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.
 

Unconventional Sugars - The Chocolate Sweet Treat

Let me start with a confession, this blog is not a 'how to' guide because I suspect if you are reading it you already know the how and is up for something a bit 'out there' and if not, I am always up for questions.

So what you may be asking, is an unconventional sugar? In my world it's the

sugars in anything plant based whether it start life as fruit, veg, stem, leaf or root that has not been highly processed.

You see sweet has always been one of my default flavour palettes and because I don’t generally eat commercially processed foods the sugars I eat is down to me.

When friends come round I like to share tea and cakes but as we moved into late middle age so many of them were on some kind of medication and or diabetes related diet I decided I needed a sugar quest.

Out went cane and beet sugars and in came an exploration that continues from one fun meet up to another.

Chocolate cakes is a favorite of our little group so it was one of the first to get my radical make over. I won't recount the epic fails that dogged my trials until this recipe emerged.

Needless to say Yacon syrup on it's own was an expensive mistake; but it did teach me that you have to get to know your sugars - the ones right under your nose - and learn how they mingle best. On a note of caution. This is a little labour intensive as we do use some whole fruits.

I love medjoul dates. A couple on their own take me to my happy place. For this recipe however I soon learnt that three is really enough for our needs.

The other must have is white mulberry. I buy them in bulk from my favourite health food retailer so they were already to hand for my experiments.

Cacoa butter is not a sugar but my chocolate cakes would be lost without it. After much tasty experimenting I finally settled on about 2 oz roughly cut to 3 oz of mulberries and the three dates. I chuck everything in the blender mixing to a coarse paste.

That is when I add my yacon syrup. For chocolate cakes I use the syrup with the orange flavour note, as they are so very much in harmony in the final bake.

 This is the point where I turn my mixture out to the mixing bowl and revert to normal cake making. I cream the mixture with butter, dairy or coconut depending on the audience. I separate two large eggs and add the yoke. (I use ground flaxseed and nut milk beaten to a smooth paste for an egg free alternative, add half and reserve the rest)

I like to add the grated rind and juice from an orange, vanilla essence and a pinch of salt with 3 dessertspoons of cacoa powder

and a handful of raw cacoa nibs. The egg whites  whisked to a stiff peak is gently mixed in (or second half of flaxseed mix for the non dairy version)  followed by flour and baking soda and the mix looks similar to any sugar fat mix. 

Spooned into paper cases then baked in the oven for 25 to 30 minutes at 190 and we have a light delicious cake.

For the topping I use the juice of a large orange to which I add sorghum and yacon

syrups and raw cacoa powder. Keeping on a low heat I mix continually till it coats the back of a spoon.

I coat the cupcakes generously ending with a beautifully shiny and delicious chocolate temptation to rival any made with conventional cane and beet sugar.