Savour Whole Spices...

Sometimes I just get excited about food and feel the need to share...  I think a big part of reconnecting to your food is taking time to really work with your ingredients.  Although none of the ingredients here were local except the garlic, bay leaf, and carrot, I spent the time nourishing myself–a totally worthwhile endeavour. And should totally happen, wherever your ingredients are from.

I started by dry frying the crushed spices-cinnamon stick, cardamom pods, coriander seed, fenugreek, and peppercorns.

 When the smell seeded almost too much to handle, I cranked the love up to 11 and added fresh garlic and ginger to the mix.

 I then added the bottle of passata, coconut milk, bay leaf, curry leaf, and vegetables (sweet potato, onion, and purple carrot) and let it simmer until the veggies were soft (around 40 mins).

Beauty!  Savour spices in their whole form–it elevates basic ingredients to heavenly heights!

Fermenting Ontario Garlic Scapes and Red Cabbage

 My friend Bozena had been on a short internship at a farm and came home with a whack of garlic scapes.  There being a massive heat-wave in Toronto and no air conditioning in my house, I had no desire to turn on the stove and pickle.... So we decided to ferment!

We separated out the woody stems (to compost) from the beautiful curls (to line the jar) and diced up the small pieces to put in the middle of the jar. Then, the fun part!

We also cut up a beautiful red cabbage that I had bought and didn't have time to cook.
Recipe: veg, 1/4 cup sea salt (in a large mason jar), water (I forgot to leave out water to dechlorinate it, so we just used regular tap water). In the cabbage, we also added some peppercorns and some carraway seeds.

Cover the jars with parchment paper so they can breathe and leave them on the counter for a few days. Depending on the heat and your personal tastes, it can be ready within a week or in much much longer! Fermented veg will keep for months–the more salt and the cooler the temperature, the slower the fermenting process.  I love fermenting!  So easy!  

On a side-note, we also made a beautiful salad with fresh lettuce from my garden and fresh radishes from hers :)