milk with a grain milk. Also, before I make the grain milk, I think I will put the raw grain flakes in the blender or food processor. Then I'll soak them overnight instead of cooking them. I suspect that will cut down the sliminess. I also might add a tablespoon of coconut oil to the blender, if I can find some that tastes good. I have some on hand here, but it has a "neutral" flavor.

I'm not Balkan at this Egg Sandwich!

There is an international grocery in a nearby town, run by Mersida, a woman from Bosnia. I don't get up there very often, but when I do go, I try to time it so I can get there to buy loaves of lepinja. Lepinja is a wonderful Balkan bread- sort of like pita, but without a pocket and not as flat.

While looking for a recipe for lepinja, I ran across a description of a dish, lepinja komplet, that really sounded yummy. The description was not very detailed, it simply said to slice the lepinja, spread it with kajmak (a soft cheese made from milk and heavy cream) or butter, crack eggs onto the bread and bake. So we did. Chuck spread the kajmak on the top and bottom of his bread, I didn't because that much milk fat would kill me. He put the top back on his before baking, I didn't. We baked them at 350 until the eggs set. (Apparently there is also something about lamb drippings- we skipped that part.)

Chuck's after baking

Mine after baking.

Chuck enjoying his

They were really good- the bread was crispy on the outside but still soft inside, the eggs were nicely done. Mine did get a little hard- I think it was wise of Chuck to put the top of the bread back on.
Man, I love egg sandwiches!

While playing around on utube, I found several videos with lepinja as the key word. One appears to be a traditional way of baking the bread, the other seems to be the making of these sandwiches. I have no idea what they are saying in these videos.





Sorry for the orientation on this one.

If you would like to try to make your own lepinja, here is a recipe:

Name that tool

When Chuck and I decided to make our own sausages, I thought we had some of the major equipment we would need. I was positive there was a grinder that my Grandmother Helen had used in a box in the closet, along with an antique shoe last and her cast iron apple peeler. When I went to the box however, to my great surprise, it wasn't a grinder. It was instead this mysterious tool. Can you guess what it is?
We knew it was for cutting vegetables. I thought it was probably the hand precursor of a food processor, Chuck thought it was a kraut cutter. It has four barrels with different cutting blades; a grater, one that looked like it would cut ripple slices, a shredder that looked like a series of little mouths with teeth, and one with just a large straight edge.

We decided to make slaw. We had a small head of red cabbage, a stored carrot, and an onion. We could have done it with that, but I gave into the urge and bought an out-of-season and non-local red pepper, and two out-of-season and non-local zucchini.

We experimented with all the different blades. The shredder was perfect for the carrot- the beautiful, fine pieces of carrot that filled the barrel were amazing.
The grater barrel was perfect for the zucchini, and the large flat blade cut the cabbage into lovely chunks. Next time I will try the shredder on the cabbage. We cut the onion and the pepper by hand- we tried the pepper on several blades, but it was too soft and just mushed. And we don't like the taste onions get when they are cut mechanically. Too many cells are crushed and sulpher compounds are released.

The vegetable mixture was gorgeous. We used half of it that night as slaw. I like a sweet, non-creamy slaw so we used a commercial poppy seed dressing and added some crumbled, crispy fried bacon into it. The rest of the vegetable mixture was saved for a stir fry and a lentil soup made later in the week.

We also used the tool to cut sweet potato chips. I love sweet potatoes any way they are prepared, but I hate to try to cut them for fries or chips. This was quick, easy and efficient, and the chips were incredibly thin. Drained on a paper towel after frying, they were practically greaseless. In the photos, the fried chips are on a paper towel


By the way, the shoe last and the apple peeler did not undergo a transformation- they were still a shoe last and an apple peeler.

Miracle Foods: Buckwheat

I love the idea of miracle foods. It warms my heart to think that there are foods out there that will cure my ills, make me slimmer and put money in my pocket. Well, ok, I don't know of any that have claimed to make me richer, but the other two claims are pretty standard in the miracle foods arena.

Right now, whole grains are getting a lot of PR for healthy eating. Everyone is eating oatmeal, whole wheat bread. However there are other foods out there that may be better for you than the usual fare. Buckwheat is one of those. High in flavonoids, it is said to lower cholesterol, while the high manganese content causes blood vessels to relax, lowering blood pressure. Buckwheat has a low glycemic index, meaning that it does not cause blood sugar to raise sharply after eating, and there is some indication that the relatively high magnesium content helps in managing blood sugar. For more information, check World's Healthiest Food's page on buckwheat

If you have only been exposed to buckwheat pancakes, you may be surprised to find out buckwheat is not a grain, but rather the seed of a plant related to rhubarb. The blossom of the plant is very attractive to bees, and at one time buckwheat honey was widely available.

Other cultures use buckwheat far more extensively than Americans. Kasha, often made of buckwheat groats, or the whole crushed grain, is enjoyed in many Eastern European countries. Japanese soba noodles are made from buckwheat flour, and are delicious eaten cold with soy sauce and chopped green onion. Kasha Varnishkas is a traditional Jewish food- made from buckwheat groats and bowtie pasta.

We chose to make a sort of buckwheat latke. We used grated carrot, chopped onion, garlic and the ubiquitous "curry powder" for seasoning. The recipe is at the end of the post.

Chuck is the patty maker at our house- I don't like having my hands in gucky stuff.

He used his new deep fryer.

They fried to a nice color in about 3 minutes.

I ate mine with applesauce and greek yogurt.

Chuck said he would rather have left out the curry powder.

Buckwheat Latkes. Makes 12 hamburger sized patties
4 medium potatoes, grated. (Squeeze the water out of these to make it drier)
1 large onion, chopped
4 cloves garlic, chopped
2 cup buckwheat groats, cooked
1 large carrot, grated
4 eggs
2 tablespoons curry powder
1/4 cup olive oil
1/2 to 1 cup buckwheat, barley or whole wheat flour (may need more depending on wetness of the mixture.)

Mix all ingredients, in the order given. Mixture should be wet enough to hold together but not drip. Make into hamburger sized patties. Fry until golden brown.

These are good served with apple sauce and greek yogurt or sour cream, or with cheese melted on top.