Sauerkraut and Pickled Nuts

Ladies

As there seems to be a boom in jam making, I thought it would be a brilliant idea to post a couple of recipes up here. I am sure they will go down a storm with everyone

Sauerkraut Recipe

You will need a very large crock, glass or enamel container
Minimum of 2 heads of cabbage (cabbages are plentiful all year around , and when you have a responsible job, its always wise to use your 'HEAD'
Kosher salt
Heavy duty food-grade plastic bags or 2 gal freezer bags
Wooden spoon

Some tips here to prevent problems with your sauerkraut:

Never use aluminum utensils!
Absolute cleanliness is necessary for a healthy WITCHES brew!
Bring the ingredients to a slow bunny boil to prevent burning,
Let it ferment in a room temperature of around 75 degrees for about 3 weeks
Then sample it and lets hope you dont get the same result as a German Cucumber

Now for the Pickled Nut Recipe

1 litre malt vinegar (Now dont go and do the late Keith Floyd trick and get pissed on the vinegar paint stipping wine that Turkey is so famous for, after all, you will regret it if you dont use your HEAD on this one )
500g brown sugar
1 teaspoon allspice
1 teaspoon cloves
½ teaspoon cinnamon
1 tablespoon grated fresh ginger


Method

Pick your nuts with great care, make sure they do not contain any ingrowing hairs and this can spoil the pickle and make it infected with an STD. Pick a bucketful and, wearing rubber gloves, prick (as with a fork, not a penis)each nut a couple of times. Watch out for the clear juice this produces. It is deceptive, as it stains a dark brown rather like the stain you see on Turkish men's white underpants

Cover the nuts with water and add salt. Leave for a week, then drain and renew with fresh brine solution for another week or so.

Next, lay your nuts out on trays in a dry, airy place. In a couple of days they will turn jet black. Now the nuts are ready for to be pickled.

Combine all ingredients in a saucepan. Bring syrup mix to the boil, then add nuts and simmer for 15 minutes.

English Strawberries are plentiful in the UK at the moment, they are always sweet (not like that horrible wet artificial saccharine sweetness), ripe and juicy, in fact I ate a whole punnet of them yesterday, yum yum.
Turkish strawberries on the other hand are available during the winter months, but are usually a little TART.

Ruby

Oh, Ruby! This recipe of yours is fantastic! How do you pronounce it again? Sooerkraut? Ooooh, I have visions of some mean, bitter, boot-faced old trout chewing on that pickle with the expression of a bulldog chewing a bitter lemon.

Strawbs

Hi Strawbs

Yes, I do believe it is called Soowerkraut, and you wont even get a THANK YOU for it either.

Ruby

Hi Ruby,

It's funny you said that! I knew some old sooerkraut on an old site just like that! She'd ask you to bring items over (which you payed for - no offer to send you the money) and after you went to all the time, trouble, cost and effort of sending them on to her - she didn't even let you know she received them - let alone say thank you! I had to contact her, as I was worried they'd gone astray - what with not hearing a dickie-bird from her!

How's that for gratitude and manners!

Strawbs

Hi Strawbs

How strange you should say that, I too sent an item to a woman from the old site. I heard not even a whisper from her to say thank you. In fact, I arrived at the conclusion that she had not received it due to the very slow postal system in Turkey, so I had to email her, and low and behold, she had received it weeks previously. Only then did I receive a 'thank you'.

I never give to receive, but good old fashioned manners cost absolutely nothing.

Ruby

I was going to call this thread 'Preservatives', however, as they have another connotation related to this title i.e. it means condoms in Turkish, thought I had better not go down that route

Hi Ruby,

Well they do say 'manneth maketh man' - seems it doesn't apply this person. Mind you, she's completely self-obsessed and full of herself, and although one sympathises with anyone who is ill, that doesn't mean to say we should all hero-worship her! She's just one of THOUSANDS of people with that condition, but maybe she revels in all the attention its brought her - because she never had any attention prior to that. She's getting on a bit now, too. She must be early 60's - so at least she's had a fairly long life without illness - and for that she should be thankful. There are poor children and young adults brought down with this disease, and they carry on living a life and trying to FEEL GOOD.

She could take a tip from them!

Strawbs

Yum yum I love a big gerkin! So long as they're not soour.

Miche x