SO!   Daikon radish.  I discovered this gorgeous veggie several years ago and fell in love with the beautiful pattern that it's cross-sections have to offer. Especially this time of year as the snow falls outside.





See???  Snowflakes!  

For those of you who may not be acquainted with what this veggie looks like or where it comes from:  It's a favorite in Asian cuisine, tastes milder than what we're used to in our western-style "globe-shaped" radishes,  and looks like this fresh from the grocery store (it's also grown locally and ready late in the season around here in NY).



It's huge.  It's long and it has CRAAAZY rock-breaking/soil aerating capabilities.  Lots of farmers use it just for breaking up tough soil and then plow it in at the end of the season.  

Right up until recently, I bought these guys regularly and put cross-sections of them on salads or ate them on sandwiches or with a little vinaigrette. Very nice, very crunchy, a little bit of a palate cleanser (that's what they're used for traditionally). But then I got to thinking about things in jars... as always!

Daikon is also prized as a ferment and is traditionally fermented  whole in huge crocks with rice bran and various spices.   I decided that I wanted to retain my favourite aspect of eating daikon (the snowflake pattern and the crunch) and still gain some of the yummy "pickled" flavor and probiotic goodness that lacto-fermentation has to offer.  AAAAAND I didn't want to ferment a huge crock-full of stuff... because, really... I don't need a huge crock-full of stuff.  

I bought 2 daikon radishes.  One has been turned into "snowflakes" on various salads over the last couple of weeks (these guys keep in the refrigerator in a sealed plastic bag with a little water for weeks) and turned the other one into Lacto-fermented Snowflakes and Sticks:






The first thing that I did was realize that I wanted to try tamari flavor added in with these to stick with a traditional Asian palate, but then I decided that my snowflakes shouldn't be brown!  SO!   I ended up making 1 pint jar of "Snowflakes" and 1 quart jar of tamari-enhanced "sticks". 

Peel daikon.  Slice 1/3 of the daikon into "snowflakes" and the other 2/3 into matchsticks.  Pack a pint jar tightly with "snowflakes" and alternating layers of green onion. 


Pack the "matchsticks" into a quart jar with alternating layers of green onion.

In the 2nd quart jar, mix 2 tbsp salt into 1 quart of water until the salt is completely dissolved.   Top off the pint jar with brine and seal the pint jar.

Top off the brine jar with enough water to refill (since you just poured a pint out of it... right??). 

Pour 1 tbsp of tamari into the quart jar containing the matchsticks.


Then top the matchstick quart jar off with brine (which is now at a 1.5 ratio... remember, the extra water you just added? This is to offset the salinity already present from the tamari in the "matchstick" jar).


Make sure all of your veggies are under the brine in both jars.  I like to hold mine down with bamboo skewers.


 
Cap and let sit out at room temperature for about 7 days.   Be sure to "burp" the jars as needed by loosening the lids a couple times a day. 



After 7 days, enjoy and keep any leftovers in the refrigerator. 

While I was poking around online about a month ago I came across a technique that you can use to pickle (Lacto-Ferment) whole cabbages... several at a time, if you have a huge enough container.  Well... it's a long and tedious process and involves skimming and smelling fermenting cabbage (sulfur) in your house for weeks on end.  Uhh... no thanks.   But, my curiosity was piqued because I really REALLY wanted to try fermented whole leaves to make a variation of my classic Galumpki recipe that I shared on here a little while back. 

So, why not try rolled-up whole leaves in my usual mason jars???  That's exactly what I did and I'm never looking back to the full-head option again!

Pack the little cigars tightly into a quart-sized jar along with the horseradish matchsticks and caraway seeds. 

OH MY GOODNESS!   The Holidays are OVER!   Time to get back on track.  Lately I've been filling my refrigerator with some gorgeous, vegan, wholegrain and bean salads.  Getting veggies back in our diet was really important after an entire 2 months of fatty, starchy, sugary celebration during the Holidays.

We actually started right after Christmas, by making and serving a bunch of yummy grain and veggie salads for our New Years Eve dinner get-together.  They were a hit with kids and adults alike.

I'll be honest, before we made this persimmon pudding, I had never had a persimmon before.  But there they were, in the same display as the  fresh cranberries at the grocery store. 

And here is what you do with a (actually, 4 small) fresh Persimmons.


Persimmon pudding is similar to traditional Plum of Fig pudding in that it's dense (like pumpkin pie filling) and deliciously spiced for the Holidays. 

I tried this out for the first time a couple weeks ago and HOLY COW! This is basically a recipe for chicken fried rice with the best flavor and texture combination I've ever had. End of story.   And, I'm finding that a lot of the spices that are used in traditional Indian cuisine are very similar to the spice palate we associate with the holiday season here in the U.S.A.  So, basically, this was nothing short of perfect.  AND my kids enjoyed it too!



First, marinade the chicken.  It's very important to have your chicken nice and evenly flavored.  I marinated mine overnight. 

For years we've wanted an electric car.  For even more years, I've read about all sorts of "green" living tips and philosophies... ranging from homesteading and "grow-your-own-everything (including children LOL)", to DIY sources of power, sustainable diets, carbon footprints, wabi-sabi style, "living small", re-purposing, wild-crafting... the list is seemingly endless. And over the years ideas have come, and ideas have gone by the way-side depending on where we were in life. 

Now we've finally come to a place where a BIG idea has been made an affordable reality.  We are now the proud owners (leasers, really) of an electric plug-in Nissan Leaf.   If feels fantastic to finally be in a place where it fits for us both in our budget and in our hearts.

After only having this car for 1 day, my "green" sensibilities have been peaked once again by one mind-blowing fact:   This car is plugged into a standard  (USA) electrical outlet for 12 hours and has enough charge drive 17+ miles to work, and back.  That's an entire commute, and with some leftover in reserve.  We're leaving lights and appliances plugged in 24 hours per day.  I finally understand the amount of energy we're using up... more than enough to power several cars!

And, of course, this gets me thinking about tons of "green" things and my plans to do better and what can be done first.  Replace old appliances... sure...   insulate the farmhouse better... you bet.  But probably the easiest is to eat lower on the food chain a few days per week.  The statistics are out there and blatant about how many millions of tons of grain and gallons of water go into sustaining our 1st world meat-eating habit.   Am I going vegan?  Nope.  But I AM being more mindful and actually employing it weekly in my grocery shopping list.

Hoppin' John is a Southern (U.S.) black-eyed pea dish usually made around New Years Eve and is thought to impart good luck on the household.  I made it in hope of good luck in out transition to an electric car:


I apologize that the picture is in terrible focus...
Here's a couple "Spring's Trying Real Hard To Get Here"  shots:

As I was saying in my last post, a couple weeks ago I got a little giddy in the produce section.  It was GRAND!  Then, I forgot about half the plans I had, and realized that I had 1/2 bunch of Chard, a full (completely forgotten) bunch of Collard Greens... and a few leftover leeks in the fridge. Beautiful, fresh produce that I didn't want to freeze (there's quite enough of that going on outside, thankyou) so it needed to be used up right away.  I decided to use ALL of it in a recipe I modified from Alice Waters's Swiss Chard Gratin .
Turned out amazing and it's the best way I've found yet to use up cooking (winter) greens.

I went off to the woods yesterday, looking for Spring. The wind was icy and my face was freezing and stiff as I slogged through the icy snow stopping every once in a while to listen.  I listened hard for migratory birds and I looked under every bush for chipmunks.   I sniffed the wind for the smell of a thaw.  I got nothing. Nothing at all. I kept walking into the old part of the woods where the creek flows and sat on a fallen tree near the water.  Still looking and waiting and anticipating.  I watched the water ooze by underneath the ice, like a lava lamp.  I sat until my fingers hurt inside my gloves and there was nothing.  No animals, no stray green.... just ice and snow and suddenly * CRACK*   *POP* *SWOOOOSH*  an ice-dam gave way and water came tumbling over the top of the ice.  I grinned. NOT what I had expected, but Spring had began with a *Bang*...  not a chirp, or a scent, or a color... but a Bang.  How appropriate for this year. And then, of course, I wanted to go poke the ice with a stick to get it to move along... but decided against it as I knew the water was super-deep in that particular section.

Today the snow is continuing to melt and the temperatures are finally above freezing.  The Robins are singing and we smelled the tell-tale scent of a skunk coming out of hibernation.


There isn't much local and fresh right now, but we ARE blessed with a beautiful fresh produce section at our local supermarket.  I guess the marginally warmer temperatures were making me giddy  last week as I filled my cart with veggies.  It's been very culinarily rich around here the last couple of weeks, so I'll share some of that with everyone this week on the blog.

I have HAD IT with Winter... but it doesn't seem to be getting the message since today it is snowing again with a windchill advisory of -8.   This is actually pretty unusual around here, but there isn't much anyone can do about it.  So, lets make some chili!

So, how do you get a family that doesn't like fish to eat it?  Well... I put this together the other day and it was really different for us, and super delicious.  Not at all "fishy" and got us some Omega3 fatty acids.  Dairy free, Corn free, easily wheat free, and about 1 Carb (15grams carbohydrate) per serving.   Served it with sweet potato and green salad.

I think that every household with little kids should have a go-to pizza recipe.  We make ours 2 different ways:  traditional crust, and yeast-free "crispy" crust.   Today I'm going to share my crispy do-it-yourself  in under 30 minutes recipe.  It's whole grain, dairy-free, corn-free, and ends up being about 2 Carbs per slice.

I like to serve this with a nice big salad.

Never a dull moment around here. The development of my husband becoming an insulin-dependant diabetic over the last 2 months has been what's led me to slow down in my blogging... or, at least has been a cause for some re-direction and introspection. More whole foods, more exercise, less sugar.  I know how to do healthy.  I even know, from experience, how to control ( my own gestational variety) diabetes through carb counting and diet.  This is not a foreign topic to me.  It is, nevertheless, life-altering.  And certainly routine/recipe altering.  We are hoping that this will not be a permanent state of affairs, but until things settle down a bit around here we'll be cooking and eating with these guidelines in mind, and the blog is going to reflect it. Dairy and Corn free, of course.

Stay tuned!

Here's some artwork while you're waiting:

When my husband and I started dating (roughly 1 million years ago), one of the first things he made for me was stuffed shells.  Dairy free, vegan, and completely delicious.   So this recipe is actually his, but it is a beautiful example of making something with predominant cheesy characteristics dairy-free.

When it comes to chocolate, I don't screw around.  You might say I have a bad habit... but hey, I can think of much worse things. 

I'm going to take this opportunity to put in a plug for the BEST chocolate I've ever had. Taza makes their small batch (each batch has a number and you can watch your chocolate batch be made online!), fair trade, traditionally stone ground chocolate in a plant that does not use dairy or corn at all (and i'm pretty sure it's gluten free too).    It's also expensive, and hard to find and comes in a few different shades of SUPER-DARK.  They also make these amazing chocolate discs that are meant for use as drinking chocolate.  Flavors include dark chocolate, vanilla, and chili.  All are amazing, and luckily for my usual Valentines day indulgence, all are available for purchase online at their website.


For all other hot cocoa/chocolate craving  purposes I use Wegmans brand or Sunspire brand chocolate chips.  These can be melted into drinkable chocolate, baked with, eaten as-is, or melted and then poured into candy molds for seasonal treats (I actually do Easter Bunnies this way too... thinking a little ahead).

As promised, the best hot cocoa you've ever had:

This is one of my favorites this time of year.  Comfort food, with a little color meditation.  Potatoes start out white as the (still accumulating) snow and end up round and golden as the slowly strengthening sun.   I also like to cut my leeks into little round "sun" shapes.

Chi-chi-chi-Chia!  Yep, same seeds... different project.  Although, I DO miss those green fuzzy Chia-pets!

We needed a snack this week and we've been trying to cut back on cane sugar and white flour... So, we got a little inventive. Chia seed pudding is a lot like tapioca pudding: same consistency, and same ability to take on the flavors of whatever you put in it. I, of course, made our pudding dairy-free.  Also, as an added bonus, Chia is loaded with Omega 3 fatty acids and is high in fiber, so it fills you up.
I decided on adding Vanilla and Maple Syrup as for flavor.  So, in honor of the season, I present to you seeds, milk, and maple all in one pudding!

It's really simple to make: