Made this once before, and it was so good, decided to make it again!    Of course, I had no idea  what went into it before, so I made stuff up.  It worked!

Sliced up one of our onions from Porter Farms, and into a pan of olive oil they went with a little crushed red pepper (from my pepper harvest of 2007 or 2008).  Throw in a little salt, and start getting the Swiss Chard ready.  No stalk, just leaves, but I  left the ribs on.  Gave them a rough chop, and into the pan they went.  A bit more salt, and some homemade Riesling thrown in, and let them cook down.  I had the lid on the pan for a bit.  Once this was cooked down, in went a small can of diced tomatoes.  Whoa, forgot the garlic!  Minced one clove and threw that in too, along with some black pepper, and a sliced yellow squash.  Cook cook cook.  Simmer really, to get rid of the moisture in the pan.  I really think that was about it!  Serve over bowtie pasta and some cheese and eat up!

      

Still haven't bought a new camera, so we'll stick with the iPhone for now, under poor lighting conditions.

We have an overabundance of cucumbers this week (along with yellow squash and zucchini, but that's an entirely different story).

I try to use the Swiss Chard as soon as I can.  I decided to try to make my version of Sunomono which is a vinegared dish that I love at our local sushi place Edoya .  The first entry I found while I searched was a Bobby Flay recipe .  What the heck, I'll give it a try.  Mixed it up.  Whoa.  Way too salty!  I decided to venture on my own.  Especially since all of my measuring spoons exploded and fell into the sink.

About 2 - 3 tablespoons of rice vinegar, some salt, about 1 Tbs sugar and the obligatory dash of soy sauce later...I thought it was good.  No where near the flavor I wanted, but not bad!

Next, we need the Swiss Chard, which I just boiled down a bit.  Maybe 6 large leaves cut into chunks (If leaves can be cut into chunks)


Some Cucumber.  Any chance to use my V-Slicer (which still scares me)


I rinsed the Swiss Chard under colder water and rung it out.   Combined everything, and added a few sesame seeds for garnish. 

Yum!  Not too shabby.  Another use for the chard!

      

Time to try some more Rielsing in food!   Today I used it in a Wild Lobster Mushroom Risotto, served with broiled Tilapia.

I'm assuming they were wild mushrooms.  At least that's what the Melissa's packet of dried mushrooms said.  Then again, I really don't think it matters at all.  Hopefully all of you Lobster Mushroom farmers could set me straight.

The Tilapia was defrosted and placed into a baggie with some olive oil, fresh chopped parsley and lemon balm, with some fresh ground pepper and a few shakes of Old Bay.  We have tons of lemon balm, so I have to use it in something.  Then it was just ever so simply broiled in the oven, flipping it once.

For the risotto, I chopped up about 1/2 of an onion.  Maybe 3/4.  I can't judge onion sizes, but I'm thinking this was a medium sized one.   Overall, the ingredients were:

Butter
Chopped Onion
1/2 cup of Riesling
1 cup Arborio rice
1 "box" of vegetable broth (Wegmans!)
The newly rehydrated mushrooms and the water they were placed in
Chopped parsely
Chopped Lemon Balm
Salt & Pepper
Oh, and more butter.  Probably about 1/2 stick in all.  2 in the beginning and 2 at the end.

Everything came out perfect (if I do say so myself) !

      

Ta-daaaaaa!

After 2 months (or 2 days shy...big woo), I decided to see what the wine was like.  First step, buy some mussels!  I figure at worst, I can cook with the wine, right?

The mussels were placed into a sink full of cold water, cleaned (well rubbed with my paws), and any that weren't closed or didn't close with a sharp rap on the counter were tossed.  I think I only tossed three of them.  One was closed, but the shell was cracked.  The other two were already on their way to heaven, where they shall be revived and eaten again by the hungry masses.

About 1/2 stick of butter, some olive oil, and shallots later, it was time to open the wine.  Initial thought...hmmm....maybe it's not ready yet.  Pour into a glass.  Whoa.  Not bad.  Not  great, but not bad.  In went about 1/2 the bottle of wine (wayyyyyyyyy too much) , some chopped green onion, and then the mussels.  Cover pot for about 4-5 minutes and voila!  Food!

Then another try of the wine, this time with some ice.  Ooooooooooooo.  Much MUCH better now!  I'm regretting adding so much to the mussel broth!  It probably needs another month, but I have a feeling that the next bottle will be opened a lot earlier!  Yea!

      

Again, sorry for some of the over-exposed pics!  My camera is broken, so using my iPhone, which has no flash, just editing software.  Like it or lump it!


The wine is crystal clear at this point.  However, I'm a bit concerned that the specific gravity is reading at 1.00 now.  Hopefully the alcohol content is high enough.  I know it was done fermenting before.  Oh well..wait and see.  Here's a pic of the wine before bottling:


Still just some slight sediment at the bottom, which I was hoping for.  This was then transferred back into my primary fermenter bucket to leave behind the sediment.  Also because my bucket has a hole for a spigot, which allows for easier bottling.

Here's the 30 Riesling Bottles drying out after being sanitized:


After filling, they of course have to be corked.  Here's the handy-dandy hand corker:


Now, to wait!  They will go into the cellar, spend 1 day upright, and then on to their sides for the next 2-3 months.  Then they should be ready to drink!  Of course, I will probably be tasting a bottle here and there before then.  Quality Control!

      

Ok, the instructions said that at approximately ten days, you can rack the wine again.  I decided to do this for 2 reasons.  1)  There was some significant sediment  at the bottom (expected), and 2)  I knew that I didn't top off the carboy when I first racked it from the primary fermenter.  I am topping off with water, so I figure that this won't dilute the wine too much.  Some folks say to top off with a like-minded wine.  I believe in good ol' American tap water.   I did this with my Chianti, which has been bottled for just under 5 weeks now.  I tried a bottle a few days ago...not too shabby!   Just needs some more aging. 

This wine smells good, and I didn't taste any except for some when I started the siphoning with my good ol' American mouth.

Here are the pics.  Sorry for the first pic.  I did too much exposure stuff.

      

No, you didn't miss anything these past 2 weeks, except a bucket of juice fermenting.  Next step in this process:  Stabilizing and Clearing.

As per the wine kit instructions, I took a Specific Gravity reading.  Instructions say it should be at 0.998 or lower.   We are right at 0.998




Next is to siphon the wine from the primary fermenting bucket into a carboy.




Then comes the fun part of adding the stabilizers and other stuff that they give you.  Involves lots of stirring!  1) to mix up the ingredients, and 2) to drive the CO2 out of the wine.

Being the strong brute that I am, I pick up the six gallon glass carboy and place it up on a table.  Attach the rubber bung and airlock (to keep the air out, but let any gasses out).  Here's what it looks at this stage, then with a nice towel over it to keep out the light.  It's next to a cheap window which lets lots of cold air in, so it will be kept at a nice cool temp.







For those that are curious, here's what's left in the primary fermenting bucket.  I've tilted it slightly to show it better.  Hopefully, none of this got into my wine.  The directions say that I need to let this sit for another 4 weeks, but after day 10, I can do an optional "re-racking", which is probably what I'll do to ensure a clear wine and that none of that nasty expired yeasty stuff is in there.

      

Here is the next wine on the way, a Riesling Auslese.  Day one is pretty simple.  Clean and sanitize the equipment, add 4 litres of warm water and  mix in the packet of Bentonite that they give you, which is used to clarify the wine.  These kits have all you need to make wine, except the equipment and sanitizing agents.  Equipment consists of things like the primary fermenting bucket (seen here with wine), long spoons for stirring, hyrdrometer....etc.  I just bought a bundled kit that had most things I needed.

Next. in goes the grape juice, and enough cool water to bring everything up to the 6 gallon mark.  Sprinkle on the yeast provided, and put the lid on (with an airlock).  Time to let this sit for about 2 weeks, until it gets racked into the big glass carboy that I have.

      

Just an update!  Still cooking!    Been making wine, but didn't blog about it...yet!  We have a Chianti, and a Barolo working.  The Chianti was bottled last night.  Waiting at least a month to see how it comes out.  Learned a lot during the first two batches, so I'll document the next batch

Also, I bought two pounds of mustard seed, to do more mustard experiments.  This time documenting what I use and in what amounts.  I plan on being a mustard baron.

      

The apples weren't part of it.  Two pie pumpkins!  I hope that's enough for pie!  I think it is

Lots of leeks and beets.  MORE peppers.  omg so many peppers this year.  I've already dehydrated a bunch of them.  And I have enough onions to last till at least January!