The Sugars we Grow - Grape and Sorghum Syrups

This year the grape harvest at the allotment far exceeded expectation and capacity even after we have shared our bounty with neighbours and friends. That is a shame considering the exceptional sweetness in the fruits. While we do dry and powder grapes we have to limit the amount as it is not the most versatile of sugars.

While we are not wine drinkers we make a small batch of wine vinegar each year and we always take advantage of the harvest to add to our available soft drinks. For us grape juice flavoured with lemon verbena is a much anticipated seasonal favourite.

After squashing the grapes we add a few leaves of the herb, leaving the mash to steep overnight.

The next day we remove the pulp which leave a sweet, slightly acid grape juice with a lovely lemony hint of verbena. Stored in the fridge it gains a slight effervescence after a few weeks and is a really popular drink on its own or added to other homemade soft drinks.

When we have a surplus of grapes I always look around for something to mate it with. This year I had hope to see how it blends

with Yacon, particularly Roja, but although foliage growth seems to have mostly caught up after the drought; yacon tuber formation has been noticeably slower than previous years

Sorghum has been a different story. After the unpromising start of a premature December germination, the syrup variety have grown impressive plants, with each providing a multiple of good sized canes topped by an impressive seed head.          

Lacking a cane press, we normally use spring water and a blender to extract the sweetness from the canes which is then evaporated by boiling. Using a ratio of 1 litre of grape as the liquid, to 6 canes, is not as odd as it might at first sound. Our grapes has a lovely combination of sweetness and acidity that balances out the almost sugar cane like, one note sweetness of sorghum syrup.                                                                   

 

We initially pass the blended liquid and first cane through a sift before returning it to the blender and feeding through the other 5 canes one at a time. By the time we 

Reach the third cane, the trash being squeezed have noticeably turned from wine stained pink to it's usual green. We have 2 wormeries and their inhabitants seem to make short work of this well macerated bounty.                                                                  

 

At this point we pass the liquid through a muslin cloth into a saucepan in order to take out the small particles that escaped through the mesh in the sieve.                        

I notice that the grape and sorghum mix seem to generate far more scum from the boiling process than sorghum on its own. 

We skim this off, even taking everything crusting the side of the pan. We have not always been so thorough. But what we found was that leaving any of this residue  added an unpleasant note to the finished syrup.                                                                  

Sorghum is a lovely sugar plant. We have at times grown grain varieties and enjoyed them in our kitchen. In the end they did not earn their place in our limited growing spaces. This is because we can buy a whole range of unprocessed organic grains but sugar remains a contested and problematic food in its commercially available forms. This led to the decision a decade ago that shapes much of our cultivation in both garden and allotment plots; which has a strong focus on home grown and home processed sugars.                                                                  

Using Chayote - The Seasonal Plant Burger

What pass for fun food in our house varies with the harvest and the base ingredient that each of the growing seasons offers.         

Over the next couple of weeks we will be doing the main Chayote harvest. Most of the gourds are destined for ferments and pickles. But delicious as those foods are, we still love to keep a few of the gourds for our favorite plant based burgers.

Chayote can both hold and disperse a great deal of flavour so it's a seasonal favourite.  I

 shred it, lightly salt then add grated carrots followed by an onion. To this I add

finely diced green peppercorns and a optional half of a mild chilli pepper. This is

when I like to add a couple of generous spoonful of a savory sauce, in this case a Yacon and Chilli lime.

After thoroughly combining all the elements, the mixture is covered and set aside for 30 minutes. I then take half the content and leave the other half to steep for a further 30 minutes.

Once l squeeze the liquid from the first half of the mixture I am able to use the seasoned vegetables as a side dish.

While the raw ingredients marinate I turn my attention to the rest of my preparations.

I choose mushrooms as much for flavour as for texture and aubergines from what is ready to harvest from the bushes.

The mushrooms are shredded and the aubergines sliced before they are both laid on a tray and baked 15 to 20 minutes in a medium hot oven.

While this is happening I squeeze the liquid from the rest of the raw vegetables.

To this liquid I add 2 heaped spoons of milled flaxseed. (we store as seeds and grind as needed)

When the mixture has thickened to a gloopy consistency it is ready to use in the next stage on my making.

I blend the mushrooms on a low setting so it retains quite a coarse consistency.

Setting the mushrooms aside, I then blend the aubergines to a smooth paste.

After combining mushrooms and aubergines I add the Chayote mix, then 2 heaped spoons psyllium husks. This along with the flaxseed will help hold the mixture together.

Finally the flaxseed mix is added and thoroughly worked into the mixture until it

comes together and can be handled and shaped into individual burgers.

I fry my burgers in a good sunflower oil, turning until they are golden brown on

both sides before placing on some kitchen towels to absorb excess oil.

While these are lovely burgers which can be eaten in a bun with all the trimmings;

we love them best in a wild mushroom sauce. To sautéed onions I like to add a little yacon, fermented lemon and black salt. I throw in slices of duck potato and when
they are nearly tender add the mushrooms and cook for a few minutes before adding

the reserved liquid from the first half of the Chayote mix. Return the burgers to the pan and simmer on a low heat for several minutes more.

We love to eat these burgers with roast potatoes and the Chayote and carrot salad reserved from the early mix.

Fruits and Roots

As days shorten and the weather cools our thoughts turn to harvesting fruits and roots

Chayote plants have been generous with their leaves this year and the fruit setting has not lagged behind 

The varieties we grow all have a delicate sweetness that surpasses anything available in UK shops.

Although not as fine as their darker cousin this light green has its own charm.

Sliced and sprinkled with a few salt crystals we leave them for an hour in a mix of raw
cider vinager sliced onions an chilli, turning occasionally. They are great in

salads, as a side dish, in stir fries or added to the end of a stew or a noodle dish. Chayote fruits readily take up flavours so are wonderful pickled or fermented.

This is also the time of year when thoughts turn to what is growing beneath the soil.

Skirret and Crosne are wonderful steamed together blending the sweetness of one with the delicate creaminess of the other.

The cultivated Duck Potatoes (Saggitari) have reached a good size and although

my Yams have several weeks of growing to get to a decent size I cannot resist their slightly sweet, starchy deliciousness.

Sprinkled with rapeseed or a nut oil and oven fried they are a lovely addition on top of our tomato and achocha stew.

Sweet potato is yet another of our roots that will treble in size in the coming weeks. Even so a few taken early and left on a sunny windowsill to sweeten are a

Delicious preview of the crop to come. We

slice them and fry to a golden brown and add a sprinkle of salt to finish. It is one of my favourite autumn snacks. Or it can add a sweet note to green leaf stews such as

This one made with leaves from Chayote, sweet potato and gourd.

Of course we have other roots, the mundane and the more obscure. Each and every one have forged their own place in our autumn and winter kitchen.

Cheese Please - A Flavorable Non Diary Alternative

I make fake cheese,  instead of buying dairy or vegan alternatives readily available  in pretty much all food outlets I find more flavours can be had in my own kitchen.           

I make my substitute cheeses with grain, seeds and nuts and the flavours of my harvest. I have gotten quite a repertoire over time. 

My love of homemade substitute cheese has as much to do with the excuse it gives me to use my fermented ingredients as any bad       reaction to dairy cheese  I love the flavour  depth imbued by the fermentation process                                      

 

in everything from wild garlic and               Jerusalem artichoke in  spring, chillies and peppers at the height of harvest, Apples in 

Autumn to Oca and and Yacon throughout the winter months.                                           

So how do I make my version of substitute cheese? The process is pretty much the        same whether nut or seeds. If it's nut based 

I soak the nuts overnight even if it's cashew (cashew and almond mixed make one of our favourite fake cheese) then rinse thoroughly. Because pretty much everyone we know  grow sunflowers, that tend to be our go to seed.                                                    

We sprout the seeds which can happen in as little as 24 hours or as long  as 2 days. 

I use a high speed blender, but with care and doing by batch a ordinary blender     

might be OK.                                                    

For a basic cheese I put half the nuts in the blender. To this I add a standard pot and  a   

half of my homemade coconut yughort, this is made deliberately thick as it's chief  role is to provide an ingredient for 'cheese'         

Fermented carrots is a must. We simply pop a load into our 2 year old lacto-fermented 

pepper liquid. Unfortunately these carrot are so popular as a nibble, we have to     replace them every other week to make sure there is enough for our 'cheese' and sauce making.                                              

About 3oz of our home made apple cider vinegar and a generous tablespoon of live miso comes next. This is blended to a smooth paste.

Now is time to add 1 to 2 teaspoons of salt depending on preference. Quarter of an

onion, fermented wild garlic from last spring's harvest, one and a half dessert spoons of plain yacon syrup and half a

fermented lemon. These last packs an amazing flavour punch and are a simple thing to make. We use lemons constantly so in order to make the best of them we buy unwaxed organic (Alas our own trees produce meagre fare). We use the seeds for their pectin and the skins we stuff into a jar with a sprinkle of salt then cover with lemon juice. Shoved to the back of the fridge, a few months later you have an ingredient that's sublime.

But I digress, my mix is now ready for another blend after which I am finished for a cheese spread.

This is an amazing thing, bottled and refrigerated they ferment slowly,

continuing to mature and Sharpen for several months. Of course they never last in our house so there is nothing more delightful than finding a forgotten bottle that manage to fully age.

If I am making a round I now need to decide if I want something meltable. If I do I tend to add coconut butter at this stage. I used to make my own years ago. Then I realised life was too short so opted to buy a good quality raw organic one instead.

I add Irish Moss to provide texture and hold but also use a range of other seaweeds and plant based thickening depending on the 'cheese' I am making. If the mixture is too thick at this stage I add liquid from my mild pepper ferments and blend to a smooth paste.

I turn the mixture into a bowl, cover and leave in a warm place to ferment.

The mixture swell with visible pockets once fermentation occurs. In summer this can happen in as little as 24 hours but 48 to 72 is nearer the norm.

At this point I turn out the mixture into a pan and cook on a low heat stirring

constantly until it comes together and develop a sheen.

Back in the bowl the mix is shaped, covered and left to thoroughly cool.

I tend to leave it overnight before turning onto greaseproof paper. I wet and lightly salt my hands then rub across the full surface of the round.

Placed on a wire rack under a mesh cover the round is turned several times over the next 24 to 36 hours to allow it to dry.

Once dry this is a flavoursome soft 'cheese'
sliceable but not grateable

This seed 'cheese' on the other hand is of a far denser consistency , grateable so great on pizza's but not as creamy or well rounded to my mind, as the nut cheeses - but I am working on it.