Avocational Homesteading: Wisdom & Know How

Candy Corn Creme Brulee

2010-10-27T11:23:00.000-07:00

The following of seasonal ingredients is one of my favorite approaches to cooking. There is something almost magical about consuming a certain food that will only be available for a few weeks, or in some cases only a few days, every year. What better than tasting an ingredient at its peak? I love catching the the salmon run, gathering morel mushrooms, tasting the first raspberries of the year, collecting wild hazelnuts and plucking dandelion blossoms before the neighborhood dogs water them. All these are cherished seasonal gifts I enjoy. However, there is one wonderfully versatile and useful gift from Round Lake Minnesota I enjoy each and every Fall. CANDY CORN! What better way to celebrate the Autumnal equinox? I know that when the first candy corn start to ripen, I'm all a twitter.

Creme brulee is one of my favorite desserts and it's as easy to make as buttered toast. Creme brulee's literal translation is "burnt cream". It describes a chilled, stirred custard that, just before serving, is sprinkled with brown or granulated sugar. The sugar topping is quickly caramelized with a blow torch. The caramelized topping becomes brittle, creating a delicious flavor and textural contrast to the smooth, creamy custard below.

Candy corn offers an amazing complexity to custard, not to mention a beautiful tint and shade of chimney red and Halloween orange. How else would you get your daily dose of: dextrose, artificial flavor, titanium dioxide color, yellow 6, yellow 5, red 3 and blue 1? What you'll need to procure: 2 cups heavy cream, 1 cup whole milk, 1 backyard egg, 4 backyard egg yolks, 4 cups fresh picked-ripe candy corn.

Combine the heavy cream, whole milk and candy corn in a stock pot. Put on medium flame and heat it up to just below boiling. Slowly stir until the candy corn is dissolved. In a separate bowl thoroughly mix the egg and egg yolks. Slowly add the cream, milk and candy corn mixture to the egg mixture. You do NOT want to cook the eggs, so combining the mixtures slowly is essential. Once you have the two mixtures combined, strain and pour mixture into oven proof containers. Small bowls, tea cups, broken beer bottles, mason jars, whatever you have around the house will work.

Place your oven-proof dishes in a water bath. Bake in the oven at 300 degrees Fahrenheit for about 30 minutes or so. Allow to cool down at room temperature for an hour. Throw in the fridge for another hour or so, or until the custard "sets". Sprinkle a tablespoon of sugar on top of the custard and put the torch to it. You want to brown the sugar but not burn it.

Creme brulee is a favorite dessert around the house. Any dessert that requires a blowtorch is a friend of mine. Enjoy!

Home-made Pale Ale

2010-05-14T00:21:00.000-07:00

Making beer and other herbal medicines is easy to do with little or no effort. The following recipe is a fast glance at how to make pale ale at home. Start with 2.5 gallons of clean well water, in a large pot and begin to heat. Pour crushed grains into a old sock or "grain bag" and tie a loose knot at the top of the bag. My grain bill includes: Caramel malt, which adds a dark fruit, raisin-like, burnt sugar flavor. Caramel malt is roasted at high temps, producing more caramel like overtones. I also use victory malt or biscuit malt. It adds a beautiful toasty, baked bread, nutty flavor. You have to be careful not to use too much. I like the complex, smooth flavor it adds. Thirdly, a little dextrine malt or carapils malt, balances body and flavor without adding too much sweetness. What I mean about the body is the mouth feel and head retention of the brew. Finally, I use malt extract. I bought one online from Wisconsin, it had a rich, malty, biscuit flavor.

When the water reaches around 150-165 degrees place the grain bag into the brew pot. Steep grains for about 20 minutes. Remove the grain bag and without squeezing, allow the liquid to drain back into the brew pot. Your water is now wort.

Bring your wort to a gentle boil. This is the time to add your extract. Add sugar and continuously stir extract into the wort as it returns to gentle boil. Nows the time to add hops to your brew. My hop schedule is mainly columbus hops a.k.a. tomahawk hops. It's perfect for India Pale Ale because of its earthy, spicy. citrus component yet it doesn't overwhelm. I almost taste an orange sherbet flavor. If you can't find fresh use hop pellets. There are many available online.

After about an hour of boiling your hops in the wort, cool down the wort to about 70 degrees.Funnel the wort into a 6 gallon "carboy" or fermenter. Add enough water to make 5 gallons of wort. Sprinkle brewer's yeast into the wort and firmly secure the lid with a airlock onto the fermenter. Move the fermenter to a dark, warm, temperature stable area. About 64-72 degrees.

You will see the wort start to ferment within the first 24 hours and CO2 will be released through the airlock. Within 4-6 days the bubbling will slow down until you no longer see CO2 being released. When fermentation is complete (no more bubbles) you are ready to bottle.

In a small sauce pan dissolve sugar into 2 cups of water and boil for 5 minutes. Pour the mixture into a clean bottling bucket. Carefully siphon beer from the fermenter to bottling bucket. Avoid transferring any sediment, unless you like your beer chunky. I tend to like a "unfiltered" feel. Stir gently to mix sugar water solution into beer. Now time to bottle. make sure all your bottles and caps are sanitized. Finally, move the bottles to a dark, warm, temperature-stable area. 64-72 degrees. Over the next two weeks the bottles will naturally carbonate. Drink warm or cold. It's your beer, you made it!

Balut

2010-05-13T23:33:00.000-07:00

A balut is a fertilized duck (or chicken) egg with a nearly-developed embryo inside that is boiled and eaten in the shell. Believed to be an aphrodisiac and a great source of high-protein, and a great snack with cold beer. Big in the Philippines, Cambodia, Vietnam, and the Southeast Asia area. Balut is best eaten with a pinch of salt and some lime juice. Hot sauce might be a good way to consume for a first timer. I love the littler buggers for their balance of textures and flavors. To prepare, place eggs in a pot and cover with cold water. Bring water to a roaring boil and turn off. Let sit for 5 minutes and then run under cool water until eggs are cool. To eat crack open the shell and suck the juices. All the contents of the egg can be ,consumed, although the whites may remain uneaten, due to its cartilage-like texture depending on the age of the fertilized egg. You can get as creative as you'd like. I might like to pickle them or eat in a hotdog bun. I know they're best eaten slightly warm.

You can make your own balut by keeping your fertilized duck eggs in a warm basket in the sun. After 10 or so days hold the egg up to a strong light to reveal the embryo inside. Wait another week and your very own balut will be ready to eat, sell, or eat. The age of the egg to be cooked is a matter of preference. I like mine at about 19 to 21 days when the bones, feathers, and beak start to develop. By all means, develop your own tastes and preferences. It's an affordable snack that's available on most farms. Good eating.

Planting Your Own Hops

2010-05-13T22:54:00.000-07:00

Hops are the female flower clusters of a hop species humulus lupulus. Every homesteader should cultivate hops because they impart the bitter, tangy flavors in beer and other herbal medicines. Hops help balance the sweetness of the malt with bitterness and contributes beautiful flavors and aromas to any homebrew. It's natural friends with brewer's yeast and helps prevent spoilage in your home brew. Medicinal uses include treating insomnia, anxiety, solicitude, and boredom.

The best way to start growing your own hops is by transplanting hop rhizomes (or cuttings) in the spring when they can be shipped and stored well. I bought 4 rhizomes from my local brew mart. Hops seem to be able to grow anywhere in any type of soil but seems to do much better in a sandy loom soil. Plant them where there's plenty of sun. They need to be planted on a hill to allow plenty of proper drainage. Expect hops to grow 20 feet in the first year. You need to choose your location where you can plan for trellising. I imagine hops growing like grape vines. The shoots can be trained to grow up fences, light posts, or any elevating ideas you come up with. You don't need to grow them elevated but it makes it easier when you harvest.

As long as you have identical varieties you can plant them a couple feet apart. Dig a trench about 6 to eight inches deep. Plant the rhizomes vertically with the buds pointing up or horizontally about 2 inches below the soil level. Cover up with soil and create a mound over the rhizomes. Water heavily and wait. When the vines are about one foot long start your trellis system or a pole and twine. Prune off the early shoots to train a hardy second growth. When the main vines are established remove the weaker ones around the base of the hop.

Spruce Soda Pop

2010-03-31T23:08:00.000-07:00

SPRUCE EXTRACT, RAW SUGAR, CHAMPAGNE YEAST, BOTTLES & CAPS

Spruce beer or spruce soda is a root beer like beverage flavored with the buds and needles of spruce trees. I prefer spruce to root beer for its floral, fruity, citrus, piney like flavor. It reminds me of early spring in Wisconsin when the trees start to bud. Fresh shoots of both pine and spruce trees contain high levels of vitamin C. I once made an alcohlic based spruce beer for a long exhausting land voyage to California, in order to prevent scurvy in my family.

It's easy to make an awful tasting spruce concoction. A good one can be a bit more of a challenge. Your choice of spruce species, the season in which you harvest and the manner of preparation is all important. If you don't live in an area where these evergreens dwell, you can find various extracts online. I have an extract I made years ago when living in Wisconsin. My recipe's exacts remain a secret. Basically you boil hops in water, add molasses, add spruce buds and needles and boil down into a thick syrup. The following recipe is made with just that. You'll need to procure: 1 Gallon of warm water, 2 cups raw sugar, 1 cup raw honey, 1 tablespoon spruce or pine extract, 1/4 teaspoon champagne yeast.

Step 1: Dissolve the yeast in 1 cup of warm water (98 degrees)Let stand 5 minutes to dissolve, mix well. Step 2. Dissolve 2 cups of sugar and 1 cup of honey in sufficient warm water. Step 3. Now add yeast mixture. Add your extract. Step 4. Add the remaining gallon of warm water. Adjust sugar and extract. Step 5. Fill sterilized bottles within 1 inch to the top. I seal my bottles with a hand capper. Bottles not sealed properly will become flat and dead. Step 6. Lay bottles on side to check for leaks. Age 5 days at room temperature. Then store in cool dark place. I age my sodas at least two weeks to make sure the carbonation takes place. This isn't mountain dew or pepsi cola. A slight yeast deposit will form on bottom of the bottle. Be careful when you pour, it's not harmful, but sometimes has an "off flavor". I usually pour it for unwanted guests.

HAND CAPPER

BOTTLES READY FOR LABELING

Kumquat Tart

2010-03-24T18:37:00.000-07:00

Kumquats are a citrus fruit native to China but are found in California this time of year. They're about 1 to 1 1/2 inchs round, juicy and acidic, with few seeds and a sweet edible rind. Although most people around here grow them for ornament they are eaten by a few brave souls. Most I see are candied or canned whole. However, if you can't find kumquats you can use oranges just as well. The following is my favorite "citrus" tart recipe. I've done lemon, grapefruit, orange, even buddha's hand (a type of citrus).

What you'll need to procure: 1 cup sugar, 1 cup fresh orange juice, 26 kumquats (2 navel oranges worth), 3/4 cup blanched almonds, 4 Tablespoon butter, 1 egg, 1 Tablespoon flour, 3 Tablespoons apricot jam. FOR THE CRUST: 1 1/2 cups flour, 1/2 teaspoon salt, 7 Tablespoons, butter (unsalted), 4 Tablespoons ice water.

1) Tart crust is only 4 ingredients and easy as love to make. Sift the flour and salt into a bowl. Add butter (cut up into small chunk and cold) and cut into flour until them mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Stir in just enough ice water to bind dough. Make a ball and refrigerate for twenty or thirty minutes. 2) On a lightly floured surface, roll out dough ball 1/4 inch thick and transfer to a 8 inch tart pan, pie pan, or cast iron skillet. Trim off the overhang. Throw this back into the fridge for now. 3) In a saucepan, combine 3/4 cup sugar and the fresh orange juice and slow boil until thick and syrupy, maybe 10 minutes. 4) Cut the kumquats into 1/4 inch slices. Add to "syrup" and simmer for another 10 minutes. Transfer kumquat slices to a rack to dry. Save the syrup. Throw your wood in the oven and bring it up to 400 degrees. 5) Grind the almonds in a food processor. In a bowl, cream the butter and remaining 1/4 cup sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in the egg and 2 Tablespoons of the "syrup". SAVE the rest of the "syrup". Stir in the almonds and 1 Tablespoon of flour. 6) Melt the jam over low heat, then brush in the tart shell you had in the fridge. Pour in the almond mixture. Bake in the oven until mixture is set and crust is very light brown. I don't know, twenty minutes? Let it cool. Arrange overlapping kumquat slices on top. Boil the remaining "syrup" on top to glaze. Enjoy!

2010-02-07T21:45:00.000-08:00

Black Skinned Chicken Soup

2010-02-07T11:22:00.000-08:00

Chicken soup is made by simmering chopped chicken corpse and/or bones in water, with vegetables and flavoring. It’s that simple. Use whatever vegetables you have laying around the house and whichever too tough and stringy old hen needs slaughtering. At current time we don’t have any soup hens running around the backyard, so I went shopping.
Black skin chicken or Silkie is a breed of chicken named for its silk-like feeling feathers. As you can imagine there’s more to a bird than its feathers. Silkie’s have black colored flesh, bones, earlobes, and five toes on each foot (most other chickens only have four). The Chinese say there is medicinal properties with the black skinned chicken and from what I see I believe them. I decided to make a black skinned chicken soup with Okinawa purple dumplings, wolfberries, and baby bok choy.
For the soup you’ll need to procure: 1 Stock pot, 1 gallon of well water, 2 black chicken corpses (feet, head, everything) 2 carrots, 2 stalks celery, 2 onion, 1 thumb of fresh ginger, 1 head garlic, mandarin orange zest (with leaf), 2 star anise, 4 cardamom pods, 10 black peppercorns, handful of sea salt.
Fill your favorite stock pot with the corpse, vegetables, and flavorings. I just rough chop the vegetables. Keep them about the same time so they cook evenly. You can leave the skin on the onion and garlic (there’s flavor in both). Leave the chickens whole. Pour in well water until everything is covered. Simmer for 2 hours. Strain. After 2 hours pull out chickens and set aside. Pick the meat off the bones and save for soup. Throw away the bones or make jewelry or use for piercings. Strain the vegetables and save broth. Add 13 sun dried wolfberries, baby bok choy, and picked chicken. Bring back to a boil just long enough to cook an odd number of Okinawa purple dumplings.

Okinawa Purple Yam Dumplings

You'll need to procure: 1 pound of Okinawa purple yam, 1 1/3 Cups all purpose flour, 1 large egg, 1 teaspoon salt.

Boil yams in salted water until fork tender. Allow to cool and peel off skin. Press the cooked yam through a sieve or potato ricer. Set aside in a pile on a clean surface. Sift the flour over the yam. Make a "well" in the middle of the pile and add cracked egg and salt. Slowly bring mixture together until a dough is formed. Cut dough into four equal portions. Roll each dough portion into long 3/4 inch wide ropes. Cut into pieces 3/4 inch long. Drop dumplings into boiling soup broth. When they float they're done.

WOLFBERRY OR GOJI BERRY

Homemade Hooch

2009-12-22T23:24:00.000-08:00

Pruno is another name for jailhouse wine, but you don’t have to be a criminal to enjoy it. Pruno can be easily be made with any fruit you can rummage up. I ransacked local ground fruit around the neighborhood. I managed to roundup orange, lemon, grapefruit, and even a rotting pomegranate. The following jailhouse recipe calls for fresh orange, fruit cocktail, ketchup, and sugar. I learned this beautiful recipe from a cook I worked with in the past. He cooked even when he was on the "inside". The concoction can be made using only a plastic bag, hot running water, and a towel or sock to conceal the pulp during fermentation. The end result has been colorfully described as a "vomit-flavored wine-cooler although flavor isn’t exactly the point.
You’ll need to procure: 4 pounds of fresh fruit, 1 (8oz) can of fruit cocktail in heavy syrup. 50 sugar cubes, 16 oz rainwater (tap will work), 1 plastic bag that can seal. 4 ketchup packets

Step One

Toss the fruit into the Ziploc bag. 2. Open the can of fruit cocktail and dump it into the bag. 3. Mash the mixture to a pulp. You now have a big bag of gushy fruit. In order to take that fruit to the next level, you're going to need to heat it up to get the process going. 4 Add the sixteen ounces of water and mix thoroughly .5. Run under hot water for 15 minutes. 6. Wrap your warm fruit mixture in a towel and keep warm. This will aid in the fermentation process. Do not disturb for 48 hours.

Step Two
After 48 hours of sitting in a warm place, that bag of mashed fruit will attempt to become a rotten fruit filled beach ball, because the gases of the fermentation process will swell the plastic bag. Release those gases. That terrible smell means you’re ready to feed the pruno. 1. It’s time to add the ketchup and sugar. Mix well. Seal bag. 2) Run the pruno under hot water for a full 30 minutes this time. 3. After the bag and mixture is hot wrap in towel again. Do not disturb for three days.

Step Three

Now the sugar is feeding the fermentation process. The pruno will continue to give off gas as alcohol is being made. You may need to burp the pruno from time to time. You do not want to spill this inside your home. The smell will not go away.
For the next three days, heat the bag up under hot water for 15 minutes once a day. After the third day your hooch is ready.
Step Four

Congratulations! You are ready to drink. Grab a sock and strain out the rotting fruit from the liquid. The smell, look, and taste are very bad, almost deadly. Drink at your own risk. My pruno turned my lips and stomach to temporary blisters, but the feeling of accomplishment will last forever. Enjoy!

Beer and Cheese Bread

2009-11-29T22:26:00.000-08:00

One of my favorite breads of all time is made with two of my favorite ingredients of all time......beer and cheese. I remember this bread at the Madison farmer's market early on Saturday morning before I headed into the kitchen for work. I bake mine on a hardwood plank. It gives it a great flavor and adds moisture to the bread. This recipe was found in a mason jar buried in the backyard.

Things you'll need to procure:

1 tablespoon olive oil
1/2 cup finely chopped yellow onion
1 garlic clove, minced
3 cups all-purpose flour
3 tablespoons sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup favorite cheese
1 (12-ounce) bottle of beer

Saute the onion and garlic with oil until golden brown.

Combine the flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt in large bowl. Mix well. Make a well in the center of the mixture. Add onion mix, cheese, and beer to flour mixture. Stir until together.

Shape bread into a loaf and set on greased hardwood plank or greased loaf pan. Butter the top of the bread and bake in oven at 375 degrees for 50 minute or until golden brown.
clean. Cool and eat. I like mine warm out of the oven with tons of butter and sea salt.

2009-11-29T21:33:00.000-08:00

RAISING BACKYARD CHICKENS:

There is plenty of reason to keep chickens in the city, and it's not just a new fad. People have been keeping chickens in cities for hundreds of years because of the benefits they offer. Chickens offer protein. The city offers a chance to grow your own fruits and vegetables in a small backyard setting. Protein is a bit harder to provide for yourself. Chickens offer a supply of eggs and meat if you choose to slaughter. When you raise your own food you know how the animal lived, what it ate, where it slept. You don't have to worry about steroids, antibiotics,and all the other toxic shit. My chickens keep a watch on my property. They keep the brown widow population down to managable numbers. I even saw them chasing around a mouse the other day. By far the best reason to own chickens is their personalities. They can be great companions. Anyone whos ever been over to the house has loved hanging out with them.(except for the poop)It feels good to be a producer and not just a consumer.

Raising Urban Chickens

2009-11-29T12:19:00.000-08:00

2009-11-28T23:16:00.000-08:00

NORTH COAST CUISINE

Northcoast cuisine is a regional cuisine of the northern most border of the United States. It draws it's culinary roots most significantly from the cuisines of Washington, Montana, North Dakota, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York, Vermont, New Hampshire, and Maine.

Everyday northcoast home cooking generally showcases simple and hearty dishes that make use of the abundance of locally grown foods. The northcoast, a prime fruit-growing region, sees the extensive use of apples, blueberries, cranberries, cherries, peaches and other cold-climate fruit in its cuisine.
As with many American regional cuisines, Northcoast cooking has been heavily influenced by immigrant groups. Throughout the northern coast, northern European immigrant groups predominated, so Swedish pancakes and Polish pierogi are common. Wisconsin and Ohio were destinations for many ethnic German immigrants, so pork sausages and potatoes are prevalent. Native American influences show up in the uses of corn and wild rice.
Traditionally, Northcoast cooks used a light hand with seasonings, preferring sage, dill, caraway, mustard and parsley to hot, bold and spicy flavors. However, with new waves of immigrants from Latin America and Asia moving into the region, these tastes are changing.