I am still drawn to the crazy foodie ultra-local ultra-farm-to-table restaurateurs out there. Even though my cheese making stops at mozzarella and I have no plans to cure my own ham, at the first sign of real fall, I want a project. One year it was nasturtium hot sauce; last year it was making my own ketchup. Both of these were great and have not been repeated. I do think I’ll make ketchup again, but I was smart enough to score a bottle made by the Crow River sustainable farming association who run the garlic festival this year.
I ordered another cookbook, Bar Tartine, after reading an article in Food & Wine about the couple behind the cookbook and the San Francisco restaurant of the same name. It was all about powders and was clear they dry everything. They dry eggplant. They make something called black garlic powder that involves roasting garlic for 72 hours then grinding it. The cookbook is equal parts techniques and recipes.
It’s a good read. And it showed up in time for me to have one day for a project. I mean, yes, I dehydrated cayenne peppers overnight and ground them, and am dehydrating celery leaves right now, and also harvested some brown coriander seed this morning I’ll later grind. So, four projects. But those are simple things.
The crazy thing is a jar of brined berries that will now cure for two months and then I can use them in lieu of capers.
The key to this project is a variety of unripe berries and seeds. I found I had cilantro berries (coriander), green/yellow fennel seed, green nasturtium seeds, and wild onion seeds in both dry black and green berry form. It was labor intensive to separate them from their stems, but also pleasing because they’re quite fragrant. Once they were cleaned, I added a dash of salt (the recipe calls for 3 percent, and I had about 40 grams of berries/seeds) and covered them with a brine that was 1 cup water/2 Tbs kosher salt. They’re in a clean, dry, non-reactive jar and I’ll shake them now and then until they’re a little sour. Then they can be used wherever I would use capers, in stews, on salads, in pasta sauces, etc.
Really, what Bar Tartine seems to be about it flavor. Spice. Preserving flavors so you can combine them in all sorts of ways. I’m all for that!