Planted and Enchanted

A casual blog about sustainability, gardening and life in Central Texas

Category Archives: Recipes


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Too Spicy for You

Making hot sauce is fun. Fermenting it in the process is an adventure.

Finely chopping peppers and adding a bit of sea salt ferments them in their own delicious juices, giving subtle flavors and an unbelievable kick. Lacto-fermentation is a popular way of making hot sauce and is implemented by many brands like Tabasco and Sriracha.

I used one-pound of fiery habaneros and three-pounds of a Serrano/jalapeño mix for this batch. The peppers were finely chopped in a food processor with just over an ounce of sea salt, then pressed in to a sanitary 1/2 gallon Ball jar with an airlock on top for four weeks. It required scooping harmless, white mold off the top few layers and re-pressing the peppers to cover in their own brine every few days, but was essentially easy. The end result is incredibly spicy and certainly not for the faint of heart. Next time around I’ll use a significant amount of bell or mild hatch peppers to help bring out sweetness and round out the flavor. This sauce is good, but the entire pound of habaneros is overpowering and tilts the flavor a little too far.

Serrano Habaneros

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Recipe adapted from RLM Provisions

4 lbs fermented hot pepper mash

3/4 head garlic, peeled

1 3/4 cup distilled white vinegar

1 1/2 cup raw apple cider vinegar

Bring all ingredients to a boil over medium-high heat in a large saucepan. Reduce to simmer for 5-10 minutes. Purée ingredients in food processor or blender and strain with a fine-mesh strainer in to bottles.

 

Hot Sauce!


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Rustic Spent Grain Bread

Since we started home brewing over a year ago, we knew we wanted to find ways to use our spent grain in other projects. As someone who loves to bake bread, I began searching for and experimenting with spent grain bread recipes, but was never totally satisfied with the outcome. After experimenting for several months, I’ve finally worked up a recipe that’s quite good. I highly recommend investing in a kitchen scale to weigh ingredients, because the end product is more consistent.

Spent Grain Bread

Rustic Spent Grain Bread

Mix by hand or combine in a stand mixer with bread hook for about 2 minutes, until the dough comes together:

14 ⅞ oz / 421 g (3 ½ cups) bread flour
2 ½ oz / 71 g  (½ cup) spent grain
1 tsp kosher salt
2 tsp active dry yeast
10 oz / 285 g (1 ¼ cup) lukewarm water

The dough will be slightly sticky. Cover with a towel and let rise for 2 to 2 ½ hours. Cover bowl with plastic wrap (or put dough in a bowl with a lid) and place in refrigerator to ferment overnight. Remove dough from refrigerator about an hour before baking.

Place dutch oven with lid on middle rack of oven. Preheat oven to 475 degrees for at least 30 minutes.

On a lightly floured surface and with lightly floured hands, shape dough into a round loaf. Place on a floured surface and cover with a towel to rise for about 30 minutes while the oven preheats.

Once the oven has preheated, sprinkle top of loaf with a little flour. Use a serrated knife or bread scoring tool to slash an X or other design into loaf.

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Carefully remove the hot dutch oven and add the loaf to the hot pan. Cover with the lid and bake for 30 minutes.  Remove the lid from the dutch oven and continue to bake for 20 minutes until the crust is a deep golden brown. The bread should sound hollow when tapped.

Remove from oven and place loaf on a rack to cool for at least an hour before slicing and eating. Enjoy!

Spent grain bread.


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No Regrets Black IPA

We mentioned brewing a black IPA last weekend and I thought I’d share our detailed recipe. We adapted the basic grain bill from The Brew Guys but chose to use different hops and yeast because experimenting is good for you.

No Regrets Black IPA – Brewed 10/5/14 – Makes one gallon

Adapted from The Brew Guys.

photo 1

60-minute mash:
2 pounds American 2-row malt
3 oz Crystal 40 malt
2 oz Carafa 2 malt
1 oz Chocolate malt

Heat 3 ½ quarts water to 160 degrees. Add grains and stir gently. Steep for 60 minutes–between 144 and 152 degrees. Stir and take temp every 10 minutes. After grains have steeped for 60 minutes, raise heat and stir until temp reaches 170 degrees. Maintain temp for 10 minutes.

Meanwhile, heat 1 gallon sparge water to 170 degrees. Put grains into strainer and pour wort over them into plastic fermenter bucket. Slowly and evenly pour sparge water over grains. Recirculate collected liquid through the grains back into stock pot. Recirculate two more times–once in fermentation bucket then back into stock pot.

Hops!

60-minute boil:
14 grams Simcoe Hops at 15 min
8 grams Centennial Hops at 15 min
7 grams Simcoe at 0 min
8 grams Centennial at 0 min

⅛ tsp Irish Moss (rehydrated at least 15 min in 1-2 oz hot water)

Bring pot to boil, reduce heat to slow rolling boil and set timer for 60 minutes. With 15 minutes remaining, add 13 grams Simcoe and 8 grams Centennial and add ⅛ tsp Irish Moss. With 0 minutes remaining, add 6 grams Simcoe and 8 grams Centennial. Prepare ice bath. Cool pot in ice bath to 70 degrees.

photo 3

Ferment:
Yeast starter:
2 T light dried malt extract
1 c boiling water
1 tube liquid San Diego Super Yeast (WLP090)
¼ tsp Yeast Energizer

To make yeast starter, use a pint size canning jar to dissolve malt extract in boiling water. Cool to room temperature and add yeast and yeast energizer. Cover with plastic wrap secured with rubber band. Give it a good shake and let stand 6-12 hours.

Strain wort into primary fermenter. Add yeast starter and stir vigorously. Attach sanitized stopper and tubing to the fermenter and insert the other end of the tubing into a pint glass filled with sanitizing solution. Wait 2-3 days until bubbling slows, then replace tubing with airlock. Two weeks after brew day, transfer to secondary fermenter (glass carboy). Dry hop: Add 7 grams of Simcoe and 8 grams Centennial hops to secondary fermenter before transferring.

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