08 July 2013

Fresh Pickles Makes it Summer

Our family garden plot
Bella Baita Garden View
I don't know about you but when I was growing up in southern Illinois, our family dining table usually had two items that graced the center of the table for almost every lunch and dinner for the duration of the summer season. What would that be, you might be wondering, unless it was on your table as well? Invariably we had big juicy slabs of deeply red tomatoes on one plate and a glass bowl or the appropriate sized tupperware bowl with cucumber and a few onion slices, languishing in an ample amount of apple cider vinegar. There probably was a touch of sugar and a bit of water to tame the tang. I loved those sides of the summer and rarely tired of them, my folks certainly didn't. They had a way of elevating most luncheon cold cuts or filling in around the edges of light suppers, that I rarely have replicated since living in the higher mountain climes.
quick cucumber pickles and tomatoes
Refrigerator Pickles and Cuore di Bui Tomatoes

However recently we have been getting some great "cuore di bui" (ox heart) tomatoes, at the market, and I greedily snatched up some slender, what I have always called "pickling", cukes, when I ran into them in the market last week. I planned on putting up a couple of jars of my favorite "Blue Ribbon Dill pickles" for my winter stash, but, as fortune would have it, my rss feed from Food In Jars arrived and there was a recipe for a big bowl of overnight refrigerator pickles that were destined for a potluck.  I knew that those slender pickling cukes had a new destination coming right up. If you like to can and think that you need to make large batches of jam or pickles or whatever and are put off by it, then this is a canning blog for you. I ran across Food in Jars on Facebook quite a while back and fell in love with author Marisa's straight forward approach to putting any and everything up on a small scale so that your cupboard  is overflowing with beautifully filled jars of tasty treats to brighten up meals after the flush of summer bounty is just a memory.  I have always enjoyed canning (which in reality is jarring) and managed to put a few jars of this, that and the other up, over the years. My mom and grandmothers did too, of course,, and although I only canned with my mom a few times, and never with my grandmothers, I did enjoy many a jarred green bean, piccalilli, fruit preserves and jams from all of them over the years. I, so vividly, remember eating myself sick, literally, on my grandmother's dill pickles and yet still was able to enjoy the gallon jar she sent home with me. I think I fell in love with the old ball jar with the lead lid almost as much as the pickles. Over the years I  have almost always had my home jarred dill pickles on my shelves no matter where I have been, if I could get the ingredients.  Living in Colorado, I religiously put up several varieties of salsas over the year and still sorely miss the aroma of roasting of chiles that can fill the air in the autumn. Sigh....
my back door herb pots
My assorted fresh herbs

Anyway, this is a fast and easy recipe that doesn't have any real concrete measurements and lends itself to countless variations depending on what you have on hand. Food in Jar's Marisa used fresh mint and cilantro. I had an abundance of mint and basil, so that is what I used. I also used a couple of stems of horse radish leaves to not only give a little kick, but it also helps keep your pickles crisp, according to a surrogate grandmother of mine.  I will give you  some rough idea of what I used and if you would like an excellent visual step by step guide guide giving you a better idea of amounts, you can find that recipe on Food in Jars' blog here . I must insist that if you like pickles you are going to love these, as they are quick and delicious, not too tart, ever so slightly sweet and impossible to stop eating. I should know!
Pickles after one night in the fridge

Fresh Cucumber Refrigerator Pickles  

Makes approximately 2 quarts of pickle slices in brine

Ingredients:

1kg /2.2 pounds  or about 10 or so medium sized cucumbers(the spiny type used for pickles)
1/2- 1 small red onion, or shallot, or spring onion, chopped up, but not too fine
4 garlic cloves, sliced
2 tiny hot peppers, I used dried ones that I crumbled 
handful of mint, I like spearmint,  rough chopped
half handful of fresh basil, tear or chop into medium pieces 
2 horseradish leaves and stem, I cut the leaves and stems into long thirds 

Brine:

2 c / 16oz / 475g apple cider vinegar 
2 c / 16oz / 475g  water
1/4 c / 1 3/4 oz / 45-50g sugar
1-2 tsp / 5-10 g salt  (I tasted my brine till it seemed right to me)

Method:

Wash the cucumbers, slice into the thickness you like. I hovered between 1/4- 1/2 inch sized rounds.
Place everything except the cucumbers in bottom of a glass or metal bowl. 
Top with the cucumber slices.
Mix your brine ingredients in a sauce pan and heat till the salt and sugar melts, but don't boil.
Pour the hot brine over the cucumbers and all.
Set aside to cool.
Once cooled to room temperature either cover the bowl as is 
or put into a plastic container with a well sealing lid and
place in the refrigerator to do its magic over night.

They will be ready to eat the next day.
They will last at least two weeks, probably longer in the refrigerator, but I bet they won't last that long. 
You can count on it. 
Fresh refrigerator pickles

01 July 2013

Ch_ch_ch_changes here at Bella Baita

We've been busy bees here at Bella Baita!

 If you have been wondering what we have been up to (and I am sure you have been holding your breath), we've been working on multiple projects all at the same time. Sound familiar? Yes, that is what we are usually up to and I am quite sure it is probably the same around your house too.
The big news however is that after all our years of teaching our cooking classes  and feeding our guests from the "not all that long ago", remodeled "disco" room, come "Olympia" room, we have finally moved down to the ground level of our building. Now we have our guest rooms, dining room and spacious outdoor patio all on the same level. Confused? Well, I think I would be too if I had never visited our Italian mountain retreat. So perhaps a little history is in order.
La Baita
Fabrizio's parents built and ran "La Baita", restaurant and their home, the original building shown here in the front, for many years before retiring to hunt wild game and mushrooms. Fabrizio was off to the UK to perfect his English, and so they rented the restaurant out to other people. As the years past Fabrizio and I met and decided to return and make a B&B with the rooms that were just idling along from the addition that his family had added over the years when they were busy with the restaurant and never really had time to develop. The restaurant continued on for several years and several renters till times changed and the restaurant was no more. We had been running the B&B from the top of the dining room addition that had once been a "disco" during the hey days of the 70's and early 80's. Fabrizio remodeled it to suit us for our dining area and cooking classes, where we have been working from these last 5 years as our business has grown. So with the freeing up of the entire building,  yet another renovation was needed to be able to use the space for our new and improved Bella Baita B&B, Italian Alps Retreat, cooking classes, mini culinary tours, and all the other things that have come along. Oh yes, I forgot to mention that the family garden, over by where Fabrizio's granfather Guistetto grew up,  that his parents have tended all these years, then fell into our hands to continue on with as his parents have started a new garden in the valley in the garden of the home where Fabrizio's mother grew up. That garden location produces tomatoes that just aren't possible up here in our fickled mountain weather.

So Fabrizio has been insulating, changing out the doors and windows, painting, and fixing all the many things that have not been working, as well as finding functional equipment and such to use in the space, all on a shoestring budget and his hard labor. We have had some help from various friends and cousins to rewire, plaster walls and on and on, that you can never tell was part of the long process once it's done, but it all takes time and money and there usually is never any extra heaps of either. Oh yes and did I mention the grand over haul of the garden to replace the fence with a rock retaining wall and heavy duty fence to keep those pesky wild boar and fleet footed roe deer out. The deer completely wiped out the garden last autumn. So Mr Fab (ulous) has been on a mission to fix, repair, remodel and redo the lot. 
Ta da!!!!!

Our wood fired oven and granite work surface made the move intact
Our new/old spacious, downstairs digs
We're back to where Fabrizio started out and happy to be settling in to our culinary space.
Fabrizio making us lunch
We still have much to figure out as far as shelving and curtains and such, but it's starting to feel like home.  Putting things on the walls, when your walls are concrete takes some thinking and are not to be added willy nilly, so those may just stay a blank canvas a little while longer.  

Our "Market to Table" and "Cooking Together" cookery classes have resumed and flourishing and always a great source of fun for all of us and naturally the test is in the eating of course!
Australia, USA and Italy unite around the table 

Our outdoor options have increased and become down right comfortable.

The great outdoors is accessible just outside your bedroom door, more or less on one level, except for the front steps that help to keep all those home cooked meals in check. Naturally there are still several options for hiking up or down to suit most everyones desire to get out of the indoors and into the mountains.  As Fabrizio, Silvano and C.A.I. continue to clean trails and map them out via GPS, we're increasing those options as well. So if you haven't been to visit us and if you already have, it's time to come back and have a good look round to see all the changes that have been happening here. We're looking forward to showing you around. 
Family garden
We'll be waiting for you...or maybe, we'll be working in the garden. Ciao For now!







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