In Good Taste #58: Piccalilli Kraut
A colourful kraut for autumn; introducing the recipe index; Ian McKellen's malleable face
Well, hello there! How are you?
Good I hope.
(Not up for the chitchat? Completely get it. Click the email title to go to a web-based version then jump straight to the recipe index, the recipe or Cultural Fun.)
I’m fine but a bit melancholy. A general autumnal, end-of-summer sadness, but something more specific too as my pottery studio has closed. The Tottenham branch of Turning Earth never quite got the membership traction to pay its way so shut its doors at the end of August and I’m feeling the lack of some regular time at the wheel.
I’d been there since it opened in early 2022 and the space has meant a lot to me. My final things out of the kiln were some mugs which are presents for my niece and nephews and these little bowls.
I’ll definitely continue making pots elsewhere although I haven’t decided where yet.
Classes and workshops
In addition to the my plot-to-plate workshop next Tuesday at the Forest Flora community garden in Walthamstow my January Cookery Masterclass at the Garden Museum has just gone on sale.
It’s on Sunday 19th, 1.30-4.30pm. I’m a big believer in having things to look forward to in the post-Christmas period and these classes always sell out quickly so get booking if you fancy learning how to make sauerkraut, kimchi, pink pickled turnips and preserved lemons in the museum’s learning kitchen which overlooks the beautiful central courtyard. It’s one of my favourite places to teach and always a fun afternoon.
I’m also available for private classes or corporate events. I now offer hands-on, workplace wellness and team bonding sessions so get in touch for details if that sounds up your street.
Recipe Index
In Good taste has been going for a while so I thought it would be helpful to gather all the recipes together somewhere easily navigable so I’ve put together an index, grouping them by type:
The Thursday newsletter is always free to your inbox and each issue remains so for four weeks, accessible via the Substack website or app. After that though the archive becomes for paid subscribers only.
But for this month I’m unlocking it so you can have an explore and maybe try out a few older recipes. You’ve got a little Lacto-fermentation 101 in the first sauerkraut issue and and introduction to brine pickles with cucumbers which serves as a template for all brine pickles. Plus a beginner’s guide to Kimchi.
Some of my personal favourites are the Lacto Tomatoes, Ribboned Carrot Kraut and Spiced Ruby Kraut. Plus of course I am obsessed with Preserved Lemons and on a mission to get people to use them as much as possible.
People have also gone crazy for the Kimchi Devilled Eggs and Fermented Pesto. I repeat: full access to the whole archive is free for a month, after which it will revert to paid subscribers only.
Or if you enjoy the newsletter please share it with a foodie friend. That would mean a lot to me too (and get your on your way to unlocking a complimentary month’s subscription via the referral programme).
Recipe: Piccalilli Kraut
Anyway. Onto the important things. James and I bought an excellent pork pie the other day from the butcher’s stall at Stroud Green Market and were discussing the best accompaniments (yes - marriage can still be exciting after 12 years). He likes nothing but a pinch of salt but I think it’s crucial to have something acidic to cut through the richness of meat and pastry.
Piccalilli would be my top pick but we didn’t have any so had to settle for my second choice of chutney instead. Afterwards I thought I’d make some to accompany our next pie, whenever we might be blessed with it. But I didn’t have a cauliflower and couldn’t be bothered to go and buy one. I did however have a cabbage which I’d been intending to make into kraut. Why not combine the two? A kraut but with the flavour of piccalilli?
Method-wise piccalilli is halfway between a kraut and a kimchi: the veg needs salting then coating with a mustard-y, turmeric-y spice paste. This version takes those flavours but just uses my regular kraut method so is marginally less faff. It’s also nice and brightly coloured. A ray of sunshine in what has become a very grey and rainy day.
Makes one 750ml jar
Ingredients
500g (approx) white cabbage, shredded (save the core if you don’t have a pickle weight)
200g (approx) carrots, peeled and grated
small bunch spring onions, finely sliced
flaky sea salt
2 teaspoons coriander seeds
1 teaspoon cumin seeds
1 teaspoon fennel seeds
2 teaspoons coarsely ground/cracked black peppercorns
1 tablespoon mustard powder
2 teaspoons turmeric
Method
Weigh the veg and add salt. Put a large bowl on a scale and set it to zero. Add the cabbage, carrot and spring onion and weigh everything together. Take note of the weight (it will probably be around 750g), calculate 2.5% of it and add this amount of salt (probably around 19g). Toss the salt through the veg and let it all sit for 30 mins or so until a small puddle of brine has collected in the bottom of the bowl.
Grind and add the spices. Put the spices in a pestle and mortar or spice grinder and grind. I like them quite coarse still. Add them to the salty veg and toss to combine evenly. Unless you like having yellow hands, it might be a good idea to wear gloves for this bit. Or at least cover your mitts with a couple of plastic bags.
Pack into a jar and leave to ferment. Put the veg in a scrupulously clean jar, packing it down really tightly. There should be enough brine so that when you push down firmly it rises up around the veg. Use a glass or ceramic pickle weight, a plastic bag filled with water or the cabbage cores you saved from earlier to keep the veg pushed under the brine. Put the jar somewhere at room temperature but out of direct sunlight and leave it. Every few days open it up to let out any gas that has collected and to taste a little kraut. When the kraut has reached your preferred degree of tartness, move to the fridge. This will probably take between one and three weeks.
Notes (If Ifs And Ands Were Pots And Pans…)
The veg in here is very much a movable feast. Use whatever you have. If you’ve got a cauliflower but still fancy something kraut-y just cut it up into tiny florets and mix it with the shredded cabbage. Finely shredded cauliflower leaves would be great too.
Cultural Fun
We went to see The Critic and enjoyed it. A period piece with Ian McKellen as a theatre critic in 1930s London, it’s adapted by Patrick Marber from Anthony Quinn’s book Curtain Call which I haven’t read but understood was a murder mystery.
I therefore got my wires a bit crossed and went along expecting McKellen to be playing a sort of theatre-loving Poirot type, solving crimes and out catty critiques to hammy actors. It wasn’t that. It was something a bit darker.
Beautiful looking though, all low-level lighting on brocade and beaded dresses and Ian McKellen’s infinitely malleable face: a good film for an autumn afternoon.
My American cousin Dave is in town. A reason for celebration in itself but especially so given that he has great taste in music and managed to get me to a gig by a band I haven’t been into for 30 years already.
We saw The Heavy Heavy at Rough Trade East on Sunday. Very retro, partly in a purely Sixties way (a bit the Mamas and the Papas, a bit Fleetwood Mac), and partly in a slightly meta-retro, Sixties-via-Nineties way (bouncy bass lines that reminded me of the poppier bit of Belle & Sebastian). Slightly confusing but I liked them a lot.
Bye! See you next week!
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In Good Taste is a Sycamore Smyth newsletter by me, Clare Heal.
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