tomatoes
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Post by tomatoes on Oct 2, 2017 12:06:49 GMT 10
The pickle sounds amazing. I can't even imagine the flavour of the soup (either good or bad). It has been many, many years since I’ve made the soup, and I’m not sure that I’d do it as written in the recipe now - although I do have one member of my household who lives adding cinnamon to everything! I think I might just use lots of garlic, some onion, the broccoli and a chicken flavoured stock, finishing with coconut cream. I add spices to most soups but I think I’d just try this with lots of garlic. Could be nice with some sautéed mushrooms too. |
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Post by Peter on Oct 3, 2017 23:03:51 GMT 10
I have a friend who's a gardening/food preserving enthusiast. She tells me you need to be wary of 'canning' non acidic foods (such as broccoli) as they are capable of breeding botulism bacteria. She pickles stuff like that in salt-vinegar and it's sensational. Fermentation (I assume) is used to preserve brassicas because it creates acidity. Pressure canning is fine as the high temperature under pressure kills the botulism spores. Fermentation works in three stages: the saltiness at the start kills many bacteria species, the good bacteria also kill its rivals, and the acidity helps preserve it from there on. There's a lot of science here that I need to learn more about. |
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tomatoes
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Post by tomatoes on Oct 6, 2017 20:04:12 GMT 10
BROCCOLI STEMS - POWDER
Inspired by paranoia’s broccoli, I’ve been buying kilos of it while it’s been cheap, and currently have a dehydrator full and a couple more batches to do in the next couple of days (my dehydrator is smaller than the Excalibur so a couple more batches isn’t that much. Think it may soon be time to upgrade to a bigger dehydrator!)
But I wanted to post another suggestion for the stems. Mostly the websites/books seem to say that the stems should be discarded because they get too tough when dehydrating. One book though said to cook the stems until soft, purée them, then dehydrate the purée until crunchy. So I’ve done that with my first batch of stems, and from about 3 kg of broccoli total (florets now in dehydrator) the stems - which I didn’t weigh separately - have turned into a couple of tablespoons of powder. I blended the purée to a powder after it was dry.
The book suggests using this as a base for soup. I do that with mushrooms, so could be a good thing to try - and it certainly won’t take up much storage space. Powdering veg is a very big space saver if that’s going to work for the finished product. Just have to remember not to use too much in a soup or similar.
I was wondering if it was worthwhile to do, but I have seen powdered broccoli in the health food shop lately and it is very expensive. Perhaps a little would even work in a smoothie to bump up the nutrients.
Love the idea of mustard pickles, but as I won’t have time to do that for a while, I think I’ll just do broccoli powder. Will have to be zucchini mustard pickles when the summer glut of them comes in.
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paranoia
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Post by paranoia on Oct 6, 2017 21:06:46 GMT 10
That's a great idea, thanks! Have been scratching my head deciding what to do with all those stems. I'm just finishing up 3kg red capsicum that I found for $3/kg on the way home from work and I still have all those stems in the fridge from last week. The family is all in bed and the night is still young so I reckon I'll give it a go.  |
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tomatoes
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Post by tomatoes on Mar 1, 2019 23:07:04 GMT 10
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Post by jonasparker on Mar 4, 2019 4:21:04 GMT 10
Can you can broccoli? Yes!
Would anyone want to eat it? No!
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peter1942
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Post by peter1942 on Mar 4, 2019 10:30:55 GMT 10
I cannot understand why you would want to use time and resources bottling a vegetable to have out of season when there will be other vegetable varieties to eat when the time comes.
We bottle a lot of fruit during the harvest season only because fruit is, in most cases, not available in our part of the world all year round. In nearly 30 years we have probably have had two or so jars fail which is not a bad record. Fruit is so easy to do and it lasts several years whereas vegetables can be hit and miss and are never the same bottled.
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blueshoes
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Post by blueshoes on Mar 4, 2019 11:02:15 GMT 10
I cannot understand why you would want to use time and resources bottling a vegetable to have out of season ... It's OK if you don't understand and cant empathise, Peter. Some of us can - it makes sense to bottle it while it's cheap and eat it when it's expensive... if it works. And you find out if it works by trying things out. I for one am enjoying reading this and learning from para's experience. |
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Tim Horton
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Post by Tim Horton on Mar 12, 2019 1:03:00 GMT 10
Can you can broccoli? Yes! Would anyone want to eat it? No! I ask my Sweetie, the canning expert, about this and this was her answer also. I suppose you could use it for a soup base kind of thing, but I'm not sure how. Also like said, if it isn't available any other way it is OK. Even canned as bad as it comes out it will still have a good part of the nutrients and such that is good for you. |
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Post by Peter on Mar 12, 2019 21:13:38 GMT 10
I particularly like the idea of dried broccoli powder. It could be added to pasta, dumplings, etc to trick the kids into eating the stuff.
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Post by spinifex on Mar 14, 2019 17:31:34 GMT 10
I cannot understand why you would want to use time and resources bottling a vegetable to have out of season when there will be other vegetable varieties to eat when the time comes. We bottle a lot of fruit during the harvest season only because fruit is, in most cases, not available in our part of the world all year round. In nearly 30 years we have probably have had two or so jars fail which is not a bad record. Fruit is so easy to do and it lasts several years whereas vegetables can be hit and miss and are never the same bottled. With foods that don't preserve in good condition might it be best to over-eat it at the time of abundance and attempt to store the energy in the fresh brocolli as body fat? Sounds like nonsense and possibly a gut wrenching trial of extreme proportions ... but that IS why we have body fat. |
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Post by Peter on Mar 14, 2019 21:34:50 GMT 10
For me it's more about preserving particular nutrients that can't be stored in body fat.
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paranoia
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Post by paranoia on Mar 14, 2019 23:44:51 GMT 10
I cannot understand why you would want to use time and resources bottling a vegetable to have out of season when there will be other vegetable varieties to eat when the time comes. We bottle a lot of fruit during the harvest season only because fruit is, in most cases, not available in our part of the world all year round. In nearly 30 years we have probably have had two or so jars fail which is not a bad record. Fruit is so easy to do and it lasts several years whereas vegetables can be hit and miss and are never the same bottled. As with all prepping, it's a very personal thing to fit ones own situation and what you are preparing for. A big part of why I liked canned vegetables is it's a way of banking your time/energy. While not perfect the fact that they're already cooked can make meal prep use much less energy and be done in a faster time, because you've already banked these while you have excess. I live in a place where we have unreliable power and I have a very strict no opening the fridge/freezer rule when the power is out. This allows my family to have a quick source of vegetables during a blackout situation and some things are better canned than dehydrated. "...there will be other vegetable varieties to eat when the time comes."
Interesting assumption. One which I try not to make. I also do not assume that my power will stay on. None of the food in my fridge/freezer gets counted when I calculate how long I will be able to feed my family for if things went bad. So I hope this sheds some light on my thinking. Canned vegetables will never be a complete solution to food storage but it makes my family a little more comfortable and better prepared having some canned vegetables in the pantry. I don't need much more of a reason than that to have some really... |
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paranoia
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Post by paranoia on Mar 14, 2019 23:48:54 GMT 10
I particularly like the idea of dried broccoli powder. It could be added to pasta, dumplings, etc to trick the kids into eating the stuff. We make both mushroom powder (add a bit of salt to the powder and it makes a really nice stock substitute) and tomato powder... both are VERY useful. Broccoli powder seems like it would be equally amazing.  |
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