sauerkraut

Grilled Onion Rings

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Summer may be 3 weeks away but apparently the heat arrived early to the party.  Drippy, intense, wilting heat.  I actually have a serious pet peeve with complaining about the weather but it is such a strong influence in our lives it’s hard not to talk about it!

And plan my meals around it.  Our kitchen is very small and not well insulated so the idea of standing over a hot burner to make dinner has been totally unappealing.  Time to get creative with the grill!

We do a lot of the usual grilled veggies, fish, shrimp, and tofu but lately I’ve been interested in exploring some more creative options for outdoor cooking.

Grilled Onion Rings!

I used red, obviously, but a sweet onion like Vidalia would be great for this recipe too.

The crust was a mix of course ground local cornmeal, rosemary salt, and smoked paprika.

Each ring was dipped in an egg wash (1 beaten egg) then dredged with spiced cornmeal.

And laid to grill over medium heat.

I served the crunchy rings with some homemade ketchup, garden picked salad, sauerkraut, and quinoa.

The onion rings were good but there is definitely room for improvement.  Tate’s suggestion was to “cook them quickly in really hot oil”.  Umm, not exactly what I am going for here.  Next time I will use a finer cornmeal and spray them with a little olive oil before cooking.

Dessert, however, hit it out of the park.

Organic frozen strawberries purred with a splash of soy-milk and topped with chocolate-coconut magic shell.  My magic shell consisted of liquid coconut oil, a spoon of peanut butter, cocoa, stevia, and a splash of vanilla.  I made a big batch (4 ounces?) and stored the leftover in a jar.  Cannot wait to try it over purred frozen banana!

I am still figuring out what my workout will be today, I don’t mind sweating but I find that a hard workout in this heat can be challenging to recover from.  Time to slow down and enjoy a slow flow vinyasa!

Kraut

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Spring is a powerful force!

And so is inspiration, which sometimes strikes at odd times.  I was sweeping my entire house at 7:30 this morning and elbow deep in sauerkraut by 10.

Homemade Raw Sauerkraut

Start with a couple pounds of green or red cabbage.  Today I used about 3 pounds of green.

My KitchenAid food processor made quick and easy work of the shredding.

Salt it up.  I used 1 tablespoon of high quality sea salt.

And dig in.

Squeeze, mix, and mash to break the cell walls of the cabbage and release the natural juices.

Work it.

At this point I threw in a pinch of ground coriander and celery seeds.

After about 4 minutes of muscling it I deemed it jar-ready. Pack, pack, pack it down with your hand.

I placed an upside-down jar full of water just inside the lid to ensure that the brine completely covers the cabbage.

Covered with a clean dish towel (to keep it clean) and set in the pantry to work it’s fermenting magic.

I’ll check the ‘kraut every few days and will put and lid on it, put it in the fridge, and start to eat off of it in about a week.

Raw sauerkraut is an awesome source of vitamin c and probiotics.  You don’t have to worry about “bad” bacteria because the acidic environment is not conducive to those nasty buggers.  Botulism can only form in an anaerobic environment, there is oxygen present in the jar because it just has a towel over it.

The whole process took 15 minutes and cost less than $2.

Have you experimented with fermented foods?  I think it’s really fun and rewarding and I fully believe that including fermented foods in my diet this winter has helped keep me healthier than usual.